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Yes! I've kept Elassoma gilberti and Elassoma okefenokee. Here's my little guy talking about the Okefenokee Pygmy Sunfish... Here's a couple photos of one for my male Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish... What questions do you have?

I have heard some people have converted them to dry foods. Bug Bites flakes are excellent possibilities. Do you all know how beautiful US Natives are? If you’re just discovering Temperate species… oh my! I have photos for you. Just for example, check these Darters out…

Personally, I'd rather ACO stick to their ethos and be effectively uncompromising on it. That means making hard decisions about which products to offer. They can't make everyone happy with every decision, but the fact they are setting what is effectively a guiding principle and sticking to it is important in the long term for the company and brand.

I would just let it change naturally after adjusting your heater. That will be gradual enough in my experience.

This betta…has come through,fin rot,swim bladder, clamped fins,constipation,fin tear,and more! He is STILL living and is swimming a ton now! I thank @Odd Duck for helping me out! His belly is big but not too big. His name is Sonic!

Spying on Flint at night

More maintenance and eleminating.

@Fish Folk has a tank with them or has in the past I am pretty sure

He does talk a bit about that decision, doesn't he? My personal suggestion for anyone struggling/worrying about heaters is to invest in an Inkbird controller and then it really doesn't matter what heater you plug in. I run all of my tanks and aging barrels with Inkbirds and whatever the cheapest 100-500 watt heaters are made by the alphabet soup Amazon-only companies and it works swimmingly. I'm a bit of an off-standard case, maybe. Because we keep the house quite cool in the winter and I've got some very warm water fish so I'm asking them to raise the temperature 30 degrees above room temp in some cases. I understand the appeal of an all-in-one unit. But I really think the Inkbirds are under utilized and they work with any heater which makes keeping spare heaters cheaper AND you don't need a specific heater. For instance, I could drop a 200W heater in a 10 gallon with an Inkbird and not have to worry about it cooking the fish (though the temp swings will not be well regulated with a bigger heater).

Looks like a bacterial bloom I would do is add an extra air stone and do daily 30% water changes for the next 5 days lower your nitrate below 40ppm it should start clear

When I watched Cory's podcast, the thing that hit me is: what are all of those partner stores going to do now? I bet they would kill for just the 50 watt heaters. My thought is: don't give up. Keep selling the 50 watt heaters and refuse to make anything more powerful. Give your customers that low failure rate, give your partner stores that low failure rate, and that's it. You've got thousands of dollars in 50 watt heaters. Keep selling them. I'm betting your customers would appreciate it (if you agree, please respond).

Is the air pump split to multiple drops and the air collar is just not having enough pressure due to the other items on the line taking all the pressure from the line? Basically, my setup has a stone on one side, air collar on the other and one of them might cancel out the other. I have to restrict the flow to the air collar so the air stone works, but I also have to loosen the air stone tightness so that it's not making the airpump whine in anger. This is what @Guppysnail was talking about and you can visibly see the air leak in the video from the tubing attachment point.

Where the airline connects to the collar the air is escaping. I don’t think you are clogged. Cut the end of the airline about half inch and try again.

A) NOTHING wrong with a GloFish IMO, they are a "gateway drug" for kids especially, and sometimes foster a lifelong love of aquariums (and fish). They are not injected or treated cruelly. They are born the way they are and are a result of science that was actually looking to create a fish that could detect polution in wild waterways, NOT for the pet trade specifically, despite what some may say. B) Most would say Cory are GREAT bottom dwellers but don't get only 1. They are more comfortable and fun in a group of at least 6. Going with smaller species of Cory like a Bumblebee make people more comfortable in getting a larger number. C) 77 is just fine. 75 would be too.

Hi forum folks! We are changing the format of my postings here on the forum. I will still be posting updates, but now they will be organized into monthly postings and updated weekly showcasing fish, plants, and anything else related to the store for that month. If you have any questions on anything mentioned, please don't hesitate email us at the retail store directly at store@aquariumcoop.com and we will happily help you out. Here is the link to our first retail store weekly newsletter along with some photos of the fish and plants featured in the newsletter 😃

I happened to stumble upon an interesting species of sunfish called the Everglades pygmy sunfish. I was wondering if anyone has ever kept one of these or maybe another species of pygmy sunfish?

