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Lots of work to do, but it's not happening today! 😂 Grace was being very chill. She's accepted the new shark as a non-annoyance, which is a great sign. BBA is definitely going to have a fight on its hands against that new sharkminnow buddy. And those barbs are just so enjoyable. So beautiful.

Had these fish for maybe half a year or more now. I failed at breeding them a number of times, with the exception of getting a few surprise fry in what I thought was yet another failed breeding attempt (unbeknownst to me, a handful of fry hitched a ride into a shrimp tank on some java moss and grew out there feasting on my blue dream shrimplets). What I have learned is that these fish stay VERY SMALL for about a month, and hide VERY, VERY WELL. I maybe have 50-75 fry total, but honestly, I never saw more than 2 at one time before tonight. The fry went the first few weeks eating only paramecium, then they graduated to paramecium plus banana worms and vinegar eels. Now that they are finally taking BBS, they are starting to put on size fast. Here's a vid I took tonight after transferring them to a new grow out. Thanks for looking.

I think Izzy would make a nice name for either a male or a female. Just my humble opinion. I mean… I named my Pleco “Mango” because I’ve no idea what gender it is yet😂

If you want to get an acara type then look at the Laetacara araguiae or curviceps. They stay small would not be an issue for your corys.

Honestly, it looks more like a Plakat male. Not 100% sure but if I had to guess, I’d say male **Not a betta expert, lol

I use silicone candy molds and mini ice cube trays. Here’s a pic of my Repashy worms

Salt+Kanaplex right now. It's going to take at least two treatments. I see some improvement, but not what I would've expected so I might need to order in some other meds.

I just want to make sure what gender fish I have to have a name. I named her Izzy as a female but if it’s a male I’m going to change it.@whitecloud09 That’s what I thought she was. They listed her as a male Koi and looking at its fins it looks like a female.

That looks like a female koi betta. The pet stores sometimes list them wrong. For example, they were listing a male half-moon bettta as a female.

Wow did a catchup on your tank from 2023 to now. Awesome progress! Rainbows 🌈 are awesome enjoy! Well done riding the waves with this one! You’re having fun with this tank and it shows!

Or you can just root tab what you have already and skip all that other stuff. Unless it’s anaesthetic preference, then do what you please.

I honestly thought about getting more, but with the Congo tetra’s eventually going in, I was afraid it might be overstocked. Aqadvisor has me at 97% stocked with my planned fish. I know they don’t account for plants. I also have been told Kuhli loaches don’t produce much of a bioload… so may eventually add 6 more in the future. The final stocking plan is 12 Congo Tetra 20 Lemon Tetra 12 corydoras Paleatus 6 Kuhli Loaches 6 Otocinclus 1 Ling Fin Blue Eye Lemon BN Pleco 1 Ivory Mystery Snail

Thanks for the information! I thought the pet store labeled my betta wrong but then again bettas have all different styles of fins!

I need to catch up, but I see the photos and all I can think is... "I'm so excited because I know how much you're going to love this tank." Awesome work!

When I was raising Bristlenose pleco babie I used a flat bamboo skewer and dipped it this allow the maximum number of babies to all eat at once.

New species to me. Sheesh! Um… yes… just… yes… more please…

I think it was @Guppysnail that used to dip sticks into Repashy, then serve them like a giant lollipop

if your readings stay good, and you bump the amount of food up just a tiny bit to emulate what you will feed with the extra fish.... give it a few days to a week for the bacteria levels to grow, then add more fish.

Hello! Good to meet you. I am in the South Sound area too....Tacoma. There isn't any fish group/gathering in the area that i am aware of. Many years ago there used to be a fish swap every few months in the Auburn area but it faded out long ago.

Maybe try lighting up the area around the tank more to see if that changes behavior any.

Employee seems a bit misinformed and out of line, really. I tend to be fairly understocked in my tanks unless they're growout tanks with lots of fry in them getting lots of water changes, but 12 pygmy corys shouldn't be an issue I wouldn't think, though I have not kept them. It's not all bad staggering the loading, but water changes solve any concerns of ammonia or nitrite spikes.

