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Hello everyone, My name is Bill and I have a fish tank problem... Wait wrong place. Or is it? Hummm... I got in to the hobby when my Ex GF got a tank from a big box store and of course she was mislead about what she needed to do. Things went bad one-day and I got a call that all the fish were dieing. I ran to the store and got meds after begging them to unlock the doors when I arrived. Unfortunately it was too late and they didn't make it. I then when down a rabbit hole trying to figure out what happened. Thanks when I found Aquascaping. I was inspired from tanks from Aquapros and many others. I wanted to make my own. I then acquiring a lot of education from Cory and the group of YouTube creators related to the channel. I have went off the deep end 😂. Admitted to myself I'm a water snob lol I now do RODI water as my tap is less than desirable and once you learn to much you don't want to drink that anyway 😆 I'm up to 3 tanks. 2 are scapes and trying my best to fight the urge to fill my house with fish tanks lol. In it for a few years now. Far from a pro and learning everyday. I love to learn. I have been searching for like minded people to continue education and not be in fear to ask a question because of the "jerks" found in many places. Most of my plants are from ACO. My dogs name is Charlie and pea puffers are my favorite fish 😊

Culinary student here. Hello 🙂 Bread from last week. Proving didn't go well because I tried a new method to ferment yeast and that did not work. Still amazing because I made roasted tomato garlic soup to go with it ❤️

Shh, don’t tell anyone 😆

It has been removed. See this thread for @Sarina explanation of why.

Hi again! Update from last night: After the grey female died, I was left with just a pair of guppies and I didn't want to buy more because nano fishes aren't as hardy as they're said to be. Especially guppies. Hence, I took both my guppies to the LFS, traded them in for a discount on a Betta!!!!!! I now have a red delta betta who is named Santa. Why? Because red, has a nice looking beard, joined my tank in December. Here's a pic of Santa. I was initially nervous if he'd get along with my nerites. He examined them for a while and then left them alone. Santa got a mosquito baby as a treat!

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!

Hi everyone. I've tried journaling in general several times but failed to be consistent. This time I'm doing a fish tank journal, so hopefully it being my hobby will keep me consistent, lol. Anyway. August 2023. My cousin gifted my little sister a 1 litre fishbowl with a guppy pair. Really beautiful pair. Female was a grey belly with mosaic tail, and the male was a dragon head. The male died in September 2023 and mom asked me to get another one, so I got a leopard guppy. Mom and sister flew away for vacation for 2 weeks in November 2023. Initially, I wanted to give a gift to my sister to make up for skipping many festivals and occasions. So I started planning out a bigger tank. With a very tight budget that was my entire savings, I decided to go with a 8g cube. I got it with fluorescent gravel as substrate and an internal filter. That was it for the beginning. I cleaned it, added water, dechlorinated it and immediately put my fishes in. I didn't know about cycling until 2 days later. I started a fish-in cycle from then. Here's a pic from that day. Yes you're also seeing an Albino Corydora because I was told to get it for bottom clean-up. 2 days later, I DIY'd a lid using sunboard, old CPU fan and a 3W blue spotlight laying from a festival decor. A week later, I thought my tank looks like the horrible fluorescent gravel overstocked glofish tanks. I decided to remove all gravel and switched to white sand. I also got an Anubias trimming, and a good bracket light for a full spectrum lighting. (At this point I had studied a decent bit about PAR and aquarium lighting) A couple of days after, I was told on many Discord communities that keeping the albino cory alone is a bad idea and the tank is also too small for him. So I exchanged it for 2 cherry shrimps. What happens next is actually kind of funny. I add my shrimp and one of them immediately disappears. I spend hours trying to find it but I can't. The next day, I see this. I asked around, experts confirmed my suspicion that the guppy had consumed a cherry shrimp and passed away the next day because of being unable to digest it. I quickly removed the other single shrimp remaining in my tank and gave it back to my local fish store. To replace the leopard guppy, I got this beautiful double swordtail guppy. I also wanted to maintain a 2f:1m ratio so I got another female guppy. At this point my tank was finally how I planned it to be. Although, this female was very pregnant and I had to do something about it. I quickly got a 20 litre water bottle from a grocery store and cut it in half. I also bought some chicken screen and zip ties and put together this. The female guppy somehow passed through the net the next day so I had to make it double layered to make the holes harder to pass, since both layers were offset and would cause the holes to be unaligned and smaller. Meanwhile, the tank got 2 nerite snails. I wish I knew about their bioload before getting TWO of them, haha. Enjoy a pic of them eating a slice of blanched cucumber. I decided to get two plants for better nitrate processing. Here's the weird part. A week after the leopard guppy died from presumably eating the cherry shrimp...... A CHERRY SHRIMP SHOWS UP IN THE TANK! I had already given away the other so there were supposed to be none! So the guppy did not die of eating a shrimp, because he never ate one! I immediately gave this shrimp back to the LFS. Fastforward to 10th December 2023. The grey female guppy (oldest one in the tank) passed away from Nitrite poisoning. I forgot to mention, I've been doing the cycle without a test kit because I can't afford one and it's too overpriced here. Worry not, it's coming in the next month or two before I get my next tank! By now, the pregnant fancy female had given birth at noon! I assume there to be around 25-30 fry. I got an air pump, tubing, air stone, T joint, knobs, and a sponge filter. Aimed to sell these fry so I wanted them to grow real healthy! Here are two pictures from 12th of December. The guppies look blurry, but this is the last time you'll see them....

