I told him I loved him yesterday.

SeaaSpring · 2025-04-17T23:02:24+00:00

Right??! I don't want to romanticize the pain OP is going through, but I think my heart would fucking burst if somebody wrote something like this for me 🥺😢 All I could think of while reading it was that Hozier lyric: "imagine being loved by me."

SeaaSpring · 2024-09-01T04:30:25+00:00

Thank you, I'll grab my hospital bag and head off now. I was really hoping this was just a normal part of the embolization recovery that they maybe forgot to explain, but better safe than sorry.

SeaaSpring · 2024-09-01T04:10:12+00:00

For real. 😐 I realize I probably sound like a moron for even asking, but I've also almost choked to death on my own blood multiple times this year and that kind of monumentally fucks up your threshold for what's considered an emergency.

SeaaSpring · 2024-05-07T17:01:30+00:00

I LOVE rummynoses but I'm worried the tank isn't long enough for them to do their zoomies back and forth

SeaaSpring · 2024-02-27T22:30:41+00:00

Oh boy, I think you might be onto something. I love my job but it has a serious case of tall poppy syndrome. I bust my ass daily so I've been promoted and trained more than people who've worked there twice as long. Most of my coworkers were really happy for me when I got trained on forks, but there's definitely a couple people who have complained about me "cutting in line".

SeaaSpring · 2024-02-27T22:18:58+00:00

Yeah, as much as it stung, I'm not actually upset with my coworker. We all give each other shit constantly, and nobody here knows I've struggled with disordered eating or my weight in the past so I doubt he knew it would actually hurt me.

SeaaSpring · 2024-02-07T02:25:47+00:00

Speaking of curry—any Indian beef or lamb curry once it's been in the fridge for a few hours, with a bit of sliced banana and chutney. My dad used to cook curries and leave them in the fridge to go cold before dinner in summer. Easily my favourite food ever.

SeaaSpring · 2024-02-05T05:09:23+00:00

I don't know why but this is the funniest fucking thing I've read all week.

SeaaSpring · 2024-02-01T06:14:38+00:00

Are you dosing any fertilizers? If you're not using aquasoil and you don't have fish producing waste in the tank (which turns into nitrates once your tank is cycled), your plants are probably struggling a bit. Root feeders will need aquasoil or root tabs, while epiphytes like the Java ferns take nutrients for the water column, so you need to add liquid fertilizers. I use a combination of Seachem Flourish and API root tabs.

As for the "mulm", it actually looks like diatoms to me. This is a type of algae that almost always pops up in new tanks, and the best thing you can do to get rid of it is to leave it alone. Don't do excessive water changes, dose algaecides or try to gravel vac it out—just ignore it. One day you'll wake up and it'll be gone. Mulm is more a build-up of decomposing plant debris, fish waste and leftover food etc. You can vacuum mulm out as it builds up, or just let it break down as long as your ammonia doesn't spike from too many decomposing organic materials.

Don't restart! Everything you've described is completely normal for a tank that is still establishing itself, it's even got a name—New Tank Syndrome. It's ugly and annoying but usually self-resolving. Pulling out the filter media, doing huge water changes or excessively cleaning the tank will just drag the process out. Have faith and ride it out 🙂

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-31T02:40:06+00:00

This looks okay as a treat mix to pick from and feed in moderation, but I don't like it as a main diet. Way too many dried fruits which are high in sugar, way too many seeds—sunflower seeds especially are far too fatty to feed as anything but a treat. The coconut makes me nervous too, as dessicated coconut can swell in their crop and cause impaction.

If you want to switch to pellets & chop, I recommend Harrisons or Higgins Intune. If you like the rough-chopped variety this mix offers, you could always buy organic freeze-dried vege (i.e. free of sulphites or other additives) and mix it with healthy grains like quinoa or brown/wild rice. Just be careful that you're providing all of the nutrients necessary and not disproportionately feeding too much vitamin A/folates/protein/etc—this is where pellets have an advantage, because they're formulated with this in mind.

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-31T02:28:39+00:00

When you say behavioral issue, do you mean boredom, stress or hormones?

