Recent content by toddnbecka

Toss a small copper fitting or an old penny into your filter for a while. It will release copper ions into the water and gradually kill the snails, then you can take it back out. Safe for fish and plants, as well as your beneficial bacteria, will also kill shrimp and other inverts though.

Bristlenose (Ancistrus) plecos are great for cleaning algae off the glass and pretty much anything else in the tank. They're also a bit more visible than the Hypancistrus species. Normal brown and albino are very common, super reds are usually available online, check out aquabid.com if you can't...

A bristlenose Ancistrus would be the best bet for cleaning up algae.

Unless you have chloramine in your tap water you don't need something to treat it. I use sodium thiosulfate, which is a simple dechlorinator. You can buy enough of the crystals to last a lifetime for less than one bottle of commercial liquid. It's one drop/gallon after you make a solution (using...

What do you plan to do with hundreds of convicts of any size? Or any fish, for that matter? Most SA or CA cichlids will happily spawn repeatedly before taking a break, then start again and spawn some more. If you raise even a single brood you'll have more than it will be easy to get rid of IME...

They don't have a big enough mouth for their bite to hurt, lol, no worries.

Neons are even more delicate than cardinals. Colombian tetras would be a better bet, larger but almost the same colors as neons or cardinals.

Hey Alyxx, how are your beautiful boas coming along? The male DRMB has healed up nicely (as far as I can tell anyway, lol) and seems to be back on track with eating and growing along with the rest. It was several weeks after the surgery before I was able to get him to eat, finally used a tiny...

There is one Tanganykian cichlid that would be perfect for a 29 gallon tank with hard water, Neolamprologus multifasciatus aka multi's. Smallest cichlid in the world, and they form colonies, so they're very tolerant of fry, juvies, and not likely to kill other adults like most larger cichlids...

Actually, biowheels are just a gimmick to sell filters. Every surface in the aquarium and filter media can/will support the beneficial bacteria. The number of bacteria depends on the bioload, and even in a newly set up tank a small piece of filter media from an established tank will allow...

Livebearers in general prefer hard, alkaline water, and cardinal tetras prefer soft neutral-acidic water. Not really a good mix. An angelfish or a pair would definitely help control livebearer fry and would be more adaptable to the water conditions since they're pretty much domesticated fish now.

I've been shippping and receiving fish for years. One thing I learned quickly, NEVER write "Live Fish" or "Fragile" or anything else out of the ordinary on the box. Much better chances of the package arriving intact if you jsut label it like any other. My personal opinion is that marking...

I have super red BN adults or juvies, and adult groups of L-333 and L-134 leopard frog pleco's available.

I've been using it it for about 4 years in my 220 now, never had any problems with it. Main difference I've noticed is the mts produce completely white shells, and they show up very visibly when the empty shells collect on the surface of the substrate, lol.

There was a program on animal planet a few months ago about megalodons. Apparently a couple unfossilized teeth have turned up, and a diver got some pics of a young shark among a group of great whites that had the notched fins characteristic of megalodons. They wouldn't have to be 80' specimens...