Odd Duck

Definitely doesn’t move like a puffer although I can certainly see why you thought it might have been initially. Every puffer species I’ve ever seen closes the tail a lot and uses it to turn in place vs mostly using their pectoral fins to turn (although they will do that, too). But they usually have some color in their tails and flick them the tiniest bit to rotate on the spot. They will curl their bodies right up when they spin in place. Plus the mouth isn’t right. No guesses from me although I think you’re on the right track with pupfish / flag fish body type.

They are very slow growing and highly prone to melting. Pink Panther crypts are highly prone to melting and fading with moderately high light and CO2 and they still have green chlorophyll, just reduced. The pinto and white rose forms of Anubias are also extremely prone to melt unless in perfect conditions. I still have a tiny remnant of Anubias pinto struggling along in one of my 6G cubes attached very high on the rock so it only has about 2” of water above it at max water depth. It is centered under the light (not a great light) and also gets just a touch of diffuse sunlight. The tank is currently only shrimp and a few snails so it has minimal algae but this plant has 4 tiny leaves and hasn’t really changed much in the last 2 years. Other Anubias and Java ferns in the tank are prospering at substrate level. It looks pitiful. It’s the only Anubias in all my tanks that gives me trouble (as long as whichever tank they're in is appropriately in balance and not rampant with algae). Any white form of a plant is going to struggle to survive and need near perfect conditions both in nutrients and water quality since it can’t feed itself without chlorophyll in its tissues. Even heavily white streaked land plants struggle. People who get Monstera ‘Albo’ varieties that go to all white leaves pretty much always lose them because they can’t survive. Even the variegated forms are challenging to grow. Beware of all white plants or at least be aware of potential outcomes.

I have a 2’ x 4’ x 6’ tall Muscle Rack with 8 10’s and 4 5.5’s on it. The flimsy particle board was replaced with 3/4” outdoor grade plywood with 3 coats of polyurethane sealant. The shelves still bow slightly despite the tanks being shifted forward a bit to be closer to a supporting edge. The end tank’s water level on the 2 shelves with 10’s show that the shelves have not stayed 100% level. The tanks are as far to the outside supporting edges as possible with essentially no weight directly in the center (only very light random supplies like scissors, tweezers, etc). The bottom shelf with the 5.5’s does not show bowing. I have only light stuff on the top shelf where I have the 3 puny, particle board shelves stacked to get them out of the way. The rack will not really sway, but doesn’t exactly stand rock solid when pushed on an upright. Even with 1” plywood, I would not trust a tank that size on a Muscle Rack. I think their rating far exceeds the reality and if we hadn’t replaced the flimsy 3/8” particle board shelves they would have long since fallen through. Estimated filled weight for a 180 is 2100 lbs with any substrate and hardscape. Water alone is 1500 lbs, sand averaging 3” deep is another 300 lbs. Add rocks and you could easily be another 100 lbs or more. Driftwood won’t be as bad but still another 50 lbs minimum. Combo could be 150 lb or more. Then you’re at almost 2000 lbs. Theoretically, it should handle it. The reality is, maybe, maybe not. I truly believe Muscle Racks overstates their actual capacity knowing that most people will never come even close when stacking tools or bins of the usual garage stuff on their racks. But aquariums definitely push their limits. You want to trust 180 gallons and your fish to a maybe not? You also need to consider how high you’re willing to go above your head to work on the top layer tanks (unless you’re well over 6’ tall). You need enough space above the sump to get stuff in and out - pumps, filter socks, etc, will need at least 8” or more. Then above the tank you will need at least another 8” or more. I wish I had more room between tank rims and the next shelf up on all layers. Make sure you do the math on the total height and shelf height allowing for your 1” of plywood. Unless you put your sump on the floor, it will take up about 4” below the sump (2” shelf edge, 1” plywood, ~1” below the lowest shelf support at the lowest position). Then add height of your sump plus at least 8” (9-12” would make your life easier). Then another 3” for the shelf under your tank, 24” tall tank, plus another 9-12” to get hardscape in (unless you plan on scaping without the upper shelf in place). Depending on the height of your sump, that puts your top shelf at max height for a 6’ rack. Stepladder time for most folks. I use a small step stool for my top layer of tanks if I have to do anything other than routine water changes. Catching fish, scraping glass, scaping, removing / adding plants, etc, is all done on a step stool for me at 5’5”. I don’t know if all this helps, but it’s a bit of my experience with my Muscle Rack.

Here’s some pea puffer fry for comparison starting younger.

This may be the best suggestion yet. Certainly the funniest! Maybe trumpet? Or violin? I hear either are notoriously difficult to perfect. 😝

Most (nearly all) keepers are zoologists or biologists or have some sort of animal science degree these days. It’s becoming rare for people to get to a keeper position without having some sort of degree. Keeper positions are highly sought after with far more applying than there are positions available. If it does become something she decides she wants, have her volunteer for the zoo in whatever position she can get as soon as she’s old enough and keep volunteering as much as she can. Even if it’s working concessions or sweeping walkways. That will get her foot in the door. But she will still need an appropriate degree to get a keeper position at an accredited zoo. Some non-accredited zoos are not taking appropriate safety measures for animals or staff, so steer her away from them towards accredited zoos.

They are tiny but proved very hard to find, very expensive when I did find them in stock, and then they tended to do very poorly during shipping. I didn’t have much luck getting healthy fish and never got to the point where I had a really good shoal despite ordering 10-20 at a time, more than a couple times. They would either pass in quarantine or pass before they were available again from any sources. The males died at a higher rate than the females for some reason. They were in soft, neutral to slightly acidic water with abundant plants during quarantine and in their show tank. I had more than one die from being netted. The last time I got some I put them directly into the species specific show tank so they wouldn’t be netted again but they still passed at an alarming rate in the first week, but especially the first 48 hours. They like tiny live foods and did better when they had live foods available, especially during quarantine when they were freshly imported. They ate vinegar eels, microworms, and Grindal worms most readily for me. White worms and blackworms are a bit big for them. Adult Daphnia magna are big for them but smaller, young Daphnia or other, smaller species are fine. Baby brine shrimp are fine but they didn’t seem to appreciate them as much as I expected. They did also take some finely crushed flake and ACO Fry Food. They tend to hang out high in the tank, fairly close to the surface and I rarely saw them going low and never saw them forage from the bottom of the tank even when they were in water only 10” deep. They are more transparent than some videos would lead you to believe. It’s also tricky to get the light just right to show off their iridescence. They are one of the species called glass tetras. They have many other names, too, when you do a search under their binomial, Trochilocharax ornatus. If I could find a reliable source at a less than outrageous price I might try them once more (I told myself this at least 5 times before I finally gave up on keeping them a year or so ago). If you find the key to keeping them or the right source, please, let me know.

Towels on top of plastic or puppy pads help to contain any sloshing but you should be able to transport the tank with minimal water. Lay down any upright pieces so they can’t fall against the glass or squash any shrimp you can’t catch. Definitely a board to stabilize and a rim around the edge of the board could be helpful. Extra fancy would be cleats on the bottom thick enough to prevent finger squashing when setting the rig down. IP clearly has the skills to put that together in only about 10 minutes. 😉

So sorry for your loss. Sometimes illness moves so fast there is nothing that can work fast enough to fix it.

Looks like you already got excellent answers for the questions I was tagged in. Sorry I’m not on the forum every day. Also sorry for your loss but agree with @mountaintoppufferkeeper that there will sometimes be losses. Especially in such young fish that have been through a lot before they get to you. I think you’re on the right track now.

Very nice! And that slight side lighting makes the natural ripples in the slate look like ripples from sunlight! Very clever that she used those ripples that way.

That’s absolutely gorgeous! Can’t wait to see the finished product then watch the tank develop!

If you can get more plants in, that will help in both regards.

Yes, but not much else in that size tank. It’s not ideal to put that many at once into a new tank but you will likely have less in the tank very shortly if you don’t rapidly disperse that aggression. Adding plants will help add biofiltration and make it more possible to keep that many tetras. They aren’t a species that I would typically recommend for a new tank and new fishkeeper because they are a species that tends to be a bit more aggressive in a smaller group. It’s a bit tricky to get and keep your tank in balance when this species really needs to be 6 or more. Don’t get me wrong, they are lovely. They just need a bigger group than 4.

I would also recommend packing the HOB with sponge media or putting sponge into the compartments for your all in one. I haven’t used a cartridge in years and have emerse plants growing out of most of my HOB’s. The pic below shows a sheet of 30 ppi filter sponge cut to size to fit the compartments of my only all in one tank. I did replace the pump with a higher flow pump plus enlarged the hole in the outflow apparatus of the tank. It was definitely a bit restricted. I kept the frame for this cartridge and put it inside a very fine mesh filter bag to give any shrimplets that make it through or around the filter sponges a shot at continuing to live.

Most shoaling fish do best with at least 6 or more in the group. Schooling is what anchovies do - stay tight together as much as possible. Most aquarium fish are shoaling - stay rather loosely together but will go off on their own if no threat is perceived, nothing startling them, etc. Tetra species can be somewhat aggressive to their own if the group is too small. There can be a bully or males sparring for the females can get too rough. This is NOT to say that’s why your other fish passed, but food for thought on your group size. Sometimes fish pass unexpectedly. Fish are extremely good at hiding symptoms are can be severely ill with no outward symptoms. It’s impossible to tell what happened to your fish that passed without having pictures and without having the numbers from testing. Sometimes impossible even with pictures and test results. Ideally, you would test your water at home with the API Master Test Kit as that’s considered the most accurate at this time. You have to follow instructions very carefully including shaking the test solutions exactly as directed for accurate results. The Aquarium Coop strips are reasonably accurate but don’t have an ammonia test block on the multi-test strips. You have to get ammonia strips separately. The test strips are accurate enough to spot trends but testing has to be done fairly frequently at first to determine if your tank is truly cycled and ready for fish. Your tank is extremely sparse at this point and you don’t have anywhere for the bullied fish to get away from the bully. They are not a species that will go inside the hut, typically. You need about 10 more plants in there to break up lines of site. You should consider finding an easy to keep plant package. ACO has them and would be money well spent to give your fish a much better chance at doing well overall. In the mean time, I would get at least 3 to 4 more of the same species of tetras - they do look like Von Rios. I usually would recommend adding only 3 to 4 fish per week in that size tank, but you need more of the same species of fish in there to disperse any aggression present within the group.

