betta than eva edition.Discuss anything aquarium related here, including MD fishtanks, tanks, bowls, inhabitants, bettas, shrimp, decor, plants, duckweed and issues. Before asking questions in this thread, make sure you give us at least some details when asking a question, such as:>Tank size (include dimensions, not just volume)>Unusual Parameters (nitrate, pH, GH, KH)>Any inhabitants + how long you've had them>Age of the tank>Pictures are always helpfulTank Cycling:>www.modestfish.com/how-to-cycle-your-aquarium/Stocking and Water Change Calculator:>www.aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php>www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.phpArticles and Care Guides:>www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/>www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/>www.aquariumcoop.com/>www.theaquariumwiki.com/wiki/Aquatic Plant Database:>www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/all.php>www.flowgrow.de/db/aquaticplantsprevious >>5021317
My betta died after 3 years of having him :(
>>5038551That's a good life for a betta splendes. The males tend to start really degrading by 2 y/o.My current one is still going pretty strong but just hit 30 months with us (so is pushing 3 y/o). He's in hard water and I use the tank to breed various snails, but clearly doesn't care. They're basic bitch fish but I do love them. Might reuse the tank for a couple pair of sparkling gourami next, or get another betta.
How shallow can you make a aquarium? Are there any fish that could live in an inch of water?
>>5038459That's a cool white betta.How are there even so many variations of this one species of fish?
>>5038569Temporarily? A ton of them. Ricefish, bettas, tetras. Permanently? Only shit like mudskipper.
>>5038459How would you decorate this tank without obscuring the back wall? I like the how the red fish contrast with the black background but other than that the tank looks aesthetically boring. No plants.
>>5038615Inactive thread. I've decided I want to put a Java fern glued to Lava rock in the back right corner.Thanx for all the helpful advices!
>>5038578thanksbettas are easy to breed and old compared to most domesticated fish, they have had lots of time and chances to create different morphs.>>5038569consider the logistics of that, a heater would barely fit, cant use sponge filters, have to refill every hour, etc.>>5038615whispy non-stem plants like valis, whose excess growth is more vertical than horizontal
Anyone keep Sulawesi shrimp here? I plan on getting some in the next few months when enough algae and biofilm builds up
>>5038551He lived a long life
>pet store has been out of stock of my favourite tank size since i bought the last one nearly a year agomaybe i should learn glassworking
Can anyone here redpill me on microfauna in fish tanks?Ive come across some infomation lately that its a huge benefit to add microorganisms such as copepods into your aquarium to manage waste and detritus.
>breeding honey gourami pair>new tank>female introduced fine>male deteriorates, doesn't eat, dies in 3 daysthe only difference is that the male got his pecs stuck in the net for a few seconds during transfer, i guess he hurt himself trying to escape and that did him in. i used a jar to transfer the female, and will be doing so for every fish in the future. god fucking damn it. don't net gouramis
>>5038960the female spent all 3 days trying everything to court him while he swapped between lying in the sand and floating near the duckweed. it was depressing. he was even recovering for a while, getting more active, but he died overnight. i thought he would pull through. sorry for double posting but i really cared about him. he was so pretty when he was in breeding mode.
>>5038922The benefits are real, but it's hard to sustain them at populations to benefit the tank unless you don't have fish. Snails really do the same thing but without the same worries. One day I'd like to run a freshwater sump/refugium where I can grow daphnia that will slowly travel into the main tank.
>>5038971where could you even get copepods, daphnias, seed shrimps or fairy shrimp eggs for you tank tho?
>>5038984its very easy to ship eggs, some aquarium supply stores online should have them. or you can just try to capture small organisms from the wild and cultivate whatever you find in its own setup
>>5038987what's a good online store?I feel like getting them from the wild is also begging to get leeches and flatworms I wanna have vampire shrimps in a tank full of microfauna
>>5038994no leeches or worms if you raise them in a separate tank and isolate the animals you want. dont know any stores, but google should find something. its the only thing its good at now.
>>5038920Might be worth asking them directly if they can order it for you anon. Stores tend to get tanks on containers and if no-one requests an unusual/less sold model it typically won't be on the container.>>5038922>>5038984PhillipsFishWorks sells bags of bugs, scuds, isopods etc. Put some in a new tank a week ago and I see them often, swimming around or crawling over leaf litter. Really adorable little guys. I added Otocinclus lately and the microfauna started hiding, until they realized those fish weren't going to eat them. Adding tetra soon, hopefully they start hiding again and don't swim openly after that or they'll become snacks.
Shrimple as that
>>5038994Vid of a scud/microfauna enjoying life
Can you smell what the Rock is cooking?
Thoughts on getting six Chili Rasboras for my 5.5 gallon shrimp tank? I would consider it heavily planted.
>>5039247Forgot to add, ignore the water level, this picture is a few days old.
>>5039247I say go ahead
Thoughts on Pea Puffers?
>>5039667Adorable, they buzz around strangely unlike any other fish. Big eyes that hyper focus on food and they pounce surprisingly fast. I have a small group in a 10 gallon and absolutely loved them. Main downsides are you cannot really keep anything else with them, so algae tends to overrun a bit
>>5039667spherical snail hitlers
>>5039694>Main downsides are you cannot really keep anything else with themI have a plan for that. I have an idea for a 29 gallon tall community tank involving Pea Puffers modelled after some other people’s tanks that had success with breeding them in similar setups.https://www.reddit.com/u/pinkpnts/s/NGaeEFt1mShttps://www.reddit.com/r/PeaPuffers/s/KNNyKqqQXK15 Pea Puffers (4 males, 11 females)10 Kuhli Loaches6 Amano Shrimp20 Neocaridina Shrimp (apparently the Peas go crazy for baby shrimp).Kuhlis and Amanos will be the cleanup crew, picking up whatever the Peas leave behind. According to the people I've been talking to, the Peas get really curious about the Amanos but don’t attack them. Whatever isn’t a Puffer will be going into the tank at least 3 days before the Puffers themselves.This tank will be heavily planted with plants that are excellent nitrate absorbers. Java Moss, Moss Balls, Limnophila Sessiliflora, Hornwort, Hydrocotyle varieties, Salvinia, Frogbit, Tiger Lotus, Pearlweed, Monte Carlo, Amazon Sword, and Water Lettuce. I’ll try to make it look as much like a jungle as possible to provide line of sight breaks. I may even consider aquaponics with Pothos or Monstera.I’m also putting a fine mesh bag of Eheim Substrat Pro underneath my substrate for more biological filtration + a Hygger Double Sponge Filter (rated for 40 gallons). My substrate will be aquasoil (don't know which brand yet) capped with sand.I’ve set up a small 2L tank for Daphnia breeding and a 5 gallon tank for snail breeding. Both to be used for food. From the side of the tank will hang a Fluval 0.5 Gallon Breeder box where I will raise live blackworms. This tank will be connected to the main tank so it would constantly receive fresh tank water.Thoughts?
>>5039873I would worry that the puffers would stress the shrimp out, they might even pick off their legs. Even if the whole shrimp is too large to eat they'll likely still nibble on them. If you're doing a 29 gallon jungle tank, I'd recommend just getting Amazon puffers instead especially if you can stretch it to a 50/55 gallon. Put them in with some Otocinclus and loaches and have a blast. I'm not saying your 29 gal pea puffer community wouldn't work, just that I'd be concerned for the shrimp
>>5039895I understand your concern with the shrimp but that's exactly why I want to have so many plants as it offers them a ton of hiding spots. I would love to have some Amazon Puffers but I don't have the correct tank for them. They're fairly active swimmers so I would feel bad putting them in a 29 tall, not to mention I need to have a minimum of 6 puffers to reduce aggression.
