about the alder cones. Hi Paul, the alder cones after 2 weeks of being soaked in 100 ml water with 1ml of Filter Start, say, a huge dose of N-bacteria, are still missing the white fluff. I've also been changing the cones' water twice a week, as I added the infusion with water changes into the aquar...

go crazy for live Daphnia. It is the moina strain which is quite small Hi, it is so nice to hear from you. I'm glad to report that my Corydoras aeneus from the local store also are going now crazy for live Daphnias, which are also Moina strain (or, is it a different species?). Eventually I've train...

Thanks, Darrel. But first I'll need to re-home myself in a larger house and earn more money ): However, I can do an immediate remediation by topping up the water level in the existing tank, which is actually bigger! I am terribly sorry for messing the size up, I'll measure its full height and not ju...

That's interesting about the alder cones. I wonder if it's to do with water circulation and perhaps the availability of oxygen? I've noticed the gradual decomposition in my tanks. When I soak leaves, alder cones etc in a bucket to make black water, I usually have an airline bubbling in there. I use...

Hi Darrel, Thanks. The creatures don't sound too scary. I never intended to breed, instead, I used to fear that my Bronze Corys can spontaneously start to spawn just before I'm due to go away somewhere, and generally, that I haven't got a spare aquarium for young, no experience, etc., as I saw repor...

Diana Walstad has some data in "Ecology of the planted aquarium" (if you don't have a copy I would strongly recommend it) ( https://www.amazon.co.uk/d/Books/Ecology-Planted-Aquarium-Practical-Scientific-Treatise-Aquarist/0967377366 ) and there are articles by Dr Stephan Tanner ( http://ww...

Mol_PMB wrote: ↑06 Jun 2017, 18:36 a cute shot of the only survivor from their first spawn

Very cute indeed.

dw1305 wrote: ↑06 Jun 2017, 13:01 I have inadvertently introduced Hydra, Planaria and Leeches.

Hi Darrel, and what did you do then? Did you have to eradicate them, or they are relatively harmless?

Thanks again, Darrel! Hydrobiochemistry discussions in these links are really in depth, very interesting and I'll have to spend more time on those. There is a similar tendency in soil science to reveal more and more complex interactions in soil biota. I still don't understand, what goes on in my aqu...

Thank you very much, Darrel, I'll try to get all I can from now on. In addition to garden barrels I'm going to look for creatures in the abandoned water troughs in fields around my village and almost sure to find things there. It will be the first time for me to do that, so, I just want to be sure t...

Hi Darrel, Many thanks for helpful response. I'll add leaves and cork - it would be great to get both bloodworms and glassworms in one barrel. Do you feed them to fish as they are, just washed under tap water and no other cleansing needed? I've read that they both are carnivorous and, therefore, cle...

Hi Paul, Of course, tomorrow or so, will be fine. Just drop me a message, please, when you manage to send them - and I'll be waiting for the postman the next days. Maybe my F:B ratio hypothesis sounds crazy, but I'd appreciate if you tell me exactly what you think, doesn't matter - for or against - ...

Hi Paul, I've prepared homes for the creatures. I've also enjoyed the videos of Corys in their natural habitat you posted earlier. And I've tried to think of possible explanations why a slight mineralization of water has worked for my aquarium. There are two: 1) It is believed that KH > 80 ppm (4.5 ...

Sounds great. I have looked up the images of your fish species in the internet, very exotic indeed. You are lucky. Adaptation of new species for captivity is so interesting, challenging and important for conservation of rare species, some of which are not yet identified, but already endangered - I'v...

Thanks you, Paul, for explaining your situation, it is very useful for me to know about your experience, for there aren't many aquarists dealing with so soft tapwaters like ours. If all your fish are fine, except the two, then it looks like the two fish just have a weaker immunity than the others. H...

And what about your fish health now? If everything is healthy and stable, I'd just keep it that way, whatever it is based on. We should bear in mind that we keep different species of Corys that may have slightly different requirements. As far as I know, most natural rivers in Brazil don't have such ...

Hi, I'm new to this forum and have just seen this post, so, sorry for the late reply. From my experience (a year with 6 Bronze Corys in 30 l planted aquarium in Wales, UK), as soon as nitrate went as high as yours (40 ppm) some of my Corys were guaranteed to have a skin problem of fungal origin, e.g...

Thanks for reply and advise. I agree that injecting live daphnia into the substrate was a bad idea (I actually tried and saw it for myself). Next I've tried to release daphnia from a pipette just above the ground gently in front of their noses and it looked like they managed to get some. I suppose t...

I'd like to get some help from anyone who feeds live daphnia to Corys. I have a small planted aquarium with 6 Bronze Corys (+4 Harlequin Rasboras) for a year now. I've just started to breed daphnia to supplement the diet of my lovely pets. So far I've tried 3 feeding sessions by tipping live daphnia...