Recent content by Larry Little

Hello-- It's been a while since I last posted anything; not sure if this should be in this discussion or the "Cichlids" discussion group. I have 5 Rainbow cichlids that after 6 months or so have suddenly torn the hell out of all of the plants in their tank. I know they're more herbivorous than...

Hello -- It's been a while since I last posted anything. Is there anyone in this group that grows the green form of Cryptocoryne affinis? I think this is the plant I remember from my childhood through my early 20s that my mom, then I, grew in all of our aquariums. This would have been the...

Andy, thanks for the information. I have tested my source water a number of times since April, when the city water supply spiked ammonia up to 1.0 (no nitrites or nitrates). I killed a bunch of fish due to this; began adding Prime for any water changes or top-offs after that. Ammonia is back...

Aiken, I know it takes a good while to do a fishless cycle. The reason for me to add food is to feed the herd of snails. I've used the snails instead of fish as they seem to be much more resistant to the adverse effects of ammonia and nitrite. Their waste gets broken down the same way as fish...

My plan is to keep a small school of pygmy cories (5-6) and either two trios of endler's livebearers or a small school of ember tetras (8). What fish would you begin with? I was once considered to be an "expert" in aquarium keeping. Wrote my Master's paper reviewing the latest setup...

Doesn't adding a couple of fish simply sacrifice them to the ammonia and nitrites? I haven't done a cycle with fish in many years and have never had this problem before. My readings have on this tank are as follows: pH _ 7.4 (stable reading for all of my tanks) Ammonia _ 0.25-0.5 (For the...

I've been having a hard time keeping frogbit alive in one of my tanks. Just switched out a 4' fluorescent light for a 4' full spectrum LED yesterday. I don't know if that will make a difference. Also have a few red root floaters in the tank that seem to be doing OK. Any advice would be much...

Hi Aiken -- This is a tank I had set up for about 3+ years. I broke it down and cleaned everything; probably killed off the bacterial colony in the process. used a mixture of old and new substrate, old hardscape ( stones and wood), and returned plants (Vallisneria spiralis and added Java moss...

I have a 15 gallon tank that has been cycling for about 8 weeks. It seems to be stuck. pH - 7.4 ammonia - 0.25 nitrite - 0.5 nitrate - 40 These readings have been stable for about 3 weeks. All of my other tanks run at about these readings with the exception of the...

Hi, Andy Sager -- I think I've narrowed it down to one of the smaller species in the family Doradidae. The genus might be Trachydoras or Rhinodoras. I distinctly remember it having the "spines" along the sides. If memory serves, it was a mottled dark grey (almost black) and lighter grey in...

Thanks, ADsnail If I've learned anything with this silly hobby of ours, it's patience.

Hello -- I recently ordered Bolbitis heudelotii (African water fern) that was delayed in transit. It arrived 12 days after it was shipped and was in very bad shape by the time I got it. I placed it in one of my tanks immediately, but all of the leaves appear to have wilted and died. My...

Hello. I'm trying to remember a catfish species I used to see from when I was a teenager back in the late 1960s through mid 1970s. It was well armored (not any sort of plecostomus), uniformly thick bodied, uniformly dark colored, with barbels similar to Cories. If I remember correctly, they...

Hello, I haven't been on here in a while. I'm looking for advice for putting together a West African river aquarium (Congo type). I'll be converting my 65 tank over from an Amazon tank; new plants such as Anubias, Bolbitis, Crinum species. I'll keep the wood and most, most of the rock work...

I recently obtained a used 125 gallon aquarium that I'm in the process of refurbishing. This is going to be a new setup for me, basically beginning from scratch. I'd like to set it up as a Central/South American tank. It's going to have black substrate, rock/driftwood hardscape, and South...