Aqualand Q&As December 1-10, 2011
We don't ship critters or live fish.
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LA_Aqualand@msn.com
Larry, Is there anything I can do to control my guppies from over breeding? Is there any species of fish I could use for "birth control"? It's only a 10 gallon tank and I don't have room for another tank or anymore guppy babies. Thanks!
A: An angelfish with the body size of a quarter should effectively eliminate all your baby guppies. LA
Okay thanks for the response! And an angelfish would be okay in the 10g? I could eventually move him into my 29g with my goldfish if needed.
A: Your angel will be fine in a 10 for at least
half a year. Moving him to your 29 when he gets bigger
should work out fine. LA
Hi, I am a huge fan of your site, the amount of work you put into it clearly shows and you should be proud of it!
I was just wondering about your opinion on which fish to get. I have been keeping fish for many, many years and was just wondering which species would you recommend for a fish with great personality, by great i mean intelligent, interesting, playful.. Etc. I have been leaning toward an oscar but I also like jack dempseys and other large cichlids as I find color wise they look nicer. Then there are puffers which i always loved to keep. I have a 75 gallon tank that is just waiting to have a new tennant. Thank you!
LA
A pod of Iowa-born oscars following the food bucket.
A: Oscars score very high on the personality meter. Two score twice as high as one. You have the room to start with six youngsters and enjoy rearing them up to breeding size. Out of six your chances of scoring a compatible breeding pair are excellent, eh? LA
Hi, I am Barbara from The Netherlands and happened to read your caresheet about cornsnakes on the Aqualand website. Great you took the time to compose one, but even when looking at the comments made already, there is still some stuff on it that is not correct or even possibly harmful to a cornsnake.
See this piece of text;
"Since corn snakes feed in the evenings and at night, be extra cautious when handling them at these times. If in doubt, place your hand over its head. Support your snake carefully. They will use their teeth to keep from falling. If you are bitten, strive not to jerk back. You can easily break off their teeth. Corn snakes are no threat as biters -- maybe a little threat when shedding. They can’t see when their eyes cloud over. Just be careful you don’t break their tiny teeth off. "
I have not ever heared about or experienced a corn using its teeth to hold on to something to prevent falling. I have 45 corns myself at the moment and have been chatting online with many cornsnake keepers for the last 6 years so I'm pretty sure it just does not happen if they have never mentioned it. And we do all mention many things about our beloved critters, since we all keep on learning about them. No idea where you got the information, but they only use their teeth to eat and to bite in defense in rare cases. The rest of the text is fine though.
About the hides issue; the breeders/keepers that don't use hides, most probably use racks with tub drawers as housing. Those are very low so it is considered one big hide with diffferent temperature zones. They feel secure in it. If you want a cornsnake to feel secure in a regular, higher vivarium, you'd better give him a hide, and even better two hides, one at the coolest side and another on the warmest side so the snake does not have to choose between desired temperature or the need to stay hidden. I guess that must make sense? I'm 100% sure no serious breeder/keeper will deny that.
Further, cornsnakes do well with a level of humidity in between 40 - 60%, so you don't need to keep them humid, it can even cause scale rot on their bellies, which is not a good thing. A little misting now and than when the level is on the lower side, is ok though. When they are going to shed it's a good idea to mist to keep the humidity level above 40% if necessary. Babies don't need a higher humidity and do drink from and bathe in their water bowl like adults do. I have never heard of babies drying out without misting nor did I ever mist them myself. These tiny cups are more humid than a viv to start with. I have hatched, and succesfully brought up to being a stable eater and grower, about 300 of them myself I think by now, but I have also been able to see and hear about the bringing up of thousands, if not tens of thousands of them on a forum, owned by the largest (now retired) cornsnake breeder ever and visited by many other iconic ones (as well as hobbyist breeders like myself). Misting the ones in tiny cups is only useful when they are in a very low humidity area. Even than a tiny moist hide is way better since that would dry out less quickly and prevent the whole cup from getting wet. All cornsnakes need a dry spot available at all times, both with a cooler and a warmer temperature. Keeping them in anything with a wet 'floor' is surely gonna get a cornsnake in trouble!
About the temperature needs; cornsnakes won't get ill from being kept a bit too cold for a while or maybe even longer but they will grow slower and might lose appetite, and they are more prone to airway infections. If too low or too long, their digestion gets messed up which can lead to mortal problems in the end.
Why would you not educate what the ideal temps are to start with? If people are not strict with them, at least their temps come close. If the advice is not accurate to begin with, any deviation from it might turn into quite a difference from what is ideal, hence cause problems.
Lastly, younger corns are wrigglier than adults ones, most adults are not wiggly at all. Only quite young hatchlings are really wriggly. When held often the majority of them get calmer very soon.
