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Plecos -just kinda meh on them Platys- my favorite tank is a balanced platy tank. All age ranges. With one betta. discus. I am actually intimidated by these. Going to try in a while, though Discus. Geo altifrons, Severums. Sorry, tried narrowing it down. Then started involuntarily twitching angelfish. My favorite fish of all time is a small koi male with broken dorsal fin rays. carnivores. Not feeding fish to other fish

I also posted this on the Facebook group. I'll be real, I stole the "local-ish" from a comment @Candi made cause I thought it was a great description haha. I am very lucky to have 2 local fish stores within a 10 minute drive of me. Both however are very small so I occasionally enjoy driving an extra distance to check out a larger store in a larger city. On Friday I decided to drive over an hour to visit one. I didn't realize until I got there that it was an ACO retailer store. The store was Pure Fish Works in Hastings, MN. Both of the gentlemen there was very fun to talk to and were a great help. After I got a fish, a snail and a plant I decided to look at the ACO stuff. I haven't yet tried the freeze dried brine shrimp so I grabbed some to give it a try! After I bought all my stuff the owner asked if I needed a bag to carry my stuff. I thought maybe it would be a simple plastic bag but I got this nice ACO bag instead. Idk if this is the policy of this specific store or if that's something ACO encourages but I found it very cool!! Less plastic bags out in the environment and now I have a nice bag to use in the future!

1) That everyone seems crazy about or is very popular that you actually DON’T like or feel indifferent about. - Betta 2) Name on fish that you are CRAZY about that no one else seems to get very excited about. - Siamese Algae Eaters 3 ) Name one fish you would LOVE to keep, but aren’t sure you are “knowledgeable/experienced/ready” to keep them. - Shrimp (I know they aren't fish) 4) Name one fish you feel is your “Bucket list” fish - Corydoras 5) Name one fish out of all the ones you currently keep that is your favorite (for any reason) - Red Tailed Tinfoil Barbs. Barbonymus Altus and lastly… 6) Name one fish you would NEVER consider keeping. - puffers

Name one fish… 1) That everyone seems crazy about or is very popular that you actually DON’T like or feel indifferent about. -Melanotaenia 2) Name on fish that you are CRAZY about that no one else seems to get very excited about. - Laetacara curviceps 3 ) Name one fish you would LOVE to keep, but aren’t sure you are“knowledgeable/experienced/ready” to keep them. - wild caught Enigmatachromis lucanusi 4) Name one fish you feel is your “Bucket list” fish -wild caught Enigmatachromis lucanusi 5) Name one fish out of all the ones you currently keep that is your favorite (for any reason) -Laetacara dorsigera and lastly… 6) Name one fish you would NEVER consider keeping. - discus I typed real fast and hit send before I wrote a novel 🤣🤣🤣🤣

1. Not sure about this one... 2. Platies! In large numbers platies get really interesting group dynamics 3.Not a fish but a lot of the Caridinia shrimp look super cool 4. Bolivian Rams 5. Panda Garras 🐼! 6. Flowerhorns. Between tank size needed and aggression levels, not really my thing.

1- Betta 2- Neolamprologus Pulcher Daffodil 3- Tropheus 4- Tropheus 5- my goldfish 6- nano fish, all of them.

I had a bit of trouble getting a 40g set up as a breeder for my bristlenose. I finally got it cycled and dropped my bn in went about my business. I was doing my weekly water change/maintenance and noticed a large amount of gravel in one of my caves. Then I saw a clutch of eggs. The male wasn't sitting on them, so I placed them in a breeder box. I lost a couple of mould, but managed to keep majority. 2 failed to hatch properly, one sadly didn't make it much longer after hatching and one had a deformity where it was swimming in spirals. Out of all it I have counted about 50 fry. Waiting for full color to come through, but guessing they will be common with super red het gene as the male is super red.

My newest setup “The Betta Cove” (I name my tanks) is ready for it’s 1st inhabitants! Tuesday I have Kuhli Loaches arriving from Dansfish. It’s the 1st time I’m keeping Kuhli Loaches so I’m stoked! But the main species will be a pair of Betta Channoides for my next breeding project. It will be my 1st time breeding mouth brooders. I cannot wait, I can hardly contain myself! But I might have to wait until the Kuhli Loaches are big enough not to be gobbled up.

