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I'm still finding dead ones. I've tried everything. Water params are 0/0/20. Copper test was negative. gH and kH were fixed. They have a varied diet. Some of them just drop dead though. I almost think something is poisoning them but only when they get super close or something. Maybe a root tab got exposed at some point? I'm not running out of shrimp though, at least not yet.
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Jun 10, 2023 20:29
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| # ? May 23, 2024 16:05 |
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:New thread title, imho.
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Jun 10, 2023 20:58
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My go-to is Milton brand steriliser, it’s fairly weak and is for baby bottles, so it’s scent and nonsense free because the end result has to be food safe.
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Jun 10, 2023 22:25
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oh yeah, there's also sodium metabisulfite. Amazon carries it, and any winemaking place should have it too.
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Jun 10, 2023 22:36
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Third cherry shrimp is hanging in there Tank had a slightly fishy smell, dosed it with a regular dose of ammo-lock. About 20 minutes later something hatched, looks like... Something hatched. Thought maybe it was a mosquito larvae it was so dark, but I think it's a golden topminnow fry, possibly. Fish smell seems to have gone away an hour after adding the ammo lock and the random worms at the bottom seem to have woken up so maybe I stopped an ammonia spike? Third cherry shrimp is moving around and eating very occasionally now Got aggressive and caught one of the female rice fish in a glass dish, very gently rubbed my fingers over the egg clusters stuck to her, got, I think there's 18 in this photo(well, if imgur was still working), plus there were another 4-6 stuck to me and other parts of the dish Also pulled about 4 eggs out of the pond yesterday, a couple of them are larger (50% larger?) clear eggs which kind of tracks with what to expect from golden topminnows (there's almost nothing written about breeding golden topminnows from what I can tell, but they're killifish so that helps). Kind of recording this so I know when to expect eggs to hatch
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Jun 11, 2023 00:49
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https://www.chewy.com/dr-tims-aquatics-ammonium-chloride/dp/132039 Something like that?
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Jun 11, 2023 04:05
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Aerofallosov posted:https://www.chewy.com/dr-tims-aquatics-ammonium-chloride/dp/132039 Something like that? That's ammonia. Bleach is sodium hypochlorite. Though I had to buy some overpriced aquarium ammonia like this myself recently since I couldn't find any plain ammonia without soap or detergents in it. It seems that capitalism has decided that anything that isn't specifically targeted at the aquarium market has to be specifically formulated to murder fish.
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Jun 11, 2023 04:23
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whoops. I think I misread it there.
Aerofallosov fucked around with this message at 07:29 on Jun 11, 2023 |
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Jun 11, 2023 06:36
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Another suggestion might be hydrogen peroxide.
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Jun 11, 2023 16:57
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I feel dumb. I feel SO DUMB. I've been having shrimp die offs, right? Ever since like two months ago, I started finding deads. I thought I fixed it. They starting dying LESS when I fixed up the water... but they were still dying. I cut back on food, maybe I was overfeeding them. They kept dying, I trimmed the plants back, they started dying harder. I got a copper test kit, it was negative. I thought maybe it was some kind of bacterial disease being spread through cannibalism. I started taking the bodies out. They died MORE. I was at a complete loss until I realized. I was starving them. They were dying of starvation. They died more when I trimmed the plants because I was taking away grazing area. They died more when I was taking out the bodies because they didn't have anything to cannibalize. I fed more today. I'm finding less dead. They are extremely hungry and enthusiastic whenever I add more food. It'll obviously be a few days to confirm. But I think this might be it. I took to heart the warnings of overfeeding and then proceeded to underfeed them.
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Jun 14, 2023 02:14
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Lareine posted:I feel dumb. I feel SO DUMB. How often were you feeding them? Usually when shrimp die off en masse, it's not starvation, it is something like copper or bacteria infection, so you weren't incorrect in assuming those. I've had the same issue with my nursery tank (guppies and two spawns of yellow lab cichlids) where I feed them like 4 times a day. I might need to do more. And then my marine tank, where I see bristle worms run out in the bright daylight when I drop food in: I clearly need to feed more if the scavengers are coming out in light hours. Usually underfeeding IS best because overfeeding leads to so many more issues. You're not dumb, man.
