Aquarium?

[ramonesfreak]

Very impressed that your son is not over stocking the tank. We all do this but then realize to feed this need for more fish, you simply keep setting up more tanks until your electricity bill is $400 a month. Overstocking is very bad. Good job son

[ramonesfreak]

Btw, when you scoop out duck weed be sure to make sure no shrimp come out with it

I still have duck weed in my shrimp tank. They love it and are always in it. I used to get so paranoid that I would set up a small tank with declorinated water to soak the duck weed in before putting in garbage to double check no shrimp were gettin thrown out. A massive pain. Now I just use my hand and shake it around to give them a chance to swim off

[jyl]

I have not seen things that look like planaria, but will be watching closely now! Yuck!

I have shrimp pellets, and will give them a bit. I don’t see any shrimp carcasses.

I misidentified the loaches - they are “kuhli loaches”, long like eels. There are two and they are about 2” long.

The tetras are about 0.5” to 1” long. I don’t know the type for sure, they look kind of like “bleeding heart tetras”. Rather dull color. Several of these.

There’s so much vegetation that I don’t see the bottom dwellers very often. The loaches seem to come out more at night.

[ramonesfreak]

A tetra the size of a bleeding heart will eat shrimp. The loaches are probably not eating them but with fish, the general rule is if it can fit in its mouth….and if you want the shrimp to multiply, the loaches will definitely eat the babies. I wouldnt keep shrimp with any loach or any bottom feeder such as Cory catfish. The shrimp are the bottom feeder

Problem with keeping fish with shrimp is getting the food to the shrimp. The loaches will eat the pellets. I got some fish off aquabid once and the seller thought he was being generous and included some free guppies. I had not planned for that so I put them in my shrimp tank. A year later the 4 guppies had turned into 200 guppies and my shrimp started starving off…..screwed up the ecosystem in that tank and took me several years of separating mails from females to get back to just shrimp. The guppies paid no attention to the shrimp btw

If the cherry shrimp die off, you might try a couple ghost shrimp. They are larger but likely won’t breed. I’ve had 2 that are now almost 3 years old

What you have is a nano tank and cherry shrimp should be with nano fish…..like neons or smaller…..you might find a definition of a nano fish being a fish 2 inches or less. I don’t consider that size a nano fish. To me, nano is neon or smaller

[jyl]

Originally Posted by ramonesfreak

A tetra the size of a bleeding heart will eat shrimp. The loaches are probably not eating them but with fish, the general rule is if it can fit in its mouth….and if you want the shrimp to multiply, the loaches will definitely eat the babies. I wouldnt keep shrimp with any loach or any bottom feeder such as Cory catfish. The shrimp are the bottom feeder

Problem with keeping fish with shrimp is getting the food to the shrimp. The loaches will eat the pellets. I got some fish off aquabid once and the seller thought he was being generous and included some free guppies. I had not planned for that so I put them in my shrimp tank. A year later the 4 guppies had turned into 200 guppies and my shrimp started starving off…..screwed up the ecosystem in that tank and took me several years of separating mails from females to get back to just shrimp. The guppies paid no attention to the shrimp btw

If the cherry shrimp die off, you might try a couple ghost shrimp. They are larger but likely won’t breed. I’ve had 2 that are now almost 3 years old

What you have is a nano tank and cherry shrimp should be with nano fish…..like neons or smaller…..you might find a definition of a nano fish being a fish 2 inches or less. I don’t consider that size a nano fish. To me, nano is neon or smaller

What do you think about aquatic crabs? Something that stays very small (nano?).

[ramonesfreak]

I have never seen them and probably for good reason. I am against putting predator and pray in the same aquarium. While the crab may stay small and not cause harm (kill fish), it will stress out the other animals if they (fish etc) are small.

Its bad enough to put shrimp in with fish. However, my experience is that if the fish are small enough, the shrimp dont seem the slightest bit bothered

with crab, the fish that are with them might become stressed, might not.

think of this though, you will need to feed those crabs. What will they eat and how will you ensure that it is they that eat it and not the fish? Either they will starve or you will in your frustration, over feed which will cause your water to toxify. In a 12 gal tank, that will happen very quickly

Any animal that lives on the bottom is relying on that food getting to the bottom. if the food is passing through the water column where the fish live......

One must resist the temptation to buy animals just because they are cute or interesting. if you want an ecosystem that is compatible with crabs, set one up

I learned the hard way long ago when my wife wanted a hill stream loach she saw at the store. I warned her they need flowing water over their bodies because thats how they take in oxygen. She begged me, I caved and 2 weeks later it was dead. That was the very last time I made the mistake of introducing animals into an environment that was not compatible.

[jyl]

My son’s aquarium is doing fine, as far as I can tell. Some cherry shrimp disappeared, the kuhli loaches and snails are doing fine, as are the tetras and one guppy. The other guppy has vanished. We’re not sure what is causing the disappearances. Maybe not enough feeding, but the idea was an aquarium where the animals eat the plant detritus with minimal feeding, so if that’s the cause then perhaps the aquarium is telling us its ideal fish population? Or the fish are eating the shrimp, or other cause. We did replace the disappeared, if they vanish again we may not replace them. Water quality fine, I test it every week or so with test strips. The plants are flourishing. I add a little “Flourish” plant conditioner from time to time. Above is a picture taken from one end of the tank.

[ramonesfreak]

Guppies - guppies are jumpers. No lid = jump on floor and either the dog eats it or they flip under the couch and dry up

If not this scenario, they died and decomposed beyond your ability to see them now. If so, that’s a lot of pollution. Again , live plants probably keeping it below toxic levels.

[ramonesfreak]

No such thing as not feeding enough. Fish can go many days or weeks without food. Feed a small amount once per day and no more. Fast one day per week. This routine works. Most people way over feed which is the worst thing you can do really.

[Tobra]

I just restocked my 125 gallon tank in the office. Will end up with a couple angelfish to go with the rest of the community. 6 mollies, 6 Australian Rainbowfish, 8 black tetras and 8 bleeding heart tetras now, will let them go a while before I put the angels in, so they don't turn into lunch. Took the last of the cichlids home.

Plan to improve the light in the waiting room and have plants on top of the tank with their roots in the water to help with cleaning. May put live plants in the tank too, but will see.

[ramonesfreak]

5 minutes ago I put my two remaining bleeding heart tetras in a hospital tank. Not sure what’s going on but I suddenly lost an angel, 3 boesemani rainbows and 3 Cory’s in a tank that has been perfectly healthy for at least 6 years. Frustrating

[Bill Douglas]

I sold my aquarium. The goldfish are very happy in their pond, so they can stay there.

I had aspirations of having neon tetras in my 200 litre tank but it never happened. So I sold it. Some young Asian guys who had just moved here from Australia snapped it up and are out to buy more aquariums. Good on them I say. Haha, hey said I should have done the neon tetra thing as they are easy to keep. A bit late as I was helping load my tank into their truck LOL. Nice guys.

[RNajarian]

A bit of warning/caution. . .

I gave my son a small 4 gallon tank with 6 neons to get him into the hobby. All went great, at the 2 month mark we cleaned the tank, changed the water, and removed some small areas of algae that began growing.

We used an anti algae product that was supposed to prevent algae from forming.

Next day Armageddon. 3 fish dead, one suffering from neurological symptoms, later died. Remaining two very bad condition.

Drained 85% of the water in the tank, refilled with clean water (no algae product). Remaining 2 fish survived.

I was careful to follow manufacturer directions with the algae product.

Last time I will use that product.

[ramonesfreak]

How’s the tanks?

This guy is a great inspiration

[porsche930dude]

[jyl]

My son's tank - which I appear to have to house and provide daily care for, the major work gets done when he comes back from school - doing fine. Fish seem happy.

Water keeps testing fine (both on test strips and testing at aquarium shop).

The floating plants need to be culled every few weeks, as they start to monopolize the light; my son takes about half out and uses for his aquarium at school. I'm thinking of putting a light strip on the lower side of the tank, to get light to plants otherwise shaded by the floaters - would it dazzle the fish?

There is a build-up of detritus on the bottom, which doesn't seem to bother the fish but is unattractive. Every now and then I vacuum some of it up, which also results in a partial (1/4?) water change. I'm wondering if adding a normal water filter (the kind that hang off the side of the tank) will reduce the detritus buildup.

[ramonesfreak]

Dont put light at side. Fish wont like

Dont worry about detritus unless it is obviously old food. I havent vacuumed mine up in 10 years. My plants and wood eventually break down into dirt and I like this. Its good for the tank.

If anything, I would use a small air driven sponge filter to help with any amomnia.

My surface plants...duck weed or whatever I put there 10 years ago is still being culled weekly....I tend to leave some in my shrimp tanks but it grows fast and thick. If I did not have shrimp that liked it, it would be totally gone because yes, it starves light from the other plants

This guy is right - except when he talks about bringing stuff in from the outside world...he fails to warn about planaria



Im on my way to my local shop to get the 4 baby synodontis petricola I saw over the weekend that he has. Wife wants them. We have 3 already that are almost 10 years old. Definitely my favorite fresh water fish and hard to find. I have setup a separate tank just for them. Hope he didnt sell them

[Rusty Heap]

Owned fish tanks on/off for 45 years.

Cumulated with 25 years of saltwater reef in a 180 gallon 6'x2x2.

Sold that a year ago. I miss my fish, so got a huge 5 gallon counter top that i'm going to do a planted tank with closed ecosystem in mind using cold water tropical fish. Zebra Danios and many Tetras are fine in 65-70F water so no heater required.

[cstreit]

For me it boils down to this. If you have $$$ and want to geek around with cool tech and do daily maintenance because you’re bored, and have something amazing. Go saltwater. (RGruppe 911) Double down? Reef tank. (Add in EFI)

If you just want to feed fish and clean a tank once a week, go fresh water (996 or Boxster)

Bigger is better because water quantity is a buffer.

Go for smaller beautiful fish. Big fish poop a lot and cause more work.
,
If you want a 997 or Cayenne, hire someone to maintain your tank)

[ramonesfreak]

If I could take all 7 of my tanks and trade for 1 big reef tank I would. My next step in this hobby won’t be that though…..between the fish and the dogs we can’t travel anywhere. I came home from errands the other day and all my filters were stopped. Happens every time the lights flicker. Wife didn’t notice lights flicker or power go out so no idea but by the time I noticed, ide guess they were off 5 hours. It’s a lot of worry all the time