September 10-20, 2011 questions you asked Aqualand

We don't ship critters or live fish.
When writing us, include your location.
LA_Aqualand@msn.com

LA
Coral fragments under LED lighting looking much like a Sushi Bar.

Personal Note. I had the unexpected pleasure of attending the Marine Aquarium Conference of North America here in Des Moines last Saturday. Good turnout and lots of attendees. Sorry I didn't have time to spend the whole day. Then. Monday I jetted to the World Pet Association's Pet Industry Executive Summit for a day of class work. Then the next three days I attended most of Super Zoo's annual Pet Industry's trade show -- biggest one I've ever seen. Hopefully I've picked up some ideas and products worth implementing during our current innovation (if I can afford them). LA

Brittany McLaughlin, Charlotte, NC, September 11, @011
Hi, I'm a web designer. I found your site from Google. and I really was intrigued by a lot of the information you have on your site. I am concerned though however that users like myself aren't able to navigate your site very well and I couldn't find a formal contact us page. I would be very interested in recreating the structure of your site and make it more user friendly. What I've learned is, the more user friendly it is the better your return rate for customers. Also, better chance for referrals to others. If this is something that you'd like to do, please give me a call at 704-798-9361, I live in North Carolina. I am still a student in school and have been through web internships. I have my own portfolio at yyyy if you'd like to check that out. I also have some that are waiting to be published because of legal business matters on the clients part however I am allowed to show them. I can also give you references.. I would like to expand my portfolio more so I am not looking to make anything off of this. I can host my design until you're happy with it then we can go live.. anyways.. if you're interested please give me a call or email back Thanks so much for reading,

A: Let's do it. LA
PS Sorry for the delay. I was out of town for awhile.

Art Born, September 11, 2011
I noticed you didn't have any care sheets on Freshwater Clams and i was hoping you had some info on them that you could share?? :D

A: Look at Mini-Clams under "Bugs." I wrote about seven or eight feet of freshwater Clam info. LA
PS Maybe Brittany's right about my site being hard to follow.

Art Born, September 11, 2011
I Found your Freshwater Clam Page Sorry :D but by the way i have some info you may like to read :D you stated that it was illegal to sell baby painted turtles... and you wish it wasn't illegal to sell because: Last Word. Too bad your government does not trust you to keep the little guys. We could sell them by the pound. LA.
I may have a loop hole that would allow you to LEGALLY do so.. if you sell a tank you can always GIVE A FREE PAINTED TURTLE away with purchase of a tank.. they do that in Florida.. I Bought a Tank and received a FREE Yellow Belly Slider, which was Illegal to sell but not illegal to GIVE AWAY FREE ! i dont think they advertised it but people would ask how do i get a turtle, and they said buy one of our tanks and you can have a Turtle FREE.. also if you have any further information on MUSK Turtles would you mind sharing Thank You and Hope to hear back from you Soon :D

A: When the Feds made baby turtles illegal to sell, the very day the law passed they came to Aqualand and killed 43 of my baby turtles. The doofus in charge said something about $1,000 per baby turtle and some jail time for later infractions. Perhaps he was just throwing his weight around, but I'll pass on the FREE baby turtles (even tho I do like the idea). LA

miriam soto, September 12, 2011
Hi.can you answer me some questions please?

A: Probably. Send them to me. LA

Max Garton, September 13, 2011
I'm looking for a pair (one male and one female) of German blue rams. Do you sell them? Thank You

A: We sell them. We do not always have them in stock. They sometimes come in too small to sex -- often no females. For questions like these, you should call 283-0300 on a Wednesday. LA

Max Garton, September 19, 2011
How often do you get new shipments in?

A: We get new fish shipments every Wednesday amd every Friday. For questions like these, you should call 283-0300. LA

Jessica Eytcheson, September 13, 2011
Hi, I work in the live fish department at a pet store and I found this strange creature in with the ghost shrimp. I have never sean anything like it and I have been searching and searching, but I can't figgure out what it is. Do you know? It seams to live in that tube like shell, when I netted it and took it out of the water it pulled it's whole body into the tube, but when I put it back in the water a head and some little legs come out of the tube and it takes off walking. What in the world is this thing? It looks like snail in a way, but snails obviously don't have legs lol Thanks for your help! Here is a link to see a pic of it - http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?&_requestid=36979

A: I tried several times. Your link wouldn't work for me, but you are describing a caddis fly. LA

Sue, Victoria, BC :), September 14, 2011
Good Morning Larry:
So now she has laid another clutch of eggs, there are still no
babies from the last batch she had, so I am going to assume they are
vacant. Is she/he laying blanks due to being immature or? I know that
it must be a lot of work for them to lay such large quantities and
often. She hasn't laid any since the last time we talked but this
morning when I went to feed the fishes, there was another batch on
the hood. Is there something I can do to improve my chances of
getting babies or not?
You sent me pictures of bucket loads of babies and I can't even get
one! I still have not seen the smaller one of the two get out of the
water, just the bigger. This is where I thought the smaller was the
male as I see him hanging onto her shell all day kinda thing then
going about his business. What can I do?
Thanks Larry for your responses and if I could I would come to your
shop, but you are kinda far away. It would be quite the drive. :)

A: You're not that far away. Half a continent only takes an email click to travel this far. If you have a way of increasing the humidity where the eggs are laid, it may increase your chances of success. Anyway, don't give up. The fact that they're laying eggs means you're doing something right. Your snails are doing the hard work. But don't worry about them. They enjoy their work. LA

Annette Venter, South Africa, September 14, 2011
Good day. I have had a black ghost knife for about three weeks. I am worried because it keeps lying on its side motionless within my underwater grasses, but then I put my hand in and he moves. I just want to know if what he is doing is normal or if it is a sign that he is dying or sick, should I be concerned? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks.

P.s. He also loves swimming throughout the day even though I have a light on. It's strange but I'm not complaining as I get to see him the whole time.

A: One of the intriguing traits of the black ghost knifefish is their ability to swim backwards, upside-down, and even on their side. They are known for their strange behaviors. Yours sounds typical. LA

Victor-Alan Weeks, Atlanta, GA, September 14, 2011

Boy I wish my corys would let me know before they spawn! Haha, but after two weeks of conditioning the corys finally spawned. I waited about 2 hours and I'm removing the eggs now. I've dyed the water with methylene blue, and i have an airstone in the little tank. I've seen your Infusoria page and I was wondering if there were any other ways to culture the teeny morsels. Thanks! I will send pictures from time to time to update if I can.

A: Baby corys are large enough to start out on newly hatched brine shrimp or microworms. They'll even eat the frozen or de-capsulated newly hatched shrimp. The shrimp make the best starter food because you can watch their bellies turn orange. LA

Curtis Lee Reardan, WA, September 15, 2011
Boy have I got news for you!!!! Jacksons Chameleons DO in fact come from Africa!!!! The last person that left a reply was terribly rude in my opinion.

A: Hm, I can't find the rude comment you're referring to. Oh well, I'm sure some other rude people will manage to comment. That's what makes it interesting. LA

Paul Steven P. Castro, Hong Kong, September 16, 2011
Can i recommend you add ants to your wonderful website?

A: Well, since you put it that way, how can I refuse? What kind of ants do you recommend? LA

Paul Steven P. Castro, Hong Kong, September 16, 2011
Well not sure what type of ants you have there in USA. There is this new kind of hobby reaching Hong Kong where ant farms look are neat and are easier to manage these formicarium that look like this.

Once again wonderful site you have. Helped me a lot with my numerous pets.

A: I couldn't copy your image, so I googled "Uncle Milton ant farms." Seems they have cranked out quite a few (20 million) Formicariums in the years they've been in business. So I think I'll just leave the ball in their court for now. I'll leave the ants alone. LA

Miriam Soto, September 16, 2011
How much cost the Indian glass and angel fishes and what type of maintenance they need from October to May and what is the cost? And THANK YOU for answer me.

A: I rarely post prices on the web because they change all the time and this page will be here for years. Call 515 283-0300 for prices. For maintenance requirements go to Glassfish and Angelfish I. LA

Lenny, September 17, 2011
Great page!! I go back to it often, and have for a while now. Good Stuff!!Thanx,

A: Thanx backatcha. LA

Ritam Ganguly, Kolkata, India, September 17, 2011
Hello Sir. I am an avid fan of your page. It is really an interesting place!!
If I were in Iowa, then I would have surely hang around at your place all day and night. :)
This is the first time that I am writing to you. I have a Florida gar. He was housed all alone in a 2.5 ft tank until today. I decided to add a pleco in order to clean off the algae on the walls. But after seeing the pleco, my gar was so scared that he bumped straight into the glass wall and injured his beak. The upper beak is slightly dented at the extreme point and it bled a little. All this happened just about an hour ago. The gar is about 5 to 6 inches in length.
My gar is usually pretty friendly with me and eats right off my hands!! But now, it is quite scared. But, thankfully, it is swimming normally. But, it is too scared to eat!! :(
What do I do? Is my gar going to survive? The beak is not dented very badly. Actually a small lump has formed at the extreme end.
What do I do?
Please help me LA!! :( :(
Desperately in need of assistance,

LA
10-inch Florida gars.

A: Shukriya for the kudos. Florida gar are very tough. As long as his beak is not actually broken, he should recover. He may grow a callous on the end, but that won't slow him down. He'll get hungry again soon. LA
PS We still call your city Calcutta because we copy the Brits.

