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I’ve always wanted these. Last year P. gertrudae was at my LFS so I picked up a group of 12. They were not healthy and quickly fell to being only a trio. They seemed very conspecific aggressive and did not have the color and look I was expecting. I gave away the trio as unimpressive and uninteresting. One if our respected breeding club members brought a trio of his offspring to auction so I brought them home. Even in the bag they looked better and healthier than the store bought ones. I’ve only had them 6 days and I’m very impressed. Active, not aggressive, not fearful of me. They are already spawning I’m going to make a spawning mop to put in this weekend. I put them in my hillstream loach algae tank and the lighting combined with their speed is not conducive to photos. I’ll work on getting video and better photos. First photo is from the internet. This is what I see looking into the tank that is not displayed in my lousy photos. My crappy photos 🤣

@Tony s and the others here are giving great advice. Follow it. The only point I'd make onto what's already been shared is to tinker. Slowly. Meaning that plants and lighting take some trial and error to get dialed in. If you see algae come on fast, lower the light intensity. Or duration. Or both. Adjust nutrients. Or don't. Your set-up will take time. With each change give it a couple weeks. Then adjust some more, wait a couple weeks, adjust again. A tinkerers mindset with some patience is a tricky combo but that's what you need to make plants and a tank really go. That and good advice from the folks like @Tony s

This has been a crazy tough journey for me. Last year my LFS got these in. Most of the group was bought leaving only 1 left in their tank. For 5 months every week when I visited I would spend a minute with this little fish. She was so personable and began recognizing me and rushing to the front as soon as I looked in. She stole my heart so I took her home. She thrived quickly in a tank with one of my male GBR offspring. Silly girl fell in love with my GBR boy and spawned. She harassed him relentlessly to fertilize her eggs and he was having none of it. I found him a home but then Worried over her becoming egg bound since she developed another egg belly. She also began moping when her friend was gone. I threw a group of Apisto cacatuoides babies in with her to keep her company while they grew out. Her egg belly continued to grow. I order a group online to find her a Mate but they sent me L. dorsigera. So I ordered another group of 6 but they only sent me an already bonded pair. I did lose my girl to egg binding. This new pair was thinner with touches of fin rot. They did ok for a few months but I never got the girls fin rot to completely clear. They spawned twice and ate the eggs. He then beat her relentlessly. I tried a divider but everytime I removed the divider after she seemed to be getting better he beat her again. I lost her then he started losing weight and I lost him. Fast forward to 3 months ago my LFS got another group in. They turned out to be all girls so I had them order another group so I could pair these girls. They could only get 2 that turned out to be a pair. Last week I auctioned the three girls off. The pair has spawned twice. Ate the eggs the first time and I messed up my egg hatch last time. Last night they spawned again so I’m going to pull the eggs as soon as the lights come on.

I've been breeding my panda cories for about 3 years now. I go in waves of not collecting eggs as much as other times. Panda cories don't lay as many eggs at once as other cory species but they also tend to be more fertile. About a week ago I blasted my old ecord of 83 and collect 124 eggs on one night. Almost all of those ended up fertile! I now have more fry in my shrimp tank than I've never had before. No joke, this sand was pristine 2 days ago. Babies are messy!!! I swear the videos don't do it justice how many fry I'm looking at right now!

No, not the Discus. Look at the bottom. Beautiful Assassin Snail skewering an earthworm piece just added 🪱

Really appreciate all this great advice! Tanks again fellas!

I bought these two plecos for a while now and I don’t know if they are two males or two females but their behavior seems different. They both caving but one is head in with tail facing out, while the other one is facing head out with the tail in. The one that on the right is only in the cave for 5 mins and then will go out and hide either under the sponge or behind the heater while the one in the left always stay in the cave and sometime hanging out in front of the cave entrance.

Appreciate it 👍🏼

assuming your tank is somewhat established, it can probably handle all of them. always best to add a few at a time if you can, that allows the bacteria colony to adapt as the waste increases.

Greetings from Texas I am fairly new to the fishkeeping hobby (Started around December 2022). I have kept 8 fish (all guppies) in total. Currently, I have a 5 gallon Nano Aquarium with 3 male guppies (Turquoise Tuxedo Delta, Sunrise Delta, and Green Cobra variants) and one Nerite snail. I do water changes every week, and my primary source of supplies is PetSmart. The fish eat the TopFin Community Mix (the one with Tropical Flakes and Spirulina treats). I strongly believe in Aquarium Salt, which is what I use to cure all my fish diseases, and it has been working very well. I hope that by joining this community, I can gain knowledge and learn to be a better fishkeeper.

I will do that. I'm just happy to see it decreasing in size.

Happy to report the bubble on my Molly's eye is already about half the size it started at. Thank you both for your help!

I had mine escape only when I think it was out of natural growth to sustain its diet. It was a shallow 35 liter tank. Probably got hungry. I saw them escaping at two different LFS twice. I put them back in their tank. Also there is one that diet outside and dried in a corner. So yes, they do leave the tank. But in my experience, only when hungry.

nerites should come with lo-jack tracking devices, just in case of escape!

I suppose you’re right and that’s the scary thing, that entry level keeper bar is just too low. I have tons of reasons but few solutions. I was told by a neighbor once, in a kinda snarky way, that fish keeping is too hard. I was forced to think but I liked my answer: “Fishkeeping is very easy once you learn how to do it. It’s the learning part that’s so hard.” There’s so much contradictory and straight out bad information out there that when you’re new who do you trust? They all sound plausible until you try them.

I've had mystery snails escape plenty of times. to the point where they appear completely dried out. I put them back in, a few hours later they were up and going

Salt doesn't evaporate, so a one time thing. don't add for top offs. When doing water changes add it only for the amount of water you remove. Sorry to hear about your animal. We just got a small group that look exactly like him (except for the sick. hopefully). Really sounds discouraging.

I would be concerned about dwarf gourami iridovirus his head doesn't look right that a viral infections that that caused by inbreeding in fish farms it's not found in wild gouramis very prevalent in dwarf gourami with no treatment available it's always fatal usually with in a couple of weeks of the start of symptoms or it's possible something else is going on if you have a quarantine tank I would move him and treat with aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons for 1 weeks just remember to only put back in what you take out so if you do a 2 gallon water change put 1 table spoon of aquarium salt back in as salt only removed though water changes and I would add some Indian almond leaves as well as they have antibacterial and antifungal properties you might have to add one leaf per gallon to get a beneficial effect and than give an update in 1 week @MetaRaptor

@Fish Folk recently set up a gorgeous daphnia ecosystem. I cannot seem to find the thread they posted though. found it

Spamming ACO?

Fun video of my GBR. They were born over a year ago and I only ever named them Boy and Girl. I was sitting in the floor watching the Limia nigrofasciata tank below theirs and they were both side by side staring down at me. His markings look like rectangle eyebrows she does not have those. I swear I saw this when I looked up. I desperately want to get a ceramic rubber ducky decor for their tank now 🤣 They now have been named Bert and Ernie ❤️

Have you added any new fish recently if so did you quarantine is he eating ok any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy is he rubbing on things in the tank or just swimming into them @MetaRaptor

Something on the skin is usually a bad sign. It sounds like it might be dwarf gourami iridovirus. Very very common and unfortunately fatal to the best of my knowledge. It took out the most recent (and last) dwarf gourami I owned. It can happen quick too.

I have 1 male Japan guppy in a 5-gallon with a ramshorn snail. I had to separate him from the others because I saw his tail was ripping. I put some aquarium salt in and he got better for a while but now it's happening again! I dosed the salt one more time. what else can I do??? (NOTE- sorry for the badly lit photos.)

Thanks. I have easy green and getting some root tabs soon because I am planning on Cryptocoryne green and other substrate feeders. Thanks for this info @Chad!

Sorry, but I read my comment yesterday and feel like an asterisk needs to be included with that first sentence. When I mentioned Hornwort won't choke out your anubias, that's true. BUT, that also means you need to make sure there are nutrients in the water (Easy Green). Hornwort will suck a tank dry. What I should have said was that as long as your Hornwort is getting nutrients, your Anubias is. Keep up on nutrients with Hornwort. I took hornwort out of my tank solely because of the leaves falling off. In my experience, when the nutrients go down, so do the leaves. They're a GREAT plant for aquariums but a mess to clean and slow to grow back. IMHO.

Ebay is the best place to buy InkBird controllers. I think they have two stores on there InkBird and InkBird USA or something like that.

Wow that was sad beginning, happy ending! Nice fish there @Guppysnail!!

@Qnash I went maybe…6 days without feeding bacteria and it easily was fine, bacteria is not a fish, it does not need food to survive for a long time just like @jwcarlson and @Tony s said, and also yes the rhizome can not be buried or will start slowly rotting and eventually die. Nice stocking ideas and hope everything goes well in this awesome looking 25g tank. You started in the right direction and that is good for a new keeper! Good luck!!!!

Also from coop https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/care-guide-for-fancy-goldfish if you’re looking to keep all 10 you’re probably looking at a minimum of 75g, but 125 would be better. Goldfish are massive waste producers. Bigger tanks will help keep the water stable. With 10 you’re still going to be doing a lot of water changes. If you could find a 75g lowboy that should be enough swimming area. They’re not impressive swimmers and do better in shallow tanks.

Cories were going crazy around the tank today. I quickly discovered why, they were having a spawning run. Also sunburst platy is going in the right direction. I didn't see him shimmying this morning, and while it took him a minute to realize there was krill flake, once he noticed it he came and ate a few flakes. I would not say he is in perfect platy condition right now, but definitely improving significantly from when i first got him.

