Leaderboard

This video explains towards the middle how media in filters is seeded and what you may be experiencing Moving media from existing filters works for me every time for decades. No matter how big a filter is you only have as much bacteria as you have bioload.

Decided to paint some cories! I’ll want to fill a whole page with these, but I have a few lineage 9s so far! From top to bottom, the species are C. arcuatus, C. julii, as well as C. panda and C. duplicareus, asked for by @Beardedbillygoat1975 and @nabokovfan87, thanks for the ideas!

Happier update… one of the ladies in my main tank had babies. These are my first fish grand-babies, and I am elated!!

@Guppysnail They will hopefully be available early this spring I will remember to post on here and they will also be on Aquabid! here's another pic of the parents

@mynameisnobody do I have the update for you!!! The Fry are growing out quickly, recently they were moved into their grow out tank I have roughly 50-60 fry that are all around .25"-.5". The parents are currently courting I need to start lowering their PH again I bring it down to 5ph to get them breeding and as the fry grow out I have been letting it creep back into the high 6's. I haven't tried transitioning to Tap water yet mostly because they already need such low PH's and low TDS and my water is harder than a rock.... I'll try and remember to use the forums more I am mostly on my Instagram posting updates!

My best growing pothos get sunlight. It takes me about 30-45 minutes about every 3 months to hack back this jungle. The vines do exactly what I wanted them to do and more. The goal was for them to hang over the back of the tank to shade it to prevent overheating the tank and reduce algae along with pulling nitrates out of the water. They do all that plus climb the window, climb the wall, crawl across the floor, etc, etc. I worry they might start asking for Seymour, soon.

Last month @TeeJay allowed me to adopt his beautiful borellii opal trio. George, Tammy and Crystal. They settled in nicely. George is a good boss. He stayed between the girls until they settled on territory on opposite sides. @TeeJay had Crystal in a separate tank so they didn’t have an established pecking order. A few weeks ago Crystal spawned. George for as good as a lady referee as he is definitely an awkward teenager when it comes to fertilizing. He fertilized the water column while his head was in the cave pointing his sperm outward 🤣 Yesterday Tammy laid front and center I say that meaning under a stick touching the front glass in the center of the tank. I got to watch and George actually pointed himself the right way I hope these make it the opportunity to see the eggs hatch is new to me mine all lay inside closed caves

I will post my journey of my setting up my air pump set up. I got the air pump from aquarium co-op. I ordered the bleeder and control valve. I’ll be getting the pipe from Lowe’s. Here is the start of my journey

My Cories laid eggs!! I picked up 5 Cory cats a couple weeks and have had them in quarantine for that time. Just went out to check on them and found eggs on the glass. I made a quick setup to keep the eggs safe. Found a few missing. Pretty sure the Endlers were snacking. anyone have an idea what kind of Cory these are?

Thank you @Shadow! My neighbor is soo excited about the ticket! Thanks for the tip @Cory! We will check it out!

Nice, This is totally what it is then! Fantastically explained, and in hindsight super obvious. I used a ginormous filter on a tiny 14 gallon tank. It was "cycled" but only to that tiny amount i was putting into that tank. When i moved it over to the new 48 gallon tank (even though there was no FISH) it was indeed new aquasoil with lots, lots more ammonia. HENCE, just like you guys (and Cory's video) said, it simply did not have enough bacteria inside and is basically not cycled. Thanks so much guys!

the bacteria is on every surface in the tank, including in the filter, but here's the kicker there is a set amount based on how much waste there is for the bacteria to feed on. if there isnt enough waste for the bacteria to feed on it dies off to a level where there is sufficient waste for it to feed on. where the bulk of the waste is, is where the majority of the bacteria will be found. so you will likely find the substrate has a good portion of the bacteria, inside a canister, or hob will likely be next in line, then everything else will have some. bacteria multiplies very fast, so if you want more bacteria, lightly over feed.

got the bio tank setup, itll look better once the plants have grown in, they are all small right now:

@Ninjoma you always have the coolest fish. My laetacara dorsigera (red breasted acara) do not hang on the bottom much. Mostly lower part of midwater. If you want community fish go for just boys. When they spawn the will defend nest and fry as well as area around both.

A couple of days ago I made a reply to a thread saying I can't get moss to grow. And my AC order shows up today... Notice the packing list. Is this a sign? Do I owe Cory some money? Here's the kicker... The order was shipped before I made this post (ordered Wednesday last week). *roll The X-Files theme*

The abacaxis were putting on a show this morning. They've become quite tolerant of me.

An established bacterial colony multiplies very quickly. Just take some media out of your canister and put in HOB. Or... Clean out your canister in a bucket and run the HOB in that to suck up all the goodies. Next step is to always have a sponge filter running in all your tanks so you've always got a filter when you need it. 🙂

Not quite sure yet, for me live stock is always ornamental to the plants. For now I'm thinking shrimp, snails and guppies. Ask me again tomorrow and that might change tho!

