Tony s

In a perfect world yes. But you’re going to do a fish in tank cycle. Works the same. But to keep your fish safe, you need to be testing your water constantly. When the ammonia tests over 0.25 ppm change water. When nitrite reads above 0, change water. Changing water won’t slow your cycle much because the cycle bacteria don’t live in the water column. They live on the things in your tank. After a water change add the prime and more bacteria back into your tank. it really is just as simple as that. See poison, remove poison, add clean water and a few chemicals. Fish in cycles are not ideal, but they work just fine, as long as you watch your water for ammonia and nitrates. Keep on top of that and the fish will be safe

Got other choices. Leleupi or splendors only get 4” brevis gets to 3. Gold ocellatus would be interesting. Would want steel gloves for those. kribensis or Julidochromis have interesting subspecies.

I never even thought about that, as mine is glass. Great pick-up. I actually got a scratch on glass from a mag float. Tiny bit of sand between glass and float. Unnoticed until. There it was

I have a bow front. But the bows are not as pronounced as yours. I use a thinner mag scraper. Placed sideways and scrape sideways as well. I see exactly what you’re saying. But honestly, your idea with the razor blade turned the other way should work fine. if you don’t like holding onto a razor blade. Maybe try a paint scraper from a home store

Use your razor. Turn blade vertically. Scrape sideways with the bow. Trying to scrape up and down doesn’t work as I’m sure you already know

The other thing I’d add here is about testing and water changes. Which should be really easy in your betta tank. You want to keep a constant eye on your ammonia levels and nitrite levels when starting a new tank. API makes a brand of bacteria to use I believe it’s called quick start or safe start. Which will help get a bacteria colony growing. Follow directions on bottle. It’s generally safe for fish anyway. Then you need ammonia tests. API master test kit works well. Going to stay with products you can easily get from PetSmart/co. Just because they’re convenient. you need to start testing your water until the tank is cycled. Probably a month or so. When you see ammonia get past 0.25 it’s time for a water change. Ammonia and nitrite are poisonous to fish, so this is for the health of your fish. For a small 5g tank swapping out 1-2 gallons with fresh water would be enough. Then you’re going to need to dechlorinate your water. The best product is seachem prime. Available at PetSmart/co. It’s like 1 drop per tank gallon. It may be 2, read the label. Chlorine is used by cities to keep the water safe to drink. It’s also poisonous to fish. you would need a siphon to remove the water from the tank into a bucket for now. And a clean pitcher to refill. No soap in pitcher. For a new tank owner this can all be overwhelming. You’ll get it. It’s just part of the fun of trying something new. You’ll be great. And if things go bad. Figure out the problem, and fix it. That’s learning. You’re never going to screw things up worse than I did while I was learning. Or for that matter, any other fish keeper. We all had rough patches. We learn. We do better. And you’re here asking questions. Which is great. Keep asking. We like to help 😀

It all depends. If you want just a breeding pair you could do that in a 40g tank. That’s minimum, they get up to 6 inches. If you wanted a group or community, with, say, Julidochromis, you’d need at least a 75g. The other things to think about… 1. If you get a group they have a reputation of being nasty to each other when adults. So much so, that usually the pair is the only brichardi left. 2. They are easy breeders when paired, so you would need places for the fry. You could get multifaciatus in a much smaller tank, and worry less about the aggression. But the blue faced kipili look amazing

Maybe lots of color morphs for females. My female came from a Florida breeder via fedex. Good reputation. So, I assume it’s female. For sure doesn’t look like the male. and you have a female somewhere. If you have eggs. Female should be smaller and sleeker than male Kinda looks like this

My females are shiny olive green with a horizontal black bar from gills to tail. Mostly monochromatic. Not the bicolor

I like the sera. But api should be fine. the other thing to think about. For most fish. Hard water is not an issue. Fish are very adaptable. But Some species can’t adapt well to it. Like discus. Apistogramma. And German rams. most places in the US have hard water. Yet we still raise fish just fine.

