Lennie

If I'm not wrong, sometimes in bettas, the fin curls may happen due to genetics and/or long term hard water exposure. What's your water like? @Odd Duck do you have any idea Duck?

I hate summer when I'm not on a holiday enjoying beach. The lowest is 37C here this week 😭

I keep my sterbais at 28C and haven't observed any side effect personally. They go a lil bit higher than that due to us having really hot summer time here, so I can't prevent the temperature raising, and they still managed to handle it well. But I have never kept them intentionally higher than 28C anytime But yea red lizards are amazing. Lil bit pricey, and hard to find the actual red ones. Hybrids are commonly being sold as red lizards. Watch out for that one This is the look you want:

If you want something different, I love my red lizard whiptails (L010a). Your parameters would be good for them too. they like hot temps, great cleanup for leftover food bur surely requires a dedicated diet. Not shy like most plecos, and fun to keep. They don’t school but they love to socialise. Males can be territorial from time to time during feeding time between each other, but Ive noticed this becoming an issue after Ive moved them to a breeding setup. In a bigger community tank setup, I havent observed any behavior like that before. I would probably keep around 6-8 of those in that tank size

To make it more clear, it was also an experience of her but not a research What do you mean by detrius control? Something that will turn the substrate over? or you mean a cleanup crew that will eat uneaten foods or algae eaters that will assist you through any potential algae issues? Rabbit snails want high temperatures and may help you turn over the substrate as they like to bury but they will again want that high gh/kh/ph environment ideally. Major part of the snail shells in general is calcium carbonate. They need calcium in their water/diet and high ph to make sure their shelves don’t dissolve in the water due to acidity. It’s like adding crushed coral or cuttlebone to the tank. Their shell dissolves in low ph environment with the same mentality. Besides rabbit snails, I am keeping SAE and sterbai cories in those temperatures. As a pleco, I have an L199 I keep in thosetemps but it is a more carnivore one and ofcourse as any other requires a dedicated diet. Plecos usually have a high bioload tho. I usually use my tap around 7.5-8.0 ph high kh gh water in my tanks if it is not a softwater breeding project. So all snails, cories and SAE I mentioned above have approximately 7.5ph, 16kh, 10 gh. there is many people that keep their softwater fish in their higher gh/kh/ph tap water and aim to keep parameters stable. It worked for me for my black rams, but they didnt breed until I made them a 50liter softwater 6.0ph species tank. whats your plan in this regard? What’s your tap parameters are like? Are you planning to use ro?

While we were talking about fish behavior and situation of albino fish in schools with my fish ichthyologist friend, one she examplified and shared her experience with discus. She said " with discus they do strongly seem to only associate with their own colour variants. And for wilds their own species. So blues don't want to be near the pigeon bloods who are solid red. I think part of it is also the importance of colour in communication for many fishes so those who can't there is miscommunication issues. So I noticed S. tarzoo the Peruvian/Western Brazilian species would be very aggressive towards S. discus (Heckels) which had a permanent bar, maybe looking like stress to them." she also mentioned like " if planning to keep yellows, then they will go pink if fed any red enhancers which is most foods and improves the colouration of other varieties." I think these are important stuff to keep in mind. Ideally, it is not suggested to keep mystery snails anything above 24-25C. Their shell grows so fast and it becomes quite thin and their lifespan shortens, which is already very short sadly. Also discus water parameters are the opposite what mystery snails would love to. High ph/kh/gh versus low ph/gh/kh. For GBR, I think you can try keeping multiple together if you don't have a pair in that tank size. But my pair killed other female in a trio after pairing up in a 100cm x 40cm tank even when their territory was on the far left and the tank is full of a huge driftwood in the middle, lots of rocks, territory blocks, plants... I had no issues before they reached adulthood even in 29g tank. But they reach the sexual maturity pretty fast.

I've been keeping sterbais not with my discus but with my GBR successfully. They can easily handle 28C in my experience, and during summer time when the tank temperature raises a lil more, they still did fine. I haven't tried keeping them constantly above 28C tho

It will be a bunch of kids joining the tank 😄😄 interesting. They are always in stock here

I tried and it didnt work for me before so I let it be :')

7 gallon tank is pretty small to look for a betta tank mate. Bettas character plays a big role for potential tankmates. 2 of 4 males I have would kill anything I put in their tank. My females (6) only hated guppies with passion so far. Considering you will add driftwood/rocks/decoration, plants, a heater, filter, etc, you will cut from it's swimming space already. So you will have a 5g or so on hand for actual swimming space. I wouldn't add anything other than small sized snails or potential shrimp. I did keep my honey gourami and betta together successfully in the past but it was a 42 gallon tank. It was 100cm x 40cmx40cm. And I knew my betta was a peaceful one because it used to live with juvenile endlers, shrimp and snails. You should avoid keeping labyrinth fish together as they are too similar with each other, will likely result in a negative situation. And that tank size is already quite small as it is. Enjoy your betta and maybe consider adding a few non-flashy colored shrimp. Black roses work for me in a dark substrate with bettas.

