AllFishNoBrakes

@DeadStang Makes sense to me! This is the prime example of “the whole picture actually paints 1,000 words”. If my tap/well water was like yours I’d probably use Carbon, too. Thanks for sharing with us.

It’s super fun! My Panda’s breed true, which is nice and makes it easy. When the Black Female and the Panda Male breed it’s about 50/50 Panda/All Black. When the Black Female/Marbled Male breed I get some super fun combos. At the end of the day, Angels are pretty easy to raise and are readily consumed in the hobby so it makes it worth my time to stack some credit.

@rockfisher @uscmule Thanks for the input! I just chopped off and replanted another 6 swords. At this point, I have 3 sets of baby swords to play with. We’ll see what happens!

I used Miracle Grow Organic soil. Ran it through a screen to remove any larger pieces and have really fine dirt. 1/4” inch of dirt on the bottom with a gravel cap. Only a heater and a light are on this tank. No filter, no fertilizer. Just a dirt bed, a heater, and a good light. Tank is about 16 months old at this point. Pearl Weed has taken over but it’s fine by me. Here’s some pics

Throwback to when my shrimp tank was shrimp only.

@TheSwissAquarist It’s a 20 gallon high that currently has some Julii Cory’s and 2 Bolivian Rams. Maybe some kind of Tetra, Maybe Cherry Barbs. Idk yet; we’ll see when the Furcata’s are gone

For sure. I knew they had approximately a 2 year lifespan, I just didn’t realize how old they were when I brought them home until I saw much younger Furcata’s at different fish stores. You live and you learn. Just means I’ll get to do something else in that tank in the near future

@DeadStang I’ve never used it. Do you plan on having plants and using fertilizer? If that answer is yes, the carbon will pull the fertilizer out of the water and you’ll be fighting against yourself. The only reason I can think of to use carbon is to pull things out of the water. Meds, toxins (like if I was staining my hardwood floors or something), etc.

To the best of my understanding the beneficial bacteria for salt vs. fresh are completely different, so you will essentially be starting over. If I was to start over and do salt, I would do just that; start over. All substrate and everything would come out, I’d switch to sand, I’d get rock work intended for a saltwater tank, and I’d mix up and add in my saltwater. Add a pump/wavemaker, cycle, and then start playing with saltwater fish. Considering it’s a FOWLR tank whatever light you have should suffice, at least to start, but I have no clue if things like coralline algae require different light spectrums to grow.

I have 2 small rimless tanks, both cube shaped. Both with lids. They’re fine. They serve their purpose for those projects and I got them on sale, but I’m not going out of my way for another one and especially not a bigger one. My 50% off standard tanks are a way better value and I personally like the rim on a standard tank.

Sup, Nerms? It’s Wednesday again. Water changed every single tank in the house today and I’m trying to make it a better habit to reset the air stones every week. New habits take time, but gonna try to make that the new norm. Massively trimmed back all the Swords, and planted 6 new baby Amazon Swords. I chopped off the runners, chopped the plants off the runners, and into the substrate they went. Also threw some root tabs down for a few plants. Took a bunch of dwarf water lettuce out of that same tank and also trimmed off the Jungle Val ends that were dying off. With all of that trimming, removal of dead plant matter, and removal of all the floating plants I actually like the new ACO light more than I thought initially. Yes, it’s still more yellow than I’m used to, but getting rid of all the excess yellow plant matter makes the light look so much better in that tank. Thankful that I’m liking the most expensive product I’ve ever bought from them more. Also saw a tiny Pygmy Cory in that tank so that’s rad! It’s been a good day of maintenance. Trimmed up the swords and replanted the little ones in front. I’m glad I’m starting to like this light more. Also massively trimmed the Sword in the back of this tank. Female Furcata’s are starting to fall apart. I’ve seen other Furcata’s at other fish stores that are much smaller than when I got mine. I truly think they’re just pretty old. Praecox Rainbows were looking nice. That spawning mop was originally made for them, but there’s a ton of shrimp in this tank now. All over the plants, and tons of them in the mop. Wasn’t the original intent, but I dig it. Need to polish water in this tank a little bit but other than that it’s just cruising right along.

@Levi_Aquatics I’ve heard Dean say that too, and I totally believe it. Right now I have: ~75 Panda juveniles growing out in the 55 gallon tank. I’ll trade these off ~20 at a time starting with the biggest ones and giving the little guys a chance to grow out ~25 additional Panda fry in the 2.5 gallon tank. Hatched a full spawn and then fed off a bunch of the fry to cull it down to a manageable number. Since hatching the next batch (the 25 in the 2.5 gallon) I’ve had 3 additional spawns. The Panda’s spawned again (the picture on the slate in my original posting), and the community tank spawned in that same week (the Amazon Sword leaf picture in my original positing). The Panda’s spawned AGAIN last night, hence how I was able to get pictures of them individually and then in the act of spawning. All 3 of these spawns have been disposed of as I literally can’t raise all those fish, lol. Dean says Angels can fund your whole fish room and Cory says a spawn is worthless until it’s sold. Both are true and you have to balance it.