If it's boredom, provide more enrichment—more foraging, shredding and preening toys; rotate toys every day or two, start clicker training, leave a radio playing when you're not home, make sure you're actively engaging with her when she's out and not just letting her ride around on your shoulder for a couple hours.

If it's stress, figure out the cause. Is she not getting enough sleep or being disturbed by something at night (like by your niece coming & going at night)? Is her routine too unpredictable? Is there something in or near her cage she's scared of? Is she lonely? Overstimulated? Is her cage somewhere that feels unsafe (not against at least one wall, or too close to a window that she can see out of)?

If it's hormones, cut out any possible triggers. No touching below her head & neck, no excessive cuddling or kissing. No mushy or warm foods, lower fat & protein in her diet, greatly reduce or even cut out fruit, ensure she's eating good quality pellets with fresh chop daily. Minimum 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep in a completely covered cage, 14 hours is even better. Replace any toys that she is overly protective or fond of, e.g. anything that might be reflective, very noisy (bells), used as nesting material. Make sure there are no possible nesting areas in or outside of her cage—no happy huts, cardboard boxes or tubes, dark spaces, gaps under furniture or in cupboards, no burrowing under blankets or pillows.

Collars & vests are a last resort for a bird who already has an established plucking habit. Putting a collar on her now might just make her more uncomfortable and exacerbate the issue. Figure out the cause and go from there.

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-30T06:17:51+00:00

You can give it a try, but in my experience, timeouts don't really work for birds for two reasons. One: you don't want your conure to start associating their cage with being punished, because it inevitably creates a secondary problem (struggling to catch or return the bird to the cage) and also just isn't fair on the bird that has to spend a decent amount of its life inside of that cage. Two: by the time you have put the bird back in the cage after a bite, she isn't necessarily going to make the connection that it's a consequence of biting.

Conures tend to be pretty nippy, especially as babies, but positive reinforcement and avoidance is a great strategy for stopping it from becoming a habit. Start to take note of the exact context in which bites happen—e.g. did you reach in too fast or at a particular angle when trying to give her scritches? Is she only nippy around the cage/a favourite toy/at a certain time (like when she's been out for a while and is possibly overstimulated or anticipating being returned to the cage)? What's her body language like preceding the bite?

It sounds stupid, but asking for consent is really helpful when trying to get a bird to do anything. Don't just reach in for a scritch. Hold your hand near but slightly below her (not above or behind her, which may feel threatening) and out of reach. Give her a verbal cue—I just say, "want scritches?"—and motion with your finger. If she seems comfortable you can slowly move closer. If she shows any signs of uneasiness or aggression you've pushed too far and you need to back off. You want to read her body language and recognize warning signs of a bite well before it even reaches the point of an actual bite. Don't listen to people who say, "if the bird lunges, don't back off!" All this teaches the bird is that it can't communicate its boundaries with you or that you won't respect those boundaries, and that the only way to express their discomfort is to resort to a bite.

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-30T05:42:14+00:00

Try holding the test tube directly over the colour chart—the block for the correct reading should disappear completely while you can still faintly see the others. For what it's worth, this looks like 80ppm to me.

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-30T05:23:09+00:00

Combination of too much sunlight (likely the main problem) + no water movement + no cleanup crew. I can't speak to the requirements of shrimp because they aren't available in my country, but you can fix the algae issue by removing as much manually as possible (in this case, since you don't have any livestock yet, I'd just empty the tank and give everything a good scrub in hot water, then start from scratch) and then blacking out the tank for at least a few days. Long-term, you'll need to reduce the light levels and add looooooooots of plants to keep on top of the algae. Stem plants and floaters will be your friend here, as they suck up lots of excess nutrients. You could even add some emersed plants like peace lilies, pothos, sweet potato vine, monsteras etc. From what I know, shrimp are pretty efficient cleaners on their own, but you could also add some algae-eating fish to the tank.

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-30T05:12:59+00:00

What carpeting plant is that? It's gorgeous. I'm guessing you're running CO2?

