Guppy bullying - do I need to intervene?

Scyerline · 2012-05-21T19:21:05.209986+00:00

Yes indeed. I follow survival of the fittest and make sure to have something with predatory instincts in with my guppies, keeps the population from drastically taking off. (Although the guppies also eat their young, so that helps too)

Scyerline · 2012-05-21T18:10:34.259458+00:00

The important thing to remember with guppies is that they're pretty much dumb as rocks. Mine tend to get fixated on one thing and follow that around, be it female guppy, platy, cory, or other. They're probably just checking each other out and establishing some semblance of a dominance order between them. They will become less aggressive over time, especially if you don't add any females so other fish will not be an issue.

nonethewiser · 2012-05-21T18:07:13.561483+00:00

Your tree is likely of the scale where a professional arborist is required to apply the chemical treatment against scales (They also may have a more efficient insecticide against scales). I say arborist because if in 3 years the scales have taken over almost your entire tree, it indicates your tree is stressed and may be starting to decline in health. You can try contacting a certified arborist, or could try contacting your local extension agency to see what they would recommend. (They will likely want photos). Best of luck to you.

stalk_of_fennel · 2012-05-21T11:01:16.556812-07:00

Also add in the fact that there's a nice 15-20 year old root system already established, so the now not dormant bud can get all the nutrients it needs for quick growth.

chriscoogan · 1 day

Glad to know I'm not the only lazy fool out there that does this. :)

nonethewiser · 1 day

How large is the tree? How long have the scales been an issue?

mcphatty84 · 3 days

I find my planted tanks much easier to maintain than a non-planted. Just make sure to do it "heavily" planted (ie: more than 60% of the substrate covered by plants) and low-tech. I can easily skimp on water changes to once a month, topping off weekly and adding ferts weekly or so. The plants help greatly to keep the tank clean, and act as snacks if my larger fish (angelfish) think they are hungry.

robotsongs · 3 days

I'm just sick of the, "Help me w my planted tank" and it's in /aquariums. Not like there's a specific subreddit for that or anything..... /aquariums has it's purpose, but I feel like it would be way easier if everyone would throw all their planted questions this way instead of clogging /aquariums up.

chriscoogan · 3 days

No pills unless you can find sugar ones, even then I wouldn't want to be swallowing a pill when low. Grab a juice box and put the straw in the middle of your tongue and close your tongue to the roof of your mouth. Drink, grab some water to rinse out the mouth, good to go.

myrinca · 4 days

Dang, I was hoping for some advice! That's a plant on my wish list. If you don't get any advice here or from google, you could try a local university and look for their greenhouse manager-those guys know many random useful facts. (You can typically find them via the search feature on the university's website)

PUNKporVIDA · 4 days

On fertilizers they are listed in the order of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Potassium. (Ie: 12-12-12, 5-15-10, etc). They're typically marketed as fruiting/flowering fertilizers so just look around in your favorite fertilizer section. Look for something with nitrogen less than 10 and anything higher than 15 for the last two numbers. It should help (if it is a nutrient thing, that's all I could think of for why the plants would abort the flowers.)

NatelieOne · 4 days

50% will not be enough to move it. If you have fish taller than 2" grab a bucket, put water from your tank into the bucket and move them in. Plants and gravel are not an issue as long as you do this in one go. Empty out the tank until there's 3-4" (or less) of water in it on top of your gravel. The more water taken out, the lighter it will be. You could retain some of this water for re-filling or dump it. Have another person to help you lift it (this will be very heavy still and cannot be jarred, this will stress the seams). Put it on your table again, refill with water that has been treated with dechlorinater, and depending on fish hardiness wait for your heater to bring the water back to the same temp or you can put your fish back in. I've done this to my tank of guppies/corys/platies/1 angel (he was in a 5-gallon bucket with his long fins). You'll wanna go light on the food and not fertilize for a week or two after to allow the bacteria to build back up, preventing a complete cycle from occurring.

