#this got way to freaking long lol

[mod2amaryllis]

hi mod! you are the person i know who knows and is most excited about fish, and my favorite way to learn is to ask people whose passion and delight i am already familiar with. i know this is stuff i could find digging around on yt or search engines but it is just less fun and often less informative. but ofc feel free not to answer if you don't have the time/energy etc!

i am coming to realize that i would really like fish (after attempting to convince my wife that he would like them and then they pointed out that it kind of sounded like *i* wanted the fish and well). but i am very chronically ill (spend most of my time laying down in bed) and also poor. i'm worried about not being able to take care of them well enough.

assuming i restrain myself (that is don't deep dive into habitat design or breeding or anything beyond just having some guys to spend time with while i'm stuck in bed) what are the daily, weekly, monthly things i'd have to make sure got taken care of? are there ways i can simplify or automate tasks while not sacrificing their care?

OR do you know of good places where people have already talked about this, or other people who love fish a lot and might wanna share their knowledge?

my partner is also suggesting a plant&snail tank instead of fish but i'm even less sure how to approach their care needs!

watching you get into fish reminded me of how much i love them (had some when i was young but was not primary caretaker). it's good to see you make creatures so happy.

well thank you for reading and i hope you are having a good weekend!

ahhh weeee haha fish ask fish ask

there's definitely ways to make mega low maintenance tanks! what you're going for is overfiltering, understocking, and planting as much as possible. I'll go over those points. this got mega long so i'll put it under a cut.

overfiltering basically means bumping your filter up a size. if you have a 10g tank, get a 20g filter. this will reduce how often you need to maintain that filter. I'd recommend sponge filters, they're by far the cheapest option and imo easiest to maintain. you'll need the sponge and an air pump. i see a lot of mega reduced amazon sales for the tetra whisper air pump. depending on how dirty it gets you're looking at every 2-3 months taking it out into a bucket of clean tank water and squeezing out the gunk.

in that vein, you wanna get as big a tank as you can. seems counterintuitive, but the more water you have, the more stability. the less maintenance. so if you wanted a 5g for a betta, consider getting a 10g. if you want a little 10g nano school, get a 20g long. if you want a 20g community, get a 40g breeder. whatever's gonna fit in your space. my best recommendation for tank size is 20g long, it gives you sooo many options without being massive. if you're in America the cheapest way to get a tank is wait for Petco to have their quarterly tank sale. otherwise look for something on the local market.

now onto understocking. basically pick animals that aren't gonna shit that much lol, and put in less than can technically fit in the tank. the snail tank is a definite fun option, as long as you're sticking with pest snails and fewer large snails (big snails have a big bioload, even bigger than most fish). a planted 10g with a variety of big snails (a mystery, a rabbit, a nerite, etc), pest snails, and a few amano shrimp, would be fun and extremely low maintenance. you'd even have the option of trying some fancy shrimp, tho they might breed like crazy. if you want a tank with fish instead, i recommend getting a school of a tiny species like chili rasbora, ember tetras, pygmy corys, basically anything that stays little so you can get as many as possible without a big bioload. for schooling/shoaling fish, the more the merrier. absolutely do not get live bearers. no guppies, no mollies, no platys. that's the opposite of low maintenance. shit machines that will multiply forever, don't do it.

now. you know i love my bettas, favorite fish, but i'm always hesitant to recommend them. they're wonderfully personable but the caveat is that it seems more and more they run into health problems as they get commercially overbred. it's luck of the draw. you might get an easy buddy who can survive anything, or you'll get a sicky. most of the time my bettas are super low maintenance and rewarding, but when they ARE sick, it's hard. it can be daily water changes and treatment for weeks, and sometimes even that doesn't help in the end.

so with that said, my dream low maintenance tank stocking would be 20g long with 4 amano shrimp, 1 mystery snail, 1 rabbit snail, 1 nerite snail, and a school of around 15 nano fish (I'd do either chili rasbora or celestial pearl danio cuz they prettyyy). OR i'd just have a centerpiece in that big old tank, like 1 betta for the whole tank or a pair of sparkling gouramis. fish choice is definitely too much to get into for this post lol.

