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Time for an update! After letting the tank grow in and mature for a while, I finally added the first inhabitants! The Emporer tetras at the store caught my eye and as a fish I have never kept before, I decided to give them a whirl! I picked up 8 of them (1 male 7 females) to start off. After they had settled in, I picked up a tiny juvenile albino longfin bristlenose pleco. I've never really been a fan of albino fish outside of the bristlenose. I just love the deep gold they get with the light spots. Finally, the latest additions were a pair of triple red apistogramma cacatuoides which I finally found at a shop and could not refuse. I've only had them for 2 weeks and I was greeted yesterday by a horde of fry being shepherded to the front of the tank by mother! I have always loved how easy they are to spawn. Here is a youtube short of the fry. On the plant side of things, things have taken off quite nicely. I killed all of the star repens when I accidentally left my light off for 3 days while I was out of town (not a surprise due to their lack of tolerance for blackouts), so I picked up some dwarf sag to fill in the right foreground. The hygro and itallian val has exploded as expected, the crypts are transitioned to their submerged mode of growth and are starting to fill in, the amazon swords are starting to shoot out some giant leaves, and the java fern and anubias are constantly putting out new growth. I am excited by the prospect of what this tank will look like in a few more months after getting out of the ugly duckling phase. I am growing a little bit of green spot algae on the glass while the plants fill in, but I am fine leaving it as I would rather have it there than all over the hardscape. On the hardware side of things, I added an old 12" finnex planted+ to the front of the tank as I was not thrilled by the shadowed appearance that the huge driftwood piece was causing by blocking out all the light from the Coop fixture. I am much happier with the viewing experience now, and the plants in the front half of the tank are no longer starved for light like they were. I've attached some pictures to show off the progress!

F0… Cool water beauty…

@jwcarlson say hi to Lily!

In my foray into keeping North American Native fish in home aquaria, I came upon the stunning Fireyblack Shiner (Cyprinella pyrrhomelas). In the wild, they look like this… Obviously, they handle high flow very well! I made a visit to Knoxville, met the guy who posted this footage, and he gave me juveniles (F1) he had raised in captivity. As the year has gone on, and they have matured, I found that I have two males and a half dozen females. I cannot stop photographing them… Here, you can see how full this female is with roe. So today, I decided it was high time to try breeding them. For me, there are only two species of freshwater fish I am Ok with keeping but NOT breeding: (1) Goldfish (2) Discus. Both are ornamentally satisfying enough for my taste to keep without breeding. Everything else must breed to keep me happy 😅 Here are a series of short describing the process of setting up a love nest for my Fireyblack Shiners. I began with plans to modify / divide the 55 gal. tank space… 1. Set up plan… 2. Initial Set up… 3. Observations… 4. Adaptation… After this was filmed, I moved the bio-wheel back into the corner and turned down the intensity of the air-stone.

Little piggies growing up.

I just installed an easy flow kit on to my Undergravel Filter plate in my 17 gallon fish bowl sphere. @Cory I used a 3/4 female solvent weld to 3/4 threaded adapter from Home depot for $2.00 and change. i cut all but 1/4 inch of the threaded section off the fitting and then used a file to file down the threads evenly around it to make a snug fit on the Easy Flow air collar. I then cut off all but 1/2 inch of the solvent weld side of the adapter to shorten it. I cut of an 1 1/2 of my original UGF riser tube. It fits loosely in the pvc fitting. I used 3M 4200 polyurethane sealant to glue the original ugf air riser stub in the fitting and used q tips to wipe up squeeze out and make sure it was smooth and neat looking and allowed the sealant to cure overnight. Next morning I removed the original air riser and replaced with my adapeter and Easy Flow kit. The increase in flow is astonishing… I will be buying several more kits to adapt all of my UGFs to them now that proof of concept has proven itself.

My duckweed looks a bit odd today

Meanwhile in the wild tank…

Here's the oldest group of sterbai. There's 14 left. Was over feeding early on. I have a second group from a smaller spawn of 10 or so that are on BBS now and looking good. They're SO orange. The CPDs are mostly to the wall clinging stage. There's about 30 of them. Jacked with all sorts of picture settings so you can kind of make them out.