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Jun 14, 2023 03:25
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Cowslips Warren posted:How often were you feeding them? Usually when shrimp die off en masse, it's not starvation, it is something like copper or bacteria infection, so you weren't incorrect in assuming those. It wasn't so much en masse but it was consistent. First, it was around 3-5 a day, then after the water changes, it started dropping to maybe 1 or so every other day. But it kept happening so I kept on trying to fix it. Keep in mind, I had hundreds so even after the die-off, it didn't put a noticeable dent in the population. You looked in the tank and there was still a shitload of shrimp. I fed them every day but that was mostly focused at the pygmy corydoras, which I still have no idea what the population is. Like, I'd toss in a Shrimp King mineral pellet just for them but I was just aiming to feed the fish. Today, I fed a mini baby brine shrimp cube, two Hikari sinking wafers, a mineral pellet, a pinch of Hikari Crab Cuisine and a shake of Bug Bites Shrimp. Not all at once but throughout the day. It was all swarmed.
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Jun 14, 2023 03:56
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My second female cherry shrimp appears to be happy now, swimming around and doing shrimpy things Added a new male he's adjusting but still moving around, will check in on him tomorrow and see if he looks like he's walking like he had a stroke or something. The first two did that and then keeled over about 12 hours later Second female also molted. Apparently they only breed right after moulting so maybe the male will be up to the task? Catching the rice fish and gently stripping the eggs off them with my fingers seems to be pretty effective. Pulled about 12 eggs off one fish and 20 off another. I have yet to see a fry in the tank besides the one anomalous hatching a couple days ago. At least six eggs have eyes but it's hard to keep track of all the eggs scattered about Added some daphnia to my 10 gallon fry tank, I thought this was a smart idea but then realized I have a sponge filter in there which is probably soaking up all their food. I have a murky green planter I've tossed a couple of fish eggs into it's got lots of green water, will attempt to feed the daphnia that, also gonna pick up some dry yeast. I have a separate daphnia only colony too but was hoping they'd generate enough babies for the fry to snack on  Extremely dim midnight tank photo. Female in flight, male chilling on the sponge. I have some oak leaves in there for biofilm food source, a "reef" of java moss that kind of splits the tank in half and slows down water circulation, and then the green area is where most of the eggs end up, nearest me where I can inspect them for eyes. Also some java fern plantlets on the right. Up top out of frame is some water lettuce and a sprig of parrot feather plant Hadlock fucked around with this message at 08:20 on Jun 14, 2023 |
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Jun 14, 2023 08:17
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I tried something new today. Thinking about what I have growing around here that I might be able to feed to my snails, I'm happy to report they seem to enjoy boiled Dandelion greens. The stuff takes a lot of active boiling to wilt it, but the snails got right on it. Guppies have been nibbling too. Guess I'll see if that was a critical error over the next few days, but my thinking was they're edible for humans, I bet the snails would eat them.
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Jun 17, 2023 23:34
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B33rChiller posted:I tried something new today. Thinking about what I have growing around here that I might be able to feed to my snails, I'm happy to report they seem to enjoy boiled Dandelion greens. The stuff takes a lot of active boiling to wilt it, but the snails got right on it. Guppies have been nibbling too. anything that you pull out of your yard is gonna be poison, so make sure you’re only feeding farmed/garden/“for consumption” dandelion greens
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Jun 18, 2023 00:49
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Ok Comboomer posted:anything that you pull out of your yard is gonna be poison, so make sure you’re only feeding farmed/garden/“for consumption” dandelion greens This. Not quite the same, but years before we got our house, the land was sprayed with DDT, and the poo poo stuck in the soil, to the point any eggs our tortoises laid rarely hatched. The torts that did hatch had horrible health issues and died very young. I remember clutches of cyclops or entirely blind ones. We ended up digging up eggs before they sat, and never had that issue again. Here, question. I have my marine tank that is mostly serpent stars and I love them and I want to be able to watch them, but they're nocturnal. Would coralline algae grow fine still if I only used the blue light setting on the light fixture instead of the bright white and blue together?
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Jun 18, 2023 03:06
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Ok Comboomer posted:anything that you pull out of your yard is gonna be poison, so make sure you’re only feeding farmed/garden/“for consumption” dandelion greens
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Jun 18, 2023 03:53
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Cowslips Warren posted:This. It's worth a shot. Coralline algae doesn't need (or like) super bright light. If you're trying to grow it I would make sure your calcium and alkalinity levels are good
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Jun 18, 2023 17:28
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Getting alarmingly good at murdering daphnia populations. I think I mostly murdered population B, half murdered population A. Rescued a few from A and put them in 100ml beaker to create emergency backup population C. Mosquito larvae seem to be doing fine though? Cherry shrimp in my 10 gal all died. I have two ricefish Fry now. The first is ~5 days old, the second has been around for ~2. Looking at my posts in here I think that lines up with a ~13-14 day hatch time. Did two 10% water changes, 2 days apart, tank is looking/smelling more stable now. Looking like a couple more eggs might hatch here in the next day or two. You can file all this under "reasons why you should wait a couple weeks for your tank to cycle first". 10 gal is way more complex and finicky than a 150 gal.
