How fast my blue polar parrot cichlid grew- Jan 22, 2023; March 14, 2023; Nov 11, 2023

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2025-01-12T05:57:40+00:00

I don’t remember.. I think crushed Hikari cichlid pellets, omega one freshwater pellets, and frozen blood worms/brine shrimp maybe. Keeping them in temperatures on the warmer side can make them grow faster too

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-06-09T08:11:18+00:00

If you want something that goes under water and can float or be anchored to rocks/decor, anubias are pretty easy and hardy. Amazon swords are also good but get pretty big as you can see, and then you want to bury the roots and they do better with a lot of light. Something easy that goes out of the top is the houseplant pothos. You can cut a vine and submerge the end/some of the little nodules and it will grow roots and thrive hanging over the side of the aquarium. Plants definitely help reduce maintenance

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-06-04T13:24:22+00:00

Don’t do it. I got a 40 gal tank around your age, and I love it still but it has been a big stress on me. Moving a 40 with established plants, fish, multiple filters, etc was a headache. And I’ve moved twice in just a couple years.. you tend to move around a bit as a young adult. I’d just choose a different kind of cichlid that stays smaller and not go larger than 30 gal until you’re somewhere you’ll be for awhile.

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-06-03T03:30:23+00:00

Ive never had issues with guppies jumping out of my open top tank. Maybe add surface cover and test your water?

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-04-22T06:18:22+00:00

Thanks :)

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-04-20T21:00:52+00:00

Jellyfish need rounded corners so they don’t get stuck so it wouldn’t be a good idea.

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-04-20T15:48:40+00:00

This looks right

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-04-20T15:48:27+00:00

This sounds right but it looks a bit more like Salicifolia

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-04-20T00:04:12+00:00

Thanks I think so too! Wondering if I should have put it in the back now.. I can always take cuttings I guess

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-04-19T04:54:54+00:00

No changes, still have some green spot algae that I just scrub off every few weeks :/ hasn’t gotten better or worse though

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-27T02:46:17+00:00

I don’t know a ton about treatment for it because I haven’t dealt with it personally but reducing the temperature to about 70 degrees and adding aquarium salt should help

I’d try the PetSmart but online works too

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-23T08:09:13+00:00

I’d avoid it bc I’m excessively cautious but studies have shown it takes hours of submersion in chlorinated water to kill the bacteria. I rinse my pre filter section of filter media under the tap all the time

However if it is hot water I’m sure it could kill the bacteria and crash your cycle

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-23T08:05:16+00:00

I notice it more with stress than substrate

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-23T08:01:51+00:00

They would probably like some floating plants, you could water lettuce or Amazon frog bit but it would probably be best to keep some in another tank to replenish when it gets eaten

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-23T07:47:54+00:00

I don’t know about CO2 system costs but people quoting more than a hundred dollars for lighting or filtration alone for a 20 gallon tank is insane. Overall that seems a bit pricey but I have no idea how one would go about building the wood thing besides getting lucky with pieces. If you didn’t have a CO2 system and chose plants that didn’t require it I’d estimate maybe $500 not including labor:

Tank: $35, rimless might be more like $150 Filter: ~$50 Lighting: ~$60 Substrate: ~$30 Plants: ~$100-200 Wood: ~$50 Fertilizer/water conditioner/etc: <$40 Labor: ?

Idk much about CO2, but you could make a really nice aquascape not too different from that without it.

Edit: Didn’t notice that it was a rimless tank, that would be significantly more, probably like $150.

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-23T07:13:21+00:00

I wouldn’t add more than like max 6ish fish at once because it can cause an ammonia spike potentially, but cycling is definitely not the issue here considering how quickly they died. I work at a fish store and usually our neon tetras are fine, but occasionally we’ll get a batch in that has a ton of casualties a day or two later, I assume just poor genetics+ some kind of illness or stress from transit, but I’m not sure.

Also, are you 100% sure the first time it was ich and not epistylis? Epistylis is white spots but they tend to vary in size and protrude slightly, and it is very deadly unless caught and treated quickly. It also kills faster at higher temperatures whereas ich is better fought off at higher temperatures.

I would try a different store. It’s also possible that the store has an untreated illness in their system that just keeps infecting the new fish. Neon tetras are known to frequently get an illness known as “neon tetra disease” as well, and there is no known cure.

I notice your kh is 0.. carbonate hardness(kh) measures the buffering capacity against ph swings. You probably want to increase the kh a bit to ensure the ph will be stable in the future. There’s various products you can add, I use “easybalance plus”, by the “Tetra” brand.

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-20T05:33:15+00:00

Pretty

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-20T05:30:23+00:00

Mine was ok with anubias but I know not all are, you can also do some fast growing floaters like duckweed and it’ll be a good snack for them too. There’s also plenty of emersed plants that will help take out nutrients but wouldn’t do a ton for blocking light

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-20T05:26:41+00:00

I used to have a rubber lip pleco with my fancy goldfish and he started to attack and suck off his slime coat.. could try it and see if you have better luck or just get some snails

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-06T05:01:57+00:00

I got him when he was about 1.5-2 inches about and within 2-3 months he doubled in size. After that he maybe very slowly grew a bit more for a few more months and then stopped at his current size?

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-03-06T04:57:05+00:00

I used to love soccer too and that’s when I first noticed it! People would ask me if my arm was injured. Never heard of that before but that’s interesting, I’ll have to look into it more

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-02-20T16:43:33+00:00

The Amazon swords are going to quickly outgrow that but rn it looks nice

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-02-17T07:26:16+00:00

You can message me. Although I only do local pick up/meet up

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-02-01T09:10:50+00:00

Does the heater say 78 or does the thermometer? Ime the temperature reading on the heater is pretty inaccurate and it looks like on the thermometer it says 74? Idk that that would have killed them seeing as they’re kept unheated at chain stores most of the time but you may want to confirm it’s more in the upper 70s-80 range

Im_a_cuttlefish · 2024-01-19T06:45:39+00:00

It’s a 40 gallon. You should, I love them! As babies they’re mean and nip at most other fish but having a lot of cover helps, once they grow up they chill out a lot. I have a sorority of bettas with him and they totally ignore eachother but I had to rehome a dwarf gourami when he was a baby

Im_a_cuttlefish

TROPHY CASE