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HazCat posted:I am trying to set up a new aquarium but there must have been some mistake because all I've got so far is a giant sucking vortex where my wallet used to be. It feels that way for me too. I'm hoping that most of the aquarium costs are frontloaded. Once you are established, all you need to do is occasionally buy food or chemicals, right? Knowing me though, I'm probably never going to stop buying things. Even though I've got most of the essentials, my eye keeps wandering over to stuff like temperature controllers.
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Oct 9, 2022 22:08
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Lareine posted:It feels that way for me too. I'm hoping that most of the aquarium costs are frontloaded. Once you are established, all you need to do is occasionally buy food or chemicals, right? I am already mapping out where all the cables for my second tank can go  I don't think this is a hobby where you stop running out of things to spend money vs running out of money (you're willing) to spend.
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Oct 10, 2022 00:27
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Buying used helps a *ton*. People who need to break down a tank for whatever reason will sell pretty cheap. Keep an eye on craigslist or Facebook groups.
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Oct 10, 2022 00:30
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Yeah I bought a used tank, stand, air pump, and filter off someone for cheap. But now after buying substrate and conditioner and looking at plants I'm realizing I have spent so much  and am not even close to having any fish.
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Oct 10, 2022 01:15
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My biggest expenses this time were an external canister and an inline chiller, and for both of those I'd rather buy new so they're under warranty if anything breaks. Honestly my complaint wasn't really about the money, it was that the time between spending the money and getting to the 'fun part' where I get to set the tank up is too long! On the plus side, I now have everything that will have wires or tubes in the tank ordered (and most are on hand), and all my powerboards squared away, plus my rough tank layout planned. So I should be able to at least get the tank on the cabinet and most of the cables in place this week. Chiller won't be here til later this month, but I can work around that and don't have to wait for it. Then I just need my aquarium foam and extra substrate to show up and I can start finalising the driftwood placement! And then soon enough I too can reach the place where this tangent started, where my tank is full of water and I am full of aquascaping regrets 
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Oct 10, 2022 01:29
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The free marine tank I was given cost me about $50 just to get the buckets to transport everything home. Then $24 for a refractometer. Then $60 for a nitrate test kit and other poo poo. And then I found the salt was all stuck together from humidity and very hard to break apart. Free marine tank has cost me about....$400, give or take, since May. That said, local aquarium clubs are godsends; at mine, which is freshwater, you can get all kinds of plants, inverts, and fish and supplies cheap and sometimes free; when I get overloaded with pleco fry (and axolotl fry) I donated a ton to box trades, donated others to the club auctions and raffles, etc. Someone needs a male fish Species A, only has females? Someone else with extra males can and might trade or just give a spare few over.
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Oct 10, 2022 01:30
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I can't seem to find one nearby. I mean, there has to be SOMEONE who keeps fish in this town, they just aren't making their presence known. Only clubs I can find are around an hour and a half from me.
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Oct 10, 2022 02:46
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I’ve got a complete tank set up (but no stand) from ex turtle owners and turtle owners who didn’t realise how fast their cute little turtle would grow are also a good source of second hand tanks. There’s one guy in my area who breeds bristlenoses, I got a tank and filter from him when he upgraded and another guy who breeds cherry shrimp, (and bromeliad plants, and goldfish) I’ve picked up a couple of his tanks from when his wife pressured him to focus on just one hobby. But it’s been a matter of timing, cheap tanks tend to get snapped up pretty fast.
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Oct 10, 2022 04:34
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Stoca Zola posted:I’ve got a complete tank set up (but no stand) from ex turtle owners and turtle owners who didn’t realise how fast their cute little turtle would grow are also a good source of second hand tanks. There’s one guy in my area who breeds bristlenoses, I got a tank and filter from him when he upgraded and another guy who breeds cherry shrimp, (and bromeliad plants, and goldfish) I’ve picked up a couple of his tanks from when his wife pressured him to focus on just one hobby. But it’s been a matter of timing, cheap tanks tend to get snapped up pretty fast. I got a complete tank setup minus a broken filter from an office manager who came in on a monday to find the filter had broken over the weekend and flooded the place and they just wanted the drat thing gone. Totally a case of snapping it up quickly though.
