Leaderboard

One of the vendors I know watched my GBR fry video. They asked why I turn my fluval flow through breeder box backwards hanging the box inside the tank eliminating the flow through option. They know I have a Ziss box from ACO (which I love for many things)and asked why I did not just use that. GBR hatchlings need more heat than an external hanging box can retain in my 68 degree home. GBR new hatch fry are small and I’m not convinced they won’t get stuck in the bottom grate or fall through. Plus I cannot easily keep its grate vacuumed as much as I like. The other reason is they will graze on things like sera micron sitting in the bottom of a flat bottom breeder that falls through a grate floor. My friend sent me to an importer in our club who carries a few Ziss products. Ziss makes a flat bottom breeder box also 🤯 🎉 With corydora hatching I have the same issue of food falling through the floor. I use a metal coffee filter but then cannot see through the sides making it less than ideal. Just wanted to share here in case anyone else has the same issues. This solves so many issues for me.

Hey friends, I'm here to help provide some insight. The reason we switched to UPS is because we were having reliability issues with USPS that were bad enough that we had to stop shipping any product with a lithium ion battery for a while. This was frustrating for us as a business, having inventory taking up space in the warehouse that we could not sell, and frustrating for customers that were waiting for these items to become available again. Additionally, there were some customers that were struggling to receive any orders from us at all, and the overall customer experience was degrading enough that we had to do something and USPS wasn't willing to work through the issues with us. We unfortunately do not have the warehouse space to support more than one shipping service's bins, so when we made the decision to switch to UPS, that meant that all orders had to be shipped with UPS, there are no other options. We have had to increase prices to maintain the level of product/plant quality and customer support that our customers expect from us here at Aquarium Co-Op. We want to assure all of you that we did not make these decisions lightly, and we are still within the same shipping time frame and overall cost that our competitors are. If your plant order happens to be delayed and your plants arrive in poor condition as a result, you can always reach out to us at shipping@aquariumcoop.com and we will take care of you. Hope this helps! Let me know if you have further questions.

The reason is that 5 gallons of water is a small amount of water. Water changes will swing the parameters wildly as there just isnt a high enough volume to buffer said changes. I am trying to be as succinct as possible. I don’t recommend anything under 10 gallons for keeping fish for that reason as most fish produce waste quickly enough to change water parameters overnight. Smaller fish species such as rasbora and some killifish don’t produce nearly as much waste. The other thing that can also help buffer is plants. They will pull nitrate and nitrite out of the water. I would say your best bet is buy a 10-20 gallon tank on sale, they are cheap this time of year, and build that out for the fish. You will have a much easier time with your current stock. Then you would also be able to increase your danio stock to 6 as they are a schooling fish and will be stressed as a pair

Deep cleaning can sometimes do the opposite and make things worse. I'd leave it as it is & increase water change frequency. Continue monitoring params and it should eventually stabilize

Spike ate some live worms today!

@quikv6 personally, I’ve learned that after over 5 years shopping at the coop, everything happens for a reason. I trust that Cory is not here to rip anyone off. As a customer, I flow with their business model because every so often new products get released. Everything isn’t perfect, but I appreciate the testing that goes into each product from a hobbyists perspective. IMO, there is no better place for supplies and plants. I am also aware that we pay much less for shipping than the coop does. We aren’t charged full price so requesting a minimum purchase is logical. Personally, I’d much rather make a $20 purchase and pay $8.99 for shipping than make a $5.99 purchase and pay more for shipping than said product, it just doesn’t compute. Also, if you’d like to skip the shipping all together, you also have the retail partner option.

Just pre-ordered this new book lots of information on fish from Cameroon should be a good read

I would hold off on the Dario. They are not as hardy as others to withstand errors. They also need a well seasoned tank that has had plants establishing for at least 6 months or more in order to grow microfauna for them to eat. I’ve never had bloating in my Black tiger, Scarlet badis or Badis badis from worm feeding. However mine always got a high variety. Ostracods, copepods, white worms, grindle worms, live baby brine shrimp and a few others. Feeding only 1 or 2 live foods exclusively will cause health issues due to missing micronutrients. CPDs on the other hand I highly recommend. They are a joy in several of my tanks. Hardy in a cycled tank. Eat near any food you crush small enough for them.

I wouldn't do a "deep cleaning" at this point. Just lightly clean your substrate and do another 50% water change. Too much cleaning can cause more issues when you're already dealing with a mini cycle. Increase your water changes to 7-10 days. You'll be good to go.

A few of the ricefish... ...and one new otocinclus

Well I am slowly trucking along on this with slow progress. The large tank is in cycling/leach ammonia/floating wood to try and sink it. I replaced room lighting over the tank with track lighting so we can have ferocity down pendants with grow lights. Replaced the light switch with a smart switch so I can have the lights in a timer. I still need to get the lights hung (waiting on pendant adapters for the track light) waiting delivery of the filtration and wave maker for flow. have a couple uns posters to hang. (always looking for more fish related posters for the room) also have a mini pond in this room and 2 40 gallon stock tanks with fish awaiting the setup of the big tank to be complete.

