Luciferkrist

With ANY female guppy... I always assume they are or will be.

As odd as it sounds they LOVE the Hikari Massivore pellets I feed my bichir. They also really like the floating sticks from them too, but they will eat just about anything... except duckweed. Their favorite has been live small fish or ghost shrimp, I have a LFS that sells the shrimp 2/$1. Every couple of weeks I get a dozen or so and he gets a weekend of hunting.

I have had poor luck with having more than 1 of each species in a native tank. I have a 210 that had 2 bluegill hybrids, a handful of shiners, a 2 year old bichir, about 200 guppies, and a bristlenose pleco. The bluegill starting eating/bullying the shiners as soon as the lights went out. The guppies were all gone in 24 hours. Then the 2 starting picking on each other, and the larger one ended up killing the slightly smaller one. He also started picking off the barbels from the pleco if I wasn't feeding everyday! I think people underestimate just how aggressive and territorial Lepomis species can be. If you get some VERY young ones, you might be okay, but don't bet on anything else living very long in there.

Well. It looks like I have my work cut out for myself this weekend. I may try getting them little by little, but now I'm not sure what to do with them! all of my LFSs are always inundated with them and I do not have any extra tanks for them... My other option is to put them in my big tank with a few fish that would be more than happy to have a snack, but it just feels cruel.

I have a 75gal that seems to have exploded into an accidental baby factory for the two adult bristlenose I had in there. How do I 'catch' the fry in a heavily scaped tank without harming them? I tried making a small 'minnow trap' out of a 20oz bottle and baited it with blanched veggies, but they are pretty smart little guys and don't get trapped! Obviously I need to separate one of the breeding pair, but I need to know if anybody has had success in catching bristlenose fry?

So Update! I decided to keep an eye out last weekend when I was out fishing for some small/micro fish, and managed to catch some tiny bluegill - one exceptionally beat up and with obvious bite marks - I called him sharkbait. Less than one week later and the two of them have taken me down to maybe 15 guppies. Only fry and a few of my more shy adults are still around! So I guess I am going to go mostly full native species now! I am probably going to get a school of golden shiners or sticklebacks and instead of having a bowfin, I have my bichir.

I actually kind of like the look of the H. exsul and never saw or heard of that particular one, but my water isn't alkaline enough to safely keep one. I was also considering a handful of electric blue acaras, but worry about them getting sniped since all of the places near me only sell them as juveniles. I may just try to collect some native species before the as they should be pretty... effective for the issues I am having.

My biggest tank, 210Gal, has reached a year of maturity now... and I still haven't completed my stocking. When I was planting it, I noticed a few tiny fry a day or two after, and thought nothing of it. Now I have probably a few HUNDRED common guppy/endler hybrids and the few other fish in there simply do not care. Right now all I have is the world's lowest-IQ Bichir (about 12 inches), 1 blue gourami, and 1 bristlenose pleco. I have debated SO many different options to put into it, but never get the feeling that it is what I want. Since it is planted I want to avoid most cichlids as I want to keep those plants, and are not a fan of most of them. But I need a... natural form of population control. I used to have a silver arowana, but they sadly passed away from unknown reasons a while back and the TWO other ones I tried to introduced got eaten by my bichir - Who has absolutely no reason to be at the top of the tank and eating anybody only about an inch smaller! Yet he won't even chase the guppies. I have almost caved in to getting an oscar or two, but I know I would be unhappy with them. I debated on getting something like a peacock bass, but knew it would be bordering on abuse after a few months/year in that size of a tank. So, TL;DR - I need a medium to large size predator capable of controlling an out of control guppy colony, but want to avoid the more popular cichlids, and am looking for recommendations. I would just throw a few hundreds of dollars of tetras in there and have quite a display, but I fear my water-puppy would gobble them up, so I need something that has some size to it eventually.

TONS of dead MTS shells in the canister filter. My monthly annoyance.

Honestly... I just assume ALL guppies are pregnant.

Just be sure you have a TIGHT lid and your filter input is above the water line... Or you will have a ropefish in your filter or floor.

I was super scared to get into one myself, but when I decided to get my biggest tank, there was only that or sump - and that is a whole different ball game. The initial cost can be a bit painful, but they are really no that bad. The only hard part would be if you had to to any custom plumbing, but you will probably be able to get away with the included hardware on most. The stories about the horrors of cleaning them are hugely overexaggerated. My FX6 is quieter than my air pump for my 10 gallon's sponge filters. But I can see how it might be a bit louder than somebody would want. Oase ones are great and very quiet. Eheim's are pretty good too and often outlast most others. Call me an oddball, but I have had amazing luck with some of the AMOSIJOY ones from Amazon. I am pretty sure they are just a clone of another brand, but my 2 have been running for over a year with no problems, and was super cheap!

