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If it was me I’d add 1 full school at a time just watch your ammonia and nitrite but it would probably be fine just feed them lightly at first

Most corys don't like discus temperatures, but a few do. Sterbai is the most common. Guppies I'm sure would "live" in that temperature, but it's pretty warm for them. And eventually they'll probably be discus food at some point. The shrimp will end up eaten, but they should be OK. I'm not sure about the gourami. Some gourami are OK with discus, I don't think I've heard honey among them, but they are peaceful, so I wouldn't think that would be a problem. In general, though, if it's small enough for them to get a bite of, they're going to eat it. They are cichlids and while they seem less high strung than some others... they have a little violence under the surface like all cichlids do. You're going to need a second tank at some point because inevitably one discus won't eat or will otherwise need special attention that would be cost prohibitive or otherwise difficult to do in your main tank. It's also a really really good idea to start with discus alone in a base bottom tank for a month or so and see how things go, make sure they're all eating, easily observe their poop, worm them for three weeks, etc. Overall, though, if you're looking for more of a community tank-type of vibe... discus are probably a poor choice. They're best done alone for most people as they can also be sensitive to bacteria they're not adapted to. It leads to a phenomenon called amongst discus folks as "cross contamination" which can lead to the death of everything in the tank. In my experience they're also very prone to worms. Any fish going into the tank with them should also be quarantined and at least wormed before introducing them. Even doing that, every single time I have added tankmates with my discus... they end up with a worm issue some time later and I end up needing to worm the whole tank again. It's a good idea to have pure metronidazole and pure levamisole on hand. Common discus tankmates are cardinal tetras, lemon tetras, rummynose tetras, bristlenose plecos, bosemani rainbows, german rams, and sterbai corydoras. You can find some yahoo somewhere who's keeping goldfish, stingrays, and arrowana with them, but that doesn't mean it is the right thing for the fish, which I think is an important distinction.

OMG. yes this! I once did research with cucumber beetles for a semester. no reactions to start. by the end I was breaking out in large hives. 🤣 So, some allergies come on strong and quick

My tank is 300 gh my tap is so high it goes to far over sny chsrt to test I mix in some RO to make it habitable. they spawn fine but like you I do lots of water changes and vacuum. Higher gh/kh makes bacterial soup. It’s definitely doable armed with the knowledge of how clean the water needs to be.

Photo and video bomb 💣 Breeding and rearing projects. Starting to contemplative culling and refocusing some projects. Shrimp 🦐 Santa guppies Diamond tetras Plecos L144 L519 L397

It's possible even possible that the fish started eating it after death. My guppies did that when I was a kid saw it happen a couple of times.

In my old house, the 75 gallon cichlid tank was in my office. In this new house, we decided to move it to the dining room, which meant that I have no fish to look at when I'm at work. Luckily, I have some space on a desk. So, I purchased a 20g high aquarium, some black sand, black background, a rather nifty piece of decor, and (on order) a light and some live plants. Eventually, I would like the tank to get an overgrown feel, with as many plants as I can grow filling up as much space as possible; and I would like to stock pea puffers. For now, I am thinking up ways to get large numbers of snails breeding here and in my 75...

I'd say false julii too but I'm not an expert by any means.

Looks like maybe a false julii corydora

Thank you. I am learning and appreciate the support here. Thank you. Question - I was told that crushed coral would also increase the KH. It does not seem to have done so, is there anything else to do for that?

I wanna say crypts like wendti. Anubias grow really slow to have the expected "bush" look

I’ll second that.

Fully agree, I'm doing lots of water changes and wiping everything down. Basically, keeping them like discus, but not *quite* as many water changes. The ones I'm spawning are in mostly RO with a little bit of tap water. Your tap sounds similar to mine. I don't bother cutting it with RO though and it seems habitable. 😄 I think my GH is... 18 degrees which I think is somewhere in that 300 ballpark? I never test it anymore so I forget.

I don't think this is a legitimate concern. Your body can develop or... "undevelop" allergies over the course of time. Allergies aren't as simple as most of us believe. That said, I do think that Cory talked about an employee having an allergic reaction to food when they were packaging their own food some years ago. But I don't know what food that was.

Sounds typical. Mine do not create flow. The water flows out but with no speed or pressure. You really do not want speed and pressure. The longer the water is in contact with the bulb the better. Also check the intake sponge and area. Mine used to clog really fast.

I would not recommend a red tail shark with those species or in that size aquarium.

My discus lived in a 75 for over a year with nothing but two double stacked, large ACO sponge filters. I eventually added a HOB, but they could have lived indefinitely with sponges so long as the tank is well maintained. I'm not familiar with the tank or filter you're talking about, but just wanted to provide context. A TON of discus are raised from fry to adulthood in tanks with nothing more than air driven sponge filters.

