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They continued to get cloudy water and dead fish after water changes. It turns out they were thoroughly cleaning their biological media. We had a long talk about the nitrogen cycle, I helped them with various plants, and, because they have the same water source as me, walked them through exactly how I treat my water and do water changes. Hopefully, they will end up with a thriving tank. 🙂 Oh, and I showed them Cory's Python siphon trick... 🙂

We lost my sons betta in the last month. She (Mrs T) was most likely lost due to bloat or fatty liver, she’d been in with some African Dwarf Frogs and their high protein diet caught up to her. It’s my bad and poor husbandry on my part in retrospect- she fasted a lot in between feeds. Tragedy begets opportunity and we needed to find some protein loving inhabitants for this 10 g cube tank. My local in the Coop and I’d seen some Lagos Red Killis a few weeks back. Needless to say when I went back this last week I saw them and realized it’s a good match. With a water change they’ve really colored up.

Hey all, just a quick post about planaria… these cheap test tube looking traps seem to work really well, this is only after an hour or so… that’s all, 🙂

We moved again in the fall just a little ways away from where we lived previously. Hopefully this will be the final move for these fishies. One goby was incredibly stubborn about leaving the caves I provided. It took tremendous arm strength to lift the cave system out of the water and hold it there until he finally plopped out and was fished out with a net. anyway still get plenty of light on the tank so I took a photo of the java fern. It seems to be the new hangout for the minnows

Yes I farm dirt. Don’t you?

Still pretty much a jungle tank, trying to tidy things up by growing more epiphytes (Bolbitis & Anubis Afzelli) and less unruly stems that need constant trimming...

Aquascaping contest All of the above tanks were being raffled off after, everything included but the stand. This may not have been part of the contest? It was part of a vendor booth. The gentleman found a hole puncher that made leaves. He used that on catappa leaves and put those at the base of this tree. This one was in a vendor booth. And then don’t tell the contestants but, my favorite scape was the sunset tank at the CaribSea booth.

Babies are all full free swimming and all have bbs bellies today. So I moved them to a longer container. This one is clearer so easier to see their eyes and orange bellies

5 in the 29 and 4 in the 20 after water change tonight. No one is dead yet. This male is absolutely oblivious. She's been trying to get him in her cave for 3 or 4 days. Nonstop loop of him more concerned with sifting sand. Sigh.

The quarantine kids are doing so well. Red light because if I put the white one on, they all hide in the corner. They hate it. But I do use it briefly twice a day for health checks. Oops, sorry that was blurry. Anyway hopefully you can tell they are using the tank space and seem comfortable. I don’t usually do a sand bottom for quarantine, but it’s the tank that was already seeded so we are rolling with it. They probably feel more comfy with substrate anyway. *shrug* Also they are going to town on the ostracods in there. I did some shrimp tank maintenance today and then just watched the tanks for a long time. Geppetto and I spent some quality time together. He got a coconut hut today. He knows it’s there but hasn’t ventured in yet. He’s used to tunnels and thinks the hut looks spooky. We also played chase-the-skewer and chase-the-fish (fake fish I make swim past the tank). Then we played come-over-here which is just a finger wiggle on the side of the tank, and he will rush toward the activity. I like to do that where he sees it through his tunnel and he swims through the tunnel to get to the action. There were a bunch of shrimps I saw in his tank this evening. If he sees them he will swim toward them but once they zoom he gives up immediately. Too much effort, I guess. LOL He had a seat on his little leaf as I turned out his light.

I have about thirty two Mystery Snail hatchlings. Z-1 was born Oct 3rd and a few days later its siblings began to emerge. October 14th the second clutch erupted bringing the total to 60+ babies. Sadly, we lost about half of the hatchlings; perhaps a bit of nature's course and my lack of experience as a snail-mom. However I believe snails lay as many eggs as they do because so few make it to adulthood. Today I'm celebrating four successful weeks and the discovery of a late bloomer, the second snail to receive a name, Bitsy. What a wonderful experience this has been thus far, one I never had imagined.

Photo updates from this weekend: 29g 75g 40g Brackish paludarium 10g

The german version of Amazonas mentioned using plastic plants to camouflage the live ones until the live ones are well established.

Bonus: One of the lemon's

I honestly didn't know that we had a breed of lamprey here in the US. I always see videos of them in Asia, and they're considered a delicacy there. I took a quick look on Wikipedia and it says that they've begun to re-establish their numbers on their own and have been able to return to areas they had left 60-70 years ago. That's great!

There are so many!! You’re going to need a table at the swap again!

Snails are like colds , they turn up out of nowhere. Looks like a ramshorn snail to me.