@Levi_Aquatics Rad! I have my pair of Panda’s separated off as they are more lucrative to trade. These are my bread and butter when it comes to trading to the LFS for store credit. I also have 1 all black female, 1 additional Panda Male, 1 black and gold Marbled Male, and 1 gold (assumed male) in a community tank. The all black female switches between the Marbled Male and the second Panda Male in the community tank. She’s scandalous, that’s for sure. If I don’t have a current batch of Pandas, but the community tank is spawning I’ll raise up those fry to fill the gaps, but mostly I focus on the Panda’s as I get 2x per fish for the Pandas than I do for the “mixed generic Angelfish”. For the Methylene Blue, here’s the packaging and the bottle:

I don’t feed until the yolk sac is absorbed. From there I used powdered foods like Hikari First Bites. After a day or two I use First Bites in the morning and baby brine shrimp at night. As the fry grow, I’ll switch to crushed flake in the morning and baby brine at night. From there, I’ll switch to Xtreme Nano Pellets in the morning and baby brine shrimp at night. I keep the baby brine going as long as I can. Best of luck with the fry!

@Levi_Aquatics For sure! Let me know. I’m always happy to help where I can and chat some fish. I feel like I missed some details but I’m always happy to add on and explain. What type of Angels did you buy?! Agreed that the 1/2 full 10 gallon helps with water quality and keeping food contained. The 2.5 gallon footprint to the 1/2 full 10 seems like a big jump but I’ve never had a problem with it. Works well for me. As for the Methylene Blue, I’m pretty sure I got it on Amazon a couple of years ago. It might’ve been labeled as “denim dye” or something along those lines. I took a chance, but it has all worked out. It’s a pretty small bottle, and if I remember correctly I paid less than $10 for it. That sub $10 bottle will be a lifetime supply at 2 drops per spawn.