Those sweet gum pods look like some kind of alien!

Hey all! I apologize for being slow to respond . . . life got busy this past month. I really haven't even been giving the fishroom enough care of late. For November, if everyone is up for it, here is a short (23-min long) free film published by Freshwaters Illustrated titled "The Lost Fish" (ca. 2014) about the Pacific Lamprey. It is definitely a conservation film. I am reminded of programs like CARES Priority List that document fish species suitable for aquariums that are endangered or at risk. Hope ya'll enjoy!

I dont really know. I want to say no, because they survived post shipping (and they came from indonesia, all are wild caught) I have had them since March, issues with algae, issue with planaria, dosing no planaria, moving them into a different tank. I feed them daily, once, with a one to two day breaks, and they have survived a week of my vacation, no issues. They are ok with severe temperature swings, summer was up to 26, when the weather dropped the tank had 19 degrees. And I feed them only two things, so a very very one sided meal. It makes me uneasy and I want to change that They all live, they all look great, I saw a snail try to climb on the fish, shrimp will regularly touch it the fsh does not care. I have no flow, virtually no filtration, I dont do gravel clean. I also do not meassure the stats, so I wouldnt even know if the tank was not doing well. I do a water change every two weeks, sometimes just a top off and always just a 10%. But on the other hand they are not breeding or the fry is not surviving ( I saw breeding behavior) With them it is hard to say, you mostly wont see them, they wont complain, they dont look bad or thin or anything to indicate they are starving or not enjoying live. I wish someone had experience with them to advise to me.

I really enjoy my undergravel filters. I have them in my 75 and 60. Mine are attached to canister filters, but that is a recent upgrade. On their own I never had any problems with filtration. My cycle with fritzyme took only a week. My plants don't seem to have any negative effect. A lot of people will saying there is no problem growing plants except for sword types. I am here to tell you that I have a 2' sword in my 75 and it is have 0 problems. I only added the canisters because I like heavily stocked tanks.

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! 🙂

I use a lot of plants for this. Here is a good article about lucky bamboo which is a bigger nitrate hog. Other suggestions for nitrate hogs were made throughout the thread as well.

Hey everyone! I got my pair of ivanacara bimaculata about 3-4 weeks ago been wanting these fish for over a year since I laid my eyes in them! These have been a huge part of my hobby I’ve been keeping ivanacara adoketa for over a year but getting the second species has been a dream!!! After keeping them and slowly dropping their PH to 5.2 and boom breeding! I’ll keep this thread updated as the fry grow out but I love these fish and am extremely excited to get these growing out and sharing with others! Here’s also a pic of their breeding tank

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…

The only feasible way to keep val in a shallow tank is: (IMO) to cut it at the substrate level (keeping roots in soil to decompose, maybe even regrow) or pull it once it gets tall, grow out the babies, rinse then repeat!

Aw, feel better @mynameisnobody

This is a perfect start. A wonderful starter kit. 🤗 good choices.

I am like literally speechless right now. The ‘female’ that I got was a fry and has slowly developed a ganopodium. They shouldn’t sell them as this size. Oh well now I have an extra male. I’ll probably put him in my betta tank instead. It’s anal fin is now slightly stick like but hasn’t developed fully yet. No wonder his coulour was more vibrant than the other female. Also I do know about them being fry eaters but the fry will be separated when they are born.

I haven't grown dwarf chain sword, so I can't help with that. I have grown Crytocoryne wendtii, which is probably the most common species, along with spiralis, usteriana, undulata, pontederiifolia, and probably others. Spiralis is the only one that hasn't spread to make more plants. It looks healthy, but it just sits there.

i think I'm going to buy these. i will go to the local shop and buy an air stone or maybe buy the one that is on aquarium coop

@JettsPapa Yeah, i'm going to pick some frozen blood worms up today. They aren't eating the freeze dried bloodworms or freeze dried brine shrimp. I don't know what i can't see that is in my substrate but every morning I see them pecking at it. Perhaps there is worms or tiny snail eggs they are going after.

I forgot to update on my Cube tank. I had a small crisis on the weekend, because I was away and when I came back I found one of the female pearl gouramis dead, and not recently based on the smell. I did immediate 50% water change, looked everything over and upon further noticing, saw that the male gourami is a tad more agressive towards the remaining female, chasing her and so on. I mean the tank is too small for them, was supposed to just be a two week quarantine. Since I saw no ich ( and frankly havent had ich in like 10 years) nor anything that would indicate parasites or anything, I decided to remove the female to the primary tank in advance of the male, so she has time to establish in the tank and not be bullied later on. The male will remain in the quarantine, maybe until this Sunday ( for his two weeks mark), maybe later, will see on the behavior. it is his only luck he is kind to the pygmies and I was pleasantly surprised they all survived the crisis. I did another cleanup yesterday, just in case, algae removal, increased the output of the airfilter, as I read the pygmies like some form of a current. Also my anubias is blooming, is nice 🙂 has been a while since I had one bloom and annoyingly to no end, in a tank without light 🙂

I would worry about keeping ramshorns with shrimp tbh. They will likely out compete the shrimp for food. If the shrimp colony is established enough they will probably coexist but just not reproduce as much but it would worry me personally. Ivory shell pink foot is one of my favorites!! Beautiful! That one has a super cool swirl to its shell too.

