Someone said on another forum that they acclimated their fish straight from freshwater to marine the fish were fine in a reef tank for a short while then died, so no I’m stuck, did the salinity kill them or the reef environment. The salinity change, probably. You might be able to survive in very wa...

Ok I increased the salinity of the aquarium from 1.005/1006 to 1.007 and this appeared small lumps across the fishes sides I have a picture I will attached then the columbian shark keeper I was talking to advised me it maybe parasites and more salt will kill the parasites so I increased the salinit...

If the goal is more oxygen and not actually more current then why not just use airstones? The argument I generally hear against airstones is that very little oxygen actually exits the bubbles into the water. This is probably true. However, the reason powerheads oxygenate water is that they "stir" th...

As for the big deal over using reverse osmosis trying to say I’m not right if it’s so abnormal why do so many fish stores use it? Why are aquarium reverse osmosis units made? Huh? Why does the aquarium salt companies suggest using it? YouTube is full of videos of people using it, and plenty of prod...

There is no stress or issue with the cycling as there’s no free ammonia thanks to prime and stability my ammonia alert confirms this as does API test kit, eventually the tank will cycle until then the ammonia and nitries are being bound and not toxic. There's always stress in moving fish. Can't be ...

UV sanitizer would be an overkill in my humble opinion but many people, especially who own very rare and expensive fish, opt to have one. I have one, but I've only ever used it to try to control a mycobacterium outbreak. I don't leave it running in any tank normally. Let's review the problems: 1) T...

Apparently I've missed some updates here. Quick comments: I've also had fish swim through uplift tubes into the space behind Mattenfilters. For glass catfish I've jammed a slice of plastic into the tube, splitting it into two halves which are each small enough that the catfish doesn't want to go thr...

I am a huge fan of Mattens. I have 3 tanks which rely primarily on them. Almost as much, I like the Poret foam cubes. This is a brand and I am sure there are other brands as good, I just ended up using this one. I'll second this. I have a whole aquatics lab running off Mattenfilters, and we never h...

For marine fish there is some research saying that some fry are actually born too small to eat properly. Your experience with some fry surviving in the waste tank suggests that the mechanism may be genetic - some fry will die, some fry will survive, and if you throw a survivor in the waste tank it w...

I only have planted tanks, but my understanding is that Otocinclus spp. are much more difficult to keep without plants. In terms off the lack of success in growing plants, it is unlikely to be too much light or too long a light period. cheers Darrel I've had good luck with otos in a heavily planted...

Edit: my tentative ID is South American bumblebee but even then I’m not sure if multiple species have that common name Normally that means Microglanis iheringi . Seems like a reasonable ID, especially because that's all I ever see at the Petsmart/Petco style stores. The size I normally see them at ...

Storms can have fast changes in air pressure - changes fish are able to detect, although I wonder how. After all, the difference between half a ppi, that is some 50 cm water pressure, is something quite a few fish meet without consequence a day just going for a breath. But some do detect such a cha...

Hi guys hope everyone is doing well in the new year. I have been having issues of eggs hatching prematurely and was suggested by a friend that I drop my ph. So im going to start doing water changes with RO water is it needed to remineralize it before adding it? So normally RO drops the pH because i...

Hi guys! The water is great, but I’m changing it every 3 days to make sure. Also I’’ happy to inform that my otos are alive eating and FAT. They go thru a piece of zucchini a day and I am very, very happy. Thanks for all your help and advice. Excellent! They can live a while if you take good care o...

Yes. Or briefly microwaved. Something to make it softer. I generally use the microwave because it's fast. How long? How many seconds? Also They have already discovered it. Generally no more than 15 for a single leaf. It will get quite hot and spit as the cells rupture and fluid explodes out of them...

Reindas wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 21, 2019 7:30 pm

Should the kale be blanched too?

Yes. Or briefly microwaved. Something to make it softer. I generally use the microwave because it's fast.

Reindas wrote: ↑

Sat Sep 21, 2019 3:34 am

About the kale. Isn’t it a marine plant and Doesn’t it contains salt?

I'll add a small amount of detail to what Bas Pels said. Kale is just a variety of cabbage. You could probably use cabbage as well, but I tend to go with the darker green plants when I feed leaves.

Next time I get any, I'll try this. Of most significance, finally, someone had discovered a good use for kale. :)) Thanks! I raised a lot of grasshoppers on kale during my dissertation. I killed some with iceberg lettuce. I just sort of transferred that experience over to otos. My theory with the l...

Darrel, thanks for this information. Once I read it I made a note to get a zucchini on the milk run and got it. But disaster stroked one I got home today, 4 of 6 Otos were dead. I got them yesterday and died today. I feel sad and angry, didn’t last 36 hours. Tomorrow I get 4 or 6 more. Thinking som...

What I don’t know is the species. I took one quick photo is not the best but can any one tell what species they are? Looks like Otocinclus vittatus . That's also the most commonly sold species in the USA. I've had good luck with mine using a suction-cup clip that holds kale leaves to the side of th...