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RoboRodent posted:set up a sort of mesh fence around the frogspawn. This gets my vote, depending on the size of your pond you can get a pre-made breeding box enclosure like this Or build your own out of pvc tubing
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Apr 4, 2021 15:33
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Enos Cabell posted:This gets my vote, depending on the size of your pond you can get a pre-made breeding box enclosure like this I had thought of the mesh fence idea before but couldn't figure out how I would put up a fence and keep it tight to the edges of the pond without damaging the lining. The idea of a complete mesh box hadn't occurred to me. I'm not very good with my hands so a pre-made one like that might be just what I need. I think the idea of a nursery tank for tadpoles is a bit beyond what I would be willing to commit to.
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Apr 4, 2021 15:55
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Ok, I assume there’s no such thing as a stupid question here: My parents have had two koi in their pond for the last 15 years. They are (or rather were) huge. They usually swim around the pond near each other. We assume they’re the same sex since they’ve never laid any eggs. But, today I found one of the koi dead. The other one looks fine, it was hanging around at the opposite side of the pond as the dead one. My question is, do you think the other koi is gonna be sad that its friend is dead and its the only fish left in the pond? Should we consider getting another koi? Or is it just silly to worry about? Edit: actually, I found two dead frogs just laying intact by the side of their pond a week ago, and I wondered what had killed them. Could anything be wrong with the pond? It’s just a medium-sized backyard pond with a bubbler in it, and various animals like frogs and turtles and a few small fish other than the koi. There’s a pump to pump extra water in there that hasn’t been used in a few months. The area’s been pretty dry recently but the pond level is ok. No chemicals have been put in there. Sucrose fucked around with this message at 00:25 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 4, 2021 21:42
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Got some plants added to the frontosa lagoon this weekend. Candystarlight was nice enough to send some java moss my way, and then I picked up a few floaters and a few emersed plants at the exotic plant store in town.   And then snapped a quick pic of my silver dollars upstairs after a water change...  ...before one of my oscars got jealous of the attention 
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Apr 5, 2021 01:12
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Sucrose posted:Ok, I assume there’s no such thing as a stupid question here: I can't see any filtration listed here. I also can't see any plants listed. So, I'm not sure how the fish/turtle wastes are being dealt with in this pond. Koi are social fish but are probably too big for a medium sized backyard pond so I wouldn't recommend getting more (how big/deep is medium?). It wouldn't surprise me if something has built up in the water over time that affected the frogs, as frogs have permeable skin and I think are most likely to be sensitive. With water evaporating from the pond and only top ups (perhaps from tap water) and not actual water changes you could definitely be concentrating either waste products or chemicals that are in the source water. If you are interested in doing some testing the easiest way is probably a dip stick test as that should show ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, hardness, pH and chlorine. Wet tests where you use chemicals and test tubes are more accurate but also more expensive so it depends on how much effort you want to put into diagnosing the pond. Other things that might be present that could be harder to test for are copper or heavy metals, or pollutants carried into the pond by rainwater. It sounds like the water isn't treated by water conditioner before the pond is topped up? Assuming the dead frogs are a red herring the other thing I can think of that would affect big fish before smaller fish, and not affect turtles at all, is water oxygenation levels. Without significant water movement at the surface, the oxygen exchange between the atmosphere and the water is hampered. A single bubbler is possibly not enough. Do you have any pictures of the pond, or any more info about how deep it is and approximately how much water the pond holds? Edit to add: my mum also has a pond, a relatively tiny fibreglass shell pond with 11 goldfish in. For a long time she wasn't filtering or aerating it at all, no water changes and only top ups with rain water, and I think the only reason the fish survived at all was the 2/3 pond coverage with water lilies and other submerged pond plants. I managed to convince her to run a canister filter which she has turned on only during the day and which she cleans frequently so that's at least acting as mechanical waste removal. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 10:20 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 5, 2021 09:57
