/aq/ - Aquarium General - Le Snail Face Edition

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Inspired by my snail being cute and holding an entire mini algae wafer as it eats it.

Snails are cute. I want one for my tank, but it's a tropical Asian blackwater biotope.

Every few days a fish dies of ick.

I just salted the water, coppered it, and I'm working on raising the temperature.

How long do I have to wait to make sure that ich shit is dead forever?

>>1991188
Just put cuttlebone in the filter or pump. You can buy cuttlebone at any petstore, it's just literally bone from a cuttlefish. Adds to calcium so their shells don't disintegrate.

You don't need to do anything else. I noticed the nerites in my blackwater tanks lost their white spots at the tips of their shells only days after putting in cuttlebone.

>>1991196
Works out well, I have cuttlebone everywhere for my birds.

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3:3

>>1991140
Would it be alright if laid sand at bottom of my fishtank with a suckerfish, would it be able to feed properly from algae wafers. Would it not suck sank while feeding, but I assume it has no problem in the wild feeding in a sandy scenario.

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I've posted about this girl before. I have an ADF I rescued from a filthy tank. The conditions were so bad that her eyes are clouded over and I'm assuming she's blind. I've had her for months though, doesn't seem to be anything wrong with her. She's gotten really big but still sheds, as you can see here.

Recently I got her two new friends, tiny females.

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Here they are completely failing at getting food.

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Doop.

>>1991300
ADFs are odd, I got a female that was already laying eggs, and it got a fungal infection and died within hours (it also shed it's skin alot) I got two younger males from a different store around the same time, and they are still fit as a fiddle.

>>1991305
From what I've heard they're getting into neon tetra status; overbred and inbred and weaker for it. Which is sad. I had ADFs when I was a kid that lived in less-than-ideal conditions (HUGE ass tank, way too deep, with aggressive fish) and they lived like 9 years that way. This was after taking them out of a tank in an abandoned apartment where they hadn't been fed in probably months and the tank water was also filthy and really shallow.

Some of the recent ADFs I've bought have gotten bloat and died though.

whats the best way to get rid of algae all over the plants and sides of tank

>>1991309
turn light off at night

>>1991309
Depends on the algae

>>1991309
>>1991362
Pretty much this. Some algae will die if you cover the tank for 48 hours, other algae you can't get rid of without physically scraping it or discarding the affected leaves. Treating with Excel reportedly helps, but there's no clear explanation as to why that works.

This is a clear case of the proverb: an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It is absolutely worth your effort to avoid getting algae all over things in the first place.

>>1991192
Two weeks.

>>1991309
Less light , and get an efficient algae eating fish. Make sure your tank isn't near a window.

>>1991309
oto

ayyyyyy ur gucci mama

I'm looking up carbon dioxide for aquariums and it looks like a pain in the ass, or expensive.

Can't I just grab a straw and blow my own co2 bubbles Into the water occasionally?

>>1991576
It won't do enough unless you're sitting there 24/7. Have you looked into diy yeast reactions? That's what I use for my nano tanks.

>>1991576
You could just make a yeast reactor. I did that in high school. Literally all you need is an old juice bottle, something to punch a hole in the lid, some airline tubing and if you want a good seal some silicone sealant. Then just add water, some yeast and sugar and that's it. You can add fixtures to the end to try to get the C02 to dissolve better in the water. But it's not complicated in the slightest, unless you're utterly retarded. You do have to change the water every week or so to remove alcohol and add sugar though so your yeast doesn't die.

>>1991728
>>1991731
Lel I didn't even read your post before I posted mine. I just woke up.

I have a 10G with about 20 red cherry shrimp with some duckweed. I've heard it helps with nitrates. I did a nitrate test before a water change the other day and it measured around 10ppm. A day after the water change, I did the test again and it came out a little lower but not significantly lower than 10ppm. The color was slightly lighter.

It was about a 40% water change and yes, I did a little substrate vacuuming. Does that sound right? I'm new-ish with aquariums and I know shrimp don't produce much of a bioload. But a 40% WC seems like it should have made a bigger dent in the nitrate levels, no?

Also, I was told not to do WCs too often with shrimp tanks because they need stable water parameters. So, this WC was the first one I did in a month.

>>1991833
You don't want to be at 0 nitrates, that provides conditions for cyanobacteria to develop. Your duckweed will keep it control, don't worry too much

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Well, now I feel silly for starting a new AQ thread as I just spotted this one hiding. Derp.

Reposting the links just in case wany wants.

Barrel Full of Bettas Edition

Please use Google before asking for help.

A few useful sites:

> Cycling a Tank
http://www.firsttankguide.net/cycle.php

> Tank Stocking Calculator
> Note: this calculator isn't perfect so when in doubt shoot for less fish and more filtration
http://www.aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php


> Fish Compatibility
http://www.liveaquaria.com/general/general.cfm?general_pagesid=295


> Fish illnesses
http://badmanstropicalfish.com/fish_palace/tropicalfish_disease_identification.html

> Fish Injuries
http://www.fishchannel.com/fish-health/physical-injury-damage.aspx

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Reposting here as I posted in the wrong thread:

Just turned a single female beta named Silver into a sorority of seven with Silver being eldest and biggest. They share a lightly planted (this will change as the plants grow!) 20 gallon tank with decorations, driftwood, two small heaters and overfiltration along with ten well-established corycats.

So far so good for the most part. They were added last night and about 24 hours later they already have a rough pecking order and aren't doing much flaring or chasing anymore. I was careful in the pet shop to pick girls that didn't show excessive aggression and it looks like I judged it correctly as most of the ones that acted like wimps in the store have fallen in comfy at the bottom of the pecking order with Silver being on top. This is exactly what I planned so I'm happy about this!

The part I didn't plan was for one female, the only red one of the bunch (I named her Robin), being a hidden badass capable of besting Silver. I watched her do the stare, flare, dance thing a few times with her and win! When I checked the girls in the morning I found Robin leaning against the glass at the top of the water, her body gently curled. She was still fiesty, still defending herself, and still eating with minimal stress lines, but she was having trouble keeping her body upright without either diving/surfacing or leaning against the glass. When resting she started to float sideways before quickly correcting herself and leaning against the glass again. She's currently in isolation while I make sure she's ok. I don't see any new obvious wounds.

Is Robin injured or sick?

I just fed Robin some peas. She ate them happily and pooped but is still lilting on her side. At least we can rule constipation out. Pic related.

She's been isolated for about six hours now and is showing minor stress lines near her eyes. Maybe it's a sign of pain? Should I medicate? How should I re-introduce her if she heals? What now?

>>1991304
Wow
Why are those animals so derp?

>>1992108
Oh dear... I can only wish you all the best. Got a hospital tank?

>>1992105
Making animals fight is animal cruelty. Fish can feel pain and show it, especially betas. Typically Betas show fear, stress, and other negative emotions with color changes.

The least cruel betta fighting style I know of is where the two fish are released into a round tub with an exit on each side and the one who flees into an exit first is the one who loses. That still has the risk of severe injury or death during the fight for the fish, though, and I would not recommend it. Even if the fighters both make it out alive their injuries can still kill them, especially if things get infected.

It's better to keep Bettas as pets, not fighters. You can still train them to do tricks and be strong swimmers and such if you like without hurting them.

>>1992115
I have a five gallon I emptied out after upgrading to the 20 but there's two problems with it:

1: I don't really have a good place to put it as my space is really limited. The poor fish would be living next to a toilet while she heals as a best case scenario.

2) There's a scratch on the bottom from where something got dropped into the empty tank and I'm worried it might be a crack or turn into a break. Is this worry unfounded? Not sure, but still...

At the moment Robin is just resting in a clear container of water with an inch of air at the top and a lid with holes in it. I know I'll have to change her water daily and will replace the container water with clean water from the 20 gallon to keep her as comfy as I know how.

>>1992108
They all look overfed tbqh. It sounds like robin is bloated. Try cooking or microwaving a pea, it'll make her poop.

I've got an axalotl, maybe a year or so old now. Gunna transfer him into a much bigger tank, are there any other species that go well with them? I've read that basically no, everything will try and eat it's gills, I was thinking maybe a Pleco or some snail to keep the tank clean?
Also do axalotls have any hierarchical / gender behaviours to be aware of if I introduce another much smaller axi?

>>1992145
Plecos and axalotl need different temperatures

>Also do axalotls have any hierarchical / gender behaviours to be aware of if I introduce another much smaller axi?
Yes, bigger ones tear the smaller ones apart.

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>>1992143
I fed her part of a pea. She ate energetically and pooped but is still lilting. I'll feed her more pea tomorrow and see if it helps.

As to the rest of the gals, how do I avoid overfeeding them when I also need to feed the corycats?

I need to have food sink to the bottom to make sure they get fed which means there's a risk of the betas gobbling it all up if I don't feed a bunch at once. It's tricky.

I do one "no feed" day a week to try to help combat problems and do feed peas one day every other week or as needed as the cories adore them and it won't hurt the betas.

>>1992148
They're all bloated and either look overfed or constipated. Feed less and feed more laxative foods, such as peas and daphnia regularly.
Overfeeding can result in swim bladder disease, which might be what Robin has.

