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We have these huge stores that open only during the holidays, where you can shop for Christmas lights, wrapping paper, bows, etc. We have parades in almost every city. Whole neighborhoods decorate and people drive through at night to see the lights. Very festive!

The answer to that question is rather complicated because there are many variables involved that contribute to nitrate poisoning. I will be succinct here and say as a general rule for long term health of the fish you want to keep it under 30 ppm.

I noticed some rambunctious behavior in my 40g around 11:45am yesterday morning and quickly realized it was my Corys spawning! The first time I witnessed a spawning from these fish I was able to collect about 30 eggs if memory serves. The second time I was only able to collect about 20. To my amazement, the largest albino female continuously spawned from 11:45am (at least that's when I joined the show) all the way till 1:25pm! I was able to collect well over 100 eggs and it seems like most are fertilized! From what I could tell, many of the bronze males attempted to fertilize her eggs, but only one of them was able to keep her attention. As you can hopefully see from the pictures, the aforementioned male would swim in front of the female, arch his body effectively blocking her path, and deposit his stuff. Her once erratic swimming suddenly calmed as if hypnotized. Almost immediately afterword, eggs would start to drop and she held them with her fins. She began depositing the eggs on the leaf of a large Amazon Sword plant and immediately attempted to eat them so I shooed her away. The leaves weren't looking so good so I just trimmed them with eggs attached and dropped them, leaf and all, into a breeder basket. I ended up cutting off 4 sword leaves and she transitioned to spawning directly on the glass where I collected all of the eggs with my insurance services card. There was one albino male who made several attempts to fertilize her eggs, and while I was rooting for him, he couldn't seem to get the technique quite right and she quickly lost interest. After all that work, the large albino female was noticeably exhausted and bumping into things so I decided to feed an o-nip tab. I wish I had a comparison shot of her belly before to emphasize just how sunken in her eggs satchel became! I will return when the fry have grown large enough to see in pictures. I hope you all have the chance to experience this at least once. There's really nothing quite like it. For those of you who like to see parameters, here are a few: Water: 40 gallons Temperature: comfortable Fish: yes

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year, to all. 🎄

Sledding in anything abstract is soooo much better than sledding on a standard store bought 'sled'! 😂

I remember in college we went sledding in our laundry baskets. 🙂 How about a nice stick insect habitat? @nabokovfan87.. like, you played hockey. And yet you broke your arm on a SIDEWALK CRACK?! 😂#iceskatesbutcantwalk @TheSwissAquarist I’m so sorry you broke your arm. You need a pond pump with 1/2” tubing to do nice easy water changes (for the big tanks). And you can use smaller tubing (no pump) for the small tanks. Send that water out the window. Lol! Just cover the intake with a net so you don’t launch your critters through the tube! As @Guppysnail calls it, “the water slide ride”.

Active substrates means that "things change". The soil has a certain charge and ions from the water are attracted and held into the soil. This also means that sometimes, the soil isn't very potent and it takes water changes, waste, and time to really charge it up. Other types, not so much. In aquascaping, you'll see tabs right away as well as a layer of powder nutrients, Powersand is another one, where you have a layer of initial nutrients to start that process quickly and give the substrate some nutrition long term. I tabbed my substrate about 2-4 months after I first planted it. I used old substrate as well that had a lot of nutrients in it as well as a cap. That being said, I still have run into issues and it's a situation where I'm going to pull off some stuff, add more soil, and reset the balance here again... Tabbing again. I don't know if it's common knowledge, but yeah. Soil, just like in farming, depletes over time and managing the soil is critical to long term success. Basically I would say yes and no. No you don't need to move plants around. Light plays a factor in positioning too. Plants often will get shaded out.

'High Peeper Bogknot sends salutations and implores you do something about this duckweed.'

Maybe just neocaridina shrimps?

