Schuyler

They're supposed to be social, right? Have you seen them interact with each other yet?

Quick update: The crypt that was moved to the back corner is exploding: All of the spots were the roots weren't fully buried have sprouted leaves so it's a thick bunch of leaves The flagfish are serious nippers. They'll need to move soon. The female is doing really well but she's the worst nipper. She'll just go on a rampage and go after everything in her path. The male isn't doing as well, not quite sure why. They did clear out pretty much all the hair algae in the tank.

Update on all the tanks: The fry seem fine in their new spot. Behind them is the brine shrimp hatchery. Below them is a Nothobranchius Guentheri fry that was hatched on 1/1. The Fundulopanchax Gresensi seem like they are fully colored up. Still no soaking behavior but for all I know they could just be eating the eggs. Once the Ocellatum fry grow out I'll move them in with their parents and I'll try moving the female to there five gallon and condition her. The female Nothobranchius Eggersi and the small male finally succumbed to whatever disease or organ failure they were suffering from. I think I left the spawning site in the tank for too long, didn't do enough water changes, and they either had an infection or they weren't getting the minerals they needed and had kidney failure. They had popeye and lopsided bulging on their sides. The Aphyosemion Ocellatum are doing well. Her lip isn't fully healed but they're much better than it used to be. They seem to be very happy in this tank. One surprise, while hunting for fry I found a cherry shrimp that I moved over at some point. I guess these guys are at least somewhat shrimp safe. The shrimp in aquascaped tank are really taking off. There are quite a few culls that should probably be removed. There are some planaria cropping up. The guppies seem to have some internal parasite. They just weren't thriving like they should add looking skinny. I've been testing with metronidazole and they seem to be getting better. The bolbitus in the middle has started to grow over the wood. The old Nothobranchius Guentheri are still kicking and don't show any sign of slowing down. She always looks like she's about to go belly up but she isn't acting like she's old. She'll still attack her food and he'll jump up and bite your finger if you point at him.

That's rough. Those things tend to have a feedback loop. Something goes wrong, fish get stressed, stressed fish get aggressive, aggression causes stress, and so on... Hopefully you keep with it

Your story sounds almost identical to mine. Got a fish tank, young kid named fish, named fish died almost right away, frantically looked up how to stop them from dieing. One difference is that I started with a 2.5 rather than 30... Two bits of advice: 1) The next month it so will be a bit of a learning curve but after that things should start to level off and it will get much easier 2) Find a local aquarium club, reach out to them on Facebook or email group, explain the situation, and ask if anyone had "cycled media" or a "seasoned sponge filter" that you can borrow. I'm sure you'd find club members willing to share for a chance to talk about questions. That's going to be so much better than any bottled bacteria you can buy (in my opinion). Aquarium co-op has a map of all of the clubs in the US here: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/apps/store-locator

Ups and downs today The little fry that hatched yesterday wasn't moving much. I got a picture but when I came back about an hour the yolk sac was gone and it was dead. I'm not sure if it's normal for them to spend a few days absorbing there yolk. Another egg seems to have had a failed hatch. The fry was fully out but bent the wrong way and dead. The is still one more egg that seems intact. I also pulled plants from the tank with the parents to look for fry in there. I found four fry but I suspect there may be more. These four are much more developed, there probably about a month old at this point. They are on the fry tray so that I can target feed them and try and insure that they survive.

One of the eggs that we picked from the mop hatched so I've set up the Lowell's fish lab tray and put them in there to grow out I plan on pulling the plants from the tank where the parents are and try moving fry to the tray so that they can be watched more carefully

Welcome! What's the hobby like there in Finland? Is it hard to get fish shipped in during the winter? Are there many local fish shops?

I have one of those plastic all in one bow front tanks from Petco (or maybe it was PetSmart I always mix them up). The filter is really weak and stopped working all the time so I even up tossing it and using a small sponge.

I just got my first edition of Amazonas Magazine and in the first article they talk about Rosy Loaches getting officially described and given a scientific name: Physoschistura Mango. Who else thinks Mango Loach sounds better than Rosy Loach? There are plenty of "rosy" fish but how many "mango" fish can you think of? I'm sure changing the name would just cause confusion though

@Biotope Biologist maybe you know what that is? It almost looks like blood circulating but it's clear.

