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Fire Storm posted:My daughter got a fish while trick or treating and we're trying to keep it alive. Goldfish are DIRTY. And get BIG. Call your local Petco stores til they have their dollar a gallon sale and get at least a 40 gallon breeder tank, or check Craigslist for a cheap big tank and then filter it as if it were double the size. Use the filter media and the (probably useless) bacterial supplement to help cycle the new tank. I like goldfish, but they get large and produce massive amounts of waste. Luckily they're hardy so they'll probably live til you can do better. It would be good to know what the new fish are, since Goldfish require/do better at lower temperatures than most anything else you'll find at a pet store. If they are Cyprinids like the one in your pic, then no heater is needed, if not, you'll want to get a heater and hope you can find a good balance. Can you post pics of the new fish? Also, what kind of person gives out live animals to small children on a generally cold night? WTF. I can't decide if it's better or worse than giving out Goldfish as prizes at a fair.
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Nov 27, 2014 19:27
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Enos Cabell posted:That looks like a nightmare come true. It is a pretty evil looking snail, which is why I assume it has such an imposing name "Black Devil Spike Snail". 2-2.5", solid black shell and body. It only eats not live things though, won't breed in FW, and I don't think it does parthenogenesis, so in terms of snails, it's pretty harmless.
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Nov 27, 2014 19:33
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Extra Smooth Balls posted:I have one, it just trucks round slowly eating biofilm and algae and minding its own business. Mine likes to disappear into the substrate for days at a time and then spend some time on top of it. If I want it visible, New Life Spectrum sinking wafers seem to be like crack to it though. It'll always show up if I feed those. I bought it in FW, I'm currently keeping it in FW, but I think I may set up a 5g or 10g brackish tank so I can properly keep it, maybe with a Guppy or two and/or 2-3 Bumblebee Gobies. Or maybe with more of its own kind in hopes of breeding them.
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Nov 27, 2014 20:16
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Fire Storm posted:How's this pic? All 4 are in this pic, the one above the orange fish is pure white. Yep, those all look like common Goldies. Should hit about 10-12" full grown. The bigger the tank you get them in now the longer you have before you have to upgrade to the 55g-75g they're going to need if they all survive. Goldfish need big tanks and excessive filtration not only because they are bigger active fish, but because compared to other fish of similar size they produce vastly more waste. Larger water volumes allow that to be far more diluted. If the 10g has been sitting dry for any length of time, you may need to remove and replace the silicone. Everything else should be fine to use after cleaning. 10g is better than what they're in now and would be OK for now, but it is a very very short term solution. Instead of being OK for a year, it is good for the length of time it takes you to go out and buy a bigger tank and set it up. To quote the OP of this thread: quote:Goldfish - Goldfish are a tragedy and almost no one who keeps them should be allowed to. What most new hobbyists think of as a goldfish is only an infant. Goldfish are a foot long (at least) carp with a lifespan of fifteen to twenty years. In addition to their great size they are also one of the most demanding freshwater fish chemically because of their oxygen needs and waste production. They absolutely cannot be kept in a "goldfish bowl." They will quickly die. A good way to think of it is to imagine a scenario where almost no one knew that dogs were any bigger than a human hand, or lived longer than a few days, because so far as they knew the normal, traditional way to keep a dog was to seal it in a plastic bag as a puppy and leave the bag in the trunk of their car. Sorry, but by not doing any research, you've gotten yourself into quite the pickle. On the upside you will probably get to explain death to your daughter and get that difficult conversation out of the way.
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Nov 28, 2014 04:44
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Dogwood Fleet posted:I can't blame the guy entirely, he was put in a bad position to start. It's similar to how I got my first fish, it was in a centerpiece decoration at a table with a lighted candle on top. My parents did the best they could, but there wasn't much of an internet back then and we didn't have a lot of money. We thought we were doing okay with a 5 gallon tank and a filter, but it's incredibly obvious that we weren't doing the right thing in retrospect. I don't know if there was anything we could have done differently though. He started by simply removing a fish from a bad situation and I will admit that he moved it to a slightly better one. It was getting three more of them without doing any research that is the main issue, as it took the slightly improved situation of the first fish and moved it to a worse situation than the bad situation it started in. Had he researched the initial fish post-acquisition he would have understood the requirements of keeping it healthy, and been able to say "I'm sorry daughter, but before your fishy friend can have any pals we must first get it a bigger home where they can all be happy." My first fish was a goldfish I won at the fair and put in a Goldfish bowl with the 2 my sisters had won. Even my father who kept a couple of 10g tanks "the right way" was doing things hideously wrong in retrospect. Even in this day and age of easy access to quality information, mistakes happen. However even after he did research after acquiring the 3 new fish he still asked if a 10g tank would be OK for a year. He said he was reading through the thread for information but it was going to take awhile, when every last bit of info he requires is in the OP. Fire Storm, get the fish into a bigger container ASAP, no matter if it's the 10g tank, a 5g bucket, a big Rubbermaid tub, whatever. Drop the filter and gravel from the 1.5g into it to keep any bacteria and provide at least some filtration. The main thing right now is to increase the water volume as much as possible. This will buy you some time to form a plan of attack. I apologize for being mean and rude and grumpy. The past couple of days have mostly consisted of mind numbing physical pain and then a post showed up about a topic that angers me (fish as prizes given away with no instruction). I have not made any of my points in a fully appropriate manner.
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Nov 28, 2014 07:01
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SynthOrange posted:I already hosed up with my betta despite him being in a 10g tank, I bought him for his beautiful metallic scales. Which are currently growing over his eyes. Dragonscale Bettas are hybrids and all kinds of wonky things can happen when you breed even two very similar animals together. Any idea how common the issue you're having is?
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Nov 28, 2014 07:08
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SocketWrench posted:Give the dude a break, man. How many people outside the "OMG MAH FISH!" hobby actually even suspect anything from a goldfish except cheap fish that's ok in a bowl? They're pretty much considered throwout fish and lots of people that get thrust into these situations just figure a few more won't hurt because they're pretty small. Massive amounts of pain, lack of sleep, and annoyance that something living can be valued so lowly combined to turn me in the exact wrong person to get involved with the subject. I've apologized and I'm shutting the gently caress up and I meant to not comment anymore about it so I dunno why I'm responding to this. Shows how well my brain is functioning right now, I guess.
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Nov 28, 2014 12:05
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Jombo posted:I was hoping to get some advice from more experienced people about my tank - particularly the amount of light and food I give it. SAE's will not eat all algae. The Holy Trinity of FW community algae eaters is SAE/Bristlenose Pleco/Amano Shrimp. If your light bulbs are second hand they are probably contributing to the algae problem. Bulbs need to be replaced about once every 6 months to maintain the proper color spectrum. So swap your bulbs to new, and if that fails add new members to your algae clean-up crew.
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Nov 28, 2014 12:11
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Jombo posted:Awesome, thanks. I'll go look for new bulbs tomorrow, and my plan is to get a little colony of shrimp going after I figure out to build a safe haven for them. Full grown Amano Shrimp might be big enough to not get eaten in your tank, but juvenile Amano Shrimp are faster and more skittish. Were I you, I'd just try to get a mix of sizes and hope. They make for expensive feeders.
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Nov 28, 2014 12:21
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Plavski posted:Don't SAE get really fat and old and stop eating algae? Oto's and amano's 4 lyfe! There are five or six different fish that you'll see labeled as "Siamese Algae Eater"/"Algae Eater"/"Flying Fox". One is the true SAE that loves algae, one is the true Flying Fox that sucks in general and if ID'd right is obviously not an SAE or false SAE, and the rest, the false SAE's, will eat some algae if they maybe have to. I can't find the pic I had that showed the differences between them all, but you're looking for a black line that extends into the tail fin and no gold line above the black. Really tiny ones can be hard to distinguish between true SAE and false SAE.
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Nov 28, 2014 12:35
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Before it decided to jump out of the one small hole by my HOB filter I had a roughly 6" 7 year old SAE. It was a lot calmer than younger ones, but as I didn't have much in the way of algae (still don't, yay!) I don't know if it slowed down on the algae eating. I'm growing three tiny ones out now and really hoping they're not false SAE's. Too small to tell at the moment. They look right, but they could still surprise me. Finding true SAE's has become difficult in the past couple of years in my area. I got these three from an awful LFS labeled as Flying Foxes. Those they obviously are not. They have the black line that extends through the tail fin, but are way too small to tell if they're going to get a gold line above the black. Even the good LFS by me sells false SAEs as SAEs. At least they don't confuse Flying Foxes and true/false SAEs. Annoying.