My new Long Fin Blue Eyed Lemon Bristle Nose Pleco that I got from @Guppysnail is doing so well. He’s currently in the 29g living his best life until he grows a bit more and the wood in the 75g is a bit more “seasoned” (I don’t know why feel this is a thing, but I do 🤷🏻‍♀️). He (or she… to young yet to tell) is so pretty and so busy all of the time. This is my first Pleco so I’m constantly bombarding Guppysnail with questions (new mom nerves). But… he/she officially has a name! it’s MANGO!!!!

They are super busy all of the time! Even gliding across the front of the tank as a group. It’s an amazing thing to see when they do it. Gave them some Repashy this evening… they seem to like it! I e given this group their name… since they are Peppered Cory, I’m calling them the “Spicy Guys”

And we have our first fish in the tank! After adding filter media from another tank, some pre-cycled sand, some rocks from another tank and a healthy dose of bottled bacteria… we are cycled! Will continue to monitor water daily for the next couple of weeks just to make sure all is well before adding the next group of fish. Order 12 Peppered Cory from Aqua Huna and all arrived alive and in good condition. The 12 of them look so lost in this 75g tank, but they’ll get bigger and eventually have some roommates. Took my time to acclimate them since they’re coming from soft water in Seattle to basically liquid rock here in Florida. They settled in rather quickly once in the tank. I’ve never owned this big of a Cory group and it’s amazing how different they are when in a larger group. Plant melt seems to have stopped and new little leaves are forming on the Corkscrew Val and a few of the Crypts. . Buce is hanging on.

Got Peppered Corydoras on order. They’ll hang out in another tank for a bit until this tank it finished cycling. Could add a bottle of AquaSafe Plus and add them to the 75g - have had a lot of success with that approach so we will decide later. Corkscrew Val seems to be hanging in. Upped my lighting and added EG ti the tank hoping overall melt won’t be too bad. Crypts have a little melt.. couple of Buce have completely melted- hoping they will bounce back. Moved a reg Bal from the 29g into the tank that hadn’t grown very much because it was being overshadowed by the Aponogeton. Maybe it will take off now that it has access to lots of light.

Well, transferred some bio rings from the 29g into the new filter and also added a good dose of Stability. Initial bacterial bloom is fading but we’ve now entered “Wood Fungus” phase. Exciting stuff. Noticed a little bit of Crypt melt happening, but hopefully won’t be too bad having given each planted Crypt it’s very own ACO root tab and dosed the tank with Easy Green liquid and Iron. The Corkscrew Val came in looking really rough, hoping it will make it. Got an ammonia spike going so now it’s just a waiting game of “when will nitrites rise”.

What is your guys favorite platy color breed! Mine is the Beautiful dwarf red coral platys I have!!

All platys are beautiful 😍😍

Float a bunch of guppy grass, it’ll help make them feel secure and it’ll help with water changes.

My guess is you can but females do have their own territories; usually smaller but they should understand that soon enough. However no promises 😉

That is fantastic. It always amazes me how tiny fry can hide so well. We go to such lengths to hatch fish yet in the wild they can and do survive.

I agree with all of the suggestions above. It is not the tank size, but most likely something about the room lighting or placement of the aquarium in the new location that has them spooked. Light, shadows, and room traffic are just some of the possibilities. Explanation: When my Barb tank was moved into a corner to make room for another tank on the same wall, the TFBs began to spend a lot more time on the narrow side of the tank that was now near the blank wall. They will line up as a group and stare at their reflections in the glass. Six fish become twelve fish at night. This behavior began only at night, and only after the tank was moved. I haven't seen this behavior in the daylight. Will they come up to feed? Activity in all of my tanks changes according to time of day and whether or not I am in the room. If there are times of the day when the room is not in use for long periods, I would carefully peek around the corner, (or use a fishcam as I do) to see if their behavior has changed.

