Leaderboard

So, I have been breeding my black rams for some time and I had a chance to make some observations Both parents are black, just like the pic given below. So far all babies are either blacks or golds, golds have a higher percentage. Golds tend to be hardier, and generally grows faster, have better survival rate. ------------------ I would like to continue breeding my own line in the future from my good looking healthy offsprings. However, I would like to focus on making the black babies stronger and equalise their growing to golds if possible. Also would appreciate having more and more black babies like their parents. So, my questions are; 🐟How does fish genetics work in this regard? Is selectively breeding the best looking healthy fish is the way to strengthen your future lines and having that color pop up more in the future? Like should I constantly raise and breed black babies from every future generation, like first F1, then F2, then F3...? How can one stabilise a color line better? 🦈At what point in breeding of same generation may constitute a problem? At what point adding a new blood is necessary, if it is? 🐡Like I can ask the same for my long fin super red bristlenoses. The babies are all red but around %65 longfin and %35 normal fin type. They don't seem to have issues of survival rate and growing in comparison of both fin types unlike rams' color in my experience. Also the fin quality differs between long fins too. How can one can make the offspring look ideally what they want, and least in a much higher ratio, without any potential harm to quality of life like extreme inbreeding and stuff?

My staple is white worms and grindle worms. They take up almost no space, are crazy easy and are very consistent.

I'm willing to bet they're being eaten as they're being born. You also may need denser top of the tank coverage as I see most of the foliage is located on the bottom half.

The idea started with me making a 3d printed overflow when i realized the overflow is a perfect basket for foam and filter floss. I think its better to pull the water through filter media rather than pushing it and siphon should do that without the chance of overflowing. There is a union on the underside of just incase you need to disconnect overflow and get the siphon going again (tumble it around in a bucket or tank till the air comes out). The valve and cam lock is for clean out. I've upgraded my python to camlock as some of the python fittings were leaking. Large chamber is to reduce the speed of the flow and allow for a more efficient airlift pump. It also works as a nice place for bio media Con's I see 1) probably will need substantial airflow to get 200gal per hr which is the same as the current pump i have on the tank 2) Overflow is a surface skimmer so you need a ATO system. (already in place for me) 3) kinda large and plumbing parts are expensive right now I haven't decided if i'm going to make it but the overflow box is in production on craftcloud . Ill test it out on the bench and see if everything works. What do you guys think?

What size tank? How many total fish are in the tank? Sometimes when numbers are too high and space is low livebearers will stop producing fry or fry are eaten as they are birthed before cover can even be found. It’s brutal but I’ve seen it happen when I had guppies. I never had success in getting fry when I moved the moms to smaller tanks. I assume it was the stress factor.

Looks like a skud to me. Depending on who you ask they are either a pest (they eat plants) or a good live food

All plants seem to be doing better since I've been using the magnesium and GH booster. Java fern is making some nice new leaves. Anubias has a large new leaf coming for the past week or so. Ambulia seems to be producing more new shoots. Quadricostatus is growing well again. And the S. Repens is doing well that I can tell. I'm still getting some new growth that has misshapen leaves on the S. Repens but its only a couple of the stems. Most of them seem perfect to me. Maybe you guys can see something that I dont. Also I trimmed my ambulia when I did my water change on Wednesday and there was a big mass of green hair algae in the middle of it. I'm guessing its just too close to the light and I need to turn the light down a bit. Or I need to trim it more so its thinned out and not such a big mass blocking all the light.

Hi! Thank you so much for your suggestions. Fact is that he had friends, 3 to be precise. I knew that they're very territorial, and needed friends of their own kind, and asked the store staff how many would suit a 40 gallon tank and they recommended 4. The one I got now didn't agree with the store staff and stressed the life out off 2 of the others, I had so much plants that I didn't realize they're gone and a while ago I found the third one on the floor, dry. He had jumped to his death, rather than stay with the one who's left. He doesn't get any new buddies. I kind of like him, he's been with me for so long and I have a soft heart for misfits. The only good thing about him is that he makes my cardinal tetras school phenomenally.

