Aguabonita

Looks great! Soon you'll need another and another...

We were actually at Mom and Dad's west of Eckville. You can basically catch Fairy shrimp in any pond that completely dries up fairly early in spring. So, farmer's fields are often the best (get permission or look for a spot in the ditch). Have a drive in any direction from the city... if you see shallow water (even tire tracks) go take a look... shrimp will look like little minnows swimming around. Might take a couple of looks to find a good one, however, you should find mosquito larvae pretty much everywhere. Take rubber boots, a few large mouth buckets, larger aquarium nets and empty 2 litre bottles or another nonspilling container for the ride home. If you catch a whack of live food, just strain and freeze.

Perfect time to collect fairy shrimp near Red Deer right now. Caught about 6oz in 1/2 hour with kids that were about 1-1.25 cm in size with a fair bit of half grown mosquito larvae. If you've never collected them before they are found in seasonal ponds (often in agricultural land) which are getting pretty close to dry now... we sure could use some rain.

I would say the easiest way to obtain an estimate would be species, % substrate coverage as viewed from directly above (with example), average height above substrate/objects, and average plant density (low, med, high with illustrations). With a number of truths using low to average lighting, a conservative estimate would likely be possible. This would be a good start, later/if necessary other elements such as rate of CO2 addition, extact lighting, hours of lighting, etc... could be added if good truthing data could be acquired. Thanks for your efforts Dean

I've kept dwarf frogs with neons and endlers which worked out good. Dwarf frogs are pretty crappy competitors for food, basically taking the scraps on the bottom. I wouldn't keep them with barbs or catfish that feed vigorously on the bottom. A couple times a week I would feed them frozen blood worms to make sure they were getting enough food. They ate flakes pretty well and lived for 2-3 years. We took them out for the kids to play with quite a bit. We had five, once the kids dried one out we'd catch another and start over. They're fast little suckers... drying out slows em' down. We had a blast with them. The kids loved it.

Made it out to Mom and Dad's west of Red Deer and managed to scoop a few feedings of tiny black mosquito larvae with a touch of daphnia. Tiny guys right now, just a step up from newly hatched brine shrimp. Only found them in shallow water (less than a foot deep) that was receiving a lot of sun. As per usual, fish went absolutely nuts for them. Make sure to dig out the dip nets over the next few weeks and let your fish in on the feast.

A very cool and much needed tool. From the info I submitted I felt that the warnings were completely in line with what I knew I shouldn't be doing (not enough of a few species... I keep a fair number of rescues) and the stocking rates were much more in line with reality than anywhere else i've seen. Nice work! One question. Has there been any discussion of how planted aquariums may affect bioload (e.g., reducing nitrates, providing surface area for nitrification) and the numbers of fish that can be maintained. Thanks for all your effort, it will benefit many fishkeepers.

Probably not a cross breed with a tiger, just a shop keep with a bad eye. I've seen rubies and tigers mixed a lot and I expect rubies are bagged as tigers pretty frequently. Take some more pictures as it grows up... from the pics it looks like a standard ruby barb.

Agree with above comments. Never used excel. As for a great plant to suck up nutrients, go with hygrophilia polysperma (if it doesn't grow, you've got a lighting problem) and slowly move into the slower growing plants. No need for CO2 or ferts. Keep it simple... anubias, java moss, crypts (wendtii, becketti, balansae) they all do well with minimal intervention.

Looks like your other black barb, you thought may be a tetra is a ruby barb. One of my fav fishes, adult males are exceptional fish. Yours looks like a male... it's face should turn red and body jet black as it matures... tiger barbs may give it a hard time as it matures, as rubies like to spar a lot. Time will tell.

Since you received a whack of plants to start out, I thought there may be a pretty significant amount of nitrifying bacteria on the plants. I found the following article which also suggests this. http://www3.interscience.wiley.com/journal/40005724/abstract?CRETRY=1&SRETRY=0 Would be nice to have a quality test kit to see how things are going. Don't add any more fish, feed small amounts, change the water daily, don't rinse the filter media for a month or so. Too bad about the swamp water, it would have been ideal... may be worth the piece of mind to go back and get some or bum some closer to home. The plants may carry enough bacteria... interesting I've never started a tank with just plants as bacterial seed; should work... again, it would be nice to know what's going on with the test kit if you went this way. If I had a few tanks kicking around this would be a good experiment.

