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Let's kick off my fish room journal with an entry/update on my Blue Gularis breeding project for the Coop. What I enjoy most about operating a fish room focused on breeding is that there will be people in the store that see my fish, get excited, and want to take them home. Call it silly, but it's just something that really drives me, knowing that someone is going to enjoy my fish and bring them happiness. So, that being said, I asked @Cory what fish I should work with to make available in our retail store. His response was the Blue Gularis. I have kept Gardneri in the past and had great success breeding them, but the Blue Gularis is known to be more difficult. Well, I am up for the challenge. I started off by sourcing 30 eggs from Aquabid for the Blue Gularis "Loe" variety. The eggs arrived with instructions to sit on them for 7-8 weeks from the date of collection, which was about 1 week prior if I recall collectly. True to my self, I let my impatience win out and tried to hatch 10 eggs about 3 weeks in. Let's just say you should follow the seller's advice. 😆 From that botched attempt I wanted the remaining 4 weeks to hatch the rest. After putting the eggs in a shallow tupperware it took about 48 hours for the first fry to hatch. I think I got maybe 2 more natural hatches. I then used the vial pressurization method to force hatch the remaining eggs - picked this up from Gary Lange. The remaining eggs went in a vial with a little bit of water. Put the vial in the bottom of a 40 gallon breeder and loosened the lid to allow water pressure to enter the vial. From that, I had one more egg hatch. With several more eggs unhatched I decided to try the other method Gary talked about and that is to leave thee vial in your pocket and simply walk around. Sure enough this did the trick and all remaining eggs hatched. I raised the fry on BBS (via Ziss Brine Shrimp Hatcher) for the next several months. Currently the Blue Gularis are spread across several tanks in the fish room with only one tank having multiple occupants, 1 male and 3 females. I will probably spread these out too. The attached image is a shot from today (7/22/2020) of one of my males. Even if I don't have success breeding on my own I feel accomplished getting them to this point. Their looks certainly are worth it alone.

This is my first attempt, 75 gallon. I'm still letting the tank establish so no fish yet, just some crypts, Java fern, and snails. I plan on stocking it with larger bodied tetras and maybe a few angelfish.

Do you use any gadgets for your aquarium? Something unconventional but that you've found makes a job easier or quicker? I originally got this magnetic stirrer for mixing up Seachem Equilibrium so it dissipates quicker when poured into the tank. I also found it makes checking some water parameters easier too. Instead of opening, closing, shaking a test tube for measuring Gh, I simply set it at slow spin and add drops until the color changes.

I'm looking to keep some infusoria for raising tetra fry. Anyone keep infusoria? What do your setups look like and do have any tips or tricks?

Here is my 40 gallon breeder display tank. I guess you could say it's a Dutch style aquascape is you had to put a name on it. Tank has been up for 4 months. I run injected co2 at about 1.5 bubbles per second. Lighting is a 36" fluval plant 3.0. Substrate is fluval stratum. Filtration is handled by a fluval 307 canistar, filled with sponge, seachem matrix and chemipure green. I also run a airstone and a marineland 300 watt heater to keep things nice and warm. Hardscape consisted of some mopani wood, spider wood, a few river rocks and some dragon stone. Livestock 2 Sunset Gourami (used to get tank cycled) 6 Harlequin Rasabora 15 Neon Tetra 6 Panda Corydora 7 Otocinclus (1 is in quarentine with some sort of bacterial or fungal infection) 1 Bristlenose Pleco 3 Apistogramma agazizzi (1 male 2 female) 4 Young Angelfish 1 German Black Ram (also in quarentine with the otto with same infection) Plants Temple Plants, Amazon Sword, Scalet Temples, Rotala Rotundifolia, Cardinal Plant, Wisteria, Bacopa Caroliniana, Crypt Parva, Golden Creeping Jenny. I started the tank dosing dry ferts using the PPS Pro system and flourish exel. Nutrients got a bit to high and was dealing with some algae so I stopped dosing lowered the light intensity and shortened the photo period to allow the tank to stabilize and the plants to establish a bit longer. The lights have been slowly brought back up to moderately intense with a longer photo period. I still have some algae on the wood hardscape but I look at is as food for the pleco and Otto's. I also kinda like the look of it. I will begin dosing ferts again this week based on my water parameters which I have posted below. Any input, comments, questions, or suggestions are always welcome. I hope you enjoy.

