Lennie

I feel lazy to go find all their pictures so I'm gonna add pictures from online. I like puppy behavior on fish. I love it when they recognise you when you go in front of your tank. So the first three spot goes to them. My favs are: 1) Honey gourami (my avatar lol). 2) Bettas, but specifically my yellow dragon betta (which are known to have health issues, I hope I never have to see him in a bad condition) 3) Black Rams These are more like unique looking cool fish that I like and have, but expect no puppy behavior: 4) Red Lizard Whiptails 5) LF Panda Guppies They are the cutest guppies I own. I like their character. Tho in terms of look, I really love my albino whites too. Next week I'm getting discus so probably this list is subject to a change 😄

So, I had my black ram pair laid eggs 3 days ago after I moved them from the community tank to breeding project tank. I was happy! They have been guarding eggs nonstop. Taking turns to protect the eggs all the time changing the guarding turn. It was so sweet to watch. What I did for the tank was (Based on videos I watched and thanks to @Guppysnail as always, she shared her personal experience with me ♥♥): - added wood pieces and attaches one java fern and one anubias to each wood piece. - the tank is being kept at 29C (84F) - covered all three sides of the tank and only left the front open (this one came from @nabokovfan87 and seemed to work well!). - added a flat rock on one side, and a cattappa leaf on another. ( Added the leaf because my friend @beastie's bolivians preferred to lay on a flat leaf litter, so I wanted to give them options) They preferred flat rock tho. - never turned the light fully off, only dimmed very much during night time. -Fed them three times a day, to keep them full so they wouldnt go for the eggs; one meal New life spectrum one meal Tropical's Insect Menu one meal either frozen daphnia or live bbs Replaced one of them with spirulina from time to time. I have live bbs, sera micron, microworms and vinegar eels ready for the babies. I woke up this morning seeing all eggs are eaten by the parents. 🫠😭 What is your experience like with GBR ram parents and their parenthood? If you ever let them raise their babies, how many tries did it take them to learn to take care of the babies? I have been googling for a while and I saw many people saying they are the worst parents ever. Now I consider if I should give them another chance or directly remove the eggs next time. What do you think? What do you do? P.S: I watched Dean's and many others' videos and made lots of readings. I actually wanna hear personal experiences or anything to mention if I personally potentially caused them to eat eggs by skipping a necessary step. Thank you LOL I keep tagging you everywhere, but I know you bred these too. Any opinions dude? @Fish Folk

One of the most horrible suggestions I've ever heard in fishkeeping. Please don't. That's why internet scares me sometimes. There is so many infos, both good and bad, and it can be very hard to understand which is which. If I am not extremely unlucky with my 9 bettas compatibility, I give 1 minute for all male guppies to be killed if put together with any of my bettas. I tried, I had to try because my dad got me 7 good guppy breeds as a "gift" for my fish room, when I had limited amount of cycled sponges and tanks to put them seperately. So I added albino silverados to female sorority tank and pandas to my male betta tank. After adding pandas to the male tank, turned back and saw female sorority directly killed two male guppys within a minute. I instantly rushed and removed them all but had to euthanise those two males because basically they lost all their tails and fins under a min and just suffering. That moment was one of the worst times I had in my 15 years of fishkeeping. Even my most peaceful betta was chasing japan blue tails like crazy, and he normally swims together with endlers and their fry. So I had to keep my betta in a breeder box while setting up emergency tank for guppies. It was a horrible experience. I wonder based on what people ever suggest something like that. Don't even consider male guppies please. Tbf guppies at all. I created a topic about it before and made some research. But no, not worthy. Even female sorority all alone will likely go wrong rather than good. This was the topic I created back then in case you wanna check: In my limited experience with 6 females, I say yes similar size, different colors, no dumbo ears is important. I haven't paid any attention to odd number, usually (and now) I have been keeping them in even numbers. But again, sororities reflect very personal experience

I was very hesitant about trying a female sorority too. In fact, I started with 4, took one for breeding purposes from time to time so there have been times they were left as 3 there. Stocked slowly after weeks instead of stocking at once. Now I have 6 females in total. I basically did everything against suggestions but still it has been working fine for months and I have never faced issues. Meanwhile there are so many people follow the requirements to increase the chance of success, however, end up not working well. I really think I am kinda lucky, and def not suggest anything I've done lol. People usually experience problems rather than success. That is a fact for sororitys and explains the risk you take. I have 6 females in a 33g tank. I'm not sure how I feel about 19 females in a 75g. They seem to like have their small territory. They usually swim around together but also like to enjoy some time in their unique spots from time to time and chill there. It feels like hanging out with friends and having a cup of coffee together, but at the end of the day, everyone goes back to their home and chill. Also with 19 females, you are likely to come across bullys that will cause you trouble. Every addition will increase the chance of introducing a problem to the tank due to them all having very different characters. Also that many bettas may be an actual stress factor. Also trying to find 19 bettas with very different look can be challenging. Usually it is advised to avoid choosing fish that look similar to each other I did the same. I think it helps you to understand the reason behind the suggestions and stuff. But nothing can guarantee if it will be a success or a failure.