I've been watching the videos since my first tank in seventh grade and I decided to follow it through and study fisheries and aquaculture in college. I can say after a lot of classes I had to take that Cory knows his shit lol. We have a coldwater trout hatchery and it is pretty neat but I have an interest and focus on warm-water species/outdoor fisheries/ lake management and have a personal interest in the local/native and tropical side of RAS intensive aquaculture aka fishkeeping but in field terminology. Id love to try and answer and questions about the field if anyone curious

Hi everyone. Uproar here (not my real name of course). 20, from India. A couple of months into this hobby. I was initially gifted a tiny bowl with 2 guppies and a fake plant. After a couple of months, I saved up enough to get a 1 ft cube (8 gal) and move my fishes in there. I currently have 2 female guppies and 1 male, along with 2 nerite snails. In a bucket I have around 30 beautiful frys growing. Currently saving up for my next tank which should be here in 2-3 months. 33g long is the plan (3 ft). Anyway, it's nice to meet you all!

Setup tonight. Two nice fat females and a beautiful male. Hoping this works OK for egg protection as well as not putting the adults at risk of getting stuck in something. It's a nice tight fit.

Penny Bluey The red onion nerite, hiding in the shadows. Hillstream loach, munching on the guppy pellets. Now that I've got the ez flow kits installed I have food falling all over the tank. There is a lot less algae on this fake rock stack than before I got the hillstreams. And when the water is lowered for a water change you can see where they've been eating it on the walls too. That's not readily visible when it's filled up though. And with additional sinking food going in for the mystery snails and hillstream loaches I can already tell I'll need to start doing some 'pest' snail culling again soonish. It was nice not to need to do that during the several months we had no mystery snails.

Looks like alien eyes staring at me. THEY ARE WATCHING ME!!!😱

Assuming your breeder are wild caught fry are F1 Maybe more generations in they will be more willing to except frozen

Hello all! Here's an update as to what I have been up to recently in the fish room remod. I have broke out the high end camera I recorded some video with a few months ago when I thought about starting a YT channel and plan to record detailed video of my room as it stands currently. I HAVE DONE A LOT. The breeding rack is fully functional now. Shelve 1(bottom) houses 5 neocaridina breeders with each having the following: Pumpkin Spice x Sunkist - Blue Rili - Green Rili - Blue Carbon Rili - Black Rose & 1 caridina tank(recently set up) which has Red King Kong x Red Panda. Shelve 2(middle) houses 5x 10 gal(1 of them is a feature tank and is rimless), each of them contain: Half Black Blue Guppy - OPEN TANK(has RO prepared water and I am setting it up for possible Apisto breeder) - Panda Corys/Strawberry Rasboras(from Aquarium Glaser in Germany & this is the feature rimless tank in the middle of the shelf) - QT tank - QT tank. Finally Shelve 3 contains 5 10 gal tanks having the following in each: OPEN TANK(once Dans ships again, this tank will house Japan Blue Gold Double Swordtails) - OPEN TANK(No plan yet QT for now, sand bottom) - OPEN TANK(No plan yet QT for now, sand bottom) - Dumbo Ear Mosaic Guppy - Half Black Super Red Rose Guppy. I installed the same lights that TM Aquatics uses in his fish room. Great suggestion, super cheap and perfect brightness for a breeding rack. I added them onto a double outlet Kawa timer as well. Top shelf has Fluval Aquasky lights that were on my shrimp breeders before. As I posted before, I created a air system with PVC and the awesome piston driven air pump ACO sells(HIGHLY RECOMMEND IT...SUPER QUIET AND POWERFUL). @Cory & @Dean’s Fishroom once again helped me with their videos on the member section of the YT. Between Dean's TED talk and AOC posting how they installed their lines, it was a very easy process of figuring out what to do. Next I bought 60 gal leak proof plastic barrel. I have added the battery powered air pumps from ACO(AGAIN HIGHLY RECO THESE) to it with 6 air stones in it and it makes changing my fish room's water so much less taxing on ze back. No more Home Depot buckets and temping water as I added a heater to the drum as well to keep the water at 76. Next I plan on installing PVC piping to where my tanks will be to hopefully be able to just flip a switch to add water in post water changes. I broke down the OG tank I first set up and had to immediately drain when I moved to my new home... time @nabokovfan87 had to talk me off the ledge lol. I moved those OG guppies and all their fry to a tank in my bedroom in a 10 gal rimless I set up on the original stand(also original tank I started all this with at my old house). That tank cycled and I added a bunch of nice shrimp from my breeders to it to help as clean up crew. Also bought a very nice Red Bushynose from Dan that is still a juvenile and doing well in it. The GL Corys I had in the tank with the guppies along with the Amano Shrimp & Assassin Snails went into my new splurge I mentioned before as well. In saying that, my 40 gallon Waterbox splurge has now been fully cycled. I like the Waterbox tanks and the stands but the stands are very hard to get the door to the cabinet open/closed on a carpeted floor. Tank is level completely and stable, but there is literally zero room between the floor and the doors to allow them to open easy if carpet is in front of them. They open and all, but just my one critique if anyone is thinking of splurging on them. Tanks are incredibly well made, stands as well, customer service is great but only open a few hours Mon-Thurs. For the money though, maybe they could improve these stand problems in the future. I still plan to get my big tank from them that will go on the wall of the 3 tanks I have had since the start(1 of which was the OG tank I just broke down). I have some great plants and rocks in this tank though and the fish have began to be added. I moved all my GL Corys to this tank, added 3 Red Laser Corys to the 5 GL. I also bought 2 Green Smoke Angels, they are still weeeee babies, as well from Dan & 4 EB Acaras(they little bitty too!) along with 10 Red Crystal Tetras(these might be a new fave of mine....wow so cool looking!!) from The Wet Spot. My Amano Shrimp, several Ramshorn snails and Assassin snails as well. My plan is to keep my Kitty City tank where it is or possibly drain it down and move it to another wall. The plecos and corys in there are happy, plus I dig the set up, so I am keeping it. The other holding tank that is a 20 gal long which was supposed to be a plant only tank but now houses 12 fish will be broken down eventually. I plan to set up another tank which will house my Odessa Barbs(I got them as juveniles and now they are fully grown...wow are they beautiful fish!!!) and then I plan to rehome my Chinese Algae Eaters(I was duped as I thought I was buying Ottocinclus). On the big main wall I will get a Waterbox 120 at least which will be my very first African Cichlid tank. I have always wanted Red OB Peacocks and now that dream will come true! So for now that main wall will be my next focus of setting up, breaking down, moving. The wall under my tele in the fish room will see my desk move as well as the above diagram shows. So need to buy new desk addition and move it before I can move Kitty City under the tele. Christmas presents from gf, friends and my family will all be house plants for the fish room! I bought the following for potted plants(NOT GOING IN AQUARIUMS!): Monstera Borsigiana Albo Variegated & Monstera Deliciosa Legacy Variegated plus some Hawaiian Pothos for the tanks on the breeding rack(I plan to let it grow around the room!). I plan on more plants throughout the room to give it a real jungle aquarium haven. 🙂 Anyways, once I can get the fish settled and the camera work done, I will drop a video here. Hope all of you following and reading this are doing well! Until the next update!!!

Badis badis babies vs white worms.

@Guppysnail already said it, but let me repeat it: Fenbendazole. Sold under several names actually, but the most common is Panacur for dogs. It MUST BE IN POWDER FORM to use it. But it doesn't dissolve easily, either. For a measuring tool, 1/8th teaspoon per 10 gallons. But once you plop the powder into the tank, it'll probably float around on the top as a little pocket in the shape of the spoon. Grab it with your fingers and squish it under the water so it breaks up. Guppysnail also gave a different treatment time. I've always done one dose, then a second dose 24 hours later, and that's it. As for your shrimp, the hydra *will* eat the baby shrimp, so if you are trying to raise more, it won't happen until the hydra are dead.

