LisaTheWulf

How did this all turn out? I came across this thread looking for reasons fish flash. Been really helpful!

Bladder Snail! Well...guess I no longer feel badly that Cuddles keeps trying to eat it. Perhaps Tumble gets yet another relocation to the loach tank.

Is there a thread on What The Heck Is This NEW Snail? I got a nerite a while ago (on purpose) and have really delighted in watching the relationship develop between Mucky Nibbles (the nerite) and the prior inhabitant of that tank: Burble The Bumblebee Betta. Just last night I was thinking "Perhaps I need another nerite for my 20 gallon tank," which is currently home to half a dozen mollies and a marble betta named Cuddles (he loves a good snuggle now and then). Lo and behold, this morning I spotted a baby snail in Mucky Nibbles and Burble's tank! I caught it and put it into Cuddles' tank. Here's a picture of Tumble, who I accidentally dropped during relocation. What kind of snail is Tumble? Any thoughts?

Babies

What a great moment you captured @Landon

Especially love the cherry shrimp on the bright green leaf ❤️⭐️🙌🏻

our new Nerite

I love the “best plants for beginners” videos and I think Anubius was one of the first plants I tried. Its done GREAT in one of my tanks, but only so so in the other two, which rotted and idk why 🤷🏻‍♀️ Took an Anubius pic just now and my loaches photo bombed it. 😀

I do! Almost entirely from Aquarium co-op. Two tanks are only live plants; one has a little bit of the plastic left, which I’ll remove once the plants have grown up.

This time last year, my kids started begging me for a new pet. We already had 4 cats and a yippy little dog so I wasn't having it. Mom-life already feels like I'm constantly cleaning up after a huge house party that I didn't even attend and I wasn't about to sign on for more. I thought I was in the clear till my 8 yo came racing home from a neighborhood friends: "MOM!" He said all wide-eyed, solumn, and breathless. "There is something I need to tell you." I braced myself, a multitude of perilous shenanigans rapidly crossing my mind - none of which prepared me for what he said next which was "There's a frog in my backpack." Quickly shifting mental gears, I thought "Oh no. Please, please let it be a LIVING frog in his backpack!" and with all the courage I could muster, we peeked into the front pocket together. There was this teeny, tiny toad, on the verge of a heart attack, but very much alive. With a deep sigh of relief that I wouldn't be adding clean-smooshed-toad-out-of-backpack to my long list of chores, I thought "Maybe it's time for a fish." We set up a 20 gallon tank with a kit from our locally owned fish store, got some gold mollies, mickey mouse platies, corydoras, and a betta. The kids were thrilled for around 48 hours and then as per usual, promptly lost interest. The tank ended up on my new desk and watching those fish reminded me of how much peace and serenity I get from snorkeling, a hobby which had been tabled during the pandemic. I'd recently left a high stress job and a huge part of my vocation included helping people through moments of crisis. My brain was in the habit of being in a constant low to high key panic at work, and I was extremely burnt out and exhausted. I needed a neurological reset; to retrain my brain and entire way of functioning while working. Over the following weeks and months, anytime I'd notice myself panic-working, I'd take a deep breath and watch the fish for as long as it took to calm my mind and body. Instead of doom scrolling the news or zombie clicking through social media, I shifted my screen time to watching fish keeping and aquascaping vloggers. Before I knew it, I was a billion times more relaxed and head over heels for the fish keeping hobby. Some other time I'll write about how I now have close to 100 fish and two more tanks (it escalated quickly cuz live bearers + love = so. many. FISH.) I'm looking forward to learning more from this community and sharing in this lovely hobby! Here is the first tank and first fish: