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Showing content with the highest reputation on 10/25/2021 in all areas

  1. In the right lighting… the tiny, delicate Hummingbird Tetra…
    9 points
  2. My favorites so far are the emperor tetras, although when my congos get full size and color up it might be close... When the light hits the big boys, the purple above that black stripe really comes out. Displaying for the females, the yellow on the edges of their fins are electric. They kind of point their heads down at an angle and flare up almost like a betta (without the gill thing). Couldn't get this guy to hold still, and the camera put the kaibosh on any romance he had going... So here's the king of that tank with major derp face.
    7 points
  3. The Crystal Red Tetra is my favorite solely because of it’s looks. The internet pics don’t do it justice. It’s like someone took a Red Phantom or Serpae Tetra and turned the color up to 11! The pics are from a LFS that keeps them as display only.
    7 points
  4. Alright, so since I have a chronic illness and my mental+physical energy is limited, I found a way to spread the tub take-down over several days. To start with, I got out my handy dandy aquarium coop net and took a few casual scoops out of the orange platy tub. Using my handy dandy specimen container, I brought whatever I caught inside to start their new stage of life in my 10 gallon grow-out tank. This is the tank where I planned to move the fry as they get larger. And this was my first hint that I may have gotten more than I bargained for. Maybe four scoops. Four not-even-trying scoops. 67 fry. Ohhh wow. A few days later I started draining the blue platy tub. I put a piece of mesh over the end of the hose and scooped up fish as the water slowly drained. I had one tub for plants and the other for fish. It was slow going but it went well! I ended up with lots of tiny fry and several VERY big mamas. Oh… and one male. Can you find him? 😄 These fry were sooo hard to spot. I ended up going back several times over the next 24 hours, including once at night with a flashlight. Fed all the mosquitos in the neighborhood that night. And then I did the same for the orange platy tub. Those fry were much easier to spot, but no easier to catch. The aquarium coop nets are amazing, but the smallest fry can fit through the holes. Plus they were able to hide under the large gravel I’d placed on the bottom of the tub. I couldn’t bear the thought of dumping out the lat bit of water knowing there were still fry in there, so eventually I just had to stop looking for fry and pretend I got them all. I did try very very hard, so I’m sure I got the vast majority of them. Here’s another reason I’m sure I got the vast majority of them: I took pictures and I counted. I got over 300 baby platys out of my summer tubs! 😱 All that from nine females (6 blue and 3 orange) and two males (one of each color). I’d started with a total of 15 fish, so apparently I lost four adult platys over the course of the summer—two from each tub. How convenient that each tub ended up with one male and several females! Yeah, 300 babies… apparently these parent platys had not been eating their fry like I’d thought they would. Oh—and during the take-down, one of the females tried to hide (and then got stuck) in an extra sponge filter I had seeding in her tub. She was in there for at least an hour before I realized! 😬 That’s her little nose: I had to veeery carefully cut the sponge out from around her. She was fine, though her fins and back had some scrapes that took a week or so to heal. At this point I was very excited about all my babies of course! But I was also quite worried how I was going to keep their water clean. Plus it just seemed like a LOT of fish… To give the females a break, and to slow the growth of this booming population, I decided to put all the females on one side of the 55 gallon and the two males on the other side. No more mating! So far so good. I was exhausted from the tub tear down, but I’d got everyone inside and I just had to wait for the platys to settle in. And hopefully the two sponge filters from the tubs plus the slightly-cycled matten filters plus the soil from my backyard plus the plants from my other cycled tanks all had enough beneficial bacteria on them to keep the water clean.
    7 points
  5. Here's a picture my wife took months ago with more color, less derp...
    6 points
  6. We're enjoying them and our shrimp the most in our tanks, very underrated fish! I have a group of 5 that have settled in well after a couple of wary weeks sorting out their betta roommate. He has since accepted these squirmy guys and they are now are squirming *everywhere* including his betta log. They hang on the "trees", inside the At-At deco and make my husband's Endor themed tank seem a bit more like Degobah. 😄 ^ check out the back window... Photo uploaded sideways, but they will even perch on the snails so they can steal blood worms from the betta Kuhli barbershop quartet!