New batches of fry in the Violet Mosaic and Tequila Sunrise tanks! Delightful. Really wanted some shrimp in with the Least Killis, but since the Fishroom is on lockdown, I got a few at the club auction this weekend instead. Instead of just having an extra set of tools for the hospital tank, I’m leaving a net and pipette, gallon jugs, (and anything else I have duplicates of) at each tank. I’ll get to decorate the buckets and pitchers with fish and fish vendor stickers. 😄 Sometimes its the little things. But the duplicate tools create clutter, and it took a week to figure out where and how they should be stored/labeled. Doses of Expel P given to some tanks tonight. It seems the new package that I ordered is misplaced, so I’ll have to get another one tomorrow to treat the rest of the tanks. The Mosquito fish/Spixi tank needs to be excluded, and the Platinum Redtail/Wizard snail tank needs to be excluded. But I put a Mystery Snail into several tanks this weekend, so. May the odds be ever in their favor. I’m betting on the little guys, though. These meds are supposed to be invert safe. The more serious treatment is Levamisol. Which I had also gotten, and is now also lost, and has to be replaced. Setbacks happen. This isn’t my first go-round, but boy, I had forgotten this feeling. The big cichlid tanks were so difficult to treat, and I don’t even remember what we used. Whatever the pet store sold us at the time, I suppose, it was the late 90s/early 00s. And then later, with the Orandas, which I am still a sucker for. Particularly Chocolate Orandas. Only Blue Rams are prettier, but the swim bladder problems were endless. The epsom salt and smashed peas, and an attempt at live plants that ended up as expensive fish food. They were like puppies though, and utterly adorable with unique personalities. Whole different world though, and I wish I’d been able to find the resources then that the Interwebs have put me in touch with now. This time, the need for separate tools became apparent. I’m glad I had already set up the fish log, I’ve been able to track the meds better than just using the glass pens/crayons. But it has been handy to be able to write on them, the sticky notes don’t stay. But the dates of the first batches of fry are all in this journal. Trying to think of where I’ve put plants. That might be a concern. But after the damselfly larvae in the Hornwort this summer and the spider mites on the Frogbit/dwarf water lettuce/salvinia in the pond tubs, I’ve been a lot more careful with live plants coming into the Fishroom. Reverse respiration happened with the Frogbit from the auction, but I’m still waiting to see whether it recovers. And now I have a bucket of red root floaters to treat. But I’m excited to have them! Some tanks have benefitted from the lack of floating plants, but not the ones without guppy fry. I still want to set up 3x daily auto feeders on a few of them. And I did get a light timer this weekend! The CCY raffles away these great Aquarium Co-op bags full of useful things, like a bright green bag of holding. There was a timer, a few packets of different foods, gummy fish which were immediately devoured, small bottles of water conditioner, and Microbe-lift. I’m going to have to take a picture. I was thrilled. All kinds of new and fun things to try. I accidentally won 2 of the CCY raffles, but luckily they gave the other prize to someone else. In that case, rules lawyering is not welcome, but silly. Of course one person shouldn’t win two prizes and keep them both, in a club full of other people who also want to win a leprechaun’s treasure in a kelly green bag. It was such fun! There’s going to be a coupon at That Fish Place next weekend, and now I have some great ideas of little gift-bags I might be able to put together for the November/December fish club swaps. If I can’t take fish, there are some other ways to contribute. I can imagine how handy a “hospital tank” gift-bag could be. Or maybe I could start baking things again. Might be time to break out the dragon bundt cake pan, unless its too nerdy for the fish folks. Who are nerdy for fish, but not necessarily for d&d and the like. 😆

Peat is the most important thing, with rainwater a close second if you’ve got hard water like me. I put some peat in a filter media bag (unfertilized peat), squish it a couple of times in the tank and leave it in the dark for a couple of days to kill off anything that could go for the eggs. I’ve managed to do Glowlights like this, and I might give my neons and black phantoms a shot.

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.

Pathos works for me in the 20 long... a little too well! No fertilizer, low nitrates to speak of. Six Cory's, 2 Rams, Hillstream loach.

My growing pseudomugil fry

Supposed Zebra Danio fry looking a lot like neon tetra fry. 🤷‍♂️

I have been thinking a lot about how we make money in this world. I have a good job, working for the university, it is in some ways my "dream job", secure, engaging, flexible, intellectual, challenging...But I still crave MAKING things. I have always enjoyed producing things with my hands. sometimes it feels like I was born too late, or something, because we outsource production jobs these days, and if I had been born earlier I would have ended up a housewife anyway...But still. Some time this next year we are buying a place. I keep telling myself to wait to buy any more tanks. It is sooo hard though, some of my tanks are producing things people actually want! And somehow, despite the fact that I have a REAL JOB now, with benefits and a big girl salary, those little trickles of money feel so much better. I keep pointing out places with basements... There is something about producing a thing with my own hands, be it a shirt, a plant, a loaf of bread, or a fish, that makes me feel much better about whatever meager income it nets me. It isn't really practical yet. But I think one day, before I retire, it actually likely will be. The trouble is it will never replace the kind of money and benefits I currently enjoy--and I am far from wealthy. This pandemic has made me question what I am doing here in this world a lot. Much mulling over of life decisions. Mostly I am satisfied with my choices, but I do miss the pride I once got from selling things I directly produced. What has it made you question?