Ritam Ganguly, Kolkata, India, September 18, 2011
Thanks a lot for responding so quickly Mr. Larry. :)
Jack(The Ripper), my gar fish has had his lunch and dinner today. :)
Well, he's a little bit afraid of eating out of my hand though. :(
I guess he's still blaming me for his injured beak!! :(
Hope he forgets and forgives me for the mishap soon. :)
By the way Mr. Larry, I was thinking of buying another tank (my 4th one) pretty soon. I just wanted to discuss a few things with you. :)
I am planning on buying an aquarium.
Size : - Length 2.5 feet
Breadth 1.5 feet
Height 1 feet
The fishes that I plan to keep are: - 2 baby blood parrots, 4 clown loaches, 2 severums, 4 ram cichlids and 1 baby Black Ghost Knife fish.
What is your opinion? :)
By the way, the fishes I currently house are : -
1st aquarium : - Osphronemus Goramy (in here we call him an albino Giant Goramy). He's currently 8 years old and above 2 feet in length
2nd aquarium: - Red tailed Osphronemus. This guy is about 1.5 yrs old and is about 10 inches in length. His tank buddy is a small 3 inch Texas and a juvenile pleco.
3rd aquarium : - Florida Gar. And after what happened yesterday, I am planning to keep him all alone. :)
P.S.: - I still prefer LA over Larry Arnold. :) Sounds uber cool!! ;)
Hope to hear from you soon. :) And again LA, if I by any chance go to USA in the future, I will surely visit Iowa and hang out at Aqualand for at least a week. :)
A much relieved, Ritam. :)

A: Glad to hear Jack's on the road to Wellsville. The selection for your new tank sounds good. Careful -- If you do come to Aqualand and hang out for a week, I'll put you to work. über cool LA

Curtis Lee Reardan, WA, September 18, 2011
Would it be at all possible to condition convicts on mosquito larvae? I cannot find many conditioning foods in Spokane. Thanks,

LA
One-third of the horde of convicts in a 55-gallon tank. You can sex them from here.

LA
Pink convicts in a 10-gallon tank.

A: The most developed talent of convict cichlids (besides beating up other fish) is their fecundity. You can condition them on mosquito larvae or nearly any other food with a vowel in it. The secret is to put a male and female in the same tank with any kind of cave. Condition them with three light feedings a day. You can find more info at Convicts. LA

Robert Heath, September 18, 2011
I wasn't sure where to email you at so I hope you get this. I noticed that a lot of people have different feelings about the housing of bettas on your page. I actually just bought my first bettas recently. However, I am fascinated by these fish and I have been researching as much as I can in hopes of becoming a breeder soon. On the issue of housing I do have some experience. I have noticed that 2 or 3 years tends to be the max life of the bettas mentioned. When I was younger my grandfather owned a few bettas. The one I remember the most was a normal blue male which was named "Blue." My grandfather isn't very creative. Blue lived in a small bowl. My grandfather fed him once a day on betta pellets and changed his water when the bowl got too dirty to see through. Blue was around 6 years old when he died. I have also read stories about, under lab conditions, a group of bettas lived to be 9 years old. These bettas where all given 10 gallon tanks, fed twice a day and were chased around their tanks by researchers daily for exercise. In my opinion it all depends on your fish. And if 2 years is the max life span of your fish, you may be doing something wrong. I'm no expert by any means and would really appreciate any information a knowledgeable person has about taking care of my new fish. I have a black and red "firefin" crown tail and an opal dragon, which I believe to be a round tail. My dragon is in a half gallon tank until I can get a divider for my crown tail’s 10 gallon tank. If you have any information that could help me, please message me.

LA
Carding keeps your bettas from getting used to their neighbors.

A: Exercising your bettas is always good. For additional "health tips" go to Betta Pla Kat on our website. LA

Tony Ziblis, Bridgeview, IL, September 18, 2011
LA, Take a look at my jack. I have raised him since a fry. Any comments?

A: Good looking male. You can make his iridocytes (spangles) show up better by removing the mostly white gravel you have him over and replaceing it with a darker substrate. Then add one of those tape on backgrounds to help him stand out. LA

Tony Ziblis, Bridgeview, IL, September 19, 2011
Thanks Larry! Learned a lot from you. Im setting up a 30 gallon tank in my office to play around with.
I want to do my first planted aquarium and I would really like to try 2 discus in there with some neons and a few cory cats and things of the liking. Any recommendations?
How far should I go on filtration? I have an aquaclear rated for up to 50 gallon. Besides that I have 2 Rena canisters on my 120gallon with my ray and aro for over a year now, and a Rena canister on the 55 housing the aforementioned Jack for over 2 years.
So I am not at all opposed to buying another canister, I am worried the flow may be to much and upset the discus.
Any help is greatly appreciated, I have read your discus article (and countless others).
PS. are the renovations and changes complete?

A: Most discus keepers don't add plants or other species. However, since you don't intend to breed them, plants and other species should work out fine. Your AquaClear should take care of your 30. And it's always good to check out other sources of info -- particularly when working with discus. LA

LA
South side Monday, September 19, 2011.

