Lennie

If your nitrite is potentially up to 5 ppm, and theyve been exposed to ammonia before that, very likely they just died to due toxicity and not because they were sick. I would not recommend buying a fish again until you complete your cycle and offer a healthy environment, as it is likely the water parameters lead to deaths. Nitrite to nitrate phase takes even longer for me. Please just do a fishless cycle instead.

seriouslyfish says between 18-24C. 76 F is equal to 24.4C. I think it should be okay. Yes, it is slightly above the ideal and maybe forcing the upper limit, but I think it should be okay. Just make sure the water is well oxygenated. In my very limited experience with barbs, they looove to swim. You provide a 75g swimming space with a big group of 20 for such small sized barb. They must love the swimming space they have. I think you gotta think a lot of stuff but not only temperature when you consider to make changes. If you change their tank, unless they are going to another 75g tank, you will be cutting from their swimming space by trading it with decreasing the temperature a bit. You hear me? Moreover, based on where you live, you will likely reach these temps again during hot seasons no matter what. Also netting and changing environment is a stress factor. I personally like to avoid any sort of stress if possible. I think with good oxygenation, they would enjoy a 75g with a big group much more than potential other scenarios.

The downside is, they are extremely hard to control their population if anything goes wrong. They bury, their babies are extremely small, and they give birth to live babies directly. I had to leave town for 1 month and left my tank to care of my parents. When Im back, there were thousands of them. In fact, babies didnt even care if lights are on or off. They didnt even bother to bury like adults do. It was really unpleasing to look at the tank. And I am a huge snail guy. I have all sort of "pest snails". These guys are probably the only one I know if they are in a tank, there will be never going back until I restart a tank from zero. Just fyi. Oh I dont dislike them btw. But I would never intentionally introduce them to a display tank for sure. Id rather go with bigger snails if Im introducing any intentionally. They barely eat any algae I think btw. They are just a good cleanup crew for uneaten food but all it does is boosting their population. And they turnover the sand but I don't think this is even needed maybe except when you have a quite thick very fine sand.

I love the pleco plushies. Adorable

I think betta sorority should remain as betta sorority. Even that alone is risky enough. Yknow every betta is a different character. This also affects their behavior versus other tankmates in a betta sorority. Ive seen some injuries on other fish when I tried keeping my betta sorority also as a community. Including bottom dwellers. Idk if you have ever had a chance to watch glass catfish irl. My LFS always carry them. They basically stand still in the middle of the tank as a group. Can be easily pushed by bettas in a tank I believe. They seem very fragile and elegant. Bettas feel too bossy for such fish. Also, idk for how long you had your sorority going on, but I would just say let it run for a good time. I didnt have a single problem for months but then things have changed sadly.

From what I know, calcium in the diet is good for good shell growth. But acidic ph makes the shell dissolve in the water column as it is mainly calcium carbonate. Ive seen a study about this. For example mystery snail shell being %98.2 calcium carbonate. so yea having calcium in their diet and the water column is great. But as long as that ph is acidic, I guess just like how a non-inert rock, eggshell, cuttlebone, crushed coral may dissolve, same happens to the snail shell here is the study Ive seen before https://www.researchgate.net/publication/232662023_The_concentration_of_calcium_carbonate_in_shells_of_freshwater_snails btw, in my experience, my zebra snail is the only snail that does well in the acidic environment. Im surprised your experience is the opposite

I spray mine with hydrogen peroxide and rinse after waiting a bit. Add them directly to the tank afterwards. Or I pour boiled water over them and let them sit in it for some time. They dont release much tannins this way like they do when you boil them

Shorter fins for their specific fin type (like a halfmoon female may still have longer fins than a plakat male. But a halfmoon female have much shorter fins compared to a halfmoon male), egg spot, rounder/bigger belly, beards. Females of long fin varieties can still have longer fins compared to plakats, whether males or females. My halfmoon male vs halfmoon female. She still has pretty long fins:

I would recommend searching for more when it comes to pea puffers. They seem to require lots of live food cultures, deworming and they ideally seem to require a minimum group of 6. Even though they are tiny, I think 5g tanksize and a group of 3 may lead problems. Not a personal experience, but I talked to some people who keep them and made in depth research for a while back then because I was also interested in keeping them. I still am, actually. One day! This is a very indepth guide If you haven't seen it already: https://www.pufferfishenthusiastsworldwide.com/post/c-travancoricus to quote some: "Groups of 6 are usually the minimum in which a harmonious and balanced group dynamic can be achieved, and this is why smaller groups (containing less than 6) typically experience more infighting. Pea Puffers feel less secure in lower numbers because this causes stress and nervousness that can then contribute to aggressive tenancies. When a dominant member has only two or three other conspecifics in the aquarium then they may concentrate all of their aggression onto one or two particular fish, which can be catastrophic for the individuals on the receiving end of it. Through our own extensive observations of captive Pea Puffers, as well as stewarding thousands of members in our groups every year, we are confident in our stance that keeping Pea Puffers in groups of 6 (or more) is the only way to ensure long-term success in captivity." "A group of 6 Pea Puffers should be housed in nothing smaller than a 60L (15.85 US gallons). 60L tanks are common and easy to find throughout Europe but are less common in the United States. USA-based keepers are encouraged to look towards 20-gallon (long) aquariums (approximately 76 liters) as a minimum, but of course, bigger is always better." Here is a video of how they schoal in nature:

this one looks AMAZING😍

I agree with Gup. I have neos in 10 or maybe more tank. Softwater hard water low ph low kh high kh ph... they don't care. They breed well, do well. Don't worry much about parameters when it comes to neos until it is too extreme. And unless you wanna aim for extremely high survival rate in a breeding project, which is already not that possible with fish in. I kept and bred mine between 6.0-8.0ph, 0-20kh, and anything from very soft water to up to 13-14 gh. My tap tds without adding gh+ reads 300ish meanwhile my RO only reads 23-24. I have a water softener. Aquasoil tanks, inert substrates... I have them everywhere. I usually setup a tank based on my fish's breeding needs, any neos do well basically anywhere for me. I just make sure they have a good diet, and that's basically it. In fact, I noticed there are 2 neocaridinas in my quarantine tank couple days ago, where I used high dose of aquarium salt for diseases and antibiotics. I was lazy emptying after Im done and guess what. There I found two babies obviously jumped into the net while I was catching fish. They are alive, in that concentration with no filter or feeding even for over a month, grew up even. Acting super healthy and well. So I am ofcourse not trying to say to put them in a tank with undesirable conditions. But I'm trying to say, based on my experience of 10+ tanks and very wide range of parameters, they are just okay with it. Stability and good diet. Keep them healthy P.s: Are you sure the heater is safe to use that way? All my heaters suggest *at least* that glass part to be totally submerged. Make sure you are using it correctly to prevent potential accidents and injuries

The biggest problem I face is, when you start with a small group and things go wrong, then it does not end up good. I got me 5 rosy barbs (2m:3f) from my lfs (as they were the last ones). They were the worst batch of fish I have ever owned. They gave me 3 surprise fry but still I only have one fish left. It sucks right now because it acts erratic. Swims extremely fast everywhere and randomly try to bite other fish. They were extremely peaceful as a group and Im lost what should I do. I dont wanna increase their school size. Same with cories. I started with 5 sterbais ( again, all left was 5 and they didnt come back over a year). I ended up having 1m:4f from those juveniles. I had great breeding action and stuff. But now I lost that single male and I have all 4 ladies. They are still pretty okay as 4 ladies but I lost the opportunity of breeding my fish. There is a difference between wanting to do it, or being able to do it. I was complaining about them breeding nonstop, but I feel sad right now that they can't. So my recommendation also would be keeping a big school one of fish. Old age and diseases happen. Whether due to a sad accident or course of nature, you gradually lose fish. You start with a school and at some point the numbers decrease. It happens. That's why, besides making them feel safer in big numbers and observing a better behavior of them, big schools help to delay to get to the point of where I did with rosy barbs.

I would say as long as you can. Even when I grab a handful of biomedia from an established tanks and add it directly into the new HOB, it has never been instantly cycled. I tried this 3 times in the tanks where aquasoil leeches ammonia. It took weeks with often water changes and established media to stop reading ammonia. Testing would be a key but I dont think running 3 days would work. I cant see how it would potentially work better than me adding a handful biomedia in the basket where the filter has access to ammonia reading in the tank. Squeezing 2 established filter to seed+ using stability+ ghostfeeding until reading 1ish ppm ammonia made me complete cycle for my new sponges around 2-2.5 weeks. By adding it directly do a new tank, you dont even squeeze anything and seed manually. You just expect it to be seeded by time running there 🤔

Ah yes. Albinos are more expensive here as well, but not that much. But I usually see heckelii albinos, maybe they are the ones in demand in where I live Very pretty fish. You gotta name it if it doesnt have one

And it is really hard to not have a leftover piece of food or anything else in the tank for them to eat/graze on in an established community tank. In such tank size with that many shrimp, maybe they lack the ability to graze nonstop and run out of natural surface growth fast, also no leftover food too as they are the only one in the tank. So basically they go for the algae directly. I dont know much about flagfish because they have never been popular in where I live. But it is good to hear another experience. Thanks for sharing

The problem for me is, in the video amano shrimp also eat hair algae like crazy. I personally havent seen any noticable good result when I added some to my tank to make them label as great algae eaters based on my personal experience. And I really didnt have a big hair algae problem. In fact, It was much much smaller than what they eat in the video. I think keeping them potentially hungry and throwing a bunch of algae is likely different than keeping them in a community tank. Please update us based on your experience

