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I apologize for the crappy lighting, but after using oil paints and pastels, I decided to try out watercolors. Decided to paint a Bolivian Ram, as I have a beautiful pair that I’m trying to spawn. I don’t have any nerms to show this to IRL, so I thought I’d post this here! I’m thinking of painting either a Geophagus or Pangio species next. I’m only a high school student, so I’ll definitely need more practice, but I don’t think this is too bad of a start!

I’m so sorry for your loss. looking from your description it sounds like the MTS brought in a fast acting fish pathogen. I would allow the tank to continue running fishless for a minimum of 30 days 60 to be safe. Most pathogenic organisms require a host and will die off without one. In the meantime run carbon and change every 2 weeks just in case it was a chemical pathogen that only affected fish.

I’ve been keeping fish for a very, very long time. I’m pretty sure I’ve made just about every mistake you can possibly make. Forgot to unplug heaters, forgot to plug heaters back in. Forgot to unplug filters, forgot to plug them back in. Waited too long to clean prefilters to the point where it killed HOB’s. Left sponge filters go so long they were collapsing on themselves (yep, that long). Had fish yeet themselves out and not noticed in time (found a dried up Betta persephone on the floor about 2 weeks ago). Ignored that little patch of black beard algae until it took over the tank, after all, it doesn’t hurt the fish - well, until your plants are nearly covered and not doing their job anymore. That’s a major struggle to fight back from. You name it, I’ve probably been there, done that, didn’t even get the T shirt over all these decades. It happens to all of us sooner or later. We will do something that compromises the health of our pets. How we handle that and learn from it is what makes us better aquarists, eventually. We do have to absorb those lessons and not ignore the results of our actions or our inactivity. I’ll be honest, mine is usually an inactivity - feeling burned out at work, about life in general, or just too tired to get everything done that’s on my “to do” list. I often feel like I’m always trying to catch up on things. Lists help me, but I have to take the time to make lists, then I have to pay attention to the lists. Too many big things on the list and I get stuck in “getting ready” mode instead of moving into actually doing mode. So then I make lists within lists so each thing is smaller and more achievable. I’m at lists within lists for the Offish that I’ve been trying to do for over a year. But I got some things done today (well, technically yesterday) and I’ll get more done tomorrow (later today? 😝). And I’ve got a rare Sunday off, so I’ll get more done on Sunday, too, since it’s been raining too much to play paintball. 😉 Might even get water changes done on every tank this week by the time I’m done! Maybe. 😆 Definitely getting my linear air pump and air manifold set up tomorrow for my rack. That will make it easier to move once I make a space for it to move to in the Offish. Might go crazy and work on resetting my volcano tank. It’s a mess right now. And my list grows. But as long as I keep growing and keep pushing, keep learning overall, and keep learning my limits, that’s what counts. I’ve bred more fish in the last 3 years than I ever did “back in the day”. So I guess that’s at least some progress in growing as a fishkeeper. Now if I could just keep up with my lists a little better. 😆

Added this strange critter to my aquarium last week:

I brought in the white clouds from my summer tub. Very happy with their color and condition--I only fed the pond to show guests the fish once bug season began, but they are plump and fiery looking. I added them to the 29 that now sits in my home office, which was looking very empty as it houses only a few retired breeder platy and guppy girls and shrimp.

Thank you @Sarina for starting this. I hope your Paradise Fish recovers! And thank you @Guppysnail @Odd Duck for sharing. I tend to worry so much about not doing things right that I talk myself out of doing them at all! Especially when it comes to live creatures. As a beginner, it’s a good reminder that things aren’t always going to go perfectly and we just need to do our best and not give up!

We were tossing names around and i suggested that, and she had that on her list as well, the breeder had him as asher so his full name became Sir Ravioli Asher Vanderbilt (also just tossed out the Vanderbilt because it sounds classy). And if you met him Ravioli definitely fits him!

They arrived this morning, they are around 3.5 - 4cm and arrived with a heat patch and seem all okay and happy. Got them acclimated by dripping some tank water into their travel bag and now are hidden behind the heater. Will give them half a Carni wafer in the afternoon, keep an eye on water parameters and see what happens. Needles to say .... I am absolutely in love with how they look and they will only color up better as they grow.

