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From my understanding, otos are still largely wild caught. They may have parasites, they may be stressed from shipping and thus not eating, and if they go too long without eating the bacteria in their gut dies off and they pretty much can't digest food any more anyway after that. They might not know how to eat prepared food and they aren't actually eating the algae itself in most cases - they're eating the periphyton that grows on the algae. That means they need a mature tank with lots of surfaces to graze on, and they will go through any of the soft edible algae in the first day or two. If feeding veg, it has to be partially cooked and maybe even left in the tank a couple of days before its soft/slimy enough for otos to be interested in it. I've seen a youtube video of someone who managed to get otos to breed in captivity and wanted to try for myself but the otos I bought for that project slowly died off until I had only 5 of them left - I have had those in my 5 foot tank for a couple of years now which is covered in algae. There is a piece of driftwood which is like a bright green lawn of algae and I see otos munching away on that quite often but the algae doesn't go away, it's just a surface where food collects for them. I would say it's a mistake to characterise otos as "easy suckerfish", those are chinese or siamese algae eaters which are big tough fish with versatile eating habits. Or bristlenoses which will readily eat prepared food once any algae is gone. Otos I think are much more specialist when it comes to feeding, although when established they aren't super delicate. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QrvIiC0KX0g
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Jun 19, 2020 09:32
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I spilled a bit of prime when putting in my tank. The smell. It never goes away. I got my kubotai rasboras. I love these little green dudes. I may add a few more in. Are ricefish good tankmates for gobies+chill rasbora? Definitely gonna get some scrimps at some point.
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Jun 19, 2020 09:48
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Eikre posted:I'd like the water to be well-aerated for his comfort, but, like... He's a labyrinth fish. They literally breathe air. Every time I go through this thread I learn again how little I know about this hobby. To whoever told me to fully cover my inlet, thank you, I did so immediately. A bonus is sometimes my Apple snail will crawl up and graze off the sponge. I did another big water change to my 29g as nitrates were spiking. This time I kept my Fantail in as I was worried removing would stress them out. Surprisingly they left my Ghost shrimp alone for the most part, I did a rough count and they were around how many I've added but some were definitely born in the tank so I guess they are able to maintain their population at least. It's possible the lost shrimp were due to my uncovered filter but assuming the Fantail ate some is there anything I should be doing to account for that with regards to feeding? I caught my Fantail diving between a decoration and internal filter then get stuck underneath the decoration. I previously thought they're aggression was about trying to get at my shrimp but I'm wondering if it might have been because I had blocked off both back corners. Since I have rearranged my tank to keep most of the walls and corners clear they seem calmer.
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Jun 19, 2020 09:49
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Stoca Zola posted:From my understanding, otos are still largely wild caught. They may have parasites, they may be stressed from shipping and thus not eating, and if they go too long without eating the bacteria in their gut dies off and they pretty much can't digest food any more anyway after that. They might not know how to eat prepared food and they aren't actually eating the algae itself in most cases - they're eating the periphyton that grows on the algae. That means they need a mature tank with lots of surfaces to graze on, and they will go through any of the soft edible algae in the first day or two. If feeding veg, it has to be partially cooked and maybe even left in the tank a couple of days before its soft/slimy enough for otos to be interested in it. I have blanched veggies a couple of times for the snails, so I will try it for the ottos too. Maybe that will help in the short term.
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Jun 19, 2020 17:20
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I remember seeing it at the end of the video I posted but I forgot to actually edit it into my post - a feeding method that did work fairly well for me was the repashy rock method. Repashy Soilent Green, poured in a thin layer on a rock and allowed to cool, and then set in the tank and the otos will find it and hopefully work out what to do with it, since its much closer to natural feeding than an algae disk or whatever. It's hard to get the consistency right or to get it to stay stuck to the rock but it might work for you. The trouble is snails and shrimp are smarter at it than otos so they might eat it all before the otos get there!
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Jun 19, 2020 17:53
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I was planning on some otos but so far my tank hasn't been the massive algae farm I was expecting. Will see if that continues long term.