I’ve noticed over the past couple of weeks that one of the pieces of wood in the 29 Blackwater tank had basically disappeared thanks to the Swords finally gaining some height. Simply needed to move it to the bare left side of the tank. I made that move tonight, and was rather pleased with it. I looked to the left at the 20 long Blackwater tank. I’ve had this Anubius Nana Petite just chillin in that tank. It’s been there for months. Still in the pot, growing, looking really great, but I just hadn’t decided what to do with it yet. I knew it needed to go somewhere, but just hadn’t picked the spot yet. And then it dawned on me. With the “new” piece of wood now on the left side of the 29 I had spots to fill with plants. I took the Petite out of the 20 long, busted it out of the rock wool, and ended up with 3 pieces of rhizome. 2 went into the 29, with the final piece staying in the 20. 20 long. Little piece of the Petite ended up on the right in the picture above. I’m diggin’ how it ended up. All Anubius (No Brakes). 29. Pretty stoked on the subtle changes. Big impact, though. It’s nice to have just a little more greenery on the left side of the tank. Helps balance it out and the sponge filter is still open for easy maintenance. It’s crazy to me that I’ve had these materials this entire time and just didn’t see the vision. Then with one small change of moving a single piece of wood it all came together. Gotta love it.

Took delivery of the TANK!!! Was ordered in October and was supposed to come early December. Had a slight delay but honestly for us, this was no big deal we aren't even entirely ready for everything yet. Intrepid Partner got the call that it was coming and delivery scheduled. Came yesterday via semi truck. The crate it came in- HUGE. The tank itself on the bottom and a portion built on top for the sump and other accessories the tank came with. All told the crate and tank was about 850lbs. Understandably they told us you need at least 2-3 people to move it. The driver got it off the truck of course and parked it before we got our 3rd person over to help get it in the house. We had back up plans in case we needed more people but they wouldn't be home to help until a few hours later. We crossed our fingers we could get it in. Once it was parked you have to inspect the goods before you sign the driver's paperwork. That required taking countless screws out to get the plywood sides off. I didn't get a picture of the crate completely closed because as you can imagine we were busy with logistics, but here it is safe and sound waiting for the move after we revealed it: Here is the beautiful tank, flawless: In order to make the move easier into the house we had to remove as much weight from the crate as possible. We removed all of the accessories, the sump and items from inside the tank itself (which were only lights and wavemakers). Then Intrepid Partner went about removing the top part of the crate and plywood. He gave me permission to use the real photo, but I think the smiley face is more fun. Plus he was loving it, he thrives on logistics and problem solving. Our cavalry arrived (a friend) so we went about a series of moves with a dolly (to lift sides), rolling carts, moving straps, plywood and towels to get the tank out of the street, up a 20ft walkway, up 2 porch steps and across a wood floor. No, no pics of this move either as you can imagine every hand was needed to move this behemoth of a tank. It remained in the wood for its safety and for the fact that Intrepid Partner was waiting on its arrival to build the stand/cabinet that will house it so it will be some time until it's permanently placed. But it was placed as where my diagram from previous posts indicated: Here: Of course we have a curious resident (meet Cheeto the indoor/outdoor cat): The tank is beautifully constructed. Not easy to take any pics due to what is left of its crate- but the black silicone seams are perfect and straight (not what I'm used to with mass produced tanks!) and the metal frame (because we live in earthquake country) is very hardcore and sturdy. Intrepid partner also went with ultra clear glass AND their thickest option (which if I remember correctly is 5/8"!) - just check out that drilled hole for the plumbing (I know, hard to tell, but trust me it's very thick glass): Intrepid Partner did the ordering/consulting with Custom Aquariums so he got things they "packaged" as a group. Lights, pumps, powerhead/wavemakers, some biomedia, UV sterilizer, auto-feeder (Enheim), heater (Enheim, which eventually I'll replace with heaters I prefer), fish net, wand scraper, Mag Float scraper. This is all besides the parts that come with the tank and sump. Funnily they included in one of those packages the most ridiculous plastic plants that would be absolutely dwarfed in a tank this size: Probably no bigger than 12" tall. It was laughable. I was amused. Hopefully those are just a cheesy "free gift with purchase". Overall so far a very good experience with the company (per Intrepid Partner's dealings) and the process overall. Everything seems very high quality. Intrepid Partner will be starting the steel tubing build on the stand and we have yet to decide what the skin of the stand will look like- but we'll figure it out and update over time here!

