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Flint is in full flare cleaning up Snail Cookie crumbs (kelp, BSFL, Etc) His bristles grew some; I can tell.

There’s always a friggin awesome shrimp every time I look in this tank. Bonus pic of Button the nerite just being adorable.

Video of some of the Festival of the Lion King show. Also The Lion Sleeps Tonight was a sing-along which was really fun. The tribe members sang the lyrics and one section of crowd was weemaweps. My section had the oooohweeeeeeeeeeooohweeeeeoooohhweeebummbummbuhwehhhhh! 😂 https://youtu.be/SoreB6HMkpk?si=21PziUQrYo_beN4y And now a pop quiz for you Lion King fans out there. What do you call a problem free philosophy? 🙂

Hi friends, I am surrendering some baby platy fish to a local fish/exotic pet rescue who sells fish to expert fish keepers as there are no good LFS’s in my area who truly care about fish. It is absolutely shattering my heart as I love these fish more than anything, but just don’t have any more room for all of the babies they keep having. For some more context, I got 6 platy fish from a LFS who I have since learned do not care for their fish as I had a bad case of ich when I brought them home (killed 3 of my 6) and every time I’ve gone to see the LFS since their fish look awful. I’ve grown very fond of those 3 survivors and they have had many batches of beautiful babies who I’ve also grown to love. However, I just don’t have a big enough tank to give them a long happy life anymore. I will be keeping a few of the same gender (at least one of the full grown adults and probably a couple of babies) but the rest will be gone. All of this to say, I feel like a crazy person being so attached to these fish that are like $1 at stores. I am absolutely heartbroken but know it is in the best interest of the fish to give them a chance to go to a home where they have nice big tank to thrive in. Any one else have a hard time getting rid of babies or am I too sensitive about this all? Photos are of my 3 surviving adults along with a needle felted version of the fish that my mom gave me a while back. ❤️

Hey all, Hope this question is okay to ask here....... I just ordered Seachem Stress Guard and need to know do I still use Seachem Prime to dechlorinate the water? The Stress Guard says it removes ammonia. Can I use them both at the same time? I know you can redose Prime every 24 hours how often do you redose Stress Guard? Thanks for all your help.

Talk to the vendors. Most vendors here know each other or know a guy that knows a guy. Don’t just walk past if they are not on tables for sale.

Thank you. I never knew that link was there. I'm going to a swap on Sunday and I'm hoping a breeder will be there.

The color morph apistogrammas are often a hobbyist bred fish vs the big farms or imports. Check on BAND app for local hobbyists selling in local groups. Use ACO club finder to Locate clubs near you where hobbyists all know one another and know who breeds what. Also check Dans Fish. He buys from hobbyists so may have them at some point.

One time I did a water change and all my baby mystery snails burrowed in the sand. I thought maybe it’s because I forgot to check the temperature of the water going in or something. But @Guppysnail told me to watch for a growth spurt when they emerge. And sure enough, they came back out and had the little spikes along their shell edges and were growing new shell. So maybe that could be what’s happening @Sherry Also do you actually see them eat the food? If too young they will ignore food and go for biofilm or algae.

I just hatched about 100 Severum Fry. their about 3 weeks old and about 1/2 inch long. Does anybody know someone who might buy them. Any information will be appreciated Thank you.

I place the plants directly in the tank after the seltzer to suffice as the final stage “rinse” in aerated water. We are not YouTubers. We are hobbyists. Just as @dasaltemelosguysaid we only wanted to provide a chemical free, SAFE, method of treatment that was very easy to use for even a day 1 aquarist wanting to start with plants but avoid introducing snails, parasites or negative bacteria. We never intended to profit only help other aquarists. Reverse Respiration is so amazing and easy word of mouth alone served to spread the information. I have also done club presentations to help inform folks. We felt no need to advertise beyond making the information available. RR being free to all we felt no need to spend more money to advertise via YouTube. I am glad you found this so amazing.

Hi, Reverse Respiration took about 6 months to design. The ultimate approach was preceded by several other “non-chemical plant sterilization” techniques which included ultrasound and electrolysis. Carbonated water was originally added to both asphyxiate the pests and to equalize the internal pressures and protect the plant from our more caustic approaches like ultrasound. Ultimately, we found that carbonated water alone achieved our goals alone and we abandoned the other technologies. However, the experiment ended up costing thousands of dollars with months of breeding parasites, buying plants, chemicals, hardware and shipping as well as expensive machinery such as electrolysis, power supplies and ultrasonic cleaners. It was funded by 3rd parties and so the intellectual rights are privately owned although they are free to the general public for use. To that end, the patent filing was largely to secure the rights of ownership and proper accreditation rather than a marketing goal. Insofar as the final stage goes, I believe everyone just installs the plants after the final stage as it’s just water by then anyway. In fact, I think people place them directly in the tank from the seltzer which suffices as the "anaerobic kill-off" final stage. If I’m wrong about that, please someone correct me. RR is spreading greatly, and to date, the website has seen over 40,000 tests so far. I imagine private videos will be made over time. We’re hoping to see videos made, but hopefully done professionally.