Would apistos or rams bully corydoras if they were together in a 29 gallon? I want to do a South American tank but I worry about the lack of space at the bottom. I don't really care about breeding I just don't want them to fight over territory. I know I could probably get pygmy corys who don't hang out on the bottom as much but I'd like something a little bigger.Also, would it be bad to just get a single apisto or ram? I've seen conflicting info on group sizes, where some places say they do better in larger groups and others that they do better alone or in a MF pairpic unrelated
Am I looking at Scutariella japonica here?https://files.catbox.moe/dr128j.jpghttps://files.catbox.moe/7r52sq.jpgI noticed that white stuff on them a day after I bought them. Didn't think much of it but now I have 4 shrimp with that stuff. Also had 3 deaths over the past week.I found this guide http://www.shrimptank.ca/2014/03/white-worms-neocaridina-shrimp-head and it suggests salt water baths.. Anyone dealt with this before?
>>5039050cute!
I agree with the Professor on this one, and that's why I let my cat drink from the fish tank. It's what they would be drinking in the wild, plus it has more nutrients.
>>5038615
>>5040308Add some floating plants, they're great nitrate absorbers. Some of my favorites are Salvinia and Water Lettuce. You could add some carpeting plants if you don't want to obscure the background.
Confirmed I have planaria in my display tank. I was saying in the last thread, I was pretty sure because I found it in some of my jars (cough marcusfishtanks cough). Anyway I'm setting a trap now to at least thin it out. Has anyone had their neocaridina shrimp coexist with planaria? The shrimp already survive and breed with goldfish and two dozen minnows. I'm hoping I can ride it out. I have goat dewormer but I don't want to have to collect all my snails. I also don't want to zap the detritus worms. Pic not related. A vase I left in the sunlight and got swamped in Algae. There's a bladder snail hiker in there with the java fern. He got huge. I couldn't snap any planaria. >>5040308For the mid and foreground, look into cryptocoryne plants. The tend to grow 6-8 inches high and bushy. Good mid ground plants. Luteas are great, Lucens look like shit.
my java moss has been colonized by what I assume is hair algae, and it's trapping bits of detritus and I think contributing to cloudy water.Is there any way to salvage it or do I just have to throw all the moss out?
>>5040612If your tank is big enough, add 1-2 Siamese Algae Eaters. They tend to eat algae that no one else does.
>>5040612Flourish excel works. Either dose the tank in general or use a syringe and spray a capful mixed with water directly onto the algae. You can also just pick the algae out with your fingers or tweezers or use a turkey baster you blow the debris off of the moss. You can also snip a few cm long pieces and seed them in other spots in your tank. Then forget about them and let them take over.
>>5040624I'm a bit reluctant to introduce algae eaters because don't I then become dependent on having a certain amount of algae growing all the time? It never used to be a problem with my tank but I had a couple of weeks of elevated light levels and it seems to really have kicked off an algae problem, black algae on the leaves of other plants too.>>5040637So the fertilizer allows the other plants to out-compete the algae?
>>5038615needs more of those red fish
>>5039247how does the water level even get that low to begin with?
>>5040644It works way better ad an algaecide than a liquid carbon. Your plants are going to get almost all of their CO2 from gas exchange even with excel.
>>5040644>become dependent on having a certain amount of algae growing all the timeDon't worry, once the algae is gone you can supplement their diet with algae wafers, widely available and very cheap.
>>5040681Evaporation, I don't have a lid lol
Is she too fat?
>>5040308I replaced the barrels with a volcano!
>>5041055This tank looks good from every angle!
Which fish are the best to talk to and why is it livebearers?
TEEMING with life.
>>5038459hey guys, help me perfect my aquariumI haven't had a fish in like 15 years and back then I was just a teen that didn't carenow I really want to care. I got a 10g vertical fishtank kit on sale from petsmart. water here is pretty hard so gonna fill it 50:50 tap water and diluted, got prep fluid for the tap.got a tall hidey rock, and bought a java fern, amazon sword, and anubias. got some slow release fert pellets and liquid fertilizer, and biological starter too. also got an airstone I'm gonna bury under the gravel.did a lot of research, tank is too small for goldfish to thrive. I have a 30g tank in storage that I might try later if I feel confident for that. after I get the water in and cycled for a bit, I'm gonna plant into the gravel and run the tank for a couple weeks and check water balance periodically. if everything looks good, I was hoping to introduce maybe 6-10 tetras to the tank. then a little later, 3-4 corydoras and a nerite snailreally invested in making sure my new tankbros will be as happy and healthy as possible, so if any of yall have good advice or want to sanity check my plans i'd really appreciate it
>>5041097oh, sorry. here's additional deets.tank is a top fin column starter kit. 12.5 in L x 12.5 in W x 19.5 in Htap water in my area is pretty hard and is probably suitable for goldfish? carbonate hardness is 120ppm, but general hardness tops off the strip test at 180ppm. the fish I'm choosing seem to prefer half those values, that's why I'm gonna try half distilled.
>>5041097sounds like a good stocking plan I think you have everything to succeed with this
>>5041098Guppies and embers like harder water so you could also embrace it and go with them
>>5041100*not embers, endler's livebearers, typo
Livebearers are based and never stop fucking. Imaging living your whole life just swimming around fucking bitches all day. What a life!
>>5041107isn't that a bit too much livebearers?
>>5041101>endler's livebearersI looked them up, those are hella pretty fish! I agree they seem easy to care for. It seems they are enthusiastic breeders, though, which is not what I'm looking for.
>>5041098>12.5 in L x 12.5 in W x 19.5 in HA tank that size could hold about 30 guppies as long as you don't have any floating plants like hornwort or your guppies will multiply. But 20-30 seems like a good number. Or a single betta. But I'd go with the livebearers because livebearers are based.
>>5041110They will breed but if the fry don't have anywhere to hide then they'll all get eaten. These animals consider their own children to be a food source and will eat their own babies.
>>5041112I was considering salvinia, only reason I didn't buy any is cause it was out of stock today. How would they feel about that?
>>5041115>salviniaI'm not familiar with that plant so I googled it and found this pic and it looks like fry would definitely be able to hide in that so I might get some for my tank. For me the joy of having livebearers is watching them multiply and create life so if I was you I'd add three males and a female with the floating plants and watch them multiply. Then when the tank get overcrowded you can take out the floating plants and wait for them to die off (about 3 years). Then add more floating plants when the numbers get low. Rinse repeat. That's why I do with my 90 litre livebearer tank. When there's about 100 fish in there I'll remove the hornwort and watch them eat their babies.For this reason I prefer hornwort because it's easier to remove than salvinia which needs to be scooped out. I can just grab a handful of hornwort and lift it all out (shaking out the fry). So, yeah. Livebearers all the way.
>>5041090>>5041091Based. Just needs a blue Betta to act as the centerpiece. And name him Simon.
