Lennie

Only fine filter like filter wools and similar very fine pads may work for such fine particles sadly. Sponge filters work good for biological filtration and holding bigger particles around them but especially for mechanical filtration, they are not enough IMO. At least that's my experience

If you ask me, considering your parameters are OK, you need to upgrade your mechanical filtration game This sort of look happens when my fine filters in my HOB got yucky and fish disturb the soily tank substrate

Unless there is an emergency situation, with the options available in todays modern world with numerous products I cant see why would someone do a fish in cycle. especially as a beginner in the hobby, avoid it. It gives you no good and your fish “survive” the harm in the best scenario. Go for the fishless cycle and learn about the hobby while your tank is cycling. Patience is the key to this hobby. Any person who cannot be patient to do a fishless cycle will gradually fail in the hobby, because this is all it is about, being patient about learning reading waiting and all. I understand your excitement very much. We have all been there, still are. When I was cycling my first saltwater tank, it took even longer than fw! It was sooo exciting to wait but it made me learn so many things during this waiting period. Believe me, you won't regret it. Fixing a problem requires much more attention and work than choosing the safe way. Testing too much, too many water changes to try keeping readings low, and so on! Instead you can just setup your tank, put in ammonia and bottled bacteria, and instead do nothing basically until your levels read okay. Also saves you from lots of worrisome about your fishes health and tank condition. If you are even OK to wait longer, you don't even have to use bottled bacteria. As a beginner, last thing you would want is worry about your animal's health and potential issues/deaths. Enjoy your time reading and learning instead while your tank is full doing its thingy out there

Looks normal to me. Fancy halfmoon male, does not have a specific name for the coloration I believe. Good to see he will have a happy home, but be careful, watch closely to see his behavior versus shrimp and snails. Also those long fins may be fragile to any trauma, so although the tank looks beautiful, it is a bit risky to keep a betta with long fins with such gaps and wood pieces etc. Those shrimp don't look like blue jellies to me. Blue jellies are very light in color, almost like your betta's blue. Those look like blue shrimp, they are in the separate part of the color tree

Nothing. I added them to established tanks with lots of wood pieces and rocks and didn’t clean glasses or at least left some sides untouched. I also offer leaf litter when they start decaying snails may graze on them And I always understock them and have no competition on the available natural geowth to graze. So no other well known algae eaters of the same algae type like otos or bn that may graze on similar growth to not have any competition on the food source. Borneo loach was OK,as they cant eat even eat stuff such as diatoms like otos can do.

you can try feeding snellos and bottom dweller tabs on a feeding dish. You can check bigger size shrimp feeder dishes or stuff like @Chick-In-Of-TheSea use below

Yw Food shouldn't build up on the substrate really. If you are having any sort of struggle, me and others here may try to assist you do have a healthier feeding style. If you wanna share what sort of a build up you are facing

Currently no because my tanks are just aquasoil and sand now and I use HOBs. When I used sponge filter, I pretty much had to. The amount of gunk stays gradually is insane. But that's not an every day type of stuff. I no longer have to use sponge filters at this point as I took most of my fishroom down, and all remaining tanks have HOB. I also have extra 2 HOBs on hand so for an emergency setup I can use any directly with some media taken from other tanks. HOBs are much better at helping mechanical cleaning and lessen your job significantly. I have never used gravel-HOB combination exactly, but I used gravel like substare, JBL Manado, for a couple years back in the days, and even with HOB and one sponge filter running together, lots of gunk stayed in it. So I believe the gravel like structure tends to have this issue. So pretty much yes, I did and would do siphoning but not every water change, once a month is usually OK and if the fish are extremely messy like BN breeding tank, more often is needed for sure.

I agree that fish and plants love it, and mostly it leads to a healthier tank overall. Unless you have very off parameters that either stays at extreme readings of gh/ph /kh, or you face issues when you use tap likely due to readings we cannot even test at a home environment, or contains stuff like ammonia nitrite or super high nitrate, I would say do the changes.

Hey Louise, thanks That’s a good point. Most of the time the “finrot” we call is trauma related for such big fin species to my understanding I tried keeping my Halfmoon male in the tank where you see the nemo plakat male, and it didnt go well. He did not have and teared fins or such as he stayed there for a short period, I moved him to my endler inside tub. He had issues swimming through plants and getting stuck around the wood I had an Ikea box sitting in my basement so I turned it into a small indoor pond. Kept my halfmoon male there instead I havent kept any here but these long shallow tanks would also work well I think, but they are 110x40x25cmh/110 liters. IMO shallow is the best. I get all my tanks custom made and they cost much cheaper than store bought ones here These are my bigger bedroom tanks, but they may give an idea if you like any of them

Here are some examples of mine

Beastie is a friend of mine so I shared my opinion with her before but I will share my personal experience here too so some others may see it Personally, when I got my juveniles from the store and when I raised my fry, they were all pretty active fish. In a level actively hunting live baby brine shrimp in the container or constantly out jumping from one plant leaf to another, moving around the glass, and so on! My adults became a bit less active in a species only tank when I tried to breed them but now in a community tank they are fairly active and always visible. Just like plecos, males tend to claim a tight circular tube and spend majority of their time in there if provided. Mine eat anything I put in the tank. I usually feed Algae tabs, krill flakes and high quality pellets as well as tropical insect menu. They love them all. Mine also LOVE grazing on leaf litter, mainly banana leaves. They are not really grazers, so don't expect feeding on diatom/algae really. I didnt qt mine, one gradually stayed skinny and small, and feeding Sera Baktotabs for a week solved the issue and she became a healthy adult later on. I find these fish a bit fragile to quarantine. Also at this point, since my tanks are going on for long, I worry more about the upcoming fish dealing with the existing pathogens more than the something potentially new they may bring in

The best one I have is Tropical’s Hi-Algae XXL tabs I guess. They have above %52 algae and 5 different algaes in it. This is my fav for fish like bristlenose too. It may take time fish to convert to a healthier diet but it happens with some work and patience Ingredients: algae (Spirulina platensis 36%, Ascophyllum nodosum 8%, Laminaria digitata 6%, Chlorella vulgaris 1.2%, Lithothamnium calcareum 1.2%), cereals, derivatives of vegetable origin (including oak bark meal 1%), molluscs and crustaceans (whole shrimps meal 4%, krill meal 3%), fruit (apples 4%), vegetable protein extracts, fish and fish derivatives, yeasts, oils and fats, minerals (including zeolite 1%). Additives (per kg): Vitamins, pro-vitamins and chemically well-defined substances having similar effect: vit. A 35 400 IU, vit. D3 2 100 IU, vit. E 135 mg, vit. C 515 mg. Compounds of trace elements: E1 (Fe) 41.0 mg, E6 (Zn) 11.5 mg, E5 (Mn) 8.5 mg, E4 (Cu) 2.0 mg, E2 (I) 0.2 mg, E8 (Se) 0.2 mg, E7 (Mo) 0.05 mg. Antioxidants. Analytical constituents: crude protein 41.0%, crude oils and fats 6.3%, crude fibres 4.1%, moisture 10.0% I personally dont like Hikari’s algae tab. Or better to say I like to feed my animals of any sort when I can clearly see the ingredients in in it. Hikari algae tabs dont even have algae as the first ingredients in it. Ingredients: fish meal, wheat flour, wheat germ meal, starch, dried seaweed meal, dried bakery products, alfalfa concentrate, alfalfa meal, brewers yeast, soybean meal, fish oil, krill meal, spirulina, garlic, chlorella, stabilized vitamin C, vitamins, minerals. Crude Protein: min 33%; Crude Fat: min 4%; Crude Fibre: max 3%; Moisture: 10%; Crude Ash: 17%; phosphorous: 0.8% I fed it to my snails so time ago when I got it to not waste the product and money but one pack is even outdated left forgotten. I like the current ones I feed more. Sadly no fish ever liked new life spectrum’s algae tabs in my case even snails mostly didnt touch it We dont have nortfin here

If your water level isnt lower than the Aquaclear basket are where the motor is, it self primes after a power out anyway. All I do is never let the tank water level go lower than the AC basket. All 5 of mine self primes this way in case of a power out. The only time I have to fill it before running it again is during water changes, as water level goes low and it empties itself I would buy AC50 if you are interested in ACs for that tank size

I have not seen one eating any sort to this day. I had like 11 nerites and I have 4 different algae tabs and I prep snellos so my vote goes to none

never kept one myself but planetcatfish says 24-30C (75.2-86F) https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=126 also Rebecca has a video on them

To me, that’s a good one. Just inform them you have been to the hobby for x years with y amount of tanks and you keep this one without a heater but your tank sits around 72F min throughout the year anyway, if that’s the case ofc. They seem to prioritize the life of the animal over money with this attitude. For many people, the tank temp may get low enough to negatively affect the fish without a heater during colder seasons. and yes even around 20C during winter time, my bristlenoses were still breeding like rabbits. Also, not a pleco, but you can consider a group of hillstream loaches/borneo suckers instead for those temps as well

I hope it works well for you friend. It always work for me when bettas added to the community tanks last, except the cases where the tank has or will have a dwarf cichlid. My rams HATED my betta in two attempts, and my female beta HATED my apistogramma cacatuoides triple red male with passion, and made the 160 liter tank a hell to him. Other than these scenario, even with these abovementioned bettas, other community setups always worked. Considering he has a bit of big fins, how's he handling the big tank situation? I tried one halfmoon male in a 40g tank once and it was an instant failure due to having an ac70 there

The obvious thing for me was my male having the white stars and chasing the other one. And my other one, the panda, fits in the terms of female goldfish visiually here is Luke’s video on goldfish gender. You can see those white stars on males They are both the same fish! He turned from black and white to that orange over the year I knew Goldfish can change colors but I wasnt expecting this much of a change

35g is a bit too small for the goldfish in the longterm. My oranda got bigger than the size of my palm just after a year and outgrew my 100x40x40cm/160liter/40g tank. These guys grow big! Also if you are planning to get two, make sure to get same gender. It can be really annoying for a single female to be chased by a male in the tank, in my experience. My baby goldfish got from this: to this, approximately in 8 months: So two of them would outgrow a 35g pretty fast I think. Normal body shaped goldfish are usually healthier but they need even bigger space due to their higher level of activity and bigger size. I personally got me low quality orandas so they dont have that desired very egg shapey body and huge wens and such. They still have that deformed body but isnt as bad. Never had a single issue once. Avoid such big wens as they even cover their eyes and are fragile part of the body. If Im not mistaken, an aquatic vet says goldfish cannot be constipated due to their physiology. We commonly think they have digestive issues like constipation. Just make sure to feed them sinking food and dont let them eat from the surface https://cafishvet.com/goldfish/truth-about-constipated-goldfish/ Also I would not advise temp swings as these guys are basically nothing like carps in nature these days. I would keep them around 20-25C myself, excluding the increased summer temps you cant control that are not extreme

I did struggle a lot about getting some fish to eat in the past. Like a lot. I know working for 8 months with some fish to make them accept healthy level varied food, and even one sort at the beginning. I know how desperate one can feel not having their pet friends get to eat, from my first hand experience. Helping someone is not only responding one question, but also guiding the way sometimes. Trying many different food alternatives helps a ton to figure out what your fish may eat, especially to get them going. Also having a group dynamic, feeling safer, having no off parameters, well designed tank, and such also promotes fish to eat. As these are schooling species, and likely wc fish, even maybe their numbers being low or water parameters being off, being sort of sick, and more can be the reason why they don’t eat. If the aim here is to help the OP, I would share two reliable guides covering all potential food sources for pea puffers and my own experience, as well as their care requirement so they may be more likely to accept one food if not taking another, to help them in other possible ways. As I said, mine were tankbred peas and they were not accepting frozen food. I can put them any sort of cone and they wouldnt accept. No picky fish of mine ever accepted food from a worm cone in my very own experience till today, somehow even my normal fish hesistate to eat from it( mine is blue color maybe thats why? I have no clue) So to me, how they get their puffer to eat is first making sure they are not sick, second they have a more crowded population with balanced m-f ratio in a tank designed well for the puffers, third offering different live foods like grindal/white worms, live bbs, daphnia, etc. so that basically includes feeding a varied diet to increase the chance of accepting one or more food options to stay healthy and keep going. Helping is not limited to the question itself when you notice someone actually needs your help in general to basically answer the question above.

I did it and it worked is a bad way of suggesting something, I think. There is no answer for your alternative route of feeding and experience for your past puffer keeping. You cant really know how it really affected them and how else they would end up if they had a richer diet. Wrong diet or undernourishment usually come with a cumulative effect. Simply, today there was a post of my avian vet regarding the effects of feeding very high oily seeds all the time and how they cumulatively effect the birds negatively, and many people commented I give my bird sunflower seeds everyday and nothing happened. He was like, as an avian vet, Im telling you guys how to provide a better diet for your pet friends to avoid cumulative effects even by showing some patients we get based on their diet related issues, and you come up with “I do this without any issues” in the comments sounding like I care about your pet friends even more than you do. A person may come up with the idea of keeping a goldfish or a betta in a super tiny bowl because their pet is alive for years in there, or a person may claim you can just drop in fish and dont care about cycling nor testing because their fish didnt die so cycling or testing is not needed and their fish is never hurt. You can give so many instances for “I did it and it worked” behavior. If the ideal is known, we should rather focus on the better alternative and suggest this option instead. A betta may continue its life in a bowl eating only one brand of cheap food, but a bigger planted tank, alternative feeding options with high quality foods and including live foods like bs/daphnia, etc is an obvious better alternative here in my opinion

Prolapsed I believe. Sadly one of my pingu females also had this issue. If possible to separate, do it, better not let them breed. Both for their health and the wellness of your future fry to prevent such issues. Because, at least for me, the issue was repetitive for the same female but not for others who havent ever experienced it. You can make researches about “guppy prolapse” to find some answers and more pics to compare IRL

You can hatch bbs easily by using eggs but for others you need to find a sterile culture from someone and keep going from there. White worms are super easy. Daphnia can be more challenging in the long run, imo. Hatching bbs is very easy. you can also try grindal worms I think, white worms are a bit too big but I had them already

They need that group dynamic. I highly suggest to increase their number. I had 11 in a 50 liter shallow tank. They were fairly bold but mine were also tank raised. I kept them bare bottom so they could easily find food but I endriched the tank with rocks hiding points floating plants pelia moss etc. Mine loved live bbs, smaller sized daphnia and white worms. Maybe you can try those. Mine didnt accept frozen/fd food even tho they are tankbred. That's not their primary food at all, infact, you can totally avoid feeding snails, as these guys dont have such beak trimming requirement like many other puffers. Also in my experience they cant even "eat" the snail properly. Ive seen many left injured but not killed, but had their antennas and such injured I(yes Im talking about pest snails), it was extremely bothering to witness such occasion for me I personally dont even advice to feed pest snails. Maybe mini ramshorns are an exception if you wanna try, due to their shell being fairly soft and very small so they can go for them if they really want to. here are two guides including the feeding requirements: https://www.thepufferforum.com/forum/library/puffers-in-focus/dwarfpuffercare/ https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldwide.com/post/c-travancoricus