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So, I went to a fish store in another city. Brought some orange rili shrimp and plants for my bettas…but the real crown jewel of the trip were these two common goldies. These were easily the size of my hand. Those are little feeder fish beside them for reference. So, yeah- I’ll just post this as a little reminder of how truly CHUNKY these fish get.

1st of all hi y'all 2nd my experience in the aquarium sector is none (at least if you don't count helping my grandpa with his 2 fish tanks ~20 years ago) I have some space on the side of my home office and i've decided to put a fish tank there. It's a 60x30x30 cm | 23.6x11.8x11.8 inch. 54 liters | ~15 gallons ` The Aquarium is a Marina LED 54l KIT. It comes with an interior filter (Marina Jet 80) that has a sponge and active carbon and because there was some space I've added a couple of ceramic rings. To be honest the water flow generated by the filter feels a bit too powerful for the size of the tank. It has a 10W LED lamp and a 50W heater. I am doing a dark start. Did the hardscaping and placed the substrate and gravel. The gravel is between 0.1 to a bit above 0.3 mm, and like 80% of it it's rounded with no hard edges. And under it is this fertile substrate (while the container is black, the substrate has mostly a sand color and texture with some larger black stuff): https://dennerle.com/en/products/substrate/nutrient-substrate/deponit-mix-black-10in1/ This is how it looks today (day 3) after i did a water change - it was colored by the tannins, but it was very clear. Dunno if this matters, but outside chemical and mechanical treatment, our tap water, at the water treatment plant also goes under UV treatment. I plan to start planting somewhere on the 22 or 26th next month For plants: Hygrophila Corymbosa Siamensis Alternanthera Reineckii Rosanervig Ceratopteris Thalictroides Staurogyne Repens Cryptocoryne Wendtii Tropica Anubias Barteri var. Nana Vesicularia Ferriei Weeping Nymphaea Lotus Zenkeri Red Not sure if I should add some Monte Carlo in the front or not. Or if i should get some floating platns or not :-? Here's the planting map.

I would agree with @Biotope Biologist that the trim crack is insignificant insofar as being a structural support is concerned. However, trim cracks like these can have another annoying property if the water level is high enough or if there’s enough condensation or splashing such as being under an air stone or other bubble source. They can fill with water and behave not unlike a mini siphon, funneling small amounts of water up and over the edge. I had a 120 with two similar trim cracks do exactly this. I would find small puddles every morning. Although small, those cracks also soon became filled with algae or a similar muck as well. I lowered the water line and filled in the cracks with silicone although their suggestions of epoxy sound like a better idea than my approach.

Here’s a reminder of how big they can really get. https://people.com/pets/giant-goldfish-caught-weighting-67-lbs/

Hey @nabokovfan87! Thanks for checking in. I think the salt and ichX is working! The patch looks like it’s receding. Im doing 3G water change everyday and re-adding 1TB salt + ichX. I think i still have a couple days to do. In my main tank, parameters: GH: 71.6 kh: 3 temp: 76.6 ammonia: 0 i have stiphodon gobies, a panda garra, and the cory in there. I do a 50% water change every 7-10 days. All bottom dwellers :)) it’s hard to get a pic of the juvenile and i have no light on this QT tank right now. i’ll keep u posted with how things go in a couple days tho.

The plan is to add the snail, shrimp and cory 1st, and after a week i plan to add the neons and maybe 6 glowing tetras (i like the colors, don't care about the glowing part, but i do like the colors, AqAdvisor didn't have the glotetras listed) and after another week the honey gourami.

She has eaten today. I’ve changed the water again, but I’ve let the light cycle through the day normally today. Simon is oddly solicitous. I can see them swimming around from across the room, but she’s skittish.

So AqAdvisor has this calculator and i have to say i like the result. They don't have the White Wizard Snail, but i don't think that will make a difference. My only question is should i go for two honey gourami or not 🤔

Of course there will be changes. Plants that will die, fish that will die, my main goal is to minimize losses and get a good final result. Most of the plants will be in vitro, with a couple of them being mature to help with the water stabilization. I will use a CO2 kit from Dennerle and I also got fertilizers, Tetra Nitrate Minus, Tetra Safe and Tetra Balance. The Dennerle Aquatest is on its way.

