Oneiroid

Following my post from May 2009 (http://albertaaquatica.com/index.php?showtopic=24592&st=0&p=2189546&hl=rust&fromsearch=1entry2189546), I am pleased to report that I've got a number of new Batrachospermum sp. colonies growing in my shrimp tank (click the thumbnail to see detail). I'm hoping that I'll be able to maintain it for some time; the conditions in this tank seem to remain incredibly consistent, so I've probably a good chance. I'll post more photos as I see more growth. Just thought I'd share again, since there was a bit of interest in the last discussion.

Well, after 5 days of treatment in QT and daily 50% water changes, the little guy's red fin is still red. So, back in the main tank with his friends again!

Thanks Val. That is actually what I expect will happen with this guy (except the getting killed in a fight part ) but I'm going to QT and treat him just to be sure. If the red doesn't go away by the end of the treatment, he'll go back in the main tank again and it will forever be a mystery. I'll let you know how it goes. Setting up the QT tank now.

Thanks for the replies. No there is no streaking on the fins - the red area is staying quite localized. I'll quarantine and look into an antibiotic treatment. The condition of the water he is in right now is kept really clean, so I don't think that is an issue.

I picked up a group of L. Dorsigeras juvies about a month ago. One of the little guys had some kind of redness around the base of one of his pectoral fins - I only noticed this when I released the group into my tank. I thought at first that maybe it was an injury from netting/bagging, but a month later he still has it. He acts as though there is nothing wrong with him, is growing very strong, and eats well. The red around his fin does not appear to be worsening, except that it is maintaining size proportion as he grows. None of the other fish seem to have "caught" this. Yet... I can't find any exact matches on this condition through google. But it looks like it might be a bacterial infection of some sort. I'm thinking of quarantining this guy to try an antibiotic treatment. Is this a good idea? What product should I use? Attached are a couple pictures. This guy is really quite active, and these are the only reasonable shots I could get out of about 50 I took. Click on them to see the full-size images and that should give you an idea. Does anyone recognize this? Thanks!

April's topic is the Aquarium Beautiful Contest!

No introduction necessary. While these guys may enjoy eating some meaty treats, they do not actively pursue live food. So I suppose what I said is not entirely true. More accurately: they may eat your shrimp if your shrimp are dead and not running away. If you observe anything different, I will be very surprised indeed!

I've never met an oto that will eat other tank inhabitants. I've kept many with shrimp colonies as well, and never have had problems. Personally, I don't care for zebra snails because their eggs are tough to remove - especially from driftwood, and they will climb out of your tank if they find an uncovered spot. Algae wafers are a good idea if you don't have a lot of plants. But imo, if you need to feed algae wafers, you have too many otos in your clean-up crew.

Otos won't eat your shrimp or shrimp babies. These guys mind their own business and are very well mannered under any circumstance. For a 30g, I would add 5-10 otos for a cleanup crew. They stay small, so a nice handful won't put too much of a dent in your bio-load and they'll be happier to be able to hang out with more of their kin. As Val mentioned, zebra otos are also very nice (and expensive). I've found, however, these guys get a bit bigger than the more commonly found varieties, and are a bit more finicky about water conditions.

Aquarium Central has a huge amount of manzanita drift wood too.

I'm looking forward to it too. See everyone tomorrow!

Not sure about all brands, but Krazy glue is aquarium safe!

I picked up a set of tweezers with a fine tapered tip for about $5 from Bedrock Supply (they have a large selection - I think mostly for manipulating gems or beads or other tiny things). The set I got was not especially long in length, but the pointed tip really helps with fine substrates.

