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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

Hey y’all! Gabe here in Knoxville Tennessee. We’re currently on what should be our last day of sub freezing temperatures that resulted from the polar vortex. Nothing compared to when I lived in the great white north but by far the most snow I’ve seen in Tennessee. Friday was the first day I was able to get the Subaru down our driveway for a short supply run and then we were stuck In again for the weekend. Should get to the mid 40s tomorrow so that’s a relief. Anyway onto the aquarium nerd stuff. Since the week before snow in I’ve been flirting with a re-entry into more serious fish keeping and the freshwater hobby after maybe 6 years away from it. My partner has been setting up a tank for her work and was asking me for input on things. In sharing what I know and researching what I didn’t I remembered how important this all was to me years ago. I’ve had a saltwater nano for the past few years but I’m starting freshwater again with some experimenting with the Walstad method (I’ve been reading and annotating last year’s edition of her book over the last week) and also my first real foray into fish breeding. I tried Betta splendens years ago but I was a dumb 20 year old and didn’t get very far. I’ve currently got a 10 gallon in the works for some white clouds(or maybe medaka if I can find some interesting ones) and neocaridina shrimp, and before long I’ll be setting up a 2.5ish gallon jar and a 30 breeder. Not sure what’s going in the 30 but I’m brainstorming ideas on how to get a walstad to work with electric blue acaras. I put in my first order with aquarium coop this past Tuesday thinking they’d ship this coming week so I’d be good on weather, but they surpassed expectations and shipped that evening. After a few anxious days waiting in the snow for plants and one failed delivery due to the weather they showed up perfectly healthy. That experience is largely why I’m hopping on this forum as opposed to some others. This place seems more friendly too 🙂 Anyway the plants got here Friday and luckily I’d made my one brave trip of the week to tractor supply for some BDBS so I was ready to go. Plants are looking good so far and we’re pearling like mad yesterday. I’ll wrap up here before I go on too long and attach a picture of the current tank as it is. The actual light for this setup is held up at the post office due to weather so I’ll get that tomorrow and see how it all looks. Looking forward to being a part of the conversations here. Remember to keep your hands wet! 😁

At the meeting this month when I took all these in to submit I also dropped off a bunch for my vendor. I had a bag with 12 GBR that were “runts” The runts I give to a guy who has had a piranha for many years as feeders. Several club members asked why. I explained they were outcompeted for food and 1/3 the size of their litter mates. They then asked why I did not grow them out now that I had rehomed all the big ones they were a touch upset that I would intentionally send fish as feeders. I thought I would share the explanation here since there are many new breeders on the forum. I do not grow them out because even though some would likely grow out and some may not there is a good chance there is an underlying reason they could not keep up and compete easily with their siblings. Could be late hatches, could be internal defects that were not at mortality level. The inability to obtain enough food to grow may have caused health issue or may have stunted their growth. It is considered responsible breeding to not allow potentially weak genes to be spread. Even those hobbyists who would keep only s single sex and not breed could someday rehome them to someone who does. I also put myself in the buyers shoes. How would I feel if someone sold me a fish that they knew was weak and needed special care to achieve its adult stature. I used to keep a handicap tank for small fish (in my main journal) or fish with defects or injuries that did not limit their quality of life to live their best life. I had the space at that point. Having branched out to cichlids who require more tank space and have crazy huge spawns (ex. This GBR spawn was 196 survivors. The runts were 9 and 3 had only 1 eye) The size tank I would need to house the weak genes as adults I can no longer accommodate. Euthanasia is one option for these. I choose to give their life meaning by allowing them to remain in the food chain. These would have been eaten by the parents. The parental care parents do that to ensure the strongest of their young have more food resources. Non parental care fish these would have become prey for other fish. This is not an issue new hobbyists think about or long term hobbyists just getting into the breeding side until after it happens Hopefully this post gives guidance on how to handle this either to plan ahead for it or how to react to it.

Cleaned up the glass on the spotted congo puffer adult colony 40 breeder ....then gave them a bit of a MTS and ramshorn meal Also cleaned off the front glass of the 270 pond for the hold back cross river and his large colony of cuban limia. Probugs ecofresh dubia roaches are a hit with this puffer. The superworm version and soldier fly version also are eaten.