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Oh nooo, one of my rasbora laterastriata was floating dead today, looking very much like he'd smacked his head on the lid or tank walls, and watching the tank I'm seeing my big rasbora cephalotaenia throwing his weight around, herding rasboras and tetras. Makes me wonder if the random dead rainbow I had a little while ago was another casualty of bullying. I haven't seen r. ceph nipping fins but he's definitely big enough and fast enough that he could be causing the others to panic jump. Seriously considering moving him to one of my 4 foot tanks to give the other fish some peace, I think he is fine with fish half his size but the r.lats are getting closer to his size and inhabit the same level of the tank as him so they're drawing his ire. I want to move the rainbows I'm growing into this 5 foot tank sooner or later so probably for the best that this big guy is gone or he'll likely kill them too. edit: well that was painless, he pretty much swam into the net by himself, I moved him to the red-sided barb/sterbai tank and he's now calmly patrolling the top half of the tank, like a king surveying his much smaller peons, meanwhile the rainbows and smaller rasboras are schooling happily and undisturbed in the other tank. Looks like he really only gets aggro at similarly sized fish. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 14:52 on Apr 5, 2021 |
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Apr 5, 2021 14:31
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Kinda off topic but still fish related, Joel Sartore is a really awesome photographer from my town who I met a few years back while he was doing a shoot in my old neighborhood LFS. He started a project a few years back with National Geographic called the Photo Ark where he and his team are documenting as many animals as they possibly can. They just launched the Video Ark on YouTube, and there is a whole section for fish with some amazing macro videos. Highly recommend checking it out! https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLZ79eGPjuh5-Ns3BO_eHQbJFwZSmAigPf
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Apr 5, 2021 14:58
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Enos Cabell posted:Kinda off topic but still fish related, Joel Sartore is a really awesome photographer from my town who I met a few years back while he was doing a shoot in my old neighborhood LFS. He started a project a few years back with National Geographic called the Photo Ark where he and his team are documenting as many animals as they possibly can. They just launched the Video Ark on YouTube, and there is a whole section for fish with some amazing macro videos. Highly recommend checking it out! Wow, thanks for sharing. Criminally underviewed stuff right there.
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Apr 5, 2021 15:23
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Stoca Zola posted:I can't see any filtration listed here. I also can't see any plants listed. So, I'm not sure how the fish/turtle wastes are being dealt with in this pond. Koi are social fish but are probably too big for a medium sized backyard pond so I wouldn't recommend getting more (how big/deep is medium?). It wouldn't surprise me if something has built up in the water over time that affected the frogs, as frogs have permeable skin and I think are most likely to be sensitive. With water evaporating from the pond and only top ups (perhaps from tap water) and not actual water changes you could definitely be concentrating either waste products or chemicals that are in the source water. If you are interested in doing some testing the easiest way is probably a dip stick test as that should show ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels, hardness, pH and chlorine. Wet tests where you use chemicals and test tubes are more accurate but also more expensive so it depends on how much effort you want to put into diagnosing the pond. Other things that might be present that could be harder to test for are copper or heavy metals, or pollutants carried into the pond by rainwater. It sounds like the water isn't treated by water conditioner before the pond is topped up? The Koi were fine in the pond for 15 years. It's big enough that we've never fed them. I think far more could probably comfortably live there, especially if we fed them, but there's always been only two.The water is just from a well. I guess my main question is the social aspect. There's probably nothing wrong with the pond itself, or if there is I'd never be able to guess it. Is the remaining koi going to get horribly lonely now that there's just one? I came back to the pond later and the living koi was sitting right next to the dead one's body, I don't know if that means it's sad or it means it doesn't care in the slightest.
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Apr 5, 2021 18:26
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Koi are absolutely social fish, your surviving koi might not do well alone especially if its pondmates are small enough that it doesn't really notice them. Maybe my interpretation of medium pond is very different to yours but I still think a populated pond should have intentional filtration. Well water can carry nitrates and other pollutants from the water table and pond plants or emersed plants at the edges are a good way to consume these. Here's my point of reference for Koi keeping: https://youtu.be/2BYHGfLyz0k This guy rambles on a bit but he gives a bit of info on the size and water volume of his pond, you can see how many koi he has and how they move together in the water, how much he feeds them, and although he doesn't really point it out you can see his cut in half IBC diy filtration that he moves water through. He has elephant ears growing in his filter which are part of the filtration and he uses airlifts to move the water out of the filter and back into his pond. I watch a couple of other pond keepers and they all have lots of water movement, filtration, plants, and multiple koi. They all also feed their koi pellets and do maintenance on their ponds. I guess it's up to you, it might be better to let your solo koi live out the rest of its days if you don't want to be in the business of providing a home for multiple koi. They're supposed to live 30 or so years so it's not a small undertaking.
