mynameisnobody

Hello @Cat23 There are many ways to tackle this, personally I prefer to stick to the simplest way. I only use tap water with water conditioner. I do not alter my water in no manner. I purchase fish from my area and I’ve had no issues. Once you start tinkering with altering water parameters, you will begin a long, endless journey in search of numbers. For most, this search leads them out of the hobby. I would watch as many aquarium coop videos and/or livestreams and you’ll hear @Cory repeatedly state that chasing water parameters is a recipe for disaster. This simplest also leaves time for enjoying the aquarium which is why we are in this hobby in the first place. Good luck to you

@Mark303 You seem to really be on top of things. This is one of those matters that has no real answer. I have a 110 outdoor stock tank with 9 fancy’s, orandas, ranchu’s, and short tail ryukin. They have a ton of above water plants for decor and filtration. You seem to be feeding fairly ideally, the only thing that remains a mystery are the genetics of the fish. I only purchase mine from 1 online vendor as they specialize in fancies. Because these are such sensitive fish, I have always felt obligated to spend a bit more per fish so that I don’t inherit a severe genetic issue down the road. Now obviously this isn’t bullet proof, but I have been fairly successful. I’m not sure if I can list the vendor here, but you can private message me and I will fill you in. I am in no way affiliated to them or anything actually, I’m just a hobbyist. I feed my fancies the saki pellets, nice pellets from xtreme, duckweed, any plant clippings, shelled peas, and unsalted green beans. I think you may feed out more veggies, more often than I do, yet I’ve had no issues. From my experience, I will never try to save money when it comes to Goldie’s or Rainbow fish. They’re both worth the extra spend to me. (I’m not saying you haven’t done this. It’s just my experience is all.) Good luck

Cardinal over neon’s, but Green line lizard tetras are my fave of all tetras that I’ve seen.

@jwcarlson No idea, I tied the brush to steel fish tape. You can easily trim to size and you can do up to 100’ with no issue. Obviously this is a dedicated tool only used for aquarium cleaning purposes.

@sanford 25’ and I use a flexible scrub brush meant to get inside piping. I lay the hose out straight in my yard and run it through with a hose. 1 pass and you’re good to go. It’s either this or eventually end up with black hoses from the mold.

Personally I prefer a clear hose so it lets me know when it needs a good scrubbing. I clean the inside of all my hoses and intakes periodically. The green hose would make it a guessing game if I got all the muck out. Just my preference.

My shrimp are in a 40 gallon outdoor pond, year round. I do have 1 ACO heater in it, but it still has dropped into the 50’s. Nothing seemed to have been effected. I purchased my shrimp from LRB and on his site, it states that he has seen neo’s survive into the 90’s and down to freezing water. Obviously you don’t want to do this for long, but the point is, the shrimp will be ok.

@Cheryl P. I have a few of the heaters and they’ve all worked great. The only thing I can think of, are there any crimps in the wire? Sometimes it can be easy to miss. Other than that, I’m stumped.

I would totally toss it into a 5 or 10 gallon and see what happens. Does it need a host fish? I’m super fascinated and I’ve never seen anything like that. Amazing. Thanks for documenting it. @Sanzosam

I didn’t realize capybara were a fish? I’m pretty sure it’s a rodent, but I could be wrong.

@Erik G If you want it look brand new, clean it with Barkeepers Friend, powder form. It’s plant based and harmless to any fish or plants. Obviously you want to rinse it out. I would use a yellow dish sponge to apply the powder and a yellow tile sponge saturated in water to rinse it. To get any water out of the aquarium, just fill the large tile sponge and release into a bucket. It’s a bit of effort, but I guarantee you won’t believe it’s not a new aquarium. I just did this very thing to a 180 gallon I picked up and although it was previously cleaned by the previous owner, it’s still a dramatic difference. Hope this helps

Neolamprologus Multifasciata

If it has become a chore more than a curiosity, then start over. Good luck

Seems like a great excuse to acquire more aquariums. 😎

I also live in Florida. I do have a few LFS, however it’s way over priced so I ordered a 10 pack from aquahuna. I will usually use my LFS for other things, but $10/Amano seemed excessive. You also have the option of getting a particular size. If you purchase the smallest they have, you can always grow them out and eventually use them in other tanks you may have/get. Good luck

Crispr is a deep rabbit hole.

@FLFishChik I am also in Florida and luckily there isn’t much that we can’t keep. I’m much more bummed we can’t keep Asian Arowanna and Channa Barca, but that’s a nation wide ban.

To my understanding, all ricefish do well at lower temps. I have an outdoor tub of platinum Medaka and another outdoor tub of red king yama blood medaka. I never had issues and both tubs drop into the 50’s. Even the fry don’t seem to be effected.

Honestly, I love all shell dwellers and even rock dwellers. They all have pro’s and con’s. I know the coop has an article on their site on shellie’s. I would definitely check it out. Also, primetime Aquatics put out a video ranking all the popular shell dwellers. It’ll answer all of your questions per species. Personally, I keep multies and similis because babies appear without my interjection and they are highly interactive with their environment. I do want to obtain a pair of gold Occelatus, but I’m not going to hold my breath on building a colony unless I take action. With a 15 month old little girl, it’s getting harder and harder to do.

In my experience, bubbles mean either meds are in the water or there is a protein buildup somewhere.

@Leo2o915 Gold Occellatus are beautiful, but not even close to the activity level of the multies. If you don’t want a ton of fry, go with the gold’s. However, if you plan on building a colony with basically no interference on your end, then go multies. You can house any of these species in 20 gallons and some even in 10’s, but the smallest aquarium I’d own is a 40 breeder. Too many variables in smaller aquariums, but that can be subjective.

@Leo2o915 I have a 40 breeder with Neolamprologus Multifasciata and another 40 breeder with Neolamprologus Similis. There’s a million ways to house them, however understand they are going to rearrange everything to however they please. Then they’ll do it again. With that in mind, I use pool filter sand. Decor are a few river rocks with some anubias attached to them. Obviously both species has a ton of shells. I believe I added about 50 or so to each setup. I usually use ACO sponge filter to basically filter anything. However, with these guys, I wanted to maximize floor space so I went with an Aquaclear 70. Lighting can be basically anything. If the ACO light was out at the time, I would of definitely went with that. I started off with 8 of each colony. With some time and tons of BBS, you’ll have a bunch of babies. If I had to pick between the 2, I’d go with the multies. They are the most entertaining fish I’ve ever had in my fish room because they do stuff with intention. Good luck.

I once read that one of the best ways to keep predators away from your chicken coop is to have a large set of owls eyes. The ones I read about were carved out of wood. I’m not sure if that will work for raccoons, but it did for foxes, birds of prey, and sand hill cranes. It was a very simple solution to an irritating issue.

Plants first. Fish second. Everything else third. Shrimp fourth. They are best left as the very last addition. Shrimp love fish poop. 😎

Woah, that’s good to know, I had no idea.