Biotope Biologist

congrats you are doing something right and your fish are rewarding you for it! You can give them away to friends and family. If you have a LFS (local fishstore) sometimes you can pawn them off on them.

Yeah it's your tap that is the issue here. Do you live in a mineral rich environment? I'm thinking states like Colorado, Montana, Utah, etc. Mineral rich tap will dry with a chalky white residue left behind. You are at about a ~7.4pH it seems and you ideally want to be at about a 6.0-6.5. As @Colu suggested organics will help produce acidic conditions. But remember pH is on a logarithmic scale dropping one whole point of pH is a 10x order of magnitude. What I would advise in this case is find a source of water that is lower in pH to about neutral (7.0). Rainwater, water from an established acidic tank, springwater. Do not use distilled water. Then you will want to use that for your water changes for about a week or 2. Doing small water changes of about (5-10%) every couple days will slowly reduce pH down to the desired acidic conditions. Long term you will want to stop using your tap water and find an alternate source. As for pH alters. I used to sell them for years. It's not really right for everyone's situation and in most cases is just an expensive gimick. All it does is bind free OH- or H+ either causing the pH to go up or go down. It will only harm fish if you apply it to the tank and cause huge swings in pH. It is best used on tap water before the water change. If you are dead set on using your tap water I would test the gH and kH as well. Any mineral or carbonate buffers will cause your pH reducer to be less effective and therefore more expensive in the long term. Free water chemistry lessons for all 😁

I was including the loaches in that colloquial classification of "catfish." Although not technically accurate I was using the name because all your catfish and loaches exceed a foot in mature length and have similar feeding behaviors.

Test your tap water as well with the same test. 7.6pH is high for a corydora that prefers acidic water. What other fish do you have in the tank and do they appear to be showing signs of stress? I would think a pH spike would cause other fish to be exhibiting stress behaviors. I forget do the API master kits come with a calibration solution? This is usually a solution that has exactly 7.0pH so you can make sure your test kit hasn't been fouled or contaminated

Well @DanielI am glad that I am not the only one that loves the "unlovables." I will have to go with Myriophyllum heterophyllum (2 leaf milfoil). I was always bad at growing finicky plants, so I find myself going back to the ones that are just happy to be alive.

So only having 3 cichlids will raise the aggression towards other fish. Ideally you would have 5-6. But the big thing here is you have 10 catfish that all reach 1' plus and all need their own territories and caves. The clown loaches will share caves for a time but once they get to adult size they will likely be too large to share a cave. You are already aware of size, but mainly my concern is 10 adult catfish will need lots of food and lots of filtration to manage their very messy eating habits. The smallest tank I would go, personally, for these fish is 350 gallons. Clown loaches especially in schools seem to hold their own even in more aggressive tanks. I have not personally kept clown loaches with african cichlids so I do not know if the water being more alkaline then they like will cause health issues or not. But it is something to be aware of, as I would not house african cichlids in pH below 8.0

Have you figured out which species laid the egg? Since both species are scatter layers. Either way congrats on the free fish!

That's good! Yeah I always hesitate to diagnose things based on pictures because you never have the whole story. I figured you also would have known not to buy a fish riddled with ich. Better to say something and be wrong then sit in silence and wonder 🤓

I miss lab work! Although when I worked in a lab I was an agricultural pollutant tech, so not as fun as bugs. Also I think Drosophila would be my preferred choice because they are cheap and easy to breed.

Zebra danios have lots of energy. Fin nipping behaviors have been observed commonly. The tank should have plants, rock, wood, or some other form of shelter for your tetras and to break up the line of sight. Once the fish settle in to the tank aggression usually wanes, although danios are also voracious at feeding time so I would attempt to feed in localized areas so your tetra have a chance at food. A turkey baster works marvels here.

