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Smaller fish and especially live bearers are only gonna live for 2-3 years or so. Circle of life and all that. I think some of the larger livebearers like mollies may live a little longer. In the wild these live bearers do a boom and bust cycle with seasonal floods in wet and dry seasons so there's no real selection pressure to make them long lived. They pop out a bunch of babies when conditions are good and hope that enough survive until the next wet season to start the cycle again.

Can you reach over the tank? If yes, you can tape a piece of black poster board to the back (cut to size of course). That's what I've done with quite a few of my tanks.

So, I spend $108 on rocks (hi, my name is…and I’m a tank-a-holic). I figured 44lbs of Seiryu stone at that price works out to about $2.50 per pound, which is way better than I can find in any dedicated shop. My wife, and maybe everyone I know, think I’ve got rocks for brains, but I’m pretty excited. Considering I didn’t know what the rocks would actually look like (blind bag style), I’m happy with the results. Now, I just need another couple tanks…

They are ACTIVE. Like non stop curious fish they do well with larger boisterous fish but you can also keep them as a species only tank. Greedy eaters they really really enjoy live foods but will take to catfish pellets just fine. And lastly despite their active nature they are more respectful to live plants than other catfish species so you can provide a jungle scape with lots of logs and/or rocks to explore. Also also you cannot catch them with nets their fins are like razor blades and will death roll when captured. Not ideal I use plastic cups.

Nerites for sure eat algae. I just personally think that 5 is too many. I tried 2 in my tank, and they didn’t make it. The Amanos have thrived for years, though. In my opinion, you want to understock the tank. A handful of nano fish, shrimp, and (certain) snails have thrived for me. As long as the plants are acting as the filter and the oxygen source you should be fine. Start small, and add on as necessary/as you want. Just got done trimming my cube. Here’s the most recent pic: Light turns on in about an hour. This is just natural sunlight from the window behind the tank.

Both coats of paint are on. Trim is painted. Carpet and tack boards are up. the lower 20 inches of 2 walls are exposed foundation stone that sticks 2 inches into the room. We are in process of putting up 1 inch insulation board over it. We already picked out the wallpaper for over it. Next step is redo the duct work. The vinyl flooring was delivered. It’s coming right along at Gup’s old people pace 🤣 NOT a scale drawing by even the most wild stretch of the imagination. But a rough draft layout. mAlso those stand are all double tank stands. They each represent 2 tanks. All these tanks are current the only new tanks being added are a 40B and 8 10g tanks for breeding and grow out

Breeding nearly constantly takes a toll on the body. Many small fish species can only have a handful of clutches before they pass. As stated before 2 years out of breeding endlers is a pretty good lifespan. As for genetics it takes several generations of small population breeding to get inbreeding. You might notice more defects like scoliosis after f6 if you never diversify your brood.

I have a 6 gallon cube that is dirted, no filter, no ferts, no CO2. Let your tank get WELL ESTABLISHED before adding anything. Especially with that many Nerites. I personally would chop that number down to 2 at the most. Even with mine being well established I could not keep Nerites in mine. Consider Amano shrimp instead. My cube has a Fluval plant nano on it, and pearls more than any other tank, even those with CO2. It has become a Pearl Weed jungle, is over 2 years established, and continues to crush. My biggest issue has been recurring green water any time I make a change. However, I’ve worked through that again and the tank continues to thrive. Here’s some pics. I think it shows the progression over the past couple years pretty nicely: And this is basically where we sit today. Pearl Weed has taken over the entire tank. It grows out, I trim it, it grows out again, and I trim it again. Rinse and repeat. Currently, I have 8 Blue Axelrodi Rasboras, 2 Amano shrimp, and Ramshorn Snails in here. Fun little experiment over the past couple years