Hi guys, I have an established 65 gallon tank that has been up and running for years. I am running a Fluval 307. Water Parameter's: Water temp - 78 degrees. Ammonia - 0 ppm Nitrite - 0 ppm Nitrate - 5 ppm It currently has: 1 EA - Angelfish 8 EA - Cherry Barbs 5 EA - Runnynose Tetras 4 EA - Ottos I just purchased and added: 6 EA - Julii Corydoras 1 EA - Redhump Eartheater I floated them for 15 mins. Then opened their respected bags and added 3 - 4 ozs of my tank water to bag. Waited 10 mins. Added another 3-4 ozs of my tank water. Waited another 10 minutes. Placed new fish in tank. The eartheater seems perfectly fine. Though, within several hours, I had one dead cory. The next day, 2 more died. The next day, 2 more died. The fish all seem to have red bruising around their chest/lungs. Not sure what the deal is. PH shock? Temp shock? Sick / bad batch of fish? Purchased from big box pet store. I am just trying to figure this out. Should i be drip acclimating? I would like to get some cory's. I just don't want to continue to waste my money. Thanks for your help!

I'm currently going through the process of setting up a 180 gallon aquarium with the end goal of a planted community tank with a school of Discus, Cardinal Tetras, Rummynose Tetras, Sterbai Corys, and a pleco or two. The project is no light undertaking, so I thought this would be a great place to document the process. Not only do I want to be able to look back years down the road, I hope I can educate and entertain others along the way. I know me, and know I am going to ramble here, but that's what a journal is for, right? For starters, this is all new to me. I've only been keeping fish for a little overr a year. I wanted to keep fish for well over a decade now, but I never got around it. Finally, my father-in-law got my daughter a Betta for her 1st birthday last year, and that kicked off my obsession. That quickly upgraded to a planted 36 gallon community tank and a 6 gallon cube for the Betta. Now, I finally got my wife on board with, or at least not objecting to, setting up a large aquarium in the basement. Bonus points because my now 2-year-old daughter loves the hobby too. Loves feeding the fish and always asks to go to the fishy store. Once that green light was given by my wife, I started browsing Facebook Marketplace for the aquarium. The goal was something between 125-180. After a while, 2 180s popped up at the same time. One was older with wood trim and wasn't drilled. The other (the one I got) had black plastic trim and was predrilled with what I guess is called reef-ready. The seller never had it set up and I think he ended up with it after buying a storage locker at auction. It seemed to be in okay shape from my limited knowledge and was $400 so I rolled with it. I also knew I wanted to run it with a sump, so I set out to find a 75 gallon aquarium for that purpose. Interestingly, I found one right away and after talking to the owner about it, I had his 180 gallon. He let it go after moving and seemed to have gotten out of the hobby. He sold me the 75 gallon for $50. After getting both home and in my garage, I started watching videos on cleaning used aquariums and that sent me down a rabbit hole of resealing them. I decided I was going to tackle that project. The seams looked to be in great shape. No bubbles in the structural part of the silicone whatsoever, but the silicone I would be replacing had seen better days. While it was still pliable, the edges were beginning to dry rot, and peel back. It did hold water though. I filled it, added citric acid to scrub the salt off, and it stayed full for a few hours with no issues. after cleaning it, I quickly drained it though because my garage was not completely level and I didn't want any added stress to one seam over another. I ordered Momentive RTV103 Silicone after reading several reef forums. I also picked up several kinds of razors from Lowes and got down to business. Thanks to my dad, brother-in-law, and best friend, we were able to move it down to my basement so I could work on it in a heated space. Plus that's where it will eventually be set up. Currently, I have both overflow boxes removed, and silicone cleaned out of 2 of the 8 seams. It'll be a long process, but I enjoy these DIY projects. Tonight, I did find a pretty decent chip in one of the side panels below the silicone seal. That has me pretty nervous, but If it was there prior and I make sure its completely covered, I should be okay. At least I hope I'm okay because a new 180 gallon aquarium isn't in the budget currently. For the sump, I plan to only have 3 chambers. The first chamber will house a series of mechanical filtration most likely with sponges and filter floss. This area will be about 6 inches wide. From there I plan to have the water flow up through an 8 inch wide chamber full of bio media. The baffle here will be about 14 inches tall so from my math, could hold about 8 gallons of bio media. After that, the water will fall into a large return chamber (34x18). If I have the water filled up to 14 inches in the sump, the return chamber should have about 37 gallons of water in it. I'll house the heaters, and a few sponge filters here to help with aeration and to have seeded sponges if I need a quarantine tank set up fast. My goal is to run an auto water change system out of the return chamber. I should be able to drain about 20 gallons of water out of that chamber and still allow my return pump to run. In theory, I think as long as the pump speed doesn't vary, changing water from the return chamber should just lower and raise the water level in the return, meanwhile, nothing changes or is noticeable in the display tank. All of that happens with the return pump staying on. I could be totally wrong on this but I couldn't find anyone running a setup like this. Maybe there is a reason for that, but it sounds like a fun idea to me so we'll see! I have about 80% of the materials purchased to finish the build. I went with a Sicce SDC 6.0 pump and Sicce Scuba Contactless heaters. I'm going to build the stand out of 2x4s and 2x6s. I will eventually wrap the stand in a nice plywood and stain it, but I want to get the tank resealed, set up, and running before I worry about the aesthetics. I also find water chemistry super fascinating. I will start out by saying, I don't think you should chase parameters. It's probably best in most situations to let acclimate your fish to your water. With that said, my tap water would supply an amazing African cichlid tank, but isn't ideal for the fish I want to keep. To remedy this, I purchased 4x 30 gallon food-grade drums so I can mix my very hard and alkaline tap water with RO water. This is another element of the DIY process I really like. I'm still working on the logistics of it, but ideally, I can set up the tanks to automatically fill and mix the right amount to get softer water around a PH of 6.8 or so. I manually do this in my Betta's tank now, but with the drums and float valves, I think I can automate the process and consistently have a stable source of water without chasing parameters with additives. More updates to come! Heres the tank how I got it. Taking the old black paint off the back All Cleaned Up! The joints seem to be in great shape 75 Gallon running citric acid through it In the basement, Overflows off, and starting to remove the silicone Defect in glass Box of goodies! 30 Gallon Drums!

