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Nice! Love me a tardigrade. Actually want one of those shirts that says: ”you may not like it, but this is peak form” with a pic of a tardigrade on it

I went to Festival of Trees today at the art museum. I guess I didn’t really take many photos! But here are a few. That house is totally edible. Also, this little guy was just so cute. He was part of a gingerbread house display too and is edible. He made me smile. The window behind him is made of hard candy melted into a sheet. (I know that from watching British Bake-off) LOL

I moved his favorite sponge filter out and look who started a journey! Kratos! He journeyed all the way to his original hangout, the PFS, where he will sit and collect what comes his way.

Got something like 25 sterbai eggs. I don't know if they're fertile. I think I only have maybe one male.

There was no ~cringe~ response emoticon, so here… 😬

Ahhahaha, just this morning I read about the Aga, but I didn't know that "unexpected" was you Fingers crossed for you

My first guess is that you are the recipient of the last bags from an older production run. Unfortunately the label is probably legitimate. A quick search seems to indicate that Northfin is not consistent in their labeling practices. On dry products, I personally don't follow expiration dates to closely. The food doesn't know what the date is. I would put the bags in the freezer until you are ready to use them. If the product looks and smells like the product you are using now, than you are probably ok. Assuming that they are still the parent company, you could try writing to the manufacturer directly with your concerns. You might get a better response. Canadian Aquatic Feed Inc. 17 Canso Road Unit #16 Toronto, Ontario M9W 4M1 Canada

Expiration dates are not at all controlled by any U.S governing body. But they are required on just about every product. Which leads to things like fish food which is shelf stable having expirey dates. As long as it is still sealed it will last a long time. We even have expiration labels on pickles an item famously shelf stable for decades. I always offer the “smell test” humans are actually quite remarkable at detecting when food has gone bad or stale.

A few of Geppetto’s shrimps

Hey Janice....pull those stickers off and see what the actual original expiration date was. I have read on another forum that they put those stickers over the actual expiration date to allow the continued sale of "expired" food at full price. As for using it....I still would, but that is just my opinion.

I just got back from a vacation to Hawaii. We ended up having lots of aquarium adjacent experiences. We went to the aquarium and the puffer came up to say hi to my daughter: Another day we actually found a puffer on the beach. It was still gasping occasionally so I picked it up between a board and a coconut husk, swished it back and forth in the water to run water over its gills, and eventually it swam off: There were also lots of outdoor ponds that you would expect to see koi in but there would be cichlids: There was also a botanical gardens that had lots of pots with guppies or rice fish: There were even endlers at the Twin Falls: I also collected some cool botanicals that I'll hopefully get a chance to use soon:

Testing out some materials for wicking. I had acrylic yarn for spawning mops and a type of plastic string/twine. I stick them through the holes like some kind of ugly cross stitch: Then I replaced the lid and added a piece of paper to show how much water was being wicked up. This was after 15 mins: It looks like they are both roughly evenly effective so I'm going to stick with the yarn since I'm 100% sure it's safe

