[Kuhli Loaches and Hillstream Loaches in a 29?]

I would do 7-9 kuhlis in a 29g. You can also keep hillstream loaches singly or in a trio+. There's a chance they will breed if you keep a group. I have 20+ baby hillstreams surfing about, they are quite amusing.

[Flourite Black Sand for Bottom Dwellers?]

I have fluorite sand. It seems fine for my reticulated hillstream loaches, although they typically hang on the glass.

I also have roseline sharks, siameae algae eaters and a rainbow shark who will eat at the bottom with their barbels and I haven't noticed any injuries from the sand.

[New fish ideas for 40 gallon]

I like larger centerpiece fish personally. Maybe a pair of kribensis if the bottom isn't looking too crowded?

[Ninjournal]

Photos of my newer babies and some extras

Derps new tankmates:

"Crayola" the Blue Gularis

Congo Tetras

"Steve" the flagtail

"Dr Butterface" AKA "Lil Butters" the electric blue jack dempsey

"Moody" the rotkeil severum

Shark Tank

"Chip" the indian lilac crab. They came in a bit damaged, but should be able to repair almost everything on their next molt.

They came with a butterfly tattoo

20h paludarium

"Indigo" the betta

misc photos from other tanks

 

[Non-pet animal photos and videos]

On 9/12/2024 at 11:29 AM, Chick-In-Of-TheSea said:

Wow, saw this on Reddit. Photocred: u/SpiritualBike7180

 

they said they are West African biscuit starfish 😍

Whuuuut. They look like stuffed animals. So cute.

[Best Plant Substrate? Tank Remodel]

The easiest to plant in is fine sand in my experience, so that is my favorite. I like the caribsea moonlight sand. I've heard others suggests that plants with small roots will have a hard time growing in fine sand, but I haven't had that issue personally. Just add root tabs under root feeders.

[Benefits of aquarium light riser?]

I use risers in a few tanks. It basically gives the light a larger range of coverage at the cost of some intensity. 

[What are your favorite plant’s to grow in your fish tanks?]

I used to be really I into ludwigia narrow leaf, hygrophila siamensis, bacopa Carolina, tiger lotus and dwarf chain sword. 

Now that I am too lazy to do constant plant maintenance, I'm really into crypts, swords and dwarf lily.

[Ninjournal]

Some bonus fiddler crab photos and a video of some dancing.

[Ninjournal]

Finished the rough draft of my new 75g and moved over my angelfish. Getting a roktiel severum, dwarf red tail eel, an electric blue jack Dempsey and a flagtail to join him. Pretty excited to have an oddball squad.

 

[Dwarf Redtail eel]

Thanks for sharing these updates on your eel. I'm getting one soon for my new 75g. 

[How do you calm a hyper aggressive angelfish]

Lowering the temperature of the tank could also help.

[Plant Identification]

My first guess is ????? My second guess is bacopa. My third guess is ludwigia.

[Best tetra tank mates for angelfish]

A bit of a scuffed photo, but here is my angel with the ruby barbs.

[Best tetra tank mates for angelfish]

I kept black skirts in my 29g with my angelfish for a while and I didn't really enjoy it. They were quite nippy, mostly towards each other and my mystery snails. I ended up returning them. I don't really trust them to be peaceful personally.

I like rummynose tetra with angelfish, but if your angel is predatory they could be eaten. I've had a good experience my black ruby barbs and my angelfish in my 29g, if you are open to non tetras.

[New Riparium Questions]

On 8/29/2024 at 8:23 PM, face said:

ll animals produce ammonia it’s toxic cycling a tank is just letting bacteria grow that eat the ammonia turning it into less toxic stuff (nitrite then nitrate )it can take weeks or a couple months for this to happen 

to cycle a tank you need to add ammonia then wait for the bacteria to grow the only way to know when it’s done is to test for ammonia nitrite and nitrate if you already have animals in the aquarium you’d test and when the ammonia or nitrite get to high you’d change water to lower them if you don’t have anything in it yet you add ammonia then just wait for it to go away 

^This is all correct. Personally I like to cycle tanks with fish in them so I can use fish food and fish waste as my ammonia and nitrite sources and don't have to manually add ammonia to the tank. Also once your cycle is finished in this way, you know that the bacteria in your tank is enough to keep up with the fish in your tank. I add bacteria in a bottle like Fritz Zyme 7 or Seachem stability to kickstart the process and dose the tank with a water conditioner every day like Fritz Complete or Seachem Prime to detoxify the ammonia and nitrite (rendering it harmless to fish). I test the water everyday and do water changes daily when ammonia or nitrite are over 1.5ppm.

For shrimp, I would definitely wait until the tank is done cycling, is established and is growing algae. They also require (in my opinion) 3+ hour long drip acclimation to survive the acclimation process consistently. Shrimp are pretty sensitive to changes in water and benefit from having detritus and algae to nibble on.

[New tank stocking advice request]

On 8/29/2024 at 12:38 PM, illquixote said:

8 diamond tetras, 1 bristlenose pleco, 6+ glofish danios, and 6+ corys be too much (perhaps especially so for beginners).

That stocking sounds fine. If aqua advisor says that is 53%, I would go for it. Just make sure you keep testing your water for ammonia and nitrites when adding additional fish.

[Experiences with Aquarium Burnout]

I'm just now getting over my first burnout period. This was triggered by several things. Two of my favorite crabs passed away, most of my anubias rotted and for some reason I can't grow tiger lotus anymore in one of my tanks that used to be full of it. I also had stem plants in most of my tanks that required a lot of maintenance to look correct.

What got me interested again was my fiddler crabs, vampire crabs and crayfish doing well and being adorable. I also noticed that my 2 lower light tanks with slower growing plants still looked quite good despite my lack of pruning and fertilizing for a few months. So now I'm re-scaping all my tanks to be more like those 2.

[Stocking recommendations for 10gal. community tank]

Maybe a betta as a centerpiece fish? Cherry shrimp are also cool.

You could also try some nano crustaceans like Thai micro crabs or freshwater pom pom crabs.

[Non-pet animal photos and videos]

On 8/25/2024 at 6:41 AM, Mississippi fish guy said:

Do you know what kind of snail that is?

Could be a ghost Bulimulus.

[What do you keep with your Rabbit Snail?]

I keep mine with swordtails, bristelnose plecos and dwarf petricola catfish in the upper 70s.

[Community tank recommendations.]

I like turquoise rainbowfish a lot

[Ninjournal]

Some nature photos and couple of Crustacean shots. I've been re-scaping my tanks with easier to maintain plants and will probably share more soon.

[Non-pet animal photos and videos]

Just another bun bun.

[Rainbow Shark Care Tips 🦈🌈]

On 8/4/2024 at 10:06 AM, Lennie said:

They look AMAZING.

Does the Shark have a name? I know you like to name your fish/crabs. 🙂 

 

Im happy to see they get along and live happily🩵 Hope I have a similar experience

Also thanks for the response. I was not expecting one as you were not active lately. I love your tanks mate, you should come online more often 🙂

That's Arrie the rainbow shark. I'm glad you like my tanks. I'm in a bit of a burn out period at the moment and have been neglecting my scapes. I think I'm going to redo most of them with slow growing plants eventually when I feel up to it.