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I’ve been working on getting my fish room set up here in Japan. I’ve got this garage-like room to work with. My grandfather used to work in this room fixing heavy machinery and equipment as a living. Since his passing about 10 years ago, this room hasn’t been touched except from the occasional entrance of my uncle who keeps some of his VW spare parts in there. I should mention that I’ve lived abroad in Singapore previous to this and in 2019, I moved back to my home country of Japan. So that is when I decided to try my best to convert this beat up garage room into a fish room. Here, you can see how it looked like before I started working on it. My first racking system arrived before I even started painting 😅 I really wanted to set tanks up asap but I had to be patient and clean the room up a little. I have been posting videos on my YouTube channel too. Still need to make a playlist for this fish room. Lots of painting 😰 It’s not that easy as I’m a little OCD and I like having things as close to perfect. Also notice there are windows by the tanks. We do get a little sunlight coming in but it’s really no problem at all. Some people commented in my videos that it’s a bad idea putting tanks by the window because I will get lots of algae issues. To me, it’s about balancing everything. If you have lots of sunlight, then maybe lessen the hours of artificial lighting. But I plan to put curtains up in the future so that I can control the amount of light that comes in. Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green Gecko, some Rotala sp. bangladesh, and Cryptocoryne Wendtii Brown towards the back. Cryptocoryne Wendtii Tropica and Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green towards the back. Cryptocoryne Lucens and Cryptocoryne Undulatus Red towards the back. My favorite species of Anubias on the driftwood. Anubias Coffeefolia! All these plants are still relatively new so I’ll be enjoying watching them grow and develop 😃 So this is currently where I’m at. Still a long ways to go and I’m kind of hoping that this build never ends because it’s the process that I enjoy the most. I’ve planted a variety of crypts in the tanks above and I’m planning to add more in the future. Cryptocorynes have become one of my favorite plants because of how easy they are to care for. They don’t need strong lighting, don’t require Co2, and they’ll look beautiful in a couple of months. I’m also hoping to add another rack system on the right side of the room. Not sure of what fish/plants to keep yet, but I’m sure I will find something that will excite me. Breeding small fish is something I’d also love to try. Also, some people have asked me why I didn’t fix up (renovate) the entire room first before setting the aquariums and that’s because it would be nearly impossible. As I mentioned earlier, this room is also a storage room for my uncles car parts as well as storage for some of my grandmothers stuff so I’ve just got to work with the space that I’ve been given 😅 Oh yeah! I forgot to mention that I’m also working on a smaller fish room inside the house that I call the mini studio. That room will only have 2 display aquascaped aquariums. I’m very passionate about planted/aquascaped aquariums. Maybe I can make another post talking about that room sometime. Thank you if you’ve made it this far. I hope this was interesting to some of you and I hope to learn more from this forum 🙂

I normally don't order lots of root tabs. I should; I have tons of plants that can use them. But they are more buoyant than anything I've ever seen in a aquarium, and it's really difficult to get them deep under the root of my plants (even with forceps) so that they'll stay there before the tablet casing begins to degrade! It sometimes takes me several minutes to deposit one tablet, and it's a task I really don't look forward to. When folks on this forum a couple weeks ago mentioned a very expensive, unavailable-to-the-US mechanism made just for this purpose, I hit the internets. But there was no way I could have something like this shipped to the US for less than $60! So I started researching the DIY route, and after some trial and error and lots of research, I've come up with this one-handed solution. It can be made for less than $10 in parts from your local Home Depot. In fact, you can make two for about the same cost! It is sized for Aquarium Co-Op Easy Root Tabs. PARTS: So let's dive in. These are the parts I collected together (non-affiliate links) : 1. Straight PEX Pipe: 1/4" ID, 5' length: $1.76 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Apollo-1-4-in-x-5-ft-White-PEX-Pipe-APPW514/301541226 2. Wood dowel: 3/16" diameter, 4' length: $0.70 https://www.homedepot.com/p/3-16-in-x-48-in-Wood-Round-Dowel-HDDH31648/204354369 3. Drawer pull: 1-1/14" birch cabinet knob: $0.98 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Liberty-Rowland-1-1-4-in-32-mm-Birch-Wood-Round-Cabinet-Knob-P10512H-BIR-C/204143998 4. Drawer pull: 1-13/16" birch cabinet knob: $1.88 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Liberty-Classic-1-13-16-in-46-mm-Unfinished-Birch-Wood-Round-Cabinet-Knob-P10515C-BIR-C5/100156480 5. Springs: 6-pack zinc-plated compression springs (used the 3/8" x 1-1/8" x 0.041" spring): $4.22 https://www.homedepot.com/p/Everbilt-Zinc-Plated-Compression-Spring-6-Pack-16087/202045468 TOTAL: $9.54 TOOLS: 1. Drill and assorted bits 2. Wood glue (or white glue) 3. 5-minute epoxy PREP: The 1/4" PEX pipe does not fit the Easy Root tabs. I made it fit by enlarging the first inch or so of one end of the pipe using a 5/16" drill bit. Now, the smaller end of the Easy Root Tab fits very snugly. If I don't push it in too far, it's a perfect grip! Next, I cut a 12" length of the PEX pipe and a 13" length of the dowel. I don't have very deep tanks, so this is fine for me. But this can be cut to any length you need; just make sure the dowel is always one inch longer than the tube. The wooden knobs already have holes drilled in them, which made it very easy to enlarge them to exactly the diameters I needed. For the smaller knob, I enlarged the hole to 3/16", making sure not to drill all the way through. I glued in my wood dowel with a drop of wood glue to hold it permanently: For the larger knob, I enlarged the hole to 3/8" diameter, this time going all the way through. I made sure to start with a 3/16" bit, and repeatedly went larger and larger until I reached 3/8". This ensured my hole stayed centered and I had a nice clean cut all the way through. I glued in the length of PEX pipe with 5-minute epoxy. This should hold well enough for my purposes. I'm using the shorter, wider spring for this project (3/8" x 1-1/8" x 0.41"). For good measure, I used some 5-minute epoxy to glue the spring to my plunger. This is totally optional, but gives me one less piece I can lose. That's pretty much all there is to do. I just inserted the plunger in the tube and I'm ready to try it out! I placed an Easy Root Tab in the end, just far enough for it to grip, but not so far that it won't push out easily. I inserted the tool with one hand into the tank, pushed the plunger, and voila! A deposited tablet in 5 seconds! But I am over the moon about how this tool turned out. I just placed about 20 tabs in two minutes. Even with coarse gravel, forcing the pill in was no problem. The two pieces come apart for drying, as that wood dowel won't last forever. Now I understand why the professional ones are so expensive. This makes things so much easier. I'm definitely making a longer one for deeper tanks. Hope you find this useful. Thanks for reading! Bill

Hey everyone, I delivered some Orange Japanese Medaka Rice Fish and some unsexed Betta mahachaiensis to Aquarium Co-op yesterday. Not a huge quantity of either so get them while you can. If you do miss out, more will be coming at some point.

I added the first fish to the tank. Three Vin Rio Tetras. I'm hoping to get more when my LFS can. It's a 75 gallon tank and has been seasoning since the beginning of May. I'm planning to add more botanicals back in to darken the water again. Next up out of QT will be a group of Lemon Tetras.

I recently changed over my big aquarium. I sold the fish to my LFS and I am starting again. Why? Because it was not the tank I would sit down in front of with my cup and coffee and just watch for 1/2 an hour. My wife was highly skeptical. 'That's the best aquarium we have ever had. Nothing ever goes wrong. It is easy to take care of. What possible benefit of can come of getting rid of the angelfish? I like those fish!' And she was right on every count. I like(d) them too. Back when the parents were spawning and then growing the babies, there was excitement and even a little risk everyday. But after 4 years the tank had settled in to a happy monotony. Breeding wouldn't happen again as there were too many adult angels for a territory to be defended. It wasn't bad, but it was one big school of angels, almost like a school of tetras, very pretty to watch and very predictable. I need a challenge, I want a project, I want some risk. So now there are 11 discus in the big aquarium. The tank is new to them. I feel their apprehension as they are exploring the nooks and crannies of the driftwood. Each day they venture a little further and with more confidence. The biggest fish is the leader of the pack and initiates foraging runs and also serves as chief look out. Now the old excitement is back. That's the tank I want to be watching now because now that tank gives me hours of pleasure again.

I'm definitely not breeding for profit, but I'm accumulating some opportunities for store credit -- that's all my LFS does. Livebearers and cherry shrimp doing whatever they want to do. One day I'll get my pleco pair to breed again. Male keeps fanning then expelling white eggs, no fry. Only got fry once, last October, one survivor. The endlers are breeding nicely in here. Quarantine tub currently growing out the neon black platies going to the LFS, along with extra ludwigia trimmings, corkscrew val runners, and some bacopa.

I don't know if I'll make any profit, but here are the 50+ dwarf red coral platies I'm raising. They come from two batches that are a few weeks apart. I've been feeding them live baby brine shrimp, Easy Fry Food, and Sera Micron, and they've been growing like crazy. The water sprite in the back is also starting to pick up, so maybe I'll be able to sell some of it as well. 🙂

Maybe you need creative accounting. I have spent an inordinate amount on tanks lately--still less than I used to spend on eating out, entertaining, clothes, and travel. I mean, can we count as a credit the latte you did NOT buy, the movie you did NOT attend? I did not get to go to Paris. I can buy as many tanks as I want.

I have not tried this specifically. But I think chemically it would work out well in a short term way. It might not be necessary, depending on the sensitivity of the fish. If you brought the tank to the appropriate pH level, however long it took to reach your normal level would be more gradual than the plop and drop method. You would be exposing the fish to one less stress at a time, and potentially that could help. Would I do this for white clouds or danios? nope. But after my incredibly shocky tetra adventures, I am a big fan of minimizing shocks for those fish. I would STILL drip acclimate those fish because pH is only one water parameter. Your TDS/GH is likely also higher than their source water. Another thought I have is to use half your own water and half RO water to fill the QT tank matching their source water, drip acclimate, drop them in, and then water change slowly back to 100% tap water over the next few weeks. (I am really irrationally paranoid about tetras now, in case that wasn't obvious. please take this all with a grain of salt)

I'm loving this project. I remember reading about the concept of " balanced aquariums" in historical literature. Not too far from where we are now with the exception that they didn't believe in lots of water changes. Just don't use the film "The Incredible Mr. Limpet" as a reference. Goldfish, gouramis, silver dollars AND angels?! How about that gate valve though. The Trailer is worth checking out for a scenario we've all had happen.: https://youtu.be/bM4vR1B6xCk

I setup some tubs this year, so I would have an outdoor way to visit my folks and share my hobby. I set these up just like my organic soil Walstad aquariums. This is a boring video of the process:

I noticed some spawning activity from my Glowlights in quarantine. I put a sinking yarn mop in the tank to see if I could salvage any eggs. I left the mop in for a day. After that I put the mop in 2.5 gallon tank with slow stream of bubbles from a piece of rigid air tubing. Looks like I saved a few eggs from being eaten! I'll probably put a little sponge grunge into the tank for food and some Sera Micron as well. If they make it I'll try baby brine once they're bigger.

Some do some don't, but here is why I rinse my newly hatched brine shrimp before feeding to fry. So in a tablespoon of brine shrimp eggs there approximately 420,000 to 450,000 brine shrimp eggs. I use eggs that are supposed to give a 90% hatch rate so let just say around 400,000 hatch in a little less that 2 liters of water. It is generally agreed upon that they hatch in 24-48 hours and I run my hatchers for 36 hours. Now I want you to think about this. . . baby brine shrimp hatch and start swimming about, they also more that likely start feeding on whatever exists in the water be it dead shrimp parts, decaying shells, etc. we know this because you can see growth right from the start. Well. . . if they start eating they also start peeing, pooping, excreting, whatever shrimp do. All this umm stuff is of course just bubbling around in the hatching water, and you want to dump it into your fry tanks? Just for the sake of 30 seconds of rinsing it off? My picture shows what the hatching water generally looks like after straining all the shrimp and shells out, pretty grungy right, and the saltwater ammonia test is way off the chart. Do you still want to just dump that into your fry tanks? Now just take a whiff of that hatching water, you still want to dump that in your fry tanks. I know that there are those on both sides of the benefits to rinse or not to rinse your newly hatched brine shrimp. I"m not on the fence with this, I'm firmly on the side of the fence that I always rinse my newly hatched baby brine shrimp before feeding. What if it makes the difference between having 90 fry surviving from a spawn or 300 fry surviving? I've found that sometimes in the fishroom it's just those few extra minutes here and there that produce the much better final results. Oh, and I can't imagine that any fish wants that shrimp pee, poop, or ammonia flavor on their first meals of their life.

The question came up earlier about matching your tank parameters to the parameters of the fish arriving by mail. I'm curious what everyone does in that case? Do you worry about? what experiences you've had good and bad? I personally just float to temperature, then "plop and drop" discarding the water

Ryo, the tanks look great and your channel is terrific. Your enthusiasm for the hobby is contagious!

