Tropical Fish Forum
Tropical Fish Keeping => General Fishkeeping Chat => Topic started by: Littlefish on January 01, 2021, 08:14:53 PM
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I thought I'd start the new thread with a general Happy New Year to all on the forum.
Thanks for all of your help, support, and advice over the years.
Best wishes to all for 2021. :cheers:
Good news already - I got one of the mudskippers to eat bloodworm off my finger today, so I'm a step closer to getting them to feed out of my hand. :)
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Great; thanks for starting up this new thread. Happy New Year from me too. :cheers:
Well done on taming the mudskipper, @Littlefish - and keep us posted on progress towards hand-feeding them.
I've been enjoying watching my fish - one female cardinal has taken to eating 50% of the tank's food and has now surpassed the other large female in size, while the espeis clearly need more added to their shoal as one is either parading around one half of the tank and sending all fish and especially its shoalmate to the other half or it is attempting to mate with its shoalmate.
In an uncharacteristic moment of distraction, I switched on the filter and heater while the tank was only half full. Mr FCMF carries the buckets and, when the noise of the water filling one stopped, I heard a strange creaking sound from the filter, only to discover my error. The filter itself is fine (phew). However, the heater broke in the minute at most that it must have been switched on for when only half-submerged - I tested it out in a bucket with the thermometer and, although the bottom of it is hot to touch, the light has now completely stopped working and it took an hour to go from 18'C to 19.5'C, and thus very slow progress towards the pre-set 24'C. Fortunately, I had a spare which is now in situ, and at least I got 6+ years' use out of the previous one.
:vcross:
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Great news on the mudskipper - video? @Littlefish
@fcmf your story reminds me how fragile filters and heater are despite all other advances in the hobby it’s hard to believe that these issues haven’t been fixed yet - a pump that cannot be run without water (surely washing machine pumps do this?) and heating elements that can be exposed to air (toasters, panel heaters... what’s up with these?)... actually I think you can get them with such protection from running dry, but why is it needed and why isn’t the protection standard.
In other news I’m allergic to bloodworm... the reaction apparently gets worse each time... definately the case for me... haven’t been able to figure it out but now I know for pretty certain it’s the bloodworm - I’ve been having weird sneezing fits randomly in the evenings... I got some on my finger tonight (didn’t know) and scratched my nose - 20 minutes of CONSTANT sneezing and now i feel bunged up like a bad cold - last time it lasted over 36hours... I’m hoping it won’t be the same again but expecting it will probably last longer... as the reaction gets worse each time. I’ll post a more explicit warning on the forum later on but for now here’s some bedtime reading... https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2018/05/03/caution-bloodworm-allergies-can-sneak-up-on-you-short/ (https://www.reef2rainforest.com/2018/05/03/caution-bloodworm-allergies-can-sneak-up-on-you-short/)
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Allergic to bloodworm - unlucky @Matt
That's unpleasant and inconvenient. I'm guessing you are going to have to stop using bloodworms so that the reactions don't get worse. Is there anything else you can routinely feed your dwarf puffers?
Bad luck with your heater @fcmf
I don't think I've broken one by running it dry. I've forgotten to turn them back on more times than I care to remember, but I'm usually pretty good with turning them off. It's always handy to have a few spare pieces of kit tucked away for emergencies.
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I’ve delegated the task of feeding the puffers to Mrs Matt!! I’ll buy one of those mixed frozen food thing next time where each ‘ice cube’ is something different and see what can be done... there’s nearly two whole pack to get through before then though!!
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I wonder if you might be able to avoid feeding bloodworm altogether, @Matt, for example by buying brineshrimp-only packs. It doesn't seem that dwarf puffers have to be fed bloodworm - https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/how-to-keep-dwarf-puffers/ Having said that, your article does suggest a potential cross-sensitivity to other similar products, so best that Mrs Matt now has sole responsibility for feeding them - but perhaps avoiding any bloodworm in the house altogether once (or even before) those two packs are used up.
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It's safe to say that I am not allergic to bloodworms. I can comfortably handle them without any problems or adverse reactions. Very useful when trying to make your mudskippers comfortable with hand feeding.
