Brandy

My guppies are serious gluttons, and will try to eat anything in the tank that doesn't move. And a few things that do. 🙂

Huh. I do not know what they would be, but I would bet money the guppy tried to eat it and couldn't manage it. She might have been choking, but I honestly don't know of any kind of parasite that comes OUT of a fish mouth like that. I think I can at least reassure you it is not a parasite that originated in that fry--as far as I know fish lack the ability to actually regurgitate. It might have come in on a plant or something--It could still be a harmful species, I just don't think it was coming out of the guppy.

Ooo, also with an angel fish valisnaria is soo nice they sort of slither thru the fronds. I like your population control strategy.

I vote mutts. You are making mutts on purpose, and so "true" lines are going to be less important to you. You (like me) enjoy the surprise factor. Only warning would be that if you cross too many things there is a risk you will end up back to wildtype. My solution so far has been to choose a particular trait I particularly like and target it. I decided (fairly arbitrarily) that I want colored pectoral fins on everybody and a metallic sheen on the heads. I also keep in mind basic physical fitness. But I let the tails be any color, etc. I don't have albino or gold either, or reds. I like those colors, but they don't have the dark front fins I want. I think that will keep your mutts from muddying back to neutral in a few generations. If I wanted albino/red/gold I would probably need to keep a separate colony.

Only need one male...but if your other male doesn't make it, you need some male. I ordered some online, received 10, 2 died a day later, leaving me with 7 females and one male. I then held my breath...I have hundreds now. I have yet to see a rili in my colony, but I do get near clear culls. By culling hard at this point I expect to have a very solid medium high grade colony in a year. My original shrimp were sold graded "skakura" but were actually over 50% high grade skakura/low grade red fire, with 2 high grade red fire females. I let them breed without culling for 6 months, target feeding and establising them in new tanks. Now I have the nucleus of a really high grade red fire colony in my guppy fry tank, where they get tons of food and no competition. My point of all this rambling, is that before culling, EXPAND your colony as much as humanly possible. You want a huge pool to pick from. Then choose 10-20 of the very best shrimp. feed the rest to a loach (or whatever you plan to do) and repeat. In a short time with this method you can shift the population genetics far without losing the diversity that will keep them healthy.

I am in an apartment. 10 aquariums, a cat, a gecko, 2 large snakes, a budgie, one part time and 2 full time humans. Innumerable house plants. I don't know if I am a "pet lover" so much as a farm kid who is in the city. I like life around me. The plants, 8 tanks, the cat and the part time occupant are mine. The rest belongs to my kid who is a nearly adult full time occupant.

True, but algae also takes up nitrates so that can be a double edged sword on its own. I would rather have algae than runaway nitrates. But pretty healthy plants are best of all, so congrats @Griffinbbb!

Actually, if you dose flourish excel, which IS the "liquid carbon" version (flourish--no excel--is an all-in-one fertilizer without carbon) you are not adding nitrogen, but you are adding "carbon" which accelerates plant use of available nutrients, until there is a defeciency, so your observation makes sense to me. You have made the plants happier, so indirectly you have lowered your nitrates by using the excel.

I currently have 3 pea puffers in a 12 gallon with red cherry shrimp. I have cherry shrimp by the bucket full, so I put some culls in assuming they would become a food source. The puffers and shrimp are both still juveniles, and so far are coexisting peacefuly. Since you don't have the puffer yet, why not establish a breeding colony of shrimp and then add a puffer for population control?

I have a few tanks with white sand. I am not a huge fan for some of the same reasons as not enjoying white clothing, but as for how to keep it looking clean...very lightly stocked tanks with a lot of shrimp do fairly well. My guppies stir it often and I think corydoras would do a brilliant job of cleaning it up. Unfortunately red cherry shrimp do not show good color on white sand.

Some melt is normal. This looks like normal adjustments. If you have snails they will clean up the dead tips. If not you can trim them a little if you like. They will likely recover. There is a thing called anubias rot--it causes perfectly good leaves to rot off where they connect to the rhizome, which subsequently rots. That is not what this looks like to me. I think you are safe, plants just take a bit of patience. The tips might have experienced drying out during shipping also.

