marimo balls/zebra mussels

[Slaphppy7]

Nobody should be putting aquarium water down the drain.

If your fish have a disease and the disease organisms get into natural waterways, there is a chance that you introduce that disease into the environment where it can affect native fishes. And most native fishes have no resistance to introduced diseases.

Then that negates using a Python water changer to drain tanks, using tap water for suction....which I don't do anyway, huge waste of tap water, gravity does the same thing...you just have to get used to starting the siphon with suction (mouth, or otherwise).

 

[GuppyBreeder180604]

This was posted on reddit. They're calling for you to destroy the moss balls, destroy any plants in the aquarium, remove the fish, and bleach the tank. That seems a bit extreme.

Press Releases: News & Events: Maine Dept of Inland Fisheries and Wildlife

www.maine.gov

Zebra Mussel Disposal Instructions

www.fws.gov

you can't be too extreme when dealing with one of the 100 most destructive invasive species

 

[Colin_T]

Then that negates using a Python water changer to drain tanks, using tap water for suction....which I don't do anyway, huge waste of tap water, gravity does the same thing...you just have to get used to starting the siphon with suction (mouth, or otherwise).

You don't need to suck on the end of the hose to get the syphon going.
Sink the gravel cleaner into the aquarium.
Have the end of the hose in a bucket or out on the lawn.
Lift the gravel cleaner up so the bottom of it is a bit above the water level in the tank.
The water should start draining out of the hose.
Put the gravel cleaner back in the water but keep the bottom of it up so the air can come out as the gravel cleaner fills with water. This stops the air from creating an airlock and stopping the syphon.
When the air is out of the gravel cleaner, turn it so the bottom is at the gravel and start gravel cleaning the tank.

You can also get gravel cleaners with one way valves and you jiggle them up and down a few times to get the syphon going.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

I have heard that the zebra mussels have had some benefits in some places. I don't think that would be the case in Wyoming, unless we can somehow train them to eat carp.

We went ahead and nuked the moss ball, just so as to be good citizens and all that. We got it right after Christmas, so I don't think the warning really applies to us. If these critters were in the Badgerling's tank, I think we'd be seeing them by now. And I told the kid to start dumping her water on the flower beds instead of down the drain. @Colin_T We have to dump our water down the sink in the winter (which lasts from around October to around March) because the ground is frozen and we'd end up with a glacier in the yard. But our drain leads to a treatment plant, not directly to the river.

 

[Slaphppy7]

You don't need to suck on the end of the hose to get the syphon going.
Sink the gravel cleaner into the aquarium.
Have the end of the hose in a bucket or out on the lawn.
Lift the gravel cleaner up so the bottom of it is a bit above the water level in the tank.
The water should start draining out of the hose.
Put the gravel cleaner back in the water but keep the bottom of it up so the air can come out as the gravel cleaner fills with water. This stops the air from creating an airlock and stopping the syphon.
When the air is out of the gravel cleaner, turn it so the bottom is at the gravel and start gravel cleaning the tank.

You can also get gravel cleaners with one way valves and you jiggle them up and down a few times to get the syphon going.

Yep, I already knew those methods, but it's faster and easier just to do a quick mouth suction...

 

[chkltcow]

you can't be too extreme when dealing with one of the 100 most destructive invasive species

Asking everyone to destroy everything they own seems rather extreme.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

Asking everyone to destroy everything they own seems rather extreme.

Agreed. I think this is a case of game wardens going off half cocked. They could have just strongly requested (people in Wyoming respond better to requests than orders) that people be careful, keep an eye out for the offending critters, and dump their water out on the garden instead of down the drain. I believe education works better than new regulations, most of the time. People around here tend to care about their water ways; they just need to be made aware of the danger.

 

[Colin_T]

I think this is a case of game wardens going off half cocked.

We have issues with the Department of Fisheries here. There are a number of endangered species of fish that are only found in 1 or 2 waterways. People have been adding introduced species to the waterways and these fishes are wiping out the endangered ones. The government is refusing to translocate some of the endangered fish to ponds or aquariums where they can be kept alive and bred. Instead, they leave the fish to die off from diseases and predation from the introduced species.

The other endangered species here is losing habitat due to people building houses and roads on their wetlands and again nobody is allowed to collect them to relocate or try to breed them in captivity.

Finally, there is Gambusia that have been declared a noxious species. Nobody is allowed to take them from the wild and the government is not doing anything to control their numbers. Prior to them being declared a noxious species, collectors like myself, would remove several thousand from local waterways every week. We sold them to pet shops as live feeder fish. So the Gambusia are no longer being controlled by anyone and nobody is allowed to collect and sell them, and the government isn't doing anything to get rid of them.