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Jun 19, 2020 20:42
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My snail is an interesting fellow. He likes going to the bubble bar, sitting in bubbles. Granted, I'd probably do the same if I were a snail because he's probably giggling while being tickled. The kubotai are chill and I love 'em. My gobies are coming out a little more. I intend to get a few more kubotai to make a slightly bigger swarm. I suspect if I get shrimp, snails and whatever (maybe a third kind of fish?), having cories might put too much pressure on the grazers. Also, never spill a cap of Prime. Blech. It is STILL stinky.
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Jun 20, 2020 04:45
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That reminds me I keep meaning to grab an air pump to get some aeration going and not doing it. Doesn't really matter til I've got livestock I guess.
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Jun 20, 2020 04:50
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Aerofallosov posted:My snail is an interesting fellow. He likes going to the bubble bar, sitting in bubbles. Granted, I'd probably do the same if I were a snail because he's probably giggling while being tickled. Best part about nano tanks is I just drop in 3-5 prime drops per water change and can use the small bottles. My tank was super overgrown, cut things back and replanted, gave the substrate a really good siphoning as I had serious buildup of diatom algae. I still kinda want a better filter than the cobalt clearvue 3 one that came with the tank. Are the HOB filters really that noisy?
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Jun 20, 2020 16:31
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Ok Comboomer posted:Might be too late for the cyphastrea tho. I continue to pray for its return, but now the shaded parts that were looking ok yesterday are starting to decline. I may have spoken too soon on counting the cyphastrea out. In the four days since this post, the cracked exposed bits of skeleton have largely been recovered over with flesh. It’s actually kind of amazing, there’s been visible regrowth over the course of hours in a day. Areas that were bare or open in the morning, filled in by late afternoon. The polyps still look super sad up top—but, critically, they’re there. Obviously don’t want to start celebrating before it truly bounces back, and there’s the lesson that healthy corals (and tanks) can fluctuate or crash at any moment if you get lazy. Color’s definitely not optimal and it looks like it’s going to need at least a couple of weeks to really get back to health. But I’m no longer expecting to replace it outright. I’m super impressed with how dynamic these animals are and it’s been a lot of fun setting this tank up and managing them. A+, would highly recommend to any fish/tank keeper.
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Jun 22, 2020 11:31
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If I ever take on another tank I feel like a 20 or 29 with clownfish would be super neat.
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Jun 22, 2020 20:39
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Resting Lich Face posted:If I ever take on another tank I feel like a 20 or 29 with clownfish would be super neat. I've got a Waterbox 20 with two clowns, a six line wrasse and cleaner shrimp. Very easy to take care of and they're all really fun to watch. Except one of the clowns is a dick and bites me every time I put my hand in the tank. It usually scares me and I end up with water everywhere.
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Jun 23, 2020 15:15
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My black and white clownfish bite the bejesus out of me whenever I am cleaning the tank. The peppermint shrimp just wants to sit on my hand  In case this place explodes other aquarium fish forums that are decent imho are reef2reef and planetcatfish. Reefcentral can be very unwelcoming to people that ask what they feel to be dumb questions so protect ya neck, but they have some knowledgeable people. Reef2reef is much friendlier in my experience.
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Jun 25, 2020 00:39
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:My black and white clownfish bite the bejesus out of me whenever I am cleaning the tank. The peppermint shrimp just wants to sit on my hand Space Chief Reef2Reef
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Jun 25, 2020 01:02
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Bulky Bartokomous posted:In case this place explodes Oh, so that's happening. Thanks for the heads up
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Jun 25, 2020 01:16
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Is there a PI-specific Discord yet? Maybe one in the SA Discord network omnibus thing?
