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Hi everybody 👋 So while Christmas shopping I could find anything for anybody so I bought a fish tank 😂 29g for my pea puffers. Ordered all my plants of the coop. Showed up Friday. Got some time in today. Still cloudy and might water change again tomorrow, will see. Seeded with an sponge filter I have in another tank. Using the coop sponge filter and I got to say I'm impressed with the flow. Super excited to see how it will grow out. Tiger lotus on the right I hope will give the right a nice pop when it grows in. 😁

I hope everyone rings in the New Year in a positive note. Remember all the things you did well this year and praise yourself for your accomplishments. Stay safe and if your festivities are near your tanks take a few extra moments to make certain they are safe as well.

Happy New Year! We are ringing in the new year with a cookie baking party. All 5 kinds of gluten free cookie dough have been mixed up and are chilling, and the first batch just came out of the oven! I also spent some time this morning hanging with my fish and feeding them a slightly more varied diet for the occasion. Sensei Fish also wishes everyone a wonderful year to come.

Oh man, you can’t win, can you? So sorry. So I guess water changes are further complicated.. sheesh.. get well soon! On the plus side, you and Polo both have fun leg stories to tell in the future. Talk to @Guppysnail. She uses a plastic coffee filter? Floats it. She has the right idea. I think I will go ahead and implement this strategy. ❤️

Hi Everyone, I wanted to share as there isn’t a lot of information out there about red mangroves in the freshwater aquarium. I got my mangroves off Amazon about 1.5 years ago, i tried them floating with all different kinds of lights and they really seemed to struggle. In the last year they have been in one consistent set up although it has been given minimal care on my part due to a few things. The tank is a 20 gallon high, substrate is 1/4 gravel from Home Depot and two Mangroves. the initial stocking was 1 male and 2 female guppies. The tank has been set up with no filter, airstone, and i recently added a heater for winter as it is now a garage office. But about 7 months ago i moved the set up to in front of a west facing window which caused and EXPLOSION of growth. The tank has kept stable pH, great buffer and no ammonia, nitrite, nitrate. Currently there are between 200-300 guppies in this 20g talk all happy and healthy. I top it off once a week with a few gallons. mangroves are incredible and they are my favorite part of the tank for sure. The water has never turned green. There is some hair algae but that’s great for the babies to hide in. ENJOY NATURE!

End of the year Status: This tank was probably neglected the worse through the holidays, but nothing died so atleast I got that going for me!

Year end status

I use one of the metal mesh coffee filters set inside some styrofoam for other eggs. My dad is a fabulous dad. You can cut up a soda bottle and make an actual tumbler. There are YouTube videos on how.

Happy New Year fellow nerms.. The new group of 5 pygmy corys are doing well in there new home. They are getting used to the other 3 pygmy's and everyone is starting to hang out together more. I did get the single apisto borelli juvenile out of there tank since noticing it. It's in the 5 gallon shrimp and snail tank for now until I find it a new home. It's still pretty small so I'm not to worried about it outgrowing the 5 gallon before I get it a forever home. The new killi gardneri are doing awesome as well. They are taking to the frozen daphinia and frozen garlic brine shrimp well. The cpds paleys honeys and apistos are enjoying the frozen foods as well. I think I will put them into my regular food rotation. Speaking of that I need to get a streamline rotation of foods established better. For there health as well as on my wallet 😆 I added the spawning mop into the killis tank a little over a week ago. I'm hoping I will find eggs soon so I can try and raise some new babies. I know at @Guppysnail is looking forward to receiving some of these. I check it every few days to hope to not have to many eaten in between check days. As far as my adventure plans for the New Year I have a few things in mind. My plan is to have a fellow fish club friend help me build a couple of 2x4 dual 20 long tank stands. This way I can upgrade the shrimp sanctuary the danio/pygmy tank and the killis tanks to 20 longs instead of 10gallok tanks by doing this I can streamline my dinning room to a more manageable and aesthetically appealing mini fish room. The goal is to have 4 20 longs total. The 29 and one 10 gallon wild type shrimp/snail/at tank. I hope to keep the bottom tanks on the new stands at least 12" off the floor for better viewing and water changes. Once this happens I plan to move the 207 canister filter over to the 29. Then run dual penguin pro 125s on the 4 20 long tanks. I personally like the pro 125s as the most versatile and all around hobs. I am also a fan of always running 2 types of filtration on all of my tanks. Yes I know I'm sure it's major overkill but this way I always have at least one filter that stays in place each water change while the other gets by weekly service. So all tanks also have 1-2 coop sponge filters on them as well. This all will not happen at once. I plan to upgrade each of the 3 10gallon tanks one at a time. Less stress and again easier on the wallet So as always keep it fishy my friends.

