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We vacationed to Lummi Island this week and I made a stop at the retail store!! Saw Elmer swimming with a hoard of guppies and picked up some brine shrimp eggs, salt, and Magic Nano feed!! I even signed up for a membership on the way there!! Best Bday ever!!!

Hi Everyone. Over the years I have received a lot of requests from our customers, and in our livestreams to know what kinds of fish I keep. I thought I would jump into the forum and share my tanks and inhabitants over the coming weeks. The first tank I am choosing to share is one of my two 60 breeders. I really love this tanks footprint. This tank is only a couple of feet off the ground, with a bean bag in front of it. It is one of the best seats in the fish room. This tank has a great mix of plants, a variety of crypts, wendtii green, wendtii red, crypt balansae, hudoroi crypt, star grass, tiger lotus, rotala, and crypt spiralis in the background. The fish are congo tetras, blueberry tetras, dwarf petricola catfish, otocinclus, super red pleco, cherry shrimp, amano shrimp, and the newest addition of blue hillstream loaches ("Sk03" "Blue Tail Butterfly Borneo Sucker Loach) They are so amazing. I am hoping that I can get the 4 to breed, fingers crossed for a mix of females and males. Hardscape is purple jade rocks, and driftwood. The substrate is Bio activ gravel/sand. Filtration is a Large Co-Op Easy Flow Sponge filter and a hang on back, there is a heavy bioload in this tank. Lighting is the Aquarium Co-Op Light.

Thought I had credit card fraud going on ha. Well thank you so much. Literally first time ive ever won anything minus baseball trophies in middle school. Lol thanks alot. Truly appreciated.

It came out as close to my plans as possible haha.. I’ve been thinking about this design for a while now, I had to go off course a little bit but it finally came together.. I’m no carpenter but I’m pleased with the end results. Just practice for when I build a fish house one day. $60 on wood (all 8” 2x4’s), $30 on paint, and $10 on screws. I spent $1.80 on a piece of fabric from Walmart for a background on the lower 55g. There’s about 10” of space between the back of the tanks and the wall, and my GF can reach back there pretty easy.. I didn’t anchor it to the wall just yet, it’s pretty sturdy right now but I’m still gonna do the anchors sooner rather than later… Any suggestions or constructive criticism is welcome..

I was originally not trying to breed discus. In fact, I really have no interest at all in discus breeding. But this pair simply would not stop spawning in my community aquarium, so I moved them into my fish room to see if I could actually raise discus. Now this pair spawns almost every week or two. I've had them lay a number of clutches of eggs already, but I always lost the fry. The parents do well in my water, but I quickly learned the water was too hard for the fry to successfully hatch. So, I started swapping out their water with RO water, feeding heavily and bumping the temp up 2 degrees, and viola! Fry! These are a kind of mismatched pair and I'm eager to see what the children look like. But again, I didn't intentionally pair these fish up. I honestly don't even know how to sex discus. The male (orange) has turned quite aggressive now that fry are present and attacks my hand when I go into the tank to siphon out their waste. When I was shooting the video below, the male kept intentionally blocking my shot, and even bit the glass a few times, trying to attack the camera! (You can see this in the video). Anyway, I'm going to see if I can raise this batch. And, does this sound like a possible RAOK? Hmmmm . . . . .

My biggest dream would be to go to the Orinoco and its tributaries and get to see and study fish there in their native habitat. As for in home dreams, I think that I'd like to successfully breed as many pencilfish species as possible in my lifetime. I haven't even bred one yet, although I keep four... so, someday.

Hi all, I'm Bill and I'd like to make a point of being a part of this community! Generally speaking I've only really lurked on various forums of the many hobbies I have. I'm hoping to be more active here and share what I've learned. I started seriously keeping aquariums in 2010 and have been hooked ever since. I've always been into planted aquariums and started breeding fish within the last year. I figured I would share my tanks how I usually see them: algae on the glass, plants needing trimming, and clutter all over: 180, 14, and 6: The 180 is mostly rainbows. I got a crazy deal on it when a local store was unfortunately going out of business. The 14 cube has a few mixed guppies left but I'm trying to re-home them to make room for a celestial pearl danio species tank (with shrimp most likely). The 6 cube has a group of clown killifish that I've been unsuccessful in spawning so far. I made the stand myself so I could have the display room below as well as a cabinet for power, filtration, and supplies. 75 & 20, 10 & 5.5, 2x 40: These tanks are directly opposite of the 180 in the first room of my basement. In the 75 I've got 3 discus, 4 Philippine blue angels, diamond tetras, rummy nose tetras, von rio tetras, and ember tetras. The 20 long below it has a few boesemani rainbows growing up. This was the first aquarium stand that I built. On top I just have a few green neon tetras and a lone chili rasbora. The 5.5 below has a group of pygmy corydoras that started breeding recently. These 40 breeders are currently grow-out tanks for the rainbows I've bred. On top I've got dwarf neons, bleheri, and boesemani rainbows. The bottom is all boesemani. I wanted minimal stand for these tanks and I'm really happy with how strong this one turned out. Breeding area: I decided to repurpose some of my bar into a breeding area. On the top left are 2x 20 highs and a 20 long. Below the bar on the left are 4x 5.5 gallons, and below that are 3x 10s. The rack on the right has a 29 and a 20 long. I've got celestial pearl danios, blue eye gertrudae, fucatus, pygmy corys, red shrimp, and orange shrimp going at the moment. I recently installed the drain tube in the middle. It goes right to my sump pump and has made water changes so much simpler. The 29 gallon is growing out some Phillippine blue angels. I'm going to get a nice pair or two from this group to continue breeding. The bottom has a few angel fry and a small group of sterbai corydoras. This area in my utility room basically makes everything doable with my hobby. This past fall I installed an air pump distributing air to every aquarium. I used a combination of some leftover PEX tubing, PVC, and clear vinyl and it worked great. The Brute can stores water at about 75 degrees for when I do water changes. Inside I've got a water pump on a switch and a quick-connect hose so I don't have to carry buckets of fresh water. I use an old filter return that hangs on the tank to fill them back up. The Brute can has a float valve on the inside so it's always topped up. I do have a reverse osmosis filter that I can use, but usually I have that bypassed and just use the prefilter and carbon filter to remove chlorine as the tank is filling. Like I said, I'm making it a goal to get active on this forum! If anything in my setup sparks a question please ask. I've spent countless hours wading through fish room tours and DIY solutions that have helped me make my own. Thanks for reading and take care! Bill

I have always posted the link to weekly livestreams in our Facebook group, and other facebook fish groups to the weekly livestream, I have not done so here in our forum. I thought this would be a good place to share, just in case there are members here that need a reminder, and a link. Todays livestream will be at 3:00 PDT/ 6:00 EDT. Please come hang out, bring questions, interact with chat, hear Cory's always entertaining analogies, and latest updates. We look forward to seeing you there!

Lost power for about 12-13 hours. ACO air pumps ran on battery the entire time without issue. One of my HOB that I have (in addition to air pump powered sponge filters in that tank) seems to no longer work so I'll need to mess with that or get a new one. But otherwise, all fish are well. Didn't get too cold in my place even with no heat. As far as I can tell I didn't lose any fish and everything went fine. So, basically, thanks backup battery air pumps!

Saw this old post and thought I would give an update. nothing worked. Any fish I added unfortunately ended up perishing. I had to completely tear down the tank and let it sit dry for a few weeks and restart. Since then all has been fine. Lesson learned, quarantine tank is the most useful tool I now own! With no access to meds in Canada you are crazy not to quarantine. A nice by product of this experience was the thrill of starting from scratch. It’s been a minute since I have done that. Got the juices flowing again. The 120 now has 2 Oscar’s and a school of 5 Denison barbs. have a 15 gallon shrimp tank going and about to dip back into saltwater (as per my GD post).

