Fish Folk

Sounds fun! I know I’ve heard of certain companies that make a powder mix to imitate Rift Valley lake conditions. Here’s two products… Make sure you special order your Yellow Labs. Never trust box stores to get you 100% pure, non-hybrid stock. Find a very persnickety breeder, and pay the piper well.

Those blue Stiphodon look 🔥

No, I really do not. I top off water each week. But the Aquaponics system is so efficient, my Nitrates are zeroed out. The only reason I _occassionally_ change water is that salt slowly builds up in any aquarium where live Artemia nauplii (baby brine shrimp) are being fed. I'm trying to encourage my Swordtails and Bluefin Killifish to spawn in there over the winter, so live BBS is stimulating. I do "wash" my shrimp so that the salt doesn't kill the herbs...

I've never personally kept Koi Guppies. I have some "Precious Metals" from my outdoor tub that are colored up indoors now... My only 2-cents on trying different color forms of Guppies is that buying imported Guppies can be a discouraging experience if you are not well-informed on how they're typically kept. I always, always, always find that livebearers _born in my water_ are where things begin to get good. Most stock I order from abroad crashes. I have to work really hard to get fry from them to start anything with. So... buy from a breeder who will tell you everything you need to know to match parameters, etc.

Beautiful! Easy Green can be helpful. But a number of those plants will benefit most from root tabs. My basic rule of thumb is that if a plant can thrive without being planted by just drawing nutrients from the water column, Easy Green will always be excellent. But plants such as Val, Swords, Crinum, etc -- really benefit from Root Tabs most of all.

Though maybe not the very best choice for them (Grindal Worms would be better . . . or small white worms) I believe, based on feeding descriptions from aquarists across multiple other forums that Pygmy Corydoras _will_ eat live Daphnia just fine.

I just let my hornwort float at the top in this tank. I does the aquaponics bin up top with Flourish weekly. The nitrates from fish help of course. Once hornwort "likes" your tank, it will grow well. But it is sensitive to major chemical changes. Huge water changes... pH crashes... leaving a light on too long... loads to things will make it "grumpy" and the needles will all fall off at once.

Fish can fast several times each week without health hinderance. That saves a penny here and there. Many species are fine without a heater, which sits electric bill costs down. I like keeping NANF for this reason -- I never need to add a heater. What sorts of fish are you interested in if you could afford them? What kind of tank spaces do you have to work with right now? Have you ever kept Rainbow Shiners before?

Hornwort is a plant that is sometimes easy, sometimes very tricky. I'm sad to say... the Hornwort in your photo may be too far gone. I always just let mine float -- never try to plant it in the substrate. Hornwort will melt if it gets too much light, or too little nutrients from the water column. Try just giving it 8 hrs of light a day. Dose / feeding it Easy Green (or Flourish) regularly will help. I do not recommend using Flourish Excel on hornwort, Anacharis, or other softer-tissue plants. If your pH crashes, that may affect your Hornwort. It is a type of plant that either thrives, or will shed all of its needles at once... like the old Charlie Brown Christmas tree...

Welcome aboard! Feel free to share any photos, and if you have a YouTube channel, any videos. This Forum is a friendly place to share and grow in the hobby. There's beginners here, and people who have spent many decades working with aquatics. Sometimes we each will make posts sharing things we're doing . . . sometimes just asking the forum questions. Let us know what fish you like to keep, and what you're hoping to keep in your indoor pond!

I’ve had two Cardinal Tetras roaming around in a random 40 gal. breeder community tank awhile. Today, seeing a bunch of Green Neons at our LFS, I sprung for some to start out a fun school. I fed them live artemia nauplii this evening. They’re looking fat and happy!

One thing I’ve successfully explored this year has been merging US native fish species with Swordtails. Now, Xiphophorus species are central American, so the distance in native ranges is not so vast as transcontinental species. But this opens up some lovely options for aquarists interested in combining selected, small local / native fish with a staple in the hobby. Here are a few combos I’ve been working with… Swordtails + Lowland Shiners Swordtails + Bluefin Killifish Swordtails + Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish Red Swordtails bring great colors to any green tank. US Natives bring interesting “personalities.” I use no heaters. Try it!

From what I can see over at Fritz Aquatics, chelated copper in CopperSafe should be left in as long as possible _without doing any water changes_. If you water change, dose Copper-safe again after the WC. Maybe wait a day to ensure the treatment doesn’t cut out your heavy metals. If you use Safe by Seachem, maybe there is no concern. I mix a tablespoon into a gallon jug of tap water, then just add a few tablespoons from that jug whenever I change water. I don’t read anything about heavy metals on the Seachem site.

No, not annuals. They’re pretty versatile with parameters, but I can’t say for sure. I have soft water.

This was a unique colony I did for a couple years: Fundulopanchax scheeli (Emerald Killifish). I had them breeding in a 33-gal long… We also did German Blue Rams in a 55 gal. Had to help them along by pulling eggs, but we had a TON going at once.

F. scheeli… N. rachovii…

(1) Fundulopanchax scheeli (Emerald Killifish) (2) Nothobranchius rachovii (Blue Nothos, annuals)

Glorious Crypt! I’d personally move out the fish that hate the plants, and load up on ones that love them.

We really enjoy our Finnex Stingray 2. It’s plenty bright.

I threw about 25x fry into a 5 gal, but I’m only finding 2x pairs now. It went all “lord of the flies” in there at some point…

Swordtails, 2x Bluefin Killifish, and one random Sand Goby…

I just snapped a photo of these Emerald Killifish. They're Fundulopanchax scheeli. Not annals, they can live for a few years. Max mum size is about the length of n adult finger. They're less boisterous than F. gardneri. They will spawn readily in yarn mops, or in think Java moss. I keep the in small tanks -- 5, or 10 gallons. The lid needs to be fairly tight because they can be jumpers. I've got two pairs of these for sale if you want. PM me...

After some trial and error, I am very pleased with my Aquaponics system… Bamboo, Basil, Oregano, Rosemary. I add some Flourish, and no longer feed any unrinsed BBS. Salt destroys this sort of aquaponics system.

My F. scheeli youngsters are looking great! I didn’t get as many survivors as hoped for, but these are worth it…

F1s from my southern Alabama strain starting to color up! Photos aren’t very good, but color is evident…