Abby

Good morning everyone, I was a fairly active member of this site a few years ago - I had a 47 tank fish room and was breeding pseudomugil furcatus along with various strains of killifish. We moved away from Alberta and sadly I sold every single thing right down to the last air pump. Fast-forward a few years and we are now settled in Paris, Ontario. My basement just happens to have this semi-finished room begging for something to happen in it! So here we go again! Starting from scratch genuinely sucks and I dread the cost of starting over, but we'll baby step it and see how things go. Anyway, I've also joined the GTA Aquatica forum, but since you were all such a great resource, I thought I would reactivate my account here as well. Looking forward to getting reacquainted with you all. -Ab.

You're a good man Pat! I would take him for my community tank, except that those parrots can (under some circumstances) be mean little bastards and beat the hell out of my community swimmers. Awesome fish though with loads of personality. It's always sad when you see any creature mistreated like this. Thanks for saving him Pat!

Thank you everyone for the feedback and tips. Most helpful!! I'm ordering from brine direct this time around (next time I'll absolutely be supporting Angelfins). I have a friend buying as well so we'll split the shipping costs. Maybe I'll start bringing it in by the case and be the "dealer" for Calgary! Cheers all

Hmmmmm. . . .the Mullin-man knows what he's talking about! . . . TO THE INTERWEBZ!

That's not a terrible price. . .and free shipping helps. Brineshrimpdirect.com has great prices but their shipping is outrageous. $36 for 1lb of eggs. . .$42 to ship it to Calgary. I find that highly suspect. . .I've shipped a guitar across the border for less than that.

Hi all, Does anybody know a good source for Brine Shrimp eggs in bulk? Big Als has the 3.5oz containers (which are ridiculously overpriced) and Canadian Aqua Farm carries the 1/2lb bags. . .but the bags are pre-mixed with salt which makes me question how much you're actually getting as far as eggs. So, I'm looking for somewhere that might be selling eggs by the pound. Has anybody encountered somewhere like that? Please let me know! Cheers all

My light just arrived today. The timer isn't a big deal on my end. Light will be on when I'm there and off when I'm not. Weekends the tank will get enough natural light to not kill off everything. I'll post my thoughts in a few days!

I had to screenshot that.....I don't hear it to often Black and white (Dalmation) Balloons would be great! I love balloon mollys, great little personalities on them.

Personally I would go with an assortment of Mollies. They're colourful, personable, low maintenance, inexpensive and easy to find! I would keep it to something like that that isn't going to require really finniky water conditions (you don't want to be sneaking in to the room to test the water every ten minutes). I like Mollies. I have two orange, three black and a few balloons in my community tank.

Will do! If it turns out to be a flop I'm just going to take the LED bulb in a desk lamp approach. I just like how this one at least looks like a cleanly assembled unit and it won't take up any additional space on my desk. The plants I will have will be very low light, low maintenance etc. I don't plan on getting in to CO2 and heavy ferts for a this one. It should be here in a couple of weeks and I'll let folks know how it turns out. Cheers

Hey now!! That gives me hope!!! Cheers!

My thought exactly! My office could use a bit of light anyway!

I decided to order a no-name off eBay to try first. It was $14 with free shipping so my expectations could not be lower. Given that I can spend more than that at Starbucks in a day, I'm not too worried if it turns out to be junk (which lets be honest.... There's a 90% chance it will be!) but hey, why not try!? If this thing is crap I'll go with the bulb idea. Thanks again all

Thank you very much for the replies. Lots to think about here! I don't have the technical know how to wire up the lights. I'm sure I could suss it out (I've done some basic soldering in the past) but I think I might just stick to the screw in bulb variety! Thank you both again. Much appreciated

Good to know! Thank you. That Ebay link, would you say that's a 23W? It doesn't tell you what each LED is. . .the joys of buying Chines knockoffs I guess. Still, it looks nicely contained and not an eyesore. Although, I will also keep an eye out for a canopy. Hell, I may even have one somewhere.

