Hi from Massachusetts! New here!

[wisfox]

Hi everyone! Just joined earlier today. This seems a good place to be, so I figured why not. Three aquatic forums can't be bad (also NANFA and plantedtank), right?

I'm very irregularly around on any forum, so *shrug*.

Currently hunting dero worms and daphnia monia to culture for the 10 gallon residents I mention below.


I've got four tanks, all on the small side. The smallest, at 2.5 gallon, is a shrimp-only tank with red cherries in it. I recently noticed planaria eating my adult shrimps (I wondered why they were dying!) so I removed as many planaria as I could (feeding them to my betta, who now nips my finger if it's at the water's surface, just in case) then did a tiny dose of safe guard. I've not seen any today, but I'm still nervous!

The next size up is 5 gallons, and has 4 ghost shrimp (both girls are berried) and an otto to deal with the diatomatious brown algae.

Next is a 10 gallon, with 2 celestial pearl danio (the other 3 died during shipping, so I'm working on getting more), 5 ember tetra, 2 otto, and three amano. I'm probably going to move one or two of the amano to my 20 gallon shortly.

Finally, I have a 20 gallon into which I recently moved the previous denizens of the 10 gallon: a female betta, a lone neon tetra (its tankmates did not survive when I first got 6 of them. May try again to get a few to keep this one company, but I worry about bioload even with plants), 6 guppies (2 endler males, two fancy males, and two juvie females which I will relocate shortly - the two endlers and juvies were in the tank with the ghost shrimp until the 20 was ready), 5 platies (possibly two females; will wait to be sure before doing something about that), a bristlenose pleco, and some ramshorn snails.

Until recently, I was fostering a common pleco that I rescued from a terrible situation. That's why I had to wait for the 20 gallon to be ready. It's in a new home, though!

[tetrakid]

Hi Wisfox, welcome. It's good to have you here.

If you live in a belt which is cool enough to cultivate daphnia, consider yourself a lucky one among many. Daphnia is great for pet fish. So is self-cultivated tubifex and microfex worms. Daphnia can easily be ordered at Aquabid. They are a joy to have.

If you are worried about water toxicity due to inadequate bio-filtration, frequent small water changes, eg 10°/° daily or every other day, should add a margin of safety. Aged clean water is a precious and powerful remedy. Don't do wiithout it.