newellcr

Are the supporting/sponsor fees one time or periodic?

Saw this on an Amazonas facebook post the other day and figured I would share. http://www.reef2rainforest.com/2016/11/01/us-fws-issues-ban-on-10-fish-species-1-crayfish/

Kens flake, sticks, and pellets. They get spare hornwort and other plants fairly regularly. When I can spare Grindal worms, they get those as well.

Revaria, Nice write up. I'm not really a cray keeper but currently have two blue varieties (alleni and vasquezea). Mine won't settle down without substrate and often dig in it create their own hiding spaces. I share your concern about the waste building up. I handle it the way I do with bigger fish - more water changes. My crays were tank raised for probably several generations before I got them, that always makes it easier. I hope you are doing well with your crays. Regards, Chris

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Thanks, Ian, The top picture is my version of a gardener's potting cart. The base is the same chrome shelving. The top is a vanity countertop with no sink. There is a 'concrete' mixing bin under the opening to catch debris. I use this to pot/unpot aquarium plants with top soil and gravel. The mess drops thru the shelving rack into the bin. It makes cleanup easy. The other shelves house live food cultures, bagging supplies, and whatnot. It makes a good workspace for so many aquatic tasks. The racks are plumbed with water, air from a central air pump, LED 12v power supplies, and each tank is drilled to make water changes easy by overflowing the waste down the drain. The room gets heat/cooling from the home central system and the room has a dedicated natural gas ventless heater. I don't shut off the cooling entirely even though it fights the ventless heater. This helps me control the humidity during the warmer months. Each rack is set up that way including the 'potting' cart. My water changes take about 90 minutes and I can do other tasks while the water overflows. My goal was to automate a lot of what I didn't like doing so I could spend more time feeding, watching, and tending the fish and shrimp. In the warmer months, the 100+ tanks take about an hour a day of care and in the colder months, it's easy to fill 2 hours/day. Sometimes I do spend less time than this in there, but to get the fishroom really rocking the hour a day needs to happen. Let me know if you have any specific topic. I will be happy to take pictures or chat. Regards, Chris

Jorge, I can't remember a time when I divided a tank and it worked the way I wanted. One recent improvement is the HMF foam. I've seen people successfully divide a tank with that. In the end it would be cheaper to get 4 tens to replace the 40/50. I vividly remember being limited to a goldfish bowl. A couple of tens and a 40 is a pretty nice set up.

Jorge, Good luck. You can have a lot of fun with a rack of 10's. Regards, Chris

It's hard to beat the utility and cost effectiveness of a 10 gallon tank. You can easily buy or make a stand that lets you keep 16 or 20 ten gallon tanks skinny end out. These racks are very common place for fish/shrimp enthusiasts. When folks have 40 gallon tanks, there is usually a reason such as a larger tenant, aquascaping goals, or maybe, mass production. If you live anywhere near a local aquarium club, the ten gallon tanks are easy to find in the $6-7 range, but it is soooo easy to get them at the Petco sale and there is no cleaning or bother other than trusting Petco to have/order all of the tanks you want at once. If it is in a living space, I recommend against the skinny end out. Set them up as a normal display tank so you can better enjoy them from the couch. The nice part of the hardcore fishroom setup is the easy maintenance allowed by drill/drain/fill and central filtration or central air pump. The hardcore setup can also be cheaper depending on your level of finish on the display type. Regards, Chris

Excellent. I have a small wine refrigerator that was purchased for and only every used to grow white worms... For years it sat on top of a small refrigerator. My wife suggested that I get that fridge because i kept the blackworms next to the lettuce in the kitchen fridge. It wasn't so much that the worms were in there, it was more that the worms react to the refrigerator light and squirm every time you open the door. I always thought that was kinda gross myself. :-)

Excellent. I have a small wine refrigerator that was purchased for and only every used to grow white worms... For years it sat on top of a small refrigerator. My wife suggested that I get that fridge because i kept the blackworms next to the lettuce in the kitchen fridge. It wasn't so much that the worms were in there, it was more that the worms react to the refrigerator light and squirm every time you open the door. I always thought that was kinda gross myself. :-)

Gouramis will quickly reduce the population of anything they can catch and fit in their mouths. I very seriously doubt that they can eradicate the worms. My experience is that when fish are removed, the 'pest' usually returns. It is very hard to get rid of small organisms. The bigger the organism, the more likely they came in on plants. The smaller organisms come in transferred water, plants, gravel, or simply show up from a city water change. These aren't absolutes and aren't the only ways to get volunteers. Good luck, Chris

It took a while, but the one with the big claws came out of hiding.

I have a lot of tanks and have been using 4/$1 glass sauce dishes from the The Dollar Tree. Some folks use these same cheap dishes for mass producing/feeding the Repashy foods. I like the look of the petri dishes. Is there a performance difference or is it just looks? Regards, Chris