I seriously wish the 29G's had one. I think 37's do, but I've never seen one in person. 100% A "happy medium, is this method. Really cool to see this process. There's also some vids of people using plastic fill and heat to "solder" or heal the cracked rim. I think the cracked trim might be a symptom and not the only thing going on. As mentioned before, if it was sitting for a while in storage be sure to go through it with a fine tooth comb.

I check those numbers weekly and have a goal in mind with them. I prefer to keep GH between 4-8 & KH between 3-15. I even have a dry erase board for my weekly checks before water changes for TDS, GH & KH. Oh and TDS between 150-300. 🙂

Nice setup and it's cool how meticulous you're being about planning. I love my Hygrophila Corymbosa, it's such a easy growing plant (at least it has been for me). My bits of advice: 1) Give some more space between the wood and the glass. If it's too close it can make it annoying to clean. 2) The lotus out front may block the view of stuff in the back. At least in my experience it has a lot more leaves down low than you would expect. The crypt may be similar too. I know I was surprised with how big my crypts ended up getting. 3) Stick with fewer species and bigger schools. It tends to look better and it's easier to be sure everyone is getting fed. I know I was told this starting out and ignored it because it's exciting and there are so many choices but looking back I think it was solid advice. 4) It's good to have a plan rather than just going in blind and winging it. On the other hand be ready for things to change. Plants will die off or pop up in places you didn't want them. Just be really to go with in. I think there is a Japanese idea they talk about in aquascaping called wabi Sabi that's that idea. Looking forward to see how things go!

And for the fish and other critters: 2 White Wizard Snail (such a fascinating creature) 4 Neocaridina Blue Aura (gorgeous color) 3 Kuhli Loach (not quite sure if the gravel is right for them) 10 Neon Tetra 2 honey Gourami (the yellow will go well with the colors of the neon tetras) *and yes i moved the heater from the side of the filter to a new location (you can see in the 1st photo) so it is in the water flow.

It says that on their website, but I have a feeling it’s a liability thing. Glass is not very flexible and if the water were to exert enough pressure on that plane to get the glass to bow it would snap very quickly after that. A thin sheet of plastic would not hold it together or prevent those forces to begin with. I don’t know how they manufacture these tanks but I have a feeling the trim is used in the final silicone molding stages to make sure that the glass stays put while the silicone cures. A 75g has 2 long sheets of glass so a center brace in the trim prevents the middle of those sheets from walking out during that process. Rimless tanks do just fine without any bracing or trim. But they use higher quality glass and thicker sheets typically

75G is a lot of water. I'd repair it or replace it with some sort of a eurobrace style thing. They do have those new 60B tanks that are pretty awesome in dimensions and might be easier to work in. It sounds like the (and looks like) the tank was on storage or something and got damaged. I would definitely go through it with a fine tooth comb before setting it up in a permanent situation. A 75G has a cross brace. I imagine in some aspect it is structural at least to stop Blowing? Not all aspects are structural and your explanation is exactly why, it hides some flaws.

In my view, there are three sorts of customers who are interested in Discus: (1) Discus breeders. There are very specific ideal water parameters, tank set-ups, and practices for inducing Discus to breed. Tanks are bare. Feeding is very precise. Water change schedule is rigid. (2) Discus perfectionists. You can observe hundreds of such tanks here on this YouTube channel. There is a LOT of money in every tank displayed here. I still recall standing in shock at a fish store a ways outside Washington DC a few years ago as a lady bought half a dozen adult Discus, ca. $500 / ea. Largest order I had ever seen in person. They were a birthday gift for her husband. (3) The rest of us. And I’ll be honest, we don’t do too bad! Here are photos from a 55 gal. I have kept Discus in now for years. I just use two large sponge filters. I only change water once a week (30-50%). I feed lots of frozen food, but also some dry flakes, etc. I recently set up a tank for a group of young Discus. It is not their “forever home,” but as a 40 gal. breeder, it suits them for a while. Same set up: sponge filters, added air stones, 85-87°-F. I can go on and on… many photos… If you have questions, feel free to ask. I keep a rambling Discus journal on the Forum here:

I had an opportunity to do some long delayed maintenance and resetting of tanks today. Unfortunately, we lost our 4 year old beta DJ Turbo. He was the traditional Thai colors and was tough as nails survived horrible illness at purchase and then the move fromOregon to Washington. RIP DJ T you will be missed. Kids don’t like having a tank with memories of a beloved pet so a quick reset was in order. I’d thought about turning his tank into a Caridina tank but moneys are tight and I have stock on hand. I reset it with H2O2 and some new aquasoil Brightwell Rio Oscuro which I like because there’s no ammonia spike with it kind of perfect for capping the existing soil. Its a 10 g cube, lava rock and some beach pebbles, crypts and lagenandra, stems some bacopa, moss is fissdens. Stock are 4 female Santa Claus guppies juveniles, and 6 cherry shrimp. The female Santa’s are gorgeous and so far the numbers in my breeding tank are heavily skewed female. Our female betta Mrs Turbo is obviously sad about the loss of her man. I figured she deserved a nice tank clean up as well. Moved some plants around and removed our beloved duck weed. its an enjoyable tank with fun inhabitants and low drama. The Bowl! It’s been looking sad-ish and needed a change. I started with the plants and the stock removed along with the hardscape. I wanted to create a structure for the pea puffers to hide and something that could peak their interest and contain the rhizome plants better. I think as this grows in it’ll fit the brief. My next task is to get my super red plecos out of their 15g and into their own 40 breeder. I’ll leave the 2 types of Caridina serrata (Aura Blue and Tangerine Tigers) in there to breed out. Then this fall I’ll see if I can grab some other Neos maybe Blue Dreams and start another colony with the Super Reds. I’m off work for a week with a trip coming up Wednesday we’ll see how much I can get done.

I’ve been keeping fish long enough I’ve had plenty of these moments. One of the best(?) fairly recent ones was a 10 gallon that sprung a leak. Hubby heard the HOB motor squealing. I ran in there and my new cories that had just gone into quarantine a few days before were laying on their sides on the substrate! No water on them but the substrate was still very wet and water still leaking and they were still wet and breathing. Grabbed them each out and plopped them into the tank right next to it and every one of them was completely fine. The other tank was a QT tank also and had other cories that had started in QT at the same time but both tanks were fairly “fresh” and I hadn’t wanted to overload one by putting them all in the same tank. They all did great together, no issues, didn’t seem to even faze the cories that were briefly high but didn’t quite make it to dry. 🤷🏻‍♀️ In the “How could you be so stupid!” category was overrunning my 75 G tank while I had my arm in it fiddling with plants! It’s not like I had even stepped away. It’s not like I needed someone else to turn off the water - I had the valve right there next to me because I fill with a pump in my mixing barrel. Right there - inches from my face. Inches. From. My. Face. 🤦🏻‍♀️ I was very zoned in on the plants. 🤷🏻‍♀️ 😆

It seems to stay small for some reason. 🤷‍♂️ Schools been sooo time-consuming. 3hrs worth of train there and back….ideal for homework but not for fish! Either way the tanks are looking nice. 🙂 Dead proud with my Endlers.

Here are my findings from starting and being pretty successful with my shrimp breeding project. I started this breeding project before my new job in the month I took off. I wanted to see if I could start breeding similar color strains and crossing them to get some interesting color variations within that spectrum ie Orange Sakura x Pumpkin Spice(both orange spectrum). This is how I set up each tank... All are in 5 gal tanks... prob could improve those to 10 gal unless you want to do frequent water changes. I do them 2x a week, most tanks just need water top off but some require change of 50% or more due to the water becoming super cloudy. Substrate I started first 3 tanks with Fluval Stratum, but due to its dustiness in the start I moved to Aqueon Shrimp/Plant base. Its way better at keeping clean and during water changes/additions the water doesn't become cloudy or murky. Besides this substrate all have a AOC sponge filter inside, small size. I stocked each one with the following: Tourmaline & Red Bee Balls(Mineral balls), Almond & Jackfruit leaves(boil & let sit for 2 days to get a nice film on them, the shrimp love it!), Alder & Filao cones(Again boil & sit), Cholla wood pieces for little hotels(3 inch pieces again boil & sit), Catappa Bark(SURPRISE! Boil & sit) and all have at least 1 Marimo Moss ball in them. All have either additional Java Moss or Subwassertang inside as well. I have including feeding dishes which I alternate with dehydrated veggies of differing types that I get from my shrimp lollies guy from Etsy, canned(NO SALT ADDED) green beans & shrimp food alternating between Sera Shrimp Food & Pollen Granules. Lastly...3 of my tanks have exploded with success, 1 is close to those numbers while the other 2, one is thriving now and adding new babies with the last one having dead loss for some reason(I cannot explain it). 3 thriving(in video below...ENJOY!): Orange Sakura x Pumpkin Spice Blue Rili x Blue Jelly Blue Carbon Rili 1 close: Green Rili(I will soon add Green Jade to this mix) 1 gaining and doing well: Black Rose(4 berried and some new babies) 1 having issues: Yellow Goldbacks(This is the only one I bought female only shrimp to add in, after that they just died off to where now I believe its just 4 males...will add more to increase numbers after it cools off down here) Now before I drop that video I mentioned above, I need to now learn how to list and ship these buggers. Keep an eye in the WTB/WTS section as I might do some kind of free thing to test my shipping skills. Anyways, enjoy the info I included on my project...hope it helps others! 🙂 @nabokovfan87 @Guppysnail @Lennie @Chick-In-Of-TheSea @Fish Folk tagging y'all just cuz. ❤️ OH! and all have mostly red rooted floaters in them and some duckweed lol.

