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Fuego Fish posted:The air pump has been disconnected for hours now, I had assumed I could just lift them out, they're probably on their last non-legs by now Not necessarily. Air pumps are for circulating oxygen through deep water. A few inches of water can be well oxygenated just through the water/air interface. And two small fish don't go through a tonne of oxygen anyway. Fish are shipped in little plastic bags that are 1/3 water and 2/3 air and can be fine for days like that. It's worth trying the bottle trap, because if they die back there it's going to make an unholy stench.
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Dec 15, 2018 19:32
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 11:39 |
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The lack of air won't kill them, they're just two fish with the whole surface area of the tank to themselves. The more important factor is how much can they "pee" in their limited quantity of water which is not getting processed by the filter, these wastes can build up fairly quickly in smaller quantities of water but you can mitigate this factor by adding more water with water conditioner in it; this will buy time. There's a possibility they're jammed somewhere being stubborn loaches that they are, and might have already died. You'll smell it soon enough if that's the case. It feels bad when stuff like this happens but you're doing your best to give them a chance so don't think badly of yourself if it all goes a bit wrong. I think it happens in some form or another to pretty much every fishkeeper.
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Dec 15, 2018 19:38
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Stoca Zola posted:There's a possibility they're jammed somewhere being stubborn loaches that they are, and might have already died. I loving wish, the little shits keep darting out and swimming around like they own the place, but the moment I get close with a net or something they're back to hiding. I'll give the bottle trap a try. This tank is too heavy to move anywhere else right now, so they've got a reprieve for the next few days. Thanks for all your advice.
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Dec 15, 2018 20:44
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For what it's worth, your dwarf loach tales are further convincing me that dwarf loaches are the rudest of fish.
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Dec 15, 2018 21:18
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Have you tried instead of a net using a strainer? I use this medium sized handled strainer I got at the dollar store and its become very easy for me to catch fish with it. Its big enough that it doesn't really startle them the way the nets do and I can almost always casually just work them in and against the glass and then lift. I don't have any loaches or digging fish so maybe it won't help, but my tetras, goldfish, and molly are all really fast and evasive and I'd spent days trying to catch them in the net before I switched over to the strainer that I had bought just to use when filling the tank.
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Dec 15, 2018 22:15
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Also, sometimes using two nets help. Think of one net as your sheep dog, and the other where you want them to go. Or a container+a net. Also, I discovered our tap water has nitrites in it. This blows.
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Dec 16, 2018 04:32
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Picked up my square spot anthias group (and a boatload of other stuff) yesterday afternoon and got them into their 40b quarantine where they are going to chill for the next 4 weeks or so. The pics the LFS sent didn't show his spot, but this is a good looking group of fish. Here's a few pics of Morris Day:  and The Time:  I have 3 of the yellow females, but couldn't get a good shot of them all together. I went with that name because after QT they will be going into my reef tank with Prince the purple tang:  and the New Power Generation:     
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Dec 16, 2018 05:03
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Stoca Zola posted:When I bought my 5 foot tank (around 125 gallons, 450 lt, who knows) I had no idea how we were going to get it into the house. The dude from the aquarium shop drove it over by himself, on a trailer on the back of his car. He got it off the trailer by himself, sacktrucked it into the house and got it into the loungeroom with no assistance and without breaking anything or hurting himself. It took four of us to lift the glass on to the stand once we had the stand assembled. A few experienced dudes would be able to handle it but I'm starting to think there's a pretty good reason why the tank was still in your house when you got there, I can't imagine anyone leaving it unless they had already gone through all of what you're going through without finding any way to succeed. I wonder if there are any of those glass suction cup lifting handles you could rent from a removalist, or whether they'd even be strong enough for a heavy fish tank? Well, situations always depend I assume. They might have been moving somewhere pets weren't allowed, or possibly couldn't support that weight. I mean yeah, they were assholes leaving it like that, but the situation might be more than black and white
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Dec 16, 2018 06:05
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 Finally nabbed the little shits! Last one I caught with my bare hands, too. Took them to the aquatics centre where they are now in a tank with a dozen slightly smaller dudes of their own kind. The fishtank has been moved outside to be covered with a tarp, pending some idea of what we're going to do with it, since nobody's responded to any of my ads yet. I might see if I can donate it somewhere or something.
