Bill Smith

I've spent some time in research, and there's not a lot of info out here! 1. The first thing I learned was the difference between schooling and shoaling. Shoaling is just fish hanging out together, but schooling is more about the fish moving in the same direction when their numbers are big enough. Not all shoalers are schoolers. Learned that from Rachel O'Leary. 2. Schooling behavior seems to come out when the numbers are big enough. 3. Water flow does not seem to be a big factor. So it looks like I will need to find fish that are known for their tight schooling. Rummy nose tetras are a good example, but this being a smaller tank, I'm tempted to consider ember tetras, as I've never kept them before.

Hey all: I have a nightstand space I want to use, and I was thinking of setting up something narrow and tall, with a high density of schooling fish. I have always wanted to achieve that effect where you have a dense school of fish swimming continuously around an island in the center of the tank, with the fish all constantly traveling in one direction. Has anyone gotten this to work? Is it something about the current? Proportional size of the island? Quantity of fish? Does the type of fish matter? I'm thinking rummy nose tetras, but CPDs or cardinal tetras would be amazing if they could be persuaded to school like that. My working surface area is about 16"x12". A cylindrical tank will work if the fish swim this way, because the magnifying effect will be minimized by fish being closer to the tank walls. Yes, it can take over 200 lbs., and yes, I will secure it with earthquake straps to prevent top-heavy tipping. Yes, my wife thinks I'm nuts, but bless her, she supports my hobby. 🙂 I'm also inspired by @Cory's bubbling "deep sea vents" in the 800 gallon, so I want my island to be bubbling. How would you attack such a project? Thank you!

I would use the medium pre-filter sponge in most cases. I've had no trouble forcing it around tubes that I was sure would be too large. And if it's too loose, just put a zip-tie on the tube before sliding the sponge on; that will hold it.

Wow, I happily stand corrected! Very cool!

Most of the multies have moved out of the shells. I'm removing a couple empty shells at a time. There are exceptions; just 2-3 of the larger juveniles seem really tied to their shells. But I bet they'll start to miss the social interaction as more empty shells keep disappearing. 🙂

It's a good question, but I don't see any way this could be done with the sponge filters, because the air goes in through the same tube that the water comes out. The box filter uses separate tubes.

Yeah, my nerites do that all the time too! Especially the black racers. Eggs everywhere, including all over each other. Wish something would eat them...

I have used the Eheim classic, and I have to say, I really REALLY subscribe to the @Cory axiom: "The best filter is the one you're servicing". For me, cleaning canister filters is never fun, always messy, takes half an hour minimum, and I lose my prime sometimes when I'm doing a water change at the same time. I finally stopped buying them, because I was cleaning them once every six months or so. So not to hijack your thread's intent, but my three cents: AquaClear HOB for the win! I can service it in five minutes, which means I will do it every weekend! It's better for the fish than my giving them a canister filter. Now to the Eheim Classic, I find it's a bit more work to service than some of the newer canisters, even three-generation-old Fluvals. So the best advice I can give: Buy a filter that you will be happy to maintain regularly. Number One criteria should be how easy it is to service.

The only wish I had about this pump was that the cord could be easily replaced. I've had a pump get ruined once or twice from water splash, and it's been a nightmare disentangling the cord to replace it. I shudder to think the headache I will have to endure when one of the pumps on my 6-up nano ponds goes out... If it were a modular cord attachment this truly would be the best small air pump on the planet.

Here's a couple pics of the elbow nozzles I added to the box filters. They fit the tubing perfectly, they raise the water pressure and give the whole thing a little more "oomph": Notice the bubbles emerging several inches away:

Today I added another feature to improve on this filter: an elbow outlet with a duckbill nozzle: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01N11DVZS (non-affiliate link) These particular nozzles fit the 1/2" tubing on the box filter perfectly, force-fit without glue: This tube and nozzle attachment pushes quite a bit of water, even with just the bubbles of the USB nano pump: Under the water, there's a nice long linear stream, as evidenced by the bubbles showing up several inches away: I think this nozzle helps increase the water pressure, giving it more power!

I've used several kinds of spray paints over the years with no problem; I think most of them are inert for freshwater IF they've been given several days to cure. One of my favorites is Plastidip for its texture. I've used that many, many times for years with no trouble.

Tonight I attached some short bungee cords to one of the shelves, adjusting to the height I wanted by hooking onto the right sections: I then hanged the shelf on the bars of the rack above the tank, suspending it in the water just a couple inches down: Turned out I only needed a single shelf. I moved all the shells onto it with planting tweezers, taking care not to let air bubbles get into them. Suprisingly, not as many of the fish fled into shells as I expected when I started moving them. Next, I dropped in all of my alternate PVC caves. New digs, guys! The fish immediately started checking them out: So far so good! Tomorrow I will start removing the shells, just a few at a time, after ensuring they're empty by checking them for occupancy with a flashlight. I have two external breeder boxes that will serve to hold the fish as I catch them, so that I won't have to move them to a different tank with different water parameters. More updates coming soon! Bill

I would think it depends on the tank. If rimmed glass, A is best, because the tank is supported only on its edges. If rimless or acrylic, B would be best, so long as you get the height correct across all three columns.

Nice! Where were you selling? Aquabid?

Yeah, everything I've read suggests either way is a possibility; they might move, they might not. I will try to be patient and give them some days to relocate. I'm not in a rush while they grow more; it's just the extra hours catching them on the day-of that I'm most concerned about.

I could, but I still have to get them out of their initial shells one way or another. That's where the real work comes in. They all bolt for the shells as soon as a net enters the tank. Deciding whether to take them in or out of PVC caves at that point is the easy part, and I want to make sure the LFS guy can count what I'm bringing him. This approach should allow me to choose to evict them completely with minimal stress. And I'd otherwise prefer PVC not to be a permanent look for the tank. 🙂 That said, he may indeed want the PVC, so that he can more easily sell the fish. But I think he wants to do more breeding himself.

Hi all: I'm drowning in multies! Some months ago I purchased 7 neolamprologus multifasciatus from my LFS, hoping they would breed. Boy did they ever! Now, I want to redistribute some and sell some back to my LFS (who wants them). Since catching shell dwellers is very difficult when using the more natural-looking escargot shells, I thought I should document the process I will attempt after having consulted Mister Internet: I will temporarily migrate the fish to PVC caves that are easier to empty. I originally gave my multies a 20-gallon long on my Home Depot rack all to themselves: They started breeding almost immediately. I fed the fry freshly-hatched BBS and Aquarium Co-Op Easy Fry Food, and they grew fast. After giving away 7 to a friend and moving 7 more to an office tank, they exploded again (over 20 juveniles just in the pic below)! There were over 30 in the last batch...maybe it was two simultaneous batches? Now that they've grown a little, it's time to find them homes. Extracting them from the shells, one at a time as I was instructed by my LFS (holding the shell out of the water on its side until the fish lets itself slide out), takes hours and can really stress out the fish. Instead, I plan to move the shells higher in the water and entice the fish over a few days to move into some PVC-based caves, from which it will be much easier to get the fish out. So I started by making my caves. Each one is simply a 1-1/2" length of 3/4" PVC pipe glued into an elbow, with a PVC cap that remains removable. I made fourteen: Next, I cut a couple pieces of "eggcrate"-style lighting diffuser, at roughly 4-1/2" x 12" each: My understanding is that shell dwellers prefer to live on the ground, not above it, and generally won't want to swim "upward" to get to their home. So tonight, I will suspend these two eggcrate sheets in the tank as "shelves", and move the shells up there, with the new PVC caves available below. More to come! Bill

UPDATES: I'm letting the floating plants of various styles grow out first before I decide too much on how I like the look, but I combined the moneywort from two ponds into one, and added a bunch of water sprite into the one. The water hyacinths are REALLY taking off, so nitrates are not a problem anywhere. As for fish, the most interesting pond is the definitely one with the blue guppies in it. The rest of the fish look pretty plain from overhead, but the guppies have a lot of personality. The clown killies look interesting from overhead as well, but they don't move around much. I plan to give it a few months, then pull some specimens out and see how they look. Hoping for big bold colors at that point! I've been feeding frozen bbs in the mornings, micro pellets in the evenings, and occasionally supplementing daphnia from the daphnia pond. Some of the bigger bugs are still swimming around in the other ponds! The daphnia pond seems to ebb and flow in population. I have to put in a 1/2 Tablespoon of spirulina powder every day, as they consume it so fast! My green water bucket just isn't enough! I added a timer to the lights, so they turn on just before sunset and stay on till 10pm, encouraging me to go outside and get a better view. Definitely worth it! I just added some elbow nozzles on the ends of the box filters to help direct water flow. That seemed to help a lot. I plan to start cleaning the filter pads of the box filters, just one per weekend, to keep the maintenance low. I'll post some new pictures hopefully this weekend! Bill

Congrats Cory! Very exciting.

Does anyone have any experience using guava leaves for their pH-lowering and tannin effects? I just learned about them today. The internet says it's a good alternative to catappa leaves, and that they don't seem to darken the water as much. Is this true from anyone's experience? The reason I ask is because I have a Mexican Cream Guava tree in my front yard and I hate the fruit. But if I can make use of the leaves, that would be awesome! Especially since my local water is liquid rock. Thanks! Bill

It sounds like a swim bladder issue, possibly caused by dropsy, since it sounds food related. If I remember correctly, dropsy can cause the organs to be pushed aside, including the swim bladder, which can cause behavior like this. Often, even after healing, the swim bladder problem can be permanent, but it sounds like it might not be too late to have a positive impact in this case. I agree with Steph: you need a fibrous food to help get it moving through. If he won't eat peeled peas, I would use frozen brine shrimp or, even better, frozen spirulina brine shrimp. I would feed nothing but that, and sparingly; I would lay off the dry foods for a very long time. As for medication, this is more likely a bacterial concern than a parasite one, so my suggestion would be Maracyn. Good luck!

