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Hello, just starting a journal about this spawn of my apisto agassizii fire red pair. I’ve only had them for 1 week and they are in a 3.5 gal cube while they quarantine. And I saw the female in the cave I put in. And I checked it with my light and sure enough there are eggs, I typically artificially hatch all my fish just due to the fact I’ve had more personal success doing it that way. So I pulled the eggs and put them in a clean tank with 50% water from a established tank and 50% new. Heater and an air stone in front of the cave to try and create some water movement. And I replaced the cave in the pairs tank. And I checked back later that day and I must have caught them mid-spawn because She laid more eggs in the new cave. So we will see if the ones I pulled are fertile. And I’ll post my progress and steps as I go. Ps to a admin I am having hard time with the pictures loading in sideways.

I moved to LA area in April They are doing great so far

this is charlie mint i had in an aquarium previously and converted it to partially submerged, partially emersed. it is vining like crazy but it has also started flowering! ive never had this plant flower before. this is the nano pond style tank i have going with shrimp and juvenile daisy ricefish

First-time caller here, but I thought this would be a great place to post about a successful experiment with my aquarium. I have envied the rock backgrounds Cory has been showing off lately, but had decided to just to paint the back of my tanks like normal. After rooting through the random leftover paint bin in the garage, I came across an old spray paint from my youngest daughter's old school project. Her project was to create a solar system out of styrofoam balls; mine became an experiment to see if it would look like as a backdrop in an aquarium. Long story short, this "Stone Texture Finish" spray paint looks great! I applied it to the outside of the aquarium on the back, and it looks like a reasonable rock analog! Cheap way to add a rock look to your aquarium. https://www.amazon.com/Krylon-K18201-Coarse-Texture-Granite/dp/B000BZX6VO/ref=sr_1_5?dchild=1&keywords=black%2Bspeckle%2Bpaint&qid=1600793761&sr=8-5&th=1

African Cichlids do well with minimal decor. I kept Haplochromis & Peacock cichlids in a large group with minimal decor. The large group helps curb aggression without needing lots of caves and hiding spots.

Check out these artificial plants.

Sergeant Ruby is my first puffer. I got her for $50 from a local hobbyist who was breaking down his tank. She's been such a joy to have. She gets along with all her tank mates and never makes trouble. She used to have a best friend that was an American flagfish. Sadly he passed away and Ruby barely moved for a week after that. She is fed a diet of ramshorn snails, bladder snails, and a variety of live worms raised in my worm bins and cultures. Anyone else keep this cute species of freshwater puffer?

Hey Everyone, This may sound like a bit of a commercial, and it probably is. However, Aquarium Co-op now has their new Brine Shrimp Eggs in stock. So over the years I've used tons of brine shrimp eggs going back over 50 years. I'm fairly picky about how I select the products that I use and I had warned Cory and Randy that it would take a really good brine shrimp egg to get me to use them. A disclosure, I did do some early testing of these eggs over a month of daily use before the Co-op team had even figured out how to get them packaged and in stock. So they are available on the Co-op site now : https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/breeding-supplies/products/aquarium-co-op-brine-shrimp-eggs I just wanted to let everybody here some positives that I've found with these eggs. They have a really really good hatch rate, right up with the best I've used in the past. They are packaged in a 3.5 oz/100 gram can and are quadruple sealed for maximum freshness. This size package makes really good sense for the majority of hobbyist, not a tiny amount like the little .2 oz vial, and you don't have to purchase a large one pound can to get quality eggs. The separation once hatched is the best I've ever seen. This is for me probably the number one reason to use these eggs, it's a huge time saver and just makes everything with daily hatching of brine shrimp easier. So there you go, it's my commercial, but it is for a really good reason..... Did I mention the new Aquarium Co-op Brine Shrimp Eggs have a really good hatch rate and the separation once hatched is the best I've ever seen?

Hey Fish Friends, Name is Brian Scott. I've been in the aquarium industry for many years, and have been very fortunate to work in "the industry" in several different capacities. Most notably as the aquatics editor for TFH Publications from circa 2003 - 2006, where I was afforded the chance to do a lot of writing on various aspects of the aquarium hobby. Additionally, I was often writing articles for Tropical Fish Hobbyist Magazine as well as Cichlid News Magazine. I prefer online forums over social media, where topics just keep getting pushed further down the list. Forums allow people to more effectively search and follow on-going projects and topics---especially those that may not get updated on a regular basis. At any rate, happy to be here and hope I can help out from time to time......and looking forward to always learning more myself. Cheers from NJ, --Brian

