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Post by september on Jan 19, 2020 10:51:53 GMT -5
Great info, Laura_in_FL , maybe I will check with our one local pet store to see if they might carry them. Haven't been there in a long while. Aside from that one store, all we have in town is the poorly kept fish at Walmart. I might be able to handle care of a small tank, if the darn cat would quit trying to dismantle the air supply tubes!
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 20, 2020 12:18:20 GMT -5
You don't actually have to have an air pump and bubbler at all if your filter provides enough movement at the surface of the water and good circulation through the tank. Neither bubbles nor splashes are necessary to oxygenate water - smooth, constant surface movement is effective, too. You just need to ensure that water is being pulled from the bottom of the tank to the top and them moved across the top before circulating back down, so there are no "dead spots" in the tank where the water doesn't circulate.
If your filter intake/outflow leaves a dead spot no matter how you adjust the filter (or your plants/decor), you might need to put a bubbler in the dead spot to keep anoxic conditions from developing.
Still, I haven't used air pumps in my setups for probably two decades. (I don't care for their constant noise, especially since every air pump I ever owned made horrible noises and then failed within a year anyway.) I mean, if you like seeing the bubbles in the tank, great. But they aren't necessary.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Jan 20, 2020 13:00:09 GMT -5
I also haven't used air pumps for many years, since they were what powered most of my filters! lol I just threw out an air pump recently (it was in a box of old stuff in my attic-don't know why I still had it!), and the brand name was Mini Comp. It really was a mini compressor - putting out enough air to power the filters in all the breeding tanks - 20 or so of them. Now, the only thing that I have an air pump for is the hydroponics.
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Post by september on Jan 20, 2020 14:26:09 GMT -5
You know, I never really thought about it, but I must not have used an air pump for the last two "waterfall" filters I had. I think one aquarium and filter disappeared with one of my son's former girlfriends. (The one who was miffed when I asked for my old Mac laptop back when they broke up! -- and helped herself to a shirt from my closet, yes -- I got it back.) But there are still the heater heads or wires that go in the back slots, anything like a string is a temptation for lifting, pulling and chewing on. Especially if there are moving fish underneath that a paw might reach, if only this other stuff was out of the way.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Jan 20, 2020 16:29:31 GMT -5
I hear you about kitties and cords. One of mine is a cord chewer, though she is getting less apt to chew cords as she gets older. You could try routing the cords inside a cable organizer or using wire ties to tie them into a tight bundle. A bundle of cords seems less enticing to my cord-chewer than an individual cable. And thin individual cables seem especially tempting.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Feb 18, 2020 19:47:55 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL Here is a photo of all 4 of those rainbowfish. It's hard to get photos of these fish - they are constantly moving, and the phone camera often focuses on something else in the tank. All 4 rainbowfish by pepperhead212, on Flickr Here's a better one of the male Western Rainbow, with the female behind it. Male Western Rainbowfish by pepperhead212, on Flickr The strangest thing happened last night, and again today! I was riding my exercise bike last night (which is right in front of that tank, and the one below, with the rasboras that spawn all the time), and I noticed the Western rainbowfish were spawning in a bed of some plastic plants! At first, the male was doing his mating dance, quivering down in the plants, and it took the female a while, but eventually she joined him, and they did their quivering back and forth, and finally quit, and went about their usual swimming. Today, however, they started up again, which made sense, as the female was still slightly extended, as you can see in the photos. This was the closest I could get to them together, as when I went over today, I distracted them - probably hoping for food! I had to remain still, and they eventually went back to spawning. Western rainbows, spawning in plastic plants. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Those Moonlight Gouramis are what I always thought should have been named pearl gouramis, since the sheen of their skin is closer to a pearl, than that of pearl gouramis. I tried a few with flash; most did not do well at all, but this one shown how shiny the skin is: Moonlight Gourami, with flash. by pepperhead212, on Flickr And here's one eating, as always! Moonlight Gourami, next to spawning area for rainbowfish. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Those Upside-down catfish are really hard to photograph, since they are under the driftwood and rocks a lot, and the camera focuses on those. These fish come out immediately, when food goes in the water, and love to eat. Their abdomen becomes extended quickly, whenever they eat, and you can see this in the Upside-down photo. I also took a photo showing one sideways, though again, blurred. Upside-down catfish, with extended abdomen after eating. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Upside-down catfish, sideways. by pepperhead212, on Flickr Upside-down catfish, right-side up. by pepperhead212, on Flickr
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Post by paquebot on Feb 18, 2020 21:38:47 GMT -5
There is a pearl gourami and almost identical to the moonlight gourami. It was a very popular around here in the 1970s. Almost all of us fishheads had a couple of them as they got along with almost everything.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Feb 19, 2020 9:09:35 GMT -5
