NOLANANO

As another poster already shared the link to his Youtube page, I think the MD is a great person to learn from. He gives pretty step by step guidance in his videos and gives tips and tricks along the way. He also stays pretty simple in terms of the rules and ratios that a guy like Geroge Farmer gets into super detail about. Not to disparage George Farmer, just noting that he is Calculus compared to MD's Algebra.

I don't think that's a foregone conclusion. Sure that's definitely a possibility (maybe a strong one) but I had a pair of GBRs with a lone female in my tank before and they coexisted. The lone female definitely wasn't as happy as the pair but they didn't kill her. It was a heavily planted 75G so there was room to escape.

I unfortunately never got my Apistos to breed so I may not be much help. I can just tell you what I observed with the 3 species that I have kept. I found that trifasciata (I think thats how its spelled) need a harem because of how aggressive they are with the females. Not hurting them physically but never really leaving them alone. My Macmasteri was much more chill but I am not convinced that the female the LFS sold me was another Macmasteri, I kind of think it was a cacatuoides female. The two got along just fine but the Male never really tried to make advances on the female. The Borelli was my favorite but the poor little guy never had a real shot due to my ignorance. First I had him and his female with a pair of GBRs and he hid most of the time but when he and his female were out, He would display for her quite a bit. Not nearly as aggressive as the trifasciata but definitely more interested than my Macmasteri (which is why I started to look into the species of the female). Then I had him the tank with the Macmasteri which eventually led me to return him to the LFS. At the moment, I don't have any Apistos and I feel like its because I would want a small group similar to how I keep GBRs (2M and 3-5F) but my LFS usually only gets a pair in at a time or they get 1M with several F. To me the most interesting part of dwarf cichlids is watching them interact with each other and set territories and such. I just don't feel like I get that full experience with only a single male. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful but I hope I at least gave a little insight to the 3 species that I have kept!

To add to this answer, try to relate it to a hobby or interest of his that you "allow". Does he play golf? collect baseball cards? Have season tickets to his favorite team? All of those things consume some of his time and all of them take money. Try to make him understand that keeping fish to you is just like Golf or whatever to him. For example, my wife watches the Bachelor and HAS to watch it live. It comes on right at the kids bedtime on school nights so it would bother me. Then she explained to me that the Bachelor for her is just like LSU football games for me. She cares about it and has to watch it live because the internet talks about it immediately and will spoil it. Since that talk, we figure out a way to make it work.

Tell her to call her LFS and tell them the situation. Not only will they most likely take the fish off her hands, they might give her some store credit towards stocking her 10 Gallon.

If you have plants, I have read that it sucks up nutrients that the plants need/could use. If you have fake pants, I think its fine to use but not necessary.

Well if you took the time to read my original comment that is referenced in this comment, you would see the species. And people do use the broad term “dog” to refer to their pets, they don’t specify the breed every time they mention it.

To add to my Apisto vs Ram story earlier. WHen the tank was just rams I had planty of shrimp. Whwn the rams died and it was just 2 Apistos, the shrimp disappeared. Not completely but it went from seeing them out and about all the time to only seeing a few large adults and never seeing any juveniles at all. Once the Apistos died, a friend gifted me with about 40 or so blue dream shrimp and they lived with as many as 6 rams with no issue. they bred like crazy and grazed as they pleased with no problems. I am sure that the rams ate some of the babies and I am also sure that there are individual rams that would feast on shrimp but in my experience, Rams don't predate on the shrimp too bad but the Apistos will wipe you clean.

This post is going to go against the norm and some might even have serious issue with it but I can't argue with my results. I used to either drip method acclimate or more often do the scoop a bit of water in the bag every so often over the course of an hour or more to acclimate my fish but most of the time I would lose a fish or two upon introduction into my tank almost every time. Knowing this I would buy 8 Neon Tetra even though I only want 5 because I was sure 2-3 would die within 24 hours. About a year ago I read someone on this forum (at least I think it was this forum) say that they mostly just temperature acclimate by floating the bag for 15-30 minutes and then just put the fish in the tank. No drip, No scoops of water, nothing. Just float and drop. The theory here is that the time spent in the bag or bucket if you drip stresses the fish out more than any minor parameter changes will stress the fish out. minimizing the time you acclimate will minimize the stress on the fish and create better results. Since reading this, I have only done the float and drop method and I have not lost a single fish upon introduction to the tank. I have even used this method on somewhat finicky fish like GBRs successfully. There are obvious caveats such as the water parameters the fish is coming from compared to where they are going. If you get the fish from your LFS, its very likely that their water is similar to your water so the temp acclimation is all that is needed. If you are buying online or if you know your parameters differ greatly from the LFS then this method probably isn't best for that situation. BUT if you are getting fish from the LFS and bringing them home to your house, I have found that it gets much better results than any other method.

I have 2 Bristlenose. One regular, one Albino. The Albino one (Named Fancy Pants) is visible about 75% of the time. The regular one (Named Toothless) is only visible about 40% maybe 50% of the time. I think the difference is that the Albino Pleco doesn't have great eye sight due to the whole being Albino thing. I don't think he is completely blind as he will scurry off to the back if I make sudden movements close to the glass but I do think it dulls his senses enough to make him come out more.

