Packing the sword auction box for whoever wins tomorrow and some of the runners are a couple feet long. I tried coiling them loose in the bag with the roots wrapped in damp paper towel but they kink at the nodes. Anyone have a trick that keeps the baby plantlets on the runners intact? Pic below of the fertilizer shelf is just what I'm using to pad the box, ignore the mess.
Pic below of one of the swords I left in the 120 after pulling the big mothers. Older leaves are getting glassy holes along the edges and the new ones look fine. Nitrate sits around 10 and I haven't dosed anything since the rescape. Do I wait it out or push root tabs under it now?
Pic below of my little guy stalking a bloodworm and then ignoring it. He's had live snails since I got him and now the frozen stuff gets stared at and left on the sand. I've tried wiggling it with tweezers and it works about one time in four. Anyone actually converted a stubborn one, or do you just keep a snail culture going forever?
Pic below of a fresh clutch from my other black lace pair, not the auction one. Eggs hatched yesterday and the wrigglers are stuck on the slate with mom and dad fanning like crazy. I usually leave them on the slate till free swimming but a couple of the eggs went white. Do you pull the dead ones with a pipette or leave the parents to clean up?
Pic below of one of my sprouted lotus bulbs from this week's batch. I always plant with the top of the bulb exposed but a customer asked if it should be fully buried in sand. In a 29 gallon with fine sand, do you bury it halfway or just rest it on top and let the roots find their way down?
Pic below of tonight's slice. Way fewer than the first night so I think the population is crashing. Glass is spotless and the shrimp are grazing like nothing happened. Going to do one more night then call it and start feeding really light tomorrow.
I have frogbit covering about half the surface of a 20 long and the crypts underneath are barely putting out new leaves. Is it worth thinning the frogbit to a quarter of the surface, or should I just add a stronger light and live with it? I keep it for the fry cover but the plants below are starting to stall.
Pic below of the crypts i planted last week. Leaves went translucent and mushy on most of them but there are tiny new leaves at the base. Parameters are stable, so i'm guessing it's just the move from emersed. Do you trim all the melted leaves right away or leave them to feed the plant?
Had a torch head with a small patch of brown jelly near the base of the skeleton, so I did a 3 percent peroxide dip at about 3 ml per liter for 10 minutes in a separate cup with an air stone. Head closed up hard afterwards and still hasn't opened 5 hours later. Normal after a dip like that or did I go too long? Not planning to do it twice.
Pic below of my endler 10 gallon with a big floating mass on top. It started with 6 and I'm now at around 25 with all the fry I haven't pulled. Plants look fine and nitrate is low, but I know livebearers breed past what a tank can handle. Where do you draw the line, and do you cull or just rehome?
Update for anyone who followed my snail thread. Did the blanched zucchini overnight like shrimplord and cass said and pulled the slice at first light before it went slimy. Pic below of the slice, it was crawling. No feeding since Tuesday and the glass is already way cleaner. Going to repeat tonight and then restart feeding really light.
Woke up to the discus grow-out at 24C instead of 29. Heater had just quit. Swapped it, tank is back up to 27 and climbing slowly. Everyone is eating a bit shy this morning. I'm skipping the big water change today so I don't stress them more. Anyone had a drop like this and did they get sick after?
Pic below of one of my females carrying a green saddle of eggs in the moss tub. I'm thinking of just leaving her and the babies in place since there's plenty of cover, but I've heard people pull the berried ones into their own tub. Do you move them or let the colony sort itself out?
Pic below of the guppy grass clump with newborn fry tucked inside. I stopped bothering with breeding traps and just float a big handful in the tub, the fry hide in it and the adults can't reach most of them. Only downside is it drops needles everywhere when I trim. Anyone running it with other fry or does it only work for livebearers?
Thinking of putting one of my young bristlenose in with a plakat male in a 20 long, planted with a lot of cover. Everything I read says pleco slime coat and bettas are fine unless the betta is a fin nipper, but I'd like to hear from people who've tried it. Is it worth the risk or should I keep them separate?
