AllFishNoBrakes

Can’t wait to see this bad boy fully installed and up and running. Gonna be dope!

@Fish Folk Interesting. I would assume that wilds would be more accommodating than man-made strains. Just goes to show that you never really know and what works for you works for you!

@Fish Folk is the current stocking wild or from a wild line? Have you noticed any difference (assuming the current stock is wild) from the wilds to the man-made?

Are you sure the roots are melting? What plant(s) are you experiencing issues with? As a general rule, you’re “buying the root system” and not the plant itself. Over time, the plant(s) should convert to your water and generally do pretty well. I’ve been in the hobby for 3+ years, and still haven’t found a Java Fern source/species that does well in my water, but other plants absolutely thrive. Might just take some trial and error to find what works best for you and your water structure/method of keeping plants and fish.

I’ve pondered this often myself. My only real answer is to get a bigger tank with a bigger fish (like and Oscar). Considering that’s not a possibility, I’ve really had to focus on “do I have the space?” If the answer is yes I’ll hatch the eggs. If the answer is no, then I toss the eggs. I realize this doesn’t “really” apply to livebearers and Guppies, but my answer has been to move away from the things I can’t control and focus on the things I can.

I have to agree that re-freezing frozen foods seems like a bad idea. Frozen foods are so accessible and relatively inexpensive that having to sacrifice a pack that thawed is worth it to me to save all my 14 tanks from illness. Even when I’ve cut a cube in half or thirds, and immediately throw the unused portion back in the pack and in the freezer, when I go to reuse the other half or 2/3’s I get weirded out and end up tossing the partial cube. The risk just isn’t worth the reward for me. That being said, I use 1 cube of bloodworms per day split between like 5 of my 14 total tanks. Frozen foods aside, dry foods have a little more wiggle room, in my opinion. While it’s probably best to freeze the majority of the container and only portion out what you’ll use in less than one month, I don’t freeze the bigger portions. Instead, I leave the bigger portions in the bigger jar, and portion into the smaller jar that gets used once or twice per day. For example, I buy the big jar of Krill flakes and the small jar of Spirulina flakes and mix my own Community Crave. I’ll open the big Krill and the little Spirulina and make my own mix in a small Xtreme jar. Then, the original source jars go back in a cool and dry place, and the mixed jar gets used every day until I’m low/out and need to mix again. I do the same with my Nano Pellets. I buy the big jar, and then portion into a smaller jar, and the big jar “goes back in storage”. Is this the perfect system? No. Is it as good as holding the “big portions” in the freezer? Probably not. However, it is practical for my use (again, I have 14 tanks so the smaller portions get used within a month), I think it’s better to open the big jars as needed to portion (and definitely much better than opening the big jars daily) and as much as my girlfriend appreciates my tanks I don’t want to try to convince her to take up valuable ice cream real estate in the freezer for fish food. I’ve been doing this the past several years and haven’t had any issues. Frozen foods are a different story. I DO take up ice cream real estate in the freezer for my frozen foods (I and the fish get our own little corner for frozen foods), and those get used 1 whole cube at a time. Hope this helps!

I bet the price will come back down and I would hope to see more longevity out of those little pumps. Whether I’ve gotten them from ACO or Amazon they all have the same issues. Hoping Cory and team can put their stamp of approval on them and give us a better priced product that lasts

My guess is that an ACO branded nano usb pump is one of the several items they have in the pipeline to launch.

I love these specific bloodworms. They’re smaller, so that works great for the Peas. I can only get them from one LFS about 45 minutes away, so I buy 3 or 4 packs at a time, and when I get down to my last pack I go to the LFS again and stock up. I use 1 cube per day and split that between like 5 tanks.

If you’re using nano usb pumps I would suggest just 1 pump for each tank. I do that with the bottom row of my rack and in works well. For the top 2 rows (4 tanks, 2 on each row) I use a bigger air pump into the metal 4-way gang valve. Originally, I had this same pump hooked up to 1/2” pvc and split 6 times it was just a nightmare. Super hard and honestly frustrating to try to keep all 6 where I wanted them because if you adjust one, that adjust everything. The gang valve works much better and taking it from 6 down to 4 also really helped, but if you already have all the USB nano’s I wouldn’t recommend building a manifold and instead just 1 pump=1 tank.