Out with the lad for 60 mins on the creek today! Tiny trickle, but lots of life… I caught a colorful Crayfish… Sammy caught a cool frog… We loaded up on local fish. Rosysided Dace… Blue Ridge Sculpins… Fantail Darters… Blacknose Dace… White Suckers… And (a first for us!) a Stoneroller… Best hour of the day 😎👍

Hello. I decided to try building the “cheap and easy” aquarium stand from the KGTropicals YouTube channel. This one is for a new, 20 gallon long that I’m going to set up. It is in-fact pretty cheap and easy to do. I used 2x4s and I’m going to use some reclaimed pallet wood to finish off the bottom shelf. I did spend some extra time sanding all the boards so that it looks a bit more finished and so that it will take stain better. This was also my first try “test” as I plan to eventually build a new stand for my 38 gallon. For that one, I will be a little more exact with my placement of the screws and might even use a pocket jig to hid the screw holes. Either way, there is the option to apply some trim and/or sidewalls to make it look more finished. Anyway, happy with how it came out. Super sturdy and confident it can hold a lot of weight. Cheers.

Had a tank when I was a kid, and just now getting back into the hobby. I have a planted 55 gallon currently cycling and honestly watched 1000 videos before I even had water in it. I haven’t had it long but I believe I’ve already contracted MTS 😅 Next tank will be a 29 gallon with no ideas yet on stock. in the image is my 55 gallon, with 2 55 tidals and a ehiem heater. The sponge filter is only there to seed it for my quarantine tank

Thank you to all of you. I enjoyed the info on Corydoras and hard water. My water is hard to begin with and I use Wondershell to add calcium for my snails, but all seem to be healthy. However I don’t expect my green neon to lay eggs because I understand they need soft water to breed. Please tag me when you post on this elsewhere so I can find it.

Happy to report that spixi snails decimated the hydra and combined with taking an extended break of feeding BBS, there's barely any to speak of. Spixi's laid eggs and I ended up with about a dozen babies. Unfortunately about half of them died when I tried to relocate them (what the heck?). The others are growing nicely. Hopefully they mature OK and give me another egg cluster. I've ramped back up the BBS and am feeding them that twice a day about 4-5 days a week. The Hongsloi pair cohabitated OK, but the male did get a bit more aggressive when the female was taking what I assume was a diet induced break from flirting. They seem to be back on good terms both displaying for each other seemingly constantly. She's got a beautiful rosy belly and is wearing her bright yellow best all the time. I'm going to start mixing in some Rapashy into my feeding routine for them. They eat pellets and BBS and flake, but I feel like I'm missing something meaty. They also eat freeze dried tubifex, but I'm not positive if that could be a bloat issue if fed frequently. Also replaced all apisto caves except one for the Hongsloi. The male just flat-out doesn't fit. Not sure if that's a big deal breaker or not, but now that he's grown up it's not even just a "tight squeeze". I gave them a 4" terracotta pot with a bigger hole chipped out of it. He'll go in there with her. The smaller cave is mainly for her to have a place where she can 100% escape him, which is how she seems to use it, seeming to favor the bigger cave when enticing him. I might end up rotating the big side of the pot to the glass so that I can maybe see what's going on in there. They haven't spawned for awhile that I am aware of and if the next one isn't successful, I think I'm going to swap males. Though I have no idea what the problem really is since I can't really see what's going on. The Abacaxis get the same diet. Today marks the first I've seen the female get pretty darn flirty with the male and is starting to get the faintest of yellowish to her body. Hopefully that means they're happy with each other. I've been ramping up water changes again as well. TDS was below 60 when I last checked. I should drop my pH probe in and see if it's dropped down naturally at all. I've got a dozen pencilfish in QT right now that will probably end up split evenly between the two pairs' tanks. The Abacaxis are actually pretty tolerant of me now, though they're still more spooky than the Hongsloi. The Hongsloi remind me a bit of very small oscars. They're out and about all the time and they beg for food too. Because I got so many males with my three pairs (5 males), I've ended up with a trio in a 55 and they get along very well, almost always swimming together. Never really any violence, though without a female to fight over that's probably a big help. I've got another single male in a 40 breeder with tetras and corys and he is a total gentleman. I was watching the sterbai eat a big pile of tubifex worms this evening and he was even nice enough to wait for a opening in the cory pile instead of pounding his way in there. 😄 Forgot to add a pic of the male trying to get into the "apisto cave".

@Zeaqua My pygmy Cories aren't reclusive at all, just moved some to a 20 long with 6 Pepper Cories. Friendly as anything to each other, and like hanging out together! I was pleased!

Thanks for the advice! Right now I’m leaving towards the pygmies, and I might add other species with time. Totally get the brochis thing, they kinda do look like someone warped a picture of a normal cory. Thinking about it a bit more, the barbatus might be a bit big for my tank, but if I see any in my LFS, I’ll definitely consider it. As for the “normal” Cories, both of the ones you suggested look wonderful, especially the orange Venezuelans.

as my time on sunday mornings becomes more valuable, i did my water change tonight instead, tank is looking good, and the aquaclear is working strong!