I was going to say Florida flag fish @Fish Folk

I’m not sure. I thought Jordanella floridae at first glance… maybe a little male… but that doesn’t seem right. To my eye, the Dorsal + Caudal fin pronouncement seems to preclude Puffer… but I’ve never raised juvenile Puffers.

That’s a good idea about keeping a journal. I love wild bettas, I am so excited to start this project!

Ok, jus a little lighthearted fun to see what other’s answers would be.. Name one fish… 1) That everyone seems crazy about or is very popular that you actually DON’T like or feel indifferent about. - Peacock Cichlids 2) Name on fish that you are CRAZY about that no one else seems to get very excited about. - Cardinal Tetra 3 ) Name one fish you would LOVE to keep, but aren’t sure you are “knowledgeable/experienced/ready” to keep them. - Discus 4) Name one fish you feel is your “Bucket list” fish - Discus 5) Name one fish out of all the ones you currently keep that is your favorite (for any reason) - Albino Cory! and lastly… 6) Name one fish you would NEVER consider keeping. - Oscar can’t wait to see what others answer!!!

Cool. Congrats. Its tough to see in stills. I do a video on the phone and make it a gif for the short videos here. Spotted congo for comparison And pao palustris basically tiny foodbellys with eyes from very early on I had a mystery flag fish fry before that made it through a sump overflow rack and multiple predators until discovered around that size. It probably went through the pump at least once as egg and new fry. Tracking that down now will update with that gif once found

I have a lot of DIY filtration, and I like running multiple filters instead of one large one. My current setup uses 7 pumps (4 power heads to pull water through two custom filters and 3 internal filters). Each of them moves 1000 lit/hour (260 gal/hr). This gave quite a lot of current in the tank, and my fancy goldfish aren't all so great swimmers. So I decided to slow down the current, without affecting the flow (not sure about the actual physics definition, but I wanted to circulate the same amout of water without my fish having to swim against fast moving water. I came up with this contraption. I initially had designed a modular system that that I could 3D print, and would work the same way, but this is a bathtub tray that I had lying around, that fitted perfectly to what I wanted. I have a layer of fine filter mat in the bottom, and a coarser sponge at the top. This is so that the fine filter does not get clogged too fast. The blue sponge i can wash quite easily. That said, I don't expect it to get clogged at all because most of the 6 outlets that pour onto it, are from filters, so the water should be cleaned for solid debris This has effectively slowed down water movement inside the tank, but retains the original water flow through the filter media, adding an extra stem that also can assist with further filtration. I assume that the sponge will house beneficial bacteria, that will have enough oxygen to be super effective. My next improvement, will be to spread the outlets more evenly across the sponge surface, to get even better bacteria growth in the blue sponge

I stuck my head into Goodwill the other day and found this odd shaped 2.5 gallon aquarium for $5, I couldn't just leave it there right? It's marked KollerCraft on the bottom. It's missing the light and filter that came with it originally, but came with a Tetra Whisper 4g. The filter works, a little noisy, but not terrible. I leak tested it overnight, all seems good. Just needs a good cleaning. I'm planning to keep cherry shrimp in it. Most likely will use black sand for the substrate. I hope just some easy plants inside, and 3d print some plant holders and grow something like pothos out the top. Not sure what I'll do for a light yet, or where I'll actually keep it. It's a very odd shape. This won't be a fast moving project. I'm swamped with family, work, school, and internship. I'm working 5 days a week, and interning the other 2.

One thought I have is to use reverse respiration on the plants. This is where you would float the plants in seltzer water (NOT sparkling water) for a few hours and the carbon dioxide may drive the bugs away. You can read more about reverse respiration here Another thought would be to hang the yellow sticky whitefly traps around the tank. The traps contain a bug attractant and could help with the situation. https://a.co/d/fDsCSBL https://a.co/d/0MFYtMw

Flag fish crossed my mind as well, largely from @mountaintoppufferkeeper’s post, but I’m not really sure. I may try to figure out who I’ve bought plants from and see what they think. I’d agree on it not being a puffer at this point. Seems like this is the leading theory at the moment.

