Jump to content

Jack-the-reefer

Supporting Member
  • Posts

    888
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    11

Posts posted by Jack-the-reefer

  1. I had a wart skinned frog fish and it was the coolest thing I've ever kept in a tank. I would love to get another one at some point. Mine was doing great, but unfortunately got stressed out during a move and never recovered. 

    I did a ton of research before buying one. Here's what I did.

    - If you order from a local store, arrange to pick it up right when it comes in. They stress easily, so making them acclimate to conditions in the store, then transferring again and acclimating to your tank at home is hard on them. 

    - NEVER let them be exposed to air. If they swallow air, they're pretty much doomed. 

    - They will probably only accept live food in the beginning. Some will learn to take frozen food if you have a little patience. Some are stubborn and will never take anything but live food. Either way, be prepared ahead of time.  When you first get one, it might not be interested in eating for several days. 

    - Training mine to eat frozen was easy enough, although it took 6 weeks or so to get him onto only frozen food. I bought ghost shrimp from petsmart a month ahead of buying the fish. They have basically no nutritional value, so I loaded them up with good quality food. The shrimp die pretty quickly in salt water, but if I held them by the tail with long tongs, the fish would be attracted to their movement and snatch them up. 

    - Everything I read told me the best all around frozen food was pieces of tilapia filets. I started by holding a sliver of tilapia asking with the shrimp, and he would gulp down everything at once. Eventually, he learned to associate the tongs with food. I think he would have eaten a rock if I held it in those tongs and waved it in front of him. 

    - Once you have them eating frozen, the hard part is over. They will actually eat themselves to death if you let them. They only need to eat something a little bigger than their eye once every 3-4 days. 

    - Anything that can fit in their mouth, will become dinner. 

    - They're color will change in your tank. They change color to match their environment. 

    • Like 5
  2. Looking at the betta falls tank today got me thinking. It could be fun to have a little contest to see who can set up the coolest pico tank on a budget. I've seen similar things done in other forums and it's always cool to see what people come up with. 

    Here's what I'm thinking:

    -Water volume less than  5g

    -Budget of under 100$ for equipment. 

    -Everybody has a month to gather equipment. Then three or so months to let the tanks grow in. 

    -At the end, we put it up to vote and the crowd favorite wins. 

    Anybody interested? Could be fun. 

     

    • Like 3
  3. I got this from Randall when he took his tank down.  He was selling it for next to nothing because it was in less than perfect shape, and had a section of skeleton exposed. 

    It was eating from day one in the tank, but didn't seem to be growing back over the bare spot. I looked a little closer and found a few vermatid snails on the skeleton. Since breaking them off a month ago, it's making a pretty quick recovery. 

    The new growth is right above the mouth at the bottom of the V. 

     

    2B2E9847-6BC2-4274-AE9D-67E5617E68D0.jpeg

    • Like 4
  4. I might have just thought of a better idea. The main tank is the pond already have. I make an oversized drain and hookup one one return pump. Then, I get one of the plastic pre formed waterfalls that hold a couple of gallons and set that up next to it.  The second return pump is hooked up to the waterfall. 

    When pump 2 turns on, the top section fills up and spills over into the lower section. The oversized drain is plenty big to handle the extra flow. When pump  2 shuts off, the water just drains back through the pump. 

  5. Okay, I'm not drunk this morning. However, with my wife out of town last week, I spent some time drinking and staring at my tank. I had an idea, and I can't decide if it sounds really cool, or an overcomplicated mess. 

    I want to build a functioning tide pool. Here's what I'm thinking...

    Imagine a drop off tank with two drains. One is placed up high (where you would install any normal drain), the other sits on the actual drop off section, right at the top of that section. 

    There will also be two return pumps. One will run all the time. And will be just powerful enough to keep up with the low drain. Pump #2 will be on time to stimulate high /low tide. When both pumps are running, the low drain won't be able to keep up, and it will fill to the high drain. 

    Thoughts? I would have to have a pretty oversized sump, but I think it should work. 

  6. I spent a few days in cabo with my wife. This morning, before the flight out, she asked if we should take one last walk on the beach. Obviously, the answer was yes. And I'm glad we went, because this little guy washed up at our feet. 

    29865242-D2C8-47BA-98D5-C89CC955B947.jpeg

    • Like 8
×
×
  • Create New...