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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 🥳…

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.

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 glad all is well with your Apisto. I do not think it matters if the male fits in the cave at least for some types. My male caucatoides has not fit in the caves in a long time. Both my girls are still popping out babies every month or so. It’s actually very comical to watch. Whenever the girls go in dad becomes a peeping Tom.

Some good news and some bad news.... Good news, the susswassertang wall is GROWING IN! I see life. One of the plants I have been trying for years to grow well is doing just that. Bad news, I did the big water change last week. This was the "lazy week" and just add in ferts and clean the prefilter stuff. Nitrates seemed high, and that means I need to keep an eye out on this. Plant load isn't high enough and I treated for BBA as well. Good news, media I needed was miss-marked, nearly 50% off from normal price due to clearance type of pricing. Fingers crossed it gets here and isn't used or some weird issue like that. Bad news, my male sword is indeed suffering the same affliction as my other swords and is losing his tail. He has a thread of it left. You can see the cancer slowly spreading up the base of the tail where the sword used to be. It's extremely disheartening. The tank looks ok. I am really enjoying the plants and all of the things going on. the BBA is always infuriating and it's to be expected. I did a bit of cleaning things up and I'll end up doing more of this to make space and improve the work flow of everything I have going on. I may be able to get some fish due to a donation from a friend to the human fund, late birthday stuff, but I am still needing to get glasses. I haven't had any for ~years and have been wearing an old pair. It'll be night to be able to get the right prescription again when that happens. Still working on things.... always something. Needless to say, focus on the enjoyment of those tanks around you and let's have keep that heavy on the heart and mind for this upcoming month (November). It's getting cooler here and there's weather things going on. Get prepared if need be!

Eat your heart out Burt Reynolds!

I’m going to keep MISC journals about Livebearers here. I’m growing out Swordtails spawned outdoors last summer… They have some NANF tankmates - Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish (egg layers)… The adult brooders are in a separate aquaponic set up… They also share space with a different NANF species, the Bluefin Killifish (also an egg layer)…. Also enjoying an ongoing breeding group of “Precious Metals” Guppies…

I'm new to the forum and look forward to conversing with other members.

You mentioned you had ammonia test strips and combo test strips. What are your ammonia and nitrite readings on those tests? You might wait a little while for the shrimp, just to be sure you've got your tank cycled. So, let's start with those test results.

Medication can be hard on healthy fish so I would always quarantine if you can't get maracyn2 then I would treat with kanaplex there's always possibility that the antibiotic treatment will harm your benefial bacterial in the main tank

We return them. We do, however, occasionally travel south to collect stock that we keep…

yes....

I keep my tanks roughly 83-84 sometimes go up to 85-86, and the plants I have that work pretty well are amazon swords and vallisneria specifically gigantica. I also have crypt wenditii in there as well but is has not grown at all.

Yellow metal mosaics

Breeding is feeding size is radiation 🤣

@Lennie I think that you do have Japanese Trapdoors, just maybe a less seen color variation? I found this where they have one with stripes and a short description of colors. 😃 I got mine at Aqua Huna where you can see various colors/patterns. Hopefully mine will get more active during the day! 🤪

Photo credit to an Aussie friend:

I’ve managed to spawn glowlight tetras by adding peat to my rock hard mountain water if you’re feeling like giving it a go…?

Tie a plant weight around a chorizo then 😅

Y’all have been so very helpful. I really appreciate your guidance and advice so much!!

I’ve kept pandas, melini, Pygmy and albino Aeneus and their cousin Aspidora Depending on what else I have going on in their tanks all have been kept by me in a variety of parameters. All of my Cory breed well no issues. ph 6.8-8.2 (occasionally a spike to 8.4 during hyper chlorination events from the water company kh80-120 Gh I stop adding drops at 400 because it’s boring to do not because the tube actually changed color and coop strips turn bright fuchsia The tank I kept aeneus in was at one point a soft water tank and gh was crazy low but I do not remember how low. I have not noticed any of these things affecting how often they breed, my egg fertility rate, life span or health. edit to add panda and Pygmy have been kept in clear and black water conditions

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".

