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As we all suffer from MTS and our faves change both old, new...so what's everyone into atm? Any new fish obsessions...nonstop old ones? Here's some of mine... Coral Red Pencilfish...thought I located some but they ran out just before I got ahold. As red is one of my favorite colors, want some for my upcoming big tank. Sunset Honey Gourami...newest fish to Mama's tank I built her recently. They are so interactive and always checking out the tank. Not sure how to sex them, so wondering if they are a pair or not. Still fun to watch and the life of that tank! 🙂 @nabokovfan87 will love seeing this...but yes, I love the Sterbai now. I have been a longtime Gold Laser fanboy, but the activity and overall liveliness of these Corys are amazing to watch! Really happy I added them to my future Discus home. They and my final fish are really cool additions in this tank. These suckers aka Red Lizard Whiptail Catfish(wow that is a mouthful!!) are so unique! First week I added them, they were very reclusive and I was wondering, as rumor is they are so sensitive from shipping, if they had made it or were doing well. Well, after some acclimation time, they come out quite frequently and I am noticing they are growing! They really are cool wet pets!! If anyone has higher temp tanks for SA Cichlids, these and Sterbai are def a good thought. What about everyone else? 😁

I’m completely obsessed with trying to breed gold nugget plecos. Started with a “used” fish that I stumbled onto when I went to pick up some used lights. Guy asked if I was interested in any fish. What ya got? African cichlids. No, anything else? I’ve got a cool pleco. Took one look and said how much! That was my first and I’ve been strangely convinced from the beginning that he is a he but I truly have no idea. He’s caving a lot these days so I’m even more convinced for no truly good reason. I just added another 2 more fairly well grown fish (paid twice the price that I did with the first guy and these 2 are smaller than the first guy was when I got him). This brings me to 1 subadult, probably near breeding age, and 6 more juvies (2 still fairly small) in a grow out tank. I recently picked up a 180 G tank that will get set up where my current rack is standing. It’s already drilled so I’ll have some options I hadn’t previously considered in creating current in a riverine set up for them. This will help push me through the mountain of tasks I need to complete to get to the stage where I can set up the “gold nugget breeding tank” that I hope intensely that the 180 G turns into. First pic is the most recent with the stupid cloudy water since the lemon bristlenoses are still stirring up the substrate like crazy. Second is the best clear pick of him from many months ago. He’s caving diligently right now. I’ve been so worried about how I would ever catch him out of this tank. He’s so tucked into his cave that I’m certain I’ll only have to pick up that wood piece and move it to the new tank. He’s welcome to keep it in the new tank. Whatever makes him comfortable! Once that tank is set up, it’s big enough all the gold nuggets can go in at the same time. Previous obsessions include gold laser Cories. I also now favor the sterbais I have in that same tank. Much bolder and more interesting to watch. I’ve also all but given up on my Betta persephones. Still have a pair but they just hide too much to hold my interest well. I was prepared for reclusive fish but not for quite this reclusive. Same with my pygmy sunfish, hide too much and too well to keep my full interest, sadly. Even though my big BEL boys are tearing up my substrate and have recently floated an Amazon sword that has been planted for 2.5 YEARS, I still love them. I’m definitely finding myself a bit pleco obsessed overall. The babies with their giant, “laying on a beach ball bellies” are just so stinking cute!

Greetings, fish enthusiasts! I'm Skyler, dedicated to the art of breeding exquisite white cloud minnows, which I supply to my local fish store. My journey doesn't stop there, as I'm now exploring the realm of breeding other fascinating fish species. I'm eager to soak up more insights and tips along the way!

I thought this was a very interesting watch about the lifecycle and remedies for ich. Microscopic footage of ich and fish farm remedies and footage as well. I have personally used the suggestion to raise temp. I went to 86. It did work.

It makes me miss my false julii's corydoras! I'm glad you're having fun with them. I've never kept them before, but I can only imagine years from now how the pattern will develop and look amazing.

