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Started a few years back with golden shortfin male bred to the best regular longfin female i had to create F1. All F1 came out as standard shortfin fish, but carry the gene for gold and/or longfin. Since both gene are recessive, to get a golden longfin(double recessive) the baby will need to have both recessive gene of the gold and longfin from both parent. Next step was choosing the best F1 to breed with themselves in hope they happen to carry the 2 gene. Chances are 25% non carry/50% carry but no show/25% carry and show. In real life I got less that 10% that came out gold and about 25% came out longfin.(longfin at this time was very low quality, they just show sign of being long-"er" than shortfin). But with my luck I happen to get a very nice golden longfin in this batch(bottom photo at 4 month old). Breeding F2 with F2 So I ended keeping 2 golden longfin male and 3 longfin female 1 gold and 2 regular. Only keeping the golden babies(F3). Took the F3 and pair them back to their father(F2). Bottom photo.. Young fish aren't long enough, they wasn't even 4 month old yet. Right now F4 is growing up as fry. And I have already started a new pairing for a different set of F1 so ill have something to cross to when the F4 stuff gets too inbred. Bottom photo is the parents of the new F1 completely unrelated to the first family. Backtracking a bit, the first family all had yellowtips or whitetips, but 2 fish in F3 batch. They were longfin regular color fish that carry the gold gene, they are green/red. So I put them together hoping they kick out a few golden fry with a different fin color. I'm also crossing F4 to shortfin gold and F4 to F3(uncle) just to have something different to bring back into the family. Hopefully guy/guy are going the same and we can cross bloodline one day. Its pretty fun when you go back is see their history. If you made it this far thanks, I do enjoy working with these fish..I'll photo bomb from here.....

Top Fin (petsmart brand) undergravel filter upright tubes fit sponge filters like they were made for them @Tre

What you will end up with are what is commonly called "mutt guppies". This mutt guppy tank has been in operation for just over 5 months.

I have absolutely no advice for you, but I can't wait to see what everyone suggests. And what you come up with. Thinking about a smaller bedroom tank myself, so watching closely. 👍☺️

My F4 babies are pure golden longfin and 100% comes out gold, I'm now just working to make them longer. Making them cleaner,healthier, some more variety in color and genetic before I introduce them to the market. I hate to be the breeder that make a family of fish that ppls will talk bad about. Same happen to me 10 year ago with golden longfin I bought, they wasn't producing any fry. My guess is they was too inbred, some ppls are scare or don't have the time to put in the work crossing them out and working them back in. Maybe it was a bad gene, who really know. Just like highfin platy had a bad gene, now breeder made or found a better gene for highfin and they are amazing now. You should try again and we can trade in the future.

IMO I think the front is best. Looks nice and gives the typically shorter foreground plants more intense light so they can grow well don't start reaching.

@pedrofisk, The aquarium chiller worked well on a 10 gallon tank, rather quickly. It dropped the tank temperature 9 degrees Far. in several hours. I would imagine results would be variable, dependent on the angle of air flow, etc. Evaporation was mild to moderate and the humidity did rise about 6 percent in the 'average sized room', where the tank is located.

I must be scanning posts too quickly because at first glance...I thought this was a coffee maker.

To keep ya'll updated, I'm okay, me and my family are safe, the hurricane brushed passed my home so at worst, it's probably a power outage. Sucks for my nitrogen cycle but there's no fish luckily. Praying for that little bladder snail and my plants but we're okay.