now third point, planting the crap out of it. this is where things can get expensive. i really do recommend investing in this step at setup, but try to cut costs by buying from local sellers, or even seeing if people are giving cuttings away. the lowest maintenance plants are ones that don't require trimming, like crypts, buce, anubias; these plants are gorgeous but they don't filter water that well. faster growing stem plants and floaters will REALLY help to filter the water, but require more maintenance via trimming and replanting stems (monthly) or removing overgrown floaters (weekly). hornwort and guppy grass are great options for something fast growing that you can just chuck in a tank, no need to plant. what I'd most highly recommend for the sake of lowering maintenance is adding some pothos cuttings coming out of the water. terrestrial plants are much better at filtering water than aquatic plants because of their direct co2 exposure, and I've had the most success with pothos! i also love a spider plant in water.

some other money specific points. for substrate, you can use rinsed play sand and/or pea gravel from a hardware store, but you would need to add nutrients if you have things planted into the substrate. you can add root tabs (api root tabs cost about 8 bucks a pack, but you need to replenish them every few months) or a small layer of aquasoil at the bottom. (aqueon has a little bag of shrimp/plant soil on amazon for i think 12 bucks). and the one thing you shouldn't go cheap on is the heater. their failure is more dangerous than other hardware because they tend to fail ON, aka they cook the water. you wanna make sure you trust it. the cheapest heater i trust are the aqueon preset submersible heaters, also frequently on sale. or you can forgo the heater and commit to only "cold" temperature livestock; the snails and amano shrimp idea would be fine w/o a heater.

labor specific points, once it's cycled (which can take weeks, during which time you'll do literally nothing to the tank) and stocked, it'll depend on how fast those plants eat up your nitrates on how often you do water changes. for me, i do 25% every two weeks on my 20g. it could probably stand to have more since mine is pretty overstocked but fish are ok to sit in slightly higher nitrates as long as they're used to it. when testing, i do recommend the api master test kit. it's more expensive than strips but way more accurate and it's lasted me longer than 2 tubes of strips. if you don't want to buy the test kit, just do water changes as often as you can. every 2 weeks if possible, then you can try pushing to 3 weeks, or even monthly.

get a water siphon to make it as easy as possible. empty water into a bucket on wheels so nobody has to carry anything. you can also look into getting a submersible pump with a long enough tube that you can empty water directly into the nearest drain, then to refill with clean water put a bucket in the sink with tap water, put the submersible pump in that bucket, and run the tube back to your tank, adding dechlorinator directly to the tank beforehand. just be careful with this method if you have small animals at risk of being caught in the siphon.

also, some people with planted tanks don't do water changes AT ALL. they just top off as water evaporates. what i do some would consider overkill, but i'm so frequent with my water changes because i have really hard water and there's this thing called old tank syndrome that can happen if you only top off, and yeah that's this other whole spiel lmao BUT not doing water changes IS possible, people have success. just not me!

so monthly tasks; rinsing sponge filter every 2-3 months. weekly tasks; depends on how often you decide to do water changes. daily tasks; feeding, frequency varies depending on livestock, but i basically feed once a day. if you're going for a self contained ecosystem low maintenance dealio, feed as little as possible. i know of people who do this and sprinkle in food weekly or less. i don't have experience with automatic feeders, but i'm wary of them lol, they could be totally fine, idk. it's better imo to just feed infrequently than risk the auto feeder dumping too much food.

to wrap it up, i'll be real with you, setting up something that's as low maintenance as possible while working with budget constraints is hard (at least in my area). this hobby is notoriously expensive, especially when you're just starting out. you need to see what the local market is like. see if there's fish hobby groups in your area that can help you with spare supplies and plant trimmings. your partner's idea of a plant/snail tank might be the best place to start! as far as other resources, the fish subreddits have soooooooooooo much info.

