Chris

Agreed, it's the lateral line. Used to detect movement, vibrations, water flow, and all kinds of stuff. If I'm not mistaken, a lot of fish have adaptations that allow their lateral line to be used for crazy stuff - for example, lots of predatory fish have an adaptation that allows them to use their lateral line to detect electrical impulses that their prey produce, so that even in murky water conditions, they can still find/track prey.

Not currently. The two in the picture are just garden-variety. I did have a pair of Long-Fin Mocha Clowns a couple years ago: And then one of my very first purchases as an adult after I moved away from home was a pair of Wyoming White Clowns:

Alrighty, here are a few pics. Spent most of the day at a pumpkin patch, so these are whatever cell phone pics I could get without working too hard. First up - the Kribs! Well, Krib. Both are alive, well, and eating, but are super skittish and dulled out. They went into the hair algae farm that is my 20 long, since it's my most established freshwater setup. Ugly, but I feel it'll be a good conditioning tank. Next is the urchin. He's just been chilling on the rockwork all day. He was wearing a dead urchin as a hat when I first got him, and I think that's just pretty metal. Finally, the clowns. They've eaten today and look to be doing well! They're tank-raised, so in theory, they're bulletproof. I set up all the Kasa wifi timers I got from the Co-Op, and I'm loving them so far. Very convenient! Didn't have any connection issues at all. The mission this week will be to get the 37 and 33 wet. All I need is a couple 2x4's to finish my stand, and then I can move fish around and let things settle for a few weeks. The only other additions I have planned are some swordtail fry from a member, but their tank is set up and ready to go already.

This is ME, lol. I've got a Lowes bucket that I've had so long it cracked, and instead of throwing it out, it became my go-to stool in the fishroom. I've also been known to use salt buckets if I'm too lazy to put it away. The goal is to get a rolling stool from Lowe's with a cushion at some point, but how can I spend money on that when there's so many fishy items I need? Oh, and I've been known to lay down on my belly like a kid when watching tanks on the floor.

Really, I only have two types of water. Most of my tanks are freshwater, and two of them are FOWLR saltwater. The care for a FOWLR tank is honestly pretty much the same as it is for your average freshwater tank, besides the addition of the salt during water changes. I've done reef tanks before, and while I do enjoy them and do want to set up another soon, I've found that the amount of work that goes into one reef tank equals 4-5 FOWLR or freshwater tanks. Plus, once you've mixed enough saltwater, you get a pretty good handle on how much salt is going to get you to where you want. For my FOWLR saltwater, I mix it to roughly 1.022 or so, which means I need roughly 1.75 cups of salt per 4-ish gallons of water. I mix it, add it to the tank, and test the salinity of the entire tank once every month or two. If I'm off by a little, then I'll add freshwater or saltier water to make up the difference. If I'm mixing brackish, it's about the same way, just less salt. Reef tanks, you have to be more precise with. To be perfectly honest, a lot of the information you find online about marine tanks is shaky at best. You can go read websites from the late 90's and early 2000's that insist that tanks under 5 gallons are impossible, and now they're commonplace in a lot of places. This is my favorite resource for saltwater research, specifically with stocking: https://www.nano-reef.com/forums/topic/74703-lgreens-ultimate-guide-to-nano-fish/ I don't agree with everything on the list, but I do agree with the idea that two three inch fish don't necessarily need a 15 gallon tank - a 10 gallon is a nice, comfortable minimum. They have Ocellaris listed as a single specimen being okay in a 5-6 gallon tank, and honestly, I'd agree with that, too - for a long time. Eventually, a bigger tank would be nice. Here's my girlfriend's little crab tank. I still have to put a background on it:

Oh, what a busy (and expensive) day! Worked this morning, and then me and my girlfriend went to a LFS. I made up my mind that I wanted a 33 long instead of the 20 long - partially for piece of mind, partially for the bigger tank size, lol. We ended up getting way more than just the tank. My girlfriend has always loved the hermit crabs in my saltwater tanks, so she ended up getting a little 1.5 gallon tank, 4 hermit crabs, and an emerald crab. We set it up on the kitchen counter. We'll see how long she stays interested! I ended up getting a pair of Kribs (I'm pretty sure they're a pair - they're still young, though), a pair of Ocellaris Clowns, and a urchin for my Green Spotted Puffer tank. The Kribs are going into the 20 for now, the Clowns are going into a 10, and the urchin went into the 55 for my GSP tank. All went well, but I'll have to get pics tomorrow - I'm beat! Oh, and I also received my Co-Op package today - 5 days late. Thanks to the team's awesome packaging, though, the plants look pretty good to have been in a box since the 30th! The Amazon sword looks flawless, the Bacopa looks good, and the water wisteria is... alive! Still impressive, lol.