>>5041131I tried that but bettas are solitary fish that don't do well in a crowded environment.RIP Simon. :(
>>5041110>>5041124genuine exchange of knowledge in /aqg/
>>5041097Good luck my dude. That amazon sword is going to grow far too large for that tank so be prepared to trim it. Give it a good amount of substrate underneath, some sort of aquasoil. You can always put the soil in a zip lock bag if you want it to be really tidy, topped with whatever your top substrate is. I strongly recommend planting immediately, day 1. They'll take a while to get roots into the substrate and you'll want that before the bioload gets up when you add fish. As you add organics (or bottled ammonia, or a small number of tiny fish) to cycle the excess will be happily consumed by the plants instead of growing algae which will happen if you don't have plants. Remember that the water doesn't cycle on it's own, you're growing a bacterial colony which will grow to the size of the food available to it. Meaning if you aren't actively adding a little bit of food/ammonia to the tank (even with no fish in it), the colony simply won't grow. You'll know it's there once you start seeing nitrites and then later, nitrates. The tetras sound great, make sure they're on the smaller side for a 10g tall. Cory's are a bit more sensitive to water quality so it's good that you plan on adding them after. Add the snail when you add the first fish, there should be enough algae and waste in there right away to feed one snail. >>5041098Don't go for goldfish, you're right in your first post that the tank is too small for them. Don't worry *too* much about matching fish to your water type, unless they're wild caught most domestic bred fish are more used to their fish farm/store's water than their natural habitat. You can always ask your local store what their water is like and see how healthy their fish look before purchasing. Should tell you if they're totally fine in your local water or not.Good luck my dude!
>>5041186Oh also keep in mind water parameters can actually matter more for your plants than your fish. Amazon swords for instance can be a bit picky and like water close to, of course, the Amazon (softer, slightly acidic). It's worth looking into your plant choice as well as the livestock.
>>5041186>>5041188I didn't know that about amazon sword, I'll see what I can do. There's a lot of gravel in there but it sounds like that's not enough.I did realize the ammonia problem a little too late. I ordered some of the fish food pellets I can add to the water tomorrow. I also realized the java fern and anubias really need to be tied down, so I'm getting a volcanic rock or two.once I do get the food or liquid ammonia I'll check on things over 10 to 14 days and see if the nitrites and nitrates develop as expected
>>5041194Gravel isn't a great substrate in generally. It has no nutrition, allows fish waste to fall down between the pebbles and slowly rot over time and is hard to vacuum clean. My preferred method is a decent layer of aquasoil topped with sand, personally. Since you've already filled the tank you can still do the soil bagged in a zip lock (a mesh aquarium one, not the plastic food storage kinds) and just reach down and slip it beneath the gravel, it would do a world of good for any stem plants above it. Good move on the fish pellets. Add just a tiny bit every 3-4 days along with a little daily splash of your bacteria in a bottle and it'll get setup pretty fast. The java fern and anubias really do want to be bound to something yeah, I recommend an aquarium safe super glue or some twine and a rock as you said or a piece of driftwood. I'm a big fan of driftwood in tanks, they slowly leech organics into the water that provides a great start to your bacterial ecosystem and a lot of fish like interacting with wood. Some even need a bit of wood or biofilm in their diet to be in top shape (suckermouth fish mostly like Otocinclus or some species of pleco). You seem to have a really solid plan. Wish you the best of luck my friend.
>>5041205I heard a bit of conflicting information about driftwood, someone said it's fine to dump it in cause fish like the tannins, but I've also seen someone say you should boil/soak it for a couple days before putting it in
>>5041215They're both correct. The tanins they leach into the water are either completely neutral or slightly good for the fish, depending on the habitat the species evolved for and how shy/confident they are. A lot of fish come from blackwater streams/lagoons (particularly South American fish) and enjoy the slight murkiness. However it makes the tank look a little less clean from a human perspective so some people really hate it. It's an aestethic choice really, up to you. Some people go all in on tanins and make an authentic blackwater aquarium like this tank by a well known youtuber. Boiling the wood does two things - removes a lot of tanins (though some will still leech slowly into your water over the following months until they're gone completely) which makes the tank look clearer, faster and it also helps release trapped air inside the wood, which helps it sink faster. Driftwood, especially large pieces, can take weeks or even months of being fully submerged before they finally sink on their own. You can also get tanins out of water easily by adding some activated carbon, a lot of companies sell this stuff (look up Purigen by Seachem for example) which quickly removes organics from the water to make it crystal clear. There are downsides to that though. Organics in the water are beneficial to your microculture and to your plants, so I don't personally add activated carbon to my tanks for the first few months and even then, I only add it for a week or so to polish the water up.
My overly round ember died, lived about a month :(I thought she was gravid, maybe it was parasites, or some kind of infection? Before she died, the bloating went down but she developed greyish patches and some kind of fluid filled cysts.
>>5041297Sky (water) burrial, within hours the body is almost completely gone
>>5041124>add three males and a femaleBait! That's just bait!!! That's gooner bait for a fish gangbang!
>>5041090>>5041091Flanders :3
>>5041108>trying to talk sense into flandersHi newfren welcome to /aq/
Does anyone have experience with Red Headed Tapajos, the mid-sized Geophagus? I've read around about them and found conflicting info on their final size - do they end up around 5 inches, or do they reach 8 inches as some sites claim? Anyone kept them?
>>5041337zomg, nice catch! idk why i wrote that when i should've said>two females and one malemaybe i was projecting my own fantasy of being b l a c k e d my multiple BFCs (Big Fish Cocks). i should really proof read my shit before doing the captcha thing. i'm so sorry.but then again would a gang bang really be the worst thing in the world for these fish?
>>5041108You can never have too much of a good thing.
>>5041470Oh lawd he back
>>5041470Understocked. You should add 3 goldfish.
Making of new shrimp tank. I was going to put my rilies in here or some yellows, but I also just got a ro filter so maybe it's time to upgrade to crystal shrimp
I fucking hate Canada, I can't get basic fish meds here. I need some Seachem Metroplex to treat my future Pea Puffers and everything here is ridiculously expensive/unavailable.
>>5041627Why do you need to spend stupid amounts of money on NameBrand Chemicals™ to """treat""" your dying fish? Just let them die. You're falling for a Jewish trick to make you spend your shekels.
>>5041541>just put cold water fish in a tropical tank broYeah, nah.
>>5041630this has to be bait
>>5041645The only two things that are certain in life are death and you dying a virgin. We all die and so do fish. Life isn't precious. Let the snails eat the dead fish and thus continues the circle of life.
>>5041693>snail hands typed this
>>5041627if you plan to breed them in any way you let the weak and sick die, unless you want to use even more drugs on future generations. just remember that by virtue of living in captivity most fish have survived longer than their average lifespan in the wild before they even reach a sellable size.
>>5041842An easy way to tell the LARPers is when they push Joe Rogan tier nonsense. Anyone that owns a tank, that isn't some 10g low tech with a handful of tetras, puts shit in the tank. You're probably the guy on the Facebook groups saying you don't need a filter because you put a petco anubias and some java ferns in your tank.
>>5041915>natural selection is "joe rogan tier nonsense"enjoy your inbreds who can only survive in sterile water. just dont cough near the tank.
>>5041605That's a beautiful scape! They'll love it>>5041915I have three tanks, two very high tech, and I let weak small fish die off. Half the time it's more stressful for a sick fish to be chased around with a net, pulled out away from it's school into a hospital tank, treated with meds and left alone for weeks. The survival rate is low and that same fish is likely to have issues again in the future. It's more merciful to let those ones die peacefully among their friends imo. If it were a large cichlid or something absolutely, but for one of my hundred or so tetras, no.
>>5041920Natural in my artificial fish tank lol>>5041924>AKA you treat fish and dose tanksNo one is arguing for heroic efforts to extend the life of danios. Also, small fish don't tend to linger. Sick and die tend to occur within the same day or next day. If nothing else the tankmates will sense weakness and bully the shit out of him until he dies.
>>5041915>Anyone that owns a tank, that isn't some 10g low tech with a handful of tetras, puts shit in the tank.Chems are a good way to nuke your tank and cause more trouble than they solve.Just let nature do its fucking job man.
>>5041962or just quarantine the fish, jeez.it stops being "nature" when you put fishes into glass boxes
>>5041971>fishes>it stops being "nature" when you put fishes into glass boxesAll life on earth is contained here until Elon improves his space rocket game. In the wild, my fish live in muddy puddles so my great big tank full of purified water and cat piss is like a five star hotel for them, and they thrive in it.
don't' mind me. just posting the classics.
