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Dark slate, locally soured community tank. Heavy planted with shrimp, CO2, external filter and whit LED (recently upgraded to WRBG)

Many of us have gotten into keeping fish thanks to the breadth of Tropical species in the hobby. Over the last few years, I have found Temperate climate fish species most intriguing. These live in local waterways around the USA. These photos are from our tanks… Banded Darters (Etheostoma zonale) Behavior is similar to goby species. Appreciates green plants in the tank. Males vary their brilliant green color depending on the season. Orangethroat Darters (Etheostoma spectabile) Very friendly and non aggressive. Cold water is best. Cold, unheated basements are perfect. Eats frozen bloodworms. Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus) More beautiful than many tropical species once mature, these Georgia and Alabama natives are my favorite Temperate species to keep and breed. They eat flake food just fine. Mountain Redbelly Dace (Chrosomus oreas) These are very nice in native river-stream setups. I have been able to breed… around a thousand by now. Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma gilberti) Very shy, these guys need live foods to thrive. Their courting dance moves are spectacular! Oh my… there’s so, so many more

Greetings!I am kind of new in the hobby and have two tanks,a 10 gal and 5.My betta lives in the 5 and the 10 is still cycling.I just joined and love the aquarium coop channel and website!! I’m super excited about this forum!!!-Colten

My 5 gallon tank has a 50 watt heater right now but it is not consistent(Amazon heater btw)though.The room temp is 68 uselly.should I get a 25 or 50 watt?Or something else.I would get the aquarium coop one but kinda big and it is a 50 watt or higher.

So, the Pygmy Sunfish just hide when bigger, faster fish are around. You’d almost never see the Sunfish. They’d do a little better with a smaller species like the Bluefin Killifish… Rainbow Shiners could enjoy a tank with many species of Darters. There are so many beautiful Darter species. These aren’t in my tanks, but here’s a Stipled Darter in brilliant display… And here’s an electric green Missouri strain of the Banded Darter… Just unbelievably beautiful. There’s another species I’ve kept — Saffron Shiner — but never successfully got them to color up…

Rainbow Shiners with those Pygmy Sunfish would be a RAD tank. I know nothing about their husbandry/parameters/compatibility but from their looks alone it would be a super fun tank.

Man, some of that coloration would give their marine counterparts a run for their money! Those Pygmy Sunfish are dope.

I wait until water change. Then use a melamine pad to wipe them off the front glass that’s out of the water. I then take a paper towel dampened with hydrogen peroxide to wipe the exposed glass and dry it with a paper towel and refill the tank.

Yeah… just scrape them off, and try to quit feeding BBS for a while. They’ll disappear eventually. I use a library card 📚 😂

That's good to know. I'll work on bumping that temp up closer to 78 to keep everything happy in there. The way I've always set things if there is a range I use the middle value. A lot of cypranidae species will want 74 degrees or so and can go slightly cooler. This would include corydoras, but specifically looking at danio, Rasbora, minnows, and barbs. I keep my tanks in the 72-74 range. For corydoras, planet catfish has details on their care habitat as well. Basically it bumps up the metabolism, can increase stress, shorten lifespan, and introduce or allow diseases to take hold. The fishes immune system would be weakened if temp is too high (or too low). There is always a range that is accepted, but that's just the typical sentiment. Tetras like is warmer, 78, the cypranidae like it cooler. But there's always some exceptions there. Just have to research each species.

My blackwater aquarium - ph around 5.3/ec 26: - Behind them i'm growing aquatic plants emerrsed:

It was exhausting! All in all it was like 6 hours over three days, including all the replanting, substrate cleaning, water change, etc. It's much more manageable to stay on top of it and only have to trim a little each week

"Elbow length rubber gloves" via amazon, for when it's less useless but still has to stay dry. Also some kind of "remote control outlet plug" for your pump. Could be a smart plug, with on/off controlled at your phone, or a less "smart" option like this: Both found on amazon Canada. Also: what size/how many tank? what's the scope of the challenge? Also also: to change less water, feed less food. Put your fish on a diet for a week, and skip a water change.

I am assuming it will stretch out of the tank. Never saw one before, thought it was pretty neat.

You shouldn't keep it on 24/7. You'll end up with a algae everywhere. Lighting is kind of a mix between science and a guessing game. It depends on the intensity, the tank, and if you have live plants. But 8 hours is a good start, and yes you can split it if you like. It would also be very helpful to put it on a timer. I like using the Kasa home control with my alexa. You can add whatever schedule you want. Just make sure that if you unplug the light while it's turned on, plugging it back in turns the light back on.

I’ll defiantly look into it. Looks like some great advice on this. And yes I quarantine any added fish even if I think they might be fine. Definitely not worth the risk. I do the med trio from the start tho and keep them in a separate tank. thanks for your help! Here is an image of the tank as well. Would I need to add some additional hiding areas with this current setup to keep a pleco happy?

Of course…. 50% off on tanks right now…. I remember the first time I heard of people having more than 1 tank…. Blew my mind. I had never thought of that…

It’s a shame the Sunfish are so shy. The staggering color of the Shiners next to the dark black with electric blue highlights of the Sunfish would be awesome.