PS It will take some time for the external renovations to wrap up. Unfortunately, they keep us from doing much on the inside.

phgHunter, September 19, 2011
I bought what was supposed to be a Jack Dempsey from my local fish store. They had mixed GT and JD juveniles, very small. Here is the one I got. Is it a JD or GT? You can zoom in by clicking the picture. I thought I would ask someone who has probably bred both of them.

i.imgur.com/U3uqF.jpg
i.imgur.com/EKqcB.jpg

Thank you very much for your time. I'm sure your busy opening the new store

A: Green terror. LA

Amber Forrest, Clive, IA, September 19, 2011
I am preschool teacher at Seeds of Faith in Clive. My class is getting ready to do a project on spiders. I was wondering if one of your employees would be willing to come to my class to talk about spiders. It would be super awesome if you could bring a couple of spiders with you.
It would be two visits lasting less than 30 minutes each. One for the morning class and one for the afternoon. Thanks

A: Perhaps. Call Mike at 283-0300 today. He'll be there until 9 pm. He may be able to work it into his schedule. LA

Kristin Niblack, Iowa, September 20, 2011
Can I send you money through PayPal to buy a couple hairless rats at the Des Moines, Ia location? I would like to send you the funds and have the rats held at the store for me until I get off of work at 7. I don't want anyone else to buy them!! Thanks,

A: Forget PayPal. I haven't used it for the last eight years. If you want us to reserve a couple rats, just call 283-0300 and tell us when you intend to pick them up. I did not look at the rats today, so I don't know if we have any hairless rats in stock or not. LA

Dr. Van Wallach, Cambridge, MA, September 20, 2011
Hello, You have posted a photo of a two headed garter snake on your website.
Can you provide me with some additional data on this snake? I am a
researcher studying two headed snakes and would like to include your
case in my database.
Where was the specimen collected? What year? Was it preserved? Was
it wild caught or captive bred? Who collected it (or bred it)? Do
you have any other pictures of it?
Thanks very much for any assistance,

LA
6-inch two-headed plains garter snake. Not exactly common.

A: Unfortunately, I can't help you much. It was brought in to Aqualand by one of our customers. All I can add is it was found in the Des Moines area and did not live long. It was probably fairly recently birthed and it never ate. LA

Dr. Van Wallach, Cambridge, MA, September 20, 2011
Hi Larry, Thanks very much for that information. Do you remember what year that was? What happened to it? Regards,

A: Usually my memoriy's pretty good. But without the aid of Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine or hypnotic regression, I've already disclosed all I know. LA