Well, I've never kept Loggerhead Musks, but I do have an Eastern Musk. I keep a basking area with mine but have only seen him up there a couple times. Despite that, he does spend most of his time around the area. I think the most important part is giving them a place where they could get out if they needed to. Believe it or not, I have found my Musk to be bothered by fish. My Musk is tiny (2"), so I'm sure an adult turtle would behave differently.

Will PM.

Let me know when you have a decent group going if you're willing to ship!

Either list of fish would work, IMO. I'd add some stem plants or floaters into the tank to help out with water parameters a bit. I think two gourami would be fine. If you did have issues, you'd have to be prepared to separate them or add more gourami to break up the aggression. I've never had that issue with Honeys but I'm sure it's happened.

IME, Honey's aren't aggressive at all. I've heard of males fighting before, though, so YMMV. If you want to play it safe, it may be worth it to track down a group of females or a male/female pair. I think you can get away with the cories, too, although I'd be pretty careful about your water parameters and such at that point. I wouldn't attempt such a heavily-stocked tank without planting it, personally.

I think it'll work out pretty well. Personally, I'd consider adding a couple more honey gouramis into the mix. They seem to do best when kept in small groups, IME. As long as the tank is planted (or, at least has plenty of hiding spaces) I think you'll do just fine.

Definitely no snow here in Kentucky, yet! We are getting our first killing frost tonight, though. Time to bring in all the potted garden plants and let the rest go 😞 I hear it's beautiful out that way, @TheSwissAquarist!

Right? I saw their post in the trade forum and was like "No way!" Unfortunately my area doesn't seem to have a huge Nerm population. I met someone once who recognized my Co-Op shirt, but it's been years!

So, I spent most of yesterday evening moving cinderblocks and lumber into the fish room. It's a decent little walk from our parking lot to our apartment - long enough to get me pretty winded while carrying a total of 13 cinderblocks. I actually bought 16, but after #13 I decided I had carried enough. Plus, I was starting to get some weird looks from the new neighbors who just moved in upstairs, lol! I'll move the final 3 tonight. I also ended up with a kitten who decided it liked me. I think it's a neighborhood cat, and it's always been scared of me - but for whatever reason it kept watching me carry blocks and eventually started rubbing up against my legs. It even tried to run in my front door at one point! I wish I had gotten a picture. The blocks I bought are being used for a stand for a 37 XH on the bottom, and either a 20 long or a 33 long on the top. I had planned on the 20, since it's what I already had, but I'm realizing that the edges of the tank won't actually be over a cinderblock with the 20 long. I actually had lumber begin to sag without support in the past with that same 20 long, so I'm leaning towards a 33. Plus, I know they're in stock at my LFS and who doesn't love that footprint? If I end up getting the 33 instead of the 20, the 5 guppies I have in QT will go into the 37 on the bottom and a pair of Gold Dust Lyretail mollies I have will go into the 33 up top. The end result for both tanks is to start breeding them, and I noticed an unexpected pro of this stand design last night - I'll have room for several 10 gallon tanks beneath each rack for growing out fry and/or breeding different strains of fish. I've already dedicated the space under my 55 for QT tanks, so I'm excited to have a bit more room up under a different rack. In other news, I have a bit of a bacterial bloom going on in my Flowerhorn tank. I think I may have gotten a little overzealous with the cleaning the other day and triggered it - water tests fine (no ammonia, no nitrite, 10 PPM nitrate) so I think I'll just wait it out with frequent testing. I'm also planning on picking up a few swordtail fry from @PineSongsometime in the next week or two. I finally found a local Nerm! Already have a growout set up for them. Oh, and my Co-Op order is now 4 days late. I've been watching USPS tracking like a hawk - the Co-Op team had the order out within 5 hours of me ordering it, so I have no doubt this is on USPS. Just hoping I don't have to have plants re-shipped 😞

Looking good! He looks amazing to have just shipped. I feed my puffers until they look nice and round (like yours does in the picture above). I don't like feeding them until their stomach is bulging so much it looks painful, either. You'll find what works for you pretty quickly - luckily, they're pretty forgiving fish!