Rocket killi or clown killi or there is a plethora of nano rasbora species that fit the bill. Just a fair warning nano fish tend to have a rather short lifespan ~1.5-2 years Photos credit to ACO: dwarf rasbora Chili rasbora clown or rocket killifish

Nature truly is interesting! I just recently got rid of the microscope I had growing up during our move or I would have snagged a piece off the wood and examined it just for curiosity's sake! I have a few Oto's so they were definitely a concern I had with using anything too harsh on the wood, but I am sure wood/algae eaters like them would most likely be more enticed by the wood if it was more rotten since they help aid in the breaking down process of the wood itself. However, I wonder if they be attracted to these pieces at all if they were simply added to water as is since the bacteria and molds were grown outside of water which I assume, is not typically the same types of bacteria they eat within water. Not that I will do that since I am concerned with ammonia toxicity as Guppysnail said but it is interesting to think about all the same! Again, thank everyone for their advice! I am going to try and catalog my progress as I clean everything back up and begin tank setup since I have new things I am trying and aquascape plans I am workshopping for a 29 gallon and maybe a 20 gallon or two 10 gallon column tanks I have seen at petsmart recently.

I have bags of aquasoil capped with coarse sand or gravel over ugf. I will occasionally place root tabs on top of some of the bags with the thought of helping to replenish them…. I dont know that it hurts or helps.. I also use Easy Green holding my nitrates around 20 ppm with weekly 50% water changes and pressurized co2. regardless things seem to be growing well…

Thanks to everyone for the responses! It is reassuring to know that it can be dealt without resorting to any extremes or overly harsh treatments since it is already quite cold in my area, so chances to let things cure/dry outside are getting slimmer. I knew when I stored that wet decor I was going to run into some issues since wet + dark = mold in most cases, as you mentioned. I wanted to set everything in the sun to dry before I put them away but I was just not given the time to do so, good lesson going forward! Also, using an airstone for soaking woods and rocks is a good call as I think it can help pull particulate matter off natural decor quicker as well but I have no proof of that. Even if it doesn't, I try to use an airstone whenever possible regarding anything aquarium/fish related anyways just because I am always cautious about still or stagnating water even if it only sits for a 20-30 minute period.

My SAEs have become one of my favorites for all the reasons you mentioned. When it comes time to take a break They often do this as a group. This evening, I will at some point find my 5 attached to the glass in the top righthand corner of the tank. They did occasionally play tag with the Bloodfins when they were younger. That was definitely fun to watch.

She hasn't left the cave entrance and the male is just drifting around leaving her alone.

‘I come in peace from the planet Ribbet’ 🐸

Got her a voucher for Zalando, which is kind of like an online clothes store over here. Thanks for the idea @nabokovfan87! Tank maintenance takes soooo much longer with a broken arm, but hey… I spend more time actually enjoying the tanks. Beforehand it was just scrub, vac, WC, next! Aiming for the clean lidless look with these guys. There’s definitely gonna be a rescape soon, and I might take the opportunity to paint the sides black. WC with one hand is tough. 🫠 Von Rios enjoying the Val. I think I may have found a technique for stopping the eggs from fungusing. RO water -> rain -> snow and we’ve got plenty of the latter. I’ve realized that all the eggs are fungusing a lot more ever since my dad took down our rainwater harvesting system and my tanks have been switched back to tap water. Shrimp like it, tetra eggs hate it. 😑 Btw do you guys have Xmas markets in the states?

Little bit of A. C. Newman. I originally discovered them when I bought a grab bag of CDs from an independent record store years ago.

Very beautiful setup! It's definitely got to be churning through nutrients, but perhaps there is ways to really figure out the situation. Verify the dose off the doser is right and add in what may end up being (start lower) 1 full dose each morning. This may also include things like iron or potassium given what all is going on with the setup you have and plants involved. They should have loggers for nitrates or you can do it manually as well, testing. When you mention testing, if you're running into any sort of questions with one kit, try another method to verify the test. If you're using liquid, then run some tests with a strip, probe it, or take a water sample in somewhere. After you're starting to show some nitrates and we're sure the plants, substrate, or algae isn't draining the tank, then you can adjust the dose up so that you have the baseline per day you're wanting to keep. As a sidenote, you have PSO in the back left there. That thing alone will be the quickest growing plant for you. It also may use so much nutrients that it chokes out other plants. Just keep an eye out. PSO can grow crazy fast. Awesome idea!