Edit: Did this a few months back with my 29 gallon, everything came out fine but had to finangle some of my plants back into place.

heartaquariums · 4 days

Oh nice, it looked like one of those circular flat ones from the bubble stream and I was wanting to know how well they worked. Nice tank either way.

myrinca · 4 days

Ask your friend. I put staghorns in that group of plants that the best source of info is from the person you got it from.

dCubed · 4 days

Honestly your space would be much better utilized for some other plant. An area that small is not likely to produce much, if any corn for you to actually eat. If it's just for fun, you can keep it but corn needs a lot of room as others have said.

cantaloped · 4 days

To live frugally as a young adult you have 2 options: sneakily force your friends into liking cooking/at home activities instead of clubbing or get new friends. Really that sucks but it's the easiest way to be frugal. It's easy when you're out at the bar to think, one more drink isn't bad. (When that one more drink has cost you an extra $5-10 which quickly adds up over several days out). Make a schedule with the people you usually hang out with, present it as a challenge or something where someone hosts a night of food and fun. There could be a pool of alcohol that people contribute to or pay to drink from (not making extra but just redeeming the $ to buy more alcohol). Present it so you don't have to pay, but you do have to host a meal then. (Google will provide you with numerous recipes for anything you'd like to make, simple to super complicated). You can make much better food at home than the warmed up pasta Applebee's presents to you as 'fresh'. Try to make it at a minimum you go out once and then stay in once and your expenses will drop quickly.

heartaquariums · 4 days

Everyone says Wisteria is an awesome beginner's plant but it has been shit for me. (Just personal experiences though). It hasn't grown much at all for me, and it is supporting a nice colony of hair algae in my tank now. . . My other plants are doing well (Java fern, java moss, crypts) so I'm not sure if I just got some weak stock or what.

heartaquariums · 4 days

What type of bubbler is that? Lovely tank also. Very pleasing to the eye (and fishies I'm sure)

rougetoxicity · 4 days

Kudos for bringing up Borlaug. He was a brilliant mind with some great ideas. I also like your "Age of the Patent Wars". Definitely a huge issue.

rougetoxicity · 4 days

You raised a great point about GMO and organic. I find it ironic that the organic field could utilize genetic engineering to eliminate most disease and pest problems, making it much easier to grow organically, but don't. (Speaking for the major production areas, not small backyard gardeners)

I_hate_fountainhead · 4 days

You can plant it, but unless you can induce a cold period it won't produce flowers. It would likely be constantly covered with powdery mildew as well since the humidity is so high.

phaqueue · 4 days

Well what do you like? Do you like hostas and daffodils? If so, you could wait until the daffodils have died back, dig out the hostas, and spray the area with a broad-spectrum weed killer or solarize the ground (depending on if there are trees or not). Wait a week or two for the weed-killer (solarizing takes longer if I remember correctly) and then replant the hostas and whatever else you'd like. A thick mulch will prevent some weeds from coming back but unless the area is solarized weeds will continue coming up from the area.

You could always hire a neighbor kid to come weed it, just make sure to tell them what you want left!

PUNKporVIDA · 4 days

What's your fertilization schedule like? If you are using a high nitrogen fertilizer it may have skewed the plant into producing only leaves and no flowers. Higher levels of phosphorus and potassium help flowering and fruiting along.

DutchMeNow · 4 days

You need to contact your local extension office. They can verify that it is rust stem canker via photo or seeing the fruit (NEVER transport suspected diseased tissue in less than a sealed zip-lock bag).

Once they have seconded the internet's opinion on it they can advice on fungicides. Fungicides require very specific timing related to when they are applied in the growing season, so please do not go out and spray everything immediately-it may be much too late to do any good. Copper based fungicides are also toxic to humans so do not treat them lightly.

OutaTowner · 6 days

I was going for beef with that. If anything grows bigger/faster nowadays it's always assumed genetic engineering. Someday, but right now there's just some interesting selective breeding results.

nerdyrose

TROPHY CASE

nerdyrose

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