To feed them and the cories, add sinking food such a large algae wafer broken up, so it sinks, and is in many pieces so the bettas can't steal them all. Along with floating food to distract the bettas.

>>1992148
I've never had Cory cats but have otos. Do they eat the food right away? If they do then just distract the bettas with blood worms and smash the wafer and pre soak so it sinks quick

>>1992148
Tbh they look more like female guppies with those guts kek

>1.0 ppm ammonia
>0 nitrites and nitrates

Does this mean there is no bacteria in my tank while it's cycling.

>>1992188
Yes, that's what it means. You should see a nitrite spike soon.

>>1992160
>>1992167
Most of them are brand new- the big blackcrowntail is one I've had for more than a day or two. She's Silver. When I got her she was silvery and the blue came in with age.

If all of this is food related, it's possible they weren't fed correctly at the pet shop which doesn't help. The fact that Robin developed problems so fast might mean problems were brewing before I got her and the stress of her going into a new environment set her off.

I didn't know daphnia was a laxative for bettas. I'll have to keep my eyes open for it.

>>1992164
My corries usually wait 2-5 minutes after food hits the surface then they start zipping around like crazy hunting for food. They don't tend to beeline for the food and instead like to play around it eventually settling in to eat after dancing around the food for awhile. I know Silver hunts the bottom of the tank for food when the top is empty so I imagine the new girls would, too. Sinking pellets might help but probably won't be a cure-all.

Would live food be OK to feed in a moderate-current environment? I have well over double filtration and the water can be sort of quick, especially near the intake and out-put. The fish navigate it fine, I just don't want all that live food to die inside my filter.

>>1992206
What sort of live food? You can always shut the filter off for feeding

>>1992145
>are there any other species that go well with them?
Pond or ramshorn snails. The axolotl might try to eat a pleco and fuck itself up. It could also break it's jaw or suffer impaction from trying to eat a snail.

>>1992223
In general most people suggest blood worms and/or daphnea for Betas, though I'm open to other suggestions. For example, some people apparently keep glass shrimp with their bettas so their young can become food and others apparently feed them live brine shrimp or fruit fly larva.

I know things like the fruit fly larva can't swim at all, but I also know that worms might swim a little and that swimmers like daphnia naturally will go all over the tank. I'm more worried about swimmers ending up in the filter than non-swimmers as I tend to feed at the far end of the tank to help lessen the amount of food that ends up in the filter. My intake has a coarse sponge over it to help keep sand out and sometimes I see food pellets stuck to it despite my efforts. Usually a corycat will eventually find and eat the stuck-on pellets, though.

>>1992270
You could try feeding blackworms to your betta.

>>1992270
Just turn the filter off for a while until most of the food is eaten

>>1992273
Why are blackworms reccomended? They look hard to care for and the idea of them possibly having leeches and dropsy hitchiking with them is scary.

http://www.skepticalaquarist.com/lumbriculus

>>1992285
You shouldn't feed them to your fish every day but they're good to feed one or twice a week. When I kept Badis basis, I'd condition my females for breeding with blackworms. Care for them is pretty easy from what I experienced. You can keep them alive in a small aquarium or fish bowl some plants and gentle filtration from a sponge filter. Or if you have a small portion from the pet store, you can keep them in the fridge in an open top plastic container filled with about an inch of dechlorinated water. Rinse the worms with cool water once a day and replace with dechlorinated tap.

The leeches that sometimes come with with blackworms are easily removed. Just dump your worms in a shallow, light colored plastic container when you first get them, rinse them off, and use a pipette to remove any leeches that stick to the sides of the container as you slosh the worms around.

What you should avoid feeding is live tubifex worms since they can carry the parasite that causes neon tetra disease.

>>1992125
Empty tanks/storage bins/buckets are pretty cheap and should be a lot better than a small cup. I'd be more worried about the lid without any holes than anything.

Can sea salt from a grocery store be used in a saltwater or brackish water fish tank?

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I bought this fish from a local pet shop and it was labelled as 'flying fox'.

I did a quick search online and it looks more like a siamese algae eater. Can anyone confirm for me? It is quite small, one and a half inches. Photo was challenging to take.

>>1992366
Too hard for me to tell. Try referring to this:

http://www.petresources.net/fish/article/sae.html

>>1992363
No.
It contains chemical additives that are good for human health, but ruinous for fish health and water quality.
Buy proper "aquarium salt"-labelled salt instead.

>>1992366
Almost certainly a siamese algae eater.
Source: I have siamese algae eaters.

>>1992366
It might just be the shitty picture, but it looks like it has a brown stripe over its back. If that turns black with age, it might be a flying fox. Flying foxes have three stripes, one on each side and one on the top.

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I took another picture. He finally kept still.

Might need to wait till he grows up a little to see if that bright stripe appears.

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>>1992374
Yeah looks like a siamese algae eater. Also saw he has two whiskers, not four.

>>1992371
Even the "All natural" salt that says it doesn't contain iodine?

>>1992147
Well, sheeeeiiittt lmao

>>1992371
You can get it without iodide or anti-caking agents.

>>1992380
It still doesn't have the right minerals to properly support a brackish or saltwater ecosystem. If it's fish that can go in either freshwater or brackish (like mollies and glassy fish), then yeah, it'll work, but for true brackish and saltwater fish, you need marine salt.

>>1992416
The appendages go first.

>>1992416
Only algae eaters that are safe with an axxie are pond, bladder, and ramshorn snails, and shrimp, if you don't mind any of those getting eaten. Mine eats anything I put in there faster than I can put more in though. She'll go through 50 ramshorns in three days.

>>1992513

>>1992514 here. My girl has a permanent lobster hand from a kerfuffle with her sister when they were young. They don't always grow back perfect.

My fish had a scuffle with one of his tankmates (who is now in another tank), and his dorsal fin got somewhat shredded, though not down to the root, only about halfway down, but it healed up pretty crooked.
I've read that you can cut down a fin to have it grow back properly, is this something worth doing or am I going to fuck it up if I try?

>>1992571
Does it affect the fish in any way? If not then it's not worth the risk of infection

Has anyone ever used a Marina canister filter? I was gonna buy a cf20 for the paludarium I'm setting up right now. Also, What fish would work well in a few gallons of water? I was thinking about getting a small school of least killifish and some dwarf corys.

>>1992571
Cutting a fin is a delicate procedure and has its risks. It is up to you to decide if it is worth it.

>>1992111
I don't really know. I struggle to see them surviving in the wild. They can't see for shit and tend to turn toward anything that moves. I don't hand feed them since they can find it on the bottom but it can take them an hour to actually get all the worms. It is ridiculous. They are silly little animals

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Look at this ridiculous creature.

>>1992861
What is it? I want it

>>1992916
Kuhli loach

Heu guys, I'm the guy from the last thread with the pregnant platy.
According to my friend, I have two male platys. I'm pretty sure I have a male and a female. Can I get a second opinion? Sexing fish is kinda hard

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>>1992920
Forgot pic

>>1992920
>Sexing fish is kinda hard
not platys. take a better picture or google how to tell

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>>1992930
>>1992923
Sorry it's my phone, I'll try taking a few more.

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>>1992932

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>>1992939

>>1992941
Looks like a 1 male. See the bottom fins? It's where his dick is

>>1992920
Posts like these make me wonder if fish are capable of orgasms. Does anyone know? Do live bearers reproduce so quickly because sex is actually pleasurable for them? Do other fish species rarely reproduce because they are driven by instinct and nothing more due to the act of reproducing not being physically stimulating?

>>1992997
There are many different reproductive strategies among fish species.

A common reproductive strategy is to spend very little energy and resources by just spreading millions of eggs and sperm into the water column, and without parental care so the millions of offspring have an individual low chance of survival.

Other fish spend a lot of resources into raising young, through production of yolk or parental care. These fish may reproduce less often.

I think in a tank environment, because of the high resource availability and often perfect breeding conditions, fish can feel the need to reproduce more often in comparison to the wild variable environment.

I don't know if fish actually experience orgasm, but I can imagine that it feels good anyway. There should be some sort of reward pathway.

>>1992997
>Does anyone know?
you're talking about a society that 20 years ago didn't universally accept the idea of orgasms in women. Of course nobody knows.

>>1993010
>There should be some sort of reward pathway.
nice wording.
also nociception.

>>1993017
>nociception

Get the fuck out of here, you retarded asshat.

>>1993030
if that worked I'd have been gone years ago.

>>1993017
isn't nociception bad stimuli.

>>1993039
yes, but "reward pathway" is to "orgasm" as "nociception" is to "pain."

>>1993042
>>1993039
Quit talking to yourself bugfreak. And get the hell out of our thread. Do you even have an aquarium in the first place?

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>>1993046

>>1993046
Thats not bugguy. There are plenty of other 'nociception' trolls on /an/.

>>1993056
This. Everyone is an edgy teenager that wants to downplay the reality of animal consciousness in this modern age of degeneracy.

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>>1993056
it's no accident that the nociception argument is couched in the debate over pain in fishes, and your nociception prophet is regularly present in the /aq/ threads.

I know fish don't feel pain, I've been watching them every day for longer than most of you kiddies have been alive.