All the fish were in that same tank the entire time. No fish (except the parents) was ever netted until it came time to sell the whole lot, and even then I had to drain almost all the water out of the tank in order to catch the fish. I had purchased half a dozen dime sized leopoldis. They grew up in the tank and formed 3 pairs. Each pair had about a 2 1/2 foot cube bounded by plants that they patrolled. Eventually all 3 pairs were breeding simultaneously, all successfully raising fry (talk about thunder dome). They would raid the other pairs territories when they got a chance. There might have been 1000 - 2000 babies spread between the 3 pairs early on, but 98% of the fry gotten eaten at some point . Those six original fish are the biggest ones now. I don't think any of the babies that eventually grew up have ever gotten as large as the founders. The babies would pick off the parent's side similarly to what baby discus do. I fed the founders like crazy with blackworms, mosquito larva and scuds, but after I ended up with 50 angelfish in the tank, it was only TetraMin from then on. Also 6 angels in 500 gallons is nearly 100 gallons a fish. 50 angels in 500 gallons is 10 gallons a fish. So diet and room limited the babies just a little bit. And yes they were incredibly aggressive with the other pairs and there were lots of torn fins. But you can only do so much damage to a rival that is 7 feet away from you, and any time you spend harassing that rival is time not spent guarding your fry.

"Get some Malaysian Trumpet Snails for your substrate." Now, this wasn't exactly horrible advice. I just wish I would have not followed it or have done more research on how prolific they are. Snail substrate isn't exactly the look I'm going for.

Fantastic photo!

Personally I would steer clear of their knives. X50CrMoV15 is a highly stain resistant steel but thats about the only good thing about it. You can get much better knives for the price. Their cookware on the other hand I want to try. You'll also notice in the endorsements from famous chefs they only mention the cookware not the knives. I'm also weary of them claiming to be made in the USA since the steel they use is only produced in Germany.

@Pekitivey I switched over to the test strips but if I ever go back to the API kit I'm going to tape my nitrate test bottle to an air pump.

I currently have a 40 (standard? tall?) and I'm wishing it could be just a little larger. I have a schools of 12 tetras and 12 panda corys as well as a pair of dwarf cichlids and it feels like it's on the verge of being over-crowded. I assumed that the 55 would be the next best step (not likely to happen as I, like @Ken Burke, enjoy being married.)

I saw last minute that we would have a temperature drop last night into the 40s after it had been projected to stay in the mid 60s for the next week. I have N Class Endlers I got from Adrian HD himself both inside and outside in a 15 gallon container pond. I raced to setup another indoor aquarium and net the Endlers out through all the guppy grass and floating plants in the dark with a headlamp. I did my best but worried I might have missed a few. This morning I went out and sure enough in the sunlight I saw a couple upside down on the bottom and the water was about 48 degrees (laser thermometer). I netted them out and they wiggled! I got a container to put them in and then added just a bit of warmer water and they started to revive. I went back and found another 7 all of whom looked dead and were lying on the bottom upside down and all of whom revived. Here they are after reviving and are now with the rest of the colony. Amazing.

Hi from O.C. Ca. My name is Rob. Currently have 20g guppy, 30g Brichardi, 30g molly, 30g platty/sword tail, 55g fancy goldfish, 10g nursery, 10g Quarantine, 10g rosy minnow, 10g hospital, 2g beta. Upgrading electrical for 20g long (planted), 2 addl 30g, 2 40g, 1 addl 55g, 80g, 150g. Serious Addictive personality and impulse control problems. Additional tanks are going to be community, angel, discus, Africans (tanganyika) and water turtles. Current Tanks also include Cory doras, Hillstream loaches, asst. Plecos, & clown loach.

Set the tank up and leave it running for a week before adding fish......

I would stay away from convicts unless you want to basically give them away the babies. When they come to a club meeting because someone has bred them, they either sell for a $1 for a bag of 6-10 or have to just give them away. In a 20 gallon, you could focus on a nice strain of guppies, one of the strains of rice fish, or white clouds and, with all three of those fish you could have cherry shrimp going in there as well.

I leveled up today! Through the Co-op's inspiration and focus on education I leveled up so much that now my merch wears merch.

They won't eat algae wafers. Wafer is not the same as actual algae to them and they are such picky eaters. The only prepared foods I've heard people having luck with is repashy, as Stephen said. I've had no luck with it personally though (the angels and corydoras eat it, but the ottos want no part of it). Any other prepared foods are out, I've never heard of anyone getting their ottos on any kind of flake or pellet. If your tank is not making enough algae to feed your ottos, you can always supplement your tank with algae from another source. I put stones in a shallow tub outside with a couple inches of dirty tank water and let them sit in full sun for a week - they grow algae. I put a couple in the tanks for the ottos to graze clean, and swap them back out to the tub the next day for another couple rocks. Keeps the ottos fed but the tank is algae free.