Snoopy is ticked off! Despite sending them down the tube to target Snoop, the tetras pushed in and stole 95% of the white worms! After they already ate a ton of grindals! I did reattempt, to make sure she got a few with the baster then. But this happened afterward. She’s holding a grudge and wants her space! She is particularly annoyed with the pristellas. The black neons she doesn’t seem to mind. Part of the prob is she instantly wants to rub her belly in the worms (shown in a previous vid), the worms float about, and it’s fair game to whoever is around…

This has been going on for a while but i figured id make an official post on it to see if anyone has any other ideas Platies are notorious in the aquarium hobby for being easy to breed. All the guides say "they will make fry" so i cant find any information relating to my problem. I'm not getting any platy fry. This first started happening many many months ago, i dont quite remember when i stopped seeing fry its been so long. Often when people talk about no platy fry, the problem is predation, cover, or water parameters. I have a 20high community tank. My pH is 7.4, while my hardness tests are off i use 1tsp per 20gallon marine salt after water changes to raise hardness, temp is 76. The tank is a planted tank and there is plenty of cover. Even if there is not enough cover for fry to hide and survive, i used to always see at least one or two fry running around after birth. I've even had this issue when ive moved definitely pregnant females to a separate tank and have waited a month, no fry. My albino corydoras have been doing great and breeding on the other hand so i have doubts it is an environmental issue. At the moment i have three theories: Food variety: Having many foods in a rotation can get expensive and im low on budget, i can only feed two or three foods right now, i was having lots of success with my platies when i had them on a big feeding rotation but i dont love this theory because even just on tetra flakes i was getting fry. Genetics: Maybe something genetic means im not getting any fry and id need to introduce fresh genes. my current stock comes is 2years of a few generations of fish from an original 6 so i guess inbreeding could be a problem Im not good at observing: All the fry get eaten right after birth orwhen i isolate females i do something wrong so i dont get fry. At the moment im stumped and would love to hear all ideas, care guides have not been too useful because i feel like im following them and getting no results. Im happy to answer any questions and would really like to see some platy fry again. here is a picture of my tank:

I won't ruin the surprise.... This is amazing. I would definitely be excited if my sponge came pre seeded like that! 😂

That Ram looks amazing! Wow. I’ll relate a strange story to begin this response… About 6 years ago, I was attending my son’s soccer practice. He was too young to leave there alone, so I would try to bring some work along. I got distracted, though, by this guy who would be training dog owners by the side of the field. Every practice, people showed up with hyper, out-of-control dogs, and within minutes, this guy had the dogs totally obedient and calm, obeying his commands. It was crazy. Then, he would teach the owners everything they were doing wrong, and send them on their way home with instructions. I talked with him one day, and learned that he had studied animal psychology, and trained dogs for police and military over many years. The reason I am remembering this just now is that he told me that early on in his career, he lived with his uncle in Germany who bred Alsatians. His uncle told him that the old breeders used to breed every 3rd generation to a wolf in order to maintain desired traits. Fact or fiction… I do not know. But that might be a decent rule of thumb for crossing in a new line. Maybe breed your F2s or F3s to a different Black Ram line. If you can find another Black Ram breeder, you could be doing each other a favor by exchanging the best from each line to build in stronger genetic diversity. Livebearers can go 7-8 generations inbred before deformities consistently show up. The situation is complex with Rams though their traits are different… weak genetics show up earlier. We tried breeding an Opal Ram. We got an interesting couple of possibilities, but the line was weak…

I used No Planaria in my tank for scutariella japonica and it killed the hydra I had. I would often watch the hydra and NEVER saw them catch or try to catch a shrimplet. The hydra were green, so I believe they were eating algae or catching the Soilent green powder I was feeding.