Hi all: As I continue to work on my Six-Piece Nano-Ponds project, I wanted to try an alternative to the tried-and-true sponge filter: this 4" box filter from Jehmco: https://jehmco.com/html/box_filters.html (non-affiliate link) In the constant debate between sponge and box filters, the sponge filter usually wins for me, except for one big problem: that thing is a mess to clean, even using the baggie technique. So I thought I would see if I could get some nice layered sponge work going on in such a way as to make it easiest to clean and most efficient in polishing the water while I'm at it! The Jehmco box filter consists of three pieces. Water flow goes from top to bottom, and then bubbles back up through a tube in the center. So, rather than think of mechanical media and bio media as two distinct phases in filtration, I'm thinking of it more along the lines of a "gradation". Coarse particles get filtered out and removed first, and the fewest bacteria grow there, because that's cleaned and/or changed more often. At the end, I would have the most bacteria and the finest particles. And all the layers in-between would be a progression from one to the other. If I layer things right, the plan is to never change most of the media! So I went hunting on Amazon, and found this lovely pack of AquaNeat foam pads in various densities, designed for SunSun filters and others: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07VBQHKR1 (non-affiliate link) This selection provided me three pads of each kind, all for $13. It may seem like overkill, but I'm actually building SIX such filters, so it'll all get used! The pads are about 8-1/2" across, so I figured I could get 2-3 box filter pads from each one. I plan never to replace them. The replaceable part comes from this blue and white floss, $7 from PetSmart (sometimes discounted), and I think I should be able to get somewhere around 20 pads from this one piece! The final type of pad I wanted to employ here was also a piece of filter foam from Aquarium Co-Op, because it's so very coarse and a good first layer: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/filter-media/products/sponge-pad-coarse After taking some measurements, I decided I needed four-inch circles, so I first cut a piece of cardboard to size, and I used that as a guide for cutting my pads. I punched each pad twice with a chopstick to make room for the filter tubes, and assembled my "Dagwood Sandwich" of a box filter! I ended up using TWO floss pads for the top, to help catch more detritus before it enters the pad assembly. Looks like the Aquarium Co-Op pad will catch a lot as well. One last bit of hot-rodding to do: The Jehmco Web site suggests that putting a real uplift tube on the filter will significantly increase the draw of water through it. So I purchased a 3-foot piece of 1/2" stiff tubing (also from Jehmco), cut it into six-inch lengths, and it fit quite snugly on my filter box: And that's it. I'm hoping that maintenance will pretty much consist of replacing the two floss pads, lightly rinsing the first couple layers of pads most often, rinsing the rest of the pads progressively less often. One souped-up, turbo-charged, hot-rodded box filter ready to go! I'll try to post a follow-up in coming months about how well this worked out. Thanks for reading! Bill

I added this pair into my spawning tank tonight. Almost immediately upon finding each other they were displaying spawning behavior. With any luck I should have some eggs tomorrow or the next day.

Hello Fish Folks, What a fantastic idea Cory, thanks so much for setting this up to share the love and knowledge of water keeping! We have 10 tanks on the go at Bedon Cottage Aquarium, based in Norfolk U.K. mainly Betta fish orientated, but diversifying and exploring all the time.

New fish for the week of 8/24-8/30 Look for the upcoming video on this unboxing. Also got in some nice guppies from Cory this week! Frogs, Inverts, and Snails African Dwarf Frog Amano Shrimp Cherry Shrimp Orange Shrimp Green Jade Shrimp Blue Velvet Shrimp Bamboo Shrimp Nerite Snails (Red Spot and Zebra) Goldfish Panda Butterfly Tails (Came in really nice!) Bettas (All Betta Splendens Are Male Unless Noted) Crowntail Veiltail Halfmoon Halfmoon Dumbo Ear Thai Flag Crowntail (Pretty cool looking) Black Samurai Plakat Galaxy Koi Plakat (Some very nice colors) Gouramis And Other Anabantiformes Sunset Honey Gouramis Black Tiger Darios (Really cool nano display fish) Cichlids Apistogramma Agassizi "Fire Red" Apistogramma Panduro Nanochromis Transvestitus Pair (Really pretty West African Cichlid) Assorted Small Discus (Cobalt and Red Melon) Bolivian Rams Corydoras And Other Catfish Corydoras Elegans Salt and Pepper Cory (Corydoras Paleatus) False Julii Cory Panda Cory Dwarf Petricola Catfish (Locally bred) Plecos Long Fin Blue Eye Bristle Nose Farlowella Vittata (aka Twig Catfish) L106 Orange Seam Pleco Common Colombian Otos Red Lizard Whiptail Catfish Super Red Bristlenose Long Fin Super Red Bristlenose Loaches Kuhli Loach (Back in stock!!) Reticulated Hillstream Loach Zebra Loach Golden Dojo Loach Red Lizard Hillstream Loach (Super cool looking and new for the shop!) Tetras Black Neon Tetra Cardinal Tetra (Wild) Congo Tetras Male Diamond Head Neon Tetra Glowlight Tetra Neon Tetra Rasboras Exclamation Point Rasbora Other Cyprinids Rainbow Sharks Danios And Minnows Celestial Pearl Danio Gold White Clouds Livebearers Assorted Endlers Assorted Fancy Female Guppy Assorted Fancy Male Guppy (Blue Variegated, Japanese Red Tail, Leopard Tuxedo, Red Mosaic, Blue Neon, Red Snakeskin) Vienna Guppy Pairs (Cory bred) Long Fin Panda Guppy Pairs (Cory bred) Gold Lyretail Molly Platies (Red platy and Golden Leopard Platy) Rainbows Red Neon Rainbow Killifish Norman's Lamp Eye Killifish Oddballs Endlicheri Bichir Zig Zag Eel Black Ghost Knife Hairy Puffer