Adult size or juvenile? For adult size I think it sounds fair

After observing many a couple day old panda guppy fry biting the flesh of a mystery snail and bothering them, I think I would approach everything with a caution, even the well known peaceful species. Even then, the character of fish within the species may affect their behavior I guess? Like I have been keeping mystery snails with my albino platinums and pingus too. They dont even care. I have spixis with my tuxedos. I have been keeping rabbit snails with red grass. And so on. You get the point. I would even hesitate to say guppies are fine for mystery snail and generalise it after keeping 7 different guppy species with different snail types

I found mine under live food culture at one website weirdly. Bought them all because they are super cute. Mine breed quite often btw. I would say big females gives birth to one baby once a week. Ive seen stuff like they breed once every 9 months, that is surely not valid for me. Btw, I think mine is "banded mystery snail (Vivaparus georgianus)". Not a japanese trapdoor. Japanese trapdoor snails in many sites including AH are called "Viviparus malleattus". However I saw some sites mention Japanese trapdoors as "Sinotaia quadrata". It's confusing! I'm kinda lost, but they are all cute at the end of the day :')

Here, we are talking about hybrids when it comes to alien bettas. Hybrids that do not exist in the nature to my knowledge. Maybe sort of like Flowerhorns or parrot cichlids? A hybrid is not a breed, but a hybrid, a mixture of other (pure?)breeds is what I understand. As far as I know, in the hobby, F0 stands for wild pair (which is just a hobbyist word I believe), F1 is their offspring, and f2 is fry of their offspring. Wild caught altums you get are f0. Their babies will be f1. Wildcaught fish are always sold as F0 in my country. And their babies are sold as F1. The term "purebreed" is explained in a science paper with these words: "The definition of a purebred animal, from a scientific perspective, is based on a description of biological parameters and relates to animals having both parents of the same breed or variety, denoting a pure strain obtained through many generations of controlled breeding for desirable traits." Also I'm not sure if it makes sense to compare a fish to a dog. Maybe @Biotope Biologist can help further about this purebred /hybrid situation and Filials. I just tried to explain what I know and I am not a biologist. So I surely can be mistaken and would love to hear from them.

Hello! Yes mines are always active. But yours and mine look a bit different. Is mine sth else or are there different versions?

Even betta pellets seem to vary in size. My suggestion would be keep your portions small and observe their weight gain over time if you are confused. Take a detailed picture today, and start with a feeding routine and observe the weight gain. If it looks healthy you are good. Too much weight= decrease the amount you feed. I barely see people underfeed but if so, then increase the food amount later on. Also activity level of a plakat male and elephant ear long fin male is not the same. So this could also play a role I think. A sports guy takes much more calories compared to someone who is inactive

I dont know much about them yet but Ive been doing some readings about heckelii as Im planning to keep some, and saw that it is at least 2 years some say up to 3 years to see breeding activity. Ive also seen others mentioning 7” size. My friend also said approximately 2 years. That is a looong time for a fish to breed. Also I believe the best way is starting with a juvenile group? Bcoz they seem hard to sex. And they arent like put a m and f together and let them breed I believe. You should let them choose each other. Even then, it seems not that easy to breed them it seems considering all this long time required for a group to be raised together, heater and food expenses, running a big tank considering their size and potential agression, expecting a pair to form after 2-3 years and being able to raise babies… sounds tough. that being said, they are usually not that expensive here as well considering how late they start to breeding. Please take everything with a grain of salt here. I usually don't like to talk without an experience but I just wanted to mention a few things I came across last week while doing some research about heckeliis as Im interested in breeding them

Hello there, Welcome to the forum. First things first, snail shell damage is mostly aesthetic for a good while, until it gets too deep to expose its flesh or thin enough to make it vulnarable to any slight damage it takes. Ofcourse its not ideal, but even wildcaught snails have fair amount of shell damage in the nature. Secondly, I dont think your nerite will accept any food. I have never seen any of mine eating offered foods. The best you can do is, keeping the ph above 7 so no acidic water, and have enough gh for it to develop its shell well. Otherwise, lots of surfaces for it to graze on naturally. Ph is more about the shell damage, calcium is more about the new good growth. You can check to see which problem you are seeing. That being said, I wouldn't recommend it but, I have one zebra nerite in a softwater tank for about 8 months now. I observe no shell erosion. There is other pest snails and I tried japanese trapdoors there. Every other snail had shell damage but nothing on my zebra. Not even slightly, I don't know how or why, but it is what it is. It has a perfect shell. But normally, higher ph, gh, kh is suggested for snails in general and that would be the best choice for sure. What fish do you keep and whatare your ph gh and kh test results?

Good choice. They are commonly wildcaught however do breed in freshwater. It is just much much slower than many other snails, and almost always one baby at a time. I would not recommend getting them shipped in a cold weather unless you are sure they will be kept warm all the time. They like to be kept in a bit higher temps than other snails we commonly have in the hobby, I would say 25-26C is good. Btw, they are not really good to be mixed with mystery snails if thats a plan. Females wouldnt be a problem but male mysteries, well, try to mate with everything they find.