I’ve had my Pea’s for probably a year and a half now. -6 in a 29 gallon. Started with 8, but 2 didn’t make it super early on. The other 6 have thrived from the beginning. -29 gallon is planted with cO2 -Started out with a pretty big colony of orange shrimp (mutation from my cherry shrimp) all was well for a long time, and then shrimp numbers started to dwindle. I assume most of the shrimplets were getting picked off, and over time the older adults died off. Still have a handful of shrimp in there, but the colony doesn’t “thrive” -Overall, they’ve been pretty easy. Mine get fed bloodworms and snails. I haven’t invested the time to get them onto things like Vibra Bites -I was nervous before getting them, but glad I took the jump! They’re really no different than my other fish except that they need bloodworms -I didn’t do the full med trio on them, but I did do a round of Paracleanse. -If you’re on the fence I say go for it! They’re the easiest puffer out there and they’re super fun to watch and interact with.

Every time I see my Amano’s with eggs I wish they were as easy to hatch/raise as neocaridina shrimp, lol.

I bought a bottle of Repashy and have literally mixed it up once lol. It’s great, but I honestly always forget I even have it.

I only use the Python for tanks 20 gallon tall and bigger. All my 10 gallons, and the 20 long (due to in being the same height as a 10 gallon) I use the tubing with the sponge in the end, or the smaller pvc contraption to take water out, and then the small pump and the tubing to put water back in. Considering it’s just a couple gallons, and the Python is rather big, it just doesn’t make sense on the small tanks. For me anyways. Food lists look pretty great! Per usual, I do have some thoughts though, lol. Shrimp: Remember that they will eat the flakes and pellets that the fish miss. Personally, I wouldn’t feed “extra pellets and flake” for them. Feed them the algae wafers or bottom wafers every other day, and if you feed the fish flake/pellets on the days you don’t feed the wafers they’ll still get some flake. Instead of green beans I would do zucchini. It gets “mushier” faster and the shrimp can actually eat that. With shrimp, just remember that a little goes a long way! I hate having to siphon/pick out leftover food. I really dig the Xtreme shrimpee pellets. Hikari crab cuisine is another good one. Here’s a picture of the shrimpee pellets next to a standard Hikari algae wafer: Fish: Again, a pretty great list! My only thought is that if you go frozen bloodworms, make sure they’re not the “Jumbo” variety. I really like this specific one from Hikari, and I can only get it from one LFS in my area: They’re small, so most of my fish can enjoy them. From my Pea Puffers all the way up to my adult angels. Chili’s are tiny with tiny mouths! I do frozen baby brine shrimp (that I hatch myself) instead of bloodworms for them. Freeze dried bloodworms might be your better option. Also, try not to go “food crazy”. When I was new I was trying anything and everything, and then ended up with a bunch of barely used foods that went stale. Find the few things you like and your fish like and stick to those to cut down on just throwing things away or feeding spoiled/stale foods that could get your fish sick. I also buy things in bulk (like Xtreme Krill) and then the small Xtreme Spirulina, and mix my own Community Crave (so I have more Krill than their actual mix). I take from the big containers, and mix into a smaller container. That way, I’m not exposing the big containers to oxygen multiple times per day in an attempt to keep the bulk as fresh as possible, and daily open the little container instead.

When I first got into the hobby, making things to make water changes easier was one of my favorite things! Some simple 3/8” vinyl tubing with some sponge shoved in the end, and a plastic clamp for siphoning water out into a 5 gallon bucket can work wonders. This allows extraction of water to be hands free, and the sponge in the end of the tubing ensures my fish (from fry to adult Angels) don’t get sucked up. A small pump and some tubing, with a clamp, can also make water going back into the tank a breeze and mostly hands-free. Here’s some of the things I’ve built specifically for making water changes more efficient: 3/8” tubing with sponge to siphon water out without sucking up fish. PVC with sponge shoved in the end for siphoning other tanks. Bigger PVC set up (with ball valve) for the bigger tanks. Water going back in tanks with a small pump and a 5 gallon bucket. I also use this pump to take water out as these tanks are just a few inches off the ground and gravity can’t really assist with water coming out. Before I had my Python I built this. Connected a pond pump to the end of the tubing, and that pump sat in the bottom of a 5 gallon bucket. Fill up the bucket, start pumping, and have another 5 gallon bucket to fill additional water. Keep filling the bucket with the pump in it until water is filled back in the tank. This hooked over the rim of the tank and the holes in the pvc end caps ensured gentle flow back in the tank to not disturb the substrate and uproot plants. I eventually sold this to another fish keeping friend once I got my Python. As you can tell, I like building things to make water changes more efficient, hands-free, and this allows me to drain and refill tanks at the same time. I have 14 tanks, and it takes me 4-5 hours weekly to do all my maintenance thanks to these tools. Yup! This hobby taught me the same thing. And that mistakes happen, but they’re just a learning opportunity. I assume you’re rotating through all of this, and not doing all of it every time you feed? I would stay away from the green beans for the shrimp. The shrimp could pick at that for a week and not finish it. Green beans are great for Pleco’s, but not so much shrimp. I was feeding my Pleco’s daily with zucchini and green beans at one point and that’s the only bacteria bloom I’ve ever experienced. After working through that I cut way back on the veggies.

18 fish, even though they’re nano fish, might be pushing it. However, remember that it will all depend on how much you’re feeding and how much you want to be bound to water changes. For instance, my Chili tank is a 20 gallon long blackwater tank with 22 Chili’s, 9 Green Neon Tetras, lots of Cherry shrimp, lots of Ramshorn snails, and a handful of dwarf crayfish. This tank has been up and running for 3 years and started as a shrimp only tank. Then, about 4 months ago I’d say, I transitioned it to a blackwater tank and removed most of the shrimp, snails, and crayfish to see if the ones I left in the tank could make the blackwater transition. Once that was all squared away, I got 20 Chili’s and quarantined them (with meds for the first week) for 5 or 6 weeks total, and then added them to the blackwater tank. Then, I got the Green Neons and again, quarantined them (with meds for the first week) for 5 or 6 weeks before adding them to the display tank. They get fed crushed Krill flake in the morning, baby brine shrimp at night, and Xtreme shrimpee pellets every other day for the invertebrates. Sounds like a lot, but I have a giant Pothos growing out of the tank. The Pothos sucks up so much nutrients that I have to fertilize the tank twice per week, and I do a 10% water change weekly, which is the smallest amount of water change on any of my tanks. All my other tanks get 25-30% weekly water changes, but I want to keep the tannins in the tank and the Pothos just eats through nutrients so fast. Keep in mind this tank only has a small Aquarium Coop sponge filter and that’s it. I also have a 10 gallon tank with probably 50 endlers in it. Started with a trio, and they have just bred like crazy. Sounds like a lot (and it is), but it’s also an aquaponics tank. The strawberries, flowers, and other edible plants utilize so many nutrients that I have to dose Easy Green 3x what the bottle says for nitrates to still be present between water changes. This tank only has a nano Aquarium Coop sponge filter and Java moss (and all the live plants in the aquaponics tray). The edible plants and flowers do a lot of the work for me and allow that many fish in a small set up. How much work you have to do all depends on how things are set up and how much you feed. Most likely, yes. 0.25 ammonia I’m okay with and might use Prime to help get through it. I would test daily and if it got above 0.25 I would do a water change. That’s also because my tanks are so established. In a new set up I might do it differently. Regardless of tenure of the tank, 0.5 and above I would do a 50% water change to get it back down to 0.25. Same goes for nitrite, for me personally.

For sure. I think feeding every other day for now is totally suitable. All my tanks get fed at least once per day, at night when I’m off work. Certain tanks also get fed in the morning before I leave for work. Every other day makes a lot of sense right now. As your tanks mature you could easily bump that up to once every day. You just gotta take things slow when you increase things to not overload the ecosystem.