I do think you're right. I know that that usb meter at least used to be accurate and .02 amps did strike me as really low but I was busy and didn't confirm at the time. I just now retested with a more reliable tester and got .9 watts at the outlet. So .9 minus any usb power supply inefficiencies and we are still under a watt of power. If I find a surplus of time I'll just splice the wire and get a straight reading with a multimeter under different loads.

Fabric pot and a milk crate. The fabric pot can be folded down the what ever depth of substrate you want to plant in and the milk crate can be trimmed with a hack saw blade (every easy, soft plastic) to accommodate the water depth, that how I'm doing it, just not with pothos. If you look at my earlier post the lager plants are in fabric pot sitting on trimmed milk crates that being said pothos grows underwater. The pic with the neon has a vine of pothos along the back. I just jammed a piece of vine into the gravel about two years ago and it rooted and grew around the tank rooting in different places and is now coming up and out of the tank over the side and hanging down to the floor. In the beginning it did need a bit of time to convert to the aquatic life.

You could measure something like nitrate and see how much water changed it takes for the nitrate to drop 50% and that would give you the amount of water to change. Or some other proxy variable.

Yes, at first at least. I filled it about a week ago and the water was dark within an hour. Ive done a few water changes since and today i did a 100% water change. Havent tested PH yet but when i do ill post it. My water comes out of the tap around 7.5 so im not expecting it to drop too low, but well see.

You mean like this? 😉 Not single plug-in, but effective!

I happened to be up past midnight and saw our leopard gecko Dax climbing around her enclosure. Love my baby crocodile! 🐊

Hey everyone! So excited to see this platform turn into a great place for information, care, and just general community. A little back story on myself; I am an amateur aquarist, that mainly focuses on guppies, but I am slowing expanding my current stock to include fish from other families/ species and regions. I love the fish community and all the people I have been blessed to meet through this hobby. So glad to be a part of it! here are a few of my guppy strains that I have kept or am keeping. Enjoy!

I just wanted to share some photos of my tiny reticulated hillstream loach fry. These fish are so cool and unique. I knew that i had a female and a male but i was not expecting to see fry so quickly! I am super excited that they’ve bred. I’ve counted three total so far and they seem happy and healthy.

I've reached a point in my planted tanks where a lot of my trimmings/runners need to be removed since I'm out of room. I'd like to be able to trade them in at my LFS once I've accumulated enough -- right now, mostly runners from vals and trimmed hygrophila, ludwigia, and bacopa. What's a cheap way to store them for -- say -- a month or two (and ideally let the stems sprout new roots)? A desk lamp over a bucket? Does the water need regular changes, circulation, heat?

Hi, im from Costa Rica. I´m 23 years old and i study Management of Natural Resources here in Costa Rica. I have been in the aquarium hobby since i was 9 years old. I started with african cichlid when i was 10 and realize that i was doing everything wrong. I discoverd my local forum and started to learned about the fishhkeeping hobby.I loved going to conventions and learned from the experience of other hobbiest, I found Aquarium Co op in 2015 with the video of plecos breeding caves , i follow the channel since then. This are my discus, i got inspired by Deans discus

I like Bob’s answer! 😁

I have been an animal nerd since my inception. I started keeping fish as a young teenager. Took a short break after high school. Then made an unplanned return to aquariums after college. On one of my many hiking trips i found a dried up creek with some minnows barely alive. I scooped them up in my water bottle and brought them home. Kept them for a few months in a ten gallon tank then released them into my dads pond. It was downhill ever since and now have about 40 aquariums. Since my return to the hobby, i have narrowed my focus down to rainbowfish. I currently have about 25 species and will continue to grow that collection. I am looking forward to the old school forum feel, without the old school "behavior".🚨 🚔👮‍♀️😃

I needed this bright spot today. Thanks. Please don't suddenly stop posting, I will assume I have jinxed you.