totally easy. you got this! use a net, place it over an airstone or over a sponge filter just resting on the rim of the tank.

It’s been a whole 2 weeks - hi! New year, new goals: get a saltwater tank up and running, breed tetras successfully, and eradicate duckweed (not very realistic 😏). It also turns out that falling down stairs with a bust arm can result in a torn ligament…🤕 New angels for a future breeding project arrived from one of the biggest breeders in my Local Club. Just a mix & match of blushing, black, wild, gold, and koi. Hopefully there’ll be some good crosses out of that lot! Also btw one of my BNPs is a terrible dad…is it possible to make a DIY egg-tumbler? Happy new year from Gretel 🫠

Hey @knee. Sorry for your fish losses. Hope everything is ok with the family. Great to see you back.

rubberlip pleco are really awesome glass cleaners. best I've seen. If you can, push the tidal all the way to the middle of the tank for better flow patterns. There's some plant location adjustments you can do to help things out too. Overall it sort of depends on what you want the hardscape to be, then adjust the plants where they "fit" that setup. Just quickly looking at the layout these are a few things I would adjust if it was my setup. Red = move the filter over so your intake and output in around the middle of the tank. Right now you have very low circulation off on the right right of the tank. purple = move the stem up front that's being blocked out by the fern over towards the middle, consider location where the wood is now or where the fern is right now. You could also leave the fern right where it is, but move the stem so it doesn't get shaded out and replace it with anubias perhaps. Blue = move the amazon sword (I think that's what it is) towards the left corner where there is slightly less intense light, and move the yellow stem somewhere in the middle segment of the tank. The wood is right under the brightest part and slightly middle of the tank. For golden ratio, you'd want to just push that towards the right a little bit, centered about where that grey stone is. (sort of swap the wood and the stone maybe). edit, that fern on the rock you could also push toward the back corner somewhere and it'll be able to grow tall and give you some depth. Especially with the anubias in front of it that in the middle of the tank. The tank is growing and it's at the cranky teenager stage. I'll be excited to see it when you get things growing like crazy on you and you've got the plant mass going a bit more crazy! 🙂

You'll have to show me whenever time allows. I have one that has cataracts, but had a ghostly white eye that was treated. (Black corydoras) I spot feed her and she's removed from the group. I am unsure what caused it, why it happened, but maybe it was from movement during shipping. 😔 No idea how many I sent originally, but good to hear they are alive and kicking. I tried this new food from aqueon, nutrinsect, which doesn't have fishmeal or fish oil. There's some reasons for that, but it seems like a really good (and cheap) corydoras food. Ingredients aren't bad either. Just a heads up. I can mail you a little bit of you want to try how they do with it.

Yep. Never went away but I figured it doesn’t really affect him/her. I just did a water change and I counted 13 pandas 🐼 Happy to be back! Thank you @Lennie! Did a water change today and this is what I saw after I filled the tank 😂 Haven’t rescaped yet because I’m still collecting hard scape. Rocks and driftwood are so expensive here in socal 😞

Shrimping along…. nothing special apart from a bunch of shrimplets in and around the place. Evolution in the making:

Ok rather than pollute the today thread with more pictures of my water changes i decided to make a thread to talk about my various aquariums. I currently have the follow aquariums: 10ftx4ftx23 (approx 550 gallons) (for loaches, festum and angels) 8ftx4ftx23 (approx 450 gallons) (for geo) 4ftx4ftx16 (approx 160 gallon) for (a. pucallpaensis b. cupido and c. hastatus) (oddly this tank has no schoolers) 4ftx30inchx16 (approx 120 gallon) for a. Bitaeniata n. morthenthale and some hatchet fishes. 72x30x16 (approx 180) bed room (for keyholes !!!) 72x24x24 (wild discus and blue rams) 4ftx2ftx2ft (whatever happens to land in there) 29 gallon 1 (pangio myersi !!!) 29 gallon 2 (c. equeus) 40B guppies !!!! 10 gallon (a. pucallpaensis and shrimp) --- Today we will post a couple of pictures from my bed room aquarium; why because today is sunday and i did a water change on it: But before we get started this is my favorite aquarium: It has everything - and probably too much hornworth; i did throw away about 70% of it yesterday but alas it still has too much... how hum i guess next week i'll reduce it a bit more. The plant on the right to the left of the golden anubia is an interesting plant i picked up in may called a red lip crypt pontederiifolia; it is less green than your typical pontederifolia and with strong light and a touch of co2 is quite purple - but this aquarium has neither super strong light nor co2 and it still grows fine just a touch more green. I think after 7 months we can say it is safely settled in and growing. -- Now for the 72x30 - we start with some very very naughty fish that could use a good spanking 'cept i dont' care too much: What happened is moved some dwarf sag that had sent runners the wrong way and left some exposed roots. Guess who loves to eat plant roots.... and and he didn't eat just one he ate all of the 'xposed ones and then dug up some more! Now on to some more interesting pictures: This is a pink nurri rosen (I think); it is like your typical nurri rosen but more pink and no it doesn't require any co2: This is a very large pink jacobii - i swear it is a wenditti that someone painted pink; it also doesn't require co2 and my red lizards love to hide under it (I have 4) they also show you just how colourful this plant is and that it isn't an optical illusion . This is your more typical nurii rosen - really a nice plant without all that ugly pink in the pink nurii and jacobi - a welcome constrast - don't you disagree ? This is an expensive plant i really abused when it is was in the 40B; luckily it is growing just fine in the new aquarium now that i got rid of that pesty co2 that was killing everything. It is called crypt cordata var siamensis; probably should have gotten 2 of them but they were a bit expensive and i didn't know if they would grow in my aquarium. Hopefully this one will send out a runner or something - it has put out 2 new leaves in the past 8 weeks (i'm talking about the plant that is green with white lines in the middle). Last boring picture; this is my e. kleiner prinz plant. You can compare it to this picture and see it has sent out new leaves; they were a tad greener than they should be so i relocated it directly under the light. I know with co2 and strong light it will turn a brilliant wine colour but we shall see what it does without co2. (older picture below from what you are doing thread; the one above has 2 new leaves and they are a little taller)

I have been learning a ton through Aquarium Co-op videos. I have significantly upped my tank care for my 40 gallon all-in-one tank with neolamprolgus elongates (or brichardi, depending on the source). Some of the fairy cichlids are hiding, as are the synodontis pericola. Plants are doing better than ever and the fish have spawned (it has happened before but this is the largest one I have seen). I have been using the Aquarium Co-op baby flake food - I grab some with long tweezers and let it go near the fry. After more than a week, there are still a lot of babies, so they must be eating it! So I am grateful to Aquarium Co-op for the instruction and products and to you on this forum for being a community who understand the joy of aquarium keeping. Happy New Year!

