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Applebees Appetizer posted:Anyone here have or has had a native tank? My son wants to do one so I'm going to help him set it up and catch a few small fish from the local pond (Florida) was thinking a few little sunfish and killi fish, maybe some shrimp depending on what we find. Have just read up on cycling a new tank before putting in fish, should I use native plants as well? I've never done but always wanted to do a native tank so I've spitballed it on and off for years, plus I've been in the Florida-ish area almost all my life. How big of a tank are you thinking? It'd be very easy to keep gambusia minnows going in something tiny but they will breed like the roaches livebearers are. Flagfish are cool but I don't know how reliable they are to find in the wild. If you're in the 50-75 gallon range then some shell cracker or warmouth could maybe be okay to keep. They're not bad looking fish and you could buy feeder snails for the shell cracker  Warmouth are basically small bass, super dope. Madtoms are another thing to try if you can find them. They're small catfish that are fairly omnipresent but may be difficult to track down in the wild. To update on my stupid plant quest, I've settled for sure on parrot feather in one of my HOB's, and I'm going to shoot the moon and try water poppies for the other. Parrot feather has been interesting so far because it definitely tracks light; in the morning it's pointing out the windows but at night it's aiming at the fixtures. I dig the foliage on it too, definitely not a plant common for anything that isn't a koi pond but I'm thinking I can swing it. The clump I got was literally growing in a concrete birdbath laying on the ground with almost no water in it, so it's for sure hardy
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May 16, 2018 00:16
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 19:56 |
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Get some of those nutty pupfish that live in death valley or whatever. Beep boop simple.
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May 23, 2018 03:52
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My surviving sterbai cories were the only fish I brought with me to my new place, all three of them. I guess they're happy though, because now I've seen fry  Guess I'll hold off on adding more fish to the tank for a little bit and see how the little guys do.The random feeder ghost shrimp I bought for cleanup crew are also breeding, which I did not think they liked to do at all in tanks. That's cool too, if a bit bewildering. The MTS are also multiplying but nothing short of draining the tank would stop that, and only then if it stayed dry for like a week
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Jun 11, 2018 04:16
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mobby_6kl posted:He didn't look that great, but I guess losing an eye would do that to you Hope he pulls through, blue acara are awesome fish. I had one named Ted a few years ago and I miss him because he was also my dog. In cory news I'm seeing about 5 or so at a time half inch babies, and at least one more batch of smaller ones. I'm also the living embodiment of the thread title because using the Hikari first bites has led to an explosion of snails. Been trapping the fuckers for days now and it's just an endless supply of little pest snails. They're out-breeding the goddamned MTS! I'm half-tempted to get a bunch of pea puffers and just have a catfish and puffer tank, but I feel like all puffers are supreme dickheads that can't be trusted with anything.
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Jun 24, 2018 00:20
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The snails have struck a hard blow to my crinum calamistratum: I cannot believe that the lovely pest snails are out-reproducing the Malayasian trumpets, and now they're pruning my loving plants at the base. I don't want to go scorched earth but I'm getting pretty close.
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Jun 27, 2018 13:07
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Oh yeah, they're top of the list. I just worry because I also have nerites and I don't want them to become relatively expensive snacks.
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Jun 27, 2018 13:53
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The eldest of my sterbai fry have gotten big enough that they're schooling up with their parents They're just shy of an inch now, crazy how fast they grow when they're babies. I just saw another fairly recently hatched one today that was more dried rice grain size so I guess they're still hard at it. I did finally break down and get some assassin snails, my local store had some in stock so I just snagged 'em. They've been in there a week so far but I feel like they're going after the MTS moreso than the bullshit pest snails. I haven't had any more plants completely razed though, so there's that at least.
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Jul 8, 2018 00:21
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I demand pictures! Sorry it's so blurry, the grown-ups still haven't forgiven me for moving them and hide from me:  The little ones are much more chill because, as children, they will live forever gently caress you dad.
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Jul 10, 2018 14:24
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Stoca Zola posted:A more typical scape: I'm not sure why it never dawned on me to use the hardscape to keep vals in a specific area before this picture but my god I wish I'd thought of it like 5 years ago when I had them in my tank. I threw away buckets of those things 
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Jul 17, 2018 12:56
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So I think I've decided where I'm going with this tank now that I've grown a school of cories out. Next fish I add will be 10-12 Bolivian rams, who I feel don't get the love they deserve. I've kept them before and they felt much less fussy than any of the other dwarf new world cichlids, and honestly outclassed only by kribs as far as "gently caress you I will live in soup" goes. I love their little group dynamics and once they color up they're a very attractive fish. I love the little streamers  Kind of like tiny Heckels, to me at least. The next fish is where I'm asking for input. I'm kind of thinking of doing Odessa barbs, about 15ish. I know barbs can be nippy little jerks so I do worry about the streamers on my ram buddies, but in a group that size the barbs should be loving with each other pretty much, right? The tank is a planted 75 gallon so there's plenty of room and sight breaks too, to help on that front. I think I remember Stoca Zola having some of the Odessas at some point, or am I just associating barbs because of avatars?
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Jul 21, 2018 01:16
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Stoca Zola posted:Any cichlid I just assume it's going to be some kind of rear end in a top hat (but then, I've never kept cichlids). Are there any chill cichlids or do they all get moody and territorial at times? Rams and apistos are all pretty chill, honestly. Kribs are pretty okay in a community tank until they spawn, and they will spawn. I remember my big male krib defending an entire half of a 55 gallon tank from the dastardly rainbows and gourami they shared the tank with. After I finally got all the kribs out of that tank I wound up putting a blue acara into it and he just seemed happy to be alive, like a labrador retreiver. I had a large and grumpy male turquoise rainbowfish that would act all huffy to the acara trying to impress the ladies but Ted never seemed to even notice him. Ted was a good fish, and I honestly miss the guy.
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Jul 25, 2018 00:25
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I was picking up some shrimp the other day and my local store had a fish that I'd never seen before, rainbow dace. Behold, a stock photo: The fish looked much better in person but I couldn't find a decent picture. They get stuck in my head and it turns out these things are actually native to the US. From what I saw of them they behave basically like danios, and their perimeters are about the same too. They won't work in current tank, but for years now I've had dreams of a cold water river setup, and these things look like a no brainer.
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Aug 1, 2018 13:10
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I think my parrot's feather experiment is going well:  I pruned these plants down to the top of the refugium two and a half weeks ago. Eat poo poo, nitrates  Thinking about making a compost bin because between this and the dwarf water lettuce I'm doing a fair bit of pruning.
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Aug 9, 2018 13:58
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SocketWrench posted:And for those of us REALLY into aquariums 
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Aug 12, 2018 13:40
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| # ¿ May 11, 2024 19:56 |
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My dumb yard tank has developed scuds  Plus it looks like the sword plants in it are trying to bloom, so that's kinda neat. I'm thinking about scooping some of the scuds out and raising a batch inside, and after a while releasing some into the refugiums I've got going on the back of my tank. Plus free live food for the fish
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Sep 9, 2018 23:45
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