Shai

Today the dominant male is much calmer, seemingly for no reason. He's guarding his love nest and only pestering fish who come too close, which I would naturally expect. Only change is that last night I did some minor pruning. Of course, this is also after I went through the trouble to set up the 33g again. I might still move the rams (and possibly the sub ruby male) anyway.

Of course, we already knew that bettas have personality, but here's a really interesting article on what kind of personalities they specifically could have. The original article has neat links interspersed with the article text too, so it's worth clicking through. http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn18378

The male is only pestering the rams (and the other male ruby), who are all pestering him back. This tank has always had its fair share of aggression--everyone in it is bossy and they all get in each other's faces from time to time. That's nothing new for me. Never having kept these fish before, I just want to know if the male is likely to settle down and just get into the occasional squabbles like everyone else does. I did consult with Patrick about my current stock before getting the ruby greens; this wasn't an out of the blue purchase. Right now the male is also very intent on coaxing his females into the little love nest he's claimed, and so far none of them are terribly interested, which adds to his frustration. I have a spare 33g I was going to turn into a betta barracks but if this horny bugger stays horny I'll make the 33g into a GBR haven instead.

I picked up five ruby greens (2m/3f) the other night and introduced them to my 55g community tank. The dominant male has taken a rather strong dislike to my dominant female German Blue Ram (and vice versa). Sheba (the GBR) is the smaller fish, but she's stubborn and doesn't realize yet she's lost the argument, even though her tail is shredded and she's had a bite taken out of her face. : ( I have another smaller female GBR too and the male ruby doesn't like her much either but hasn't been able to catch her yet. It's only been a couple of days, so I'm wondering if they just still need some time to settle down or if I should be proactive and take the GBRs out now? I'd be particularly pissed if these females ended up dead. If I should take them out, anybody got a 20g long they'd care to sell or trade to me? : )

Feed less, gravel vac more. MTS (just like any other snail) populations explode when they have an ample food supply, and given MTS live mainly in the substrate, this suggests your substrate is pretty dirty from excess mulm and leftover fish food. Limiting the food supply will limit the population.

Great shots! I was in Vegas in November too and also saw the aquarium at Mandalay Bay. Incredible! I have photos and video I still haven't posted... I should probably get on it. : )

I second the vote for anubias and crypts. My bettas love resting on the anubias (or playing hide-and-seek under them) and they enjoy swimming between crypt leaves.

I just bought a 2217 for my 55g and it came with media, spray bar, hoses, and valves too. I was considering buying the 2028 because I'd heard the 2217 would be hard to prime, but in the end decided not to spend the extra money. I found the 2217 very easy to prime so I don't know what everyone complains about. I like that the 2217 has no baskets or other restrictions in the canister itself--I can put whatever media I choose into it, in whatever configuration I want, and I can be sure the entire canister is filled so there is no bypass. I also like the 2217 because the water intake goes into the bottom of the canister, while the output is at the top. Based on pics on Google, it seems like the 2028 has both input and output at the top--so I would worry about bypass happening there, too. Hope you find a filter you like. : )

Interesting. Not to mention that dosing for the entire tank volume means using up the product faster, which means buying another bottle sooner. ; ) I usually dose somewhere in the middle--for the amount of water being replaced plus a little bit.

This article appeared recently on Lifehacker. Check the original post for photos. : )

Thanks for your help! I set up the canister this afternoon and everything went smoothly. I wonder why people say these things are hard to prime? I had no trouble. : ) For now it's still sitting in a bucket in case something goes wrong with the connections, and later on I need to trim the spray bar down so it will fit the width of my tank, but otherwise I'm really pleased. I shut off my existing filters to see just how quiet this filter is and was impressed that it really is as quiet as everyone said it would be. How long should I leave my other filters running in tandem with this one (for bacteria to establish in the Eheim)? I did squeeze some mulm into the canister before starting it up and also squashed in two sponges from one of my filters (I have three AC70s running). Do you suppose four weeks would be long enough? I'm looking forward to no more waterfall noise!