Uh-oh looks like you might have some uninvited guests hitch hiking on your Blue Acara. At first I thought it could just be a reflection of the light off the scales but then I saw the white speck on the eye. It has been far too long since I have dealt with ich, so I will leave the information to @Cory . Luckily it appears to be mild, so no need to panic

goldfish are perpetual grazers. Having a snail problem? Goldfish. Leeches in your pond? Goldfish. Too much milfoil or other alien plant? Goldfish. I had an adopted one for pretty close to a decade. Her name was Bob and she ate my $100 Anubias nana down to the rhizome. It recovered thankfully. Anyway, if you collect pond duckweed I would highly suggest quarantine. If you have access to a blue light or uv sterilizer, it will make short work of unwanted pests. You can also buy foam or plastic circles to corral your duckweed to keep it from overtaking your aquarium. Fun fact duckweed has the smallest known flower measuring only 0.3mm. If you see a small yellow or white spec on your duckweed chances are it's a flower.

Dragonfly are interesting prehistoric insects that have survived multiple extinction events with little changes throughout. It's hard to decide which are more fascinating the larvae or the adults. The adults are aware that humans and large animals attract flying insects and often stay close by, practically showing off their aerial maneuvers. I may be anthropomorphizing a bit on the last bit. Then you have the larvae which can spend upwards of 5 years patrolling streams and ponds with their creepy projectile labium or lower jaw (although jaw implies bone) stalking fish, tadpoles, and anything else it deems worthy of death. Not only that but scientists are finding that our aquatic insects are pivotal to fish fry growth and therefore healthy wild fish stocks. Which even extends to marine ecosystems for anadromous fish. Don't even get me started on lamprey, Although if you are curious I can post some links for scientific articles from my workplace and the lovely researchers at OSU. Anyway, back to the larvae. They are expensive at $2 a piece because as far as I am aware captive breeding can be labor intensive. First, the adults are more likely to mate if there are aerial prey items at time of breeding. Then, the females must be separated immediately after mating bouts. She must be provided plants to both escape drowning and to lay eggs in. Once the larvae get to about 0.3cm each individual must be separated to prevent cannibalism. Then comes the issue of feeding. Although they have proven to be scavengers in the wild, that is only about 47% of their diet (according to various papers) and therefore must be fed a diet of live foods. The labor of all this is the hard part, but if I can prove to do it with a minimal labor (15-20 hours a week) I will count that as a success. Each clutch can be up to 500 viable eggs. at a conservative 80% survival 400 larvae will hatch. Of that 400 let's say 70% survive to size leaving me with 280 per batch. That is alot of pipetting! But I have a large audience if I can pull this off. Feeder food for large insectivorous fish. Astronotus ocellatus come to mind. Scientists needing large quantities for lab work and of course local fishermen looking for a more effective bait. TL:DR dragonfly are labor intensive but cool prehistoric insects Source: https://www.nparks.gov.sg/nparksbuzz/issue-19-vol-4-2013/conservation/the-secret-life-of-dragonfly-larvae

Anyway you can set your lens to manual? Or if you have a magnifying glass handy stick it up to the tank glass so its touching and take a picture with your phone. It's impossible to I.D white blurry speck. Chances are they are not harmful to your shrimp. Can range from mites to copepods and everything in between

Nematodes are quite often overlooked but are quite effective and only target specific species. Aerial predators will also keep the adult population in check. Dragonfly, damselfly, and hummingbirds come to mind.

First off beautiful betta! Also 40ppm nitrate isn't the worst, I wouldn't worry terribly about that. Tank looks well stocked with plants and running an oversized filter is great. I see no outwardly appearance of anything wrong at least in the pic. Without any further information I would agree with @Yanni. Side tangent is there a reason for the 50% water changes? I'm just curious because your tap water is nitrate heavy so doing smaller more frequent water changes may be beneficial to allow your existing bacteria break it down into it's constituents and reduce long term toxic stress to your fish. Although again 40ppm isn't the worst.

