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They fall asleep and lose their grip on whatever they were attached to. They are the biggest thing in a peaceful tank. So I assume they have deep peaceful fishy dreams.

Plants with deep substrate have more room to expand their roots. Just like potted plants, aquarium plants can have their roots bound by shallow substrate. Yes aquatic plants can absorb nutrients from the water, but some still need to come from the soil. A plant with a strong root system is more likely to succeed long term. Also similar to terrestrial plants, aquatic plants can benefit from tunneling insects and fish. That agitate the soil and bring needed nutrients from the surface. I have my emergent plants now in about 11” of soil. And it took about a year, but they are really starting to take over now. Although my gobies tunneling habits are probably more detrimental than good 😅

Mine does the same >_>

I think you meant to say less toxic ammonium because it certainly is toxic. Just not as acutely toxic as ammonia. @Lennie, low dose salt can help them regulate their electrolytes more easily and reduces stress on their system. No more than 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons should be fine for cories, but it isn’t necessarily needed in this case. Getting them immediately out of the bag was the smartest thing you could do, so well done! Keeping the water pristine for at least 2 weeks afterwards is the next smartest. This will give them time to heal from any ammonia damage to their gills or organs.

They are awesome.

I will share my experience with my 4 hillstream loaches just to give you an idea on how they act for me. I keep them in a 60 gallon aquarium which is 4 feet long, and the only filtration I have is 2 large aquarium coop sponge filters. The tank stays at 79 Fahrenheit. 3 of the loaches are lineolata, and the 4th is sewellia sp. spotted. My loaches are extremely active and are usually in the open where they can be seen. In regards to feeding, I’ve found that they will eat anything I put into the tank. They cleaned up all of my algae within a few days and will gladly chow down on vibra bites, algae wafers, brine shrimp, and catfish pellets. Not only this, but I just recently saw one of them eating the meat off of a cricket head that one of my African butterfly fish dropped to the bottom. I have one male and 3 females as far as I can tell. The tank has very little flow and higher temperatures to accommodate my 3 ABF, but it seems to have no impact on the hillstreams. I also keep them with 7 petricola catfish.

IDK why they love to do that.... freaks me out too.

Nitrate 50ppm is this before or after a water change as high levels of nitrates can affect the swim bladder if it's after a water change its possible you had a spike and that what affecting your angel fish @Tanked

You think I would get used to this sleep position. I still check gill movement and have my heart skip a beat until I see it. 🤣

My biology teacher has a really fun 2x2 white Rubik’s cube he uses to demonstrate genetics with a marker. This probably wasn’t helpful, but hey-ho … 😅

If the tops are looking good, stick with what you’re doing and eventually you can top and replant. I’ve personally failed with this plant even with CO2.

They seem to do better in co2 rich water. @Mmiller2001

It’s either a gold nugget or gold spot pleco (L001). Need to see it’s caudal or dorsal fin to be sure. Gold nuggets have a yellow blotch on the tips of those fins whereas gold spot do not. Also this was posted in photos and journals it might have better luck moved to general discussion. But we are going to need another photo for clarity 😂 I had to look and there is a L double O 7. How is it not called a Bond pleco or Agent pleco… whoever is in charge of L numbering I need to have a word

So as I suspected, there were a lot of white fuzzy eggs. But what truly surprised me... was this morning there were two fry with egg sac still attached! Can eggs hatch in 24hrs?

Yes, flow is huge when it comes to algae and it's a hardly mentioned topic. The main narrative being a less than helpful "turn down your light" and "cut back on fertilizers". Which is counter productive, good plant growth is how you fight algae. It requires all the light the plant can handle and an abundance of nutrients. Flow helps distribute said nutrients along with adding surface aggitation which also aids in gas exchange (bringing in oxygen and co2) among other things. As for oxygen, more oxygen (in your tank) allows more beneficial bacteria to grow. More bacteria help to break down organic waste (example dead leaves, stems, ect). Without the beneficial bacteria algae fills the void and decomposes the waste. This is one of the reasons why colder water tanks (73 degrees) are easier to grow in than warm water tanks 79+ degrees) . Cold water holds more oxygen than warm water, and aids in breaking down organic waste. Where as, the owner of a warm water tank needs to be extremely diligent in maintaining a clean tank or algae will fill the void and do the job for them. As for oxygen in the filter itself and algae I can not comment on. Im not sure how this impacts the whole eco system. And as always as a disclaimer, I urge the reader to do their own research. The information above may not be 100% accurate. Not a licensed biologist!

If those were my options, I’d go sponge filter, simply for the fairly cheap price tag even with an air pump.

I have PFS. Even when I siphon and “turn over” the sand - that used to work to refresh it and get it looking new again, but now even the stuff under the top layer is dirty/stained. It would need a bucket rinse. But that would kill all the bb. Still, I think there’s bb on enough other things in the tank that it should be ok to rinse it.

they are a bit hard to see but here's some boesemani rainbows

😞 Give me like a good 3 hours! Sometimes it just always looks a bit messy and it's tough, I totally get where you're coming from. I was so fed-up with the tank this month just because of how dirty the sand was getting on me. I think we even have the same type of sand?