I am a beginner at every new adventure I try. I learned the more things I try and fail at the more I learn. No such thing as failure only a learn what not to do experience. Right now I’m attempting daphnia magna culture. I’m terrified I’m going to crash it. I’ve asked a million questions (getting ready to post another now).

Hummingbird hobby update; yard animals Hummingbirds are in migration to Honduras now and visits I get may be very temporary. I am grateful for and charmed by them.

So it was recently my birthday and my husband got me a second light for my 75. I’m pretty excited because that opened up more options for planting the back and front of the tank! Other than that not a whole lot going on. I have an algae problem in the Monte Carlo in my cube. I want to try treating it with peroxide and shrimp, but I can never seem to make it to the shops when they have amano in stock. Might have to order them online. Also gave the cube a slight trim and replant. I’m pretty blown away by how red the rotala oj is getting in this tank. I’m also kind of stumped by how low the lily is staying. It’s been like that for a couple months now, wondering if it will ever get tall again. Before trim: Behold, my army of snails! after trim: And a cute little kuhli coming out ready for food!😃

id suggest waiting on the shrimp. they truly need a fairly well established tank to survive.

Hoping for the best! It's just one of those things, fish are the same way. I beat myself up a bit last tank I setup because I was really wanted to move fish. I wish I had given the plants a few weeks to take hold. Moved fish in and everything got tossed up into the water. Patience is just really a skill we all learn in this hobby!

I love the aquaponics

basically just different types of bacteria and so you have to treat them appropriately. Some meds are designed to work with one and not the other. I found this, the abstract talks a little bit more about the structural difference. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2857177/

She has been moved, she has not been medicated. I’m going to see if I can go pick up Maracyn 2 tomorrow. Her hospital tank is the 5 gallon that is beside the GBR tank, which has green water in it. It’s had 4 endlers in it for a week or so (they were removed a few days ago), it has half substrate from another tank and half new, a tablespoon of API aquarium salt, a heater at 82, green water, a new sponge filter, an existing piece of sponge from the GBR tank, and a tight lid with no gaps. I’ll have to light it from the side. It also has her favorite cave, some of the fake plants, and some of the hornwort. My priority tomorrow morning will be finding the Maracyn 2. I don’t understand about the gram positive and the other terms you used in that paragraph, I will look them up. If there’s a resource you could point me to, I would really appreciate it. Thank you so much for all your help!

I Have kept and breed bristlenose in Temperature between 74-84 without any issues

Hey just posting an update thanks again for the advice! I went with a dwarf blue gourami, loved the way the fish looked and it was on the short list of (non monster) fish I have kept so I went for it. It’s in quarantine now and the tetras are at least a week behind him since they are on order but once everyone is in the same tank I’ll let you know what happens! Thanks Again!

Been waiting on these to drop from Imperial Tropicals as they said it would be around Halloween AND I GOT A PAIR!!! Soooo stoked!! Red Devil Koi Angels! 🙂

Prime may work to detoxify ammonia. However, you are better off pretending that it doesn't. Do those water changes. 🙂

Yes, I’ve used water spikes for caves. I haven’t had the temperature that low since we keep the house slightly warmer than that.

Thank you all for your kind words! I really appreciate them! @nabokovfan87 Here’s a soft pastel discus I made a bit ago, again with crappy lighting. This was also my first time using this medium, so it’s definitely not as good, but I was recently gifted a set of oil pastels, so I’ll likely do more with those. I’m nearly done with another watercolor painting, this time of a certain colorful armored catfish. I’ll post that here once I’m finished!

I have anubias nana petite, rosette swords, mini java fern and crypt wendtii in my tank thats running at 84-85F and they are doing well.

Both options work. Is one better than the other? As far as biological filtration goes, probably not to a degree that favors one in terms of fish health. To me, the decision comes down to aesthetics. I like UGFs because they a more hidden than a sponge filter. So I then to favor those (and sumps) for my display tanks because I like the absence of equipment in the tank. However, I use sponge filters (and box filters) in my breeding tanks because I like the simplicity and utility of them.