German Blue rams are defintely not a fish to label as "peaceful". Not at all. I bred and raised many generations at home and given the chance, almost all are bullies, both towards each other and to other fish, starting from a very small size. I had to move my black ram to my bedroom display tank, and he basically bullied and bothered everyone. Other cichlids, corydoras, plecos, and even my betta. Every other fish lived peacefully there before the GBR addition. So don't be sure. Consuming dead fish do happen, so that is a possibility. How it died, is a hard question to answer. But as long as you don't keep short fin males like panda guppies, basically a male guppy outswimming fast enough a GBR is basically impossible. One hit even might be enough to knock it off.

Picture would help, but sounds like a variant of algae. Here are a couple pictures from my tanks the first one is a sword plant with some black beard algae (BBA) and some java fern that had recently been treated with reverse respiration. Basically submerging the plant in carbonated water, and leaving in the them in a dark room overnight. Look here for more information on how to do it: Or ask @Guppysnail she’s an expert.

A true blue acara might be interesting; hard to say if they will hunt the guppies which are surface fishes. Angles probably will; but if you get two angels there are all sort of dynamics depending on if they are m/f m/m f/f - also fundamentally guppies are a hardwater fish and sa fishes (angels, acara, ...) are soft water fishes. There are some other issues - if you are thinking of keeping together acara, angelfishes, sevrum, blue grouamis well it is too much. Be aware that severum eat plants so if you have a lot of plants and get a severum say bye to the plants. kribs are west african and should not be mixed with sa fishes (esp the acara); fishes indicate territory and aggression before actual conflict and sa and west african fishes never learned each other language so they get very confused when trying to talk to each other creating more vicious attacks. A 55 is shape wise is kind of a lousy tank - it is tall and narrow and what you really want is a lot of floor space so things can spread out. I think a blue acara and 2 angles might work depending on the angel behavior (which depend on both their eventual sex and individual fish behavior) but beyond that it will get crowded fast. The acara is a lower level fish and the angels will be in the upper middle with the guppies at the top. If you get the red tail shark drop the acara. It isn't a great fit but if you get rid the acara and angelfishes you could probably try a severum - it would work better if the tank was less tall and wider a 50, 65 or 75 but you have a 55. In the worse case when the severum is full grown you could trade it for something else. Also be aware the the actual size of the fish will depend on the sex. I guess what i'm saying is no i don't recommend a severum in a 55 but as long as you are prepared to trade it in if it gets too large there is no harm in trying one and see how it goes. If you have live plants don't consider the severum.

I redid the substrate system in my tank recently because I'd put aquasoil in filter bags and capped that with sand but I was having a very hard time planting in to it (also soil bags were too thick + sand cap was too shallow, wasn't banked appropriately toward the back, etc....noob mistakes). Process looked a little different because I reused my substrate but the plants I took out of the tank seem to (approx 3 weeks later) be doing well. Here's the basic rundown of what I did: filled hospital tank with water from main tank filled 3 gal bucket with tank water, placed hardscape pieces that had plants attached in there. Also put some potted plants I was planning on adding to the tank in there. gently pulled out plants with tweezers and placed them on a small baking sheet (half-sheet I think?) I had lined with wet paper towels. Once all the plants were removed, I covered them with another paper towel layer. took a break (got sore lol) siphoned out as much of the remaining tank water as I could and pulled out the bagged soil realized I did not have the skills to siphon the tank out entirely, so my partner helped me carry and gently pour it in to the bathtub. The wet sand stayed pretty well in the tank during this process (sticky) Scooped sand out with a plastic container. Didn't get out all the remmnents because a little sand here in there in the bottom of the tank wasn't an issue for what I was doing, but you definitely could do a deep rinse at this point to get everything all the way out Arranged hardscape Mixed substrate (gravel, aquasoil, wet sand in my case) added substrate, capped with sand sprayed everything down generously with a misting bottle to keep hardscape plants sufficiently damp took another break planted in remaining plants re-filled tank water was pretty cloudy from all the substrate disturbance so I added some filter floss and it cleared up pretty quick All in all, took me pretty much the whole day from start to finish (I move slow); plants held up really well. Your mileage may vary depending on what plants you have, how dry your air is, etc, but I would highly recommend the wet paper towel plant sandwich for smaller/more delicate plants. It worked great and they didn't get as separated as I'm sure they would have if I'd just dropped them in a bucket of water. If what's holding you back is worrying that the plants won't make it, I say give it a shot bc mine turned out way more durable than I was worried they would. I haven't done a dirted tank though so I don't know anything about waiting for the tank to mature vs changing the substrate out. Editing because I forgot to add: when I took longer breaks I placed the tray with the wet paper towels and plants in a plastic bag to prevent anything from drying out.