There is no trade forum here, so I have to ask - does anyone have a paramecium culture they can send me a part of? I'll pay shipping of course, plus a fee for the culture itself. Now the story(?) I am making a new post because I will eventually have a breeding "journal" to share, so I figured I would keep it all in one place. I have one congo spotted puffer at the moment. I got him from a wholesale facility (I'm a fully licensed fish seller) when they were sent the wrong fish, and the wholesaler marked it *way* down to get rid of it. Talk about a steal - I got him for just $65! They had two, but I was only able to nab one of them. He's in a 75G with four angelfish, three Syn. Brichardi, and a full grown L014 pleco right now. Anyway, I know they were easy to breed in the 1960's when getting wild fish from the Congo river was simple. Now that area is engulfed in pure chaos and war and no one wants to risk venturing into there to collect them. Meanwhile, no one really focused on breeding them in captive before that time. That's why they are rare and expensive now. But I LOVE taking on those challenges of populating the hobby with hard-to-find fish. I'm working on ornate bush fish at the moment (Microctenopoma Ansorgii) (nothing yet), Cherax Pulcher crayfish (a few broods), Cauliflower Sabertails (working on eliminating the potential deadly livebearer virus from my breeders), L387 plecos (one brood so far), zebra plecos (still growing hopeful breeders), and just received some adult Alestopetersius Brichardi... okay a lot of breeding projects going on. I have 36 tanks so far, and many more planned in a couple of years when I get an entire building put up just for my fish. Congo Spotted Puffers are my next planned breeding project now though. I just purchased some Subwassertang for them as well after reading the most recent thread. I do need the paramecium though. I think? But how do microworms and vinegar eels compare in size to paramecium? I not only have those cultures already (as well as walter worms and banana worms - both of which are smaller than microworms), but I even sell them to others because I have so much. I've actually got several of my culture cups in the dishwasher right now cleaning them up before splitting and starting fresh cultures. If these would work in place of paramecium, I'll just go with that. although since I'm selling them, I may as well get some paramecium anyway and start offering those too, since supply of starter cultures out there seems to be very limited! So, the one congo spotted puffer I got is full grown and I've had him maybe a month now. From what I can see, it's looking female. Not entirely sure yet, and I probably still need more time to add some weight on it. The wholesaler does not have anymore, but I have requested that they special order four more for me so I can look into breeding them - at their "normal" price though, but it may be worth it. They said they have to wait until they need many more fish from that supplier so it may take a few months. That's PERFECT because it gives me time to plan. Right now I have a 125G and 30G long coming in next week in which I plan to empty discus from a few different tanks to put in the 125G, leaving a few various-sized tanks empty. I was reading that it's best to breed these guys in a 30G as well? Or should they get an entire 55G to themselves? Is a smaller tank better - like a 20G? Or is that too tight? And for substrate, I have many options. My most-used substrate is black diamond blasting sand from a store called Tractor Supply. I get the medium grade for most tanks. But I'm thinking I will need to see and catch these eggs, so maybe a fine grade (which compacts down to almost a solid base) is better? It wouldn't hide the eggs very well then, which would let me collect them easier. I don't like using bare glass bottoms - even when painted - because the reflection really seems to affect fish in a different way. (Did you know a bare bottom tank is usually when and why discus show no peppering? When you have substrate and no bottom reflection, they often develop that peppering - like a camouflage response.) ANYWAY, so I want to get the paramecium rolling now before I even get the remaining puffers. I want to get the right sized tank, plus the right substrate and set-up. I've got amazon swords, mermaid weed, and lemon bacopa growing out of my ears, so planting it will be easy. I want the subwassertang for the fry, of course. I'll be moving the one guy in by himself for now - and maybe some cheap ember tetras to pick on if he wants and ungodly numbers of pink ramshorn snails. Once I get the rest I will remove all other fish and it will be a species tank just for the breeding puffers.

Hi.. I’m Laurie- and I admit it- I am absolutely IN LOVE with my Ghost/Glass/Grass/whatever Shrimp. I find them fascinating. I have elderly, adult, teen, toddler and newborns. I began in the hobby many years ago and had a successful Reidi seahorse pair (but it broke my heart when I couldn’t keep the babies alive past 3 months in spite of what I thought were pretty ingenious methods)- then came my babies- which I was thankfully more successful with! But they didn’t allow me much free time. Now, as a grandmother with a bit more time, I decided on a freshwater tank and began mine. After about 3 months, I got some “sacrificial” ghost shrimp at 59 cents each. I didn’t expect them to live long- nor did I think I’d be absolutely captivated by thier transparency and life cycles and personalities. I look forward to reading and learning as much as I can from all of you with your more “respectful” aquariums and thier inhabitants! 😁

This is the last of my original 4 Nerite Snails. I've been considering getting something a little more colorful and active. Until recently she just laid eggs and took long naps lasting up to 2 days. I figured that at 5 years old, her time was coming. Instead, over the last couple of weeks she has put on a growth spurt and become a lot more active. I don't know how or why, but I'm not complaining. The yellow and red colors are new. I'm not up on snail anatomy, but she is definitely showing a lot more skin🙈 than ever before.

You can't go wrong with a good old classic wooden chest of drawers! There is also this one I found on Amazon. Heavy duty metal frame work and a very strong wooden manufactured wood. Very water resistant and it has the cabinet style doors to hide stuff.

Ahh don't give up! I would say transitioning fish from the store to your home for the first 3-6 months is quite hard, but if you are successful then your fish should live a long time with care. If you aren't successful multiple attempts might be needed before you are successful, it’s just part of mastering that particular species in my opinion. Besides you can always breed more once you get the hang of it. Your tank seems to be doing fine as all the other fish are surviving, it may just be the guppies themselves. You can go back to the store and see how the rest of their stock have fared. Guppies tend to move from arrival to the store to someone's home sold quite quickly, so if a batch is bad or the weaker individuals have not been sorted out you may end up with them. Just an idea, but your local fish club may also be a good source of locally sourced guppies which would be hardier as well. For some reason in my fish room new guppies have a high chance of crashing within a couple of months, like yours they tend to do fine for a little bit, but end up shimmying and refusing food. It seems to happen to everyone, Stan Shubel was a famous guppy breeder who passed away a few years ago had individual guppies that would occasionally stop eating and start shimmying and that behavior would spread to the other fish. His solution was to stop feeding and also isolate the individuals before it affected the colonies. As for tail rot, he thought it stemmed from too much food being put into the aquarium increasing the likeliness of a bacterial infection. For me sometimes increasing the hardness of the water with shrimp minerals helps and they recover, but it doesn't always work. Regardless my workaround has been to breed them quickly as the babies will be much hardier and more conditioned to your water than the parents, so if I lose the parents the colony will survive!

Females have kind of been going crazy, the male was actually swimming with them a bit tonight. Maybe he's worn out. 🤣

They look fertile so far! You’ll know in the next couple days.

Endler fry hanging out in the homemade shrimp cave!

I’ve never attempted to grow them out, but I agree with @Guppysnail that they’re probably dying due to ammonia build up. They produce waste, just like fish do, and without a cycled/seasoned tank that can convert that waste to nitrate it’s going to be a struggle to raise them. I also agree that they will need air all the time. Shining a light to the bottom of the grow out tank (as they’re attracted to light) is a great way to lure them to one spot to be able to perform a water change without siphoning them all up. Just like cycling a tank, you’ll want to do lots of water changes to keep the ammonia at bay. Might be tough over the weekend, but I believe that’s your best bet to successfully pulling off this project. Maybe you could use some Fritz TurboStart (the saltwater version) to help you get through the cycling phase successfully? I’d try either that, or if I knew someone with a saltwater tank maybe they could lend you a filter to squeeze into the tank to get the bacteria you need to convert the ammonia.

@mountaintoppufferkeeper is the man you want to ask. I believe they’re working on the same thing, and they’ve bred other puffer species. They also have published articles regarding puffers, breeding, raising fry, etc. P.S. After 50 posts on the forum the buy/sell/trade section unlocks. Others that have similar interests and live cultures might also see this and be able to help you out! Best of luck!

Per forum rules I think you can mention brands, but links is where I believe it’s limited to ACO, Amazon, and ACO partners. I could be wrong on that, but I wouldn’t hesitate to say where I got them. That’s just me, though, and someone more familiar with the rules might chime in. Either way, the advice remains the same, and let us know if you run into any troubles! A lot of friendly people here on the forum that simply want to help others be successful and share the joy of aquatics. I know when I first started I only had myself, so finding other fish nerds was awesome for me.

@Tanked Yeah, many of the leaves detached like that. Its not buried, its wedged into some rocks. Ill take them out and cut off the decayed portion and quarantine it tomorrow. Thanks for the advice.

Rack is nearly complete...have some LED shop lights that TN Aquatics recommended coming and then my Fluvals on the shrimp breeders will move to the top tanks on the rack. Air system works great...def recommend the one ACO sells. Works like a charm! Next step will be breaking down my older tanks except for the kitty one...still torn on breaking it down atm as they all seem super comfy in it. Think it will be the last one that goes before I begin bringing in my big boy tanks for the two walls left. Have an RO system and water containment tank that hold 55 gal coming. Will start preparing and re-mineralizing the water before using it as I found out recently the small town municipality I moved into does a month long water line flush from Nov 27-Dec 22. Def need to get it installed before then. In the meantime I am testing my water before adding to any of my tanks for ammonia especially as that seems the biggest worry from videos I have watched in the past warning of these situations. Anyways...enjoy the video of the rack/air system I finished today & the Waterbox Eden 40 I scaped day before yesterday!

