ForestJenn

That is an excellent question! We had planned to pick up baby brine eggs last week, but then didn't...so I'm thinking about my options now. I'll let you know how we proceed. 🙂 This was a surprise since we thought it'd be a bit before we saw more eggs. It looks like she hid her fry better than we thought she did. These have to be from that first batch of eggs that we thought would hatch last week.

And we have fry in the 40! Nannacara anomola babies!

That's a really good point and I may break down and implement a system like that. Storage is my other big problem. 50 feet barely fits under my tank and for various reasons the closets in the house, the utility room, spare bath or garage don't really work. I think I'm starting to sound whiny. I appreciate the suggestions though!

Yeah, I know. The 50ft hose I have reaches the kitchen from my main tank but won't reach all the way back to my son's bedroom. The bathroom sink won't work with a python. I thought about a longer hose, but managing a longer hose gets to be as onerous as the buckets. Thanks though!

Hi! I'm keeping Nanacara anomala with corydoras and most of the time the cichlids leave them alone. There is a bit of chasing when the female is guarding eggs. We thought there was some fin nipping going on but we're not sure since we haven't seen it. While not Otocinclus, I think the observations can carry over. I wouldn't hesitate to put otocinclus in my tank, especially since I added a few more plants to break up the sight lines even further. Your mileage will vary, I'm sure. Every fish can be a little different. Also keep in mind that brown algae is generally temporary and can be cleaned up manually too. I'm with you though. I don't enjoy how it looks and would want it gone. Editing to add that otocinclus are fun to keep whether they're in there to clean up a specific problem or not. 🙂

Years ago I knew someone who had a big African cichlid tank and he mentioned that he had hybridization going on. I really don't know a lot about the various species and whether or not he meant cross breeding. But he was correct, then that might be something else you have to think about. Please keep in mind that I've never kept African cichlids and this is just a random memory. 🙂

While not my most dreaded task, this sounds so familiar! Especially since the 11 year old is worse than I am! He just randomly sets things down around the house and I know that I'm going to go insane if I have to go looking for water conditioner during a water change again. And he leaves all the food in front of his aquarium in his room. If I can't find the flake or sinking pellets, I have to hunt them down because he fed his fish. Once we have used up containers, he's going to get his own containers and won't touch mine on pain of losing computer privileges. (A fate worse than death if you're 11, apparently.) I think my most dreaded chore is water changes in the 29 gallon. The Python won't reach it and it's just large enough that lifting buckets gets heavy unless I want to make a bunch of trips.

Ugh, I can't imagine putting up with that for any serious length of time. Road work is necessary but having to be home all day hearing and feeling that has to suck! I hope your tanks continue to do ok. Fingers crossed no leaks!

We've watched that! My husband more so than I, but it's a lot of fun! It was strange to see "Baldrick" at first as I've only ever watched him on Black Adder. If you like clever, British reality shows, you might enjoy Travel Man. Richard Ayoade is another smart and funny Brit! Sorry @Trvlingeek! We hijacked your thread! Based on your screen name, you might like Travel Man too!

I hope you like it. It's a little silly and a little violent but after a while, the characters are endearing. It took me an episode or so to get into it, but I've watched the first 2 seasons now. I don't watch a lot of TV, so I probably won't get back to watching this until after we finish watching the Umbrella Academy (I'm watching the 2nd season of that with my husband while I try to catch up by watching the 1st season. A little confusing sometimes!)

If you go for it, let us know your results. I've been puzzling over whether or not the Aqueon tank we bought for my son was a good buy since the reviews were terrible, but there don't seem to be a lot of easy to purchase options. Interestingly, my 40 gallon (no idea what brand) is a standard 36x12, not a breeder, and it also has a center brace.

I didn't vote because I've never ordered fish, but weirdly, I talked about this with a friend of mine over the weekend. He has been struggling with shrimp via mail order recently. 3 orders failed on him. He believes it has to be something he's doing because both the vendors he used are reputable. His most recent purchase was through a more local vendor and he seems to be having more success and he assumes it's because of a smaller difference in water quality. Based on his experience, I'd probably go for acclimating more slowly, but getting the fish out of dirty shipping water makes for a compelling argument as well. I'll be watching this poll and tucking away the results in my brain for the future! 😉

Totally off topic, but I'm loving Possessed. Is that a Kdrama? Not sure if it counts because it's got a healthy dose of fantasy and comedy. And dragging myself back on topic... Welcome!

