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Guilty of this, except with my phone.

Ok everyone! I know you got them so let’s see them! Show. Off. Those. BETTAS!!! Here is mine. He is a Green Dragon. I’m quite proud of him. He is super cool.

memes will continue until we get our meme live stream....... then immediately after the live stream they will continue again 🙃

Old weathered apple wood cut to fit.

Driftwood in the discus tank

Rice, rice, baby! Just saw that my gold medaka ricefish eggs have hatched!!! 10 days exactly since they were laid! I'm very excited and just wanted to share my happiness! This is the first egg laying fish that I have intentionally spawned. I am excited to grow them out and spread them into the hobby! They are SO tiny! I should be seeing more in the coming days as they have been spawning every day for the past 10 days. That's so many eggs! 😊😊😊

Handsome man... my previous betta Soundwave looked like his brother from another mother. 🙂 Here's my current mustard gas betta fish named Sonic who is enjoying life as the tank boss of my planted community tank:

We call ours Sunshine.

This was Brian, and he was awesome...

This is my Betta, his name is Max (BettaMax).

Hello everyone been a fish keeper since I was 12, 38 now been on and off between that but always get pulled back. I stumbled on Aquarium Co-op on youtube and really dug Cory's matter of fact style. It made me go through and watch the other videos and feel like he's surrounded himself with decent honest people. That is endearing that even as a business man he has an honest approach in laying out the facts and letting you decide. Anyways hope to frequent these forums with like minded people who I can Nerm out with since in my real life it's almost a no Nerm zone.

Any excuse to show my wood... Let's start with my bonsais: Having a tough time with diatoms, suddenly reappearing many months after setting this up. I'll share my Malaysian driftwood later today.

I think @Daniel would have some stories to tell.

Haven't even moved in, already getting trolled.

@Streetwise has suggested themed daily photo threads so I thought I would start it off with the top-view of the 1930s Historically Accurate Planted Aquarium. It is nearly ready to roll. As you can tell it gets a lot of direct sunlight.

The purpose of this thread is to celebrate each Wednesday with pictures of the wood in our tanks. We could also include discussions of driftwoods, I guess, like what kinds we like best and best uses. I have one tank with two measly pieces of driftwood. The bigger piece was sold as spiderwood, the smaller didn't have any name attached to it, it was just a piece of wood screwed to a piece of slate that caught my eye at my lfs. I will admit, the nighttime lighting from my NICREW RGB Plus made for some neat creepy photos! I know y'all have better pictures than ME! Let's see 'em!!!

Hi everyone, I'm Maggie. Like so many here I recently became re-interested in fishkeeping after being out of it for many years (fam, job, cost, etc). I don't exactly remember what sparked my interest again, but first I read up on and looked at photos of what kind of fish I wanted. I watched several of Cory's videos to hear the descriptions and more about the fish. I knew I wanted a peaceful community tank but didn't really want tetras or guppies. It turns out I really love harlequin rasboras, so I built my dream tank around them, hopefully to end up with around 15 or so. I have a 45-gal tank that is now fairly heavily planted. My showstoppers will be 2 or 3 pearl gourami, and I love the peppered cory cat (planning on 4), but there are several other adorable cories, too. My tank is about 3/4 done with fishless cycling using ammonia. Algea started growing 2 days ago, nitrates are finally rising, up to almost 20, ammonia and nitrites have been steadily high w/dosing. I am at that "I can't wait" point right now!! I have some trumpet snails that came in on my plants and am wondering how they are still surviving the ammonia bath. I just know I'm going to want a 10 gal for some cherry shrimp, which I've heard are expensive snacks for gourami, so I need a separate tank for them. Then they'll need some fishy companions in the form of (maybe) green kubotai rasboras and a few cories. I am looking forward to learning a lot from everyone and sharing fish stories!

I got the brown betta from Petco about a year and a half. Can you guess what kind he is? He is actually a Bumblebee. I don't know about you but I think he is pretty unique. Recently put the blue betta in a 75 gal with 4 tetras and he is LOVING it! After being born in a cup, this is a huge improvement.

Happy little trees with spiderwood and java moss. I know this one looks sad. Old pic, the tank is full of plants waiting for the 75 gallon upgrade.

I love that bettas always have cool names :) Meet Sapphire, my chubby half-moon. He lives with a bunch of female guppies and they seem happy together.

Gilligan

Hello everyone, I just watched @Irene’s video on what she uses as a quarantine tank. The plastic tote is a neat idea. Was curious what everyone else uses as their quarantine tanks other than an actual fish tank?

This is Cinnabar. I thought I had a picture after he was settled into his tank!