Any that you can find tankbred. Wild caught practices are known to be questionable, many of them struggle to complete the journey from nature to the tank and the mortality rate of wilcaught ones are pretty high. Also they are never guaranteed to accept commercial foods or veggies. Even if they do, if they lose their gut bacteria prior to ending up in your tank, that's a ticking bomb. They will die no matter how much you feed. I personally believe otocinclus are being this hyped as algae eaters because every list and videos online point to them a great algae eaters. In my experience, they have a very limited range of algae that they consume, and I cant deny how amazing they are at eating diatoms, but after that phase is over, which is very short for most people, they are basically not effective to eat any noticable algae in my opinion. I suggest keeping them only if you really like them as a fish, not a a cleanup crew member. And definitely get tankbred ones if you will. If you don't really enjoy them and jut wanna keep them for algae eating purposes, and cant happen to find tankbred ones, I would go for other algae eater options 🤷🏼‍♂️

Personal opinion, but I think what you can do is limited with this adult fish that you got in a bad condition. I think it is verryy unlikely that you can make him look perfect as he has been through stuff in the past obviously. Dealing with juveniles and getting them better is an easier job to do imo. An adult fish already completed its growth stages you have no clue how. Probably he has been exposed to further stress, bad water conditions, poor diet, no filteration, limited swimming space.. and so on. At this point, providing him the best care sounds like the best option, rather than aiming to have the perfect look. He looks happier and healthier in his after pics. That should be the goal I believe. I use 5 different dry food, 3 fd foods and 2 frozen foods a well as hatching live bbs. Yes diet and variety is important, but I still face health issues because bettas are usually bred for their look instead of health mostly. So most come with problems. You can get one more food that would positively affect your fish's wellbeing but I don't think it will be direct solution to anything you are looking for.

these look awesome

I'm also tagging @beastie as she had both paradise fish and honey gourami

The body shape reminds me of paradise fish very much. They don't look like my honey gourami when I got him vs now. I feel kinda lost at what Im looking at. But I don't wanna say anything wrong. I will tag some other honey gourami keepers, maybe they can also comment. @laritheloud @Cinnebuns @Hobbit @Guppysnail Please check this out

My experience wouldn't reflect the truth as I got me a confirmed breeding pair and only a month ago. I would not like to inform you wrong until I gain more experience. But I do indeed stuggle to make them eat and transition to a new diet. I can say that for sure. But you can check this out: If you have any questions about GBR, I can try my best to respond

I've kept some african cichlids when I was a teen but never kept them again. Now I have angels, discus, apistogramma erythrura and black rams. Your water parameters would play a big role to make a decision on this one. Secondly, you gotta decide if you want a breeding project, a community tank with your cichlid being a planted community tank centerpiece fish, or if you are willing to invest a whole tank to african cichlids. Also deciding what sort of a tank look you want is also important. To be fair, I even keep my blackrams in high kh/ph-8.0-/gh environment and haven't observed any side effect myself as long as I met their temperature needs. The only thing I can tell is, they weren't breeding in those parameters. And they instantly bred when I moved them to 6.0ish ph softwater tank. I guess I personally love SA cichlids more, as they are more flexible when it come to planted tanks, having tankmates and so on. Also usually, the aggression is fairly lower here if we don't including the breeding behavior. And I love all my SA cichlids, apistos being my least favorite right now because they are shy. I love the puppy behavior or ram, discus and angels and see how they react when they see me.

Peace lilies are toxic to cats/dogs. In case you have any, and if they have access to where fish tank(s) are placed, I would personally avoid them. I actually avoid them. Mine is living in a room where mine don't enter Regarding the orchids, you can also check this one:

Yesss finally you got the Dory!!

She still seems to have waay more time ahead to get rid of bad care and stress effects imo. Hard to tell. only your good care and time may tell. She probably looks peach because she is very pale due to bad care and stress. Maybe this helps you in the future

I LOVE this male! How pretty😍

Yea I better not force my luck regarding the temperature considering they are an expensive plant, at least here. It is super hard for me to keep it stable sadly :') Thank you for your detailed response!

You sound like you know what you are doing, and you have backup plans. I don't see any reason not to try it. 🙂 update us regarding your experiences!

I agree. Rams are puppies. And they are more exciting to keep compared to apistos in my opinion. They are never shy, always follow you around when you come near the tank. But from my experience; 1- you really need to stick the 1m:1f situation after they pair up if you want some breeding action. Because they tend to kill the other rams. My pair killed 2nd female in the tank full of huge driftwood lots of plants and rocks. They chase all tank length long and don't stop. The tank is 100cmx40x40 and their territory is behind the driftwood and at the end of the tank, so not even close to middle section. 2- they are just horrible at parenting in general I believe . Mine have eaten their second batch free swimming fry on their 4th day of free swimming... I know I will be removing the babies next time, even though I really like the family picture I see. It does not go well :') It makes you sad even you wouldn't expect babies. If you want to try interesting stuff, don't keep a pair of anything. They will be tank bullies and you are gonna have to keep them as a pair only. Instead keep one male apisto or one male ram as a centerpiece fish. And this way, you can try more interesting choices as tankmates you haven't tried before. You already mentioned you are not looking for a breeding tank. My rams lay eggs around once every 10 days. You can see how many @Guppysnail's apistos spawn. So when you keep a pair (or 1m:1f for apistos), it will be a huge task if I must say. I would instead pick one as a centerpiece and use the tank height around them with a combination of centerpiece fish (I would go for rams rather than an apisto)+ bottom/mid/top dwellers to utilise the height. You will definitely need a heater with a GBR and gotta choose tankmates that will like its temperature, but It is very worth it. They are very cool fish that recognise you directly. Also offers lots of colors. Golds, Electric Blues, Blacks, their normal color is amazing as it is, and there is more "wild" form which are more pale. Also, maybe I was lucky but, I don't think keeping them is as hard as people make it sound to be as long as you provide that juicy hot temps they want.