Steve and His Animals

I find seriouslyfish.com often has good info on specific habitats including decor, plants, and congeners (species they share habitat with) but not many sites seem to have good info on fish that live in the lake that diamond tetras live in, as they are endemic to lake Valencia in Venezuela. According to the World Lake Database, Valencia seems to be home to a few species of cichlids like Mozambique tilapia, Petenia kraussii, and Geophagus surinamensis, and some odd eels and catfish. There's also apparently Poecilia sphenops which are a species of molly. I would probably stick to what CorydorasEthan said, probably much better options for a peaceful community haha.

The store I work at has a group of mudskippers which I narrowed down to be P. argentilineatus. Very pretty species, but what I'm reading on them confuses me. Some sources say the species maxes out at 3.5 inches, while some say a whopping 7 inches. Does anyone have experience with this species?

Recently got some Eriocaulon sp. Vietnam. Interested in other people's experience with the plant: lighting intensity/duration, substrate used, etc. I've been letting it float as to adjust to my water and lighting with less die-back, as I've read that is can adapt similarly to some of the more delicate stem plants. Using AI Primes for lighting and have Co-op Easy line and tabs (I'm assuming tabs will be the best looking at the hefty roots).

Been looking for a source for this plant, Cryptocoryne griffithii, for a while now. From what I've seen, anyone who has gotten it in the past has imported it straight from S.E. Asia, like Singapore. I would be interested in any connections to do so as well. Any leads are appreciated.

As someone who was scared to get into saltwater for years, I can now say you could keep clownfish in a cold bucket of saltwater and they would be fine. Just give it a shot, if you don't like the maintenance then don't force yourself. I also got disillusioned for clownfish a long time ago: they're all mean. Every single one is a different piece of work. Some people like that, but to me I prefer nicer fish. Don't get me wrong, they can be nice in a large tank, but people starting them out in a 20gal and expecting model behavior is kinda silly.

You might want your pH to be lower, like closer to 6, maybe 6.5 at the highest since they're wild. The lid is also a must if you plan on breeding, some people even cellophane wrap the top since the fry need humid air for their labyrinth organ to develop properly.

It's been running since mid-2018. Been through a few iterations, my last big group of fish died of ich so I've been quarantining since. I started with mostly dry rock, only issues that come with it are a lack of biodiversity you get with real live rock, which comes over time with pods and phyto, and the addition of extra silicates unless you rinse thoroughly. I personally think just finding cool pieces is my priority, whether it's live or not isn't really much of a concern. I figured Patrick was talking about freshwater because he mentioned plants, unless he was talking about macroalgae.

Freshwater? I always liked peacock gudgeons, honey gouramis, or something similar as the "centerpiece fish" and maybe a group of 6-10 small schooling fish like neon tetras, glowlight rasboras, etc.

Tank is saltwater, 90 gallons, an old Oceanic tank that's 5ftX18inX18in.

It's always better in my experience to keep the net stationary along the bottom and gently guide the fish towards it with your free hand, works 90% of the time unless they figured out what you're trying to do, which I've experienced with a few select species.

One thing I've heard in the past is that sometimes dominance/submission signals from one species won't correctly translate to a species from another geographic area, which could lead to misunderstandings and excess aggression. I don't know how valid that is considering I heard that many years ago and I haven't really experimented much with mixing cichlids, but thought it was interesting at least.