Hi all, I am looking at a way to switch up my use of air and curious on when I should consider a Linear air piston pump a reasonable idea to possible cut down on electricity usage and to still provide air to my tanks. I have 6 tanks 3 being 10g a 20 tall a 35 and a 55 all having sponge filters. Any tips or info on the pump in this way is appreciated!

I've spent some time in research, and there's not a lot of info out here! 1. The first thing I learned was the difference between schooling and shoaling. Shoaling is just fish hanging out together, but schooling is more about the fish moving in the same direction when their numbers are big enough. Not all shoalers are schoolers. Learned that from Rachel O'Leary. 2. Schooling behavior seems to come out when the numbers are big enough. 3. Water flow does not seem to be a big factor. So it looks like I will need to find fish that are known for their tight schooling. Rummy nose tetras are a good example, but this being a smaller tank, I'm tempted to consider ember tetras, as I've never kept them before.

There is this but you gonna need a bigger nightstand.

Hi! I’m Ben. I live in Mississippi, U.S.A. I currently have 9 aquariums, mostly small with small inhabitants (the largest I have is a 55 gallon). I am particularly interested in finding ways to keep natural looking aquariums using the most natural materials and things easily available (basically scaping tanks with hardscape and plants and botanicals but with the least amount of purchased materials possible). I like this because it saves money, but also it’s a fun challenge to see how I can use things that you wouldn’t typically find in an aquarium store but look right at home in a natural aquarium. I find that the aquarium hobby has a lot of “rules” but nearly every “rule” has hundreds of exceptions, so I enjoy forums and similar places to see what all is actually possible! I’ll attach a few tank photos.

I've got forktails in my 90g and all they do is hang out at the spray bar and chase each other. No idea what they'd do in a smaller tank.

The cherry shrimp will make a life for themselves deep in that sponge. For my tanks with shrimp colonies, anytime I clean, I have to dip my sponges in a bowl of aquarium water over and over to get the dozens of babies to swim out of it. I'm sure I'm not saving them all though.

Rainbows will eat whatever can fit in their mouths. My maccullochi are full grown and love young cherry shrimp and fry. That said, mine are well fed so they don't actively hunt for live food. Same for my boesemani. So with enough hiding spots you may have some survivors. I actually have bred and grown a few cherry shrimp offspring in my 90G that houses boesemani and lots of tetras.

Visited the CooP today, impossible to leave without buying fish.

Pleco babies!

Did it at least hold in the spaghetti later that night for dinner?