How fun. I actually discovered your channel a couple of weeks ago and have enjoyed the videos. Those Rice Fish in bowls are something else. Great to see you on the forum and keep up the good work!

Ryo! Love the channel. It's so cool to see what the aquarium hobby is like in Japan. Your videos are very well done and inspirational.

I am definitely ogling those platys. So cute!

Hello everyone, my name is Steph. I have only had a little planted 9 gal. tank for 2 years now (incl. a 6 months break due to moving). I am originally from Germany but immigrated to the US a while ago. Due to COVID I am currently staying home and occupying my time with learning how to program, gaming and K-Dramas (it’s a new obsession of mine that drives my husband crazy). My husband is a cargo pilot, so luckily for us his job was affected in a rather positive way, compared to mine. We moved from MN to HI last year and are enjoying the aquatic life in the ocean when not spending time with our Jack Russell “Mollie” and our little nemo Betta “Mochi”. I am glad that Cory started this forum, so newbs like me have a better way to get their questions answered instead of reading through 50 articles and older forum entries that all contradict themselves. Anyway, nice to meet you all 😄. -Steph

@Irene's answer is a much kinder, happier answer than my jaded answer. I'm going with what she said.

I don't quarantine plants from reliable sources. I did lose an entire tank of anubias a few years back that had been established for years after introducing 1 plant that ended up having a weird fungus that I didn't catch. I've never had an issue with Aquarium Coop plants causing any problems and don't bother treating or quarantining them, but if I were to get plants from another place that I'm not familiar with, I may consider it. Another place had plants grown outdoors and I have ended up with dragonfly and damsel fly nymphs through hitchhiking eggs. I know a lot of hobbyists that grow plants out in their ponds and sell excess, another good reason to treat and quarantine from new sources or places you aren't familiar with.

I think they may be the same as Deep Blue and Aquarium Masters. I have eight of them from 1.25 gallons to 7.5 gallons, and I love them. Mine were sold as Deep Blue, but the plastic on the rimmed ones says Aquarium Masters. I am pretty sure I saw some of them in an Aquarium Co-Op warehouse tour. Edit: I found it. It is a Member's Only video, FYI. This should take you right to the right time.

If you go for it, let us know your results. I've been puzzling over whether or not the Aqueon tank we bought for my son was a good buy since the reviews were terrible, but there don't seem to be a lot of easy to purchase options. Interestingly, my 40 gallon (no idea what brand) is a standard 36x12, not a breeder, and it also has a center brace.

I didn't vote because I've never ordered fish, but weirdly, I talked about this with a friend of mine over the weekend. He has been struggling with shrimp via mail order recently. 3 orders failed on him. He believes it has to be something he's doing because both the vendors he used are reputable. His most recent purchase was through a more local vendor and he seems to be having more success and he assumes it's because of a smaller difference in water quality. Based on his experience, I'd probably go for acclimating more slowly, but getting the fish out of dirty shipping water makes for a compelling argument as well. I'll be watching this poll and tucking away the results in my brain for the future! 😉

I also had a "sleeper male" Japanese Neon Blue Endler. He passed as female for quite awhile. He did finally color up a bit. He ended up being much larger than the other males, and he never got as bright or colorful as the other males. Those Ginga Rubra guppies are beautiful!

I clicked the wrong one as I voted, but I'll share my thoughts. Personally my thought is that since the fish have been in the bag water for several hours I prefer to get them out straight away. Ammonia is a dangerous substance and I prefer to have my fish exposed to it for the least amount of time as possible. So I float them for temperature then I put them straight in, discarding the bag water. True acclimation takes weeks, and they won't fully adjust to the new conditions for a bit. The acclimation process when you get a fish is just a quickened version of it, to ease the transition.

Don't forget to vote in the poll at the top of page

Unless it's a much more sensitive species of fish, or shrimp, I always plop and drop. I have never had an issue with it, but can say I have had issues with drip acclimation before. Some shipping water can get downright nasty.

I feel like they are so stressed, the best thing you can do is get them into some known good water parameters as soon as possible, so I just plop and drop. I live in CA and don't have a ton of issues with the temp they arrive usually and don't have to heat my tanks a ton really.

I agree with @Brandy I would cut your tap water 50/50 with RODI water. If they're really soft water fish try adding some peat, something with tannins, along with the RODI water. If you don't have that I wouldn't really worry about the ph. I think drip acclimating is iffy, depends on what kind of shape they arrive in. That bag water can be really bad for the fish. I personally would just float them to temperature and scoop into the bag like a cup of water at a time, for a half hour or so.