I hope you are willing to believe me or at least to see if you can find confirmation of what I am saying, for example at www.cornsnakes.com . A few hours reading the sticky threads in the starters forum and you're done, I promise! Kind regards,
Barbara
snakearound.com
A: Good letter. Very informative. I'm adding your info to my cornsnake page. Thanks. LA
How many tanks do you have in your house??? i have around eleven (give or take one). What fish could I keep in a one gallon w/ an under the gravel filter??? (other than white clouds, zebra danios, guppies, bettas, or tetras!).
LA
Sparkling or pygmy gouramis at one inch.
A: Oddly enough, I have zero tanks at home. Before I started Aqualand, I had 120. You can find a write up on the smaller fishes at Misc Mini-Fish. You'll find it under the minnows heading. According to Chuck Bremer who recently returned from Europe, nano tanks are in surging popularity in Europe. Don't forget the shrimps. LA
Well, I finally got the notification that I was definitely a winner in the Omega One Photo Contest!!!!! That means $250 of their food. I am tickled to death!!!!!!!!
KP
A: Congratulations. I posted one of your pics to help spread the word. LA
Hi Larry, I grew up with a Russian Tortoise that was my mother's before she was married. She kept it for about 65 years but it recently passed away. I always enjoyed taking care of it when I was younger and recently thought about getting one for myself.
The site I shop at has several species of tortoises for sale and I am interested in buying a Pancake Tortoise as it is colorful and, according to Wikipedia, seems to stay small-- about 7 inches. But I cannot find much information on it's care. Does it have the same requirements as the Russian Tortoise? Is there anything I should be aware of like temperature requirements, substrate or food? I plan to make the purchase after the holidays to give myself time to prepare a setup for it.
The attached picture of the Pancake Tortoise is from the website I shop at for my aquariums-- Greenfish (www.greenfish.co.kr) - a great site, but they have no info on care.
A: I've never kept or seen one myself, so I know absolutely zilch about them. The Wikipedia article you mentioned gives the basics on where they come from and what they eat. LA
Hello Mr. LA., I am facing a grave problem. Please assist me here. :(
2 days back, I saw that my 2 Oscars (about 5 inches) that have been with me for about 2 and half months now a bit moody about eating. They were eating, but not as voraciously as I had known them to.
After taking a closer look, i saw that their aquarium was infested with small critters. I changed everything immediately. Later on, I learned that they were something called copepods.
I changed my tank to bare bottom.
But yesterday, I just noticed something with my Oscars.
10 mins after eating their pellet food, my Oscars pooed.
The poo looked like the Oscar just gave out the food without digesting them!! :O
It consisted of the pellets sticking together - a little bit white.
It looked as if they were egesting the pellets, all sticking together.
What is it? :(
As a result, I fed them on deshelled boiled peas today.
Just now I checked the aquarium again and I found 2 green round like casing membranes of pea.
The fish must have egested them.
But why aren't they digesting it in full? :(
What is the problem? :(
The aquarium floor has a lot of pellet poos in there!! The fish are eating. Although not as voraciously, but they are eating quite eagerly.
Is it really serious?
A: First, copepods are mostly harmless. They
eat the bacteria that eat the extra food your oscars don't eat.
They're helpful little scavengers. They help you keep your
oscar tank clean.
I'm not sure what type of pellets you feed, but maybe it's time to
change their diet. I've never had much luck getting my oscars
to eat vegetables. Mine have no hesitation when it comes to
eating small fish, crayfish, worms, snails and various pelleted
foods from a variety of manufacturers.
So, second, I'd give your oscars some feeder fish and expect them to
snap out of their loss of appetite very quickly. LA
i will like you to read this please. I wonder if water lettuce is suitable for my 5' by 7 ' pond and 4' deep... i bought 2 water lettuce today and i also have approx.50 leaves of duck weeds, have half of my pond full of horn wart and in s separate barrel i have the small floating lilies....and also i would like 2 find out how many Koi can i fit in the pond without a pump/ with a pump ......i will like you for taking time to read this email thanks alot
oh
by the way i am 15 and really love fish esp.Koi's
LA
A: According to my pocket calculator, you have
1,050 gallons. Most rule of thumb users say you need 50 to
100 gallons per koi. That's about 20 adults. The sad
part is they will eat all the plants you listed. They eat
nearly anything green. Most ponders build special "cages"
to protect their waterlilies. LA
I just moved to Des Moines from AZ and was curious if you had any
recommendations as to where one could obtain frozen rats for feeding a
snake. Thanks
A: Put Aqualand Pets plus on your speed dial: 283-0300. LA
Help! I am trying to buy fontinalis for my frog tank - and I cannot find it anywhere. Would you be able to get it for me? I have just a few fronds left in my tank, and my frog has been eating it. Unfortunately when I cleaned my tank a few months ago, I had so much I threw a bunch out, and then the rest was eaten, and now I have next to none. OUr local pet shop that sold it to me does not carry it anymore. Any suggestions??? thanks so much!