>>5042020>my fish live in muddy puddles so my great big tank full of purified water and cat piss is like a five star hotel for them, and they thrive in it.Common misconception. Those small bodies of water are still hundreds of gallons of volume, constantly renewed with rain, which is more pure than your purified water unless you are using RODI.Think of it this way: a "small" pool of water found in the wild will still be several feet in diameter while your tiny ass tank is what? 30" at best? lmaoEven a puddle that's a mere 3" deep and 6' across is over 50 gallons, and has access to anaerobic bacteria that your tank won't have.
>>5042025Shouldn't that be named maximum size? Or maybe minimum number.
>>5042027I said puddle, not pond/lake. You don't even know what type of fish(es) that I have so how can you say with absolute certainty that they will be happier with your "anaerobic™" bacteria? DO I need to spend thousands of dollars on a bottle of bacteria for my fish to thrive? Didn't think so.
>>5042032I said puddle too. You really think ponds and lakes are 6' across? lmao go outside, retard.Also I'm not the guy you're replying to. I didn't comment anything about medication or chems and you obviously have no idea what anaerobic bacteria in the ecosystem will do. I'll give you a freebie though, it's how most of the nitrate in nature is taken care of in bodies of water (not plant life, although it certainly does uptake some).This shitty puddle right there is bigger than your tank, and fish won't be living there very long.I don't have to know exactly what type of fish you have or what tank you have. You're on /aq/. Chances are it's the usual basic bitch fish in a nano tank. Even if it's not, nothing I have said is untrue. Natural bodies of water, even ones you consider puddles, are going to be larger than you think it is. The tiny pools you see created on road potholes and whatever shithole you live in are not puddles in which fish reside. The ones that can actually be found in nature with fish living in them are far larger than your tiny brain can imagine apparently. GO OUTSIDE WHEN IT RAINS, DOOFUS. The bodies of water that stick around more than a few hours are not what you think they are.
>>5042036>I'm not the guyThen you must be a girl. post feet.
>>5042036>GO OUTSIDE WHEN IT RAINSBut that's what fish do and I'm not a fish. I'm a hu-man! I don't need to go outside to jump in puddles when I have a perfectly good fish tank in my basement so if I wanted to get my feet wet I'd dangle them in my fish tank and watch the fish pick off the dead skin from between my toes. There's your anorexic bacteria buddy. Fucking toe jam. Speaking of feet post yours.
ngl, but "puddle" is such a funny-sounding word. it's like a cross between 'poo' and 'cuddle'>puddle
>>5041938>AKA you treat fish and dose tanksNo I didn't say that, I don't put any medication in my tanks. It's awful to do that. Kills the microclimate. >>5042027This is more of an issue with people overstocking tanks. The right sized fish in a tank with a good deep substrate and plenty of plants/driftwood get an incredibly good life.What are you arguing in favor of, since you seem to have come into the Aquarium General thread to rant about how Aquariums are awful? Or is your point just that we should accept that they are inherently unnatural?
My grandpa just gave me a 40 gal tank. What is the biggest fish that can comfortably live there?
>>5042064Are you looking for a fish that'll happily live alone, or one who wants to be in a pair or group?Are you going to have live plants in there?What's your tap water like, how hard/soft is it and what's its PH?Do you want a confident fish that'll come say hi to you or are you okay with a shy one who'll want to hide a bit?Planning on adding any other, smaller fish to that tank or just one big boy?
>>5042064If you wanted to switch it up, get 3 sunfish. Cool NA fish get like 8 inches. They are voracious fish eaters so it's species only.
>>5042060Deep substrates are bad for fish health. Traps too much shit that heterotrophic bacteria and parasites feed off. Just look at any discus breeder in existence. Still want an anoxic environment for anaerobic bacteria (don’t to this in a planted tank, you need that NO4), do it in your sump. >>5042027> Think of it this way: a "small" pool of water found in the wild will still be several feet in diameter while your tiny ass tank is what? 30" at best?Bettas are found in 5cm deep puddles. As are a lot of small amazonian fishes after the wet period.
>>5041448We eat them here. Well, big geophagus genus species. They usually grow up to somewhere around 13-15cm. 8 inches sounds like a bit of a stretch.
>>5042482>Deep substrates are bad for fish health. Traps too much shit that heterotrophic bacteria and parasites feed off.That's just straight up wrong. Discus breeders are the biggest retards in the hobby, they're so stuck on the misinfo of the 80's and they peddle it like snake oil.
>>5042497Why are they wrong? They certainly must be doing something right, considering that most people cant keep discus alive and they breed them for a living.And the one discus breeder who told me this is quite literally an aquaculture engineer.
>>5042084Preferably one that can live alone but i would also be ok with one medium sized fish that can live with a bunch of smaller fish
>>5042103Always wanted to try that. They are a beautiful fish. Hell, just one male and couple of females to make him color up good.Gonna need one hell of a lid, though. They're surprisingly athletic.A trio would probably outgrow a 40gal breeder pretty quick, though, wouldn't they?Man, a sunfish tank would be so cool. Tannins and floaters, sandy bottom, those blue/green speckles flashing.I ain't even that anon...
>>5042505Many of the most healthy, natural tanks out there have deep, rich substrate beds for the purpose of getting that anoxic enviroment (yes even in heavily planted tanks, it won't out compete the plants for nitrate). Whereas discus breeders stick fish in the most hideous, artificial, nasty looking tanks imaginable and have pride that they lay eggs on their breeding cones. They go with bare bottoms so they can vacuum up waste more easily, because they have no plants, no shrimp, no scuds, no live substrate, nothing to handle it. Their focus on simplfying the process has steralized the fun out of fishkeeping. I have far more respect for people who keep healthy tanks than people who have bred discus in tiny empty boxes.
>>5042497>Have deep substrate >Disturb it by uprooting some plants>Fish die from the worst flesh eating bacterial infection I ever seenYeah nah, this is not going to happen in nature but tank substrate are ticking time bomb
>>5042556On the fifth day God gave us a "gravel vac".
>>5042576Good luck gravel vaccing a densely planted tank
>don't use anti parasitics on your wild caught imports, it's not naturallove this general
>>5042647There is nothing wrong with doing that in a quarantine tank but dumping chems into your display tank is just stupid.
>>5042528>natural tanksYou see, that is the problem. Deep substrates make natural tanks workable, but it doesn’t change the fact that natural aquariums are inherently shit-tier and will always provide worse fish health that other methods due to the increased presence of pathogens.> rich substrate beds for the purpose of getting that anoxic enviroment (yes even in heavily planted tanks, it won't out compete the plants for nitrate)This doesn’t even make sense, considering that the reason for having an anoxic environment is to have the bacteria assimilate nitrate down there. In planted tanks, you want to have as much nitrate as possible, and you have to dump copious amounts of it in the form of fertilizer every other day to make sure the concentration never drops below 10ppm. In breeder tanks, they have automated water change mechanisms that also makes this pointless. It’s just a bad practice that eliminates a relatively minor problem in most aquariums, as weekly water changes pretty much guarantee that nitrate won’t be a problem.> Whereas discus breeders stick fish in the most hideous, artificial, nasty looking tanks imaginable and have pride that they lay eggs on their breeding conesYeah, these tanks are ugly, no question, but they are the absolute best for fish health. If you want aesthetics, look at regular discus aquariums that have thin fertile substrates that are enough for plant growth.>>5042556This is even worse if you follow the father fish method and use a baked humus substrate. That shit works wonders but will kill everything in the tank if it ever into the water column. Actually, if you plan on using baked humus, please do use 5 inches of sand above it.>>5042651Which microfauna is fenbendazole or ivermectin going to destroy in your tank? Detritus worms? Dactylogirus are a health hazard to all fish and they can survive in the substrate in their egg form for a while.