🤣 I was thinking more on this general topic (not @Cory's admission that he has opinions, but the thread topic of burnout; downsizing; how to decide what to keep vs what to rehome; etc). I distilled it down to 3 considerations for each fish or tank: First, do I get enjoyment from it? Ie does engaging with it charge the batteries, or deplete them? Second and third are cost and benefit (financial benefit). Examples: cost/benefit can have 4 combinations or outcomes high cost + low benefit = bad low cost + low benefit = meh high cost + high benefit = justifiable low cost + high benefit = win I'll tolerate bad or meh if I get enjoyment out of something. But if a fish or tank i) doesn't give me enjoyment, ii) doesn't give $ returns, and iii) has non-trivial carrying costs/effort, I'll be looking to first unload it (and happily take a loss to do so), and second replace it with something else. And I consider new additions or replacements based first on the enjoyment aspect. I'll never decide to add something to the collection on the sole basis of cost/benefit. The other thing I want to offer to those who have many tanks, are thinking about small fish rooms, or already have a small fish room is find ways to automate. Among my 12 or so current tanks, if I go away or just don't feel like being involved for 1-2 days, the only thing that'll get missed is feeding. Granted if you have small fry that's not awesome, but otherwise it's no big issue. This happens maybe once a week or so, ie I'm tired, I want to go to bed or movie with the fam, or simply don't feel like doing the fish room grind. To say nothing of the I don't have time today days. I can do that bc nothing bad will happen. Tanks are set up to not require daily or even weekly maintenance. Lights are all on timers and water changes are automatic. Being able to take 1-2 days off means being able to continue the investment the other 5 or 6 days of the week, right through the year.

Great job! Your fish will thank you for your patience! 🙂

I think the ammonia is coming from elsewhere, like leaching from the rock decorations or substrate and is not related to the cycle perhaps. I have heard about wood leaching it or silicone from old tanks. Couldnt this be the case?

@macdaddy36 This one here is what concerns me. The tank has been trying to be cycled since February at least, possibly earlier, and yet he keeps coming up with ammonia. Makes zero sense. Even over feeding would grow extra bacteria over time. Unless there’s something else going on

It looks to me like you have a great start here. I think it will start growing in and look better and better. When your Val starts growing and spreading across the back it will really fill in. I've not grown baby tears, since I try to stick to the "super easy" plant selections. I would try adding a background of some type...black, blue, one of the foliage designs. Even if you do the black garbage bag background trick as a quick and easy option, it will really make your plants and fish stand out better and make your filter virtually disappear. It'll make a huge difference in the look with minimal $ and time investment. If you have both male and female guppies, those will fill in for you too 🙂 You'll have so many you won't know what to do with all of them...ask me how I know 😉

When i first saw that I thought it had a piece of a neon tetra in its mouth… glad its just a fly

Hello all, I’m joining this forum because I think my partner and mates are sick of me trying to talk their ears off about aquariums. I have been away from the hobby for a while but in the last six months or so I’ve been re-acquainting myself with everything - learning what former facts are now considered wrong, seeing the development of different tech etc. It’s been really fun to get excited about something I’ve always enjoyed since I was a kid. Right now I’m about to move house (rental to owning), so I’m mostly just scheming on my set-up, while maintaining the following: A) 250l cold water tank with two 5cm goldfish, hornwort, Aqua One Nautilus 2700 and sponge filter back-ups (and for future tank set ups) B) 40l blackwater style tropical setup with 4 cherry barbs, 6 juvenile guppies, 6 WCMM, an Oto, and a mystery snail called Gary. That one has an Eheim 160, Java ferns, heaps of wood, vallis, crypts, frogbit, mosquito fern, duckweed - it’s technically overstocked but that was due to a tank emergency, and the water tests consistently perfect - in fact, I have to fert a lot to stop the plants starving themselves. my plan post-move is to move the tropicals to a 90l bookshelf low profile tank, then set up two 90l cubes with shell-dwellers and kribs respectively and try breeding some. With the goldfish on the bottom of a large shelving unit housing the whole lot Anyway, I look forward to asking questions and learning from everyone. Thanks!

Hello Folks, I'm new here, hoping for advice. I rescued Clyde from my office. Unfortunately Bonnie didn't make it. He's a Comet Goldfish. He was about 2 inches when I brought him home. He was in a 10 gallon tank and I moved him into a 55 gallon. Since then he's grown to about 8 inches. [About 2 years ago]. Using him as an excuse, I bought a 140 gallon tank. He looks lonely, doesn't he! I want to get him some pals but his mouth has become enormous and he really is a pig. I understand that they will eat anything they can fit in their mouths. Any suggestions for cooler water, big enough, and friendly with goldfish. I appreciate any help. Peter L

Ah, that makes sense. I guess that’s another reason to stay on top of my weekly 50% water changes lol. Thanks as always.

