Leaderboard

Nothing special. Just want to show you my beautiful tank (bare bottom by the way). Excuse the water in my tank, it is a little green 😅

Welp, I didn’t plan on really doing anything today, but I just couldn’t resist starting to change this tank. I ripped out all the plants. Some went into the “plant hotel”, and others went into other tanks to live out their lives and grow big and strong. I ripped out the hardscape, and started siphoning up literal years of mulm and broken down botanicals. I hate sand so much. This tank was the first, and only tank I’ve run full sand. Because sand compacts so hard, NOTHING can get through it, so EVERYTHING just piles on top. The amount of mulm and detritus is wild, lol. I siphoned out about 12 gallon, put 12 gallons back in, and then I remembered I have a big ol TopFin filter I’ve never used. It came with the 55 when I bought it. I busted that out of the closet, stuffed it full of dense foam, flipped her on, and went and got a haircut. When I came back from the barber I siphoned out more mulm, put more fresh water back in, cleaned out the big ol filter, and kicked her on again. I think that’s it for today. I was going to screen some dirt, but that will wait for another day. From here, I’m going to continue picking out the snails, continue letting the filters do what filters do and collect all this mulm and detritus. I’ve the livestock and the mulm are gone I will siphon out the sand and dispose of it. Screen the dirt, put that in on the back for the crypts, cap everything with the new gravel, and then fill and drain a few times. I did that with the cube (my only other dirted tank) and never had issues with tannins. From there I’ll (maybe) put some hardscape back in and plant it up! Still need to get the 20oz co2 tank filled as well. It’s in progress and I’m hype! Cheers to the third iteration of the 20 long! Anubias that came out of the 20 long. I love that you can see where it tapped into the sand and was feeding from the substrate. The holes in the leaves are the reason I bought and started using Easy Potassium. The Anubias ended up in the right side of the 10 gallon in the room, continuing to fill out the Anubias in this tank. Stoked to start converting this to Blackwater. A different Anubias went into the Pea Puffer tank. Look at it pearling! I think it might be happy. CPO’s in the Pea Puffer tank. You can see the Pea stalking it in the first picture, but then he just turned and swam away. I think he was just checking it out. Again, they let shrimp live in here so I feel like the CPO’s should be fine. From Blackwater to brown water, lol. The official end of an era.

If the silicone still feels pliant, yeah. If it's old, it's probably better made than what you can get today. If you can rig a moisture sensor near it. I'd probably do that too. But, then again, a new tank is probably what? 40$. But for a dedicated shell dweller tank, Yeah, i probably would

Personally I think Pandas are a bit large for a 40 liter. As with most fish, they do best with larger groups and I don’t think you could fit more than 6 in your tank. Personally I would do some of the dwarf Cory’s like pygmies or salt and pepper Cory’s. Also something to note - when adding tankmates, it’s actually best to add the betta last. That way, he/she can’t establish a “territory” and get mad when other guys invade the territory. Just gives you a higher chance of success since Bettas can be super rude sometimes!

post mortem changes can happen really quickly in warm water going off a picture won't really help unless you found the fish just after it died if you haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary and you haven't had them long it could just be a weaker fish that didn't acclimate well coupled with stress succumb it difficult to say without any symptoms what has killed it @Whitecloud09

dragonfly most likely

Okay, been a while lol. Today, August 16th 2024, I officially started the aquarium. Filled it up with water. Put some java moss, some anubias (don't know the variety but it has a narrower leaf), moneywort, dwarf chain sword, vallisneria, and some other stem plant. I remember getting it but I somehow forgot the name, wow! LOL Anyway, the tank is looking rather bare to say the least. This is because I am going extremely low-budget and am hoping to get the plants to propagate. Have 500ml of easy green so that should last me a while. Put some root tabs in so should have some nutrients for the chain sword. Could always add some more capsules later. Added 1.5 squirts of fert today lol. Plan for Friday to be the OFFICIAL fertilizer day! Mark that day on your calend--Wait why do you have to? I'm the one who has to do that lol. I'm just kidding, of course. I plan on having the following plants later. I do not know barely anything about the plant so if you have kept them lmk how they are. I have inert substrate (but root tabs like I said) and low to medium lighting (I don't know the exact par but the wattage is rather low). Anubias Barteri (Big, broad leaves is what I'm thinking of right now for the right part of the aquarium--I'll give you a picture) Pogostemon Stellatus 'Octopus' Water Wisteria Bacopa Caroliniana I am not sure about the wisteria or pogo right now. Pogo may need iron dosing which I am not up to doing at the moment and a few people apparently have had problems with. But, others say it grows like a weed so don't really know!

