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So that was easier than anticipated. I don’t know if these are gastromyzon or pseudogastromyzon, and I discovered them because I disturbed them while vacuuming the gravel! I had not even entertained the possibility that there could be fry yet. Hopefully I didn’t suck up any. It seems more likely they are pseudogastromyzon, since there are more records of those breeding in captivity, but I can’t find pics online of either at this stage so who knows? They’re about 4mm, and hanging out under the sponge covering the filter intake, so very high flow area. Food and waste also collect there. That end of the tank is also likely a little warmer, as the larger filter generates some heat. Room temp is around 70F, tank is probably a degree or two warmer due to the filter - did I mention I wasn’t watching this all that closely yet? I only have dipstick readings, I just did a water change, and I was trying to get the pH and mineral content in general up, since that seems to be key to keeping these guys happy. Per my dipsticks, pH 6.8 - 7, GH 25, KH 40, TA 40 - but again, those are all lower than intended and lower than I had been keeping the tank / the quarantine tank they were in before generally. Based on what I sucked out of the gravel and the presence of detritus worms, I was overfeeding, plus *so many bladder snails* all pooping, so that was messing things up. The adults getting mostly spirulina flakes, and frozen daphnia a couple times a week. Algae is just starting to take off in the tank, no idea on species - some mossy stuff, some hairy stuff. Tank was infused with whatever random infusoria I’ve been culturing from a local pond, the microscope I ordered from Amazon sucked and is being returned, so again I am clueless, but I can see cyclops and there were scuds in the culture jar. I didn’t introduce any visible scuds and haven’t seen any, but microscopic fry are a possibility. There are an abundance of bladder snails, breeding as they do, so plenty of newly hatched snails to munch on if they’re into that. I also have ghost shrimp in the tank, one of which was pregnant with eggs developing nicely, but then no fry. They could have failed to hatch, but they also could have been eaten by the loach fry - I think probably not, they’d be too big, but it’s possible. So. Yeah. I fail as a scientific observer, because what the heck, fish, you’re supposed to be hard to breed and it’s been less than a month! But, fish babies.

I want to add a disclaimer -- doing stuff to grow algae won't necessarily mean you get the type of algae you want. You could get nice looking dust or hair algae on the wood, but it could just as easy go with ugly diatoms, green water, black beard algae (you might like this), and it will probably cover the glass before it gets to the hardscape.

When I had my Dwarf Lily (which I aptly named Audrey 2.0) it devoured root tabs. Every month I was surrounding it with 4 or 5. They are ridiculously heavy feeders

Bissell definitely loves his spot. I've taken to putting a little Repashy on the leaf in the morning since they seem to have an AWESOME handle on ALL the algae in the tank. In the Parent tank I've spotted 2 False Julii Cory babies of different sizes rooting around in the tank. I caught them both in this picture. Note that the glass bowls the littlest one is near are small lab dishes so they are tiny! I think this makes 10 Julii total!

It could take up to 40 days for your nitrite level to go down to zero. Adding fish at this point (or ammonia) won't speed it up. The only way to speed it up (other than adding seasoned filter media) would have been to add the nitrite at the beginning. However, it's difficult to get nitrite and, unlike Dr. Tim's Ammonia, there isn't really a good, "packaged" version of nitrite to add to your tank. You should see your nitrite levels start to decrease in about a week.

Entry Eight - April 10th, 2024 {quick note} I am researching native evergreen ground covers to replace my lawn with. Ideally at least one ground cover would be tolerant of moderate foot traffic, as I like to play in my yard. So do my dogs 🤩 update if I find anything!

And they are in! They are little guys and can’t tell gender yet, but they look healthy and active. (No, I didn’t quarantine them… all the fish came from the same seller, so I realize I’m taking a risk… but I’m ok with it)

If your light is adjustable turn up the blue

Look who arrived a day early!!!

i put some root tabs in so we'll see what happens. i pruned all the pads back about 2 weeks ago and its already taking off again. i don't mind honestly if it struggles a bit i just don't want it to completely melt and rot. i'm glad i got the 'dwarf' bulb instead of the full size....

