Expectorating_Aubergine

I fed mine cooked shrimp, earthworms and live baby crayfish. My tank had a deep layer of leaf litter and mulm. They LOVED burrowing in there.

How rough are the lava bits? They somwtimes like to burrow, but not always. Honestly I have found them to be very easy keepers. Be sure not to have any openings they can fit through. They are jumpers and can crawl a considerable distance on dry land. They will hunt on land sometimes if they have the chance. Care is basically the same as a bichir. They are very social, and like to hide together. I hear tell of albinos, but have yet to see one in person. Give them something to hide in.

You should look into swedish prison cells. They're a dead ringer for a NY apartment, and a nice one at that!

I can only speak for myself, but personally, I find the amount of work, tech, etc that needs to go into a nicely aquascaped tank.... overwhelming. It reminds me of bonsai in this and many other respects. I like to watch those youtubers do their thing, because it's relaxing to watch. Kinda like all those woodworking vids. Never gonna do that either (and I have a shopsmith).

I'm in the US of A. No dice. I don't want to order from online. A friend did and he got all males. He ordered 10, and ALL of them were male. The one time I got to a shop by my work that had just got them like an hour before I whent also had all males. I want to see and pick out, because I want to have a breeding population, not a sausage fest.

I wish I was able to get some. Anytime a place near me has them, they are all gone by the time I get there 😞. Can't even find eggs in country. The only people online that have them are in eastern europe....

You'll get good growth. Sand will increase the chances of the soil going anaerobic. Gravel is what most people use. The only real issue with using potting soil as a substrate is that the nitrogen source for the soil is ammonia. Not that big a deal if it's a plant only tank, or you're letting the plants grow in first before the fish. However, if you're adding fish in straight away....... be careful. The again, I'm the kind of guy that adds dry ferts to his tank with the fish in there and everything...

This ^ my money is on this being what happened.

Yeah, they're a pretty sweet fish too...

I live in California, and sadly, capybara are banned here 😢. It's my dream monster fish.

I've seen those two done before many times. If you're going to breed, you're going to need a big tank and with the bichirs, it might be easier to remove the adults...

*George Romero has entered the chat* Don't sweat the little buggers. Plenty of insects find their way into our aquariums. I've had dragonflies lay eggs in my tanks several times. Ever seen a dragonfly nymph kill and eat a pea puffer? I have.....

I wholeheartedly agree. I have a handful of bowls that are for just that. If you get the chance to get your hot little hands on a microscope or even a hand lense...... there be monsters!

They're midge larva (aka blood worms). Excellent fish food. Some midges bite tho. You might want to take care of that before you find out the hard way wich kind you have. Bon Appétit! 🤌

Yes. I got it at work. I believe it's an Asian golden clam (Corbicula fluminea)There's about 5 of them in there last I checked.... Edit: in case anyone was wondering, I don't work at a petstore or anything like that. Where I work we have lots of water features and artificial water ways. Those clams are in all of them.

This is a 3 gallon fallow tank. I was abandoned in the garage with a grow light, some subwassertang and java moss. It has since been brought inside, cleaned up by snails, hosted some shrimp (they all died) and now has some wild type endlers from my work tank (coincidentally the exact same kind of tank).

I use a balanced orchid dry fertilizer. I usually do a quarter scoop every month or so. Some plants require more (bananas).

I've done this before. You will get TON of growth. Like, that tank will be overflowing with plants in a relatively short time. The only draw back to growing emersed is the melt/adjustment period when you submerge them. Especially with the crypts. Keeping the humidity really high helps make the transition less stressful for the plants.

Temperate water lilies can handle that cold. Pretty sure vallisneria can too. Honestly, most pond plants can handle that kind of cold. I know lots of things either go dormant or die off leaving turions/seeds to resprout in the spring. As far as aquarium plants, I would stick to stuff that's native. Obvious tropicals like anubias won't work.

Woah, who said anything about killing? I toss them into my pond.

Why do you want to fill it? Seems like something pretty desirable. Depending on what kind of fish you have in there, they might dig it all out (I had a cichlid do that once).

Fast growing plants will filter more. Terrestrial plants will filter more. My tanks with terrestrials need dry ferts because they get yellow from lack of nitrogen, iron or any number of things that they strip from the water. Also, I have to put coral in there because the pH begins to drop from the carbonic acid they secrete from their roots. Plants can filter A LOT (roughly). Often these tanks only have an air stone for water movement....

Wow, I go to homedepot a lot and have never seen anything like that. Maybe it's only offered online?

Maybe I ate some moldy grains for breakfast and am seeing things.... is this true?

No prob bob. I'm way more of a plant guy than a fish guy. Actually as I get older, I am moving more to the plant side. I even have tanks that just have plants. I tried to get into the carnivorous plant thing, but the whole "needs distilled rainwater" thing was the main stumbling block for me. I had success floating them in my pond. However, they got eaten /destroyed by a combo of slugs and raccoons. You ever try growing parrot pitchers submerged?