Tony s

Otos will also eat standard biofilm. the slippery stuff that coats almost everything in the tank. So, the chances of them starving is not real great. mine will occasionally go down and finish off algae wafers at the bottom when the corys let them. you can also see if they will do blanched zucchini rounds. mine will. As long as they're not too picky, any vegetable matter will work. The key for otos is that pudgy belly. as long as they have that, they're fine. they don't have to just eat algae.

John Hudson at kgtropicals (youtube) has a large tank with only yellow labs. looks amazing. lots of rock work. not sure you can do plants with labs, they a small mbunas. so they are plant diggers and eaters. but oh so cool looking

Zebra stripped maybe? Julidochromis would be a good tank fit. Same water parameters.

Looks to be green hair algae. Very common. You can just grab it and pull it out. Watching for repeats. Amani shrimp will help. Mollys will help. But the best helper is Florida flag fish

Was looking at the base of the plant. If it’s white or mostly clear goo, probably a bacterial bloom. Nothing harmful, just looks unsightly. I had this from new mopani wood before. It goes away after a while or you can just siphon it off. if it’s a brown slime that seems to cover everything, then brown diatomaceous algae. Which happens to almost every new tank I’ve ever started. I use snails and otocinclus just for that. I would think a bristlenose pleco would work too. Or just time, it runs its course on new tanks and goes away after a while.

It is possibly chlorine contamination. If you’re using a municipal water supply, most of those use a chlorine based water cleanser to prevent microbial buildup in the water supply. It’s not an instant kill either. Takes about an hour and a half to kill microbes. Probably longer for fish. So, if your on city water, a conditioner is a must. If you’re on well water (I am), could be a metal contaminant. For me, it would be too much iron. I’ve had to go to RO water for the fish. My temperature fluctuates are usually more than 5 degrees and I’ve had no problems. I could fix that by adding a heater to a stock tank, but haven’t needed to yet

Now, if they’re wild caught, you’re going to need to match their native water. If they’re tank raised, match the tank source water. At least to start So for the ph, if they come from wild in soft water you’ll need a lower ph. Tank raised are usually going to be higher. Depending on source. Chicago is going to be around 7.7-8.5. Parts of west coast and east coast going to be around 6.5. They will do fine in either and will adapt. Better than trying to hit a certain ph would be to use your own tap water and give them a consistent source of water and ph level. These guys are not like discus, they will adapt fine. Consistency is key

I have had them in 12dgh , 8dkh water and they did fine. Now have them in remineralized ro water at 7-8 dgh water with 4dkh water. Same fish. Seemed to do fine either way. Approaching 2 year’s old for them. Appear to be very tough animals. When I was starting to learn ro water I was remineralizing top off water as well, and my dgh was climbing until I figured it out. dgh ended up at 16. And they’re still here with no loses.

Honestly, everything looks good. Except for the shimmies. It could be a disease, but I’m not sure you could tell. Gh is a bit low for platys, but if she was born into that water and it’s consistent, it’s not an issue. If you could isolate her, you could treat her prophylacticly. Wouldn’t do that to whole tank though. You could try adding salt except for the yoyo’s and plants. Hopefully someone else has better suggestions.

Just saw the big picture of your tank. Looks very nice. Which makes the question of your platy even more difficult

Several questions running through my mind. what kind of tests? Strips or api master kit? It’s a bit unusual to read 0 nitrates even in a planted tank. My lfs would say the water is sterile. They would say you need a certain amount to keep healthy fish. But, the plants look fine. Platys are tough, but she’s obviously in distress with clamped fins. Does she show a bit of white coloring behind pectoral fin or is that just shadow. How old is she? Do you have a place to quarantine her? Would hate for anything to spread. Is the platy behind hiding? I have a 20g tank just for platys, and they’re all front and center begging for food anytime anyone walks by. 20-30 platys in one big fish ball. So not used to seeing shy platys. You’re running water conditioner after every change? (I assume that’s a yes) Do you ever take out any hard scape and scrub with soap (I assume that’s a no) Sorry, not trying to be insulting, but you’d be surprised. Is chlorine at zero? Sometimes the city will add extra to clean its systems. I assume you know all this, just knocking out possibilities for right now, I think just quarantine. No obvious symptoms. Maybe just observation for now? I personally hate losing my fish, but it’s inevitable in this hobby

Looks amazing and probably saved 100 on store bought. Should work great! one minor thought, the osb will deteriorate over time when water spills on it. You may have to replace it with standard plywood after a while

Yeah, have to name him Rocket.

I would be careful adding danios to bettas. Small danios, like cpd's, can easily end up as food. Larger danios are too active and fin nippy. Most bettas will do community tanks just fine depending on their tankmates. Corys would be good. possibly not the pygmy though. I currently have 3 bettas in 3 communities. with corys, harlequin rasboras, platys, otocinclus, mystery snails, and some shy neon tetras. Depending on the betta's personality, most can be kept with peaceful fish. Usually, it's the betta that gets attacked. By fin nippers. I have failed at keeping them with Lemon tetras and any kind of glow fish. I wouldn't keep them alone with mystery snails. Bettas are nippy at their eye stalks.