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Oct 10, 2022 05:15
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Pure luck find at the second hand store CDN$10 for a 10gal ! Nice. I can actually say yes the next time my daughter asks for one of the pretty fish in jars at the lfs.
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Oct 10, 2022 17:42
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How the gently caress did an urchin wedge itself between the protein skimmer and the tank wall? I can't get him out so I hope the fucker can himself.
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Oct 11, 2022 02:29
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Got a new kitty this weekend, and she's already helping out with tank maintenance.
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Oct 11, 2022 03:05
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Enos Cabell posted:Got a new kitty this weekend, and she's already helping out with tank maintenance. Nice. Our little fuckers keep unplugging the air line to the airstone. It's just going to get worse the more poo poo I put on the tank. Tomorrow, I'm going to attempt to yell at Amazon about them STILL not shipping my lights. Did they lose it in the warehouse or something? Update: they finally shipped the lights. Now I need to decide whether or not to order the plants right now or after I get the lights. And then there is the matter of cycling the tank. I would like my water params to be a bit more mature and stable and not 7.8 before I actually plant. Lareine fucked around with this message at 16:08 on Oct 12, 2022 |
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Oct 11, 2022 03:26
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Chaosfeather posted:I appreciate it but I have been having these reactions for literally weeks, so I don't suspect it's a sudden thing of allergies. I'll see if I can contact the water department or I contacted the city who said because I do not own the building the apt is in, the complex must request the free water test. I requested this and was denied and told I have 60 days to move out unless I want to get a water test on my own. Because I have a lot of things planned next month and my partner was just laid off, moving out is almost impossible right now. What is the best water test I can purchase online in order to attempt to look at this? Chaosfeather fucked around with this message at 16:13 on Oct 12, 2022 |
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Oct 12, 2022 16:10
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Chaosfeather posted:I contacted the city who said because I do not own the building the apt is in, the complex must request the free water test. I requested this and was denied and told I have 60 days to move out unless I want to get a water test on my own. You might get some better advice in a home maintenance thread over here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3770037
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Oct 12, 2022 16:24
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Chaosfeather posted:I contacted the city who said because I do not own the building the apt is in, the complex must request the free water test. I requested this and was denied and told I have 60 days to move out unless I want to get a water test on my own. Using an aquarium test to see the iron and whatever in your water is more or less normal isn't really going to help you. Honestly the chances of you being allergic to something in your water that hasn't caused problems for anyone else in your apartment building is so vanishingly small that it's almost certainly something else happening (or nothing and this is psychosomatic). Have you showered somewhere else recently and not gotten symptoms? If you're really dead set on this, contact some allergists asking if you can bring tap water from your home and maybe they'll do a skin prick test.
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Oct 12, 2022 16:28
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If you've moved somewhere new, what are the chances that there's mold in your bathroom ceiling or similar? Could it be the longer you spend in the "wet" rooms the longer your exposure? I hope you work it out soon because it sounds like hell.
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Oct 12, 2022 16:53
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VelociBacon posted:Using an aquarium test to see the iron and whatever in your water is more or less normal isn't really going to help you. This is the only place I have ever bathed that I have gotten this reaction. When I went to visit a relative in a nearby city last month I was able to bathe/shower with no reaction in the hotel. Edit: I forgot to add, I'm poor myself and moved from a place where I had state healthcare. Right now I have 0 healthcare because I left the state and am under review in the new state for healthcare coverage, which I am told may take another 2 months. So while I'm open to going to an allergist, it's not going to happen anytime soon. Stoca Zola posted:If you've moved somewhere new, what are the chances that there's mold in your bathroom ceiling or similar? Could it be the longer you spend in the "wet" rooms the longer your exposure? I hope you work it out soon because it sounds like hell. I moved here mid-August and have had this set of symptoms in two bathrooms here, every time I bathe. I've tried testing this extensively without a kit. Hot water, cold water, either bathroom, standing in the bathroom and not bathing is the only difference. No skin itch (presumably because the water isn't touching me directly) but the sneeze returns. Enos Cabell posted:You might get some better advice in a home maintenance thread over here: https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3770037 Thanks everyone, I'll go over here and ask then. Good luck with the lovely tanks, I'll admire your aquariums in silence once more. Chaosfeather fucked around with this message at 17:19 on Oct 12, 2022 |
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Oct 12, 2022 17:08
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Chaosfeather posted:Thanks everyone, I'll go over here and ask then. Good luck with the lovely tanks, I'll admire your aquariums in silence once more. Feel free to keep posting in here with us! I was just hoping someone over there would have a better idea on how to help.