I'm pondering a selective breeding project to try to develop some interesting variations in coloring/finage scarlet badis. I've never done anything like this before, and I'm curious about two things: What experiences other people have had: How many generations did it take to see some results? How challenging/frustrating was it? How large a breeding population did you have to maintain? Resources (like a book rather than blog post) about genetics with respect to selective breeding. thanks!

It was more of a thought if anubis leaves recover considering the time they take to grow. This is the first time I've been successful with Anubis (beretti and coffee) so figured doing more Anubis varietys would cut down on the trimming maintenance stems require.

The swords are indeed massive! A couple years of letting them just go wild gets ya there. Appreciate the kinds words for my girl. I’ll let her know you sent well wishes!

Definitely not a gold nugget. Spot pattern isn’t right at all. Gold spot = L001 same as what @Colu thought. I agree that seems most likely but need a better pic. Pic is of my gold nugget which appears to be L018 species. I don’t have a gold spot, L001 so no pic to compare other than what google can tell us. Gold spot’s get big, though, up to 12”.

Of course! And im going to nerd out on you for a second. Angelfish and discus were part of a really cool study that showed even with water that had 0 gh for long exposures the angelfish and discus had no issues with ion exchange in their gills. And what they found is that these fish possess a unique ability to pump ions across their gills mechanically. Meaning without the help of calcium and magnesium they were still able to absorb needed nutrients from the water! The same goes for many fish that comes from the amazon where the water is extremely lacking in minerals. All this is to say you are totally fine with your water parameters.

So so sorry. At least she didn’t die in a pet store cup. You were her savior.

I really like the simple setup. Unfortunately I don't seem to be able to grow JV. Your gravel is a lot coarser than I usually see, and probably does explain the leeching. You might be able to cap with some finer gravel in areas where you use the root tabs.

with the low pressure, and volume of air being used in an aquarium or modest amount of aquariums, i think its a non issue. sort of related, back when i was a printer we had shop air plumbed to the presses by large pvc pipes, when those failed, there was no shrapnel, but holy heck your ears would suffer if you were within a hundred feet of the break.

No plant leaves can repair themselves from damage. That’s just not how plants work. They can seal up a cut edge sometimes but that’s about the extent of it. What happened to the plant? Do you have pics? We might be able to tell you more if we knew what was going on.

Sicce Shark ADV. I've got two of them on a 40 breeder.

So they will need to wait another 6 months for the pleco to appear again? 🤣😝

I’m on the list to get notified when available, so I’ll be getting at least 4 to start with, maybe more. I’ll have more than enough to see if the smaller tubes fit on the “old” nano uplift tube.

Update: on Wednesday I did three 80% water changes back to back to get down to 0ppm of ammonia, nitrite, and nitrite. Then I squeezed a sponge from an established tank and added some fish food and an algae wafer to continue providing ammonia for the beneficial bacteria to work on. Tested the water today: no measurable ammonia, and INSTANT dark pink for both nitrite and nitrate (sorry…forgot the values and don’t have the test kit handy). I haven’t added anymore chemicals other than Prime to the water during the water changes. The only other variable I can think of is there is a grid of 8 Aquarium Co-op root tabs in the gravel under the plants. attaching a picture of the tank in question. The Val and stem plants are all propagated from my other tanks. (I’m unsure how those stem plants are going to do…) I appreciate any continued input or advice!

Possible juvenile L001 looking at the spot pattern

Small net, manual labor, stay on it! Be on the look out for anything that resembles a pumpkin seed, you might even consider buying an ehime skimmer! Good luck Edit: meant to say small underdeveloped watermelon seed.

Thanks for the comments. I’ll think I stick with the strips because I’m tired of chasing those nitrate numbers with the master kit.

Ick. This is my sand. I would not play in it. Just messing with it kicks up dust clouds like Pig Pen. It get maintained every week, but always looks about the same. So I’m figuring you probably have newer sand, newer tank, and/or lighter stocking.

Unfortunately no to keeping 1-2. You can try cutting the clutch in thirds or fourths though. When laid they are soft and held together in a slime goo. Once that goo hardens it sort of fuses and becomes part of the hardened egg casing. Trying to separate one will damage it. That shell needs to retain moisture. Most of that is done through where the eggs touch each other. I have watched different snail eggs develop under a microscope. It takes roughly 2 days for eggs that hatch in 5-7 days to be more than cells dividing. So mystery snails being 10-20 day hatched please feel safe knowing there are no baby snails yet.

do you have just normal Maracyn / Erythromycin? (The reason I ask or bring it up...) Kanaplex / maracyn2 = gram negative maracyn = gram positive