What’s up everyone?! While I’m no expert, I’ve definitely learned a thing or two regarding Angelfish in the past couple of years I’ve been growing out Angels, spawning them, hatching eggs, and raising fry. While this is not a comprehensive list, these are the things that work for me and the tips I wish I had when I bought my first Angelfish. Males vs. Females: -I wish there was a definitive list in “X is definitely a male and Y is definitely a female”. I know that Dean gets hit up all the time with the “can you sex my juvenile Angelfish?!” and the answer is basically, no. I can’t, Dean can’t, nobody can really say with 100% certainty whether your juvenile Angelfish is male or female. However, here’s what I’ve noticed with my personal fish. -The males I know I have do NOT have nuchal humps. Like, basically none at all. However, in my experience, males are generally bigger than females. -The known females I have don’t necessarily have characteristics separating them from the males, but I have noticed that my females tend to be smaller. -When it comes to selecting males or females from a store, I recommend purchasing a group and letting them pair off naturally. Even with a couple years under my belt I wouldn’t feel comfortable looking at juveniles and going, “yup, that one is a male and that other one is a female so bag those up for me”. Instead, buy a group of 4-5, grow them out, let them pair off, and then when they start spawning you’ll know 100% which is male and which is female (at least in the breeding pair you now have). I snapped some pictures of both my male and female Panda Angelfish tonight, and then an hour later they were spawning. Let’s take a look: This is the female. You’ll notice her ovipositor is more round and not sharply pointed. In person, it is also much wider than the male. Once you know which fish is male and which is female, it’s pretty easy to differentiate. If you’re confused, don’t worry, I was too at first! Here’s the male. Again, pictures don’t really do it justice, but he’s much bigger than the female. Also, his “tube” (sorry, idk the name and can’t find it with a quick google search… told you I’m no expert!) is much more pointed and not as wide. Here we see the female depositing eggs onto the breeding slate. You can really notice the difference in size between the male and female in this picture. The female deposits eggs, and then the male follows behind and fertilizes the eggs. As mentioned above, the male follows behind the female and fertilizes the eggs. In my experience, the actual act of spawning takes a couple of hours. I know the fish are done spawning when the female is using her Pectoral Fins to “fan” the eggs. Once I see that, I know it’s time to snatch the eggs. Either to dispose of them, or hatch them out. Hatching the eggs: -When it comes to hatching the eggs there’s a couple of things you can do: -1. Allow the parents to fan the eggs, watch (and potentially move) the wigglers, and get them to free swimming fry. -If you’ve never seen this, I definitely recommend trying. It’s mind-blowing to me that fish have the natural instincts to do these things even as first time parents. Highly recommend seeing this at least once. Best case scenario, you get some fish that survive. Worst case scenario, you get to see the fish do all these things and then the free swimming fry get eaten. -My preferred method is “pulling the spawn” and artificially hatching it myself. To hatch the spawn myself, here’s what I do: Once I notice the female “fanning” The eggs with her pectoral fins I literally take the slate or Amazon Sword leaf out of the aquarium. The spawn should look like this: Spawn on an Amazon Sword Leaf. Spawn on a slate. Whether the spawn is on a leaf or the slate, the process is the same. -The leaf or slate gets moved to a 2.5 gallon tank. I fill this tank up to the 2 gallon mark, allowing room for the “lid” to fit, and room for the sponge filter to flow. I add 2 drops of Methylene Blue to the tank, and put an air stone underneath the eggs to constantly flow over the eggs: From here you do nothing. Literally just let things marinate and the eggs will hatch in due time. In a couple days you’ll have “wigglers”. They literally look like eggs with tails that wiggle back and forth. Again, do nothing. Just sit back, observe, and watch nature do her thing. -Some wigglers might fall off the slate/leaf and that’s completely normal. Again, just observe. You don’t need to do anything until the fry become free swimming. -Once the fry become free swimming, it’s time to do a water change. The Methylene Blue helps the fungused (infertile) eggs from spreading to the fertile eggs, but once the fry are free swimming the Methylene Blue is no longer useful and can actually be detrimental. Once the fry are free swimming, I do a 50% water change. -To change water (with tiny little fish) I use airline tubing with coarse sponge shoved in the end. This allows water to flow through the tubing, but shouldn’t suck up any fish. 50% water change is sufficient in my experience. With this initial water change, I also throw in a small ACO cycled sponge filter as the next step is feeding up the fry. -The fry have a visible yolk sac on them. While this is still visible, feeding does nothing else other than cloud the water. The fry survive on this yolk sac for the first couple of days. Once the yolk sac is gone, the fry are hungry and ready to actually eat. -In the morning I use a tiny dash of Hikari First Bites. I use a straw to remove a small amount of powder from the food container, and then a couple small taps on the straw deposits a small amount of powdered food into the tank. At night, the fry get frozen baby brine shrimp that I hatched myself. In my experience, if the fry are ready to eat they’re ready to eat live or frozen baby brine. This is one of the best parts of Angelfish; they can take baby brine basically immediately. -From here, I follow the same routine. First Bites in the morning and baby brine shrimp at night. I change 50% water once per week as the cycled sponge can handle the feeding that I personally do. -The fry stay in the 2.5 gallon tank until I feel they’re crowded/I have the time and space available to move the fry. The fry get moved to a 1/2 full 10 gallon tank. -The only thing that changes at this point (and honestly probably before they get moved) is that at some point I stop feeding First Bites and start feeding finely crushed flake food. -Once in the 1/2 full 10 gallon the fry continue to get crushed flakes in the morning and baby brine shrimp at night. Weekly, with the rest of my maintenance, I’ll add ~1 gallon of water to the tank as a water change. Each week, the water volume is growing right alongside the fry. It takes 4-5 weeks for the 1/2 full 10 gallon to become a full 10 gallon. Here’s some pics: They’re starting to look like tiny Angels! This is the fry in maybe the 3/4 full 10 gallon so they’ve been in here a couple of weeks. Here, they really look like tiny Angels and are ready to move out of this tank. From the 10 gallon tank they move to a 55 gallon tank to finish growing out until they’re ready to be traded to the LFS. 1/3 of the 55 is dedicated to the Angelfish pair and a Bristlenose Pleco pair. The other 2/3 is dedicated to raising fish to trade to the LFS. The Angels continue to get fed twice per day. As they grow, the foods they consume grow. Crushed Krill Flake mixed with Spirulina Flake (I essentially make my own community crave), live and frozen baby brine shrimp, nano pellets, frozen bloodworms, and Vibra Bites all make an appearance as the fish grow. Once they’re to the size I normally see at the LFS I hit them up and see if they want the fish. I’ve spent the past couple of years really nurturing that relationship so at this point I go, “Hey, you guys want these?” And they say, “Yup, bring ‘em in any time we’re open”. So ya, this is what I do to pair/hatch/raise my Angels. Hopefully this helps others out there, and if you have any questions just give me a holler here! I’m not an expert and I’m not raising 1,000’s of these guys, but I raise what I have the space for and this is what works for me. Appreciate you guys for reading all the way through this!

For sure! I’ll look at stuff for far too long and then I’ll go to my girl and say, “convince me to spend this $80”. And she does. And then I buy it, lol. I just have a hard time spending money on myself.