Hmmmm, I just found this on ebay. It is indeed cheap! Any thoughts from folks more knowledgeable than I? http://www.ebay.ca/itm/White-Blue-48-LED-3-Mode-Aquarium-Clip-Lamp-Light-For-Fish-Tank-Plant-Grow-/200948197511?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item2ec9722887

Hi everyone, So DIY lighting is WAAAAAY outside of my limited bubble of fish knowledge. So, I'm turning to the pro's! (Where's Caine?! :P ) I have a 5 gallon tank collecting dust that I've decided to set up on my desk at work. I would like to keep it simple with just a small sponge filter, a few plants (I'll be asking for suggestions on those later but for now I'm thinking of some moss and a carpet of some sort. .glosso maybe? Hairgrass? We'll see!). For livestock it will just be some red cherry shrimp and a snail or two (I have a soft spot for Spixi snails). So, my question is. . .lighting. . . Cheaper to do a DIY light for this kind of tank? If yes, where would I begin with this project? Or is there a product that someone can recommend that would be effective and not cost my first born?? I want to keep everything simple as this is really just a small accent piece/distraction in my office for me to look at when I'm frazzled (which is often). I don't want it to turn in to yet another tank which will require a significant amount of maintenance and upkeep with a massive footprint (I have 22 of those at home). Feedback? Comments? Thoughts? Suggestions? For that matter, do you have an LED for sale? Thanks all.

For pond snails I would go back to my original statements...do the food and remove for a week or so and if you really get desperate, a couple of coolie loaches will do the job. As far as your filters go, that's where I would open it up and hand pick any little ones you find. I've had tremendous success with this method and haven't ever removed a plant (or a fish for that matter). Good luck with the snails!! Be patient and you'll win the war!

Ha! Now that's something we can agree on! Those products on the market are rubbish. I ha a similar experience and watched those little slimy monsters frolllic in their poison like they were having a pool party. In the end, I don't think I had a single fatality from it! Again I would ask if you know the kind of snails you're dealing with. Mystery snails leave giant colourful egg clutches which are easily removed. Pond will leave the little "drop of water" which Cully speaks of. Also easily removed but indeed, tough to find. I would still be hesitant to wipe the tank and start over. But if you have the time and inclination, it is indeed an effective method. Final option would be to host a "Taste of France" dinner party and tell your guests to bring a fork as you have a fun activity planned! Cheers

Cully has a very viable method there but in my humble opinion, I'm not sure if that's 100% necessary. I'm sure Cully had a snail problem which was effectively dealt with via this method. But like I said, I had pond and ramshorn in my 75 gallon which I was able to completely eliminate by capture over a 7-10 day period. I've been months now without seeing a single snail in my tank (and that's with actively searching) Wiping the entire tank and filter as your first attempt at a purge seems like going from 0 to 100 without taking any steps on the middle. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that method won't work. Absolutely it will! But at what cost? A lot of time, effort and having to recycle your tank. My thought would be to absolutely keep this on the list of options but try the simpler methods first. Worst case scenario is you've eliminated the bulk of the snails in a week but still get the odd straggler. If you feel you can't get them all, then restart the entire tank. Also depending on what decorations/substrate you have, PP will stain it purple permanently (sand especially). Good luck with the snails! In a lot of my tanks I just let the little guys do what they want...but I can absolutely see how in a breeding tank they would be a big pain in the ____.

Just thinking....you could snag a cooli loach. They eat smallish snails and they're kind of interesting to look at AND they'll pretty much leave your fish alone. You'll hardly see it.

You could do a dip of your plants prior to adding them to your tank. I use Potassium Permanganate on the plants going in to tanks that I would like to keep snail free. What kind of snails are you dealing with? Pond snails, ramshorn and MTS won't eat your plants (they will only eat dead/decaying matter) and can be quite beneficial to your tank. Tearing it down might be excessive. And removing adults could also be tricky...snails can reproduce at an alarmingly young age. I would go with the veg trick for a week or so and see how the population looks. I've cleaned out a 75gallon of pond snails using this trick. Good luck mate

UPDATED OCT. 2, 2013 Actively Breeding: -Pseudomugil Furcatus (Blue Eye Fork Tail Rainbow) Killifish: - Fundulopanchax Nigerianus P82 - Fundulopanchax Sjoestedti Blue "Blue Gularis" - Endler Livebearers - Spixi Snails - Sailfin & Albino Sailfin Bristlenose Plecco

Ahoy! The short answer is (in my experience) a resounding yes all around. Most snails will eat your fish eggs. Unfortunately assassin snails will also likely eat your eggs. If your snail problem isn't too severe you could try a manual removal. Blanch a big chunk of cucumber or zucchini and put that in the tank. Leave it overnight and in the morning you can remove the veg with snails attached. Repeat this a few nights and you will get the bulk of them. From there, hand pick any elusive molluscs that you run in to and you're off to the races. Like I said, most snails will eat your eggs so this may be the easiest, safest and mos effective method of removal. Good luck!!!

Thanks all