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11-29-2019 Things were really starting to take form, unfortunately I really started to have issues keeping staghorn aglae under control on the wood. I impulse purchased a smokey pleco but I sadly quickly found out it did not like my water. This was the peak of the tank with the wood.

I have a racer nerite snail in my goldfish tank; its name is Snowpatch. It was named for the white patch on the shell. No one wanted it because its shell wasn't perfect, so I brought the snail home to help with the algae in the aquarium and for the kiddo to enjoy. I noticed Snowpatch's handiwork on a pot in the tank. You can see exactly where the radula scraped off the algae. I rather like it; it has kind of a tribal art pattern to it. The beauty of nature in my living room! What "natural art" have you seen in your aquariums?

Mama taking the kids for a swim.

Here are mine

I am setting up a 20 gal long for cherry shrimp. I am currently planning a species only tank. They will likely have some snail friends, hitchhiking on the plants. I received my CO-OP plant order today. I got them planted and moved some plants from my other tanks. Everything came a day early and was very healthy. I have been running a sponge filter in an established tank for about two weeks. In my research, I have read and seen on respected YouTube videos that shrimp should go in to a well established tank. I know that this tank is going to take a little while to get there. Without the bio-load from live stock, I have a hard time believing that there will be enough going on to get the tank established enough for the shrimp. I am not in a hurry and plan on letting the plants do their thing for a while. So the questions. How long should I wait before moving the sponge filter? Should I move it soon and start feeding the tank with ammonia or food? Will the plants do better if I move it over to give the tank a little flow? I have a new sponge filter I can put in for now and swap it out later with the established one. Would it be a good idea to put a mystery sails in the tank or some fish I can move over to another tank before adding shrimp? Am I making a mountain out of a molehill? Should I just get a good cycle going, let the plants get established, and then throw in the shrimp? Thank you, all advice is appreciated.

Hello everyone! Yesterday I received a Universal Rock background and decor. This is my 75 gallon that hasn't had many interesting updates in a long time. Is there anything you would have done differently? Hope you like it!

Goldfish details

Mine was the opposite. Tank all to himself? Shy. Possibly dead or missing. Emerging rarely and hatefully. Community tank full of live breeders? Zooms everywhere happy as can be. Turns out he needed some dithers. So YMMV depending on the fish!

Probably same reason I have like 150 of them:

I also tend to squeeze out the dirtiest sponge filter in the fishroom into a new tank that is going to house shrimp. Bomb the tank with dark "chocolate" water about 3-4 weeks before the shrimp move in. It may not help at all, but I always feel like all that grunge just has to be seeding the tank with lots of shrimp goodies. Superstition? Probably but have had great success with it over the last few years and now it is just a thing I always do for shrimp tanks 😄

Hehe, I am no longer allowed to make Repashy "Grub Pie" formula in the house when the wife is home or will be home within the next hour. The fish may like the aroma, but the Mrs. ... not so much. She had no issues with me making homemade beef heart blends for growing up baby/juvenile discus, or filling the freezer with blood worms and cyclops/brine shrimp but Grub Pie was a bridge too far for our household.

I rerouted the airlines in several tanks, and found terrestrial cuttings with new roots.

Hi! I wanted to say hi and introduce myself. I've been a fan of Aquarium Co-Op for about maybe 8 months now. I really enjoy the videos and learn so much from them. I would like to get to see interesting stuff that people come up with like indoor ponds, small tanks, aquascape and exotic fish and tanks; and how to take care of them. I will try to post updates of my aquarium and share this experience that is new to me but has awoken the nature appreciator in me. On this first picture I share with you is a pair of pearl gouramis with two anubias barteri glued and tied with string on some mopani wood. And, a banana plant on the foreground. My filter is for nano tanks though a medium size is on it's way. Oh, there's a dwarf lilly bulb pinched under the driftwood. Hopefully the water gets clear soon. But anyways, hello everyone!

Sooo many great pics here. This is a New Zealand native freshwater Crayfish, Paranephros zealandicus. They are not often found in blue.

Well, I questioned the guppies and they adamantly denied any anti-shrimp activity and pinned it on the clown killifish. The clown killifish made the compelling argument that they hang out at the top of the tank and pointed fins at the amano shrimp. The amanos said they saw the guppies going after the shrimp. Someone is lying.

What would be cool maybe is one kind of neocaridina shrimp per box. So in one box would be a cherry shrimp and the box after that could be a blue velvet shrimp and then the one after that a yellow shrimp.

That sounds like a song from The Cure.

Hello jv85! Welcome to the forum! Your gouramis are so pretty!!!

An update these are pure golden longfin F4 males at 7 month old ...female dont look good yet

I am thinking minimum 10 probably 20. I will definitely get red. Red is my and daughters favorite color. I set up the substrate and hardscape colors to let the red stand out. Co-op was out of the Indian almond leaves when I ordered the plants, but they are on the way with cholla wood. Thanks for the suggestion on the food.

I buy the inexpensive undergravel filters at Petco just to harvest the uplift tubing and I marry that with a 3/4" ID flexible hose from the hardware store. It just barely fits. You have to put the flexible tubing in boiling water for a second to get it pliable enough to slip over the Python and the uplift tube. I like the charcoal cartridges on the uplift tubes as they act as very effective fish guards.

I go on a 7-10 day camping trip each year, my fish have always made it through that without being fed. Maybe a few less guppy babies but other than that no issues.

Honestly I don't know either. But what I do know is water has one of highest specific heat capacities of anything I have got around the house at about 4000 Joules per kilogram °C or 1 Calorie. What this means is you can pump a boatload of heat into water before you raise its temperature even 1 °F. If our aquarium plants are capable of that, to heck with firewood! I will just add more planted aquariums this winter and be happy and warm at the same time. 🙂

My shrimp seem to really like having wood in their tanks. They will graze the biofilm, and the wood also provides surface area for algae for them to enjoy.