>plants on the one side of my tank facing the sun are coated from top to bottom in this emerald green algae>cherry shrimp seem to have zero aptitude for eating it like they do for brown/black algaeShould I get an algae eater fish? There's a hillstream loach at my local pet store that caught my eye. Would the loach snack on the shrimp?Thing is this is supposed to be a low-maintenance tank since there are parts of the year where I'm gone for a good 2+ weeks at a time. I won't be able to feed the little nigga and I don't want to come back to a rotting corpse killing my whole tank or my autofeeder somehow clogging my filter and killing my entire tank of fish again.
>>5042802Hillstreams don't really get big enough to snack on shrimp and they're pretty specialized fish. They've made for hunkering down flat to a surface and eating biofilm/algae underneath them, not equal sized animals. Don't just throw one in your tank though, they really want fast flowing, highly oxygenated water and most tanks just aren't suitable for them. A few otocinclus might be a better choice for your tank.>>5042735Nitrates in my main display 180g are stable at 10-15ppm and I haven't done a water change in weeks. I fertalize with APT 1 (no nitrates) and if they ever do dip below 10ppm I'll change to something a little more full spectrum with nitrate in. It's simply balanced naturally around the bioload. The tank is mediumly planted (with CO2) and is modestly stocked plus a ton of detritovores living in sand and leaf litter so it's extremely self maintaining. I'm not saying that regular, large water changes aren't a good thing for many tanks (especially tanks with no plants due to having plant eaters like African cichlids or Severums) just that I personally prefer a more balanced ecosystem approach to fishkeeping. I plan on adding discus in the future when the plants are more grown in and I'm specifically aiming on creating the closest simulation to their natural biotope as possible.
>>5042802Amanos will go for green algae
>>5042632>densely plantedI spotted your problem. Just use floating plants and problems weren't.
>>5042802>I'm gone for a good 2+ weeks at a time. I won't be able to feed the little niggaPic related might help.>Should I get an algae eater fish?Algae Eaters are cunts, and they get big fast. I put one in my tank and it killed all four of my chain loaches before jumping out of the tank. I had him for about a year and a half and in that time he grew from about one inch to a bit over five inches. I tried a second Algae Eater and he only lasted about six months before jumping out of my tank. So fuck Algae Eaters. I hope they suffered while dying on my floor.
First sighting in over a week, wonderful purchase.
>>5043056neat
>>5043056crab
>>5043056Welcome back, specter crab!
>>5043007If I use floating plants only then why on earth would I have deep substrate? I also had a bunch of floating moss and salvinia natans in the tank btw. Happened to an other person too:
>>5043312I really don't think you can have a properly anoxic environment to create hydrogen sulfide in a few inches of aquarium substrate. It's never made any sense to me and there's never been any actual testing on it. All these cases have to be bacterial, because people don't actually clean their substrate with plants as the excuse.
>>5043346Particularly in a planted tank, root penetration will make it basically impossible for the conditions to arise anyway even if they could.
I tore down my shrimp tank after mass death, and a huge bubble (4cm diameter) rose up as I started removing the substrate, so I am not sure how impossible it is to have noxious gasses.I used 2 mm grain size substrate.
>>5038569i use a litter box w aqua soil and it has housed guppies swordtails and danios for months
>>5043351similar thing happened to me once. water turned blue n smelled like rotten egg. ouu i'd never forget that
Im doing some 3d designing and i wanna know how big the inner diameter of one of these tubes is. Can somebody that has something like picrel measure theirs for me please? I can't find the measurement online.
>>5043403I mean the translucent green one. Outer diameter would be fine too but in that case I'd also need a estimate of the wall thickness.
>>5043346>I really don't think you can have a properly anoxic environment to create hydrogen sulfide in a few inches of aquarium substrate.Exactly 100%>All these cases have to be bacterialExactly>>5043369>>5043351I'm betting these are just bacterial population explosions that can happen in an indoor tank because of the lack of sun-equivalent UV.Also maybe some sort of founder-effect. So you seed the bacteria in your aquarium and because it's a closed system there are no competing micro-organism species to keep the bacteria in check in case of a population explosion.
Hornwort grows great, but I hate that my fish nibble on it and wind up swimming around with huge shit chains of partially digested plant hanging out of them.>>5038960If it’s any consolation, your loss is a valuable warning for me and my own honey. Wouldn’t have thought of that possibility myself.
My tank parameters just took a huge hit. I believe i over fertilized plants. I recently bought some val and dwarf hairgrass, put root tab grid in and dosed with easy green. Now my nitrate and nitrite have spiked. I have done a 50% water change, plan to do around 20% every other day. Any other suggestions?Tank has 12 amano shrimp, 6 blue jelly shrimp, 3 nerite snails, 8 harlequin rasbora.
>>5043575It takes time for plants to lengthen out their root systems and begin serious growth. They aren't really able to use fertilizer after immediately being put into a tank. There's also generally a little bit of shock that delays their growth too from being in a new enviroment. Don't go hard with lights and ferts from day 1. You mention some shrimp, snails and rasbora - how old is that tank? Does it have other plants that have been around for longer? Easy Green has:>Water Soluble Nitrogen (N) 2.66%>Available Phosphate (P2O5) 0.46%>Soluble Potash (K2O) 9.21%So it's definitely overkill if the current plants can't handle it without nitrites/nitrates spiking. Better to use a fert without nitrogen for the first few months. Don't worry too much about the water changes, just continue to test and change as needed. If you over-water change then you'll swing the other way and deprive the plants of any nutrients at all (given their roots are not developed enough to really benefit from those tabs just yet). This is also why people often get algae at first, they put a bunch of light and nutrients into a system that's not ready/able to make use of it, so the algae does instead.
>>5043575even heavy root feeders can be sustained with water column dosing without root tabs or a soil substratem and they can end up causing all kinds of problems like this because "slow release" can never really be guaranteed. Would just never use them again.
Anons with carpeting plants, how do you clean your tank without uprooting them? As is with sparse plants, I’ve accidentally pulled up the roots when I’ve been siphoning the floor.
>>5043601Gentle turkey basting while siphoning. I saw a cool tip somewhere years ago to use elastic bands to tie the baster to your hose to make it easier.
>don't see them for over a week>Today see two together for the first time since introducingI think my chances of seeing all four again are basically zero but I think I'm spending way more time looking at my tank to find them so overall it's a benefit.
>>5043586Thanks!The tank is 2 months old, introduced the animals after the cycle completed. I have about a dozen plants in the tank currently, but the hairgrass and vals were the first rooted plants I put in. I also have about half coverage of water spangles. For about 2 weeks I was testing using strips, and constantly reading at 0-10 nitrates. Now I used API Testkit and its just been blowing my tank out.Thats good information, that they can't really utilize the fert for a good while, thanks for that info.This hobby has been a very humbling experience. I really only setup a tank because my son is enamored with fish after we went to the aquarium. I never thought I'd have to dive so deep to keep plants and fish thriving.
>>5043651I'll bet you're a hit with the ladies.>hey girl, wanna come to my place and check out my parasites?
Today I counted six (6) molly fry. I love livebearers so much it's unreal. I don't have children so I get excited when my fish do.
>>5043601I don't gravel vac/siphon the floor. The waste that falls directly into the carpet feeds it and most carpeted plants are understocked so you don't really need to micromanage the entire carpet. If you do have decent stocking then put a ton of other plants in there too, like pic related, so you won't have to bother cleaning the lawn constantly.>>5043651Cute crabs!>>5043687Remember that a tank is never really cycled, it's just reached a level of stability for it's current bioload. Any change to the stocking will always lead to a temporary spike, big or small, in nitrates and it's just a matter of keeping an eye on it/reactive water changes until it restabilizes. Once it's stable again and you add fish for your son, it'll be a matter of checking the water daily for a week or two again, until you're certain it's caught up.What sort of substrate are you using? Is there any exposed aquasoil, if so what brand/type? Some release a ton of ammonia over the first few weeks, some release none and lots in between. What was providing the ammonia initially, if not soil, were you adding it specifically? My main takeaways from your posts are that you care a lot and are likely going to over-work to the detriment of your tank instead of under-working. Stop using the fertilizers for a bit or get one that has no nitrates in at all (I like APT 1 for this reason), do some water changes until things stabilize and make sure those root tabs are nice and deep next time you put some in (which should be a few months out at least) or they'll leech nutrients into the water. Good luck my dude!
>>5043694I can't even get my GF to feed them when I'm out nevermind help with maintenance.
>>5043701That's a good point. Its found a state of sustainability, not "finished", food for thought. I had done a fishless cycle, added fish food and waited a good while and added some plants. Substrate is fluval stratum, it made the water basically black for a week while the filter worked on it. I eventually tested using strips until it reached the parameters the store told me. They wanted to sell me fish right away, but im not one for watching or letting any creatures suffer so we waited. Ive lost 2 rasbora to this weird white fin issue, and about 3 shrimp, sadly. I appreciate your replies. Thats a beautiful tank! Ive become enamored with doing this well, I just feel so bad about using the fishes lives as testing grounds. Second, anyone know what could cause such a death for a harlequin rasbora? First they developed this white, almost hardened side fin. Theyd lose buoyancy, float a bit when idle, then straighten out. Then they got lethargic and eventually tucker out to dead. I tried melafix, primafix, I bought some parasite medication but they died before I received it in the mail.
Say you had a decent sized backyard pond in a tropical climate, something like 20'x15'x24"-36", planted. If you introduced a number of male and female betta splendens, would there be enough space and cover for them to breed and have enough territory staked out to maintain a population?
>>5043978That's not really "decent sized" for a pond. But I think the answer is no, I think I remember reading somewhere a while ago that wild types consider an area of over a meter (diameter I guess?) their territory. For autistic inbred splendens they probably wouldn't just chase each other off though they'd just fight to the death once they encounter each other.
>>5043589I throw root tabs in when I first lay gravel down. Then after that there's enough mulm to fertilize roots forever. The only obligate root feeders are rosettes. Most "stem" plants grow better floating and their roots are mostly just for anchoring.After that my normal fish operations keep the tank 20-30ppm on nitrates and sub 1ppm phosphates. I supplement with potassium and trace minerals when I remember.
I like my cyclops (copepods) in my freshwater tank. So what fishes will mostly ignore them?
Also I want to add Malaysian trumpet snails to my setup. It is a bad idea? Should I get an assassin snail to control the population?
>>5044142No, they are based friends aerating the substrate.
Posting this here as well. Small sample of North American native freshwater fish suitable for the aquarium or pond.
>>5044316Forgot this madlad. Pgymy coldwater catfish Neosho madtom.
>>5044316Another group of cool North America native aquaria fish is the Goodeidae which prefer warmer water. Hardly anyone knows about the NA natives for aquaria, some are good for community tanks and others for niche biotype tanks. And although they are all NA native, they can invasive outside of the native ranges within NA. Quite a few are actually endangered, which is why I try to raise awareness about them.
>>5038459Say, how costly is it to set up a salt water quarantine tank? is it as simple as >20 gallon tank with bubble filter and pvc pipe for media>watch how they are and if they seem less active than they should give them copper powder and report it to reef2reef for a proper diagnosis?I tried to add a naoko wrasse to my 200g tank and he seemed fine at first but he's been hidden for a while and today I found him gone and a quarantine is the best way to prevent this from happening no? Would a 20 gallon tank even be enough for larger fish (believe within my stocking plan the biggest fish I'd get is around 8-12 inches but that's at full size)
>>5044316Pumpkinseed and similar sunfish are not great aquarium fish. They're hardy and do fine in adequately sized tank, but they're absolute dicks to any other fish in the tank.
>>5044708They're good for biotype aquariums. Not similar in behavior to big cichlids like Oscars, but can tolerate a much wider range of temps.
>>5044804*dissimilar
Do u guys also just razor blade your tank every 2 weeks or is there an actual way of getting rid of algae?
>>5044849You just don't have enough plant mass yet to outcompete, might also be a photoperiod issue, always start with less light and dial it up later. I'm having a brainfart for the plant name in the back right but once that takes off you should be fine it always gets out of hand but for now I would add some floating plants to help out. I prefer frogbit for this, will help while everything grows in and easy to get rid of later if you don't like it.
>>5044854limnophilia, it really needs a good common name
>>5044854My light is on 4-6hrs a day.The plants are Micranthemum tweediei on the bottomAnubias barteri var. nana on the woodAsian Marshweed to the rightPogostemon stellatus one in the front and one in the very back.Cryptocoryne parva one tiny in the middleHygrophila corymbosa to the very left. Here is a better image.. higher quality..They currently looked roughed up because they need heavy cutting, especially the asian marshweed. I trim em harshly because that shit grows like pest. It's a lil.. u know.. fucky looking but the plants all grow like pest and are happy.The tank is about 9 months old, has 100 or so bladder snails, has 7 yellow shrimp, 3 melanoides maculata, 3 thiara winteri
>>5044873If you did the trimming all at once it would release a lot of plant materials and proteins/sugars into the water which can cause algae blooms. I try to trim one thing a week but if i've been lazy and need to do more I'll always do a water change afterwards.It could be a light intensity issue versus your slow growing plants (other than the marshweed), but if not and it's just a cheap clip on then I would increase the light period to 8 hours which will help the plants without really impacting the algae which is already established. Do a big scrub down, a big water change and add floaters. It won't go all at once but it'll come back slower and slower each time until it's not an issue. Things like snails are low impact but not no impact, if you really do have a 100 snails you probably need more plants to take up nutrients.
>>5044876It's not a cutting issue, as I said, the tank is 9 months old. Algae always has been a problem. I cut rarely but when I do, I do it harshly. The algae always gets annihilated via razor blade off the glass and I scrub my pump parts clean too. It just always grows no matter what.I sadly can't do water changes cause that kills my shrimp. After about 4 weeks, my glass is pure green.. like actually.. walls of green. In the picture here >>5044873 at the very bottom you can still see the algae where I couldn't reach with my hands and the razor blade. FAT GREEN ALGAE. And ofc u can see it on the small pump part in the back I can take out and scrub. It's fat, it's thick, it's horrid algae. For the first 4-5 months I did way more light and it just caused way more algae.
>>5044879Water changes don't kill shrimp outside of factors like having a weird third world water source. It's all a balancing act, but light will need to increase so the plants can begin outcompeting the algae. Low photoperiod is probably stunting them further which helps the algae out even more. Clearly what you're doing now isn't working so you shouldn't be adverse to trying new things.
>>5044880I had blue shrimps before and whenever someone advised a waterchange, tons would die. Of my 7 alive rn, I don't wanna kill anymore. Shrimps hate changes in water..
I noticed that the air pump i am using is a lot louder in my usecase than when it just pumps air through a airstone. Its powering this venturi sediment filter thing and i guess that its facing more resistance in this case. Are there any sort of buffers for small aquarium air pumps you can recommend to smooth out the pressure spikes hammering the pump or is this something niche or stupid that is not on the market?