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Nov 28, 2014 13:41
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Sunnies have gotta be the biggest dicks in the animal kingdom. Everytime I tried I ended up feeding them to a Snapping Turtle. Little assholes.
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Feb 10, 2015 18:50
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I'm needing a new fixture and bulbs for my 29g. I had a 65 watt bulb at 6700k and it worked pretty well for a long while. Anyone have any suggestions for something at least as powerful? I've got 15" between the glass lid and the top of the substrate. In terms of plants I'm keeping it nice and simple for now, and doubt I'll ever try to grow anything as difficult as ground cover type plants. Right now I have anubias, java moss, and some crypt of some sort or another. Looking to get a new light setup ASAP. Help! Thanks.
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Feb 12, 2015 21:19
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Enos Cabell posted:I've been happy with my Finnex LED fixture, it would work great on that tank I'd think. That's actually what I was leaning towards, so thanks for being able to back that up. CFLs were so easy, and now I just have no clue when it comes to lighting for planted.
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Feb 13, 2015 01:27
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Excess fish problem. Congrats on your new Polypterus. Tank too small? Get a new one.
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Feb 21, 2015 20:34
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Click for big: Edit:  
Desert Bus fucked around with this message at 11:09 on Feb 27, 2015 |
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Feb 27, 2015 10:43
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Thanks to whoever recommended the Finnex FugeRay Plant+ LED fixture. It's bright and makes my fish look good. Now I need to buy fertilizers and more plants.
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Feb 28, 2015 00:28
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Whale Cancer posted:Nice krib/festivum Bus. I've had kribs and loved them and have always wanted festivum. Yours look tiny how big are they? The Festivum is about 2", same for the male Krib. Female Krib is 1.5" or so. My tank was super understocked and a LFS by me was going out of business, so I figured "Why not?"
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Mar 3, 2015 21:33
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Dirty glass, sad plant, kinda blurry. Kribs ain't happy I'm bothering them when they're finally starting to think about making babies. Gotta clean the glass, Getting more plants Thursday, ferts should come today. Male:  Female:  Sorry for the bad pics, but this is the first time they've really started to act like a breeding pair. I'm excited.
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Mar 9, 2015 18:48
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I have an unused Coralife 21" 6700k compact fluorescent bulb with a straight pin base: http://www.bigalspets.com/6-700k-co...CFQ4yaQod7oUAuQ Mine has a different box. UPC is the same though. It is 100% unused, and it needs to go. Retails at like $30-35. Anyone want it for $20 (includes shipping)? Canadians and whatnot may have to pay more.
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Mar 10, 2015 03:06
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Fejsze posted:Anyone have experience with dwarf crayfish? I once had a Crayfish. It climbed some driftwood, jumped to the heater, got out of the tank, and was found dead a week later in the basement. Cover any and all holes, even if the look too small. Inverts can be escape artists and Crays are the worst of them. Maybe try lowering the water level and giving them a spot they can get to that's out of the water, but not the tank. It works for Fiddler Crabs.
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Mar 10, 2015 06:24
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SynthOrange posted:The tail flicks of shrimp, prawns, crays and other similar shaped crustaceans are pretty drat powerful and can shoot them a good distance through water or air. A good lid is a must. Even then I kept finding dried out shrimp occasionally. I had a 4" Vampire Shrimp (Atya gabonensis) kill itself by molting and slamming into the glass. Drop a Ghost Shrimp on the ground and watch it fly a few feet up and over. Confirming they can move a LOT faster than you think. 
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Mar 10, 2015 09:27
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YEEES pretty plants soon. 40 breeder is getting the gently caress out of my life, and everything else is fuckin' aces. Winnin' it at the aquarium game and winnin' at loving life.
