Biotope Biologist

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/

Have you tried macro-invertebrates such as Daphnia or Cyclopidae? They serve a dual purpose in that they eat the free floating algae (FFA) and are a good source of protein for your fry. I would provide some java moss or Riccia fluitans as shelter for the various animals. The plants also serve a dual purpose to actively compete with algae and reduce stress to the animals. Hope this helps!

Hey all! I am a marine biologist located in the Seattle area. Interestingly enough, I worked briefly with Cory way back when, when he first started up aquarium co-op to advertise his business stealthily at an undisclosed national petstore chain while I was in college. I do not currently own an aquarium, but intend to hover the forum and help biology and chemistry related questions. I am a huge fan of biotope aquariums and I use to establish tanks and sumps and sell them. I am going to try to breed dragonfly/damselfly larvae as feeders for large fish. I will post tech articles on this when I get some trial and error under my belt In college I had a 55 gallon long tank with an eclectic mix of rejects that I adopted from said undisclosed national petstore chain customers. It housed a 6" gold siamese algae eater, 5" gold bristlenose pleco (m), 5 gold gouramis, a 4" convict cichlid, and an unidentified 2" sunfish. That tank was bursting with personality. The algae eater and pleco hated eachother and stayed in opposite caves on each side of the tank. The pleco would hoard hikari algae wafers in his cave and the algae eater would have to bravely try to steal them over to his cave. The convict cichlid was an absolute puppy who just wanted to be friends with everyone. He was actually the only surviving fry of about 10 that I grabbed to feed the sunfish. So he started life in my tank as a 2mm babe and within a year hit 4". When I graduated college I gave away these fish to a wonderful family who were putting them into a 250 gallon community tank.