Note to self - when trying to encourage your mudskippers to feed from your hand essentially what you are doing is putting food on the end of your finger and presenting it to a carnivore. Don't be surprised when you feel teeth. ::) :rotfl:
I've had my axolotls bite my fingers several times before (poor eyesight, bless them), but they just have firm gums, so although they are large enough to latch on to the end of a finger it's just a bit of a surprise rather than actually hurting.
I've just been feeding the mudskippers. I had a blob of bloodworm & fish food mix on my finger, and could feel the teeth scrape against my finger as they took the food. My littles fellas aren't big enough to bite a finger, but I'm guessing that the larger species could do a bit of damage. :o
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:yikes: :D
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When you need to move your bristlenose and he makes it easier by refusing to come out of his favourite piece of wood. ;D
Thanks Bertie. :cheers:
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Bertie is ever so cute peering out from that piece of wood, at least what I can see of him. :cheers:
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I put some Poly-Filter and carbon in the filter a few weeks ago when my nerite snail wasn't well, and left it in there, hoping it might pick up any chemicals that may have been contributing to my oldest nerite not being well. (Fortunately, he seems a lot better now.) However, I'm almost certain that's the reason my plants have descended into the "point of no return" - it's eaten up the chemicals from the fertilisers. I removed both Poly-Filter and carbon at the weekend but fear it may be too late.
:'(
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Sorry to hear about the plants, but glad the nerite is looking better.
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I know it's not recommended to use carbon full time with live plants for this reason, and as polyfilter also removes a lot of stuff I imagine the same applies to that too.
I've also read comments that liquid plant fertiliser should not be added on water change day as most water conditioners contain a chemical to bind metals.
I've only used polyfilter once since I got a lot of live plants and that was simply because of it's physical structure. When I added more sand to my main tank the water went cloudy and polyfilter is so dense that it cleared the water quickly. I always use carbon or polyfilter in a separate filter so it's easy for me to remember to remove it.
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Thanks, Sue. Definitely learned a lesson the hard way, although my priority was doing all I could to save my nerite, but that's a great suggestion about using a separate filter as I do have one that hasn't any potential copper residue on it (ie not been used in the QT). I use Seachem Prime, so, for that reason, always leave 48 hours before dosing the liquid plant fertilisers.
Separately, I've been using the spray bar on the existing filter. I had tried it before but it was problematic as it displaced many of the older harlies from their "station posts", it didn't seem very secure and I was concerned that the nerites would try acrobatics off it. However, I did frequently wonder if the flow had been too strong for the elderly/ailing fish and contributed to their demise, and if the lone remaining neon green rasbora's severe scoliosis was current-induced and I could see the two espeis taking up her space and tilting at the same angle in the current, hence the decision to use the spray bar indefinitely.
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I was already feeling ~90 years of age today for other reasons, but now I feel ~130 after this evening's experience.
Went to check the fish this evening. Tally of cardinals was only 6 rather than 7. Counted x5 with same result, then enlisted Mr FCMF to count too, and again the same result.
Out came all of the decor. Still only 6. "No way can the missing one be behind the filter," I thought, "it's like Fort Knox with its excessive measures to prevent that - magnets holding it firmly in place against the wall and all the strips of foam carefully up the side of the filter and across the top, plus spare sponge squeezed into every available space underneath."
Off came the magnets, and the filter was slowly moved out of position, as I trembled, waiting for the dead body to float out, berating myself for fleetingly thinking earlier today that all had been relatively uncharacteristically settled among the fish inhabitants in recent months. Instead, to my total surprise and delight, out swam a very pale and disoriented-looking cardinal.
Water change was done a day early given that all the decor was out, and I'm attempting to calm down with a chamomile tea...
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Glad to hear that the cardinal emerged from behind the filter unscathed.
I hope that your own recovery from the ordeal doesn't take too long.
At least you got a water change done. :)
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I'm convinced fish do these things on purpose to scare us ::)
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Just as well that I have a sturdy lid on my tank.
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:o
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Went to MA to get some RO today. Normally I just get what I need and leave to avoid temptation.
