arixonbarnes

Has anyone tried these digital temperature guns - the ones sold at Canadian tire (now on sale for 29.99). Do they work well when aimed at the side of an aquarium?

Last meeting of the season tonight.

The sand type.

I lost several cories to black sand (reptile type) as the sharp edges did in their whiskers and caused infections.

Fishing line works well to tie them together in varoius shapes.

Sorry! I'm talking about cherry shrimp - my mistake!

My crs multiply in all my tanks with bristlenoses, pekoltia brevis, guppies, swordtails (mayae and alvarez species), columbian tetras and serpae tetras. A twenty gallon tank with only crs in it and a few plants (they seem to need plants) will produce many shrimp very quickly. I feed them zuchinni and powdered fish food.

I have Cherry Shrimp in most of my tanks (about 10 tanks) in City of Edmonton water - I do an eighty to ninety % water change every second week(using prime) and the shrimp (& the rest of the fish) are doing fine. Tank temperatures run from 70F to 74F depending which shelf the tank is on. Is your water low or high PH?

I noticed in the Lee Valley catelog that they have precut slate for sale at a reasonable price in several different sizes. The link is http://www.leevalley.com/en/wood/page.aspx?p=70362&cat=1,250,43298

No show in the fall. It's next spring due to the length of time needed to book speakers (almost a year).

They are quite aggressive. I had one female and she killed a pair of endler males.

The 3 tanks on the bottom shelf of one of my tank stands is at 68 degrees F right now and the cherry shrimp (and bristlenoses) are doing fine.

I throw mine in the freezer also except when it's very cold out then I throw them onto the snow and they are dead immediately. I've tried boiling water (gruesome!!!) and not recommended. Some of the old books recommend "throwing them violently upon the concrete" - also not recommended and not quickly effective. I figure if freezing to death for humans is relatively painless then it can't be too bad for fish and as they are small (well most of them) death is very quick.

They shredded my angelfishes' fins. They didn't bother my kribs (but what would dare bother kribs).

I can assure you that the shrimp will NOT exist with tiger barbs. The barbs will clean house on the cherry shrimp and and fish they can fit into their mouths. My tiger barbs(1&1/4 inches) cleaned up 10 guppies (1 inch) the instant I put them in the tank consuming either head or tail first and slowly digesting the part that was sticking out. They also enjoyed the cherry shrimp I put in the tank until I caught on. Tiger barbs are nasty so watch what you put in with them.

If it smells (like a swamp or rotten eggs) then you need to 1) start water changes - I would suggest 25% followed by 50% the next day and the day after that 2) clean your filter pads (in tank water) and 3) deep vacuum/siphon your gravel.

Try Johnston Plastics on the southside Johnston Industrial Plastics 780-465-0431 4724 91 Avenue Nw, Edmonton, AB, T6B2L1 for info on weld-on http://www.ipscorp.com/

When we select "view new content" the screen shows - Topic - Forum - Started by - stats - last post info - Would it be possible to add the date & time started to the "started by" field.

A 200 to 220 liter water barrel with an air pump to keep the water circulating will allow you to raise daphnia outside (during the spring thru fall) and you can feed them with a yeast solution. I would suggest a screen mesh cover to keep mosquitoes and dragon flies from laying their larva and don't forget to use treated water as water fleas don't like clorine.

I have kept tanks outside for the past several years - both glass and acrylic - and none have leaked. I store them leaning with the open end pointing down at an angle so that the water can't sit in them and freeze and break the glass or distort the acrylic. It does not seem to affect the tanks and I believe silicon is impervious to a very wide temperature range.

The nine Tiger Barbs (about 1&1/4 to 1&1/2") in the school tank (which I stock and maintain will consume all your Cherry Shrimp even the large females (about 1"). As well I put five male guppies in last Friday (they were all about an inch plus long). I then went and did some other stuff and returned to find the guppies with only their heads and gills sticking out of the mouths of five of the Tiger Barbs. They do get along with the Columbian tetras but were a bit pushy with the four 1&1/4" Bristlenose cats and were picking at them for a while but between the Bristlenose attitude and their spines the barbs left them alone. They also get along with the Flying Fox and the Siamese Algae Eater. They were getting along with the three Buenos Aires tetras until I pulled the tetras (as they were eating my Vals and Sags - thanks TOM!!!). I guess the lesson learned is if they are not bigger than the barbs don't put them together.

There is a shop that specializes in acrylic tanks in the shopping center on 127 st & 137 Ave. Can't remember the name. It was there several months ago.

Tropical Fish Hobbyist - you may be able to get a copy at your lfs. It's a 2 part series with the second part next month. Basically if you change 50% of the water once a week then you get rid of 50% of existing dissolved toxic stuff but the next time the concentration is higher and it builds even though you do 50% water changes. I expect some dissolved solids get removed via biological filtering but probably not all. If you can find the magazine it's worth the money to buy the November/09 and December/09 issues. You could also subscribe on line and I think all the articles are available to you. http://www.tfhmagazine.com/

There is an excellent article in the November issue of TFH on this. I thought twice weekly 50% water changes were enough but it appears that a complete water change occasionally is necessary to prevent toxicity.

Drug stores carry it in chemist grade which is purer than what most stores would carry (If any stores still carry it). Safeway would only order in a minimum of one kilo but Shopper's brought in 1/2 kilo for me. I forget what it cost. Remember it eats organic material (including gill tissue) and I believe it also eats metal so caution is required. I mainly use mine to sterilize tanks that have hair algae (after I remove the fish and chuck the plants).