The most common ones are and what they look like - Seed shrimp: like tiny poppyseeds - Cyclops: like tiny elongated horseshoe crabs - Scuds: like little sand fleas - Daphnia: like a sesame seed with flappy arms They're free food for fish

This happens to mine when I forget to put root tabs under it for a long time. The whole dang leaf will start wilting and the stem will turn to mush.

It’s a busy tank so far, especially at dinner time. Everyone seems to get along and play well together. Congos should be here in Thursday (yay!!) Ant melt has stopped. Oddly enough, I had the least amount of melt from the Crypts. The Buce was the worst. List one Buce completely, hoping maybe it will come back one day. Corkscrew Val and Regular Bal seem to be doing well. Java fern seems to finally be adjusting and has stopped making planlets. The Aponogeton Ulvaceus was very sad when it arrived. All the leaves melted but there’s a new leaf growing in, so there’s hope! Mango the Longfin Blue Eyed Lemon BN Pleco seems to have settled in. The lone Mystery Snail is also doing well. Has no problem mowing over a Cory to get to the Repashy. No one seems to have issues with sharing the Repashy. Lemon Tetras get fed separately, but will hang at the bottom of the tank to catch scraps wafted up by the bottom feeders. I'm so fascinated with this tank. It’s so entertaining to watch at different times of the day, but evening is when it seems the mist active- an hour or so before the lights go out.

I have a 75 gallon running a single hygger 48in light on a day cycle, glass lids, a Fluval FX4, and as many plants as I could cram in there. The filter has a spray bar and I have a single large size sponge filter in the center back. Background pogos, a couple swords, some dwarf sag, a couple Val. Mid ground some buce and ludwigia repens I think on the “red” side along with a tiger lotus, on the side with stones I’ve got pennywort, and a few plants I’ve forgotten the name of. There’s moss on the rocks also, under a hairnet. Center of tank is all dwarf hairgrass. Tank has been running a month and was started with used filter media, and is fully cycled. Only thing in there at the moment is snails; the shrimp I had moved into it all perished, even though they’re fine in all my other tanks. I have fertilized with Thrive and root tabs. Which brings me to the algae - or Cyanobacteria; I’ve no idea. It’s big, it’s green and brown, some of its hairy, some of its not. It doesn’t have any quit and seems happy to overtake everything, including the floaters! I am a bit stumped as none of my other tanks have this problem. What did I screw up? Here are some photos for reference: At least it’s not terribly ugly from a distance:

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.

My only comments are: @Mmiller2001 Has a gorgeous, award winning, planted tank. Take their advice when it comes to maximizing plant growth. The only thing I can really add is that if you’re in it for the long haul with CO2 consider upgrading to a 5lb tank. I too started with the citric acid/baking soda canisters. They’re fun and it’s a good way to test the waters, but over time I was spending more on citric acid than tank swaps and eventually phased out the canisters. Just my $0.02.

You might enjoy this (or some of the other species they've done)!

A quick update on this. I went with the alternative Co-Op website recommendation of trimming it, and planting it as a 'bunch'. Added an airstone to the tank, and....poof! THRIVING

Hi @doktor zhivago, The holes in your photo are not nutrient related. That is physical damage either caused by snails or a fish species like a pleco...but most likely snails since plecos typically do a 'path' of rasping on the leaf surface. Nutrient related 'holes', are typically related to insufficient available potassium (K) and are small, sometimes pinhole size and round, typically occur in older leaves first. and expand maintaining the round shape over time. Potassium is a mobile nutrient and plants will move it from older leaves to new growth if their is insufficient available in the substrate or water column. -Roy

Always fun when things come a bit early. Can't wait to see the Congos colored up.

Mollies 100%

looks like mollies to me

It's definitely a bucket list place to visit for myself. My wife has a work conference in Seattle next year. Hoping that she can go. If that happens, I'm getting to the store someway somehow.