Females are surely underrated. I love my ladies' tank. Very fun to keep and watch 🙂 I also believe in bonding moment very much! Hope you can find one that you like. I once got me a dumbo ear one once and it was a %100 a regret. It made me sad seeing him struggling to swim which is basically the most basic fish action, never again. And he was a young one. As you mentioned you kept some before, yknow it tends to get worse gradually with age 😢

My female betta sorority tank is in the middle of my room. There is 3 male betta tanks in 3 corners of the room, sort of surrounding the female sorority tank in terms of vision. None are stressed whatsoever. But, Females are usually carrying eggs. I remember reading being in each others vision is enough for females to build eggs. So if you won't be breeding, make sure to keep her egg situation in control, and not let her go eggbound. I sometimes fast my ladies to let them absorb unused eggs. But I aim to breed my bettas in general so that is not a big issue in general My warning is going to be about stocking a betta tank. You never know if a betta will like any tank mates. I have 6 females and 3 males. 2 of them hate anything to be kept with them together and they live in 50 liter tanks by themselves. Meanwhile some others are super peaceful and live in the community. In my female sorority tank, I found one pygmy cory injured very much once and lost her in a couple hours. Like that was almost %100 intentionally damage dealt by a fish. I think it was a betta but idk which one exactly. So I'm planning to move my pygmys personally. Also that's a 33g with lots of plants, wood and stuff, so basically they have lots of space to hide or swim away if needed. Well, 10g is very limiting in this regard. My all bettas hate guppies. Only two of them hate female endlers. All hate male endlers. They hate clown kilis, except one. So any colorful fish is potentially gonna be hated by the bettas. I would not add rasboras myself. I can see it likely going bad rather than good In terms of selecting bettas; dumbo ears have extremely poor quality of life in my experience. There is an insane gap with a normal fin plakat vs dumbo ears (even if it is a plakat). They take more naps due to having hard time swimming rather than being active around the tank. Halfmoon females usually have much shorter fins in general compared to males, so they don't seem to that much problem regarding swimming issues. I currently have 3 halfmoon females and 3 plakat females. Plakats have higher quality of life in terms of swimming, however the gap is nowhere close to halfmoon male versus plakat male comparison. So in terms of quality of life plakats would be great in general. For kois, some kois tend to color up nonstop, so they are more prone to develop tumors and cancer. So if you can find any by a chance, try to get ones that are colored from the beginning, but not the ones gradually color up nonstop. It is just hard to know what you get has always been like that, or not tho. Maybe you can talk to a breeder and obtain more info.

Okay, that will be kind of a silly question but, Are you sure they were dead? Fish like neons, embers, and black tetras etc. commonly play dead when caught from tank under stress. When I was at my lfs and wanted to buy embers, they were amazingly healthy and active in their tank, when they were caught & moved to the bag, they started playing dead as a stress response. If I wasn't the one observing them at the store, or catching them, I would %100 say there is something wrong. They were not swimming, turning upside down in the bag, and so on. And yes, I thought they were dying and I said I wanna wait more to see if they will face losses in the following days and didn't buy them at the time. So when we poured them back to tank, they were again perfectly fine. They said for a couple species, they always have the same sort of behavior when put into the bag. So again, are we %100 sure they were dead, but not playing dead?

You can do what you have your mind as an island on one corner and keep the rest fine sand. Should be more cost saving. Or Better option might be is going for cheaper rocks, and plants that propagate themself over time. I personally LOVE this setup: simple, natural looking and you will only need a few plants. Also majority of the substrate is basically sand, rocks are cheaper than many other options. All I can imagine to be that costy is the wood piece. I was gonna do something similar but I usually have shallow tanks so It wouldn't look good for me.

Usually critters become annoying only if there is nothing to prey on them. When you add fish, more likely it is gonna be fine to control their population. Also consider them like pest snails. More food available=increasing population in general. Idk how broad the term detrius worm is, but my detrius worms are def not like that is all I can tell.

If you'd like to hear my opinion, I think it looks unnatural this way. The reason why I think It is unnatural is, 1) the rocks create a super strict like acting like a barrier and more or less they all have the same length. 2) Cut the picture in the middle. Left side of the tank is a direct reflection of the right one. Way too perfectly put into practise. I think this video can give you some ideas for what I mean, and may help you to understand how to design such tank in a more naturalistic way;

What's your tank size? Also what are those plants on the both ends in the background?