I hated mine, and only had it up and running a few months. You have to either rig up or buy props to keep the lid up. The pump that comes with it is junk. Cleaning behind the plastic wall in the back is not fun, it's very difficult to keep clean. The light in it blew out within the first two weeks. Definitely go with a traditional tank, I am not a fan of any of these all in one style tanks.

Mircosword carpet looks good

No, the only remedy for mts is another 20g😂

Thanks for all the feedback. Have since decided to go with a standard 20g tank. For the price of that flex, I can get a kit and a stand....I know I'll prob spend a little more because I have some equipment preferences. Must say excited to be setting up tank 2. This could be the beginning of MTS (do I really need a couch??) lol 😄

pretty MTS, has a bit of purple blue jelly in betta tank

Wow that is a host of beautiful fish, I really like the colors on the first two pictures. are they available in the hobby? Its a shame our native fish are not more popular or available. The only native fish I hear about are the rainbow shiners and the okefenokee sunfish as well as the different colored procambarus alleni species.

Rotala ammania bonsai (other roatala have small leaves too but the bonsai is the smallest of all the species I kept) , pearlweed, DHG, montecarlo, AR mini, Mayaca Fluviatilis, micro sword, crypt parva, hydrocotyle tripartita mini, ludwigia arcuata Not sure what your setup is but these are some of the plants I kept that stay small or have small leaves

Ebay is the cheapest place to buy them. Make sure you buy from the actual Inkbird store which is called Inkbird (wild, right?)