Over the last 6 months I’ve stepped back from the hobby in many ways but my passion and interest remain. I think even when we’re not emulating the FishTubers and obsessing about our hobby we can still be innovative and interested in advancing our hobby. It’s taken me 29 pages of this journal to write that and it’s ok. I’m really still very in love with the hobby. That makes my heart glad like it did when I was 10 and got my turtle tank which begat a goldfish tank and a koi tank and an African cichlid tank and on and on. Of late my FishWife has made it clear that the way I approach the hobby needed to change. I have had this idea that money would buy me happiness in my hobby. I also used it to try to buy my way out of problems. Instead it brought many poor and rash decisions on me, my fishwife and my fish. So I decided a few months back to focus on 1) if I’m buying only local, no shipping 2) if at all possible rehome and repurpose 3) utilize my club, online forums and other ways to keep my hobby and interest going. This led to my most recent connection with a hobbyist we’ll call L. He’s moving and he’s had about 4 beautiful setups in his office that he was looking to take down 3 of them. Initially it was a 22 long 3 weeks to a month ago and now it was a beautiful 120 P ADA tank. This was fish and shrimp as well as plants, equipment etc. Panda loaches x 4. I get glimpses of them chewing on biofilm and hanging in the flow of the powerheads in the corners. Gorgeous patterns. I’d say as babies and juveniles they’re pandas but this is a more leopard like pattern which is very handsome. I couldn’t say no to a community puffer. Tetradon schoutedeni or the Congo Spotted Puffer is a truly special fish. Smart, social, handsome and just magical. We’ve had her for 2 days and the boys are in love. Her colors have improved each day and she munch on some blood worms and some snails - it’s an impressive pop when she gets a ramshorn. My 60 g breeder has been housing a group Of diamond tetras since the summer- once again someone was breaking down their tank and posted on the club page. To my amazement in the last 2 weeks I’ve been seeing babies! Guppies guppies guppies! I’ve had a group of Santa Claus guppies for awhile and I really like them. Part of this latest gall of fish are Japanese Blue Guppies. The metallic colors are intense! I am enjoying how my 60 gallon display is growing in. I ran it as high tech but I stopped the c02 as I couldn’t keep up with the maintenance. Have fun everyone!

totally agree, ive got 1panda garra and he is super fun. my albino cories breeds a lot, and they are super fun to have in a massive group. I hate the fact that ill need to rehome most of them in order to make sure my tank isnt overstocked.

5 water changes done today and 2 loads of laundry. Mission accomplished. Not much to report on today so here is some pics and a video. Don't mind the sound in the background just watching celebrity ghost stories.. https://youtu.be/jmI8lBuRmXw?si=yH-Hoo5X0Z89eKM5

Yesterday I talked about my Asian tank, today my South American tank that I am willing to adjust. Is a gourami good option for me? This is my largest tank, 120x50x60cm, here is a low light picture before maintenance, one from the back of the tank after the maintenance: 6 remaining hatchetfish, 20 or so dying out ember tetras (oldest inhabitants), 20 rummynose tetra, 13 sterbai corydoras, 4 bolivian ram and several otocinclus I love gouramis and cant stick them to my asian tank, cause of the temperature. But how about here? If yes, which and how many? 5x honey gourami, to see their interactions? 1m2f pearl gourami? or just one male pearl gourami? blue gourami, powder blue, dwarf? I dont know. Advice will be appreciated. Thank you (BTW I am not worried about the hatchetfish. I increased the school twice, they will jump out, I am done with them. If they coexist with the gourami, fine, if they wont, they would have jumped out anyway. Very ungrateful fish)

I second the whiptails...they are awesome! As far as gouramis, I have some sunset honey gouramis that I just got from The Wet Spot in Portland. They are so cute and very personable...no hiding ever! Another suggestion, pencilfish...they are my new faves. I have them in 2 tanks now. 🙂 Aren't they the cutest?? My Mom loves hers! They are both so interactive and always messing about all over the tank. Def will be buying more Labyrinths in the near future!

Have you considered emergent plants to help with nitrates? My tap has high nitrate so it’s a constant struggle for me. I found growing lots of emergents very enjoyable. Here is a thread with great info.

That tank is stunning. I’m hooked on my sunset honey gourami. They are definitely my kind of wet pets. I have 6 in a 29 with my Badis badis. They qre interactive among themselves and their surroundings but also interactive with me. They feel the glass with their feelers wherever I put my fingers. 🥰 Watching them interacting and communicating is fascinating to me. I’ve never kept any other gourami so maybe they are all that way I don’t know.

That two small for two males I would get a 40 gallons or bigger if you want multiple angelfish you will get constant fighting if it's two males in a tank that size I would rehome the other male or put him in this own tank

They might get a bit iffy with the Bolivians, but Honey gouramis would be a great choice.