I have emailed the local fish store to see if there's a best solution for my tank as well as the fish. Hopefully we can work something out and I do appreciate everything you all have helped with... If it's not painfully obvious by now I'm new 😁

Removed baffle and then deployed my flow tester to check direction of current.

There are some very strange things that can happen with various pigments and skin / scale structures. The article @Fish Folk linked is remarkable and the pigment change seems very counterintuitive to me, but I’m certainly not an expert. Birds have many examples of pigment and pattern changes, most having to do with the transition from immature to adult plumage. But cockatiels have a particular pattern called “pearl’ where the centers of the feathers are very light to white. This mostly (but not always) a sex-linked pattern with most males eventually growing out of this pattern. But, some males will retain the pattern for a few years, some for many years, and some for life. I don’t begin to understand how that can happen but likely some very complex genetic interaction is happening but I know it does because my males were among those that kept the pearl pattern for several years, but it eventually disappeared. I have read enough about bristlenose plecos to firmly believe that there are at least 2 different loci for albinism that will “cancel” each other when crossbred and the offspring will revert to brown. When bred back to either albino the offspring will be roughly 50% albino and 50% brown. Clearly some of angel coloration is scales and likely some subdermal pigments. Exactly what those pigments are in this case, I don’t know but it appears to be some form of melanin? Very strange to me that the fish in the article got darker with less light since we typically see more pigment develop in stronger light. Clearly there is something else happening there.

They were no longer even remotely little tiny fry. They had grown to developing color. I had 4 tanks of them. The counting comes from netting scoop by scoop into a specimen container counting them and checking each for quality. Dump in bucket and repeat many many times until none are left in the tanks.

I have kept Notropis chrosomus for a long time and succeed breeding. Btw I am a new member, it is my first post and hello to all 🙂

Very funny must share. One of my baby rams I still have is on eggs. Half are fertile. I did not think they were old enough. I wasn’t paying attention when netting so did not see them until last night but they registered as nerite eggs. I was VERY TIRED. I was looking at the babies I kept here and realized I do not have a nerite in that tank 🤣🤣🤣🤣

@xXInkedPhoenixX The amazon sword is getting a bit too big for the tank, but im afraid to move it because i dont want to have to disrupt the substrate releasing things into the water. I got a new camera and im trying it out, everybody please let me know if its better then my old one. The following pictures are new camera pictures: Vulcan looks really good against the black background, the "super red" stands out Currently my only male platy (the red one) Cories and Garra Guy because why not? and full tank picture:

Could be and injury that's caused a small lump to develop possible cyst what I would do is monitor for another week then give an update

Woke up and they were swarming, meaning want food or breeding behavior. I dropped in food and Riddick decided to sit in one of the food dishes. 😂 So many shrimp....

Finally got em! Little fellow sure does like his water changes!

PrimeTime Aquatics has a tour / video of a barb breeder as well as Dan's fish with an expert (highly tuned/advanced) setup for breeding barbs, egg scattering fish. I JUST got these as a rescue from a local and I'm in a bit of awe with them. Females are less bright red, males are like tomatoes. Cooler temps then tetras, but the main thing is always going to be oxygenation. They don't mind flow, don't need a ton of it, but don't mind it at all. Excited to see what you do with them! If they have 6 more, I would snag em. I think the way barbs are, the more the merrier and keeps things calmer with aggression. I'll reiterate, I haven't bred them, but the females get pestered a lot with barbs. These guys are slightly more chill than others I've kept.

This project has become a growing this cross river up. Im not to sure ill find another to pair but its been pretty fun so far. Tonights feeding was Eco fresh Dubia roaches. The "fresh" packaged bugs are popular with this puffer...... and the hundreds of cuban limia in the 270 with him. I always try for livebearers in with the puffers to handle the messy eating the limia vittata seem to be doing great here so far. They have been even better than the variatus platy for me. My current palustrus feeding rotation : "Fresh packaged": dubia roaches, superworms, soldierfly larvae Frozen foods : clams, raw whole crayfish, tilapia strips The rest: ramshorn snails, trapdoor snails, mystery snails, earthworms

Shrimp EVERYWHERE.... (apparently they're liking the Repashy I had put out)

