shkote

Mine doesn't max out, but my GH is anywhere from 350-500ppm pH 7.6-8.0 and my Amazon puffer does fine with it. My water parameters fluctuate seasonally.

Your Neons and Glowlight Tetras are more likely to eat your baby shrimp than the Hydra. If you are really worried about it, you can feed less and those pond snails and tetras will probably start eating the Hydra.

My favorites usually end up being the most interactive and personable fish- these 2 are the most interactive. But this goofy Dojo loach that looks like a baby seal is pretty cool too 🙂

I've had African Dwarf frogs for about 4 or 5 years in a pH that ranges on average 7.4ish-8 depending on the time of year, and have never had any issues with them being sensitive, quite the opposite really, they're pretty tough little critters. The problem I hear with ADFs most of the time is bloat and I think it's usually from overfeeding.

Xtreme krill flakes/Xtreme spirulina flakes- easy to crush up for smaller fish- but packed with large flakes for the big fish to inhale. Hikari micro pellets are a 2nd for the smaller fish. I will have to try Xtreme nano next, I haven't fed that one yet.

I am in an area experiencing rolling blackouts as well and frigid temperatures in the negatives (-35° windchill) and the main thing I've done is insulate to keep the house warm, cover drafts around doors and windows, and cover tanks. With these temperatures, tanks can lose heat very quickly in a short amount of time. I was a bit surprised with how quickly the tanks lost heat in this cold... and even the house. I am a little worried about today's blackouts while I'm at work as they are completely random and I still have a few tanks with AquaClears 🤦🏻‍♀️

I don't think they really need time to establish, Geos will pretty much just go after what is planted in the substrate. I have never seen them bother plants that are attached to things. I have Anubias and java fern attached to rocks, wood, and suction cups on glass with no issues. If it can't be pulled up from the bottom, or buried, they will be fine.

I finally got a handful of Platinum Rice fish and... I totally get it 🙂 For me it's a lot of Tetras, but particularly skirt tetras. I have a small school of Black Skirt tetras and... I really don't get what is appealing about them. They are a decent dither fish for my Firemouth. They keep him comfortable, but other than that... meh.

My tapajos are diggers, and whatever they can't dig up, they bury. I have seiyru stone disappear under the mountains they make in their tank. I have had no luck with any plant that isn't glued or tied down in that tank. But they are so worth it. Beautiful fish.

@Daniel has a lot of posts about vorticella that are worth searching.

Oooooh congrats on your new BP!!! 🙂 I think personality wise, they are my favorite fish in the house. They are so hard not to fall in love with and extremely interactive and as @Snjchris says, very quirky. As far as other cichlids go, I find them to be pretty slow growing, but I just have standard orange BPs and have heard the opposite of the Red KKs. My larger Blood Parrot, Darwin (named after the cartoon goldfish on Gumball because of the resemblance 😄) is about a year and a half and about 4" and Peanut, the little guy I got almost exactly a month ago has grown much quicker and will catch up in now time. They are bossy, but somehow make it adorable, like to be the boss of the tank but not overly aggressive, always up in everyone else's business, but as long as there isn't any fighting going on with the other fish, they stay rather peaceful. Mine spend much of their time in their caves and have their own bedtime, which is pretty much immediately after they eat at night and they put themselves to bed. They are friendly and easily run to my hands when I'm cleaning the tank. They like to play. I wiggle my fingers and they chase my hand until they bump it then swim away and wait for to chase them back, do little circles around my hand, if I cup my hand, Darwin will rush over to get in my hand. I like to hand feed them both, but they don't have any difficulty eating on their own either and it's more for bonding purposes. The black spots/streaks are something that a lot of new BP owners tend to freak out about. Again as @Snjchris mentioned, it's usually due to stress and you will see it multiple times throughout having them. A few reasons mine end up with random black spots: Sometimes when I clean the tank, if I move anything, if I touch their stuff, if they think that I was GOING to touch or move their stuff, occasionally during a fasting day (the thought of never getting food again must be stressful because these guys are little piggies) and also sometimes after a growth spurt. Some of my Anubias plants are just stuffed in places instead of being attached, they sniff those out every time, grab them, play keep away with them a bit, parade them through the tank, then watch them float. If they are attached though, I don't usually have issues. I can't plant anything in this tank but the Geos are the offenders there. They will bury and dig up everything.

Perhaps you could have people add their photos on the thread instead of via PM, and people can vote on that person's post making the rep points go to the person being voted for instead of all of them to you. At this rate, you're going to be @Daniel level status in no time. 😄

At 6-7 months old, the andropodium should already be visible on males. Mine are usually sexable around the 4 month mark. I do sometimes have males that take a little longer to color up, but the andropodium is still evident on those males.

I would not risk that one. The Blood Parrots will probably eat the frogs. Dwarf frogs have skinny little wiggly legs that will look like food to the Blood Parrots.

I prefer short tail guppies 🙂 absolutely gorgeous @SpicyFin 😍

Nice to see an update! 🙂 You got a nice mix of colors in there. Any plans to incubate and raise more in the future?

They look like Electric Blue Ahlis

I don't have vittata, but I do have Limia nigrofasciata, @H.K.Luterman also has a nice colony of nigrofasciata. In my experience, they're not much different than keeping Platies and Mollies. Very active cute little fish. Absolutely love them 😍

Absolutely. I haven't decided which moss to go with yet, but probably Willow.

Haven't done anything with it yet, but just got a cute tiny Bonsai and some fine root driftwood for a future project. 🙂

That tiny little puffer makes the tank look so big! I've never had pea puffers, so this really puts their size into perspective for me! How adorable 🙂

I used the mini GKM on my 5 gallon portrait at work not that long ago. After an over feeding/way too much light situation over vacation, I came back to a glowing green cloudy tank. The mini 3W green Killing machine was a bit bulky in the 5 gallon, but it was all I had so I stuffed it in there and turned the flow all the way down. It started clearing up within days. I don't know if you have access to the mini version, but I'm sure it's powerful enough for a 10 gallon and would fit nicely. I can't remember exactly how many days I ran it, but it wasn't very long.

I have Dwarf Gouramis, Honey Gouramis and Sparkling Gouramis (not all in the same tank) but the one thing mine all have in common is they are nice to everyone except their own kind. The Sparkling Gouramis dive bomb eachother, the Honey Gouramis chase a bit (nothing serious) and the Dwarf Gouramis (both males) have a mutual agreement to split a 55 gallon 50/50 and rarely get near eachother. If they do, there is some mild chasing. None of them bother other fish though.