Ikr! I have normal nanas too But the gold version hits different 🙂 I love the yellow light green tone a lot. Not a common color in the hobby. If you have high ph/kh think twice. Ive given it a chance twice and they all died or performed a reaaly bad growth

From the ones I keep: Anubias nana gold: crypt wendtii green: Echinodorus leopard: The ones that I don’t have, however I think they are very pretty: Crypt flamingo: Don’t have it cause too expensive Madagascar Lace plant: Don’t have it cause goes dormant above 25C, so not suitable for my tanks and climate all year long. And lastly, Anubias white: Expensive and fragile. So again, a pass for me

👍🏻 thanks the guy I got them from is a very well reputable apisto breeder with 85 tanks here. He was very nice and helpful. however these fish are not his own. He instead got these imported from the Czech Republic to start another breeding project. He said he has no space in case they breed and he would not be able to take care of fry properly and it was an impulsive buy when he got them. So now he was rehoming these. He has been keeping them in a ph around 6,5-7 he said. In terms of aggression, the male treats the females quite nice for now and also did in his tank for 4 months, but if he was left in the bag he was shipped in a bit more, I bet he would find a way to tear the bag up. He was even attacking the bag lol. So yes, if it was a betta, I would consider it as an aggressive one, and this male seems aggressive to me too in this regard. But the tank is big enough with lots of vision blocks, especially after all plants grow in the middle, so I think it should be fine I dunno my tds after dosing the tank with a few scoops of gh+ as I use RO, but my RO reads 24-25 the last time I got it tested. I can get a tds meter easily but calibration liquids are very hard to come by so quite expensive. A wrong reading tds meter can lead to worse than good I think. I usually have the water guy test stuff when he comes over for maintenance:D I better skip pygmy cories then. @Guppysnail also suggested me not to keep them together so I was leaning towards not keeping them together already. If anything comes to your mind that may work as a cleanup crew please let me know. I have lots of juvenile endlers that way work as dither maybe? Just thinking out loud. It just scares me that apistos may get outcompeted by them for food

I wonder if everyone who says they almost never prime have their filter basket way above the water line, so whenever the power goes out, as expected, it empties itself until it reaches water level in the tank. And if the water level is too low, then surely it dries out. In none of my glass to glass aquariums I have issues with restarting because when the power is out, the water level never goes to zero. It directly restarts this way. I would personally not like to use with something with a skimmer installed directly myself and the only problem Ive ever had with different size aquaclears is only one AC50 of mine sometimes has its magnetic part stuck randomly so needs manual touch to start sometimes but it has happened only after maintenance times so far. Also in their user’s manual they directly state this: and this: So basically they literally say dont run it dry. whether intentionally or unintentionally, if your basket goes dry due to an occasion which can be maintenance, water change, power out etc. then yes technically you are trying to run it dry I think so don’t expect to prime that way. And it my experience it only goes dry on a power out occasion if the water level is lower than the AC basket. to demonstrate I took a picture of my Ac50 and 70s before and after plugged off. They directly restarted after I plugged in. Dirty filter warning 🙂 ac50: AC 70. Again, it drops to water level only and easily restarts: I just think it is not fair to judge it for something they are not made to work for. The ones with the motor inside can be a good idea for those who prefer it or has to keep water line quite down

Update time! 🙂 I set up the 110x50x25 cm tank for a trio. I got 1m:2f Apistogramma Erythrura. I tried to block vision in the middle of the tank so I can use the caves in opposite corners. Ordered many different leaves after seeing how much they enjoyed the catappa leaf I introduced. Def gonna be adding lots of leaf litter once they come. Believe it or not, finding anything to DIY a cave, or a cichlid spawning cave from a aquarium/reptile store was super hard to find somehow. I finally managed to find some, Ordered 4 small caves all being different shapes to give the females some options. Waiting for them to arrive soon. After the picture is taken, I added another sponge filter on another side as well. And for now, also added a D shaped pleco cave sitting in the fishroom unused in case it may make them feel comfier until their caves arrive. The middle is full of lots of baby crypts, left side has echinodorus, right side has elodea and middle background is full of Hygrophila polysperma Ceylon. Even after I washed the sand for at least 10 times, it still made the tank blurry. 😢 The ph is 6.5. Normally is comes as 6.0 from the RO, but after aerating, it stays on 6.5. I keep the tank at 26C. I liked this info page about them: https://www.tomc.no/fish.aspx?fishIndexID=2411&gruppeID=1 Question: They seem to be shy eaters. They tend to miss food pieces, and act shy in general overall. The tank is shallow and I don't fully fill it as it has no lid. So top dwellers as dither would not make any sense in this setup, also they wouldn't be cleaning up missed food pieces well. I don't want them be potentially competed for food, I just want it to be cleaned up if missed. I have some pygmy cories in one of my display tanks. Do you guys think they would do well in this tank with an apisto breeding project? They are tiny afterall, and would have lots of space to swim away if a female gets territorial. What do you think? Would they chase them to death? Any suggestions are welcomed!