Some of my favorite large tanks have been rainbowfish tanks. I've only ever kept the Pseudomugils, but the larger species are stunning as well. If you're looking for activity, why not consider a barb tank? Stick with some of the less aggressive species - I'm thinking Rosy Barbs, Denison's Barbs, and Black Ruby Barbs. You could do a huge school of each in that tank, or pick one species and go all out with a couple hundred of them. That'd get expensive with the Denisons, though. A saltwater tank could be fun, but if you have no experience with it, I'd recommend against such a large tank as your first one. It can actually get a bit overwhelming on such a large scale until you're used to it, despite what the old wisdom used to say about bigger being better. Or... Maybe a tank full of guppies and shrimp could look great.

One option is to start a puffer tank. I dislike the thought of simply killing a fish during a cull - so usually my culls turn into food unless they can be rehomed. In the case of brown shrimp, I've usually fed them to my various puffers over the years. Deformed livebearers get fed to the larger cichlids.

I've been thinking about doing something like this ever since I watched through Foo the Flowerhorn's videos - just never wanted to deal with bending acrylic. This seems perfect. Thanks so much!

Interesting idea. I'd like to do a betta barracks in my fishroom - eventually. I think if I were to set one up as a display in a store it'd be worth it to pay extra to have acrylic/glass drilled for each little tank. I'd never want to attempt to drill such thin glass myself - although I guess you could use 1/4" glass to minimize cracking risk. The thinner the glass, the higher the risk. I honestly like the idea of a 10 qt food container, if I could find one that was decently clear. It's 2 1/2 gallons (plus the water volume you'd get from a sump below), a decent-ish footprint, and plastic, so that drilling can be done with normal drill bits or soldering irons. I feel like there are prettier solutions, but it'd be cheap and I think it'd work quite well.

Didn't get to Lowe's to pick up cinderblocks. Work was rough and then we went grocery shopping - after all that, I barely wanna move, let alone haul around a bunch of concrete blocks! Still fed the fish and am observing the new fish. They're eating well and look active and healthy so far! I love feeding this guy - he's the fish I spend the most time watching and interacting with.

Thanks! It definitely can be a pain, but I know it'll be worth it in the end. Tonight I finally got off my butt and moved the 36 to the bedroom for the Musk Turtle. Also moved the 20 long into the fishroom, but I'm planning on tossing the stand and going with a cinderblock and 2X4 route. Here's the corner this morning: Here's the corner tonight: I went to the LFS today and got a group of 5 guppies (2 males, 3 females), all with a cobra-type pattern. Just mutts, but very pretty. They're in an old 5 gallon salt bucket for a week-long QT, and will be moving into the aforementioned 20 long whenever the rack is complete. Still lots of tidying and cleaning to do, but I think tomorrow I'll start building the guppy/molly rack. Don't know if I'll get it wet, but I'll at least try and get the materials. Already have the lumber from old builds, so I think I'll just need a bunch of blocks! Have a Co-Op order coming, but it was due in yesterday... hoping to get it in tomorrow!

Which tank size do you have? That's one of the most important questions. I'm a big fan of the Finnex Stingrays - they're not perfect, but they're easy enough to set and forget. I've had some issues with the bluetooth on Fluval lights before, and nothing is more annoying than trying to get one to simply turn on and off and not being able to. For most tanks, a Stingray will be a plenty of light, too.

When I managed a PetSmart we carried Variatus. I had to special order them off my list but they sold like crazy. If you have a decent PetSmart in the area, maybe check there for some! Or Aquabid.

If it were me, I'd just not worry about getting a heater for this tank. Variatus do better at cooler temps than platies, but I wouldn't worry about platies in the mid 60's, personally. If you do choose to get a heater, I've actually had very good luck with the Tetra 50W presets. Yes, they're cheap and don't get reviewed well - but in my experience of owning over a dozen over the course of 10 years, they actually work very well IME. They're preset to 78, but each individual heater is usually a degree or two off. I've never had one stick on - always had them quietly die and turn off after years of service. My room temp in my fishroom is between 70-72 right now, maybe the upper 60's overnight. I've got a single 50W Tetra preset in that tank (along with an AquaClear Filter) and it keeps it in the upper 70's consistently. More than enough for a 20.