xXInkedPhoenixX

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea I find that a lot of bird food for wild birds has a high mix of seeds sometimes local birds don't eat. Mine is "mess free" so everything is shelled however at times I'm a bit dissatisfied with the higher amount of cracked corn- that even the squirrels save for last. Seed without corn though is ridiculously expensive and I'm already paying $50 a bag- I'm only feeding the House Sparrows, Scrub Jays and Mourning Doves for fun let us not get too crazy. That being said, feeding the animals and by default the squirrels and I know the urban rats, possums and skunks that come around at night (I have a ground level birdbath they all drink from- 2 higher fountain baths too) and I'm ok with it- the benefit to me is my cats get "cat tv", I get to watch the wildlife and know that at least my neighborhood birds and critters (including my 4 Hummingbird feeders) are safe, fed and watered at my house. I can't tell you though the joy watching them brings me. Splooting is a fun phenomenon to watch with the squirrels and the birds kind of do it too by sitting really low on the cement and fanning out a little. Now I feel bad for them because they do it when they are really, really hot but it still brings a smile to my face because- how clever is nature? Pets do this too- even I find myself splooting when it's stupid outside. Thankfully in my area we seem to be past the super hot times but in honor of the passing of summer I will leave you with a collage that says it all entitled "It's soooo hot...."

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea ahh thanks friend. It's probably the "prettiest" tank I have since I'm usually just more focused on the fish things in my tanks. Most people who visit me gravitate towards that tank. Since I set it up it's been the most maintenance free tank I've had. I have to give some credit to the bladders and trio of Horned Nerites. @Guppysnail very cool- it will be interesting to see how your Bolivian(s) does with the bottom dwelling Pandas. I recently saw someone selling a couple of Pandas on another forum and I was tempted but Punk is so territorial with the bottom of the tank now I don't want to add a fish. I'm betting that if your Bolivian moves in with them already there they'll want to be in charge but less of a jerk about it. Punk runs the other fish off the bottom sometimes but has not been physical about it.

I saw you post about that @Guppysnail! That's cool! I am so glad I got one after wanting one forever- Punk is such a great personality addition to my tank, he is a lovely fish. He's in my Angry Man tank, and as you may know I don't use heaters so the tank runs naturally from 72 (early mornings and/or colder house) to 78 (later day and/or warmer house)- the vast majority of the time my 20 gallon tanks run between that.

I'm just messing around with my new phone's camera (night pics) and my Hillstream Loach, Kirby comes out more often in the cooler times of day (morning and evening)- scooting around the front glass doing their cool Hillstream things. Always fascinated by how neat their undersides are.

Hi @TRichard, firstly welcome to the forum. I'm sorry it appears you are having issues. So yes it appears likely you have the start of Ich. This is not uncommon (IME) with new tanks and/or new possibly stressed already diseased fish which can happen coming from any fish store. I'm thinking maybe your tank isn't cycled because you should be reading some Nitrate to show that the bacteria is processing the ammonia/nitrite. It's good you squeezed out an old filter that can be helpful but I think you will need to start treating for Ich right away. Now there's another possiblity though- it could be Epistylis which is treated a bit differently than Ich and exacerbated by heat treatment while heat can be used to help treat Ich. So it's important to try and differentiate and start treatment before it gets out of control- as both these diseases can do. It's good you are catching this early. I will find the helpful chart our @Colu uses and post it here.... We all make mistakes in the beginning. Don't feel bad, these are sometimes great lessons to learn, and in catching something early hopefully you won't lose any fish.

Hi! Welcome to the forum- wonderful tanks and great intro. It's great you try a little bit of everything (all over the board)- it can be a fun part of this hobby! Looking forward to your contributions.

Ok, I'll post just because of the pleas for pictures 🙃. As of late I've had to go through a lot of old pictures (due to a tech snafu I won't go into). I've come across photos of, not my first Betta, but the Betta that kicked off my deep dive into the REAL aquarium care. I wish I knew what I know now so that I could have kept this Betta, who was a delight, in my life a lot longer than he was....he had beautiful long fins that took incredible pictures even for a terrible cell phone picture taker like myself. Meet Kimono: Kimono as he meets his first Ghost Shrimp: Kimono as he meets OUR first Mystery Snail: Kimono as he greets his first red plant (that of course didn't make it, lol):

Yes @Robstar they make noise, most say they "sing". You can search on YouTube, people post video. It's something you can hear when things are all quiet and it's wonderful!

Sherlock.

IME Otos are just overall super sensitive fish. My pH has always been between 7.2 and 7.8. I started my journey with 7 and lost 6 within a week (this was 2020) then I got 6 more and they all lived through QT. Those original 7 spawned and continue to spawn. From 7 to 50+ in a 20 gallon tank (and currently 9 babies in floating breeders that will go on to new homes). They are difficult fish but wonderful when you can get them to live past the initial few weeks/months. If you're getting them from a LFS I've actually asked for the water from their tanks and set up a QT with it, then slowly over the QT period with water changes it turns to "my" water. Add some Indian Almond leaf to your water. I make a tea every week I add to all my tanks- this seems to have greatly improved all my aquarium inhabitants health. Lowering that pH should help. As has been said they are likely 100% wild caught that you are buying.