I remember when I first started in the hobby I bought one Val bunch and it exploded in a very low tech tank with inert substrate. Now when actively trying to grow it just seems to be stunted. I have had a 20 long, high tech setup with c02, high fert dosage , and UNS soil capped with coarse sand. It’s been going for about 8 months now and I can grow everything but Val. Crypts grow incredibly fast, dwarf sag has sent out tons of runners after only having started with about 4 bunches. Buce is thriving with little to no algae on the leaves. Java fern has recently been added and it also seems to be growing relatively quickly. I dose easy green about once every day, 2 pumps. 10% Water changes twice a week. Nitrates stay consistently low. I can’t seem to get past 20pmm using the api test kit. I’ve made sure to add root tabs to areas where Val is planted as well. no matter how many times I buy a new bunch of Val it all seems to melt back completely and rot at the crown. I always make sure not to plant too deeply as I know that can cause rot. I do split each bunch into several plants, could this be causing melt? I want to experiment and just plant a single bunch and see what happens. I suspect it may be my ph? I’m at about 6.1 ph. All my fish are thriving as well and are all Amazonian species so the ph has been great for them. However I suspect the low ph may be the culprit of the Val melt. Photo of my tank is attached. I’d really like to get the Val growing from the back corner so that it floats all the way to the other side. Any tips would be greatly appreciated!

I know people say guppies "should" have company, but I have always just experienced them picking on each other *constantly* unless there is a large group of them. I've sworn off having anything short of 10 of them at one time. It stresses me out to watch them constantly fight, and the fighting tends to stress the fish, too. So my advice would be, if he seems fine and isn't constantly hiding/stressed, adding 2 more is likely just going to add to the little dude's stress rather than relieve it. 3 guppies, in my experience, is not a good number. I'd personally just let him live his life out with his rasbora friends. You don't have room (or the desire, it seems) to add a bunch more, so he'll likely be happier alone.

I’ll try to get a pic during feeding time. That’s the only time I see them in front of the tank 😂 Some random shots of dad guarding the eggs: I’ll probably start rescaping in a few weeks. Just need to order some plants cause I only have some epiphytes and hygrophila left 😂 Bought some community fish from Aqua Huna and I’m assuming I’ll get them next week (I didn’t forget the discount code this time 😅)

I dont think i could knock over a tank on purpose so i doubt the baby could knock it over on accent. Take every precaution of course but i wouldnt lose sleep over it. Securing dressors and tvs would be more urgent.

Thanks! He's quite the grump, but he looks very pretty. 😆

He's gorgeous 😍 Happy New Year 🎉

Thank you, it's red eco-complete. Hyggar 978 Changed water and added a few more plants

Year end status

Here's a picture from today (the ones posted yesterday were from when he first arrived). He is definitely warming up as time goes. He'll now request food by swimming in circles at the corner closest to my bed until I am summoned to do his bidding.

I can flip the plastic connecting the lid on the left side where the filter is. The lid on the right side of the tank would need to have the plastic cut. Thank you. I’m aware that Bristlenose plecos may feast on Sword plants, but I’m not sure about the other variations.

I think it definitely helps the tank. Since there is no filter and I feed pretty heavy i’d say there is a decent bioload. Far more than I’d think these plants could handle. I’ve been feeding about 3-7 times a day as I enjoy watching them swarm. Plus 200-300 guppies make some waste. Nitrates have never registered on a co-op test strip and they certainly do in my koi pond lol. I’ve done tanks with monstera, pothos, peace lilly and I think Mangroves for export are the best I’ve seen as of yet. Plus they’ve grown about 8” in 1.5 years. Super slow growing!

Here is the latest score from South Lido. We 3 siblings put my 30 + y.o. canoe in to explore mangrove tunnels before the guides/tourists arrive at 9. 50 ft from shore found a nice stream of water between my feet coming from the back. I cut the back end square in my late teens and have patched it several times as I let it get borrowed and it gets drug through shell and gravel. A 10 y.o. patch had failed, so we loaded back up and went to the beach. Threw this orange tunicate looking thing in the water then changed my mind and wanted to try it in the tank but it never washed back up. Found my best critter yet, a red decorator crab. He has an orange sponge and twig of macro algae on his back. $50 + online when available. He was on his back and barely moving when I saw him, and lost a leg when I put him in the bucket. Not sure if it was the cold water, being beaten against the shore/shells, or if he got stepped on (lots of tourists). By the time I got home he seemed recovered and had burrowed in the red macro. There was pbly a 10-15° difference between tank and Gulf water, but I put the macro in there and he seems ok. Will give him a chance he didn't have on the beach anyways.

