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Well yesterday was move in day and so I brought up my ten gallon tank up with me to school. While carrying the half filled tank up to my dorm the bottom shattered out, luckily I invested in a UGF and only a few pebbles came out with all the water... my shrimp and khuli loaches were safe, kind of... I rushed to the room and started shoveling the gravel and rocks into tupperware containers as my mom filled up cups of water to pour over them... after we got everything nice and wet we ran to the LFS and got a new tank and came back to get everything back to its preferred state... MOSTLY!

All of the appliances are in, two small internal filters, the UGF, Heater, DIY CO2, lights, etc... I seem to have managed to salvage a few shrimp (although I'm sure many were lost in the gravel and may consider it their grave now...) and all of the khuliis seem to never have experieneced being in dry air for about five minutes!

The water is doing fine, although pH and gH/kH are high due to local water, everything else is stable.
pH: 8.0
NH3/NH4: 0.25ppm
NO2: 0.50 ppm
NO3: 5.0 ppm

I am wanting to add tetras or micro/mini rasboras to the tank but LFS is a chain store so everything is pretty minimal as far as selection.

Scape was lost in transit and disaster so I'll have to rescape it sometime over the next week.

Thanks,
-Brandon

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Brandeeno
The joys of shifting a tank.

You have learnt a very valuable lesson next time put the tank on a piece of 20mm particle board plus a 10mm styrene foam and you can carry it with out any trouble at all.

Keith

Near enough is not good enough, therefore good enough is not near enough, and only your best will do.
I VOTE DO YOU if not WHY NOT?
VOTE NOW VOTE NOW

I always try to empty tanks as much as possible before moving.

The only LFS is a chain store? That's a shame. You might consider ordering online.

Good luck with getting your tank back in shape.

--------------------------------------------
The aquarist is one who must learn the ways of the biologist, the chemist, and the veterinarian.

I rescaped after i got out of class today... Yeah I've ordered shrimp online but a little skeptical about ordering too much... found just a couple dead shrimp but most of them seem to be ok and if not they have all the time they need to get themselves back into a strong population!


I heard of a smaller store a couple miles away only problem is I have to walk because its out of reach of public transportation and I don't have a car at school with me

I'm attempting to find some local hobbyists to trade with because that way i get some reasonably good stock. but i tried to lower the water enough to keep so the live stock in it could ride out the storm of a two hour car ride. Everything seems ok now luckily... just a 20$ mistake at least i had the UGF to save my butt!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Anyone got ideas for a small school of fish other than harlies or neons/cardinals for this tank? I'd like to make it a little more active looking with 5-8 small fish as a school to fill up the middle and upper strata of the tank. I got about 6 khulies on the bottom but want something that isn't so common but has color... I'm considering ordering these from wherever I can get them, given it isn't super expensive...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I suggest considering your situation... moving from home to school, and back... and that the tank is at school, that you go for a more commonly available fish, because they are for the most part hardier, and will be able to handle the transitions better.

flame tetras and lemon tetras are both hardy, stay under 1.5 in, are good schoolers, wont eat ur shrimp, AND will color up beautifully once settled in and given a good home and good foods.

And you'll have the challenge of keeping them in tip top shape/ getting the best coloring, ect... They are intersting to watch, and are usually very cheap, because the coloring in the store is AWFUL....

great I'll look into seeing if any of the stores in the area carry either of those and also into ordering them if they aren't available in the stores around here. The tank will be at school until may and will moved roughly 4 times a year (home to school for fall semester, school to home for winter break, home to school winter semester, school to home for winter/spring semester, and repeat) i mean it would be stressful in the move but I think most fish could handle it if they had plenty of time to settle in between?

But I always wanted to get embers or flame tetras for a while, i guess now i have a good excuse...

PS camera's broken so until I can borrow one or get the money to buy one I wont be able to post up pics

Thanks for the help hca!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I've wanted embers also, but havent been able to find them locally, but flames are pretty common, and usually pretty cheap.

Yes, moving every 3-4 months is going to be a stress on the fish, which is why I'd stay away from hard to acclimate fish... like rummies.... and stick with hardier "beginner" fish...

And even tho flames and lemons are common and hardy- they will give you the colors and activity your looking for, and the challenge of getting them STUNNING....

any store if they dont have them, should be able to get them in for you..... cheaply.

