Matt_

I figured that I should share photos of my current setup if it will help since I only have a couple of tanks (I do not have a fish room) and have had some successful hatches to adults using this method. I did not clean anything up to take these pictures, so this is as it is typically setup: Paleatus Cory eggs in a Lees Specimen Container with an airstone located directly over a 200watt aquarium heater: Paleatus Cory wigglers in a fry cage (to keep them from being eaten) with some java moss and mini marimo moss ball for cover:

Yes, you can hatch the fry in a fry cage and also hatch the fry in a cup if you want - I have done both before. You will want an airstone for agitation of the eggs, clean water, and heat from some source. You will want to locate the cup/hatchery directly over the heater if you have a glass lid and are doing an out of tank hatch. I recommend having baby brine shrimp (live or frozen) or Hikari First Bites on hand if the eggs hatch. I clean the fry cadge using an airline tubing siphon when feeding. Also, don't get discouraged if the first batch of eggs does not hatch, because sometimes it even takes a few trys for the fish to figure things out. Good luck and let us know how it turns out!

Agree with @Daniel, it is most likely low oxygen if you are not running an airstone or water quality issues if your fish do not normally hang out at the surface. If you just did a water change make sure that you use enough dechlorinator if you are on city water because they may have started using chloramines in the water this time of year. Recommend performing tests for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate on the tank and tap water. You may be adding ammonia from the tap water which makes changing the water less effective.

That synodontis looks awesome! As for me I could not help myself yesterday and got my L066 Tiger King pleco a friend. New Pleco Existing Pleco

I forgot to mention one other thing. If there are guppy fry arrive or are kept with the parents/adults be sure to keep them all well fed or the adults will eat the fry. This extra feeding may require additional water changes as well. Guppies have no parental instincts whatsoever. Best of luck on your guppies!

I would highly recommend using the med trio as instructed above for guppies showing no signs of disease coming in from an Online source or LFS with a 10 gal QT bare bottom tank. I also recommend using a preseeded sponge filter or other preseeded filter material to start the cycle in the QT tank. If you get the guppies from a local breeder or other known source maybe just QT and treat as needed. I had a lot of issues cycling my 10 gal QT tank before it got seasoned so I recommend having a test kit/strips for ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate and alternate beneficial bacteria source on hand. I ended up having to add a cup full of gravel to correct the cycling issues in the tank. I am currently running the QT tank with a medium sponge filter powered by an Aquatop AP-50 air pump, guppy grass, and the same cup full of gravel with 30%-50% weekly water change. I would personally recommend QT for a month before adding with other guppy colonies or display tanks because it is so much easier to observe and treat them in a QT tank and guppies can be fragile (although I do not always follow my own rules here).

I do not directly feed frozen BBS for the guppy fry because it would become expensive but they definitely go after the leftovers from my Cory fry. I use the Aquarium Coop fry food for the guppy fry and then graduate them to crushed Xtreme Krill Flake and Xtreme Nano. The guppy fry also really like to nibble on the algae living on the live plants all day as well, Java moss is a favorite.

Yes, they will really like those. My guppy fry steal whatever they can from the Cory wigglers in the same tank.

I use a very inexpensive pleco feeder that I bought from a local breeder that is a rounded stainless steel hook CA glued to a coral frag disk. It works extremely well feeding zucchini. You can add fishing line and a bob if you don't want to get your hands wet. I also feed frozen French cut green beans and those sink immediately and never come back up. I am feeding Bristlenose plecos and L066 Tiger King plecos (who supplement their normal meat diet with veg.). Photos of the feeder empty and with customers (it was in for under a minute before I took this photo).

Thank you very much. I gave steaming hot water and microwaving 15 secs at 100% power a try. The bottle looks clean and dry but still smells a bit.

