laritheloud

So I made the executive (and anxiety-inducing) decision to move Lord Orange and Madame Maple (the male and the largest female thicklip) to the 55 gallon a little early along with Lady Marmalade. They've been through two rounds of parasite treatment and look healthy, and I think at this point the benefits outweigh the risks, because the 10 gallon quarantine wasn't big enough to prevent bullying of the smallest female. I currently have the smallest female thicklip (Miss Amber) by herself in the quarantine to give her some R&R because I noticed some minor bullying injuries on her (bump on her lip that's peeling, a few discolored scales from ramming). I don't anticipate this will be a problem when all four gouramis are together in the 55 gallon, because there's plenty of places to explore and hide when the ladies need to get away. Little Miss Amber is acting just fine and looks much less stressed without other larger fish in close quarters, so I think I made the right decision for now. The other three larger thicklips are very active and adorable, so I'm hoping just a bit longer in isolation with Miss Amber will clear her for the big tank before long.

I keep pseudomugil signifers and they're hardy, fun, super active fish. They school extremely well. I do find they are skittish and take a long time to settle in a tank. I've had mine for ... a month and a half? Two months? They've been through antibiotics (for white lip) and a few rounds of parasite treatments just in case, and all of them made it through just fine. Things to keep in mind about pseudomugils: White lip is VERY common, and so is columnaris. When you first get them you might see white lip. I held back on treatment until I noticed it wasn't improving with clean water changes, then gave them medicated feed (kanaplex) for 10 days. They still have somewhat white-tinted, callused lips, but none of them ever refused food, and none of them act sick. I'd err on the conservative side with antibiotic treatment for them and see if their white lip is just from their frequent sparring or if it's something more. Usually it's really not a big deal as you might think with other fish! Give them time to get comfortable. Mine snapped to schooling formation at the top of the tank whenever I came to take a look for over a month before they decided they were okay with me. You'll probably feel better with a nice lid on the aquarium, as when they say top-dwellers, they *REALLY* hang out by the surface! They prefer to eat from the top of the water. When they swim down it's to explore, play, spar, or breed. I think you'll really like them. They might not live very long, but they're just so fun and completely peaceful and they never stop moving. I have gouramis in with them now, and I was super nervous the gouramis would put them back to max skittishness but they absolutely don't mind having bigger fish around at all. Love them!

I don't know if there are any more desirable colors than others. I have a mix of all colors and just let them be skittles. They reproduce quickly and they have quite pretty shells no matter the color.

@lmhicks101aquabid always has plenty of folks selling ramshorns

I have a ph of 8.0-8.2 in my 29 gallon and my 10 gallon tanks, the former with corydoras and the latter with neocaridina shrimp. Neither have had issues in this water. Have you checked other water parameters? If the cory's barbels are eroding, it might be an infection.

I'm moving my thicklip gourami to my 55 gallon this week, so we'll see what happens after my gold honey is no longer being chased around by a thick lady! EDIT: I brought her home about 6 months ago (maybe 7?) and she hasn't grown a LOT since then. She's a little bigger than my gold honey male.

I’m reasonably sure she’s a highly colored wild female but darned if she doesn’t confuse the heck out of me!!! She doesn’t quite have the intense colors of a male but she’s still got an orange tint. She was guarding an algae tablet yesterday with those colors, and my gold male is in his breeding colors.

You can keep the sand and just add root tabs for rooted plants. I prefer this over eco-complete; I used eco-complete in my first planted tank and if I were to do it over, I'd replace it with a finer grain gravel, aquasoil, or just plain black sand. I do not like working with eco-complete for various reasons, and I find it quite challenging to plant in vs. sand. All that aside, I have six corydoras elegans in my 29 gallon eco-complete planted tank and they are totally fine. Beautiful barbels and they dig around. I've had them for about seven to eight months now.

At least three months and up to six months or more would be my guess, depending on how comfortable you are with their size at selling. They are veeeerrrry slooooooow to grow and mature. I've had one of my honeys for more than six months and she is still noticeably smaller than my other two honeys, but getting there. My guess was she was only around 3 to 4 months when I got her and that's why she's still small. @Hobbit can definitely give you more first hand experience.

Case in point about how confusing it can be to sex Honey Gouramis.

Agree with patience. I know you posted earlier about not seeing nitrites and your tank is still not cycled. It will take time and patience. Cardinals are sensitive, so they might not like the environment of a cycling tank, and you might lose some more. Stocking a tank fully all at once in a new tank can be risky. Be dilligent and watch the water! I'm sorry you're losing your cardinals.

