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Set up two new betta tanks and a shrimp tank! I have no desk space anymore but it was worth it lol

I’ve got a 20 g long going with some cherry and Bloody Mary shrimp. I’ve had it going since spring and I’m really pleased with some of the females. The legs are mostly red which is for me a great trait. I like how deep the red is. Threw in some banana leaf I had maturing in a tub today and caught her in repose. My 45 gallons been fun. Weekly water changes are necessary due to all the high protein foods I’m pumping in there for Princess Peach the Puffer. At first I think she wasn’t too fond of the chain loaches and cory gang but now she follows them about some days hunting snails with the loaches. Eventually the tank will be moved and rescaped at that point I’ll remove all the bristlenose plecos. With the new inhabitants I’ve really enjoyed the giant otocinclus a lot. The first shot is a little where’s the oto shot but the other 2 pics are more obvious I guess. Ive yet to catch them in the flow as I’ve seen them many times - they’ve been camera shy as I approach. They’ve got 2 distinct colorations so i think it’s dominant subdominant coloration or different sexes. They’re very attractive I think in that catfish kind of way. Im planning for the tank updates but I’ve got my eye on upgrading to a 65 acrylic. We’ll see if my wife will go for it - I just think if you’re going to have tanks as show pieces they should be show pieces. We’ll see If she agrees with me. But tanks and especially stands are not cheap. https://truvuaquariums.com/products/65-gallon-freshwater-acrylic-aquarium Enjoying the hobby and my paired down fish room. Have fun everyone!

It’s not about what I did today but about what these 2 did today. I didn’t think they were going to manage it with the way things were going when I left the house late this morning. He insisted on the smallest cave despite me offering 3 different sizes he wants only the watering spike. I put them back in since he stopped trying to breed when they were gone. It took a few days of pouting, but he decided on the spike again for breeding. She has been going in and out of a bigger cave trying to entice either of the boys into action. This guy finally took the hint. Can you see how she gives up in disgust at the end of this video I took this morning? That look like, “He’s pretty but he isn’t too bright!” Well, he must have finally figured it out because they got the deed done. There are eggs in the cave tonight after we got home from paintball. I can’t get a picture because I can barely get a glimpse past his big “shoulders”! But I should have some long-finned babies this time around since the short-finned female is in a different tank now. And look! The old lady figured out how to post her own video!

It seems to be working in the morning. The air pump seems to be charging. Will see what happened at night.

Hey all! I currently have a 20 gallon with a breeding colony of Endlers', but I plan on selling them soon, and am looking for something to put in the tank. I LOVE oddball fish, so i'm looking for something to replace the horde. I don't care too much if it's a top dweller, bottom dweller, if it's a centerpiece fish, I'm just looking for something unusual!

Hi! I've been keeping fish (and following aquarium co-op) since 2013. For some reason I never joined the forum! But now I am. About my fish keeping: I started with planted tanks and nano fish, neocaradina shrimps and did that for quite a long time. About 2 years ago I got asked by my LFS if I wanted to work there part time covering one shift a day, and I happily accepted. Since then I work 3 days a week there now. We're a mixed fresh and salt store (I know, I know) but it's definitely gotten me into the marine side of the hobby and I now have 2 reef tanks alongside my 55 gal planted tank/ fish collection and a few 20gal or smaller breeding tanks, currently with some Daisy's rice fish, long-fin calico bristlenose, and rasboras maculatus (absolutely zero luck with breeding these and not much expected but I wanted a challenge) Here's a few highlights of my best set ups through the past few years: Mom's tank 🙂 29gal West-African riparium & pleco breeding tank. Cycling reef tank just beginning. Same reef tank 6 months later. Newest 29gal DIY All-in-one reef tank. Baby African Butterfly Cichlid (Anomolachromis thomasi) that was born in the riparium above. Looking forward to joining the discussion on here, especially as I ramp up some breeding projects again.

I kind of want to give you a list of a bunch of fun things, but I swear my definition of "oddball" isn't the same as others! 😂 I think a 20L might do well with some darters or goby species. I think the "walking fish" are really interesting to watch and study and I like the intimate style setting and being able to get up close on a 20L. I would say go to town and find a nice wild betta pair too. Something from the coccina complex is pretty unique and needs a bit more specialized care.