Hi @TwoFace99 Seiryu stone, actually Ying Stone from China now since Japan no longer allows the export of Seiryu Stone, is a form of limestone which is a form of calcium carbonate. If you are doing regular 50% water changes they should not be a problem but they are a source of limestone and do increase the dGH. -Roy

I have them on light substrate and if I were to do it again I would use black sand. I don’t think it matters all that much to the fish, but I think they would stand out better on dark substrate.

If you think its in your tap you should test it

I am not much a fan of ghost feeding myself as you have to wait until it decomposes to make ammonia. And you are left wondering how much to add… The ammonia drops is simple. Add the drops per gallon it states on the label. You have ammonia…. Of a known amount… Ammonia is the food the bacteria will need to grow to make nitrite, then you need to wait for nitrite to nitrate bacteria to establish and grow… and that one is slower to grow… I personally do not have much confidence in Seachems nitrate reduction claims of their matrix. Product. My personal belief is you simply do not have sufficient “food” ammonia to start the cycle.. I dont have any confidence that bacteria in a bottle products do much more than lighten your wallet and enrich the marketers and sellers… but lots of people swear by them. The most they will do is save a little time, the worse they will do is cost you money with no benefit.. I know Iwill never be spending money on them again….

Hi @TwoFace99, Thank you for the re-test and confirmation. If you dGH out of the tank water is 13 dGH and your tap water is only 6dGH then we need to get your tank dGH down closer to your tap water general hardness....about 6.0 dGH. That may entail two or three 50% water changes to get it down closer to 6.0 dGH.. We want to re-set that tank to more "normal" parameters. Here are the most recent readings by the City of Chicago Water Utility. I have highlighted the calcium and magnesium levels and they fairly consistent with about 35 ppm of calcium and 12 ppm of magnesium. Since a water hardness test kit only tests for calcium and magnesium then the dGH out of the tap should be about 35 ppm + 12 ppm or 47 ppm or 5.0 dGH. Test kits, and sometimes my eyesight are off but your tap water is likely close to the reading you took. If that is the case, then the calcium to magnesium ratio (CA:Mg) is about 3:1. That is pretty much ideal since the recommend range is 3:1 - 4:1 calcium to magnesium ratio. I'm going to take another tack, I'm going to assume your water out of the tap is ideal. If that is the case what is the issue? What don't I see on that water analysis? Iron! I know that you are dosing 5 pumps of Easy Iron I believe once a week....correct? If that is correct then you are dosing 0.26 ppm of iron once a week. But what type of iron? I looked into Easy Iron and it uses three (3) types of iron EDTA, DTPA, and ferrous gluconate, unfortunately we don't know what the proportions of the various types of iron in the solution. I know that @Mmiller2001already explained the differences in the various types of iron and how they are effect by pH levels. With your pH of 7.8 any EDTA iron in the solution is useless. Any of the DTPA iron is about 50% effective. And the only iron in the solution that is readily available the plants is the ferrous gluconate. So, we can assume that of the 0.26 ppm of iron you are dosing weekly maybe half is actually available to the plants or 0.13 ppm. However EDTA chelated iron is the least expensive of the types of iron in the mix so likely is the largest proportion of the mix. Ferrous gluconate is the most expensive form or iron so it likely the smallest portion of the mix. What is the correct amount of iron (Fe) to dose / maintain in our tanks. The correct answer is whatever amount is needed to keep your plants healthy. Years ago when I started 0.1 to 0.2 ppm was considered adequate. I've met Tom Barr, the co-inventor of the Estimative Index (EI) method of dosing, and he used to recommend 1.0 ppm of iron but now I understand it is higher (up to 5.0 ppm). If you ask 100 people on the forums you will likely get 100 different answers. How much do I dose? I dose 0.8 ppm of iron every week. We have determined with your pH that ferrous gluconate is the preferred type of iron to use. I would suggest picking up some Seachem Iron. Seachem Iron is 100% ferrous gluconate. The bottle recommends dosing 5 ml (1 teaspoon) per 50 gallons which will result in 0.1 ppm or iron. Personally I don't believe that is even close. Ferrous gluconate is iron in ferrous form (as opposed to ferric form) and is readily absorbed by our plants. I would start with 1 teaspoon 3X per week and we may increase from there. This will provide you with 3X the amount of available iron compared to what you are dosing now. The good news is that you should quickly start to see results if iron is the cause of the problem, probably within a couple of weeks. Again we watch only the new growth (personally I would watch the Hygro and the Ludwigia since they are fast growing). The new leaves should come in greener and healthier. Ferrous gluconate can get expensive if you purchase it in liquid form. Once we determine that the problem is indeed iron then I would recommend picking up some ferrous gluconate powder and mix your own solution. There are several places it can be purchased. BTW, did you know that you have one of the best planted aquarium clubs in the country in Chicago? Check out the Chicago Aquatic Plant Society, they hold regular meetings and you will meet like-minded individuals. -Roy