I feel like a beginner. I haven't kept most fish or grown most plants. I have kept a few kinds of cichlids, and a few kinds of corydoras. The only deep dive I have done was bettas. I've grown a handful of easy to grow plants. My go to plant is hornwort. The hardest thing I ever tried to do was breed Heckel discus and that didn't work. But that is what makes it fun, lots to learn!

I would think yours has expired. I purchased mine recently and its expiration date is in 2025.

I feel like most "monster fish" meet this criteria. Think fish like arowana and fully grown oscars. KG Tropicals made a video awhile back and it shows a ton of different setups. Most of them are bare bottom and have only large pieces of driftwood or other hardscape.

I hope you're successful! Your grandson's angel is a beautiful fish.

I agree with @Daniel, my personal favorite is a heavily planted 10 gallon aquarium. They are inexpensive & versatile.

I wasn't around when it was advice that people gave out so have only heard stories about it. I'm so glad I live in the age of liquid ferts 😂

@ange, Thankfully, I didn't follow their bad advice with the metal, with my beginner aquarium. It would have been iron overload, plus whatever other chemicals\elements that would have potentially leached into the water column.

I blanch my zucchini and it sinks right away. I freeze what I don't use and when I feed the frozen zucchini, once it defrosts, it sinks right away. Every once in a while, I'll see some strings floating around, but those get picked up by the filter or sink and get eaten.

I usually do that with apistos, but this particular pair has eaten the past 7 spawns, so I'm afraid they might never learn how to properly care for their yourn

I leave them with the parents and see how the did (at least at first). The parents might eat the eggs, but they also tend the eggs, fanning water over the eggs and picking out any fungused one before the fungus can spread. Plus the parental care is very fun to watch.

Stick the zucchini in a fork, and press it against the glass or a piece of hardscape. I do it all the time and it always works for me

the two that I have look just the same, the "bulb" is just resting on the surface and the roots extend down into the substrate. At first I kept trying to get the bulbous part down in the substrate more, but it kept coming out and then I heard that they don't like being moved, so I have left them alone now for a few months and are doing good.

One of the worst pieces of advice I received was to layer the bottom of the aquarium with rusting metal, for a source of iron. 👹

Neat! I’m waiting on some sterbai corys myself. I feel like waiting to get new fish is half the fun.

Hello @Mary K welcome! Love the look of the tank. Is that a real driftwood stump in there?

Your nightstand light has a firmware update available! Click that cloud.

I blanch zucchini and green beans to make them soft and sink then serve them in a glass petri dish to help keep them contained. After they have been in all day and overnight carefully lift the dish out and usually take a bunch of "pest" snails out in the process.

Welcome! Im also from the land of cheese

I will be sure to keep an eye out! Right now they are itty bitty tiny. I do love them already! Inquisitive little fish, always watching everything, you can see them thinking. I keep 2/3 of the tank shaded, they really seem to appreciate it. I can sit there and read and then look over and all 6 of them are staring at me like they're trying to figure out what I'm doing. I'm thankful for this thread and your videos @Daniel without them, I probably never would have owned these neat little fish. 😍

the 75 gallon is. Finally. Set. Up. Blood parrot, polar parrot, and one poor molly that’s technically big enough to help take some of the bullying off the baby polar parrot. Don’t worry, it’ll soon go back to the 40 breeder where it reigns supreme. Hoping for the plants to grow in and planning to add more. No hard scape thus far.