I thought some people might like to see how I retrofitted some Easy Flow kits to my UGF plates. The first step was going to the hardware store to find some fittings that might work. These 3/4 threaded adapter will fit just fine once the threads are filed down.. The air riser tube from the UGF is a loose fir. A little polyurethane sealant will take care of that one… The fittings are 69 cents each. with the fitting secured in the vice 5 or so minutes quickly files down the threads. rest fitting shows how much to trim down. snug but not overly tight fit. I used the vice to press fit the collar onto the adapter. It can come off by hand and the collar shows no sign of deformation. I cut off bit of the solvent fit edge as well. About 1/2 an inch of gluing surface. I cut two 1 1/2 inch section of air riser tube and deburred. You can see it will never work as friction fit. I applied a little 3M 4200 polyurethane sealant witha q tip and then fitted the air riser tubes and cleaned up squeeze out. I will let these sit overnight before fitting them in my tank tomorrow and fitting the easy flow kit on them. At most I may have spent a half hour on this.. the photos and typing of this post probably took longer.

Welcome, Bill. I agree with @Guppysnail all except I like Charley the best. I'm a huge dog fan, but the cup's cool too. Your tanks look great. Have fun with the forum, it's been a life saver for me. 😃

No photo, but one of the smaller black racers nerites is out and about right now. I like to note that here so I can come check how long it's been since I saw one when I start wondering if they're still alive. They spend so much time in the gravel.

I'm not yet convinced that bad bread really exists. There's a spectrum, but like pizza (and other things) even bad... it's pretty good. It looks like it has decent air in any event!

I am so sorry for your loss. 🫂 You did everything you could. Sometimes the internal damage is more than we can help prior to them coming to our care.

I didn’t even think of this. It’s definitely in the possibility. Some do stay fairly flat and cream color.

Might also be a leech, I suppose. But they're pretty beefy usually. How "thick" was the creature, @KALgxh?

There are many types of planarians. # 1 in the chart seems to reach 1 cm I don’t know much about each type though Also pest id can be put in general discussion or under disease

I'm going with some kind of flatworm or planaria. 1cm seems big though. It would also be unusual that it wasn't moving around.

They grow very slow. Don’t be discouraged. I find with the sf eggs I need to really blast the air to get a decent hatch. I also found by forgetting to plug in my heater until the next day they need to be warm from the start or do not hatch or not well anyway. 79-80 is my sweet spot temp for those and I start with water at least 77.