I will start by saying that if you haven't seen travelers in netflix, please go ahead and bookmark that! Secondly, let's take a nice long breath here and exhale slowly..... For months now I have been interested in something extremely specific and adding that to my fish tank. I realized that parameters fit, that I had the space, and I realized that it was something that could easily turn into a "breeding for profit" project. My last one took 2 years to get a fry, and 3 to get enough to actually sell a batch, so let's all hope things work a bit smoother this time! I am at a crossroads and without divulging too much I do want to poll those here and ask for some help. I did make a "guidance please!" thread, but I want to, obscurely so, start a bit of a record and dive into what I really need some help deciding. I'll keep things brief for now, obtuse, but I will eventually reveal what is going on, if that happens and when it makes sense to do so. Hopefully you enjoy the journey and fingers crossed that everything works out in the end.... First question, Would you choose quantity or quality? The choice I have right now is to decide to get less species in the tank of the one in question, or do I go with a less reliable, lower quality source, but I have better overall genetics? Do I order from both and mix the strains? (visually they do look like extremely different quality. One of them I would call an A++ genetic strain and the other appears to be a D- at best.... not remotely close. Lastly, would you follow the common guidance from others around you, or would you trust your own skill and technique moreso? Do I trust that I truly have experience with this species and understand what they need to thrive.... or do I follow the warnings from friends who may have cautioned a very, very different approach? Should I risk it, or is the risk simply that I don't do what I think is best? Again, this really ties into the first choice. Losing 1 or 2 when you buy in 5-6 is very different than losing that qty when you purchase 10-20 of a species. Decisions Decisions..... As for a clue as to what this is, It involved my Mopani tank. Grace the Shark, and hopefully a secondary breeding project that is far less work to accomplish some results.

Hi, I'm a beginner. I bought my new female platy just today and when I was going to put her in the tank with my other platies, I noticed she has what appears to be a gravid spot??? I'm not really sure, but just in case I separated her into another tank. I just don't know how long before she has babies (if at all). And I've never had a platy breed before, so I'm not really sure what to do. Any help is appreciated! Also, I hope the pictures are clear. She's extremely shy so it's a little tough to take pictures of her.

I have a 55g tank with a cream colored sand (Technically sunset gold caribsea sand). It seems like no matter what I do even after water changes/vacuuming substrate it always looks so dirty! I have plants/driftwood and it doesn't help that my catfish/loaches like to poop in this one particular stone/house thing. But even then it just feels like it shows EVERYTHING and even after vacuuming the substrate (Which is difficult to get everything due to rocks/driftwood/decor/plants) it just doesn't look "clean". I have good filtration (Fluval 407 + Aquarium Coop large sponge filter) and good flow..so I don't think it's a filtration problem. Is this just how sand is?

I see these at my lfs all the time. I knew I wanted them but have not pulled the trigger. At the club auction today were 6 very young ones brought in by the gentleman who won C.A.R.E.S. Breeder of the year last year. So I knew these were very healthy and raised correctly so I could not resist. If you have first hand experience with these please share with me. I have all the internet basic care guide info. Anything you found that you wish to share. If you have bred them talk to me about how you did it what tank setup etc please 🙏 I am all ears 👂 For any who do not know a C.A.R.E.S. species is is one that is endangered or extinct in the wild. Hobbyists who breed are encouraged to participate to keep these fish thriving at least in the hobby. More at this link https://caresforfish.org/?page_id=36

Thank you very much for your detailed answer Duck🤍

Ok, @Guppysnail, how do you go about counting 196 little GBR fry?

Random picture of Vulcan, getting a photo was hard as the tank lights were off and Vulcan is afraid of flash and will run away Trimmed back some algae covered and rotting leaves on my amazon sword, this allows more flow and more light into the tank now Garra Guy was out enjoying the higher flow (first picture is with flash) Crypt parva i got is still alive! I have a bad history with crypts but this ones seems to be doing ok. Its probably putting out roots before it starts to very slowly grow, but in a decade or two i should have a nice carpet 😄 Also just for fun, spot the Panda Garra in this picture (He is there) @GuppysnailI'm going to hold off on the honey gouarmis for now. All my current fish like higher flow, and the honey gouarmis dont, so they dont really fit in. Maybe ill try a pair in the school tank, that has much lower flow...

I pulled the plants out and then four of them were obviously visible. It took forever but I caught one. Then I realized the tank was full of tiny scuds and other tiny critters. So I changed plans. The parents were moved to the but tank. That way they have more space and the fry can eat the small critters. I picked the mops and found three more eggs. That will be the last time using mops for a while. I'm going to stick with colony breeding for now.