Nice to see more Central Albertans on here! I think we've met, if so, how did the plants do for you? Dean

I’ve dealt with a similar incident to what you’re describing. The white specks in my aquarium looked like a swirling cloud that was most visible near the surface. After asking around a friend suggested it was an algae bloom (I had a couple watts per gallon of light and had recently ruthlessly cut back a monster clump of heteranthera zosterfolia = system out of balance; like a newly set up tank). It was becoming an annoyance/eye sore, so I went down to the LFS (Franco’s) and picked up a pond algae remover that contained an organic chelator of sorts (don’t remember brand). I used the remover, which was supposed to clump the algae and allow me to remove it by filtering through floss. After the tank went clear (4 hrs or so) I investigated my filter and found a big wad of green goopy floss. So even though it looked white, it was in fact green algae. I did this about once a week for at least four weeks and eventually gave up on the algae remover as a long term solution. I asked around about getting rid of algae and was presented with some dry barley straw that I bagged and added to the tank. I think this worked as the tank slowly cleared up... but it likely also helped that the plants grew back. Because you seem to have a high tech system using ammonia/nitrite/nitrate removers I would go with Jason’s advice to make sure the filtration is optimal first, do a water change and give it a week. In addition you could try adding a nutrient sucking plant like hygrophilia polysperma to help stabilize your system until your filtration is established then slowly cut back the plants if you are not going with a planted system (personally, I would try to have some kind of plant in any system). You may also want to try the dry barley straw down the road if you are convinced it is in fact an algae bloom... which seems quite likely. Let us know how you make out. Dean

Aphyosemion australe would work out for you. They're beautiful, peaceful and can be bred fairly easily. There is likely someone around the board who raises them (post an LF in the trading section), otherwise I have seen them at Big Al's in the past and I expect it would be easy to have them ordered in. I've kept this species before (my first killie) and found them to be quite hardy and long lived. They bred a number of times, but I never got serious enough with them to raise the fry. I'd say they are pretty much the perfect killie to start out with. Dean

I'd choose a pair for sure, easy to tell apart - females have a prominent pink belly, heavier bodied (fat belly) and are usually a bit smaller, but you'll often see tanks of males only (nature's corner staff or Michael at big al's can show you how to pick a pair). If you go with the combo I suggested make sure to add fish fairly slowly, cycle with endler's or glowlights. Bronze cories are very hardy and can live for a maximum of at least ten years... if your not in love with 'em you're going to have to look at them for a long, long time. If you go with Panda's, they should breed for you and are easy to raise in regular tapwater (for sure in Calgary, I'd expect similar results in Edmonton). Let us know what you decide on. Dean

Hi all, I guess I should have introduced myself before posting! A fair number of you may remember me from the CAS where I was pretty active before having to go back to school. That’s finally done, thank god... five years of absolutely busting my hump was way more than enough for me. I’m not really an internet guy at all, I really prefer face to face, but do to a relapse in my condition I’m quite housebound for, hopefully, not much longer... technically I should be icefishing today, but this site seems an enjoyable alternative. Before having to go to school I donated all my aquarium supplies to the CAS as we were moving into a way smaller place. Hopefully you guys got some good deals! Well... I lasted a week before buying a 37 gallon bowfront corner tank and over a couple more years added two 15’s and an approximately 7 gallon acrylic. Still 1.5 more years of moving around until I can set up a fish room again... I can’t wait. I really must apologize for not keeping in touch in some capacity, but I honestly had an overflowing plate between school and having another little one. I’ve met a few aquarists here so hopefully I’ll make it down for a meeting one of these days (my back got worse and now bumming a ride will be a necessity). Hope to see all you CAS people soon and meet some new fishheads here. For those I haven’t met yet, nice to meet you and check out my profile to see what my interests and background are. Hopefully, I can help out and lean on you all for advice. Catch ya Dean Baayens

I agree that apistos and rams should be added to an established tank; after a couple of months is fine... they are a show piece, my favourite fishes by far. If you go this way try to go with tank bred fish, wild caughts are known to be touchy and often full of parasites. Cacatuoides are often bred and can be found on occasion. I picked up some awesome locally raised rams (the best rams I’ve seen) from nature’s corner a few years ago, so if you’re interested I’d give them a call. The water temp for these guys and cardinals is acceptable at 78, rams do require temps greater than 80 for breeding, but from experience I find they seem to do just fine at a little cooler temp. Bronze cories are also fine at this temp. 78 is a great temp for being able to maintain a wide variety of tropicals. Just check the specifics on whichever fish you decide to go with. I’m curious, is there a pinned reference for beginner’s to set up a planted community tank? I couldn’t find one. If not, I wouldn’t mind taking a stab at it, with input from whoever would like to help out... I’m currently housebound... an ugly situation for me.

