Drake

Whenever I have heard of using the Yarrow herb for medical purposes, it has usually been for the common yarrow, A. millefolium. I have been looking for yarrow for my garden and this year I found some and bought it, despite seeing it was not the white flowered yarrow I was expecting, but I have seen nothing else and most folks have no idea what I'm wanting when I ask.

I have ended up with Achillea "Moonshine", which after some research is apparently a hybrid of the familiar A. millefolium and an unknown A. taygetea (apparently a smaller yarrow variety from Greece). A. taygetea seems to be a popular one to hybrid with other types of yarrow for the flower color and overall plant size, but I can't find anything on it beyond it's value for beds and borders.

http://www.monrovia.com/plant-catalog/plants/45/mo...

Is A. taygetea a medical yarrow? I'd like to use my Moonshine plant for a general wound and bug-bite ointment in conjunction with other herbs, but if it's not going to have the strength and value of common yarrow because of it's hybridization with A. taygetea then I'd like to know so I can continue looking for the real deal.

Thank you ~

I am comparing rice pudding recipes looking for one I want to try, and noticed that some call for an egg and others do not. What does the egg do for the recipe?

Thank you.

My LFS has recently gotten in something I have never seen before in the store. They have some sparkling gouramis. I am debating whether or not to rush in and purchase every last one of them. (every last one being two when I was in today).

My tank is a 10 gallon, currently stocked with a few platies (2 painted and 1 high fin), a pair of kuhlis and an algae eating shrimp. I hope to be able to get into my 20 gal. this summer. It's sitting on the porch waiting for a few accessories.

The platies do not seem aggressive so I am not too worried in that respect. Just thought to get a second opinion on whether the gouramis would do okay with the platies.

If i did decide to get them, should I get both? Or just one?

And how noisy are these guys? I know they click/croak depending on how you like to describe the noise, are they constantly making noise, or just sometimes? My room is fairly quiet and if they are nocturnal singers then we could not get along. ^_^ The splashing of the filter is enough to drive me batty when I try to sleep.

Any input would be much appreciated on the matter. Thank you.

10 gal freshwater tank

2 kuhli loaches

1 algae eating shrimp (India White stripe? looks similiar to http://kep.ivpicture.hu/116665.jpg except mine is a beautiful dark brown with more of a pink-tone stripe)

4 adult platies + some small fry (3 painted swordtails, 1 high-fin)

About two weeks ago I purchased a high-fin platy from the store. The batch of fish was new and somehow despite careful observation I somehow missed that the fish the guy scooped me had fin rot. She's getting over the rot just fin, but within the last few days I noticed my fish flashing. Looking closer I saw they had ich. (boo!) My tank has been set up for a few years now, but I've never had ich before and have come seeking advice.

Since I have such an oddball assortment of fish I have to maintain a careful balance between them. The shrimp automatically rules out any treatments which contain copper. I also have to beware of some medications themselves because my loaches are scaleless. I have read that higher tank temperatures and salt will work on the ich, but I'm worried if I go too warm my shrimp will not be able to survive (despite being a tropical critter, shrimp don't seem to like it too hot). Both the loaches and the shrimp cannot be replaced, my LFS where I bought them haven't had more in in a loooong time. The platies are the most hardy and I know can take some abuse, but I'd refer not to lose my swordtail strain. It's taken a lot of breeding to get them to this point, the colors are just perfect.

Tank is currently at 82*F and I have added salt. Do I up it another two degrees, or hold steady? Input would be much appriciated.

I am babysitting a pair of red ear sliders for the summer. They are class room pets at the local grade school. Both are at the 5 inch mark and live in the same tank. They are male and female. I do not know how old they are, but they have been living together for several years.

Yesterday I saw the male turtle exposing himself in the tank. It was the first time I have ever seen a display of this kind and it rather startled me. Guess male turtles are prone to showing their intimate bits off from time to time?

After doing a scrubbing of their tank today and refilling it with fresh water, the male has taken to displaying what I believe is mating behavior to the female. He circles her and gets in her face. He then extends his front limbs and his front legs tremble. My family and myself have not observed this before in the pair. She doesn't seem interested. I'm wondering if the water change didn't spark some kind cue to him that got him interested.

Will he calm and and leave her alone or do they need to be separated?

Maybe temporary separation so he calms down and stops harassing her? (out of sight out of mind . . .)