I personally never kept them, but they are on my list. I didn't realize they were heavily into live foods, that's quite interesting? Do you think that the later generations will be as picky or were yours already tank raised?

I was just about to mention WCMMs but ummmm….ghost shrimp, pea puffer, the pea puffer would have to be by itself though…kinda rude to others. Green neon tetras, mystery snails.

1. If you chop up frozen blood worms... and add frozen Daphnia... thaw in hot water... maybe they'll take to it. Honestly, they really do lean heavily on BBS, live black worms, scuds, and live Daphnia. Occasionally they'll destroy a small snail -- almost like a Pea Puffer. 2. jonahsaquarium.com -- I know it's a janky website, but just e-mail them. Best NANF people ever.

you can use just about any amount of filters you want, or any combination of filters. there is no single rule that says you must run X amount of filtration per gallon. so many variables involved. you can always adjust flow of your filters, add filters to what you have, or change them for something else.

You can but I would get either a canister or a sump. Fluval FX series are good and readily available otherwise I like Eheim and Aquatop. I will always preach the word of the sump even if few listen. It really is so easy and customizable, not to mention cheap.

Thanks for the video, I have a couple of questions. 1. Can you feed them frozen food because I cant get access to live food. 2. Where can I find these fish? Is there a pet store or do you have to wild catch them?

I did the trio - Maracyn, Ich-X, and ParaCleanse. After that treatment was completed I did not notice a great improvement with all my platys. I then did a course of API Fin & Body Cure. During that treatment, I noticed a slight elevation in Nitrite levels ~.15ppm. In response, I did daily water changes and added Seachem Stability to make sure I had enough good bacteria. About 5-6 days later the Nitrate levels went back to 0. However, I did see two shrimp die around this period. I don't know if that had to do with the medication or something else. This was about a month ago. I did find a dead mature shrimp this week. The water parameters have been stable enough for them to reproduce though. However, I now can't find as many shrimp as I did count when they were babies. They have good places to hide as well. As far as filtration, I'm using a sponge filter. I did not run active carbon.

This is all great information. Thank you everyone for your prompt responses. There is one thing I forgot to mention. I have never run an air stone before in any of my fish tanks. I have always had plenty of surface to air agitation from the filter. At least I thought I did! After googling last night, I saw that Cory’s might need more than normal. I went out and bought an air stone and pump and got it going. Do you think this could be it? John

You can leave it without water changes sometimes it will improve on its own or you can do daily water changes that's the method I have used and found to effective

@nabokovfan87 I looked through that when I first got my tidals. It's how I learned to take it apart and put the sponges in different areas. Thank you. @NOLANANO I was told the same thing. Leave it alone. But, I wanted to make sure it wasn't something else so I did do a water change and it is improving.

Ive seen people replace the cross bar just because!!! I'm less than mechanically inclined, but if I were good with my hands I'd probably do it too! What drives me nuts is there aren't many commercially available mass produced aquarium tops except for versa tops which are hideous IMO

I couldn’t use the sprayer method, as my sprayer decided not to work! I used the info from a video I was sent. Mark’s shrimp tanks method, using some aquarium water mixed with the peroxide. You leave it 1 hour and then turn the filter back on and the light. I did take all the sponges out. I’m going to wait until tomorrow (if that’s not too long) and do a 50% water change for clean up! I can check for tough spots tomorrow, put my new plants in, and my mopani wood back! Thanks! I’ll wait and see what the tank looks like tomorrow! My timer just went off, so I will turn everything back on!

I have to agree with this statement as my favorite selections of books to read where written in the Victorian Era 😂 Needless to say not everyone is interested in reading books that old.

everybody was a beginner at some point. Mine was only couple of years ago. My daughter won a goldfish from the fair. it didn't make it the night. Next day we went and got our first tanks. No idea about cycling or anything else. Made tons of mistakes. But we screw up and learn things. but I remember very clearly the feeling of being new and panicky

Heterandria formosa (Least killifish), Neoheterandria elegans (Tiger Teddy), Boraras merah (Phoenix rasbora), Boraras birigittae (Chili rasbora) all will do fine in a 5.5 and 79 degrees.