[fisheito]

rereading the nuca pink doujin and seeing yakumo tear himself apart re: his snake form vs his human form all this agony and self-doubt and silent suffering and fear of rejection like "if i looked less human would u hate me" , "if u saw me in my true form wouldn't that be horrible. terrifying. disgusting" , "if i admitted i want to swallow you whole would you think worse of me"

and i imagine him asking something like this to the crowd of clan members , who are , undeniably,, a group of Kinky Fuckers

they all smile with the serenity and carefully masked excitement of a horny olivine. masterful beautiful reassuring expressions (errr..... masked to different degrees depending on the clan member)

[haine-kleine]

My roman empire is the difference in how Horikoshi draws Dabi and 'Dabi'

Smirking so wide his cheeks staples are popping out exposing the muscles underneath the grafts, staring straight into 'camera', carefully controlling the way he looks and is perceived. It's not a natural way of being, it's performative. Exposing and highlighting his grotesque scars. Chin raised high, looking down at the characters he interacts with and at the audience. His gestures wide and self-assured, throwing his arms out. He forcibly attracts attention, even the negative kind, especially the negative kind. A smug and self-confident asshole.

And then he is off his Dabi hours and suddenly no longer filling the room with his presence. Gone is the oppressive evil charisma that had even the pro heroes scared of him. Now the hidden, nameless, hinted-at since his first appearance real identity is left exposed. His head turned down, avoiding eye contact, slouching. His wrists hanging limply. Arms crossed - hugging himself, a tell-tale gesture of discomfort. Curling into himself, making himself smaller. He looks younger, rolling his eyes and pouting.

Touya has run out of his social battery and doesn't want to be engaged with. He is vulnerable, the way Dabi can't afford himself to be. It's just so fascinating how his way of masking is putting on an artificially created Dabi persona.

[mahou-no-momo]

I know the ending was bleak and tragic but I find it hard to believe that the crew's family would not be outraged with the company and go off to search for them on their own or at the very least hire a PI/search & rescue to find them. It definitely wouldn't take 20 years for them all to be found. Months at best. However, they all likely still would've been found dead because they didn't have enough supplies to last until they were all found.

At the very least I just can't fathom them all floating through space rotting away and NO ONE actually looks for them. No way. Specifically Daisuke and Swansea's family.

Like I think about this so much. How much would it cost? What would the company say to cover their ass? (We all know how corporations are. Especially this one.) Would they not even acknowledge any concern? How much hush money would they attempt to offer? How would the families cause enough of an uproar for the company to take action? What lies would the company spread before finally accepting that they're at fault? How long of a battle would the families put up with before taking matters into their own hands? Would this cause there to finally be proper work regulations? Not specifically for a crew since the Tulpar was the last, but in general for any job with humans at the helm.

I don't even wanna think about if any of the family finally finds the ship and goes on board. Daisuke's parents would be devastated and guilty. Swansea's kids would be outraged, seeing the bullet hole in their father's head. You even have to wonder about Curly and Anya's family too. I don't think they'd be allowed on the ship just simply for the fact that the investigator/S&R would know that the crew would likely not be in a good state when found. So that puts my mind somewhat at ease. None of their families has to immediately see that whole scene. But they would have to identify the bodies, and that's what hurts me.

[crustycrackhead]

Swampcat but the fic I can’t fucking write but I’m throwing the idea to the tank of sharks— I need to like clean it up but this is a very barebones sketch lol— also I think it would be slay if Kremy has reading glasses (old man)

*I sit a round table full of papers, it’s frantic, it’s crazy (normal), I sound desperate as I describe the scenes to you*

Go under here for my crazy

First lil encounter to me where they start piquing each other’s interests… you picking up what I’m putting down?

Somethign somethign, they usually do their paperwork, accounting, tax fraud in complete silence. It’s both of their quiet time, it’s a welcomed bliss because the rest of the party is pretty loud. ADHD AUTISM BODY DOUBLING MOMENT OKAY!!!