Pictures would help but it sounds like protein bubbles

Hm.... Never heard of anything like this. Might be indicating some predation? I had the same thing happen and I couldn't figure out what I was doing. It's really awkward because you see them being saddled and then you see them have everything they need, but you don't see the baby shrimp or eggs. It lasted about 3ish months. I would recommend just verify everything is ok and hold course. Don't worry about powdered food unless you have baby shrimp. Let the plants develop, clean filtration and all that while it's a bit easier to do so. After that little pause in breeding was when my tank exploded and it's been busting at the seams ever since. I will have to go back through my notes and see if there was something I did in particular to try to perk them back into dropping eggs, but from memory I think it was just a matter of waiting them out and checking for losses. Such deep color. Beautiful and seemingly really strong quality. That line and your shadow blue, black rili is really special!

Seems fine. Keep an eye out if the temp is consistently below 70, but it shouldn't be too much of a concern. I would recommend getting a liquid GH+KH test kit as well to be able to track that. (pH gets too high, can lead to other issues and stress signs with corydoras) So yeah, I think what you witnessed is very likely typical, normal behavior. Even a content and happy corydoras will purge up to the surface to gulp air. This is just part of what they do for a variety of reasons. I imagine on some level it's a corydoras "checking" to see if there are predators around and at other times they do it just to signify a little bit of breeding behavior. High stress activities like that can lead them to have some rapid breathing and gulp air. If you watch the fish on the bottom of the tank and they seem frantic and always breathing extremely quickly, rapid gill movement, then you would want to try to add some air stones.

Some new inhabitants: otos! We were at the pet store and my son was being to get another fish. I figured there was plenty of stuff growing on the glass for otos to feed on. I also got a new plant from a club meeting: limnophila aromatica Plus a random shrimp that has some cool coloration. It was clear except for a red nose: A bit hard to see but it's in the roots of the buce

Dragon fly larvae in the Tadpole tub!

@Colu, thank you for the info, and the LFS Owner reached out on his day off to say pretty much the same thing (bless him) to confirm. Glad I joined. Was definitely on a not fun stress day today fearing the worst

It’s hard to see. Looks like diatoms but could be mulm. Does it wipe off easy?

Gotcha that makes sense. I’ll get some salt and do the best I can. I am just so stressed about all this. And it just compounds with real life stress! My aquarium hobby has been really struggling in the last year and losing one of the archers was already a major gut punch. I just want to do all I can right by these guys.

Wow! They are beautiful! It was definitely a tough decision, but in the end I went with the fish that I’d been drooling over for months, lol. Maybe what I need is… ANOTHER 75g… so I can get Diamond Tetra and Praecox Rainbows 😂

I would bag the gravel and use it to bulk up the background so you’d maintain the biofilter and then put sand over the top. This will also give the tank depth. https://a.co/d/fbi7fO6 This is similar to the method MD Fishtanks uses on his YouTube channel. He has many tutorials on his channel to help with setting this style tank up.

Could be a number of things but most likely all the answers are harmless detritivores. If you want a more precise answer I will need a photo

Born to be wild! I haven’t seen any shrimplets lately. I wonder if it is because I have been feeding less. I haven’t been feeding much powdered food at all. I guess I should go back to that. I was figuring when they pick apart the shrimp sticks that would make enough dust to feed shrimplets but maybe not. Also found that the filter wasn’t working well, barely at all. It was the situation where the end of the airline gets loose over time and doesn’t properly seal onto the sponge filter. I snipped the end and reattached and it’s working much better now. Oh also found some small black worms in the tank(?) during this weekend’s water change. Multiple females are berried. One other thing. I keep the light off quite a bit to control the hair algae issue. I wonder if lighting plays any sort of a part in reproduction. Tonight I fed them “snail cookie crumbs” and they are frenzying over those.

You will lose all BB on the gravel you take out but there should be enough in your filter that feeding lightly and a few extra water changes will keep the tank stable until BB repopulates new substrate. There are lots of YouTube videos just type in what you want. Here is one.

I figured it out. I think there is a problem with the pump bulb of the vaccum I was using. I switched it out with the pump from my cleaning siphon and it worked like a dream.