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Dec 16, 2018 17:33
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Fuego Fish posted:
Success! Good job.
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Dec 16, 2018 23:02
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Scanning craigslist and a day and $130 dollars later I guess i'm starting my first planted tank!  Thinking about DSM with micro swords on the advice of the local fish store. EDIT: Not sure why pics aren't embedding https://imgur.com/a/3vylJDj
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Dec 17, 2018 03:06
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Crimpanzee posted:Scanning craigslist and a day and $130 dollars later I guess i'm starting my first planted tank! Cool! I recently did my first seriously planted tank (no CO2 though) if you have any newbie questions this is a great place to ask. I wish I had gone for a substrate like that one but I already had the gravel from a previous setup. Something I didn't know about which is important if you're planning on putting fish in there - make sure you pick up some ammonia to add every day to the tank for a few weeks to simulate the presence of fish so that the tank can get cycled properly.
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Dec 17, 2018 03:59
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I think off the top of my head fluval stratum doesn't have inbuilt ammonia like the ADA soils do, but it will buffer your water to a low pH which might be a pain when getting the cycle going. The bacteria prefer it to be 6 or higher so just keep an eye on it. A heavily planted tank to some extent will act as a biological filter anyway but ideally you want both plants and bacteria working to keep your tank clear of wastes. My next tank is going to be a low maintenance rhizomes on wood tank I think!
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Dec 17, 2018 06:10
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Stoca Zola posted:I think off the top of my head fluval stratum doesn't have inbuilt ammonia like the ADA soils do, but it will buffer your water to a low pH which might be a pain when getting the cycle going. The bacteria prefer it to be 6 or higher so just keep an eye on it. A heavily planted tank to some extent will act as a biological filter anyway but ideally you want both plants and bacteria working to keep your tank clear of wastes. Have you seen those no-filter no-fert no-CO2 tanks on youtube? Looks amazing and super low effort, really want to do that for the next one maybe. Really I think my next tank would be a 30-40g planted tank still with no CO2 but big enough to have other herbivorous species like a couple bristlenose plecos in it. I love the concept of self-sufficience with not having to daily feed my tank and I don't find colorful fish any more interesting than plecos.
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Dec 17, 2018 06:18
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It would appear that yesterday’s water change has spurred a stack of breeding activity in my tank. The male gourami spent today blowing bubbles but the lack of floating plants means they spread around the tank. In other news both my black phantom and neon females are looking rather plump so I’m hoping it’s good news and not bad. I lost another black phantom male last week after his tail got eaten overnight. It seems to correspond with me feeding the cories so I think maybe they’re attempting to muscle in and getting the poo poo kicked out of them cause this is the second male who’s gone the exact same way in a number of months.