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Apr 5, 2021 19:05
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The survivor will probably be fine. But you may want to remove the body before it starts to decay.
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Apr 5, 2021 19:11
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Sucrose posted:The Koi were fine in the pond for 15 years. It's big enough that we've never fed them. I think far more could probably comfortably live there, especially if we fed them, but there's always been only two.The water is just from a well. Why are you so sure there's nothing wrong with the pond, and why aren't you interested in addressing that?
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Apr 5, 2021 20:17
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RoboRodent posted:Why are you so sure there's nothing wrong with the pond, and why aren't you interested in addressing that? well you see, a fish that commonly lives between five and ten+ decades lived for fifteen years before dying of unknown causes so
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Apr 5, 2021 20:40
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Sucrose posted:There's probably nothing wrong with the pond itself, or if there is I'd never be able to guess it.
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Apr 5, 2021 21:07
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The shrimp are everywhere, they've taken over the hang on back filter.
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Apr 7, 2021 19:47
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The Aquarium Thread: The shrimp are everywhere, they've taken over the hang on back filter
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Apr 9, 2021 01:05
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Stoca Zola posted:Koi are absolutely social fish, your surviving koi might not do well alone especially if its pondmates are small enough that it doesn't really notice them. Maybe my interpretation of medium pond is very different to yours but I still think a populated pond should have intentional filtration. Well water can carry nitrates and other pollutants from the water table and pond plants or emersed plants at the edges are a good way to consume these. Oh yeah this is an entirely different kind of pond. My mom lives in rural western Michigan, the pond and other ponds around here are more like the pond in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXYGkkrkvlQ. Usually nothing is done to maintain them, they just exist. RoboRodent posted:Why are you so sure there's nothing wrong with the pond, and why aren't you interested in addressing that? It's a pond that was originally just a pond in the corner of some farmer's field, with nothing done to maintain it. It was gradually getting shallower though, so my dad had it dug out and installed a bubbler and a pump that pumps water into it if you turn it on. My dad unexpectedly passed away in January. I don't really know how to take care of his pond, but I don't think he did anything to it other than turn the pump on once and a while to keep the water level high. I have no idea what could have killed the koi, I'm mainly concerned about the surviving one; if it will be just fine on its own or if we ought to buy another koi to keep it company. Though, I have no idea what sex the koi in the pond is, and accidentally putting an opposite sex one in and ending up with a million more koi in the pond would definitely not be ideal. Sucrose fucked around with this message at 17:28 on Apr 9, 2021 |
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Apr 9, 2021 17:01
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Sucrose posted:Oh yeah this is an entirely different kind of pond. My mom lives in rural western Michigan, the pond and other ponds around here are more like the pond in this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hXYGkkrkvlQ. Usually nothing is done to maintain them, they just exist. Oh they would eat likely all the eggs way more they hatched, if that helps at all.
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Apr 10, 2021 02:21
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So, the bubbler is also going to aerate and oxygenate the water. A vitally important thing to both Fish health, and bacterial health. Without a healthy bacteria ecosystem, the pond is going to fill with decaying matter and toxic nitrates are going to build up. This can also impact vegetation that serves to filter out some of the nitrates. Test your water. There is absolutely no reason not to. Ponds in nature easily turn into rancid cesspools without a source of fresh water and oxygen. Just because its big doesn't really make this different. Its pretty hard to offer any kind of advice without knowing what the water conditions are, something killed the koi, and a $10-20 test kit would probably give you an answer.
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Apr 10, 2021 03:38
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So I posted picters of my fish and an old friend wants me to now take care of his fish while he was moving - I agreed because he took my neons when I was moving and will put them into my 29 gallon tank. His options before me were some other person that he knows and craigslist. I said come to me before craigslist. anyway one is a gourami:  and the other is a chinese algea eater.  Is there anything special I need for these guy other that tubifex, bloodworms and tetramin topical crisps to take care of them? - I have never liked chinese algaea eaters because of them sucking off slime coats of other fish but I can not say no if I am needed. Edit: I have a 29 g tank that I have been getting ready incase I need to take those cute buggers. nunsexmonkrock fucked around with this message at 01:03 on Apr 11, 2021 |
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Apr 11, 2021 01:01
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nunsexmonkrock posted:So I posted picters of my fish and an old friend wants me to now take care of his fish while he was moving - I agreed because he took my neons when I was moving and will put them into my 29 gallon tank. His options before me were some other person that he knows and craigslist. I said come to me before craigslist. Warning about Chinese algae eaters....they're sons of bitches. The ones I had used to haraass all my fish and even ate the fins off of my albino cory. One hosed with my gourami who was like 5 times his size and got fuckin killed but yeah. Chinese algae eaters r mean as gently caress once they hit about 1 to 1 and half inch. They get a taste for protein around then and they love fish slime coat
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Apr 11, 2021 22:36
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I got off my rear end and put a tadpole nursery in at the edge of my pond as suggested. Pics below.  
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Apr 12, 2021 19:25
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Hammerite posted:I got off my rear end and put a tadpole nursery in at the edge of my pond as suggested. Pics below. That's awesome! My dad and I hatched tadpoles in a bucket with an airstone when I was a kid. They're so much fun to watch develop. Maybe I missed it, but any idea what kind of frog they'll become? I finally had my first anubias bloom. I assume that means it's happy with water conditions. Managed to snap one of everything in the tank too. 
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Apr 12, 2021 22:14
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Schwack posted:That's awesome! My dad and I hatched tadpoles in a bucket with an airstone when I was a kid. They're so much fun to watch develop. Maybe I missed it, but any idea what kind of frog they'll become? I know very little. Actually I am sadly pretty ignorant of the biology of just about everything in the pond. I saw one frog on a couple of occasions this year. On one occasion it was at the bottom of the pond. On the other it was on the shelf around the edge of the pond and it dived to the bottom when I approached. I couldn't tell you what species of frog it was because I don't know frogs. I don't believe there are any frogs that permanently make my pond their home, because I never see any other than around springtime. So the frogspawn is from a species that roams to lay eggs. I would guess it's https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_frog just because I don't know any better
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Apr 13, 2021 10:29
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Could also be a toad, if they're not hanging out in the water. Toads are cool. Edit: oh wait, I think toads lay eggs in long strings, so maybe not. RoboRodent fucked around with this message at 15:18 on Apr 13, 2021 |
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Apr 13, 2021 15:15
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pepperchomp posted:Warning about Chinese algae eaters....they're sons of bitches. The ones I had used to haraass all my fish and even ate the fins off of my albino cory. One hosed with my gourami who was like 5 times his size and got fuckin killed but yeah. Chinese algae eaters r mean as gently caress once they hit about 1 to 1 and half inch. They get a taste for protein around then and they love fish slime coat I told him those things like to eat the slime coats off of other fishie and are agressive, he told me he has never seen it do it to the gourami. But I still have to take them if the first person on the list can't.
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Apr 13, 2021 17:26
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I’ve got too many guppies and it’s so frustrating. I finally separated most of the males to a smaller tank and assumed, incorrectly it would appear, that the large community tank which includes 3 pea puffer murder beans would take care of any fry that might still appear. Today I spotted 3 new babies that are at least 2 weeks old. I’m tapped out on space. The tank is already at like 125% capacity and surviving only because I’ve doubled the filtration capacity and it’s heavily planted. I guess since I only see 3 babies, most of the fry were eaten. I will try cut back on feeding and see if life, um...finds a way. Guppies. What the gently caress was I thinking.
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Apr 13, 2021 20:00
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The Dark Souls of fish.
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Apr 13, 2021 20:38
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My husband told me he is scared to put his hand in the tank because he is afraid of getting stung (It's just a Betta). Because it's the reason he is scared of the ocean - jelly fish. But - I put a fake jellfish into the tank to scare him even more. - Am I an rear end in a top hat? - Yes I am.