@nabokovfan87Ammonia: 0 ph: 7-7.2 nitrite: 0 nitrate: 40 ppm temperature: 69 degrees

Only to each other but not even that bad. They’re still very young so they just chase each other around but it’s more playful than anything. I’ve kept and attempted to spawn filamentosus and maculatus before but the eggs never hatch. I recently saw an article that kept both of them and they were able to hatch the eggs with temps on the mid 70’s so I’m gonna try them with that temp. Did a very minimal rescape for the 40B. I moved the driftwood towards the back to open it up a bit more. Surprisingly it made the fish much more comfortable swimming to the front during feeding time. Before: After: Moss has grown a bit since the major rescape. Debating if I should trim it or just let it grow wild. Also ordered some alder cones because I don’t wanna keep putting almond leaves for tannins. There’s about 5 whole leaves and 3 leave that I cut into smaller pieces in there at the moment. I really wish I can show the rock formation through photos but I’m finding some difficulty when I take photos and when I edit. I think I just have to do a video to really show it off.

Corys just sometimes breath from the surface. You're probably fine, but if you're worried you can just add a regular air stone and see if that changes their behavior.

@jwcarlson Yeah, they start to color up early on. The german breeder I watched on youtube (which I very poorly translated using you tube's closed captioning) also mentioned that as well. They redden up very early. I'm eager to see how many I get to adulthood as I want to put a decent sized school in my 125.

@tike Honestly, I just spawned them the general way one spawns most egg scatterers -- 10g, false bottom for eggs to fall through, clump of java moss, water on the soft/acidic side. Nothing special. My breeders are wild caught specimens. As with many tetras, the challenge isn't spawning them so much as feeding the fry and getting them to a size where they will take BBS.

Algae is just another way of planting your aquarium. And, frankly, it is the one that I'm most successful at growing.

The tank looks great! Sounds like you’re doing everything I would. I have 14 tanks, and honestly most of them have some sort of algae. Not to where it’s necessarily a problem, but to have 0 algae is super hard for me. The exceptions to the rule are basically my Blackwater tanks, and my 6 gallon cube. Those are basically algae free, but the other 11 have some kind of algae on something. I think there’s a difference between balanced, and completely algae free. I also think it’s going to be hard to find a ton of temps that will handle the temp for the discus. Also, time and consistency are a big part of getting to algae free. Keep things consistent, and then give it lots and lots of time. Over time, your plants will grow to a point that they out compete all the algae. And then you do a trim and algae comes back 😂

The second Eaglet (foreground) hatched late Friday night or early Saturday in time for a Carp Dinner. Clyde is late again, and Bonnie is unhappy.

The anubias next to the output is going nuts and pushing against the lid (and may not be getting enough nitrogen): The roots are taking off Pretty soon the cap on the back area may not be able to open soon

My friends wives prefer the hobbies we have over the alternative ones like bar's

I know it's 'funny' to talk about just doing something and asking for forgiveness, but just in case someone takes that advice seriously... please don't do that. A roommate doesn't really have a say in what you do... a spouse does (or at least should). You can get to the point where the agreement is such that you can basically do whatever you want with your hobbies. But just taking that into your own hands without being upfront and honest is not right.

I mean… sure, you could try the sensible, responsible, adult approach… but where is the adventure in that? (^ this was not meant to be taken seriously)

I always find it easier to beg forgiveness later , than to ask permission first. 🤣 HOWEVER... "But... I got it for practically FREE -or- it was such a GOOD sale! Look how CRAMPED those fish look - it's for THEIR benefit, we wouldn't want to be bad fish parents! It would take LESS maintenance if there's more gallons.... I'll let you choose some fish to go in it!"... If nothing else works... break out the Powerpoint and the laser pointer... and describe in scientific detail how upgrading your tank would be beneficial to not only the fish, but the household, the neighborhood, the environment.... explaining the cycling process and the chemistry involved... The idea is to bore her to tears until she finally cracks..... That might work