My shrimp and Chili rasbora tank has become completely overrun with scuds. I cannot keep any plans in it, as they just devour them faster than they can grow. How do I get rid of these critters? I can't try most chemical options as they will hurt my shrimp, and I worry about my rasboras surviving. I don't really have another tank I can put the fish in right now, and I have no idea if I can even save this tank. Has anybody here successfully fought back from a scud invasion, or should I just start up another tank and transfer anything I want to keep and just nuke this 10gallon?

Honestly, it just looks like your shrimp just had a large meal of something green. Some of my less-opaque shrimp turn red when they get ahold of a blood worm or a similar color when they get a veggie treat.

I had a similar problem with my rummy-nose at first. I had to completely thaw them at first in some aquarium water and mix it in when I fed their normal flakes. After a few weeks, they now love them even when still frozen.

Should be fine, especially if you're just attaching it to the back glass. If you're going to try towedge it into the tank, be sure it is SNUG so nothing gets trapped behind it or any of your fish get trapped. If it still isn't to your liking, you can always do what I did with my bigger tanks and get some matte-black paint and roll it on with a thin roller for a few coats on the outside. Get exterior or latex based paint and the water won't be an issue.

That sucks, sorry it happened when you were just about to give those fish an even better home. It is obvious that you cared about their well-being, and it is never easy losing something you felt responsible for. I hope you find a reason, if nothing to give you some idea what may have happened so you can avoid it again. I also hope you;re doing okay yourself after your hospital stay and can at least try to have fun when your new tank arrives. Wishing you much luck!

After feeding this morning, I was able to positively find at least 4 of them. Funny, as I was just looking for pleco caves at a few places two weeks ago, and I apparently don't need to worry about that!

Just as I was checking on my tanks before turning the lights off, I noticed something stuck on the glass... Apparently the two bristlenose I had in my 75 spawned! I looked all over after finding the little guy, but I was only able to find the one, but now I am going to be watching the tank like it was new again! If I do find a few more, I have a few extra tanks they can grow up in. I'm kind of thrilled, as I haven't added ANYTHING to that tank in several months, so there is no way it came in on a plant or something.

Those look like endlers, or most likely hybrids, as almost all livebearers can interbreed.

I got a pair of ivory and black ones a few months ago, and the next day I had 3 clutches on my lid. Only 1 managed to not rot, and every once in a while I see some tiny ones crawling around. Mine seem to be always... coupling... after my feeding time for that tank, and almost every 3 weeks I find a small clutch. I keep the tank they are in around 78 or 79 F, as my heater seems to be unable to hold the temps 72-77.

Ah, Bluefish! One of the LFS I frequent, as they are just in the town over from me. Definitely a good bunch of people.

I just visited Preuss yesterday! I only live about an hour away. Sadly... they got rid of that massive sorority tank, and moved them to a smaller tank. They replaced that spot that they had that tank and their in-house bred angles to two HUGE plant tanks that look great too, and will allow them to take better care of their plant stock. I should have taken pictures to share... As far as bettas and guppies, all of mine have never even chased away fry, but two are alien males (hybrid of imbellis and splendens) and one is still a juvenile female. They do sometimes get spooked by the guppies energetically feeding though.

Mine tend to not be so 'dwarf' and require regular trimming of the floating pads to keep them from light-starving the rest of my tanks. You think that bulb is is growing leaves fast? Wait until you see how much root growth is has!

Hey folks, I am having a bit of a conundrum with my 210g tank. I am starting to see all of my plants that are in the substrate are starting to die, and all signs point to lack of light. I do have 2 large lights on 100% par for about 10 hours a day, any more and I start getting algae. I am wondering if there are any reputable brands of submersible lights I could add to my main lighting source to keep my tank green! The bottom is about 24 inches from the lid, so most of the lights I've found don't really make it that far. Ignore the goldfish... he was just in there for duckweed duty. Even my wisteria only grows after it hits about halfway up, and the portion that is in the substrate is pretty spindly and has no leaves. The few plants I put in the crook of the driftwood are growing like crazy, and I have been fertilizing with root tabs and liquid ferts twice a week.