If you were to use pH down every time you do a WC you would need to measure out some pH down and add it too the new water, slowly raising the pH of the new water every time. Too much hassle IMO, just add some water every 5 min or so, or plop and drop, which i do. I got some burmese chocolate gouramis in the mail coming from Portand, (higher pH I belive) and just dropped the fish into the tank and they were perfectly find afterwards. I have all 8 of them still going strong. Also I'm sure a stable pH is better then a slowly rising one.

Whew! Profits are tough. Actually bringing in more than you spent while probably not charging for your labor is hard to do with tropical fish. That being said, I think I pulled that off once back in the 1980s when I bought Jack Wattley cobalt discus from Jack, bred them and sold baby discus for $5 a piece. I lived in married student housing, the water out of the tap was good quality, the utilities cost next to nothing, and I grew my own food for the fish, so expenses where low. The key to profits is keeping expenses low. Angelfish sell well if they are of desirable breeds, but I don't think I have ever broken even with angelfish. On a totally non-serious note: To make a $1000 breeding tropical fish - start with $2000 and quit when you are down to your last $1000 Should a massive fire hit your fishroom - there is always the insurance money Start a wildly popular YouTube channel and work 24/7, you might just break even Ask @Dean’s Fishroom - he seems to know how to actually turn a profit

The Incredible Mr. Limpet (1964) Bessie: “Just look, just look at my rug.” Limpet: “I’ve got it stopped now Bessie” Bessie: “Henry Limpet, your floating yourself right out of this happy home with this crazy hobby of yours." Limpet: “Now Bessie I’m going to run down right to the pet store and I’m going to get a new regulator for the intake hose.”

Quite possibly the coolest thing I have seen on this forum yet!!

I think the top alone will help a lot. I keep uncovered cold water tanks that run about 68 degrees with covered unheated tanks sitting directly next to it staying at around 72-74 degrees. A cover can make quite a bit of difference.

I'm in Antioch, and we have members that come in from as far as San Jose, Redding, Lake Tahoe... Every month. It's worth the trip once we start meeting in person again! But it's also worth tubing into our online meetings! I have fun hosting them haha.

I recently saw one of Cory's videos regarding this, I believe it was the "Making money breeding fish" series. He pointed out that you can breed multiple species in the same tank- for example, guppies, cherry shrimp, mystery snails, and hey, grow some Java fern too! I currently have a nice balanced setup with an established colony of assassin snails (they are VERY popular at the local fish club auctions,) cherry shrimp, tons of hornwort, and what I am hoping will be a breeding line of guppies. So I unknowingly had this set up pretty similar to what Cory suggested. I actually consider this my display tank, but hey, if you can make money off of it too, why not?

I was thinking you might get better results with an extra incandescent light on it. The top would totally help too. Older lights would have been less effecient and therefore dimmer and warmer? If you blanket it at night will it help? I suspect all those things are tiny changes in the scheme of things, but they might add up.

I can't imagine competing products would be a problem here, there are no such rules posted anywhere that I know of. I would think it's fair to compare/contrast Aquarium Co-Op products with the competition. It's just the affiliate links where posters are trying to generate money for themselves that I would recommend avoiding.