Can a male and a female be housed together after the age of maturity, or just one gender together?

Any information is good. If you have links that would also be awesome. :)

I recently purchased a betta from the store, but noticed he was rough handled in shipping and has a bent gill cover. On one side of his head he looks like he's constantly flaring. Poor guy, despite his beautiful white color, was shuffled to the back the the shelf as "defective" because of this.

Will that ever lay down with time, or will he always look like he's half on the attack?

I happened upon something exciting the other evening and wanted to try my hand at ghost shrimp females carrying eggs. For a total of fifty-six cents I've got two berried females now in a small isolated tank where they're happily munching on fish food instead of their own dead (the tank they were pulled from was disgusting).

How do I ensure that I get little shrimplets?

Guesstimate on egg hatching time?

How to care for little shrimp?

How big do they need to be before putting them in with fully grown ghosts?

I figure I'll probably have to pull the females out of the tank if hatching is successful, since ghosts are cannibals, and there is a tank they can go into with a thriving ghost population.

And advice or links would be handy! Thanks.

Found a little sparrow today and have taken it into my home. There was no obvious nest to be found to stick it back into, and leaving it alone to fend for itself was not an option (school yard, some kid was going to step on it, another was trying to catch it, others were just screaming at it, a teacher was yelling for kids to leave it alone because mom would reject it yadayada chaos! Yikes. So I reached down and grabbed the little 'un and took it home). It now resides in a birdcage and is chirping at me.

The bird has in most/all the adult flight feathers and will only be sticking with me till it gets a little bigger and more adapt with its wings. There are no local bird rehab centers and it is after hours for most places anyway.

At this time the pet store is out of baby bird formula, so I'm looking for plan B foods. Recommendations are welcome, I don't have access to worms or meal worms and the thought of smashing crickets sickens me, but I could manage that. They'd be the white kind that are soft shelled. I've read soaking cat food and feeding young birds that is acceptable, is it okay?

Also, what should a feeding schedule look like? Every hour? Every two hours?

Thanks in advanced.

The basics:

10 gallon tank with natural gravel, guppies, platies, kuhli loaches, an otocinclus, algae eating shrimp.

pH hangs out around 8.5ish

temp: 78*F

Fluorescent lighting

yes I use freshwater aquarium salt.

I am having the worst luck ever with aquarium plants. Lately I have just been buying bunch plants because they're cheap, look nice, and when they die I won't be out a ton. Because my plants keep dying! Is there some kind of plant that is like super hardy, and recommended for brown thumb aquarium keepers? I would prefer not to have to swap over to silk plants. I love the look of live.

What I've killed:

Bunched - Anacharis a.k.a. Elodea: http://www.azgardens.com/images/Product/large/51.j... This stuff gets soft in the stem and breaks into 4 inch long chunks. I regroup it into a bunch and the little pieces die off but one goes crazy and grows super long. Then it breaks into chunks again. Regroup, begin again. It finally stopped and broken into smaller and smaller chunks before I could no longer bunch it. I don't want it again.

Bunched - Cabomba http://www.freshwateraquariumplants.com/Merchant2/... This has also gone soft in the stem and broken into irregular length pieces. But before it had its break down the "leaves" were coming apart and clogging up my filter intake. I don't mind the looks of it, but why did it come apart?

What has lived:

Bunched - something that looks similiar to the cambodia: this other stuff which I cannot find a name for has a thinner stem and the "leaves" are different, the over all effect is more fluffy and less artifical-christmas-tree. Due to a problem in my tank a while back it had to be uprooted from the gravel and all the leaves fell off, but once again rooted it is slowly making a come back. Very hardy plant and looks nice (usually) too.

Java moss: in the form of a floating moss ball. I also bought some loose java moss today to just fill up all the empty space. The green looks nice.

I'm also thinking of redoing my 10 gallon because it is rather bla. So if you have any favorite companies that you buy decorations from, or see a nice picture of a tank (or have a nice tank yourself), show it off because I'm looking for ideas. :)

I saw a cichlid tank the other day I liked with stones stacked rather like this one: http://www.kingdave.net/images/cichlid/cichlid_tan... and it was a nice looking tank. Think guppies would like that?

I'm also thinking of swapping over from gravel to very coarse sand. Thoughts?

Thank you.

I love their catagory suggestions. Food & Drink > Cooking & Recipes. Not quite. XD

The basics: 10 gallon fresh water tank.