They should do just fine. They’re rated as medium to hard water fish. The other thing I wanted to comment on, a real test for gh and kh would be better than a tds meter. TDS also reads myriad other things in the water and won’t give you an accurate reading for hardness. Better would be the liquid drops from Sera. This is also one of the areas the coop strips are insufficient. Gh or kh in hard water is not accurate from them.

Most plants will do just fine in hard water, as will most fish Including banana plants

I would think it's fine, but no idea, really. if it's running clear you should be good. I've seen fish take baths in the stuff. but a trace over long term should be okay. just watch behavior and if it seems off then water change

Na, that’s the whole point of a water change. Possibility of a temperature shock? ??? On the methylene blue

Most fish can go up to a week or more with no food. And have no ill effects. I do this for vacation. I tried using a sitter but ended up with messed up tanks. you may have an issue though. Since you’re doing fish in cycle, you may need to recheck parameters. Something may be off, especially since he’s off his normal behavior

yeah, it could still be a sourcing issue. I'd say go look in Louisville. but the tolls are stupid high. Used to be they had good genetics, but they've been overbred for so many years, I'm not sure you can find good genetics. Maybe at dans fish. my daughter wants guppies, but we haven't been able to keep them yet. Okay, what she really wants is the platinum sailfin mollies, but i think i talked her down from that one. which was the equivalent of the, when you're 13 verdict that we came up with for the cell phone and axolotl. 🤣

yeah, i tried so hard to do population control with my platys. even separated them into male and female tanks. but the females kept having fry. so now they're all back together in 1 tank. 20g tank. all ages all sizes. it's been stable for 2 years now. around 30. I don't even worry about it anymore. I let my platys live their platy lives in peace. well, I say peace. but there is a female betta in there. but out of the cup. she thinks she's a platy. schools with them and everything. not sure this would work on guppies. but you could let it go and find out

yes, this. I wish more people would get that lesson. It gets even worse with peacocks and haps. where the males have all the color. then what do you do with the other 50% plus of what you breed. I mostly like what people have been saying. being experienced keepers. but, hoo boy, put that out on the interwebs.🤣

cool. what city? I've been known to call The Reef in indy my lfs, and of course Aquarium world lafayette. one is an hour away. one is about 2 hours away. lfs is all relative

I can’t keep them alive from petsmart/co. It’s the genetics that have gotten weak. I’m guessing that’s your issue if your cories are fine. If you can find a local supplier you might have more luck with them

Also. Where did you get them from

Na, you’re good. My concern was she was going to do it anyway. Was just offering some constructive advice on repair. She backed out of it. Which was the correct decision. I don’t believe I said go ahead and don’t worry about it. I believe I said, if you’re going to try, put it somewhere it’s not going to cause a lot of damage if it goes. And gave some advice on reinforcing the tank. I, personally couldn’t sleep with it in a sensitive spot. It would have been in the basement next to the drain.

I have one currently with platys really thin it’s fine. Only controversial if the whole point of having the large fish is that it eats other fish. There was one guy on YouTube that had a gulper catfish just so he could video the feeding time. the other thing I’d watch for. If getting food from petsmart/co, I’d be extremely cautious. Those can be some of the most diseased fish around. You’d almost need a quarantine for your food. and there are alternatives now. Several good pellets available for most large fish eating fish

The question is, how long has the wood been in the tank. If it’s relatively recent, more than likely it’s a bacterial coating. Perfectly normal for new wood. It’s eating whatever it can on the outer edges of the wood. When it gets done, it goes away. It looks like it’s covered the wood almost completely. You could clean it, but it will come back until what it wants is gone. It’s not harmful at all to fish or snails. Just slightly unsightly. It completely freaked me out when my wood did this. But it’ll be fine. And if it is the algae like @clownbaby says, time will tell you for sure.

with a constant ph of 6.6, tells me you have water on the softer side. snails would like neutral to harder water. hardness being determined by the amount of calcium and magnesium dissolved in your water. something snails need that for their shells. that's your gh values and don't worry about the betta in harder water. he'll be fine