South American cichlids in general benefit from a varied diet that is based on small invertebrates. I have personally kept a pair of German blue rams in a cube without any other species present, but they were a pair that got along. If you want to have two, I'd suggest having a backup plan available. Personally I don't chase parameters too hard and find that having a hardness or pH parameter too low is far more punishing than too high. Excessively low pH increases the toxicity of ammonia and all living things in your aquarium need the minerals present in the water to survive. I live in an area with quite high GH, KH, and pH and in the long term I don't believe that those impacted my fish significantly. The Bolivian rams that I had were incredibly hardy and I feel like they could have survived nearly anything before the stress began to impact them. If you are incredibly concerned with hardness and pH and want to modify them, you can use distilled water to dilute the mineral content of your water. Having a lower KH tends to result in a gradual decline of pH and that will follow. Rams are incredibly fun to watch and some of my favorites! The reason that I don't have any right now is because I don't want to finish a major project (or two) before committing to them since they're some of my favorites to breed. I like having a small amount of sand available to them so that I can watch their sand sifting behavior, but it's by no means necessary. I don't personally enjoy apistos and can't speak for them. In a 15 gallon I would probably recommend pygmy or habrosus cories. Your choice in tetra is ultimately up to preference and with that said I would say ember tetras! 😂 I have green tetras that my family member picked out and ultimately I don't love them the way that I wish I did. A lot of the things that are recommended to beginner aren't exactly required even if they are good ideas. Tannins can be amazing for creating a more natural-looking environment but the fish that we keep have generally been outside of nature for quite awhile and are adapted to captivity, with a few exceptions. Plants (especially those that feed from the water column) are great because they can reduce the nitrogen compounds present, but there are many other ways to attend to that concern. When you're starting out it can be helpful to reduce the number of variables in play so that it's easier to evaluate problems that show up over time. Enjoy your new fish!

If any of yall are parents/grandparents/uncles/aunts looking for gift ideas for the little nerms, i think its fsir to say what they want is another tank. One sizing larger than their current biggest. Buying tanks for adults isnt always a good idea but for kids theyll always appreaciate it.

I’m taking some of my baby mystery snails to my lfs today. Several have forked tentacles (the ones near their mouth). There’s one that has tentacles on his tentacles. Just wondering if this is anything unique/special genetic-wise and worth passing along. I’m thinking of keeping this one. Also had to post a pic of his siblings in victory formation 😆

It is always fun to feed live foods

I’ve got 5x Ancistrus in this 40 breeder, along with loads of pals. But here is maybe the only time, lights-on, I’ve seen them all visible in one frame…

As entertaining as catching wild fish is I'm going to go back to discussing the aquarium rack and some of the ideas and improvements made here that I think could benefit others. As previously documented in this blog I enjoy keeping crayfish and made a discovery with my large crayfish (RIP Tateyama) that I think may be of benefit to others. When observing inside of the PVC pipe that the crayfish would take shelter in I noticed a significant number of small crustaceans (seed shrimp, daphnia, scuds etc) would also be around the crayfish like a large living cloud. This gave me the idea that there are are biofilms that grow on the crayfish that these crustaceans are feeding off of due to how large and dirty the crayfish are. You can think of this kind of like a whale being encrusted with barnacles as it moves through the ocean; A living platform for an ecosystem. A popular crayfish around the world in aquaculture is the australian red claw crayfish also known the Yabby. These organisms grow to an enormous size for a freshwater crustacean with individuals weighing as much as 750 grams in the wild. I was interested in trying to obtain some of these and was able to do so through an aquaponic supplier. The idea was to keep the crayfish in the sump of the aquarium rack so that I could culture these microorganisms around the crayfish while the crayfish ate whatever detritus might have settled into the sump. The progeny for these crayfish could then be sold back to aquaponic suppliers as these crayfish are in demand, particularly here in the United States. Thus far the crayfish have grown successfully but from my original 10 that I had it appears that only four remain after a period of approximately 6 months. They grow extremely fast, much faster than many other decorative crayfish and their reputation for being cannibalistic is certainly proven here. With no other predators in the aquarium and the pump being well shielded so that they cannot access the impeller I can only presume that the other six crayfish were lost due to cannibalism. This is a well-known problem in culture of these species which is why they're generally cultured in large muddy ponds to keep aggression at a minimum. This being said, a couple of the individuals have already reached very impressive size and I assume that these are males and that the two smaller ones are females. My goal will be once the females are berried to separate them so that I can raise some more crayfish babies for eventual resale or for personal consumption. If you wish to keep Australian red claw crayfish understand that they are large and aggressive, with very powerful pincers and care must be taken when working with them. Otherwise, the culture of them is very simple as they are like extremely large cherry shrimp in the sense that eggs hatch into a benthic form with no larval state, can tolerate a wide range of water conditions, and are quite hardy. This is a creature that one should check local laws to ensure that they are not in violation of local environmental ordinances. Further if the crayfish become too large for their enclosure they should be destroyed (or eaten!) and not let go into local waterways as they are highly invasive. Thus far these crayfish have been an entertaining and useful addition to the sump but due to the age of the system I have yet to see a cloud of microorganisms around them as I have seen previously. I think the placement of crayfish in freshwater refugiums does have some merit and I will continue to explore this as I continue to encourage development of a diverse ecosystem within the sump. One could see from the pictures below that this male is already quite large and aggressive with him posing for the camera quite readily.

It's funny how much I become, to the fish, like that family member to newlyweds: "when are you going to have babies already!?"

My go to when I need something finer than the coop net. Fine, soft, bendable and very little drag. Comes in 2 inch to I think 12 inch. Amazon availability.

Should be fine. I use it on mine all the time (seachem brand) and I've been doing it for near a decade at this point. Neos have been exposed to it, no issues multiple uses. In terms of answering is this the solution, I would try the Jetlifter and then decide if it is or isn't. Essentially, you need the circulation to push it towards the sponge but the sponge has to be churning air to make sure the particles stick to the fine filter media. I am messing with my tank today, I have no real idea on the clarity, but I can check it out. I will make a mental note in future and check it out. I'll snag a quick photo before I mess with the tank and siphon today and give you an idea of how well you can clarify things with a sponge filter only setup. In my case, I have a tidal 35 I have specifically for polishing, you can also use a skimmer for the same sort of thing or a tiny internal filter. All of those should be pretty easy to make shrimp safe and they really don't have jobs outside of that one use. I've also used a small sicce syncra nano pump and a fine prefilter sponge as a "build it yourself" nano pump and that's pretty dope too. The only issue is output, but EH. Shrimp safe in about 3 seconds flat and very easy to keep in there and maintain. Without clarifier, but just fine sponge and a ton of air.

I emailed support and ran the situation by them. They suggested I look for snails in the heater, they can get stuck in there 😞 To my knowledge I have no snails in the tank but I took a look. I unplugged the heater, waited a bit then shook it and inspected it out of the tank. I couldn't find anything inside the frame that didn't look like it shouldn't be there. The mystery continues.

Has anyone tested the aquarium coop air pump with the battery backup with one of those usb solar panel on Amazon? In theory, the backup battery can last you through the night and resume charging in the morning?

Calling all puffer owners in the form of crazy fish keepers, hobbyists and lunatics who love our animals!!! I want to create a space for us to post about our puffers and create a thread of ever eternal puffer knowledge. We’ve had the puffer signal go off a few times on the forum and I just think it would be good to have a thread to go with our signal! Here is Princess Peach the Congo Spotted Puffer. I’ve had her for about 2 weeks getting her from a fellow hobbyist and GSAS member. I’ve learned she likes flow but just enough. She will investigate all of her domain. She likes plants forming natural caves. She likes tank mates but perhaps less rambunctious ones. She likes blood worms, just enough vibrabites and snails but not too big ok? This weekend after noting her issues with the flow created by a powerhead and an Eheim 2217 I pulled both and switched out for an Oase Biomaster 250 running my corner mattenfilter through this. We also made more room for her to get her ample bosom around the decor. This is now the 3rd species I’ve kept of freshwater puffer and each experience has been rewarding, challenging and enriching. I think that’s really what many of us seek in our hobby.

