CalmedByFish

This led me straight to Google. The brain is more than half fat! What! Anybody else feel like that explains some things? 🤣

I think it's a "better safe than sorry" issue. Quarantining is less work, time, and stress than fixing a problem. I hadn't thought of it much, until I quarantined a plant because I wasn't confident about its source. Turned out to have black beard algae all over it! Threw it away, and cleaned the container it had been in. No regrets. To end up throwing away or treating as few things as possible, it makes sense to separate what's being quarantined into different containers.

My bathroom is too dark, but I've considered blind cave fish. If I didn't already feel in over my head, I'd probably do that. "All I need now is unlimited income" said every nerm ever.

Good for you for doing research. This forum definitely can help, and tends to stay respectful and kind. Freely ask questions. I'm not familiar with the species, but in that close-up pic, the fish might have scales missing, or some other kind of boo-boo. That might be worth asking about. But it's wonderfully shiny! 🙂 I know that inheriting a tank can happen in both good and bad circumstances. I won't prod, but you have my well-wishes that your situation was a good one. Either way, I'm guessing you'll find joy in having the tank. Edit: nuance

Colleen and Duke, glad to have you here! You'll find that a lot of us have a kitchen fish room, bed fish room, living fish room, office fish room, dining fish room, entryway fish room... there's probably even somebody with a fish tank in front of their toilet so they're looking at that instead of their phone, but no one has admitted it yet. 😂

Today, for the first time, I have a berried shrimp. I've been struggling with these guys for almost 5 months, even accidentally killing about 7/8 of them recently. I still think they look like creepy bugs, but you know, they're my creepy bugs. ❤️ I planted 4 species of plants that I've never planted before (they've been floating), plus a bit more of a species I already had. I put all those plants in about 1 square foot of my main tank, so that makes a fun bright spot that had been blah. Feels good to look at. It's peaceful and perky. For the first time, I added nerites to my main tank. I hope they pig down my rock-hard algae, and I hope they're both boys so they don't lay eggs. Regardless, they're cute. (And it's humorous that their bodies look like pistachios when they hide in their shell.) I'll soon add another nerite that has stripes the colors of dark chocolate and milk chocolate. I would've today, but I'd plopped it into a tank with fish in QT. (Yay for foresight. 🙄) I noticed the frogbit I recently bought, and had trimmed the roots of down to an inch, suddenly has roots about 4" long. With one, I could even tell that it got longer over the course of the day! Most importantly, all this stuff put together has made me feel alive for the first time in about a month. I've been having a particularly painful time emotionally. While I still feel the pain, it's such a relief to have this bit of pleasantness added to the pain. It'll even get to continue, since I can watch the plants grow, and wait for the shrimp to have her shrimplets. These things have been a positive for today, and gives a little hope of positives for the near future. That's why I took the time to mention it here.

@lindabee53 Sounds like one of your cories' ancestors cross-bred with a goose.

I hope your exam went well.

Ooooh. Pretty. Welcome!

Welcome! I have endlers, too! It's great that you're doing research. Good job! Ask as many questions as you want. We love answering. (Really, we never ever stop talking, even when no one is asking us questions. 😂)

There are some great points here. Thank you. I don't know if I have a local fish club, but I do at least know there are several lfs around. I think I'd visit it first, but that might be a good option.

For the amount of tank maintenance I'm able to do, I'm on the edge of overstocked. I'm considering offering some livebearers to a lfs, as one way to decrease the problem, but I've never done that before. (I'm also increasing plants and water volume.) My primary concern is that my fishies would end up with people who won't take good care of them, and end up causing them to suffer. If you have insight on the topic - maybe even a way to decrease risk to the fish - I'd appreciate hearing it. (If you also are having an overstocking problem, you might want to know that my tank that's stuffed with hornwort has the lowest nitrates of my 7 tanks. Hornwort's helpful.)

Sorry about the lost fish. Glad the tank, overall, can be re-done. I've got pothos in mine, too. I think it makes the top look perky. 🙂 I also was going to suggest a standard glass lid. I had the standard black-rim and glass lid combo, with a Fluval 3.0 sitting neatly on top. A Stingray light technically fits, but is a bit jiggly. (I've also used that rim/lid combo with a lamp sitting beside it, so hey, whatever works! 🙈 )

Nana petite and weeping moss both have a lot of potential. I don't know about the cost of the moss, but I bet that much nana petite would cost a fortune. Just an angle of the decision to consider.

@Beardedbillygoat1975 That sounds like it would require a cringe-worthy number of culls. Let's hope they're living out their lives in a planted in-ground swimming pool.

Just did it. Confirming that it's easy, interesting, and pretty quick.

Welcome to the forum! How does it happen that Texas cichlids come from Thailand? That must be an interesting story.

Welcome!

Any chance the water didn't have enough nitrates? It's a nitrate hog. For what it's worth, the only tank where mine overran the surface was a tank that barely had any water movement at all. That seemed key. But also, the tank had no lid, and a lot of light.

Rice fish are 1 of the only 2 species on my "want it" list. I'm so jealous! 🙂

A dragon in a blankie is the best thing I've seen all day. ❤️ Welcome!

Welcome!

I love this kind of post! I don't recognize what kind of fry it is, but I wanted to stop and say that is the coolest thing ever.

Several times, my angel has gotten similar white areas toward the end of his dangly fins (usually the 2 pectoral fins). Each time, the fin would appear to bend at that spot, then bend more as if broken, then eventually the white and the part of the fin below it would be gone. I don't know what it is, but I thought I'd share that it happens to mine, too.

"ThePapa" has a one-and-only ring to it. Similar to, "Paul McCartney? THE Paul McCartney?!" 😃