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Mar 10, 2015 20:44
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xxEightxx posted:Standard azgardens caveat here. Azgardens is great! They hosed up so bad that 90% of my poo poo came in dead AND they completely failed to charge me for fish/shrimp/plants/shipping. gently caress them, they suck bad, but at least in my case they hosed up bad enough that they forgot to try and make me pay.
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Mar 10, 2015 20:47
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Fish Noise posted:I would like to know more They are stupendously incompetent. If and when they ship most everything will arrive dead. They don't charge for shipping until they ship and they charge as though they're doing a good job when really it's just norm fish bags tossed in a box. Google them and the reviews are harsher than this.
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Mar 11, 2015 05:22
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The night's better pics. Plants are still growing in/recovering, but it feels nice to have a tank that doesn't look like poo poo anymore. Also, is that a common Zebra Nerite pattern? I don't think I've ever seen one with so thin of lines before. Zebra Nerite:   Male Krib:  Male Krib/Platy/Hopeful SAE candidate:  SAE/Plants:  Center tank, and of course the Male Krib:  Black Devil Spike Snail playing with its friend, a Malaysian Trumpet Snail: 
Desert Bus fucked around with this message at 12:21 on Mar 25, 2015 |
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Mar 25, 2015 08:10
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DornerHorse posted:Travel tips, anyone? What sort of filtration is on the 10g? At the very least you're going to want a 5g bucket, a battery operated air pump, some tubing, and an air stone. If you can rig it so the air stone keeps water moving around your filter media, so much the better, but you can pretty much give it a quick rinse and dump it in the bucket with the fish. Don't feed for a couple of days before the move, and do a 20-25% water change a bit before you move fish water to the bucket. You'll also need a second container for your 10g substrate and decorations, preferably also filled with tank water. And then a third container, for 30g substrate and filter media and water. And then, upon arrival, you get to acclimate your bacterial colonies in the substrate and filter media to the new water, as well as your fish. Which, if you've done this right, you're starting with at least 5g of original water from the 10g, and hopefully enough bacteria to keep things from crashing while you slowly add in new water and slowly raise the temp back to where it should be. So put your substrate and whatnot back in along with the water you transported it in, dump in as much water as you can from the fish container, set up the filter, get the heater going, and get the fish in. Depending on how low the water temp is, you may want to keep an eye on how quickly it's heating up. Aim for about a 1 Fahrenheit an hour increase. I'd probably start adding new water once the temps are good, about a half gallon at a time, once every half hour to hour.
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Mar 25, 2015 08:52
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My main thing is basically wanting as little weight in the tank during transport to help cut down on flexing of the seams and glass.
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Mar 25, 2015 16:16
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Gibbo posted:Can I start it brackish and dial it back to fresh then? People acclimate fish from fresh to brackish or salt, or salt to brackish or fresh, or brackish to fresh or salt pretty regularly. It takes months of tiny increases or decreases in salt levels and the results are often less than stellar. You would spend less time and less effort just doing a fish-less cycle from scratch, I think.
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Mar 26, 2015 04:26
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Len posted:One of the bulbs on my tank light went out so now seems as good a time as any to ask about new lights. I'm using fluorescent lighting now but I hear LED is better? Any opinions one way or the other? LEDs rock so get yourself a Finnex FugeRay Planted+ and go to town. Also, for the algae, use a toothbrush and some running water.
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Apr 9, 2015 15:04
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Xun posted:I want an eel My Zig0-Zag Eel greatly preferred live food and frozen food, but I got it pellet trained after like 3 months. They like a fine/sandy substrate they can burrow in, and they are MASTER escape artists. For FW you're usually gonna find just the spiny eels like Fire, Tiretrack, Zig-Zag, Peacock, etc. If you hit up enough bait shops you MIGHT find an American FW Swamp Eel, which will behave the same.
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Apr 10, 2015 05:03
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are they hard to care for?
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Inevitable posted:So, I'm fixated on the idea of keeping Bolivian Rams in my new 29 gallon tank, but PH is a mystery to me. I figure putting in some driftwood would help, but a worker at the fish store pointed out that lowering ph would pretty much only be temporary until the next water change. Feeling at a bit of a loss. So, two questions: how does one lower PH and keep it down through water changes OR does anyone have suggestions for fish similar to bolivian rams that might be more forgiving for a n00b with high ph tap water? Blackwater Extract is easy.