@Colu and @nabokovfan87 I'll have to find some aquarium salt for her tank then. @Fish Folk I think I've been saddling the line of accepting a positive or negative outcome with her. So I get what you're saying and all in all, just want whatever's best for her. But this lesson is important and I have learned so much from everyone. So thank you for that reminder that stuff happens, good or bad.

Ok revising what I said after I realized Google image search did me wrong. The pic I added is not a Hongsoi, but is Apistogramma eunotus, just as @DallasCowboys16 stated. So yeah, I'm agreeing with Dallas on his fantastic fish ID.

@JillianGarcia05 I want to share an honest point that some aquarists will be very upset with me for saying. We all need to exercise a proper degree of care for our fish. Many fish keepers have only a few fish, one or two tanks, and feel deeply attached to their wet pets, naming every one. In this scenario, it is possible to spend 500%+ of the cost of the fish on medications and treatments. Perhaps this is you. Maybe you bought your Betta for $20, and are absolutely fine spending $100 or more on medications. No one will judge you. But here is another perspective. Please try to hear this as another approach to respectful care in the hobby (again, this will irritate some people to no end). I have kept over a thousand fish in the last 5-6 years. I’ve had to make limits on how much I am willing to spend on keeping sick fish alive. I have euthanized a few, and flushed plenty of dead fish. If this ends sadly for you, please know you’re not alone. Betta splendens are sickness-prone, injury-prone, tragically inbred, kept in appalling conditions before sale… in truth, this forum alone has maybe seen more “Sick Betta! Help!” posts than anything. Hopefully you can turn things around for your little blue. But if not, don’t give up on the hobby if she passes. Sickness can be brought in with a new fish. For this reason, quarantine is always advisable. Many folks religiously dose Maracyn + Ich-X + API General Cure together with all new arrivals. Many fish stores do not, and tend to lose livestock. Outside the US, some medications are restricted or difficult to come by. Aquarium salt mixtures can be a benefit in those scenarios. But often, the issues with fish stem from environmental factors we can improve as we study and adapt in this hobby. Overfeeding is most problematic. Poor maintenance is a fast second to that. Water quality is vital to master. These are areas all of us are still working to improve. As a fish breeder, let me add this final thought: the healthiest fish I have ever kept were those I bred and raised in my own water. The majority of fish I’ve bought arrived with minor health issues… a few with major issues. So don’t give up. We are rooting for you and your fish. If things go poorly, we have been there too. Keep going!

Fast as @nabokovfan87 suggested finishes the course of maracyn then I would holed off on any more antibiotic treatments I would also add some aquarium salt 1table spoon for 2 gallons that will help reduce any possible fluid buildup in the eye if you have live plants add 1 table spoon for 5 gallons for a week than give an update if your seeing no improvement

It's been over a month since the last water change and things seem to be doing fine still. The pygmy corys are coming out a lot more. I wonder if the swarms of Guppy fry make them feel safe. It could also be that they are happier because I've started feeding them Sera bottom feeder wafers

A lot of times you'll get some practicing. It is what it is! The female might be just getting rid of eggs and she was in the mood or it's a sign there isn't enough breeder males in the tank. Don't change anything, give her another chance, and you're likely perfect. From elsewhere on the internet, here is some known fertile ones, notice the grey inside: Someone can correct me here if I misspeak please! cloudy / opaque = unfertile clear = fertile

I have enjoyed cory fry so far. Limited fry powder use is probably the main factor there.

Got some vallisneria spiralis for the right side of the tank in order to fill up the remaining space. I think it all should look nice when it is all grown in. The hygro is growing really quickly and the amazon swords are throwing out all kinds of new leaves. I'm thinking I'll give everything a few more weeks to grow in before getting some fish in there. I stopped by a local store on Saturday and got a few ideas. I think I definitely want to get a pair of triple red Apisto Cacatuoides. I had a pair years ago and really enjoyed them. Even spawned them a few times. I saw some really good looking El Tigre endlers that I think could be fun as well.