Stock: breeding trio of guppies, a few guppy fry (5-6 less than a week old), young platies (6, half grown), algae eating shrimp (1.5 inch long), pair of kuhli loaches, otocinclus, assorted live plants

and if you don't know what they look like, here is a pair of breeding scuds: http://www.flyfishersrepublic.com/entomology/crust... they're 1/4-1/2 inch long when fully grown, semi-transparent, have hard shells. Very crunchy if you squish them.

So a few months back I was dealing with freshwater scuds in my fish tank and thought I had them gone. I removed all the gravel from my tank to eliminate their primary hiding place, cleaned my filter, and didn't see a single one for 2 weeks. So I put my gravel back. Boiled the gravel for a good long time to cook any possible eggs or adults that might have still been alive, then restored it to the tank. Good to go!

I don't know where they hid for 2 weeks, but I'm infested with scuds again. I want these guys gone, but since I've got a shrimp, I'd like to try and get rid of them as naturally as possible. I can move my shrimp to a quarentine tank if I must. The betta will just have a roommate for a while whether she likes it or not.

And I would rather not hear "they're harmless, they won't hurt your fish, just leave them." because I've head that. Yes, I know they're harmless, but as I commonly take my guppy fry to the pet store, I'd rather not have my tank be the source of an infection that spreads across all the pet stores and home tanks in my area. Once these things get in, they don't like to leave. Uninvited house guests are frowned upon. I would prefer not to have them. I did not welcome them to my tank with open arms.

I was entertaining the notion of getting a clown loach and have it root the scuds out of my gravel. The kuhli loaches do not seem to be eating the scuds (come to find out its the fish bodies loaches that munch on snails, not the eel ones). I know the clowns get big and a 10 gallon is not ideal for any long span of time, but how long would it tank a single clown to eat them all? Would one clown be happy long enough to do the job and then I can take it back to the store (they're pretty cool with that in this area. I've seen them take in all sorts of oddball fish)? I can't really do 2 clowns unless I bump up water changes, as my tank is already well stocked, and with breeding guppies it can only get more stocked. Would clowns hurt any of my existing fish/shrimp?

Alternatively, would any (preferably small) species of cory cat eat the scuds? It seems they are also bottom feeders, but I do not know of they have the same snail eating reputation that loaches do.

My only other choice if neither of these work would be to either 1) dose the tank with something like had-a-snail and hope the scuds have no immunity to it and wait a few weeks for any eggs to hatch and dose the water again. 2) completely 100% tank down the tank, scrub everything, boil everything, throw out my live plants/dip the plants in something and quarentine them to make sure the dip worked, then rebuild from square 1.

halp mi . . . x___X

questions, comments, flames.

Thanks in advance.

And now that I have your attention----

I am wondering about the properties of rattle snake anti-venom. I am writing a story and am wondering if a few scenes would be possible, but to know that I need to know more about the stuff itself.

Does anti-venom require refrigeration?

Does it eventually expire?

Does the anti-venom itself act like a poison if taken and there is no rattle snake venom in your blood?

• Slightly pending on the above, If given the anti-venom, does it still work if you are bitten (an hour or two?) after being dosed?

How is it administered (orally, into the blood stream, injected into the flesh no special location)?

• Pending above, what happens if you take it via a different method that perscribed (Like say, mixed into cupcake icing) ?

If the is anti-venom taken in small doses, can a person build an immunity to rattle snake venom?

• Pending the answer above, can it be mixed with tattoo ink and the body allowed to absorb it via your skin?

And lastly, what are the symptoms of a rattle snake bite?

Any and all links pertaining to the subject are helpful! Best answer to whoever can provide the most informative and/or link heavy answer to help me out.

I have a 10 gallon freshwater tank I'm looking to re-substrate. I have small gravel and I have a gravel vac which I use regularly. I was wondering how easy is sand to keep clean?

That is the main question. Why I'm wondering is I have kuhli loaches and think they would like the sand better than the gravel. I'm toying with the idea of giving them a "sand box" area so they can burrow to their hearts' content, but it will be held in something so I can vacuum around it and not have to worry about sucking up the sand.

Recommendations?

I have a 10 gallon freshwater tank stocked with guppies and an Oto. It is a planted tank, and I've discovered an uninvited guest hanging out in my gravel. I think it hitched a ride in on one of the plants and that's how it came to be in my tank. No one around here knows what it is, so I'm putting it to you guys.