Not only do fish not feel pain, I sincerely doubt they engage in nociception. I've seen them cut in half swimming around eating and flashing their territory like nothing happened. You keep fish long enough you'll see. If you want to learn quickly, get a predator and a few feeders.

nociception. If even.

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>>1993060
I am also on the boat that fish don't experience pain/nociception , at least not to the extent that mammals do.

However it does not mean that nociception prophets aren't annoying know-alls. They are unlikely to have any involvement or experience in the field and yet are so sure about their philosophical stance.

>>1993060
>>1993087
At the same time, fish will avoid unpleasant sensations, and there was that experiment where the scientist gave the fish electric shocks and they ended up trying to avoid the electrode and rubbing against gravel and the glass whenever it was turned on.

>>1993095
And then you get fish that scratch themselves when they have whitespot. They are definitely detecting something, and classifying the sensation as unpleasant. They aren't as simple as bacteria.

>>1993103
Insects will do the same thing. It's not saying that much.

>>1993194
No, but what it does say is that, at some level, fish can identify unpleasant sensations.
The real question is whether it's actual pain, like for a human to put his hand on a hot stove, or more a general unpleasant sensation, like a human getting an itch.

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Finally got a rare photo of my coral crab.

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>>1993232

>>1993235
Could you highlight him? I'm curious.

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>>1992148
Great and not so great news!

On the good side, Robin has recovered! A couple days of rest, frequent water changes and some spring peas later she's back in the main tank and outdancing Silver. She's been there maybe 30 minutes now and already is alpha or near to it from what I saw. I also fed the betas and cories just peas and they all look better.

I also tried to not overfeed the fish last night. I went to bed with a happy tank, albeit with a few scraps of peas on the bottom in strange spots due to frisky fishies chasing them around and awoke to one floating cory and one with a nasty red blotch on it's belly. They were the smallest cories in the tank. As best as I can figure out the betas started fighting the cories for the last scraps of the spring peas as they were used to getting more food in the pet store. Apparently an overfed beta is a peaceful beta?

I thought the floating one was dead so I looked at the body, saw three nasty injuries under the plates as is common with injured cories and tossed it in the toilet... only to see it RUN LIKE CRAZY. I rescued it from the toilet and put it in isolation with the other injured fish. The floater is still floating, but moves now and then. I'm not sure of survival. The injured one is breathing heavily but ate when offered food so it has better chances. I found a small glass fish bowl around the house so I put it in a warm place with an open top for air, medicine to prevent infections, as well as plants for oxygen and am using it as a temp hospital. I'm tempted to get a new 5 gallon next pay day as a "med bay" even if I will be stuck nursing hurt fish next to my toilet.

This time I started with chopped spring peas and soaked beta food, then added floating pellets to distract the betas. They actually went for the peas first! I think I'll feed peas daily if they love them that much and it really helps.

So one beta saved, two cories in questionable states. On the bright side, all the other cories are fine.

>>1993321
And this is why fighting fish should be kept solitary, like they are in the wild.

>>1993327
> Solitary
> One beta fish in a five mile rice paddy
That's not how nature works.

Betas live in rice paddies and ponds in nature which are shared with other fish of various kinds. Tiny puddles are a survival during a drought thing and not their preferred habitat. Humans put them into cups and pretend it's "natural" as they can "survive that way".

Probably needs more hiding spaces and to be careful not to keep any cories smaller than the betas.

>>1993342
When a fish is "solitary" it doesn't mean it's the only fish in the lake, it means that it doesn't get along with other fish. Either because it doesn't give a fuck about them, or because it hates them. Wild bettas only really meet each other when they mate. They're sparse enough even in large rice paddies.

>>1993342
>>1993347
The cories that got attacked were fairly small. They were maybe half the size of the adults at best. I think it's a size issue mixed with suddenly feeding less than the betas were used to and the females being extra grumpy as they're all recently added.

I know the plants will be great cover once they grow as they will reach the water line and cover over half of the tank. The parts they won't cover are the filter outtake (water pushes the sand away), in-take, and a decent-sized cave with mossy hiding spots on top. I know more cover will help for sure.

I also wonder if I really just need more betas as more betas means the aggression will be spread out more. I'm leaning towards ending up with nine or eleven. I have just seven right now to the ten (or eight if those two die) cories. I know seven is sort of small for a sorority. Any sorority keepers weigh in on this?

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Yep, the damage to the floating cory was too much. The other cory is still alive and kicking despite the red welt on it's side. At least there don't seem to be any other injuries on the survivor so I'm thinking nothing vital was hit. I'm thinking as long as it keeps it's appetite things will be fine in a few days. Still no new injuries in any other fish out side of one or two fin nips on the lower-ranked betas.

Pic related: RIP little fish.

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>>1992923
Welp. here's my imput

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>>1993238
His claw is sticking out of the coral in
The middle of the photo
Typical day at the office

>>1991140
I'm interested in getting a small 20ish gallon aquarium.
Anyone know any curious fish. Like if I put my finger in the water, they'll nibble it
Would also be a plus if they were relatively easy to keep alive.

>>1993569
Mollies, guppies, or white clouds.

>>1993403
Yeah, that one is pretty easy. The other is either a female or has a bashful penis.

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>Floating open bag in quarantine tank
>Throw in plastic ornaments inside while bag is floating
>Look at bag
>It's nearly full with tank water now

I hope I don't shock my first pearl gourami and kill him on Day 1 ;-;

He was breathing hard but has calmed down a bit after 15 minutes

>>1993590
I love pearl gourami's. Mine are very curious and like watching what I am doing around the house.

I can hand feed mine too. They nibble my fingers when I put them into the water, probably because they are expecting bloodworms.

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>>1993569
Danio's are very active and don't afraid of anything. Very easy to keep too.

Also what >>1993581 said.

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>>1993592
Well I just dumped the entire bag in the tank after watching him for 30 minutes. Made a beeline straight under the fauxpani wood and hasn't budged since

Hope he turns out to be a cool guy like your pearls. I'm waiting for the LFS to get another shipment in so I can get him two girlfriends

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>>1993569
If you live near the DMV I have a 20 gallon long with a brand new maxspect freshwater led f80 fixture. If you pay my $ I will also throw in my service to set it up + live stock filters and every thing else in between.
It's either that or I set up a FW tank.

Heres a photo of the light in question.

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>>1993621
Ment to say I would set everything up live stock, HOB or canister filter, plants and substrate for $300.

Unrelated I love how I keep my perameters stable as in the photo.

>>1993603
When I first got mine, she was very very scared for the first few days. Very timid fish at first, especially if they are alone. They do better in a small group. They always interact with one another and molest each other with those feeler fins.

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Why are these things such pieces of shit?

I had 12 at one point but they all just wither off and die. I'll notice one thinner than the others, it wont eat and in a few weeks it's dead.

What's more annoying is that my tank is incredibly clean and I do a water change every week. Meanwhile my local Chinese takeaway has some of these in a shitty dirty tank that has never been cleaned and they're 3 times the size of mine indicating they're quite old.

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>>1991576
Make / buy one of these.

You're looking at about $20 to buy or make and $60 a year to run

I've had 2 male Indian Gouramis for about 6 months now and they're still timid as fuck and scared of me. I have no idea why.

They used to fight eachother all the time but after a few weeks of that they seem to have bonded over their common enemy (me) and now hide together in my tank.

Does covering your tank for 48 hours really get rid of algae?

I have a small 20L shrimp tank and have some black algae growing on my moss. I've covered the tank up so hopefully it will die.

I could also buy an Oto or two

>>1993590
Nah, you should be mixing in some tank water. The way to do it is to put the bag in the tank for about fifteen minutes, then you mix in some tank water so it's about 50:50 tank:shop mix, and then after another fifteen minutes you net the fish and transfer it quickly into the tank, and pour the bag into the sink.
You're mostly just trying to avoid a rapid temperature and chemical switch, and second trying to avoid transferring any parasites or diseases the store might have had in the water column. In my experience store water is filthy, the local shop pretty much just medicates its tanks 24/7 because that's less effort than keeping them clean.

>>1993732
Not always, but it's usually the first thing you should try. Don't feed your fish/shrimp for a few days, and keep the tank blacked out. With some luck the fish will just eat the algae, which won't grow (very much) without the lights, and the problem should be mostly resolved.
It's better for the tank's inhabitants than adding a bunch of biocide medication to the water, and usually about as effective.

>>1993393
Looks a bit like Hemorrhagic septicemia, not an injury.

>>1993763
I don't think you understand; I accidentally sinked the bag right after putting him in. What normally should take 30-60 mins for acclimation was done in 10 seconds unintentionally, that's why I was so worried he might've been shocked. I just gently dumped the bag in the tank after watching him for 30 minutes, the cross contamination has already been done so might as well make his transfer the least stressful way. The LFS takes really great care of their stock and their tanks are immaculate, so I don't think I have too much to worry about

Can anyone recommend Omega One frozen bloodworms as a treat for my gourami? I personally want to go for Hikari, but they don't carry those at the chain Petco/Petsmart stores. I just don't want to go with shitty brands, since I heard fishes getting infected with parasites from bad batches

>>1993869
I don't think brands make much difference for things like frozen bloodworms. I've never heard of fish getting parasites from frozen food. I use SF Bay brand right now, doesn't seem any different from any other.

