Adam Swarbrick

Generally deciduous hardwoods are okay like oak but you should be wary of evergreen branches as they will leach sap into the water column. Most rocks are pretty safe to use in tanks, I do it all the time, just boil them up as you have said to kill any bugs that are on there.

If you’re careful I think you should be okay. Just drop the water level down as far as possible, the semi wet sand should hold as long as you aren’t swinging it around like mad. To save the carpeting plants I’d cover with wet kitchen roll and cover the top with cling film plants will stay moist for the transfer then all you have to do is gently refill.

Love the side view of the tank. I feel like the front right corner could do with some stone to balance it out. But that does depend on what you’re planning to do with the open space? If it’s going to be densely planted maybe it wouldn’t be needed for example.

I only know because I’m desperately looking for some in the UK. I’m normally pretty helpless with IDs

Good to see the tank recovered well. Just keep a close eye on parameters over the next week or so.

I’m pretty sure one and two are Xenotoca eiseni. A nice cooler water goodeid species. Not sure on 3 and 4 though

Both corys are from the Rio Negro so won’t have any problems in blackwater. As @nabokovfan87 has said the problem would likely be the temperature. Both will want to breed at a lot cooler temps than the apistos. Sterbai corys are a classic option for higher temp tanks. People love to have them in with discus.

I agree @AllFishNoBrakes . A lot of people swear adding meth blue to be harmful. That’s not yet been my experience… The amount we are using is absolutely tiny when diluted out. Personally I leave it in until I’m sure nothing else will hatch then I’ll slowly water change it out. Looking forward to seeing some fry 👍 Good Luck

That’s super interesting, I found my black Venezuelans to be really hard to spawn even though I was popping orange ones out every week… I was pretty much ready to sell them and move on but a club members have a talk about corys and gave me a tip which I think worked for me. He said try either putting them into a spare tank or change up the scape with a big water change and a couple of almond leaves. That would simulate a big rain storm washing branches and leaf litter around their territory.

Sounds like you’re well set then. It took a couple of rounds for me to get really good hatches. Last time I got 137 fry from 2 females. I keep them in a Marina air driven breeder box after hatching with a bit of moss and a couple of snails to use up any leftover food. Before adding those I think I’d loose a lot of the batch to ammonia spikes. Looking forward to seeing how you do.

The setting looks perfect to me. I’d leave the cloudy eggs in and see how they go. Infertile ones stay white and in my experience the fertile ones start to go more yellow. It can be hard to tell initially.

I agree with @tolstoy21 the mother will usually raise the fry happily. But will be aggressive to other adults especially the male. I have lost a male in the past from trying to leave him in without enough cover. That does depend on what tank size you are going to use. I haven’t tried it but Cory has recommended colony breeding apistos if you have enough space. (About 3min 40seconds)

I’d love to try out the coops light but I’m in the UK so it’s going to be a while. I think I can get the other suggestions here so I’ll have a look around. Thankyou.

Thanks Patrick, I’m not sure which it is either I’ve had it since I started the hobby a few years back. At the time I just needed something cheap. What size would be recommended for a 20 long? Would you guys be worried about algae if I used the 3.0? -Adam

I would agree with the others above. Probably won’t give birth in the next week. Their belly tends to turn square like this when they are ready to drop fry. The good news is if the fry don’t make it this time you only have to wait a month and there will be another batch ready to go. Do you have many places for the babies to hide or were you planning to catch them out to raise?

Thanks both, I don’t mind getting in to trim, just thought there might be an easier way. With the holidays coming up I thought a new light might be a good gift. 😅 -Adam

Hello all, I’ve been trying to grow in a dwarf sag carpet but I have been struggling to keep it short. Would a better light keep it shorter? I currently run a nicrew light on a 12 inch tall tank. Does anyone have any parr data for these lights for comparison to the fluval 3.0? Has anyone had any luck in training dwarf sag to stay short? I had read that was possible with some stem plants. If it’s possible how many times would you expect to cut it down before it starts to work? Any other tips would be appreciated. Heres a picture of the tank in question. -Adam

I have used it and had good success with pleco eggs but the infertile ones did still fungus up. Is it meant to stop eggs from fungusing? I was under the impression it was just to keep fresh water and oxygen moving over the eggs?

Hi, The plasticisers that are put into the plastic tubing will eventually migrate out leaving behind a harder generally more brittle plastic. This is the same reason why you may have seen vinyl chair coverings cracking over time? Although this paper talks about the mechanisms of plasticiser migration in air the mechanisms are essentially the same. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41529-019-0080-7 If anything exudation of the plasticers is significantly quicker in water as they do not need to evaporate they can just desorb into water which is then carried away in our water changes. Hence why only the bit in the water is going hard in many of your experiences. It is interesting that some of you haven’t experienced it yet, there may be something to the hard vs soft water debate but it should as many of you have said eventually happen to everyone. However in science there are always exceptions…. -Adam

Always happy to help, let us know how it goes 👍

In my opinion the easiest way to cycle your new tank will be to take half your filter media from your established tank and put it into the new tanks filter. There shouldn’t be any need to transfer the tanks water over but taking some of the substrate might help the bacterial colonies. If you do this you’ll be ready to transfer the fish in no time. The best method to me would be to add some fish every week over time. Eg Week 1 add guppies, week 2 add gourami etc etc. This will give the filter time to build up enough bacteria to support the final stocking level. Throughout the swap keep an eye on your parameters with test strips and treat it as an established tank. Just water change as and when you need. Nothing extra just because it’s new. https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/water-changes On the water changes question, traditional water changes shouldn’t affect the cycle once a tank is seasoned. The bacteria that breaks down ammonia would be all over the tank and filter so as long as you use dechlorinator you shouldn’t loose your cycle. -Adam

Nice work, that’s a massive improvement in my opinion mate.

Hi, If there’s a male in the tank she is very very likely to be pregnant. As theswissaquarist said give her time and she will give birth. In my experience they do tend to isolate a little but that was always within a day or two of birth. She will drop the fry even in the busiest tank but you might not see many survive if there aren’t enough places for the babies to hide. -Adam

Hi, I could be wrong but this looks like snail poop to me. I was able to find a couple of pictures like this on Google. Leaches would tend to be more red and have a segmented body. -Adam

It’s hard to tell from your photos does it look something like this? If so then it’s called planaria typically they eat on any leftover food in an aquarium. In generalI I don’t believe they are harmful but people have reported them to eat on shrimp, I haven’t ever seen it happen with my own eyes.