An update on the 40 gallon. The eggs were looking good through last night before lights off. One egg went white, but all of the others were a pretty tan color that blended into the dragon stone very well. They disappeared over night. We're not certain if Mom gave up or if she has moved the fry. We can't see any fry, but she's hanging out in a cave formed when I leaned the stones against each other during scaping. So it's tough to say. Between myself and the forum, I'm not hopeful. She hasn't adopted the classic checkerboard coloring that she should have while guarding fry. But then she wasn't colored up while guarding eggs either. It makes me wonder whether or not the species identification is correct. But that's an aside. I'm seeing little splotches of algae on the glass. That's a first for this tank, so I need to clean that up during the next water change. If I could be sure that there are no fry, that might mean today. Since I'm running an undergravel filter, my preference is to vacuum gravel weekly regardless of where my nitrates are sitting. I didn't do that over the weekend (although I wish I had, since I think it's better to do a water change with eggs in the tank vs brand new fry.)

So I'm curious Brandy. I noticed @Irene using what looked like a baby food spoon while feeding frozen in one of her videos. Made me feel normal. Do you use an old baby food spoon too?

Frozen blood worms, frozen brine shrimp, and the Xtreme krill flakes. The only thing they seem ambivalent about is freeze dried brine shrimp and since I hate the stuff, that's ok. The bristlenose seem to like zucchini but I'm not sure I can say that they "go crazy" for anything. We're trying the Repashy community food today or tomorrow for the first time.

The trick is to find someplace that's not too crowded. We were up at Sunday Lake near Stanwood. It's a small lake with one rickety old dock that is nominally maintained by the state. But it was perfect for two boys and their inflatable kayaks. We pretty much had it all to ourselves on a Friday.

Everything seemed like it was going awry last night when we realized that something was munching on the tail fins of my smaller corydoras. You can read my over-dramatic post about it here at the link below. One of my main causes for upset is that we were seeing this sort of territorial bullying in the absence of breeding behavior. Every source I consulted suggested that outside of breeding, this is a cichlid that should get along with most other appropriate community fish, especially corys. I knew that we'd have some territorial behavior from the female, but that's why I structured the tank the way I did. Three distinct areas with different kinds of cover. But the female hadn't colored up in the classic checkerboard pattern that you see, so I assumed that she wasn't ready. Well, you know what they say about assuming... We have eggs! Margaret was a much darker color this morning and acting sort of sneaky. So we went looking. She laid them in an almost vertical depression behind the largest of the three dragon stones in the back. I was NOT expecting that. I have some catappa leaves in the tank and one of them is laying flat under some branches on the wood. I was really expecting her to nest there. Shows what I know. There are other flat surfaces available to her as well. Apparently she's just contrary.

This is better than the way I keep doing things...forgetting which profile I'm using on which browser so that I keep paying twice.

Thanks! We talked more here at home tonight and are going to move the gang to a 10 gallon quarantine tank (yes, a trip to Petco will be happening first thing tomorrow. ). Then once we are certain that it's ready, we will move them to the 29. I don't want to though. But it's not like I can force everyone to get along.

Everything was going so well! 40 gallon tank, newly planted stocked with 12 black neons, 12 panda corydoras, 1 young bristlenose catfish, and 2 dwarf cichlids (Nannacara anomala). We added the cichlid pair last week and watched them like a hawk. The male chases the female a bit, but I set up the tank with a pair of SA cichlids in mind. So there's lots of little nooks and crannies for hiding and hanging out even though the plants haven't really filled in yet. But we noticed that 3 of the corydoras (so far it's just the 3 as far as we can tell) have chunks missing out of their tails. They look fine otherwise, and the parameters seem fine (although the KH is very low), so I'm guessing it has to be Bob. We've seen him chase a couple corys off from a spot from time to time, but haven't actually witnessed him nipping them. So, I have a few options. What would you do? 1. Move all of the corys to my son's 29 gallon. (He loves that idea). I'm hesitant because that tank is so young. 2. Move the affected corys to a qt. tank to be sure that this is a case of fin nipping and not a disease process. This will allow me to help them out with an meds necessary to promote healing. 3. Move all of the corys to a qt. tank until the 29 gallon is ready for them and treat all of them even if there's been no fin nipping. I'll just have to go out and buy a bigger qt tank. 4. Remove the cichlids. I don't have a suitable tank for them long term. We don't want them in the kiddo's 29. 5. Watch and see. The only reason I'm suggesting this is because I wonder if the corys will learn to avoid Bob. But this seems like the more stressful solution for both myself and the cory school. 5a. Add some more plants stat and then watch and see. Agh! Option 3 seems the most reasonable and responsible but I would like it to be as simple as 5a. I'm happy to get some input. I've never really dealt with trauma or disease in a tank before. I've been pretty lucky. I feel like I should have enough experience that I shouldn't be all aflutter like this. Parameters Ammonia = 0 (API Ammonia test) Nitrite = 0 (Tetra easy strips) Nitrate = around 20 (Tetra easy strips) GH - 25><75 (Tetra easy strips) KH - <40 (honestly, looks like 0 on the strip) (Tetra easy strips) pH - 6.8 or thereabouts