>>1991140
Is it good idea to lay bottom of my fish tank with river sand. Have a sucker fish and was wondering if it would be able to eat the algae wafers, wouldn't it be sucking in sand while eating. IDK guess they do in the wild so just asking advice.

>>1992516
>They don't always grow back perfect.
They also don't grow back, if the animal is constantly injured.

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>>1993920
I read online that someone got camallanus worms from Sally's frozen foods or something. Used to use Hikari or another high quality brand and tried Sally's once since it was on sale, and then had an infection later

I'll never forget what happened to my cherry barbs earlier, poor guys...

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Hey aquanons,

What's a good heater for a 30 gallon freshwater tank? Been using pic related for like 5 years now but it doesn't seem to work anymore. Everything on amazon has a lot of reviews mentioning horror stories like exploding and shit. If it matters, I have 2 loaches and that's it.

>>1993964
Eheims are supposed to be bretty good quality

>>1993927
Sand is fine. The fish aren't dumb. Mine are alive and growing with playsand substrate.

>>1993698
There must be something very wrong with your tank water chemistry.

>>1993703
I don't think you should be keeping two males together. Why not sell a male and get a couple of girls for the male you keep?

>>1993702
Is there anywhere online I can buy those special bottle caps, or that whole set?

>>1991576
Just get a swapable 5lb co2 bottle they are around 70 dollars for the cylinder and around here roberts O2 welding supply stores will fill them or exchange them for 20bux. All you need you need aside from that is a regulator and I just use a junked welding reg with a needle valve connected to air tubing.
That will last you about 6 months on a tank and will be more realiable then a yeast reactor and less space consuming.

>>1993987
That's a good idea. Il do that. Seems simple and hassle free.

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Tis me mother fucking mantis shrimp, Grendel.

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I asked for some Malaysian Trumpet Snails with the Amanos I bought today, but now I'm having second thoughts about throwing them in my tank. I know the benefits they bring, but my tank will literally be infected with MTS STDs forever if I put them in. And they can explode out of control while my plants are melting and adjusting to the tank. What should I do?

>>1994069
They won't overpopulate your tank if you don't overfeed. However, if you find that their population has exploded, you can leave a slice of zucchini overnight in your aquarium and remove any MTS that are munching on it the next day.

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>>1994069
I got an infestation of annoying little snails under control by putting in some assassin snails. They're pretty cool. Pic related, here's one guy that likes to surf upside down on the surface of the water.

>>1993978
I have Otocinclus which will die if they're not kept in perfect conditions. If they're alive then there's nothing wrong with the water.

>>1994069
Assassin snails fuck up all pest snails.

Adding 3 or 4 to your tank and they will breed to a population that's adequately large to kill the amount of pest snails you have.

The Assassin Snail population will never get out of control because they wont breed unless they have live snails to eat but the adults wont stave because they eat fish shit.

>>1994084
>>1994090
Just a reminder not to do this unless you want them all completely dead.

I don't think it's even possible to have an equilibrium of pest snails and Assassin snails. The Assassin snails will just kill and eat every other non Assassin snail in the tank.

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>>1993592
I got a blue gourami. She is so chill and relaxed.
I hope she doesn't decide to up and killl everything in the tank one day.

>>1994105
I've heard people say their blue gouramis got out of control and aggressive, but I've never known them to be anything but the most peaceful fish imaginable. I've mixed them with all kinds of things and never had a single incident.

>>1993999
Is it true that their eyes are so complex that each one essentially has it's own miniature brain inside to properly process the shit ton of information they pick up so their main brain isn't overloaded from sheer sensory input?

Also, how do you stop it from shattering the aquarium?

>>1994084
>upside down surface surfing crayfish
>upside down surface surfing snail

I love how anons who post in /an/ have the best pets ever.

>>1994091
This isn't entirely true, I do remember one anon posting about how their assassin snails disappointed them due to the fact that all they did was eat fish shit and left the pest snails alone entirely.

>>1994088
"Fish ain't ded" is not an accurate means of measuring tank parameters.

>>1994090
They don't eat fish shit. They eat meaty foods, like pellets and flakes that fall to the bottom. They don't overpopulate the tank because they don't lay as many eggs or as often.
I've also never heard of them being that effective, but to each their own.

>>1994130
>Is it true that their eyes are so complex that each one essentially has it's own miniature brain inside to properly process the shit ton of information they pick up so their main brain isn't overloaded from sheer sensory input?
I have literally never heard this.

>Also, how do you stop it from shattering the aquarium?
Thick glass, plastic tank, or don't worry about it since it's incredibly unlikely in the first place.

>>1994132
They don't eat fish shit? Hmmmm, maybe the reason why the anon that I mentioned here >>1994130 couldn't get their snail to kill the pest snails was because they overfed their tank on meaty foods, so the assassins never had to actually hunt. Sort of like how a barn cat won't chase down mice if it's overfed to the point of being morbidly obese.

Can snails get fat?

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>>1993993
Yeah lots more. Make sure you are testing pH and dosing only enough to make your plants green. It should be like 10 bubbles a minute at first. You need to adjust it to the needs of the plants/tank.

Remember also adding co2 will also increase the alkalinity aswell as lower pH and turbulent water from say over flows or powerheads will cause dissolved co2 to escape (Like shaking soda can).

I just use co2 to run my reef calcium reactor. Anyway let's show then guts shall we?

>>1994137
Can you run airstones the same time as CO2, to prevent yourself from getting all paranoid about coming home to fish that all suffocated, or will that defeat the purpose of having CO2 in the first place?

>>1994162
it defeats the purpose.
CO2 displaces oxygen in the water.

the only way to get more of both CO2 and O2 in the water at the same time is to reduce the temperature or increase the pressure. Tropical fish don't survive that though.

>>1994162
Depending on your setup most people have their co2 line diffusing into a pump or airstone. Your not going to be using that much co2 bear in mind. There's already co2 diffusing into the water from the air itself. Your just replacing the co2 that is depleted by the plants that are already in the water.

Some co2 regulator systems have a solinoid (basiclly an electric valve that only opens if it's powered on). The point of that is you can control it with an outlet timer or better yet a pH probe that will automatically shut the co2 off when the tank pH gets to low.

>>1994177
Are there steps you can take to prevent your fish from dying in case of a malfunction?

Or is it better to simply save up your money and go full walstad method if you're the highly paranoid type, like me?

>>1994179
you can't really get enough CO2 into the water to cause suffocation. Not if you have a running filter anyways.

>>1994177
...or you could just have more fish...

Seriously, all this silly high tech junk when fish or snails provide everything plants need outside of light. CO2? Yep. Fertilizer? Yep. Soil aeration? Yep. The only things I would consider adding are stuff like bone meal (calcium + iron) for specialized plants as letting actual whole fish rot in a tank is a bad idea.

The plants get stronger, the fish get stronger and it just works.

>>1994237
fish excrete a certain amount of nitrogenous waste in relation to carbon dioxide. A ratio if you will.

plants require a certain amount of carbon dioxide to use a certain amount of nitrogen. Again, a ratio.

the amount of carbon dioxide produces by fish as a fraction of nitrogenous wastes is lower than the amount consumed by plants to metabolize that same waste. The ratios don't match.

so increasing the number of fish will increase the amount of carbon dioxide produced, but it also floods the system with nitrogenous waste that now can't be used. In fact no matter how many fish you have, they'll never produce enough co2 for the plants to use all their ammonia.

This is why people add co2.
this is why you're an idiot.

>>1994249
And plants metabolizing more Co2 won't also want more nitrogen? Remember ratios and such.

Also the hurtful man is simply the one with nothing good to say.

>>1994251
>And plants metabolizing more Co2 won't also want more nitrogen?
>didn't understand

the ratios don't suddenly match up because you multiply one. If 1 fish produces 1/2 the co2 necessary to metabolize its ammonia, 100 fish are still only going to produce half the co2 needed.

because the nitrogen increases as the carbon does. It's always going to outrun the carbon, no matter how many fish you have.

>>1994254
I suppose that's part of why we bother with filtering or heavily planted tanks. Still, I can see what you're saying about the extra fish thing.

If you're going to get all high tech, though, you do have to admit that the more complicated things get, the more things there are that can go wrong. There is a reason why I keep things low tech: less to go wrong.

>>1994265
Oh I agree on the low-tech approach, I just don't think the guys dosing co2 are idiots.

it does work.

filters don't actually remove nitrogenous waste, they just convert it to the less toxic nitrates. You still have to remove the nitrates either by water changes or by turning them into plant mass. Or you can go crazy and run a denitrifying filter like saltwater tanks use, but that's highly dangerous to your livestock if you don't know what you're doing.

>>1994137
>adding co2 will also increase the alkalinity aswell as lower pH

Wait wat, doesnt lowering ph mean increasing acidity, not alkalinity?