They look like cory eggs based on the photo size of the eggs next to the thermometer. The female is larger and plumper than the male. Spawning behavior to look for: the female will clutch the eggs between her fins, the male will fertilize making a t-shape and then the female will lay the eggs on the glass/plants. My Paleatus corys place eggs all over the tank and spawn every 10 days. You can use a credit card or your fingers, pull them off the glass, and hatch them up in a container - I use the Lees Specimen Contain and an air stone to hatch the eggs out. Otherwise your other fish will eat the eggs within a day or two. Cory has a video of this at minute 9:45: Orange Laser Corydoras Spawning - Aquarium Co-Op - YouTube

I ran a UG filter on my first 10 gal tank in the 90s with fish only (I wish I had the Internet and LED lights back then!), and I never liked it because it takes up vertical tank space and there is no good way to clean out the mulm or anything else that gets into it (at least the model I was using) without dismantling the entire tank. I ended up with a huge number of pest snails in there by the time I broke down the tank. Dismantling the tank alone is a deal breaker for me now and I do not plan to run one again. You may have a totally different experience with plants as others have pointed out. I remember that the folks that I saw successfully running UGs back in the 90s for fish only tanks drilled the bottom of the tank and installed a drain valve so that they could clean out the filter. I recommend a HOB filter or canister filter to save space over the UG filter if you are not using live plants.

I am so happy to have just received my first 1 lb refill of the aquarium coop fry food. Do any of you clean out the squeeze bottle before refilling them and if so what is the recommended cleaning method? I am thinking of just rinsing the squeeze bottle out if I clean it because I am concerned about contamination from soap or from the aquarium on all my cleaning brushes.

Wow! This is just amazing data when complete with the graphs. Thank you for sharing!

Update, had continued loss of pleco grow outs, but I am still not totally sure what happened. The cycle seems to have completed after letting the tank run without a water change for the last couple days (Nitrites are now at 0 again). There are still a few plecos left in the tank, the corys did not stop breeding, and the guppies are still having fry. All the guppies flashing and odd behavior turned out to be Ich today and I am treating with the Ich-X on hand, so I am hoping this tank will settle back down when the ich is gone. Thank you for the help guys.

Good question, I had assumed the plants were exporting the Nitrates, but that probably does not add up here. The tap water is from the Potomac and is probably also better represented as a range instead of a single value. I rechecked the current values and I got Tap Water: 0.25 ppm Ammonia, 0 ppm Nitrite, 5 ppm Nitrate. I was using the logged tap water values from a few days ago for the tap above. The water parameters for the tank were taken before the 50% water changes. I also forgot to mention that some the (all albino) bristlenose plecos also look washed out like they are in distress. On the second photo the pleco on the left is showing normal colors and behavior and the pleco in the middle is washed out and is lethargic but still moving.

Having a major issue in my planted 38 gal growout tank. The water got cloudy, my Guppies and Plecos started swimming oddly (less active), Guppies flashing for a couple days, and today I had a mass loss of Bristlenose Plecos (lost over 15 today). The Paleatus Cory adults and fry seem to be unaffected. Nothing obviously wrong with the deceased plecos. No issues in my other tanks also with the same types of fish using the same tap water for water changes. The only thing that I can think of is that the cycle got out of whack or got reset (testing showed the cycle completed the first time), stocked too fast after cycling or overfed. I have done a 50% water change for the last three days straight treating using Prime and added my pre-seeded Ehiem 2213 to the tank from another tank to try to add additional beneficial bacteria, but I am concerned that I cant water change out of the issue or it is not a cycle issue - I have resisted adding meds because I do not see anything yet. Tank setup at the beginning of October and cycled using a pre-seeded Medium Sponge Filter from another tank, Ehiem 2213 with Small Coop Sponge Pre-filter, 2" sand bed (inert) Constant Water Parameters: 7.4pH, 6 deg. GH, 4 deg. KH Water Parameters: 11/15: 72F, 0.5 ppm Ammonia, 0.5 ppm Nitrite, 80-160 ppm Nitrate => Cloudy water, 50% Water Change, Turned up heater Water Parameters 11/15: 76F, 0.25 ppm Ammonia, 0.5 ppm Nitrite, 40 ppm Nitrate => 50% Water Change, Added cycled Ehiem 2213 Water Parameters 11/16: 76F, 0.0 ppm Ammonia, 0.5 ppm Nitrite, 20 ppm Nitrate => 50% Water Change Tap Water: 0.25 ppm Ammonia, 0.25 ppm Nitrite, 40 ppm Nitrate Other Tanks: 0 ppm Ammonia, 0 ppm Nitrite, 20-40 ppm Nitrate Fish Stocking level maintained for last 3.5 weeks: 10 adult Guppies plus fry, Bristlenose Plecos (30+ <1"), and 7 Paleatus Corys plus fry I am looking for advice on what to do next. I am also concerned adding the fish from this tank into my other aquariums in case the issue is also related to an illness.