@Coryhas said that the tetra test strips are accurate and the API test strips are garbage. It really depends on the test strip.

I love all your different corydoras! They're one of my favorites but I don't currently have any right now. Instead, here are a couple of my otocinclus hanging around:

After the past few days I have rediscovered my love of longfin cherry barbs so have to throw them out as a recommendation 😄

Well I did not do this today, but I did do this the other day. I purchased a RO kit, nothing fancy or expensive. I then put it inside a cooler I had laying around. It super handy because it has wheels, making semi-portable to I put it back in the garage when I am done. I still refining the setup, but as of now I am getting decent RO water.

If you can't find mesh bags (commonly sold as garment bags for laundry) egg crate is another solution for reducing pressure points on the glass.

Having kept a single pea puffer in a 5 before I must warn you... They are attention hounds and will be at the glass distracting you constantly and making it hard to get any work done. So brace yourself for the cuteness!

Having worked for a divorce/family law attorney for 10 years, I am guessing that you married folks have a lot more going for you re your marriages than anything solely aquarium-related. Your spouses' patience with and/or indifference to your passion (except maybe putting on the brakes when it comes to $$ or space) are but a side effect of a good relationship. Trust me, if your spouse is unhappy they suddenly become very critical and intolerant of anything you do, not because they don't like what you do, but because they don't like you (and many times it's mutual). - happily single with a large side of loneliness

Maybe, fingers crossed. These two had been just dating, but as of last week I think they got married. First comes love, then comes marriage, then comes baby discus in the big aquariage.

Dark background and substrate can bring out deeper colors in shrimp and some fish. If they're on a lighter substrate, their colors can become more muted as they try to blend in with the lighter substrate/background. I used black Plastidip spray for my background. Super easy! Apparently it's really easy to remove in case you wanna change the color or just take it off when preparing to sell the tank. Though I suppose if your tank is already set up and running, it would be a bit of a hassle. But yeah, I think it's all more about aesthetics and personal preference 🙂

Hello everyone, I'm Amy and I live in the twin cities, Minnesota. So excited to be here and to be free from the aggressive social media groups! I'm new to the hobby but am absolutely loving it! I have two 5 gallon tanks, one for my betta (please forgive me for the SpongeBob decor, it's my 3 yr old's tank) and one for my pea puffer and a 29 gallon for my guppies. I'm so grateful to be here!

So, these guys grow SUPER fast.... here's an update of this little guy 2 weeks later... Apparently can't take a picture of a different animal without something fish related in the background. Newly painted with fresh siliconed glass braces for corner matten filter 10 gallon tank....NERM

I want to simplify my dry food selection.

I'm Mike. I've had fish since I was 6 or 7 years old (I'm 38). I've dabbled in a lot but I really like cichlids and live bearers the most. I've bred some egg layers and now that I'm finally making a dedicated fish room I plan on trying some more. I was the secretary of our local club for 4 years and the Vice President for 2 (then covid hit). I feel like I know quite a bit about fish but I'm always looking forward to know more. I'm also very willing to give you my advice and listen to your fish keeping ways.

I like grasses and runner plants. The runner distance seems very consistent at about 3.75 inches or 95 mm. The Betta is doing well. She seems to have the colors of the individual LEDs from my Nano, plus green. The sponge filter is building a bubble nest for her. When I top-off water, I pour it over the terrestrial moss.

I paint the back and sides of my tanks black. I used black PlastiDip on my 60 but going to use regular Krylon Fusion for the 29 I’m setting up now. I like the way it hides all the plumbing and wiring, but most of all I like that it blocks most of the ambient light seeking algae to nourish.

I would buy a new 29 for $29 it's cheaper Saving the glass and the trim on a tank with glass that thin is very difficult. You can use the glass for lids or other projects if you decide to dismantle

Finally broke out the easy planters from my last order and put one right in the middle of my mutt Guppy/mixed Platy tank. I plan to add one of these with every order until I have at least 1 in every tank. I absolutely love them 😍 Also brought out my Aquarium Co-OP BBS eggs over the weekend, and these guys approve.

The dead parts will stay dead. the roots, or maybe runners, are still alive. I would trim the top, leave the underground bits and wait to see if it recovers.

99% of people on this forum don't quarantine plants. It's very unlikely they will carry a disease that could affect your fish and I have yet to find a hitchhiker that is harmful (even things like planaria and hydra in invert-only setups). For root feeders specifically I'd really not recommend quarantine just because they take some time to establish in a new substrate and moving them around can cause unnecessary melting. If you really want to quarantine your plants I'd just leave them in the little black strainer and rockwool that they come in. It will probably be a little harder on your plants with bare roots but that's the best I can come up with off the top of my head.

Thanks Ken, I was away from the hobby for a while. I'm not technologically savvy, mostly due to cost. But, I do it for my own pleasure and to lower my blood pressure, so I'm good.

I got annoyed by having too many different foods to choose from, so I combined a bunch of different foods. Left to right: flakes (Sera + Xtreme Krill), super-chunky, medium chunky, coarse, small, nano, fry. I would like to thin the selection down further as I run out of some of these.

Yep I have two that is Ziggmeyer he’s 4 and I have an 11 week old girl called Freya who is too small to rep coop merch yet lol.

I just picked up a small bottle of Soilent Green from my LFS this weekend. The smell isn't too plesant, but so far I love it and my bottom feeders do too. Figuring out the right quantity to feed is the next step.

They would be a good source of nitrogen in a compost pile.