All of the plants that us hobbyists use for aquariums are sourced from all over the world. Have a blast! Just be sure that they are actual aquatic species. Having said that, some aquatic plants are just temperamental and do better in different types of water. Usually, that comes down to your tanks water hardness. But yes, assuming your “balance” is correct and your plants are aquatic species, you can grow plants from anywhere. Concerning the “balance” and plant choices: Although we can grow plants from all over the world, different plants do require different “balances”. Sure, you can grow low-energy plants in a high-energy tank but the “balance” has to be set for your high-energy plants. Why? Because to keep your high-energy plants thriving you’re going to need to provide them with the correct tools (the “balance”) in order to expel all of that energy created through photosynthesis (growing plants). If your high-energy plants are using most of the tools it leaves just enough tools for your low-energy plants to use. Usually, the low-energy plants will be utilized in shadowy areas so the high-lighting won’t affect them (concerning algae build-up). Now, what about setting the balance for a low-energy setup? Can you still have high energy plants in a low-energy tank? Sure can! This is where plant choices really matters and where those finicky plants I mentioned above come into play. You want a dwarf baby tear carpet in your low-energy tank? I’d probably pick a different plant. Why? DBT needs more photosynthetic energy to thrive than what the average low-energy tank provides, 2 things will most likely happen; The DBT will slowly die off because it isn’t getting enough light OR you’ll have to crank the light up too high for the low-energy plants and assuming the low-energy tank isn’t using Co2, all of that light is just going to create algae and then your just back to square one (reseting the balance to high-energy). This is where choosing a nice stem plant that can handle a range of lighting conditions can be really handy. Wisteria is a great “all-rounder” plant that’s good at consuming energy to help maintain tank balance in all tank-energy levels. A great “all-rounder” carpeting plant one could use in a low-energy setup, in my experience, is Monte Carlo. Like wisteria, it can handle a large range of lighting conditions. Just have fun and do your research. Planted aquariums is one of those things that you don’t really know until you do it yourself. You can watch as many videos as you can but until you do it yourself you don’t really know what to do. Remember, every tanks water chemistry is different. Having said that, most of all the plants on the planet want the same thing and when you can properly provide those things your plants with thrive. The challenge (and fun) comes in finding that “balance”. Full disclaimer that most planted aquarium enthusiasts never tell you: 1) Be prepared to kill some plants and feel like you’re wasting money sometimes. 2) Just because a certain plant works in someone else’s tank doesn’t mean it’s going to thrive in your tank. 3) If your scape looks good to you, it is good!

Dennerle makes a nano gravel vacuum that is pump activated and very gentle and slim, for nano scapes. I would love to have it for my 4.5g shrimp tank 😞 Been hunting for one in eBay for months, no luck and when they're available, they're outrageously expensive (more than $30)

If he is not in any distress I would not euthanize him. I have had fish with various deformities who found ways to overcome their challenges and they led normal lives with the other fishes.

So i finished the background, love the way it looks. Plastidip stuff is so easy to work with. I also put the material on the top 2x4s. Not crazy about the look, but it'll do. It's mainly there to give me a place to put little stuff that would fall through the gaps in the 2x4s. For that, it does an awesome job. Sorry for the glare on the tank. It makes it hard to see the background. The lids! I love working with this polycarbonate stuff. I bought a 2'x4' sheet that let me make lids for both the 55 and the 45 as well. Just gotta get some of those stick on knobs I starting putting substrate in. I think I'll need 3 more bags, maybe 4 to finish it. I also still need to work on cable management and after I finish a project today, i am going to go down the hill to the bay and see what I can find for hardscape. I also need to drain the QT tank and put it up on the stand. It's currently sitting on the floor under the 55. Those are my goals for today; knobs, rocks/sticks, and move the QT tank.

I can't believe I am saying this, but it has to be a 10 gallon aquarium. Cheap, lightweight, just barely big enough. Sure 20 longs, 40 breeders all have their appeal, but in the cost, volume, size triangle you really cannot beat the old trusty 10 gallon aquarium. @fishnerd illustrates the beauty of a 10 gallon. He has 11 in a bedroom and is running a breeding program out of his 10 gallons tanks.

Longer rather than taller. I guess its a good thing I tend to prefer smaller fish that don't need a ton of vertical space. I am short and I have short people arms. Anything that ended up in the bottom of a tall tank would be gone for forever.

It could actually be a tapeworm coming out. I would definitely treat for parasites if it was my fish.

Trying to make a new lid for my 12g. The existing one was fine, but blocked the majority of the back filter area. This made it a pain to grow plants in the back section as they all had to squeeze in through a small hole and then be disturbed when I had to open the lid for anything. I can laser cut up to roughly 11x20, but a) my acrylic supplies are low and I didn’t have a full sheet of clear, and b) the lid dimensions I needed were 11.25x13.5... so it’s in two pieces. One piece clear for the back which won’t be moved as much and is directly under lights, and translucent for the front portion. I also discovered halfway through this process that the clips on the old lid were both too wide for the new lid (1/4th vs 1/8th), and too few in number thanks to the new design. So I also tried to prototype something small that could hand over the tank side and hold it in place. apologies on the poor quality. This is the front part of the lid. The make-do clips are in the hole in the center to save on material. The hole is because I don’t really have jumpy fish in there and wanted a simple way to feed and open. close up of the clip design. In hindsight, this should’ve been a part of the project measurements - the lid should’ve been a hair less wide, and the little part that holds the actual acrylic up should be a little bigger and bulkier. It works for this purpose but it’s a bit tight. this however is a literal representation of measure twice, cut once... guess we’ll be trying again once I figure out how you measure a curve. But, overall, for half an hour of fooling around it works for what I needed. And luckily since it’s in two parts, I only need to recut half of it. I’d prefer to do it all transparent too so I need to pick up some more acrylic.