I think maybe put an adult live bearer in there overnnight...Once the fry are big enough.

Part of the problem is that we are using common names for algae, and there are literally thousands of species--at least. Some estimates range to the MILLIONS. As hobbiyists we cannot easily identify algae at the species level, but we can identify broad categories. Even then we get in trouble. "green hair algae" is at least 4 different types of thing in my experience, and one kind is eaten by almost everything, including guppies. One seems to be eaten by NOTHING. to answer your question to the best of my ability: blackbeard--reportedly florida flag fish & SAE green hair--depends: slimy stuff, almost anything. really tough stuff(aka thread/string algae), still looking. green spot--nerite snails blue green--Nothing, use antibiotic diatom/brown--Otocinclus, suckermouth cats, Plecos, snails GREEN WATER--daphnia STAGHORN--reportedly florida flag fish/SAE, I will test this shortly. My amanos were USELESS as algae eaters. I think you would need a huge number. For that reason I prefer neocaridina and snails, becasue they make more of themselves.

I don't think it was the nitrates as 20-40 seems reasonable. You have ample algae. They should not have starved, but perhaps they came in with parasites, and an atibiotic would not have helped. Your best bet is to assume that Otos are wild caught and may need a little extra care and medication.

do you have a mystery snail? Not all snail eggs look alike. However I am not aware of any fish parasites that I would expect to lay a large clutch of visible eggs.

😄I think I am a living breathing example--not a malicious bone in my body but SEVERAL stupid ones.

@SWilson Yes, this is what I would do. If there is a temperature differential between tanks you can use a bag, but I would try to keep them underwater. I imagine assisting a large fish would be nerve wracking, pea puffers are so tiny I feel like it would be near impossible. Since mine came from ACO, they may have come from Aquahuna also--though I know they probably have many suppliers. They have been healthy little guys/girls, too young to sex, but I suspect 1 boy 2 girls. I have only had them about a month, but I had tons of questions about them before I got them. 🙂 I love this place! So nice to be able to talk things over.

I think i need to do this...immediately. 🙂 thanks.

I have kept pea puffers--am doing so now. What you will be getting will likely be juveniles. Much like the tetras you see in a big box pet store, they will be housed in an overstocked condition in a realatively bare tank, which works because they are young. My little peas went into a planted 12gallon containing both snails and cull neocaridina shrimp, and they are perfectly happy there. The med trio was easy and safe to use in that set up. If I were planning on putting them in a 55gallon tank, I would quarantine in a smaller tank to save med expense. I would toss in some (small!) pest snails so that they can eat if they need to, but nothing will foul the water if they aren't ready. I would provide lots of cover in the QT--coffee cups and bowls can be useful if you don't have real decor, and floating plants are nice too. You may want to keep the light low, my guys like to lurk in shadows. I do think you have to be careful to keep them in water during the transfer to the final tank. No running thru the house with a net like I might do with a guppy. 🙂 I understand puffers that attempt to inflate out of water can damage themselves.

I live in less than 600sf apartment with my teenager. We have 10: a 5 gallon a 7.5 gallon 4x 10 gallons a 12 gallon a 20 gallon High a 29 gallon a 48gallon We also have a cat, a parakeet, 2 ball pythons in large enclosures, and a Leopard gecko. Yes, we are crazy, and likely in heavy violation of our lease. No, it actually doesn't feel crowded at all, nor have I damaged any part of my apartment.

That is correct, and a valid concern.

If you have a cover on the tank that can be a problem. I have better luck with low flow and no cover, bright light, and I have also noticed some did better in the summer, so warmer tanks may also help.

Ever try them on Staghorn?

It will live there. I plan to at least trail pothos etc in the back, but given the window, I don't want to hang a light as it would block the beloved view of the parking garage.

If you put the eggs in the snail tank they will likely be eaten I think.