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Jun 25, 2020 01:26
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It's been ages since I posted since I mostly lurk now, but I figured I'd share a couple of things before the fires burn everything down. So, the two goldfish fry that survived have grown up quite a lot. This photo is... a couple of months old and before I moved them into the larger 350 litre tank. I'd take a more recent one but it's too dark now. Anyway, the small one on the right is older than them and was only put in temporarily. The two no-longer-fry are the ones in the centre. They've been kinda great and get along with all the other fish well, but I've noticed they tend to stick together a lot. During feeds, it's funny because they're polite and wait for either of the other to eat, but they absolutely show no respect for the others when it comes to food. They behave otherwise. I love them a lot and I'm glad they survived. fwiw the tank is larger than it looks in that photo (the filter is in the middle) but they absolutely outgrew it quicker than the other goldfish did and I was not prepared for that.  And here's another photo since she was kind of hidden behind her brother(?). Honestly still not sure which fed bred and these two were 3 - 4 weeks apart, so that'll be a mystery forever. The white not-fry ended up being called Ghost. They're more transparent than the photo makes them look. The black not-fry is Pepper. (And the older, slightly deformed guy is River). Anyway, in case SA isn't salvaged, this thread was great. Thanks to everyone for the support they offered when I suddenly found myself adopting some fish. It was super stressful and scary, and the first two deaths were pretty traumatic, but everyone in here helped me out and I owe the thread for my buddies still being alive today. You're all appreciated a lot. And to close out, here's some pictures of the older adults.  Lemon  Goji  Rin and Blueberry  Lotus Thanks again everyone. Hopefully we'll have an alternative soon.
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Jun 25, 2020 01:42
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Hadlock posted:Oh, so that's happening. Thanks for the heads up I don’t have any inside information or anything like that, just going by what I’m seeing on other forums.
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Jun 25, 2020 01:51
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I love goldfish. So much personality. But sadly, I cannot because a tank for them would cause some damage to the floor.  I really like my gobies and rasboras. The Kubotai are green and totally neat. They don't kick the gobies around. I sometimes frequent plantedtank.net's forums.
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Jun 25, 2020 05:06
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I know it's reddit but r/aquariums and r/plantedtank are pretty decent.
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Jun 25, 2020 06:17
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When the ice caps melt we'll all float together again
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Jun 25, 2020 06:22
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Ok Comboomer posted:Space Chief Reef2Reef I think I’m Humuhumu Fan but I just locked myself out trying to login. It’s something like that though.
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Jun 25, 2020 12:05
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Looks like we're staying! I may add some more kubotai, since I love the little neon boogers. I'm super tempted by the galaxy danios, but they don't like fast flowing water like my gobinators do. Probably gonna get some chili or phoenix rasboras or a white neon tetra with the golden tail patch. But I have to be patient, since I don't wanna annihilate the bio balance. I also kinda wanna add a moss mat.
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Jun 28, 2020 09:32
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Hello Aquagoons, small intro post, excuse typos and lack of pics, phoneposting from work while bored. About three months ago my partner and I adopted a pair of abandoned terrapins (red eared and painted), aprox 2-3 years old. They were in a lovely plant pot converted into a small pond type thing, with not even enough dry space to dry out. I dug out my old and unused 100L fishtank from my Dads, and converted it for turtle use (as I had once done years ago when younger). At first they had a driftwood log to bask on, but we then upgraded to to a custom built acrylic basking spot sitting over the aquarium, so we could raise the water level a further 2 inches or so and have more space for the heatlamp by fully removing the top cover. While at the LFS getting tank supplies we saw some Amanos, and thought, eh why not. Tank maintinace at best, expensive turtle snack at worst. Most of the shrimp survived 6 weeks in and really grew on us, one was berried even, and we tried to raise the fry. Sadly we lost them at the two week mark, in the salt tank. Still not sure why but it seems to be a common thing with raising amano fry. Second attempt didnt even make it a week. Hoping third time is the charm with different water parameters. Anyway, back to the adult shrimp. We lost a few, and at a point from our original 5 only 1 ("Zoopy") remained visible daily. As luck would have it, we found two more hiding in the filter during a clean, and man they were deeep blue (stressed). Since we grew so attached we set up a separate 11L planted shrimp tank for them and got them some more friends. Currently at 7 Amanos and 4 Blue cherries (Cherries were my idea to add more life in and make the amanos less shy while not overstocking the tank, and it worked great). They are doing great now. Photos coming soon. Now, back to the terrapins. In the future we hope to get a 7-800L tank to properly house the terrapins when they continue growing to their full size. We'd also like to plant it in there, and a partition in the tank for more delicate plants (turtles are monsters), and to keep the shrimp in without the risk of them being turtle chow. Given they did fine in turtle water for 6 weeks, I don't expect water parameters to be an issue. Has anyone done anything like this before? Is it a fool's dream? Will the shrimp unionize and force us into bankrupcy? We got a free plant trimming from a friend, and sure enough a week later I saw a bladder snail. I attempted to catch it and failed as it was tiny. After a few days it vanished though and I am very suspicious.
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Jun 28, 2020 13:21
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Aerofallosov posted:I'm super tempted by the galaxy danios, but they don't like fast flowing water like my gobinators do. . If you change your mind let me know. I'm breeding them
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Jun 28, 2020 16:05
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I don’t like putting turtles in clear tanks. Tanks are very good at holding humidity in and it’s very difficult to create the proper wet/dry division between the land/bask and water. Turts need that or else they can develop respiratory/eye/skin/shell/bone infections, in very roughly that order. Also they never really adjust super well to glass, and you’ll see a way calmer and more naturally-behaving animal in an opaque-sided container like a stock tank, artificial pond, or Waterland tub. Stock tanks/tubs are good and cheap, Waterland tubs are excellent (the gold standard) but pricey. Neither is very attractive in a home but I’ve seen people do cool stuff with carpentry to disguise them. If you’re handy at making plywood/fiberglass tanks, I’ve also seen people make their own Waterland clones and they can look much nicer made of wood, but then good luck moving the thing. Of course, that’s really a consideration for when they’re fully grown. I keep two juvenile Eastern Painteds in individual 25 gal tupperwares from Home Depot and they work great. Also they can’t be terrapins (and if they aren’t terrapins DEFINITELY DO NOT keep them in brackish water, fresh only. Also terrapins are illegal to collect/keep without a license in many states because they’re protected)- I’m assuming you’re talking about a red eared slider (Trachemys sp.) and a painted turtle (Chrysemis sp.) of some varietal. They’re both awesome species to keep and generally super chill but they will need a lot of space (and a lot of filtration) to thrive as they get bigger. How big are they now? As they age, look for signs of aggression- this can be due to territoriality, predation, or even a misguided drive to mate. If one turtle repeatedly harasses the other, separate them quickly. Otherwise, it will lead to a horrible injury (turtle beaks are sharp and they can easily take chunks out of one another) and/or death by exhaustion or drowning. Don’t think that animals displaying cage aggression will ever grow out of it or stop. By the time your turts reach adulthood you will really want to know what sex they are, there are many easy ways to figure that out (don’t go prodding a turtle’s cloaca unless you’re a vet). Sometimes a male turtle might stick his dong out momentarily and scratch it or w/e and that’s a pretty easy way to tell. If the dong is out a lot, or continuously, or it looks bad in some way, and/or the turtle seems really upset and agitated about it (furiously scratching at it with hind limbs, etc) that’s an immediate vet visit. Female adult turtles may ovulate in spring and they may become egg bound and die if they can’t release those eggs. It is now becoming known that many female turts won’t release their eggs if they can’t dig a nest—they’ll get really agitated when the eggs are coming and furiously try to dig out of their enclosure to find dry dirt. There are lots of DIY hacks to put a nesting box on a tank, but to me that’s where the Waterland tub really shines, as the “land” portion is designed to be filled with dirt and nested in if so desired. Finally, these are both North American turts and they will be primed to hibernate. Read up on that and decide if hibernation is right for you. It might just mean dimming the lights and not feeding for a bit. There’s also a lot of spirited debate about whether turts who are allowed to hibernate live longer/better, whether hibernation induces ovulation (and whether stopping it is a good method to keep your females from ovulating and potentially becoming eggbound) and so on. There’s a lot we’re still learning about keeping aquatic turtles in particular. It’s very easy to keep these guys alive from infancy to 10-20 years and very difficult to keep them alive and thriving from 20-however long they really live. We actually don’t know, for the aforementioned reasons (it was a super common thing back in the day for perfectly healthy tank-raised adult females to drop dead in their 20s and now we know that eggbinding is a big cause of that). Good luck and join us in the Herp Thread! Many such turtle goons in there!