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Dec 17, 2018 11:46
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Dr. Garbanzo posted:I lost another black phantom male last week after his tail got eaten overnight. It seems to correspond with me feeding the cories so I think maybe they’re attempting to muscle in and getting the poo poo kicked out of them cause this is the second male who’s gone the exact same way in a number of months. I have never heard of a cory damaging other fish in any way, I don't think they have any aggression in them at all. More likely to be phantom on phantom violence! Munched off tails seems to be the murder technique of choice for tetras. VelociBacon I've heard of the Walstad method as one way to get a low tech low maintenance planted tank; I had a go at mineralizing some soil for one of my tanks and I have 2 dirted tanks running at the moment. I don't think I've got it exactly right, probably didn't get the right mix of soil starting out as the recommended soil types don't seem readily available locally. I've seen some super detailed recipes for layers that should go in the bottom such as crushed oyster shells, marble chips, chunks of clay etc and if you don't get the mix right you can get some weird nutrient imbalances. One of my dirted tanks is the only tank I have that has any cyanobacteria, I think it would take a bit of experimentation to find a mix that works. Lucas Bretz on youtube has a ton of tanks going with various different substrates and he has had some good success in his huge tank with what he calls "substrate lasagna", and I've just recently subscribed to ADU Aquascaping who seems to have a ton of videos on low tech aquascapes so I'm hoping to see some good advice there. Short term tank goals: I have high hopes for the coming holiday break. This time last year I was stressing out about the tank with the busted centre brace and worrying about setting up the new tank. After almost a year the tank is doing pretty well; I will need to add a heap of root tabs to keep everything happy I think. In the short term I want to get my cube tank resealed, investigate whether its stand is okay or needs shoring up, and get it set up with sand for corys, and set up a driftwood tree covered in rhizome plants. Mostly because corys don't need plants down below and both the light and my arms won't reach the bottom of the tank too well. Then once I have a bit more space for the corys I can empty some tanks and move things around - I want to do a pebbles, sand, driftwood branches, moss and floating plants kind of biotope for my kuhlie loaches and rasboras that are still in a mostly bare quarantine tank at the moment. I have a tank to put them in but it has light blue paint which i want to scrape off and replace with black film, which I can't do while it's full of water. I'm going to limit my ambitions to those two tanks for these holidays
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Dec 17, 2018 18:21
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Stoca Zola posted:I think off the top of my head fluval stratum doesn't have inbuilt ammonia like the ADA soils do, but it will buffer your water to a low pH which might be a pain when getting the cycle going. The bacteria prefer it to be 6 or higher so just keep an eye on it. A heavily planted tank to some extent will act as a biological filter anyway but ideally you want both plants and bacteria working to keep your tank clear of wastes. My tap water tests at 7.0 and water from my established tank with inert substrate reads 7.2. Everything I've read about Micro Sword is it likes anywhere from 6.8-7.5 with some reports saying it prefers lower, so if Stratum does buffer it down a few points that may be a plus. I'm following this advice, https://www.plantedtank.net/forums/8-general-planted-tank-discussion/1283601-dry-start-method-how-gallery.html Hoping to make it 5 weeks before actually adding water to the tank, but I will be keeping an eye on the PH once it's flooded. For an update: I planted two pots of micro sword! https://imgur.com/a/MlZLFgm Experience so far, this stuff is kind of a pain. Tiny delicate roots, difficult to separate into manageable clumps and both pots had some runners wound up in there. Note the front right plant, that's one root ball and a long runner with a single blade every inch or so. Trying to get the roots into the stratum was tricky even with pinceps, I ended up doing my best and just brushing some substrate over any roots that wouldn't go down. Eveyhting is in now, top layer moistened, cling wrap on and light set to 24/7 mode, wish me luck!
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Dec 18, 2018 05:30
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I've got some microsword in my terrarium and it's doing pretty well! I'm sure yours will do fine with a dry start. When I first got it it grew really fast but planting it in other tanks it didn't do so well- I think it likes shallower water, brighter light, or would just prefer not being in a tank where bottom dwellers are digging it up all the time!
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Dec 18, 2018 07:30
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The idea of putting a seedling mat/terrarium heater under my brine shrimp hatchery works great, btw  definitely recommend for anyone else using it (which I also recommend.)
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Dec 19, 2018 14:38
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I'm getting yellow dwarf scrimps for Christmas! What's a good metal mesh to put over the filter slots?
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Dec 20, 2018 08:54
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I just use fairly fine plastic craft mesh, I think metal would be too heavy and you want to make sure it's stainless if you do use metal. Mine just stays stuck there due to water tension or capillary action or something. I could tie it on but I found I didn't need to. You can see the water level is higher on the tank side of the overflow so it does restrict the flow a bit. This piece is kind of long because I used to tuck it on the other side, between the wall and the sponge, but that would form a \| shape which ended up trapping and killing a lot of tiny dudes. With it how it is now, it's quite hard for anyone to get trapped.
