laritheloud

The ones I lost were very large and grew fast. I bought my golden snail at around 1 inch in diameter I think? Possibly 1.5, and he easily grew larger than a golf ball. We fed them repashy, zucchini, invertebrate pellets and they constantly munched on dying plant matter in my tank. My other snail I lost a bit ago was also large. My third is still quite a bit smaller and still has a ways to grow to catch up. Hoping I can get more life out of our last one and I’ll get longer lived snails for our next!

Man, I wonder why my first two only made it to six months??? I hope my blue snail lives that long. I think I’ll probably pick up another when I stop in at my LFS, I just think it’s pretty sad they didn’t live as long as I hoped!

So I've been trying to figure out what the typical lifespan is for a mystery snail. I lost two out of the three I had. The first one was large when I purchased him (so I'm assuming had some months behind him), and the second I had for about 6 months before he passed. I still have one left that's totally fine. Is it normal for mystery snails to only stick around for six months? I've been making sure to feed them and their shells were healthy and strong. For both snails that passed, they would hang on the glass in the same spot for about 4 days straight, then eventually fall down and never move again. Is it just luck? I'm thinking about trying some different larger snails, if anyone has any recommendations for snails that live 1 year or longer I'd love it.

Hard to say if it's on both sides of her gills. If she isn't behaving abnormally, I would just observe for a day or two and see if you can pinpoint anything worsening or getting better. It's hard to treat something if you don't know what it is! Hopefully it is just a few mild scrapes, but if it's on both sides, that could mean she's flashing and rubbing herself against rough objects. So watch her for a bit and wait and see. You can try a water change to see if that helps her (what are your water parameters, by the way?). She's a beautiful girl, I hope you can help her!

Are there any other fish in the tank with your gourami? It COULD be a loose scale from a superficial injury. My tetras get this a lot because they nip/ram each other when they're in a breeding mood. The boys love to stress me out with their violence.

He's sort of 'fired up' in that photo, he's surrounded by females so he's kind of turning on his 'beard' throughout the week. 😆 He builds nests but my sunset female isn't totally interested yet...... In any case, Honey Gouramis can be kind of mysterious and difficult to sex. There's the additional challenge that many stores (NOT Aquarium Coop, I'm pretty sure) mislabel Sunset THICKLIPPED Gouramis as honey gouramis, and they're not true honeys. Their bodies are solid orange to a ruddy rusty brown. They grow a bit larger, and some say they are more aggressive. I totally disagree as I have a female sunset thicklip and she's a total sweetheart.

This is my male golden honey

The fish on the right is my female sunset honey gourami. Males look almost identical except the top fin is lemon yellow and the back end is vivid orange. EDIT: the fish on the left is my young gold honey female.

Yeah, if they were small then they were likely very young. I got my gold female very young. She's growing, but slowly; I don't think she's reproductive age yet. I don't think you need to buy a new male and three females. Regarding what color morph you have, that looks like a Gold Honey Gourami to me. My sunset female (and the males in the tank with her) looked very different. Their bodies are silvery-gray with an orange/purple sheen, both in the males and the females. Females have orange-rimmed top and bottom fins with an orange-tinted caudal fin. Male sunsets are also silvery and could have the stripe down the side that females do, but they will have a bright lemon yellow 'mohawk' on their top fins and really vivid orange caudal fins. Wild-type honeys look virtually the same between males and females in the shop tank. I peered in on them once and laughed because there was no way to tell them apart.

@Patrick_G did you lose your females? I remember when I saw them they looked quite a bit smaller/younger than your male, I was about to say I'm not sure if your females were old enough to try breeding yet. If you go for more honeys, different color morphs can be very difficult to sex in the shop.

I'd love to find more women near me that's into the hobby. Mid-thirties mom of kids, cats, and fish... I'm not much for outdoor gardening (despite owning property with my husband) but I quickly fell in love with aquatic gardening and aquascaping!

30-50% once per week on all my tanks.

The "Pest" snail ramshorns are pretty and they stay small, but some people don't like that they reproduce readily. I don't mind. I love the little guys. My big guy, the Colombian Giant Ramshorn, supposedly might munch on plants in a planted tank... but to be real, I haven't seen him eat anything that's healthy. He IS voracious, though, so make sure you give the big guys something to eat daily. Cooper books it to any food I drop into the tank.

Dwarf Petricola/Synodontis Lucipinnis are tank-bred, smaller relatives to the full size Synodontis Petricola. They tend to be more flexible with ph levels. I don't see any reason why they wouldn't work if you'd like to try them. I'm considering them for my own tank, or the synodontis nigriventris.

If this is a seller out of Tucson that I think it is, they have a reputation for this. I'm so sorry you went through this awful experience and I hope a credit card claim can get your money back. Please don't let this put you off of reputable online sellers, though. There are plenty of good experiences to be had from communicative businesses.

New Jersey. I was in Pittsburgh for college, DC area for work about a decade ago before moving back close to my family.

Yeah, it's hard to find concrete information but I'm seeing probably 5-8 years.

The top photo is a purple oil woodcat, they get only about 1 inch long (2 inches max, but most sources are saying only around 1 inch as an adult). Ninja woodcats are the orca-patterned one, they get to a max of 2 inches.

If you want something different and interesting for a 10 gallon, you could look into the teensy dwarf wood catfish (not for breeding, just for keeping). I think ninja cats or purple oil cats can stay in a 10 gallon, if you can source them. They are also a bit hard to find and they're nocturnal, so they'll only be active (but quite active) at night. I wouldn't get too many of them for a 10 if you decide to try it.

https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/species.php?species_id=802 L147 plecos grow to about 6 inches. @Colu is correct.

I'm going to echo what @Tankseeker and @Guppysnail said and also add a reminder that the gold spot dwarf pleco is probably going to be quite difficult to source. I can't find it for sale anywhere reputable online, and I'm not sure an LFS will routinely get them in. I would start with what is accessible to you, and then consider a fish that is realistic within your lifestyle, needs, and level of care you can provide. There are lots of wonderful nano fish that will live a happy life in a 10 gallon tank.

OP was talking about breeding plecos so it was my bad for not clarifying, lol!

I wasn't even thinking about breeding Otos, but yes, you're absolutely right. I wouldn't feel comfortable keeping a school of otos in a 10, personally ... I know they like company.

I'd stick to oto cats in a 10.

You could try amano shrimp with your cories (even in addition to the snails). We have six of them in our 29 gallon. The gouramis leave them completely alone.