Moose

@T. Payne with the pipes -- do you cap off one end or leave it open? I'm looking at ceramic tubes like the pleco breeding cave and most are sealed at one end (makes sense if you're trying to remove eggs/fry, which I'm not planning on doing). The coconut hut is really dark and I worry I won't be able to see into a capped/sealed tube much better than the current set-up but maybe that's more a cave shape issue.

gorgeous blackwater tank...I love the look of plants in blackwater. Do you use botanicals or dose a blackwater extract directly into the tank water?

Hello! Got a pair of peacock gudgeons about 6 weeks ago. At first they were both really active all around the tank, but after about 2 weeks the male went into the coconut hut cave and now basically never comes out...I see him briefly maybe once a week. Pretty sure looking at egg development times he's not always brooding (or at least, not always brooding the same batch: based on abdominal yellowness levels my female has probably laid eggs at least twice). When I do see him he looks healthy/not too thin and really nicely colored up, which is a relief because I do not see him come out at feeding time, so, at least he's eating something. I'd love to see him more, if possible. Is this level of reclusiveness just how male peacock gudgeons are? Would adding more gudgeons to the tank rather than a single pair encourage him to come out more? I have the space and filter capacity....started with a pair bc I only have 1 more structured cave. Tank is 15 gal, total inhabitants are: 1 male gudgeon, 1 female gudgeon, 2 otocinclus (sex unknown) and 1 mystery snail.

Haven't tried myself but this video goes over a lot of options...personally I'm leaning toward 'sandwich roots in filter foam and wedge behind hardscape' for my next tank (current one is lid - on lol) Definitive Guide to Growing Houseplants in an Aquarium

All right, tank matainence day today, and I dipped the cholla log in a 5ml hydrogen peroxide/2 gallons water solution (rinsed before and after) and a lot of algae definitely came off....we'll see how that goes. Curiosity also got the better of me and, especially since Gale the snail was in the coconut hut and I was worried that maybe somehow my nitrogen cycle was just so efficient that the gudgeon was dead in there and the tank was just processing it without any ammonia or nitrate spikes, I lifted the hut a little today. He's definitely alive and really nicely colored up so, I put the hut back down on top of him. No sign of eggs or fry but it was dusty from the hut being moved + disturbing the sand...and I didn't look super closely before replacing it. So we'll see when he comes out again. I miss seeing his stupid chonky head, which maybe is another indication in favor of 'get more gudgeons'