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Dec 20, 2018 09:59
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One of my goldfish has a cut and it looks kind of swollen/red/infected. I did a water change, added salt, and finally installed the heater I bought and set it to 78. Is there anything more I should be doing for the guy? Same dude who had my only other fish illness/crisis with teh black ammonia/stress burns. I feel for the guy.
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Dec 21, 2018 01:17
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What is your water temp right now? Just putting a heater in set to 78 may be a big temp increase, you want to do it slowly. You probably know this.
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Dec 21, 2018 01:32
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It was at 70-72 without the heater, which is why I never bothered actually putting it in. I guess I should probably do like 75 and then go up later. Just a little overzealous trying to treat the guy. Especially since I'm pretty sure I'm the one who hurt him trying to net him.
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Dec 21, 2018 01:50
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STAC Goat posted:One of my goldfish has a cut and it looks kind of swollen/red/infected. I did a water change, added salt, and finally installed the heater I bought and set it to 78. Is there anything more I should be doing for the guy? I wanna say that he'll probably be alright and it's nothing to worry about? Sometimes our goldfish get injured when doing the mating chase and I've freaked a couple of times at how bad it looked, but it generally doesn't take long for them to recover. What you've done will probably be good enough? Just keep a close eye on him for any changes.
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Dec 21, 2018 02:08
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I'd go up like 1-2 deg F per day with the heater personally but I'm not that experienced and I have a small tank.
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Dec 21, 2018 03:03
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Just checking my terrarium to see if it needs a top up and got a pic of all the aquarium plants that I've got growing in there. Phone posting so hope this isn't too big.
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Dec 21, 2018 08:37
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Cool! I'd love to try one of those paludarium dealies sometime.
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Dec 21, 2018 22:14
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Sadly, I lost a few plants.  I guess moderate light is not what I've got. I do have two cool tiger nerites named Doomba and Roomba, and I'm waiting for red racers to come back into stock. I never had snails before, and I already love these little guys. I'd love to try mystery/apple snails one day.
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Dec 29, 2018 00:39
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My brother painted me this masterpiece for xmas this year. Put it up beside my tank.
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Dec 29, 2018 04:52
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You have a fine brother.
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Dec 29, 2018 04:55
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That's actually a really cool painting. Honestly, I dig it! Speaking of, I hope everyone has a lovely and disaster free holiday. Fortunately, the only disaster on my end was trying out a new plant in the tank. The fish loved it, which lead to lots of debris repeatedly clogging the filter and half of the plants vanishing. I can't even remember the name of it since my partner picked it up, but it's a type of fern? It was fun while it lasted. The goldfish were even able to hide inside it on the first day, which was useful for our females.
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Dec 29, 2018 06:16
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Is it a good idea to pick up a ghost shrimp from Petsmart to see if my betta will go after shrimp before I get my yellow scrimps?
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Dec 30, 2018 23:34
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Eeeee! I saw a second baby panda cory during last night's water change! I don't know if there are more hiding somewhere that will come out as they are big enough or if they will just continuously breed a couple of eggs at a time. But it means the first one wasn't just a fluke. Yay! The second one is quite smaller than the first but is fully coloured and therefore easily a few weeks old. There could be more under the coconut houses or in the susswassertang that I can't see. I think doing a test run of ghost shrimp with a betta might be a good idea, they aren't as colourful as yellow Neos but it's something I think your betta will be able to see and react to at least, so if he reacts to a ghost shrimp he'll definitely react to Neos. But on the other hand a failure to react doesn't mean your yellow Neos would be safe. He might hate yellow! It's a decent starting point though.
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Dec 31, 2018 00:01
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So far, he is chill with the red and black tiger nerites. Except when he's a cheeky bastard and steals some of their snail stixx.  We'll see how it goes. He's an incredibly chill little guy. I've never had one so chill.