So I really don't want to buy another brand of air pumps for my new 120g. I have a couple nano air pumps for that just in case moment. So I was wondering if I can used those hopefully not long term until the regular air pumps come in. Thanks

Does anyone know if dwarf chain loaches will eat fry? I have hillstream loaches that breed all the time and I don't want them to be eaten. I want the dwarf chain loaches to eat the snails 🐌, or at least keep the population at bay. What do you think? Thank you

Hello, Just before bed, I noticed this foam on the surface of the water in my aquarium. Does this type of foam look concerning? Once I have a moment tomorrow, I’ll test the water parameters. Edit: I ended up testing some parameters tonight because I read that this foam can be a sign of ammonia. However, liquid test showed 0 ppm for ammonia. pH is 7.4. I also did a test strip which showed 0 nitrites and nitrates but tomorrow I’ll do a liquid test to confirm those. I had done a very deep clean in the tank and moved around some decor yesterday, so wondering if that might be part of the cause. Thank you!

Hi everyone, I have really enjoyed reading the forums so just wanted to pop in and say hi! My family have been keeping goldfish for a while now - over 12 years, and in the last year have set up a couple more tanks, which we love. Our current tanks are: outdoor pond - 280 litres - 5 goldfish, including Bobby who is 11 years old but unfortunately a little sick at the moment. 40 litres - 1 betta and 2 sterbei cories (they are quite happy in this tank). We now know cories are best kept in larger groups so will add to this tank soon. 182 litres - live plants, driftwood and lava rocks. 4 panda cories (2 are juvies we accidentally bred!), 2 pepper cories (they keep spawning so we have a grow out tank with around 50 fry - will move a few over when they are large enough), 4 rummy nose tetras, 5 glo light tetras, 2 angel fish, 2 male dwarf gourami, 1 peppermint pleco and 1 brown bn pleco. As mentioned also we have a grow out tank filled with pepper fry - we will give some to our LFS and not sure what it do with the others. Thank you for reading!

It's the stories like these that I live for. I love the little accidental surprises that end up being people's favorites. It's just so wholesome and amazing. I love snowball shrimp! I kept a colony for a bit before rehoming it. However I haven't seen the blue or amber pearls!! They look awesome! Definitely some research to do. Also there's just something so magical about your red shrimp dotting the dragonstone. They look like little cliff climbers and I feel the need to draw little ropes for them to hang onto. 😅

Betta's are prone to bad heal due to inbreeding at least you did everything you could for him @nic

@MrHarrys Honestly, when dealing with 10g, 15g, even 20g tanks... I wouldn't worry too much about the typical schooling minimums... for example, if you got 12 neons, 12 glowlights, 12 corys, 12 honeys + shrimp... that's would be way too many, unless you plan on doing a ton of maintenance. Smaller tanks have their limitations, but you get to decide which limitation you go with. True, you will not see the schooling behavior so much, but you will have more interest watching a greater variety of fish. I would stick to your basic plan on the fish (either list you have shown would be fine), just know that any baby shrimp will likely get eaten (particularly if you have gouramis or kuhlis), but the adults should be fine with a little plant cover and that may no be so bad given the size of the tank... you likely don't want a shrimp explosion on your hands. I refer to shrimp and snails as "edge" dwellers, because they pretty much live on any available surface and are quite happy to do so. Just try the plants you like... then double down on the ones that do well to replace the ones that don't... simple. BTW... your tank is looking great... looking forward to seeing it fully up and going (we have similar tastes in fish, too.) Thanks.

You can substitute Japanese trap door snails for the wizards but I don’t count them when using that site. I’m so glad you love them. I adore the blue snoot cruising the glass with mine. 2 honey gourami. Definitely 2. I have 3 boys in my 29. They are very social fish who enjoy their own kind for companionship. I find that aqadvisor rates high bioload for shrimp. I never include those in that site they have almost no bioload. If I can make 1 other suggestion. Habrosus Cory are small. They will hide if there are not enough of their own kind. I would add a group of 8 instead of 4. Those are very small bioload as well. Your plants will compensate for the extra bioload. Plants count as filtration but cannot be added to their calculations. I would also choose only 1 tetra type. That’s a lot of activity midwater especially for calmer honey gourami. Sounds like a great start. I would not add everything at once. Add each thing and let the biofiltration catch up.

River is eating again.

i found an old post that might help:

Algae isn't fun to look at but supposedly it has lots of little critters fry can pick at. At least the two fry left are looking happy!

I have not attempted to get anymore fry from them yet. I still have the 2 fry though and the one is getting bigger I haven’t been able to get the best pics. Algae is going crazy in the tank but at this point I’m afraid to touch anything so I’m just leaving it alone! I’m lacking tank space and room for more tanks at the moment

Wow, those discus are incredible! Nice aquascape, too! Well…I do have a 75 gallon I thought would be a good choice for discus. I’m still looking at other options, of course- I wouldn’t call myself a novice, but I also wouldn’t call myself a total expert. Still, this is a piece of hope- I was planning a more rigorous maintenance routine on it for just tetras. The only other big thing that’s giving me pause now is feeding. Worried I’ll get 40$ discus and they’ll starve. I kind of want tankmates, but with discus, that doesn’t seem like a good idea.

Looks amazing. I just f took mine down for a move and am going to restart everything

Did some research, Kuhli tend to uproot plants. So, change of plans. I think my final fish selection will look like this 1 White Wizard Snail 4 Neocaridina Blue Aura 6 Corydoras Habrosus 8 Neon Tetra 2 honey Gourami

Lots of killis like things on the cooler side like this. Here are some potential red killis or ones that have red in them. If you're going on the neutral/slightly hard side you could do Nothobranchius Guentheri, Rubripinnis, or Korthausae. All are mostly red. All of them are annuals but realistically you can expect them to live 12 - 18 months. Guentheri is the longest living from what I understand. As long as there aren't other aggressive feeders or long flowy fins you could do a pair of them in there. If you want more than one male you'll want around 5 to spread the aggression. I haven't really seen them show aggression towards other species unless they could fit it in their mouth or they weren't getting enough food. They are live fast and die young, they're metabolism goes along with that too. Pair that with the fact that males easily get distracted by females during feeding and it's not uncommon that they'll miss out on food if you're not paying attention. If you're going neutral to acidic you could go with Aphyosemion Australe Gold, A. Striatum, A. Bitaeniatum Lagos Red, or Fundulopanchax Gardneri. They love stem plants and shady spots. I think the Aphyosemion species will be a little more on the shy side if there are bullies in the tank. These are also on the easier side for breeding so you may see some fry pop up but nothing like having to keep livebearers in check. You could also throw in a spawning mop if you want to try raising the fry separately. These are "non-annuals" so they'll live 2-3 years. I have less experience with these but @Slick_Nick has some awesome pictures of A Striatum in his journal (most pictures don't do them justice). Cory has A Australe Gold in one of his recent fish room tours. These are more commonly available but you may have to order online or ask your LFS if they can special order then from one of their wholesalers. If you're willing to listen to someone talk about killifish for a long time you can also look and see if you have a local AKA affiliate club. I've found that there are lots of killifish people excited to share eggs, fish, notes, etc. If you're feeling adventurous and willing to pay shipping I'd be willing to share some eggs. Edit: Oh yeah... And don't forget to have a lid with no gaps

How are they doing? Any luck yet?