@nabokovfan87 Yeah, absolutely. I knew the light would ship in its own box and it makes sense that the 14lb bag of salt was shipped separately as well. I’ve definitely had my orders split up in 2 boxes before, this was just the first time getting 3, lol. After shipping all that to me I’d be surprised if ACO actually made anything off my order…

This is me as well. I don’t necessarily “try” to breed my fish. But, if the way I keep them results in eggs/fry I definitely want to try and raise them. I get it!

For tanks 10 gallons and smaller I use just a sponge filter. For 20 gallons and bigger I use both a sponge filter and a HOB. I agree with the reasons that others listed above. The great thing about YOUR aquarium is it’s YOURS and you can do what you want with it and see how it goes!

New stuff came in today! For the first time in history I received 3 different packages: -(1) 48” light that shipped in the box -(1) box that contained my Brine Shrimp Salt -(1) box that contained my small sponge filter for my girlfriends shrimp tank and 2x algae scrubbers I immediately ripped open the light and threw it on the tank. For the first time in 3 years I’m slightly disappointed with an ACO product. I’ve heard Cory (not tagging on purpose) talk about the light and how it mimics sunlight, how it mimics nature, and how it was a light designed for him, but I didn’t have that “yes! This is EXACTLY what I wanted and soooooo worth my money” feeling that I normally get from ACO products. Is the light bad? No. The warranty is amazing, I know it gonna hold up, I know it’s highly water resistant, and I know it’s a product built to last but I didn’t have that “heck ya” feeling when I first hooked it up. I don’t plan on returning the light. I’m gonna rock it and see how it goes. I’m still happy to promote and support and excellent company, but for the first time I’m slightly disappointed in a product. Maybe I just prefer more white light over more yellow light. Maybe that’s the lesson to be learned for me personally. Brine Shrimp Salt seems rad and I’m super excited to set up the hatchery for the next batch. Upon immediate inspection, the salt is suuuuper fine so that means it should dissolve even faster. On top of that, I’m hoping that it has all the trace elements and everything BBS need for my super soft water to make my hatches even better. I’m stoked to try this product out. Small sponge filter will get thrown in my grow out tank to culture beneficial bacteria until my girl’s shrimp tank is ready. I also know that the algae scrubbers are legit so I’m excited to have some stock on hand. You can read through this journal/see my other posts on this forum and you will understand that I’m a massive ACO fan. That being said, if I have one final gripe (in addition to the light that I’m not sure is for me) it’s that the free sticker program is back, but it seems to be random at this point. On my last order I received a sticker that I already had from when the program was numbered based on the number of orders you have placed. On the order I received today, it was yet again a duplicate sticker. I appreciate the free gift(s), but I would rather receive nothing and help the environment when compared to 2x something I already have. The duplicate stickers have been put in a place where they’ll never see the light of day, and it just feels weird that I received something for free that I’d rather not have if it’s just going to be random. Are they going for a “lottery” system where “maybe” I’ll get something new? If that’s the case I’d rather just opt out and save the random stickers for a new Nerm that doesn’t have the first 19 that were offered back in the day. Cheers, Nerms. It’s not all sunshine and rainbows all the time; such is life. But hopefully it all works out in the end. I hope this journal post doesn’t come across as super negative and I’ve lost hope. That’s not it at all. Instead, I’m trying to give my 100% completely honest feedback with my most recent experience(s). Based upon my 21 orders over the last 3 years (shout out to the old sticker program that I proudly displayed on my rack for making it easy to track orders) I still believe in the company and what they stand for. I just think a couple things could be slightly improved.

6 gallon dirted cube was pearling pretty hard so I tried to get a decent pic Red Root Floaters are killing it in here, too. Not only are the roots getting red and longer than I’ve ever seen, but the tops are tuning a deep red, too. Picture doesn’t really do it justice, but it should just get better and better from here. I’m kinda digging this lower trim, red root floater combo over the jungle style that this tank rocks when I get lazy. Maybe I’ll try to keep it trimmed every 3-4 weeks instead of every 6-8 weeks. Packages should arrive from the Co-op tomorrow. Excited to bust out the new lights and play with some new things.

I got mine from Harbor Freight and like @knee if I remember correctly it was around the $20 mark

Received this email today and thought I’d share for anyone thinking about a new tank. Looks like the sale goes through 4/1/23

I’ve used lots of the Freesea or Orlushy heaters off Amazon for a budget friendly option and haven’t had any real issues. I think I’ve replaced 1 heater in the past 3 years. Having 14 tanks I had to keep them somewhat budget friendly and I haven’t regretted the decision to run these heaters. So much so that I bought 2 more a week ago. 1 for my girlfriends shrimp tank and 1 for my 20 gallon long conversion project. For my 10 gallon QT/grow out tanks I run 50 watt heaters. They’re on the bottom of my rack, too. House is kept at 69-70 degrees. 50 watts seems to get the job done for me.