Recent content by ADsnail

Heaters in the 5-10 gallon range are the smallest size and are quite affordable. Your local stores (if you have fish stores in your area large/small) should have a variety of 2-5 different brands. I've used most of them on 10g tanks and all seem to work fine. I do notice, however, that some quit...

About the betta: what do you feed him, and how much? One of mine recently went through the same thing, laying on the bottom a lot and looking like he was dying. Moving occasionally to different spots but lethargic. I thought about his end-times, but then, as Aiken says, about what was wrong...

Snail traps: The old lettuce method is to put a leaf of iceberg lettuce down overnight. It will attract snails, and you just remove leaf and snails in the morning before turning on the lights. Why iceberg? It's curved like a cup and will hold them better during removal. Many people have had...

If you do decide to try cucumber (just to rule it out, if nothing else), blanching is the way to give it your best attempt. Boil for one minute to break down the fibers and make it available to eat. Some people do use raw cucumber, but if you want to find out for sure, blanching is the way to go.

Some crabs are filter feeders, filtering food particles from flowing water. It's natural behavior. Does she have many places to climb and explore? Is her food high quality nutrient-rich? Both of these will encourage her to explore her territory more.

Just to nip in here with a tiny piece of advice. Amidst all the choices and requirements, remember to get what you LIKE. So that every time you look in there you'll feel happiness and satisfaction. As a general rule for plants, buy tall growers for the back, medium for the middle, and small for...

Many of us have had the experience of a pet choosing us instead of the other way around. Usually it's about other types of creatures - in fact, it sounds a little silly when applied to a fish. Suggestion: take your daughter to the fish store and walk past lots of tanks and fish, and see who...

Mine lay eggs in phases - sporadic bouts of eating, sleeping, egg laying with no perceivable pattern. As Aiken mentioned, they don't go away in hard water. Some people have had success with the edge of a plastic card (like a credit card), or dental tools, or even a fingernail. I haven't tested...

Male bettas are generally best alone. There will be some who say they have good pairings with other fish, but that's generally the rule. Bettas are king of their tank; their nature dictates that they run the show. So in addition to the health issues of nipping, a betta who's on the run and not...

If they're not eating the wafers, they're getting their food from the tank. Only give wafers as a supplement if they're caught up on the natural algae. How can you tell? In my tanks, they start constantly patrolling, searching for food. It's different from their normal moving about...it looks...

For live plants, I've gone to marcusfishtanks on ebay, for years. They explain the plants, nicely answer questions, give a clue about easy-difficult, and have good prices, especially twofers. Their descriptions will help determine how big a plant will get, how fast it grows, and whether it's for...

I would also take a look at that pagoda. Stick your hand in there (wash it up to the elbow first) and run your fingers around every surface, pressing down, particularly any plastic plants glued to sides and back. The plastic used for these can be quite brittle; this plus the glue used to attach...

Cooking and freezing is fine, though leafy things like spinach will defrost into mush. Slices of cucumber, zucchini, and carrot will hold up better. They really don't need to be cooked, just blanched. But I get it that pulling out the pan and going through the process, however short, is a...

I love the red racers too. I have one alone in a one tank; it's been there for a year and so far, so good - no eggs. In another tank I have three. There have been eggs, which as you know are difficult-to-impossible to remove even with the technique of using the edge of a credit card. The good...

For snails, Mystery snails are fun to watch. They like to play and cover a lot of ground chugging around on all surfaces. Nerite snails are smaller but come in a variety of lovely patterns; they are the cleaners you mentioned. A good formula would be one Mystery (two will likely mate, and then...