Fish Folk

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...

In my view, the titration tests and strips often provide varied readings. This is the place you want to look into if you want to be done with guesswork. But it is costly. Personally, I would not overthink it unless you really want to make things difficult. Everything depends on where you're at in the hobby, how much you're willing to spend, and what your goals are. For me, I get a varied reading from the tap. But once my water hits 17x different tanks, everything skews anyway. Fish adapt.

Didn't know you were a Chef. Respect! That's real work mate. I do not have first-hand experience with rare tetras. All the ones I've kept -- Cardinals, Neons, Silvertip, Ember, Buenos Aires, Congos, Rummynose, and maybe a few others -- were all pretty common. Those Blueberry Tetras look amazing! I've always secretly wanted to to a massive school of Hummingbird Tetras in my 33 gal long over a massive bed of Java Moss and glorious lighting. Maybe someday...

Looking good! Did everyone make the transition?

We live in USA. FC Barcelona fans here. We love Ter Stegen 🇩🇪

Who's your team? We are hardcore La Liga fans, but definitely follow Bundesliga. Pep Guardiola at Bayern was a special era.

Bundesliga fan?

A 40 gal. can work; however, I recommend acquiring sub-adult EBAs. They will accept their environment better if tank mates are already situated. As a general rule… “If it fits in a mouth, it goes in a mouth.” I never put small tetras in with them.

A 150 liter (ca. 39 gal.) aquarium can work for EBAs. When young, you can keep half a dozen in there. But once they are fully mature, that aquarium will be best suited for a single breeding pair. I have never kept freshwater eels or African Butterfly Fish. I rarely keep African species with American species. I have considered Congo Tetras with EBAs, but never pulled the trigger. The concern I would have about mixing Andinoacara with Pantodon is nipping on those long fins. Eels… I just know nothing about. Let me share a few videos. These might give you some ideas. (1) EBAs - adults in a 40-gal breeder, fry in a 20/gal long. Species-only… (2) EBA fry grow-out in a 55-gal… (3) EBA pair, Firemouth Cichlids, Ancistrus pair, a lone convict cichlid and a small school of Buenos Aires Tetras — all in a 55-gal… Glad to followup if you have any questions. Because this is not my thread, type @Fish Folk in your reply so I am notified.

Congrats! _wait_ When you feed, feed tiny amounts multiple times a day. Imagine how small their stomachs are. You do _NOT_ want to overfeed.

Excellent! Can you explain exactly what you did in terms of water changes? The reference for “it” was unclear to me. I understood you to have added ca. 1-gal. green water from outside to your aquarium; then water changed the aquarium heavily. Did I understand correctly? If so, say more about that please. I’m interested in understanding your thought process. Aside… I was gobsmacked at some lovely Pearl Danios at my LFS last eve. Stunning little gemstones!

I’m guessing male. (1) lacking _any_ purple / reddish on abdomen (2) Dorsal and anal fins long and pointed. Here’s a BAP video my don made. Easy to compare male vs. female. (Note: females often have egg spots in the back of their dorsal fins too)

Cool!!! Looks like maybe a few WP shiners, yes??

That is awesome!!! When you’ve got time, I’d love to see a short video. On NANFA Fb Group, message Phil Farrell out in CA. He can explain how to get them breeding.

Excellent photos! New camera? Those Gobies look fun.

When the males retain pink lips, they're ready to spawn.

Well done! Now, I'd be very attentive to their native water conditions before bringing indoors -- assuming you're planning to keep some? I have heard that F0s can really breakdown in that transfer. Mine are F1s -- much, much easier.

For me personally, I'd try not to put all of my "eggs in one basket" so to speak. There are risks both ways at this point. I'd probably just leave the fry in the 2.5 gal. Once they're wrigglers, they rarely succumb to normal egg fungus -- unless you have a heavy, heavy infestation. What I'm seeing is pretty standard. I do not feed wrigglers until they are free-swimming. I also do not give up on them / suck them out unless they clearly fungus over. You can probably shake the remaining wrigglers off the leaf, and remove the leaf and white funguses-over eggs now. Fry are tiny balls of complex chems / salts. They open up, and are pretty good at surviving from their yolk sacs for a day or more once free swimming. You could try some one way, some another. But there seem to be concerns both ways. Unless I could really look at your set up, I wouldn't want to rule out the 2.5 gal setup. Honestly, that sounds like it might work fine. You'll learn that breeding is a bit of trial-and-error at first. Fortunately, you have a healthy pair of brooders. You'll have more eggs in a month or so. Experiment with this one and you'll be better prepared next time around. Angels spawn on slate pieces very readily. IF you're feeding them some live foods, and meaty offerings, the female will develop roe quickly again.

If I were doing new fry in a 29 gal, I’d be careful that they don’t die for lack of available food. But overfeeding can be deadly it’s a two-edged sword…

Having done this a bunch of times, you can suck the white eggs off, nudging the fungussed eggs. You will be surprised how many fry survive. Here is a video of our BBS hatching / feeding setup… Here is how I raise fry now. This may be useful in the future…

Can you upload a video to YouTube and link here? Just trying to fully envision what you are concerned about. For perspective… in the wild, tons of fry die. The strong survive. I always have some fry die-off. That’s normal. It is why egg layers spawn hundreds. Strategically, sometimes a few dozen is a great yield.

I’d just use a syringe with an air line piece on the end to suck off the infertile / fungussed-over white eggs. Fry can do fine in a 2.5 gal. For weeks. Those brown eggs will begin to wiggle. Then they’ll fall off the leaf. You’ll think they’re all dead, but WAIT FOR IT. They will turn into tiny free-swimmers up near the top. Don’t do anything radical. You need proper food ready _after_ they begin to free-swim. What are you going to feed them?

My son made these videos a few years ago. Hope this info helps! Glad to answer any questions...

Typically, black water does its own good work of acting as an anti-fungal. Just do not squirt the H2O2 directly onto the eggs. Only use ca. 0.5 ml. I only dose twice, once and then again after 12 hrs. I do add an ayirstone. What species?