A: I'm surprised that your frog eats plants. Anyway, we don't stumble across willow moss very often. We see Java moss more often. I have a little bit of Java moss. But like you, I cleaned a lot out of my tanks and now it's almost scarce. LA
Hello, I have been looking on here trying to find out what I can do. I have some goldfish that are "floaters". Two are belly up most of the time and one is at the bottom in it's head upside down when it sleeps. I have tried to use duck weed to correct their balance but they don't seem interested in it. They love peas and I do feed them those a few times a week thinking natural foods would be better then flakes all the time would be good for them. Is there anything you can tell me that I can feed my goldfish that can help their health??
LA
These two types of duckweed seem the most palatable.
A: Fancier goldfish often suffer from the upsidedown syndrome. I've never seen it in comets or shubunkins. The weirder body shapes evidently squoosh their internal organs around. Duckweed corrects the problem but only if they eat it. Stop feeding flakes, pellets, and peas. Hungry goldfish will eat duckweed IF you give them the right species. LA
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Not only can I get you ranked for the keyword picture of bugs but I am talking about all of your keywords on top of Google. Adding new high quality PR anchor-text links from the highest quality websites will produce the results and business you want for aqualandpetsplus.com.
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My partners and I own 1000's of websites and offer private linking to hundreds of website owners just like yourself.
I didn't send this email out to very many people but I do favor your website because I can see your website monetizing the targeted website traffic for the keyword picture of bugs can deliver.
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Sincerely,
A: Since I'm not selling anything with my website, my rankings in Google searches macht nichts. LA
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A: I'll pass. LA
Im looking into getting a parrotlet and i need a good care sheet, I've looked around but I don't trust some of the things they have. could you suggest one? I've been looking at your website and couldn't find one on there; you guys seem to know what your talking about.
LA
Pacific blue parrotlet
A: I appreciate your vote of confidence, but I have never kept one of the little rascals personally. If I were you, I'd scope out several web pages and even check out your local bird club. If you can hook up with a local breeder, they can probably help you. And, they still print books (if your local pet store still carries them.) If not, Amazon.com offers some. I'd prefer the one by Matt Vriends. I've talked to him myself. He also knows what he's talking about. LA
Hi, I have a south american leaf fish and it itself is doing fine but the feeders i get seem to be dying as of late. I bought some feeders from petco and they had ich apparently... So i got medicine and began to medicate and then all the feeders died. The leaf fish is fine and my green terror i also got from petco now has ich. So today i went out and got some feeders at my LFS and put them in and the leaf ate about 3 and got full then i left for about 2 hours came back and saw all the feeders had died so i tested the water and the nitrates and nitrites are 0 and same with the ammonia. I am thinking it has something to do with the pH because i keep mine about 5.5 6.0 to keep my south American fish happy. I just wanted to get your opinion on the matter because you seem to be a very intelligent person. Thanks and if you have no idea thanks for trying. Sincerely,
LA
A:
Good question because it helps me launch on to one of my
favorite sermons -- Don't put all your feeder fish (whether
they came from Petco or wherever) in with your specimen fish
at once.
1. We get 1,000 feeders a week (or more) which
means we cannot possibly carefully inspect each one we sell
-- especially if you buy 50 or 100 at a time. Your
chances of a pathogenic hitchhiker go up if you give your
fish more feeders than he can eat.
2. More to the point for you. You keep your
specimen's pH low. Your feeders are likely coming from
a different pH. You already put your finger on it.
Keep your feeders in a quarantine tank and feed them out on
a daily basis. As Smokey Bear says, "Only you can
prevent dead floaters." LA
I was searching online for different live insects for sale to add to my budding collection, and your care sheets came up. What do you currently have as far as insects (not crabs, crayfish, etc., but just actual insects)? I am an entomology student at the University of Illinois, and I have been trying to put together a decent live insect collection for members of our department to show off at community outreach events. I am in Urbana, Illinois, but Des Moines really isn't very far at all compared to some of the other breeders I've been working with (Taiwan and Australia in particular). If you have a few insect species that I still don't have, I would love to make a trip out that way in the next few weeks (maybe after Christmas). Also, depending on the specimen and the price, I may be interested in millipedes, centipedes, spiders, scorpions, or whip scorpions that you may have. Please let me know either way! Thank you!
LA
A: Ahem, none of the specimens you
mentioned are insects. However, we do have red millipedes and several
species of tarantulas. Actual insects we have in stock are walking
sticks (the big ones from Madagascar), Dubia roaches, a couple species of
nealworms, waxworms, crickets, and fruit flies (when I leave my microworms
uncovered too long). LA
I'm sorry, I meant all those specimens in addition to insects. This collection is supposed to be about insects, but sometimes a few non-insect arthropods really get people interested, so I add a few arachnids and/or myriapods here and there. Do you ship the walking stick eggs (oothecae)?Thank you again!
A: I know you knew all that. I just couldn't resist the temptation to pull your leg. We rarely ship anything, but I'm willing to send you the eggs FREE because you're a fellow insectophile. However, I have no idea whether the eggs would survive our less than tropical temps lately. LA
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