@Jungle Fan jokes on you I'm taking these photos to Costco and blowing them up to put on my wall. Thanks for the free art 😋 All joking aside I've always wanted to moonlight as a macro-photographer, so your pictures bring me quite a bit of joy

I had no idea these existed. They are gorgeous! I have always loved Comet goldfish that look like Tancho koi. Kinda similar to the one @WhitecloudDynasty posted above. I am also partial to panda telescopes 😋

I can't wait to get started either. If I can help scientists and enthusiasts alike I consider that a win-win. As for the community tank of rejects. I was sad to see them go, I actually teared up when the family left. But on to bigger and better things for all of us I suppose

This is a common behavior amongst tetra and indeed lots of fish. Does it appear they are eating at least part of the food they swallow? With embers you can actually see their digestive tract. Also how is your tank setup? these fish prefer heavily planted tanks and may just need a bit more time to settle in.

It is common for fish owners to overreact and do what I call too many water changes. Thus why your ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite are so low. Slow down take a deep breath. Your sister's betta, although looks from the pic to be exhibiting stress behavior, I do not see any active bacteria film or hemorrhaging. Which is good. Let's tackle this step by step: 1. Too many water changes can upset the bacteria balance in the water and ultimately cause spikes, typically at night. Go back to the normal 20% weekly (or 10% bi-weekly). 2. Stop moving the fish back and forth, let him acclimate and settle in. Each move causes stress and is more likely that the bacteria will take hold. If you notice strong deterioration or stress behaviors I would go ahead and move him to a hospital tank and do a full treatment of medications prescribed above. 3. If you have access to high protein live foods use them (daphnia, hyalella, cyclopidae, etc.). I would steer clear of live what are commonly called black worms and red worms for now as they have a higher rate of parasites transfer. If you do this your chances of survival and eventual regeneration of fin membranes goes way up. Keep in mind that bettas are the most neglected animal in the aquaria hobby alongside goldfish. If he does kick the bucket is not your guys' fault. Don't take it as being bad fish owners or give up on the hobby. It happens to the best of us 🙂

Getting a small diameter cheap vac is the route I would go for. All of them operate pretty much the same. I prefer python products just because the one I used that attaches to the sink is older than I am (26). Getting suction with these is kinda a pain the first few attempts but works the same as siphoning gas. then just lightly press into the substrate near the plants as to not disturb the roots. Interestingly, if you have a python vacuum that hooks into a faucet, you can set it to blow water lightly to agitate the debris out of the medium, then suck it up while it is free floating in the aquarium.

Fish will eat shrimp babies. Even minnows and guppies, so I would avoid fish if you want to be successful. If you do not provide aquatic plants for dragonfly or damselfly to lay there eggs in they tend not to attempt to lay eggs. If the eggs are exposed the shrimp will eat them. If you are really worried about dragonfly and damselfly larvae mesh is your best bet. Mosquito larvae will still find a way in no matter what. If you do not want to use them as fish food for your indoor aquaria, you can buy nematodes that specifically prey on mosquito larvae. They will leave your shrimp alone. Edit: mesh would be best anyway, as aquatic beetles will wreak havoc on your tub when they find it. You guys get the large predatory beetles that even eat fish if I recall correctly

1. No that is sufficient size 2. Rainbow sharks are notoriously aggressive both at feeding time and if any fish strays to close to it's perceived territory. I would be worried about him with smaller fish. If you raise angelfish from babies with tetra and rasbora and guppies they tend to be more docile as adults. Guppies also like to nip fins sometimes so watch out for that with your angelfish. 3. It is best to get the tank fully cycled, add plants, and start bioloading first so that the bacteria does not go through "shock" when you add the fish. Adding smaller schooling fish first helps them get settled and established before you add larger fish, reducing stress. 4. Natural angelfish behaviors will only be seen if you have a school of them or a bonded pair. I would also omit the rainbow shark from the list

I would fashion a guess to also say Male. In general, fish are easiest to sex by vent and anal fin so if you can grab a good pic of that, it would be helpful to accurately I.D. Also here is a picture I grabbed from: https://www.aquariumfishparadise.com.au/bolivian-butterfly/