Leaderboard

Thanks for all the great suggestions. I just received 30 white clouds, I figured I'd put ten or twelve in the little guy's aquarium. Along with five black coolie loaches that I have on hold at my local fish store. Along with a sunset gourami for a center peice fish.

Ordered from the Coop on Monday afternoon. Received my order this morning. My house is 2837 miles from them. They didn’t even give me time to get my new aquarium stand built...the nerve.😉

My wife, who is a saint, participates in my biology hobby of the day. Before fish it was synthetic biology. We created novel promoters and inserted them into the genes of E. coli to see which sequence worked the best in DNA synthesis. Sharp eyed readers will recognize these as same tool chests now holding 40 gallon breeders. I couldn't do it without her help. This experiment didn't yield what we wanted, so we just did it again. 🙂

Meme challenge: Team Co-op Species Profiles

Taken with my phone through a hand-held magnifying glass. Soon to be shrimplets.

I'm into blacksmithing but havent gotten into it too much as I'm still setting up a blacksmith shop with my dad rn, I also really enjoy my job as a painter, I mean it is a job but i still kinda view it as a sorta hobby, and then i also am really into video games and collecting them. Those are really the three main hobbies besides fishkeeping, but I also love music and playing the guitar and piano, enjoy skateboarding, enjoy occasionally making lego creations like spaceships, and a lot of other smaller things that theres too many to list. Oh it should also be noted that I also like land inverts, and currently have isopods and slugs and had a mantis but it recently died, I also want a jumping spider. Anyways I enjoy too many things and I'm just glad my dad let's me indulge in them, granted hes definitely into the blacksmithing a lot and I'm paying for everything, I mean we're going 50/50 on the blacksmith shop, but hes even willing to let me turn part of the basement into a fish room once I get the money.

lol, reminds me of this quote @Streetwise “Engineering is the art of modelling materials we do not wholly understand, into shapes we cannot precisely analyse so as to withstand forces we cannot properly assess, in such a way that the public has no reason to suspect the extent of our ignorance.”

This one from Reddit gave me a chuckle:

I love to sing at my church - solos and with others. I read a lot...probably too much. I also make jewelry (not so much for sale, but I still dabble). I am learning to do watercolor painting and to sketch. Still have a lot to learn! We have 2 dogs, one is a 5-month-old puppy, so I spend lottttts of time training...and cleaning up accidents. 🙄

Adorable 😍

Bass fishing.

Although I bet there are some beneficial bacteria blowing in the wind at all times, I suspect the ones important in our nitrogen cycle like Nitraspina, Nitrospinacacae, and Nitrospria bacteria come into our aquariums, on the plants, fish, and fish water that we introduce to new aquariums. I bet they are on our hands as all humans are covered with a film of mostly helpful bacteria on the outside. They live in soil, water and almost any moist surface. They hibernate when dried so could possibly be a part of any dust particle blowing in the wind. And it only takes one and the growth is exponential. It is a bacterial world out there and we are just a minor part of it. In some ways the question should be, where don't they come from? They are pretty much everywhere all the time. When I 'cycle' an aquarium, I usually just throw in some hornwort at the time I introduce the fish. Beneficial bacteria prefer the leaves of plants (like hornwort) to any other surface because plants, unlike gravel or plastic, provide the oxygen and organic carbon the beneficial bacteria need to live an reproduce. I don't doubt that fishless cycling and no seeded media work, it is just a question of long does it take to get going.

Okay, I was showing off. And I only sound like I know what I am talking about. You should discount at least half of what I say. Just because something is said confidently doesn't make it true. And I can't even juggle one ball 🤪 I think I am like @RovingGinger. When I get into hobby, I go whole hog and then burn out. And then I pick up another hobby. I admire someone who can do something for a long time and get a deep knowledge that I miss because I keep switching around. After a while I come back to the original hobby and pick up where I left off. Sometimes I learn something from the other hobbies that bleeds over into the current one. The recent biology binge upped my chemistry game a bit which is helping me now with fish. I admire someone like @akconklin who can play music, contributes her time a church, and takes care of family including a special needs child. And she still has time for a nice aquarium with about bazillion guppies in it! I am not so good at the selfless giving part.

Oh these species profiles are gold, I want to see more! Also the Princess Bride ones hold a special place of 'aww!' For me.

Building/fixing PCs and electronics, playing video games, woodworking, playing trombone, and oil painting. Not all at the same time.