@RyanR I can't stop looking at the half tetra lol.

Hi @Gorsim, I'm really not sure what the minimum is, I'm only about 1/2 liter and a teaspoon of eggs for now. I use them in 24 hours then the next batch is ready. You may want to double check, I thought I remember hearing something about using them within 48 hours.

@BreeMarie the only thing I can think of is if she has over years found a bit of salt to be a key in her mind to keeping fish in general healthy. I personally run about a tablespoon per 10 gallons in most my tanks. Doesn't seem to bother the plants and I feel it really helps with live bearers specifically.

Rice fish are very popular in Japan and they have many fancy and exotic variations of them. But for some reason they are not produced for export or at least not export to the USA. Like many others I've tried to figure a way to bring some of the more interesting ones in. But even though I have an import licence finding a company to export them has evaded me. Their eggs can be mailed similar to how killie eggs are mailed around the world. But I haven't found anyone that will harvest and mail eggs. In my opinion it is going to take someone with good contacts of Japanese breeders to go to Japan and figure a way to get some shipped. Not a easy task and maybe not even possible. I feel eventually we will see some of the more fancy variations, it is just going to take some time and probably deep pockets.

Thanks for getting this started @Daniel. Thanks everyone for embracing this theme. Cheers.

Cool theme. How often do we look at our tanks from the top down? Well, most of mine have a lot of surface agitation anyway, except for my betta tank.

No lids mostly, I am never a 100% on anything. Some lidless tanks are stocked with classic jumpers, that is swordtails. I haven't had any jump yet because I use hornwort as a pseudo lid, and I also keep the water an inch lower than normal in tanks with swordtails. Still could happen as swordtails are very athletic. I did have jungle val jump out of my big tank once. But it wasn't fatal

I was at the new place to take a few shots of the progress. Got to fly the drone too! Very exciting stuff on the way. 🙂

So I have been interested in rice fish since I first heard Cory mention them saying they might be a new trend in the U.S. For the longest time I could only see them on websites with only a few varieties available and they were usually sold out. I did finally get some Daisy's blue rice, but they were not true medaka in the species latipes. Then I got some platinums and could not have been more thrilled. Recently I have seen some "red cap" and am itching to make a setup for them. Further research took me to Amazon.co.jp, and a whole new world of different varieties was opened up along with large amount of envy. Now how do I go about getting them from Japan? And is it worth it for a common hobbyist?

Welcome! I hear ya about the nerm free zone. My wife has been an angel about listening to me, but I can see her eyes gloss over after just a couple of minutes and I know she's gone to her happy place. Tons of nerms here!

So I've dealt with these worms three times now. Levamisole has been somewhat successful. I believe it has always paralyzed the worms, however I had one case where the fish couldn't pass them. I have mixed up fenbendazole flakes and fed them to guppies and had 100% success with that.

Exactly as Mridul Singh says, males will be a little clearer than females. If you only keep deep red ones you may cull out all your males so just keep an eye on that.

I don't think that this is a myth or uncommon as both my 46 and 72 bowfronts had the brace break and both ended up leaking. I fixed both by using a stainless steel brace replacement and an extra thick bead of black aquarium silicone. Now that I do aquarium service, I offer tank repairs and the only tank I had to repair was also a bowfront that cracked the top frame and separated the front panel. I know you didn't list this as an option, but for what you want, maybe look at a 75 instead of a 55 or 60. Both 55's and 60's only have 4 square feet of ground space for plants and hardscape. A 75 ends up with 6 square feet and allows much bigger hardscape and more room to layer plants and create depth. If you do go with a bowfront, I'd preemptively reinforce the cross brace with something stronger than 1/4" plastic they come with.

I thought I put too much in or messed something up the 1st time. So bright orange and soooooo many. The next batch was just as good, so now I use just one teaspoon and get what I used to get from 2. Well worth it and the fry love it, even the adults in the tanks with fry baskets go crazy for it. It's funny watching a giant Venustus or Peacock hunting the tiny shrimps.

A 4x2x2 (if my brain is right that's 120 gallons/~455 liters) tank is fine for a fahaka. It might be a little stuffy when he/she's full grown, but the sump should handle the bioload.

Loving your photos. That shot with the blacked out aquarium. Good stuff @MickS77!