Politician and government departments regularly have their head up their bums and don't care about anything except the power they have.

 

[madmark285]

I have heard that the zebra mussels have had some benefits in some places. I don't think that would be the case in Wyoming, unless we can somehow train them to eat carp.

I will assume Wyoming's lakes are not over developed like so many lakes here in the east, so I would agree. The inland lakes in lower Michigan, my home state, are heavily developed with many having septic tanks/leach field feeding nutrients to the lake, runoff from farms is another big problem. My father retired on a lake which had both problem, septic and farms, which got overrun with milfoil, another invasive species. The entire lake was covered with weeds, they had use a herbicide to get things under control.

When the Zebras came in, the water was clear and the native plants started to flourish, they now got plenty of sunshine. But once again, this lake was fracked up before from other issue.

 

[WhistlingBadger]

We have issues with the Department of Fisheries here. There are a number of endangered species of fish that are only found in 1 or 2 waterways. People have been adding introduced species to the waterways and these fishes are wiping out the endangered ones. The government is refusing to translocate some of the endangered fish to ponds or aquariums where they can be kept alive and bred. Instead, they leave the fish to die off from diseases and predation from the introduced species.

The other endangered species here is losing habitat due to people building houses and roads on their wetlands and again nobody is allowed to collect them to relocate or try to breed them in captivity.

Finally, there is Gambusia that have been declared a noxious species. Nobody is allowed to take them from the wild and the government is not doing anything to control their numbers. Prior to them being declared a noxious species, collectors like myself, would remove several thousand from local waterways every week. We sold them to pet shops as live feeder fish. So the Gambusia are no longer being controlled by anyone and nobody is allowed to collect and sell them, and the government isn't doing anything to get rid of them.

Politician and government departments regularly have their head up their bums and don't care about anything except the power they have.

Dumb. That's one thing we get right usually. When the G&F declares something a noxious species, it's open season on them. Bowhunting for carp, for example, is not just allowed but encouraged. Why wouldn't they let you collect a noxious invasive species? That just seems silly. And why wouldn't they let you collect from a waterway that's in the process of being destroyed? Also dumb.

The marimo thing is well-intentioned, just impractical. I don't think they realize that, by demanding that people sanitize established tanks, they are not only wrecking lots of time and money invested, but by killing the plants and bacteria, they're also asking people to doom their fish to a slow death. I'm thinking about calling or emailing them and telling them I'm both a fisherman and an aquarium expert (compared to them, ha ha) and making some recommendations. But I'm not sure I want to put myself on their radar...some of the game wardens around here can start to think they're Wyatt Earp.

 

[FFGuest6357]

I hate pouring my tank water down the drain... but as whistling badger said, here, it’s a winter issue.

I’m setting up a rain barrel where I will be able to store used aquarium water, and it will go to feeding the lawn and vegetable/flower gardens.

I’ll pick up some other storage containers and store as much as I can over the winter.

I pass my old aquarium water through a strainer usually to catch plant matter and toss that in the compost pile.

But reusing my old aquarium water is helping as a good sell for my wife to justify the cost of water, I hate wasting it down the drain.

 

[Colin_T]

You can add chlorine to the old tank water, mix it up, wait an hour or two and then it would have fewer disease organisms in and you could pour it down the drain then. Or hope the sewerage company has a decent treatment program.

Maybe contact the sewer company and ask them what they think about tank water going down the drain. Don't give them your real name just in case.

 

[madmark285]

On invasive species, how about The Attack of the Jumping Asian Carp

 

[OnlyGenusCaps]

On invasive species, how about The Attack of the Jumping Asian Carp

At what point is something so invaded we can just decide to have fun with it? I've been trying to get folks here behind the idea of introducing Baikal seals to Lake Superior. I mean we have all the crap, let's introduce something cute. I mean look at this thing?! Those eyes are saying "Bring me to live in your lake, pweese!"

 

[eatyourpeas]

At what point is something so invaded we can just decide to have fun with it? I've been trying to get folks here behind the idea of introducing Baikal seals to Lake Superior. I mean we have all the crap, let's introduce something cute. I mean look at this thing?! Those eyes are saying "Bring me to live in your lake, pweese!"
View attachment 131412

That cute picture won’t work in Washington State, unfortunately. The California sea lion is contributing to the depletion of the salmon population and some people here are very happy to contribute to their demise by shooting them.