Sweet video, its easier with fish since I get about 100-200 fry every set so my chancesgets better. It'll be more fun if I had the room and time. Hopefully someone is doing the same

Your guppies are super unlikely to go brown any more than if you let free range chihuahuas breed for 20 generations that they would revert to wolves. What ever the results of your breeding program it will be both fascinating and colorful. There are books on guppy genetics but I have never owned one so I cannot vouch for this one. Genetics for Guppies by Bryan Chin. The guppy genetics would follow the same basic rules as the white cloud genetics being discussed in this thread: @WhitecloudDynasty might know some good resources.

This is super cool @WhitecloudDynasty ..I wouldn't call myself a fish breeder...but i do breed (snakes) My particular obsession is pairing ressive genes together and I love danios here's a video worth checking out...its about ballbpythons....but a double ressive project is a double ressive project, doesn't matter if its ball pythons, danios, or donkeys...the math is the same When he is talking about "double het" that would be your F1 generation...het, short for heterozygous, means its carrying a copy of a gene from one parent ergo it is not visual for the gene and double het, well its carrying 1 copy of 2 different genes

If you want to add more oddball fish you could get an African butterfly fish or a leopard bush fish. Both aren't very demanding, though I have a bush fish that only started eating dry foods after a couple of months, and he only eats flake food. As for bottom dwellers, I'm always a huge pleco fan. Maybe you could some albino and/or longfin bristlenose plecos? That might spark the interest of them for some basic genetics. Clown loaches are also pretty nice and entertaining.

A larger, deep bodied tetra or rainbowfish should be big enough to keep out of a rope fish's mouth. Congo tetras are pretty fascinating, the males get rather fancy fins and their displays are quite nice to watch. Rainbowfish come in an array of colors and school pretty well, and the larger fish are great both to stay out of a ropefish's mouth but also be of interest to young children. Their exuberant feeding frenzy is always a hit whenever folks come over and I feed the tank. If you wanted other bottom dwellers, pictus cats or synodontis petricola should get big enough to remain out of a rope fish maw, and you could have a group of them. If you wanted just a single large catfish then I'd go with a featherfin squeaker as they get sizable and they're another rather distinct looking fish that kids may get a kick out of. They're shy when young and small, and become much more outgoing as they get bigger.

Wow, I happily stand corrected! Very cool!

Start by fasting him for 3 days and keep and eye out for poop. For bloat you can try an Epsom (plain, from the grocery store with no additives like lavender) salt bath. It draws fluids out of the body and can help your betta pass any blockage. - 1tbsp in a gallon of clean, dechlorinated water at same (or very close) Leave him in for 10-15 minutes (no more than 15) Keep very close eye to make sure he doesn’t pass out. -have a second gallon prepared with 1/4 tbsp Epsom salt (you can eye ball it). Put your fish in this solution for another 10-15 before putting him back in his tank. You can do this once a day but you should avoid more than 6 days in a row. Bettas are such gutty fish they will just keep eating and they always act like they are hungry. Some people soak their pellet food before feeding to lessen the chance of the fish getting compacted. hope that helps!

Looks like you have a female and a male there. I can say bottom photo is definitely a male. The top pic appears to be female but id be more confident if i could see another picture with a slightly different angle. Female fins have a much rounder curve to them so theyre just not as easy to spot as the male which clearly has almost a 90 degree angle to the fin there. You may also be able to tell by behavior. If you have a male/female pair i bet that male is following her around everywhere she goes.

I recently bought a 40 breeder from Petco ($1 a gallon sale) along with the corresponding lid. When I set the tank up the lid doesn’t fit, it’s 1/2” too wide (front to back). I called the store I got everything from and they measured the rest of the 40 breeder lids and they were all the same size as the one I had. I called and emailed Aqueon about this and they tried to throw Petco under the bus saying that Petco was reboxing Tetra tanks as Aqueon. Then I read them the code on the bottom of the tank and then they admitted it was theirs. So it looks like with the added volume quality control has taken a back seat. I had to take the lid to a glass shop to have a 1/2” taken off one of the panels. Aqueon is sending me something for my trouble. So if you’re in the market for a similar setup I’d make sure everything fits before you leave the store. No need for surprise when you get home.

@Pete, I purposely cut my power cord and soldered in a rotary thumb-wheel switch for an easy, on/off feature.