This creatures is 1/4 of an inch max size. It is a crustacean, translucent, and greenish in color. Its face reminds me of a shrimp with all its little feelers, but its body is half moon shaped, and instead of little feathery legs like a shrimp, it has transparent thin legs. It is a bottom dweller, and likes to hid in the gravel where it can avoid being seen. I don't know how long they have been in my tank, but I discovered them when I sucked one up with the gravel vac and took a closer look. They don't seem to be hurting the fish, most likely they're just scavenging off the bottom and reproducing.

Regardless, I want them gone.

Today I began removing the gravel they're hiding in. All large tank ornaments are already gone and its looking a little bare. I plan on removing all the gravel, putting it outside where it can freeze for a nice long time, then boiling it, just to be sure. This will remove their primary hiding place and hopefully cut back on their numbers. The plants probably won't like it though. :)

I'd been told to bump the heat up in my tank. It now is around 80F, but doesn't seem to be having an effect on the little critters. How high can I go with the temp before it hurts my fish? Will this be effective? How long will this treatment possibly take?

What else can I do to get these buggers out? I've been looking online and can't find anything like this. My tank is a bafflement to the local pet stores who all have no idea what's going on. They've never heard of such a thing. I'm a novice myself so I have no clue. All my fish are in good health and my water conditions are fine. The ammonia runs a little high because of all the guppies (over 30? I lost count several litters ago. Only 4 mature adults though, the rest are babies), but I do regular water changes and keep the filter clean.

In a small hospital tank I've got my algae eating shrimp (introduced after the critter problem was discovered). I'd like to get the main ank back to normal and balanced again before I put it back where it belongs. I've got it separated since any treatment to kill the things in the gravel would obviously kill it too. And I rather like my shrimp.

On a side note Yahoo's primary suggestion put this question in Health > Diseases & Conditions > STDs. I think not XD

I have been looking around but cannot find an answer to this one. Maybe you can help.

I have a tank of feeder guppies and one of my females is displaying unusual coloration and behavior.

Her color over the last 24 hours has darkened to a dark bronze color while the other fish remain silvery.

Her gills are flared wide and are bright red in color.

She jerks to the left at 3-4 second intervals and is swimming in circles as a result. She is also bumping into things when she jerks.

I have added freshwater salt to the water to try and soothe her That was 12 hours ago and it doesn't seem to have helped. The day before this behavior began the tank got its regular water change. Ammonia and all other tests check out okay so nothing in the water quality has changed. None of the other guppies exhibit this behavior, only her. I see nothing clinging to or growing on her body. She hs no problems with motion and is all over the tank, but remaining out of the strong current.

She picked at the food last feeding and didn't seem to have much of an appetite. The only thing new to the aquarium recently was a piece of cucumber which all the fish chewed on. I do not recall if the jerking started before or after I added the cucumber. The timing was close. Over the last 24 hours she has only gotten worse. The cucumber has not been in the tank for the last 6 hours.

Links, advice, recommendations welcome.

Thank you in advance.

Currently I have a 10 gallon planted aquarium with a Whisper filter. My original intent was to get Mollies, but after dealing with guppies, I'm not sure I can handle so many fish all the time.

I'm not interested in tetras, danios, or barbs as a replacement for the guppies. I also do not like snails. Crabs scare me. I will probably also not do bettas as I've had difficulty keeping them in the past and it breaks my heart when they pass on.

I was entertaining the idea of kuhli loachs, but am not firm on the idea.

Two creatures in my tank I will not give up are my Otocinclus and my algae eating shrimp (it is not a ghost shrimp, but is about that same size). I'm fond of both so whatever is suggested should be compatible with both if possible.

Even if it is on my "no" list, if you make a good arguement for it, I will consider it.

Thanks much. :)

So I've had my glass 10 gallon aquarium set up for a while now with a Whisper filter (5-15), gravel (washed well), some rocks, a silk plant and two live plants. The tank itself was purchased second hand so I don't know how it was stored, if extreme temperature changes play a factor into my problem.