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May 1, 2015 02:57
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Cat friends:
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May 13, 2015 08:44
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Fusillade posted:Oooh, how big is that raphael currently? Right around 3". Compared to past Striped Raphaels I've had, this one is super outgoing, which means it's more likely to eat and not be a super slow grower. I think I may actually stand a chance of getting this one to handfeed.
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May 15, 2015 01:42
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They make great cleanup crew for aggro tanks.
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Stoca Zola posted:Wow that's an amazing colour, doesn't even look real. How close do you think the picture captures to what it looks like irl? Those colors are pretty much dead on for a healthy L200. They are purty fishies.
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May 20, 2015 10:18
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Gibbo posted:I don't think he's going to make it. What salinity are you keeping them in? I think they need like 1.005 to 1.008.
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Jun 11, 2015 08:44
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Keep a sponge filter running in your main tank. Keep an extra heater and a 10g tank sitting empty. That way you can set up a cycled QT tank at the drop of a hat by just using water and the seeded sponge filter from the main tank. This also ensures that the temp and bacterial balance will be pretty close to the the main tank, putting less stress on a fish going into QT from main, and also making sure new fish get used to your water parameters easily.
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Jun 17, 2015 07:37
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Git Mah Belt Son posted:I just added 4 Harlequin Rasboras to my 40g aquarium yesterday (with the intention of adding more later), and apparently they've started schooling with my Zebra Danios. I have 8 of those guys in there and they're all swimming together with the rasboras. I've never seen two different types of fish school together so it's pretty neat to see these guys be aquarium buddies. I have like 18? and they will school with anything. Even if it's not a schooling fish. Lately they like to follow my Three-spot gourami in a massive pack, but they've also latched on to the Festivum and Kribs.
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Jun 27, 2015 23:36
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I am like 600 posts behind in this thread but this is the current situation: Half my tank is a forest of Green Myrio. It can't seem to choke out Anubias nana, but it killed my Madasgar Lace and Red Cobamba. I am trying to keep it in check so my Red Crypt can grow back in, but that poo poo's insidious. Runners everywhere. Hides the sponge filter real good though. Stock: 1 molly 1 platy 1 striped raphael 1 female albino bristlenose pleco 1 clown pleco 2 kribs m/f 1 female opaline gourami 1 siamese algae eater 1 black devil spike snail 1 zebra nerite snail 1 hybrid mbuna (they thrive in the tank i got it from and we have the same water, gonna go back once it gets bigger) ? harlequin rasboras 29 gallons (probably 25 cause of the 4" of substrate) Temp at 82.5f. 1 ??? sponge filter 1 filter thingy on a powerhead modified for increased performance (right front) 1 AquaClear 50 with a sponge and slightly too much ceramic media and filter floss. A shitload of plants So no chemical filtration, a LOT of biological, and mechanical before the biological on 2/3 filters. I expect the kribs to breed someday and slaughter everything but Tank the Striped Raphael, and then get annoyed with dealing with re-homing baby kribs and re-home the parents, and leave it as a wet-pet tank for Tank. Desert Bus fucked around with this message at 11:10 on Oct 3, 2015 |
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Oct 3, 2015 11:08
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| # ¿ May 12, 2024 09:41 |
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Holy wow, you people have been through some poo poo while I wasn't paying attention again, but I'm finally all caught up. Since my last update forever ago I lost my Festivum. It just really really wanted to gently caress my F Opaline Gourami and she was not into it. My Green Myrio and Red Cobamba are still growing like crazy, and my Madagascar Lace went from "pretty sure this is dead" to "this is HUGE and flowering a second time in a row? Neat!" I finally gave my M/F Kribensis caves to encourage them to make babies, nothing yet, but it's only been a couple of days. Anyway, do I get a M BN Pleco to try and breed with my albino F, a 3rd pretty Pleco, or a random non-Doradid catfish that stays under 4-5"? Fusillade, a long time ago you asked how big my current Striped Raphael Catfish is, and Tank is right around 4." The one I had before him that I gave up is now 8-9" in a friend's tank.
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Dec 11, 2015 14:36
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