>>1994277
yes, I think you're correct.
I'm not that anon, but my thoughts:
adding co2 means creating carbonic acid, which shouldn't increase alkalinity.

if you've got an aragonite substrate or lime rock in the tank then injecting co2 will first increase acidity (carbonic acid) and then increase alkalinity as the acid attacks the carbonate rock and neutralizes out into carbonates and bicarbonates.

co2 by itself is acidic, but if run through an aragonite substrate quickly becomes extremely alkaline. So it depends on the presence of bicarbonate buffers in the water.

>>1994274
I never said they were idiots, just that it's silly to jump to CO2 as aquatic plants with enough light and some fish swimming by should do fine on their own in general. Most common freshwater aquarium plants really don't need fancy high tech anything.

It's pretty easy to get tempted into something super fancy but simple is fine, too.

>>1994284
depends on the plant I think
I'm no expert but from what I've read most "aquatic" plants actually live on dry land most of the year. Like they can survive in water when their habitat floods, but it's not their normal environment.

if that's true they've got a problem.
there's thousands of times more co2 in air than there is in water.

>>1994287
Actually, I'm talking about true aquatic plants. Things like coontail and amazon sword all are pretty easy and don't need anything fancy. You don't even need to actually plant coontail as it will thrive floating!

That said, many pet stores also sell "semi-aquatics" in the aquarium section that aren't meant to be fully submerged even though they can survive that way for a little while. These plants are actually made for terrariums and shallow pond enclosures for turtles, crays frogs, and the like where there should be some open dirt for the animals as well as some water. Plants like Lucky Bamboo, any sort of reed or rush, and star moss are examples here. It's just easier to keep them in the fish stuff so there's less water to keep. Besides, when uninformed buyers get the wrong plants and they die in a month or two (always outside of the return date!) it gets the shop more customers.

If you're crazy enough to keep a semi-aquatic plant underwater you also are hopefully only doing it for a little while and have a second tank so you can let the plants recover. Extra CO2 only delays death when you submerge a plant that shouldn't be 100% submerged for too long. If you aren't willing to rotate plants like this your best bet is replanting the unsuitable plants in regular soil, watering them well, and replacing them in the tank with actual aquatic plants.

>>1994291
A second tank that happens to be emmersed, rather. A mostly air tank that has the plants mostly out of the water so they can get much needed air.

>>1994291
>Extra CO2 only delays death when you submerge a plant that shouldn't be 100% submerged for too long.
an excellent point, though I think the hobby is moving towards treating livestock as disposable and replaceable commodities since it's often cheaper to buy new organisms than it is to maintain the ones you've got.

at least that's the way commercial marine tanks have gone. Dead fish are just an expense in keeping the display, and cost less than the labor to keep them alive.

I don't really care for that approach and I don't think most hobbyists do either. But it is what it is.

>>1994297
I have seen a lot of petitions lately trying to change this attitude, especially when dealing with rarer or wild-caught livestock. In the meantime the livestock is so cheap because it's wrecking the ecosystem.

There's a lot of fish smuggling, dynamite fishing, and cynaide fishing for livestock going on out there and nobody cares because "the ocean is endless" and "it's too expensive to enforce bans". Yes, this means that some pet shops are getting illegally gathered fish as part of the smuggling is erasing the fact they weren't caught within legal means. I'm thinking the attitude will change out of price shifting due to us having wrecked the reefs. It's a sad, sad thought.

I'm just hoping that if enough hobbyists stand up and don't buy or give money to those who treat the ocean and it's creatures as disposable then we can be the force that swings the money to make it stop.

>>1994304
It's changing already.

when I first started keeping reefs I was able to buy rock from Haiti, Florida, Fiji, Tonga.

now you can't find natural rock from any of those places at the stores I shop. It's just fucking gone. People got together and ended the harvest and sale of it.

I suspect fish will go the same way. I'm not so sure about plants though, those are pretty easy to farm.

>>1994307
Here's hoping.

I'm also hoping that they start doing something about the serious inbreeding of pet fish. I've been hearing horror stories about fish that are having trouble breeding due to inbreeding. If things can be fixed now then it could actually become cheaper than any illegal source which would help save the reefs.

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Someone at my local pet shop said she didn't like danio's.

I got a few and I am already in love with them. They are so active and cute. Their behaviour is interesting, a joy to watch. When I put my hand in the tank, they swim around my hand, into my palm, between my fingers, and nibble a lot.

Not the most majestic looking things in the world but they are incredibly cute little things. I have the spotty ones

>>1994304
I really can't imagine trying to justify buying wild-caught animals, unless I was reasonably confident and had the Khan's to attempt breeding them myself. That goes for any kind of pet, really.

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>>1994327
There's a wonderful wealth of variety among danios in the pet trade. They really are wonderful little fish.

>>1994342
>I really can't imagine trying to justify buying wild-caught animals
it's a mixed bag.
most wild caught marine fish cost $30-$200
so it's not exactly a huge market and lots of specimens are really common in the wild.

also breeding marine fish is... difficult.
tank-bred fish are quite popular because they're hardier than wild-caught, but there really aren't many species being bred yet. Nor is keeping saltwater fish that popular.

the effects of the hobby on rock and coral are pronounced though. We're seeing most of that being farmed and cultured lately.

>>1994132
>I've also never heard of them being that effective

I've read forums that say that they're hard to breed but I started with 3 assassin snails a year ago and I have about 30 now.

My tank used to be infested with pest snails and now there isn't any.

>>1994130
Technically no invertebrate can have a "brain", but only because they lack a notochord. Their system of cerebral ganglia is so complex that they basically do have a brain, and each of their eyes creates three images, so they have hexnocular vision, compared to our binocular vision. They can also see 9 more color wavelengths than humans can, so I wouldn't doubt that their eyes have their own "brains".

As for the glass, the ones that break aquariums tend to be the peacocks. Mine is a dwarf species of mantis, Odontodactylus havanensis. Maxing out at 4 inches, they can't break glass thicker than 1 mm.

>>1994274
Though I agree that co2 helps, I must disagree that filters don't remove nitrogenous waste. Seachem's product Matrix is a porous filter media that houses aroebic and anaroebic bacteria, which actually convert nitrates into nitrogen gas.

So I'm going to rig up one of those yeast-sugar stills to make a homemade CO2 system for my tank.
Do I need to worry about overproducing CO2? As in, are the fish going to suffocate if I leave it running without monitoring the tank? My job means I sometimes have to be away for a couple of days at a time.

>>1994556
Yuuuuup. Don't leave the co2 in at night, and test the pH daily, if it drops below 6.5 you may have an issue.

>>1994327
DIY setups don't produce enough CO2 to gas your fish. Your fish will do fine as long as you have some surface agitation.

>>1994582
>>1994585
Alright. Guess I'll observe how it works out for a while before I decide if I want to risk leaving it on.

>>1994546
There are several products that do that, but they're not used by a majority of people. Regular filters stop at the nitrogen stage.

How much difference is there between T5 and T8 lamps? I'm trying to get my rotala wallichi among other plants red. I do have nutrients, C02 and so forth, the only thing missing is adequate lighting.

>>1994162
>Can you run airstones the same time as CO2, to prevent yourself from getting all paranoid about coming home to fish that all suffocated, or will that defeat the purpose of having CO2 in the first place?
Some of the most beautiful planted tanks I've seen have had CO2 and airstones. You'll lose a little CO2 because of the airstone, but you'll still be getting good results.

>>1994606
A T8 with a great reflector is better than a T5 with an inadequate reflector. If you already have a great reflector for your T8, you'll want to go with T5 or T5HO to get that red color.

>>1994265
The option of having a controller pH probs and solinoide is really a redundancy more then a adding complications.

With setups like that you can stop the co2 if the pH drops to low or set it on a timer.

To the guy asking about co2, if I were you in would go to a welding supply store (look em up locally) and buy a 5lb co2 cylinder they go from $60 to $50 prefilled and are around $20 to refill. For a medium demand planted tank that bottle will easily last you 6 or more months. You can grab a regulator from the same said shops and there's no need to be fancy with them. Some LFS will sell a co2 setup with the regulator already installed.
If your concerned about gassing your fish overnight you can buy a 1/4 solinoide valve that you can plug into a wall outlet, put it between the co2 to tank line and hook the solinoide to a outlet timer so it's not bubbling co2 all the time.

>>1994546
>Seachem's product Matrix is a porous filter media that houses aroebic and anaroebic bacteria, which actually convert nitrates into nitrogen gas.
sure, live rock does the same thing.

it doesn't work though. You'd need like half a ton of the stuff to filter out the nitrate from a single goldfish. It processes extremely small amounts of water because it counts on LACK OF FLOW to produce anaerobic conditions.

you can do slightly better with an anaerobic plenum, or much better with some drip reactors. The Matrix media is just a marketing gimmick. They're right, it does remove nitrates, but so little that you won't notice any difference.

>>1994644
>single goldfish
A single goldfish is the equivalent of about 20 tetras, so not really a good metric. There are other resin-based products that work better than I assume the "aerobic-anaerobic" ones do.

>>1994647
>so not really a good metric
it's fine.
the question remains, do you want a cubic yard of Matrix brand filter material stacked next to your cubic foot tank? The reason nobody uses it for nitrate export is because it would be outrageously expensive and take up huge amounts of space. Water changes work much better.