One indicator of Anubia rot is the leaf stems detaching from the rhizome like the one in you hand. You should check the rhizome of each plant to make sure that the rhizome is not buried. The rhizome should be firm with no soft spots or discoloration. If you find these the plant should be removed as the rot is contagious to other Anubia. You can cut off the infected part of the rhizome and place the remaining plant in quarantine.

@Guppysnail better picture honestly im really liking the 5gallon now. Fish are a natural part of an ecosystem but they are predators, but now the tank is just shrimp and snails so im seeing super cool little creatures like worms and copepods showing up that i dont see when i have fish in this tank. Its also super fun to watch a berried shrimp run around the tank.

ACO Request: The aquarium stand market is woeful. Is there anything you can do to help out us hobbyists? Could we get a solid wood/plywood/metal stand for a 29/40/55 in the $250 range? 🙂

Roughly 25-30 days 15-50 eggs. She looks full 🤗 Congratulations

The cheapest, good quality stands are probably the Imagitarium metal stands. However, they don't have doors. Most cheap stands are going to be made of particle board. I'm not sure there is a "good" version of a cheap stand, they all seem similar (please correct me if I'm wrong about that). The high quality stands from places like Custom Aquariums and Glass Cages are very expensive. My advice would be either an Imagitarium stand with magnets and dark cloth for "doors" or challenge yourself with a 2x4 stand design from YouTube. 🙂

First off… are your fish Ok?? What are you using to measure your parameters? Test strips? Titration tests (API)? Digital? To me, based on your readings, this does not look like a fully cycled tank. - 11-08-23 to 11-18-23 is a very, very short time frame for adequate colonies of nitrifying bacteria to populate across the surface of everything. Typically, without a really heavy boost, this takes 4-6 weeks. Adding cycled sponge filters, Eco complete (which you did use), wood from an established aquarium, and loads of sponge filter squeezings really jump-starts it. A week, and your tank might be ready to roll in those situations. - Your pH readings are odd, honestly. Your water should _not_ shift abruptly from 8.2 to 7.2 in a single day’s time period. You may need to reassess your testing technique. - If you are still measuring 1.0 ppm Ammonia on the day you’re adding fish, your tank _was never cycled_. - A fully cycled tank will _consistently_ read 0 ppm Ammonia, 0 ppm Nitrite, and anywhere from 20+ ppm Nitrate. Your parameters (if accurately measured) are not there consistently yet. - To have Nitrate nearly zero out is the opposite of a proper cycle.

Started with the sad news, now i have happy new too. @Guppysnail I have shrimp eggs!!!! Its in my 5 gallon tank which has 3 shrimp in it now (1m, 2females) and im very excited as i should have baby shrimps soon! How long is gestation and how many babies should i expect?

Update: I just finished the first week of treatment with paracleanse. So far, the remaining 2 peppers got a lot more active again but not too active. They do sit down occasionally but not for too long. The other 2 remaining bronze corys seem to have improved a bit. Before treatment though, for a month or so. I saw this weird black spot on the side of a bronze cory’s abdomen, the spot looked like it was inside the bronze, almost like I can see through its stomach, it still has a normal belly, no sunken parts on any of the fish. After treatment, the black spot disappeared completely, no where to be seen. I’m wondering if it was a internal parasite or a blockage of worms, something like that. Breathing is doing better, the bronze that had the black spot is still having a little bit of an issue breathing, but I can see it’s getting better. I can also see the bronze are getting a little more active again, but the black spot bronze usually sits in place, it has a bit of struggle swimming, maybe the possible worms caused a swim bladder issue. It is becoming more active though. Bad news, one neon tetra died. I found it laying upside-down under the cholla wood. It looked like it had died not long ago as it still had color. I did see that its mouth was open which I never saw before. I think it might just have been from the paracleanse, cause I don’t think they take medications too well. Some of the tetras are having some breathing issues and they’ve been having it for about a couple of weeks now. Even before treatment. I also did get a bacterial bloom from the paracleanse but I was expecting it so I added extra prime. But fortunately that’s all the bad news. I also think it’s worth mentioning that I have treated them for paracleanse before I started this topic, but I used the prevention treatment from co op instead of the actual treatment. So I think that’s why they didn’t show much effect from the treatment.

Well not my weekend but putting in time when I can. Not 100% sure how well of a seal 🦭 I got on the pressure gauge because of lack of tape from screwing it in. Thinking if it isn’t whistling at me a small amount I’m not going to worry about since I will be bleeding out air anyways. First runs never seem to be perfect at least for me.

Interestingly, this document from 3M mentions nitrite and nitrate for their various products: file:///Users/kevin.regan/Downloads/multimedia.pdf However, I'm not sure exactly what they are trying to say... You could try soaking the tape in tap water for a while and then testing it... 🙂

Those water parameters are very good for a wide variety of fish. Ember's should be just fine.

Well, folks. I found the culprit: it was the metal plate I attached to my filter so I could use magnets to hold the filter in place (magnets on a metal plate on the outside of the tank holding the filter on the inside of the tank.) Whether it was something in the finish of the metal plate or the 3M adhesive tape that was on the metal plate, removing those solved the problem 100%. It’s been about a month since I identified the problem. After a couple water changes and monitoring water parameters, I confirmed all was well and added a few guppies. Love the tank! I wanted to report back since you all were so helpful when I was trying to figure it out. (I am also going to update my post about the magnetic mount idea with how terrible it turned out.)

Thanks for answering, greatly appreciate ,hopefully he will heal up after I treat him.

I guess it's a fairly common method that people use for watering their small house plants while out of town. Hopefully it pulls enough up so that the soil doesn't burn roots. I'm thinking I may try adding something so that the strings go all the way to the surface.

Looks like a Lucy I'm sure there's a jiminy in there. 🙂 Really beautiful shrimp!

I use to take a fully degassed sample and pH it then shoot for a 1 to 1.5pH drop. I now do as @Pepere posted and simply drop by 1pH. With real time monitoring, it seems to be more than good enough.

From what I understand cabomba branches in a fan shape whereas limnophila have smaller whorls of irregular branching leaves I am not a botanist and have never claimed to be but I do have to identify cabomba from time to time on watercraft.

I tend to be the outlier in the world of keeping fish, everyone has always been shocked that is a a hobby! Bear in mind i'm a 6'5 bearded biker with tattoos! I love cars and motorcycles and drag raced both for years, Now currently have a stretched out big wheel harley bagger, a lifted sierra pickup, a old k5 blazer project, and a built twin turbo ram truck. also enjoy hunting and am obsessed with long range shooting, am a welder now as a hobby(used to be the career) and i Drive very large tow trucks for a living! I was in a very high stress career most of my younger years and the fish were always a way for me to come home and just loose the stress and anger of the day and relax, theres just something about watching them do their thing that relaxes me!

Hm I took some other pictures of my tanks, and just now, just from the picture, I notice female killifish has a gold eye and the male has a blue eye?! I have been watching them for months and never caught this? Weird fry on top, female on bottom, growing nicely, they now hang with the group more often aaand my photobombing garras

I do not photograph my white cloud minnows cause they move too much to be in focus, but I had some success. All the females are super fat. I understand their are egg bound, but I need to feed the fry and the sewellia but not overfeed the females. Any tips? Tank is after a water change, so many bubbles 🙂 And yeah, I can see where I attempted to wash the glass from the outside. Too bad this is only visible after the picture is taken, am I right. Garras will ofcourse photobomb, and I didnt get to take a picture of the normal color white cloud with the orange fins, he didnt want to 🙂 Papparazi shy I guess

A little bit of Thursday morning parasnailing

My uplift kit came last week. I’m thinking of trying it with my GBR babies. @Odd Duck how much does it increase suction into the sponge? Think the fry will be ok with it? Why does this spongee guy make me unreasonably happy?

Since today was maintenance day for me, some more pictures. First off, the gouramis and the hatchefish (for now they work awesome, no issues, no fear) Now the pygmy corydoras tank. I removed the endler, cause the pygmies do not seem to be shy at al, they are all over, burrowing, swimming, hunting microworms. Please ignore the killed plant, I left it outside too long and it froze... And lastly the clown killifish tank. I think it is too dense. Can a tank be too densely planted? I mean the fish seem ok. But how would I know they are not...

Indostomus picture dump. They are almost impossible to properly focus on. Plants are in the way too 🙂 Next time, bare tank