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LA_Aqualand@msn.com

	Aqualand Q&As September 10-20, 2011

Amphibians Axolotls Caecilian Worm Chaco Toad Mud Puppies Newts General Newts Eastern Newts Golden Newts Mandarin Salamanders Suriname Toad Tadpoles Terrarium I Terrarium II USA Toads Water Dogs Misc. Toads Frogs Bull Clawed Dumpy Dwarf Fire-Belly Floating Green Tree Leopard Pac Man Pipa pipa Pyxie Red-Eyed Tree Tomato Misc Frogs Misc Frogs II Misc Frogs III Misc Frogs IV Misc Frogs V Animals Bunnies Bunnies II Chinchillas Degus Ferrets Ferrets by BOB Gerbils Ground Squirrels Guinea Pig Hamsters I Hamsters II Hamsters III Hamsters IV Hamsters V Hedgehogs Kittens Kids & Kittens Mice Mice Pets II Parasites Rats I Rats II Rats III Rats, Hairless S-T Opossums Siberian Chipmunks Sugar Gliders Sugar Gliders II Water Bottles Bugs Crabby 500 Crab 04 Results Centipedes Cray/Lobsters Crayfish II Crayfish III Cray, Yucatan Fiddler Crabs Shrimp, Algae Shrimp, Aqua Shrimp, Red Shrimp, Flower Shrimp, Ghost Shrimp, Rudolph Hermit Crabs Hermit Crabs II Madagas Roach Mantids Mini-Clams Mini-Crabs Patriot Crabs Giant Millipedes Red Claw Crabs Reiman Butterfly Snail, Apple Snail, Colombian Snail, Land Snail, Malaysian Snail, Mystery Snail, Trapdoor Scorpions Tarantulas Tarantulas II Tarantula Night 2006 TarantulaWeen VII TarantulaWeen 9 Misc. Bugs Misc Bugs II Birds Breeding Tips Button Quail Canaries Cockatiels Dove, Diamond Dove, Ringneck Finches Love Birds Parakeets Pelleted Foods Quaker Parrots Parrot Pictures Parrot Pix II Parrot Pix III Dave's Parrots Lizards Alligators Anoles Bearded Dragon Beardies II Calotes Chamel, Jackson Chamel, Panther Chamel, Veiled Crested Geckos Gecko, Golden Gecko, House Gecko, Leopard Gecko, Tokay Horned "Toads" Iguana New Iguana Dragons Iguana Q&A I Iguana Q&A II Iguana Training Iguana Update Cool Iguana Pics Knight Anoles Monitors, Nile Monitors, Savana Monitors, Water Salmonella Skinks Skinks Blue-Tongue Tegus Uromastyx maliensis Water Dragon Misc Lizards Misc Lizards 2 Misc Lizards 3 Misc Lizards 4 Misc Lizards 5 Misc Lizards 6 Misc Lizards 7 Misc Lizards 8 Misc Lizards 9 Snakes Anacondas Boa, Rosy Boa, Red-Tail Corn Snake Garter Snake Green Snake Kids/Corn Snakes Kids/Red-Tail Boas Kids at Pet Expo 1 Kids at Pet Expo 2 Kids at Pet Expo 3 Kids at Pet Expo 4 Kids at Pet Expo 5 King & Milk Python, Ball Python, Burmese Snakes Alive Snakesgiving Snakesgiving II Misc Snake Pix Misc Snakes II Misc Snakes III Turtles/Tortoises Box, Asian Box, USA Races Snapping Sulcata Water Western Painted Live Foods Blackworms Blood Worms Br Shrimp I Br Shrimp II Crayfish 1 Crayfish 2 Crayfish 3 Crickets Daphnia Earthworms Feeder Goldfish Fruit Flies Ghost Shrimp Glass Worms Grindal Worms Infusoria Mealworms Microworms Rosy Reds Super Worms Wax Worms White Clouds Decorating Bubbles Driftwood Gravel Plastic Plants Rocks Slow Growing Plants Miscellaneous Bob's Acclimation How to Start How to Add New Fish How to Keep Healthy Which Fish Get Along? 10 Questions to Ask What is Ich? Under Gravel Filters Sponge Filters Cloudy Water Cool Water Tanks Gravel Vacuums Preventing Disease Feeding to the Max Frozen Foods Green Water Nasty Chemicals Overfeeding Power Filters Rift Lake Salts Quarantine Tank Mini-Tank 2nd Av Bait Pet World Visit Dandelions Aquatic Plants Amazon Swords More Swords Sword Plants III Anubias Aponogetons A. boivinianus A. fenestralis A. ulvaceous Aquarium/Bog Banana Plant Bolbitis Bunch Bunch Plants II Cryptocorynes Crystalwort Dwarf Lily Grassy Grassy II Hornwort Hygrophila Lace Java Lance Fern Java Moss Moss Balls Onion Vermiculite Watersprite	We don't ship critters or live fish. When writing us, include your location. LA_Aqualand@msn.com LA Coral fragments under LED lighting looking much like a Sushi Bar. Personal Note. I had the unexpected pleasure of attending the Marine Aquarium Conference of North America here in Des Moines last Saturday. Good turnout and lots of attendees. Sorry I didn't have time to spend the whole day. Then. Monday I jetted to the World Pet Association's Pet Industry Executive Summit for a day of class work. Then the next three days I attended most of Super Zoo's annual Pet Industry's trade show -- biggest one I've ever seen. Hopefully I've picked up some ideas and products worth implementing during our current innovation (if I can afford them). LA Brittany McLaughlin, Charlotte, NC, September 11, @011 Hi, I'm a web designer. I found your site from Google. and I really was intrigued by a lot of the information you have on your site. I am concerned though however that users like myself aren't able to navigate your site very well and I couldn't find a formal contact us page. I would be very interested in recreating the structure of your site and make it more user friendly. What I've learned is, the more user friendly it is the better your return rate for customers. Also, better chance for referrals to others. If this is something that you'd like to do, please give me a call at 704-798-9361, I live in North Carolina. I am still a student in school and have been through web internships. I have my own portfolio at yyyy if you'd like to check that out. I also have some that are waiting to be published because of legal business matters on the clients part however I am allowed to show them. I can also give you references.. I would like to expand my portfolio more so I am not looking to make anything off of this. I can host my design until you're happy with it then we can go live.. anyways.. if you're interested please give me a call or email back Thanks so much for reading, A: Let's do it. LA PS Sorry for the delay. I was out of town for awhile. Art Born, September 11, 2011 I noticed you didn't have any care sheets on Freshwater Clams and i was hoping you had some info on them that you could share?? :D A: Look at Mini-Clams under "Bugs." I wrote about seven or eight feet of freshwater Clam info. LA PS Maybe Brittany's right about my site being hard to follow. Art Born, September 11, 2011 I Found your Freshwater Clam Page Sorry :D but by the way i have some info you may like to read :D you stated that it was illegal to sell baby painted turtles... and you wish it wasn't illegal to sell because: Last Word. Too bad your government does not trust you to keep the little guys. We could sell them by the pound. LA. I may have a loop hole that would allow you to LEGALLY do so.. if you sell a tank you can always GIVE A FREE PAINTED TURTLE away with purchase of a tank.. they do that in Florida.. I Bought a Tank and received a FREE Yellow Belly Slider, which was Illegal to sell but not illegal to GIVE AWAY FREE ! i dont think they advertised it but people would ask how do i get a turtle, and they said buy one of our tanks and you can have a Turtle FREE.. also if you have any further information on MUSK Turtles would you mind sharing Thank You and Hope to hear back from you Soon :D A: When the Feds made baby turtles illegal to sell, the very day the law passed they came to Aqualand and killed 43 of my baby turtles. The doofus in charge said something about $1,000 per baby turtle and some jail time for later infractions. Perhaps he was just throwing his weight around, but I'll pass on the FREE baby turtles (even tho I do like the idea). LA miriam soto, September 12, 2011 Hi.can you answer me some questions please? A: Probably. Send them to me. LA Max Garton, September 13, 2011 I'm looking for a pair (one male and one female) of German blue rams. Do you sell them? Thank You A: We sell them. We do not always have them in stock. They sometimes come in too small to sex -- often no females. For questions like these, you should call 283-0300 on a Wednesday. LA Max Garton, September 19, 2011 How often do you get new shipments in? A: We get new fish shipments every Wednesday amd every Friday. For questions like these, you should call 283-0300. LA Jessica Eytcheson, September 13, 2011 Hi, I work in the live fish department at a pet store and I found this strange creature in with the ghost shrimp. I have never sean anything like it and I have been searching and searching, but I can't figgure out what it is. Do you know? It seams to live in that tube like shell, when I netted it and took it out of the water it pulled it's whole body into the tube, but when I put it back in the water a head and some little legs come out of the tube and it takes off walking. What in the world is this thing? It looks like snail in a way, but snails obviously don't have legs lol Thanks for your help! Here is a link to see a pic of it - http://www.kodakgallery.com/gallery/creativeapps/slideShow/Main.jsp?&_requestid=36979 A: I tried several times. Your link wouldn't work for me, but you are describing a caddis fly. LA Sue, Victoria, BC :), September 14, 2011 Good Morning Larry: So now she has laid another clutch of eggs, there are still no babies from the last batch she had, so I am going to assume they are vacant. Is she/he laying blanks due to being immature or? I know that it must be a lot of work for them to lay such large quantities and often. She hasn't laid any since the last time we talked but this morning when I went to feed the fishes, there was another batch on the hood. Is there something I can do to improve my chances of getting babies or not? You sent me pictures of bucket loads of babies and I can't even get one! I still have not seen the smaller one of the two get out of the water, just the bigger. This is where I thought the smaller was the male as I see him hanging onto her shell all day kinda thing then going about his business. What can I do? Thanks Larry for your responses and if I could I would come to your shop, but you are kinda far away. It would be quite the drive. :) LA A: You're not that far away. Half a continent only takes an email click to travel this far. If you have a way of increasing the humidity where the eggs are laid, it may increase your chances of success. Anyway, don't give up. The fact that they're laying eggs means you're doing something right. Your snails are doing the hard work. But don't worry about them. They enjoy their work. LA Annette Venter, South Africa, September 14, 2011 Good day. I have had a black ghost knife for about three weeks. I am worried because it keeps lying on its side motionless within my underwater grasses, but then I put my hand in and he moves. I just want to know if what he is doing is normal or if it is a sign that he is dying or sick, should I be concerned? Any help will be appreciated. Thanks. P.s. He also loves swimming throughout the day even though I have a light on. It's strange but I'm not complaining as I get to see him the whole time. LA A: One of the intriguing traits of the black ghost knifefish is their ability to swim backwards, upside-down, and even on their side. They are known for their strange behaviors. Yours sounds typical. LA Victor-Alan Weeks, Atlanta, GA, September 14, 2011 Boy I wish my corys would let me know before they spawn! Haha, but after two weeks of conditioning the corys finally spawned. I waited about 2 hours and I'm removing the eggs now. I've dyed the water with methylene blue, and i have an airstone in the little tank. I've seen your Infusoria page and I was wondering if there were any other ways to culture the teeny morsels. Thanks! I will send pictures from time to time to update if I can. A: Baby corys are large enough to start out on newly hatched brine shrimp or microworms. They'll even eat the frozen or de-capsulated newly hatched shrimp. The shrimp