I've been mulling this over in my head for a long time. Because of my schedule, I split my lighting into two splits. From 5-8 AM and 4-8 PM. This is so have a shot at observing my fish. Has anyone noticed a split schedule being an influence either good or bad on spawning of fish? I know some fish are dawn spawners, but I wonder if there could be any detrimental effects from having two periods like that. Could it confuse the fishs' internal clocks? Asking specifically in regards to egg laying fish that exhibit parental care. If a mother expects eggs to hatch within some reasonable time, could having two sunrises per day throw that off? I'm probably overthinking it, but it's been something that's been bothering me for awhile. In particular with my apistos. I've been on vacation this week and I am putting two new bedrooms in the basement, so I have overhead room lights on far more than normal the last few days as I'm working down there during the normally dark period. And it seems like the apistos behave at least a bit differently than they do on normal nights. I actually left the room lights on from about noon until 8 today because of this. I'd consider a more dim room light or "night light" but worry that would cause an issue with algae. It's important to note that there's VERY little light outside of the aquarium lights in my fish room unless the room lights are on. Typically they are not and it's dark enough even during midday that you can't really walk around without the lights on. Especially now that I've got walls going up between the small basement windows and the fish.

I seem to finally have another pair out of my angel tank. The darker gold koi was a fairly new addition and she(?) is pairing up with one I’ve had for months. Breeding tubes are starting to partially drop but only out a little then quickly back in so far. They are picking and cleaning some new sword leaves I just added and bossing around the whole tank today. I have the pair hanging around the middle and towards the right end. Everyone else is hanging around crowded into the left 1/3 of the tank. 😆 I’ll be moving the pair tomorrow to my 29 G after I do a big water change on it (which was planned for tomorrow anyway). Tomorrow is 75, 29, and 20 high WC day.

Just use a fertilizer. I was using API leaf zone but now see how little that provides so have switched to AC Easy Green. Doesn't seem like many compared to pictures I see. This (poor quality) shot is before I added the pearl weed at the back.

Very underrated fish. Mine would Spar with each other all day. Awesome behavior. Unfortunately, mine only lived about 3 years. They definitely love lots of plants and plant coverage.

Platys are the same way, I can literally scoop them up with my hand.

I's always fun when you find a lost plant. Being a bulb plant, I would anchor your bulb in contact with the substrate surface, burying only the root if possible. then follow your plan. Your plant looks like it is already putting out new roots.

That's unfortunate. Thankfully they are taking care of you. Keep us posted!

IsisP: I just wanted to add a note of empathy and encouragement since I'm new to this hobby as well. (Started in July of this year) Like you, I've been enjoying and learning a lot with this hobby, but I'm also undergoing the stress of observing fish death in our own fish community. (Just lost our long fin Zebra Danio tonight after a full day of trying to figure out why he was sick. Still don't know and continuing to research.) I'm telling myself that this is part of being a fish keeper and if I'm going to continue in this hobby, then I have to learn from these events also. In time, we will learn how to better care for our pet fish to help them thrive while we have the pleasure of keeping them. Let's make sure to take breaks also so we don't stress ourselves out. As caretakers for fish, it does them no good if we exhaust our own resources. All the best to you and I would love to read more about what you learn from this.

I had a 100 watt start making the high pitched noise. I moved it around closer to the intake on the HOB and higher and lower on the glass , it seemed to reduce the sound. But it's when the EL (end of life) came on, That's when I removed the suction cups and turned it around to avoid seeing the fashing EL, so the heater basically free floats, Now it doesn't make the noise! Does this make sense? 🤪 I don't know but it worked! 😄

I’ve tried similar that was a nitrite pad. It did next to nothing. But I also tried Nitra-sorb bags. They work great but only for a short time. I would love to hear how this works for you on nitrate and how long it last before it slows considerably.

first I would check your water parameters ammonia nitrite nitrate pH KH GH temperature just to make sure nothing off that doesn't look good if you have a quarantine tank I would move her to that and treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons that will help reduce any possible fluid buildup causing the bloating and treat with a combination of maracyn2 and metroplex in food and add an extra air stone during treatment more than likely dropsy that can be caused by a number of things such as organ failure internal bacterial infections parasitic infections causing bloating the treatment I recommended is the most effective treatment I have used for symptoms associated with dropsy @Nathans

Just added Celestial Pearl Danios.

