Elizabeth Power

Thank you @AllFishNoBrakes That was helpful.

Also, how many babies can I have before I need to start worrying about the bio load?

I bought a few coral platy's from my LFS. I needed an easy fish for my 20 gal aquarium. They had babies and they all got eaten even though the tank had lots of plants. I just wanted a few to survive. So I made some adjustments. A few months later I had counted 50 babies and that's just what I could see and with more on the way. Now I'm trying to figure out what to do. I certainly can't keep them all. I'm chronically ill so it's been hard to give my tank and the fish the care they deserve, let alone dealing with all the issues that goes along with trying to sell them. There is no local aquarium club or other group. So taking them back to the LFS as a donation seems to be my only option. I've looked at some of the posts that I thought were relevant and that helped some. But I still have questions. If there is a relevant post that I've missed please let me know. Here are my current questions: How big do the babies need to be for them to be ready to be sent away to a new home (LFS)? Is there an easier way to catch them other than a net? And an easy way to separate them if I catch the ones that need to go along with ones that still need to grow?

Love the pictures of the birds.

Thank you for all your input. It was very helpful. @Yanni @Mmiller2001 @lefty o @Isaac M @Fish Folk

I have a 20 gallon tank that is heavily planted. Do I still need to vacuum the gravel? Right now I try to do it every time I do a water change which is about every week, sometimes two weeks apart. It's getting harder and harder to do so as the plants fill in more and more of the space, and I add new plants that are not yet established and would be uprooted by vacuuming. I have rock in the center where my corys spend a great deal of their time. Now I mainly just remove the rocks and vacuum where they were sitting.

Good luck! I love saltwater aquariums, but I am too poor and too lazy and too impatient to actually try one myself. Instead, I enjoy others' work. Looking forward to seeing your progress on your tank.

Thank you. Your input was very helpful. @anewbie @CorydorasEthan @Colu @Dwayne Brown @lefty o

Also, how much do I feed him? I don't want him to starve, but I also don't want him to be so full he does not eat ant algae.

He's hard to get pictures of. Someone else from the forum looked at the pictures and said that his is a rubber lip pleco, but considering he's not acting like one it would be nice to get a second opinion.

I have what I have been told is a rubber nose/rubber lip pleco. Since it was my understanding they were vegetarian I purchased algea pellets for him. He ignores the algea pellets (even crawling over them) to get to the Cordy's food (ground feeding fish food) and eats that instead. Is that ok?

Thank you. That's a relief because I do really like him and really want to keep him.

@CorydorasEthan You are in luck. I decided to try feeding the pleco and the other fish to see if I could coax him out. Seems today he was willing to get his picture taken. Ihope that helps. I'd really like tp know if he's going to be a problem noe so I can deal with it. He's been a great at eating the algae. So far there have been no problems with other fish. And right now he's pretty small so his size is not a problem yet.

@CorydorasEthanThank you! My understanding is I have Neon tetras, Serpae (red minor/jewel/callistus) tetras. The pets store said my corydoras were Julii, but when I researched them further online it seemed to indicate most Julii corys were not actually Juliis, but some other kind. I think they are actually the leopard cory. I was told (at the same pet store) that the pleco was a rubber nose pleco. I have a 20 gallon community tank, so I specifically ask if that pleco was peaceful, that it would fit in my tank (not get too big), and that it would eat my algae. They told me yes to all these, so I bought it. But when I looked up the rubber nosed pleco it did not look like it and the internet also said this one is often falsely identified in pet stores and is usually a rubber pleco, which from my understanding is not a good fit for my aquarium. The rubber nose has stripes, mine is all dark gray. I can't get a picture. I rarely see him and he disappears almost immediately after I see him. There's been a number of times I thought he was gone and he finally shows up again a number of days later very briefly. I've even looked for him by physically moving stuff around, but I was not able to find him. He's almost the same color as my substrate and my aquarium is heavily planted. He is the newest addition so I'm hoping with time he will feel more comfortable and he will come out more. But even then I'm not sure if I can get him out without ripping apart my whole aquarium. But I can send you pictures of everything thing else.

I never thought of a riparium but I did at one point time, when I was a kid, have fire bellied newts. I loved them. I think I had a ripatium at that point in time. I do have plants hanging off the back. I figured they would help me control the nutrient levels in the water, making managing the tank easier. I think they are various philodendrons which I got from stealing clippings from my mothers plants when she was out of the house. 😇