Thank you once again, The Swiss Aquarist. Many years ago, I had a snail infestation that only got worse and worse until I killed my fish in that tank, resulting in me breaking down everything. That was about 8-9 years ago, and I have recently returned to the hobby back in July. At first, I was happy to continue to see new life being sustained/birthed in my fish tank’s cycling process, but snails are not something I wish to deal with ever again, unless they are Nerite or Assassin Snails. Lastly, it was hard to tell which Ramshorn, but I believe it was a Pink Leopard. It was a lot more brighter in an almost pink-like shade within the water.

Thank you! I will use some cucumber to remove them.

Is this… a photo of some dirt? 😂

They will be competing for food. Though I have seen Spixii eat baby bladders for breeding you want the Spixii to get all the food. The bladder and ramshorn populations will explode feeding high protein food directly to Spixii. Kens meat wafers are a favorite. They like green beans and cucumbers and such also. They are omnivorous so need both meat and veggies.

Thank you so much! You have never failed in guiding and teaching me. Once again thank you! 😁

If I was doing the facet and holding tank, I'd definitely get a plumber too. 🙂

I’m trying to get my girlfriends brother to collect some and send them to me. I bought some Sweetgum Pods and my girlfriend went, “You know those are all over the yard at the house my dad and brother live in, right?”

My method is to go collect fallen oak leaves from my yard, bring them inside, drop them into a tank and call it a day. I keep a full leaf bag in my garage at all times so I always have some on hand. The only thing I will do is pick out any undesirables, like pine needles, twigs of unknown origin, or leaves that are obviously not oak. I also collect the spikey pods from sweet gum trees and liberally use alder cones (I get the alder cones on etsy). I don't boil them or even rinse them, unless they have obvious dirt on them.

I just rinse clip a plant weight to them so they sink and in they go. Yard leaves I just rinse.

It's an interesting question and ultimately there are varied mindsets on the topic. One of the big things to keep in mind is that things build up in the water over time. This could be things you cannot test for. It could be as minimal as something that causes algae or fish breeding, but it could also be more serious things that build up over time. This buildup is called Old Tank Syndrome. Because of things like that I would say that you can extend out the time between water changes, but doing them can be important in the long term health of the aquarium and it's inhabitants. Here is a very level headed discussion on the topic that may give you some perspective from one hobbyist. The main section of the conversation happens about halfway through, but it's all related to the topic.

if everything is good, you do not have to change water.

Glowlight pipsqueaks in the making:

I was inspired by your upgrade. So I was going to give it a try. When I pulled the empty Easy planter out of the tank, I was surprised to find a dozen or so shrimp inside it! So I drilled a few little holes like you did and then decided to go ahead and drill a couple of large holes on the outside..... Shrimp Cave!

Shrimplets and Ramsies.

Festivums are generally very peaceful cichlids, seem content as solos, and are much more top water to mid water. Striking angled black stripe and some varieties come in soft or deeper colors. Not crazy bright colors, but not only the “normal” white. They only get to about 4”-6” usually (some say males get to 8” but I’ve never seen one even close to that big). They are peaceful enough to keep with much smaller fish since they also have a fairly small mouth. One would be a very striking centerpiece fish in a 46 G. I have a pair and the larger female bullies the smaller male even though he was rehomed for bullying the previous owners angels. He bullies no one nowand she only bullies him, although she has become the tank boss over the extremely wimpy 9” and 10” Jack Dempsey pair. She doesn’t bully them at all, she just doesn’t give ground if they try to push her away. They’re both visible in this picture - him on the left, her on the right above the silver dollars. Ignore the BBA on the lucky bamboo, I do. 😝 I should get an SAE for this tank. 😂

@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.

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.

Why do they feel better? There are a lot of reasons why. I think since it's not your real job then there is less at stake. I think that it also gives the peace of mind that maybe you could leave that real job if you wanted to. I think our hobbies are our daydream getaways while we are at our real jobs and every time we complete a hobby job we need a new hobby job to getaway to. They feel good because they always give us something different from our real jobs to look forward to and you accomplish them because you want to not because you were told to. Making things with your hands is physical, tangible proof of your work and skill. Its evidence of something that occurred in your mind and appeared through your actions. You did that. That kind of accomplishment is hard to beat. I think it's fair to say that we define ourselves through our hobbies and if others see value in our hobbies and the things we produce then we might see value in ourselves.