It is probably aquasoil as you also guessed so. Reading no ammonia in my 50 liter tank took much longer than reading no ammonia in my 125 Liter and 160 Liter tanks where I use the same aquasoil (I always use Tropica myself). The small tanks are very prone to parameter changes and 3g is tiny, so I think it is kinda expected. 3 months sound a lil extra tho :') Usually aquasoils like tropica or ADA are more known to leech than controsoil and stratum. Even as a Tropica user in many tanks, I have never seen it taking 3 months ever to stop reading ammonia

Hey Nick, I see how it is. Don’t get me wrong asking that please. I was just wondering. For your question, usually ammonia sources for aquarium cycling suggest 2ppm ammonia to cycle. If you ask how I do it myself, I ghost feed slowly and when I see 1ppm ammonia, I stop. I don’t add more fish food and at that point I look closely for the parameters to see ammonia going nitrite to nitrate. I have never cycled with 2 ppm ammonia in my life. I think cycling with higher ppm can be handy for the tanks you need to directly overstock or add many fish at once to make it work. Like some cichlid tanks or female betta sororities for example, to make sure they can handle the overstocking at first better. These sort of tanks usually require you to add many fish at once in order to make sure they don’t get territorial with slow stocking. If you will keep a normal community tank, then I believe it should be fine yo go with 1ppm ammonia and stop feeding. After ghostfeeding for couple days at first, wait for ammonia and then add bottled bacteria if you will use any. I know you dont have access to established filter so I pass on that one. Then after that all you gotta do is being patient and watching closely. When all ammonia and nitrite clears, with meanwhile your plants are settling and growing, then you can start stocking slowly over the weeks.

I personally would not stock until I read all ammonia reading go to nitrite to nitrate. How long has the tank even been set up the tank and you started the cycle? You have been asking how to cycle a tank 2 days ago 🤔 Your tank can be full of slow growers, a new tank is unbalanced, if you are ghostfeeding decaying food release stuff to water column, you might be using too high light maybe for too long period, new plants cant perform good growth until they settle so they cant utilise lots of nutrition etc. New tank = diatoms.There is many stuff that may trigger algae or may confuse you as algae growth expected over time. To me, algae growth is not a sign of a tank being cycled directly. In fact, I have 20+ tanks cycled yet only like 2 of them has noticable algae. I always see plants as a support for the system and have plants in every tank of mine except 2, but that's just it.

If you don't have specifically green spot algae problem, you can keep other surface algae eaters instead. It takes me under a minute to clean the glasses myself. I personally only keep nerites I have on hand, and when I they pass away due to old age, I don't plan to get any more. Potential egg laying doesn't make it worth for me. Also, I'm not a fan of their algae eating performance Last time, when I took a tank down, I legit boild and scraped the wood to get rid of the eggs. And cleaning the eggs on the heater was also not fun. Scraped eggs everywhere on my hands. Not fun...

+1 to what @JettsPapa said In addition, the needs of apistogrammas may vary from one to another. So I would advice try to get as much info as possible regarding under what conditions they have been being kept before you get them. Usually staying in their desired changes would be a better choice. I normally keep any fish in my 8.0ph but I setup an RO tank for apistos. Some may be more okay with wider ranges. What are your parameters like? Here you can find great info about apistos: https://www.tomc.no/slekt.aspx?gruppeID=1

Nope. they are super hardy. Nothing will eat them.

As long as your tap water don't read these, then it should be started. I would personally not add any more fish food and watch for nitrates now. When your all ammonia and nitrite clears and all you read is nitrates, you can start stocking slowly

staghorn, I think

that is a big mouth comparison with a huge size difference there tho. A peaceful but big in size catfish will also slurp any fish if given a chance. Same goes for an angel. An adult angel will eat any small sized fish if fits in its mouth. Angels and discus have fairly small mouth compared to oscars and jack dempseys. You can't home a monster fish in a 29g tank anyway. It would be more ideal to compare angels versus other community tank cichlids that can be kept in smaller or mid size community tanks in my personal opinion. Like bolivian rams, german blue rams, kribensis, apisto species, etc. if the tank size increases, maybe electric blue acaras, geophagus tapajos. severums, maybe discus. 4 angels is very risky for a newbie without any backup plan in such tank size I believe. Even one, I think. I hate to sound demotivating but 4 angels for a newbie sounds very unlikely to go well in the future for a new hobbyist.