That's an interesting idea. Like tempering chocolate. Maybe I've missed it but do you keep any microworms or vinegar eels? I also read in Amazonas Magazine that some people will use a small tank to culture microfauna. They'll put a leaf in there until biofilms develop and then they move it in with the fry for a few days. I haven't had tiny fry since reading that so I haven't personally tried it but it sounds interesting.

Big nothing from my SF strain brine shrimp eggs. That's disappointing. I put a bit of them in with the new ACO batch I set up today to see if they seem to hatch. I don't see why my setup wouldn't have worked. These things grow so slow. Maybe I am under feeding them, but I am gunshy.

Yes you can see how plump the belly is getting on the one. I might put in the spawning mop soon.

A little video I made of the new killis enjoying a grindal worm breakfast

My principle is, if one fish in a tank is sick, they all could be sick, even if not showing symptoms. All these fish are new. I remove uneaten food within 30 min unless it is live worms or Repashy. 30 min because Spike is slow to act. I set a timer. Yes, Spike would have less competition for sure. I target feed Spike. I will drop the food in front of his face with tongs so he has first pick. I’m not opposed to a bucket qt for the tetras but I’m out of heaters and established media that I can move without affecting its current tank cycle. Pleco kid started qt in 2nd tank on 12/2 so maybe 1/2 he can go to the community and Spike can live in his tank. The pleco seems very healthy! (I would continue the @Odd Duck deworming treatment on both tanks in that situation.) Also the ammonia in Spike’s tank has been holding at zero! the video @Colu

@jwcarlson. Yep, the inflammation around his gills went down quite a bit. I tried getting a picture tonight to show the difference, he wasn't totally cooperating, but i did get 1 pic that wasn't too blurry.

I separated out Swordtails from my Elassoma gilberti this evening. Pygmy Sunfish appearing everywhere!

I tried some searches earlier and found nothing that even came close. Now when I put some of the lyrics in and search, it directs me to your post!

It has been a while since I have posted in the forum. I just wanted to share my latest adventure and get some advice on pea puffers. This is Puffy, the class pet for my elementary school (grade 2). She lives in a 3-gallon planted tank by herself (and shrimp). There's a small forest of susswassertang in one corner and a growing mesh of giant salvinia and water lettuce creeping up top. She also has a collection of lava rocks and a couple of old ceramic plant pots that "miraculously" change locations every 2 weeks to create new angles and passageways for her to explore. She also has some tankmates, 5 shrimp that I cannot identify. So, please feel free to try and ID these guys. They cost about 300 won (South Korean currency, roughly 23 cents in the US) per shrimp. This leads me to believe they're a local variety or somewhere very close by. The biggest measures about an inch from the tip of its rostrum ("nose") to the tip of its tail. I think they look pretty cool. But I really bought them to feed Puffy and clean up the extra food. Their names are Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, and Midnight Snack. What I am Seeking Advice On It took some trying, but I was eventually able to feed Puffy some Vibra Bites. It took a while to figure it out. She only eats them when they are moving around the water column. Once they have landed, she loses all interest, and the shrimp have a field day. Once or twice a week, I feed her some baby snails from my bigger community tank at home. And, of the shrimp, she has eaten the smallest shrimp (Midnight Snack) so far. I am worried about the long-term nutritional content of Puffy. Is feeding Vibra Bites and some snails enough in terms of nutritional value?

Hi! My name is Andy and I am excited and happy to be joining this forum. I have kept fish since I was a child. I retired 1.5 years ago. I have kept a 40 gallon tank for years, with Lake Tanganyikan rock dwellers but put only the required effort into taking care of the aquarium. Now that I have been watching Aquarium Coop videos, I am fired up and re-invigorated. I am so thankful for all the information - just brilliant. I plan to add a 100 gallon community tank in the not-too-distant future. So hello and I look forward to chatting with you all!

I've kept mine in a ~15 planter outside for about 9 months now. They exploded in population during spring and summer but they've slowed down in the last few months. My wife told me that the cat must have killed something in the garage. Turned out it was the microworm culture that had gone bad.

I'm John Kings, a Melbourne local with a passion that runs as deep as the ocean – aquarium fish keeping! The mesmerizing world of aquatic life has captured my heart, and I'm excited to dive into this aquarium fish forum to connect with like-minded enthusiasts from around the globe. Living in the picturesque city of Melbourne has provided me with a front-row seat to the wonders of marine life, inspiring me to create and maintain my own piece of underwater paradise. Whether it's the vibrant hues of tropical fish or the graceful movements of freshwater species, there's something truly magical about the way these aquatic beings bring tranquility and beauty into our lives. Joining this forum is not just about showcasing my own aquatic endeavors, but also about tapping into the collective wisdom of a community that shares my love for aquariums. From troubleshooting tank-related challenges to discovering the latest advancements in aquatic technology, I believe that being a part of this forum will not only enhance my expertise but also provide a platform for fruitful exchanges with fellow fish enthusiasts. So, here's to swapping stories, sharing tips, and building a community that celebrates the diverse and captivating world of aquarium fish. I'm eager to soak up knowledge, make new friends, and contribute to the collective enthusiasm that makes this forum a haven for all things aquatic. Cheers, John Kings

I heard somewhere that nitrates are less toxic in high pH water. Have you heard this? Can you explain why at a chem/biology 101 level of understanding?

If livebearers, I would do male only, and endlers, not guppies. I had 4 in a 5 gallon for a month or two to liven it up, was not a problem. I also would under no circumstances do a pair of any betta, imbelis are also killers. One yes, two no. I have both least rasboras and clown killifish in separate and larger tanks, but I can see them working in a 5 gallon no problem. If you make it to their liking (floaters, dim lights, branches, leaf litter,..) Tiny tank and tiny fish have another problem. Large water changes mess up the chemistry too much. Overfeeding is a quick killer. Fertilizers are easily overdosed. Also small fish -> small mouth = small food. Shrimp are definitely easier than a 5 gallon with fish. Just saying

Sorry for your loss

I'm bound by oath to recommend killifish whenever I see a stocking recommendation like this. If you want an interesting breeding project you could go with a Nothobranchius species. They live about 10-16 months depending on species and care. I've kept a pair in a 2.5 and small groups in a 5 with lots of cover. Here's a pair of my Nothobranchius Eggersi: For something that live longer and may be easier to source you could go with Aphyosemion Australe or Striatum. Both are pretty docile and love plants. You can probably get away with a small group but a pair is definitely fine in there and if you keep them fed fry will probably pop up. @Slick_Nick has some pictures of Striatum in his journal here (that's not a Striatum in the thumbnail): Fundulopanchax Gardneri are also very pretty. I have limited experience with them but I do have some closely related fish in a 5 gallon Biotope and they don't seem to beat each other up (at least nothing serious like can happen with Nothobranchius). I think @Fish Folk has some Gardneri. Also clown killis are a good fit and they are shrimp safe. General rule for all of these: tight lid. I had 1/2 gap in a lid. They did fine for a few months and then suddenly something stressed them out and three jumped out and I found them dried out being the shelf. The species I mentioned are the more common ones your LFS should be able to find. If you're adventurous you can look on Aquabid or Dan's fish and you'll find plenty of other cool ones. The best option will probably be too just ask around. If you are in an area with a fish club, ask them and they'll probably hook you up with the local "killifish guy". Odds are they will be willing to share just for the opportunity to tell you about their fish (I got cornered at the club barbecue).

You may consider feeding less. The input to your tank (food) ultimately ends up as nitrate (less what is absorbed by plants). Are you fertilizing the plants (and with what)?

@PotatoFish I can't say for sure, but I think the puffer is missing it's tail? There might be fin rot going on there. That's awesome. I love the attention to detail to shift things around for the fish to explore. 🙂

@Colu Here's the vid. I noticed some listing to the side at the 3:45 mark or so and @Chick-In-Of-TheSea mentioned also seeing it at the 2:43 mark. I understand, I agree. I just really don't know what else to do as far as reducing the stress on Spike. Watching the feeding, the tetras are immensely active and he's just sort of staring at them with the, "you done yet"? I don't think rams are timid at all, and being able to cut way back on the food would help the bacteria in the tank as well. I'm not sure when the tetras are safe to move... but I think removing them may help in some way, that's all.

It may just be me and being paranoid but I would not move them being in a tank with a sick fish. I would wait 3 weeks after Spikes issues resolve before risking introducing something to a community that carried over with the tetras.

parasitic infection can affect the swim bladder coupled with ammonia he's been exposed due to defective test strips that could have affected the swim bladder I can't see the video I would keep going with the salt that will help with any potential ammonia poisoning and monitor if you can repost the video just in case something else is going on @Chick-In-Of-TheSea

Are you able to move out the tetras any time soon? 2:43 also & not sure. I’ve never had a fish with a swim bladder ailment. @Colu and @Odd Duck If you have any thoughts based on the video it would greatly help to try to make the right next step. OD mentioned being extremely busy this week, but just wanted to tag for the sake of helping at all. Thank you both. We appreciate you!

I work with a wide variety of emergents. Usually selecting any house plant that tolerates wet feet. I’m unfamiliar with the Carex or any wetland plants. Would you be able to provide some more specific names. Most of my Dracaena sanderiana has reach it life expectancy or at least is now out of its major growth and nitrate consumption phase it seems. I’m looking to replace it. Realestate in hobs(flowing planters 🤣) and planters is non existent so I need something / several somethings I can plug in the holes to just dangle roots in water that is a nitrate hog and fast growing or it will get shaded out by other plants. I have many types I can take cuttings from but love to try new things Thanks in advance for your help. The unique fields many forum members come from always excites me as opportunities to expand my hobby. Welcome aboard Gere are just a few of my tanks so you see what I mean about realestate, shading and end of life

You know, I was debating if I should sell my old tank when I get my new 3 feet tank but now that I've read your post, I'm inclined to keep it haha. I might switch to just a Betta and rehome the guppies because I don't want babies and keeping only males in a 8g cube isn't a good idea because I can't keep many to distribute the aggression. And thanks so much for the warm welcome, Guppysnail and ScandiDefence

I lost one rasbora (well I think just one, the tank is planted) but otherwise it is doing ok. Some of the least rasboras school together, some dont, some still swim with the pygmy corydoras Overall it works I hope 🙂 Rest of the tanks are good too, I bought 20 no color/ white/ mix shrimp to my Asian tank, to clean the moss

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.

Yessss 😷

My wife hated the smell as well 😆

I feed when the water clears. If it stays milky, I hold off.

How do you "know" when to feed your daphnia cultures?

I just got a daphnia magna and paramecium culture yesterday myself. I'd love to be able to feed daphnia daily, the adult ones in my culture were freaking huge (compared to BBS). I'm actually kind of excited for some meatier options for my fish as it seems like they need to eat a million BBS for a meal. Thinking I need a bigger container to culture in, though. I've got a couple of seed shrimp cultures going as well. What I REALLY need to do is come up with somewhere to put all of these, honestly. 😄

I began feeding some Daphnia to fish today. I was pleased to watch the Elassoma gilberti housed with a sorority of Brick Swordtails showing up… They really can camouflage well… They do not express full colors unless conditions are right. But hopefully I’ll see more as the year turns over the calendar… Bear in mind that the male E. gilberti are capable of nearly unmatched glory in spawning form…

We return them. We do, however, occasionally travel south to collect stock that we keep…