>There are other resin-based products that work better than I assume the "aerobic-anaerobic" ones do.
doubtful, or water changes wouldn't be necessary.

>>1994650
A well-balanced system can go for months without a water change, but other trace toxins still build up in the system, so it's not a good idea to go completely without them. Also, the vast majority of people don't use resin-based filter media, and even if they did, it eventually gets "full" and has to be either replaced or recharged.

>>1994657
>A well-balanced system can go for months without a water change,
so can an unbalanced one if your fish can tolerate the nitrates.
>but other trace toxins still build up in the system,
not if you're using carbon
>so it's not a good idea to go completely without them.
they're done to remove nitrate, nothing else.
>Also, the vast majority of people don't use resin-based filter media, and even if they did, it eventually gets "full" and has to be either replaced or recharged.
oh, you're talking about zeolite.

it doesn't remove nitrate, it adsorbs ammonia.
this kills your biofilter, and as you mention requires constant recharging. It also requires tons of media to be effective. Like literally tons.

these magic filter media aren't used because they don't work. They do exactly what the manufacturer claims, but in such tiny amounts that they're useless.

>>1994662
Carbon doesn't remove everything besides nitrates. Testimony on Seachem Purigen is mostly positive.

>>1994678
>Testimony on Seachem Purigen is mostly positive.
yeah, because it grows a covering of nitrifying bacteria and then acts as a biofilter.

Speaking of Purigen, is it OK if I take the bags out and leave only the sponge and biocubes in my Aquaclear HOB filters? I never used the carbon packs with them, but I purposely took the Purigen out so I could let the tannins stain my tanks more.

Is there any adverse effects of not having Purigen or any similar carbon filter media inside filters?

>>1994687
assuming you don't have some bizarre tap water with heavy metals in it, or copper plumbing in your house,
the only likely problem from not running carbon is growth-inhibiting hormones.

Purigen isn't carbon though, it's zeolite. They remove different things. Purigen shouldn't remove tannins. Carbon should.

>>1994688
Purigen is definitely removing tannins, my tanks have noticeably gotten more blackwater-ish since I pulled them out.

They were pretty close to expiring from soaking in too much tannins though, I should stick them back in and just let them continue to filter metals and stuff

>>1994705
>Purigen is definitely removing tannins,
ok. I'm wrong about that then.
>I should stick them back in and just let them continue to filter metals and stuff
I don't think it works like that. Once they're full they won't take up any more of anything until they're recharged. Unless it's a carbon/purigen mix, but even then the carbon should be full of tannins.

>>1994716
Yeah I just figured that out after Googling. Time to bleach out my Purigen bags before my water change next weekend

>>1994738
Please don't use actual bleach. Just use peroxide for anything you would generally use bleach for if your trying to oxidize and rubbing alcohol if you're trying to disinfect. I despise that so many Americans are in love with highly toxic cleaners even in places they don't belong like the keeping of sensitive aquatic organisms.

>>1994746
Someone on the Seachem staff in their forums say they use 6% Clorox to recharge their Purigen. I don't see what's wrong with using it, as long as it's properly treated to remove the bleach thoroughly after

>>1994746
You're supposed to recharge Purigen with bleach. It says so on the directions. Just use dechlorinator and rinse well until it no longer smells of bleach before placing back into your filter.

>>1994754
Preach it

Seachem is basically god

>>1994685
Only if everyone if lying about it removing nitrates.

>>1994687
Regular water changes will do the job of carbon/etc.

>>1994750
>>1994754
And I bet that's terrible advice that they just came up with when marketing the product because it's always been done that way. I remember the days before live corals when people literally removed their dead corals from their tanks and dunked them in bleach water to clean them. Bleach has no business being anywhere NEAR aquatic organisms. It's just tradition in the pet trade and American culture to use it on everything. I can near guarantee it's not the best thing to use, even if they do recommend it.

>>1994762
>Only if everyone if lying about it removing nitrates.
it removes ammonia before it can be converted to nitrates, so it's not exactly a lie.

It will remove nitrates if you happen to have some from before you stuck the stuff in there, but it has a pretty limited capacity. The average fish tank produces far more nitrogenous waste than purigen can keep up with.

it might work on a reef tank with no fish and a good skimmer. but if you've got any kind of bioload it's just going to miss almost all of the pollutants.

>>1994766
you can use peroxide instead, or even ozone.

the problem is that those are just as harmful to organisms as bleach is, and one of them is far more difficult to use without poisoning yourself and everyone around you.

>>1994766
>I remember the days before live corals when people literally removed their dead corals from their tanks and dunked them in bleach water to clean them.

Dude, calm down. I'm not taking Purigen bags and dipping them in bleach and then throwing them back in the tank. There's very specific instructions from Seachem themselves, people have done it with no adverse effects after following them to the letter

Speaking of Seachem, I'm starting to get very suspicious about a couple of my RCS deaths. I've had two of my extremely hardy shrimp die on me after going through hell during the tank move, and they seem to be happening on days that I dose Seachem Flourish (not Excel). That leaves only a ton of healthy babies and 4 adults left, this is really depressing. I'm especially concerned whether my new Amanos will survive now

>>1994776
How big of a tank are you dosing? Seachem flourish is mostly micronutrients (chelated metals) and overdosing it can have adverse effects on shrimp.

>>1994775
No, they're not. Hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water and oxygen almost immediately. Sodium hypochlorite lingers and poisons the fuck out of everything.

>and one of them is far more difficult to use without poisoning yourself and everyone around you.
Yeah, that would be the bleach, not the peroxide.

>>1994776
I wouldn't trust any product that recommended using household bleach regularly unless the use rendered the NaClO totally inert. And even then I'd still be cautious.

>>1994766
Well to be fair I dose

I use purigen on my clients tank but its really more effective on freshwater tanks as a stopgap. I don't really care for it desu, the only reason I do is becuase I've been overstocked litterily 2 pallets of the crap and it's only way I will ever get rid of it..

>>1994788
Ment to say dose Muratic acid in the large 1k gallon reef tanks when the alkalinity is too high and it's too early for a water change. That shit is nasty so I always dose it right in the over flow/surge pit so it has time to neturalize.

>>1994787
>Hydrogen peroxide breaks down into water and oxygen almost immediately.
lol
that's true if it comes into contact with something to oxidize, but the idea is to have more oxidizing agent than organics to burn. So there's invariably peroxide left over.
>that would be the bleach, not the peroxide.
I was talking about ozone.

no matter what you use you're going to have more caustic than can be used, otherwise you're not getting a full clean. The excess has to be dealt with one way or another, whether it's bleach or peroxide or nitric acid or ozone.

>>1994787
>Sodium hypochlorite lingers and poisons the fuck out of everything.
Sodium is actually necessary to recharge a sodium ion exchange resin.

just sayin.

presumably bleach is the only substance capable of the task.

>>1994791
>that's true if it comes into contact with something to oxidize
There is almost always something to oxidize in water filled with microorganisms. And there shouldn't be much H2O2 remaining in the first place. You're supposed to wash the majority of it out. But whatever little remains will do a hell of a lot less damage than NaClO.

>I was talking about ozone.
I figured, but since nobody is washing shit in ozone, I ignored it.

>no matter what you use you're going to have more caustic than can be used, otherwise you're not getting a full clean.
And H202 is less toxic and breaks down into water and oxygen. It's literally added to polluted rivers to up the oxygen content. Nobody is intentionally dumping household bleach in a river. I would imagine that would be illegal.

>>1994797
It's probably just the most common. I don't know what Purigen is exactly, since I've never used it, but I as I said, I'm not letting household bleach near any of my organisms. I don't even keep it in my house.

>>1994781
40 breeder, I've been dosing about 3.5mL every Thursday and Sunday. It's slightly above the recommended dose of 1mL per 12 gallons of water 1-2 times per week. I'm also doing 4mL of Excel daily

I think I'll cut down the dosing to 2mL of Flourish every Thursday and Sunday and keep up with the Excel and see how the shrimp fare for a couple of weeks. All my plants are mostly root feeders with tabs underneath them right now, the liquid dosing is to help the floaters, marsilea, and hopefully revive my lifeless Spiky moss

>>1994801
Sounds good. Though if you want to feed your plants, I suggest the Seachem line of macro nutrients. Nitrogen, potassium, and phosphate are needed in higher quantities in comparison to micronutrients.

>>1994805
I might try EI dosing desu though I'm afraid of what it could do to the shrimp, and I don't fancy doing 30-50% water changes every week (currently doing like 15-20% every 2 weeks)

>>1994809
Are you injecting CO2 and using high output lighting? You can modify EI dosing for low light/low tech.

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If you can see my angelfish has slightly blackened tattered fins and a few black spots on its fins (the ones on its body are apart of its skin patten) is it fin rot? Also hard to see but it has a red bruise like thing on its body between the doral and tail fin. Are these things something to worry about? I do regular water changes and my nitrate levels are fine so I don't get it

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>>1994835

>>1994811
I'm using a Satellite Freshwater LED+, so I'm on the threshold between low and medium light.

There's a guide if you google by Sudeep Mandal about Excel-based low tech tanks, and it calls for 50% water change every week

>try to go to 4chan.org/aq/
>oh yeahs thats a thread not a board

>>1994838
I have the same light and it's more lower light than medium, especially on a tank as wide as a 40 breeder.