Cichlids gonna cichlid! It has taken my Angelfish tank FOREVER to develop a colony of Ramshorn snails to help clean up. That being said, there’s a few in there now, but not near as many as there would be without the Angels. Just one those things.

I keep mine on the floor in the fishroom the top is open like a mini pond, I have floating plants there and a tiny yucky sponge filter on a very low setting, I feed a mixture of activated yeast and spirulina. If you have green water people use that too. I didnt have a chance to try sunlight yet but although it may help for algae, I would worry that the water would get too hot by the sunlight for their liking I got both daphnia and white worms from other hobbyists to start my culture at home so yes you are gonna have to find one. I find it too risky to collect anything from a lake or so. And daphnia eggs didnt work for me sadly @Guppysnail has worm cultures if you are interested in. Maybe dm her to ask if you are from the US White worms basically want cooler temps, and you keep them in soil. You feed them bread, yogurt and nutritional yeast. Some people may prefer different feeding methods but so far this works great for me. All you gotta do is renewing the bread when it starts molding

Southern California, it doesn't get super cold maybe down in the 40's a couple of times but winter here is more in the 50's at night and 60's during the day.

You can get odd random deaths days or weeks apart with parasitic infection sometimes with no symptoms it might be worthwhile doing odd Ducks treatment protocol for parasitic infections

I will look into those. White worm generally requires a starter culture? Daphnia I will look into but from what I remember it blanched veggies in sealed water container in sunlight?

And this is why we read all the way to the *bottom* of aquarium plant listings before buying a plant online... LOL. I wanted a cute medium sized anubius for my aquarium, to add some interest to the less heavily planted side. So I popped online to look. I found a leaf shape I liked, saw it said it was a "mother plant" so it could make babies, and thought, "Aww, how cute." Clearly, I was having a blonde day and didn't think, "Oh, I bet a mother plant is larger." The thought never even crossed my mind. I guess you live and you learn. 😆 (Cat for comparison LOL)

Exactly right, it's 84Lx22Wx24H

im no engineer, but if it were me, and i wanted a stand more than a few inches wider than the tank, i would double up the front and back top 2x4's, just to be sure they didnt sag over time.

Today, I lost another one. I've lost 3/3 now, from the same breeder, from the same shipment. He didn't perch at the top of the water column, he was laying around a lot though. His fins looked a bit ragged, but not clamped. His caudle tail did have an area that looked like tissue was attempting to grow back. Part of his caudle tail tip was missing but I didn't see any redness. He was eating. I feed Hikari sinking pellets, algae wafers and San Francisco Bay blood worms. I am hoping that was just a bad batch, I over medicated or both. Hopefully, this second batch I received on 12/19 stays healthy... I don't see any physical symptoms, so far. 🤞 I didn't feed them for 24 hours, I didn't medicate them, other than Seachem Stressguard. I checked my water parameters and they're still good including ammonia and nitrates all at 0. 0 Chlorine, Nitrates low at 20ppm. GH in the 200's, KH went down a bit from 80 to like 60ish but pH holding at around 7.2-7.3.

Actually on planetcatfish and some other sites Hypancistrus are mentioned as carnivores but my biologist friend who studies loricariidae evolution as her PhD said scientific literature has never suggested them being carnivores, and she said these fishes will go for meaty foods doesn't mean it's what they are adapted for in the wild. I used to feed mine heavily on a carnivore diet due to my similar researches but not anymore. I tagged the related part of Rebecca's video, hope it's helpful!