They may try. In that case they’ll be severely injured. Corys have spines in their fins. I probably wouldn’t try this combination. The best tank mates for goldfish are goldfish. Mostly due to temperature requirements. I would keep them down around 70 degrees, possibly even unheated , they’re easily an outdoor pond fish. Most tropical fish are unsuited for these conditions. coop makes this list of tank mates, although I’d stay away from the common pleco https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&ved=2ahUKEwjQ4JH4z-SEAxWghIkEHTERD-MQFnoECA0QAQ&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.aquariumcoop.com%2Fblogs%2Faquarium%2Fgoldfish-tank-mates&usg=AOvVaw3roPORL7xxfQaJ7ZiE4KKi&opi=89978449

Do you have a top on the tank, it will lose a ton of heat that way

It might also be worthwhile doing a course of kanaplex just in case there's a bacterial infection of the Swim bladder

Don't trust a heater thermostat, that's my advice. They stink. I use external InkBird controllers on all of my tanks.

I was treating for ich on my tetras so I was using super ick cure. Unfortunately they didn't make it so I suspect something else was wrong with them. I have maracyn and paracleanse and I'm in the process of setting up a quarantine tank.

@anewbie Omg THANK YOU SO MUCH for such a detailed and informative explanation! I wish i had a different species 🤣🫥 Ironically i got them bc i saw ppl mention that trifasciafa are good beginner apistos and a trifasciata breedinf video said you could keep the parents together 🤣☠️ Now I’m uncovering all these other truths! Unfortunately my QT is being occupied and the other tanks are high flow or housing my first set of apisto fry (another story ). I’ll try to move him out asap, but i am worried about their aggression 🫣 Thank you again! @anewbiehere’s a photo of my setup. I redid it to try to do more sight blocks but i dunno 🤷 I added more leaf litter and twigs to do more blocks but it might be too late 🫣

The idea is the bacteria grows faster. But you're better off with a stable colony at the appropriate temperature. As for why. It's probably bleeding off more heat than it can maintain

Hornwort will take more nutrients but no worries, anubias won’t get choked out. I keep high light and low light plants with very little issue just like @Pepere wrote. In my case I sectioned off an area of the aquarium surface with airline tubing and suction cups and let the Amazon frogbit go crazy there, underneath on the floor I keep my ferns, crypt and anubias. In other areas that the frogbit isn’t shadowing the tank I let my more high light plants grow. See where the hornwort creates shadowy areas and put the low light plants there.

Sounds like it’s going to be a great tank😃

If you have your fish picked out, when the nitrite reaches zero, you’re ready to add a few. The bacteria should be just fine for a few days. You’ll want to start with a small group, depending on size. This will allow your bacteria to adjust. Have you decided what you want?

Beneficial bacteria doesn't just wink out of existence if there's a temporary lack of food. It will be OK. In the first picture the two outside plants look like java fern. You'll want to make sure the rhizomes aren't buried otherwise they're likely to have issues and possibly die. Otherwise everything's looking good!

Update! The fishless fuel is working well. It was more potent than I thought. I have ~0.1 ammonia, 2ppm NO2, 100ppm NO3. I’m going to do a 75 percent water change on Tuesday because of some construction. I am wondering if I should add some food to keep the ammonia processing working. I’m concerned the bacteria will die off quickly if there is 1-2 days without ammonia being produced. Should I add another drop or fish food to extend the cycle? I am thinking Wednesday I might get some fish. Thanks for the help. Thank you.

Continues to grow and change. Almost three months in. Easy maintenance. Spray a couple times a day, change water once a week. Trim some things that try escaping the glass. Fun to see the plants grow in different ways than underwater.

Welcome aboard

The controversy around Ethoxyquin has been blown all out of proportion. Most of the supposed bad effects have been debunked. Not to say you are wrong to avoid it. There’s nothing wrong with wanting less chemicals in your pet’s food. But it’s not something I spend any time worrying about, either. I worry more about appropriate protein, fat, and fiber ratios, trace minerals, vitamins, etc. Ethoxyquin has long since fallen off my radar as a concern.

It is pretty. It might still stabilize and come back. Don’t give up.

I was getting back in the hobby after a 20 year hiatus and I went on YouTube and started watching videos about fishkeeping and @Cory made an appearance on K&G Tropicals to talk about aquarium plants and I instantly became interested in keeping live plants in my new aquarium and the rest is history. ACO has made fishkeeping for me easy and enjoyable to the point where I went from a HOB to a sponge filter and I'm not sure if I would ever go back to a HOB. Also I could never see myself not having live plants in any of my fish tanks because not only do they add beauty to any tank but of the benefits of keeping them.

THX for your informations. I orderd now exact this polyfilter. I use 3 aquariums for my Puffers. An 55 liter dennerle tank for the puffers who are 1cm+, and 2 "IKEA Kallax" tanks wiht 25Liters for the eggs and jung puffers (check pictures). But i can´t find the error, why only 2 for 300 puffers survived in my last try. I use extrem clan water from an osmosis system, mixed with freshwater salt to get: KH 3, (Carbonat) GH 5 (overall hardness) PH ~6,5 NO2 0 ~26°C .....

One thing this hobby keeps teaching me? RELAX and let it happen!!! Was excited to see eyeballs swimming close to the bottom this evening.