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Oct 12, 2022 17:23
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Lights came! Box was beat to hell but the light was okay, no dead LEDs. I also got impatient and dumped in some bottled bacteria. Still working on the water parameters though. I really cocked it up by using Alkaline Buffer too early. Now it's a bitch to try and get the pH down. Might have to start doing some water changes, I can only do 2 and a half gallons at a time though. Update: Water parameters are looking better, I've gotten the pH down to 7.4. I've still got 1.0 ammonia but now I've got 1.0 nitrite and 5.0 nitrate. I've pulled the trigger and ordered my plants. I'm getting: Anubias Congensis Anubias Nana Ludwigia Natans Super Red Java Moss Pygmy Chain Sword Egeria Densa Lareine fucked around with this message at 22:13 on Oct 14, 2022 |
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Oct 13, 2022 21:42
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I haven't heard of or seen Egeria Densa. Have your plants come in? I think I am going to stock my tank with Zebra Danio and Kuhli Loach. Celestial Pearl Danio would be awesome but I think they will be much harder to get. Any ideas on a centerpiece fish that can go with them and handle colder temperature? A Betta probably won't work and I am not really super in love with Gourami.
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Oct 18, 2022 06:09
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I'd be wary of kuhlis at lower temperatures, I keep mine fairly warm to avoid illness since they're hard to treat as scaleless fish. I'm only talking around 28 C/80 f but I keep all my other tanks closer to 24 / 75. I don't heat my house, it definitely gets lower than 60 here in winter and the tanks keep their heat ok so I think you should be able to tweak your heater to get it right. I can't think of too many fish that aren't schooling, or aggressive -but I think maybe a non annual killifish might work? I'm trying to think if they are also surface dwelling or not. Maybe an American flag fish? Not sure if those guys are kuhli loach safe. Barbs can be colourful mid level fish but they're better in schools. I'm currently trying kuhlis and peacock gudgeons and I think the kuhlis piss the gudgeons off, they kind of compete for the same kind of territory (caves) and you want to avoid that.
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Oct 18, 2022 06:46
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Manta posted:I haven't heard of or seen Egeria Densa. Have your plants come in? It's also known as Brazilian Waterweed or Anacharis. It's another growslut and illegal in 21 states. They are a fast grower, they are extremely hard to kill and some people say they excrete a chemical that wards off cyanobacteria. They just shipped them today. They should be here in a few days. First thing I'm gonna do is put them in an alum bath for two days except for the pygmy chain sword since that was a tissue culture.
