Hello guest! Are you an Apistogramma enthusiast? If so we invite you to join our community and see what it has to offer. Our site is specifically designed for you and it's a great place for Apisto enthusiasts to meet online. Once you join you'll be able to post messages, upload pictures of your fish and tanks and have a great time with other Apisto enthusiasts. Sign up today!
Probably any vegetables you have on the table for dinner will work, just use the leftovers, some vegetables may have to be weighted down.
You can always use a glass if your bowls are too big.
My loaches (burma border I think) can't phase the MTS's, I put a bowl in the tank baited with cooked broccoli, and lift it out in the morning before light. You can get a lot of them in a few days.
All loaches will be tremendous egg eaters
Use the brine shrimp net, you will lose some, but with a good hatch you should have lots left. I just pass them under the tap quickly, maybe for only a second with the faucet on spray. What I don't use goes into a shallow tupperware and into the fridge, I add a teaspoon of rock salt and they...
You didn't say what you had for light, that would help in suggesting plants for your tank. Nothing will do much in a week, you have to have give it time.
Java moss will cover the tank floor, but will take a lot of time. Dwarf sagitaria will spread like wild fire but may be a bit tall for...
How long have the plants been in the tank? How long has the tank beem setup? All plants may need some acclimation time, if just added to the tank.
Crypts are slow growers no matter what you do, so just sit back and wait they will grow.
The LCD stick on type are the most inaccurate in my opinion, I use an infrared temp sensor to check my tanks, and the ones with the LCD stick on types can be up to 8 degrees off.
I agree the heater is the most important.
The Live foods mailing list has lots of information on many different live foods, check them out and get on the list. It has been extremely slow the last couple years, but it still exists, and the archives are available to read through.
It is feast for my fish in the late fall, winter, and early spring, I have lots of time for live foods. They get lots of blackworms, daphnia, bbs, earthworms and frozen foods too. In the summer when I am busy it is famine, with only flake, and the ocassional frozen food.
I think the cause of most Ph crashes is too few water changes, whether it be peat adding acid or co2 adding the acid. I have always changed my water 50% once a week in the planted tanks(co2 injected) and 2-3 times in the breeders, of which some are peat softened.
I just checked the EC and...
I'll second Ted's suggestion, good equipment at Spectrapure. I bought one of their filters from Ted a few years ago. It is still making clean and pure water without any problems, and still on the filters and membrane it came with.