HAPPY THANKSGIVING! Reminder that Cory will be live today at 11:00 PDT/2:00 EDT If you have time in your day please stop by and say HI!

I’ve always wanted to own my own store too. Grew up working at my local fish store in high school and I’ve got to say, I never had a bad day working with fish. Local shops are the lifeblood of our hobby. Beyond that, I would love to build a fish room. I’ve never been in a position to own more than a tank or two at a time, so once I have a more permanent residence it’s definitely on the table.

Years ago, when I was still working as a fish ecologist, I went to Venezuela to study fish in the Rio Apure, a tributary of the Orinoco. It was so thrilling to catch cichlids and characins in their natural habitat. I even caught a little severum … he was gorgeous! 😍

My biggest dream would be to keep a mbu puffer. I’ve always thought they look amazing, but don’t have the space for one

Being able to afford what I need without worrying about the price. Then I'll setup tanks that occupy a whole wall. I wanna be able to do really BIG (10 feet by 10 feet or bigger) planted tanks that can be mostly self sustaining. I really enjoy when fish act naturally. That's mostly why I keep big tanks with nano fish because they can behave like how they would in the wild if given enough space.

2 300 gallon tanks. One heavily planted full of nano fish like rasboras and tetras. Just a sea of green with flecks of color. The other a reef tank, I really want anemone's and corals. With a custom sump, I love the way sumps look, for whatever reason.

Use the 2 net method. Leave one sitting in the tank for awhile and let them get used to it. Then herd them into the idle net with another net.

Oh this is my chance to shine ! Zipties and hope holding my stuff together. needed 2 more inches Bucket fill technique. overhead sump inlet

Look like rhabdocoela. They are clean up crew and won't hurt fish. A month cycle is a good amount of patience on your part, but the tank will continue seasoning as time passes. Balancing the natural clean up crew is part of that. Possibly feed a little less or clean a little more. If it seems like there's a really a lot, you can directly clean out the little guys with a siphon.

I am returning to the hobby after a 17 year break. While I was planning to make my first planted tank I was doing research watching YouTube and discovered Aquarium co-op. A lot of new technology and information has come out since. I am excited to be a fish keeper again.

People were commenting about the random stuff @Cory always seems to have within reach on his desk. I decided each stream I'm going to ask a question for him to choose an item for some purpose. Today it was: what would you choose if you had to duel someone right now, and why?

Overdue on starting a journal for this one but here's a recent photo of our 14 gallon. Have dosed easy green from the start and recently added easy potassium to the mix to try to help the monte carlo along. Enjoying this thread alot!

I thought it would be fun to have a little discussion over our biggest wish in the hobby that we would someday want to come true. Mine might seem a little huge, but someday I want to have enough money to where I can set up at least one giant tank like the kind you see in aquariums so I can go diving in my own tank with my own fish to be closer to them and see and feed them up close. I’m hoping to have one freshwater one and maybe a saltwater one. It just seems like it would be so fun and such an amazing way to connect with something I really love. What are your dreams for the hobby?

Breeding oddball fish. im fascinated with oddball fish and I particularly like the idea of breeding them, especially if no one else has tried. I would love to try and breed the red wolf fish since it would likely spawn like its larger relatives but I would have to move out of state to try that and I don’t really want to leave Mississippi. One day I would like to try to breed phractolaemus ansorgii and the sailing tetra but I don’t have space for more tanks other than what I have already decided on and I doubt I could start on projects like that until after college. Also I love the idea of having a fish room with the space to hold a 125 and an 8ft tank and several 20 longs and 29 gallons.

I have two bristlenose plecos in my 50 gallon tank and they are so silly especially when it comes to food. I’ve noticed how they started to figure out when I was going to drop some wafers down for them. They’ll creep up and peak out from the driftwood and as soon as the food gets to the ground their off scuffling to get a big chomp and tail scaring off any other fish that might want a taste. Luckily for the corys, they can just find some more pellets on the other side of the tank floor without having to worry about these crazy beasts. They're probably the sassiest fish I’ve ever come across, always tail flapping others away when they get too close. Definitely an independent fish!

neat vide documenting from her book, contradictions ro things that are sometimes ascribed as Walstad method…. I found it interesting and informative. I thought others might too…

That’s excellent! Yes, any wildlife is good wildlife! I’ve also been to East Africa for the megafauna, Costa Rica for the fish and forests, and I enjoy nature here in the States, too. Great stuff! So care to share your personal connection to the Orinoco?

