Recent content by Donya

A long, long time ago I had an aquarium room. It wasn't a very big room but had tanks in a full U-shape going around all the walls. The only heating my place had was those little thru-wall units like cheap hotels have and they were very underpowered for the rooms they were in, which was kind of...

The Snail Bowl 2ish gallons glass bowl with a 3D printed lid, a piece of driftwood, java moss, duckweed, some Neocardinia, and some Planorbella. It has an airline in and a tiny heater. The light is mainly for aesthetic purposes; the plant growth is mostly powered by a bit of sun it gets each...

A looong time ago I did this with saltwater mussels. It was an accident - I thought I was getting already dead ones with the intent to pop them in the freezer at home and feed them over time to a big crab. Well, like you said, they were not all dead! I first put them in a bucket with a strong...

Did one 2 days prior to receiving the fish and didn't anything else until after losing the royal gramma. I did a very smal WC after that since I kind of stirred some stuff up removing him. Very tiny change though; akin to what I'd re-add after doign acclimation from a new bag of critters. Don't...

This is Miss Eyebrows. She is a plucky, but very friendly 4-month-old Ameraucana chicken who loves snuggles and jumping on my head when I'm least expecting it. She has extra fluffy feathers around her chin and ears (traits called a beard and muffs).

Nutrients are always really low since I have abundant macro acting as an export for that tank. Ammonia & nitrite 0 at the time and still are 0 today Nitrate was a tiny trace, which is normal; I have to do the low range method with the salifert kit to even see any color and always get readings...

It's that absurdly tiny white one holding the worm. The worm weighs quite a lot more than that little urchin does! Strong little guy to drag it up the glass like that. My reddish brown pencil urchins are model citizens by comparison and leave their tankmates in peace lol. A daily bit of polyp...

...is that sometimes they don't just need a hat, they need the absolute fanciest of hats. Behold, a tiny Lytechinus variegatus and its most impressive feather duster worm hat. Don't worry, after multiple iterations of fashion correction/relocation only to have the dingy little urchin zoom...

Saltwater systems may seem alien to you...but that's how I view planted tanks with all the CO2 and soil stuff lol. I think modern entry-level saltwater (which is fish with rocks and easy inverts) has really become a lot more like the fw side of the hobby over time. It's certainly the case that...

Almost sad to say there's no chance of any interesting hitchhikers. Back in my younger years I did sometimes turn up cool, even if nasty stuff like that: two little smasher mantis that I kept as pets elsewhere, oenone worms, one of those humongous striped flatworms, etc. Even had a mini pistol...