It could cause an overdose and neurological symptoms plus damage gut flora at a too high dose. Next time, I would scoop out a cup of tank water, dissolve the meds, then pour back in the tank.

Is that Cory missing the other eye, also? It looks like it could be with that center part looking brighter. The inside of their eyes are not far apart so if they are missing both eyes, there can be light coming through the very minimal separation between the sockets. If that is a hollowed out socket, there isn’t an underdeveloped eye, it’s missing completely. That doesn’t look like an underdeveloped eye to me. So missing globe usually means somebody is removing them or there is infection causing eventual loss.

Are you putting lights inside the stand? That glass will be nothing short of spectacular with soft even lighting behind it. A strip of white LEDS that you can put on a timer. They wouldn’t have to be very bright but I’m not sure how that would work with your door gaps. Going to be an awesome stand and the perforated metal is cool!

I think that is likely to be more frustrating than helpful. You have to get good quality optics or it’s a waste of your money and your time. Unfortunately I don’t have a recommendation for a cheap microscope since I’ve only looked into higher quality scopes. I would recommend you contact a local university or college science department and ask if they have any used student scopes available. They may need some reconditioning but they will occasionally replace their entire student scope supply and good deals could be found for pretty low cost if you either happen to have excellent timing or they are taking their time selling off the previous scopes. You can also check out reconditioned scopes from a microscope seller website. This is a decent company and they have this scope that looks pretty good as a high school level advanced student scope with enough magnification to start to see most species of bacteria. https://amscope.com/collections/student-microscopes-high-school-student-9-12-microscopes/products/copy-of-40x-400x-advanced-student-biological-microscope

Definitely not a gold nugget pleco since they all have a notable gold margin to tail and dorsal fin at that size (guessing size in comparison to your gravel). Gold nuggets can be a challenging species to keep, but my oldest has been at 78’F for 3 years and still doing well. One of these days I’ll get my 180 G set up and transfer him(?) and may work him up to a more typically recommended temp. The younger nuggets I’ve gotten have not done well at the “recommended” temp but it may be more a matter of figuring out what they will eat reliably. They are noted for having a rough transition from the wild which is why I’ve been trying so hard to get a group to breeding size. It’s been very frustrating. To me, that looks most like a yellow form snowball pleco. Vampire plecos (Leporacanthicus galaxias) usually have smaller spots spread farther apart, same with Adonis plecos (Acanthicus adonis). Blue phantoms (Hemiancistrus sp L128) don’t usually have such distinct spots, tend to be more dark grey than black, or have a blue-ish look, and peppermint plecos (Parancistrus nudiventris) usually have pretty distinct white margins to dorsal and caudal fins at this size. A very pretty pleco no matter the species! Planetcatfish forum is a good plan as there are experts on there that are probably your best bet at an accurate ID.

Nice chart! @Colu is correct about the Paracleanse having Metronidazole which is both antiparasitic for certain types or parasites, plus it’s an antibiotic against certain types of bacteria. It could affect the biofiltration and the Levamisole can affect biofiltration, too. They are not highly likely to affect biofiltration but if you have “pest” snails still present and have a snail die-off, you could be in dire need of all the biofiltration you can get. Remember that biofiltration is so much more than the traditionally identified species of bacteria. There’s far more to it than that and not all the bacteria species involved have been studied regarding their response to antibiotics / medications. So keep close track of your parameters, make sure to do the water changes as planned, and be ready to do more large water changes just in case. Always remove any dead snails immediately if any are seen.

I don’t know the answer to this because every tank that’s had an Anubias bloom has had fish in it that eat the bloom before it gets very far. Apparently that inner spathe is quite tasty. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Try the BAND app and see if you have one or more for local groups. Or search for a local fish club. You can also sell as “local pick up only” on the Fish Swap Buy/Sell/Trade sub forum here. Or there’s always AquaBid. Their software / website is rather out of date and a bit of a pain to get set up to sell, but it can still connect you to many potential buyers.

Mystery snail eggs never separate like that. They will stay stuck together unless you crumble them and when crumbled they are not intact. Plus they always stay that pale pinkish tan color. I don’t really have any bright ideas on what they are, but would like to see more close up images. Maybe lift some out on some paper and take zoomed in closeups. I’m not even certain they are eggs based on these pics. I’m not saying they aren’t eggs, but I can’t be certain they are eggs. They definitely aren’t eggs from any of the listed inhabitants. Do you happen to have any emerse plants that were brought in from outdoors? Or houseplants that were brought in from outdoors? These have a strange fuzziness around the edges and that’s not something most eggs have. Eggs are generally fairly distinctly shaped and don’t have what looks like micro eggs around them. It almost looks like some powder is sitting on the surface encapsulated somehow. But they’re also strangely similar in size at the same time. Very odd. Can you lift some out on some paper and get closer pics?