Sorry to hear that, yeah now thinking of what you fed him and everything, it was probably some kind of disease. (Idk what kind tho).

I’m using light sand they don’t seem to mind and there’s bubble nests everywhere lol

Just keep adding food until you get a reading I used a piece of fish about the size of my thumb nail to cycle my 55 I don’t know about those blocks but they can’t just make ammonia disappear it has to go somewhere

The retail store also has some beautiful pots of Hydrocotyle tripartita ‘Japan’ as well this week! Currently selling for $9.99 each :)

better safe than sorry. Either you or someone else reading this topic may think bumblebees and assasins are the same snails and could end up buying saltwater ones by mistake since they have a similar look. Therefore I wanted to mention it. Some even call black yellow striped horned nerites bumblebee too. A bit confusing to use that term here🙂

Ghost feed until you read around 1-2mg/l ammonia and let the bacteria populate and work their thingy. Once ammonia turns into nitrite and nitrite turns into nitrate and all ammonia and nitrite clears up and you only read nitrate, you can slowly stock the tank

I didn't read this whole thread, but another thing to consider is a lot of times certain deficiencies can be caused by an overdose of a totally different nutrient. For example: you can cause symptoms of a magnesium deficiency simply by over dosing potassium! Moral of the story is, be careful supplementing specific nutrients.

Thanks! I’ve always thought the same thing, except more of a “freshly trimmed Pearl Weed hedge”.

Patience. Patience will help you go far in the hobby. Eventually, that piece of wood will become waterlogged and will sink. Outside of that, you could get yourself a piece of slate. Drill some holes through the slate, and then screw the piece of wood to the piece of slate. Bury the slate in your substrate, and voila. Your piece of wood has now “sunk”. Alternatively, you can place some larger rocks on the piece of wood. Eventually, it will become waterlogged and you can remove the rocks.

Ratios don’t matter. If you are saying your Mg is low, yet have a GH of 13 degrees, then you have a ton of Ca. You would only need to add Mg. Of which you only need about 5ppm of Mg. Twisting can be cause by several things, but I’d rule out Ca based on the information you are posting. EDTA and DTPA are common chelated forms of Fe. They require a certain level of pH for the plants to be able to utilize the Fe. EDTA works at pH below 6.7/8 and DTPA can go higher. If the KH is as you say, your pH is definitely higher than ideal. Switching to the appropriate chelate will let your plants get more Fe. If you exceed the pH for each chelate, you will lock out Fe all together.

Got home after a week long vacation today, I was worried because the fish were left unattended for the whole time, they had an auto-feeder but i had no way to know if they were doing alright. Fortunately I saw no losses, the water levels were low and the filters struggling a bit, but the livestock were all alive. If there was 1 casualty it may have been the heater on my 5gallon tank, part of it was emersed with the water level so low. Fortunately i have an extra on hand so if this one fails i can always replace it. Instead of collapsing in bed exhausted from travel, i spend this afternoon doing water changes on all the tanks to make sure all the animals were okay. I was in Indiana for vacation, so while i was there I had to check out the LFS. It is called The Reef and it is a really nice store. The name would imply that the focus is more saltwater, but there were sizable freshwater and terrestrial sections as well. There were very nice displays as well as many healthy fish for sale. I apologize photo quality is not the best, i only had my phone to take pictures with and its not as good of a camera as my normal camera. Large Planted Display:This tank was definitely more south american themed and as well as angels contained some bristlenose, twig catfish, and cardinal tetras There was also a monster fish display tank, it was a few hundred gallons at least and had large South and Central American cichlids, the fish in that tank were BIG. As shown below is the biggest oscar compared to my hand, not a small fish. All the fish that were out were nice and healthy as far as i could tell, and if not they made it clear on the tank They had some really nice hardscape selection in the back of the store As well as some artificial decorations Lots of interesting livestock for sale as well, including: Albino Sterbai Cories: Normal Sterbai Cories: Normal and Albino Glowlight Tetras: Gouarmis and Barbs Yellow Shrimps: Blue Phantom Pleco: Mystery Snails: And for the pond season, koi and goldfish: The bettas unforunately were in cups, but bigger cups then i've seen before and each with a plant clipping. Plants in every tank was definitely something this store does well Some saltwater stuff as well: Just overall a very nice store, i was not paid for this or anything, but i just wanted to share this amazing store. I highly recommend for anyone in the area.