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Oct 18, 2022 08:28
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Hadlock posted:So during the pandemic I probably watched one too many serpadesign YouTube videos The 1 liter Erlenmeyer flask project seems to be going ok, water is staying clear and doing about a 40% water change every week or so, topping off with pond water. I found a pond snail(?) On the edge of my pond liner and added him, he seems to just chill at the neck of the flask  Seem to have picked up 2-3 mosquito larvae, which are suprisingly active and swim around munching on algae all day. Once/if they go to pupae stage I'll move them to the pond for the fish to eat   Also looks like I have a baby snail that I hadn't noticed before  Headed out of town for about a week but thinking I'll add two red neocaridina shrimp when I get back. The Java moss + adequate partial sunlight in the afternoon seems to provide plenty of oxygen (I can see bubbles attaching to the side of the glass and coming off the moss) and moss + water lettuce seem to be keeping algae well under control Edit one more photo, this one in full sun 
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Oct 18, 2022 20:23
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Stoca Zola posted:I'd be wary of kuhlis at lower temperatures, I keep mine fairly warm to avoid illness since they're hard to treat as scaleless fish. I'm only talking around 28 C/80 f but I keep all my other tanks closer to 24 / 75. I don't heat my house, it definitely gets lower than 60 here in winter and the tanks keep their heat ok so I think you should be able to tweak your heater to get it right. Ok it gets cold in my house too so I was going to keep the tank at 25C/75F but if it uncomfortable for kuhlis I can do something else, maybe even hillstream loach.
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Oct 18, 2022 22:43
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poo poo. I think one of my tanks might have a columnaris outbreak. Which means all of them might since the Python gets all the tanks. Turns out all my Metroplex, kanaplex, and sulfaplex expired last year too. Woof. $80 to Amazon later... All of those should be fine for plecos, I hope. Will treat at half dose to be sure. As for the Python, water still comes out of the tap at 90* or so, so maybe that will kill the fuckers in between treatment.
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Oct 19, 2022 02:19
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I have three "water terrariums" as I call them that are covered and they just chug along on their own. No water changes, although I do top them off with aquarium water maybe twice a year? I think one is four years old, one is three, and the third is six months. The older two are just water, plants and snails, and the younger one is a planted Walstad jar with soil and plants, no snails. They're just really interesting to see how they grow and change.
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Oct 19, 2022 02:36
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My plants came and everything seems fine except for the ludwigia super red. It looks half melted. I can't say that it's DEAD yet but... Is this typical of how ludwigia comes in the mail?
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Oct 20, 2022 23:09
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Not great, but it doesn't look dead to me.
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Oct 20, 2022 23:19
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Not great, but it doesn't look dead to me. Most of the stems still seemed to be okay but it ended up that each only ended up having a few leaves left. I planted them and hopefully they'll bounce back.
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Oct 21, 2022 00:02
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How active are pencil urchins? I never see mine move unless I physically put food on their spines. Also, anyone with ideas about this protein skimmer? https://www.amazon.com/dp/B01597SD8Y?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details It seems to be fine, and collects a poo poo ton of stuff, but when I remove the cup to clean it, it stops skimming. I take it apart to clean and check for any issues, but nothing. The pump works, but I don't get any bubbles sometimes. How long should these things take to prime? Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 04:34 on Oct 22, 2022 |
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Oct 21, 2022 02:30
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I want to save up for some fish, like the hillstream loach or a pair of gobies. Or a honey gourami. Potentially a betta, but I'd have to keep an eye out, which is fine. I often just sit in front of it and all the lil' neons come up to me at the front glass. I feel popular!
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Oct 23, 2022 06:54
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I'm the reluctant caretaker of a 10 gallon aquarium and I would like to take as good a care as I can of the fish that are in here. The tank has been going for about 2 years now, it's got a heater, a filter, and a couple small live plants, but only had a Betta, a hillstream loach and a couple snails in it until recently. Currently it has 3 corydoras, 7 neon tetras, a hillstream loach, an assassin snail, and some other snail that I don't know what it is. This feels like it might be overstocked, but I'm not sure. Should I be rushing to try and get something bigger to hold this number of fish? The thing I am most concerned about is taking care of the corys. The substrate that's in there at the moment is quite big and I worry that they are having a hard time eating because of it, with a lot of the food falling between the pieces of gravel and going out of reach. I have tried feeding them different kinds of wafers, as well as sinking pellets to avoid this, but it all seems too big for their mouths and I end up fishing most of it out of the bottom of the tank uneaten as far as I can tell. Does anyone have a recommendation for a cory-friendly food that the tetras aren't going to gobble up before it gets to the bottom? Should I switch the substrate to something finer? How hard/risky would this be to do with fish in the aquarium? The only times I've seen them eat is when some of the tetras food makes it to the bottom and they root around for it, but I'm not watching them all day so I have no idea how much of the wafers or pellets they are nibbling on. Sorry if this is too many questions and/or I sound stupid. The aquarium was kinda thrust upon me and I don't really know much about keeping fish, but I would very much like to keep these guys healthy + happy however I can and I am feeling a little lost so any help or tips would be appreciated.