I lvoe to crochet and play videogames! I even have my own etsy and brand for my crocheted stuff =] it's mostly baby and toddler gifts

All things outdoors, but as far as my obsessions. Plants and aquaponics (kind of fish related), I have chickens and quail for eggs, I guess health in general. So mostly keeping things and myself alive and thriving consumes a decent amount of my time. I'm extremely passionate about living soil and the carbon/nutrient cycles work! Phasing out mono-culture, and normal conventional farming with salt base synthetics is key to eliminating many of our current problems.

Water change day today. Did changes on the 47, 58, 65 and twin 29s. Trimmed some vals down that were getting too long and tangled in one of the 29s. Pulled a bunch of guppy grass out of both 29s. Fed that and the val trimmings to the rats who love their salads. Had a helper when I went to refill the 29s. Petting was required before I could add water.

I usually start seeing the babies when they reach about 5mm in length. Takes some time to grow to that size. Before that they hide, very, very efficiently.

Sooooooo corny!!! 😉☺🥰 You guys & girls are too kind. It's a team effort at my house. My husband is a one-in-a-millon man. I couldn't do anything without his support & help. We love our life! And we love that this world of aquaria is part of that! Glad to be here.

Showing off a wide variety of attempted skills is not really a match for showing off a mastered skill, to @Daniel’s point. But I kinda like my patchwork resume, and I usually bring bits and pieces with me even after I’m not obsessed anymore. I don’t know if this fully falls under hobby, but I was briefly part of a community devoted to figuring out the healthiest hair care for long term growth. That community had a term I think this one would resonate with - “benign neglect”.

Here here! A toast to @akconklin, who espouses ideals we should all aspire. (Was that too corny?)

No war needed, we can have different opinions, doesn't bother me any. I'm speaking from my experience of customers complaints/pictures. Our business shipping out nationwide and receiving a few packages. We ship out of OK, CO, CA. And definitely still use fedex and ups as its a lot cheaper most of the time. I cant speak for the length of time it, or mistakes in where its going, (havent had too much issue with that) BUT the way carriers treat the boxes seems more tender with usps than any other in the last year or two.

Maybe they need a warning label - CAUTION: repeated use of time travel technology used to deliver these products is linked to MTS and may be hazardous to your budget.

I tend to flit from obsessive hobby to obsessive hobby like an ADHD butterfly. I’d say the constants are doodling, jewelry making, and ecosystem experiments. I have a laser cutter I do fun stuff with, I crochet and knit, have whittled, have done some other art and sculpture, calligraphy, terrariums, vinyl embellishment, etc, etc. But in general I like visual storytelling, design, and putting together tiny worlds.

I personally think we have to give WAY more credit to our postal service. USPS is pretty much the gold standard over the other "privatized companies"... I wont go into detail about the other two big ones but very rarely do I see crushed boxes from USPS. I still give some credit to the co op, they get it done right! ☺️

In a little while I'll be feeding these to my fishies!

I received the Corydora sticker in my last order. It’s like you all KNOW me!

Lol, we just need to restore the habitat where young Deans can thrive.

@TheDukeAnumber1 Does that mean he is CITES red listed? We may have to put him in a conservation breeding program.

Had this delivered to me today, and now setting it up

Such a wet gloomy day here in the PNW! Here, enjoy some sunflowers.

Hi @Jessie , did you check if there is an expiry date on the packaging? If its from an old batch it could give incorrect parameters. Thats the only thing I can think off right now.

I give my mutts away via Craigslist and don’t ever separate out fry from the rest of the community tank. This plan for avoiding population increases would probably work better if I were a stingier feeder, but it does well enough and I still like seeing tons of little babies around.

CRS munching away + my one-woman microfauna control squad.

I was into making coin rings for a while. I like making things in general. Keeping house plants, which I feel is a natural complementary hobby to fish keeping. Fishing, thanks to YouTube suggesting fishing videos alongside fish keeping videos. Video games, although I only really have interest in a few and hardly find time to play them.

Having decided to go full deep dive into a fishroom earlier this year I made decisions to give up other hobbies. I torn down my plastic modeling bench to make room for my 75 gallon tank. In the next house I'd like to have more room for it again. I do still enjoy kayaking, fishing, archery, and diy projects around the house. I'll probably get a PS5 eventually to get back into gaming when Horizon Forbidden West comes out.