As I was heading towards the water I saw a movement to my left, in the pond section, and was instantly distracted by what I saw through the window in the display pond.
I'd always enjoyed feeding the juvenile sterlets at the MA in Cambridge. I have a leaning towards weird looking fish, especially if they look funny when they feed.
I've never seen mature sterlets. This is the first MA I've been to that has had them. They are massive. 8)
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My old hairdresser had a pond with a fully grown sterlet, which was outgrowing the pond. She was trying to rehome it when we had a bad winter and the poor fish unfortunately died. I don't know if the was the unusual cold, the cramped pond or the combination which was the problem for it.
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The sterlets at the local MA might have to be adopted as my pond fish by proxy. ;D
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Mr Snail has found new lodgings. Last night, he clambered into the largest of the terracotta plant pots and settled under the branches of the plant, and was still there this morning. When feeding the fish, he clambered up the inside of the pot and peeked over the edge as though to see what was happening, then returned for a further snooze. All very cute.
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I know it's not really fish news, but I am now reading posts without getting a headache - or to be precise eye ache.
The screen on my laptop has been playing up for a few weeks - either horizontal green stripes or text elongated to 10 times it's proper height. And the mouse pointer doesn't work when these happen. I wiggle the screen backwards and forwards a few times and if that doesn't work, tap the screen on the top edge. I can usually persuade it to work but it can take 5 minutes. I think this is because I dropped a rather heavy rechargeable cordless mouse on it :-[
So last week I bit the bullet and bought a new laptop which arrived on Thursday afternoon. The new one is an SSD and so much faster. But.....
The screen has a blue-purple tint, it makes my eyes ache and I can't adjust the colour to the right setting. I've tried the colour adjustment thing in the Control Panel - moving the blue slider almost to the opposite end works a bit but not much. I've tried adjusting things in the Intel Graphics Card thingy which also helped but not much. ThinkFish was awful - the pages bright blue and difficult to read. It was very much like like after I had cataract surgery. I had yellow cataracts and when they were replaced with clear lenses, everything looked the wrong colour - blues and purples shouted at me, green were more loud and yellowy green than before.
This morning I did some experiments. Loaded Thinkfish and a few other sites into my Amazon Fire, and my son's Samsung tablet. And connected the new laptop to the TV via an hdmi cable. They all showed the same colours, and the same as my old laptop. No blue-purple tint on any of them, including the TV fed from the new laptop. Google suggests either a graphics card problem or a cable to the graphics card not correctly fitted.
One phone call to Currys later and the new laptop will be collected on Tuesday and a replacement sent out within 10 to 14 days. At least I can still persuade my old one to work!
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As an update on my aquarium over the past ~9 months or so (following the huge but ultimately unsuccessful efforts to attempt to save my cardinal tetra that put up such a brave fight):
* her friend developed a white fleck on her tail and then a white growth from her mouth, that I tried treating with eSHa 2000, Waterlife Myxazin and Maracyn-2 at various stages (Apr, June, July) when the situation seemed to worsen (eg fungus, bulbous), but unfortunately any success was limited and not long-term, and ultimately she succumbed in Sept;
* the ‘runt’ cardinal became very weak / suddenly developed buoyancy problems and spent a week or two alternating between lying on his side on the tank floor and darting around, or hovering under the spray bar (presumably for O2), but ultimately succumbed in early Oct;
* as the remaining fish were all very robust, I then increased numbers of each of the two species to 5 espeis and 7 cardinals (from 2 and 4) – think the espeis were pleased to acquire some shoalmates;
* very happy with just the two species in the 54L tank - in hindsight, looking back on videos of the fish during the “original cohorts dying off / new stock” phase when I had small numbers of 4 species in the tank at once, that isn’t an approach I’d take again but instead wait until all have passed away before adding new ones;
* two nerites are both alive despite the male one having regular seeming near-death-experiences;
* hygrophila guanensis is still alive (almost 2 years!) – and propagating regularly! All in little terracotta pots – an aquascaper’s horror (sorry, Matt) but works for me and the tank inhabitants.
Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, all.
https:///youtu.be/IG799_scnM8