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Jun 28, 2020 19:50
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Ok Comboomer posted:I don’t like putting turtles in clear tanks. Tanks are very good at holding humidity in and it’s very difficult to create the proper wet/dry division between the land/bask and water. Possibly I was bad at explaining the tank set up. It is a 100L glass aquarium, with no lid, filled to within a few cms of the top, low enough so no one can climb out. There is has a ramp leading out onto an acrylic-walled box type dealie which acts as the basking spot that is suspended above the aquarium. Basking spot has bamboo as the flooring material, aquarium has sand as the substrate. It is open out the top and the side that leads to the ramp. They have a heat lamp and UV lamp and get all the proper basking/drying out time they want. The basking area also has a bit of a privacy curtain in the form of a section of opaque sheet. quote:Also they never really adjust super well to glass, and you’ll see a way calmer and more naturally-behaving animal in an opaque-sided container like a stock tank, artificial pond, or Waterland tub. Stock tanks/tubs are good and cheap, Waterland tubs are excellent (the gold standard) but pricey. Neither is very attractive in a home but I’ve seen people do cool stuff with carpentry to disguise them. If you’re handy at making plywood/fiberglass tanks, I’ve also seen people make their own Waterland clones and they can look much nicer made of wood, but then good luck moving the thing. We'll keep this in mind, although they seem pretty chill, until they see someone near the drawer where they know we keep the snacks, in which case they enter full begging mode (they don't usually get anything though, last thing we want is obese turts). They also get spooked about half the time whenever any major movements are made while they are basking, but they generally climb right back up within a few minutes. They have a nice bit of driftwood in the water that divides up the tank, and provides a small arch for them to hide behind or under, which they enjoy doing. quote:Also they can’t be terrapins (and if they aren’t terrapins DEFINITELY DO NOT keep them in brackish water, fresh only. Also terrapins are illegal to collect/keep without a license in many states because they’re protected)- I’m assuming you’re talking about a red eared slider (Trachemys sp.) and a painted turtle (Chrysemis sp.) of some varietal. I've seen 'turtle' and 'terrapin' used interchangeably for Red Eared Sliders/Turtles/Whatever else people call them, I wasn't aware it refers to a specific species. But I'm also not in the states. Yes, best we can ID they are a red eared slider male, and yellow belly slider female (Sorry, mis-remembered, initially when we first got them we were told she was a painted turtle, but we re-ID'd her as a YBS). At no point did I mean to imply they were kept in salt water, that is part of the shrimp fry growth stage due to them washing out to sea before then swimming back upstream when they grow enough. The shrimp growth tank is a separate 3L tank. They are approximately 5 inches measured along the top of the shell, front to back. Here's a photo from months ago when they were still in the transport tub;  quote:-snip- This still leaves me the question, how possible (even if unpractical) would it be to have a partitioned tank, with turtles on one side, and plants/shrimp on the other, and using the plants to keep the water conditioned? I mean, there'd be a massive filter of course. An photo offering of some of our Amanos poking out of their favorite hollow rock in their 11L shrimp tank. Amanos have such cute little faces.
N17R4M fucked around with this message at 23:11 on Jun 28, 2020 |
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Jun 28, 2020 23:06
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N17R4M posted:Possibly I was bad at explaining the tank set up. It is a 100L glass aquarium, with no lid, filled to within a few cms of the top, low enough so no one can climb out. There is has a ramp leading out onto an acrylic-walled box type dealie which acts as the basking spot that is suspended above the aquarium. Basking spot has bamboo as the flooring material, aquarium has sand as the substrate. It is open out the top and the side that leads to the ramp. They have a heat lamp and UV lamp and get all the proper basking/drying out time they want. The basking area also has a bit of a privacy curtain in the form of a section of opaque sheet. Where do you live? I’ve partitioned tanks with single juvenile turts with those plastic inserts and kept feeder fish on the other and it was fine, I don’t love it because the divider tends to keep the filter side much cleaner than the non. With two turtles, and given how big they may get I wouldn’t do it. Think about where they live in the wild. Turtles are the sort of animal that will use every inch of space it can get, so always try to make their enclosure as big as possible for the space it has to occupy/role it has to fill in your home, don’t make it smaller.