One. Unless they are the smaller horned ones then 2-3. And only after it it well seasoned with algae growing on glass. Long term they run short on food with 2 or more.

40% change once a week fine as your water parameters at the start of the post are fine diet fine feeding a selection of pellets and frozen so I don't think that's the causes sometime fish develop cyst for no apparent reason I would just monitor

Here is a side-by-side of three fish doppelgängers. The Elassoma is from Florida. The Aphanius mentos is from Turkey. As named, the Astrolebius is from Argentina.

Thank you, I forgot Seachem has info on their site. I use Prime all the time for water changes but I have an old Betta who isn't doing well and I thought I could add some Stress Guard to help her be more comfortable. Again thank you for all your help.

I like to grow emergent plants in shallow tanks to add depth. There are quite a few North American species if You’re interested. Pictured below is a 50g Lowboy with Water willow, White top Sedge, dwarf sheldon snake grass, and some yet unidentified violet and sorrel species that hitched a ride

I had a school of ember tetras in 360 liters and did the trial and error. started with 20. Looked like a spit in the water. Added 20 more. Not much of an improvement. Added another 20. Still not the majestic thing I expected. Added 20 rummynose. the tank looks nice, live and as a number, they were enough. Similar experience with like danios, they move so much the tank looks full of them even in lower numbers. So, sad to say, it depends on the fish 🙂

Hello, Friends! My name is Rosi (pronounced "Rosie") and I am living in Aurora, CO. I am new to the fish keeping hobby as of a couple of months ago, but my sister and I kept a ton of fish and would breed guppies as kids. - Really, they bred themselves, but we provided them with a nice habitat 😉 - I'm currently only keeping a 20 gallon tank with one male Half-moon Betta, two Otocinclus', and two Nerite snails. I plan to add a small school of Neon Tetras in the future. My tank has several live plants and a large rock and piece of driftwood. Any advice you have for me as a newer hobbiest would be great. I'm here to learn and to provide my own experiences as I go. I'm originally from Rockford, IL so my fish and snails are named after Chicago Bears players. 🐻🧡💙 So nice to meet you all! -Rosi (Please forgive the pink hue of my images. That's the whitest light my tank came with.)

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

@Colu It was a cyst. It ruptured yesterday. The wound looks good today. I can barely see it. Is that fairly common for an injury or could it indicate poor water quality or some other issue?

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! 😁

Hello I have the option to obtain either the Dario hysginon or Dario sp. 'Myanmar' and they are fairly sure there will be females (that is why I didnt want scarlet badis). Are there any significant differences and which one would you pick? Also they do not guarantee females, so I need to pick a number to end up with one male two females for sure. The tank I want to place them in is 56 cm x 25 cm x 36 cm and therefore shouldnt house any more than the trio in my opinion. There are also clown killifish, but I am sure the coexistence will be ok, the breeding maybe not, but will see I have three other tanks I can move the excess fish to, I have the 25 liter indostomus tank and while I wouldnt want to move too many of the fish there, I can move at least one, they coexist in nature without issues. I also have the 60 liter cube with pygmy corydoras that may be problematic, but it has a tunnel, a coconut cave and dense planting, so one or two fish should cohabit. Worse case scenario, while the 150 liter tank would not be their ideal setup, there are caves and plenty of cover, the java moss and places with low flow. The feeding would be a problem but I would manage. I will obviously buy some botanical pods and stuff to mimic caves and hideouts for the main clown killifish tank Thanks!

I had a pair of scarlet badis when I was young. They lived in a 10g blackwater tank I believe I had them for a year and yup mine exclusively ate live daphnia and bloodworms I don’t remember much about their behavior. That was a time where I hoarded fish tanks. They lived alone and were fairly shy but were fun to watch hunt.

You definitely would enjoy becoming a member at the East Tennessee Aquatic Association (ETAA). I looked into regulations in TN. It’s a gray area with tank-bred Notropis chrosomus. They’re technically both part of the ornamental fish trade, and a native species. Laws strictly forbid taking from native waters to jeep in home aquaria… but may allow for non-local sources. But against this, they are also not allowed to be imported. Safest bet is “no.”

Petco for plain tank, PetSmart for kits. your filter and heater should be good enough from 5 to 10 you could reuse your substrate and add more keep everything wet and your bacteria should survive. so, with a plain tank you'd need a lid and light.

