Recent content by AMS

Thank you SH, that's one of my biggest pet peeves as well.

Are these the ones you collected yourself? Are you sure they are seastars? They could be amphipods which are notorious for living in filter media, never heard of seastars hiding in filter media though (although these are blatantly nowhere similar in appearance). Any pictures could help with an...

Your salt level is totally dependent on which species of fish you are keeping, half marine salinity may be OK for one brackish fish but it might mean death for another. Research what range of salinity your desired fish likes and keep the aquarium in that range. Yes, you really need a hydrometer...

Hexanematichthys seemanni is chiefly a brackish water fish as a juvenile but does frequent coastal marine parts as an adult. In aquaria, you can keep it in high-end brackish water (at least 1.010) with no ailments for life. As an adult you can keep it in full marine conditions but this is no...

Virtually every species of Echinoderm is marine, there are not even a handful of brackish ones. If it is a brittle star it's most likely a marine species and will eventually die.

A little note on collecting your own creatures: Unless your live in a warm climate the local stuff won't survive in a tropical tank. Since your located in England the creatures along the tidepools and such are temperate and require a chiller and a thick acrylic insulated aquarium. BUT if you...

Great points Neale. I totally agree that freshwater fish account for a huge amount of total fish sales, but I dare to say 50% of the people buying freshwater don't care for their aquariums properly, such as cycling or frequent water changes. Everyone who has been enlightened by TFF or other...

Glad you bought the swing arm hydrometer as the floating style ones (like the one in the link) only have a scale from 1.015 to 1.030, obviously too high for a low end brackish tank.

Plenty of brackish plants in the link "Planting Brackish Aquaria" but no such thing as brackish corals.

TFF is the best place for general freshwater discussion. However, it's impossible to compete with Reef Central with marine subjects. Sooner or later most (not all, but a great portion) hobbyists graduate to marine aquariums. I have no freshwater tanks anymore, just 2 brackish tanks and 2 marine...

A friend of mine tried acclimating endlers (some very beautiful ones at that) to marine. They looked fine after the 8 hour acclimation but a few days later they all started floating and died. Could be a fluke but something to consider.

I agree with dixaisy930, a 29 gallon tank is a good size for beginner 'horses and SH newbies. You really can't keep any small species without special care such as live foods only (H. zosterae) or temperate conditions with a chiller (H. capensis, H. brevieps). If your sister doesn't want...

Note that Hippocampus capensis in the above link is a temperate species and needs a chiller.

Oh I see now, I thought you meant as a staple. In that case it would be fine to use oily pink fish to tempt them to eat.

If a piranha is labeled specially as Sanchezi than it probably is a Sancezi (or a similar species) but all other piranhas labeled as "red piranha, white piranha" etc. are of the Pygocentrus genus and all grow large enough to need a much larger tank.