I have used these 9 watt ones in the past for similar hard water Petri dish issues. I like them. They just suction cup in wherever you want them and plug and play. Easy, affordable works well.

I'd be more worried about winning the lottery or being struck by lightning

You can do 3cm of aquasoil and then cap it with 6-9cm of sand. May I ask why you want gravel in between the sand and aquasoil? I’d also suggest putting the aquasoil in mesh bags before capping with sand incase you need to redo or breakdown the tank. Doing this will avoid mixing of the sand and aquasoil so you can reuse them for other projects or for a rescape.

Bettas are not usually aggressive to other fish. mostly just other bettas. that said, most fish will see shrimp as being very tasty. unless they're too small to eat them. at the very least shrimplettes are going to go missing. depending on the size of your shrimp colony, that may not make a difference. If it's a new colony, they may not have enough time to get established.

yeah, it's all in what you really want to keep. and really most fish are adaptable anyway. and you can always change your mind. I think easiest is best. most people do best when it's easy. mostly that's using your own tap. nothing wrong with a higher kh. if that's what you're asking. kh will help to stabilize your ph. it buffers your water

I mean your parameters would be great for certain softwater species like wild bettas or keeping Caridina shrimp if you wanted to go down those routes. For snails though those water parameter are not ideal crushed coral works or seachem equilibrium

I do have crushed coral. I may not be managing it correctly though. I put some in my filter and some fell into my tank. The GH went up to 150. I also don't want to use chemicals. I am willing to do the work, I just need to keep learning as this is my first tank.

A more aggressive betta will pick on small shrimp and take out the shimplets however Amano shrimp do okay with more aggressive bettas because they are bigger than other ornamental shrimp. As you have experienced though it really come down to the personality of the betta if you are going to face a shrimp massacre or the species coexist.

Day one of cuttlebone is done. The fish seemed to have (mostly) recovered from the stress of losing a tankmate, and there hasn't seemed to be too much issue in the water, but there has been algae growth. Is this caused by some water parameter, or is it about the light level in the aquarium? I have also noticed that my snail has been more active since the introduction of the cuttlebone, just a side note. Maybe it's working to supply the snail with calcium.

@jwcarlson nailed it. None of your current fish would thrive in a tank set up for discus, unless the cories are sterbai. Either the current fish couldn't handle the higher temperature long term or they would become discus food.

If there is one there is more. You can use a melamine pad or cloth to squish on the glass and wipe thoroughly. fenbendazole and no planaria work if you have no snails. If there are snails no chemical method is safe. There are glass planaria traps but you never get all of them and the traps only work if the planaria are hungry or it’s baited with something like raw shrimp it may attract them.

Power went out today and I got to experience first hand the immediacy with which my new Aquarium Co-op pump kicked into action. What a design and what a stress saver knowing my drapefin barb and long fin BNP tanks were stable. Thankfully it wasn’t too long of an outage. Now I need to add the battery backup pumps to my other aquariums.

Over production of the slime coat it can be caused by poor water quality such as high levels of chlorine or chloramines a bacterial infections flukes or childonelia or costia some of the fish at the store in other tanks had visible issues the fact it has come on very quickly and your water parameters looks fine what I would do is add an extra air stone and do course of kanaplex if your seeing no improvement after 24hr @P3TADOPTC0

That's highly unlikely I have kept fish for over 20 years i have never gotten sick off one of my aquarium I take some precautions no putting your hand in the tank if you have cuts wear gloves always wash your hand after they have been in the tank am assuming your cycling your tank and don't have fish in it if your do Any ammonia toxic to fish if your seeing ammonia you would want to do a 50% water change and add a double dose of prime to help detoxify any ammonia till your ammonia constantly stays at zero and do daily testing

Picture is to fuzzy for me to tell. Not all planarians have triangle heads.

Exactly. They use standard garden hose fittings which in the case of the Fluval, is 3/4" and fits perfectly. I used the clamps you're speaking of for this and the 5/8" hoses on some that I already had in place.

Thank you so much, I look forward to checking out the information you've shared. I appreciate it!

How are you adapting those those long tubes, @dasaltemelosguy? A threaded x barb fitting and a hose clamp?

🤔hmmmmm. I don’t think I’ve ever actually had to touch the food. Just plop it from the blister pack into a small cup and add tank water to thaw, then use either a pipette or spoon to feed. Now I’ll be conscious to never touch it, lol

https://youtu.be/XaMBFy_-LO4

I added the cuttlebone into my HOB. I don't think it had any smell at all. I rinsed it out at first, and then put it in a cup of aquarium water. I made sure all of it had got a good dip in the water, and here we are now. I will post back later with updates. Was this the forum post about the unprepared cuttlebone?

It's on the transformer/power unit that sits outside of the tank.