I have a Fluval 407 and I'm happy with it, but I think I'd try an Eheim for my next large tank! (Because... there will always be a 'next' tank.)

All of them. 😆 In my various tanks, I have mystery snails, rabbit snails, nerite snails, thorny nerite snails, bladder snails, malaysian trumpet snails, ramshorn snails, Japanese Trapdoor Snails, and one Colombian Giant Ramshorn Snail. My rabbit snails, Japanese trapdoor snails, and "pest" snails have all bred, and I caught my mystery snails in the act today and I'm hoping to discover some egg clutches soon. I love my inverts so much! I think right now it's a tie between my clumsy rabbit snails and my Colombian Giant Ramshorn for my favorites. Rabbit snails have the cutest snaily faces! I wouldn't recommend getting more than 1 of the giant ramshorn snails at a time, though, as I've heard they are quite... ravenous, and you might have a problem if they breed. The one in my 10 gallon has been fine, though, and I haven't noticed any sizable damage to my plants.

It.... might? There's some debate over whether bottled bacteria really helps a cycle. It certainly doesn't hurt to do it.

It can take 4 to 8 weeks to cycle a tank, even with beneficial bacteria introduced. You have a lot of bioload for the tank and it's going to take awhile to get over those roadblocks, especially since you will be changing the water pretty frequently throughout the cycle. I'd keep water changing and being as patient as you can, dosing with Seachem Prime daily as necessary. I don't think your plants are consuming too much of the waste in the water. If you want a natural fast-growing filter, get stem plants or floating plants (hornwort, water lettuce, salvinia, frogbit...) to help consume waste in the water. ETA: Pothos and anacharis could be consuming some of the waste, actually, but it doesn't look like they're established well enough to consume a lot of it yet, judging by your parameters.

I fooled myself into thinking I'll organize my stand by getting some of those large rubbermaid/tupperware containers and putting my stuff in neat little rows inside of it. What I actually end up doing is tossing in the stuff I rarely reach for and leaving my bottles of fertilizer/water conditioner/etc out along with the buckets, towels, and tools. Sigh.

That's why I fell in love with them! If you ever get a chance, I highly recommend you try them out. My husband plays with them daily, it's adorable and he's so delighted. Since you like honeys, these guys are familiar while being a bit more outgoing. They do a lot more 'kissy' fish faces at each other, which I'm guessing is both flirtiness and aggression depending on the context (it doesn't cause any damage, it just kinda lightly 'kisses' the flank near the caudal fin and the other fish don't look distressed by it). I'm just crossing my fingers that they don't try to nest in Quarantine before they're in the 55!

We found a baby rabbit snail this evening!!!!

https://streamable.com/10eilk Important update from fish quarantine 😁

They'll be begging during feeding time before you know it. 😆 Mine swirl in a cloud of chaotic color by the surface where I usually drop their food. I also drop in invert pellets, veg, and gel food for my Colombian Ramshorn and my blue dream shrimp in that tank, and they always peck away at it along with them...

I'm completely obsessed with my group of thicklips. I knew I'd like them, but they're even better when they can socialize with their own kind. So adorable, so friendly, so fun to watch them swimming around together and doing cute little dances beside each other! Hopefully there will be no breeding activity in quarantine because I know a male guarding a nest in tight quarters is no good, but they look really healthy and if they keep looking healthy, I would feel okay transferring them in a few more weeks.

Aw, look at those adorable little endlers! You'll love them. They're hard not to like tbh. I find them so delightful to watch!

Oh, no, I'm so sorry. 😞 This isn't your fault. She was likely already quite sick when you took her home, and you gave her a little bit of space and comfort in a bigger space.

@xXInkedPhoenixX I think that'd be totally fine. I had only 3 endlers for over a month and they were totally fine, even housed them in quarantine with a thicklip gourami temporarily when she was bloated and they were perfectly happy. They'd probably be curious little fish with a lot of spunky energy during the day, but I actually don't think you'd see quite as much squabbling as if you got more of them. They're super fun little guys and they add next to nothing to the bioload.

I started with 3 male endlers in my bachelor pad tank and now I have 12. They were just fine when they were only 3 with inverts. Now they are a roiling mass of chaos during the day as described by OP, but still don't really seem to hurt or actually bother one another. They're just high-energy!