Val: As ridiculous as I made pico tanks out to be, I really am interested to hear any 'aftermath' stories if anyone experiments with maintaining their pico tanks beyond the December meeting! This is a form of aquascaping that involves the scale of resources that allows anyone, on any budget, to create complex and detailed aquascapes and at the same time does not require large ongoing commitments. It is also something very new and explored to only a very small degree, so I see this as almost a test case for the concept. I am truly excited by the response to project and am really looking forward to seeing everyone's entries - learning new things that I'd not imagined! syno321: I have some lovely baby anubias plantlets I'd be happy sell you :guns: Ishkabod: Wow! How did the tank turn out? Glad we had a couple sets of glass left over so you and another member could sneak under the wire and participate in the contest :thumbs:

If you have any questions, please post here and I will do my best to help. I totally encourage everyone who is participating in the pico contest (and even those who aren't!) to discuss ideas and techniques. This is new ground!

Continued:

Thank you everyone who attended last night's meeting. I am so happy that everyone who requested entries was able to make it to the presentation too. We are going to have a whopping 27 entries at our December meeting! You guys rock!! So I promised to follow up with a couple of things: 1) A link to the "crazy Serb's" gallery page: http://www.akvaristikayu.com/Octopus%20aquascaping/Gallery.htm 2) The how-to-build-your-pico-tank slides from the presentation:

I'll be bringing a light and a camera to grab photos of everyone's entry for sure. We'll have more than 25 pico tanks on show! This is a very cool show of support for a new idea. I'm working hard on the November presentation, and very much looking forward to sharing it with everyone. Thanks to all those who signed up for the project! Cheers, Sarah

For those of you who missed the last ACE meeting: The topic for the November ACE meeting is Pico Aquaria. This presentation will be about aquascaping on a small scale, and preparing for the Pico Aquarium contest that will be held during the December meeting. The entry fee into the pico tank contest is $5/entry. You may purchase as many entries as you'd like, but you must be an ACE member to participate. With each entry fee, you will receive the glass to build a pico tank to spec for the contest. Part of the presentation will be a crash course on siliconing and assembling a tank. Due to ventilation issues, we won't actually be building the tanks at the meeting, but Eugene (ACE president) has volunteered his garage (and silicone!) on the following Saturday if you'd like to swing by and build your tank there. I will be taking more entry fees at the auction tomorrow. I will have glass kits cut for all the entries I've received up to the end of tomorrow's auction on time for the November meeting. Come see me (auction comptroller) tomorrow if you'd like to purchase an entry or get more information. Cheers, Sarah

http://www.barrreport.com/

Might be closer to Cryptocoryne usteriana...

Yes, this is a possibility for sure. I know my last green tank was due to a canister filter failure which in turn threw off the water chemistry. But! If you run a UV sterilizer while you are experimenting with ferts, this will ensure any algae in the water column is removed, and even better - the UV treatment will not change the affectiveness of the ferts you are playing around with so you can leave it in there for as long as you think you need it. Of course, this will not prevent other algae outbreaks on your plants or hardscape which may occur during this time as well. And I agree with wener whole-heartedly: plant it up to the hilt! Edit: The UV sterilizer doesn't actually remove the algae, it kills it. You regular tank filtration will trap and collect the dead diatoms, so be sure to clean out your filter media often during this process.

Great start! I can't count the number of times I've started to create an independent aquarium journal online, only to abandon it (them). Green water has been a problem for me in the past as well. There are lots of ways of preventing it, but when you got it, prevention isn't really the issue anymore. Blackouts are absolutely out of the picture for my aquariums - there is no way I can risk varying the photoperiod by even a day. I've tried various "chemicals", and would never go that route again; my livestock was never impressed by this treatment and the treatment itself was never consistent (any of them). I finally invested in a UV sterilizer - and to my surprise, my pea-soup tank of about a month ago turned crystal clear after about a week. I removed the sterilizer and it hasn't come back since. This is a normal technique for ponds, and is a great safe alternative for the indoor tank. Good luck!

You put my 10-pounder to shame. Thanks for the pic!

That is interesting information. It does make sense to rig up CO2 tanks for large applications like commercial greenhouses where CO2 loss and general air chemistry can be controlled to a pretty good degree (you won't be 'opening the lid' to the greenhouse every so often). But for a small-scale hobbyist emersed tank setup, I still think adding CO2 is excessive.