    6 points
  7. This story picks up at the end of the summer when it was almost time to bring my summer tubs in. In brief, I had one tub with orange platys and one with blue platys. The plan was to transition them into a 55 gallon permanent breeding setup in my fish “area,” which is in the dining nook of our kitchen. This first post is going to be about the setup of the breeding tank itself, since that’s probably more interesting than the story itself. 😄 I’ve been planning this setup in my head since @Brandy mentioned automatic fry sorters last fall during a discussion about matten filters. My brain stopped in its tracks and I thought “this is the best thing I’ve ever heard of!” So over the next few months, I kept my eyes open and eventually acquired everything I’d need. The plan was to have the orange platys on one side, the blue platys on the other, and all their fry would get pulled into the middle. I also wanted it to look nice, since we’d be looking at this tank a lot. So I picked out a bunch of pots and a nice stick that my husband can’t believe I paid $35 for. The saucers under the pots will let them sit above the substrate. After planning out the setup, I got to cutting holes in the matten filters. (The slit allows the pots to sit flush against the sponge.) Ta-da! Sorters are in! I made the sorters stick into the middle at an angle so they’d create a bit of a swirl in the water, hopefully increasing the overall circulation in the middle compartment. I decided to put actual soil in the pots, but this time (unlike what I did in my community tank), I was going to cover that soil with a nice deep sand cap! Since the pots are so deep, I also wanted to try to defend against huge anaerobic areas. So I put tubes of plastic craft mesh down the middle. Sort of like you do in a compost barrel to make sure it stays aerated. I was hoping a layer of gravel at the bottom would help too. As I filled the pots with soil, I made sure to put a layer of gravel around the middle tube so the dirt wouldn’t just pour in and fill up the space. I ordered some aqueon lights for the outer sections. Unfortunately they didn’t fit around the rim of a 55 gallon. So my dear husband chiseled some gaps for me. I don’t think they’re deep enough to threaten the structural integrity of the tank. Time will tell I guess…! I chose a mingdak (I think) light to put under the center bar. That was the best way I could think of to light the middle section without getting a huge shadow. It comes with suction cups but those weren’t going to work since the bottom surface of the bar isn’t flat. So I turned to electrical tape. I put everything in place… You can see why the large pots were necessary—the fry sorters wouldn’t have stretched to the bottom, even if they were fully extended. I didn’t want to stretch them too much because the taller they are, the more air flow you need to get water through the uplift tube. Plus I just thought this looked nice. 😊 Added sand substrate. Now I understand why people have those little zen boxes where they can rake sand all day. Started to fill with water. There was something soooo soothing about watching the water creep over the sand. After I got it half full of water, I added some plants! Hubby said it looks like something you’d see in a modern art museum. ☺️ I still don’t think he’s realized I stole one of our mugs to use as the smallest pot. 😁 I added a few snails and let the tank sit and cycle. I added a bit more water every few days, which gave the air time to move out of the matten filters. I didn’t do a hard core cycle because the tubs each had a sponge filter that I was planning on moving in with the platys. So far, everything was going great. Beautiful, peaceful, all according to plan. To be continued…
    4 points
  8. I have nine of them in my 45 gallon tank and at least some of them are always visible. They seem to operate in shifts, with different little squads roaming at different times. They show up for dinner, though, of course! Here they are, a month or so apart, chowing down on shrimp pellets and then a block of Repashy Grub Pie. They hold their own and aren't shy when other fish or creatures are around. They like to hang out inside that skull in the background and it's always cool to see them slither out of the eyes, nose, or mouth. I also have a couple in the 29 gallon but had gone months without seeing them. I then moved the corys out of it into another tank, replaced them with zebra loaches. For some reason now I get glimpses of the kuhlis in that tank again!
    4 points
  9. As i've gotten older i've tried more species but for whatever reason i always come back to cardinals. Kind of wish they schooled like rummies but alas you have to take what you get. I have 25 or 26 and they are all just lovely.
    4 points
  10. O Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Romeo When they get the zoomies they are quite fun to watch!
    4 points
  11. I always let it sit for a couple days, then turn it into a display tank. I can always set up another QT. 🥴
    4 points
  12. After living in a 17 gallon muck bucket for the last two months, Dot, Binky and Maverick (along with a few leftover guppies and some pond snails) got situated in their new 55 gallon digs today. Hoping to catch some of the Hillstream loach population that is exploding in the 125 to add as well to help keep the algae growth in control, so the rock piles are for them. The background is painted blue with a streak of black but I couldn’t do solid black or we would never see Maverick the Black Moor. Now I just need to bring the Axolotls in from their muck bucket in the porch and fix up something for the betta. Moving house is a challenge and I will be glad when everything is situated and I can get on with enjoying the new home. And I am hoping to make a connection with a local aquarium fish club.
    4 points
  13. Hi everyone! Thanks so much for your ideas and feedback on my previous posts! Came back to give an update on the project. Specs Tank: 42L 35-cm cube tank (Urna Blau Cubic Aquascaping 42L) roughly 11 gallons Light: Chihiros WRGB Slim Filtration: HOB Aquaclear 20 with ACO nano course sponge *has been running on another tank I have for 2-3 weeks No heater yet, but I’ll add one before the fish go in. Without filter, tank runs 22-24*C right now in fall. Plant list Sag. sublata Valisneria nana Echinodorus tenellus Eleocharis acicularis Crypt parva Mayaca Fluviatilis Cyperus helferi (I’d like to add more Val nana and also Juncus repens, Potamogeton gayi, and/or Murdannia keisek.) I set it up Friday night/Saturday morning, and it's looking pretty good so far. Plan: (dependent on water quality and plant growth) Day 1 - 10 ppm nitrates, no nitrates, no ammonia, 300+ ppm GH, 40ppm KH, 6.8 pH, and 0 chlorine. I did a small 20% water change and rinsed course prefilter sponge in used tank water to remove pieces of grasses that were stuck. Day 3 - 50% water change *add more Val, ramshorn snail and amano shrimp Day 7 - 50% water change *add nerite snail Day 10 - 30% water change *add juvenile platy from my breeding colony and a snail Day 14 - 30% water change Day 17 - 30% water change *add 10 Pygmy corys Day 20 - 20% water change Day 20something *add 4 guppies, remove platy Like @Zenzo's recent video suggests, I find when I lean hard into patience and find joy in the process, I enjoy my planted tanks much more. Yes, I did add Seachem Stability and Prime, and, yes, I am using a used filter, but I don’t like putting my fish at risk for something I can control like just waiting a few days. I am lucky, though, as I have a lot of other tanks to keep me busy 🙂 and I’m not worried about the multiple LFS in my city running out or not having Pygmy corys. Anyway, feedback welcome! Cheers! PS - In a future post, I'll add some photos of the vienna guppies I brought back to Spain with me from the US. My pair has had two drops of fry since August, with a third batch expected next week. #viennaguppysuperfan 🤓
    3 points
  14. I carved a small pumpkin for the shrimp and otos and currently trying to figure out how to get it to sink. I thought you all might like my amature carving.
    3 points
  15. Was it red lined lizard tetras @Patrick_G
    3 points
  16. Can you please share some photos of your existing tanks?
    3 points
  17. I love ember tetras, glowlight tetras, and the underrated bloodfin tetras.
    3 points
  18. My favorite is serpae tetras. They are hardy, and look great in planted tanks. Black neons are a close second. They're much hardier than the regular neons, or cardinals. I think they were mis-named, since the dark band looks navy blue to me. Along with the sky blue upper band I think they're very nearly as attractive as those others.
    3 points
  19. Absolute favorite is rummynose a good size group, the way they school is mesmerizing. I also love their color shiny bodies contrasted by black and white tails and the bright red nose. Mostly mid range swimmers but can be all over the place when they are in go mode. cardinals are a close second, not as good at schooling but I now I have them mixed with my rummys and they all school together. The color is what I like most about them really vibrant red and blues.