Looks like an injury keep stable water parameters and Salt a good option as @TheSwissAquarist suggested it will help prevent secondary infection I would start at 1 table spoon for 3 gallons you could add some Indian almond leaves as they have antibacterial and antifungal properties and monitor for a week are these two angel fish a pair or two males what size is the tank @Marcelo

My critters, snails & shrimp, do not like banquet blocks. Try calcium chips from Crayfish Empire. Shrimp foods and crab foods contain calcium also. (Ie: Hikari crab cuisine) This probably wasn’t funny at time time, but it sounds so funny when you describe it. 🤣

I just want to correct myself and say people do take the time to clean the thingy. LOL I think you guys are doing too much work and should just use the pipette, then use your saved time to watch your fish. 🙂

I caught some footage of sparring behavior today. They are pretty fun to watch.

It's printing! Here's the final design, minus some rendering bugs. My dad said it is 60 hours of print time but he has three printers going (I guess he has some friends get printers and decide it's not for them)

Thanks. 😊 I’m thinking about getting a RO system because my water here is dead hard (I got hold of a report which states that my water has 0 chlorine, but a pH of 7.6 out of the tap, and that it’s pretty hard). Not ideal for tetras, but a bit of peat should solve that. 🙃 I got my first platy yesterday! A pregnant golden female (I’m trying to justify paying 10 bucks for her). @JoeQ https://www.hornbach.ch/de/p/aquarienunterlage-80x35x0-6-cm/10241375/

Tetras are hard to breed. You should be proud! I like your shrimps. I see them called Sunkist shrimp here in the U.S.

Rather than go with a bigger tank you could just get more small tanks... People are often just getting rid of them for free. Plus then you can keep different stuff and not have to worry about compatibility. They you could have your passive fish and your shrimp. But be careful, they will spread...

Great, thanks so much I'll do that! Here's hoping he'll perk up and pull through.

Before cleaning, 5 pumps After Cleaning, 5 pumps: I did go and clean out the pumps and I felt a little bit of crystallization not in the head or the straw, but in the spring section of the pump head. I submerged the pump to try to dislodge that and got a little bit of it out. I'm not sure if I can submerge it in vinegar or anything to help remove the stuff inside. Hot or warm water is what I usually use.

Interesting! Very good idea.

It got retired. yeah. The modded one was beat up and held together with superglue (see tidal thread) and then the other one was unmodded and practically as beat up. They both are well-used, but I needed to stop messing with issues/patches and it was more about trying to give the tank the best chance of success with being a "healthy, high tech, planted tank." Good idea! The aquarium co-op measure is a wonderful tool. Buy two. I use em to feed frozen and meds and all kinds of things.

Pretty sure I saw the little girl and her mom checking out of the store with the same bowl and the same gravel and everything.... 1. I was happy to see a kid being introduced to the hobby. 2. The mom was clearly not fully prepared or understanding of what was needed 3. Thankfully, she asked questions and I was able to help out every so slightly. I tried to be extremely polite and explained small things to try to help out. The kid spent a good 10 minutes in line staring at the fish and treating it like she was holding a living thing. Beautiful to see. All we can do is hope more of the correct care spreads and that in the stores things are shared with the people to set them up for healthy, successful fish care. 🤞

Nosing around your Journal and noticed the picture of the tank in your garage. Can you tell me what that black mat is the tank is sitting on? That would be the perfect protector for my next project!

His igloo is so much more comfy rolled in it’s side 🤣

I've had more issues with breaking than clogging. The last 2 bottles I've gotten, the pumps have been screwed in so tight that I was fighting to try and open it...only for it to break. I've resorted to just adding a capful of EG once a week for my ten gallon tanks, 2 capfuls for my 20. Haven't had issues!

I've had this happen too (clogging, not breaking). I've generally found that the salt crystals that accumulate in the noozle dissolve very quickly with very little water. If you notice buildup before dosing, run the noozle under hot water for a few seconds, and pump gently until clear. While avoiding wastage. On the occasions where I do have to use a pipette, I pour the fert into a cup and pipette out of that, instead of out of the bottle. When done I pour what remain in the cup back in the original bottle. Mind you this is for 10-15 tanks - if I only had a couple working right out of the bottle would be easier. Another fix, if and when necessary, is to remove the pump mechanism from the bottle after dosing, manually pump whatever is in the tube and noozle back into the fert bottle (to avoid wastage), then pump a few mls of hot water through the pump via cup just to clean it out well, and return the pump to the bottle empty. That became very clunky as I wrote it, I hope I'm being clear. Ish.