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Jun 20, 2023 19:11
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I have had really good luck with 10 gallons as a saltwater tank size. It's small, but a five gallon water change with a bucket is easy to do once a week. I have bigger tanks now too, but I'm sure the water quality is best in my 10.
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Jun 20, 2023 20:53
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My 1 year old goldfish are all finally changing colour!! About time. 1 of them turned entirely gold within its first months, but the 29 others stayed black for a whole year. It's fun watching them change, they get some cool patterns. I wish they could stay as a mix of gold/black it looks cool.
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Jun 20, 2023 21:42
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Ricefish breeding update Looks like I have had three ricefish fry in my 10 gal "hatching/grow out" tank now. The first one is growing pretty well, about 1.5x as large as the other two. Eldest mostly hangs out on top near the edge furthest from the room. Second swims at the top but at the other end. Third one appeared tues or wednesday, mostly spends his time simming below the air stone (which hangs about 5" from the bottom of the tank), then lazily floating around the tank, then back to swimming near the airstone again. The sun came through the window in late afternoon giving the tank some direct sunlight for ~20 min or so, was kind of neat to see him swim into the light and hang out in the sun for a bit. Two ricefish (at least) have been spotted in the outdoor pot/micropond/tub. I threw another 3-4 eggs in there yesterday, seems pretty stable, daphnia, snail etc are all happy in there, water cleared up. Collected some more eggs this week. Looks like the ammonia spike that killed my shrimp took out many of the eggs as well. The new eggs all have eyes are should be hatching soon. Also collected some (12?) eggs and put them in tap water. Apparently the chlorine doesn't effect the eggs and helps prevent fungus etc from growing on them. Going to try that out see how that works. Should hatch July 2-4 if everything goes ok. Will transfer to tank ~July 1 I guess? edit: Pond plant situation getting out of control, ha;lp 
Hadlock fucked around with this message at 20:36 on Jun 23, 2023 |
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Jun 23, 2023 20:33
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these blue dream (BP’s line of blue velvet neocaridina) skrimps I got from BucePlant are really top notch. A+, somewhat pricey but recommended Pics soon
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Jun 23, 2023 21:22
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I've heard mixed rumors about a local aquarium store, but their ad from a week or two ago solidifies my opinion to never go there. They usually run weekend specials that start on Friday, and it's always saltwater animals, but this time they were selling blue linkia starfish for $12 each, limit of one per person.
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Jun 23, 2023 21:37
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Cowslips Warren posted:I've heard mixed rumors about a local aquarium store, but their ad from a week or two ago solidifies my opinion to never go there. They usually run weekend specials that start on Friday, and it's always saltwater animals, but this time they were selling blue linkia starfish for $12 each, limit of one per person. I don't know anything about saltwater - what's the implication? Is that suspiciously cheap?
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Jun 24, 2023 04:41
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Weembles posted:I don't know anything about saltwater - what's the implication? Is that suspiciously cheap? I believe they're extremely hard to keep alive, but extremely pretty so people try, and a lot of animals die.
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Jun 24, 2023 05:50
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DeadlyMuffin posted:I believe they're extremely hard to keep alive, but extremely pretty so people try, and a lot of animals die. Well that sucks.
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Jun 24, 2023 05:58
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Weembles posted:Well that sucks. Yep. The saltwater community is way worse than freshwater about that.
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Jun 24, 2023 06:04
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DeadlyMuffin posted:Yep. The saltwater community is way worse than freshwater about that. This. A lot of people will buy showy wild-caught inverts like nudibranchs/etc that they have zero way (or intent) to feed and just let them starve prettily for a few weeks until they die and get replaced with a fresh victim
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Jun 24, 2023 06:21
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Ok Comboomer posted:This. A lot of people will buy showy wild-caught inverts like nudibranchs/etc that they have zero way (or intent) to feed and just let them starve prettily for a few weeks until they die and get replaced with a fresh victim I have stores I do not frequent.
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Jun 24, 2023 06:40
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Blue linkia are similar to Moorish Idols (remember Gill from Finding Nemo?) in that people want them, people buy them, and most of the time they just starve to death. No reputable store will sell them.
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Jun 24, 2023 06:42
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Is the correct way to care for them very expensive or labor intense?
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Jun 24, 2023 11:55
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DeadlyMuffin posted:I believe they're extremely hard to keep alive, but extremely pretty so people try, and a lot of animals die. I’ve murdered 6 fish so far in my saltwater. I’m not proud of it but it’s the truth. Most of them have been because my 2 tomato clowns are loving poo poo bags
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Jun 24, 2023 14:14
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RadioPassive posted:Is the correct way to care for them very expensive or labor intense? With moorish idols it's diet, they eat sponges. Dunno about linkia stars. The Nastier Nate posted:I’ve murdered 6 fish so far in my saltwater. I’m not proud of it but it’s the truth. I have too, salt and fresh, but I think there's a difference between that and something that really has almost no chance
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Jun 24, 2023 14:18
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RadioPassive posted:Is the correct way to care for them very expensive or labor intense? Depends. With some animals that may be it—they need lots of intensive care and attention to thrive, or an expensive amount of space/equipment/parameter stability/etc, or a food source that’s hard to get or produce. And then also in some cases, like with many sea slugs, there’s literally no current known way to sustain them in captivity but people want to have and display them anyway and they’re willing to pay for the privilege Slug lives for a few weeks to months and then the tank owner gets something else/another slug
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Jun 24, 2023 14:31
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Yeah, I think there's a very big difference between having fish or inverts dying in your tank due to aggression issues, or even nitrate spikes, and them dying because the tank size isn't big enough, or you just don't have the food for them. Having a starfish die because it was acclimated badly at the store is far different than having a starfish die because you put it in a freshwater tank with your goldfish. I used to work in a small aquarium at a zoo, and the owner didn't care it all about fish, other than he got bored of certain tanks really quickly. The starfish and urchin tank was one. I would always see people stop by and actually watch, but the owner didn't like it so we had to take that tank down and put up a tank with a single dragon morat eel. Now. Ed was an awesome fish, but in an eel is an eel, and most people just look at him and then move on because he wasn't doing anything. Compared to a starfish tank where they were constantly out and around and usually on the glass and being very visually pleasing. I can't tell you the amount of times there would be some really amazing fish like a frogfish the size of your clenched fist, and it had not been acclimated properly at the shipping facility, it wasn't on non-life food, and would usually die within a week or two of being with us. Not that I didn't try desperately to keep them alive, but there was no way after all the stress they've been under. One of the things that made me really angry was that at one point I was brought four or five dwarf horned sharks I think they were? Anyway, they were cramped into 125 gallon tank, and none of them were on prepared foods. None of them would take frozen krill or shrimp or pretty much anything that wasn't live, and the only live food I had was goldfish. I didn't even use that to feed any of the animals in my building, but they did in the reptile building so I had to take care of a very large tub of these poor fish. So you have animals on a display tank that people ooh and all over but were slowly starving to death because I just didn't have the right food for them and the owner didn't care.
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Jun 24, 2023 15:14
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On the other end of things, I think my culled body count has to be well into the triple digits. Guppies and mystery snails man. They sure ain't starving. In other news, the raccoon seems to really enjoy chewing on my filter intake sponges. Net came off the patio tub, fish are still there. Water lily is shredded, and the foam I had in a bag surrounding a little pump filter combo is torn up and spread around the yard. The water is silted right up again too. Grrrrrr.
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Jun 24, 2023 17:58
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Ok Comboomer posted:these blue dream (BP’s line of blue velvet neocaridina) skrimps I got from BucePlant are really top notch. A+, somewhat pricey but recommended I got the Orange Sunkist from them and I have been quite pleased with them... when they aren't dying for no reason. But whatever, the initial stock was really good, no parasites or disease. No DoAs and 19 out of the 20 were really good, there was one male that was kinda crummy though. Not colored as much as the others.
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Jun 24, 2023 21:07
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Ok Comboomer posted:these blue dream (BP’s line of blue velvet neocaridina) skrimps I got from BucePlant are really top notch. A+, somewhat pricey but recommended Ymmv bc I got a batch recently and it wasn’t so great. Got a couple really small ones and what I’d consider to be lower grade and looking more like blue rili shrimp. The fire reds they sent me were great otoh
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Jun 24, 2023 21:45
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I've got a cool glass tube that sticks to the side of my tank, so I can drop pellet food into a little glass dish for my shrimps and snails and keeps their food from scattering everywhere in the tank. It works pretty well. Except one of my tetras just loves to spend time in that tube and get stuck. It's less than an inch in diameter, so about the size of a white skirt. And all the time I'd look over and there's this purple doofus right at the top of the water line, stuck in this tube, with no way to go anywhere. Three times I had to pull this tube out of the tank and shake him back into the water. So I moved the tube closer to the bottom of the tank, keep it high enough that the fish can't get in, but the shrimp and snails can still get at the food. That apparently still was not enough, so the fourth time he got stuck in the tube, I had to shake him into a net and bury him in the yard. Great job, dumbass.
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Jun 25, 2023 16:54
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