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Jun 29, 2020 01:57
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N17R4M posted:An photo offering of some of our Amanos poking out of their favorite hollow rock in their 11L shrimp tank. Thank you for this - they're adorable.
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Jun 29, 2020 04:48
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Ok Comboomer posted:Where do you live? Southern Europe in the Mediterranean. The tank we'd like to get would be 700-800L (180-210gal), if not a bit more, the tanks sold here at that size all have two filters.
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Jun 29, 2020 09:03
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So the magnet mount on my Hydor 3G has cracked and is rusting, and now my powerhead is flailing around the tank when the controller shuts it on and off. Needless to say I just unplugged it for now. I was going to order another Hydor, but not the 3G, the older Evolution style but when I was getting ready to order I found a slew of negative reviews about Hydor pumps cracking and leaking current into the tank. I've owned several Hydors through the years and never had an issue but now I'm not sure I want to risk them.  I was thinking about upgrading to CurrentUSA pumps to work with my Loop controller but the reviews on CurrentUSAs pumps are even worse. Tunze looks like a very proven candidate but they apparently don't work well with Hydor Smart Wave, which I've been very happy with. I'd like to just get another Hydor but I'm worried about electrocuting my fish (and myself) and now I don't know what to do.
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Jul 2, 2020 19:16
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I've noticed AquaOne sell a grounding probe which would protect you and your tank if anything did break and leak voltage into your tank, although not sure exactly if it does anything to notify you that there is a problem. Might be worth a look if you can find a replacement mounting magnet and want to keep using the same Hydor?
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Jul 3, 2020 05:13
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Stoca Zola posted:I've noticed AquaOne sell a grounding probe which would protect you and your tank if anything did break and leak voltage into your tank, although not sure exactly if it does anything to notify you that there is a problem. Might be worth a look if you can find a replacement mounting magnet and want to keep using the same Hydor? Interesting but half the outlets in my house are 2 prong, much less have a safety switch. The only outlet in my house with a safety switch is the one in my bathroom. Someone on Reef2Reef suggested I check out Rossmont. The story goes the company was started by Hydor engineers that got sick of being overruled by accountants when they wanted to make the products better. Color me interested.
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Jul 3, 2020 14:07
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 More shlomp. Just added a Jungle Val in there for a future project and man do they love it. Hope to get some fan-feeders in the future when we upgrade to a larger tank (and house).
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Jul 3, 2020 16:38
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You have some marvelous skrimps!
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Jul 4, 2020 07:06
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I added a CUC of three trochus to my 10gal any good name ideas?
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Jul 6, 2020 22:50
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Anyway ne have recommendations on an aquarium heater? My hydor just broke in my 15gallon
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Jul 11, 2020 16:24
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w00tmonger posted:Anyway ne have recommendations on an aquarium heater? My hydor just broke in my 15gallon I have a cheap preset 78 degree Petco one. It’s on sale this weekend I think too. Check the website and they match in store.
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Jul 11, 2020 16:44
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Eheim for lyfe
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Jul 11, 2020 17:42
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I got a submersible preset one that seems to work well. Uniclife Aquarium Heater Preset Submersible with Electronic Thermostat for 10/20/60/80 Gallon Fish Tank Heater 50W/100W/250W https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07YJJYJZJ/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_tai_7bGcFb4BJK6F2 I like it because I can position it anywhere in the tank. My betta likes to hide behind heaters and filters, which I can’t imagine is very safe, so now it’s out of the way.
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Jul 11, 2020 20:28
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