Aquariums

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TxCat
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Re: Aquariums

Post by TxCat »

I said, the basic rule of thumb was one fish inch per gallon. I've had aquaculture as a hobby for almost thirty years now and if you know the other principles it works just fine. As for feeders, it depends on type and species. The ones we get around here do not exceed an inch to an inch and a half when full grown (and the LFS stocks about five different tanks divided by size though you cannot buy fry). They're not pretty --- no frills, no long filmy fins, no bubbly eyes, no markings --- but they make good pets. But then... The owner of my LFS breeds his own stock and would die before offering anything of low quality.

One or two small fish in the described set up should be fine...provided filration and aeration are used. Better if you can cultivate your own plant first to help balance things and give the fish a healthier environment. You could even skip the fish entirely and just do the plants. Set by bulb or seed by your own hand, they are a fascinating experience and a good aquarium primer. I never add fish until the plants are well established.

I need acbigger rig for my plecos. The rescue now exceeds ten inches in length and the one I've had for years --- which turned outnto be a rubberlip, not a common --- is about eight inches long. They are getting silk plants because they ate everything else. I know most people just throw these guys away when they get so big but I love mine and I think that's irresponsible.
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Re: Aquariums

Post by Synchronized »

TxCat wrote:I said, the basic rule of thumb was one fish inch per gallon. I've had aquaculture as a hobby for almost thirty years now and if you know the other principles it works just fine. As for feeders, it depends on type and species. The ones we get around here do not exceed an inch to an inch and a half when full grown (and the LFS stocks about five different tanks divided by size though you cannot buy fry). They're not pretty --- no frills, no long filmy fins, no bubbly eyes, no markings --- but they make good pets. But then... The owner of my LFS breeds his own stock and would die before offering anything of low quality.
...Are you talking about red minnows or feeder guppies rather than comet goldfish? I've never heard of any "mini goldfish" that get less than six inches so this is kind of confusing for me.
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Re: Aquariums

Post by Piney »

The tank came with an aerator or a filter, I'm not sure which is it cause I haven't installed it yet. :P There really isn't a way for it to have lights though. I really am leaning towards a betta cause I love those fish but I was worried that the tank might be too small. And I don't think the tank is big enough for a heater which might be a problem because betta are tropical fish right? Someone at my high school kept a betta in a fish bowl in a cello locker and it seemed fine before the person gave it to the teacher, and then it died at some unspecified time.
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Re: Aquariums

Post by TNHawke »

If the room the betta will be in stays at 75 Degrees or higher, it will be fine without a heater, but if the room fluctuates a lot, or gets cold in winter or hotter than 80 in summer, you'll want a heater to even it out. They make tiny heaters suitable for 1-5 gal tanks. Don't waste your money on any smaller than that, they don't work (I've tried several and never had a single one work) A whole gallon for a betta is LOTS of room. It would be fine.

As to goldfish- The rules I learned way back when and seem to hold true still- 1 goldfish per 5 gallons of water, this gives them a chance to grow with out crowding. However, they are schooling fish, so 2 per 10gals is better.
Goldfish - feeders, comets, ryukins, fantails, other fancy types will grow to the size of their tank.
Koi keep growing until they are 1- 3 feet long and live forever. (the record I read in the early 1990s was over 200, and I think 214 years old!)
Koi mixes, which some feeder fish are, may take after their koi parent, so be careful. The best way to tell if a feeder fish has koi blood in it is to see if they are streamlined vertically, or if they have a flattened, broad head. Koi have flat, broad heads. Goldfish come to a rounded peak.
Then, the more room, and better filtration, the better.
No heaters. They are carp and carp are cold water fish.



Plants and tanks- I have to disagree with Tx on this one. I only ever have any luck with live plants well after the tank has been established with fish. The plants thrive on the wastes the fish make- fertilizer? lol. Any time I have tried to put plants in a newly established tank, the fish will be fine, but the plants all die. I've also heard both Petco and Petsmart recommend NOT adding live plants right away. And we all know those places are generally just out to make a buck.
On the other hand... I have a black thumb of death when it comes to plants, so maybe I'm just getting lucky after the tank has been established for a while, eh? I do have a moss ball that grew so big it came off it's ball and is now a moss matt- that thing is probably 5 years old. And I have a Wal-mart Special plant (actually aquatic, not tropical thrown in a tank) that I've had a good year and a half, and the tank is almost 2 years old, and it's doing so well I have to prune it regularly!
Hawke's IRL fiance, Lunaroki, suffered a massive stroke and died on Tuesday, March 31st, 2015.

Hawke needs to concentrate on other things, and is leaving MS permanently.

Thank you all for many fun years.
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Re: Aquariums

Post by Synchronized »

TNHawke wrote:As to goldfish- The rules I learned way back when and seem to hold true still- 1 goldfish per 5 gallons of water, this gives them a chance to grow with out crowding. However, they are schooling fish, so 2 per 10gals is better.
Goldfish - feeders, comets, ryukins, fantails, other fancy types will grow to the size of their tank.
Ehh, you don't really ever want to put a fish into something it can't reach it's average size in(about six inches to a foot for fancy varieties, ten inches or more for comets)-- anything smaller and their growth is stunted, which kills them earlier. Hence why goldfish don't live very long in bowls, either. The rule for healthy goldfish I learned is one (fancy) variety for 30 gallons, and one added goldfish for each 5-10 gallons after that. Comets are more suited to large ponds. At my store I try to tell people at the very least to go one per ten gallons of water so they have a chance at a life longer than they would if they were in one of the little dinky goldfish kits or in a bowl.

Got a new canister filter for the big tank, a API/Rena Filstar XP 75-rated. My tank looks so much nicer now...
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Re: Aquariums

Post by TNHawke »

Ok, random aquarium question.

I'm not certain how long these things have been in my tank. I believe they actually moved into the fish tank from when I had it set up for triops (that didn't work out) and had some local water plants and crushed coral sand (not live sand) for the substrate. But, these things have moved through 3 different tanks now. I had the triops tank, and then got rid of the sand and brought in gravel and added fish. Then moved from that 10 gal to my current 20 long. I also had some show up in my lizard's water section after I had moved the snails and live plant over while I was medicating the 20 gal.

The 'things', are kind of like white (eggshell colored?) grains of sand that are attached to the drift wood and gravel in my tank. I never see them on the glass, plastic or live plants, or the fish. They are VERY attached and they are hard/crunchy. If I scrape them with a finger nail, they will come off after a few scrapes and leave a discoloredish area where they were, like they left part of themselves behind. They are round, oval or tear drop shaped. Very small, less than half a millimeter, maybe a quarter millimeter- I don't have anything to measure with. They may be growing a bit, but mostly have stayed the same size since I first noticed them. As near as I can tell, they don't move at all, except for me to notice them somewhere I hadn't seen them before. Once settled, they don't move.

The problem is that when I moved stuff into the lizard tank, the 3 of the 7 snails suddenly got them on their shells. All of the afflicted snails died. None of the non-afflicted snails died. Even when I tried to scrape these things off, the snails died. I had only moved the snails and live plant, not any more water than just what made them wet, and nothing that ha.... oh wait... one of the drift woods has a live plant, so I moved it too. At the time, I hadn't seen any of these dots on it, but it has them now, so it probably did when I moved everything.

I want to know what these things are. They kind of remind me of a limpet, but aren't those only marine? Is it possible I got them with the crushed coral sand? I didn't have any snails when I first noticed these things. I added snails later.
Is there any way I can kill them so they don't kill more snails, since I would like to replace the lost snails?



Ok, while looking for photos, and trying to weed out all the pictures of ich, i found something... Nerite snails. I even have at least one of one species in my tank. But I started getting these things long before I ever had any snails! So... wtf? (this link has some photos that pretty much match what I have in my tank. http://www.aquariumadvice.com/forums/f2 ... 01081.html )
Hawke's IRL fiance, Lunaroki, suffered a massive stroke and died on Tuesday, March 31st, 2015.

Hawke needs to concentrate on other things, and is leaving MS permanently.

Thank you all for many fun years.
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Re: Aquariums

Post by Synchronized »

@TNHawke I get the same things on my driftwood too. They're all over the place and don't seem to cause any damage, so I just assumed they were snail eggs. You can just scrape them off. I've got them all over the tank for the most part, too. They're definitely from the nerites.

Edit: if they got them on their shells, that was likely something completely different, most likely some sort of parasite or infected spot. Hard to say without seeing it myself.
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Re: Aquariums

Post by PossessedPotato »

Those are for sure snail eggs^^
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Re: Aquariums

Post by TNHawke »

But how did I get snail eggs before I had snails? The drift wood didn't used to have these things, had been bought at a pet store, boiled before going into a tank, taken out, left in storage for a couple of years, rinsed off and put back in a tank, and a couple of months later got these dots- I didn't add snails until a couple more months after that.

I've done a bit more research now, and found that I have two species of nerite snails, one zebra and one... with spots, dunno what kind. I read that the eggs won't hatch without at least brackish water. So... why do I now have baby snails in the lizard tank which has NEVER had salt? The lizard needs to be able to drink the water, so it's never been salted, although the main tank has had a bit, because I've been trying to breed guppies. The main tank hasn't been salted for a couple of months, and has no baby snails. Both tanks are kept at about the same temperature and lighting.

I'm so confused.

Then... assuming these dots ARE nerite snail eggs, and they DO require brackish water to hatch... regardless of how I got them, if I WANT them to hatch, how much of what kind of salt should I dump into say a 10 gal tank with a piggy back filter and maybe a heater, maybe not, to get them to hatch?
Hawke's IRL fiance, Lunaroki, suffered a massive stroke and died on Tuesday, March 31st, 2015.

Hawke needs to concentrate on other things, and is leaving MS permanently.

Thank you all for many fun years.
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Re: Aquariums

Post by Piney »

Ok so I've been looking at some bettas at the pet store for the last few days even though I haven't set up my tank yet so I shouldn't be thinking about it. XD But does anyone have any general tips for choosing a healthy betta? One question I have in particular is the fins. Some of the fins are spiny looking and I don't know if that's because of fin rot or they're supposed to be that way. Should I stay away from spiny finned bettas? Also some male bettas have fins that don't really seem that long and flowy, but kinda droopy. Am I just setting expect actions too high?

Some of the bettas I've seen are really beautiful but so expensive. $13 for a half moon betta or something! o_o
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