Did the weekly water change of the upstair aquarium; which oddly i did last week - but this time i thought i would provide a slightly better picture of a plant; I think this is a nurii rosen but it almost look a bit like a pa hang whatever; some slight variation on colour patten sep the two but i think they are basically the same species: Pretty sure this is a nurii rosen: One advantage of taking a few picture i miss things i might otherwise see; in this case we see a pink jacobi growing in the middle of the nurii. No i didn't plant it there - the pink jacobi is sort of like a weed spreading runners everywhere; in this case i moved that plant when i took this picture so it is no longer in that location. My nurii do spread but very very slowly; but the pink (esp when it had co2) would spread like crazy. I can't really find much on the origin of pink jacobi but i think it is related to wenditti. And this last plant - well i'm not sure why the keyhole felt i should take a picture of it but he was quite insisted that i photograph it; not my best picture but at least he was happy as a puppy after the photograph was taken.

30 seconds for a few pieces 1 minute for a handful. Just until it sizzles a bit

I have an annoying amount of extra gigantic vals i could probably put in the tank instead of throwing away.

Im really digging the rocky look you’re getting with the foam!

What I would do is just wash your hands with hot water before doing anything with the tanks 0.8 of chlorine will be removed by your dechlorinator so a don't see that as an issue the ragged fins just need some time to grow back can your take a picture of Cory's with the spots if possible to so I can see how it's progressing

That’s my dream tank: a Wendtii forest!

Did some major work in one my 20 gallons. Removed all of the Java ferns, anubias, and buce. They’re in bowls right now, but they’ll go into my low tech 20 eventually. I gave this 20 a deep haircut. Trimmed the new tops off of almost every plant and pulled the old bottoms. I spread and rearranged all of the remaining plants in such a way that hopefully they’ll be getting adequate light. Tank looks worse now than it did before, but hopefully it will look much better in a few weeks when everything grows back in! before: after: baby hillstreams are doing great! Parents must be one happy couple cause I keep seeing babies of varying sizes creeping around. Dunno if you’ll be able to make them out in this pic, but here’s one of the bolder babies hanging out near one of the parents. On a somewhat related note, here’s the full tank. What started out as two crypt wendtiis turned into a whole bunch of crypt wendtiis and they’ve taken over the corner of the tank. I want to take them out, but the Cories love hiding in them.

Definitely true! Once you get ~20+ of a species the behavior really changes and they tend to not be nearly as timid. Once they get to 30 in the group they really do just do their own thing. I would start with 12-14+ and go from there. Let them breed to the size they want and just enjoy that process. The brochis always look a bit funky to me, I'm not sure why. They are really, really big compared to other corydoras and so you just have to be aware of that. Barbatus are one of the ones that I would love to have one day. Very unique and seem like they'd be great to watch and enjoy. Pretty much all of the ones you mentioned I think you'd enjoy. If you may not like the look of the lasers, maybe from the same lineage.... check out orange venezuela or the standard schultzei (non-black form). Welcome to the forums. Looking forward to seeing what you come up with! 🙂

Bentley has some. I believe it's either sold as a variant of flying fox or it's a "reticulated SAE" Definitely not a CAE though and the mouth shape is moreso like an SAE or another cyprinidae species. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyprinidae they usually have upper and lower barbels, mouth that points down and designed to graze. CAEs have a different shaped mouth, 2 upper barbels. I really like that cube tank! Especially your initial aquascape with the debris pile in the corner. Feel better, happy to follow along on your adventures. Beautiful tanks and I'm excited to see where you take them!

I haven’t had any issues with deflection or rust so far and I’ve been really happy with it. If you have any questions or need more information just let me know and I’ll help out in anyway I can.

I’m working on plans to build out a fish room, and I’ve been thinking about using unistrut. I’m curious if you’ve had any deflection issues or rust. I’ll most likely use galvanized material, but I might be able to use stainless. We’ll see what’s leftover on my next work project…