I grabbed a chart of temperature fluctuations (by month) for the Dominican Republic. I would try not fighting the temperature: 30C is Ok (as long as it doesn't go much above that). There is probably no need for ice. It looks like you are just exiting your hottest time.

I've got one doing something similar and if it's the ziss one I end up taking it apart to clean it once or twice a week. They also come with replacement felt bits if you really are struggling to sort it out. The only other thing I can think is a chunk in the stem or something (the part where the airline goes into the airstone.

I rehomed my pea puffers after a while. They darkened to match the black sand and dark java moss and where hard to see, and hard to enjoy. They did like their snails and stayed fat on them. They would eat the frozen blood worms now and then, but I think they had a pretty good population of snails in that tank's java moss while I had the puffers.

Whoa! Just noticed this one cruzing along today!! Most are blueish, some with dark spots. But this one has a pearl look to her.

Hum, well, I have been terrified for crypts. Java fern is said to be an easy plant but I can't keep it alive. Val., Java moss and Salvina do fine though. 😞But I figured that would be the case. Thoughts on something like dwarf chain sword? I will try some crypts too though.

I cheat when I need to do this quick. I take half of the media needed for the new hob from the one on the tank or the canister on the cycled tank. I’m using to jump it. and use half new media. I replace what I took from the one on the seasoned tank with new media. This works well for me and I only ever see a tiny bit of ammonia and nitrite in the new tank and have never seen any in the tank I stole media from. This might not be an option for you but in case it is I wanted to share.

Very cool! Love the Brochis, you really captured that male orange coloration on the rams!

@Beardedbillygoat1975 wants a panda corydoras. I'll say a duplicareus one!

Been a while since I've been on the forum, just wanted to post some updates of the Fish office and where's its at today if anyone wants to check it out. The 60G is recovering from a filter failure while I was away on my vacation, thankfully my buddie was able to salvage some it. Lost a lot of the adult Guppies, but enough fry has survived to rebuild. The snail population has exploded though, still working on that. Plants are obviously still going strong, those Sword plants on either side continue to grow into bushes. The 195G is looking healthy, that java moss on the right is doing really well, I'm pulling most of it out every month with it soon regrowing right after. Still feels a little empty, I think I want to put a school of angels and a few more Congo tetras and rainbow fish in there. The Bolivian Rams are doing really well, had a surprise spawn in the tank, saved as many as I could, must of been 100 fry when I first noticed them, was able to fish out maybe 25 and left rest with the parents with the hope they could protect some of them, that didn't go to well, but the fry I was able to raise myself seem to be growing fine. (Sorry for the bad pictures). So out of the 4 Celestial rams I acquired I received 1 male and 3 females, after the male paired off with a female, I moved them over to there own tank (was breeding a pair of Apistos in there previously, hence the home made caves). They've spawned unsuccessfully once so far, I'm doing my best to condition them back to spawning health again. The Gardneri Killi's are also doing well, I've gotten 3 fry from them in the short amount of time I've had them. I know I could really get more fry if I set up a proper breeding tank for them, for now I'm just enjoying there company. That'll be a future endeavor. Lastly the "Easy Tank" is doing its thing. Was fighting a losing battle with algae until I put the water lettuce in. Really digging the look of the long roots of the floaters. so much so, I've added it to most of the tanks. A school of Rummynose and the 2 other female Rams are calling this one home. Little update on everything here, love to answer any questions or receive any constructive criticism from anyone that took the time to read this, especially any Ram or Gardneri breeding tips, fry care, best thing to do with all the extra plant growth, or snail removal/management (especially that one). Thanks

I might have my own cultures living in my CPD tank, I do not vac the substrate (Fluval Stratum) in there at all. I know most of this stuff exists normally, but trying to gauge what I might be doing to not have them thriving. I also don't really use gravel, most everything is sand which might not offer great environment? Mulm and debris just kind of hangs out on top for the most part. Thanks for the advice!

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 🥳…

Snoopy and my rescue snail

I second @Keeg and @Guppysnail the blue is methylene blue which is found in stress guard. This is a additive that is diluted quite a bit (usually 4-8%) it is used to prevent bacterial (I want to say gram negative) and fungal breakouts in shipment due to fish stress. Since it is already incredibly dilute this mistake isn't critical and should only mildly upset your beneficial bacteria. I would follow others advice and do a water change, and next time do as the pros do and drain the water into a bucket over a net to catch the fish and put the fish directly in the tank. The water they are shipped in is often more stressful than not following acclimation procedures.