Biotope Biologist

You were right on the money they are usually called 'Peach' or 'Coral' Although in my experience that color gives way to White. I had a peach betta in middle school named 'Peaches' but once he was out of a walmart cup and on a better diet he turned bright white

Tensile strength specifically refers to stress caused by being pulled or stretched while the force of the tank is largely bending the board… Although I suppose if it’s supported enough by wood beams and a frame it’d probably be fine. Just the board as support, no. I would not trust it.

No the polypropylene board cannot support any substantial amount of weight if you were using it to prevent scoring or scratches on your acrylic that is fine but it needs to be supported by something

I’m pretty sure I wasn’t allowed to either 😬 I kept a lot of things as a kid I shouldn’t have. Hid them in the basement so no one would know. My parents scolded me something fierce for trying to pass off salmon fry as tetra. Learning that that was indeed a federal crime.

Wow quite gravid indeed! I doubt she will reabsorb the eggs she will likely attempt to lay on some plant. Whether the eggs make it to fryhood is up in the air. While generally it’s easier to get tetra to breed by simulating the rainy season, they don’t require it in captivity so you very well could end up with neon fry! All my tetra breeding attempts ended in the eggs being eaten so best of luck

To add they only secrete toxins in response to stress or predators. I used to keep California Rough-skinned newts as a kid and they never actually released their toxins when handled. Even handling some wild specimens they never felt threatened enough to secrete. I probably should have been wearing gloves 😅

Neat! Thanks for sharing! I’m sure it won’t be long until they make their way into hobbyist breeding programs.

They just burrow enough to submerge about 70% of their bodies in sand. I wouldn’t worry too much about uprooting plants. They feed mainly on worms and small crustaceans, but are visual ambush predators so using tongs and/or a dropper is recommended. I also would check to make sure that they are in fact the freshwater sole varieties from the indo-pacific or South America. There are imposters that get large and prefer brackish-marine.

It appears to be a cane toad yes. You can tell by the shape of the paratoid gland. University of Florida has a helpful website for Identifying your local amphibs! I screengrabbed this from there: Southern toads can get quite large and are often misidentified as cane toads. They are native and while their secretions are a mild irritant it’s not quite as bad as the cane toads which has been known to kill small animals.

I do hope more research comes our way and more opportunity for research. Especially here on the west coast some very cryptic species of sharks ive longed to know more about and potentially work with. Sixgill, Sevengill, pacific sleeper, and my personal favorite ninja lanternshark. Little cuties. The mindset being erased is one where for 1000 years we have thought the oceans are so vast and limitless that we could never find the end. And to be fair it took us 1000 years of poor management and exploitation to find that end 😅 but I really don’t have such a negative view as some of my colleagues do. In fact I believe that scientists as a whole have become kinda a dismal crowd. The bummer at the party warning of the impending hangover after all the kegs tapped… We are finding that as soon as you take the stressors out of the environment populations rebound. Very quickly. Like within 5 years. Where before we thought it’d take hundreds of years to undo the damage we have done. I will leave it at that. There are so many complexities and this whole system is interconnected I know it seems difficult but the world will recover.

I am not sure. Some sort of tropical slug, origins Florida? They came with my tropical springtail culture and even though they wreak havoc on my plants, they are too cute to unalive. They stay about this size and I have 10 now.

Finally committed to a plan for this 4’ tall 3’ wide isopod enclosure. Here is the paint and siliconed the glass in place to seal in moisture. The paint is cottage green chalk by shabby chic. Very lovely and great coverage. Before: After: Once the silicone is cured the background will go in and I will get started on the waterfall feature. Going to be using great stuff black, volcanic pumice, and chicken wire to get it all molded and in place. More details to come!

I’ve always liked the ‘wild type blue pinoy’ angels. I think they also go by ‘blue zebra’ Photo not my own: Also I second or third or fourth the motion that the original angel posted is a panda.

There is video of their antics but idk if the ornithologist studying them posts to youtube or not. I sincerely hope he does! I sometimes forget that this forum is one ray of sunshine in an otherwise bleak landscape. Because here everyone is very open and accepting and we all are just here to learn from eachother. But I have been met with heavy criticism on other online spaces. I mean you can’t change someone’s mind that is already made up.

I would just have a bare tank with a plaque in it that reads: “Be patient” But I love everyone else’s suggestions!

Well then I guess you only have 1 option then. You find a white betta with blue eyes and get this black betta with red eyes and name them: Blue eyes white dragon and red eyes black dragon 😋

It may be easier to tear down and piece meal it. I find very rarely people actually want full setups. I will only take them at extreme discounts and sell the stuff I don’t want.

Yes the big box stores will carry them and they do enjoy being kept dark. Otherwise just your typical betta they just lack any pigment. leucistic ones tend not to have eye problems and ‘silver bettas’ seem to fetch a high price tag if they have good genetics.

Denny’s has started focusing on smaller fishes they tend to bring more revenue. I have seen different species of silver dollar at Bridges. There used to be a great ‘monster fish’ store in Everett but the owner retired maybe a decade ago at this point. Haven’t seen any other monster stores since. There is ‘the fish store’ on roosevelt in Lake City proper that has a rotating selection of exotics. Last I was there they had a 3’ long african lungfish Have the chain pet stores stopped selling these? When I worked there they always had 10 itty bitty babies. Although fair warning like 60% of the time they come in with ich.

White cloud I thirdend… here is my WCMM fry for reference. 9 weeks old: The fry seem to have a bright neon blue stripe that fades to a white/red iridescence with age. Although if the stripe stays blue like this into adulthood some people collect those to breed. There are some cool strains of WCMM out there

@dasaltemelosguy every photo you have ever posted of your fish looks like a Madrazo Y Agudo painting and I mean that in the best possible way

Depending on if you are close to the coast or not a ton of seafood companies here offer ‘bait clam’ which is to say that it’s not high enough quality for human consumption or is close to its expire date. Its very inexpensive and makes great animal food.

I would add it into the tank with the tetra personally. Gouramis in my experience are boisterous and one of them will likely harass the other. Congrats on being a puffer parent! Just make sure to keep them entertained the rest ill leave to those who have personal experience

I’d say no fish calculators don’t work. There are far too many variables in an aquarium to ever even attempt to be close to having an accurate equation. I also think you are fine on fish stocking. Maybe people who keep these cichlids can speak to their compatibility together but as far as tank stocking totally fine.

I think since they hail from India they are probably okay with low 70’s. Even in the mountains around India I’m sure water temps can get up there if ambient is upper 80’s lower 90’s. Experimenting is the name of the game I think with fish that don’t have a ton of husbandry documentation… In other news I fear my LFS is targeting me. They have brought in some more exotic hillstream loach varieties, panda loaches, and a few species of lizard loaches… curses. photos are not my own: