Lennie

You can easily do a BN or L201 there. When they are small they tend to snack on surfaces more and yes both would enjoy grazing but usually I dont see such behavior from my adults much. You would need a diet heavy on different algaes and offer them nice hiding places that they would feel safe to spend time on and lots of surfaces that they would enjoy to graze around. Plecos love to hide in general You didnt mention the temperature of your tank but you are gonna have to increase it ideally a bit to match the liking of L201 I have never kept L201 but I have another hypancistrus. They love to hide, and need a a bit warm temps that your fish wouldnt be a huge fan of, about 26-30C. A BN female might be a better choice I think, they are more outgoing and in my experience can tolerate lower temps Dont focus on too much about the stocking rules. They dont really mean anything but maybe a guide to a newbie to give an idea. But isnt valid as a general rule anyway. trying to utilise different levels of your tank can be a good idea tho as your next stocking

Angels can do that yes. They are known to eat small fish in general. I think it should be fine. I know people keeping neons with apistos myself. Neons are a common dither choice for apistos from what I know. You can also check pencilfish. They are also popular as apisto dithers

It shouldn't be safe for guppy fry, but otherwise I believe they would leave the adults alone. I would still lean towards short fin fast ones like pandas. That being said, even guppies themselves aren't fully safe for their fry. I used to keep panda guppies in a tank but they had an increase in their popualtion over time so I swapped their tank with my Apistogramma Erythruras, and I obviously forgot one fry there. They didn't touch him ever and he grew up there with them, still living there with the trio 😄 He even steals white worms from them

Exactly my experience. I tried to cover the side on black but didnt help me. I also had this issue only in the smallest betta tank I keep. The bigger and/or community tanks never had similar issues. Try to plant that area. Also if you tank can support it, adding a few fish might be nice too. I don't think all bettas are community tank fish for real, but at the same time, I think they are also bored, usually being kept in small tanks all alone, having nothing to do. BUT, you will need to remove betta and redesign the tank a bit, put in other fish and add betta again if you wanna add fish. And be ready for any secondary plan if it doesn't work. Otherwise the tank is its territory now and no new direct additions will be welcomed.

I was reading it being sad and then I saw the close up snex picture you shared 🤣 lol over 2 years is very nice. Mystery snails are so much fun to have and usually have a shorter lifespan Rest in peace lil guy

Hello everyone. In our local forum, I have seen someone mentioning this product and it being the only thing that has ever worked to solve their planaria problem (except no-planaria, they did not try it as it is not snail safe) The product claims to be effective against hydra and planaria. Also in one page it is mentioned to be effective for Vorticella and Scutariella, however I have not seen that claim on the product. Safe for plants, snails, fish, shrimp, and biological filter. Has no impact on ph, gh, kh. This is the product: The ingredients are: mint, thyme, garlic extracts, propylene glychol. I am surprised something with these ingredients is found to be very effective. Has anyone tried this or something similar? What's your experience like? If it is a snail-safe option and as effective as no-planaria, then it may be a great substitute

I prefer keeping the heater close to the intake tube or the flow so it spreads the heated water around better. This way heater's location look isolated to me. Other than that, maybe making sure the artificial plants you wanna add are not sharp. You can use your hand gently and I would personally not keep anything feels sharp. I have seen physical injuries a couple times before and the only thing that really may cause it was driftwood. Fish can dart and stuff, and may accidentally hurt themselves. Or at least try to not get fish like long fin bettas or other fish that would be more prone to get hurt by anything with a sharp texture.

Can it be bcoz they use breather bags instead of normal ones there? Breather bags should not be floated, but it is more about an oxygen issue, does not match the reasons mentioned. Here is Duck’s message on it: Otherwise, if we are talking about normal bags, I float it and turn the lights off, and then plop and drop. I no longer drip acclimate any fish. But if we are talking about extremely sensitive ones like wild caught altums, I heard from experience that only drip acclimate works in this case. some people float it and add water at the same time from the top by opening a bag. So maybe your lfs referred to this. I just float it to equalize temperature and never open the bag.

Feeding heavily on algae when it comes to commercial foods and supporting diet with blanched veggies might be a better idea I think. Veggy based fish food may include fish and fish derivatives, veggie protein, etc as their main ingredients and sometimes the amount of algae is around %1 or so. Or you meant algae wafers? I wash and prepare all the veggies ready to be fed by blanching stored in the freezer. My bristlenoses have much easier time eating blanched veggies, or boiled if I gotta be honest. I don't feed cucumber to anything, but I do use zucchini. Other than that I also use capia pepper, green beans, peas, collard greens, pumpkin. Mine are never picky and they love veggies. You can also make snellos with these if you are lazy just like me, but avoid stuff added specifically for snails. It works well for me

It mentions different salinity groups and max salinity tested was 2ppt. Out of 80 fish, 10 died at the end of the testings. Also it says "There is evidence that salt in the water may be stressing the C. aeneus but that this stress does not cause significant mortality over a 13 week period. Furthermore, 13 of 16 fish survived a salt concentration of 2.0 ppt for the entire study period and 16 of 16 fish survived in the 1.0 ppt water." Stress is stress. Fish don't have to die for it to be bad I think. Also stress is even worse during treatments because it lowers immunity, isn't it? Tanks had no filration for 2 weeks and fish were exposed to ammonia. I found this weird ngl. Moreover, it says "The labor involved in water changes became prohibitive and sponge filters were added to each aquarium. Once the sponge filters became established (approximately 3 weeks), water testing was reduced to every 72 hours and water changes to once per week." So fish were also exposed to ammonia around 5 weeks or so in total, or am I misunderstanding? So can we say ammonia is also fine for fish and we need no filtration based on this, just the way salinity is considered to be? In this belowmentioned article, it says "One of the best treatments and preventives for Ich has been 2 to 3 parts per thousand (ppt) of salt indefinitely. This is usually a very effective treatment for tank and recirculation systems but is not cost effective for ponds. In one recent case, however, Ich was observed to tolerate 3 ppt salt, while in another case, Ich withstood 5 ppt." So the range is above what has been tried and seen as a stress factor already on cories. https://aquaculture.ca.uky.edu/sites/aquaculture.ca.uky.edu/files/srac_476_ich_white_spot_disease.pdf Also it is mentioned as 3 to 5ppt salinity here as well: "A slight increase in salinity can help decrease osmoregulatory stress caused by the damage this parasite causes to the external tissues of the fish. At warmer water temperatures (75–79°F), use of 4–5 g/L (= 4–5 ppt) salt (sodium chloride) in a prolonged bath for 7 to 10 days is another effective treatment in smaller systems, provided the fish species can handle the increased salt concentration. Because theronts are intolerant to increased salinity levels of 3–5 ppt, salt is often added to aquaria or tanks that are being treated with formalin to enhance the response to treatment. Most freshwater fish can tolerate 5 ppt salinity for several weeks and many can live in 3 ppt permanently; however, it is important to know the specific tolerances for each species to be treated. Plants in an aquarium or small ornamental pond may not tolerate increased salinity." https://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/publication/FA006 So even tho the article you shared tried 2ppt salinity at max and still showed it as a stressor and had losses even without fish being sick and salt not being used as a treatment tool, I think it is hard to say cories are fine with it. Also other sources I mentioned above recommend at least the highest amount tried in that research but ideally higher due to ich's tolerance, even going up to 5ppt which is more than twice the highest salinity tested. That being said, I am not a vet so this is all coming from a hobbyist perspective from what I read right now. Only @Odd Duck may help or comment further I suppose

Kuhlis surely dig! I keep mine on aquasoil and they love it. Here is a pic I caught. In fact I added some sand to their tank but they remained uninterested at least from what I see. Aquasoil is def the fav of mine But they are very nocturnal and hard to see overall. I had to try these noodles ones and I like them. But if I gotta be honest, they are not great if you have only one display tank and you wanna watch fish often. They are hard to see. My tank offers lots of hidding placest and it is still hard to see them. They are somewhere in this jungle

I guess you have aquasoil. I want to mention that I personally had issues keeping cories on aquasoil, or better to say any bottom that is hard to keep "clean" whether it is based on the substrate and/or based on the "dirtiness" of other fish. Both gold lasers as a grow out in the super red BN breeding tank and pygmy cories in my full aquasoil tank started to have bacterial issues gradually. I mean, pygmys having issues after a year, Im not talking about a short term effect but rather keeping them on aquasoil on a long term. However my sterbais who have a partial aquasoil in their tank does not seem to have issues, the majority of the tank is fine sand. Just a fair warning for cories. In my experience cories need a clean bottom to do well in the long term meanwhile majority of other bottom dwellers I keep don't seem to care it as much as they do. I personally find it hard to keep aquasoil clean. In addition, I tried pygmy cories with my female betta and gradually I had issues. I personally don't believe pygmys are a good option for bettas based on my experience. Maybe their wiggling, the way they move triggers the betta? Idk. I know the betta's character matters but my female is not aggressive really in general.

That looks like cyanobacteria/blue green algae. You may want to kill it before it spreads too much Also the ram on the right have a sunken belly it seems. You may need to try stuff like deworming/using antibiotics etc. @Colu what do you think?

In my experience, Nerites are pretty bad at correcting themselves. So I would correct its shell position

I had 11 bettas till this day and none were a shrimp hunter. Babies are snack to almost every fish anyway. But for sure there is a risk of trying. But everything is risky to try together with a betta 🤷🏼‍♂️

Shrimp are an amazing cleanup crew. They will cover the job of finding all leftover food pieces and help you in this regard. My advice would be, embrace the pest snails if you happen to get them, but otherwise don't add any intentionally if it is not a specific scenario. You add yourself an extra task to be able to control a population all the time. And in a shrimp tank, when you want to support their diet, it gets hard to control the population of pest snails. Ramshorns aint any different than MTS when it comes to population control. Endlers reproduce very quickly and mine almost never eat their own babies. That is something to keep in mind. In 1-2 months your tank would be easily overstocked if you keep a trio ( I assume 1m:2f). You may need another grow out tank for this purpose soon enough if you choose this path. You bred them in the past too so you should be fairly familiar to what I mean

There is an issue with betta community tanks. In order to have the increased success rate to keep a betta community, you should add betta the last. Otherwise it claims the space as its territory and will be unlikely to welcome any other future additions to his territory. However, there is also no guarantee for a betta community tank to work even if you stock it this way. Therefore there will be always a chance for you to fail to keep a betta in a community tank and you may have to make a choice between to either rehome all other fish, or the betta(which is your son’s fav.) or this may be another reason to setup a new tank 🤪🤣 10g is too small for plecos in my opinion. Big bioload, big size, so much poop. Hillstreams usually like cooler temps more flow and lots of areas around to graze on. Bettas prefer high temp, doesnt like flow and if looking for a long fin version, they struggle much more with any flow and objects around so a simpler design is usually better. In a 10g, I would lean towards fish that are both small in size and that are not super active. Danios are active fish in general and emperor tetras are fairly big. I would lean towards smaller sized calm fish like embers, dwarf rasboras, etc. 10g is more suitable for pygmy/habrosus/hastatus cories imo due to their small size. However I had issues keeping pygmy cories with bettas in the past. In my very own experience, I would not suggest anyone to keep small cories with bettas anymore. In a 10g I would to something like: -1 female betta or 1 plakat male betta(please search further for some color and genetic problems linked to certain looks, like dragonscales being prone to blindness, coloring up kois being more prone to tumor/cancer etc) -10 dwarf rasbora OR ember tetras OR 10 pseudomugil maybe - Neocaridina shrimp you like - Nerite snail If you would aerate the water well, you may consider one borneo sucker even tho they like it cooler, higher flow, more oxygen type of tank

I think keeping them in small containers is no help. I have a single plastic container which around 60 liter. Bigger is better Spirulina can cause ammonia spike quite fast. Usually uneaten sera micron start causing 0.5ppm ammonia reading in a fry container around 30-45 mins or so and it is %51 spirulina. Probably you are having issues with parameters and how small the 1/2g is so it is very hard to control the parameters I feed mine a mixture of active yeast and spirulina but tiny amount of both. I prepare it fresh for every feeding. I feed my culture once every 2-3 days, and other days they snack around the algae growth around. If you have access to green water that would be great. I tried to culture mine at home with fertilizer and long lighting but didnt work for me

I have vinegar eels, white worms, and daphnia. Feel free to ask anytime in dms dude in case you need help on how to keep them going. I'm planning to get me some grindal worms too for pea puffers

I think you have too many food already 😆 And all are good quality. I don't think you "need" more. If you buy good quality food already, they aren't usually extremely different compared to each other. as long as your fish like it and happy, I don't think you need to add 3-4 different food from each good quality brand. Save your money I would say. I would instead try to add more live or frozen foods to their diet instead of adding more commercial foods. Like grindal worms, white worms, daphnia, live bbs, etc.

That is a lovely tank with a nice stock. I think gouramis like taking naps and we may mistake is with being shy. I have been keeping my honey gourami about 2 years by now and when Im not around the tank he likes to take a nap somewhere from time to time. This is not honey gourami specific. I sometimes see my gold gouramis doing this too! Can it be a this sort of action that make you consider it as shy? Does it hide a lot or just take a nap somewhere dont see? I surely agree that honey gouramis like action going around tho. Mine usually easily feels stressed if there is not enough fish around. I have kept him in quite big tanks with very little stocking and he was glass surfing all the time but it directly changes when he is introduced to a tank with lots of fish. If I were you I would add more to the rasbora school maybe up to 15 in total, and don’t add anything else. And I would try to breed panda cories myself in the future because easy to do and would be cute to increase your own school with the babies you raise. I did not advice to increase the school of panda cories directly as I am unsure how your ram would like it now or in the future. My gbr and male apisto cacatuoides is not a fan of having bottom dwellers around and can be bullies. I saw mine bullying cories and red lizard whiptails in the past. adding more guppies is pointless IMO if you dont wanna add female. They are not meant to be kept in male only groups anyway, and since you dont wanna keep them really, you will be obliged to add more and more gradually due to losing some in the future at least due to old age.

Usually the shell damage is unsightly until it gets to a serious level like flesh being exposed. You cant heal it but you can prevent it getting worse. Your new friend seems to have a bad one going in but it is common for the wildcaught snails. Maybe you have noticed but sometimes they climb to the glass or so, and they directly throw themselves on the ground instead of slowly going back again or parasnailing like mysteries do. Therefore, I suggest to avoid any decoration or rocks around the glass in order to prevent further mechanical damage. Your tank seems to have nothing very close to the tank sides so thats good Another thing is snail shells are usually mostly made of calcium carbonate. Therefore, when the water is acidic, their shell keeps dissolving slowly and you may notice patches around. The best option is keeping them at higher ph but surely not low. I have mine at 7.5. Other than that try to have a good range of kh and gh in the tank. Calcium in the water column and in the diet is important. Snellos are basically home made snail foods that are based on your creativitY You basically mix stuff like veggies, a calcium source(powdered egg shell, calcium source like hikari crab cuisine, calcium carbonate powder etc), protein source (usually needed as that trapdoor is something similar to a finger nail protein If Im not mistaken), algae source ( I use crushed algae wafers or spirulina powder directly), a binder like agar agar or gelatin. You turn it into cubes and keep them in the freezer and feed whenever! Something like this: you may find many recipes on Lav’s channel. This is a recipe that uses agar agar instead of gelatin as a binder https://floridamysterysnails.com/2018/05/30/how-to-make-snello-snail-jello/

Find someone who looks at you the way this garra looks at his girl This one is a winner. Won his heart and love. 😆🤪

sawbwas want much cooler water than pearl gouramis do so I think that's not very ideal. Also females have no color and males don't usually look like what are shown to be in the pictures from what I understand. My friend brought some but once I made more research I quit the idea of buying some, first being the temperature and second being them not actually looking like what internet shows you. Which is no suprise because pics online and some videos/lights sometimes make fish seem extremely colorful. I remember the first time I saw CPDs irl after seeing them online and in some videos. I was kinda shocked

Hello Knee! I'm glad to see you are back. Hope everything is much better there now. Happy too see you again Happy new year!