make the best starter food because you can watch their bellies turn orange. LA Curtis Lee Reardan, WA, September 15, 2011 Boy have I got news for you!!!! Jacksons Chameleons DO in fact come from Africa!!!! The last person that left a reply was terribly rude in my opinion. A: Hm, I can't find the rude comment you're referring to. Oh well, I'm sure some other rude people will manage to comment. That's what makes it interesting. LA Paul Steven P. Castro, Hong Kong, September 16, 2011 Can i recommend you add ants to your wonderful website? A: Well, since you put it that way, how can I refuse? What kind of ants do you recommend? LA Paul Steven P. Castro, Hong Kong, September 16, 2011 Well not sure what type of ants you have there in USA. There is this new kind of hobby reaching Hong Kong where ant farms look are neat and are easier to manage these formicarium that look like this. Once again wonderful site you have. Helped me a lot with my numerous pets. A: I couldn't copy your image, so I googled "Uncle Milton ant farms." Seems they have cranked out quite a few (20 million) Formicariums in the years they've been in business. So I think I'll just leave the ball in their court for now. I'll leave the ants alone. LA Miriam Soto, September 16, 2011 How much cost the Indian glass and angel fishes and what type of maintenance they need from October to May and what is the cost? And THANK YOU for answer me. A: I rarely post prices on the web because they change all the time and this page will be here for years. Call 515 283-0300 for prices. For maintenance requirements go to Glassfish and Angelfish I. LA Lenny, September 17, 2011 Great page!! I go back to it often, and have for a while now. Good Stuff!!Thanx, A: Thanx backatcha. LA Ritam Ganguly, Kolkata, India, September 17, 2011 Hello Sir. I am an avid fan of your page. It is really an interesting place!! If I were in Iowa, then I would have surely hang around at your place all day and night. :) This is the first time that I am writing to you. I have a Florida gar. He was housed all alone in a 2.5 ft tank until today. I decided to add a pleco in order to clean off the algae on the walls. But after seeing the pleco, my gar was so scared that he bumped straight into the glass wall and injured his beak. The upper beak is slightly dented at the extreme point and it bled a little. All this happened just about an hour ago. The gar is about 5 to 6 inches in length. My gar is usually pretty friendly with me and eats right off my hands!! But now, it is quite scared. But, thankfully, it is swimming normally. But, it is too scared to eat!! :( What do I do? Is my gar going to survive? The beak is not dented very badly. Actually a small lump has formed at the extreme end. What do I do? Please help me LA!! :( :( Desperately in need of assistance, LA 10-inch Florida gars. A: Shukriya for the kudos. Florida gar are very tough. As long as his beak is not actually broken, he should recover. He may grow a callous on the end, but that won't slow him down. He'll get hungry again soon. LA PS We still call your city Calcutta because we copy the Brits. Ritam Ganguly, Kolkata, India, September 18, 2011 Thanks a lot for responding so quickly Mr. Larry. :) Jack(The Ripper), my gar fish has had his lunch and dinner today. :) Well, he's a little bit afraid of eating out of my hand though. :( I guess he's still blaming me for his injured beak!! :( Hope he forgets and forgives me for the mishap soon. :) By the way Mr. Larry, I was thinking of buying another tank (my 4th one) pretty soon. I just wanted to discuss a few things with you. :) I am planning on buying an aquarium. Size : - Length 2.5 feet Breadth 1.5 feet Height 1 feet The fishes that I plan to keep are: - 2 baby blood parrots, 4 clown loaches, 2 severums, 4 ram cichlids and 1 baby Black Ghost Knife fish. What is your opinion? :) By the way, the fishes I currently house are : - 1st aquarium : - Osphronemus Goramy (in here we call him an albino Giant Goramy). He's currently 8 years old and above 2 feet in length 2nd aquarium: - Red tailed Osphronemus. This guy is about 1.5 yrs old and is about 10 inches in length. His tank buddy is a small 3 inch Texas and a juvenile pleco. 3rd aquarium : - Florida Gar. And after what happened yesterday, I am planning to keep him all alone. :) P.S.: - I still prefer LA over Larry Arnold. :) Sounds uber cool!! ;) Hope to hear from you soon. :) And again LA, if I by any chance go to USA in the future, I will surely visit Iowa and hang out at Aqualand for at least a week. :) A much relieved, Ritam. :) A: Glad to hear Jack's on the road to Wellsville. The selection for your new tank sounds good. Careful -- If you do come to Aqualand and hang out for a week, I'll put you to work. über cool LA Curtis Lee Reardan, WA, September 18, 2011 Would it be at all possible to condition convicts on mosquito larvae? I cannot find many conditioning foods in Spokane. Thanks, LA One-third of the horde of convicts in a 55-gallon tank. You can sex them from here. LA Pink convicts in a 10-gallon tank. A: The most developed talent of convict cichlids (besides beating up other fish) is their fecundity. You can condition them on mosquito larvae or nearly any other food with a vowel in it. The secret is to put a male and female in the same tank with any kind of cave. Condition them with three light feedings a day. You can find more info at Convicts. LA Robert Heath, September 18, 2011 I wasn't sure where to email you at so I hope you get this. I noticed that a lot of people have different feelings about the housing of bettas on your page. I actually just bought my first bettas recently. However, I am fascinated by these fish and I have been researching as much as I can in hopes of becoming a breeder soon. On the issue of housing I do have some experience. I have noticed that 2 or 3 years tends to be the max life of the bettas mentioned. When I was younger my grandfather owned a few bettas. The one I remember the most was a normal blue male which was named "Blue." My grandfather isn't very creative. Blue lived in a small bowl. My grandfather fed him once a day on betta pellets and changed his water when the bowl got too dirty to see through. Blue was around 6 years old when he died. I have also read stories about, under lab conditions, a group of bettas lived to be 9 years old. These bettas where all given 10 gallon tanks, fed twice a day and were chased around their tanks by researchers daily for exercise. In my opinion it all depends on your fish. And if 2 years is the max life span of your fish, you may be doing something wrong. I'm no expert by any means and would really appreciate any information a knowledgeable person has about taking care of my new fish. I have a black and red "firefin" crown tail and an opal dragon, which I believe to be a round tail. My dragon is in a half gallon tank until I can get a divider for my crown tail’s 10 gallon tank. If you have any information that could help me, please message me. LA Carding keeps your bettas from getting used to their neighbors. A: Exercising your bettas is always good. For additional "health tips" go to Betta Pla Kat on our website. LA Tony Ziblis, Bridgeview, IL, September 18, 2011 LA, Take a look at my jack. I have raised him since a fry. Any comments? TZ A: Good looking male. You can make his iridocytes (spangles) show up better by removing the mostly white gravel you have him over and replaceing it with a darker substrate. Then add one of those tape on backgrounds to help him stand out. LA Tony Ziblis, Bridgeview, IL, September 19, 2011 Thanks Larry! Learned a lot from you. Im setting up a 30 gallon tank in my office to play around with. I want to do my first planted aquarium and I would really like to try 2 discus in there with some neons and a few cory cats and things of the liking. Any recommendations? How far should I go on filtration? I have an aquaclear rated for up to 50 gallon. Besides that I have 2 Rena canisters on my 120gallon with my ray and aro for over a year now, and a Rena canister on the 55 housing the aforementioned Jack for over 2 years. So I am not at all opposed to buying another canister, I am worried the flow may be to much and upset the discus. Any help is greatly appreciated, I have read your discus article (and countless others). PS. are the renovations and changes complete? A: Most discus keepers don't add plants or other species. However, since you don't intend to breed them, plants and other species should work out fine. Your AquaClear should take care of your 30. And it's always good to check out other sources of info -- particularly when working with discus. LA LA South side Monday, September 19, 2011. PS It will take some time for the external renovations to wrap up. Unfortunately, they keep us from doing much on the inside. phgHunter, September 19, 2011 I bought what was supposed to be a Jack Dempsey from my local fish store. They had mixed GT and JD juveniles, very small. Here is the one I got. Is it a JD or GT? You can zoom in by clicking the picture. I thought I would ask someone who has probably bred both of them. i.imgur.com/U3uqF.jpg i.imgur.com/EKqcB.jpg Thank you very much for your time. I'm sure your busy opening the new store pH A: Green terror. LA Amber Forrest, Clive, IA, September 19, 2011 I am preschool teacher at Seeds of Faith in Clive. My class is getting ready to do a project on spiders. I was wondering if one of your employees would be willing to come to my class to talk about spiders. It would be super awesome if you could bring a couple of spiders with you. It would be two visits lasting less than 30 minutes each. One for the morning class and one for the afternoon. Thanks A: Perhaps. Call Mike at 283-0300 today. He'll be there until 9 pm. He may be able to work it into his schedule. LA Kristin Niblack, Iowa, September 20, 2011 Can I send you money through PayPal to buy a couple hairless rats at the Des Moines, Ia location? I would like to send you the funds and have the rats held at the store for me until I get off of work at 7. I don't want anyone else to buy them!! Thanks, A: Forget PayPal. I haven't used it for the last eight years. If you want us to reserve a couple rats, just call 283-0300 and tell us when you intend to pick them up. I did not look at the rats today, so I don't know if we have any hairless rats in stock or not. LA Dr. Van Wallach, Cambridge, MA, September 20, 2011 Hello, You have posted a photo of a two headed garter snake on your website. Can you provide me with some additional data on this snake? I am a researcher studying two headed snakes and would like to include your case in my database. Where was the specimen collected? What year? Was it preserved? Was it wild caught or captive bred? Who collected it (or bred it)? Do you have any other pictures of it? Thanks very much for any assistance, LA 6-inch two-headed plains garter snake. Not exactly common. A: Unfortunately, I can't help you much. It was brought in to Aqualand by one of our customers. All I can add is it was found in the Des Moines area and did not live long. It was probably fairly recently birthed and it never ate. LA Dr. Van Wallach, Cambridge, MA, September 20, 2011 Hi Larry, Thanks very much for that information. Do you remember what year that was? What happened to it? Regards, A: Usually my memoriy's pretty good. But without the aid of Mr. Peabody's Wayback Machine or hypnotic regression, I've already disclosed all I know. 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