Squeegee79

I am a huge fan of Chocolate Gouramis, but they are kind of particular about pH, especially wild ones.

Probably just need to give it some time then. Maybe cut back on food a little.

What kind of filter do you have on it?

Couple of questions. 1. What are the water parameters specifically. 2. What kind of Gourami? 3. Do you have any pictures of it?

100% agree with @Colu, that is not ich. Ich will display as very small white spots, rarely more than 1mm across. It will look as though your fish was coated in salt. (Not my image, stolen from the googles.)

I often use a soldering iron for cutting hard, thin plastics. It is a little messy, but it eliminates the risk of breakage. Always do this in a well ventilated area though.

For F1s you really shouldn't have to do much different than normal. Just slowly replace as much of the water as you can.

Good to know, thanks for the info.

So, I have a plan to build a rack in the next few months that will hold a 75 gallon tank as the center piece. I am hoping to have some fish in there that will do my culling for me. I would love to fill it with Exadon paradoxus, but was curious if they will bother other mid sized predators....specifically butterfly fish. I am thinking the fins on the butterfly might just be too enticing for them. Thanks!

Welcome!!! Also, please don't run with scissors when carrying livestock bags. 🙂

I think a pretty good baseline for most fish is to expect to get about 1/3 of retail for them. LFS's have to have quite a large markup on fish in order to make any money because they have to feed them, there are deaths to account for, it costs electricity and water to maintain them.

Just going to throw this out there as a suggestion that might save you some headaches. Adult brine shrimp are generally a pretty mediocre food for most fish. They have a lot of shell which has little nutritional value. Most of the nutrition from them would come from whatever they ate in the last 30-60 minutes. Freshly hatched brine is quite nutritious because they still contain the nutrients from what they got out of the egg. Similar to how a baby fish feeds off the egg sack for the first day or so. I didn't see if you mentioned what you are feeding ITT, but if it is something that adult brine is a good size for, they will likely gobble up baby brine as well. There are a lot of other foods that are also more nutritious than adult brine as well, white worms, micro worms, daphnia, red wigglers. Just depends what you are feeding.

You can also do that with Tubifex worm cubes.

I don't think there are any UV lights that work without a pump. You have to force the water through the tube that contains the light.

Funny thing for me is that if not for Covid I might not have set up another tank. I have only had 1 other tank set up since about 1999-2000, and it was just one cichlid in it. But being stuck at home and bored I decided to start up another one. I do miss fish clubs/shows though, so will be nice when those start back up.

New to the forums and just saw this thread, but hoping I can lend some insight. First, I agree with those that said the Livingstoni/Venustus/Peacocks are likely going to outgrow a 40 gallon. Second, MORE ROCKS. Then add some more rocks. Then when you think you can't fit any more....add more rocks. 🙂 That stack that you have there is pretty nice, but extending that through the entire tank will help a lot. When I used to keep these guys I liked using slate and round rocks stacked to make lots of hiding places. Another thing you can try is adding some dither fish. Something like giant danios works great, or australian rainbows as well. This will give the bullies something fast to chase and they will pay less attention to the other cichlids. I also used to move around some or all of the rocks each week when I did a water change. Hope some or all of this helps you. These fish are amazing and really worth taking a few lumps in the learning process.

Also, if you just dumped the salt in, the water right on the bottom of the tank could have a very high salinity until it gets mixed up. That could bother bottom fish for sure.

Hi there! I think that you should make the tank how you want it....so whatever that is I would research what would work well in your tank. Quick not on the filter situation, if you go to Youtube and search for "optimize your HOB filter", Cory has a couple different videos that will help you out a ton.

Buck Toothed Tetras. I would love to have an 8 foot long tank fully stocked with them.

Hot water or even bleach depending which equipment. For most stuff though, hot water is adequate.

I don't know for sure it would be an issue, but it's possible they might get stuck in there. I remember many a times breaking down a tank in a fish store and finding half a dozen kuhliis under the UG filter.

Sounds like egg crate would work for what you are trying to do, although it may depend on the substrate a little bit. The only concern I can think of is if you are going to keep kuhlii loaches since they burrow so much. Otherwise sounds like a good plan.

Hi all, Since I have been away from the hobby for a long time, I am playing catch up for a lot of the modern go to equipment. Back in the day, most people I knew ran their rooms on Luft pumps. You could run 3-4 tanks on one of them and they were absolute work horses. Are Luft pumps still a thing? If not, is there something comparable that would run multiple 10-20 gallon tanks on it's own? Thanks!

Fair enough. I guess I am kind of old school and feel a water change is always better than no water change. 🙂

Not trying to speak for any store, but having worked at several throughout my years, some of which sold brine, it is very much not worth it. Brine is incredibly easy to hatch at home, so most people won't pay much for it. On top of that, it is a 24ish hour investment for the store to hatch brine that may or may not sell, and has a very short shelf life.