That was all her. She did a great job and that was a great weekend. Was also there when Rob and Jason did the mechanical fish riding ( by pure luck). He's right, he may have lasted 3 seconds. But he was on the way down as soon as it started 🤣 They seem to be great people. Just as you would hope they were. a lot like what you see in their videos Right after the bettas from Prism. Right at 6 minute mark. We adopted her at birth. Been such a blessing to us

Angelfish are fry snipers.

I would base that decision on how the three remaining fish are behaving. If any one of them is overly aggressive or, at the other end of the spectrum, being picked on incessantly, then adding fish will help to reduce or mitigate or correct that. But if they are peaceful, I would leave things as they are and let the tank settle for at least a few weeks or more before adding anything else.

I think new keepers (I'm assuming this is you @Josh Giro) tend to fixate on identifying or blaming 1 specific problem whenever a fish dies. But I don't think that's helpful. Sometimes fish will die, and you won't be able to know specifically why. In my experience (15 odd tanks, 5+ years, strong bio/eco background) it's rare that a fish will die from one reason only, it's usually a complex of reasons or a cascade of events. Unless you've had the fish for 2 months or more, it's very possible that whatever is going in started before you ever got the fish or tank. You're never going to have a full understanding of that, so I recommend focusing on conditions in the tank now, ie things that ARE under your control. Keep up with your water changes, ensure you have adequate circulation/aeration, feed decent foods and not too much, follow label directions for dechlor, and so forth. If you continue to see disease or death, then you need to tighten all that down even more, and possibly consider a medication regime. But I wouldn't recommend that based on 1 death, due to cause unknown. Another good option is to add activated carbon to your filter, if possible. It doesn't necessarily need to be a permanent addition, maybe just a few weeks or months. If you do end up medicating, be sure to remove the carbon.

Great floater if you have surface current, just wrap it around something to keep it in place!

Agreed. I don't think the amount of other fish in a 20 long is an issue but 76F def is.

Checked out baby E. gilberti from outdoor mini tub last night…

What your KH GH and pH as low KH can cause a lot of health issues with platys any rapid breathing hanging out near the surface lethargy flashing any redness to the body of the one who died @Josh Giro

For reference, most fish brought to conventions are faster for around three days before being bagged to reduce ammonia buildup. Then they're bagged the say before, them bright to the convention, and then they're there for a day or two before being bright home. So realistically those fish are going a week without eating while also being in a stressful situation. Your fish will be just fine for a week staying in there normal tank and grazing on microorganisms.

It is January. I am getting new fish. O yes… yes I am getting two breeding trios of Elassoma gilberti… And, they are going straight into my former Rainbow Shiner tank (occupants of which are now at my son’s High School NANF tank in Biology class). How does this formerly pristine tank look? So glad you asked. It looks like a slice of swamp… These Elassoma _belong_ here! It’s not quite my first rodeo. My middle son and I bred some Elassoma okefenokee a few years back… We had fun collecting all the fry after BAP, and shipping off… These guys need live food. Looking for live blackworms has been annoying. Will feed artemia. It is full of snails. Even has a mum and son Lucania goodei chillaxing… My mission: keep it swampy. Raise a million Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish. Ship off to NANF dealers. And the odd aquarist who begs… 😎

I’m not new to hobby just wondering what ideas you all have. It’s always fun to try new things in the hobby.

Hi there, Yesterday I finally received *some* of my aquarium plants from Aquarium Co-op. For the size of tank (20g) it's pretty hilarious, but the fact is I'm doing this as cheap as possible and will be using propagation with everything I can (mainly stem and carpeting plants). I was out of my home almost all day yesterday until around 9 and was genuinely exhausted. So, I put the plants in a small container with about 1-1.5 inches of dechlorinated water for the night. I noticed that some of the plants were half-dead. I am aware this kind of thing is for support and I am considering contacting them, of course, but I am wondering if they'd still grow if I just prune the dead leaves. They're not completely dead and still have some green leaves, so I think they are salvageable. Thoughts? Have anyone tried doing this? What success have you had? Thank you.