I always wanted a heavily planted 240g with a large school of Saddled Back Loaches Homaloptera Orthogoniata and 4 Spot Tetras at the top. The Saddle Back Loach reminds of little sand sharks. They are just hard to find healthy ones.

really wanting my own fish store. Almost bought the local fish store but the new owners beat me to it. My own fear of failing is what led me to miss this opportunity and the new owner purchased the store, all tanks, all inventory for only 40k. Now im trying to start a aquarium club in my small town for people to trade and talk fish and plants. working towards selling my guppies on ebay. eventually turn my basement into a fish room/store. Big dreams i hope one day will happen.

Yes, those are definitely detritus worms! Harmless. Your fish will eat them, they are a great live food. You can also gravel vac them out. Reduce the amount you feed and the frequency if you want the numbers to be reduced. They are a clean up crew for your substrate though, eating waste, hence the name. 🙂

Ditto! My dream is to be able-bodied again, so I can really participate in the upkeep of our family's 5 tanks. In the meantime, I draw inspiration from you all in this forum!

I’ve always had this image in my head of a beautifully constructed tank consisting of Central and South America cichlid species. Roughly 10x10x10 footprint, each species getting a reasonable territory (in fish tank terms that is). Trying to create an environment that leaves each species feeling very comfortable and happy. It would be a very expensive set up and to maintain how I would want it, auto water change, feeding high quality food, maintaining the beast etc. That’s the 1st thing that popped into my head when you asked this question. I’ve even gone so far as to think about how I would scape it too… Great question!

I don’t believe Adiantum as a genus has any aquatic members.

I have two dream tank ideas, both for a 125g: 1) North American native tank: shoal of longear sunfish with shoal of golden shiners. 2) South American river tank: semi-aggressive community of true blue acara, severum, festivums, angelfish, silver dollars, and pictus catfish. Those are probably my two favorite types of fish communities on Earth!

dont panic. once the gel cap dissolves, the root tabs fertilizer is in the water column, no matter if its floating around, or in the substrate. everything inside the tank below the surface of the water is in the water column. there is no magic barrier between the water, and substrate.

I think we are all that way starting out. The forum is a great place to learn. I learned about rhabdocoela here and now I'm able to pass on the information

The brown dust is most likely diatom algae; very common in new tanks. It usually runs it's course & goes away after a few months. Your Bacopa is transitioning to the conditions of the new environment & will likely lose a lot of the old growth. Once you get a bit of new, healthy leaves, you can trim the tops & replant them. They will grow much better than the old stuff. Don't get discouraged if they look ugly for a few months...

Perfect timing since my family is helping to move a few things around in my 20 gallon long (see signature), giving us some picture taking opportunities. I love DIY threads, so I will join in! On the left is an internal jar filter normally disguised by more plants than this. Filled from bottom to up with: stones to weigh down the black plastic jar; a nano-sized powerhead/water pump with a black output pipe directed straight up (not visible), and its intake openings covered with thin layer of foam to keep debris out of the impeller; layers of nylon pot scrubbers; black large pore foam; and a spare adjustable pipe to direct outflow. In the center is a nano-sized, powerhead-driven filter that we usually put in for temporary use. Small sections of clear water change hose are fitted over the input and output of the pump, then fit through holes in the bottle caps. Both blue disposable water bottle top halves contain white polyfill floss, and then black large pore foam, to keep the fish from the floss. On the right is a black vinyl tube to target feed my bottom dwellers. The bottom end of the pipe has a grill made out of super glue craft mesh, to keep the greedy ones from getting stuck in pipe. I leave it permanently attached.

