Louie

My "woman" lol (wife) of many years is visiting one of my daughters and her family in CA . It gives me the chance to eat plenty of junk with no brutal lectures about cholesterol, etc and since our neighbors left yesterday for 3 days . I'm watching their bullterrier who is like a good friend . We stay up all night eating assorted Chinese take out . She enjoys chicken fried rice and boneless spare ribs . Than we sleep during the day as we are about to do now but she snores .

subtle, We have managuense here and as a whole I find the south and central American cichlids very underrated as far "being smart" . I have an old pair of Oscars in "pond" (250 gallon home depot pvc pond) in the yard but watching the wild cichlids for years in same canals you notice that they learn . Some canals no one fish's because the cichlids will not strike at lures nor live bait even if dangled in front of them . High, The non native fish are here to stay as you know they have been here since fish became a hobby . The only fish that have trouble are the peacock bass . There are plenty but the killer cold spell years back took a massive toll on them . The other exotics recovered or recovering but the peacock bass did not bounce back as one would expect. Country, I used to fish snakeheads by a certain large canal in Broward county which might be where your brother in law goes . They are here to stay but interestingly enough for such a tough fish not as spread all over Miami as most exotics.

Doc, Keeping a set up and running tank empty is not easy , lol . What type of led is that ? Very bright and nice .

I hope to breed them but they are unsexable babies now . I would like to be able to keep 1 M /1 F together , If I get a pair because with 4 you never know . I know they are not as aggressive as the Alleni and I find the white nicer not as ghost pale as the Alleni. I have not had luck breeding crays . I have 2 f /1 m CPO who mate but no babies ever and have not seen any females carry eggs . I purchased a "blue" dwarf but it is actually a blue strain of Cajun , not some exotic dwarf as I had thought .Put it in a 15 gallon and going to get a few more Cajun dwarfs , hope they breed . My self cloning are another story and multiply nicely . Hungle, You don't keep crays because of the claws? I think you mentioned some time ago that you don't keep anything that can pinch . I was not into crays either till years ago . They don't bother me when I do water changes and afraid of me . I find the harmless CPO crays very interesting as far as the way they interact with each other and roam around the tank but I would never keep them with shrimp as some do nor fish. Funny thing is that I keep fish outside in assorted water troughs and raccoons might come through now and than , perhaps they can catch a platy here and there in the more shallow troughs but the one time I kept some self cloning crays in a 20 gallon under my terrace they showed up in numbers .

Subtle, Nice video. I have never seen them. I agree that lots keep fish in inadequate size tanks . At one time Pacu were in vogue as babies . Everyone knew they got huge but regardless people purchased them for their 10 gallon starter tanks . Imagine thousands died this way . I actually caught a few in a canal in Key west in the early 90s.

I ordered 4 white Clarkii crays . They are small but if I get a pair will separate them to breed. Imagine I will need to separate the 4 either way as they get older but for now all 4 will be in a 20 long . Has anyone bred Clarkii? If so temps, etc would be great . Thank you

Okay thanks .

It came out nice . What is the little ornament I each tank which looks like a chandalier?

Mantis are interesting . I never kept any but got rid of plenty from uncultured live rock . Some are very pretty and some are drab looking .

Subtle, I am also a big fan of weekly water changes . I change 5% twice a week for my shrimp . For my fish I change 10% twice a week .

All three of these videos are fantastic I think everyone here will love all three . The white tiger shrimps in the second video are very nice indeed. I particularly liked the 3rd video because of the crayfish . I do keep CPO but I would never keep them with shrimp . Funny how he says that CPO will try to mate with shrimp because a friend who keeps CPO told me he saw this with his cherry shrimp and I thought he was mistaken. Also interesting on the pinochio shrimps which I was looking at but will now abstain from getting any.

Soothing, No plants in your tank, no driftwood ?

Soothing, He purchased a pair from dealer who sold diff types of octopus , small cuttlefish from a newsletter that used to go around in the 70's early 80's called Fauna . You could subscribe to it for a $1 a year . They would sell you whatever and up to you to than see if legal to own and get a permit . Granted no one did . It was all types exotic listings . I do not think that it was till the early till mid 80's that the government came down on exotics without permits but either way you name it, it was sold . In the mid 80s fauna became just reptile listings and a diff company published and owned it . Either way the pair lived together in his 55 gallon tank which is strange as is because they are solitary . He had about 40lbs live rock and filter was an undergravel and each octopus had their own glass soda bottle which they lived in . They bred after he had them 6 months , I forgot which one died after that(imagine female) but all the eggs hatched . The color on those octopus were amazing . I kept some exotics but never anything dangerous in the slightest way and most you can still buy .

Soothing , I notice that a lot of the smaller tanks are acrylic , like those filter, light included nano reef type tanks .

I would think that you could breed them with the correct water temp? I had a friend breed the Australian blue ring octopus and he was just using an under gravel filter . Very pretty but I found it crazy to keep them due to their venom . He wound up destroying the babies because local pet stores did want them, no internet back than to sell online . it was all mail order .

Taylor, Your friend made the tank with several sheets of acrylic ? I was under the impression that if not made with a mold and one piece , they would warp. I am surprised you never had scratches . I had a 30 gallon acrylic when they first came out 9think 80s) and perhaps it was due to astrea and turbo snails but it had its share of scratches .

It is nice to have a basement , lol. No basements in S.Florida

Okay it looked brackish because I never saw it in the Marine hobby but because it is from CA , that might be the reason . I know brackish are very pretty but they never made it in the aquarium hobby .

I am pretty sure that the cuttlefish special you saw are the cold water variety which change colors rather fast and communicate with colors . The link that Soothing posted is the pygmy type which I was reading is now CB which is nice because they used to be sold in the 70's and early 80s taken from the wild . I have seen the pygmy but never the bigger more active type . The pygmy's seem shyer . I am not able to post a link here , not sure why but I will send you the dwarf cuttlefish care site , if you can post the link you can post it in another thread as not to hijack poopians thread , the pics are very nice. I think you would like one as would soothing .

Acrylic scratches if you look at it the wrong way but you can certainly keep it scratch free but they always seem to get tiny scratches on the inside . freckleface.com has a nice acrylic section with tools . If me I would buy it not make it because the ready made tanks are one piece molded together . Done incorrectly it is prone to warping .

That is Brackish species ?

Ctaylor, Yes they are , Get yourself a Florida pygmy octopus and you will be amazed at how smart. A friend had one by accident (came in the live rock he picked up in Key West ) and interesting little creature. He would put a ping pong ball in the tank and the octopus seemed to actually play with it as far as pulling it under water than letting it go enjoying this . After awhile the octopus was actually beating my friend at ping pong itself . I'm just kidding but he did entertain himself with the ball but they are short lived .

Soothing Shrimp, I have self cloning and agree that different colors would be a big hit . I picked 2 up last year as use the young which I get in volume for my cichlids who love them. I found that they will produce more young and with greater frequency in warmer temps. Mine are in the backyard patio in a 20 gallon under 24/7 shade . Perhaps it is due to cloning but big eaters for crays that size.

You mean like a standard 48 inch bi-pin fluorescent which is less than 40 watts?

Poopians , I feed 'Color' by Bornewild about once or twice a week but I read that spirulina also helps . I had spirulina pellets which I feed my cichlids and also give them a few pellets once a week . It wont take a drab shrimp and make him an award winning shrimp but I have noticed brighter reds, oranges. I have actually noticed the greatest color increase in my CPO crayfish with the two food items.