You really do have a penchant for bettas. 😂

That is fantastic growth. I’ve had my red mangroves for about 2 years. Most did so so for awhile then we’re shaded out by other plants. I only have 2 left that are doing ok but not impressive like those. I may have to move them to one of my window tanks after seeing how well yours are doing. Congratulations. 🎉

I would say female. Here’s a photo I found online

Really nice work... the stone balanced with the green and the gradation of color on the stone really works!

Who has the cutest butterfly of them all? 🙂

And i managed to capture Xmas lights in the picture too! Total Hallmark material :)))

Find someone who looks at you the way this garra looks at his girl This one is a winner. Won his heart and love. 😆🤪

Hello Knee! I'm glad to see you are back. Hope everything is much better there now. Happy too see you again Happy new year!

Most likely that led to a high level of ammonia, which probably killed the fish. Some fish are more tolerant of ammonia than others. Folks refer to things like guppies and platys as "starter fish" because they seem to be able to tolerate ammonia a bit better (but probably also because they are cheaper). I'm not sure where pea puffers and dwarf gouramis fall on that spectrum. Something to point out is that every single one of us on this forum has killed at least some fish from ammonia. It may have been when we were new to the hobby and set up a new tank, when, as more experiences hobbyists, we were in a hurry when doing something with a tank, or it might have been a random, unexplained ammonia spike (it's almost always the ammonia). Somewhat recently, I've killed fish by assuming that if I started a new tank with lots of plants and filter media from an established tank, things would be safe. They weren't. There is no substitute for testing every day and not adding fish until the tank is cycled or "seasoned" to the point where an ammonia spike is unlikely. I've also somewhat recently killed fish by introducing new fish to an established tank. I did it because the source (ACO) quarantine their fish, but even with them, it's possible to introduce an illness to your tank. So, now, all new fish go into quarantine when I get them. You live and learn. For most hobbyist (including myself), you have to experience a negative consequence before you attempt to avoid it in the future. The good news is that your tank looks to be cycled and you look to be someone who is interested in researching and doing the best you can for your fish. Going forward, the things to focus on are: 1) Track nitrates, which will slowly build up. These are less harmful to your fish (but still harmful). The general advice here seems to be to keep those under 40 ppm. I find that test strips (like the ACO strips) are very convenient and cost effective for testing nitrate. 2) Water changes will reduce nitrates and help to reduce the build up of various unwanted elements in the tank (including fertilizer, which might not be utilized evenly by plants). Research what might be appropriate for your tank and stick to it closely. 3) Add lots of plants. This helps to balance out the tank. 4) It is a huge pain, but try to utilize quarantine for new fish. Have a 10 or 20 gallon tank set up with a sponge filter along with a few guppies, or maybe just a bristlenose pleco that you can use for new fish. The important thing there is to have an ammonia source to keep your biological filter active while you aren't quarantining fish. There are just a few big things that are the most important for keeping your fish healthy. Good luck! 🙂 p.s. Pea puffers have specific diet requirements. So, if you try those again, take a look at the link.

How’s everyone doing? So I’ve been gone for awhile. Some family issues back in the Philippines happened and I had to go back home to take care of them. Tanks were neglected and the most I could have my roommate do is feed the fish three times a week and change the water every other week. Lost a bunch of fish and plants but some are still alive and thriving. Current state of the tanks as of today: Lost most of the fish in this tank and the hydrophila took over, blocking most of the light for the other plants but the anubias and Java fern were thriving. The only survivors were a pair of fork tail rainbows, the OG female peacock gudgeon, ember tetras, Pygmy and habrosus cory, the male swordtail that was hiding very well when I sold all of the swords, 4 Bolivian rams. Lost most of the fish in this tank too. Survivors were panda cory, some emerald eye rasboras, two pencil fish, espei rasbora, and sparkling gouramis. Only the corydoras from both tanks were able to hold on and keep their numbers. I’ve returned to their old water change and feeding schedule for a few weeks now and the fish are looking better already. I also bought some new additions to the tank because it really felt empty. Will be rescaping both tanks soon and I’ll be posting the progress. I’m slowly gathering all the things I need. Just need a few more rocks and driftwood and I’ll be ready to rescape. Happy New Year everyone! @nabokovfan87 the panda with the white dot in their eye is still alive and got a bit bigger 😂

