laritheloud

Can't go wrong either way. The snails aren't all that bothered, they just don't extend their antennae as far as they would if there were no gouramis around.

It's preferred to have a harem setup for honey gouramis (1 male to 3 females), but it shouldn't be the end of the world if you end up with an even split. Your stocking plan for a planted 25 gallon sounds great to me, and I think it'll end up as a very lovely, peaceful tank. Just a heads up, my honeys do sometimes peck at the mystery snails' long antennae, so they might end up keeping those majestic appendages tucked up into their shell.

It's hard to see size even from photos, but for what it's worth, I know gouramis grow incredibly slowly. Are there any juveniles of varying sizes? You can try splitting off the bigger ones to a different tank and seeing if the smallest ones catch up.

I did not breed this fish, and I'm pretty certain she's (?) an adult. I *THINK* she's female? She's very mild-mannered and shy and sticks with her 'sisters' in the tank. She gets along really well with my female thicklipped and my juvenile female gold honey gourami, but, wow, it's really hard to find photos online that match what she looks like. I've seen her do a 'dance' with my younger female (who is still a juvenile), but it could have just been good-natured dominance challenging. I could have sworn I saw my male try to schmooze her, too. It's just fascinating because that blue/black darkens significantly when she does do some 'dominance' challenges, and her body gets an orange tint/sheen to it (and her eyes go completely black), but she never attains the full male breeding dress. I find her very pretty, even if she's sort-of the drabbest gourami in the tank.

GORGEOUS. I wanted a hygrophila and wasn't sure what variety to choose. That's shooting to the top of my list.

Gosh, I'm still researching aponogetons, too. I'm not sure which one to try and also want height out of it. I'll see if I can find anything with some research.

These wood pieces are HUGE -- it was a challenge to get them in there in a way I liked 😆 Thank you!

Beautiful, @Patrick_G!!! I have a tiger lotus in one of my other tanks and I love it. I'm considering trying an aponogeton in this one, too.

55 gallons, will house catfish and Gouramis and possibly keyhole cichlids. Looking for easy to grow plants to evoke a riverbed in Southeast Asia, but I’m not strict about making a biotope. I want to plant about 50% or more of the scape with floaters. I know I want crypts … but how many and what type??? HM. how many plants would you purchase for this tank, knowing my wants? Which varieties? I’m tentatively keeping this tank low tech but no promises since I inject CO2 into my 29 Gallon. I’d really love to have a low maintenance setup though…

Feeling good about it

This is in line with the golden honeys I have. I think the fin colors are the biggest clue for gold-type honeys. My youngest honey is a definite female. I also have a definite gold male. Your juveniles are absolutely adorable and I look forward to watching them grow! As for my third honey... that one's different. My "sunset" honey has been much, much trickier. I'm still not totally sure of their sex, but I've been assuming female because the fish has never colored up to solid orange and hasn't displayed nesting behaviors like my male golden honey. In any case, the "sunset" honey gourami tends to be silvery in the body with a stripe they turn on and off whenever they want. The dorsal fin has somewhat of a male pattern (lemon yellow) but there's also a slight bit of orange on the front half of the rim. The tail and back ends of the dorsal/anal fins are orange. The anal fin is blue-black when it colors up. I have seen this fish turn an orange tint, but not to the brilliance of a wild type male fish in breeding dress. Basically, I'm confused. 😄 edit to add confusing pics of my girl (?)

I just moved the rocks around a bit, pushing the rocks this way and that. I'm letting it sit and I'll back to it to see what other adjustments I need to make. Really excited about this one 🙂

Hard scape playing! Thoughts? Suggestions? I'm not going to fill the tank until I have plants, and the sand will be shifted around to my liking. Help me plant this tank!

I strain, don't bother to rinse.

It looks like an Asian red tailed, like Colu suggests. I think this guy is probably going to get larger than 8 inches....

Finally getting started on a journal! My vision for this tank is a peaceful larger gourami community, still deciding between a pair of moonlight gouramis or a small group of pearl gouramis. For the middle, I'm deciding between blackline rasboras or platy fish, and for the bottom we want a moderately-sized catfish -- one pleco (heavily leaning towards blue or green phantom, the Starlight bristlenose, OR the leopard frog pleco) and possibly smaller woodcats, dwarf petricolas, or synodontis nigriventris. We're at the infant stages of this new project, but I'm anxious to get started. We're doing our leak test for the tank tonight, and if all goes well, I can put together the hardscape tomorrow. Here's the scattered pieces I have so far, including a wooden tank stand we placed and leveled yesterday, some driftwood that's serving as my main inspiration pieces (plus more that's soaking), and a sample of the rock work we're using. I'm aiming to make a sandy/rocky riverbed look. It'd be nice if it were vaguely Southeast Asian, but I'm not strict about making it a biotope. Once I set up my hardscape, I'll share my progress. I have no idea where to start with planting, either; all I know is I want to stick to easy-to-care-for and easy-to-grow plants, plenty of epiphytes to tuck into the wood and rockwork, and floating plants to provide shade and keep gouramis happy. Thanks for joining me on my new journey!

Thank you, Colu!!

I truly wouldn't worry about staining with ich-x. I've used it in two different tanks and never experienced staining. I know there's the caution on the bottle that it MIGHT stain, but when you're dealing with ich, it's just easier to use it.

The only other factor I can think of is using different CO2 proof airline tubing. It's stiffer and less flexible than normal airline, and you never know, it might make a difference. Good luck!

These are my favorite snails. I have one right now and I fully want more of them. Let us know how this goes!

The check valve looks good and you did it right! So the only other factor is the pressure. I wish there was information on the exact psi needed for that diffuser because I can’t find that info at all… I’m sorry I can’t help further and I hope someone who has done diy CO2 will chime in.

A few things we can troubleshoot. I haven't done a DIY CO2, I use pressurized, but two things jump out at me. Which diffuser are you using? Some CO2 diffusers require a minimum working pressure to diffuse. Mine require 40 psi to start bubbling. You will need a low-working-pressure CO2 diffuser to work with your DIY system. Second, pictures will totally help determine if your check valve is on correctly!

I have these little guys. They're not planaria so I'm just assuming they're harmless little flatworms scooting across the glass.

Dirty bandits 😆

@TioTeo If they're not growing bigger than an inch, they're not amanos. My female amanos are easily 3 inches, and grew to this size about a month to a month and a half after putting them into my tank. So sorry you got the wrong type of shrimp, but hey, at least they're thriving and happy in your tank!