Somehow one of the cords on my USB nano air pump got damaged, causing it to short and not work. Earlier this week, I was able to cut out the damaged section and splice the wires without much hassle. I'm so glad these are nicely made. It's a good feeling when you can repair something vs throwing it away.

Today I added another feature to improve on this filter: an elbow outlet with a duckbill nozzle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N11DVZS (non-affiliate link) These particular nozzles fit the 1/2" tubing on the box filter perfectly, force-fit without glue: This tube and nozzle attachment pushes quite a bit of water, even with just the bubbles of the USB nano pump: Under the water, there's a nice long linear stream, as evidenced by the bubbles showing up several inches away: I think this nozzle helps increase the water pressure, giving it more power!

give him a salt dip to see if that helps. i wouldnt keep salt in the tank constantly as it can harm the labyrinth organ over time but a dip should be beneficial. i would also see if you can get your hands on some (preferably live but frozen will do) daphnia. it works similar to a laxative in my experience and may do a better job of flushing him out if he is just bloated. feed him only that for a few days. if you go with frozen defrost it in tank water with some garlic powder. it doesnt look like a tumor to me, from the info you provided it seems to be bloat that just never went away. your fish sitter may have severely overfed him regardless of any instructions you left. i personally use a pill organizer and portion out the food for each tank for the day so whoever is fish sitting only needs to open up that day’s compartment and pour it in. i dont trust written instructions or other’s judgement. i use something like this and have one for each tank. i think i paid like $1.50 at my local grocery store. let us know if this helps it go down a bit!

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My silliest mistake is the opposite of yours. I used to forget to unplug the heater before a water change. Probably broke half a dozen that way until I finally had one explode in my face as I began adding water back in. Nowadays, I have them and any other equipment that should be off during water changes on cut off switches... and I also have a small notch in my eyebrow to remind me to use them.

I was recently doing a water change on my son's 29 gallon and wasn't watching the bucket while I messed with some plants that had come up while gravel-vacuuming. Then as it started to overflow, I over reacted and moved too quickly. The next thing you know the bucket hits the ground the hose is still siphoning water from the tank and my son is finding out that his mom has a colorful vocabulary. My only saving grace was the fact that the 5-gallon bucket landed bottom down. So the water just splashed over the edge. Instead of 5 gallons plus overflow, I only ended cleaning about 2 gallons of water out of the carpet. The silver lining here is that it made me appreciate my python even more. And I'm definitely going to look into extending my python hose like @Daniel suggested.

I'd be willing to bet most of us that use a Python or hose to fill our tanks have done it. DON'T EVER WALK AWAY when filling your tank, LOL. The hose WILL fall out (I should invest in the hook Python makes) or you WILL forget how close to the top the water is. SMH, I hate to admit it, but I've done it more than once. Now I put a chair in front of the tank I'm filling and sit there until it's done.

I often forget to plug back in my heater after a water change, but thankfully it takes a long time for the tank water to change temperatures. 😅

I wanted to do this with my 55-gallon & was successful to a point. My favorite addition were the big rocks you see in the attached pic. My dad had collected them throughout his life (he passed in 2016), & they were spread throughout his yard. I excavated them & proudly added them to my tank. You could see them better before my plants grew in. Your tanks look great! Alesha

I kinda use Brandy's turkey baster trick but a bit different. I fill the baster half way, then squeeze the bulb to get the air out. Just point at the detritus and release the bulb. Gentle enough not to disturb plants.

I've never kept angels and didn't think I ever would. But then I watched the "Master Breeder Reveals His Top Secret Aquariums [Tour]" yesterday and saw the angels in @Dean’s Fishroom Angelfish and Sterbai corydoras tank (See 12:39 in the video). Now I'm trying to figure out how to sneak a 55 gallon tank into the house to hold some angels. Those fish captured my heart.

Delicious? Perhaps but I would not eat it without ranch.

Used the wrong sieve for rinsing baby brine shrimp most went down the drain 🤦🏼‍♂️