Not eating/gasping could be gill flukes. I'd just keep up with the rounds of maracyn and anti-parasite stuff and monitor. A heavy parasite load certainly can lead to death. I'm sorry you've had losses! It can be so frustrating trying to figure out what's wrong.

Sorry, you are right and I am wrong. % to mg/ml is just the definition of a weight by volume solution--1g/100ml=1% solution, because 1ml of water = 1g. So a 2.66% solution would be 2.66g/100ml, or 2660mg/100ml, or 26.6mg/ml. My mistake was trusting google/my bleary eyes before coffee. I swear I read 1mg/ml=1ppm, which is, of course, wrong. 1mg/L=1ppm, which means yeah, 26600ppm. So I have proven that I have no idea how to convert that apparently, and spent an ungodly amount of time reminding myself of how math works. In any case, that seems LOW to me, as you would be diluting that in 37.85L of water. Your ppm would then be 26.6mg/37.851L, or 0.7mg/L, which is then 0.7ppm in ten gallons. That seems pretty wrong also, so I suspect either my math is still suspect (likely) or we have more chemistry to think about (also likely). I suspect the "2.66% nitrogen" is not actually the same as Nitrate, and some other chemistry voodoo is happening, that I could likely figure out if I wanted to work on this for another hour or 20, but I'm sorry, I can't, sooo.... I can say that when API's master test detects 0ppm Nitrate before ferts, and I put 1 squirt in a 10g tank that has at least some amount of water displacement by gavel and decor and stock, my test then reads about 5-10ppm. So this is something I have been also trying to figure out, and would like a real answer to. I swear I can't get my nitrates up to 20ppm to save my soul. I should have stuck to just measuring I guess, because all I have done is confuse myself and everyone else. Apologies. But I am making API rich trying to figure it out!

I really like seeing your lighting schedule. I don't have the Fluval plant 3.0 (Going on the Christmas list) on my 40 but the Hygger I have let's me do some scheduling. I like your schedule and might try to copy it. I think your tank is beautiful.

Sure does look like it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hydrocotyle_vulgaris You could put it in a container for quarantine and let it transition to being under water just to see how it does.

Blasphemy!!! They are awesome little fish!

One problem you may run into if you just let them float. Stem plants will grow roots all along the stem. Not just where you trimmed them. Might not be the best visual for stores trying to resell them. If you're just floating for a day or two no biggie. But after a month they will definitely try to send roots to the substrate, all along the stem.

What I usually do is I boil some vegetables (usually kale or zucchini), then put the water and the vegetables in a bucket with tank water. I also throw in some Java moss. After a few days it starts smelling terrible and about week after that you see millions of tiny creatures there. After a few weeks it turns into green water, cause I keep it in the sun. I then use this water to feed my daphnia

Those look a lot like the platinum blue angel. But the lighting in your pictures misrepresents how blue they really are. I have one as a centerpiece, and they are white with pearlscales, with some bluish striping in the fins once they color up. He is truly gorgeous. But not blue. 🙂 Your pics look like they're under blue light. There are definitely a bunch at one of the shops in my area (San Diego).

Found three daisy rice fish fry in the daphnia/scud culture bin. I had put an algae covered plant in there for scud clean up...and apparently it was carrying a few eggs

I grow larger infusoria (metazoans), like seed shrimp in this tank. I feed it kitchen scraps, leaves and mulm. Those are seed shrimp eating a piece of squash below. For the true infusoria (protozoans) I grow green water in 5 gallon buckets outside (squirt of Easy Green and sunlight makes green water) and then feed the green water to these containers. You can also get instant infusoria by squeezing the grunge out of a sponge filter. And plants like java moss are covered with all kinds of microscopic critters.

