laritheloud

How big are your adults? My amano shrimp (adult females, especially) are massive, and two of them are carrying eggs that I know will just either not hatch or die immediately after hatching. These guys look kinda small for amanos, and the body looks different to me.

NJ municipal water (rural county) that comes from deep well aquifers. I have always assumed it's treated with chlorine somewhere down the line, but I never test positive for chlorine out of the tap, and I never detect ammonia or nitrate out of the tap. It's a mystery, especially since I can't find the yearly water report posted online. Maybe they flush/clean the lines with chlorine a few times a year and it's treated earlier? I have no idea. I'm pretty ignorant about this stuff, so I just use water conditioner to be extra safe.

I am totally clueless whether there is chlorine or chloramine in my tap, as I never smell chlorine and all the chlorine tests I've done show up negative. In spite of that I still use water conditioner just in case. It doesn't really hurt to use it and it's an extra layer of safety in case there's any trace of toxic additives in the water. EDIT: What I usually do since I use a Python attachment to my sink is add the water conditioner according to the volume of the tank and then add the fresh water right afterwards.

Your tanks are an inspiration @Seattle_Aquarist. I'm starting a 55 gallon with a sand substrate this weekend; it hadn't even really occurred to me that it would be a problem for growing plants, so long as I added root tabs to the substrate. I'll try the minimal water column dosing along with the root tab method you've used! Are your tanks all CO2 injected, too? Or are they low-tech?

That's really good insight, @Steph’s Fish and Plants. I also have clinical OCD and severe anxiety (it's being managed, but it's a lifelong battle), and the anxiety about the fish and aquariums does fade over time, even for someone like me. It's been six months for me, too, and I still probably fuss over my fish more than I should. I spend a lot of time examining them every day for any problems, and I research a lot of potential issues I could come across. But it is better than it was at the start, and I think if I keep reminding myself to simmer down and back off for a bit every day, it'll continue to get better. Like everything else in this hobby, it's an exercise in patience and taking it slow. Give it time and give yourself permission and space to feel that anxiety, acknowledge that it isn't entirely rational, and breathe. Good luck!

Hi, Cohen, if you can pick up some cheap test strips or an API test kit, it'll really save you some trips and heartache in the future. A lot of health issues with fish can come down to stress and water parameters, which make fish susceptible to disease. It's hard to judge what else is going on without water values. Platy and other livebearers also tend to love harder water, so if your KH and GH are on the low side, they might be feeling a bit unhappy. But I wouldn't advise doing anything about that until we know your base values.

Gouramis will probably pick at the catfish food, I know mine do. They do let the cories eat with them. A fish like endlers might not during feeding time. My endlers tend to eat flakes directly off the surface and scavenge much later throughout the day. My experience with schoolers is pretty similar. I have larger tetras that will eat flakes voraciously first, then lag with the scavenging.

Try AquaBid and order from the reputable sellers. I just had a fantastic experience purchasing endlers off aquabid. Most are sold in trios, some of them with a scoop of fry added in!

By "water parameters" we would like to see your ph, ammonia readings, nitrite readings, and nitrate readings. Do you have a test kit or test strips?

I don't think it's the substrate hurting your cories. I use eco-complete in my 29 gallon with corydoras, and I've never had that problem. I gravel vac a little bit where there aren't any plants. 84 degrees is just about right for German Blue Rams but a bit uncomfortably warm for cories. Agree that it looks like an infection and a course of antibiotics is a good idea. I wish I had more advice than this. Do you have the numbers for your water parameters? I know you said it's good but numbers are helpful.

I hope she gets well. Poor snail. I love these little creatures, they're so fun and lively 😞

Here’s a snail I don’t see much in forums: my giant ramshorn named Cooper! He’s about two inches!

Thank you, this is super helpful!

I'm interested in honeycomb catfish! Do you have pictures? How many do you have and do they come out at all during the day, or do you watch them at night?

It's probably fine and looks okay to me. If you treated the fish and it's improved a bit and not gotten worse, it might also be some scar tissue that will hang around for awhile. It doesn't look inflamed by the photos, so monitor for now and if it gets worse then try another treatment. I have a fish with upper lip scar tissue in my tank. I treated him for mouth rot/fungus five months ago and it's left a funny-looking mouth and some thickened tissue. There's no inflammation, it never gets worse, and he behaves totally fine, it's just a mark of what he's been through.

Wonderful! Just wait and see if they breed for you. Mine multiply like mad. 😆 Enjoy them!

Your L204s are GORGEOUS! Love flash plecos!

Yep, they're around two inches. ADORABLE little guys. We only have one female, and she's easily-distinguished among the crowd of boys. A little grayer and a little plumper with clear fins. The patterns really are gorgeous, they have an iridescence in the light.

Do you know if this is their full size? So petite!!!

We're SO excited to get started! We're thinking of getting 1 pleco (we're open to different species since there's so many, but will do our research before we settle on a purchase) plus a group of catfish. We absolutely ADORE the Synodontis Eupterus but I'm slightly concerned that maybe we should wait for an even bigger community tank for one. We are heavily leaning towards upside-down cats (synodontis nigriventus i think?) or wood cats for something different, but I'm not discounting trying another corydora species. We have Corydoras Elegans right now, and I have to say--they're super adorable little creatures but they're staying quite small for a cory (I've seen some full-grown sterbais at the store before). I don't know why I expected them to grow more than they are. Maybe they will still grow broader very slowly over time, but they're quite petite corycats. I also wonder if it'd be a much different experience if I got a larger school of 8 to 12 instead of only 6 with a bigger tank!

I was going to start a new journal for my 55 gallon! Our stand is being delivered on Friday, and I'll be starting set-up and looking for planting suggestions next weekend. 🙂

I sure do. It's a jungle in there!

As a newer fishkeeper I've been seriously freaked out about overstocking. My 29 gallon is 'full' IMO, with a school of diamond tetras, 3 honey gouramis, 1 thicklipped gourami, 6 corycats, 6 amano shrimp, 4 nerite snails, and 2 mystery snails. My tetras keep breeding and breeding and breeding and it's grown from a school of 6 to about 11, if I've counted the current surviving fry properly. I've been terrified for months that these guys are going to breed to the point of overwhelming the bioload because more keep making it to juvenile/adulthood -- but so far, even with this stocking level, it's a struggle to get any nitrate readings above 5 or 10 every week, and I'm a bit of a nutcase in watching my water parameters. Your Mileage May Vary in your tank, and there's so many factors that go into what sort of bioload and stocking level a fishkeeper can manage in in each tank.

If your gudgeons were in your main tank, then your entire display is infected with worms. You should probably treat all your tanks to be safe.

Hey there! I think it's a good idea to keep threads asking about stocking for your 10 gallon tank at college to one conversation. I know the moderators on this forum prefer to see less new threads started on the same topic by the same person. That said, I really don't think a spotted congo puffer in a 10 gallon will work at all. The congo puffer needs at least 30 gallons to thrive, but I'd probably look at a 40 breeder minimum.