Wow that's so cool!

Nice! He’s the best guy. Most all of these came from him. We met up and caught Catawba Greenheads together last March before NANFA Con. He has forgotten more about native fish than I’ll ever begin learn.

I purchased these from Jonas aquarium https://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forums/threads/johnas-aquarium.702565/post-7919291

Yeah, they’re really special. I raised these from summer tubbing. Here’s another shot of a male I just snapped…

Rainbow Darters are excellent, hardy species in home aquaria. My males have died, but I still have one female. I never quite got the setup right when they were in my care, but I have found a stream locally where they are native. I can try them again any time.

@Fish Folk I've personally kept Rainbow Darter and agree some native species can look just beautiful as tropical aquarium fish species.

I am looking to buy a grindal worm culture from a local vendor, so hopefully that's close enough! I've wanted to culture daphnia for ages but I just don't think I've got the space for it at the moment. So the melamine wipe gets the bulk of them, and the hydrogen peroxide gets whatever bits I may have missed/broken? Makes sense! Wish me luck!

I just go slow and be careful. Work it a section at a time

I use 50 watt heaters on my 5 gallons. My house is also 68 year round. I like the ACO heaters but also have a few hygger ones that look similar. Because they both are digital I find them easier to use. My 5 gallon tanks stay stable. If you are noticing fluctuations of more than 1 degree it may just be time to replace your heater.

If you can, try Daphnia, White worms, and Black worms instead.

I use powdered food (Repashy Soilent Green) sprinkled in the tank to supplement my otos. The tank sits directly in an east facing window and has a light on for 6-9 hours a day and still doesn't grow a lot of algae because of the density of plants. A tiny spoon of Soilent Green spreads out and coats plant leaves, rocks and wood and the otos can come along and hoover it up. Also good for feeding baby shrimp.

I've had mine for around 2-3 years. They eat flake food and small pellets or crushed pellets. I have krill flake, freeze dried brine shrimp, veggie pellets and bug bites and they will eat all of them. In winter, mine are in a tank with guppies and platies. These guys would outcompete the WCMMs for food if I only used big pellets that sank to the bottom. Guppies etc. will scrounge around and pick at stuff on the bottom but the WCMMs will not. So I use foods that will stay in the top 2/3 of the tank long enough for the minnows to eat them. In summer, my WCMMs go out into a stock tank pond. I feed them the same foods to start with but as summer bugs and microfauna build up in warm weather, they eat those. At the end of the summer they come back in as fat as cows. They love it outside and they look great in a pond. I hope you enjoy yours as much as I have enjoyed mine!

I’ve been able to use a siphon to scrape them off, and then they get instantly sucked down the siphon and into a bucket. I use a thicker 3/8” hose that can be sourced from a hardware store

ok, sorry about so many posts. The female that ended up in the 5gallon is my "tri-color" platy. I call her this because she has gold, blue, and red all on her, which seem to blend in a cool combination on parts of her body: Here is a better pictures of the fish showing off her colors: In the past when i tried moving females into isolation they were usually very shy and skittish and often had trouble eating. This occured to the purple female who i unfortunately lost a few weeks ago. However this time is different. The tri-color platy is swimming around exploring and nipping at algae and stuff like a healthy platy should be acting and appears active and healthy. I've been feeding the shrimplets in that tank easy fry and small fish food to encourage growth and she ate some too. I have high hopes because she appears to be doing very well right now. I hope as time goes on i can see some pregnancy developing and eventually get fry.

I am pretty certain sparkling gourami's eat them. I have watched mine browse them on many occasions. There is also a product that killed it for me called Noplanaria. When I was having trouble with these things in fry tanks, the Noplanaria killed it within a day. It didn't hurt the fry either.

brief update, this failed. THe basket does not have enough of a rim, and the female just jumped out into the tank. If she is comfortable there, and will develop her pregnancy better there i am fine with this change as long as my shrimplets dont start dissapearing, then the female will have to move. I think i want to take the basket, add a lower flotation point (via a ring of airline tubing), and drilling lots of small-ish holes in the side, they put that in my main tank and let platy fry use it as a refuge area if they so need one.

After a few weeks of hiding, my clown pleco is finally starting to come out a little. Looks like he/she, and one of the apistogramma, are the final ich harborers left in the tank (at least that I can see grossly). Both have a few spots left on their fins. I don't think the pleco likes the ich x treatments at all! It will wiggle it's little ventral fins back and forth for a couple hours after putting treatment in the water. Hopefully only a few more days of treatment needed!

noticed my mystery snail upside down with his reproductive organ sticking out, should i be concerned? I setup a breeder box to hold moss closer to the light so it would grow faster: Also call me a fool, im trying to get platy fry again. This time i have a vegetable steamer basket from a rice cooker floating in my 5gallon tank. I have some pennywort in there as a hiding spot for the female, and using electrical tape have since turned down the light from what it appears in the picture. I have serious doubts i will succeed in making fry, but im going to try. If she gives birth the fry can fall through the holes in the bottom and live with the shrimplets, the shrimp are of a significant size im not worried about anyone eating each other, unless the female platy escapes, or shrimp decide to explore the basket... im going to wait a month now, if nothing happens i will not be surprised, but watching videos on livebearer breeding it seems a smaller container can work too, so im going to try it.

leave the molts behind. they can eat them etc to help with calcium etc (note , im no shrimp guru).

Correct. So the stem you cut (no roots) will grow new roots when you plant it. Also, the bare stalk should pop new growth as well and grow new stalk sections with leaves. That's basically the norm yeah. Otherwise all of the tanks look like palm trees. You have to grow the plant so you have a healthy section, then trim that off and plant that into the tank. (I.e. propagate new stems) A lot of times when you buy some stem plants it could be just trimmings without any roots.

Your question regarding stems. Basically what you would do is called "topping". You cut off the healthy part with the leaves and plunge the base of that into the substrate. You can then remove the section that bare and let the new plants root into that section of the tank. You can also leave the segments that have rooted already and just cut off the bare stalks. (No leaves, and see if they grow). It should, and having that root base will help feed the plant to grow new leaves quickly.

Crazy exciting news. Yesterday for the first time my little girl started snooping at the divider a bit. She is completely healed and put on size and weight. She showed some interest in the male on the other side throughout the day but nothing consistent. This morning she did not leave the divider for a grindle worm breakfast. My girl does not miss breakfast and grindles are her favorite. So I watched and she did the tell tale head twitch. So I removed the divider prepared to intervene if he again bullied her. She gracefully swam directly to his cave and went in. Typical of him he was a bull in a china shop. She did not miss a beat and swam to the center and danced for him then slowly coaxed him to her side and into her cave. He is still hanging about and occasionally going in. As soon as he loses interest in her cave if she does not emerge the rest of the day I will be putting the divider back to give her the best chance of raising her babies. I would rather let nature just do it’s thing but I do not trust him at all. Especially with no other female to distract him since he killed the other girl. photo of him seeming pleased with himself for getting the job done

So once my tank is cycled and my parameters are stable and my plants root out I plan on stocking this thing. And I was curious as to what I should get for the bottom water column. I was thinking some kind of Cory or like 6 khuli loaches. Next I was thinking like ten neon tetras and finally a female Betta. (It will be heavily planted for what I'm going to be stocking)

Well, that's why the forum is so great. We hear different opinions and experiences and it makes us all better aqua keepers. I've never personally kept Kuhlis.

Kuhlis surely dig! I keep mine on aquasoil and they love it. Here is a pic I caught. In fact I added some sand to their tank but they remained uninterested at least from what I see. Aquasoil is def the fav of mine But they are very nocturnal and hard to see overall. I had to try these noodles ones and I like them. But if I gotta be honest, they are not great if you have only one display tank and you wanna watch fish often. They are hard to see. My tank offers lots of hidding placest and it is still hard to see them. They are somewhere in this jungle

If that blew your mind I'm hesitant to tell you that I've seen one or two youtubers who, when asked how many tanks he or she had, replied "I'm not sure."

Looks nice! Your plan could work. Everyone has different preferences and different experiences. Is your water hard or soft? A planted tank with wood leeching tannins tends to skew soft, and pH will tend to slowly lower unless you add a buffer. Just musing about how that might affect species selection. Green laser corys are nice if you can order them… The smaller Green Neon Tetras that are coming out tend to do better for me than the bulkier normal Neon Tetras… You might like a male Betta imbellis. They’re a fascinating “swamp fish.” I kept a green one awhile…

Wish me luck! This is the 125 I re-resealed 10 days ago. I actually do not think I had a leak after the first reseal. There's some discoloration from the spray paint on the bottom. Oh well, it's better sealed this time, I think.

Here’s the best pic I have of his topside from June last year. I have newer pics but none show his pattern better. See all the texture on his back half? Makes me think of the surface of a cat’s tongue. That’s supposed to indicate male.

Put this together today, I'm very happy with it

Marginal update picture of the 10x4; really should get a fish eye lens but then i'd have to upgrade my 10 year old digital camera; hum.... not ready to get back into photography: Also did some work on the 4ftx4ft (for my a. pucallpaensis); three pictures of the same aquarium: First one is front; 2nd one is from left sides and third one is from left side different part - again it is much easier to take a picture of a 29 or 10 than these larger aquariums 😞 The tank you see from the side shot are the 8x4 which is next to it.

Move yesterday so doesn't count; then today i moved the 10 which took a while but i think i got everyone. Tomorrow after the dust settle i'll fix the plants in the tank (i planted them today but need to adjust) and then go back to the condo to start with the 40B (giving me two days on that). Right now i'm just watching my army of loaches in the 550: They are so much happier in a 550 than the 120; seen by the fact that they swim up to me constantly to say hi. In that mix 9 clowns; 4 yoyo; - thank also has 6 zebra but the zebra aren't swimming with the clowns right now - i think they got tired out - they were with them in the morning. People who say an 80 or even a 200 is large enough for clowns are kidding themselves; they never tried a 550 - wish i had room for a larger aquarium for them.