The top of my pump came off early on. I have just been "by guess and by golly"-ing it. which isn't great. I'll start measuring it .

So Amano shrimp love to escape. They are very good at it, In fact. I had one fly out of my tank when I was cleaning it one day. I didn't see him jump, but he wanted out of there, I guess. When I was all done with the tank and putting stuff away is when I saw him marching over to the TV stand. He almost made it under there but I caught a glimpse of movement on the floor, thank goodness. Another time I had another Amano disappear for over a year and then reappear. I'm sure he was hiding in the filter this whole time. I found a neo shrimp on top of the lid once. That ended badly. All that said, I doubt anything like this happened to your shrimp. It sounds like yours is a new addition to the tank. They will hide out until they're comfortable with their new surroundings. I would do something to block that opening in the lid, though. I used clear packing tape to tape that opening shut one time. It worked pretty well. Good luck.

For sure. There’s always multiple ways to do anything!

I never use the pump head. Instead, I pour my Easy Green in a little cup and use a pipette so I know the actual ml going in.

I’m having to chop & change the tanks a bit before going on holiday. The hundreds of danio fry aren’t exactly helping, and I’ve realized that the few tetra fry I have probably wouldn’t survive my absence. 🤦‍♂️ This dark cloud does have a silver lining though: glowlight tetra fry take 5 days to develop, and my vacation lasts exactly 5 days as well. With a bit of luck, I can spawn the tetras the morning I leave, and come back to some free-swimming fry. I know it’s a long shot, but I’m optimistic that BBS induced romance can conquer all. 😂 Also went to a friend of mines ski-jumping competition (acrobatic). It’s super surprising that they don’t twist an ankle when they land on the airbag at the bottom.

One day maybe…I’ll need to get myself a rack of tanks like yours first! The remaining glowlight fry seem about a day away from being free swimming. So far I’ve spotted a grand total of 2. 😅

You're on your way to being a master breeder!

Added 3 shrimp to the little tank. Baby Cory juvies: The majority of the tetras hatched today. I probably made a mistake in leaving the parents in for another day, there only seem to be 20 wrigglers.

Teeny tiny wrigglers. I’m guesstimating around 20, but some eggs have yet to hatch.

My glowlight tetras have spawned 🥳🥳🥳🥳! The eggs are sooo tiny. Better get some paracemium cultures…

Popped over to a LFS to get an Assassin snail to deal with ramshorns. They’ve slashed the prices on a group of L134 Leopard frogs (It’s what they’re calling them, I think they’re a bit closer to L333 Queen Arabesque Pleco). 250 Swiss Franks is still a bit outta my price range - maybe the danios will help me get there. Speaking of danios… they’ve started on the BBS, and are as cute as ever. I’ve also added a bit of peat to the breeding tank, complete with some wild terrestrial moss from the woods behind my house. Mountain moss is nice and tufty and perfect for spawning. I’ve gorged my Glowlight tetras on BBS for the past couple of days, and have added 1M 2F to the tank. Stay tuned! Spare pic of my new desktop shrimp tank. Admittedly it’s not as cool as @wes.crocketts 3D printed deco tank, but it’s fun. 😊 Stay fishy Nerms!

My chemistry teacher says she’s gonna take some, and I asked at an LFS yesterday and I expect that they’ll take the rest. I’ll probably keep 20 or so for my display.

Danios say hi: I didn’t realize how many there actually were until I had to catch them out to make way for some tetras. it’s also the annual cow parade. Time for the street to get plastered in turds 💩!

Parents always be getting the munchies 😅. Anubias are looking great these days!

Black phantoms, and they’re supposedly one of the easier tetras to breed. They’re related to Von Rio tetras.

what kind of phantom tetra is that? red or black? Either way its a stunning fish, a school of 30+ of those guys in a big planted 75, that would be super cool.

Danios day 2 of life… Caught my tetras flaring this morning, but the baby danios are occupying the breeding tank…so i can’t really complain. P.S. They’re impossible to catch!