@Colu, @jwcarlson I just wanted to thank both of you for the advice on my black skirted tetra and give you an update. I used maracyn for 5 days and its now been several days past that and the tetra is looking and doing much better, I think it worked! Thanks!

Holy cow, she is a bus!

I feel like the joke about the cabinets growing through the floor from the Easy Green didn't land. I'll keep trying. What's hilarious is I whacked my head on that bucket three times a day until yesterday when I finally relocated it out of the walking area.

It was a funnier story when you said “fish”. 😆 Still funny with “cat” but what really cracked me up was the bear bag/bucket!

Well when i was a kid the cat had to eat fish food since the dog ate all the cat food 😉

My duckweed looks a bit odd today

Before anything else, I just want to be clear that I'm absolutely no sort of fish breeding authority. In fact, I'm the polar opposite if you go looking through my other threads. And I have no intention on breeding a zillion fish. But this seemed like a fun use for a tank that I otherwise would let sit empty or give away. With that out of the way, I've had this 37 gallon aquarium that I bought about two years ago and to be honest, I hated everything about it. It's been sitting empty for most of the last year. I hate the footprint (mainly the height). This is probably the peak of this tank's appearance. I struggled to keep plants going, probably in part due to the height. It's since been relocated to a 40B. It's been ugly and hanging out in my daughter room. As part of a larger basement project (adding two bedrooms to the basement which previously was entirely unfinished), I've been making some improvements to my "fish room" as well. Eventually I think all of my aquariums will end up down there. And maybe eventually it will be in good enough shape to post a picture of what I've got going overall. 😄 So I got it cleaned up and relocated this weekend. I had "duty" at work and it was almost non-stop most of Thanksgiving break (four days), so I didn't get as much done as I wanted to. I watched Dean's fry system talk live in October and I thought it looked interesting. And I'd seen it before in his fish room videos as well. It dawned on me in the middle of his talk that I didn't have to make an excuse to go buy a 20L because I had this 37 which is basically the same footprint AND it doesn't need a lid! Unfortunately all the dimensions and construction are JUST far enough off that you can't use standard lids and whatnot. But I think it's close enough for this. The bowls down below are my two oldest kids "Walstad bowls" that they set up a couple of days ago. They had their own "eco systems" (as they called them) set up in old ice cream buckets and all I could imagine was them picking them up by the handle and having them blow out all over. Still a possibility here, but more permanent this way. Dean's fry system is WAY overkill for what I've got going on, but I'm an engineer and a tinkerer and winter is here with 3-4" of snow Saturday and into Sunday and it's dipping down into single digits already. So time for some (more) indoor projects. I took no pictures of the actual build of the air/water delivery system for some reason. Probably because I was watching Dean's video (or at least parts of it) a zillion times trying to figure out exactly what I wanted to do. Not too difficult to do if you're relatively handy. I'd suggest clear PVC cement so you can't see how messy you are. This is actually the cleanest PVC gluing job I have every done. I barely got any on my hands! I forgot vinyl tube at Home Depot the other day, so pressure check had to wait until I picked up tube tonight after work. Worked well, no leaks even dead headed with all valves closed. Air also tested and worked well. Finished filling it up and let it all rip. Squeezed some sponges in and will get some cycling going. I still need to put the trays together as I bought ones that are the large and medium instead of the smalls and mediums. They fit, but the biggest one is quite large. Some smaller ones should be here sometime this week. It looks like my reflection is snorkeling! 😄 Thanks for looking. That's all for now. I didn't seal the void around the screw/PVC interfaces yet, but I did seal the threads and holes. I wanted to make sure I didn't need to disassemble before I put a bunch of silicone in there. Parts list: GE Silicone 1 (now called GE all purpose silicone make sure it says 100% silicone) GE Silicone 100% Red Tube - I did not use this. Aluminum Flat Bar 1"x48" 7/32" drill bit 3/16" drill bit 10-32 tap PVC: 5' 1/2" PVC 2x 1/2" Slip/Slip Elbow 2x 1/2" Slip/Thread Elbow 2x 1/2" Caps 2x 1/2" Slip Coupling 1x 1/2" Threaded Plug 1x 5/8"x1/2" Nylon Hose Barb PVC Cement Zip Ties - regular Zip Ties w/ screw/mounting hole Plumbing Joint Compound (I did not use this, teflon tape worked fine on my water valves.) PlastiDip White Spray Coating 1-1/2" 8x32 stainless machine screws 1/2" 10x32 stainless machine screws 8x32 Nyloc Nuts Heat Shrink Tubing