You can try reducing standard EI dosages to 1/3 the weekly dosage then see how your plants grow. I do that on my low tech 29g with 70-80% water changes each week.

>>1994840
This thread is the only reason why I come to /an/ tbqh

>>1994841
>70-80% water changes each week.

...This is why I don't want to do EI dosing anon

>>1994797
>"Just throw some sodium in a glass anon c'mon how hard is this?"

>>1994847
I keep BN plecos in the tank so I need the large water changes to keep the nitrates down.

You can go longer without water changes if your tank is lightly stocked and your plant mass is adequate. I have a 10g low light planted that I dose with low light EI that gets a 50% water change once a month. You just have to test your nitrates and phosphates and see if your plants are utilizing the excess ferts, otherwise you either do a water change or dose less. EI is pretty flexible with the dosing and water changes. You just have to make the effort to test the water and see how your plants react.

>>1994841
>EI dosing method: 70-80% water change weekly
>Walstad method: 20% water change every 2 months. Or six. Or whenever really who cares?
Miss Diana truly had the spirit of the internet aquarist.

So now that I pronounce my Spiky Moss yellow and dead, I'm looking for another nice looking one to slowly carpet my driftwood with. Something that doesn't grow out of control and requires pruning

I saw some Fissidens Fontanus at a LFS display tank and it looked gorgeous. The only thing is that I dose Excel, and I hear people saying it'll melt it or actually thrive with it

>>1994854
that's actually used on low quality zeolites. You soak them in brine for a while, bam they're good as new.

apparently the more porous sodium exchange resins require a caustic to burn off the organic molecules though. I'm not sure what you could mix up that's both caustic and salty, but I'd guess anything you make will release chlorine anyways. Sodium chloride has all that nasty chlorine that anon hates so much.

Anyways I don't see a problem. We bleach most people's tapwater. But if anon doesn't want to use bleach in his fishkeeping, he's perfectly welcome not to. It's not like he's missing out on some great tech or anything. Ion exchange resins by themselves don't do much to filter a tank.

So I got 3 Pygmy cories on Saturday and now 2/3 are dead. I floated the bag & used stress coat and the water quality is fine but do you think it's most likely from stress/poor adjustment?

Also do you think I could get a refund

>>1995030
I recently bought 8 pygmy corys and was impressed with how hardy they were, so I'm not sure what to tell you. Are yours locally raised, or were they purchased from a Petco/Petsmart?

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Has anyone here ever legitimately done a "nano" saltwater tank?

I'm thinking of taking on the challenge. I have a few different styles of five-gallon tank and would like some input.

Before you jump down my throat I am not going to do this if the fish always suffer for it. I do want to do it to see if I can maintain such an ecosystem, but I also do not want to torture my potential fish. So I'm not going to try it if I get a lot of negative feedback from people who've tried it.

>>1995030
>Also do you think I could get a refund
Yes. Assuming you acclimated them properly, they should still be alive after only a few days. Most stores offer a refund.

>>1995150
See the /reef/ thread. Most people in /aq/ don't know jack shit about saltwater.

>>1993998

>>1993698
I have 10, and they're all fine. I've had them for over a year now.

>>1994835
Is there anything else that might be stressing him out? Another fish or something?

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Hey /an/

I have a tropical freshwater tank it's about 14 gallon big - currently housing some catfishes and a fat apple snail. I haven't had any fish diseases for at least a year, but the yesterday I bought some mexican swordtails, and I think one of them has one or two very tiny white spots that might be itch.
I kinda like them, I'd rather not flush them down the toilet. On the other hand, my tank used to be free of all diseases, so if I took it out now, I could prevent a possible outbreak.
What should I do? Just change water almost daily and hope for the best?

>>1995374
This is why we quarantine! Start treating for ich and invest a quarantine tank.

>>1995374
Move some tank water to a bucket, then put the fish in it too. If you have a spare filter and heater, use them in the bucket. A single swordtail doesn't have very high requirements.
Just wait and hope for the best, I guess. By the time you can see spots on the fish, the ich has likely already spread into the water, but you might get lucky.

>>1995374
It's already in your water. Just heat treat the whole tank.

>>1991140
Best heater for a 3 gallon? I plan on moving my betta up to a 5 or 10 gallon soon.

A filtration system suggestion would be awesome too.

>>1995379
>>1995477
>>1995487
Thanks for the advice, anons, I checked on the swordtails today very thoroughly but I can't see any spots or scratching or anything of that sort. In hindsight, what I thought itch could possibly be sand..from my substrate. Which is sand. Like 5 cm deep.
oh well.

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How long until I should be concerned my new Pearl isn't eating? Decided not to feed him over the weekend because he was a little bit skittish, but he seemed to ignore a piece of algae wafer I left inside the tank this morning. He's more interested in following his own reflection

I think he'd really appreciate some female company

>>1995537
Have you tried bloodworms?

And yes, pearls do need company to be sane.

I'm looking for suggestions for top swimmers in a planted 55. I'll have corys, rummy nose tetras, a farlowella, and possibly gouramis.

>hatchets
>danios
>killis

What other interesting options are there? Can be a small school or a centerpiece.

I have a couple mbunas I want to get rid of for something else. Will I have to do anything special for the new inhabitants or just leave it be?

>>1995057
>>1995160
Yeah it was my lfs. I was able to get another pygmy cory and when the last surviving cory found him he started twirling all around and schooling with him immediately. It was so cute

>>1995728
Rasbora espei or harlequin rasbora.
Got some after a guy on here recommended them to me, 5/5 breddy gud.

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>>1995549

Just tried to feed him some Hikari frozen bloodworms. He looked at the forceps, waved his feeler fins, and did a 360 and swam away. I honestly think he might've been confused if it was food or something, because when I opened the hood and he probably thought food was coming, he immediately started fanning the surface and gasping repeatedly

Here is a pic of my RCS readily eating a bloodworm as long as he is. What a fucking fatass, like an Americlap eating a 6 foot long hotdog

>>1995728
endlers! :D at least if you have gouramis. I haven't kept the others, but danios are way to zippy to keep with a top swimmer like a gourami.

>>1995836
my harleys aren't top swimmers... are most?

>>1996034

That's a female, m80.

I have read that a ghost shrimp being cloudy is a sign that they are sick, i have one that has been cloudy since purchasing him about a month ago. his colors look nice, he acts totally normal, but his insides look cooked, totally opaque beneath the shell.
could he be sick? is keeping him in there a risk to my other scrimps?

>>1996144
He might be overdue for a shedding. Shrimp tend to become cloudy and gray when they need to shed.

>>1996162
is there anything i can do to help him along? i saw some montmorillionite uh balls or something on ebay, this was before i had the shrimp though, it said it aided in shedding, is it bullshit?

>>1996191
Memeballs won't help.

>>1996191
Not really. Does your tank have any good hiding spots? Shrimp tend to become really shy when it comes time for them to shed, and if they don't have a spot where they can feel absolutely safe they might put it off. Put in some plants, and make a driftwood/stone/ceramic cave for him to hide out in.
And if you didn't already know, leave the shed skin in the tank. The shrimp will eat it to replenish their calcium.

>>1996270
>Montmorillonite
>Marimo
see, anon, these are two different words.

they're even spelled differently and everything.

>>1996311
To be fair, to those not into geology, that kind of sounds like the kind of gibberish you'd think of if you had the word marimo at the very tip of your tongue.

>>1996318
>To be fair, to those not into geology,
why should we be fair to those not into geology though?
fuck those guys, they suck.

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>>1994856
Whelp, I just found another recently deceased RCS this morning. Pretty sure he died yesterday on a not-Flourish dosing day, so I'm certain the adult cherries are reacting adversely to the Excel and perishing slowly one by one.

http://www.plantedtank.net/forums/88-shrimp-other-invertebrates/887026-red-cherry-sakura-shrimp-deaths.html#/forumsite/20495/topics/887026?page=1

This guy's story sounds extremely familiar to mine. Slow die off of nearly the entire grown RCS population, babies are otherwise fine. I think I'm gonna go completely low tech with no Excel. There's no other explanation why my aryan viking shrimp have survived so much punishment during the move, but are dying now in a relatively new but stable tank. I kinda doubted it could be the Flourish ferts, and my brother reported my shrimp doing very well the two weeks I was gone and not dosing Excel (only Flourish once a week)

>>1996044
Mine are, try some more top cover
Also, espei seemed to swim at the top a lot more often than harlequins

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one of my harlequins has an empty eye socket. How metal.

Took me fucking forever to take the photo though.

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>>1996034
My lone gourami would take bloodworms that floated at the surface, but was afraid of the forceps. Now that she is in a group she will happily take from my hands.

>>1996044
Pic related to zipping danios with gourami.

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I love how gourami's will wave their feelers at the glass when I put my hand up.

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>get gourami
>gurami ate my fry
>gourami to meet jacob
>jacob like gourami (afreican schilin)
>gourami back in tank

>>1996560
>afreican schilin
???
are you okay anon?