Common goldfish can reach twelve to eighteen inches in length. The pond supplier (now called Waterford Gardens) in Saddle River NJ sold giant goldfish back in the seventies/eighties. They had some monster sized ones for sale back then. And they were real goldfish and not koi. The biggest Koi I've heard of was a British one that was over four feet in length and weighed more than ninety pounds. Think of it as a German Shepherd in fish form.

Rosetail or feathertail. Although it was likely billed as a crown tail or half moon

KH and GH are both 3 and 4 degrees, respectively. The filter is a HOB with ceramic rings, a fine and coarse sponge, and a sponge on the intake.

@Shadow Are you sure those are shrimp tanks... sounds more like a 5-star Intercontinental Hotel for shrimp, to me! lol

Looks awesome. Congratulations on the progress. They love that food! Check on your GH/KH when you can for all the tanks to see if you see anything.

Thanks! I think he’s one of my 3rd generation…or 4th…possible even 5th. 😂

@nabokovfan87they are actually in a QT tank right now. I think they were stressed because I had done a massive re-scape and had stirred up the substrate. The ammonia readings were 0 when i put them back in, but maybe something surfaces in the tank? They also spawned a couple days later. I think all of that change and spawning possibly triggered a disease, and because they spawned for a couple days touching each other - i had about 6 cory affected. Nothing else in the main tank got the weird patches, and i dosed with kanaplex to be safe. Main tank inhabitants are still going strong, just trying to get rid of the last “patch” on a juvenile cory. Im dojng a water change with more ICHX and salt per @Colu instructions now 🤞

Well, there’s your problem! You didn’t have anybody teach them how it’s done! 😜 🤷🏻‍♀️ Anybody else in the house breeding? It doesn’t have to be cory, um, . . . . . “juice”?

Still nothing. I read an article from Eric Bodrock (I can try to find it, just to verify if need be, but it was a pretty good source) looking at schultzei breeding specifically. It mentioned a drop of 10-15 degrees as well as a 50-75% volume change. I normally do 30-50%, so it makes sense as to why I am not really seeing a lot of the breeding response I'd expect. I have done the very cold water change method, but just potentially not enough volume. As always, I feel like I'm always starting at square one with these guys until I can reliably trigger them. Ice water change is done, tank is cooler than it was when I started and I did a solid 75% water change this time. I can't be sure how much the temp dropped, but it's right around the 5-10 degree mark. Considering the heat today, I don't think it's out of range at all for the fish. The night air is cool, sounds like a storm might be rolling in, but I only mention it to note that there is some sort of a pressure change from the day to the night. There is also the big moon approaching, so maybe the timing is pretty good for this. I'll let you know if they trigger, but as far as I can see they are conditioned, the setup is good for spawning, they have shown behavior, but just need that trigger.

Any updates on this? Hope he's doing better!

@itsfoxtail the things we do for our fish friends, I toyed around with recording it but I’m terrible with pics and videos, honestly it’s rather anticlimactic. I just dangle a frozen one on an opposite side of the tank for maybe 60 secs to give it time to thaw a bit, then if you move the tweezers you use up and down it looks like a live worm and picky puffer loves it. If you make them wrong when the puffers attack them they almost explode a bit and make a mess in the tank and also if not made properly they can fall apart a bit but when done just right it’s a good time

@itsfoxtail The last photo- that’s my favorite! It is a female and has had babies. I hope they develop cool patterns. I always tell @nabokovfan87 I have Heinz 57 varieties of wild shrimps. Also once and only once, a red shrimp was born, and it lives in my wild tank. I started with a colony of blue dream shrimp and then all of these other things just happened. But one seller I bought 4 of the blue dreams from, one of the shrimps in that purchase was a clear shrimplet and may not have even been a blue dream. And their shrimp were labeled as “blue shrimp”, whatever that means. But I’m glad because it has made thing fun. I have been considering giving all the blue dreams to my friend, going down to one shrimp tank, and just keeping all the wilds. Not 100% sure yet.

I think that one is going to be a bold one for sure. All his friends are at the back of cave like usual but this one was right out front and moving around all over. Very unusual for fresh hatched to not be in the clump with his friends.