Quick Update for everyone. Wood became waterlogged as of a few days ago so I decided it was time to finally get this thing planted. I am just looking for a lush, simple, and enjoyable setup here so I rolled with the following - Amazon Swords, Hygo Corymbosa, Christmas Moss, Java Fern, Anubias Nana, Star Repens, Crypt Wendtii (Tropica), and Crypt Indigo. Probably going to pickup a few more plants for the right background which is empty at the moment, but for now I am content to let these guys grow in until decide on what I want to add. I also stopped by the local brewing supply and picked up a 5# Co2 tank so I've got everything I need there aside from a diffuser. I bought one yesterday but accidentally left it in the wheel well of my car when I was grabbing my keys out of my pocket. Now I know what the crunching sound was when I was backing out of the parking lot lol. Also, right now I am running the Coop light at 60% and it seems to provide good coverage and plenty of light for the species I picked to grow here based on the eye test, but does anyone have any suggestions for intensity settings on this fixture? Also did some work on my 7 gallon cube so I figured I would drop a pic here for your enjoyment!

I am looking to build out a gallery style fish room, consisting of anywhere between 12-20 tanks. The area is 10.5’x7.5’ with only three walls as it is in the family room of our basement. I have 1 125gallon aquarium for a fahaka puffer. And will have 2 rolling ponds similar to serpadesigns design at 27g. the rest of the tanks I am not sold on yet. Wanting to keep tanks under 15” front to back to go down side walls. Leaning towards UNS 60s, 60u, and 60e for main tanks and using 30c for a few smaller tanks for keeping some small CARES killifish and the likes. main goals: colony breed 3-4 strains of guppies, and ponds will house single strains of rice fish. Anyone want to take a stab at how they would lay it out?

As Colu and Fish Folk mentioned, it might be best to give the fish, salt, and meds some time. Finish the round of meds and salt and holding off food to see how things change in a week. I apologize for that feeling of being lost. It does happen to all of us at some point and it's part of that "introduction" to the hobby. For myself it happened years in when I had my first illness issue. I learned a lot as well from struggling with plant and algae issues. I would check out the aqueon betta nutrinsect line of foods. It's very affordable and should replicate the fishes diet pretty well. It has other advantages as well given the ingredients used. We are all here to help. So please let that ease a bit of the concern and anxiety of the situation you might be feeling. We all want each other to succeed and enjoy the hobby for a long time. 🙂

I was going through my phone the other day and discovered that I have a whole trove of photos from the time that I was not posting in this forum that I intended to share. So the next several posts will be from these photos as well as some minor updates to the current state of my aquarium hobby. I have been on an extended trip away from home which has slowed things considerably but I fully intend to take back up the torch when I return home. One of the final posts before I went dark on this forum was a large, 150 gallon (600L) feed trough that I had posted as my new project. This was intended to be a super sized summer tub for my aquarium plant grow out project. The tub itself performed spectacularly but due to a myriad of difficulties I was not able to focus on moving the plants as well as I would have liked and ultimately lost all of the Cryptocoryne Pink Panthers that I was growing at the time. There is no question that moving takes a heavy toll on this hobby, but I will continue to come up with new ways to mitigate damage in the future. I am finally mentally ready to share this picture, this is what became of that 150 gallon tub. Every single plant that you see in this photo is a Pink Panther and they did spectacularly under the late spring and early summer sun. The way they are being grown is in plastic cups with earthworm castings as a base and black diamond sand as a cap. I am utilizing the exact same system in the rack currently and I am currently puzzled as to why my plant growth is so low when compared with what I had previously without any changes in substrate and still growing these plants in relatively hard water. I hope to one day achieve this level of plant growth in my hobby again period

There's a sponge filter that the power head is on as well, @Chris. The HOB Mainly for flow and a big biological filter. I'm sure a sponge or sponges would work fine.