I use smaller Sterilite containers for raising Killifish fry, Betta fry, etc. It all depends on how many and what species you're working with. Some things to consider: (1) Make sure that the container is food grade. This is a helpful checklist. (2) You really want your surface area to be much larger than your water depth. It is much healthier to raise fry in a space that is 6-inches high, but 20" x 16" rectangle than raising the same in a space that is 12" deep but the surface only 10" x 14." In other words, raise your fry in an over sized brownie-shaped space rather than in a bucket. (3) Use air. Air is your friend. Lots of friendly air. Not too fast. But not too little either. (4) Use a small pre-cycled sponge filter. This will be your source of autotrophic bacteria colony, plus . . . did I mention . . . air is good? (5) You will inevitably struggle with heterotrophic bacteria. That's the kind that clouds up your water. The only successful way through that is . . . wait for it . . . air! And PRIME to nullify ammonia build up. (6) Use Java moss. Java moss is also your friend. Lots of Java moss . . . (I digress)

Ok so I know many corydoras lay eggs on glass and other people will probably use spawning mops so this won't be of use to many other than myself but might be interesting anyway! So recently I've observed a few interesting things with my panda corydoras in my community tank. There is always breeding activity going on and eggs being laid but no fry appearing without pulling the eggs. My pandas never lay eggs on the glass, they occasionally lay eggs on roots of pothos hanging in the tank but mostly they use the java moss. At one point I had a small tuft of black beard algae (like maybe less than an inch in diameter/length) right next to my java moss and one day I noticed eggs in it from the corydoras, more than I had ever seen in the java moss at one time and in a much smaller area (I found at least 6 eggs in that small tuft of BBA). Now I know most fish hate the taste of BBA so I assumed it was just because the taste protected the eggs from being eaten by the other fish or snails etc and that's why it appeared that way - a survivorship bias so to speak, rather than the corydoras specifically preferring it to the java moss. The small tuft died off after a little while and I've not had any since and haven't thought much on it. Then even more recently I had a but of a filamentous/blanket weed type algae bloom and I was being lax with removing it (my tanks are hardly designer aquascapes so I pretty much don't mind a bit of algae unless it seems to be causing problems with the plants) and there was a good bush of it going, maybe 6 inches long by a couple inches wide suspended across some plant leaves. One morning I turned the light on to discover it absolutely full of corydoras eggs, I think I counted at least 15 which is more than I've ever seen my cories lay at one time (I only have two females and four males). I have no idea if the 'spawning media' triggered more spawning than usual, or somehow protected the eggs from being eaten (not sure how as you can see right through it much easier than the java moss) or if it was simply a coincidence. So anyway my plan to experiment is to cultivate a bunch of blanket weed type algae in a spare tank, then DIY some sort of mop with it (I was thinking a small plastic Tupperware container full of the stuff) and put it in my community tank and see what happens. My hope is to find out if; a) the corydoras do actually prefer it as a spawning media and it wasn't just a fluke b) this 'media' is somehow useful in protecting the eggs from the rest of the community c) if having their preferred choice of spawning media actually encourages/triggers more spawning than would have occured otherwise (not sure how I will really determine this part) Any thoughts or tips/advice? Not sure how to contain the blanket weed in the container without restricting access but hopefully it will just sort of stay put.

I thought this as well. I have not had the chance to pull any algae laid eggs yet so I don’t know. Im hoping instinct causes them to do this for whatever reason and it provides the fry whatever they need. Im hoping it’s the micro fauna first food and protection thing and they don’t get stuck but often the eggs get twisted up in from the current. I am just not certain if letting them in the algae is better. A few days ago I was able to move the pleco out of that tank that kept eating all the eggs. Honestly I’m as curious as you about this. When mine were in with my guppies in a tank with almost no algae because the guppies eat it they would lay eggs on the glass Since they are in their own tank now that grows algae and has a good amount of low ground plants vs. none in the guppy tank, I have only ever seen eggs on glass maybe 5 eggs total. I mentioned in my journal somewhere when they first started to spawn in their new tank I thought it curious they did not lay their eggs on glass. I have only had my pandas about a year so I’m still learning about their behaviors. Very cool to have someone to bounce theories off of on this odd seeming behavior.

Amazing thanks! Glad to know you've had the same experience. I find it super interesting and I've googled a bunch about breeding corydoras and pandas in particular and have never seen it mentioned before. Do you think that the pandas are just choosing it as a spawning site or do you think that having their preferred spawning site triggers more egg laying? The algae seems to grow quite well in my water so I will see if I can find a way to use it but keeping it contained so I can easily pull it to try and hatch the eggs in a separate container. The last batch of eggs I pulled I picked them out of most of the algae as I was worried that when they hatch they might get stuck in it, do you think it would be better to just leave them in it?