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: ↑21 Sep 2019, 19:30 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: ↑21 Sep 2019, 03:34 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...

It I had used mineral water to raise Triops. But I don’t know for the fishes, I guess it would be fine since we drink it. We also do fine drinking chlorinated water, but fish don't want it in their gills. I wouldn't be surprised if fish that like hard water could deal with mineral water, but soft-w...

The only problem is her left cheek spines are ripped out of head and angle 45 forward - can see (cheek end ) of defleshed white boney part of spine like a ball ( like on a human bone ball/socket) the flesh is mostly intact, its just like the ball has popped out of cheek socket. I'm trying to envisi...

I see, so you get pure water that you have to prepare by adding what you just removed from it before using for freshwater. Now I understand what is does. It's mostly used for: 1) Really terrible water, where you need to take out lots of bad stuff and re-add only the good stuff (like in this thread)...

I have not much to say about the subject of RO. I don't really know much just that people say is good. Can anyone tell the pros & cons. RO water is, effectively, extremely pure water, as reverse osmosis removes basically everything but the water. (Most RO units are actually RO/DI, at least the ...

Wow that's a lot of crashes! I have a couple really small tanks, 2.5 USG, so I might just stick one next to the larger tank with a handful of daphnia in as a precaution. Thanks for the tip! I don't think I actually had nine separate crashes as the bottle that survived was also not very close to the...

I've started off a daphnia colony in a spare tank next to my sump, hopefully I'll be able to maintain enough numbers to feed them once a week or so. I've managed to keep Daphnia going for the last year, but I always have colony crashes. I've started splitting the colonies out, with a few 2-liter bo...

Is a water cooling system using a fan, a radiator and a chip called a “peltier device”. This chip once you supply it with electricity cools one side and heat the other. It cools to freezing leves. On the computer you cool the cpu and then run water tru a water block on the heating side pumping the ...

I haven't dissected any large loricariids so I'm not sure what a healthy one should look like but I have dissected a lot of fish, so here are all of my thoughts. Sorry in advance that they won't be much use. the belly was sunken, eyes extremely sunken, and gills pale The pale gills seem odd. Gills a...

Thanks Eric, do you have any idea what those single celled looking organisms might be? I'm guessing they are just something naturally occurring as there were very low numbers I think I only saw 3 from two skin scrapes. Not much additional information here, but the way they move indicates that they ...

This thread: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=42862&start=120 suggests that some snail species actually help cory eggs hatch. (Note: some. Assassin snails are probably egg-eaters, for instance.)

I don't have any direct evidence about pleco eggs, but there's a start.

Thanks, I do understand that and the primary purpose of the wavemaker are for surface agitation to increase oxygenation. I was just hoping to give them a flow pattern that they would prefer - e.g. marine species hide amongst reef rocks but prefer random or wave patterns over constant flow Marine sp...

Good luck and be careful if you do use an angle grinder, thick gloves and goggles are a must! If you're getting dust off of that I'd go for a mask as well. Stone (and plastic) dust has a nasty tendency to get into your lungs and stay there for the rest of your life. (Wood dust can be broken down by...

It is usually associated with doing a large water change and forgetting to use water conditioner. I have done it more then once over the years. You can add an immediate heavy dose of conditioner. Some will make it and some will not. "Sensitive" fishes like many glass cats, small tetras, a...

So this is being posted in Asian catfishes because I first observed this in a glass catfish but I've now observed it in a sparkling gourami in a totally different tank. The condition is as follows: the fish begins to lose "balance", and while swimming often begins to rotate around its long...

Hi all, General "therapeutic" use aside, the square-cube rule would make me think that salinity would be much harder on small freshwater external parasites than larger freshwater fish. It would be bad for everyone, but possibly fatal for parasites and uncomfortable for fish. You may well ...

MChambers wrote: ↑30 Mar 2019, 21:01 Good flow and an additional airstone. The temperature has been as high as the upper 70s, without problem. Include a layer of sand or gravel for the worms, too.

Gravel, airstone, water changes, and stale vegetarian pleco food disks is how I raise blackworms (not just maintain them).