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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 11, 2014 0:42:56 GMT -5
Sorry that you lost Shakes. Thanks for sharing the pictures of your tank build and setup too. How is your other angelfish doing?
Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 11, 2014 0:37:48 GMT -5
Nice setup and I hope the shrimp are doing well. Many of us wish they weren't so fragile.
Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 11, 2014 0:35:18 GMT -5
You have a knack for creating beautiful setups. My aquarium is the opposite at the moment. I might be tempted to spruce mine up now with all the ideas you've given me. There was a time I had quite a few tanks and started to lose count of the number I had too between setting them up, adding fish, and repeating the process. Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 11, 2014 0:30:12 GMT -5
I love the way you set it up, putting the rocks in and then the plants, rocks, and equipment all in a set order to create such a wondeful habitat for your fish. That is a happy betta I'm sure. Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 11, 2014 0:27:54 GMT -5
Beautiful setup! I especially like the red-tailed shark. I admittedly don't know a lot about algae, but hopefully this might help. Algae Control Keep us posted! Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Aug 11, 2014 0:21:56 GMT -5
Gorgeous setup devonjohngard! The fish look very colorful and healthy and so do the plants. The lighting really brings out the color in the tank as well. I think my goldfish might want to move in! Thanks for sharing! Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 29, 2014 0:54:26 GMT -5
angelminx, I deleted the the first duplicate post for you. You click the gear wheel by between the thumbs up sign and the down arrow. A menu opens up when you click the gear wheel. Hover your mouse over where it says moderate. Then you should see an option that says " Delete post" as the first option under moderate. I hope that helps! NOTE: The delete option is under Moderate for me, but it may not be for you since you are not an Admin. Proboards changed the way to edit, delete, etc posts and many other forum features quite a bit since I was last on Everything-Aquatic so I am not 100% of what it looks like for you. Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 29, 2014 0:42:39 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing! If I get more fish again, I might look into getting it! Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 29, 2014 0:13:43 GMT -5
Thanks for the recommendations on places to get clove oil. I knew I could find it plenty of places online, but when I shop online, I pretty much stick to the same websites I know are trustworthy (like Everything Aquatic. I got a 1oz bottle, but only because I don't euthanize fish often (my goldfish all seem to live to around 8 years) and when I do, only a few drips per gallon in the container I euthanize them in. I believe Carl has an article with the dosages to give if I remember correctly. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it. :/ I was not exact on the dosage. I used probably 10 drips for one fish when I panicked because it wasn't dying, just swimming and being scared. Then I discovered that I needed to use a bubbler to mix it with the water. After that, the fish went straight to sleep. I hear that clove oil in SMALLER amounts can be used to sedate fish. However, I personally don't agree with the idea for sedation since I imagine it could have negative effects on the fish. I'll let you know if I find the page on clove oil again angelminx. Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 28, 2014 23:52:52 GMT -5
Hosting pictures is just means a website where you upload your pictures to that enables you to easily share and post your pictures to other websites on the Internet. You can add descriptions, tag pictures, and organize them so it is useful, and access them on any computer with an Internet connection, so it is useful. Just to name a few, some examples are Photobucket, Flickr, Facebook (not it's primary purpose, but it has lots of image capabiltities), and ImageShack. Don't worry, you'll get the hang out of it. Devonjohnsgard and angelminx, I don't really have any advice about the angels. You both probably know more than me about disease treatment. Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 28, 2014 23:29:45 GMT -5
Thanks for sharing! I really like your setup. Your water looks extremely clear. I had never seen a fluidized sand filter in person before, so it was nice to see a demo of how it works. Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 28, 2014 23:07:22 GMT -5
No problem Clayn. I'll pm Carl to see if he can do that next time I order from him. That is very nice of you to offer if Carl can't. I'm not expecting to order from Carl again soon (did my fishy shopping for the year already), but maybe I'll need something before then. Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 28, 2014 23:03:37 GMT -5
Regarding the PH change after a water change, though I am not 100% sure on this, if the tapwater you added during the water change had a lower PH than your tankwater, that is why your reading after the water change for the whole tank would be lower. Even though you add KH buffer right after the water change, I'd imagine it would take a little while for your aquarium PH to go back up to where it was if the tapwater had a lower PH. I don't think it is a danger to your fish as long as the PH doesn't go down more than 0.1-0.2ppm during the water change. More than that would be stressful to them. Regarding your most recent 2 tests, what time of day was each taken? This seems like a huge jump unless most of the water was changed. Also, what kind of test strips or liquid test are you using? Last, did you add anything that could have brought down the PH and hardness to your water such as an aquarium decoration? Are the fish showing signs of stress? It seems much more likely to be that something's up with your test kit, not an actual sudden change in water chemistry, but I want to cover all bases. I have heard of people testing a couple parts for aquariums when testing their water since there can be small variations throughout the tank in the water. What is the test kit's expiration date?Some other things to keep in mind. In my experience, test strips stop reading properly if they've been open a while 4 months before the expiration date. Also, if water gets in with test strips or I accidently touch a pad on a test strip with my finger my mistake, they often aren't that accurate. I hope that helps! Renee P.S. I'm not familiar with KH being measured in degrees, so hopefully I didn't miss anything regarding that. I'm using an online calculator to convert the KH readings in degrees to ppm.