Welcome to the forum! Shrimp can be hard so I would suggest waiting a long while until everyone else is well established in the tank- acclimating them is also very important so do your research there! Something to consider, things like Neon Tetras are cool in small groups and one doesn't get too attached to any one in particular but in smaller groups they can be rather shy and in a small tank you don't have the capability of keeping too many. My nephew had a half dozen in a small tank and they hid most of the time. Not to say they will in your set up BUT if you are concerned about interest for your 5 year old the Cory are great but what about male Endlers or Guppies (no females, beginners IMO should stick with a non-breeding set up until they get the hang of things). Endlers and Guppies don't school but they often chase each other around the tank, are constantly moving and come in a WIDE range of colors so you can tell them apart (or you can get them all matching so she can't tell them apart). I say this because one of my personal favorite tanks at my house has both Guppies and Endlers and they are so much fun to watch- it's non-stop action. Fish like Neons CAN be boring at times. Just putting that in the perspective of a 5 year old!

Oh gads. We'll need a worst photo category which I'll gladly submit to! 😄

Wonderful story! This is usually how a good fish story starts "I had no intention to..." Welcome to the forum!

Lovely post friend. ...and so very very true.

Welcome to the forum @Robbbbbbb. I'd go with the 2 recommendations above- both those chaps know what they're talkin' bout.

So we had Scapes from Scraps here on the forum a while ago. My entry was doing really really well- though I have constant bladder snail walk aways from the vase- the plants are doing very well. I had to add a plant light to direct light to the vase itself when the Spider Plant just grew up and into the overhead of the stand. It was a very beautiful addition to my dark living room- here is what it looked like at one point: My spider plant concoction exploded and the plant lights I had no longer were sufficient for the Spider. Chutes it had failed and the ends of the leaves turned brown as they had no light and were growing away from the source. So it had to move to brighter climes in my house. I don't have too many of those but I put it next to my Flex9 which also had my terrarium I built after a failed colony of Tiger Otos in another tank and that tank moved as an upgrade to my Mum's at her house. I had originally moved the spider and left the terrarium next to it- it was a little cluttered- then I had an epiphany.... When I moved the Spider I had also removed the Hiro Aquatics platform off my shelf in the living room but then lamented about what to do with it as it's a very nice stand. It sat in a spare room for a couple of weeks. Now as you can see above I removed the terrarium and the Scape is now sitting amongst my Tiki collection near a slider door and an LED light. You can see the browned end leaves. Hopefully it will get enough light now. If not it may need to move to a relatives house but for now here we are. The ephiphany was this...clearly in my terrarium I was seeing light deficiences in my Hypoestes "Pink Polka Dot" plant as it had gotten leggy and the pink spots nearly all gone. The fern and Creeping Fig are doing fine. I bonked my head. The Hiro light of course. Duh. So I brought it back out and put the terrarium there instead: I'm hoping the Pink Polka will come back a bit better and I now still have something to enjoy in my living room!

I would call your tank currently lightly planted @Pencapchew95. Nothing wrong with lightly planted- just depends on nutrients and bio loads. Plus your plants are not fully grown yet. And if that's a regular Amazon, it will "outgrow" the tank eventually.

(for anyone counting this means I have 9 Otos currently in floating breeders)

Woohoo! Post pics when she pops!

Sorry you lost him. I love common Plecos. They are awesome fish.

Well folks, just wanted to keep this thread updated. My Black Neon is still alive and kicking! She's still bloated, don't see any redness right now. (took this with the lights already off so sorry for the quality and reflection)

OTOCINCLUS VITTATUS: The Parent Tank I mentioned a few entries ago that I had seen 3 new baby Otos and had caught 2. Well that 3rd one was just a swift little chap but finally tonight I got them. Clearly coloring up and getting to the point that I may never catch them (as evidenced by the fact that a few escaped into the main tank with the other current batch and I've never seen them again). My observations with each batch is this- most of the new babies are hanging out along the top 2-4 inches of the tank in their transluscent stage up to their start to coloring at about 5-8 days old. Then as they get older and bigger they are more comfortable moving down the walls of the tank. Today this baby was caught about halfway down the 20 gallon tall Parent Tank. They seem rather dependent on the glass until maybe a bit around 2-3 weeks - THEN good freakin luck catching them. It's all a guess. Otos are fast though- anyone who has had to catch them knows this. Anyhow, this is the 3rd one. No evidence of anyone else lately....

@DaveO amazing! Gosh I hope of the 2 of us one of us can get them to spawn. I keep hoping the babies I find are baby Cocama but no luck so far I think.

So awesome! How many did you get? @DaveO