    3 points
  20. My current favorite is ember tetras (Hyphessobrycon amandae) because they are a beautiful pale to intense orange (apparently females are slightly lighter color) with a nice, reflective belly showing through the color. They’re a nice contrast with green plants. They intermittently school (not tight schoolers, more shoaling), but will randomly group up or with any stimulus. They stay active through the day but not frenetic. They will do some showing off between themselves, but they don’t bother anybody else, not even the similar body shape Kubotai rasboras or the tiny chili rasboras in the same tank. They are just busy enough to make counting them impossible in my 100 G tank. After I got some, I bought more. That should say something right there. I’m considering buying even more, too.
    3 points
  21. Guppies... I always seem to have some fry.. a few of those little buggers in there seem to keep the BB going good. I always have some in my qt tank.
    3 points
  22. Let's keep this thread running 😂😂
    3 points
  23. This past weekend got a lot done down in my basement fish room. I tore down a 40 breeder that was on a stand by itself, and had to take stand apart to get it out of the basement and the house. Cut all the pieces for a new rack I am building, and built the part that will hold two 40 breeders, cleaned up the one I took off old stand, and put new and old tanks on the rack, Put a mix of old and new substrate in one and planted the plants I took out when tearing old tank down. I have to get some sand for one of the tanks, I'm going to be doing a shell dweller tank with the other one. This week and weekend, I have to build the rack that will hold a 75 gallon and 4x 20 gallon high tanks underneath. I have all the wood cut, just need to take it in basement and build then get tanks on the rack.
    3 points
  24. You're trying and looking for help. Anyone that tries to smash you down for that....well you just send them to me, I'll flatten them. 🙂
    3 points
  25. I love how shiny diamond tetras are. I'm guessing their fry really would look like little scattered diamonds, or maybe spilled glitter. ❤️
    3 points
  26. @Guppysnail, @Hobbit and @MsLindathanks much. Luckily I did not let the boys really imprint on these fishes - I’d been keeping them out of sight for concern that something like that would happen. There only 1 variatus platy whose survived sadly and not sure she’ll make it. My half black guppy fry are doing well out of qt. They ate well and are very active after water change, foods and meds. DJ Turbo the betta fish is doing well after a redesign/replant. I bought one of those floating logs and planted a bunch of new stems. For some reason this tank does great with stems but rhizome plants have been poor performers. My main display just loves a good water change. The fish just have a little extra pep and the plecos get super frisky.
    3 points
  27. But then you realise the plants and fish that you want are not available...
    3 points
  28. Hello! I am happy to be here and I hope to learn how to care for fish properly. I will need LOTS of advice! I work in a nursing home and last week we had a party (Fall Festival) for the residents. Unbeknownst to me, one of the managers thought it would be cute to buy 20 baby goldfish, put them in tiny jelly jars and hand them out as prizes! They literally handed these little jars of fish to elderly dementia patients and said, "enjoy your new pet!" No plan for where to house them past the jelly jars. So, on Thursday (10/22) I was working with a resident in his room and noticed a tiny jar full of filthy water with a LIVE GOLDFISH wiggling around in it. That's when the resident told me he had been given the fish as a prize 1 WEEK prior, at the party! This poor little guy had been living in that tiny, filthy jar for A WEEK! I found out that the activity director had been feeding it a few flakes of fish food every day and that all the other fish died, of course. Well, I felt so bad for the little fish that I took the jar to a big box pet store after work and said, "HELP!" So they set me up with a small 3.5 gallon tank and some supplies and put my lone survivor, whom we named The Lone Ranger, into some clean tank water. Then I made the stupid mistake of buying a friend for The Lone Ranger, who I name Tonto. I know realize that a 3.5 gallon tank is insufficient for even 1 goldfish. I learned that little tidbit by watching You Tube videos which is how I found Aquarium Co-Op! I only hope my little guys survive the transfer to the new tank which I only prepared by putting some "instant" prep liquid in the water for a couple of hours prior to the transfer. So, if my little finned friends are still alive on Monday, I will let you know. I ordered some Fritz Complete and Fritz Clarifier and a gravel vacuum kit. I also ordered some test strips from you guys. Sorry my picture isn't great but if you can see the pale fish in the upper left, that's The Lone Ranger and the black and orange spotted one is Tonto. I look forward to MUCH support from all of you on the forum. I have never had an aquarium before and I literally have no idea what I'm doing! Be nice! Thanks! CLSig
    2 points
  29. Hi, My name is Steven and I'm a newbie to the aquarium scean. I was looking into making a bioactive tank for my Tegu Lizard when I came across Cory and the Aquarium Co-op videos. After spending a few days watching the videos and finding them fascinating, I purchased a small tank, some plants, and a few quarter size angels, I wish they were from Dean 🙂 Anyways, that was about 4 months ago, my tank, fish, shrimp, amd plants are doing great thanks to the resources provided by Aquarium Co-op. I just wanted to say Hello, and Thank You!
    2 points
  30. These guys deserve more attention. They’re so goofy and their skin and pattern reminds me of a marine fish. Ours is called Koolio.
    2 points
  31. @2000tetras There are some places near me (Florida) that may be able to fulfill your order. The catch is they are wholesalers and will want you to be a fish store or a registered fish business/reseller/wholesaler/dealer One you mentioned is imperial tropicals which is a farm that also sells direct to customers. Others that are near me would be segrest farms or 5d tropical. These are huge vendors. There is a local wholesaler near me, they dont have a website but you may be able to call them and arrange the import/shipment. His business is "quality goldfish inc" in clearwater florida. He is very helpful and is more likely to work with you vs the big vendors.
    2 points
  32. 0 ammonia 0 nitrite some nitrate less than 20 until you have live plants.
    2 points
  33. @Patrick_G It’s going to be quite a while before it’s a fishroom, but it’s something I’ve been thinking about doing for months. Then I actually won a raffle for an Alita linear air pump, and a week later I won a set of Muscle shelves! So I’ll be consolidating most (maybe all) of my small tanks into one room rather than have them scattered through 3 rooms. This will be in the bedroom we call the office, so of course it will become “The Offish”. I totally stole the name from somebody else’s forum post. Apologies because I don’t remember whose post it was. So I’ll have 2 racks, one with my 10 G shrimp/grow out/QT tanks and the 5 G culture tanks. These will get moved to the new rack once it’s set up but I need to cut new, stronger, outdoor grade plywood shelves, poly seal them, and give them time to cure. I’ll then move the old rack and it will hold my cubes +/- the 20 long. And I’ll still have an open shelf for another tank(s) on the cube rack. I’m considering options for tanks for Betta persephone. This room already has a desk (clearly every “Offish” needs a desk) with a 29 G (which will be pea puffers soon) and soon to be a 20 high with orange laser cories (in place of the 12 G QT tank). This room also has the 75 G Jack Dempsey tank. After moving the rest of the bookshelves (and a litter box) I’ll also have room for storage, or maybe even another rack someday. Not for a good while, if at all. I’ve already got 24 tanks! I won’t have direct access to plumbing from this room, so I’ll still be using the generic python to drain and my rolling barrel to premix water and refill tanks. But it sure will save me some rolling and shifting around instead of going to 3 different rooms for the small tanks. This room is at least the closest bedroom to the kitchen where I fill my barrel. It’s going to be a lot of steps and stages before it’s done. I’ll do a post when I’ve at least started something beyond just planning and wishful thinking. 😃
    2 points
  34. Indeed! I see little aliens running out of the wood as fast as their little extremities can go! 👽 And that is a beautiful grape flavor medicine purple! 😝
    2 points
  35. Recovery tank for constipated fish? 😵
    2 points
  36. First, way to go on doing your research and figuring out how to fix some of the issues you've run into! You're in a similar position to how I started my first tank, and there's nothing like wanting to take care of your fish to motivate learning lots of new stuff really fast! I agree that I wouldn't add any more fish for right now--they'll be happier a little lonely than with too many fish in a cycling tank. You're essentially doing a fish-in cycle, so that might be a god thing to just look up and read about. Prime is a great idea, and I've had very good success with it keeping fish healthy during mini-cycles. The other thing you could do is if you have a good local fish store or a friend with a tank, you could see if you could get a cycled sponge filter to add. I believe Michael's Fish Room also sells his online at least sometimes. That can help to jump start your cycle. The live plants are a good idea, but stick with something