laritheloud

In a 15 gallon 1 male platy is a good centerpiece, also a pair of peacock gudgeons or a pair of honey gouramis. A betta would make a good centerpiece. I think you can keep a max of 1 thicklipped gourami but they get a little bigger and it'd be tight for them. A pair of killifish would be different and very pretty, but make sure you get a lid.

Should be fine. Don't be surprised if he hides out at first, and they BURROW, so they'll be hiding in the substrate somewhere. But they will come out and you'll see them skittering around before long. Ours like to hang around the perimeter and dig/climb.

Just an update: my pair of crabs have become much more active as they have settled in their separate tanks. I see them really often now, digging through the gravel/sand to pick out food and staking out perimeter checks. They do like to eat very small-sized pest snails (baby ramshorns and bladder snails), but not enough to make a noticeable dent in the population. I find their antics entertaining. They're probably best off in a nano tank setting without anything around to harass them. I've seen the crabs kick away neocaridina to tell them to back off from his morsel of food and throw fists up at the kuhli loaches without actually hurting them, but I'd imagine they would hide a lot if there were, say, a platy around harrassing him.

The sick fish passed. The remaining 6 were the original 6 I purchased, I'm almost certain. I bought the fish in two batches, 6 and then 4, all from the same LFS, same tank. I extended their isolation period to almost two full months and treated the whole batch together after adding the four extras. Seems like the additional 4 had something up with them, and the original 6 powered through. The color on the original 6 rainbows was all better, stronger, and more saturated than the four later additions. Maybe that was a sign. I'll likely keep a close eye on them in the coming months. The 20 gallon is burning through nitrites in about 36 hours, so it's getting close to cycled... considering moving them out to another tank and getting a siamese algae eater or a school of barbs (odessa? snakeskin? black rubies?) for the 55 gallon instead. After a solid quarantine period, of course. But that's for the future.

Like @Mmiller2001 said, there's a little algae in every tank. Your tank is absolutely beautiful. If you'd like to try CO2 injection, I use CO2art's regulators and they're working very well for my purposes. Bentley Pascoe's youtube channel has a lot of great guidance and advice for the high tech tank, and I sort of follow his philosophy of 'there's no real need to max out CO2 to get great results.' Pumping up the CO2 and finding the right mix of macros, micros, CO2, and light will allow you to grow some really intensely red plants and achieve amazing, quick growth in even the hardest-to-grow species. Just think about your goals and what you'd like to get out of your tank. If your goal is to eliminate algae completely, that probably won't happen -- but you can minimize it with the right combination. Also consider that over the life of your tank and your plants, you'll probably be slowly adjusting ferts and CO2 along with increased plant mass. Good luck!

Neocaridina/Cherry Shrimp varieties are pretty low-maintenance. I got mine from a very sweet hobbyist on Aquabid, drip acclimated for about 1.5 hours, and all of them survived and went on to have plenty of babies. I've heard Caridina shrimp are a bit more sensitive and challenging, and tend to like neutral-to-acidic water (which I definitely do not have). In the roughly 8 months I've kept shrimp I've probably only pulled out 5 to 10 dead ones out of the hundred plus in the tank, and I always assumed it was just old age since they don't live very long. Good luck, and I hope the cherries work out for you!

Curious to know, are you putting them straight into your community tank? I already have blue neocaridina in a 10 gallon with endlers and the colony is thriving. I love them so much and how well they keep the tank and substrate clean of debris that I'm tempted to add red cherry shrimp to my 29 gallon, but I fear they might just turn into expensive fish food. 🤪 Let me know what you're planning!

Good luck with the move @Eva Personett and just FYI to whoever takes the tank, that's a female thicklipped gourami and not a honey gourami, so if you get her friends someday make sure it's a thicklipped and not a honey. My female thicklipped eventually got tired of my honeys and began to chase my male! Very fun and sweet fish otherwise, just know what you're getting 🙂

I don't think you'd have any problem adding 6 to 12 more chilis. You can start with adding 6 more and bump it to 12, then add another 6 several weeks later.

They are social and should be kept in a group. I love my amanos! I honestly stuck them straight into my community tank from the start and they were experts at hiding underneath the java moss and in the other plants while they settled and grew. I actually didn't see them ever for about a month; they laid low, stole some food on the sly, and gained size. Now they're out all the time and don't care at all about the other fish in my community tank. It's up to you how much risk you're willing to take, but if you have a densely-planted tank, they will probably be able to take care of themselves in the community.

I got a gift card 🙂 I'll always use it!

I'm about to head to bed but I'll dig it up in the morning for you! 🙂 I believe it might have austro-hungarian roots? Which makes sense because she lived in Austria as a little girl after leaving Ukraine and before coming to the USA after WWII.

Beautiful cookies! I like to bake but haven't had the energy to do too much. I made two batch of cookies and a cake for my dad's birthday; it was today. Most of my holiday traditions center around old country Ukrainian food. I make vareniky (most people know them as pierogies!), mushroom dumplings, borscht, kutia, fish, and lots of mushroom side dishes for Christmas Eve. Someday I want to make the caramel torte my grandmother used to make... I have her recipe but it is labor-intensive and I simply haven't been able to try making it yet. I hope everyone here has a very happy holiday season and a Merry Christmas!