In my experience, I believe the API test to be more accurate, but you have to follow the instructions EXACTLY as they’re written. My API liquid test, when done correctly, will read like 40ppm, and the ACO test strips will read 0.

Shake the crap out of the api test it (especially bottle 2 ) needs to be shaken for at least a minute more the first time you have to break up and dissolve all the gray stuff or it I’ll read low

This happened to me exactly and it was because I wasn’t doing the API liquid nitrate test correctly. You have to follow it to a T…

Yep. I wasnt up for doing weekly water changes until I got sick of fighting Algae. I now feel water changes are more pleasant than fighting a losing battle against algae.

@Fish Folki know you’ve worked with a good number of species. You ever seen a fry like this?

1 pump of Easy Green in 10 gallons of water provides 3 ppm Nitrate. On my densely planted co2 injected high light tanks I aim for 20-25 ppm Nitrate. I could get faster growth at 30 ppm nitrate, but that also means more frequent trimming… On my non CO2 injected tank I am at dosing to 15 ppm nitrate. On all tanks I do a 50% water change weekly, and then front load my entire dosageI to raise nitrates to20 ppm…. That would be 6 pumps in a 10 gallon tank. I also add about 3 ppm nitrates Wednesday morning based on my experience how quickly nitrates are consumed by my plants. Pretty much plants do not benefit much from Nitrate levels much above 30 ppm. The instructions on the bottle are not terribly useful to my needs.

I'm extremely lucky. I have "the bad" LFS which is like a 2 min drive away and "the good" LFS which is 10 min drive away aaaaaand petsmart is 20 min drive away. I know people in large cities with only big box stores as an option and even then it's 30 min away. I'm extremely lucky.

yeah a tad nervous as its my tank baby. just too be 100% safe im going to keep 2 units on it for a few weeks. The tank is a machine but would hate to lose a fella. thanks for the insight.

This is an updated picture from my bed room aquarium: Population includes 16 cherry barb- 2 years ago i purchased 8 from aquahuna and they were all males; then about 6 months ago i purchased 8 more and they were 7 females nad 1 male so i guess that kind of balance things out. A few young guppies that i failed to catch when i moved (most ended up in the basement); a bunch of pygmy cory (15? 20? 25?); a bunch of orange laser cory (15? 20?); 7 keyholes 6 l. araguaiae; some random pleco (i think 2 blue phantom and 3 or 4 Wabenmuster). I had a bunch of kubtai rasbora - my favorite rasbora but over the past 6 months they vanished - many were 3 or 4 years old - i hate to think the keyholes have been snacking on them but can't imagine they all died. However a lot of my pygmy cory are quite small - oh well who knows. I'll probaby buy some more and put them in a more friendly aquarium as they are such a lovely fish. I do consider this 180 over stocked and will trim down the keyholes and l.a. when they form pairs. Here are some closer up: Getting a fair amount of bba and i think i need to add more of something - probably phosphate. This is the only aquarium i regularly put in fertilizer every week but it seems to not be enough (i use thrive liquid and root tabs). - This little fellow has really suffered. This is an opacus sword plant; in the previous aquarium before i moved anerobic pocket developed and killed a lot of its roots; i checked 2 months ago and some decent roots have regrown and it put out two very tiny small leaves. This is the same plant in another aquarium which is growing quite well - that one gets a lot less fertilizer and the water is a lot softer but similar temp - slightly warmer: Maybe it prefers the warm ultra soft water 😉 - Horrible picture but only new plant i've added the past 3 months; it was sold as a sunset wenditti; and it does have slightly more colour but in recent years i tend to favor green and green greco over these other variants of wenditti. This is on the right side of the aquarium and it is blood red rotala; not super red in this low tech aquarium but the tops and two left most stems are all new growth; you can see how hte lower growth didn't really adapt from hi-tech to low tech environment but the plant is growing well considering it is lo-tech (no co2). It has been there since sept so it has taken it 5 solid months to send up two new sprouts. Now if it was in @Mmiller2001 aquarium it would be a strong lovely red so there is some advantages of adding co2. And totally unrelated this is a green wavy (werid name) buce grown emersed. Growing quite fast - only been there a couple of months I think:

1.longfin fish created by man. 2. Banjo Catfish 3. Discus 4. Asian Arowana 5. Glo fish

FAIL 😑 I was excited yesterday m. All my girls went to bed looking like they had full egg bellies. I was right. They all spawned this morning. Not a single one used the catch cup moss ☹️ They spawned in the top floating hornwort. I watched soooo many eggs fall to the bare bottom floor that needs vacuumed today. Im going to clean out a tank and set it up to move the adults to so I can maybe get a few of these eggs to hatch before they fungus. I’m setting this tank up with jungle sand covered by a Christmas moss layer. I may just need to shuttle these kids back and forth. 🫤

And don't forget my snail 🐌. Thanks again everyone for the great advice and knowledge. I'm learning everyday!

Really, you already have good ph. Dan from dans fish was just saying on his livestream Wednesday, that’s not a parameter he even worries about. But the shrimp probably would like more of the calcium and magnesium for their shells

Awesome, thanks! Hopefully that will take care of the pH issue. Now I have to get hardier fish.

I almost guessed neons. Not sure it’s anything you’re doing at all

Got the cuttlebone idea from guppysnail. Seems to be great, just plop it in and watch it disappear. When it’s gone, add another. Would work really great for a hob. Put it behind the cartridge and it’s completely out of the way

"Occulating" the filter with bacteria in another tank is always a good start, given you will have time. After that, you get plants, and ideally plants form other keepers. Newly bought plants have a hard time first few months before they become thriving. Do not put a moss in an undeveloped/immatue tank as it will be infested with algae and you will most likely throw most of it out Start with fast growing plants, even if you wont keep them there forever. Hygrophilla, rotalla. Floating plants, to help with excess nutrients, like salvinia that you will be throwin out later on. One slow growing plant, anubias, java fern Adding shrimp to a tank requires loads of patience, the tank should be running for three months at least, then add the moss, wait a month or two, add the shrimp. Then you will wait other two months at least before they start to breed, around that time dosing with bacter AE,.. Feeding shrimp in a shrimp only tank is a challenge, as keepers like to overfeed oh so much. Once a week should be enough. Question is what to feed, but that is a different topic Frankly my most successful shrimp tank now is my asian 150 liter tank chock full of white cloud minnows, panda garra and sewellia because NONE of the fish eat even the smalles babies, so I have tens and tens sititng on the stones next to the fish, I am fully confused by this 😄 Last point of mine is, the smaller the tank, the more likely a disaster will happen. I dont think under 25 liters are good tanks, and I think one has much easier time skipping a maintenance or slightly overfeeding and not having it end in a disaster. Also, but that is my two cents, shrimp only tanks become boring real quick 🙂 like a year

sponge filter, might not look awesome, but works well. It is uted almost all the way down. Granted this is a bigger tank

Yeah harqulen Rosa oars can go with bettas uselly, they have some bright red colors if I am not confusing them with another fish 😂. @MidnightBel

Most likely the tank is not cycled and therefore ammonia is present. You need to do a fish-in cycle to keep the fish alive. They are currently being exposed to toxins. I will link an article. The first half explains the nitrogen cycle. This concept is extremely important and the center of fish keeping. I encourage you to seek out other articles and YouTube videos explaining it to see it explained in a variety of ways until you fully understand it. The second half is a step by step guide on doing a fish in cycle. https://fishlab.com/fish-in-cycle/ I would also like to address two other things. First one is easy. I would raise the water line. I don't want to throw too much information at you at once so I will explain it pretty simply. Basically it will help two things. First is that it is giving the fish more space to live in. Second, and probably more importantly, it allows the filter to work best. There are some species that benefit more from a low water line but you don't have any of those. You should try to keep the water line just below the filter outflow to maximize its effectiveness. Second thing to address is stocking. No issues with the 6 glo tetras or otos. The cories need a group of 6 or more. Bronze cories specifically get kind of large to have 6 in that size tank. Both gourami are morphs of a three-spot gourami. Three-spot gourami get far too large for a 12 gallon tank. To put this into perspective, I once had a gold gourami in my 29 gallon tank for 1 hour before I realized my mistake and took it back. I don't want you to feel bad about ANYTHING. I always hope people don't take stuff like this the wrong way. You don't know what you don't know and unfortunately pet stores rarely give you compete and accurate information. You are asking the right questions and doing A LOT right. You can 100% fix this and learn in the mean time! For now, I suggest either looking to get a larger tank, or rehoming the cories and gourami and start planning for different fish. There are other different cory and gourami species that would work perfectly in there! I wouldn't suggest adding them right away but give the tank some time to cycle.