So... I know that the conservation status of these are listed as VU (vulnerable), but I do not currently see them on the CARES List. We have kept a few. They are hardy. Our tank temperatures were too warm to let them thrive, spawn, etc. I think they are egg-scatterers. The male will chase females around Java Moss to get her to release. A reasonably empty tank with a big, big clump of healthy Java moss is a great start. Some old breeders used to cover the bottom of a 10-gal with marbles. Then set a huge clump of java moss on top. Eggs fall through, get down into the marbles where they cannot be eaten. Feed females separately from males until ready to spawn. Get them conditioned with live foods. They can release hundreds of eggs. Once they have spawned, remove the adults... and wait for it... Some breeders lower the water level so that fry can more easily reach the surface to fill swim bladder.

For each species of fish, there are certain “triggers” to cue them up for spawning. As you’ve correctly inferred, live foods tend to be a very good method for conditioning — but they may also be a trigger in certain circumstances. If you want to condition fish to breed using dry foods, you need to select a variety of quality foods to compose a balanced diet. Then figure out multiple other triggers to get your fish to spawn. The most important foods will assist in the production of milt & roe. Enough fatty acids are key. If you’re Ok buying frozen foods, you can get away using that in the place of live foods. Certain fish do not do well on blood worms. Others thrive on them. Frozen Tubifex worms (hard to come by) are excellent. For dry foods, I like Bug Bites, made from Black Soldier Fly Larvae, for fatty acids… Xtreme Krill Flakes for carotenoids… and some vitamin-supplemented Omega One flakes. But many picky fish will refuse to eat. I suggest fasting your fish for 2x days before switching to dry foods. Just feed a little at first to ensure they’ll eat it.

What I would do is treat with@Odd Duck treatment protocol for parasitic infections

She isn’t anywhere close to ready to deliver. She will get much more plumb before them. You probably have a couple of weeks.

Thanks! It's because that 10G gets all that protein! Interestingly I have the same shrimp going in two different setups, one is the actual shrimp colony and the other is the cull tank. Basically, one gets all the nice food, the other has a ton more surface area and would graze off all the surfaces a lot more regularly. They get the leftover fish food a lot, shrimp sticks once a week or so, but it's mostly the same care. With the shrimp only tank filtration is purely sponge, but the big tank has much more biological filtration. More flow, basically. I have had a lot less breeding in the cull tank with the fish food diet. One of Mark's shrimp tank original videos was about how goldfish flake is a good shrimp food.

Albinos cannot just pick up melanin from their diet and environment. I think the ‘palette’ theory talked about above holds the most water for why an albino picked up colors. true albinos are devoid of pigment. And usually comes with a host of genetic disorders. Thus breeders typically avoid true albinos and attempt leucistic and other variations of albinism instead. Those angels are beautiful btw!

Oh, that's great! Thank you so much! From the pictures I took, do you maybe have any idea how far along she is? I wanna know so I am prepared for the fry.

Here is a very nice write up on them, with a few videos embedded. They look beautiful!

Welcome to the world of platies 🙂 One of my favorite fish! And baby platies are about as baby fish get, in my opinion. Any female platy should be considered pregnant at all times, if she has been in a tank with a male in the past several months. They can store enough sperm packets to produce babies every month for 6-8 months after just being with a male for a day or so. Sometimes the stress of moving to a new tank will cause babies to be born prematurely or even be re-absorbed by the mother. But usually a female platy will have new babies every 30-ish days. Often the first batch will be small, like five or ten babies. Each batch is likely to be larger and batches of 40 or more are not uncommon. Each baby can start having her own babies when she is 4 to 5 months old. If you want to raise a few hundred baby platies, you will need to provide plenty of places for them to hide for the first few days so the parents will not eat them. If you don't have a lot of plants growing in your tank you can use fake plants like these: https://www.amazon.com/Lantian-Cluster-Aquarium-Plastic-Plants/dp/B077CSSSW9/ref=sr_1_9?c=ts&keywords=Aquarium+Décor+Plastic+Plants&qid=1705713370&s=pet-supplies&sr=1-9&ts_id=2975453011 If you do not want to raise hundreds of baby platies, don't give them hiding places and the parents will likely reduce the population of fry to manageable numbers. If you do not want to raise ANY baby platies, return all your females to the store and enjoy a peaceful tank of male platies. It's the only way to not be knee deep in platies!

I've been reading your 100g Angel journal and it's fascinating and so well written. Your wood pieces are fabulous looking. I'll keep reading and hopefully see pictures of your finished project. You're amazing 👏

Cory's most recent fish room video inspiring me to work on my tank. The water is clear besides for just tannins which are normal, the fish are doing well on a much lower stocking, the one platy male in there is enjoying having 6 girls to himself. I have lots of floating hornwort that is doing well floating at the surface. If there are any platy fry they should definetly be able to hide from predators in the hornwort: The pothos i got from my friend a while back is doing really well. Its growing roots and has starting growing a few new leaves as well. The back left corner of my tank is a small mess of dead plant matter, so i pulled out a good amount of it, though some still remains Also spotted my mystery snail, he is getting old. I got him in march last year so he is nearing a year, which i hear is pretty good when it comes to mystery snails. I was really excited about him when he was new, but he is dark colored, and often hides in the back and i really have just forgotten about him. I barely see him in my tank. I've tried getting him friends in the past and he hasn't really cared, but i think when he dies i will try again with a lighter colored snail. I did a water change on the 5gallon tank, then cleaned out the box filter and replaced the filter floss for just some sponge. The shrimplets in that tank are getting much bigger, im starting to feed some easy fry food a few times a week to the family shrimp tank to increase the growth rate there. The back of the 5gallon is covered in algae, the shrimplets are enjoying the snacks. I dont mind as its pretty much the most natural background you could get for a tank.

I think a good varied diet is the best when it comes to enhancing the colour of your bristlenose at the moment I have common bristlenose black with yellow spots and 25-30% of there spawns are yellow bristlenose I feed mine a varied diet of tropical hi-aglae discs and tropical pleco tablets I also feed EBo youngster grow paste spirulina and Artemis paste and EBo veg sticks which are 50% pumpkin 50% peas EBo algae tabs and frozen blood worms twice a week and cucumber and blanched spinach and lettuce repashy super green and solient green they get fed a different food most days this variety does enhance the colour of my yellow bristlenose a good diet will also mean you have healthy fish less out breaks of disease overall more hardy fish @Fenway

I have actually learned a lot about coloration from my GBR. Many babies went to friends and acquaintances. Those that kept them at the temperature best suited to them and fed them my recommended foods in variety got the same same and coloration from my babies as the parents. Those that kept them at lower temperatures but did feed the food did not get as much size and coloration. Those that kept correct temperatures but did not feed the foods had the same low results. One kept them at lower temps and did not feed the foods saw very stunted growth and almost no coloration. One did everything recommended but had poor tank maintenance also saw stunted growth and lower color. One friend @dasaltemelosguyhad some GBR prior to mine. Followed all recommendations when he got mine and got excellent growth and color but his others never got the color of mine. All that info has led me to understand that food and conditions can influence and can bring out to their fullest extent maximum coloration obtainable in a genetic line. However if the genetics are not there food and conditions cannot make them appear. My lemons are very lemon. Their babies went to folks I know as well. Proper diet and low nitrates bring out the lemon. Diets lacking protein causes them to be lighter. Not enough food causes very pale looks. I feed my lemons EBO spirulina tabs, Ken’s ultra meat wafers, Kens veggie wafers, live and frozen baby brine shrimp, Ken’s growth formula, Kens high protein fry green, occasionally Xtreme bottom wafers and they always have fresh steamed vegetables including carrots and red bell peppers. A friend makes his own for his super reds and they are crazy red. He cooks fresh salmon a variety of vegetables and uses agar agar as a binder (I don’t know all his secret ingredients just those) I’ll tag @Colu who has much more experience with a variety of bristlenose than I do. Maybe they have some other recommendations.

Well... I think its snowing outside 🙂. Gonna try to increase the aquarium budget shoveling. In the meantime, kinda stuck inside, so i think im going to work on finishing up my DIY trickle filter, then ill see how it actually works, most of the time my ideas work well in concept but not application.