easy to start with since dying ones can add to your ammonia/nitrite issues. Out of curiosity, do you know about what your PH is? Ammonia is more toxic at higher PHs, so that might just be something to take into account. Also, the tip I really wish someone had told me when I was cycling for the first time: when you test nitrates with the API test kit, you have to bang and shake the bottle like MAD before you put the drops in. The Nitrate solutions form crystals in the bottle, so you have to really smack them around to get them distributed in the bottle and get an accurate test. Otherwise, you'll just keep testing at 0 for nitrates...forever...and ever...😉
    2 points
  37. @Phantom240 Most people would be begging to have plants like this! Good job providing them with what makes them happy. Now all you need to do is trim them off, plant the “little” (or in this case, not so little) plantlets, or sell them directly to your local fish store, sell to local hobbyist friends, or at local aquarium club meetings, etc. Best way to recoup some hobby costs.
    2 points
  38. Thanks - I enjoyed watching videos of them yesterday. So I saw a reference to Dean having a tank in his bathroom recently - we have a built-in small bookcase in our powderoom with 3 shelves. Starting to think one of them needs to be a bookshelf tank. What sort of aquatic life is best enjoyed in that room I wonder? Clean up crew? 😄
    2 points
  39. Tis the season for the spooky stuff, and one of the best live metal bands ever.
    2 points
  40. MASSIVE kudos to you for doing this work. The story that led to your intervention is heartbreaking, but it sounds like you're the kind of person that makes the world a better place.
    2 points
  41. I’m no expert, but I’m pretty sure there are different species with the same body type and many are very similar size, but some differences in markings. Some have spots, some very fine lines, some have more squiggly lines (I know, very scientific), some broader lines, etc. As far as I know, they should be all right together, but hopefully someone with more knowledge/experience with the species will chime in for you, @Blaha. Wow! Just googled (Hello, rabbit!) and there are 202 species according to wikipedia! 17 genera listed from a couple families on wiki, 32 genera listed on planetcatfish.com (no mention there of a number on the total species since many are apparently as yet undescribed). Planetcatfish.com is an excellent source of information on nearly any species of catfish for anyone interested, by the way. Most live in well oxygenated water and many have the modified ventral fins for clinging to rocks in fast flowing water. The species that live in the most highly oxygenated waters have changes in their hemoglobin structures that makes it better at releasing oxygen into the cells. But this won’t work in a low oxygen environment because this structure means it doesn’t pick up oxygen as well so these species MUST be in a higher oxygen content - faster moving, more agitation/turbulence. The article on planetcatfish.com had a couple pics of mixed species but did mention some minor, non-harmful, territorial stuff between males of the same species.
    2 points
  42. just stumbled on this, interesting take on CCR.
    2 points
  43. Looking great! This makes me want t try AR in the new tank for the Lampeyes and CPDs. 😍
    2 points
  44. This just made me wonder what Tolkien would have come up if he had had an aquarium... Oh, the possibilities of amazing worlds and characters dwelling in the depths of a glass box. 😳
    2 points
  45. Cleaned the tanks today. If I could make myself small enough to swim in there, I would give the critters a hug! Even the pea puffers! 🐡🦀💦
    2 points
  46. @Patrick_G it’s so much worse than that, I have 8 10gal in storage currently so that when I move I can redo the rack for more Qt and grow out tanks. I got the linear piston pump a few months ago so I could stop buying HoBs and little air pumps… it’s bad. Thanks for the welcome!!
    2 points
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