>>5044882Probably because you go too long without water changes and then your parameters in the tank are significantly different to source. Water changes don't kill shrimp.
>>5044899I have done exactly one water change ever for an experiment and it was like 7 months ago.
>>5041924Thanks!Added some of my wild shrimp to test the tank
>>5044882Have you tested your tap water and your tank water? Are they really off in terms of ph, hardness etc?>>5044919Looks great! Since it's so new those shrimp might struggle to find enough food, could be worth adding a tiny little slice of boiled zucchini, a couple sinking wafers or some repashy gel painted onto a small rock
reinforcements inbound
>>5044941 #I gave them some shrim belleds :D>>5044942 #>eyes visibleSoon
bonus clip, escaped detritus worm promptly detained by the guards
>>5044999great videowhat kind of fish is that?
Why are aquariums so expensive compared to terrariums? How does everyone lose the lid? Cheapest I've found for a TEN GALLON with a lid and a good light is 60 canadian, is that a ripoff?
What are good places to order a few (5-15) fish from? I'm looking to add variety to a platy/swordtail school, and bulk up my cory school. Would prefer not to spend $50 shipping at aquaticarts.
About two months ago a put together a really cheap outdoor setup with cement planters and a 1000gph pond filter with really basic plumbing. I'm very punctual with the cleaning and maintenance and I haven't had any problems with my fish until today when I discovered a dead molly, half eaten. I also noticed that at least 3 more of my fishies are showing signs of physical weakness, to the point I can literally pick them with my bare hands without a net. I insulated the weak fish on a quarantine tank to further observe for symptoms but I'm at a loss for what to do right now. what should I do with the mini pond? are my fish in danger? should I just remove everything from it? (about 10 mollies, 3 corydoras, a little suckermouth catfish and 4 mystery snails)
>>5045438
>>5045438same
>>5045439Is it heated? What's the total volume of water? It looks quite shallow but it might be a perspective thing. Might lose heat quickly overnight causing issues, some corys are actually fairly tolerant of lower temps and the mollies might suffer more.
>>5045601It's not, it's fairly hot all year around here where I live so I though it would be alright to leave them without one in the open. A little more than 10 gallons. It is 3.5" deep at the deepest part, I read that little mollies like very shallow waters where large predators are scarce. I also read that mollies are one of the most resilient fish you can keep, but now I'm concerned about the water temperature. Time to buy a small heater I guess.
>>5045622Yeah that's not a lot of water for outside it won't retain any heat at all. Resilience and hardiness are hard to judge, they might be okay with sucky water quality but need the temps. Also I'd probably go with more plant mass, emmersed stuff is great but I'd go with floaters you can never have too much.
>>5045648>>504562210 mollies for 10 gals seems high
>>5038459My aquarium (also is the first aquarium I built)100x40x50cm 200L~39.37x15.75x19.69 in 52.8 US galFor now it has a dozen of shrimps and a catfish, I plan to add more fish but while I choose what would look goo there this is enough
>>5045712Forgot to put the question what'd put in tank like that wanna hear some suggestions just for fun
How much money can I get for this unique and rare fish?
>>5045715What fish is that?
>>5045717What you're looking at is called a Flanders Fish and you can have him for fifty bux.
>>5045712Just took some more photos
>>5045712
>>5045712This rock looks stupid on top of this trunk but I'm using to try and hold down it was floating I've already boiled more that I could and still no effect whatsoever
I want a trigger fish for my tank but none. what's my closest alternative? it's either a aiptasia eating file fish or a saddle puffer right?
>>5044873I think that with 9 months it is a late bloomer. I don't see it that developed. Maybe you need to add fast growing plants that can stand low light (java moss).Also why 100 snails cannot deal with that? Weird
Gave them some bee pollen. First time I see them go nuts like that over it.
>>5045648Already installed the heater. I don't know about the floaters, they obstruct vision and I like to sit an watch the fish move around, but I'll look for more plants, I'm quite fond of plants you see.>>5045649I think it's ok, the fish have plenty space to move. 10 gallons may not sound like much, but consider that it's not a traditional tank.
>I'm dry starting a tank (never done this before). >Growing a Bacopa Monnieri carpet from seed>I have sand with water in the bottom >All the seeds are not submerged >Been 2 weeks>Bacopa Monnieri growing niceShould I flood the tank now? Most things say wait 4 weeks for the roots to grow more. Tbf I ain't even dry starting right because they wanted me to mist this shit every day. No mold and I never did an air exchange though the cover might not be completely airtight.Scape is not complete I have a triple vase thing going in the dip on the right.
I love fish and they love me.
Rili gang
>>5046203Those are pretty nice do you feed them anything special?
>>5046323they get a lot of nice leftover food like spirulina tablets and frozen mysis, daphnia etc.
Currently running in my very first aquarium (125 l / 33 gallons), currently on its 12th day. Nirite currently at 0,6 , waiting for the levels to peak and go down. I will add 5 ramhorn snails and 5 quilted melania next week to further support the nitrogen cycle. Once the nitrite peak has passed, I will start with placing the animals in waves, letting the water and bacteria adjust to the increased stock each time before adding the next wave in. My current plan1.Wave: 10 Neocardinina davidii2.Wave: 8 Corydoras sterbai3.Wave: 10 Cardinal TetrasMuch later: Couple of nerite snailsI was also considering ~5 amano shrimps as well as a gang of 8 galaxy rasboras, but I'm on the fence if that wouldnt overcrowd the tank.
>>5046380Also, bonus Webm of a little bladder snail which most likely sneaked in as an egg with one of the plants, really like the pattern on the shell.
>>5046380Pretty cool tank what the stump looks so cool, which plants do you have in the tank?>>5046364Do you break the spirulina tablets in small pieces or just drop one full in there?
Why are fish/inverts that eat non-algae plants so rare?I want to fill the entire tank with green and have little guys that will graze on it so I dont have to cut it back myself, is that just not a thing with aquariums?
>>5046392I don't think they're rare, it's just larger fish that do it so you see them less in the hobby especially now everyone's into nano tanks. Silver dollars are pretty popular plant devourers. In a smaller tank I don't even know, maybe rabbit snails?
>>5046397im finding it hard to find any, videos always say "and they'll ignore your plants so thats great" and google searching gets autocorrected to searching for fish that eat algae or who wont eat plants
>>5046380Switch the order up entirely. Tetras first, then shrimp then cory's. Corydoras are surprisingly sensitive to water quality and are almost always added too early, people lump them in with cleanup crew and assume they have the same needs. Also if you add shrimp before anything else, there likely won't be enough algae/biofilm for them to be well fed, unless you're target feeding them with sinking wafers.Tank looks nice dude>>5046398People generally search for the opposite so search results will be really biased. Many south american fish will snack on plants, some just a bit some a whole lot (angel fish, severums, silver dollars as that other guy said etc). Almost all popular African fish, especially the cichlids, will eat plants.
>>5046402:o I really like angel fish!i'll keep that in mind, ty anon
I would really like to have 1-3 Hairy Puffers in the future, does anyone have experience with them? They're so silly.
>>5046386I just drop them in full, or break them in half to drop in separate locations, this brand of tablets fall apart fast
There are a few of filter feeding snail species. Do they make a good job?