I just got myself an Eheim 2217. Yay! Before I bought it I knew the instructions would be less than stellar. I've been looking at the tips on Rex Grigg's site and there are just a few things I'm still confused about (too bad he didn't post pictures)... 1. The spray bar is supposed to connect to a hard plastic 90-degree corner tube. In the manual they show a small connector (see image below) but that piece wasn't included with my canister. Am I supposed to cut a section of tube? Assembling this part doesn't seem to be mentioned anywhere that I can find. 2. Rex's site says, Does he mean that one set of valves on one hose should point up, and one set of valves on the other hose should point down? Does it matter which one points in which direction? Thanks everyone!

Since plants count as livestock and the mods want to contain trading to the Buy/Sell forums, would it not then make sense to move the threads in the Swap/Give Away plants forum into the Livestock Buy/Sell, delete the Swap forum, and rename the Buy/Sell category to Buy/Sell/Trade? This would eliminate the double standard and reduce confusion. Asking posters to post a price on new threads doesn't have to be complicated and it shouldn't be hard for people to do regardless. Like jvision does, if posters want to entertain a trade in lieu of a sale they can tack that on. "$2.00 per stem or trade for _____" takes five seconds to type and can encourage people to nibble on the thread if they want the plant but don't have anything to trade for it. : )

Tammy, that's terrible. : ( Your fish were so well-cared for. Please take heart in that!

This is a first for me! I've never had any of my aquatic plants flower before. I only noticed it today when I fed Levi. : ) What (if anything) should I do about it?

I think it would be nice to have a little more clarification on what exactly constitutes an offense. I've read the sticky but I don't know that it's specific enough. For example, many months ago now someone posted something for sale on this board that I was interested in, so I made an offer. At the time the seller couldn't actually sell me that something because something else had to be sold first before I could have it. That was fine for me at the time, but now it's been half a year and I'm still waiting for that thing to become available. Honestly, I don't think it ever will be available, so I've given up waiting and I'll be shopping elsewhere. Do I personally feel this was a "deal gone bad"? Not really. Yes, technically, the seller hasn't held up their end of the sale as described in the sticky. I'm disappointed I haven't been able to get the thing I offered on, because it would have been a lot cheaper for me than buying from a store. The seller has never explained the delay either. But I don't think it's worth reporting the specifics. Sometimes things just don't work out. *shrugs* Based on these (vague) details, is this nonetheless the kind of thing we're expected to report anyway? What if, another six months from now, the seller contacts me and I say I've long since given up waiting? Is it then me who ends up being the one who "welched" on the deal?

He will be fine by himself. If the tank is overstocked you should work on rehoming some of the fish so that it isn't overstocked. Rams especially are sensitive to nitrates and need very clean water. With an overstocked tank you have no margin for error.

Sorry about your loss. It's usually pretty difficult to "force" GBRs into pairing. Most often you have to let them pair up by themselves, by offering multiple females to one male and then removing the females that don't get picked. What are the dimensions of your tank? You should only have 1 pair of rams for every two feet of length, and since you have cories the bottom of the tank is likely pretty crowded already.

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: ) Thanks for the explanation! Still cool to get that kind of night video of your tank.

Neat video Baos! I'm curious why this might be, since the glass of the tank didn't reflect back to the camera. If it did we wouldn't have a video to look at. : )

I've recently started wondering about switching to magnetic suction cups when my regular suction cups give up. More expensive, but in the long run...? Any thoughts on these?

I have GBRs in our "harder than rock" hard water. I've found you have to be really really really really really REALLY cautious about acclimatizing them to home aquaria here. Float and mix tank water with LFS water for two or three hours before releasing into a dark tank. Overnight drip method would be best if you can trust yourself and be that patient. With respect to the tank being mature, I personally wouldn't consider any tank under 6 months old to be suitable. Also, if they weren't bred here, it's exceptionally tough to find good LFS specimens. Locally bred is easier because they were born in our water...but they still need extra care. Don't give up! They are great fish to have. : )

Indeed. As this thread shows, you can "contribute" your five posts just by asking why you can't view the Buy & Sell... Not much of a contribution, hey? Or maybe the posts in this forum shouldn't count towards the total post count. : )

I think I'd double or triple the contribution requirement if it were me.