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 20, 2014 23:28:21 GMT -5
I feel obligated to share that years after that post about alka selzer, I discovered it didn't work 100% of the time for fish larger than fry, small fish or ones that were already nearly dead. First it didn't with a dyting tetra. Then I had to put down one of my goldfish and it took 5+ minutes for it to die with the alka selzer in. This was extremely hard to look at as I had had this fish almost 8 years and was very attached to it. (It was emaciated, had no muscle tone, and its eyes were sinking into its head as these weird fluid? filled lense grew on the outside of its head when I finally put it down last year.I waited WAY too long to end its life.)
To the point, I invested in some clove oil after this and used it airstone to get it mixed with the water (otherwise it didn't do much other than sit at the surface of the water). I used the clove oil over the next 6 months when I had to put down other 3 of my goldfish I had almost 8 years that I saved as they had been feeder fish and it worked great. (I got most of them around the same time and they seemed to start showing signs of their ages and deformities from poor genetics.) The fish fell asleep quickly without panicking or obvious suffering. For this reason I DO NOT recommend alka selzer for the fish. Clove oil in my opinion is much better and for me was been 100% successful so far with euthanizing fish larger than fry in the most humane way possible. I bought a tiny bottle because larger quantities are quite expensive. Clove oil is a bit hard to find. They don't seem to be sold at regular drug stores. I had to look on ebay to get it.
Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 20, 2014 22:24:47 GMT -5
Welcome tjstretchalot! I don't have much really to add since it seems like others have covered all the bases. It seems like you care a lot about those goldfish and are really working hard on making sure they are well cared for and healthy. That is great as they easily could have been given to someone who put them in a bowl. Despite what you were told, goldfish, when properly cared for can live 10-20 years in a pond and probably up to 10 in an aquarium. Best of luck! Renee
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OSCRS
Jul 20, 2014 22:09:08 GMT -5
Post by goldenpuon on Jul 20, 2014 22:09:08 GMT -5
Hi Cashay. Your oscars are really beautiful! Sorry I am late to this thread and I know some of this has already been mentioned/discussed, but here'e my take on it. The ammonia and nitrite when you first listed the readings were certainly high. If they still are (say above 1ppm), I would recommend waiting until you get the nitrite and ammonia down before you start adding any kind of buffers to the water because ammonia is more toxic at a higher PH. With Oscars, I am unsure if they prefer soft water or hard water or in between, but I second Carl about having a KH of at least 80 and GH of probably at least 150. PH swings are much more stressful to fish than having a PH a little higher or lower than the PH range what is recommended for the fish species. For the aggression, adding several small fish (since the oscars are so big, you probably wouldn't want to add larger fish and overcrowd them) is definitely a good idea. To add onto what others have said, have you tried adding fish to distract them that are colorful? I have no idea if colorful versus uncolorful fish would actually make a difference in distracting the oscars, but I believe oscars see in color and color has a big part in showing aggression with fish, so it's worth a try. A note of caution though, until your ammonia and nitrite are lower, I wouldn't add any fish, but perhaps a non see-thru divider would solve things until then. Some other questions that may help gauge what's going on. - How long has the tank been set up? - Could there be mulm buildup anywhere? You said you have a gravel-free aquarium if I remember what I read correctly. I believe that mulm buildup can turn water acidic (drive PH down). The acidic water and high ammonia and nitrites makes me wonder if this is the case. Best of luck Cashay! P.S. I still remember Cashay your betta and the story of how you got him from ages ago! Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 20, 2014 21:30:21 GMT -5
Wow. Your fish foods look awesome clayn! It's wonderful that you are focused so much on the quality of ingredients and health of the fish. I had no idea that grain-based foods could give fish fatty livers. Great to know. I would be interested in using the Paradigm Omnivore or Paradigm Herbivore for my goldfish. The only issue is that I have only 4 goldfish and have quite a bit of fairly high to high quality for them now that will probably expire before I can use it all. :/ Since I don't want to end up wasting too much fof what I have now, clayn, do you sell any of those foods in a 2oz size by any chance? I really would like to try your food for my goldfish. Thanks and best of luck selling it! You seem to be off to a good start! Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 20, 2014 21:03:41 GMT -5
I hope so too! I think you can get purer strains of fish from Aquabid (though it's expensive) and also I know there have been some plakat breeders on Everything Aquatic at times. One is Suzie-Q, I'm not sure if is on anymore, but I hope that helps! Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 13, 2014 18:06:22 GMT -5
Wow. those plakats seem like they are hard to find. I hope you find one an actual one properly listed at Petsmart. In my experience (and from what I have heard from others), bettas from Petsmart is a mix of betta varieties and definitely not pure strains. I used to breed bettas (ones I got from Petsmart actually). I had a beautiful male that was white with green and red on his fins. I bred him to a female (I forgot her colors and name but I have it listed somewhere under tank blogs on the forum where I have fish family trees) and if memory serves, their offspring were white with green and red on their fins too. But one male was pink with red fins which looked awesome! Long-winded response aside, I hope you find the variety of betta you're looking for angelminx! Renee
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Post by goldenpuon on Jul 13, 2014 17:53:06 GMT -5
Welcome flickford! I just took a glance at your book. It looks very nice. Great job on the paintings. They're extremely life-like. Feel free to share your knowledge with fish with other on the forum as it seems you know a lot. Renee
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