I love when I see their little frog faces peeking out of cracks 🥰

I thought about this. But I don’t think it’s a good option for me. Reasons…as much for me to get opinions as an explanation as to why this I dont think will work for me. - my nitrate from the tap @25-35 issue. This mean I must stay hyper vigilant about no excess organics decaying in the tank. -the roots on one of my crypts has started clogging the middle section. I need to get a thick layer of detritus already built up out. -my Pygmy and panda Cory new hatches dive through the cracks of the gravel. There is currently a fry every inch the size of an eyelash hidden. When I vac I siphon a gallon at a time to a white bucket and retrieve the fry. -The stock in this tank is stupid now. Not intentionally but I can’t figure out fish birth control to save my life 🤣 STOCK mom n dad full grown bn pleco- several stray babies from other spawns where I missed stray eggs and a new batch coming out of the cave right now. The girl who buys my fish and another retailer requested a batch to split. My Pygmy Cory group grew from what I could not catch Roughly 20 and untold number of fry 10 melini is now 20 adults 20-30 frustratingly fast young juveniles. And a living substrate of those fry I think my adult CPD group has now grown to 15-20 plus wigglers and clingers everywhere If this tank, which is supposed to be a retirement tank when I’m done breeding each,(fish did not get that memo obviously) is so polluted with fry vacuum is insanely hard. The Cory fry don’t do well when the substrate is not tidy. Last reason… SAND IS EASY TO MAINTAIN gravel is not 🤣

Get the biggest tank that will fit in the area. 🙂

Well they spawned a lot for that YouTuber, 107 times he claims, but I'm going to guess that, like me, none of those resulted in fry.

World famous video bomber

Just an FYI.... I've seen reports of some people who would have the knowledge to say this, that if you're using multiple bacteria sources, one of them can simply out compete the other. Given certain parameters like PH, the live version of the fritz bacteria may not do a whole lot. They do have a version that is much more similar to seachem's stability product. I would suggest using one only and I would suggest following the directions for dosing off of the seachem stability side of things as opposed to the fritz packaging. (One big dose on day 1, then normal doses for 7 days) That being said, I don't think gravel or bacteria is to blame here, so let's dive in. What is the actual filtration you're running and what is the media setup in that filtration. (photos help a ton here) It's definitely a unique situation and I am not sure why or what's going on. If I had to guess, I think there's a combination of things, but most importantly something is leeching into the tank. I would start by testing your tap water. I would ensure that you're not getting ammonia from chloramines and that you're not getting nitrates from the tap. As mentioned, you did this, and it was a big goose egg. 😞 That's a wonderful thing though because it means we can isolate everything to something inside the tank. The common things here would be substrate (active soil leeching) or snails. Is there anything like that going on? Maybe some snails got brought into the tank via the other filtration? Last but not least, I don't think rocks leech ammonia, but I have heard of gravel leeching/raising ammonia. This could be due to things in (or on) the rock/gravel and it may just be a matter of doing a ton of water changes. The only think you really should or need to do, is to do daily water changes as large of water volume as you can. There is only plants in the system, they will actually be fine with larger water changes as long as they stay wet. Daily 50-80% water changes would be my go to right now. Before you do any water changes, disturb the substrate with your hand and see if there is a lot of debris that ends up in the water column. Move things around, try to find that ammonia source, and just change water until things stabilize. For 1-2 weeks I would stop dosing in any of your bacteria product and I would simply focus on water changes, dechlorinator, and trying to observe test results. Take a water sample to the LFS to verify the ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels. Consider grabbing a KH / GH liquid test kit to verify what your parameters are as well. It'll sort itself out, right now, just a bit of patience and see what's going on.

Also, I would lay off of the water changes. Just let things run and wait for the ammonia and nitrite to both hit 0.

If your nitrites and nitrates are spiking immediately after a large 80% water change, I'd test your tap water. I suspect that's the source of your problems. If your tap water is good, you shouldn't see a spike immediately after an 80% change.

I managed to make a video of my pseudomugil luminatus fry. At around 0:14 you can see another fry moving in the background too, and there are the parents, not caring about the fry Exciting Also I made a gif of my whitecloud fry that is in my cube fry rearing tank now 🙂 they are starting to look like fish

Hi Folks, David here, retired and living the dream in southern Mexico on the Oaxacan coast. Like many here I've been a tropical fish hobbyist since I was 7 or 8 years old but I did step it up a notch for several years in Southern California where I owned and operated a commercial marine ornamentals hatchery called Seahorse Aquatics. I raised seahorses (of course), several clownfish species, several dottyback species, some gobies and a few others. I had to give it up for financial reasons but now I'm retired and have nothing to do all day but play with fish tanks. Admittedly the bulk of my more advanced experience is with marine species but of course I started out with the same entry level FW fish as most people do and now I'm going back to basics; I have mollies, platys and swordtails going and I am trying to get some angelfish. There is no LFS here and no Live Aquaria so sourcing fish is difficult. If I can find them I also want to try some German Blue Rams. Also just for kicks I'm forming a colony of clown loaches, have collected 5 so far. My real goal is to farm tilapia aquaponically and grow food as well but I'm still in an apartment (looking for a site) so small fish in tanks are all I can manage at this time. I've watched a zillion You Tube videos lately and Aquarium Coop keeps showing up as a legit source for information so I'm hoping to become an active member. Thanks for reading, more later :)