I'll see if I can get a somewhere to order them for me! by cheaply do you mean like neon tetra price or more? just wondering...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

around here flames and lemons are like 0.99- 1.39 each, and many times specials like 3 for 2.00, that kind of cheap.

i'll look into it, never seen them in any of my LFSs (it could be a regional breeder thing?) But there is an odd ball store thats a couple miles from school but i might be able to get a rise there this weekend, yeah thats cheaper than i expected (but then again i pay 1.19$ for a zebra danio so idk what you pay it seems like alot!) California likes to over inflate EVERYTHING

to do: check into lemon, ember, and flame tetras and check the LFS for any other off the wall fish or inverts that might be good candidates

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

Today I spent a little time working on the tank... I got some old chip (crisp) bags and cut them open. after wiping them off and cutting them to size I glue them (inverted aka shiny side out) to the inside of my little hood. I had read that DaMossMAn or another user does the same thing to up the brightness of the tank. I didnt expect it to work that well, but its like 5X brighter after doing that and cleaning off the bulbs and the glass in between! Anyone looking to brighten their tank with out spending a bunch of money on new lights this is what I recommend! although I'm sure a you have to change them out periodically, its a much cheaper way to go about it (trash to treasure anyone?)!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

I use kitchen aluminium foil for my reflector. Works even better if you use the shiny side!

Oh, and as for shoaling fish for a small aquarium, I'd recommend Ember Tetras if you can obtain them. Reason? Maximum size 4cm. They also colour up VERY nicely, and become a seriously intense deep orange.

Here's a nice photo of one:



Something else you could run with if you don't mind a more high maintenance fish is Nannostomus marginatus, the Dwarf Pencil Fish. Again, stays nice and small, but be prepared for some issues with them. For example, some time back, I acquired a related fish, Nannostomus beckfordi, which all the textbooks describe using the phrase "peaceful shoaling fish". Oh, HA HA HA HA HA! My Beckford's Pencils settled in, and after an initial period of shoaling behaviour, started partitioning the aquarium and behaving like hardcore aquarium terrorists with each other. The males behaved more like Melanochromis chipokae Cichlids than characins, and after systematically killing off all the females, set about exterminating each other. Consequently, if you go for Nannostomus marginatus as something different, watch them VERY closely, in case these fishes start exhibiting the same behaviour characteristics. Usually, marginatus is considered a shy fish that does best with peaceful companions, but given my experience with the related beckfordi, I'd advise you to consider this option with particular care, just in case you end up with a bunch of psychotic headbangers the way I did!

Another small fish you can look out for is this delightful species - Aplocheilichthys normani. One of the Lamp Eyes, it's seriously beautiful under the right lighting conditions, which catches the iridescent highlights in the eyes. You'll find a superb photo here.

Again, this is a species that stays small, and provides you with that rarity, a shoaling Killifish.

[Edited to fix weird URL problems with the latter photo]

Panda Catfish fan and keeper/breeder since Christmas 2002

Thanks Cal! YOur link wasn't working but I'm sure if i google the species I'll come up with some good results after scrolling through a few pages.

The reason I chose the chip bags was because I tried foil in another light fixture (thats at home) and it there is no glass between the foil quickly oxides ans looses its sheen (i didnt have glass in between the light and water because it kept becoming very think with what looked like bubbly afro algae after a couple days, but none of this was in the tank and if i scraped it in the fish went crazy over eating it!)

plus using the chip bags was my own little recycling project (if everyone did a little bit it could mean a big difference!!!) ok enough with my "green" side!

Yesterday I also turned down the heater from 82F (max range is 85 for cherries) to about 79/77 i did this gradually and today the tank looks great! The shrimp are much more active, the plants are looking stunning (DIY CO2 and ferts as well as the new lighting are working WONDERS!!!) in a month or two when the crypts fill in I'm going to be VERY PLEASED! sadly I think that will be spring break (which means I'll have to move it home for a week or two).

Tomorrow I plan on borrowing my roommates camera to take a few pictures of the tank!

I'm looking into ember and flame tetras but I'll probably have to order them, but I'm trying to find some local hobbyists and clubs... if a no on the tetras are there any rainbows I could attempt?

As far as the khulies, they used to be VERY active at all times of the day but when i got back from being home on the weekend they were MIA and the same for the rest of the week, is this normal? I know they are nocturnal but they used to be all over at the brightest times of the day, my only thought is maybe the outside weather I've been having some good storms!) could be affecting them, like the dojo/weather loach? electrical or magnetic field changes in the atmosphere maybe?

THanks!

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"

ember tetra order price: 12 count ember tetras (at .75inches) for 24.00 USD plus 15.00 USD shipping minumum.

thats roughly 3.25 dollars per fish, seems a little steep to me...

\\\\\\\"an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of the cure\\\\\\\"