Tigs

Hmm I've got said red claw macros, not sure why you'd say they were not friendly <shrug>. I currently have a colony in a 90 Gallon tank, with plecos, rainbows, 6" catfish, cory's etc etc. They can hold their own, so even when I had full grown angels 5-6" on body, they didn't go after the shrimp. They do get large compared to the cherry shrimp etc. I find mine very active, especially at feeding time when they rush out to try and beat the fish to the food

cheers,

Antonio

Nice, congrats I'm waiting on some tank moves to put mine into a larger tank but they are doing well none the less. Hoping the fire reds, red rili, blue pearls & tigers I got will acclimate well. Thus far, all but the tigers are doing great, which is odd methinks.

cheers,

Antonio

I'm with Jvision on this one. I made the mistake once of putting in some small angels (1inch on body, maybe 1.5") with my endlers. There were about 100+ endlers, ranging from full grown adults to fresh fry. After watching them get settled in all looked well, they didn't go chasing down the endlers or any such initially. Next morning was a different story. The four young angles had cleaned house, no fry were left, few males to be found with only the larger females relatively safe. After all that I thought the culprits would at least have bulging stomachs...nope, looked like they were half starved...crazy.

Antonio

I've watched the website(what little one can access without being a member)for several months to try and get a sense of the club and their activities. I can't help but notice how slow updates are with regard to upcoming meetings. I believe meetings are held the second Tuesday of every month, but even as of today there is no mention of a February meeting, as January is still posted. I believe a club is much more than a website, but it is the face that many of us rely on to help understand how viable the club is. I have to say, it sure seems un-organized.

the members area you don't see is quite active with both hardware and livestock sales and purchases etc. I myself have found that through contacts made there I've been able to gain access to fish I never would have seen

Big thanks to our members for making some of these fish (in my case) available

Antonio

I've become fascinated with the idea of starting up a small RCS tank and wanted to get some feedback to see if what I have would be suitable.

I have a 20G Long hospital tank setup right now that includes

Substrate - 2.5" Playsand

Filter - Sponge Filter running off a Marineland Maxi-Jet 400 rated for 110gph in powerhead mode with Venturi

Lighting- Single Bright 24" LED

Air - I also have an air pump setup on it split to two air stones (kinda overkill)

Driftwood is also mature in the tank

The sponge filter and substrate are going on 6 months now where at the minimum there have been small BN Pleco's in there and at the max a few cichlids for a few days for QT from the LFS.

Obviously test levels are all good on ammonia, etc.

As far as plants I'm only planning on getting some easy plants where I preferably won't have to dose ever, ie. Java Moss, Java Fern. That's the plan at least until I get the planted tank bug where I would eventually get into CO2 setups and lighting.

Does that powerhead generate too much flow for a shrimp tank? If so I have the air pump that would be more then capable for the sponge filter.

Is the LED lighting going to be enough for the Java Moss/Java Fern?

Any additional feedback would be appreciated.

The LED should be fine. I've previously had a 10Gallon setup with a very small LED light (4"x4" with multiple leds') and the java fern in there did just fine, and grew to the point I had to

prune it back.

cheers and have fun

Antonio

PS airflow might be too much, I'm not familiar with powerhead units but even a good HOB filter would be too much for the shrimp if you plan on breeding them, babies will get 'stuck' to the filter media or sucked up

While Bettas may eat the occasional snail, I wouldn't put them in the category of snail control.

There's only one reason that a snail population is able to explode: ample food. If your fish are full grown or close, don't feed them every day. If cant help yourself, get a scavenger that you like: shrimp, for example. They will over populate your tank as well, but others like them and you'll be able to sell/trade the excess.

or to take care of the excess food in my tank I added some sailfin petricolas....they are HUGE now lol

Antonio

PS or get shrimp that eat snails! the red claw macros I have love them, about the only snail they cannot eat with ease are the assassin snail. They are decent sized though, and grow to about 4" overall.

I decided to build my own lights due to the cost of most lights out there being way past my budget.

So I found some really good sources for building the led lighting i chose to go with.

Item & Item cost:

- Gu10 3w blue led x5. $22.00

- Gu10 3w cool white led x10. $34.00

- Gu10 led ceramic base sockets.$15.00

Total: $71.00

Tools you will need:

- Needle nose pliers.

- Black electrical tape.

- Wire strippers.

- Silicone (optional).

It was really easy to wire everything together. All you need to do is connect all your sockets in a parallel

circuit using either solder or electrical tape. You can also use the silicone on your connections to keep

them from corroding.