All depends on how she progressing after the 5 days do a 50% water change and run active carbon for 24hr to remove any remaining medication and follow up with a second course of kanaplex and jungal fungus clear if your not seeing much improvement

hard to go wrong with either option. they both work just fine.

I built a custom UGF for my 55 and it has been rock solid. I would not worry about mulm building up under the plate as that is just additional area for beneficial bacteria to grow. I use power heads for my UGF, as I won'd like cleaning off the algae that grows on my glass tops when I have bubbles. Also, I prefer the Lee's "Premium" line of UFGs: https://www.leesaqpet.com/index.php/shop/aquatic/under-gravel-filters-ugf/under-gravel-filter,-premium,-20l29-gallon-detail These remind we of the sturdy kind we had back in the day and it seems like they'd have less trouble with flow, as they are all one piece. Also, I'm guessing these would be better if a portion of the plate was exposed by a digger.

I'm going to try some soft water shrimp so I have my tank set up appropriately thanks to flip aquatics tank setup tutorial. Special thanks to Darren at April's aquariums in Vancouver for all the aquarium co-op products I was able to use on this build. It is one aquarium co-op 36 inch light over the two tanks and seems to work really well. Thanks to Corey for all his work in designing and retelling these great products. Cheers Kevin

Those look like tanks that shrimp will love!

If the building is modern construction, you should be fine. Your tanks aren't big at all. Figure 1 gallon of water is like 8lbs. So your 40 gallon tank is about 320lbs. ... which is still way lighter than a refrigerator full of food. If it's an old building and you're worried, you can place the tanks along exterior load-bearing walls. Avoid placing tanks in the center of the room or along interior non-load-bearing walls. A third floor concern is more about a potential leak and water damage. If you're on the bottom floor, you clean up the spill. If you're on an upper floor and something happens, the water runs down and potentially damages the apartment beneath you.

Appreciate the reply. The line isn’t tight. Only cinched with a loop knot just tight enough to keep the rhizome touching the wood!

The benefit of sponge filters is mainly utility. Simple, quick, and easy. Setting up a new tank? Grab an extra sponge filter from one of your other tanks, throw it in, and the new tank is instantly ready to go. If you have lots of tanks or setup seasonal tubs outside, maybe that's a plus. Otherwise, both work fine. Undergravel filters work great even with plants. No worries.

Another local waterways outing today. Nice to visit our miniature aquatic neighbors! Sculpin… Fantail Darter… Rosysided Dace… White Sucker… Stone Roller… Blacknose Dace + Rosysided Dace… The Old Man 😎… The Young Lad 🥳…

Hello everyone, so I have quite the strange situation going on right now in my aquariums. Ill try to keep this as simple as possible. I have 3 tanks, 2 x 40 gallon and 1 x 15 fluval flex. The 40s have been up and running for about 10 weeks and the parameter's are ph 8, ammonia 0, nitrite 0.1, nitrate 10 according to the fluval test kit. I added cherry shrimp 2 weeks ago and then i added 2 baby bristlenose plecos last week to each tank. All was going well until I added some MTS I ordered online and then the next morning all fish were dead but shrimp are fine. As of writing this, all shrimp are thriving and I even have a few berried. I did check parameters again and got same readings. Then I did 50% water change, checked parameters again and added 4 silver tip tetras. immediately I noticed some of the tetras flashing but then stopped. I watched them and all seemed fine. I woke this morning to all of them dead but all shrimp in the 40s are fine. Now whats crazy is the fluval flex which is only a couple of weeks old is running smooth and has 8 emerald tetras, 6 pygmy corys and a nerite snail. The only difference is no MTS. The MTS were black when i got them out of the mail but have since begun to get their normal color shells. Any thoughts and thanks for the help.

Those should all do fine. I have Anubis, crypts, and Amazon sword in my discus tank that I keep at 86.

In my 29 gal. the original UGF and powerhead are about 30 yrs. old. Unless I crack the lift tube, the filter plate will probably never be replaced. When I reconfigured the tank, the powerhead proved to be too much for the small fish. Rather than buy a smaller powerhead, I switched to some air pumps that I had for backup. Air pumps are noisy, and their output varies depending on water depth and their age. This spring they were replaced by the ACO air pump . I like the new pump, but similar to the sponge filters, there is still no easy way of determining how much water is being drawn through the substrate. Powerheads come in various sizes and configurations, and the direction of the water flow is usually adjustable in all directions. In the size tank that you are considering, there should be plenty of calmer places for long finned fish to go should they desire. Like the HOB filters, the only moving parts are the impellers. Over the years I have replaced 1 or 2 impellers. I can't same the same for diaphragms or entire air pumps.