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Oct 24, 2022 08:40
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Martian Manfucker posted:I'm the reluctant caretaker of a 10 gallon aquarium and I would like to take as good a care as I can of the fish that are in here. The tank has been going for about 2 years now, it's got a heater, a filter, and a couple small live plants, but only had a Betta, a hillstream loach and a couple snails in it until recently. Currently it has 3 corydoras, 7 neon tetras, a hillstream loach, an assassin snail, and some other snail that I don't know what it is. This feels like it might be overstocked, but I'm not sure. Should I be rushing to try and get something bigger to hold this number of fish? If you’re just maintaining the tank, with zero plans to restock or expand as the residents die then you can probably just keep on keeping on. Everybody in there is relatively hardy and will survive with good feeding and clean water. However, you really do have a hodgepodge of different ecosystem and water flow preferences in the tank. It is also arguably a bit overstocked and arguably a bit small for the corys and loach, but not terribly so. Three corys should do okay in 10gal, although they will gladly make use of 20 or more. If you really wanted to do right by the fish and make everybody optimally happy you’d have to break up the tank and probably separate out the betta and the loach, and/or move the South American biotope denizens (the tetras and the corys) to their own 20gal tank (personally I’d just keep them in the 10 unless I wanted to double the number of corys, as I’ll explain below). Betta- southeast Asian pond and stillwater/“black water” biotope. Does not like very much flow, if any. Happy in a 5 gal by itself, probably optimally happy in 10. Despite what a pet store will tell you, don’t go smaller than 5gal for one betta. Enjoys a planted tank with lots of cover. Prefers solitude, especially when it comes to members of its own species. Decently tolerant of non-intraspecific tankmates. Almost surely intolerant of another betta. Males famously despise friendship, females can be kept in sorority tanks under the right conditions/with the right individuals. IMO that’s actually fairly advanced fishkeeping, and 99% of the people who claim to successfully run a sorority tank are lying, to themselves and/or to you. Tetra- south/Central American ponds and streams. Schooling. Do not keep in groups smaller than like 4-5 for optimal behavior. Definitely do not keep in groups smaller than 3 if you don’t want to see bullying and nipping behavior, and a solitary tetra will be skittish and shy. Often kept with corys to make an “Amazon biotope” tank. “1 fish per gallon” or “1 fish per 2 gal” are decent stocking rules of thumb. 7 in a 10gal is fine. Corydora- south/Central American streams and rivers. Mad gregarious. Often found in colonies of hundreds or even thousands of fish. Some keepers claim it is cruel to keep in groups of less than 6. Many serious pet stores refuse to sell in batches of less than 3. Because of this, most guides recommend 20 gallons as a minimum (you can comfortably fit about 6-10 small corys in a 20 long), but 10 is fine for smaller groups. They do move a lot when happy/hungry, so you’d be surprised by how well some really small fish can fill out a 20. Often kept as bottom dwellers in a community tank with tetras, angels, and/or other tropical Western Hemisphere fish. Corydoras prefer a sandy bottom (Home Depot play sand is like $4 a bag, don’t buy $20 pet store sand) but will do fine with gravel or pebbles as long as they’re smooth and not sharp. Despite frequently being mistaken for plecos, corys are omnivores with a lean toward the carnivore/detritovore side. This means 1) they make a good cleanup crew in general, but absolutely will not ever clean algae off of your substrate or glass 2) you should probably consider feeding them, they go nuts for most sinking foods and also worms and whatnot. Flow is hotly debated for corys, with some people insisting that a moderate-to-high flow (like in a moving stream or river) is crucial to unlocking optimal behaviors like “dancing”, etc. Regardless, corys will breed readily given the right temp/food/social conditions. Cory cats kept in optimal group environments will be active and frequently visible doing charismatic cory things, whereas solitary or understocked fish will be skittish and spend much of their time hiding. Hillstream loach- the one I know the least about, and haven’t kept. From fast moving, rocky, shallow hill streams of Southeast Asia. Stick to rock. Water go whooosh. The standard wisdom on hillstream loaches is that they need heavy, moving flow. That said, this “need” is hotly debated in the hobby. Plenty of breeders and keepers have what appears to be success with slow moving or totally still water, and since they’re relatively cheap and accessible it can be argued that the vast majority out there in the hobby are kept this way. The same can be said for temperature. Hillstream loaches are technically “cool water” fish (frequently you see them as cleanup/algae control in goldfish setups), but I’ve seen people breed them at 78-80 degrees successfully. That said (again), when I think of somebody showing off their hillstream loaches I picture a “river” tank, often with strong directional flow and longitudinally opposed intake/outlet tubes. Idk that I would necessarily upend a whole system that appears to be working for one loach tho. Ultimately, it’s up to you as to what balance you want to strike between “doing right by the fish” and making fishkeeping your hobby. I’d probably separate out the betta into its own small tank, at minimum. Maybe pull out the loach as well, and leave the rest in the existing 10gal as a South American-ish tank. Or leave the loach in the 10gal and move the tetras and corys to a 20. Or you could probably leave the loach and betta together. Petco currently has their rimless top/rim on bottom tanks at half off on the website, with free shipping or 10% off store pickup (I just bought a bunch of new tanks). Comes out to $19 for a 5gal and $25 for a 10, which is roughly $5 more than the basic ugly rimmed tanks go for. trilobite terror fucked around with this message at 11:46 on Oct 24, 2022 |
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Oct 24, 2022 11:21
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Martian Manfucker posted:
Have you tried a small feeding dish? You can get glass feeding bowls for shrimp, personally I found a couple of cheap glass coasters (or they might have been candle holders?) that were about the right size and shape, or maybe even a saucer would work. Corys will push a wafer around while nibbling the sides, I have had a lot of success with Tetra shrimp wafers as being fairly stable so they don't foul the water, while softening enough for the corys to break bits off as they feed. Tablets that are compressed from smaller particles (Sera O-Nip or Tetra FunTips) tend to work well for corys too as they get a mouthful that breaks off easily when they suck on the wafer. I've also done dried blackworms held down by a fork but the corys usually suck the worms off the fork and they end up going everywhere, which is ok in my tank because I have rasboras and other mid/top level fish that also eat blackworms. Corys can feed more at night and can be a bit slow and stupid with food sometimes, or if they're not gobbling all the food it might just be that they've had enough and they're not hungry. I sometimes only feed mine every second day, it doesn't hurt them and it helps keep the water cleaner. You can use a site like aqadvisor.com to put your tank information in which can give you ideas about compatibility or other requirements that might need to be met. I tend to find this site underestimates capacity for a mature or planted tank but it gives you a ballpark idea anyway. One thing to keep in mind with fishkeeping is if it aint broke, don't try to fix it. If you are able to gravel vac uneaten food and maintain water quality, if your corys barbels are intact, if they are behaving in a normal manner, everything is probably fine. I honestly wouldn't try adding any new livestock without having the capacity to quarantine, because you really don't want to risk adding parasites or disease to a functioning healthy tank if you can help it. I feel like if you enjoyed the hobby and wanted to slightly expand, the next steps would be to set up a 25g, which would give you enough room for a decent sized school of corys (say 10) and a decent sized school of tetras (say 20), with heater and filter and so on, but do a "fishless cycle" to get the filter ready to support life, then once that tank is ready you could move the existing fish, plants and snails across, and use the 10 gallon tank to quarantine a few new corys or tetras at a time, until you were sure they were also healthy enough to move to the larger tank. And then quarantine and add new fish until you got the school sizes to the target size. Then maybe get a new betta for the 10g. But since you say you are a reluctant caretaker, it makes more sense to me to keep doing what you are doing. It sounds like everything is still alive after 2 years except the betta, which is pretty normal for bettas depending on their genetics. To me you sound like a successful fishkeeper, especially if your hillstream dude is happy.
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Oct 24, 2022 13:45
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Martian Manfucker posted:I'm the reluctant caretaker of a 10 gallon aquarium and I would like to take as good a care as I can of the fish that are in here. The tank has been going for about 2 years now, it's got a heater, a filter, and a couple small live plants, but only had a Betta, a hillstream loach and a couple snails in it until recently. Currently it has 3 corydoras, 7 neon tetras, a hillstream loach, an assassin snail, and some other snail that I don't know what it is. This feels like it might be overstocked, but I'm not sure. Should I be rushing to try and get something bigger to hold this number of fish? 1. What the others above said is good. 2. Do not gently caress with the pH or trying to get tannins or worrying about hardness. 3. if you can, upgrade to a 20 or 29 gallon; check your local area for fish clubs because they are around, or hit up Petco's $1 a gallon sale (if you're in the US and when they have it). 4. If you do upgrade, go with sand. Playsand works great, just RINSE it a lot before you put it in the new tank. Then move the 10 gallons of water in the current tank to the new one. Move the fish as you go, plus the decor and filter and plants. And maybe a few handfuls of the current substrate so you keep some of the good bacteria. 5. Better to under than over feed!
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Oct 24, 2022 14:55
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Thanks so much for your replies. I should say that unfortunately the Betta passed away a few months ago and it was just the loach and snails for awhile until these new denizens showed up. As far as I know the Betta was from a pet shop that kept their Bettas in little cups, and I don't know much, but I know that that's not enough. Part of the reason I ended up being the caretaker was because I insisted that he get a proper tank when he came home with a tiny bowl to live in. Kind of a double edged sword for me since the bigger tank was license to add more fish, and here we are today. I'm not complaining too much, it has been an interesting little project to keep, but I have a very delicate heart and I don't want to lose fish because of a mistake I made or inexperience on my part and it causes more stress than I think something relaxing like an aquarium should. All that being said, it sounds like the 10gal is an okay size for what is in there now, but I will keep all of your info in mind and get a bigger tank if more fish get added. The feeding dish sounds like a great idea and I feel pretty stupid not having thought of it before. Should keep things a little tidier, too, rather than having to remember where food dropped when I go to fish it out later since it blends so well with the little pebble substrate. Speaking of food, the stuff I've tried so far are Tetra Pleco Wafers that I had around for the loach (I was told he was a Butterfly Pleco when he came home and got real concerned when he didn't grow at all, go figure), some Omega One Veggie Rounds, and Nutrafin Max sinking pellets. They don't seem to go particularly crazy for any of it, but I do think I spotted them nibbling at the sinking pellets once or twice. Are they usually shy eaters/grazers, or should I try more stuff until I find something they get excited for? Also, they love going absolutely buckwild swimming up and down the sides of the aquarium having a great time when they think I'm not around but the second I approach the tank to check them out they go dead still where they are and wait for me to leave. I assume that's normal? They have a little fake driftwood cave to hide in and a small bit of real driftwood with some nooks and crannies big enough for one or two of them at a time, but they aren't often in there. I'll take some pictures to show what I'm working with.  Sorry about the photo quality. I would like to add more live plants if I get a chance. The last big plant that was in there died when I think I trimmed it too aggressively, and it kept having its leaves covered in some kind of black algae or gunk or something. The small plant in the back middle and right seems to be doing well, though. The loach likes to hang out on its leaves. I added back in some of the fake decor when the new fish came just to give them a bit of cover and places to hide while I figured out what to do since I didn't want them getting too stressed. Also here is one of the corys wishing that I would leave so they can go back to swimming up and down like a fool. 