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>>1996561
yes I ok
>why schilin be friend with gourami?
>it murder all other fish put in it tank
>he hide in shame

>>1996564
Jesus Christ what the fuck are you trying to say

>>1994544
Sweeeeet. I jelly of your mini manti.

>>1996343
That sucks. You can definitely grow plants without Excel in low tech.

>>1994177
Just got my auto pH probe in the mail today. Gonna set it up tomorrow so I stop getting swings in my co2. I'm pretty excited about it.

>>1996545
I miss my pearl ; - ; he was so funny like that

>>1996308
thank you, i'll craft a little hidey hole for them

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>>1992923
>>1992932
>>1992939
>>1992941
I had a couple just like that.
Last one just died yesterday. :/

>>1994130
>>1994135
yeah, I've never heard of that either

>>1996343
Oh crap, I just dosed my tank yesterday...

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>>1996738
Don't worry, not all RCS or shrimps in general die from Excel it's probably just my batch. If you start seeing deaths though for some unknown reason, might want to stop dosing for a few weeks and resume dosing to see what happens

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>>1996742
Shrimp look so great, i wish i could get some

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Just rescaped my tank yesterday.
The big rock on top is only temporary, to re-waterlog that stupid wood.
I would like to put something tall on the right side now to offset that huge chunk of wood...
Any ideas?

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>>1996762
Holy jeezus, I looked in the back of my tank, and the top is full of these little babby plants...
I'm guessing they're babies from those plants I have in the middle of my tank (can't remember the name)

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>this is supposed to be dwarf sag

Did I get scammed?

Okay I woke up this morning and my powers been out since three am. I unplugged the filter and floated the biowheel and tried to put more oxygen in the water by using a cup to scoop it up and dump it back out but now I'm at work.

Do you think the fish will be ok. Since by time I floated the biowheel the power had been out for 4 hours do you think the bacteria already dried out and died

>>1995282
Well he's the only angelfish because my two others died last month because I forgot to change the filter like an idiot

>>1996777
Hornwort. It never dies.

>>1996814
If the biowheel was dry for 4 hours, most of the bacteria is probably dead. There should still be live bacteria on the surfaces in the tank. Once power comes on, you'll want to do more water changes than usual and cut back on feeding for a week or two as the bacteria reestablish.

>>1996913
Okay thanks. I was going to replace the filter cartridge with a new one later because I read all the toxins will build up in there and go into the water and stress out the fish but do you think I should just keep it since so much bacteria is gone already

>>1996995
I'd replace the cartridge but not the biowheel, and do a big water change.

>>1991140
Oh my god, are so fucking cute.

Hey, i figured i may as well ask here while doing so on online forums... anyway.

I live in a shitty 3rd world country called El Salvador in central america (below Mexico)
I want to import zebra acaras (ivannacara adoketa), since no store ever brings any dwarf cichlids besides German blue rams and apistogramma cacautoides... i want to give a try to the zebra acaras and see if i can get them to breed. I have contacted some usa exporters and even them dont have that fish species so i get it is actually a rare specimen and a probably expensive one. Does anybody know anyone that can export those fish? any breeders or anything?Thanks in advance by the way.

>>1996870
I know the big stuff is hornwort, but all those little ones too?

>>1997345
duckweed, also never dies

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>>1997348
Wouldn't it make more sense to be baby [whatever these are]?
I don't remember the scientific name, and they have no common name...

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what's your opinion on Hydrocotyle ranunculoides /an/?

>>1997354
looks slightly invasive...

>>1997355
the trade/sale of it is banned here due to how invasive it is.

>>1997350
Different anon here. That is almost certainly duck weed.

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>>1997350
Just found the name, it's Staurogyne Repens
I netted some of the little ones to get a closer look.

>>1997348
Unless you have a hang on back filter and are too lazy to put a baffle on the outtake.

>>1997447
How would I have just suddenly gotten duckweed?

>>1997451
It's a weed. The store might have gotten some i on a plant, done their best to get rid of it, and then you got a single leaf picked in when you bought a plant.

>>1997448
>>1997451
That is 100% duckweed. You could have gotten one single little piece of it stuck to a plant that you bought. That's all it takes. I originally had enough to cover about 1/10 of my 10 gallon tank. Now it completely covers my 10 and my 55, with me throwing out several cups full every week. It is the weed to end all weeds.

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What does /aq/ feed their fish?

>>1997752
Fish.

>>1997752
Fuck that, let them get their own damn food

I ain't gonna feed the neighborhood

>>1997752
Spring peas and commercial fish food. The peas help keep their guts clean and they love it!

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>>1995728
You could African butterfly fish. I opted not to get gourami with them, out of concern that they'd fight over top space, but that was probably unfounded.

>>1997354
'S coo'. Had some. Grew explosively, tossed 90% of it, changed the tank, then the rest died. I was planning on making salad if it grew in again.

I flushed one of my cories down the toilet while it was still alive because it was upside down breathing heavily and later I saw it stuck to the filter intake. Lately I've had a lot of things fucking up in my tank that have made me do constant water changes and it's made the water cloudy, I didn't wanna risk the fish dying in the night and the ammonia or the water change I'd have to do stressing out the other fish even more. When I put him in the toilet he started swimming around. Was I justified /aq/?

>>1995728
Beta sororities are an option. They're colorful mid-top swimmers who typically settle in happy after the first day or two. They don't mix with Gouramis (they're a related mid-top fish and will probably fight) but if you decide against gouramis, they're a colorful and inexpensive option.

Just make sure you do not keep any fish smaller than them or they may become rage targets for a hungry/angry lady betta. I had to remove one female betta who systematically murdered all of the cories smaller than her within two days of being introduced. I saw her kill one in a single blow right before I took her out of the tank. When I returned her the pet store was in shock because "betas never attack baby fish like that" but mine had. I replaced the dead babies with live young adults and things are going better now.

>>1998085
>Was I justified /aq/?
Of course not. Why the fuck didn't you kill it beforehand if you were going to flush it?

>>1998088
Or he could get sparkling gourami and not have to constantly worry about balancing out the aggression of fish that aren't supposed to be living together to begin with.

>>1998085
Stop changing the water so much, get some charcoal, and clean your filters with running water. Once a week at 50% is more than enough. Also plant some plants if you don't have any. Even a handful of moss helps!

A severely sick/injured cory will swim like crazy when put into different water. It's a survival reaction. Chances are the poor thing was going to die anyway, but you could set up a tiny death watch if you wanted. Either make a hospital tank that isn't screwed up or cut the top off a milk jug, add treated water, and float it in your tank as a temporary resting place. If the fish lives, change the water the next day. If it dies, flush it. The milk jug is not preferable but it's better than nothing and will help keep the fish isolated and warm.

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>>1997752
Omega One flakes, with algae and earthworm sticks.

>>1998089
Honestly, most people I have met seem to feel that bettas can mix in community tanks, especially larger ones like a 55 gallon. Females usually mix well with anything that doesn't have flowing fins and isn't the same family of fish.

Again, that one betta was unusual and many people really have been shocked that it attacked something that doesn't resemble a betta. I still thought I'd post it as something to keep in mind, though, as it's not impossible even if not common.

Besides, gourami are also semi-aggressive. Even if he picks them, it's still aggression-balancing only this time with a much larger fish as gourami get bigger than bettas. They're the same family of fish, you know!

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>>1997752
Nutrafin Max

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Bolivian rams spawned today after a few days of courting and a cool water change. So sick had 4 for around 2 months and didn't have any pairs form, added another 2 and boom a week later

>>1993698
Toxins leeching from something? Bad water supply? Parasites? With fish it can fucking anything. I'd try a different supplier if it's feasible.

>>1995374
>flushing live fish

pretty mean to be honest anon family

>>1997752
my dandruff

just shake my head over the water and watch them go wild

>>1998122
I need to try this.

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>>1997752
Fluval flakes for most of the fish, and hikari wafers for the loaches.

The ingredients in the fluval flakes seems to be top quality. None of that corn or unsourced fish meal bullshit.

>>1998122
My scalp gets really dry in the winter, I'm sure my meme tetras will love it.

>>1998107
What lovely creatures.

FRESH BREAD

>>1998165
>>1998165
>>1998165

>>1998122
Tried this.
Ended up getting loads of hairs in the water, and then flushed into the water column by my filter outlet.
Going to have to spend time grabbing the shit out tomorrow.
Do not recommend.

>>1998188
What if you did it on a piece of paper first, picked out the hairs, then swept/dump the flakes in?

>>1998096
>Besides, gourami are also semi-aggressive.
Bettas are gourami. Gourami is also an incredibly diverse group of fish that covers hundreds of species. There's a big difference between Osphronemus goramy and Trichopsis pumila. Some don't need to be "balanced."

File: triops_1.jpg (95KB, 900x675px) Image search: [Google]

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Hey guys, I'm a college student who's not allowed to keep fish in the dorm. The caviar is though, I can keep things like triops and sea monkeys, for some reason. Do you guys have any advice for raising them and which one I should go with first (triops or sea monkeys)? I know they're easy enough but I really don't know anything about aquarium management and in the past (when I was really young) I killed them all even following the instructions.

>>1999133
Just keep a bunch of shrimp instead.