The best part about these bulbs is they do not need a ballast to run them. All you need is a plug off any

thing you are not using around the house. I used a plug off one of my old filters.

Here is everything all wired together and working.

Now to think up ideas for a hood to install them into. Shouldn't be to hard seeing how i work in a fabrication

shop. Thank you for your time.

Nice idea, though on the wiring side of it I've got a few cringes going on. On the wiring hook up, approved methods would be solder with electrical tape over top, or wire nut

connectors. Just using electrical tape is NOT an approved method and can lead to a lot of problems with wires coming apart and someone getting hurt. Not sure if that's what you meant, but from reading the above it seems to state that. Now, as well code requirements do say any splicing (joining of wires ) must be done in a CEC approve box or fixture etc. So you need to make sure whatever enclosure you use protects all those electrical connections properly and is not flammable as well.

Since you work in a fab shop, a light weight metal enclosure with holes for the sockets to poke through, or mount should work well. Add a small hole for where the 120v power supply cable enters and make sure all your connections are inside and hidden away.

Hope I didn't come off the wrong way on that, but I don't want to see someone with zero (ie other readers) background in putting stuff together try this out and end up getting hurt.

cheers,

Antonio

No help at all?

Was hoping someone with more experience at this would jump in. I've had some success at treating what sounds like the same symptoms with seachem products. Specifically their Para Guard. Same situation, 90 Gallon tank. Tends to be the

pricey option (due to tank size) but about the only thing I've seen work. I did try internal/external para food etc, but could never get the fish that needed to be treated to eat it.

luck to ya, it's a royal pain.

Antonio

Natures corner and aquarium central are THE go to stores for plants (and fw fish)

Have to agree. I don't think I've ever paid sticker price overall at Natures Corner, I usually end up getting something discounted just 'because' Prices are good etc.

Aquarium central has been getting in some pretty decent stock, and prices are also good here.

Big Als, which I'd avoided for some time due to high prices shocked me the other day. I went into the store to pick up some parts (still the only ones that stock that) only to find their

fish prices really decent. Ended up buying a bunch of cory's from them.

cheers,

Antonio

Thanks guys. I'll pm Antonio when they are ready.

Sounds good, I'll be sure to keep some room ready for them.

Antonio

I am raising about 3 dozen of black ruby barb fry. They are about 1 month old already and I am sure I will not lose too many of them. In a couple of months they will be mature enough and beautifully coloured (the parents are gorgeous).

What are my options as to where to sell / donate them?

Agree they are goreous looking If they make it i"d be interested in a school of 10-15 personally

cheers,

Antonio

Have anyone started a list of shrimp breeders for Edmonton? Chime in with what type of shrimps you are currently breeding and water parameters. Been hearing that Edmonton is a very dificult place to breed crs/cbs due to heavy metals, is that true? I have looked up the Epcor water quality report and as im not a chemist but the numbers they report seems very insignificant. Can anyone elaborate on whether the amount of copper reported by Epcor will kill the shrimps.

I've been keeping/breeding red claw macros in Edmonton tap water for just over a year now. No issues that i've noticed, mortality rate seems to be solely dependant on a bad molt.

Antonio (Tigs)

:cry: I also noticed some empty ramshorn shells this morning while feeding my fish.

LOL me too, but then again, the tank in question has assassin snails & red claw macro shrimp both of which love to dine on ramshorn snails

Tigs

What kind of algae eaters are they? If they're Chinese algae eaters, then that's where I put my money. As they grow, they get increasingly aggressive.

(null)

I believe they are actually, they constantly fight with the red tail shark (3x their size) but seem docile during daytime hours.

Nighttime I'm thinking you may be right

thanks,

Antonio

PS come to think of it, all dmg to the fish would come from a top down 'attack'. Thus top of the tail, finnage etc, no dmg showing on the bottom side.

Hello, I've got a planted 90 Gallon community tank and I'm having what seems to be an overnight issue. Fish showing up the next morning with fins ripped and the occasional dead fish (rare).

In said tank are

6 Black veil tail angels (all show normal signs of fin munching as they are always fighting a bit back & forth over the females)

1 red tail shark

2 algae eaters

20 red phantom tetras

2 emperor tetras

4 bleeding hearts

7 congo tetras

3 bumblebee catfish

2 cory's

1 mini pleco (like 3 inches)

10? red claw macro shrimp.