I think your idea 1 is excellent. Cherry barbs are great fish; go with two males and four females... the males will spar a lot and are very entertaining. You may want to consider going with pandas,julis/tri's as your cory, bronze cories are highly variable in colouration - they can be really drab. You could easily add a half dozen zebra danios and as a bonus they would be great to cycle with, not that cherry barbs wouldn't be fine. Don't scrimp on plants - anubias, microsorium, crypts, java moss (cherry shrimp will go nuts breeding in a good sized chunk) and grab some hygrophilia polysperma to manage excess nutrients - prune as needed, it grows like stink. If I had to set up a 29 right now. 8 cardinals or glowlights 6 - 8 Endlers 6 pandas pair of apistogramma cacatuoides (should spawn for you and put you on the road to numerous tank expansions) or pair of blue rams have fun and make sure to report back Dean

Sublethal effects are pretty hard to see... maybe the rams would have lived an extra month or two. I’ll do the math and let me know if I make a calculation/interpretation error. The average concentration of chloramine in Edmonton tapwater is 2.19 mg/L according to EPCORE. Therefore ammonia is (16/51) x 2.19 = 0.68 mg/l. 30% water change = 10 x 0.68 = 30X X = 0.23 mg/L total ammonia after a water change. Your short term recommendation is less than 0.1 mg/L in all cases or @ ph 8.5 and 86 degrees? Since water in Edmonton is ph 7.8, my tanks are 78 degrees I’d estimate from your table a 1 hr LC50 of about 4.5 mg/L, so if we went one tenth of the LC50 we would want to be below about 0.45 mg/l which I was under and if we look at the 0.1 mg/l blanket recommendation it is double but close. I had to make my lack of aquatic difficulties make sense, because your point is completely legitimate and being a Calgarian I never had to deal with chloramines, just went with what was advertised to remove chloramine and never thought about ammonia. Obviously, my plants sucked up the ammonia quickly and I didn’t have any outward problems. Certainly shows the advantages of maintaining plants, makes a near bullet proof system. I’ll have to switch over to a chloramine/ammonia remover and save my fish the potential sublethal effects. Thanks for calling me on it; I ended up researching it for a while and learned a thing or two for future use. Thanks again Dean

This is an interesting topic. From using Big Al’s multi-purpose conditioner at double dose for 4 years in Edmonton I would have to say removing ammonia from the disassociation of chloramine during water changes is not an essential factor in regards to freshwater planted aquariums using unadjusted Edmonton tapwater (also seems fine with Red Deer tapwater). My tanks are fairly heavily planted and I expect the plants take out the ammonia pretty quick. I currently have 2 lemon tetra’s, 6 bronze cories, 1 marbled hatchetfish (the other 5 jumped out... and were perfectly preserved as per usual), 2 Bolivian rams, scads of Endler’s and one angelfish that I’ve maintained for those 4 years (plus many fish for 2-3 years that are going strong) and were subjected to weekly 30% water changes using what is undoubtedly sodium thiosulphate to “neutralize” chloramine. During that time I’ve also maintained blue rams that lived for at least two years, as well as, apistogramma cacatuoides that spawned and raised fry. I really haven’t noticed any difference in the health or longevity of my fishes as compared to my fish keeping experiences in Calgary where I just aged water to remove chlorine. In my experience, this product can be successfully used to “neutralize” chloramine in a planted aquarium supplied with unadjusted Edmonton or Red Deer tapwater. Not to say a product like Prime isn’t superior, I just don’t see it as an absolute necessity for the average fishkeeper in these locations. However, if it’s cheaper and results in less ammonia spiking I’ll have to give it a shot! Dean P.S. I have two chloramine neutralizing products at home right now and neither one indicates the active ingredient/concentration, but do indicate to seek medical attention if swallowed. Pretty crappy practice; I wouldn’t want to be trying to figure out exactly what was in these products in a pinch.