Frogmouth Catfish

Thank you for the detailed breakdown, FurryPleco, clearly there's still much to learn

Looking forward to hearing about your results with these. Cool to see new genuses (genii?) of plants getting into the hobby.

An article I read seemed to reinterate that there is no known cure, because it is a weird species of protist/fungi of some variety. They only recommended letting the tank 'fallow' with none of the affected species for at least several weeks before adding other fish of the same affected species back--it ended up killing most of my cardinal tetras over time. I could add more, but I've considered the tank essentially 'scuttled' for other cardinals--it doesn't seem to affect anything aside from cardinals, neons, and a few other closely related species, so the tank is basically fine otherwise.

Just saw these in a PetSmart for the first time today--seems as if they're trying to compete with Aquaclears and Tidals. I'm always fascinated by new equipment purely from a curiosity standpoint, so I was looking at them on their website: https://www.petsmart.com/fish/filters-and-pumps/filters/top-fin-pro-power-filter---70-gallon-63780.html?cgid=300108. There are a few things that seem really counterintuitive about it--obviously, the 'protein' skimmer, which should probably be called a surface skimmer, paired with a sponge on the intake? Does that defeat the purpose of the sponge, somewhat? The sponge porosity seems iffy, just based on the picture--not as cramped as the mini ones Fluval sells, or used to sell, but not as good as the Coop ones. Internal media appears to be the standard trifecta of carbon pack, bio-ceramics, and sponge. What's up with that weird grill over the outlet? Someone at PetSmart worried a stiphodon goby might climb up the stream and live in there for a few weeks? (Don't laugh, it's happened to me several times). And boy, that plastic color. It just screams 'doctor's office.' I can TASTE that sterile dentist waiting room smell every time I look at this thing. Anyone tried them out? Thoughts?

Yes, mine are also hot enough to where I would assume they would blister if I left them on there. But, Seattle_Aquarist makes a case that it is functioning as it is supposed to, by drawing heat up and away from the lights, I think

It's on a glass lid, I find that if I raise it up on the brackets, it produces quite a bit of glare. However, I think 'more' heat is coming off the top, rather than the underside--I can touch my fingers to the light for more than a few seconds before it becomes intolerable, whereas its the top of the light that produces the most 'youch,' reaction.

Those slender tetras look great. And nice to see more mudfish!

I have a Fluval 3.0 on a 29gal with a custom setup of around 2% blues, 75% reds, and 95% on the whites, set to ramp up and down through the day. I'm noticing it runs REALLY hot--so hot I can't touch it for more than a second, and the tank is hovering around 81F without any supplemental heating, now. I've seen some people say they do run warm, but for an LED, it seems a bit much. Is this normal?

Thought I'd compare the Fluval 3.0 24 inch with my NICREW Plus LED. First pic is the Fluval on with all settings at 100%; second pic is the NICREW. Fluval seems brighter up top and with richer colors--however, as it's a 24 inch, it doesn't quite illuminate the 'sides' as well as the NICREW, which runs the full length of the tank. (a 29 gallon), leaving them looking a bit darker in-person. The next size up would obviously be far too wide for the tank. Thoughts?

Empire gudgeon are neat; fully colored up males look fire engine red. I think they're brackish breeders (fry wash out to estuaries or even the sea) could be a fun breeding project for someone who wants a major challenge.

Hi Durban, your tanks look great. Do shops in South Africa stock a lot of fish from the West African waterways (ropefish, kribensis, etc) and lake cichlids, or are fish from elsewhere more popular?

Very exciting to see rainbow shiners breeding in captivity for people

Always been a fan of elephant nose ever since I first saw one in a shop as a kid. Would love to do a big group of them someday to get the true schooling behavior going--someone in my area apparently pulled it off in the aughts, but it took like 16 of them to spread out the aggression.

Over the last year I've seen these plants start popping up in a few forums -- usually listed as Xyris, sometimes Xyris sp. Red or Xyris sp. [some other term]. They're extremely pricy--I've seen little single sprigs of them going for as much as 100$, and way, WAY more for a big plant like the one in the middle of the picture I've attached. I can hardly find any info on them--they seem to be pretty cutting edge in planted tanks. Has anyone kept them? Difficult, high light/c02/ferts? Are these the next hot 'thing' a few years from now?