So I started these two pothos cuttings almost two years ago and I've finally filled in the four foot section they're on. Unfortunately my hope of them rooting into the coconut coir themselves never really panned out and I've been having to zip tie them on every few weeks. I'm wondering if anyone has had success with any other type of trellis or other setup they could recommend that would be less work from me.

Hello I currently have a 20 gallon long that I'm stocking with clown killis, shrimp and cpds. I've considered adding black tiger Dario too but I'm hesitant because of the live food requirement. I can get grindal worms but I've heard they along with other worms can cause bloating long term. For a beginner ( this is my first fish tank), would you even recommend darios? If so what live foods that are good for the dario would be easiest to culture.

Looks like either a pond snail or bladder snail. They don’t eat healthy plants but will eat dead/dying parts of plants.

I guess I’m one of the few that this change benefitted. Living in Portland, OR - as long as I order in the morning I always see the package arrive next day. USPS was always at east 2 days.

Welcome home new friend 🐻‍❄️

That is also something I observe in some old mysteries. Who knows. Romeo's freckles are adorable

New kid, settling into quarantine. Has a hide, mopani, and some yellow squash. Has white tipped fins! I learned the parents do too. Too young for the bristles! Can’t wait to see them later. (Hide added after video taken)

@Guppysnail may help for your worm questions and about dario feeding. She also has cpds and shrimp. I currently have daphnia, vinegar eels, white worms and I hatch bbs. I think they are all same level and easy. I would not worry about the hardness of a culture. More importantly try to focus on something you would utilise well based on your fish's size, interest and swimming level and the culture's requirement (feeding, where to keep, ideal temp, etc). I currently dont have microworms as they are smelly. All the ones I have have no bad odour.

Hey! My order just arrived. That's just seven days. Not too bad.

Nitrites (even a tiny amount) will cause issues in your tank. For a 5 gallon, weekly to bi-weekly water changes are usually recommended. By the way, what's the species of catfish? Plecos poop a lot and can easily overwhelm a 5 gallon tank with waste

@jwcarlson it was just one scoop. I have 5 different Thanks that I was feeling. About 100 fish total. Honestly I think it was to much still but the cardinal tetras and African cichlids sure loved it.

If I may tag onto this thread, I noticed a very long wait to receive my last order, after they switched carriers. I believe it was 10 or 11 days. I am okay with that, but I have a bit of a parallel frustration, if I may share respectfully: I just went to order one or two of those new easy flow kits. Apparently now, there is a bump in the minimum order to $19.99. I would completely understand this, if I wasn't paying for shipping. But if shipping is on my dime (which it is...and probably always be, now that I noticed another change of "free shipping" being raised to $100), then I respectfully don't understand why I can't just order what I need. If it is under the heading of reducing shipping waste, then an arbitrary value doesn't necessarily correlate to a box size, or empty space within a box. Reducing shipping waste could simply be the shipper having appropriately sized boxes available for a variety of order sizes. But in principal, if I am paying the shipping charge, I am not grasping why I am limited, from a customer perspective. It completely prevented me from ordering a new product to try out. So, in short...it was I trifecta of changes: Much slower shipping (for my location), $100 free shipping bump (quite alot of money), and a bump in a minimum order value, due to "shipping waste." I express my frustration completely respectfully, as I appreciate the Co-op, and will continue to be a customer, albeit less frequently. Additionally, I have not heard any recent livestreams, so it is completely possible that these points were addressed thoroughly within.

My attraction to fish is their social dynamics and behaviors much more so than look or color. I enjoy reading about your puffers because they seem like they have that higher level of social dynamic. Thank you for sharing all your fabulous puffer experiences with the forum. My attraction to the forum is because I get to learn and experience vicariously so many fish without the extra tanks and maintenance.

I meant to say this too and totally spaced out! I think you'd have better success just planting it. In Cory's vid with the pots he also had issues where the plants fizzled out after a while in the pots. Just plant it! 🙂

Interesting coincidence... My white worm culture has springtails. I've moved them all into the tank now. It looks like I only have one female which isn't ideal at least she seems fat and happy

I have succumbed to the pressure and decided to join the Bolivian Ram crew. Only had him for a couple hours and his colors are looking fantastic! Just gotta reduce his stress and hopefully he’ll open up more when I add the corydoras

Got some nice free swimming Chrosomus erythrogaster fry (Southern Redbelly Dace)… Meanwhile, my Mountain Redbelly Dace also spawned today… I pulled the eggs afterward… In the end, got a wee haul… These sell pretty fast for me once they’re a few months along. Hatching them in a bottom 20-long with some M-blue…

Sorry I missed this one ..... i did sort of. My "local" fish store here in Colorado USA is 130 miles north from the house and imported them for me. They reach out whenever a cool puffer is on a list for import. Of course I said yes to those because puffers :). I bought the whole group and drove the 3 hours up and 3 hours back to avoid shipping them. They are spawning today though. I still am not sure what species they are but its a cool process to compare and contrast with other species ive bred. The top one in normal coloration the bottom is a female in courtship dress The male in courtship dress is fairly nice to the other male here but is defending his chosen cave for spawning. The male in the cave is the same male as here. Pao puffers are so awesome with the color, pattern, and behavior changes

This is how the eggs in the pouch looked the first time. He is hiding so I will take a pic tomorrow or the weekend. Some random pics

I appreciate the response! Unfortunately I'm already doing that in a 20 long lol. Fingers crossed they breed once they get bigger.

Good idea! All clear. I just also noticed my stability expired on 11/18. So maybe my tank isn’t getting the bacteria it needs with water changes! Will get a new bottle tomorrow.

This. I know some people like strips, but I have a very hard time reading them, regardless of brand.

Looks like color of caution to me. I personally like API liquid test over the strips.

Price for some books seem to be getting ridiculous you can't beat a good book

Newer set of sterbai. Still a few in eggs.

My last order came in a bit later than I would prefer, but I don't really mind as I only order specialty items from the coop as I also like to support my semi-local store. It is pretty crazy to see the free shipping rate increase this quickly the years, but I trust that Cory knows what he's doing. Not to mention the many different interesting products and information he has brought us over the years, that within itself is quite novel and interesting for an aquarium business. Still to me its crazy how I just bought the aquarium coop heater to try 10 days ago and now it has jumped 8 dollars, just when I was considering getting another one lol.

Ok, it's been a long time. Female looking huge. Another female that I raised up seemed big enough to spawn. Netted the two gals out and one male. Put them in spawning setup over a square of course sponge with some suswassertang. Put on a privacy cover so they're more calm (this worked awesome, actually). And got some eggs that as of now look fertile. Bleach cleaned the laying and holding containers to see if that has contributed in the past. Here's hoping it goes better!

You can see the reviews on the co-op site for someone who ran into an issue with the course mesh. I wasn't sure it would work at all with the corydoras being so tiny.... and my smaller fish breeding efforts I would like to try eventually.... so I've been holding off. Everyone else that might have it in stock never seems to have the fine mesh one. 😞

if the rhizome is down in the rock wool. i personally wouldnt leave it in the pot.

The club member who imports only carries the 2 & 3. The 2 is pretty fine. The GBR will grow large enough to be ok before they are strong enough swimmers to escape. The CPD I may lose a few but they avoid the sides once they free swim so I do not think it will be so much of an issue. It’s the bottom that was a problem. If it is I’ll keep my eye out for the 2tf.

My order just arrived in less time than in the past! Then again, I'm in extreme Northern California, just down the block from the Co-Op ... I guess it's true what they say....Location Location Location...

Sterbai cory fry have made the move to the fry system. Another set of sterbai eggs I thought were a loss have hatched about double digits of fry. So we'll see how that goes. I suppose I can get a try set up for them as well. CPD trio have been in a hang on egg laying setup since yesterday evening. I have like 10 CPDs and only 2 are female........

That’s awesome. I just set up a fluval flex 15 as well. I used dwarf sag, Java fern, Christmas moss, bolbitus, moss balls,and Anubius. Have some riccia floating and well. Only planted for about 5 weeks. Seems to be doing ok. I use easy green once a week and potassium as my ferns seem to do better in my other set ups. What do you think of the light? I am Thinking maybe changing the hood and getting 12 inch coop light.

If I had any nitrites in my tank, I'd do a 50% water change as soon as the test was completed. I'd test again the next day and repeat until there were zero nitrites. Just how I have always done it. As for nitrite spikes, I only have ever seen this when I add new fish to the tank OR if I remove filter media and reduce the bacteria level. Or if the tank is still cycling. As for why your nitrite levels spiked, I couldn't say.

Maybe a spot for some hygrophila corymbosa? Given the layers and all the detail on the left I wish the right had that same layered impact. It'll be interesting to see what you end up with!

No, definitely don’t wait that long. If he isn’t starting to improve and eat within a week I would start Maracyn-2 or kanamycin in the water. If he improves but isn’t quite there after, say, 3 weeks (2 deworming with Praziquantal and 3 with levamisole (of fenbendazole or flubendazole), then time to do antibiotics. I truly hope he’s eating well before 5 weeks. I should have been more clear. That’s what I get for posting late, late after a long shift.

You want it placed in an area were flow is best for distributing the CO2 throughout the tank. You actually want to off gas CO2 as best you can and increase injection to compensate. This creates a stable CO2 level during injection.