This needs to be tried! I haven’t… but if you do, document it all.

Only things like severums silver dollars and such. Some others may nibble but it is not harmful. Even chewed off I’ve not noticed it harming my plants. I don’t keep root chewing fish but I routinely cut massive amounts of roots out of tanks so fish still have elbow room. Here is an article my friend did on the safety of roots in tanks dispelling the myths. Here is another article the same friend did in emergents to help with nitrate reduction

Welcome. I have similar water and nitrate issues. I mix with distilled and actually pick up my RO unit Tuesday. When tap is as hard as ours I can go 50% RO and my tap is still hard enough high kh enough and high ph enough to keep any fish including African cichlids. When I need much softer water I can get away with 1 cup tap per gallon of distilled and still have 7.4-7.6 ph with solid hardness and kh. I combat nitrates using A LOT of emergent plants.

Separate the runners. 'Tis the way of "nature, red in tooth and claw."

in the winter fish can handle lower temps like 72-76. I personally keep my tanks that have South American cichlids and Central American cichlids at 74 degrees in the winter. It helps keep my electric bill down and i know they can handle it and do very well in cooler temps. If you can keep your tanks at least 74 your fish will be fine, the whole " you need to keep fish at 78 degrees" is absolutely not true because they can and sometimes prefer to be in cooler temps. I know Cory has made a video saying that most fish actualy don't need heaters in their tanks. It all depends on the species you are keeping.

I think theyre just domesticated. Like a dog will run up to a human while a wolf would run away. Neither is smarter or braver they just have a different view of humans

Maybe guppies have massive intellects that are simply being overridden by their even larger appetites? 😉

Tank looks great! I'd love to see some pics of your Ropefish!

Welcome welcome to the forums @Miss May

No high pitched sound coming from my 300w AQQA heater. It does make a slight click On click Off sounds when the heating element turns on and off.

The fry are similar in size to betta fry - tiny! @Lowells Fish Lab did a great video on these guys :

So hot! 🔥

Hey @Lucyn, thanks for the reply. Definitely a high-pitched sound when it is actively heating, 100%. I understand what you are saying about the power across the heating element. I'm just confused because this didn't always happen (it ran quiet for a month or two after installing) and when I contacted support about the original heater they offered a replacement right away stating it shouldn't be doing that. Really wish it wouldn't happen, the heater isn't throwing any error codes or anything, Is there a type of heater that might be less susceptible to this?

I took some suggestion and made some changes. I reversed the airlift to the other side. The airlift should now carry the eggs to the other side to hatch. The fry will be protected by the sponge divider. I can still do water change on the parent side without affecting the fry. One issue I found when testing is the the airlift suction is not strong enough to pull all the nano pellets across the surface area of the breeder side. No matter how much air was used. A solution I came up with is to just use a turkey baster to blow the eggs into the airlift intake.

Update: I cleaned out the air stone yesterday, I couldn't find the replacement felt discs, and I've got some serious flow now after cleaning out the air stone and going to level 3 (from 1) on the air pump. I did a water change today and dumped out the bubbles from the water heater again, immediately after dumping out the air bubbles it turned on and started whistling again. I can hear it whistling now as I type this. So, given that there was more flow in the tank for 24 hours or so and the fact that I keep dumping the bubbles out of the heater, I'm wondering if it is an issue with the heater itself. Thoughts? I wonder if the ACOOP heater just isn't a good fit for my tank, wonder if I should try something else. Thanks.

I will take a look at that. Thanks. I'm excited about this once it is available: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/products/easy-flow-sponge-filter-upgrade-kit I'm hopeful that the "bubble ring" (whatever it is called) will not clog. That seems like a really cool product.

I've completely replaced my sponge on my ACO filter with a different sponge. This sounds like a cool alternative. It might work better to have the coarse on the outside and the fine on the inside. I wonder if there's a way to do that.

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!