Biotope Biologist

I use a glass bottle meant for skin care from Ulta. Lol, it works fine and the hole is wide enough that I can stick a toothpick in every so often to clean the gunk out. Those pumps have been failing since Cory invented the dang Easy Green! Its just the best bang for your buck liquid fertilizer there is so everyone I know finds an alternative way of dispensing 😅

With biotopes only hardcore people do local plants. There just isn’t much in the way of native plants regularly traded. I say choose plants that fit with the picture of your biotope or from similar biotopes local to you. For example I have my sub-alpine creek biotope that stocks fish from sub-tropical India/China in the foothills of the Himalayas. But my plants are all NA natives from Clemson that inhabit stream environments. You might find similar species of plants in the foothills of the Himalayas but finding those exact species to ship would have been an absolute nightmare.

I don’t think there will be compatibility issues. Water cleanliness will be the biggest issue. Discus like very clean stable water parameters and puffers are very messy eaters. Even with 180 gallons and plants I think it might be not worth the attempt for the sake of constant water upkeep. You will also have to keep the puffer entertained. When intelligent animals get bored they wreak havoc on the tank regardless of temperament. Personally I would do one or the other, the tank just sounds very time consuming.

The blue ones seem to be the rarest at least with my population. Idk as you are aware snail genetics are very confusing and I attempted to read some genome reports and my head started hurting, so I decided to stop. All colors occur naturally and don’t seem to be influenced by environment or diet factors. My population is as follows with these numbers being guesses: white shell/red foot- 5% grey shell/blue foot- 1% brown shell/red foot- 30% brown shell/ brown foot- 40% gold shell/brown foot- 10% others I can’t remember-14% I have had a mixed population for a year and a half now as they make great goby food! But otherwise I just let them do their thing. I have a beautiful red foot gold shell one that has produced quite a few clutches for me. They are my oldest snail. Thats all I got the rest is 🤷

Fluval used to have something very similar to this that was about this size called the bio-orb. They were very cool but not worth the $149-229 they sold it for. My coworker got some ‘damaged’ ones and used them as nightstand lights and tetra fry grow out tanks. I think they were discontinued almost ten years ago, but if you can thrift or find a used one they are very beautiful tanks and magnify the contents, making if ideal for nano fish edit: looks like another brand bought the patent? And it’s called biOrb?

Physical removal is the only option. Most if not all planaria-X can harm shrimp I have a few species of planaria in my tank and while they have stemmed my ramshorn population my shrimplets can move out of the way. Planaria are slow predators so they rely on slower prey. I still have about 10-15 adult ramshorns but the babies get eaten or go into hiding The planaria also make great fry or small fish food so a bit of the circle of life.

More accurately that is Girardia or brown planarian they get rather larger than most other species encountered in the aquarium. They are predators of snails, worms, and other like organisms.

For hillstream loaches id recommend at minimum 20 gallons. For an old 9 gallon tank, there are some really fun nano fish I can recommend. With a ton of plant cover you could do them and some shrimp species, like neocardinia. Here are my suggestions I’ll attach pics too: Rocket/clown killifish- stays small max out at 3cm chili or exclamation point rasboras- says 1” but they rarely exceed 2 cm. There are so many nano rasboras it’s not even funny. Pick a color you like and there is a species with that color If you have your heart set on catfish, dwarf anchor cats. I believe there are 3-4 species in the hobby. None of them get larger than 5-6 cm- I tend to dissuade people from hillstream loaches in a 10 gallon as they need heavy filtration, clean water, and a bit of swimming room. It’s easier to keep 20 gallons from shifting water parameters than 10 gallons. Welcome to the forums!

Don’t measure ambient measure water temps. Water is a thermal insulator. It does not swing temperature as much as air does. I would say most fish are fine with temperature swings of 5 degrees between night and day. I don’t use a heater and I like my house cooler. Air temperature measures at 65-68 Water temperature measures at 68-70 sometimes 72 if the sun is strong enough. My fish prefer colder water. But there is not a huge difference between night and day temps.