Some photos as promised

Buy a house, set up a new (and smaller) fish room to start breeding fish again!

LOL, Cory is having fun on the forum right now? There's snow falling on my screen.

Who's doing who a favor? If the store is doing you a favor by taking the fish, and receiving them comes with risk (of disease, of not selling), or they need to get a tank ready to receive/hold your fish, then you can expect a low return. Maybe 10-20% of anticipated selling price. Ask yourself, what can you do to tip those odds towards you, so that you're doing them a favor by selling them your product? Can you become a regular provider? Offer a product at larger size, or in better health (less die off in tanks means more sales)? Sell in larger volume, because a tank with 100 fish will generate more interest than one with 10? Rarity is also desirable, as in if you provide something that is rarely available through other sources, they'll be more inclined to do business on your terms. Another thing to find out is what the store is paying wholesale, for the same fish. If you expect to see a higher price than what they pay wholesale, there needs to be a business case to support that. And you might have to match those low prices the first few times to generate trust in your product, just make sure it's clear that this are intro rates and the normal rate is higher. I've been successful consistently getting 40% of selling price with most of the stores I sell to. Though occasionally it comes back much lower, if things aren't aligned in my favor. But there's always a reason for it (eg I need to unload these now, or that time I sold >500 cherry shrimp a store to clean out a tank that had way more than I thought).

Once while at my grandparents house a few years ago there was a play turned on title “a Christmas carol goes wrong”. After I remember about it a year or two ago it we watched it and it may become one of the Christmas movies. I think I had trouble breathing the first time I watched though it is possible I might be confusing it with Peter Pan goes wrong or the goes wrong show. Home alone 1 and 2 have been classics for my family as long as I can remember as well as Rudolph the red-nose reindeer, the original grinch, and frosty the snowman. Some other classics are a three episodes of Donald Duck, with one title toy tinkers, and one where Donald and Huey, Dewey, and Louie were in a snowball war and one were Donald is playing hockey with his nephews.

My pee puffers spawn in an egg trap. The same one that my CPDs spawn in. I only have 1 female and 2 males. I have only managed to get 2 fry that I know of, but they did not make it. I think with another 3-4 females I will be set.

Gosh... not an aquarium, but something I have dreamed of for a few years now: I would love to have a native pond. Something between 1000 and 2000 gallons probably. No stocking really, would just get eaten by birds. If I could though, probably have native sculpins and Olympic mudminnows. Pretty stagnant water, maybe a small waterfall for gentle water flow + aeration (and aesthetics), with lots of plants. Wapato, cattails, tule, eleocharis, western bittercress, and native irises would be along the edges. Definitely would want white bog-orchid, it smells amazing. Floaters and rooted floaters would definitely include white water crowfoot, and native pondweeds - probably grass leaved pondweed. Emersed, I buckbean and water lobelia. If I wanted, Oregon Ash or Hooker's willow could be a marginal tree! So basically just a wildlife pond with native plants for me to sit and watch.

I was watching my shrimp today when I noticed one with lots of eggs in her! I’m so excited for more shrimp to be added to the colony!

Bits changed in the short time period since posting that. I have a problem lol. Anyways heres an updated view of it if interested.

I have the fanciest water mixing barrel filling system ever. Taco Bell cup with a hole in the bottom and slit cut in the side that I fit over the too short hose and drop over the side of the kitchen sink into the barrel. The hook is handy when I want to mix faster and I hang the fill hook on it so water gets pumped from the bottom to the top to mix better. Suuuuper fancy set up right here! I also have a veeeerrrry high tech set up for unbagging fish. Bulldog clip to hold the edge of my oldest but softest net with a handle bent just right to fit over this specific bucket that I’ve had for at least 25 years now. Soooo fancy! Notice the “custom” corners on this favorite old net. I only have about a dozen nets but this one is still my favorite for unbagging fish and sometimes for catching, too. It’s the bent handle that does it for me.

My community tank

Too late to enter ? Love this forum and my rasboras love, love, love the new Magic Nano !