bumblebee snails are saltwater. assasin snails are freshwater No it is not safe to keep mystery snail and assasins together. I had adult mystery snail death in a assasin snail tank and it was big but not even old.

Doesn't matter. But I feel like mine looked the best on JBL manado. Maybe Im making it up. I kept mine on Tropica aquasoil and beige fine sand too. No obvious changes in color. They are mainly top to mid dwellers anyway

Hi @Tony s @macdaddy36 @Whitecloud09 you guys are amazing. Unfortunately, it died. I believe he had some disease - I don't think the issue was food but we will never know ! Thank you so much for trying to help ... Marcelo

You only really need 5ppm of Mg for plants. Looks more like Micro nutrient issue versus Mg. I’d switch to a DTPA micro option. If your pH is above 6.8, you are not getting much Fe to the plants. Equilibrium adds Ca, Mg, Fe and K. I’d go buy a bag of epson salt from the pharmacy and add that for Mg.

Only add the equilibrium for water changes. Neither the calcium or magnesium evaporates. So if you’re adding it consistently every time it will increase. I actually had this happen to me when I first started using it. Now when doing a water change, I premix everything and get it just right before adding. I never did like the residue left over from it. So I don’t mix it in the tank. The other way is doing the testing every time you use it. Per tank. That way your range is exactly where you want it. For just top offs I never add it

Here is what I would do: Black background to match the bottom side of the tank and cover the filter in the background and look better and complete more naturalistic aquascaping and planting Buying or making a lid, filling water to the top. Such low water level to secure lowering the risk of jumping does not look nice, and the LED reflects to the eye and disturbing instead of peaceful. Add a couple variety of botanics. Botanics take it to the next level And last, keeping the tank glasses clean. It makes a big difference in terms of look as well

I’ve always like them but have never kept them. I’d imagine they’d do best with fast moving fish. They will probably be too much for more sedate species. A 75 with a school of 6-8 would look incredible and you’d get the most natural behaviors.

...and a pile of rocks will always look like a pile of rocks. I like your explanation better

It should turn white pink or purple witching 24 hours. The only time it did not for me was I had a bottle of seltzer I opened fresh but did not get a big blast of spray. I suspect that bottle was slightly flat and did not work as it should. Bba takes 9-12 hours in fresh non flat soda to die. The bba will remain in the plant but it will be dead indicated by a color change.

2 Bolivians paired and laid these. 2 are not mature yet and 2 more FEMALES paired and laid eggs together on a rock. Weirdest thing ever. All eggs infertile of course. I guess it was the best way they could think to rid themselves of roe. The two females guarding the infertile double clutch

Water lettuce if it's allowed in your area, I have a bunch of anachris clippings floating around also.

2-3 years is about normal, and assuming yours had at least 3-6 months on them when you got them, they are falling right in that window.

That’s awesome with the push to connect!

Extremely so. We keep very detailed records of the animals we do breed (not fish). There is a very definite monetary cost per breeding per animal. By the time they have gone through 4 breedings it becomes cost prohibitive to keep them producing. Depending on the animal. Average breeding for all animals ages is kept around 3.5 per female per herd. So an unbred female would expect to have twice the lifespan. Assuming it works exactly like that in fish as well

Still wondering how much food. Video of you feeding would be very helpful. someone probably already asked these but: what dechlorinator do you use? what does ammonia read out of the tap?

Latest set up - Aquaponics atop 29 gal. Adding 25x Rainbow Shiners next week…

Not in my experience. I haven't seen that in any of my fish. I guess it could be normal, just haven't seen it myself. Attaching pics of my male and female.