CalmedByFish

Pass along this stranger's well-wishes to your girlfriend, too. ❤️

It really is! @Patrick_G, I think my first step, being a noob, would be to get on the Co-Op's plant-selling page, click "low light," and see what ideas come up.

I second @Drew Schmidt's idea of SerpaDesigns videos. I found them a couple days ago. Also found a few other great YT channels on the topic of ponds and aquariums. It may turn out that you barely feel like moving (I hope not), but videos work great to let your imagination roam - a pleasant distraction from feeling lame. I hope your case turns out to be a mild one. Regardless, thank you so much for staying in quarantine the full 10 days. I have a family member who can't be vaxxed. ❤️

Just a heads-up. I researched "Daisy's blue rice fish" and Medaka (before settling on endlers). It turns out they're not the same species. If you do decide on "rice fish" or "medaka," make sure you know exactly what you're getting. That way, you'll accurately know what their needs are.

I'd never heard of opahs before. They're beautiful.

Also consider whether the electricity might go out in your area during winter - like the Texas Freeze. I wonder if solar-powered heaters exist.

Take @Patrick_G's advice about goldfish over mine. We were typing at the same time, and I'm not the one with experience.

I've heard ricefish reproduce well, so even if you started with about 6, you'd likely have more soon. Keep in mind that whatever species you choose will need to be a species you'll have space for their whole life. I don't know whether 125 gallons is big enough for a gold fish - I at least know it's not big enough for more than about 3... unless you're committed to doing water changes every 5 minutes. 😂 Depending on where you live, also consider how high of a temp the species can handle.

I'm sorry for your loss. That's awful. If the upper 30's isn't safe, that must mean the upper 40's isn't either. It's a helpful data point. Very interesting about the juveniles. I'll make sure to take a lot of juveniles when I (eventually) move.

I found one regarding regular guppies, so that's close. The abstract includes this tidbit: "The proportion of females increased gradually with decreasing temperature and the proportion of males increased gradually with increasing temperatures..." So, maybe! https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/j.1365-2109.2005.01412.x?systemMessage=Wiley+Online+Library+will+be+disrupted+on+4+August+from+10%3A00-12%3A00+BST+(05%3A00-07%3A00+EDT)+for+essential+maintenance

As far as you know, what's the lowest and highest temp that endlers can sustain before the temp diminishes their health? Surely someone on this forum has tried them in a pond, unheated tank, sauna... 😜 What have you figured out? (By the way, in case someone's interested: I found a reliable-looking source that says they drop a 50/50 m/f ratio of fry at 77 F. Cooler gets a higher ratio of female fry, and warmer gets a higher ratio of male fry.)

As has been said, BABBBIIIIIIEEEEESSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!! ❤️🤣 I recently told someone that if I woke up to new fry every single morning, I would still always blurt out, "WOWWW."

Almost off topic, but I love that your "no" option is just "nope" instead of something like, "No, I don't want world peace, and I love making you smell my unmitigated B.O." 🤣

Are raccoons part Sasquatch? Sheesh! That is really sad. I'm so sorry. I hope you end up with a pond that's happy and peaceful. ❤️

Genius idea. It might be helpful to also stick some pothos at the surface. It can help pull out ammonia and nitrite, and even the resulting nitrates.

The difference between the first and last pictures is amazing. Well done!

I'm not familiar with first bites, but I've discovered that any pellet-style food can be ground as fine as flour using a pill crusher. (Or put it in a ziploc and tap it with a hammer or other object.) Just mentioning that in case it helps.

Well that's... one way to decorate. I am both concerned for your animals, and intrigued by the idea of tank glitter. I know it's stressful right now, but once the fixing is done, it'll be a story that lasts for decades.

I chance to know that guppies breed with mollies, making offspring called gollies or muppies. I don't know whether the offspring can reproduce.

I agree. Whichever bottle of water conditioner I buy will be the one I carry with me when I drive my fish cross-country to move. So I'm just... doing what I can.

That must mean it also can still be utilized by plants?

When a water conditioner says it "detoxifies ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate," does that mean A) Bacteria can no longer use the ammonia and nitrite to maintain the cycle? B) The plants can't use the nitrate? C) Those substances won't show up on my test kits? D) The ammonia will only be "detoxified" briefly? (My cheap water conditioner is running low, so I'm seeing if there's a better option to buy.)

@Daniel @sudofish @DannyBWell It looks like your recommendations are $46+. I had about $20 in my head. Was I just plain wrong, or is there a cheaper option? And thank you for the clarification!

What I'm not understanding is whether or not the linked product is, in fact, a battery. Can you tell?

I want to be able to use a nano air pump if I don't have access to electricity. ACO's page for the pump says "great in a power outage situation with a battery pack back up," and links to this: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B077HFFLMS/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&tag=tank01-20&camp=1789&creative=9325&linkCode=as2&creativeASIN=B077HFFLMS&linkId=e6ef7700bbfd0200a8e362175d5c3f9d On Amazon's product page, I see no indication that this can be used as a battery. Rather, it looks like it charges devices that have batteries in them - which the nano pump does not. There are 2 pictures of the Amazon product with a pump-style plug in it. In both pictures, the product is plugged in to an electricity source... So can this be used as a battery - NOT just as a battery charger?