been a minute but here are some updates: - I've got a filamentous algae breakout up by the cholla wood at the top of the tank that I'm having trouble clearing out....not sure if it's that I increased fertilizers a bit over a month ago or if it's that the cholla wood is maybe breaking down too quickly. Planning to do some research on how long cholla usually lasts in tanks; I've seen it at fish and aquascape places of course but that's no guarantee it's actually a good call lol. I did notice (pretty quickly after adding it tbh) that it's a lot softer and spongier than before I added to the tank, and there's some greenish algae deep in the wood that doesn't bother me so much because, unlike the filamentous crap, it isn't spreading in to the roots of my floaters. I've been thinning out the floaters a bit more the last week or two, mainly to pull out heavily algae'd roots, which in turn is increasing light in the rest of the tank so, hard to tell if that's helping anybody or not. The cholla wood is easily removable (see re: break down, the glue points to my spider wood did not last very long) so I might take it out and dip it in a hydrogen peroxide solution this weekend. It has some bucephalandria well-rooted in to the top that's actually growing mostly out of the water since the cholla sits so high in the tank....I like it a lot, and I like seeing the contrast between the fully submerged vs emergent growth. Might replace with a different piece of cholla or with a ceramic pleco cave it it turns out that all cholla degrades so fast. Anyone else had issues with cholla wood? - last Sunday 4/14 the male went in to the cave -- the actual coconut hut this time. For the first couple days I did see him come out at feeding time and quickly go back in, but I haven't seen him since. It sounds like peacock gudgeons usually take about 5 days to hatch so I'm getting a little nervous. I don't want to disturb him but also like, I do kind of want to make sure he's alive? Water parameters remain good and everyone else in the tank is acting normal so, I'll give him until the middle of next week if I can restrain my curiosity, just to make sure the longer end of 'about 5-7 days' is well past before I go poking my nose in his business. Maybe the first couple days he was still in the 'enticing the female' stage and she hadn't laid yet, and that's why he was willing to come out? - I'm debating my stocking plan again. I was thinking 'upper water schooling fish so there's activity in all levels of the tank and I get to see a variety of behaviors' but a) the floaters are so thick -- would they have sufficient access to the water surface? would they be visible given the floater roots and the fluval's waterline dots or not so much? and b) the female gudgeon at least does come up to the water surface; maybe I should just get more gudgeons instead? Originally I thought, 'only 1 pair of gudgeons because I only want to put in one cave' but it's now coming to my attention that, even though I didn't build in other intentional caves, these guys are not that picky. At first I heard some advice that was like, 'include one more cave than you do male gudgeons' and I thought 'well that's a no then' but now I'm wondering if that advice wasn't geared toward optimizing breeding instead of general peaceability in the tank, because I've also seen a lot of stuff that's like 'they're not aggressive with each other or other fish and are a great fish for aquascapes'. Certainly mine are not aggressive with Gale or the otos at all. And 'great for aquascapes' implies to me that maybe the cave requirement isn't as strong a necessity? Also I'm kind of worried that if they are somehow successful in hatching fry and any survive to adulthood, we'll have inbreeding issues since it's a pair and not a colony. Obvs one way to avoid this is to net them out and sell them. But on the other hand, maybe I'd like to maintain a colony instead? The most likely outcome is that they will eat the fry. But as the plants increase (fingers crossed), I know sometimes without netting out to a separate tank folks are successful in a small amount of fry making it adulthood. As always any input is strongly welcomed, especially on the stocking front 🙂

as @Lennie said, Marimo 'moss' balls are in fact algae. I've seen aquascaping videos where folks cut it up the ball it's sold in and use it essentially as an epiphyte plant. Haven't tried it myself but could work for what you're going for. Moss in general could not only get the look but, tbh, moss is a bit of an algae magnet. I was warned by George Farmer in both his book and the occasional mention in his tank build videos, but I still planted moss in my tank right away...only to find that indeed, a lot of it got severely diatom-ed. The other thought I have is that you could do what people often recommend as a supplement for feeding otos: take some dechlorinated water, put river stones or similar rocks in it, stick it in the sun somewhere, and once the rocks develop a nice green slime coat, transfer to your tank. The most extreme/dramatic version of this concept I've seen is the usage in this tank build: Using Algae to Create Shell Dweller Cichlid Fish Tank (SerpaDesign)

yeah seconding @FLFishChik -- the dose you need is going to depend on your plants and the bioload of your fish (more fish = generally, less need to fertilize as plants are getting more nutrients from waste). The 1 ml (1 pump on the larger bottle) per 10 gal is a good starting point, but it's one of those 'observe and adjust' things....I've got the opposite situation going on with a heavily planted 15 gal tank that has at the moment, very few fish, so I've found twice the recommended dose of fertilizer is a better level for my tank, at least with the current amount of livestock. I'd pick a consistent starting amount, give it about a month so it has some time to make an impact, and adjust based on what you're seeing.

@mrPickles Strawberries is a goal of mine with the aquaponics set-up I'm thinking of...for both melons and mb peppers (depending on the variety), it might be worth thinking about trellis-ing somehow, maybe with string or wire on the wall behind? this is mainly a 'planning my raised garden bed for the spring' thought though, I don't know how melons behave in aquaponic systems.

amazing, I'm planning to set up a much, much smaller aquaponics set up as well so I'm definitely excited to see the specs on yours. Are you planning to add plants to the tank or keep it more bare (in keeping with that spooky vibe)?

