Kirsten

Yeah I agree that it looks like a sword plant, which is typically planted in the substrate, not glued to rocks like a java fern, but if it's growing better for you now than before, that's good. It probably won't get very large while glued to a rock, but here's a pic of some of my swords that all grew from one mother plant while planted with a root tab.

Amen to that! I'll also add that water tests are only half the story. You can have mulm flying everywhere, fluctuating temps, bullying, all sorts of stressful things in the tank environment but still have perfectly on target test strips. My poor betta's stubbornly persistent fin rot can attest to this. One thing I love about this hobby is that a tank is always changing and in the end we're all just improvising in a duet with each of our tanks. Endless experimentation as we adapt to each other.

I've had them since I think around November and they're already...too numerous to count lol.

The Metropolitan Opera has a free nightly opera streaming happening since Covid, and tonight is such a fantastic Barber of Seville. Perfect, all-star cast, beautiful and genuinely hilarious (and yes there are subtitles!) https://metoperafree.brightcove-services.com/?videoId=6238029093001

Welcome to the forum! Aren't livebearers amazing like that? 😄 Sounds like you're definitely on the right track to having a nice, sustainable tank!

My fig tree and his little buddy the rosemary bush can't wait to go back outside. Soon, soon. And I just gained custody of, no joke, a 6-foot tall cactus of some kind named Carl. And I have no idea what to do with him: His original family had to move cross-country and asked if I could care for him. I figure / hope he's been alive for at least 10 years, so I probably can't screw it up too badly!

Guppies are often sold as "assorted" because they could be a mix of several varieties, and because females often have some colors and patterns the males do, but not all, so it can be a bit of a mystery what their babies will turn out like unless you've raised them from known parents. So I say enjoy your mystery guppies for now, but you can start tunneling deeper into different known colors and patterns with a simple google search for fancy guppies. Look on aquabid, craigslist, ebay, online fish stores and see what's out there! I bet you'll find more than a few that you'll want to add to your collection!

Ugh, I'm so sorry. It's never easy to lose fish. I'd highly recommend moving any surviving fish to a quarantine tank for treatment and recovery, but keeping the heat on in their original tank, possibly elevated to 80-82 deg F. While you're treating the fish, any remaining ich in the tank will die out from lack of a host. Hold aside any equipment you recently used in the ich-y tank to let it fully dry out, or use it just for your QT. Time and patience!

Golden, gold coin, and coffeefolia are all so unique and have a striking, fleshy, solid texture, especially in front of fine-leaf stem plants like hornwort or mayaca. About 30% of times, I've had one melt away within weeks, but I've kept the rhizomes and held out hope they'll grow back.

Welcome to the forum and back to the hobby!

I think there are many different varieties of rainbow fish from different areas that probably have different requirements. So if you want to go that direction, I'd recommend zeroing in on the exact variety you most want to keep, then finding other fish (possibly other rainbow fish) that match those requirements. From what I understand, many rainbow fish are from Papua New Guinea and are relatively new to the hobby, so there may not be as much information about how to keep them and not as many well-known companions from nature. Not to say that any of them are hard to keep, but that information might be a little more scarce than for, say, south american cichlids.

I'm afraid I don't have any specific answers, but I've always grown mine free-floating and it's always just been sort of...hanging around, green, tangly, near the bottom, occasionally sticking to rocks but mostly trying to strangle java fern roots. Great hiding place for fry, but not noticeably growing out of control or dying back.

From my recent experience with ich-x, they recommend changing at least 30% water every time before you re-dose, so at least every 24 hours. At that temp, the ich parasite is going to be rapidly going through its life cycle, so you could probably speed up your water change and re-dose to every 8-12 hours depending on what you're awake to monitor. But I think the temp is honestly high enough that you stand a good chance of killing it with temp alone.

Yeah, I've tried several and the best bang for your buck I think comes from the chemical, floating therms the co-op sells. Digital therms, I always wonder if the battery's going. External strips, I always wonder if it's actually measuring what's inside. No guesswork with those cheap floating "mercury" style therms. Now, they ARE dependent on circulation and location in the tank. If you stick them behind the filter outlet, under a piece of wood, they'll probably be cooler than most other parts of the tank. Up to you and your fish how much circulation you want.

Sorry to hear you had this experience! I haven't had that with any tank I've owned, from several companies, 1.5 gallon to 36 gallon. If you have any paperwork from your purchase, I'd recommend contacting the store you bought it from. They may be able to send you a replacement. In the meantime, I'd recommend draining it and applying an extra coat of silicone to the seams if you want to keep the tank.

I'm pretty new to the hobby still, but from what I've read, 86 F alone will kill ich within a week. And rams are probably a perfect fish to test that with. I say keep watching it, and if it recedes, you're doing something right. If not, break out the big guns with some meds.

I can't remember if it was Plato or Aristotle, but I'm pretty sure it was one of the Greeks who said that learning is like remembering. When something is clear and makes sense, you think, oh yeah, of course, I remember now, it's because x = y and y = z, and z eventually turns into a. And that's the experience I get coming here and learning from all of you folks and your experience. It feels like remembering what nature is and does, the time it takes and the power it has, even in our tiny 10, 20, 40, 120 gallon slices.

Absolutely, 100%. I used to think fish keeping was very high-maintenance, strict, unforgiving, any lapse in attention would mean instant, terrible death that was all your fault. That might be true for discus and some rams, but for platies? Nah, you're good 🙂 But seriously, I feel like I've found my people here. As soon as I saw "Enjoy Nature Daily," I knew. This place is about encouragement, experimentation, hands-on experience, compassion, pleasure in finding good systems and maintaining them. I haven't had the guts to try dirted tanks yet, but I feel like it'll be the next step in my fish keeping adventures.

My state has finally allowed (nominally) young, (nominally) healthy individuals like myself register for a vaccine and I'm already planning summer and autumn vacations like no one's business. I get that fish can easily go without food for a night and a day. But two nights? More? Should I have friends and family come over to feed a couple times if I'm gone for 9 nights? Or should I try to learn how to make Repashy jerky? What would you do with ever-hungry livebearers?

This is my wall calendar.

I used to be a drip acclimator, but seeing the plop-and-drop advice here and elsewhere in the forum, plus learning more about how ammonia works and how fish stay alive during shipping, and how deadly it could be to slowly raise the temperature and pH in those situations, have sold me 100%. I might do a quick bag float for locally purchased fish, but shipped fish will just get up to room temp and plopped.

I love it!

I haven't kept apistos, though I want to! I think some very small fish like neon tetras or endlers could do well with them, to stay mostly above while the apistos lurk below. I'd recommend nerite snails for any algae that gets on the glass and malaysian trumpet snails to keep the sand aerated.

Yeah just give it time. Replacing substrate is a big change, but snails are pretty tough. They'll probably stay closed up for a couple days, then get back to business.

Lol whatever you want! 40's a great sizes. If I had one, I'd probably start trying to breed apistos.