It’s probably the best uplift tube going if you have a mattenfilter. 🙃 The swords will probably like the extra circulation.

I used PH with my UGF and they never failed. That is about the extent of the info that I can give you as it was years ago, and my father had bought everything for me at the time. This was the late 90's from a local fish store. Based off of looks the aquaclear looks the closest to what I had. I had that setup from somewhere around the 6th to the 12th grade until I went to university and gave everything to my little cousins.

Yup! I think what you do depends on what your goals are. (And sorry in advance for a long reply, but brevity is not my strong point!) Route #1 -- If you want to improve a line and make it fantastic, culling as heavy as you are doing is part of the game. I always cull back my breeder tank (a 10G) to the best one or two males and the best 5 or 10 females. As they have babies, I remove the babies to a tank next door (another 10G) and grow them out a bit. From those, I will select only those juveniles of better quality than their parents, and relocate those back into the breeding tank. As the breeding tank population expands a bit, I will set aside some time to reduce its number back down to the original handful of the best shrimp (I do this maybe once every month or two). Rinse and repeat. All my culls from the juvenile grow out go into a larger tank (20G), and those I either sell or put into my community tank and just let them do their thang (which is get eaten or find a way to survive in jungle, which a lot of them do). What I have observed is that, over time, the quality of the shrimp in the cull tank also slowly improves, and what one might now consider culls are actually very nice shrimp. (It helps to have a place to re-home or sell culls so you keep that population rotating out over time, other wise the cull tank goes back to square one). In your case, if you don't have any shrimp right now that you think are worth working with, I would reset things, and look to acquire some of higher quality. Route #2 - Now, if your goal is to just have a colony to enjoy and look at as you relax in a chair at the end of your day, then just plucking out the few undesirables that you can see is the way to go. But, this can become hard to manage over time, as an ugly shrimp or two could be hiding out in some plants, laughing at you, while making ugly babies with a beautiful wife! Route #2 is far less work than #1 (and requires less aquariums). So again, it all boils down to what your goals and the personal approach you choose as a means to find enjoyment in this hobby.

Even betta pellets seem to vary in size. My suggestion would be keep your portions small and observe their weight gain over time if you are confused. Take a detailed picture today, and start with a feeding routine and observe the weight gain. If it looks healthy you are good. Too much weight= decrease the amount you feed. I barely see people underfeed but if so, then increase the food amount later on. Also activity level of a plakat male and elephant ear long fin male is not the same. So this could also play a role I think. A sports guy takes much more calories compared to someone who is inactive

I give my dude 4-5 pellets twice a day or a very small piece of Repashy once a day. Or Frozen bloodworms, 4 or 5. Same qty with frozen brine shrimp: 4 or 5.

? Care instructions I’ve seen always say cories like water on the softer side.

I think you do not need to worry, especially given the plans. Apistos generally do fine with little greenery. Some species do like botanicals, leaf litter, and tannins. Best luck to you!

Japanese trapdoors and rabbit snails. both are awesome. Both like to bury from time to time in my tanks so I would recommend finer sand. Here you go:

Noticed this on one of my shrimp, should i be concerned? (referring to the white shrimp down the back)

Finally got around to finishing this. Was trying to keep it simple and cheap but I couldn’t help but trying to make it look a little nicer than planned. Now I just need to figure out what’s going to go into this tank.

Ah yes, this sounds like you are at risk for MTS (Multiple Tank Syndrome) and having no water in those tanks is triggering for you. We are a great support group for this issue (meaning we support MTS, not recovery from it)... 🤪

These 2 will be arriving tomorrow morning via local courier from Valencia. The pair of L136B I won at a raffle - about 1 - 1.5 inch or 3cm in size only. I got an 80 L bare tank setup specifically for them, and expecting another 2 to arrive by end of month.