Interesting how this has struck a chord. I will never become an urban fish farmer on a large scale, that is for sure. However my skills are varied, and I can forsee a time when I am nearing retirement and I can just do what I want and the various things will give me "enough" to make it. My grandfather worked his whole life in the timber industry, and was incredibly good at what he did, sought after, commanded a high salary for someone who left school in the 6th grade to support his brothers and sisters during the depression. By the end of his life, with careful saving and investment, he died quite wealthy (he also saved and reused paper towels, so he was not living the high life, lol). My grandfather also had a huge and varied skill set and was good at nearly anything he set his hand to. I am fortunate to have that adaptability from him. He retired in his early sixties and took up his first love, painting. By my teens he was making more painting than he had while working. He became locally famous. Posthumously his art is featured in several museums. Not that I think he would care--He just loved painting. He really lived his whole life, every minute. I kinda hope one day I will be able to say the same. Honestly, my story arc has been a modern retelling in many ways, so I wouldn't be surprised, at the end of my life, to be able to say I did it. I think the fish just remind me that is what I really love--making things. I do have a dream research job, but as I move up I spend less time at the bench than I would like and more time mentoring and managing people (a bit like Cory spends less time in his fish room than he would like). It is satisfying but stressful, and in an uncertian pandemic, doubly so. It is good to have reminders of who we really are along the way, bright spots that help us remember why we took up this heap of work to begin with and where we are headed.

Your post really hit spot on for me. Very similar for me, and I ended up in a situation that I needed to re-evaluate my career and where I wanted to go. I'm still in transition, and actually have a few weeks off before I start a new role. I had multiple options, same money, same thing, less money, something new (and maybe more "fun"). While I'd love to find a way to make money with fishkeeping, Reality is unless your like @Cory, its far from likely, and I have no doubt he has put in a crap ton of time and sacrifice to get to where he is. Read his post carefully, there's a lot of time that it's not fun for him. Shoot, I'm trying to sell some angelfish right now, and I'm turning people away and having to work with them about the right setups, this isn't fun to me. Breeding the fish is. Enjoying them/etc. So my decision was to take the less money, something new and exciting, but still make enough money and have more time to support my family and hobby. It has a better work/life balance, and that was what was most important to me. But I still get to do something I love, I get to learn something new, and kind of work with my "hands" more in the field I'm in. I'm in IT, so working with my hands is "virtual" but to see tangible results is what I will get to do.

I've had 16 jobs.I guess though I had ideas I never knew what I wanted to be when I grew up, my chosen profession didn't afford me a living so I had to find another option. I am now in a career that I've had since 2009- and in that career I've moved to the same capacity in a different place. I'm not doing anything related to my college degree. There are things I would have done differently had I a second chance but nothing that I hold regrets for. One thing in one of my many jobs I worked my boss shared an office with an old Colonel, I will never ever forget what he said, "NOBODY EVER DIED WISHING THEY SPENT MORE TIME AT WORK". While some jobs can be rewarding, fulfilling, thrilling, satisfying, or whatever- it's really what we do outside of work that matters most, the people we love and care about, our friends, family, and the things we are able to experience. I have had more meaningful experiences contemplating my navel at home than being at work- and trust me, I have an interesting job- that makes me decent money- but it's hard, and it's stressful a lot of the times. I fight tooth and nail for every bit of time I can get away from work, and will keep doing that.

there is a reason work is considered a 4 letter word! hobby job, you enjoy, work is a means to an end.

Hahah, I feel you! I grew up in my mom's yarn store. Designing patterns and knitting them are what I "do," but doing it professionally for a company had me burnt out and unwell, feeling so trapped and stressed that I was actively contemplating suicide. Producing on demand, whether you want to or not, I felt like a dog in a puppy mill, disconnected from my work, my identity, and my major source of joy in life. I've since gotten lots of therapy, which involved a lot of work cultivating other hobbies, unrelated to what I do for work. I have a huge entrepreneurial streak and I'm always thinking of angles, ways to turn 1 dollar into 10 into 100, and while I could see the path to making money designing patterns for a living all on my own, I knew that it would be hard, hard work doing a lot of stuff I don't enjoy (like working the convention circuit, teaching, promoting a book, pitching concepts, endlessly posting pictures on instagram, maintaining a perfect-looking, aspirational lifestyle). It was also making me miserable and increasing the trapped feeling. So, fish keeping, along with all the other hobbies I started, like gardening, painting, taking voice lessons, hiking, and traveling, got me to appreciate the joy of the non-monetized hobby. No pressure to do anything you don't want to do or to cut corners that compromise your values. No anxiety about how you're going to pay rent if an experiment fails. Now, to find a way to give away all these endlers! 😄