I like my fluval flex a lot and given budget limitations with my first tank, I'm glad the 15 gal flex is the one I went for...I had spec'ed out an 'ideal' rimless tank set up with good growing lights etc and it was a lot more $ to get up and running than the flex, especially as a first timer needing to build up from scratch (didn't have the tools needed to make myself a lid to prevent jumping, etc). I agree with what others have said, that the built-in filtration can be kind of limiting. I'm happy with it in terms of: it definitely is a solid filter system with a lot of capacity, and I like that it's hidden. I've added an aquarium co-op nano sponge filter to the open filter compartment (back left) as a power outage backup and to have 'seeded' with bacteria for my hospital tank. Personally, based on where I live and the grid stability while I've been here, I'm not too worried on that front though. The way the lid works, pretty much anything you attach that needs a power cord or airline running out has got to be in the back filter compartment. This can limit placement for things like a CO2 diffuser, which ideally you would want by the filter outflow. Seems to be working well enough for me with it in the back, and again as others have said the availability of aftermarket 3D printed or specialty parts is really nice. Here's my latest full tank shot! I've got a journal feed up about it with more info if anyone is interested. But now that I'm more experienced and have more supplies already at hand, I do plan to have my next tank be a more customizable cube without built-in filtration. The other thing that takes some creative thinking is the bottom vent on the filter intake (have to think about how you're banking your substrate so it doesn't get covered, I set up a small 'retaining wall' with rocks so it's higher on the rest of the back of the tank) and the filter outflow nozzles (originally had my hardscape too close to it, very hard to adjust/clean etc) The lights are great though, and Fluval now includes little grate covers over the filter vents. I think the openings in covers are probably a little too big still if you've got fry or shrimp...BUT I bought a pre-filter sponge and cut off little chunks to fit into the curved gap between the vent covers and the vent, and that's working really well.

Listen, I know we're not going to have anything remotely tropical or really within the types commonly traded for aquariums in terms of size/color/etc. But like many of you (maybe all of you?) I really like staring at fish, I have snorkel equipment, and I'm looking for some spots for a long weekend trip this summer. Anyone have recommendations for lakes or rivers (PNW ocean is too cold lol) with good clarity and at least some kind of aquatic life?

I don't have a comprehensive recommendation, no, but I'm also very interested

This morning the male was out swimming through the tank again so it looks like he abandoned his nest...fair enough, I wasn't really expecting them to be successful on their first spawning attempt given the female already was carrying eggs when I introduced them to the tank so, I figured it would be a little soon. The eggs are still in the driftwood divot he selected. I've got to figure out if I should try to remove them or not. The nitrogen cycle in the tank is quite robust so I'm not too worried about that, more like, 'will removing them encourage or discourage their next attempt' etc. The tank's not set up for breeding and I wasn't (and still am not) planning on hatching the eggs in a separate tank myself....I'm indifferent on if I get surviving fry, mostly just curious and along for the ride.

The gudgeons definitely spawned! I was thinning out my floaters and came across a substantial algae patch I'd previously thought was maybe just moss growing off the cholla wood in the top of the tank. I went to remove a section of it and a very cranky little gudgeon face looked back up at me, surrounded by small white eggs. Clearly they decided on 'indent in the driftwood toward the top of the tank' as the way to go....I of course apologized and put back down the algae mat lol. We'll circle back to clearing that out once the parental care period ends. I'm glad they've spawned, since I hope it means they're settling in to the tank well and feeling healthy overall. I know the male probably won't exit his hiding spot to eat while the eggs are hatching. They're still so new to me and so small that I do worry about him having the body mass etc to maintain that....I'll look into gudgeon breeding more. I saw one source say they would hatch in 8-10 days and another say 2-3. Pretty big difference there!