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Dec 31, 2018 01:26
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Stoca Zola posted:Eeeee! I saw a second baby panda cory during last night's water change! I don't know if there are more hiding somewhere that will come out as they are big enough or if they will just continuously breed a couple of eggs at a time. But it means the first one wasn't just a fluke. Yay! The second one is quite smaller than the first but is fully coloured and therefore easily a few weeks old. There could be more under the coconut houses or in the susswassertang that I can't see. Once you see one, there's more. When mine were breeding I had dozen's of baby's. My last 2 panda's died over Christmas I think my pleco was either bullying them or just stealing all their food. I'm seriously thinking of seeing if anyone local wants my pleco - I love him, but he's getting huge quick, work hosed me over on Christmas bonus/raise so I can't afford a bigger tank for quite a while, and he's going to be too big real quick. Then I could probably move my remaining rainbows and the glowlight tetras into my 29 gallon, and I could drain the 55 for now and not run it until I have a better idea of what I want to do with it.Losing my pandas really killed my joy in this hobby. And my planted tank not taking well and looking like poo poo/being snail infested isn't helping. Just overall really "meh" on things right now.
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Dec 31, 2018 14:07
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Nursing the Dialing it back to one tank and having a break sounds like a good move until you're ready for whatever comes next. addendum: I was curious as to how many pandas I've bought (and lost) since 2015 and how much it's cost me so I searched back through my emails. I don't think I wan't to post either number because they were both a lot higher than I expected
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Dec 31, 2018 17:33
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Busy tank weekend for me. My group of denison barbs was feeling way too restricted in the 4' 90g bowfront in my office, so I had to start the process of getting them back down into the 6' 180g tank downstairs. Months ago in this thread we talked about industrial steel shelving for use as tank racks, and I ended up picking one up for the fish room so that I could more easily set up some extra tanks and hospital/QT tanks as needed. I set up a 40g on the rack, and pulled the 12-15 julidochromis marlieri out of my 180g and put them in there. Also will be doubling as a grow out tank for the dozen or so bristlenose pleco juvies I found in the 180. Also stuck one of the only 2 remaining mbuna I have in there, a 3" or so demasoni that was in the first group of mbuna I bought years and years ago. I'm hoping he doesn't harass the julies too bad. My other remaining mbuna is a yellow lab mutt that is chilling for now in a 20g until I figure out what to do with him. Denisons are now moved into the 180g, which should now be in its final form with 9 frontosa burundi, 7 denison barbs, 1 blue phantom pleco, 1 bristlenose pleco, 2 synodontis multipunctata catfish and a raphael catfish. Upstairs I now have a nearly empty 90g bowfront, with 2 synodontis multipunctata, 1 lonely bronze cory, 1 gold nugget pleco and 1 bristlenose pleco. Not sure how I want to go with that one, thinking some smaller fish maybe apistogramma or something like that.
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Dec 31, 2018 17:58
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I did some SERIOUS diatom scraping, gently rubbed them off my plants, added in my new lowlight plants and hopefully this means my nerites will stop hiding in the log. Sadly, my anubias is coming a little loose from the log.  so I'm gonna have to retie it. My java fern has little leaves coming out of the leaves? Does that mean it's happy? I'm also debating cutting this nitrazorb in half and sewing the bag up. It's not fitting well in my fluval's filter component.
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Jan 1, 2019 04:24
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| # ? Jun 11, 2024 11:39 |
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All of my java fern started looking really ratty at around the same time, the leaves started browning and melting and THEN the new plantlets formed, my guess is the mother plant had to cannibalise leaves to reproduce and it wouldn't have happened if they'd been in tanks that I add ferts to. Since I have them in my very low tech tanks they don't get ferts often or at all so this happened. If yours are having babies without cannibalising leaves then I would say they are very happy. Leave the new plants attached for as long as you can, the bigger plants are easier to handle than the small ones.
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Jan 1, 2019 05:10
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