Addendum: The fish are over 75% females. I'm sure this helps keep the fish from getting too aggro. I'm thinking of floating some guppy grass in the near future when I have more, just to see what happens.

My tanks are scattered throughout my house and office, and I thought it would be fun to share them one at a time. Each has some sort of quirk that makes it special to me or my family. Hope you enjoy! Coming from the computer world, I have named each of my 12 tanks to make it easier to refer to them in conversation. "Atlantis" is easier to say than "the-top-middle-20-Long-in-the-office-with the-multies" Welcome to SHANGRI-LA aka "Livebearer Skittles" This 20-gallon long is the only tank in in my home with a highly unnatural background. I wanted to give the tank an overtly Asian theme, so the background doesn't convey anything lifelike. I found the dragon imagery online, made some changes with Photoshop, and then sent it out to be printed. (All links are non-affiliate.) EQUIPMENT 1. Filtration: Grech CBG-800 hang-on-back filter. I like this filter because its media section can work exactly like the AquaClear line, with foam blocks and lots of space. I added three layers of Aquarium Co-Op coarse sponge pads to the foam block it comes with. I also add a layer of blue-white floss, and I replace that every 1-2 weeks. This filter also has a surface skimmer, but for me, the extra benefit of this filter is the on-board 5 watt UV sterilizer! The whole thing is about $50, but I like combining my equipment when I can. 2. Heater: Orlushy 150 watt submersible heater. I like this brand because the back of it has no printing. I can turn it around facing the glass, yet the setting numbers are on the end, so I can see them from the side. 3. Air: I use an Aquarium Co-Op USB nano pump and a never-clog airstone on the side of the tank opposite the filter. 4. Circulation: I really like the Sun Sun JVP-110 wavemaker pumps, because they are very reliable and very low-cost. A two-pack can be had for under $20 and a four-pack for under $30. I aim mine directly at one of the rocks to disperse the current a bit. I also cover the pumps with these eFlux PreFilter sleeves, which protect the fish from getting sucked into the circulator. 5. Light: I'm really in love with the NICREW ClassicLED plus line of lights. They are quite a bit brighter than the Finnex Stingray, a lot less money, and only 18 watts for a 30" light (vs. 16 watts for Finnex). Sure, they may not last as long and there's not much of a warranty, but at $43 for 30", I'm not concerned. 6. Light timer: One advantage of using NICREW lights is that they have their own line of timers. I use this NICREW single channel timer to handle my day-night cycles, and it can even be programmed to do gradual sunrise/sunset dimming effects! The timer costs $13, which brings the light back up to a Stingray cost, but it's still brighter! 7. Feeder: I use the iLonda wi-fi auto-feeder on all of my tanks larger than 10 gallons. It costs $20 on Amazon, and is shaped exactly like the older Eheim auto-feeders. The down-side is that it must be plugged in (USB power), but the upside is that it can be controlled by wi-fi. I can trigger a feeding manually on my phone by talking to Alexa/Google Home, or on a timed basis. Calling out "OK Google, turn on the feeder" impresses the guests! DECOR 1. Substrate: I am using 40 lbs. of Carib-Sea Super Naturals Sunset Gold sand. I had hoped it would be more coarse than it is, but it still looks nice. 2. Rocks: I have six pieces of lava rock set up in a semi-circle, like stone pillars. I put the circulator behind one of them, which helps disperse the water flow a bit. 3. Dragon statue: Just your run-of-the-mill PetSmart decoration. 4. Plants: For greenery, I have a single Anubias nana. Being on its own, there is a lot more involved work keeping the light and nutrients balanced, and the plant is constantly struggling against algae. But I think the overall look is worth the effort! STOCKING This is a large livebearer "Skittles" tank, so the intent here was to stock it with a large variety of colors and styles of platies and swordtails, get them fully de-wormed and otherwise medicated well, and then feed them heavily to bring out the colors. These guys are ALL rescues from PetSmart. They've had a full round of each of the meds in the Med Trio (not just one dose), and are really bulking up and coloring up fast. The flurry of bright colors and fast motion makes this one of my favorite tanks. At last count, I had the following: - 2 koi swordtails - 1 old pineapple swordail - 4 sunburst platies - 2 gold dust platies - 4 blue wag platies - 2 red wag platies - 2 gold mickey mouse platies - 2 gold twin-bar platies - 1 panda platy - 1 hi-fin blue wag platy - 1 hi-fin orange mickey mouse platy - 1 black molly - 1 errant hatchetfish that survived a previous iteration of this tank MAINTENANCE I know, that's a lot of fish for 20 gallons. but my maintenance keeps the nitrates at bay: 50% water change and a filter pad cleaning every weekend. My auto-feeder provides a medium-small amount of Hikari micro wafers twice a day. I also supplement with frozen spirulina brine shrimp almost every day. I keep this tank on the top of a cheap Home Depot shelf rack in my home office: Hope you enjoyed, thanks for reading! Bill

Good advice, thank you! I have lots of bubbles and moving water, so I don't expect much larval activity anyway. I will give it a shot and report back! Do you think I should cut off the affected leaves or let them be?