New fish for the week of 7/28-8/9 Another new week and another set of new fish!! Last week I posted some pics and I plan to keep doing that. Bear with me as I try to be a Jimmy #2 on camera skills 🙂 Frogs, Inverts and Snails African Dwarf Frog Amano Shrimp Cherry Shrimp Orange Shrimp Snowball Shrimp (pretty cool shrimp and very similar care to that of a cherry shrimp) Blue Velvet Shrimp Bamboo Shrimp (came in big!) Olive Nerite Snails Bettas (All Betta Splendens Are Male Unless Noted) Halfmoon Betta Halfmoon Dragon Scale Halfmoon Dumbo Ear Koi Betta Mahachaiensis (Unsexed and from Dean) Gouramis And Other Anabantiformes Powder Blue Dwarf Female Gouramis Sunset Honey Gouramis Scarlet Badis Cichlids Apistogramma Cacutoides "Super Red" (Locally Bred) German Blue Ram Assorted Discus (Red Turquoise, Tiger Turquoise, Yellow White) Assorted Angelfish Large (Bred from Randy, good color mix of black, blue and little bit of silver) Corydoras And Other Catfish Peru Skunk Cory (Love these and they are BIG) Pygmy Cory (Wild) Sterbai Cory Julii Cory Panda Cory Plecos Farlowella Vittata aka Twig Catfish Common Otocinclus Bristlenose Plecos (Locally Bred) Loaches Black Kuhli Loach Yo-Yo Loach Tetras Black Neon Tetra Cardinal Tetra (Wild) Ember Tetra Neon Tetra Candy Cane Tetra Rasboras Exclamation Point Rasbora (Great for those nano tanks) Pork Chop Rasbora Barbs Odessa Barb Livebearers Golden Leopard Platy Marigold Swordtail Black Lyretail Molly Assorted Male Endlers Assorted Fancy Female Guppy Assorted Fancy Male Guppy (Cobra Red, Leopard Tuxedo, Flamingo, Red Snakeskin) Killifish Clown Killi Lagos Red Killi Pairs (Pretty cool Killifish that can handle warmer water) Danios And Other Minnows Celestial Pearl Danio Glowlight Danio White Clouds Rice Fish Orange Medaka Rice Fish (Bred by Dean) Oddballs Pea Puffers Black Ghost Knife Zig Zag Eel aka Half Banded Spiny Eel (Gets around to 6-8 inches) Indonesian Datnoid

You can move the fry anytime you are comfortable that you will be able to consistently provide food for them. A tank with a sponge filter and heater, maybe with some java moss or other free floating plants would be nice. If you can take water from the parents tank I would definitely do that. The water change for the parents could trigger another spawn. For moving the fry a turkey baster will work bitch is inconsistent and you will always lose some. Netting them can turn into a big mess and can also damage their tiny fins at such a small size, I would not use this method. The best way in my opinion is to use an airline tubing siphon, the key is to not have a large fall in distance and always have water in your catching container before you start catching the fry. Oh and do not siphon into a net, use a plastic container and pour the fry into their new home.

Just found a 1934 movie where a key scene revolves around a Betta fight! Dragon Murder Case

I think I found one of the few things @Cory has yet to achieve in the hobby! 😉 Maybe he can make it a goal! 😉

@pedrofisk, I have been conducting some comparisons between several sponge & box filter designs. My personal preference would be using a sleek sponge filter I.E. like the ones from Aquarium Co-Op as the main filter source; with the possible addition of a small, specialized box filter, if desired. Perhaps filled with the media of your choice for more individualized applications, for fine tuning. From an "ease of use" standpoint & overall effectiveness, sponge filters do win, hands down, IMO. The sponge filters sold by @Cory, at Aquarium Co-Op, I feel, have a good blend of form, fit & function that is simplistic, but very effective in its intended application. @Daniel, "fancy smantzy", that's a phrase I haven't heard in awhile, lol.

Yes I've used liquid Dawn dishwashing soap for years. It rinses clean even if using cold water and I've never had any issues with it causing harm to the fish. Regular household white vinegar works great on any tougher stains and especially calcium deposits and dried on stains.

Is 30 seconds of rinsing going to going to kill you? I rinse mine, I have great breeding and fry rearing success, but as they say, your mileage may vary. It's a choice you have to make. . . When I actually figured it out more closely and yes that sieve is more than 40 years old. Here's an image of the new one I have first time ever out of the box. Note it was a product of West Germany, do you remember the wall between East and West Germany? Oh, and they cost $4.00 each.

Any guesses on what these will be used for? 🤔

It's a 20 long tank with a couple sponge filters in it. Here's another video @Bentley Pascoe made about it

So I was successfully spawning the black otto's a while back, see the video above. I found the biggest key was to have a fat and happy female. This of course involved feeding the oto's and not just having them forage for leftovers. I did colony or group spawning in a 10 gallon tank and found that it was very similar to corydoras spawning. Once well fed, did a cool water change at night and was rewarded the next morning with eggs all over the glass, plant leaves, etc. I rolled the eggs off with my finger and put them in a tumbler where they hatched in a few days. Right from the start they fed on live baby brine shrimp and Sera Micron. Growth was about the same as corydoras fry.

My little deck pond. Roughly 125 gallons of water, built in early 2000's so it's 15+ years old. Outer frame of 2x10", with liner over foam boards on sides and base. I'm amazed the original pond filter (Pondmaster) and liner are still functional. Creatures include a half dozen or so goldfish (shubukin, sarasas, and a wakin that Corey bagged up for me from Co-op years ago). I have too many arrowhead plants ... anyone up for a trade?