Does it move? I’d imagine it’s a snail egg case. Looks like maybe there was a blockage or excess mucus was built up so it dumped it on the glass

I think you are doing it right giving them a ton of space too if there was more swimming space id say 4 eye anableps or some brackish demoiselles would be a good bet. They inhabit very similar environments and can hold their own territory just fine.

Id stick to mollies. I have never kept mudskippers, but from everything I have read and heard they are highly territorial. @Zenzo has mudskippers and they are featured in a few YouTube videos. Perhaps that might be a good place to look for inspiration.

Im really into Acantopsis loaches right now! In the US we call them horse-face loaches. Pretty bizarre, but cute! our LFS has the bigger ones in with their puffers and severums so they definitely seem to be able to hang with a rougher bunch

Best of luck! Looks like a good system is that tube blowing water on them?

Even working at a state agency salmon have a ton of federal protections. But even if you were to attempt such a thing you will not have success unfortunately. Salmon eggs need to be kept in a flat tray with a false bottom having about 5 gallons per minute flowing both overtop and underneath the eggs. Otherwise they will fungus over and die. If you do that and manage to successfully hatch them you will have yolks for about 2 weeks. Then you need to start feeding them live foods from the river/stream. Lamprey larvae, dragonfly nymphs, amphipods, and other crustaceans can be found by flipping rocks. Make sure to put them back exactly as you found them. It will take 6 months for them to become 6” to which it’s safe enough to release them to their natal stream. I am not sure which salmon species, but if you are west coast DO NOT release Atlantic salmon, we already had one environmental disaster with them. I have worked with state fisheries numerous times. Rearing salmon is very expensive and takes the constant attention of state, federal, and tribal biologists. I am not trying to come down like a hammer, but just know the reality of this fish.

BRS has been around since practically the start of the internet. They are as the name suggests a bulk supplier. I order through them for all my sump needs and for random things here and there. They are fast and reliable. Also if you are in the market for an AI prime, have you checked out Kessil’s freshwater line? Imo they are one of the best looking lights out there.

Yeah don’t just use dorsal fin ID you need both. Thanks for clarifying! And some species of gourami this rule doesn’t work. Gouramis are a family not a genus so general rules aren’t always accurate with these guys

This picture is very helpful. It’s hard to tell until they are about a few months old but looks like the pet store grabbed you a male and female.

I think it’s a fine idea. I have kept betta sororities in the past and it really does differ amongst individuals who will play nice and who won’t. Typically young females that grow up together are better off, but still personalities will conflict as they age. Like others have said, make sure to have a plan B. But I don’t share the sentiment that it has a low success rate. It’s almost always one problematic betta being a bully and starting a chain of aggression. Once removed everyone is fine. And the bullies tend to only bully conspecifics. Completely fine in community tanks. As for the pleco they are very shy, maybe less so now that they are tank bred? Last I had one they were $150 a pop 😅 but the bettas shouldn’t pester

If you can zoom in better or take a video it might be easier to id

Here are mine that are impossible to photo! They are mostly brown but when they start sparring, which still hasn’t produced me any babies they turn pitch black and the ‘filament’ on their dorsal turns bright blue. They also have red spots down their body. we are starting to see more of the larger freshwater gobies from South East Asia show up. Here are more of the same genus as mine that are more commonly available but still relatively rare: Rhinogobius zhoui Rhinogobius rubromaculatus

The article didn’t say but I wonder if “new photography techniques” refers to submersible drones that are a lot quieter and smaller than a human and thus can study the more shy macro predators. It took a good while for my gobies to get used to me as the hand that feeds and when they aren’t hungry they still dart under rocks when anyone approaches

Olive wood is fine, although in my experience extremely buoyant. Took my piece like 3 months to get water logged. After that it was HEAVY! But yeah totally safe for fish. Also had some bacteria issues for a bit, but that’s more unsightly than anything

I’d say that just like with skiing this is a deterrent for beginners. Any intermediate skier can get down an ‘experts only’ slope. Whenever I see ‘experts only’ on anything I read it as “if you aren’t confident in your abilities stay away”

Amphipods they likely hitch hiked from the live plants