White eggs are either unfertilized or fungus contaminated. I currently have 2 pairs of angels (one koi, one of marble) in a 75g. One pair at either end. Hard to control fungus other than what you're doing. Sometimes the entire brood is just not fertilized. had one clutch like that last week. Young angels will eat fry and sometimes eggs until they learn. Mine have become decent parents but they've only made it to free swimmers recently. Instead of watching them eat their fry, now they're really good about taking them in their mouths when they swim off and depositing them back where the parents want them to be. I still think some get swallowed that way. So, yeah, you seem to be doing this mostly correctly. If they're unfertilized, nothing can be done. If they have fungus, removing is the only solution. unless you want to try taking all of them and hand rearing them. I haven't tried that yet. been nervous about damaging the eggs. Have only tried removing the wigglers into a breeding box. The pair of marbled likes to lay their eggs on filter intake.

It all depends on how you want to interact with them. If you want them where you can see them, get a regular tank, but as large as you can. Both price wise and weight wise (depending on the flooring). Then you can dyi yourself a tank stand for around a hundred dollars or less. The heavier the tank, the more bracing you’ll need. Bare bottom tank would be fine if needed. livestock tanks are great. But the visibility is not great. To help with nitrates, you could use houseplants. There is a product called a pothocarry that is used to hold onto the stems of the pothos plant while the roots are suspended into the tank, using up the nitrogen. Roots are much less edible than the rest. You could use whatever plant you desire. Even veggies, which you could feed to you or back to the fish. I would makes sure the green plant parts stay out of the water though. Depending on what you choose, there may some defensive chemicals in the above ground parts. Usually not in the roots.

Yeah. Sorry, but the common plecco is often sold that way. But their dietary needs change with age. Which is why people release them back into the wild. Well, that and they grow huge. Yours appears mostly grown though. Maybe less than 6 inches left for it. It’s still kind a cool looking dinosaur kind of fish though. The smaller bristlenose or rubber lip pleco does stay a decent algae eater, but much smaller.

Yes! Absolutely! Something is better than nothing and helps calm the panic. But i have kept them from dying that way. And, mostly, i do believe they do some good even if they're not perfect

Sounds like it. I have done this before as well. Daily water changes is a must. maybe 50-75 percent. If it was me, I would add in some seachem Prime to help with the toxicity and some Fritzyme 7 for more good bacteria. Some controversy on whether these products work or not. but observationally, they have for me

Looks like a common pleco to me. Amazon sail catfish is just another name for it. (apparently? who knew?) Much bigger than anything i have ever done before and a bit of an environmental disaster. NBC2 news had a story from a couple of years ago where they had been harassing the local manatees. apparently, they suck at their slime coat and algae growing on it. causing stress and sometimes death

As for adding fresh, take an old clean fork, stab and drop in. Most fresh floats. Type of pleco is important. Common pleco diets start with mostly veggies (that’s why they’re sold as algae cleaners initially), but they switch to a more protein based diet as they get older and larger. And they stop being algae cleaners. You can add small bits of shrimp or fish for that. But not too much or it could foul up your water. Plecos are notorious waste producers. Not as familiar with the other large plecos. Hopefully someone else can help with that

Algae wafers count as vegetables, but fresh is better. It can carry more nutrients as well. Most plecos also benefit from a source of driftwood to munch on As for adding fresh, take an old clean fork, stab and drop in. Most fresh floats.

You can also use what’s called filter floss. Which looks like the stuffing inside of most pillows. Available at the home crafting stores like a Hobby Lobby or Joann’s. Gives a tight weave like filter pads. Just stuff it in a hang on back or canister tray. And chuck it when it’s full. You do loose the bacteria on it. but if you’re changing cartridges, you would anyway. It does a really good job of polishing the water without the additional carbon. It’s also really cheap. Just a few bucks for a bag can last a year or more.

I have several in my angelfish tank. I really don’t do anything special for them. Just like anubias, keep the bulb above the substrate and the roots will descend. When they start reaching for the surface, they can be trimmed back to a more compact shape. Trim each leaf shoot close to the bulb. Unless you want them to provide some top level cover. I have both types. I even have 1 bulb suspended in a bunch of dwarf sag. Those roots don’t even touch the substrate but the leaves grow all the way to the top. One of these days I’m going to coral it, trim it, and put it back on the bottom. Just watching it to see how it does.

There is a website that can help with stocking density. aqadvisor.com. It can give you a general idea of stocking density. Compatibility. Water parameters. Fish physical requirements. It’s not perfect, but it is fun to play with.