laritheloud

I love animals and wanted to get some small pets that I could safely keep with three cats in the house. I also used the excuse "I want to try and get some fish for my son to enjoy!" ... Right, it was definitely more about me than my son, but luckily it's a hobby my entirely family is enjoying with me. I'm so glad I decided to try it out, and that my husband enabled me to give it a go. I found a brand-new love this past year because of it.

WOW! I was about to place an order for plants and supplies, too, when I got an order notification email! I know not to check it now. Thank you so much, and I look forward to sharing with everyone what's inside! 🥰

Usually she’s easy to photograph but also she has a strong drive to thicken herself with food

@Hobbithere are the pics I can get during feeding time lol!!! It’s my male giving me the stink eye, adult female honey sunset, juvenile female golden, and lady marmalade the thicc lip

So my wood floated for a few weeks after filling the tank... Of course it did, LOL. I couldn't get it back exactly how it was (the largest piece swelled in such a way that it was impossible to rotate back like it is in the picture) but I got the wood and rocks to a place where I like them. I added some hornwort cuttings from my other tanks (and water lettuce) to help cycling along, this will be replaced by salvinia cucullata when I start planting 'for real.' I ordered a few crypts, some rotala, bolbitis, aponogeton, crinum calamistratum, hygrophila corymbosa, and a number of new-to-me plants to try out in my water. I'm probably going to order a few more and rearrange/prune as I figure out my arrangements. I'm thinking some pearl weed to add bushy, lush, carpet-like growth. We'll see once I start really planting! I'm thinking about getting a pleco cave or coconut hut as 'hides' for fish. Do you think that's necessary in this tank? I figure it wouldn't hurt... I'm adding an air stone, but I'm not happy with how a sponge filter looks int his tank no matter where I put it. I might forgo the sponge filter and just figure out a prefilter for my canister intake.

GOOD NEWS: My honey male has enticed a lady! WEIRD NEWS: It's the thicklip gourami he's trying to cuddle. It's............ only semi-successful, as he does the C-embrace midwater and misses being able to wrap around her thicc self. I'm a little speechless. He's likes his ladies thicc I guess?? Are they supposed to just want to hybridize like this????? 😅

Any update on your gourami @Dee00?

This is an amazing thread. Can the moderators keep this one pinned, by any chance?

I, too, have cats that will eat any green in the house, so this is really helpful. Thanks everyone!

My local chain stores have this problem, but my LFS keeps several tanks of snails. A few of them are not for sale -- I think they just grow them out a little bit. The main 'sale' tanks are usually quite well-kept with very active snails moving around in them. I know this is definitely not the norm, though. It's sad.

I don't think substrate is strictly necessary. Gosh, those ladies are SO beautiful. I hope you have good luck breeding them!

Yep, my nerite snails are all still healthy and happy. I love my mysteries, though, I just hope my latest addition lives a bit longer.

Mine was suctioned to the glass for 4 days, only moving an inch or so over the 4 days, before he fell on his back and didn't move again. I righted him and checked him throughout the day until his operculum no longer retracted when I gently pulled on it. I'm so sorry for your loss. My gold mystery was very large when he passed, and so was my purple mystery snail, but we just didn't have either of them for very long. Fingers crossed Skylar and Jet stay with us much longer!

To be completely honest, I would not take chances and assume that three doses are necessary to eradicate the infection. I wouldn't return carbon to the filter until you're sure there's no more worms in the tank -- or at all, and just allow the medication to get changed out with water changes. Levamisole degrades in water relatively quickly. If you have inverts, expect some of your snails to slow down during treatment (along with the fish during recovery). This is normal. Your inverts should be fine with this medicine, just thought I'd give you a heads up.

We are trying again! Here’s our new black mystery snail tiny guy, Jet. Our blue snail is a mid sized adult named Skylar!

Good luck!!! I haven't had any good fortune with my snails and breeding. Hope you get some pretty little babies out of this.

I believe he got the original 2 females from The Wet Spot, in person.

I have clinical OCD and intense anxiety, and fishkeeping is a bit of a double-edged sword. I love my wet pets, I love maintaining their tanks, and I love to watch them... but I also find myself fretting over them an awful lot, and I wish I didn't. I am medicated but it only helps to control my symptoms to a point, and the rest is on me. I know with time, practice, and exposure I will calm down, but, for instance, when I post a question on the disease board, it's probably because I was watching my tank on and off for hours and obsessively monitoring any eccentricity as ill health. 🤭 When I stop to remind myself that I'm doing a good job, that there's no such thing as 'perfection' in any hobby, and that my water-box ecosystems are thriving enough for my fish and shrimp to breed... I'm happy. But like everything else in life I would be lying if I said I wasn't struggling sometimes!

They're all so fun! I counted at least 2 orange ones. It's exciting to see these little critters skittering about. I knew they were coming soon because we had 2 very hugely berried females, and then the berries disappeared one day. FINALLY spotted my first shrimplets and I couldn't be happier.

WOW, what the heck kind of assignment and grading standard is that? Seriously? That's a child! Of course any pet's passing will be horrible to a child.

It's my best guess. I know camallanus is more threadlike and not segmented. Free fish food, though, right?

I have a tank full of Blue Dream shrimp adults, and I'm noticing that they're throwing a few orange rice-sized babies. Genetics are weird. 😆 NOTE: I'm not going to be culling these guys because I have no plans to sell and this is purely for my enjoyment. I'm just fascinated that I got some orange from my blue... some of my blues have also grown to have more of a translucent 'blue jelly' look, too, compared to my original sapphire blues. So fun!

That looks like a bloodworm!

My temp is set to around 77 degrees @GardenStateGoldfish. I use an inkbird temp controller so it's plus or minus 1 degree. @PineSongI really hope yours live longer than mine. It's really depressing! My son already wants a new Mystery snail for the tank, so we're going to be trying again soon. I also want to try other species out.... My nerites are all fine so far, though, and they were the first creatures added to the tank.

I have heard over and over and over that gouramis (all gouramis) do best in a group, with a balance of more females to males. I think the ideal 'minimum' for a group is 1 male to 3 females, though I keep them in a 1 male to 2 female ratio at the moment. This is so that the male will not harass just one female all the time; I know my honey male tends to 'claim' a piece of the tank as his and chase away the ladies when he's not ready for them. A group wouldn't work in your 20 gallon, and I would suggest a bigger, separate tank if you wanted to try something like that. I'd probably keep him alone for now, as he is likely to chase away both the single female and the rest of the fish in the tank when he's preparing to nest.