While the loading may seem high, the tank has been running at these levels for quite some time (years). My first thoughts were that it would be the red claw macro shrimp, however, I've got the same shrimp in with my blue veil tail angels and they dont even look at them twice anymore, all the very long finnage is perfect.

I've observed the tank closely for hours at a time and have not noticed any unusual behavior, other than the red tail shark chasing other fish about but never what seems like an attack. Research on the web seems to say thats the norm for them, but they do not physically munch other fish <shrug>

Suggestions or opinions on this ?

I'm debating moving the shark and algae eaters as a first move.

thanks,

Antonio (Tigs)

Today I noticed my 9 month old new 180 gallon is leaking water. The water is building up in the black plastic trim at the bottom. No its not splashing in there. It houses my diablo red aro and a ntt dat. I have no where elso to put them. I have contacted concept aquariums on a quote for a new one. The original purchas is from bow valley and i dont even wanna try and get any sort of warranty on it. Im done with them.

ANy other tank builders in edmonton? How hard is it to re silicone this 180? Does any company do this? I thought the tank would at least last 5 years what a joke.

I've had something very similar happen to me before. It turned out to be a cracked bottom pane of glass, that would leak very slowly, and only drip when a certain amount of water had accumulated under the tank.

As has been mentioned though, you'll find out for sure once it's drained. I'm assuming you have gravel or some such at the bottom, thus unable to see any cracks.

good luck, never fun dealing with leaking tanks.

The Kribs are at it again, hopeing lucky number 3. Moms lost the big purple belly and both are being protective of a new cave. the 2.5 inch rose terra cotta. Now i wonder, should i postpone the water change? Last time i did the eggs failed or something. and should i up the temp? its at 24C.

Hm, I've never had a water change affect mine at all. My biggest problem is trying to slow down their breeding Anyhow, it usually takes 3-5 days that I've noticed to see the fry start swimming after the eggs a laid (again a guesstimate as they hide their nest well). As for the temperature that's what mine is at so should be fine.

luck to ya, they are a very fun breed to watch raise their young.

Tigs

Search some of the old posts by Patrick - he's the Fins N Gills owner. He's posted quite a few threads on how he set up tanks w. the AquaTerra BGs.

Will do thanks. I checked out the web site & instructions on how it's done. I'm more after

info on working setups and if it's a hassle or worthwhile

Antonio (Tigs)

Hi there, I'm debating setting up and aquarium with the aquaterra backgrounds and

using the space behind it for my filtration. Does anyone have experience with this

setup? I'm wondering how effective the filtration is compared to a hob or cannister

and how easy it is to maintain & clean etc.

thanks,

Antonio (Tigs)

until recently i had a silver ghost angel that was easily 6 inches across the body and the fins were easily 1.5 the length of his body. on the side glass of a standard 55 his body was about half the width of the tank. dang, i miss that fish!

Nice ! Do you recall how long it took for said angel to reach that size? I'm hearing from some sources 8-10months and they should be fully grown. Other sources are saying it may take years.

thanks,

Tigs

Yikes that sounds like they would eat the more common angels for breakfast The tank capacity you suggested I'm assuming is due to the

water quality required by the wild altums?

Tigs

Hi there, I'm trying to find the answer to a question or two!

Just how big have you'll seen angels grow to in an aquarium? I realize the 'standard' size everyone quotes is

6inches on the body. There seems to be some debate on whether this is 6 inches including fin or just body length.

As well, how long has it taken for your angels to grow to full size? Much difference between males & females ?

My 7 black veil angels are currently about 3.5-4inches body size on the males and 2.5-3 on the females, quite a visible

difference. They are about 1.5 years old, not including the initial grow out time so say 2 years total maybe a tad less.

I'd really like to get some of the big angles I keep hearing about (and know folks who've seen them in the wild) but have

yet to come across any in the aquarium world.

thanks,

Tigs

Lori from edmonton says hello to you all

Hello fellow Edmontonian!

tigs

Hi everybody, had this site recommened to me by a friend.

I am hoping people here can share knowledge and I can share mine.

I like oddball fish and I have a saltwater aqarium as well!!!

Hello and welcome

tigs

Hi everyone, looking forward to making some new friends on this apparently quite active board and trading ideas as well. Currently I've got a 90 Gallon main tank with the focus fish being some black veil angels, with a 20 gallon and another 10 gallon with additional fish. In the near future it looks like I'll have a 30 gallon up and running again as those angels just don't want to stop spawning... silly fish.

laters,

Tigs