Yet Another Aquarist

Thanks!

Wow. Good to know about the search. Thanks for the info. You make a good point about buying wild stock. The ancestors of these fish were nice looking sailfin mollies. But they were aquarium trade fish, and I would guess that means likely hybrids. Anything I could get from them would be wild colored domestic fish and not real wild fish. Thanks!

So, continue with the dalmatians? I haven't seen any others that are close in color. Except for these 3 oddities, they throw black, silver, or mixed. I guess that's why you pick 3 females, to increase the chances of hitting on the hidden genetics?

A while back, my dalmatian sailfin mollies produced 3 fish with wild type coloration. I separated them out and watched them grow. All three ended up being males. Two are pretty awesome looking fish. What would be the best way to breed more of their coloration? My two thoughts are: 1. Pick a female dalmatian in the hope that the dormant genes that are apparently in the group somewhere will strengthen and come out. 2. Pick an unrelated gold sailfin molly because the gold color is closer to wild coloration than the black and white dalmatian color. Any thoughts?

Do you have any tips on the blyxa japonica? I have it in a low tech tank with hard water. At first, it looked like it was doing okay and transitioning to my tank. But, now, a few months later, it appears that it failed to grow any significant roots and it's floating. I'd like to rescue it if I can.

My experience is similar to yours in terms of it's quirkinesses. More light and more nutrients seem to increase it's chances. I've never quite gotten it to grow floating in a tank where I want it. In the tank where it is well established, it forms mini-plants that eventually break off and float. But, I don't leave them there long enough to establish. It seems to want to cycle through grow/form mini-plants/mini-plants float somewhere else/mini-plants establish/repeat.

I didn't actually try using the softened water for fish so I don't know from experience if the sodium makes a difference. I keep a lot of mollies and swordtails, so I wanted the hard water anyhow.

I'm definitely looking for ideas. Maybe there are some plants that use a bit more iron but without requiring CO2? The taste doesn't show up in my coffee, so it doesn't bother me.

I'm working with well water also. I haven't been there a year yet so I haven't figured it all out. But, I ended up putting my cold water tap throughout the house on straight well water, and the hot water tap throughout the house (and the cold to the washing machine) on softened water. This way, aquariums and house plants can be anywhere without having to worry about extra sodium from the softening process. But, the devices that could get clogged by hard water (hot water heater & washing machine for me) are protected. So far, so good on that front. The issue that is popping up for me is iron in the water. It's less than 1 ppm. But, it's enough to taste slightly, and enough to create a hair algae farm in all my tanks. I've been trying to adjust my fertilizer to dose more macros to use the micros already in the water. But I don't have the balance down yet.