First thing is genetics I believe. As a person who has been keeping and having many batches of babies until today, I can easily say that I have seen many lighter colored fish than mine in comparison online. As these fish are selectively bred for their coloration and look, you gotta make sure the genetics are the way you want as a starting point. As an example, we may consider it like german blue rams I think as they are commonly selectively bred for the coloration. I have never seen any normal colored gbr that is as colorful as @Guppysnail’s pair. If I go to a local store and get me a random pair, I would very likely not end up with what she has when they breed in terms of the look/coloration. Good food is also important. In my country we feed them blanched cappia pepper to boost red coloring too from time to time. Their main diet is about algae and grazing aufwuchs in general anyway. They are majorly on the herbivore side so Im not sure if feeding a krill diet would be any good. Especially young ones are even more prone to issues if fed animal protein. I dont think it would be ideal to feed something out of their ideal diet range just to potentially color them up. I guess red/orange is more about carotine and axanthines. My fish dont show interest to carrots much so I mix it to a snello to feed it. I would say lots of high quality algae based foods and cappia pepper and maybe carrots if they like it. Ideal environment and genetics that are similar to what you desire them to look like at the first place. And yes, they are deep orange color at best, at least mine are even tho I got my pair as their main super red pair as a gift from a very well know breeder here. I have never seen any actual “reds” to be honest. These are what my babies look like and at best they are still orange not red.

CC @Odd Duck I would stick with spirulina or krill based foods. There's the NLS algaemaxx foods as well as stuff like krill pro foods. They sell them in various size pellets and I would think one of them works for the plecos. (I believe they go up to 6mm) When it comes to something like shrimp, there are a few studies I can link and share for red coloration. Maybe those types of boosters can be used. Generally speaking though, as soon as you stop using those boosters coloration would drop off. Also.... If you have a light that can do it, try using light after hours to trigger certain color cells to develop. It's from shrimp, but it just helps them to develop color quicker and more vividly.

Woohoo 🎉 My German blue ram breeding article was published as a feature story in Tank Tales the ACLC Newsletter AND I made the cover with my photo submission 🎉 I cannot post the article though you must be a club member to get the newsletter 😞 Just wanted to share my excitement

That's a great point! I've seen amazing Corydoras setups for those big, fat Green ones (formerly... Broochis splendens). I'm sure this tank is warm, but I love how big and hardy they get, and how well they do with the shoaling Geophagus...

Okay thank you. I put some crushed coral as recommended and managed to get a hold of some almond leaves and added another table spoon of salt. I will have the maracyn on stand by.

Betta do best with temperature of 80-82°f Herbal treatments act as a mild antiseptic treatment not effective at treating more serious bacterial infections I would do a course of maracyn active ingredient is erythromycin as you have it to hand and give an update after 7 days if your seeing no improvement i wouldn't use methylene blue in your main tank that will kill your benefial bacteria leading to ammonia and nitrite spikes I would only use methylene blue in a bath I would test more often during treatment

i would think foods with krill in them might help with reds, but id not guarantee it.

Mikrogeophagus ramirezi German Blue Ram total this survivors this spawn 196 Photo Program submissions of parents also hatched in my tank 1/15/23. Proof of Spawn Spawn date 10/29/23

UPDATE: I consulted with a few more experienced in cross river puffers and based on my limited undersanding of puffer behaviors, the collective cross river puffer knowledge of those individuals, and their discussions with field collectors, exporters, and their collegues I assessed I had 4 males. Turns out, as you can imagine, all males is not conducive to producing fry in the future. I have moved 3 on to better situations and retained this guy out of the 4 So now the hunt begins for a female cross river to buy or possibly trade for a male. The gist is if the cross river has less spotting it is likely to be a female.

I've spit on the tile floor before @Guppysnail. Also one time into a quarantine tote, oops - forgot to turn my head away 😆 In MOST CASES, I get the line started in time for the water to not get in my mouth - but for those time when the line is hard to get started.. well.. yeah. But the way, my husband gets sick ALL the time, and I never get sick. I haven't been sick in years.

While I think he'd be personally fine, I think a 125 is a better option, as I have seen my Oscar's behavior change when going from a 4 foot to a 6 foot tank. He seems much happier, and takes time to briskly cruise the length of the tank back and forth, usually after a meal. It's nice to see a big, girthy fish swim at a pretty quick pace. I did not see that same behavior in the 4 foot tank. A 6 footer also gives more room to create some varied simple scapes, which creates some stimuli for the Oscar. They are curious fish as well.