Some of the Killi's lookin good today.

I worked way too long on this...

As a mama of a special needs kiddo (who's 20 now, but still a "kiddo" - he's non-mobile and non-verbal), I'd suggest to be sure you include something that bubbles! All children love bubbles, and they are eye catching. Often, those with brain damage have trouble with eye tracking, so the bubble will catch their eye sometimes, even if the fish don't. Maybe a bubble bar or something similar. Our tanks were started for our son, too, but unfortunately, he just isn't interested in them. LoL! I know! How rude, right?! 😆 But we discovered how soothing and interesting and relaxing they are to US and so we continue. You may find that the parents also enjoy the tank very much. I know for sure they are so appreciative of this blessing you are giving to their family. ❤️

Fully agree with what Daniel and Jessica said. You have a great basis here with that piece of wood and the big boulders. Just play around with it until it is visually appealing. Also bear in mind it will look different again when you put your plants in it. Any ideas for fish yet?

The 🌿 Plants 🌿 Have Arrived!!!!! Here are the plants in the tank. Given that it is election night, there is No Way I'm gonna get these planted tonight. It will likely stay this way until Saturday. I got sooo many I didn't think I was going to stop unbagging. All in all they look BEUTIFUL!! The pictures do not do them justice. From Left to Right: Java Fern, Scarlet temple, Crinum. Clockwise From Left to Right: Cryptocoryne Tropica, Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' (behind), Java Moss, Dwarf Hair Grass, Red Flame Sword. From Left to Right: Red Flame Sword (same plant), Ammannia Gracilis (It looks squished down for some reason), Anubias nana "petite" (Deeep Greeen, I love it) Whatever I don't find a spot for, Will not go to waste. It will happily live in my main tank in the living room. The java moss should be getting glued to some of the driftwood and topside of rocks along with some of the anubias. I may need to get more as I like to glue anubias to drift wood. It's a cool underwater tree effect. Hydrocotyle tripartita 'Japan' for a foreground carpet with some dwarf hair grass accents around the hard scape. Crinum 'center'ish' to give it room to spread out. The rest, . . . where inspiration takes me! I do plan on replacing the water lettuce with some red root. I would love to get some Corkscrew Val in there, that's why Val wasn't in the order. I wish @Cory could find it and it fit within his business model. I think it's a cool variety. I dosed Easy Green and Easy Iron on Saturday with these parameters measured tonight: Temp: 25C PH: 7.4 ish Ammonia 0.2ppm ish Nitrite: 0.1ppm ish Nitrate: 15ppm ish Phosphate: 0.1ppm ish Potassium: 10ppm The 'ish' values come from the challenges with exact color matching to levels. It almost looks like I could put some fish in there. And it's only been a few days! (Don't worry, I won't (I hope 😟)) Happy Fish Keeping 🐟!

Distance is not the most important concern when it comes to shipping fish. I live in North Carolina and I have purchased fish from Washington State and California and they have arrived in just as good shape as fish from sellers 1 state over from me. Washington State is 2700 hundreds miles away from if I took I-90. And if you are concerned about how long the fish will be in the shipping process, then overnight is overnight no matter where the seller is located. What is more important than the distance of the seller is the quality and experience of the seller.

Thanks for the information AtomCatMatt, I do not plan to add the Neon Tetras before an other month. On the other hand, I just got two Nerite snails today. One got pretty active soon after getting into the tank while the other one stayed put for a long time. I wonder if he is going to be ok. I checked my water parameters the 31st and they were pretty much the same as the 26th. I then decided to try adding some eggshells to my tank to see if it would raise the GH for my snails. I read about Tums but did not have any on hand. I added 1 gram of cleaned and crushed eggshells and after testing today GH was 60 ppm and KH still at 50 ppm. I will have to follow up to see if this really is a trend or just a fluke.

The short life span of guppies is the main reason why I wasn't wanting to use my cull guppies. I'll probably go with white clouds and some of my green corydoras. Any ideas on one more group of fish? Cherry barbs, maybe?

- feed less if possible - install honey or sparkling gourami - can nuke with some types of dewormer - have never tried. For me they seem most unavoidable in single-occupant tanks where no one eats them. Only guppy fry? Hydra. Guppy fry and parents? No hydra. Betta tank? Hydra. Community tanks? No hydra. I have not yet seen them to be more than vaguely annoying and kind of interesting.