Getting this product to market was a very long journey with many ups and downs. I couldn't be more thrilled with the reception these brine shrimp eggs have received so far. For my own personal aquarist journey, I knew BBS was a vital component that I was missing in my fish room. I bought premium eggs from the two main players available here in the US, but I was growing increasingly frustrated that I wasn't getting "clean" harvests. I legitimately felt like I was doing something wrong with how I was hatching given how many shells were staying mixed in with my BBS. Every time I hatched I would spend up to 30 minutes or so letting the BBS settle to remove floating eggs. Then, some of the eggs end up settling to the bottom of the strainer/cup/whatever and can't be removed. The first time I hatched out our samples I was blown away by the separation. Seeing virtually NO eggs mixed in with the BBS was like looking upon a a glorious sunset! And now, seeing all of you have the same results and reactions is just fantastic!

That's what the community is here for! With each water change, you are pulling suspended minerals (in this case salt) out of the tank and putting fairly clean water in. So if you have 1 tbsp salt in your 10g tank, and you do a 50% water change, you'll have 1/2 tbsp salt left. Do another 50% water change, and you will have half of that. That will go on until there is nearly no salt left in the tank.

update— about 2 weeks and 2x 20% water changes later, I had a major ammonia spike and a whole lot of plant melt. Lost a few fry, too. Seems Pete was right on. It appears the stuff continued to effect the water after it had accomplished its intended task. I will experiment with this stuff again but smaller dose, and more water changes.

Put a couple of koi angels in quarantine tank late Saturday. Wasn't sure about the sex. Sunday they were still a bit shy as usual getting used to the new environment and being fed. The tank is in my office but I wasn't watching them while working yesterday, but after work my daughter informed me that they had deposited eggs on the PVC. I then observed what I assume was the male going over the eggs. It's funny because the place I got them had a breeding pair of white lace for sale, and I was kind of considering it, but they had to separate them due to the male being aggressive.

Hello Karen, You should be able to grow java moss on the mesh if you can't grow any other carpeting plant. I don't know if marine lights are lights are different for freshwater plants so you'll have to wait for someone more experienced to reply. I did start my hobby on low tech so defiantly get yourself some Anubius, nana or bartri (big) There super easy and dont really need fertilizing, just try not bury the roots as it likes to be attached to things. There are websites and videos on low tech plants so try them. Java moss doesn't really require ferts just trim it and it should come back thicker. Floating plants require a bit more light in my opinion but try water lettuce and try not lets splash back of bubbles get inside the plant which causes rot (but it's banned in the States so if you live there you'll have to look into it). Amazon frogbit is your next floater but it will need moderate light so see if other plants are growing then try it. dont let water sit on top this plant either. Your last option is Duckweed but this is the herpes of all aquarium plants SO ADD THIS AT YOUR OWN RISK, you will not get it out again. it multiplies fast but it may block out light for other plants. Some recommend anacharis, (waterweed/elodea) as a low tech floater but mine broke into pieces so I cringe every time I see it but it grows well in my pond and it doesn't like to be planted so weigh it down instead. Same with Hornwort. Water sprite is good for shrimp and can be floated or anchored down. make sure your water flow is steady and doesn't send it flying across the tank, needs trimming sometimes. Pearl weed is considered low tech but can be delicate so plant the basket in the water after acclimating it first. I've never had any. And if all else fails try to attach some pothos, (money plant, Devils ivy) in the tank. just the roots have to be submerged, either place it it the hang on the back filter cartridge or let it hang near the lid. Its an acquired taste but this is a hardy house plant that will take low room light. It is a sponge for absorbing nutrients so it can starve out other plants Here is a link from one of the mods, Candi, about pearl weed https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/how-to-plant Anyway give these a go and if you get die back or the plant stretches out for the light, lose it's leaves or comes out the gravel too many times then it's the light. these plants are low tech but if you feel the need to give them a boost then pick up some easy green and use it appropriately as you dont want excessive algae. I believe it shrimp safe but check anyway. Sorry for the rambling and Goodluck. FAFNF

I’ve tried and failed to find anyway short of flying there myself to get them imported in from Japan. I’ve offered koi importers stupid amounts of money to include them in their shipments, but it’s been a no every time. I’m still looking so let us all know if you find a way to get them into the states. I’ve got five strains that are the ones available in the usa. I’ve got them all mixed together.

Bio film is pretty slick addition to any tank imo

I haven't used it because they say it's not safe for shrimp. From what I can gather about the active ingredient, it's a pretty potent tool to knock out algae and microbes. My concern would be wiping out that much algae at once could disrupt water quality since you'd lose any benefit the algae was providing.

To other forum members, personally I hope we keep the 'Files' section of the forum as an area for uploading books and research papers that would not otherwise have a home on the Forum. I would prefer it not become a place to upload movies and photos as has begun to happen recently. I fear if we keep doing this the files area may get closed down. There other ways to share videos on the internet, but not so many for safely sharing old fish books and such. Just my 2 cents.