Okay anyway, I think from what I picked up, they’re both pretty competent at handling money and numbers. (Good at math, Frost would be really into theoretical mathematicals while Kremy is more applied maths core. This is all headcanon lol). FUCK IM BAD AT SUMMARIZING SHIT BYT ANYWAYS—

Eventually during their wordless agreement, they begrudgingly let each other check each other’s work, looking for errors and proofreading shit. Mutual respect (THIS IS LIKE SEX TO ME). Blah blah blah, you’re prolly getting tired of me rambling BUT UR IN MY LION’S DEN AND YOU MUST SIT AND LISTEN TO ME!!! 🫵🫵🫵

Frost leans in as he looks over Kremy’s paperwork (this is the sexiest thing to me okay), the fur from his cheek rubs against Kremy’s scales of his neck. I think texture wise, it’s like autism heaven bruh. They’re each other’s stimboard. THAT’S THE DYNAMIC I LIKE MMM YUMMY. It just feels nice to be in each other’s presence, fur against scales, cool against warmth, thermodynamic equilibrium.

Have a Drabble meow ⬇️

————

There’s a tension in the air so thick he could’ve cut it with a knife, and the offer from Frost still rings in Kremy’s head. The lizardfolk almost felt dizzy even thinking about it.

“I can amend that”

Frost’s words repeated in his head, voice deeper than usual. It was such a vague offer but Kremy knew what laced those words, he saw the hunger in that tiger’s eyes. He might just take up his offer, the thrill of it made his spine shiver.

———-

Like imagine that, lien taht, that’s the flavor, the thrill in the anticipation of it! THEY’RE FREAKSSASA !!!!! FREAKSSSS

[tears-of-xion]

Oh to be a pumpkin fairy, sitting creepily in the eye of a jack-o-lantern!

-

Grace is owned  by myself. :3

Please do not use or re-post my artwork without my permission. Thank you!   (reblogs, however, are welcome and appreciated)

The original character design is by Mad-Akuma on Deviantart. All rights to their owners.

[the-void-writes]

I found some cool reference poses from an artist named mellon-soup on TikTok, so I played around with a few of them because I felt like drawing and I hope that’s okay

Here are the poses:

And the sketches of Will, Jason, and Henry:

(I’ve been toying with Jason’s design lol, can’t decide whether or not to commit to the beard)

[todayisafridaynight]

hear me out,,, emo masadai n domesticated masadai fourway...

it aint even been two hours you couldnt stay out of my inbox for two hours and its to come at me with this

[cyanidas]

Hope yall are having a good holiday season!

I'm excited for the new year ;w; small update in tags

[sysig]

[mainfaggot]

just watched challengers at the cinema w my little sister. it was so intense wtf

[tamagotchikgs]

i try my best not to think of it and i havent in years but the fact the only people who were ever supposed to be my friends irl would always dump their love on me and then to leave me & say they dont like me over and over and over again only so they could watch my reaction n make fun of me together maybe did affect me huh

[kuromi-hoemie]

i just finished iron blooded orphans and need to lay down for a bit

[zippers]

shout out to high school "reverse bicurious" "cis woman" me who just thought trans people in antiquity were fascinating and did my Latin IA on trans/gnc romans so now when I'm making lesson plans for my actual job teaching about gay and trans romans i literally just have a document from 2016 called "Gender links" that cites whole books with relevant quotes and summaries and even better, my own translations of primary sources.

thank you pre-burnout me!!!! for doing the leg work as an "ally"!!!!

[yorkin-it]

idiotmu

[hellisanhonourstudent]

#i remember being like - wait. he was a nerd. and he was hot. and now he’s the bad guy? but he’s just as hot???#most flawless 180* character turn in modern cinema#sam rockwell#eric knox#charlie's angels#charlie’s angels 2000

All of this,except post-reveal Eric isn't any less of a nerd. He's the ultimate "theather/band kid who decided a STEM career was a better choice because money",considering what we saw from him,lol. Eric is an uber-dramatic software engineer/CEO of the equivalent to Microsoft/Apple/Google/whatever. The latter alone should've clued in that he was evil,but alas.

Charlie’s Angels (2000) dir. McG