Good question. Here is my approach, I just don't know if I am "really" raising such a culture or not...do we have a technical definition of infusoria? And what would we say is technical difference from green water (also useful for tiny fry?) I have only small set of fry, so my set ups are small. Infusoria: I started by setting water outside for two weeks. Moved it inside in to a half gallon clear plastic container, keep it on the windowsill with pretty bright indirect light, uncovered. Throw in a dandelion leaf, piece of banana peel, lettuce leaf or slice of zucchini (etc.) about once every week or two (once the previous leaf/food source is almost mulm). I can see lots and lots of critters zinging around in there when I hold a light to it. Use a turkey baster to clean out about a cup of mulm/waste at the bottom every week or two, and top off with aquarium water. Green water: Then I also took half of that infusoria mix into another container and topped off with aquarium water. Added a handful of grass clippings and fertilized heavily with Easy green. Keep on a windowsill with a few hours of direct sunlight, and got green water eventually. So far have just been feeding this with Easy green. So this has both floating algae and little critters zinging around in it. Looking forward to seeing other answers/tips

As long as you are sure it's a male and female, they should breed with time. No need to do anything, as far as I know. It is better, however, to keep them in a separate tank by themselves with a cave of an appropriate size.

I would enjoy having 2 layer sponge filters. Finer sponge on the inside of a coarse sponge. I've thought about how to make it before but tried a box filter first to clean up my water better than single density sponges could do. I didn't want to add anything to the tank not run by air. So far the box filter worked well enough with the coop square sponge media, I bought 2 more. But I do wish it was as easy to just drop in the tank and forget as weighted sponges are.

I just happened to me too with my guppy tank. Two days back I had my new 29 gallon which was cycling and to my surprise, I found a Golden wonder Killie fish fry survive. I was so happy and the fry is doing so good. I'm new to this hobby but this hobby keeps giving me new surprises every day.

Thank you so much for the suggestions! I didn't know it would grow underwater. This is perfect!

This would be awesome for the API Nitrate test that you have to shake for like 3 hours for it to be accurate haha.

Bill, Am not sure. One would have to know how well the new water is actually being diluted & redistributed in the water column. Many variables there. Perhaps one way might be is to keep measuring your Nitrate levels until you see a 50% change. That way, you can then estimate the volume of water that was physically exchanged.

I've got an Aquarium Co-Op TOWAH OF POWAH going on in my 75. Dragon the senegal bichir approves and whole heartedly endorses the product.

Hey Duke, Interesting. Was the test conducted with a check valve & under water? Also, how much air tubing was used, etc? The 20 ma of current draw really seems low to me. That is only about 100 mw consumption.

Beautiful tank! I love the variety of plants and the layout.

I don't use GFCI in the fishroom so I suppose I could shock the snot out of myself, but in 51 years of keeping fish I have yet to shock myself with something aquarium related. But if I suddenly stop posting tomorrow, it will be because I jinxed it and went to that big aquarium in the sky due to electrocution. On the other hand, although not exactly surge protection, I have do have 2 APC 3000VA's that all my aquarium stuff is hooked into. I think this suppresses surges, but I have it just cover times when the power is out. I don't have squat on the big tank because I think it would be fine for months if not indefinitely without power. When we have had extended outages, we use the water from the big tank to flush toilets and cook with. But I think the ultimate back up plan would be just a whole bunch of the USB Nano air pumps running off battery backup. I bet that would run forever.

Honestly they look just like my malawa shrimp. But then again, i've never been able to tell those and "wild" neocaridina apart

Underfoot thinks I should stop looking at fish and start looking at her.

@Leo2o915 Yes, you can use the Advanced Search and then search By Seller's Location.