Some pictures of those eggs that were pulled from the spawning mop. There is a small piece of yarn that one of them came with and they have all caught on to that. There are also some kind of worm that has somehow survived but absorbed the methylene blue. I tried to pull out as many of those as I could. The eyes and spine are clearly starting to develop. There's that same clear liquid circulating but it hasn't turned red yet. I'll try and upload a video

Feeding some brine shrimp It's a bit tricky to see but the is a belly full of brine shrimp there up near the top: I have some of them in this floating deli cup. Every day I dump roughly half of the water back into the tank and replace it with me water from the tank. The arm on my 3D printer breeder box is broken and I'm waiting for my next visit to my parents for my dad to print a new one.

Fishless cycling is tricky. There's a lot of chemistry involved. Breaking down ammonia creates acids. A low pH can make it difficult for bacteria to reproduce and turns ammonia into a less reactive form. On top of that, too much ammonia (or maybe it's nitrates) can be toxic for the bacteria too. Bottled bacteria has it's problems too. If it got too hot or too cold in shipping it could have been killed off. If you want to start a fight, ask an online aquarium group if bottled bacteria actually works. My point is that it's hard to do. Personally, I would do a 50% water change, fill the tank all the way, and then get ammonia back up to 2 ppm or whatever the recommended amount is. Your pH has likely dropped. I asked for a picture of the tank because that tells me tank size, filtration type, if you have live plants, and what kinds of decorations/rock you have in the tank. All those things can play a role in some way. Does you other tank use the same type of filter cartridge? If it does, then I'd just swap the cartridges. If you do that your cycle will probably be done in a few days.

Can you share a picture of the tank? That will help answer a lot of questions. What is your pH? If you have another tank with a sponge filter or anything you can pull out, then you can move it over or squeeze the sponge out into the tank and that will jump start things really fast.

Welcome! Aurora is a great area. I lived just south in Parker for a while. My advice would be to take all advice with a grain of salt. Most people online have their "thing" that they're into and then they know a lot less about other areas. Also, find a local aquarium club. If you're getting more into the hobby a club is a great way to network, learn from others nearby, and find good deals or rare fish.

Yay! I bet you'll start hearing it more and more often. I just checked back on this thread because I was eating a bowl of cereal and my wife said "They're croaking again!" So I paused to listen, nothing, so I start eating again, and then she says "there they are again". That went back and forth like that multiple times

Very nice! How long have you had it going for?

I would just use one of the other. You only really need to dose it during water changes. You may have scenarios where you want to dose Prime again if you have an ammonia spike but even then I would do that with a water change. Personally, I would save my money and get stuff like some catapa leaves and frozen food for your betta

Good news, bad news... The male seems to be doing better but the female has developed severe popeye in one eye and I suspect that she may have kidney failure. She seems happy enough right now. She is still eating and coming out to beg for food. Hopefully more water changes and some salts will help but so far meds don't seem to be having much impact on her eye. It wasn't until today that I put together the bloating with the popeye that it could be kidney failure.

Just to be clear, the eye is just missing completely, right? You don't see any with an eye bulging out? Does it look like an open wound or just that there's nothing there?

Second this. Bigger schools tend to make fish bolder and come out more. Plus less worrying about if everyone is getting enough food or the right diet.

It's tricky. They very well could be making the sound but if you haven't learned what it sounds like you may just not be hearing it. The first time I heard it, I was working late so everyone else was asleep and the whole house was quiet. Then I heard this creaking noise periodically. It took me like four or five times to put it together that it was coming from the aquarium. After that I would hear it at least a few times a week and it turned to come in bursts. Every time I would ask my wife if she heard it and she acted like I was crazy. Then eventually I took the kids to something while she was home sick and she texted me "They're croaking!" I have two males and a female. The males seem like they have their little territories on either side of the tank but occasionally they'll all meet up in the middle and croak at each other. It's really hard to tell male from female normally when they're at the size you see in stores.

It's always crazy to me how much they look like Aphanius Mentos

The anubias has sent roots down so far that they are already poking through the bottom of the lid: