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Little blue snail needs a name.

Today I found casuarina cones on sale somewhere! Maybe I should get it? Lotus pods look great visually. I wouldnt care if they like it or not. If I happen to find it, I would directly use it even purely for the visual 😄

Hello Surreal, In terms of diet, mine did not really show interest to veggies much so I stopped feeding it to them. Maybe you can try to see how yours react to it. I give them small frozen foods, tropical insect menu, krill flakes, and algae tabs that are rich in both algae overall and includes different algae types. I dont think they are picky eaters at all. They dont exactly school or schoal but I think they are social and like to have their own kind around. So good to hear you got a group. That being said, I have to disagree with them being extremely peaceful. As adults, males can be territorial a bit I keep their tank warm. Currently at 29C due to raising ram babies with them. I wouldnt go higher than this, but also not too low. When I move ram babies to another tank, I would still do around 26-27 C. They like small pipes that are open on both end. However existence of such hiding places significantly decreased their activity level in my tank. That is a sacrifice to consider making for their happiness :,) Mine liked playing around plant leaves and woods. Especially as juveniles they were jumping from one crypt leaf to another. In terms of flow, you may have some but I think they are fine no flow. That being said, as they like their tank warm, I do keep at least two sponge filter to increase the surface agitation in a 50x40x25cmh breeding tank. In their community tank they had a Hob also. So I would suggest a good aeration of your own style. They LOVE leaf litter. I add so many different leaves. I added a huge piece of banana leaf from my garden two weeks ago, they enjoyed it very much. Catappa leaves are their number one fav still. I also have wild type neocaridinas with them. They live together peacefully The ph is 7.5 in their tank if Im not mistaken If you have any questions please ask. I just wrote down a few things that came to my mind

Now want to clarify I started with a larger group of the Honduran red points I then had the alpha male appear to select his female and I think she’s female and want to make sure she has every quality but want to make sure I looked up online said females have a orange blotch on their side and hers is there it’s a little faint she’s more blue but I looked up and it appears her fins match a female more blunt and round but want to ask you guys to make sure that she is for sure female they seem to be doing great together which I would have to think would mean they are male and female then, because if they were the same sexes they would fight. Also the male was chasing every other one except the one that he chose in the pics below. Here are pictures. Their always appear to be swimming together or near each other too.

Unlikely, IIRC the answer to this quesiton in the past has been that the Co-op already prices it's products low to be a good value and it's not a part of their sales strategy. The deals to be had are in the members section of the site, and those seem to come and go pretty quick. On the plus side every day is Black Friday at the Co-op, no FOMO.

Thanks, I feed sera vipan baby, is similar. It just really needs to be soaked, or the fish eat it from the surface, gulp, and cant submerge afterwards. It is really funny though 🙂 Today I am posting pictures of my pygmy corydoras. They are still adorable, but they are a bit static and especially if in the tank alone, the tank looks empty most of the time. But I am hoping they will breed and make it up to me. I fed live bbs and manage to count all nine of them, no loses, so yay!

They are very nearly interchangeable in their actions. Sometimes one will be more effective than the other or vice versa, but with appropriate dosing I would consider them essentially interchangeable until proven otherwise on a specific case.

I would be learning to wards a bacterial infection with lose of colour bent spine and trouble swimming what I would do is quarantine and treat with kanaplex and aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 3 gallons the salt will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes and add an extra air stone during treatment @AccidentalFishKeeper

Yup, as long as I’ve been rockin’ with the Coop (2020) Cory has always said that the sales put far too much strain on the employees and just simply isn’t worth it. Instead, he makes sure he has the lowest price he can possibly have every day of the year.

@JillianGarcia05 Okay I agree with Kaiju keep doing daily 50% water changes to keep those ammonia levels down. Keep treating your water with the stuff you are treating with and that should definitely help. Replaceable cartridges are not the best because even though beneficial bacteria live on all the surfaces in the aquarium most live in the filter media which if you replace every month you are restarting the cycle all over again. PLEASE do not be to upset about this though you are learning and this is part of the process plus I have had replaceable cartridges before to and did not realize what I was doing either. For pop-eye I would wait until you get the ammonia more under control to fully diagnose that as the problem if you could send some more pictures that would be helpful. Live Plants help keep nitrate in check they are nice but can be a little more of an investment and you could easily pick up some silk plants from Petsmart or Petco which don't require maintenance. Sorry for the length of this response but I hopefully tackled all of your questions. Please do not hesitate to tag me and ask any further questions. I am on the forum fairly often so I should be able to see and respond quickly.

@AccidentalFishKeeper we have some folks here who have knowledge and experience dealing with illness this serious. I’m going to tag them and ask them to take a look for for you. I wish you and your fish luck. @Colu @Odd Duck

Crap, don't tell me I actually enjoyed this! Expensive-er hobby incoming? 🥲 The lava rocks were bought for my jar project, but i need quick surface area in the tank. At 10$ for a 2lb bag at the garden store, they could probably also double for good cheap bio media for those on a budget. 😉

Talk to @Elodie Rose she took over my white wizard breeding project. The ones I gave her are not yet breeding age though. I used to breed gold bladder snails.

You are not the only ones. If not for snails I would likely not have gotten back into the hobby. So far, I have mystery(6), ramshorns and MTS but I want white wizard and albino bladder. As for algae that is the sign, after cycling that I used to add my snails and shrimp to me "get me back into the hobby snail jar". They only thing I don't like about the ramshorns is how visible their orange looking eggs are on my leaves in small tanks.

Picked up a bladder snail somewhere!!!! I swear, im the only one on this forum (except for maybe @Guppysnail) who is excited about snails and algae!

Cory has talked many times about not doing the "sales" stuff that other businesses do. You can save 5% if you become a YouTube member and link your account on YT to your ACO account.

Looking forward to seeing the 20L grow up. I love the rock formation

Pomegranate looks so happy and healthy! I bet she’s really enjoying the renovation on her land area too. 😃 Is she part of the vampire crab family? Your tanks are looking good and that angelfish is stunning!

And here is my 20L. I have three different anubias, Java moss, dwarf Sagittaria, Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus and Windelov Java Fern. I trimmed the fern way back. Any plants that need to be in soil are in little containers with soil topped with gravel.

Here are photos of my plants and aquariums. Apparently I have a bloom of some sort. I looked at the water under my microscope and found some very active single cell organisms. I have tried several different plants but have settled on ones I can keep alive, although the Cyanobacteria tried to do some of those in — the Windelov Java Fern struggled and put out a bunch of babies, and I finally soaked my Java Moss in straight hydrogen peroxide to get rid of the BGA running along every branch. 😖 The problem was that when the BGA first showed up I thought it was a useful algae. When I realized my mistake it was everywhere. I used Maracyn and that killed most of it, but not all. This is my quarantine tank - now snail nursery.

So true and it also serves as a hide. But they are very floaty! I had to weigh mine down with a rock because boiling and plant weights didn’t sink it. Imagine living in a house you can eat though. 🙂

I have Matrix in a fine mesh bag in the far left compartment. I have the blue/white stuff in the other two compartments, cut to fit. I will switch up the bio media as this whole thing started because I wanted my plants to look better. My snails are fans of the coarse sponge on the HOB intake. Thank you for your advice. Most welcome.

My shrimpies like the alder cones. They like them most when they’ve been in the tank awhile and have biofilm and algae. They don’t like banana leaves, even when I pre soak them. Idk why. They like lotus pods and casuarina cones too. There is another one they like that is shaped like a star; I forget what it is called. Here’s a photo. You can see they’ve picked at it.

Maple leaves should be plentiful near you. Make sure no pesticides are being sprayed in the area.

Mine love banana leaves a lot besides catappas. Usually alder cones, plane tree leaves, fig tree leaves and beech tree leaves were not really attractive for shrimp in my case. If I buy anything, I go for catappas, and get naturally dried banana leaves from my garden. I add alder cones to my tanks bcoz I find them rich in tannins also add nice visual, but my shrimps are not interested.