UPDATE: Roger is doing fine despite broken shell. Here is a picture of my two mystery snails Roger and Dave this morning. I saw a similar pose yesterday thinking it was "Tenderness". After seeing an egg sack on my glass, I'm thinking it was more "I'll Take You There". To avoid content removal for inappropriate material, I added a censor bar. 🐌 "Hey Dave, I still bet no one knows why our names are Roger and Dave"

You two options one use maracyn2 or API fin and body cure or use kanaplex and jungal fungus clear fizz tabs following this treatment plan that will harm your shrimp

Dropsy can be caused by a number of things such as organ failure parasitic or bacterial infection The most effective treatment I have found for dropsy is aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 2 gallons that will help reduce fluid buildup causing the pineconing dose the tank with kanaplex that will treat any possible internal bacterial infection and metroplex in food feeding a small amount twice a day for upto 3 weeks @Skyler

As you have shrimp what I would do is start treating with maracyn2 or API fin and body cure both are shrimp safe which ever one is more readily available do two courses course back to back and add a small amount of aquarium salt 1 table spoon for 5 gallon salt will aid Gill function and add essential electrolytes and add an extra air stone during treatment

I normally catch a few every year and kept some before. They normally require a bigger aquarium due to their size and attitude. They can be a bully and with their bigger size, larger mouth ...smaller fish will get pick off. I believe my son have a small group growing outside in his tub. We may try to work with them if we had the space.

Can we get a better view of the whole tank maybe reflections etc.

This is another random thing: I’m not an accomplished pumpkin-carver by any means, but I try to carve something unique and fun every year. This past Halloween this is what we came up with!! Next October I’m for sure doing an aquarium pumpkin carving thread lolz

Glad to have you join us can't wait to see and follow your journal 😀

Hello @Moose! And welcome to the #1 forum on earth lol.

I feel the need to mention that the amount of ammonia is more to do with the amount of food you put in and not really the amount of fish if you feed the same amount you will get the same amount of ammonia I’m going to be getting some (hopefully) soon and I’m not really worried and I’ll be doing probably 20 or 25 all at once in my 55

Cories are not going to clean up algae but they do clean up food that falls to the bottom not eaten by other fish. They also scurry along the bottom a lot and in the process re suspend mulm and detritus in the water column giving your filter, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th …. Chances to suck it up. The bigger cories do this far better than Pygmy cories, but Cories are definitely valuable for cleaning up…. Just not Algae…

i put 12 harlequin rasboras in my tank (37 gallons) after about 5/6 weeks of cycle with snails and plants and they're doing fine. they actually out compete the platys for food most of the time... i think you woulda been ok with the pygmies. worst case you add some prime/fritz complete and do some water changes for a couple days while the bacteria and plants catch up as an aside, none of your 'clean up crew' is gonna eat algae if you feed them other stuff cuz it has very limited nutrient value in comparison to actual fish food or veggies (i haven't kept corys but my understanding is they don't actually do much cleaning)

I think the employee was out of line. However I would probably have opted for6-8 myself on first stocking and pick up more in a week or two… generally I try to add fish in groups of 6-8 when starting a 29 gallon tank and wait a week or two before adding. I also tend to test for ammonia and nitrite after adding fish every few days for a week or so… in essence your tank may be fully cycled inso far as it can metaboloze all the bioload it is exposed to. Double or triple the bioload and it needs time to adapt…. And it might not keep up and could be issues. Now water changes will deal with those issues just fine…

I do get where the employee is coming from but I doubt that 12 Pygmy Cories would crash the cycle. Those fish are so tiny the mystery snail and other snails probably poop more than 12 of them.

My 75 has a UGF that covers about 90% of the tank, with 2 risers and powerheads. The powerheads provide water movement and aeration throughout. The tank also has a Marineland Emperor 400 HOB. Either filter is adequate by itself. It is a ridiculous amount of filtration, but the HOB was a gift, so I was required to use it.

We just started my 65g (see signature). This is our first large tank, with a UGF covering 2/3 of the bottom, and 3 uplifts using a mini powerhead on one and airstones in the other 2. I am still in midst of stocking but I am liking it so far. The water is rather clear, compared to my small tanks that only have hob and sponges. I only expect to run an occasional polisher maybe once a month. Good luck!

You have the basics covered. Unless you’re having unexplained problems, wouldn’t worry about the rest for now

My current favorite is the red-tailed dalmatian platy, because I love calico/koi colored fish. This is not my photo because I don't have a great camera, but I found one (just one!) while shopping for my new tank and he's in my quarantine setup right now.