Fish Folk

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…

"Shouldn't do" is probably going to be debatable on some of these... but I'll play. Here's a few... I allow a massive colony of Malaysian Trumpet snails to infest my Discus Tank. I just allow Duckweed to grow everywhere. If it gets too thick, I net it off with an aquascaping skimmer net. I occasionally feed my fish small earthworms from under outside rocks and wood.

Awesome 😎

I have been a non-serious, though regular breeder for a few years now. Others can be more helpful, but I like your question. ”Selective breeding” may or may not be a technical term. At a very basic level, you can start a colony and opt to either (1) “selectively preserve” desired traits by _culling_ undesired fish, or (2) “selectively remove” fish with desired traits to separste breeding tanks. Either way, you are separating desired fish from undesired ones, and seeking to propagate certain traits. At the most elementary level, this is what potentially begins to happen every time a hobbyist chooses the “best / desired” fish at a pet store, leaving behind less-desired species. More developed is when a group of brooders is bought, best adults spawn, and best fry are carefully preserved. ”Selective breeding” can imply some iteration of “line breeding” where a line of fish descended from brooders with desirable traits gets carefully bred together. The tendency is (a) for desirable traits to statistically increase, but also (b) for health problems to statistically increase due to inbreeding. To help resolve this, breeders will set up multiple lines from separate brooder source stock, and then _cross_ them a couple generations in to keep genetic variation sufficient to maintain desirable traits, but avoid poor genetic health overall. A simple, low-tech way for thinking about genetics is to make Punnett squares (Mendellian genetics, HS biology). Choose a trait desired, and start breeding. You’ll find that there are dominant traits and weak traits. Let’s say you’re going for color. Maybe brown is dominant (B) and red is non-dominant (r). If you start with a Red male but a brown female, the 1st generation fry might all look brown like mom. But the 2nd generation in as those fry spawn with each other may show 25% red like granddad. Selectively cross those red ones, and you’ll get a supermajority that are all red. But every time you multiply desirable traits (e.g. fin size, body shape, etc) you also make the Punnett square multiply — like 3D chess (sort of…) so it usually is easier to just select the best, and leave the rest. I could go on and on, but let’s start there!

Looks like a bristlenose. Most Ancistrus with a copule are just sold as "bushynose" or "bristlenose." Appears to be a healthy male. If you're looking for something much more detailed, please advise. A number of catfish species are listed here.

You are on a learning curve. Here is what you'll likely discover: you can sell a bunch of these for awhile, 3-6 months from now. But unless you've mastered shipping and selling online, you'll be overrun . . . will have bought many small, or several large tanks to deal with your grow out issues, and that will pretty much have zeroed out your margin of profit. Angelfish are nice once in a while, but hundreds and hundreds can be very hard to move along. Additionally, the conditions they'll need to stay in will become rather brutally high in nitrates because of the volume of grow out juveniles. Once those fish hit the water of a LFS, they'll crash. Additionally, your brooders will continue to breed unless you prevent it. This is the learning curve for every angelfish breeder. Every. single. time. I've watched this story unfold a lot. So, my recommendation is STOP the breeding until you can get a handle on the entire process, and have a very solid plan for everything from grow-outs to selling. As for your question, you'll find that there will always be "runners" who grow faster than siblings. The danger they'll pose to juveniles whose fins have not opened up all the way is serious. "If it can fit in the mouth, it will eventually go in the mouth" applies to all fish. Always. But honestly, you can probably get away with it because of how small they are, and how non-agrgessive they are in a huge colony / school. Here's the last of our Koi Angel fry just before we sold them off to our LFS. I was _so_ happy to be done with them...