Have not checked the roots yet. I will now.

Are the roots rotting? And if the plants do have some green left, maybe add to aquarium and dose EG and see what happens @Shiba.

Sorry to hear about that. I think, unfortunately, that's part of the process. They're not meant to be in little glass boxes. It takes a bit to get them settled. As long as you stay on top of your water conditions. Everything else is up to them. We just try to give them the best we can do. They're still animals and have frailties like everything else. After they've been there for a bit, they should be fine, but it's the settling in process that takes a toll I lose animals that way. Fish and lots of others. Unfortunately, I've been around animal and death my whole life. We used to raise and clean animals for our own food when I was young. Guys around here still do. And hunt. I just can't do that. Makes me a bit of an oddball around here. I've hunted twice and watched 2 small animals die at my hands. I won't own a gun again. But anyway. as long as you know you've done your best, it's all you can do

Aquarium lighting is a very competitive field. I like the Hygger lights (model 957) and mine has been great so far. I like that it ramps up and down. It seems to work very well for me. Working with an existing company and rebranding their product or cooperating with them on a Coop-named model might be the best option. Take what the Coop learned from making their lights and try to get another maker to implement some of those details into their product line in a Coop-branded item. You don't always have to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes you just need to put a new label on it.

If I bought any fish as assorted, my default is they are hybrids. If you ever purchase assorted African cichlids, they are 100% hybrids almost always. So if it’s reference, then no worries, but if you plan on breeding, I wouldn’t let go of any of the fry unless you are certain that it is a pure species. This particular problem wrecked havoc through the rainbow fish world for quite a while until Gary Lange sorted things out a bit. Good luck with identification.

They make a droplet squeeze bottle for small tanks. I kind of like it better than the cap off one in small tanks. And not at all saying he wasn’t sick. But it does happen. We had a someone 6 months ago that lost a large number of big fish from this. Large water change. Late at night. Extra prime. And with the big fish, you really get extra attached. Was just heartbreaking. hopefully, that’s what it was and everyone else stays fine. and yeah, if you have a low ph kh gh , those could cause issues. But easily fixed. If you can run test for that. Depends on what hardness your water is. Platys love hard water

MAybe a spotback Corydoras?

That is cool! I never tried pearlweed as a floater! I will have to give her a try! And brazilian pennywort.

Mine is covered in GSA so I will 100% try that. I only have some water sprite at the moment thx!!

When you unexpectedly learn a lot about incontinence by searching for fish illnesses. 🤯🤯🤯🤯🤯🍋💦

@TOtrees that would require a huge increase in price.

I agree that well fed fish can go a week without feeding, but shutting off the lights and not feeding would not be the course of action to deal with hair algae that I would be taking. it sure has the appeal of low effort. Flip off a few switches and walk away….,

Sorry for your loss. Just curious as to why you added the prime. Did you do a water change after your test? Or before? Prime can cause a bit of an oxygen drop, usually not too serious. And you added enough prime for a 25g tank. Hopefully that’s what you have. Adding extra in a smaller tank can cause a bit more of an issue. And adding for no reason opens you up to problems you didn’t have. So, very possible it was the prime. Most of the time it’s perfectly safe. But sometimes, it becomes more than our fish can handle. Neither the shrimp or plants should do much of anything. and your remaining fish hopefully are doing okay?

Just keep the water level the same between the tanks. If they are uneven the higher one will flow into the lower one until equilibrium.

I would move male out of the tank. If they move to spawn again together while fry are still small, they sometimes eat earlier batch. Mom will protect from predators for a few weeks. By 3-4 weeks, move Mom out.

Is she showing any other signs of stress? Like flaring, glass surfing etc? Because I almost wonder if her stress stripes may not be stress related.

It's about 100 Gallons.

@Whitecloud09 maybe you should try some more floating plants to help give a little shade for the ones who don’t want a ton of light. And it might help keep the algae off some plant leaves too! in my 10g I have Pennywort, guppy grass and Pearlweed floating up top which all do a really good job shading out my Anubias (which used to be covered in GSA).

I would manually clean all the hair algae possible and buy a juvenile group of true Saes, like four of them, and try to change one thing at the time like lighting, ferts, etc. and observe long term effects. As a person who commonly has issues with hair algae, if the tank size is big enough, SAEs are my choice. They work amazing in my experience, even as adults. I never have issues in where I keep SAEs in. They graze nonstop. And you should get the true SAEs

a few days to a week , some times even more is not a big issue for healthy fish.

They will be fine without food for several days. Up to maybe, 5-7 days would be ok for food.

I have a Oase Filtosmart 60 on my 5-1/2 gallon shrimp tank. People say its over kill, but my shrimp like it. I also have a Aquarium COOP nano sponge filter in the tank. Now let me say this. The Oase is setup backwards. The inlet is set bring water over the bio-media and then thru the sponge back to the tank. I personally reversed this, I put a sponge filter up against the divider wall forcing the water to go thru my sponge first, then into the output chamber which I filled with Ceramic Media. I also ordered a shrimp safe inlet strainer. This filter is surprising quiet and works well and overall its cheap in price. I'll be the first to admit, I am a dual filter user. My 40 Gallon has a Fluval 306 Canister Filter with a Aquarium Coop Sponge Filter, My 20 Gallon has a Fluval 107 with Coop Sponge filter, and my 5-1/2 is listed above. My 40 and 20 also has the COOP pre-sponges on canister. There is no "Set" formula for Filtration for an aquarium. Technically, if you drop a airstone in your tank, if you give it enough time, the tank itself will setup up bio-filtration to keep your tank alive.

Congrats! You are the proud owner of a mosquito larva. They're harmless food for your fish

The question is why are the fish at the surface? I have never had forktails but I have been researching because I might get some and it is recommended that they are in schools of at least 6. Maybe they are hugging the surface because they are scared? I don't think the Hydrogen Peroxide has anything to do with it. It breaks down too quickly to cause any issue.

As long as you have the tanks at the same level your bridge should work fine. If they aren’t on the same level then your bridge is a siphon.

Few things: 1. Seahorses need a well aged tank. Like 1-2 years old and I would go ahead and stock with microfauna- copepods, shrimp, annelids and the like 2. Seahorses need to be in a group or pair they are terribly anxious creatures 3. They don’t live very long. Expect 3 years at the absolute max. Some have seen 5 but it is incredibly rare. 4. And this is a big one. Seahorse and their ilk lack stomachs. Which means they are constantly eating which means you need to setup a system or be there to feed them 10-15x a day. Pro Aquariums have a separate tank full of live brine that is hooked up to a time fed pump to pump them in to the display every hour-ish. Knowing this there are brackish and freshwater counterparts to the saltwater seahorse if you don’t want the hassle of setting up a full marine tank. Luckily seahorse are sedentary and small so realistically you only need a 20-30 gallon display. I would do a 10-20 gallon sump. Also seahorse are on the expensive side of the hobby. If your LFS is worth it’s salt they are likely priced by the pair at $200-400 depending highly on if you have a local breeder as they do not travel well by air. None of this is meant to dissuade you seahorses are beautiful and very rewarding if not demanding fish to keep. They breed very easily as well when they come of age and that can be a fun challenge on its own Cheers, I hope you try it!

@Roxvet how did your panda corys do after adding the airstone and catappa leaves, and lowering the temp? Having a very similar issue with my corydoras sterbai. Tried adding a big airstone, but still struggling. Going to try lowering the pH and temp gradually next (ph currently at 7.5 and temp at 77).

Most endlers in the hobby aren't "pure" endlers, and yours likely weren't either unless you purchased "n class" endlers, which are generally more expensive and difficult to find. Because of this I don't see why further crossing them would be an issue. I do think it is important to preserve the original "natural" variants/type locations of endlers since they are threatened by pollution and hybridization in the wild.

Little male tries dancing with the stars. Female takes off, and on the follow up, he meets a larger male…

Same young blue buck in different lighting…