I like the idea of an aquarium journal here on the forum. We have four aquariums currently. Jenn's 40 Gallon (36x12) tank started up earlier this year Penn Plax under gravel filter run with a Tetra Whisper 60 air pump Hygger submersible heater (300w) Hygger full spectrum LED programmable light. Gravel substrate Hardscape includes 4 small pieces of spider wood and some dragon stone Plants 1 bunch Crypt Wendtii 1 Amazon Sword 1 bunch Pogostemon Stellatus "Octopus" A couple varieties of anubias (nana and nangi I think) 1 Christmas Moss Bridge 1 Dwarf lily bulb Livestock (specific epithets change, so sorry if I've got any of these wrong) 12 Black Neon Tetra - Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi (7 females and 4 males?) 12 Panda Corys - Corydoras panda (Some boys and girls? Maybe?) 1 Bristlenose catfish - Ancistrus sp. `RIO UCAYALI` (We think female, but may be juvenile male. There are some bristles along the upper lip, but they're getting longer) "Waldo" 2 goldeneye cichlid -Nannacara anomala (1 male and 1 female) "Bob and Margaret" Adrian's 10 Gallon Standard 10 gallon, started up years ago as a community tank and then transitioned to a betta only tank. Now housing a small community again. Aqueon HOB filter Tetra submersible 50w heater Original Fluorescent hood light Gravel substrate Hardscape includes various small pieces of driftwood and the cutest little castle tower picked out by a 5 year old Adrian years ago. Plants 1 Pogostemon Stellatus "Octopus" A couple crypts (not certain what kind anymore) Livestock 1 betta - Betta splendens (male) "Lotus" 5 cardinal tetras - Paracheirodon axelrodi (sex undetermined) 2 baby bristlenose catfish - Longfin Green Dragon Ancistrus sp. (too young to sex - they are itty bitty) "Vortex and Nebula" Adrian's 29 Gallon (30 x 12) Started up on July 24, 2020 Penn Plax under gravel filter run with a Tetra Whisper air pump Hygger submersible heater Aqueon LED hood (light to be improved soon!) Gravel substrate (black) Hardscape includes 1 seiryu stone, 1 very large piece of driftwood and one piece of spiderwood Plants 2 bunches Amazon chain sword 1 bunch Crypt lutea 1 Pogostemon Stellatus "Octopus" Livestock We kickstarted his tank with some bacteria from his 10 gallon and some Frytzyme 7. 10 Black Neon Tetras - Hyphessobrycon herbertaxelrodi (looks like mix of males and females) 2 Sunset Honey Gouramis - Trichogaster chuna (females) "Solar and Star This tank is destined to be his Bristlenose breeding tank. Vortex and Nebula have several months of growing to do in the interim. Jenn's Betta Tank This tank is currently a 2.5 gallon kit tank that we bought when we purchased Rowan the betta. It's a bit of a long story. I have a 5 gallon Marineland kit sitting next to my chair. We'll get this up and running this weekend. Thank you to Aquarium Co-op for the instructions on how to pimp improve the kit filter. Hardscape includes one castle Gravel substrate Tetra submersible 50w heater More pictures coming soon. My husband is dragging me off to the hardware store to pick out a new mailbox. Fun times!

We spent the day on a local lake about 40 minutes north of us. Lots of lily pads, bull frogs, dragon flies and jumpy large mouth bass.

This made me chuckle. That was an entertaining read!

Go with the inexpensive version. The set used for grainsize measurements will have finer differences than what you need. ☺