I will get to them at some point and I bet I will love them. Sometimes it is the circumstances, the mood one is in, the weather, the timing 🙂 Some books sucks but some books suffer from external things influencing the reader I also use the headphones and I will have to change the approach and move the reading from the bedroom/couch to a chair or something 🙂

Finally found this topic. I am an avid reader, but I read utter crap. It is astonishing how bad books I pick. The problem is, I read most of the time when re-watching tv shows, or while boyfriend is still working and we have something in the background. Some books require to be read in silence, without distractions and I find it hard to do that. So instead I read cheap fantasy, scifi, even romance books that have no deeper meaning or complicated language and can be easily read while not fully committed. I also have this other bad habit where I know what good books are, I have them in my library and then I have hard time getting into them and give up. I have Joe Abercrombie series, read two chapters, sitting on a shelf. Lies of Locke Lamora, 15% in, lost interest and that was few years ago. Some scifi is just too hard to read cause the language is not easy to follow. I desperately need to switch to the "good" books and stop wasting my time on the "crap". I know I dont even finish some of them, if I dont finish the book that evening, I will most likely not pick it up again, as I dont have the interest anymore nor the drive to figure out how it ended, given they are mostly the same. On the other hand I promised myself to stop being so hard on myself, given I enjoy some of the books and it is comparable with watching bad tv. So why not. I also reread books and series a lot, when I remember a line or a feeling or a scene, I just have to read the book again, which sort of leads to rereading the series. My most favorite ones are books by Ilona Andrews (The edge series, Hidden Legacy series, Inkeeper series, not the Kate Daniels and the following) or Patricia Briggs or Kim Harrison, so it is clear there what style I like 🙂 On that note I started reading Great Gatsby, interesting one, sort of feverish pace, reminds me of Kerouac books and I need to do just a chapter or two at a time. I also started the Dawn from the Lilith Brood series by Octavia E Butler, I am listening partially to some czech crime book which is too scary to listen to in the evenings so I switch it with Killer Moon by N.K. Jemisin. Not to mention I have tabs opened for some of my crap books, like The Alpha by Avanne Micheaels or Unwanted by Marley Valentine How do you manage to do the correct books? I even tried like Haruki Murakami, boy I hated that book (1Q84), took me long time to finish and I hated it even more after that

Agree on the leak, but I will say that I think the collars take a little bit more air. It's not a problem for me on a central air pump with plenty of capacity (so far). But I think if someone was at the ragged edge of their pump capacity and then switched everything over to the new collar, it might be an issue.

There isn’t much publications on how to accurately differentiate. There may be dorsal ray counts or some other but for right now we can use typical patterns. Your gobies have 3 lateral bars rather than 4. Which means you most likely have B. doriae or B. sabanus the most commonly traded bumblebee goby. Both of which are freshwater fish that can be found in low-end brackish waters in the mangrove swamps of the upper reaches of the tidal flats and river. I believe that the whole genus is capable of low end salt tolerance but some are only found in freshwater. Either way I remember reading that their salt tolerance is low at a maximum of 1.005. Good luck! Update us with pics of the puffers! Personally I have decided to wait to make an intertidal tank. I want to only have 1 display tank at a time to really appreciate and enjoy 1 biotope at a time.

Which photo? Could be bell pepper, bloodworm, or vibra bites. I have a cichlid pellet that is red too and sometimes they eat those when they find them.

Repashy super green and solient green Tropical pleco tablets with 36% spirulina and tropical hi-aglae discs with 52% algae from five species of algae EBo veg sticks 50% pumpkin 50% pea fibra and EBo spirulina tabs with 30% spirulina cucumber blanched spinach and lettuce are all great quality foods for bristlenose mine breed every 3 weeks with out fail

Nice tank it’s a wonderful hobby and this is a great place for beginners to find help