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Apr 14, 2021 02:34
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He'd have a panic attack during Oscar feeding time! Those suckers have drawn blood when I was careless.
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Apr 14, 2021 02:38
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I was rarely afraid of feeding the redbellied piranha when I worked at the zoo. Now the electric eel, on the other hand...or the dragon moray, gently caress that noise, the tongs were a foot long.
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Apr 14, 2021 05:16
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Most piranha are chill until there's blood in the water. Then, all the frenzy starts. The eels can be pretty wily and clever. Also, electric. I know at least one fish zaps with an amp. Working at the zoo sounds really awesome.
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Apr 14, 2021 05:58
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Meanest fish I ever had were a pair of tomato clownfish, they would attack my hand constantly any time it was in the tank. Definitely made up for in ferocity what they lacked in size.
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Apr 14, 2021 13:33
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^ I believe it. The only thing I ever hear about Tomato clowns is that they are jerks. My black and white clowns bite me constantly when I'm working in the tank. Most painful bite I got was from an adult convict cichlid that was guarding eggs, that one drew blood. The other day my triggerfish surprised me with a bite while I was adjusting the feeder ring in tank but had a cube of frozen mysis in my hand so it was definitely on me. He's only the size of an egg now, but it was still enough to get my attention. I definitely need to keep an eye on him when I'm working on the tank and pick up a pair of feeding tongs.
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Apr 14, 2021 15:14
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Aerofallosov posted:Most piranha are chill until there's blood in the water. Then, all the frenzy starts. The eels can be pretty wily and clever. Also, electric. I know at least one fish zaps with an amp. Working at the zoo sounds really awesome. I'm not too sure about the blood thing, and I only ever worked with red bellies, the black diamond and black rhombus are supposed to be a lot more aggressive. I do know that the red belly piranha were pretty intelligent compared to most other tetras. Unfortunately the zoo was infested with wild scorpions, bark scorpions and oftentimes they would get into the tanks despite my best efforts. Lungfish would grab and eat them right off, and be killed within seconds usually, but most of the cichlids we had on display had learned after watching a tankmate die from poking or eating one. Red belly piranhas were the same, we had a school where one scorpion fell into the tank and one piranha ate it, died as a result, and after that the other piranha would not eat any scorpions that fell on the tank, and believe me I found several of them just chilling in the water because it's hard to kill those bastards, and for good while they also would not eat any scorpion-shaped food, like raw shrimp. But that did make it easy to get them on to pellets!
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Apr 14, 2021 16:03
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a scorpion-infested zoo 
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Apr 14, 2021 16:18
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Ok Comboomer posted:a scorpion-infested zoo It SOUNDS cool, but you can only be rocked like a hurricane so many times before it becomes tedious.
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Apr 14, 2021 22:42
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Cowslips Warren posted:I'm not too sure about the blood thing, and I only ever worked with red bellies, the black diamond and black rhombus are supposed to be a lot more aggressive. I do know that the red belly piranha were pretty intelligent compared to most other tetras. Unfortunately the zoo was infested with wild scorpions, bark scorpions and oftentimes they would get into the tanks despite my best efforts. Lungfish would grab and eat them right off, and be killed within seconds usually, but most of the cichlids we had on display had learned after watching a tankmate die from poking or eating one. Red belly piranhas were the same, we had a school where one scorpion fell into the tank and one piranha ate it, died as a result, and after that the other piranha would not eat any scorpions that fell on the tank, and believe me I found several of them just chilling in the water because it's hard to kill those bastards, and for good while they also would not eat any scorpion-shaped food, like raw shrimp. But that did make it easy to get them on to pellets! I feel like Oscars would never learn despite being really smart fish. They just love eating too much. I read that you don't even need to bait your hook to catch them in Florida, they just go after the hook.
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Apr 14, 2021 22:55
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:I feel like Oscars would never learn despite being really smart fish. They just love eating too much. I read that you don't even need to bait your hook to catch them in Florida, they just go after the hook. I 110% believe that
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Apr 15, 2021 00:45
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We lost probably 2-3 lungfish to scorpions in the few years I was there. They just have that feeding response.
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Apr 15, 2021 02:13
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