For what it’s worth, I like just breeding mine in a colony…

I did the usual weekly water change on my 72x30 bedroom aquarium (which used to be a 40B). It has been running for approx 6 weeks; though most of the fishes and plants are from the 40B. I've not hooked up co2 yet though it does have a pair of reactor; undecided if i should hook up co2 as the plants seem to be doing fine and co2 causes other issues. Here are a couple of pictures: The first picture shows a not commonly seen crypt cordata var siamensis; ive had it for a couple of years but in the 40B it was buried in part due to co2; it seems to be growing fine without co2 but i am keeping a close eye on it. Unfortunately the 'timid' keyhole saw me and came a dashing in hope for some cat-nips or similar treat. The reactor not yet hooked up to co2 but water flows through it. Below is a semi close up of one of the uninteresting crypts; kind of a shame i chose this one to photograph since all around it are pink jacboi; nuri rosen and a few others begging to be photographed; but beggers usually get passed over... You can see a bit of a pink jacobi to the right of it; just look at the pink/purple thing at the edge of the frame. The only crypt really hurting without co2 are the spiralis which are kind of pale - they had much better colour with co2. Also my little prince kleiner is starting to regrow (when i tore down the 40B a lot of the plants had suffered terribly from aenerobic bacteria destorying their roots). Anyway i think it'll take 6 months for the plants to fully adjust so maybe by Feb or March i'll make a decision on turning the knob on the co2 canister. As a bonus here are a couple of pictures from the blackwater aquarium which had the water change yesterday:

We have a listing of the dimensions of the tanks in person. If you would like to know a specific size's dimension, please email us at store@aquariumcoop.com and we can help you out with that no problem. Yes, all sizes of the tanks come with glass lids and lid clips included.

I need one of those aquariums! Now, I just have to figure out where I can put it so that my wife doesn't see it. Maybe under the bed or in a closet? 😉

Betta hendra starting to color up!

So exciting news for me, the Betta Unimaculata spawned. Have 14 babies currently growing out in a growout box. I was also fortunate enough to pick up 10 Betta Hendra Berang juveniles at my local auction on Sunday. So the betta collecting has officially begun. I have moved on from species that I am finding less desirable and going to be filling out tanks with more labyrinth fish and rainbowfish moving forward.

It has been a busy 2 months in the fishroom and in life. It is extremely difficult to keep up with the journal while attending summer college classes and buying a house. Since the last update I have added more tanks and more fish. Still need to finish the last rack but first I have to install 10 more air outlets where that rack is going to go to house the 14 tanks that will be there. I've had a tank leak that was not even pictured that housed some very expensive and rare fish in it: My first wild type betta. Betta Unimaculata "Sangatta" these are wild caught and got them from a local-ish shop(2 hours away). I received 5 of them, 2 females and 3 females. I am currently trying to get them breeding. There is someone local to me who has another collection location of these that I will be trading for once I have babies. Initially these were put into a 40gal breeder but that tank ended up developing a leak about a week later and needed to be taken down. Luckily, one of the 75gal was still empty and that is now where they reside. This is the best picture I have been able to snap of one of the males, they are extremely active and hard to get a good picture of with my phone. This was a bucket list fish that has been on my list for well over a year when I last saw them as juvenile F1 at the same shop, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to get them this time. The Xenotoca Variata Jesus Marie I received unfortunately disaster struck as the male probably ended up killing the female. I do know someone with more of these and am hoping to get some more soon to try to breed. I also was given Heterandria Formosa - Least Killifish - this is a super cool fish being one of the smallest livebearer's but the males have a huge gonopodium. I have also received some new bristlenose plecos and other fish as another member to my local club(Michiana Aquarium Society) is moving to Nevada and is tearing down his fishroom. I received the following: 3- L393 - Cheese Creek Ancistrus Pair - Super Red Bristlenose Reverse Trio - Longfin Blue Eye Lemons 4 - Ancistrus Claro LDA008 (I believe these are all female, so looking for some more) Trio - Solar Flare Swordtails 5 - Green Latern Platy's Overall Picture of the room: Its a mess in here but doing my best to keep it tidy. I've also taken on live nematode cultures and annelids as well. I plan to install brine shrimp hatcheries in the future, hopefully sooner than later but for now frozen has been working pretty well.

So alot has happened since I last posted. I have 4 aquariums with fish in them. Moved my parents fish into one of my 75 gallons and air system is up and running. I also got the lights going on the tanks. These things are great for the price so far. Also moved my only Rhadinocentrus ornatus Carland creek female into a 5.5gal to condition her to try to get eggs out of them. My buddy also let me know he was getting out of the hobby and I had first pickens from his stuff. So I will be picking up his unused 75gpd 5-stage ro unit, another 40gal, another 5.5gal and another 20gal. Plants, so beautiful Coral red guppies and blue dream/velvet shrimp.

Alright the racks are built, painted and house the first tanks with 2 filled and ready for fish first thing in the AM!!! After I get these in I'll need to focus on getting the air system tapped for the linear piston pump. Have 1 more tank that needs to finish being painted and then ill be moving the fish from my parents house to that 75gal until I decide what to do with some of them. The next update I'd plan there will be actual pictures of my fish!

I sure have!