Weirdly it does help to hear this. Thank you. I know I struggle but I don’t give up — I just get very emotional along the way. ❤️ I know it’ll work out how it should and I’m doing what I can to keep the little guys comfortable. I’m happy most of my fish and inverts are thriving and I’ll see it through. I hope you have a great holiday colu. Merry Christmas if you celebrate!

Either way, it isn't good for me (mentally) or for the fish to keep going through the wringer with medications. I love this hobby, but for the past few months, I haven't been enjoying this tank or these fish because all I am doing is worrying and obsessing over their symptoms or the dying snails. I can't get him out now because he's hiding underneath the driftwood (I found him after about 15 minutes of searching), the 20 gallon is still cycling (but close), and the 10 gallon has kuhli loaches that I don't want exposed to whatever-this-is. I don't fully think it's contagious because I've placed the weakest/sickest rainbows in with other fish in quarantine and have seen no signs of this spreading across species over about 5 weeks in a 10 gallon. I've also seen every symptom under the sun: wasting, weak swimming, bleeding gills, stringy white poo, pale coloration, tatty fins. Now this guy has popeye and is worsening fast. I'm out of reasonable explanations and energy. I've had these fish since August/September and it's not improving. I'll check on him in the morning and hope he's back at the top and easy to catch and figure it out from there.

@Colu I really don't understand how this keeps happening. I've put this tank through so many treatments. Parameters are great, 0/0/ 20-30ppm nitrates. I'm not sure if he's eating. I don't know if it's something that's worth treating anymore. He has looked worse throughout the day and is now hanging out near the bottom. I could quarantine, but I am not optimistic about his chances. I feel very much like I made a big mistake getting these fish, because they haven't been working out at all. 😞

Agree with @Mmiller2001, without livestock it's got to be the root tabs leeching into the water column. I'd increase the light (I have a fluval 3.0 on my 55 gallon and model my settings off of Bentley Pascoe's with good results after 4 months) and place the light on risers, which you can DIY out of acrylic pieces or just use a 3D printer. You don't actually need that much CO2 to get really great results, but it sounds like you don't have enough light / light spread for the plants to utilize what you're giving them. I would expect you to have to fertilize at least 2 to 3 times a week with a CO2 setup and high light.

So I am getting a close look at him because he is hovering near the surface… he appears to have a white growth coming out of the swollen eye?? The heck? Is it an injury or something else?

I'm so sorry for your loss. He was such a beautiful fish. 😔

I don't worry about it. If you're only feeding a betta I'd cut up a frozen cube to small pieces and defrost those. You can also always feed daphnia on water change day and feed in the morning, clean later in the day!

@Jennifer V a pipette would work! I have several tanks so I defrost one cube in tank water in a little cup and eyeball it, pouring a little bit in to each tank.

To update everyone, my 55 gallon tank has been through: 3 rounds of General Cure 1 round of kanaplex in food (10 days) 1 Round of Metronidazole in food (10 days) 3 rounds of Levamisole HCL (one week apart each) 1 round of Oxytetracycline in food (9 day course) AND....................... the weakest Blue-Eyed now has unilaterial popeye and isn't schooling with the others. 🤪 Merry Christmas to me! Hoping it's just an injury from sparring, but I've been seriously regretting purchasing this batch of fish. When my 20 gallon quarantine is ready I might scoop them out and shift them over there. I am Tired. Anyway, I'm absolutely not treating the tank and just going to go with my scheduled Saturday partial water change. The water is very low nitrates (under 10 ppm) and looks clean according to testing, so I'm just going to throw my arms up and stop messing with the tank.

That should be fine. Pick a white or black substrate, and I think the crabs would love some moss to pick off of. I think they're worth a shot and fun little critters with a bit of a novelty to them. Just get a nice snug lid just in case -- mine have shown no signs of wanting to leave the tank, but it's good to be safe.

Crab in my son’s tank out for the daylight!

I have two pom pom crabs, and they're in separate tanks. They actually are active, but they're nocturnal, so you won't see them at all during the day. Mine come out like clockwork about 1.5 hours after lights out. They are experts at digging out holes for themselves and will hide in the substrate during the day. I'd recommend you keep them in small tanks with a white or black substrate (nothing too brown, they'll blend in) so you can spot them more easily. Install a very dim light so you can see them come out at night. The one in my tank with white substrate I see daily, the one in my other tank with multicolored substrate.... not so much. Almost impossible to find him. Hope this helps! EDIT to actually answer your questions: 1/2. I have my crabs with kuhli loaches and with endlers/shrimp. If the one in the endler tank eats any shrimp, I haven't seen it. It's been totally safe so far. I think they're hardy and pretty good for a beginner, as I didn't do drip acclimation and they settled right in. 3. They might burrow easier in sand, but they're doing just fine digging out holes for themselves in my gravel. They're extremely quick. 4. Biomass is negligible. Very tiny. They're only an inch big including legs. 5. I like them, but I wish I put them both in the same tank. I think that would be more fun to watch on a white substrate than losing one to the sandier jungle in my endler tank.