Hi everyone! Happy holidays! Here's the new stock for this upcoming week after they are cleared from quarantine. Most fish are ready to go by Sunday/Monday (depending on how quarantine goes). All fish are sold on a first-come first-served basis. If you have any questions on these fish or other questions related to the store, please email us at: store@aquariumcoop.com ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Frogs, Shrimp, and Snails African Dwarf Frogs Cherry Neo. Shrimp Orange Neo. Shrimp Red Rili Neo. Shrimp Blue Velvet Neo. Shrimp Medium Amano Shrimp Asst. Nerite Snails Assassin Snails Asst. Mystery Snails Blue Wood Shrimp Bamboo Shrimp Bettas Asst. Halfmoon Males Asst. Crowntail Males Asst. Plakat Males Cichlids Assorted Small Angelfish (Locally Bred) Assorted Med. Angelfish (Locally Bred) Bolivian Rams (Locally Bred) Corydoras and Other Catfish Panda Cories Albino Cories Sterbai Cories Reticulated/False Julii Cories Pygmy Cories Habrosus Cories Bronze Cories Plecos Common Otocinclus Assorted Small Bristlenose Plecos (Locally Bred) Assorted Small Long Fin Bristlenose Plecos (Locally Bred) Loaches Kuhli Loaches Reticulated Hillstream Loaches Tetras Neon Tetras Green Neon Tetras Cardinal Tetras Rummynose Tetras Ember Tetras Red & Blue Columbian Tetras Barbs Danios Leopard Danios Rasboras Chili Rasboras Emerald Eye Rasboras Exclamation Point Rasboras Rasbora Het/Harlequin Rasboras Other Cyprinids Siamese Algae Eaters Badis Gouramis Sunset Honey Gouramis Chocolate Gouramis Powder Blue Dwarf Gourami Livebearers Asst. Fancy Guppies (Locally Bred) Asst. Endlers (Locally Bred) Asst. Mollies Asst. Platies Asst. Swordtails Rainbowfish Bosemani Rainbowfish Kamaka Rainbowfish Killifish Clown Killifish Goldfish/Koi Small Red Bubble Eye Goldfish Small Red & White Butterfly Tails Small Red Cap Orandas Small Calico Ranchus Small Calico Ryukins Small Red & White Ryukin Medium Red & White Pearl Scale Ricefish Oddballs Schoutedeni Puffer Sales (While Supplies Last): -40% OFF All Non-Aquarium Co-Op Branded Rimless Tanks Photos 1. Assorted Angelfish 2. Assorted Fancy Goldfish 3. Assorted Fancy Goldfish 4. Otocinclus 5. Black Emperor Tetras

Are they being sold with the filters?

Nano Nermys!

i have had multiple large corydora spawning runs before. They are very fun to watch, though at the end the concaved bellies on the females always feel like something is wrong, fotunately its easily solveable with food.

Fingers crossed 🤞!

Kinda what I figured, too. I plan to move them into more of a breeding setup once the rack is together.

I find that the Ricefish mops only work if there’s no other plants in the tank which are suited to spawning.

Really impressive to see them eat off a tab like this. Those fish love that tank. 🙂 Well done, congratulations.

I agree with @jwcarlson that is one large corydora I can believe that she delivered that many eggs. There is something amazing when the corydora's form that T shaped pose.

I was just sharing my experience and that being a possibility. I don’t know if that’s the right answer. You will know more by watching. Occasionally a time out cooks fish down. Sometimes more tall sight breaks.

So sorry! Sometimes there are underlying internal injuries that we can’t see.

Finally found the plumbing parts I needed! Here's the current plan: 1" Bulkhead --> 1" 90 degree elbow --> 1" Valve --> 1" slip X NPT --> 1" NPT X 3/4" Barb --> 1/2" nylon tube stretched over barb --> Drain Kind of convoluted, but I couldn't find a more straightforward way to connect it all. Whatever works, I guess.

Great question. Methylene blue is usually the go to as well as botanicals or blackwater extract. I would love to see the whole process! Consider making a journal if you would like to share your efforts.

school tank got an interesting new addition: also got my ACO order today. ] Im seriously impressed with the easy flow kit, it has added phenomenal amounts of flow which my fish will love as most of them are flow loving. Its getting my sponge filter working better now as well. I also got a new heater as my old one has been flashing EL for a while and i dont want to risk a failure.

How exciting! I love my little hillstreams. They have each (4) claimed a flat slate and know about when feeding is. They each sit in their stone waiting for me to sprinkle fry food on their stone. 🥰

I cannot get over how cool the hillstream loaches are.

Winter Update: The tanks are back in full swing! I am adding house plants too. My son wants "rainbow fish" so we are going to work on setting up the 20 long or the 55, I have not yet decided. We are also getting a betta this week, in my 6 gallon. I'm setting it up now. My Killifish is a fin nipper so he's in his own tank where I think he ate all my little shrimp. Thankfully there were only a few in there, the 100s are in the 36. I am considering turning a split 5 I have into shrimplandia. I am also looking at getting rice fish for a bigger tank. I despise guppies, and so I am trying to offload mine (my kids love them, so they are going in their own tank). Ottos are my heart song, I have 6 right now that have done amazingly in my 36, so I want to up the numbers once I remove the guppies. Maryland has started an aquarium club right in my hometown! I am so excited, some of my friends were telling me about it, and it seems like it is getting up off the ground. I'm part of a local GSA community, and we have some fish folks in there too. I shared this forum with a few of them, and I hope they join!

Water change day, which means I got to add my new uplift tubes. And flake food is a fantastic way to test the new flow pattern, btw. 😂

I don't think Miir is available there, but they make some cool stuff. Hydroflask? Camera stuff? Winter clothes (or gift card for that)? When you say nature-loving, are we talking hiking, beach, forests, or? Details might help steer direction towards specific useful things.

@Potaqua Keep us updated on the progress. I love corydora babies they are so cute!

Updated, I kinda of just left the tank to just go wild and green. I add a few frogbit and parameters are good. Weeks later, while I was doing fishroom maintenance, out of no where they started to T-shape each other and doing the mating ritual. I was like wth? So water changes didnt work, pH change didn't work, and temperature change didn't work. But just leaving them, doing nothing and letting the tank go wild cause a trigger. Idk what trigger their breeding? Now im stuck ponding how am I gonna find their eggs in this green water. 🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️🤦‍♂️😂😂😂

Update, So far no luck. I'm gonna try to add a lot plants to see if anything change. At the moment, I have been busy working on my CPDs since I recently had a lot of success. I am gonna try again.

I have salt and pepper corys and can't get them to stop breeding. 🙃 As far as I can tell they only need a decent amount of food and a well-planted tank. For me, I have noticed that they tend to be a bit seasonal. I have 8 tanks and a colony in each. Around winter time (New England) all of the tanks will start getting a lot of eggs. Almost every day I'll see them on the glass. Other times of the year, not so much at all. No idea if that helps. I started out with a couple in each tank to clean up the bottom and now I have well over 60. I stopped collecting the eggs because I end up with more corys than the local fish store can take. Personally, I only do water changes about once a month. Plants are a big part of my maintenance and I tend to keep more natural jungle-looking tanks.

I’ve not bred salt n pepper but I have bred quite a few types of corydora. What does their diet consist of? For me diet is the breeding trigger. Live worms for a week straight with live bbs and some high protein food yeilds me spawns every time. I do not do cold water changes or wait for storms or any of the other stuff folks do just feed.