No the producy claims it ”detoxify” for a period. but this is a topic that people talked about a lot in the forum in the past. Let’s no go into it again, as it usually ends up with different opinions turning into arguments and main threads being locked or so. You may search for the previous topics and see many others opinions on it in detail if you like

Thank you. Yes, I've already treated them with the second dose on thursday, so I'm going to repeat it twice.

I’m doing research on your regulations. I’ll get back to you…

Oki, filter and hose cleanup done, always a hassle. I replaced the output ramp, as I took it out with the diminished flow and now it is back. The plants that I planted are all good, the flow is now increased, there is new leaf litter so now it is jst missing some new fish. Managed to take a picture with the pearl gouramis present! what a novelty

Thank you :) Thank you. My next tank will be Saffron Shiner habitat. They are just gorgeous.

@Guppysnail the stage is yours! 😄

Hello, The combination of product safety is usually explained in the Seachem's official site. You can check it out for similar questions in the future, I usually check their site to see if two products are okay to use together, or if one product is safe to use where I keep X shrimp/fish/snail etc. https://seachem.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003985794-FAQ-Can-I-use-Seachem-StressGuard-together-with "StressGuard™ will not directly interact with any of the other Seachem® products, but a large overdose of reducing agents (conditioners like Prime®, ammonia detoxifiers, stress reducers, and some medications) can start to reduce the oxygen levels of the tank. It's just fine to use multiple reducing agents if you have good filtration and you're not using extra products unnecessarily, but if you need to use 3 or more reducing agents at the same time, it may be best to wait an hour or so between products to avoid a sudden drop in oxygen levels. " So you can use both, but better have a good oxygenation. In terms of dechlorination, yes, you should use it if you are doing a water change for the Chlorine/chloramine and heavy metals. Usually a water source is less likely to have ammonia but it is possible. Stress guard does not mention that it removes ammonia. It claims to reduce ammonia toxicity. Removing would be whole another thing StressGuard™ is the premium slime coat protection product. StressGuard™ will reduce stress and ammonia toxicity whenever handling or transporting fish. StressGuard™ binds to exposed protein in wounds to promote healing of injured fish and to reduce the likelihood of primary and secondary infections. https://www.seachem.com/stressguard.php Why do you want to use stress guard btw? Asking to make things clear, possibly you might be thinking it will remove ammonia as you mentioned above.

Wow cool fish is right. I’m so jealous of your rainbow shiners! They’re basically at the top of my list for North American natives that I want to keep but they’re found in Tennessee waters. I swear the second I move out of Tennessee I’m setting up a tank for them. I definitely want to get some of the gulf coast pygmy sunfish too. Those males look wild and the fisherman in me likes that they’re sunfish. I used to live in Florida and over the past week it’s crossed my mind to drive down there to visit some friends and see if I can collect a few of those on the way back up from the Tampa area. That or try to find someone who’s got some healthy ones to sell. Either way I need to do some more research first.

Basically every plant outside of carpetting plants and most stems are reasonably easy. The trick is to try as many as possible.

Animal kingdom photo dump. Went on Saturday. From the world of Pandora (Avatar): I’ve been told all these things light up at night but I was on the daytime schedule. And other things: (Zoom in to see the sponsor, hehe) Lion King show Lemur Carnosaur Red-breasted geese

@Flipper, they are Red Rili 🦐

After taking a quick peek I think I’m going to be submitting a volunteer application soon. Super rad we have a place like that here.

The black plastic rims are just there to support the tank. They're not part of the actual tank construction itself and so are not involved at all in the watertight seals of the tank. They're usually glued in place, not siliconed. I actually recently picked up an old used tank that has solid silicone seals, but the glue on the plastic rims was gross and brittle and not holding anymore, so I just removed the rims, scraped out the old glue, and put them back on. Your tank will be fine

After seeing the difference between a group of 8 and a group of 12 CPDs for myself I don't think I'd suggest them for 5. Chilis would probably be okay, they are so tiny, and the really teeny rasbora... neon blue? But yeah, I'd probably say 10g for a decent group of CPDs.

$12.00 now. Money isnt worth what it used to be…

I always recommend just replacing the 5 gallon with a 10. It's not much of a bigger footprint, you can use the same gear and the water will be a little easier to maintain. You can get them for $10 at any half off sale That will give a lot more room too.

They’d need to be really tiny for 5 gallons. Chili, dwarf, strawberry Rasbora. Celestial pear danios. Neon blue Rasbora . Green rasbota(kubotai) cpd’s are borderline too big. Looking for something 1/2 inch long. And only a few and the more you put in, water stability becomes an issue. 5 gallons can fluctuate a lot. Much more than bigger tanks it may be easier to just stay with the shrimp

Good Job! I didn't know plecos would graze on flowers! My Amazon Sword isn't going to make it, but the Anubia next to it seems to like the location. It is 5-10 times the size of the parent, and put out its first flower this week.

