Fish Folk

Playing a new chess opening online tonight. Listening to Bach Cello Suites. Yo Yo Ma is my spirit animal in the background. (Unless it's the Knight in my Chess match that's my spirit animal 🤔 🐴)

Pre-Spawning behavior between a pair of Dwarf Congo Cichlids. Male is not being cooperative…

Nice start with plants! Keep going. I like this level of planting . . .

I’m in.

I keep my tubs up off the ground on my back porch. I've never had a frogs in mine. But I have seen muddy footprints on the edge . . . birds, raccoons, there are so many fish killers out there! Cover the top with some sort of screening if you want to be sure. Just leave large enough holes for mosquitoes to get through. Light will still penetrate fine.

I’d leave a single confirmed pair alone to raise fry

Here was our Purple Smilers setup: triggering a spawn fry

Haha! I’ve seen this sort of thing before. Female cichlids sometimes need to empty out roe, male or no male. You’re probably feeding excellent foods! I’d probably spring for a Laetacara curviceps breeding project. We tried L. araguaiae awhile ago. Got fry, but weren’t ready with micro-worms.

In another life . . . I was once a classical musician. Just the other evening, I was playing this little piano solo by Prokofiev on the piano. Here's a good pianist playing it...

Just got a haul of new plants for my NANF 45 gal…

@Ninjoma wow!!! Those are breathtaking shots. Thanks for the inspiration!

Heya NERMS! We all take too many pictures of our fish and tanks. I’d like to see your favorite seven photos you’ve taken of your fish / tanks from this seventh month of 2023. Here’s my July 2023 reel… 1. Spawning Rainbow Shiners 2. Blue Dwarf Congo Cichlid pair 3. Rainbow Shiners & Redbelly Dace 4. New Discus trio 5. Adult Discus tank 6. Lowland Shiners 7. Fireyblack Shiner & Greenheads

@Vicki that looks very nice! More plants . . . more plants . . . more plants 🪴 🌿 🌱

@Vicki how large is this aquarium? So sorry if I'm just missing that info from what's above. Water changes can help. Bacteria will multiply on hardscape. I'd personally add an extra air-stone because the colonies of bacteria you want to multiply are aerobic. Air helps! Also, as @MattyM suggests, I also like using FritzZyme 7. I think it puts bacteria in som sort of cycles form into the aquarium to kick start colonies.

Did you get your wood from just outside somewhere? I’ve seen this when wood is brought in from outdoors without being properly prepared. It’s a bacterial growth buildup. I agree ☝️ Does your tap water have ammonia in? Sounds like the tank is beginning to cycle.

If you can afford it, I highly recommend Caribsea Eco-Complete Cichlid Substrate to start up a new Mbuna tank. Problem is . . . you'll be hundreds of dollars in before it will be enough to get your desired affect...

I assume Zinc Magnesium Alloy. Should be just fine. You just do not want to obstruct the rhizome.

I suppose that depends on what the weight are composed of, and how free the Java Fern rhizomes are to grow, send out new growth, roots, etc. An photos? If your plant weights are inert (e.g. Zinc Magnesium Alloy, Resin, Stone, etc) you're fine. I typically use smooth river stones to hold vermin plants in place if they cannot be buried into deep substrate.

absolutely. you just want it air-tight so that it floats. It locks floating plant surface area into corrals so that light non-penetration is not pervasive.

I'd ditch the duckweed entirely, or clean it all out weekly. I use this kind of a tool (search "aquascaping net" With desirable floaters, you might consider building a floating ring out of airline, and putting your red-root floaters all _inside_ the ring. I'm guessing your Anubias is struggling with getting enough light with the surface covered over. I might be wrong. Just a theory.

Doesn't look too bad to me. You might be dealing with an excess of available nutrients leading to a slight diatom algae bloom. Maybe trim the feedings back to once a week. Remember that Anubias is a S. L. O. W. growing plant compared to stem plants. "Feeding" it heavily with ferts will not make it grow much faster.

This is interesting. Was it greenish? Or powdery? Hard to say if this was Cyanobacteria or something else. What are you running for filtration? How long was your vacation? Is there direct sunlight on the tank at all? The way cycling works is that your aquarium needs to establish two colonies of aerobic bacteria, one to transition ammonia into nitrite, and another to convert nitrite into nitrate. Plants absorb nitrate. A densely-planted tank really cares for itself as far as the nitrogen cycle goes -- provided that it is not over-stocked. If you see nitrite, are there zero nitrates yet? That would confirm an unestablished colony nitrite-oxidizing bacteria. If, however, you are also seeing high nitrate readings, something else is going on. How long as your tank been going? So sorry if I'm asking questions you've already answered.

Finally got enough Red Swordtail fry in our minipond for BAP… Not a get-rich scheme, but definitely proof that Swordtails can multiply outdoors in a tub!

It might die back, but then reset. I just moved mine. Definitely not happy, but not dead yet either 😂

I sold the Melon and three Pidgeon Bloods awhile ago. I just wasn't getting breeding pairs. Now I keep these just for fun. I've had to come to terms with the reality that unless I'm willing to run R.O. system, dedicate hundreds of gallons to breeding and grow-out, I'll never be breeding Discus. Lots of drama . . . I just keep them for fun now. Some people keep goldfish (very pretty!) but I prefer Discus as sort of "wet-pets."