Mutually Assured Annoyance You get a tank and they get something you've been reluctant to get.

Seed shrimp are ostracods they will eat any decaying matter and detritus. They are usually a sign post of a healthy aquarium ecology

Here’s some pea puffer fry for comparison starting younger.

I agree with only shrimp, to a point. Ramshorn snails are another option as well. Other pest snails could work too but imo ramshorn are the only interesting pest snail.

Oh yes they do. Actually. They really don’t care about the pandas. They’re beneath them. 😂

All of those eat algae wafers. And all would love fresh veggies as well. Blanched zucchini rounds. Stick with a fork then throw in. Kuhlis and the snail would do sinking carnivore pellets as well Should be fine. Same as regular neon just different color. I have a betta with neons now. A betta with guppies and kuhlis. A betta with harlequin rasboras. And a female in my platy tank. She thinks she's one of them. Schools and everything. they seem to be doing fine.

Thank you for the heater suggestion!! As for the betta, I have 3 already who are potential candidates to go in. 2 female koi, and a male red rose petal betta. I have one of the outputs blocked in the fluval flex to reduce flow and it is hitting a bit against the wall as well. So far the red male is looking like a very likely candidate. I have his tank next to 5 zebra danio, white minnow (singular), and 3 guppies. Those guys are in quarantine right now waiting for another 2 weeks for their 2nd round of paraclense. I love khuli loaches so much and planned on putting a mesh on intakes to stop anything sneaking behind. Would 2 khuli loach, a mystery snail, and some ottos not be too much algae eaters? 🤔 I plan to establish the fish community in the tank and add the betta last for the best chances. I have 3 different bettas too if they don't work out, and if not they will get their own 10gal tanks. As for parameters I will need to check. I think pH is probably 7-7.6 because I have had crushed coral to help the kh and gh recently. It will be removed soon as I will be dosing liquid fertilizer more regularly again. Occasionally I'll have to add it back in or I might keep a super small bag in the back chamber. I will probably stay away from guppies even though I have 3 already (2 are fry still growing). I know bettas aren't too happy about their fancy fins usually. At first I planned to have neon tetras or rummynose/red nose tetras. Then I saved a deformed white cloud and got them zebra danios to school with, but was told to get them a long tank instead of square, so got them a 20gal for when they are done with quarantine. Will give me plenty of room for more guppies too this way with them. So would green neon tetras be good in small tank? Not too active to stress a betta? I would prefer some blue/white colors in there for schooling fish so they would be quite perfect. What about rummynose tetra behavior? I love how tightly they school and would love to get them for a different community tank if I end up with green neons.

I agree that a well seasoned tank is the secret to success with shrimp. You want algae for the shrimp to graze on. You want moss for the shrimp to graze on. Seasoned is more than just cycled, and you want a seasoned tank to be successful with shrimp.

This. Means lots of patience with a very established tank. Very well cycled. I don’t believe they can handle much in the way of new tank instability. Maybe switch tanks with your betta. It’s should be much more seasoned

From my experience I would start out with neocaridina shrimp. Dont over think it, they are extremely easy to keep, just make sure you are putting them in a well established aquarium.

My first shrimp tank I started with 15, locally bred cherry shrimp. 20 long with just shrimp and snails. Bred and sold 100’s of them before converting the tank to what it is now. For me personally, I’d still probably start with 15. Even for a 2.5 gallon tank. Should get a nice mix of male and females that way, and if you lose a couple you’ll still have good numbers to start with.

Shrimp, and only shrimp. If you wanna add something else, snails. 2.5 is extremely limiting in your options.

https://a.co/d/gvPdV1F I have had this heater in my betta tank for almost 1 year. I have the 25 watt for my 3.5 gallon tank so I don’t know if the dimensions are the same, mine is 4”X1”.