>>5046414Same
>>5046386Stump is Mopani wood, i originally purchased 2 more but didnt add them to the tank eventually since I felt it wouldnt leave enough space for the plants.Plants are Hygrophilia corymbosa , Egeria densa and Hortwort in the background,Cryptocoryne parva and Helanthium Tenellum in the foreground and Java Moss and small Java ferm saplings on the big rocks and the root. Salvinias and Ceratopteris were added as swimming plants. The java fern ist doing that well so far, might have glued them on.>>5046402Thanks for the tip regarding the corys, I will put the to end of the schedule. I thought about adding the shrimps first to give them a headstart for potential breeding. Whats your oppinion about adding Galaxy rasboras and Amanos as well?
>>5046518You can absolutely add shrimp early just be sure to spot feed them for a few months until the tank becomes more established. I have some Amanos in my 180 and Galaxy Rasbora in a 20g - they're beautiful fish but quite shy, flighty even. They appreciate lots of hiding places and getting the right gender mix is important, the males will lustfully chase the females constantly. Ideally you'd get about three times as many females as males to disperse their attention. Cardinal tetra are far more bold than the Galaxys, they might make them feel more brave in a shared tank. Sounds like a good plan overall, once your back plants grow in the shrimp and more shy fish will have plenty of places to hide/breed and they should all get on pretty well. Don't add too many Amanos though. Maybe two. They grow kinda large (up to three inches) and primarily eat biofilm and algae, their might not be enough in just a 33 gallon for a big population of them (along with your snails and neocardinia especially).
>>5046536Amanos in particular are good to add early because they will eat diatoms and other common early algae and are hardier than the other ornamental species (in my experience) since they haven't had their genome smashed and slammed for colours. I added Amanos at 2 weeks in my last tank when I first spotted algae and I didn't have any losses.
>>5046621yeah but I want to actually see them
>>5046398Use AI mode instead of normal Google search, that way it won't autocorrect.
>>5046405That thing looks hideous, why would you want that?
>>5046811No puffer is hideous
>>5046811people tend to look like their pets so Anon must also be hideous.
>>5046405ur mum's got a hairy puffer between her legs xD
My albino catfish is more yellow than white, and my GOLDfish are red. I demand a refund!
>>5046809No.
>>5045896How did you get bee pollen? Is it just regular stuff you buy off the shelf at a store, homemade from having a honey bee colony, or special shrimp/fish food made from bee pollen?
I want a swimming pool full of guppies.
>>5047163Bought from online marketplace. People buy it for themselves because it has lots of vitamins and good for your health. It was not a special shrimp food. Cost me about $2 for 15 gram.
>>5047205BASED
>>5047626o____o
>>5044941I made a long ass post about it.. TLDR, my tap water comes out at like 7.2ph, then rises up to 8.2 over a day. Hardness of tapwater in switzerland is the highest in all of europe. They use it as a marketing strategy "we don't filter our water cause minerals are healthy" It's so hard it sends any strip test into an aneurysm.>>5045894Hell no.. I don't need even more fast growing plants. I have to cut down the asian marshweed constantly. It's more of a pest than it is a plant. It takes over the entire tank in a week or 2 even if I cut it down brutally. It just keeps growing like crazy.
>>5045894Oh, also.. bladder snails don't eat algae.. I read online all the time that snails eat algae.. I have 3 different species.. none of em eat it. I've never in my nearly 1 year of tank keeping seen any of my snails eat algae. They just don't that's a fucking lie.
anyone have any horror stories treating for parasites? 90% sure my guppies have them as their poop has been long white and stringy this past week, water parameters and food is all fine so looks like i'm going to have to treat with medicine.>>5046382this same thing just happened to me. in fact i think we have the *exact* same snail
I just brought a pair of white wizards (filopaludina). Male and female, what a luck. Maybe I should sell them.
>sitting in front of 20 gallon>notice a scab on my leg and pick it (compulsive habit)>get an idea and drop it into aquarium>largest female guppy immediately beelines over to it and pigs it down with more gusto than any bloodworm or brine shrimp she's ever eaten>now my interest is peeked. I let the scab-less cut bleed for a second and dry out>I take a chunk of dried coagulated blood and drop it in>surprisingly everything ignores it for about a good minute before it sinks to the bottom of the tank>one of my Habrosus corys happens upon it and drinks it like a protein shakeWoah, didn't realize my guys were this metal
>>5048061>horror storiesnot medicating them is what results in horror stories. if i medicate i usually hit with antibacterial/antifungal/antiparasite all at once because all of these things tend to come together, one weakens an immune system allowing others to take hold to the point where even if you beat one, it takes long enough that one of the others could've killed the fish, or you just don't have enough time to save it if you treat sequentially instead of all at once. I've been pretty good about sourcing but I did have a tetrahymena infection in my guppy tank that i spent about a month fighting until it was 100% beaten, lost maybe 20% of my stock as well as some mollies i had in there as a muppy experiment.ideally you want to medicate the food as well, you can make medicated food by crushing up flake, mixing with a binder and medicine then baking/drying it into a new flake. Another way is doing it in scrambled eggs then making appropriate sized pellets of scrambled egg, fish love scrambled eggs. Medicating the tank alone helps but not nearly as much in my experience. I'm currently medicating my favorite paradise fish who jumped out of his tank when i was trying to move him, fell about 6 feet onto a hardwood floor and i probably messed up his slime coat rapidly picking him up to get him in a bucket. The tank was an undergravel that ended up getting way overfed while i was away so the entire balance was screwed up and i was unable to correct it without just tearing it down and rinsing all of the mulm out of the substrate.
>>5046405Get one. You'll likely end up with one if you get more than one. They should be eating primarily fish so find a good source of frozen and/or live fish for it.
BEHOLD: snail
I haven't seen my crabs for another week...
>>5048541
>>5048550It why I never got kuhlis
>ember tetra pineconing>guess she'll die>put her in a bucket with methylene blue for a few hours, put her back>she is now better and stopped pineconing, went back to school with the rest of themthe fuck
>>5048029If it's both very hard and the PH raises over a day, it's likely that your water comes from ground that naturally filters it through soft, carbonate rocks like limestone which dissolve CO2 (and a lot of minterals as you said) into the water.This is just a fun fact, idk what to suggest to help you out dude. Best of luck
>>5048449cool snail
Duckweed was the worst thing that happened to my tank, it got out of control immediately and made it a pain to do any maintenance so i ended up putting stuff off and my tank suffered. I finally genocided it today it took like two hours. After grabbing the bulk of it I used a turkey baster just under the surface of the water to slurp it up, worked really well.
>>5049444100% you've missed a couple leaves and they will spread soon.
>>5049476Probably, but now I know it's nearly impossible to salvage once it gets going I'll just remove any I see when I feed. It's much worse than what everyone said, I don't see why you'd ever want it in your tank it doesn't do anything that other floating plants don't while being 100x more annoying.
>>5049511Duckweed is my preferred floater just because it's a flat canopy without a long root system. I have other plants that occupy vertical space in the water column so it gets too chaotic if I let frogbit go nuts from the top as well. I tried red root floaters but didn't like how much light they blocked from overhead.
There's a fucking frog living in my tank
>>5049632did you put it in there or did it just show up at one point and stay
>>5049633It just shows up randomly. I try to catch it but it just jumps off the tank and fucks off into some corner.
>>5049634cool. give him a name.
>>5049631I looked this morning and only one piece had appeared on the surface. I guess more will be stuck in other plants underwater but that's a win for me.
I must have removed their territories when I did the trimming because they're sparring again.
>>5049787and not even crabs can resist pellets
>>5049795When I started breaking up my sinking pellets for better distribution around the tank, I noticed pretty well all fish really like them if they can get pieces small enough to swallow. The omega one catfish pellets crushed in to small granules get a similar enthusiastic response to frozen brine shrimp or bloodworms. I wasn't expecting that to be the case.
>>5049795>snibbeddi snägg x---D:)