This video might have the answer: *The most expensive way possible to increase pH and decrease your water hardness at the same time apparently is to move to Seattle, WA ☺️

@Lizzie Block Thank you so much for the feedback and nice words! Your Cryptocoryne pink flamingo looks fantastic! Hope to have one soon and that it looks as good as yours! Once the green Bucephalandra grows out I'll take close ups of both of them and upload them for identification. Now about the hardscape, the placement of the stones was intentional (well duh 🤣) but the tension wasn't part of the thought process behind it. The goal was to make a sort of mountain range leading down to a cove of sorts. The bottom left has two stones buried in the soil pointing in another direction to simulate fallen stones that created a sort of cove. The cove will eventually be planted with a carpeting plant of sorts, most likely Pogostemon helferi. I was looking to make this mountain range/cove look nice, didn't actively notice the tension made by the rocks, just thought it looked nice. Specifically in this scape I enjoy the current hardscape placement, but I'll definitely keep a closer eye to the directionality of the hardscape in future aquascapes. Again thanks so much for the feedback and kind words😊

110 gallon tough stuff stock tank...breeding long fin leopard danios in it. They're tough to see but if you expand the pics there is a ton of fry in there. I leaned a 12x12 tile against the wall of the tub, gives them a bit of a cave to hide in. It has an unattended benefit of becoming a fish and snail buffet as it catches food before it hits the bottom. Aq.Coop med sponge filter and air line, ziss no clog stone and nano air pump combo works great. I tuck the air pump under the ledge of the tub (nice snug fit) and clipped it to to a hole I drilled in the lip. This helps protect it from the weather and should it ever come loose it wont fall into the dirt. Feeding Extreme krill flake food and nano pellets, Aq.Coop fry food and hikari first bites as well as some hikari frozen foods. My first attempt at breeding fish, and its awesome.

It looks like a peacock gudgeon or Tateurndina ocellicauda. I have one in my community tank who is well-behaved, but I think I heard in an Aquarium Co-Op video that @Cory and @Dean’s Fishroom don't like them for some reason... 🤔

Below is my first ever outdoor tub. I've really enjoyed it so far though Covid has put a damper on doing a lot of plants and fish that I wanted. I opted to try to breed out a cool guppy hybrid I've been getting in my main tank.

My mini pond has given me great happiness this summer! My friend built it for me about four years ago and it was deeply shaded until this season. Sunlight = pond steroids! The total water volume is about 375 gallons. The top box is filled with pea gravel and acts as a bog filter and water fall. The plants are the stars of the pond. In the bog box, I have creeping Jenny, blue lobelia, chocolate mint, elephant ears (taro), pickerel weed and bacopa caroliniana. I have water lettuce and water hyacinth floating. On the right, there is a laundry basket with three canna lilies. Dwarf papyrus ‘prince tut’ is in the ceramic pot on the left. The water lily is the hardy variety ‘wanvisa’. It blooms almost daily! I planted a lotus ‘.perkinensis rubra’ tuber about three weeks ago. I doubt it will bloom this year, but, who knows? If it gets too big I will transfer it to a tub. I fertilize the lily with pond tabs every two weeks. The marginals, including the bog plants get tabs every 2-3 months. Believe it or not, there are fish in here! I have gold fish that I bought as feeders who have grown fat and happy. I live in northern Indiana, zone 6A, so I do have to winterize this later in the fall. I will store the canna and elephant ear tubers in my basement. I treat the mint, lobelia, water lettuce, hyacinth and papyrus as annuals. The lily, lotus, dock and pickerel rush are all hardy. I will run an air stone for the fish and use a floating stock tank heater for the fish. I welcome other winter suggestions, though! Feel free to ask questions! I love my pond!

I think it can be a lot of fun with the right jar. Attached is my favorite one I had running, a lone pea puffer and snails. The duckweed kept the water clean and the puffer ate the baby snails. It got so spoiled on snails that it wouldn't accept blood worms or baby brine, it would only eat the baby snails. All I had to do was feed the snails the right amount and remove duckweed as it grew to maintain the tank.