My 20G Planted Tank

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My mystery/apple snail did not eat plants. They would eat decaying plant material, but not new, healthy plants. The only plant I ever saw him munch on was a water wisteria.

Thank you for your sympathy skyla! I'm happy he's no longer suffering, too.
 
callisto9 said:
Once mine took care of itself, it never came back. I boiled, scrubbed and scrubbed again. After a week or so, it went away.
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Excel kills it...pretty fast too. I used a syringe to squirt it directly onto the branch and the white crud was dead and gone within a few hours. ;-). It will take a few days to get it all but at least I don't just have to just wait it out.
 
Botanica said:
Excel kills it...pretty fast too. I used a syringe to squirt it directly onto the branch and the white crud was dead and gone within a few hours. ;-). It will take a few days to get it all but at least I don't just have to just wait it out.
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That's good to know! I took out all my wood earlier and scrubbed the hell outta it. Now I'm re-soaking it.
 
Just when I thought I was done... :hide:

I added two albino cory catfish today! This puts me at 100% stocked once I add the gourami. He'll get added next week. He's been in QT two weeks today.

LFS said to get at least four cories, but I opted for two. They are so hyper. They are back and forth and back and forth all afternoon. Are they like this all the time? I was worried about their barbels (sp?) with Eco Complete, but everything I read says they'll be fine.

The bottom leaves on my ludwigia repens keep dying off and they are tons of roots on the bottom parts.

My smaller amazon sword is not doing well at all. I pruned and moved last week. I got a much bigger one from someone here and it's got some leaves dying off. I am still dosing 1ml of Seachem Flourish Comprehensive per week.

I am going to start taking out some of the ramshorns. I must have 30+ in there in various sizes.

As much as I like my LFS, I have to admit, their stocking ideas are way more than I think should be allowed. Now here's my question: in fish stores, there are TONS of fish per tank. I know they don't spend their lives there, but they do spend a good amount of time in tanks that most of the community would consider way overstocked. How can this be? Obviously fish stores can't stock 5 fish per tank (they'd run out of room), but everywhere I go, I see TONS of fish in each tank. How can that work in a store, but not at home?

I was talking to the woman who owns the store (along with her husband) about maybe getting a 5 gallon tank and one betta for my desk at work. She said I could put a school of tetras in there, too. Isn't that overstocked?

They have been in the business for 20+ years, so they obviously know what they are doing... what's everyone's take on this?

Wow, that was a lengthy post...
 
I think that most of the fish spend 2 to 3 weeks at the lfs tanks. Looks like they have big filters in the back of the stores, these filters keep the water quality at a decent levels of ammonia, nitrites, and nitrates. Also I think that the water is cycling across all the tanks.
Regarding the stocking, most of the lfs are looking for sales and profits, specially with today's economy. Don't take me wrong, many lfs care about the fish and to keep their costumers happy, but they know that they can push the stock levels, as long as the people do PWC as needed, you can overstock a tank.
 
That makes sense and I kinda figured that was the answer. Just something I've been thinking about, I guess.

I was charting out when I got all my fish and my 3rd aquarium and I realized this tank's only been going for a little under two months. I, of course, hoped everything would be perfect by now. :rolleyes:
 
I really should have re-thought the ramshorns. I plucked out about 30 of them this evening. Someone is coming to pick up a handful of them. The rest I'm putting in a jar. I don't know if I want to continue on with these - there are eggs everywhere!

The cories are still swimming all over the tank - super fast - back and forth. I wonder if they are stressed in the new tank...
 
callisto9 said:
I really should have re-thought the ramshorns. I plucked out about 30 of them this evening. Someone is coming to pick up a handful of them. The rest I'm putting in a jar. I don't know if I want to continue on with these - there are eggs everywhere!

The cories are still swimming all over the tank - super fast - back and forth. I wonder if they are stressed in the new tank...
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Could u send me some?
 
callisto9 said:
Yes, I can, but without a heat pack, I don't know if they'll make it. Anyone care to weigh in on that one?
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I don't really know how we could do it and it is terribly cold hear in Canada!
 
callisto9 said:
Plus shipping to Canada would be expensive. Do any of your LFS carry them? Will someone from eBay ship there?[/QUOTE

Idk but its ok I don't need em they just look really neat!
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I noticed you said something about some of your plants not doing well. I'd like to know more so maybe I can help.
 
Rivercats said:
I noticed you said something about some of your plants not doing well. I'd like to know more so maybe I can help.
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That would be great! Well, some of them aren't doing well.

The amazon sword has deterioration - brown/yellow on the leaves. The other amazon sword has a leaf or two that looks 'eaten'/melted. The ludwigia repens always loses its bottom leaves (they turn brown and fall off), but the top is healthy. One anubia (the original) is doing great, the other two always look like crap. Leaf deterioration. Water wisteria always looks kinda beat-up, too. I'll pics tomorrow - the lights just went off for the evening.

Plants that seem to be doing mostly OK: anachris, java fern, ludwigia paulustris red, bacopa monnieri.

The Brazilian pennywort floats up top and covers about 25% of the surface of the tank.

I have one 8000K 15W light on for 8 hours a day (cut back from 16!) and I dose once a week with Seachem Flourish Comprehensive (not Excel). I do water changes each week of 3-6 gallons (think I'm going to stick with 6 for awhile until I get all the gunk cleaned out).

Any thoughts you could pass along would be greatly appreciated!
 
Just to explain a little bit about how fish stores can overstock their tanks, it's a combo of underfeeding (which isn't as bad as you may think), not worrying much about constant algae growth, water changes, 30+% fish loss rates in most cases, and trying to find customers the fish they want to keep (buy) in order to give them a proper home. Store tanks aren't run as balanced systems because they're basically store shelves. The animals are in temporary housing just like the puppies in a pet shop. They aren't meant to live in a kennel anymore than 30 juvenile store fish are meant to live out their lives in a shop's 20 gallon.
 
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