I have a 75 Gallon planted aquarium and have kind of hit a lull in my hobby evolution and am looking for ideas of what to do next. Parameters: 79-80 degrees 7.5 PH 0 ppm of ammonia, nitrate, or nitrite (thank you plants!) Not sure of exact number but the water is on the harder end. I currently have the following stocking: 11 Neon tetra 9 Rummynose tetra 8 panda cories 3 Pearl Gourami 1 Julii Cory (rescue) 1 Bristlenose Pleco 1 CPO Crawfish 1 Amano Shrimp 1 Gold Ram (last survivor) I have done rams for a while now and they are great but I think I am ready for something else but I am not sure what direction to go in. I have had most of the fish in this tank for 2-3 years and don't love the idea of trading them in and don't have another tank to move them to so I think I want my next feature fish to be able to co-habitate (is that a word) with what I currently have. This eliminates most cichlids African or South American. I eventually want to do an Mbuna tank but right now I feel like I am not ready to abandon the planted tank. Also with my children's after school schedules (dancing, sports, etc.) I don't have a ton of time to do maintenance and rely on the plants to keep the water clean. Current ideas that I am playing with: 1) Betta Sorority - I have never been super into Bettas because you can only keep one in a tank for the most part and it really limits the tankmates and I am really into community tanks with a variety of species. But a sorority might be fun. My fear is that it will go wrong and I will have wasted money to watch fish kill each other. My other issue is that none of the LFSs have a good Betta selection so I would have to order online. This drives the price up with shipping and I have had bad experiences in the past of getting fish that don't have the best coloration that I would not have picked out if I saw them in the store. I'd also have to figure out how to lessen the flow coming out of my cannister filter but I feel like I could figure that one out if I went this route. 2) Rainbow Fish - I have never really been into rainbow fish but the colors are striking and they are active. My main issue with this route is that I can only stock so many in a 75G tank and I'd want a few of multiple varieties but based on research it seems like these are best kept in decent size groups. Could these be kept in pairs or with 2 males of a certain type and no females? The main draw to these is that I think my kids and guests would be drawn to the colors. This idea would be more for others than myself but, who knows, maybe I'm a rainbow guy and don't even know it. 3) Angel Fish - Similar to rainbows, I have never really given angel fish the time of day. They have always seemed pretty boring to me and from what I have read, they eventually pair up and kill each other. But looking for a new direction to go, this could be an option. They would fit well with my current stocking for the most part as well. The only fish they might beef with is the gouramis considering they occupy the same water level. The pro to Angel fish is that I could still do rams if I wanted. Angel fish just don't excite me though. Maybe someone in this thread can convince me otherwise. 4) More schooling fish - Maybe I should abandon the centerpiece type fish idea and get more schooling fish. Maybe I could get some Odessa barbs, Congo tetra, Harlequin Rasbora, and/or chili rasbora. Maybe even add a second species of Cories or stock up on more panda cories. This idea seems fun but my draw back is that schooling fish are kind of mindless. I enjoy watching my rams have territory disputes and search the tank for food. With all schooling fish, I would miss out on that aspect of it. But like I said before, I don't have a ton of time to dedicate to the tank and don't get to watch the happenings of the rams very often anyway. So maybe colorful schools would be better for the time being. Now that I am typing this out, this idea is growing on me. Just looking for anyone's opinion on any of these ideas and maybe some suggestions that I haven't thought of myself.

Took me far too long to update this, but I finally got to see my bumblebee catfish! It turns out they are VERY gregarious, and will come out whenever I put food near its cave.

@beastie you said you could be interested in barbs. Have you thought about Puntius titteya? My LFS put them in their shop show tank last year. The week they did they jumped out at me. I’ve been totally enthralled with them since. I don’t have a tank that can support them at the moment. This sounds horrible that I already have a planned home for them but when my luminatus pass they are going in that tank since the luminatus eggs are to small for me to see. The internet photos do not do them justice. The males are more stunning fire engine red and less orange than the net photos. The females are such a gorgeous gold. These are the 2 photos that come closest to what they look like in person. The female still don’t show the metallic gold they do in person. Also very peaceful. Can hold their own in any mostly peaceful tank but also do well in timid tanks. They do not bother anyone.

should i water change in between doses?

Anyone would say any of the nannostomus are a good option? I have mixed research on them

I have never had barbs but I always wanted them. When I was planning my asian tank I initially thought about odessa, for the temp, but the tank was on the bit too small side. I will definitely check your videos though and will keep thinking barbs 🙂 I used to have zebra danios back in the day, fun fish, but I would want something different ( I try not to cycle back to fish I had before)

The chemists on the various forums state that they don't believe it works as they don't know of any way that it could work (and they are still able to measure ammonia after dosing Prime or similar products). Others swear by it. It's actually quite a big controversy. I tried to research it a bit, but I was able to find little actual experimental data. I found two contradicting experiments, neither of which was particularly rigorous. It's actually quite a strange situation. You've got a product that is widely used, but with no actual solid research to show that it does (or doesn't) work. It could be just bloodletting, or it could be a fish life saver. 🤔 My advice is, if you have it, you might as well use it, but pretend that it doesn't work, meaning continue to do your water changes. If it works, great, if not, you are still reducing ammonia with the water changes.

@Vanessa K lowering the water level will help also.

Consider some tomasi cichlids. Small and super peaceful. I'm sure you could fit like a handful in your tank.

Thank you! And yes, I did cycle my tank. Now I'm just letting the bacteria and everything else establish themselves for a while longer. I understand, I won't clean it then. I appreciate the advice!

Because I will do a water change later today, I fed bloodworms, some algae wafers (for the otocinclus, but they are not the one who get to eat it). I also found a dead white cloud minnow on the glass support beam under the lid, was there for some time apparently, I nearly hurled. Sometimes the hobby is not so fun. Managed to get a nice picture of my amano, and I tried to use a sieve to separate smaller bloodworms for pygmy corydoras, and ended up with a sieve full of bloodworms, so I just dumped it in the tank for the garras to clean. No idea how other people do it, I guess the pygmies will just get to eat the rotifers and the bbs and the rest with the rasboras

Hi Everyone! Here are the 2023 Holiday retail store hours for the upcoming holidays: Sun. 12/24/23: 10 - 4:30pm Mon. 12/25/23: CLOSED Sun. 12/31/23 10 - 4:30pm Happy holidays from the Aquarium Co-Op retail store!

Here's a bunch of video clips for anyone who wants to see my fish, crustaceans and tanks. "Pomegranate" the indian lilac crab learning about personal boundaries with "Blueberry" the red cheek crayfish. More "Blueberry" the red cheek crayfish footage "Pomegranate" climbing to the top of the universe and dropping down to the world below. My 75g Baby reticulated hillstream loach My 10g "Pluto" the apisto borelli "Falco" and "Foxy" the peacock gudgeons Gold claw fiddler crab Watermelon fiddler crab My 40g My 29g "Arcanis" the gold ram

update: salt does not appear to have done anything. We just dosed No-Planaria

Hey, dealing with black mold can be a hassle. If it's in your tank, it's crucial to address it. Mold can be harmful to both your plants and fish. You might want to try removing the affected leaves and improve ventilation to reduce condensation. Submerging it and relying on snails might help, but keep an eye on water quality. If the issue persists or worsens, it's not a bad idea to consult experts like water damage restoration San Diego. They can provide guidance on handling mold issues effectively. Anyway, stay vigilant, mate!

its that time again!

When i was cycling my 10x4 i purchased some serpae tetra AND this little guy: Hadn't seen him in 3 weeks so spent the day looking for him; usually he stays under a rock and just sticks up his tail like a white flag but today i caught him out in the open. Bet he's sorry he came out...

The 450: And in the 550 folks are reminding me it is almost dinner time: In a video it would be more obvious but they swim back and forth by my desk when it is time to eat.... otherwise they stay far far away from me 😞

I was trying to take a photo of the plants and afterward I looked at it and saw that Snoopy was being cute for the camera.

We lost two mystery snails in this tank a couple weeks ago, but I removed them the same day. We may have lost Nerites or some fish and not noticed. I'll have to check in hard to reach areas.

I cannot get over how cool the hillstream loaches are.

@Brainsponge @Guppysnail The member's only category of the website was removed due to issues on the back end with our inventory system. As far as I know, it will not be coming back.

I think they took it down to edit the prices, when I last checked the scratch and dent products they did not reflect the current prices on the site and were discounted based on the old pricing.