The LFS finally had springtails. Although at this point I'm not totally sure how helpful they are. We'll see if the mold on the roots goes down. There is a decent amount of new growth on the plants: The males seem to be fully colored up. The is one that's easily distinguishable from the others because of a large black spot on his dorsal fin. There's another that is larger than all the others. Then the last two are basically indistinguishable. The palm is completely decomposed at this point. That's surprising that it went so fast.

Does Anyone know what this is growing on my driftwood? The tank is only about 2 months old, had to remove most of my Christmas moss because of brown hair algae and now this is growing all over my branches. Is this a form of black beard? Should I leave it or remove it? I tried searching it on google photos but dont really get good results on what this is, mostly pics of stuff growing in salt water tanks. Tried to get good photos but my phone stinks lol.

I will for sure keep you in mind as well as long as its within group rules I have no problem sharing it.This is a new tank but it is starting to grow all over my driftwood, once it get bigger someone will have to tell me how to propagate it, or is it just like any other moss? I will have to read up on this, heck I didn't even know what it was thats why I asked , I almost took it out after all the hair algae I had, glad I asked first 😄

Thank You again. When it grows out I will be more then happy to send you some. Starting to grow all over my driftwood in the back as well.

Leave it, grow it, and when it gets big enough, you can pull pieces from it and create new clusters! You can pretty much treat this stuff like moss, but it needs to be attached to wood rather than stone in most cases. I have been looking for some for a while now, I knew what it was immediately 😅

When i go out for the day and then come home; i get greated: What did i manage to count there: 11 clown loaches 3 zebra loaches (they almost never come out) 5 festum 4 angels and a bunch of other stuff 😉

The new tank is all filled up. Honestly, I think it looks way cooler than should. Now just to see how it holds up On another note, there were baby Japan blue gold guppies born today Basically just little eyeballs on a wiggly stick My wife just pointed out the irony that the tank is made out of lids but doesn't have a lid itself

Sure! The Ikebana aquarium is filling in amazingly. The crypts are looking magnificent. They hardly melted at all and now have a ton of new growth. I'm wanting to propagate some of them to move them to the twenty gallon because they're the prettiest plants I have ever managed to grow. Stem plants hate me LOL, even pearlweed barely grows for me. So this is a great surprise! Apparently rooted plants are where it's at for me. The twenty gallon is looking amazing too and the new little fry I found is growing rapidly! It's definitely a male, because the tail is turning bright red and blue! It's so cool to have a fry survive in a community tank somehow. The pair of adults was also seen spawning again today which is always fun to watch. The 20g does need a trim though. 😆

I keep a pestle and morter for grinding up food for fry, it has an advantage over a coffee grinder because it can be used on very small amounts of food. I do 3 or 4 pellets at a time and use a child's paint brush to brush the dust into the fry tank. If you need even finer food add a drop of water as you grind it and you will get dirty water which will feed the smallest fry.

Here are some photos showing the process. In the first photo is my coffee grinder empty. In photo two is the coffee grinder with the Tetramin Plus, three freeze-dried tubifex worm cubes, and two and a half algae wafers. In the final photo you see the finished, ground up fish food dust, for lack of a better word in it's plastic storage container. It's a very, very fine powder. Just a tiny pinch becomes a cloud of food in the tank. The beauty of grinding your own food is you can make it out of whatever you want, as long as that item is dry. If I wasn't allergic to freeze-dried blood worms I'd use them also, but I sneeze badly whenever I'm around them. A simple $20 (or so) investment in a cheap coffee grinder means you'll never have to buy fry food again and can customize it to suit your fishes. It's one of the best investments you'll ever make as a fish keeper.