Hello, Friends! Just your Weird Old Uncle Kenny here. I was an avid aquarist for almost 3 decades, but that was back in the 1970s, '80s and '90s, when I was a much younger lad! I'm retired and disabled with heart issues now, but this year I got back into it as a source of relaxation, and to relieve the boredom of living alone. It started slowly, rather strangely, and it's a long story I will likely get around to telling, eventually, cuz there's some educational, as well as entertainment value. But this is just the introduction, so, gonna keep it pretty short and sweet. Started with a 10 gallon tank, betta, a few guppies, and a few kuhli loaches. Now I have (2) 5.5 gallon, (3) 10, a 40 breeder, a 30 show, plus a 29 tall which is just waiting for its stand to arrive on Friday, and I'm picking up the 75 gallon tank that goes on top of it, tomorrow. I currently have plans for a total of 12 tanks plus a 100 gallon "pond" coffee table, all in the front room of my 1 bedroom apartment! My main thing is breeding guppies, which I NEVER would have guessed would bring me so much joy, but it sure has! Aquarium Co-op, and especially Cory's videos, were and still are a major source of my inspiration. While lifting a bucket full of water has become rather difficult for me, the rest of aquarium care knowledge, information availability, and products has VASTLY improved over the years. While I was very successful with many challenging and exotic "fin-babies" back in the day, the stuff and methods of care I swore by back then are just so-so (or less) compared to what's available today. Oh, but it certainly does cost a whole lot more now for fishies! Anywho, I can't wait to read your stories and tell some of my own! Fishy Holidays!! -Kenny

I've got this same Petsmart 37 that I was just thinking about putting up for sale the other day. Currently I've got bristlenose, cherry shrimp and mutt guppies in there, but it seems nigh impossible to keep plants happy. I've had a Crypt Wendtii planted (with root tabs) for 6 months and I've not seen any growth. Same with the Anubias and Java Fern. The amazon sword I had to move because it was just slowly melting. This wouldn't be a terrible idea for this tank! I've listened to Dean's talk, but it's been a few weeks. Any reason you went with a HOB instead of putting a sponge filter down below?

Great idea - thank you @Mmiller2001 !

I never had a goby, but indostomus are sort of like statues, it takes them FOREVER to move and hunt and do something. Even shrimp overpower them (like literaly step on them) and I even saw a ramshorn snail mistake the indostomus for an unmovable object. I think they would be too stressed with anything larger than their shadow

@beastie has indostomus and she may help

@nabokovfan87 thanks! I’ll watch those videos tomorrow and start doing some research. I’d imagine Amazon might have some option. updating on heater since I cant sleep. This looks promising and I can control the temp, plus 4+5 star reviews: Pawfly Submersible Aquarium Heater 50 W Betta Fish Tank Heater Adjustable Electronic Heating Rod with Thermostat and Water Shortage/Overheating Protection for Fish Tanks up to 15 Gallons https://a.co/d/1CU2GXh if this looks okay, I’m going to order since the other 25w barely got to 78. Oh no! My poor fish. The curious thing is the area you pointed out she had when I bought her end of September/beginning October. So it’s possible I brought her home with it. So do the maracyn and then dose with the other type of meds? The maracyn did list it helps with fin rot but might need something stronger it sounds. Also, I think the bloating is from her food and how she eats. She gulps a lot of air, since its fish flakes. But reading about that sounds like those aren’t the best for her due to the filler too. Any recommendations on betta food? I appreciate your help and time along with everyone else. I’ve asked a lot of questions and feel a bit lost. So thank you! I really want to make her better, she means a lot to me. i also have plans for building her a 10 gallon tank with real plants and more room to swim.

@nabokovfan87 thanks! I’ll watch those videos tomorrow and start doing some research. I’d imagine Amazon might have some option. Oh no! My poor fish. The curious thing is the area you pointed out she had when I bought her end of September/beginning October. So it’s possible I brought her home with it. So do the maracyn and then dose with the other type of meds? The maracyn did list it helps with fin rot but might need something stronger it sounds. Also, I think the bloating is from her food and how she eats. She gulps a lot of air, since its fish flakes. But reading about that sounds like those aren’t the best for her due to the filler too. Any recommendations on betta food? I appreciate your help and time along with everyone else. I’ve asked a lot of questions and feel a bit lost. So thank you! I really want to make her better, she means a lot to me. i also have plans for building her a 10 gallon tank with real plants and more room to swim.

Looks more like a wound to me.

I tried a few and it's tough! you'd want to find something ~25 watts if you can. Sicce has some heaters that fit that, not adjustable though, and I'll attach a Pecktec vid below. I'll also toss in a Rachel vid where she's discussing nano heaters. Also noting - I will make sure to make her fast. She isn't going to be too happy about that. Does the bloating mean something? It's a tough one. It could be a food issue, it could be just gulping air, or it could be a fluid buildup, but the best thing to do is not to make the situation worse by feeding and making the fish bloat even more. I had one fish and it took the full 7 days for them to reduce the bloat a little bit. Just be patient with it. Fish in the wild don't eat every single day! Unfortunately I do see a bit of fin rot. The meds for that would most likely be kanaplex as the easiest one to get a hold of. the other one to use in lieu of kanaplex is maracyn 2. Again, likely you're looking at 2 treatments back to back to fully resolve that situation. So... big picture. we treat whatever is the worst thing first. Right now the worst thing is likely the popeye and the bloating. @Colu @Odd Duck Given the 3 symptoms we have here, fin rot, bloating, and popeye, and currently undergoing treatment with maracyn (round 2) and needing a heater to bump the temp up, what is your recommendation here for next steps?

looks like an injury with possible secondary fungal infections if it has a fuzzy appearance that's not showing on the picture what I would do is treat with ick X along with maracyn that an effective treatment for fungal infections

Such a beauty of a pleco! I miss my plecos so much..... I really, really do.

I was leaning male Cacatuoides for the first, and female Cacatuoides for the second. CHANGED MY MIND ON THIS ID; SEE ADDITIONAL THREAD -- "Not 100% sure of the others, but maybe Hongsloi? See second pic (one I grabbed off the www)." This is a pic of my wild caught A. Cacatuoides. You can see that the three leading black dorsal spines are followed by a red-tipped one, similar to the fish you have in pic #1. A Hongsloi male -- the markings on this are more dramatic than in your pics, but they look similar. Note the leading black dorsal spines, and the red patch behind the gill, as well as the one right before the tail.

I believe your darker fish to definitely be Apistogramma cacatuoides. The three enlarged black rays in the front of the dorsal fin, along with the lip structure, in particular the "underbite", is a key tell in my opinion. Your fish looks like a potential sleeper male, or a female showing a few male secondary sex characteristics. The amount of yellow being shown in the second picture along with the accentuated vertical black eye band are typical female traits though, which muddy the picture a little bit. The second fish is pretty perplexing to me. The caudal fin structure and oval body shape in the second to last picture are pretty obviously non-cacatuoides to me and the presence of the pink and turquoise sheen would be quite unusual. The location of the pink coloration really makes me think female Apistogramma eunotus, but I cannot be certain. They are relatively uncommon in the hobby and I would be surprised if one was present in the cacatuoides stock at the store. I will be interested to hear if anyone else has some additional thoughts on the ID.

Corydora really need clean substrate. Often digging about in excess detritus opens them to illness. Have you considered trying neocaridina shrimp? They do great for me with my CPD.

I picked up mine! Who else ordered theirs? I’m literally just days away from never having to fiddle with air stones ever again and I’m hyped! I also noticed that sponge filters went up in price, but now include the kit. Smart move, if you ask me.

Oh yeah, I know about the superglue. The only issue is that the wood does not have many contact points with the rock where I can anchor it and considering how bouyant it is, I can almost guarantee it would rip right off until it is waterlogged. The wood has definitely started releasing some tannins. This is even with activated carbon running!

I got this rack from Home Depot for $40!! https://www.homedepot.com/p/HDX-4-Tier-Wire-Garage-Storage-Shelving-Unit-in-Chrome-36-in-W-x-54-in-H-x-14-in-D-EH-WSTHDUS-004/204466874 I loaded up three 20-Longs on mine (plus two 5-1/2 gallons on the bottom) and they are plenty stable if you add an earthquake strap. So yes, easily handles four 20-Longs, no problem. The space above each tank is only about four inches, but the tanks pull out easily if you drain them 75%. I also use tongs for moving/planting things, and I have no real complaints about the cramped quarters. Hope that helps! Bill