Yeah my rams (RIP) didn't fight with any other fish other than Apistos, other rams, and weirdly enough peacock gudgeon.

a while back I had a pair of GBRs with a pair of Apisto Borelli for about 3 months in a 75G. The rams bullied the apistos into hiding. Every time either apisto came out of the planted areas, they were chased until they went back into hiding. The female apisto dies fairly quickly as she never really braved the open and just starved to death. The Male would come out some but would quickly get put back in his place. I eventually returned him to the LFS. At the LFS they had a beautiful Apisto Macmasteri Red Shoulder and the guy at the store mentioned that maybe a bigger more robust Apisto would stand up to the Rams be able to carve out a territory. Trying not to make the same mistake twice, I bought only the male. This way if it goes south, the female won't pay the price too. The new Apisto was able to hold his ground and at first it looked like it might work out. Then my male ram just started breathing heavy and wouldn't come out of hiding. I don't think he was sick becuase no other fish ever got sick. I think he was stressed to death by the presence of the Apisto. I treated the tank with Genral Cure anyway in case it was an internal parasite. The Male Ram eventually passed despite the efforts. Shortly after the Male passed, the female also went into hiding and began to breath heavily. Knowing that I just treated the whole tank for parasites, it was evident that this Ram was also dying of stress (and possible heart break?). Once the Rams were gone, I went back and bought the female for the Apisto and they lived out the remainder of their lives happily. WHen they passed on from natural causes, I got a group of rams and was much happier with that set up. Long Story Short: Just pick one and get a group or pair of them.

This is really cool. I am a very literal person and usually have a general idea of what I want to do but I kind of just start doing it and seeing how it turns out. I love that you are thinking it out this far, will probably save you some headaches.

I think at the moment I am going to keep an eye on the fish and do weekly 10-15% water changes until my PH and KH are back to normal.

Yes its planted. I have been doing monthly water changes for a while and never had any issues until I added the leaf litter. I removed it all this morning, am I wrong to think this is the culprit? The shrimp were reproducing and thriving before the leaves began to breakdown. I noticed a lot more decaying in the last few days than I had previously seen.

I did and my KH of my tap is 80-120 ppm (hard to tell as the colors on the test strip are similar. This is where my tank used to sit. The GH of both the tank and the tap are at 120-180 ppm according to the test strip which also is the same as it has been historically.

My KH is basically zero according to test strips.😭 Yes the leaves were brown when I put them in and the ammonia honestly may have been me looking for something wrong. I only saw a VERY slight green to the test once and in all honesty it might not have actually had a green tint at all now that I think about it. how do I fix my mistake and get my KH and PH back to normal?

So I believe that I figured out some if not all of the issue. I put leaf litter in my tank a few months back and it has begun to decay. I think the leaf litter raised the ammonia level in the tank and also lowered my PH from about 7.4 to at least 6. I have removed the leaf litter. Should I do another water change to try to get the PH up again? Or let it be and do smaller water changes over the next few weeks to gradually pick it back up?

I got an air stone and the bubbles are big and we are gas exchanging like crazy now lol. hopefully this is all a result of poor oxygenation/gas exchange since my air stone was clogged. will update in a few hours.

They are neocardina shrimp and most were added about 2 months ago. I have a 75G heavily planted tank so I usually don’t do water changes all that often, maybe once or twice a month. The filter is a sun sun canister filter. And I feed the tank daily. I did the water change like you suggested and now the water is cloudy and all my fish are breathing heavy. I used double the dechlorinator dose when I did the water change last night and added another dose this morning when the water was still cloudy and the fish looked to be struggling. I’ve had issues with my tap water for the last several months but the air stone I added had been taking care of what I believe to be a gas exchange issue. Also I did a water change about 3 days prior to my vacation but all the fish seemed fine when I left. The air stone seems a bit clogged now as it only releases tinny bubbles instead of big ones. I may try to get another airstine this morning. if it is bacterial, how do I treat it?

I went on a beach vacation for 4 days and when I returned, all of my shrimp are dead. Well... I think they are all dead. I found a few dead ones and the rest are no where to be seen. I also had a single ram that was perfectly healthy (I think) before I left have severe fin rot. Like half of its dorsal fin was gone and it died the morning after I got back. I checked the parameters and everything looked ok except for a small amount of Ammonia. When I say small, I mean the test kit was a yellow with the slightest hint of green. I did a water change and the ammonia has not returned. All other fish seem to be doing well. My Questions: 1) What could cause an entire (seemingly healthy) shrimp colony (50-100 or so shrimp) to die off in 4 days? 2) Is it possible that they all died of predation? I find this one hard to believe. 3) Do I need to find the source of the ammonia or is it most likely that the dead shrimp caused the ammonia spike? 4) Did the Ammonia spike (possibly from the shrimp) cause the fin rot? 5) Does fin rot usually happen so fast? I also have other rams and fish and none of them seem affected.

Idk, I personally have always found the test strips are harder to read. But I do agree that the Master Test kit isn't a complete necessity, I just think its a better option than the test strips especially when you are trying to cycle a new tank or are having issues in a running tank. When things are running smoothly, I will just use a test strip to make sure nothing seems way off.

Another freshwater option would be midnight Rams.

I am glad I could help! Another tip is to use filter bags for the gravel or auquasoil beneath the sand so that the gravel doesn't surface during maintenance. Thats completely optional of course.