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 🙂

I had them croak daily. Usually with the first lights hitting the room while Im sleeping but tank lights off. There have been times I woke up this, Im not kidding. I got me a group of three but it was very hard to sex so I ended up having 2 males and one f. The males fighting for domination was when they were croaking almost all the time If you have only one, or a group of female, or maybe even just one male and females, Im not sure if they will croak Males spar each other, do circles around and move their bodys and shake. Now that Im thinking, very similar to what I see on pesudomugils You can see the females around looking at them like ”boys will be boys” 🙄🤣🤣🤣

I would not personally try this. I'll explain why, with some caveats. But I do not mean to be negative or discouraging. Hopefully as you read, you'll understand that I appreciate your enthusiasm for scientific experimentation... (1) H20 + H2 = "hydrogen water." It appears that this does not occur in nature very frequently. H2 is a stable gas that can be infused, to some degree, into H20. Here is a quick look at one simple analysis of its tendency in water. However, H2 is lighter than the normal composition of "air" (typically ca. 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen) resulting, I suspect, in a simple gas-off. When ingested into the human body through drinking fluids, however, H2 _may_ have some beneficial anti-oxidant effects. There is a lot of hype... studies are in the earliest stages... hard to say. But it appears that H2 is produced largely through industrial means rather than by nature. (2) While it is true that all innovations result from some sort of untried processes, it is more certain that proven techniques result in proven results more reliably. Right now, there is more than a century of research and innovation that has already gone into aquaculture. The motivations behind this research has been a passionate and frenzied fuel for study -- from financial success, to highly specialized breeding programs, to academic clout -- all of which is to say, honestly, there are very few genuinely new innovations to make versus old innovations to perfect, rediscover, adapt, etc. For example, I am interested in Aquaponics. I have just dipped my toe in (you can see a tiny journal here) but I have also uploaded a massive study done on aquaponics farming here. I could spend most of the rest of my life just scratching the surface of what has already been discovered by way of proven practice there. All of which is to say: no one who is without serious data is going to shout you down [please know -- that is _not_ what I am trying to do here], but at the same time it is wise to investigate things that have already been shown to be beneficial to aquatic life. In general terms, I recommend increasing the amount of dissolved oxygen (O2) in water via air-stones, sponge filters, spray-bars, or HOB filters breaking the water surface as a best practice for increasing fish health. (3) The pet-keeper / fish-breeder in me remains nervous about experimentation. I really don't like to risk animal life without a clear objective. But the wanna-be scientist in me says "GO FOR IT!" I am however reminded of the "Oxygen Destroyer" in the original Godzilla movie down in Dr. Serizawa's lab, where all of the fish in his tank were executed to prove the efficacy of what he'd been working on. It turned into an effective way to deal with the MUTO in the ocean, but it certainly was not conducive for propagating life in an aquarium...

Good list. Keep in mind that Crypt parva is tiny and grows pretty slow. You’ll want a lot of it if you want it to cover much area with any density. Crypt lucens is another nice small one but it’s pretty much identical color and shape as parva, just a bigger version. Anubias nana ‘Golden’ is another good one for a different color and stays small enough for a shallow tank. Java fern ‘Needle Leaf’ has a small enough scale to be very nice in a smaller tank but will get full height of your tank and even bend over a bit at the top. My 3 G shrimp tank is Anubias nana ‘Petite’ and Java ‘Needle Leaf’. Java fern is a bit overgrown in this pic. I’ve got Crypt jacobsenii ‘Pink’ and A. nana ‘Petite’ in my 2 G shrimp only. Not very pink for me with a not fancy light and no CO2, but still a nice plant and a nice size for me so far but I’m pretty sure it can get bigger for others. That’s a couple years growth of C. parva at the front in the 2 G.

Finally I got the rotala rotundifolia for which I have high hopes to thrive in my low nutrients not so bright tank. Most of the tank plants are sort of hanging in there but not thriving. I also ordered some fertilizers. Anyways, I had to order the rotala from an eshop, as none of the physical locations had such a simple plant and noone offered their excess plants. Shame but I was waiting for a month now so decided to take the plunge and also get a new airfilter, to replace in the indostomus tank as I got the impression it is broken. I put it in the big tank, once I finished, every fish was checking it out. I am accepting bets on how long do the plants remain rooted in the substrate before someone pulls them out. So far they survived the night I have to do big filter maintenance this weekend, on the hoses specifically, they are full of yuck. It is a shame, cause that is dreadful work, pulling them from the cabinet, unscrewing the filter...ah well, fun saturday ahead. I also bought Ceratopteris siliquosa but I am unsure into which tank to put it. Maybe to both indostomus and to the rabbit tank. I am afraid the rabbits will eat it, but will see I guess. Play time today

Dog picture dump. I spent an hour brushing the fluffy one. Beast