Recent content by sparkyweasel

Welcome! :)

Did it look like this? Cordyline If so, it is a common plant as you suspected, and commonly sold for aquariums, but it is NOT aquatic, will not survive underwater but will rot away.

Lol, I was just typing that the 350 would be OK, but that was for the 160 litres. :) Something a bit bigger for 260 litres then. Partially depending on what fish and plants you have in mind.

I think that's your biggest problem. Your Tropica Specialised fert won't hurt your shrimps. If the ClearX does what is claimed for it, it's bad for plants and good for algae. I would remove the ClearX and start dosing the fertiliser; I don't like to make too many changes at once, so I would...

A lot of Corys can be encouraged to spawn by a water change using cold water.

Are you intending to inject CO2? If so, the 10x rule is a good one. Without injected gas a much lower flow is fine.

The French have threatened to make it like a re-run of the Battle of Trafalgar. :) Hmm, perhaps not the best idea,

After a good soak with a few changes of water, you can add some Daphnia or similar pond creatures to the soaking water. If they thrive there's not likely to be anything toxic still leaching from the wood.

They love to eat fishfood that your fish have missed. If you overfeed they will breed like crazy. Without excess fishfood they mainly eat algae. If you have a lot of algae the snail population wil increase; when there are lots of snails, the algae goes down and so does the snail population...

I bet that if you were thinking of changing them using expensive aquarium products they would be all for it. :) Cuttlefish bone works, and it's cheap. If you don't trust your water test results have a look at your water supply company's website for a drinking water quality report.

Some filters, including most internal ones, are supplied with media. In my experience they still don't manage the flow claimed on the box, even if you take the media out. And with an internal you can take the head out of the equation. And pipe lengths and bends. I've got some very good filters...

Yes it is. I've mostly bred fish that care for their babies, like cichlids. It's great to watch, but things can go wrong, so yes, it is good to see the babies grow old and big enough to leave home. :) Without parental care you either leave them to get on with it and hope for the best, or set up...

Growing-on tank with a batch of babies about ready to go to the tropshop. The imported Angels in those days were terrible, with little stumpy fins. Mine sold like hot cakes. :)

I don't know about Nerites, but if tiny snails, like Ramshorns or Tadpole Snails get into the tank I never see any more baby rasboras until/unless I can get rid of the snails. Some-one on here has probably got Rasboras, Nerites and Amanos together. Hopefully they will spot this and chip in.

I believe that letting the parents raise the babies is the best way. They won't spawn again until the babies leave home, so they don't get exhausted by frequent repeat spawning. I think they find it distressing to lose their babies before they are ready to send them away. I used to move them...