The moonlight gourami is really pretty. Yours looks more white than the pics I saw online, which were quite blue-ish. That's a nice fish to consider after I refurbish my big tank, though I would have to be careful to avoid fin-nippers. The high activity of the rainbowfish doesn't stress out the gourami? I have read in several places that you shouldn't put gouramis in with very active swimmers. (But then you can read all kinds of stuff on the internet...) My rainbows have spawned a number of times, but as they have been in a tank with other fish and snails that love to eat fish eggs, I only ever saw one baby. I hear you on fish photography, especially with active fish like rainbows! I usually only get a blur, and that's if I manage to keep the fish in the frame at all! Plus as you say, the camera wants to focus on anything but the fish, especially when you're photographing a fish that likes to cling under something. I assume that folks who manage to take clear photos of their fish have very fast cameras and use a manual focus. At least with digital photography if you have the time and patience for it, you can take dozens or hundreds of photos to try to get a decent one. It's not like back in the film camera days when you could go broke buying and developing film.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Feb 19, 2020 11:05:26 GMT -5
Laura_in_FL Moonlight Gouramis get fairly large, like around 4-5". I have not had any problems with the gouramis bothering the rainbows, or visa-versa. They just seem to ignore each other. One of the gouramis is definitely dominant, but nothing actually damaging the other one, just sort of telling it to get to the other side of the tank. Not sure if either is a male - no longer dorsal on either, but they are not yet mature. However, I had a male and female blue gourami in that tank, before I set it up again, and the female was the dominant one, to the point where I had to remove the male to another tank. Both of those are in tanks with small fish, and they don't bother them at all! I guess they don't feel threatened, so they just go about their business, looking for food. I definitely didn't take that many fish photos, back when film was used! I must have deleted 30 photos, to get those above!
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Post by brownrexx on Feb 20, 2020 9:29:44 GMT -5
I used to have a 50 gallon freshwater tank and the Dwarf Gourami were my favorite. They are so pretty with their red stripes.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 5, 2020 9:12:29 GMT -5
One of my Endler's fish jumped out of my desktop aquarium and ended up on top of the tank's lid overnight. He was already stiff and dried out when I got to my desk this morning. I don't even understand how he managed that. The only opening in the tank lid is very small, and it's right where the filter outflow pours into the tank. I made sure to have the best coverage possible because Endler's are known for jumping, and I lost several fish before with my old lid. This is my first loss since I replaced the tank lid. As best I can figure, he would have been fighting against a strong current and make two jumps in different directions in rapid succession to end up where he did. Persistence doesn't always pay off. RIP little fishy. Hopefully none of his little fishy brothers follow his example!
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Post by september on Mar 5, 2020 10:48:07 GMT -5
Sorry to hear that, Laura_in_FL , I remember that sinking feeling with your stomach dropping when you find an unexpected little dead body. I sure hope the rest of the Endler's won't be persistent (or unlucky) enough to find their way out! Only once did I have a good rescue, and that was with some kind of coarse local minnow I brought home from Minnehaha Creek as a kid. It had jumped out of a plastic box only 6" or 8" high, and had started to dry when I found him. I suspect that they were tolerant of poor quality, low oxygen water, as some summers the creek would dry up into small shallow pools of tepid water (which is where I found him). I thought he was a goner, but he recovered and went on to live happily in a larger aquarium. Have your Endler's had babies yet?
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 5, 2020 11:48:42 GMT -5
No babies, because mine are all males.
It's kind of hard to get female Endler's because Endler's are fairly new to the hobby and gaining popularity. That makes them relatively expensive, especially certain color morphs. So breeders tend to keep the females to breed more rather than selling females to hobbyists.
But from what I understand, they breed as easily and as quickly as guppies, so eventually Endlers will get cheaper and females will be easier to get.
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Post by paquebot on Mar 5, 2020 13:01:05 GMT -5
Had to look up Endler's as that was a new one to me. As soon as I saw it, I laughed. My escape artists were guppies, platys, and swords. All are live-bearers so it must be in their nature to jump.
Martin
The truth is more important than the facts.
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Post by Laura_in_FL on Mar 6, 2020 9:59:24 GMT -5
I guess so. Maybe it's a survival mechanism to escape predatory fish in their natural environment? But it seems to be a leading cause of death in the home aquarium.
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Post by pepperhead212 on Mar 6, 2020 12:58:56 GMT -5
Sorry to hear about that, Laura_in_FL. Too bad male guppies don't change to females, as they do from female to male! I know what you mean about those jumpers, as they will find the smallest hole in the lid, then one day it's "didn't I have 3 of those swordtails in there?" I try to avoid those jumpers, even though some have great colors.
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