Fish Folk

Not necessarily, no. We keep lots of single Plecos in various tanks.

Additionally... they really appreciate wood and hiding places in the aquarium. They’re really active by night, and prefer to lay low while lights are on.

Plenty! Best in my opinion is a Bristlenose Pleco (also called a “bushy nose” Pleco). Occasionally, stores will call them by their general Latin name - Ancistrus. They come in brown, yellow, “super” red, and “green” dragon. Photos below. Males, when mature develop a bunch of strange growths on their nose . . . I think it may be called a copule.

Welcome! This is really cool. Keep up the creative, experimental aquatic thing. College is busy time though, so stay "in bounds."

This can be a hotly debated question. I remember another media space where my answer to this same question was "yes" and where another aquarist's was adamantly "no." It never actually came to a crossing of swords . . . but it devolved a bit into the immature. All I'll say is this: We used to gravel vac faithfully as you describe. And, after time, like you, it got to be a hassle. So now, I gravel vac where I can, only every other water change. As long as fish are not _overfed_ then what's building up mainly is mulm. I'm not persuaded that mulm is all that bad. Where it's unsightly, there I vac. Otherwise, I let the plants and micro life do their thing.

Do more research on these . . . not sure if these would work for your situation . . . but have you looked into Florida Flagfish? Or Hillstream Loach?

Best of luck to you! We've just got a really simple, low, low tech "fish room" that's basically . . . all of the wrong things that need to be simplified / organized to be a "real fish room." Linked a video below anyways. It's really small, and feels just right for us. But as for PROPER fish rooms! -- here's a bunch of thread to pick through: Here's our wee-room . . .

That is a good-looking B-Ram. The ones I see at stores one East seem to often look emaciated and poorly formed. This one here is a beauty! Thanks for sharing. Keep these rolling! I'm gonna follow me some Robert . . .

Sorry to hear. Let’s just talk this through step by step. (1) Assuming you’re on city / town water, did you remember to add water treatment when you did the water change? —not necessary when on a well—

Maybe it just needs a ton of plants to draw down the high mineral content?

Welcome, Texas! Love that there thundering herd! 😍 Hope your tetras thrive for you.

As I understand it, KH is a measurement of bicarbonates & carbonates, but GH is a measure of calcium & magnesium. What is the GH of your tested tap water before adding to tank? Is the high calcium & magnesium from your source, or from your tank?

Congratulations!!! It is common for holding female Africans to go without food for 18-21 days. Don’t worry about her. Here’s two ways to proceed... (1) strip the eggs and tumble / remove fry into safe tank or,(2) let her hold and release on her own in a quiet tank. Here’s an example of the first method... And here’s an example of the second approach, with one major error: these were hybrids, and were declined BAP points from our Fish Club, and were unfit to sell...

If you want to put 20x Rams in there, you can. There will be battles and fights, but there will be enough to sort out a pecking order and disperse aggression. Cherry shrimp can work out alight with them, as long as there’s places to hide. Bristle-nose Plecos work well, but really appreciate wood to harvest food from off of.

Bummer! I watched my Threadfin Acaras eat through all of my Cardinals and Cherry Barbs one by one. They'd hit them in the morning when the smaller fish were still "woozy" from lights out.