There is one neon that's giving me some pause. He's looking scrawny and for most of this weak his colors have been pale. Normally this means something is wrong but my water tests out fine. This also looks a little bit like it could be neon tetra disease. NTD is a nasty parasite that causes neons to loose their color, waste away, swim erratically and deform into a humped shape. It's eventually fatal and there is no treatment. It's not contagious in the water but it can be contagious if another fish eats the dead carcass. Naturally I'm nervous about the little guy. In the last 24 hours he's perked up in color and is more active. I'm hopeful it wasn't NTD and he was just under the weather.
Yesterday I tried to give my fish some lettuce.
The ingrates didn't touch it.
4 comments:
None of your fish particularly like veg.. so tahts why they wont eat the lettuce.
I've read your entire blog, I hope you dont mind some constructive criticism..
You may be able to soften your water more safely by sticking some real bogwood/mopani wood in, as well as using some peat in the filter. Carbon in the filter will remove the colour, this does need changing out frequently though.
Your filter cartridges should not need switching so often - this may be why your cycle is taking so long. NB i do not use the same kind of filter as you do, so that may not be correct, but afaik (3 years + of fish keeping), filter media is good to stay until water no longer passes through it, then rinse it in old tank water and put it back in, the bacteria will remain, just the gunge is cleaned out.
Ditch the fake plants and stick real ones in - you are likely to need to buy a new bulb, bulbs need replacing annually at least. Without getting into serious planted tank territory, you ought be able to grow vallisnera and amazon swords very easily (i do and i dont fanny around with ferts or special lighting or anything like that). Hygro is also easy to grow though you need to learn to prune it from the bottom up to stop it getting leggy (pull it out, lop off the bottom, replant the stems).
Whilst live plants might seem like a hassle, they look a million times nicer, vallis and amazons doing well will reproduce and you get more for free... and finally...
They will keep your water parameters more stable by using some of the ammonia as fertiliser, and they will provide some oxygen too.
What I've read on my fish is that the neons and platys are omnivorous and that some plant matter in their diet would be good for their digestive system.
I'm looking into some driftwood and peat but haven't gone ahead with it do to limited funds.
The filter cartridges for my penguin 300 combine a fiber filter with activated carbon. I change them out to keep the carbon fresh not due to any clogging. I haven't had issues with ammonia due to changing filters, I test my water regularly, probably more than I need to actually.
I want to go to a planted tank in the future but at the moment I don't have the funds to make the change at the moment. All my money I can afford to spend on my hobby at the moment is going to adding fish once a week.
Ahhhhh... carbon filter media.
I don't bother with it, expensive and unless you are needing to actively remove something from the water (stain from bogwood or peat, or after a course of medication maybe) I don't really see the need - just a way for the fish product folk to take allllllll your money.
Mmm. Omnivorous fish - yah - they are but kinda, like I can eat lettuce... but unless thats ALL there is, I'm not likely to! *eats more marmalade sammich, nyom nyom*
Plants - join UKAPS, read, read... read more, Google Takashi Amano.. dream.. read more.
On various forums (UKAPS, TFF) you'll find people willing to give you plants for the postage costs - hell if you want Vallis and amazon swords they are yours for the cost of postage from me... I chuck loads out most months!
Otherwise, check out Greenline aquatic plants and java aquatic plants, both good online plant shops - see what they have, research it a bit, they are better quality and better priced than LFS plants are. (and a WAY better selection... but don't go mad! ive dropped a ton of money on stuff like that and then failed to grow it, learn from my mistakes!).
Bogwood - not cheap at all no, if you see a piece that reallllllly inspires you though - get it. The chances of you finding another piece so great again are like.. nil.
This is one thing i do buy in shops, the postage costs are prohibitive buying online, plus you usually dont get to see the exact piece before it arrives in the post (excepting some ebay sellers who do photograph each individual piece).
It is possible to use branches you find laying around (i so do not advocate lopping them off trees, no matter how awesome the piece is...!!), but youd need to research that to be sure it wont leach anything awful into the tank. I think fruitwoods are ok... once you knwo its safe then its a matter of soaking, scalding, baking in the oven (or freezing) to kill any nasties off.
Lots of stuff can be had free, cheap, diy. Lots of stuff marketed at the aquarium trade is unecessary ('tonic salts' for fw species, many medications, etc etc).
If you are dead set on keeping the carbon filter material, it might be possible to use pond filter sheets, cut down to the right size for your filter - initially more expensive to buy but cheaper long term as you are buying in bulk.
Hope to be useful!
Em
After my box of filters is used up I'm going to get an aftermarket clamshell design that I can put in what I please. I can buy what I need in bulk and use it how I see fit rather than what the manufacturer supplies. I actually wanna see how I like the tanin staining of some natural wood looks in the aquarium water. Between my lights and the white sand I know my tank is brutally bright for my Amazonian species. The only way to get the water to stain will be to remove the carbon from the filter.
I'm tempted to fast them for a day or two with just lettuce in the tank, see if they'll eat it if they're hungry and that's the only option.
Believe me I want live plants, I want a ton of them. Right now I'm planning on starting out slow. Once I have all my fish, only 8 serpaes, a red tailed black shark, and a ram to go, I'm going to start on plants. I'm gonna start of simple, buy a piece of natural drift wood and attach some java moss to it and work up from there. Start with the plants that will grow no matter what I do and work my way up to the ones that will need special lighting or fertilizers.
I like java moss, java fern, Amazon swords, hygrophalia, cambomba for sure and I'd love them all in my tank. After that, well I'll start looking at plants as closely as I did fish and I'm sure some others will pop out at me.
I've tried looking locally but my LFS isn't big on decor, just hardware and fish. The big chain stores don't sell "wood" that didn't start out as a chemical soup in a vat. Ebay hasn't looked too bad, postage isn't that brutal that I wouldn't go for it if I can find the right piece. My big problem is my tank dimensions, a 55 gallon is long but not that deep. So I've only got 13 inches of horizontal space to work with and 18 of vertical even though the tank if four feet long. I've got a very specific shape in mind as well, I want something that will look like plant roots. It'll give my fish another place to hide under and feel secure while also giving me lots of spots to attach plants that don't care for substrate.
I've tried to do as much as I can myself with the tank, making many of the decorations, buying cheap play sand instead of expensive "aquarium" gravel, etc. I just prefer the way that driftwood/bogwood looks better than my local tree branches. Still... would oak be fine in the aquarium? I also have a ton of citrus trees in my backyard. Might be a good way to hold me over until I find the right piece of driftwood.
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