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Oct 24, 2022 16:20
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I got so excited about giving fish advice that I forgot to complain about the big leak I had in my fishroom. Went to feed the fish yesterday and was presented with the stank of wet chipboard and I could see where the puddle was forming on the carpet. I've got tape marking 20 litre increments on the side of that tank to make water changing easier, and I can't have lost more than 20 litres so not too bad in the scheme of things. The stand was visibly wet but no obvious leaks anywhere I can see, and by the shape of the puddle it might be coming from the back corner. I decided to take no chances and to break the tank down for thorough inspection. It's a 4 foot (around 40 gallons) that I got from a pleco breeder back in 2016 or so, he'd made the stand himself with a metal frame and wooden skin. The tank itself was level and on a nice piece of foam, with thick particle board(like a counter top I guess) between the tank and the metal stand - prior to now, this had never gotten wet so I don't think this is the point of failure. The inhabitants were around 20 rosy barbs which are intended for the pond in the back yard, and 10 red finned danios which are too small for pond life yet. I moved the rosy barbs to the other 4 foot tank I have, as temporary housing - they were so busy begging for food that they didn't really notice me netting them out. The tanks current inhabitants, a bunch of chill red sided barbs, corys and a giant rasbora, were NOT impressed. Meanwhile the danios were almost impossible to catch, doing such moves as laying on their sides under a thin layer of silt hoping I wouldn't see them. I had to turn the lights out and give them time outs and make many netting attempts until I got them all safely to the 5 foot tank, where they are now happily schooling with the rainbowfish. Took all the water out of the tank, vacuumed as much of the carpet as I could reach, and have set up fans to try and dry things out a bit. From what I can see, the side seals are fine, the interior bracing looks intact, so maybe the silicone at the base has let go? I would have expected to lose a lot more water if so but maybe I got lucky and caught it early. I won't be able to tell until I get it completely empty of substrate and I'll probably move the tank outside and do some tests. Considering how the tank looked when I bought it, it could be quite old and some of the silicone might be end of life. Not really sure how to reseal this particular tank as every corner seam is internally braced by a square glass beam. Every tank I have bought new has been big money, and I don't have that kind of money any more. I don't regret buying second hand but failures like this are always on the cards. Kind of sucks because I had plans for this tank once I'd moved the rosy barbs to the pond and now I have to add it to the pile of tanks needing resealing. Edit: Martian Manfucker your trilineatus corys are so cute! I miss mine, they were the first corydoras I kept. The wafers you're feeding probably have correct nutritional content even though they're veggie based, most processed food still has a mix of protein and veg. But maybe it just doesn't smell right, corydoras for example would normally eat worms or tiny crustaceans and random detritus along with it. So something that smells meatier might attract them better. Hillstream loaches I think are aufwuchs grazers, that is, they like algae surfaces to scrape, but what they're eating isn't the algae itself but the biofilm and gunge on the surface. So leaves, driftwood, pebbles and so on will all grow biofilm but a slick patch of algae has the most surface area and is easiest for them to scrape at. I used to feed mine repashy gel food and later found a New Life Spectrum gel food that they also liked. They will eat worms and tiny crustaceans too so they're not as fussy to keep as other aufwuchs grazers (like otocinclus for example). Tank leak update: The carpet is dry but stained, the particle board is dry except for the very middle and it doesn't look to have warped at all. I checked the local buy swap and sell marketplaces and pickings are very slim, I think in future I might start making my own IKEA glass shelf tanks, Serpa Design style. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 19:55 on Oct 24, 2022 |
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Oct 24, 2022 16:24
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I swear that finding hillstream loaches are small in supply. But I love them. Little hovercrafts with a smile.
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Oct 25, 2022 00:48
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| # ? May 18, 2024 10:53 |
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In my 30 years on and off in this hobby the only time I ever had Cory cats lose their barbels was the time I kept them on sand instead of gravel. 
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Oct 25, 2022 03:12
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