Completely agree with this. Considering you’ve already ordered them, you’ll have to do your best to not overload your newly cycled tank, and/or the new QT tub when you get it up and running. Whether you choose to put the new batch into the display tank or the QT tub will be up to you. The only other thing I have to add is that, just because they’re coming from the same place and the same species does not mean they are from the same “batch”. Aqua Huna, I’m sure, goes through thousand and thousands of those Chili’s throughout the year. They get em in, they ship em out. They get another batch in, they ship those out. Rinse and repeat over and over and over again. Overall, do LOTS of testing on both tanks (I would be testing daily on both) and be prepared to do daily water changes on both the tanks as ammonia and nitrite show up.

It’s from the game Sekiro: Shadows Die Twice. The game has 4 different endings, depending on specific choices or actions you make, and the longest game option is the “Immortal Severance” ending with the final boss being “Isshin, Sword Saint”. Figured it was a fitting name for a Samurai 🙂. The first Betta I had was Sekiro, and then I also had a Gourami named “Gyobu” which is another boss from the Sekiro game. Just keeping it in the family!

You can absolutely do that! The advantage to the plastic bag is that it can help trap all the mulm and good stuff you want instead of it just falling off into the existing tank. If you just pull the sponge out of the tank, as it comes above the water line all the mulm and bacteria and detritus just starts to run back into the tank with the water coming off the sponge. In my experience, the bag can be a little tricky to get around the sponge without fluffing stuff off of it, but just go slow and use a ziploc that has an opening that’s decently bigger than the sponge. Regardless of how slow and careful you are, you will inevitably fluff some stuff into the water column but it’s all good! It will make its way back to the filter again over time. I’ve been cleaning sponge filters for 3 years and it’s still a pain to get it in the bag sometimes, lol. Also, no need to apologize for asking questions! We’re all here to help each other and want to see each other success with our fish adventures. We all just want you to have successful tanks that are healthy ecosystems for your fish so you can enjoy the tank for many years to come.

My Chili Rasboras school around together and often spend time surfing glass and riding the bubbles coming out of the sponge filter. I moved some Cory’s to new tanks yesterday. I hatched those guys from eggs and grew them out myself, and even just changing tanks they’re surfing around and doing what Cory’s do.

I would encourage you to simply squeeze the existing sponge filter in the quarantine tank to seed the new sponge. The existing sponge squeezing will contain bacteria, detritus, etc. I would heavily encourage you to just squeeze the filter into the quarantine tank and leave the cycled sponge filter in the tank with the fish and shrimp. Your current tank is just barely cycled and surely isn’t seasoned. Moving the entire sponge into the new quarantine tank is just asking for additional instability, problems, and additional deceased fish. The tank that currently has fish and shrimp needs as much stability as possible. I would also encourage you to get a 10 gallon quarantine tank if possible. It’s super easy to dose meds, if and when needed, as most are “1 packet per 10 gallons” or “X ml per 10 gallons”. Takes all the guess work out of it.

Drumroll please…. 🥁 🥁 🥁 Introducing, Isshin: I’ve been searching for a new Betta for a few months and today I found him. I’ve wanted a Samurai or an Alien since I first started in the hobby. I knew this guy was coming home when I first saw him. He was inquisitive, had lots of personality zooming around his little cup, and is quite possibly the most active Betta I’ve seen at chain stores in those little cups. He wasn’t lying on his side looking like he was asking to be euthanized. Glad to have him home. I’ve known I like Samurai’s for a couple years now, and I was surprised my girlfriend was into him as well. Always helps when the person you share your home and space with is into it, too. Feels good for this tank to not be empty. Also clipped the Anubius in here in half. That was the first aquatic plant I ever bought, and it was taking over the tank. I opened up some space in Isshin’s tank, and moved the Anubius to the 29 that I believe will become the second blackwater tank. Excuse the glare. Normally I wait until the sun goes down to take pictures, but simply didn’t want to wait today, lol. Hope you guys are enjoying your tanks! Excited for what’s to come.

Yup. If I’m not quarantining fish, there’s definitely snails in my quarantine tank to keep it cycled. If I have 0 plans to bring in new fish, then the quarantine tanks becomes a grow out tank for fry. My quarantine tank is always up and running.

Agreed with @Mmiller2001. I think your best bet is to put everything in the already cycled tank, and especially the shrimp. Shrimp tend to do much better in a tank that is seasoned, has algae, microfauna, etc.