The only one that hatched out but going good so far

My males did not grow those facial beard like thingy until I moved them to a species only breeding tank. They all looked like females in their community tank without growing anything. Hard to know. my females that breed also dont have such belly. Yes they get a bit rounded but not as big as it is in the picture. Just wanted to mention these to share some experience to help you guys decide on the medication type/applications malik also had an issue with one fish from his colony before which looked similar. Im tagging the related part below. You guys know medications better

I kept a friends 10 gal cube on this stand while they were in the process of a big move across state. I really liked the way it looked. The plan is to setup some kind of cube tank and have lots of space around it for 'stuff', like plants... However, you gotta move fast around here, or things get taken over! I'm hopeing to reclaim the stand soon!

Sorry you’re going through this, my guy. This is the exact reason that, outside of the ACO test strips, I’ve never tested gH or kH and instead focus on consistency. Consistency in feeding and maintenance has gotten me excellent results over the past 3 years, and using buffers and “making” water just seems like such a pain. I also know myself, and I would drive myself crazy trying to get things to be perfect. Instead, the usual water out with the usual water in alongside some Easy Green and root tabs when I need them seems to work.

I've been thinking about emergent plants. Pond plants will be next to impossible to find until the spring. I already gave an some crypts and anubias. Some of the anubias is a larger variety. It might be a good cabindate to experiment with converting to emersed growth. Right now I'm thinking more crypts, smaller anubias varieties, a dwarf aquarium lily or two. I've had decent success with Dwarf hair grass. Floating plants are a must. I'll give micro swords a try but swords in general have never been successful in my tanks. Java ferns either.

FLU-B: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flubendazole FEN-B: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fenbendazole

Pomegranate the indian lilac crab living her best life. I also added some more plants to the terrestrial part of my paludarium. It's looking pretty lush. 29g 10g

Everyone has them, I will make a journal too! I kept fish when I was little, but we ofcourse did it all wrong. Later when I decided to start doing fishkeeping, I did a lot of reading and research. Sometimes it feels like I like the planning and reading more than the actual keeping. My first was a tank my boss had at work in office, which was also completely wrong, but he allowed me to remake it and take care of it for few years and at the end, take it home. I also did the mistake of starting with my own 20 liter, which bought me nothing but grief but also a lot of experience and love for nano fish. In 2012 I purchased my largest tank and since then I slowly graduated to two larger and at this moment four smaller tanks, so I have six 🙂 South American tank, 120x50x60cm. My oldest physical tank, the setup is about 2 years old though I keep meddling in it. It houses top to bottom, 6 hatchet fish, 20 or so ember tetras, 20 rummynose tetras, 4 bolivian rams, 12 sterbai corydoras, 6 otocinclus, several amanos. I sometimes consider adding something, but do not know what Asian tank, running for a year, 110x40x45cm. I am quite satisfied with this, though it is basically only two species because the hillstreams do not work. I feel like it may need something, but not sure what and with all the cloud minnow fry, I am reaching capacity. 20 golden white cloud minnow, 12 normal white cloud minnow, 4 older fry and 9 still doing some growing in another tank. 7 panda garra, one remaining hillstream loach "Window" tank, 60x30x30 cm, it is the one I inherited from my boss free of charge 🙂 It houses my colony of rabbit snails, I only have 2 adults now, but 11 babies that were born in the past year. In August I bought a group of 10 pseudomugil luminatus, which have quickly become my most favorite fish. They also breed and I have several fry of various sizes. Am very curious about their future. I know the pH water params shouldnt work for this combo, but they do. Office tank - 56x25x36 cm, it is a very old tank someone gave me with various chips in the corners, so I live in constant adrenaline state of when it will leak. It houses my 6 clown killifish, I think I saw some fry but they have been in there only since beginning of August. I think later on, when I have some generations, I will consider scarlet badis/tiger badis or some other bottom dweller. Shrimp tank - 40x25x25cm, this is my smallest tank. Houses my red cherry shrimp colony and eight Indostomus Paradoxus, that I have had since this march. They are easy to please but they do not breed for me, not sure if it is the shrimp/snails or something else Cube - 40x40x40cm tank. My last and temporary tank. Or so I say. It is again very very old tank, so I live with constant thrill of waiting for it to leak. This means I am trying to not stock it, but it taunts me with how well the plants are doing with zero light, except its position near window. I set it up quickly in June for my paradise fish, to have it as a solitary. Since then I left my colony of sterbais for over a month in vain attempt to breed, successfully spawned my minnows and now I am playing around with the idea of breeding otocinclus from my south american tank, but I will have to catch them first and since I started considering it, I didnt see a single one. Otherwise I am tempted by the scarlet badis, maybe a betta, honey gourami, pygmy corydoras, so many fish!!! I am trying to stay strong though I will post here if I do something interesting.

Everything is made in China! . But seriously I really like this new MDF material. And these new aquarium stands are well engineered. I guess when it comes to useing actual partical board, I have a 10 gal on the kitchen counter, which is just laminated partical board!

I want to treat my tank with salt for parasites but I do have Corydoras in it. I’ve tried a few meds and can’t seem to get them to stop flashing. Any advice on how much salt to use ?

Solid advice from @Colu. If the low dose of Epsom salt isn’t working, you can do a higher dose as the brief “bath”. As much as 1 tablespoon per gallon but must be watched like a hawk the entire time for this bath, especially for whiptails. I would tend to look for a male first, before going high dose on the Epsom salt, as long as she eats and acts fine otherwise. The color of that belly makes me think she’s excessively eggy and possibly getting toward egg bound. Fish often won’t eat when truly egg bound.

@nabokovfan87 they are georgeous though 🙂 I will just feed more after lights out with the sinking, which cant always be the live/frozen, cause of the tetras Will see, I dont have breeding hopes anyways now. The tank is too crowded at this moment

That little petco score makes me irrationally happy to see doing well. If you’re still struggling with black beard algae when the weather warms in spring let me know. My Taia naticoides piano snails love black beard algae. I’ve not seen a drop in any tank since shortly after adding them. I still have a few. @Elodie Rose took over that breeding project for me. It’s what happens when snail girl meets soft water dwarf cichlids and falls in love with them 🤣

@Odd Duck I know you'd love to see it! Check out the Comments by the judges on @Mmiller2001 tank! 🙂 🙂 🙂 https://showcase.aquatic-gardeners.org/2023/show580.html

I hate to hear you stressing out but I think we all come at the hobby from different spots. I’ve simplified things to a degree. But crossing the line back to stress in the fishroom is always calling to me! Fish Wives and partners of any form who support Nerms and fish nerds are a rare thing. Hold on tight! Congratulations and all the best in your next competitive endeavors!

Foxsfish, as someone who breeds Pitbull Plecos (Parotocinclus Jumbo), I can definitely confirm that these are not them. These are definitely parotocinclus, and closely related to P Jumbo judging from the head and body shapes, but the previous species ID is probably right. Normally with P Jumbo, the confusion is between them and some of the Chaetostoma plecos, (Bulldogs & Rubber Lips). Your LFS seems to have found an all new way to get the species ID wrong. P Jumbo does color match, but you'll notice that these fish are against a white background, which would make P Jumbo gradually go super light, not dark. Unless there's a whole bunch of black sand or gravel off camera, you're looking at the default color for these. If you do find a source for these, do share. Cool fish.

@Mmiller2001 Thank you for the detailed response. How hard is it to mess up what you are doing? Would you recommend somebody without much experience to do EI dosing? Or do you need a lot of knowledge to keep it under control. I'm thinking its definitely less work but you need a lot more knowledge to do it that way. I'm just a little conflicted with my aquarium philosophy. I'm not sure what I want to do going forward. I wish there was a more structured, kind of step by step way to learn. I've learned just how much I don't know from reading this journal lol.

Welcome from across the river in NY!

Yeah, @sairving, depending on how big the tank is, you might be able to find solid wood furniture at a second-hand store or on Facebook Marketplace or its equivalent. Maybe an old solid wood TV cabinet from back when TVs weighed more than aquariums!

I'm also from nj! Welcome to the forum, it's definitely helped me a ton.

Asian tank, fed repashy in powder form, enticed all the sewellia to go out, to eat, to chase each other and the garras. Nothing too vicisous, just chasing, sometimes sitting on one another. Garras will chase the sewellia back but like "tag you are it" The golden sewellia is the female I have since August I believe, rest are new crew