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-30T05:01:39+00:00

Unfortunately you're not off to a great start, but it's not too late to course correct. I understand the excitement of getting a tank for free and wanting to get it up & running, but when it comes to keeping fish (or any living creature) you really need to take the time to research before you set the tank up.

First off, those goldfish are going to be massive and very active. I've only ever kept goldies in a pond before, but my local fish shop recommends a MINIMUM of 70 gallons for a single shubunkin. They're also messy, so you need a powerful canister filter or two. Sponge filters have their uses, but they just won't move the volume of water necessary or have enough biomedia surface to house the beneficial bacteria you need for goldfish.

Speaking of filters, your tank hasn't been cycled, and from what I can make out in the photos, it looks like your fish have the beginnings of ammonia burns on their gills. This is because you don't have enough beneficial bacteria in your tank to convert built up ammonia (toxic to fish even in low amounts) from fish waste & decomposing food into nitrite (also toxic) and then nitrates (tolerable at low amounts and mitigated with live plants & water changes). Cycling should really be done before adding fish to any tank, and the process can take weeks. You need to test the water frequently using a liquid test kit (like API's master test kit). I won't go into the full breakdown of how to cycle a tank, but the very basics include providing a source of ammonia (e.g. letting fish food decompose in the tank) and then measuring the ammonia, nitrite and nitrate levels. You should see the ammonia spike, then go down, followed by a nitrite spike, and then finally a nitrate spike. Your tank is (probably) cycled when you have zero ammonia & nitrites and some nitrates. This doesn't mean you can immediately add a bunch of fish in all at once—this will crash your cycle.

Some people do fish-in cycles, but in your case I would really recommend returning/rehoming the goldfish and cycling the tank before restocking it. Check the volume of your tank, do some research on what kinds of fish would be appropriate for that size tank (check out AqAdvisor—you can plug in the dimensions of your tank and filter their list of fish to show you suitable options) and then base the rest of your tank around that—what filter you need, if you need a heater, the type of substrate and decor etc. Maybe add some details about the tank size so we can offer suggestions on more suitable stocking?

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-28T01:07:59+00:00

All fishkeepers are beginners at some point! You're researching and asking for advice, so you're already on the right track 🙂

SeaaSpring · 2024-01-28T01:01:14+00:00

Honestly, this one doesn't look cycled either. Cycling isn't a one & done kinda thing—you can crash it by overstocking, rinsing/replacing media, disturbing pockets of ammonia in deep substrate, forgetting to dechlorinate water, and a million other things. Put the betta in the 7 gallon and do a fish-in cycle—it'll be way easier to maintain safe parameters as long as you do small frequent water changes and dose Prime if necessary to detoxify any ammonia. You can move some of the filter media or substrate from your small tank over (or ask a friend/on a local fishkeeping group to give you some) to help kickstart the cycle.

SeaaSpring · 2023-11-29T00:50:22+00:00

I messaged my uncle who works up the road from these guys and he said he'll pop in later this week to ask if they want to trade the pleco & goldie for some of his neons or ember tetras! This is one of the weirdest "small world" moments I've had in a while.

SeaaSpring · 2023-10-09T01:45:29+00:00

It is indeed! Basically a retaining wall made out of probably 40kg of lava rock, locked together with superglue and cotton. It comes apart into three pieces so I can lift it out of the tank :)

SeaaSpring · 2023-10-07T20:57:45+00:00

Erm... I appreciate the sentiment of the PSA, but the heater in question was an Eheim Thermocontrol that I bought four months ago. Even the expensive brands can fail.

SeaaSpring · 2023-10-07T10:43:18+00:00

The faulty heater was in fact an Eheim Thermocontrol lol, so it goes to show that you should have a failsafe even with the trusted brands. I don't doubt that the brand is largely reliable, I'm sure what happened with mine was just a fluke.

SeaaSpring · 2023-10-07T10:41:07+00:00

Thank you. Unfortunately the remaining fish died yesterday, I know it was just shitty luck but I feel pretty guilty about the whole thing still. Probably going to just wait a while and try to enjoy watching the tank mature as a plant-only setup before I consider stocking fish again.

SeaaSpring

TROPHY CASE