Mahi27

Just wanted to chime in that I have the same problem going on right now and I found this thread just by searching the forum. Except I didn't realize what was going on in my Vienna guppy tank last spring and, as a result, have spread it to virtually all of my 14 other tanks. It's incredibly frustrating and worrisome and heartbreaking. I don't like seeing my fish sick. I culled the entire guppy tank after treating with single rounds of Maracyn + Ich X, Maracyn 2, and salt, and seeing some improvements but still losing a guppy a day or so. Literally as soon as I finished saying goodbye and dosing the tank with clove oil, it finally clicked that actually *all* of my tanks had at least one fish with the same strange patchiness on their back and side. And that unless I wanted to give up this entire hobby and all my fish, I needed to keep pursuing treatment. I'm on Day 3 of @Colu's jungle fizz/kanaplex regimen. Praying that it works. So far everybody is ok -- even snails and shrimp and my giant loveable a-hole crayfish, Shredder.

@Laura SFE, that's so cool! Let me know how they are doing. I think mine were pellet-trained by their breeder. I definitely had a hard time getting the hatchlings on processed food. I guess they just are innately highly motivated by the movements of live food.

you lucky duck!!!!! I think I would take my time setting up something like that, really plan it out to establish a stable ecosystem. Good substrate depth, tons of plants and rocks and wood; then I'd keep really beautiful and/or somewhat unusual fish that are normally recommended for like 20-40gal like panda garra, festivum cichlids, a chonky tetra like buenos aires or congo, and maybe some gigantic flower shrimp just for fun. But that's just me, I can imagine that tank sounds kinda crazy. Ooh, or maybe a huuuuge swarm of...pygmy cories? regular size cories? something considered 'nano' but that does better in massive groups and would be a really unique sight to behold... whatever you do, congrats and have fun! make us proud!!!!

I want some of these too. Been meaning to place an order with @Wild Fish Tanks.

Thank you all so much for your input! All of your replies were rich with new information for me and I appreciate your honest yet patient input on my original idea. I do love the look of the salvini the best, but if that species, but it they are really mean, I'll pass for now. I think I will do a breeding pair of a type of firemouth, the school of larger tetras, and probably a pleco too since I can't get enough of those guys. I'll post an update if/when I find the resources to get this idea off the ground!!!

I more or less agree with @Patrick_G. Especially if it is heavily planted and/or well established biologically, three more kuhlis will not have a negative impact. I could see it being visually crowded, maybe, though. But if everybody is fat and happy and not chasing anyone else, it should be a good tank!

Hi all. I want to do a ca cichlid tank bc they are insanely beautiful and I apparently just noticed. I've also done a lot of nano fishkeeping and would like to play with larger species other than the koi in my backyard. Anyway. But I am limited on space/finances, so I want to run some things by you guys. First, can I do like four 4-6" cichlids with ~6 brochis splendens in a 60 gallon tank? If not, what size is best? Next, I kinda want to do several different species of cichlid. Namely salvini, firemouth, blue firemouth, and/or any cool eartheater in the appropriate size range. Would I need to do groups of each of these, or is one each OK? will they show better color in groups? Less aggression? Lastly, just let me know if this is completely undoable and I need to reevaluate entirely. Rather learn the easy way than the hard way. Thank you in advance!!

@Odd Duck Yes, I am using high-density vinegar eel cultures too! And I got them from the same site/guy! He was super helpful over email and in general has very clear instructions on his site which I really appreciated. I think if I keep another betta spawn to raise, I'll either re-order from him or just use bbs exclusively. Either way should work well. In terms of an update, yesterday I released the babies into the main tank, which is a 20gal long. Why? I don't know. I guess I was tired of keeping them in the breeder box and felt they're big enough to fend for themselves. They're definitely too big to get eaten; the main question is whether they'll find enough food in the tank. So far so good, though! Please enjoy the pics of a free-roaming baby betta albimarginata, as well as the full tank shot.

It's been a long time since my last update! After the trickle of losses I reported last time, I switched them to live and frozen baby brine shrimp. Not only did they immediately stop dying, but they showed quite a growth spurt. So that's great! My problem now is that they don't want to eat anything that isn't live/frozen bbs or the worms. No flake, no pellet, no frozen cyclops, no frozen mysis shrimp, they just do not go for these other foods. It's super annoying bc their parents eat all types of food without any issue. I think eventually I can wean them off such a limited palate, but for now.... So I've been feeding them a mix of live & frozen bbs as well as larger portions of the microworms and vinegar eels. I think they just weren't getting enough per feeding. That said, we're in the middle of a heat wave and my already-waning worm cultures are pretty much crashed after today, I think. Which is OK because I don't think live cultures are for me, at least not on a regular basis. So...I just set up another brine shrimp hatch, and tomorrow I'll probably go pick up some frozen tomorrow.

Thanks for your kind words, @PineSong. We'll see what happens! About adding other fish, I did have something really nice happen last week. I walked into the LFS and the first tank I saw was full of adorable red melon/panda barbs. I had been on the lookout for these and was getting ready to bite the bullet on online shipping and all that. I bought 9 that day and the last 2 a couple days later. They're now all in the weird female Vienna guppy 29 gallon and just as you suggested, they add a lot of interest and variety. They're really beautiful and have these tiny lil barbels on their faces that I wasn't expecting. Plus, they are super peaceful and are getting along great with the guppies (and a couple random platies). I'll resolve to be happy with what I have. 🙂

A planted 10gal with chili rasboras and a gold honey gourami would look soooooooo nice.

Ted, how have things shaped up for you?

I think it's safe to say they really are all female. This is so bizarre. It really sucks because both guppies of my original pair from the Co-Op passed away, so unless one of their babies magically grows a gonipodium I'm going to have to find more male Viennas. The people selling them online overcharge in my opinion, but I guess I'll take another look. Again, the first batch of these fry were born in like mid October; the last batch probably December.

Happy for you! Congrats on your new tank! You can definitely have cherry shrimp in there with both of the fish types you've named. As far as the choice between CPDs and Endlers.......I would ask myself, do I want a more introverted, darty little shoaler with a striking and uncommon beauty (I know CPDs are common in the hobby but imo their beauty is uncommon), or do I want an outgoing, very personable, brightly colored, rapidly reproducing group of fish that will really provide a lot of excitement? I find CPDs really nice for low-light, moody, subdued tanks with buce and crypts and stuff like that...idk, something about how they swim and hide between foliage just matches that vibe for me. Endlers are awesome and active and cute and come in really amazing patterns.

Thank you so much, @Intuos. It is as I suspected. I hope this short thread ends up helping someone else as well, lol. I will definitely be getting some Leleupi at some point because my mother is enamored of their beautiful yellow color. But I will keep them alone. 🙂

hi all, i loved the recent blog post on top 10 cichlids for 20-29gal tanks: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/top-10-cichlids i've really wanted to keep shell dwellers, julidochromis, and leleupi for a while now. what are people's thoughts on keeping these three species in one tank together? Would I do better to bump up to 40 or 55gal? Most importantly -- this would be my first african cichlid tank. Should I pump the brakes a bit and start with fewer species? I do tend to go off the deep end when I get an idea! Any input welcome.

Just checking in to say that they are still all female. LOL. Idk what is going on!!!!! I've read here and there that maybe they can change sex even in adulthood?? For now, I have a nice big 29gal full of gray fish...lol

@Odd Duck Thank you for these ideas. Water passively flow in the box, I don't have an extra air stone in there. I clean the box maybe once a day, every other day...probably not enough. Those are two things I'll fix. I woke up to another one dead this morning. The remaining ones seems to be enjoying frozen bbs while the live ones continue to hatch.

Entry #2 Sorry I haven't posted in a while! My personal life kind of imploded, but taking care of these babies has been a meaningful distraction. So the male released the babies over the course of about 48 hours. Last baby was out by evening of 2/23. They've been doing pretty well since then. I was amazed to count a huge spawn of like 25 babies. I was originally going to leave the daddy in the breeder box with the babies so he could fatten up in comfort, but he started eating the babies, lol. So back to the main tank he went. I've been feeding the babies mostly microworms and vinegar eels. Baby brine shrimp only once or twice. They're growing, but last night I did a head count after noticing a couple losses, and unfortunately, I'm down to like 14 babies. Still plenty to be proud of, but they are dying one or two a day, so I know I need to intervene. I contacted bw Aquatics and they said it's probably the food. Their breeding operations rely on bbs, they said. So I started a new hatch last night around 8:30pm. Does anybody know if microworms and vinegar eels are or are not particularly nutritious? Hm... More updates soon!

This is my third betta albimarginata spawn. I first started messing with these guys a few months ago. They are a male mouthbrooding species. I found them on bwaquatics.com and really loved the way they looked. When I read that they are critically endangered in the wild, yet fairly easy to spawn in captivity, I got really excited by the idea of doing something good for the world by trying this out. For the first pair I bought, they had one spawn that I don't think survived. The tank they were in is down on the ground so I couldn't really see what was or wasn't going on. A little while later, I found the female had passed away (RIP). So I contacted BW again and they were awesome about getting a single female and an additional male/female pair to me. Now these 4 (my original male is still kickin') are in my pseudo-South Asian/Indian Ocean region tank, a 20 long with rosy loaches, exclamation point rasboras, and tangerine tiger shrimp. It's a nice tank with a crapton of plants and because everybody who's in it is so small, despite their numbers, it's a stable system and doesn't feel overstocked. Anyway. In January I noticed the first spawn since getting the new female & pair in. A male and female were circling each other so slowly, so elegantly, eyes locked...I may sound crazy, but these fish really flirt with each other. This stuff ain't all instinct. The courtship and spawning took about 24 hours before I noticed the male now had eggs in his mouth. These babies hatched out but none survived, I think because I didn't have live food for them. And/or they got eaten by the adults? There are mixed reports on the Internet about whether they eat their fry or not. Not long after, the same male was holding eggs again, sometime in the first week of February. I ordered the Ziss EZ Breeder off the coop site and moved him in there for two reasons, despite some warnings on the web that this might stress him enough to swallow the eggs. I thought it was worth this risk because: (1) it would allow me to keep a close eye on him and be on top of it when the babies hatched and (2) equally important, I would be able to keep him in the box after the babies hatch so that I can feed him back up to fighting weight and keep the female(s) from spawning with him until he starves to death. I've never looked into mouthbrooding much before, so I don't know which observations are banal and which unique. But what I've observed with delight is that the male's mouth pouch(?) is semi-translucent. You can see the eggs in his mouth when the light hits at the right angle. The eggs are fairly large and yellowish, kinda like medaka eggs but opaque. The eggs turn darker in color as they mature, which takes 2-3 weeks depending on temperature of the water. The broods aren't huge, other sources say as low as like 10 eggs per. But what's amazing is that when the male starts releasing the babies, which he doesn't do all at once, if you're lucky you can actually see the hatched babies in his mouth pouch, swimming and trying to get out! So I noticed yesterday morning that the eggs had gotten really dark and I went on watch. By evening I saw two tiny babies, about the size of an adult female flea, maybe a little larger. Adorable, teeny-weeny, innie-minnie versions of the adults! (See pics attached to this post.) Unlike last time when the brood failed probably because I didn't have live foods for them, I came ready. I've got vinegar eel and microworm cultures going. Their first meal was vinegar eels. Seeing them eat was just breath-taking. I started up a baby brine shrimp hatch in the Ziss Hatchery this morning. Supposedly the fry can eat bbs right away, but they seem kinda small for that to me. In any case they'll do well on the eels/worms for the next 36 hours while their bbs hatch. As I mentioned earlier, I'm amazed to learn the male doesn't release all the babies at once. He's still got some in his mouth since they first started coming out last night. I count about 5 in the breeder box with him. One of the pics is just to show the tank (lights off) and the brine shrimp hatchery. I never used to track dates & times except in my head, but I watched a Dean video recently where he said it's the fine details, extra steps that take just a minute or two here and there, that can mean the difference between a huge survival rate or a dismal one. So I labeled the tank with the fry hatch date and the brine shrimp hatchery with the date and time I need to harvest. I hope this is interesting to people other than me and that it is helpful to other inexperienced fishkeepers. I am just feeling my way through this thing.

Thank you so much @Bill Smith !!!!! Extremely informative!

I'd like to know as well. I bought this rack last year and put 5 & 10 gallons three to a shelf. Almost immediately the shelves started sagging like crazy and the tanks were very obviously not sitting level. I switched it out for the often recommended Gladiator rack and am having better results with that. I didn't follow Bill's advice to use all the shelves, though -- so I wonder if the absence of the top shelf did indeed compromise the stability of the whole rack.

Today I did a >50% water change on my 10 gallon with a betta, green kubotai rasboras, and shrimp...I noticed the kubotais were gasping after, so I turned up the air and headed to the gym...I came back and more than half of them had passed away...womp womp. So sad, these guys survived getting delayed in the mail and grew to be really fat and sassy in the year that they were in my care. I always feel responsible when I lose a pet, and I hope they forgive me.

If I'm not mistaken, she should be fine as long as she doesn't get egg-bound, meaning the eggs getting stuck inside and not able to come out. Sorry to hear about the male.

Interesting! I'm going to maybe do a bit of what's in both replies -- feed heavier on the main tank, but continue to harvest eggs whenever I feel like raising up a batch of babies. I guess in a way this is good, in that I'll never be overrun with too many babies.