Before I added the plants I noticed that it looked like some kind of coating on the interior of the tank was peeling, it is transparent and iridescent, flashing yellow, green, blue and sometimes pink in the light. When I first saw it I too my Mag-Float (http://www.plantedtank.net/imagehosting/images/upl... (Not my tank)) (http://www.bradleycaldwell.com/images/products/lar... (for those of you unfamiliar with the prodict it is held together by magnets. One goes inside the tank, the other on the outside to give you a handle. The outside magnet has a soft bottom, almost like felt. The interior magnet has bumpies on it, akin to the hook side of a piece of velcro, only not as scratchy)) and used that to remove the substance. The water was instantly filled with dime sized chunks of this transparent stuff, and much smaller pieces that looked like glitter. The filter took a couple hours, cleaned it all out, good to go.

Or not. I am still constantly cleaning these waving sections of whateverthisstuffis off the sides of my tank. I cannot feel it when it is on my fingers it is so fine, but I can see it when it is free floating in the water.

Does this ever go away?

Will I need a new tank to "final solution" the problem?

Can the Mag-Float be the cause of the problem?

What is that stuff?

SKIP IF YOU DON'T LIKE STORIES: So the local pet store gives away molly fry and I have been on the lookout for several days for their next unexpected delivery. I was off by about 12 hours, and managed to only get a single black lyre tail molly fry. What I did notice was an unusual guppy fry in another tank, so I had them fish that fish out for me also. Now I've got a molly and a guppy fry hanging out together in my 10 gallon tank. They are contained in a floating nursery of sorts (plastic square frame with a fine mesh exterior and plastic plants for cover), so there is no worry of them getting eaten by the filter. I have no other fish in the tank except this adorable duo. Tank temp is at a steady 76F, water is slightly salty.

CONCERNING THE MOLLY: little 'un looks like it has spazz fits every now and again but has a healthy appetite and I can see no physical deformities at this time.

How often does it need to be fed (currently feeding crushed flake food)?

How fast will it grow?

At what age will it start to show gender?

CONCERNING THE GUPPY: Seems to be in good health, not as vigorous an eater as the molly. Pale coloration (dirty white), nothing really to say about its looks.

How often does it need to be fed (currently feeding crushed flake food)?

How fast will it grow?

At what age will it start to show gender?

Additionally when does coloration start to develop (I am aware that males are more gaudy than females)?

Thanks much!

I already have a 10 gallon tank in storage but am lot opposed to getting a kit. The kits around here come with the tank, incandescent hood, and a bio carbon filter. (plus fish food and some other stuff, but I'm not worried about that).

To get a kit would run me $40 at Wal-Mart, or $49 elsewhere. Is there any reason a Wal-Mart kit would not be ideal as far as price? (problems with leaking, faulty wiring in the hood, eats light bulbs, etc.)

The filter would be one of the first things to go. It would be replaced with a Bio Wheel Power Filter Penguin 100 rated for a 10 gallon tank. This is one of the only bio wheel filters I can find in this area. How does it compare to a "Bio Falls" that I've seen around? Are they one in the same, or totally different?

As far as a hood goes, which is better for fish and live plants? Florescent, or Incandescent? I would like to get the aquarium well planted and have the plants survive. Most kits come with the Inc. but I can get a Flo. kit. Or I can buy a hood (which is about the price of a kit).

Is a bubbler necessary with Mollies? And what bubbler attachment is best? (basic air stone, the rectangle ~6 inches long, a circle etc.)

For a planted tank with mollies, what is the best substrate on the bottom: gravel or sand? And if you have a fav. plant you know can withstand a little salt and is hardy, please suggest :)

I am aware that a 10 gallon tank is a little on the small side and anything smaller is not acceptable. I do not think I would have space for anything larger though. The tank would only contain 4-5 mollies (1 male, the rest female), and an algea eater (not a pleco, they get too big for my set up).

Feel free to make suggestions, approve, disapprove (support your argument), whatever.

Thanks!

I remember having a hissing cockroach as a kid and loving it because it was so well behaved, easy to care for, and interesting to watch. That was a long time ago and I need to brush up on my roach info. Any information you can impart would be helpful, I was thinking of getting three or four depending on their space requirements. I've got a place set out by the window that's 23 in. wide by 9" deep and 10" tall, but not container to fill the space yet so the actual height dimentions may vary, tho. I do also realize that being by the window temperatures may be on the cool side during the winter so want would be the best insulation?

I'm looking for housing requirements, best substrate, # of roaches that would be comfortable in that space, common problems (diseases, parasites, etc.) feeding, temperature, lighting, substrate, humidity, cage decor, can I put plants in the cage? Are they aborial any or do they stick to the ground level?

And of course anything else you think of is great