laritheloud

Your ladies are growing beautifully! I also spotted you on another forum about little chicks -- I hope you're moving them outside this weekend because they look perfectly ready. Mine are now 9.5 weeks old, and we're going to be extending their run another 9ft x 6ft. They get a couple of hours of supervised ranging time every evening and they LOVE it. Favorite snacks so far are black soldier fly larvae, tomatoes, and clover.

I'm not sure where you obtained your pseudomugil signifers from, but I will say that I didn't have the best experience with them. They were not hardy and the oldest lived for only 7 to 8 months in my tank; water parameters were always good and I attempted to treat them with appropriately spaced-out regimens to give them time to settle and possibly gain strength. I hope you have a better experience if you decide to try and get more of them, and I'm sorry this happened!

That's a male and he is definitely very bloated. He looks a better in the second video, but not perfect. If it's an infection, I would follow Colu's advice and treat with antibiotics in food. Putting him in a separate hospital tank is best for now, to at least give him some rest and reprieve from other fish possibly bothering him. Good luck with this sweetheart, I hope he feels better soon.

If you haven't added any fish in the last two months since the cories went in, it's not ich. I'm not sure what your timeline for adding in the fish is, but any longer than a week or two at about 78 degrees fahrenheit would make an ich infection obvious. So long as you've had the fish in this tank for more than 2 or 3 weeks, it's not possible that they have developed ich spontaneously.

I wouldn't jump to a problem right away if everything is testing fine. How old was your mystery snail/how long have you kept it? I have never had a single mystery snail live for longer than 7 months, sadly, and my water is highly alkaline at a pH of 8.0-8.2. I have decided to raise rabbit snails and Colombian Giant Ramshorns instead.

White clouds do like a cooler water temperature than dwarf gouramis, which prefer the mid-to-upper-70s for temp. Whatever you decide to do I'm sure you'll love it, and there's always time to change your plans around in the future.

Chocolate gouramis are super peaceful and quite small, maybe the size of a honey gourami. They are quite shy little fish, and they are sensitive to their water quality and parameters. For example, I cannot keep chocolate gouramis or samurai gouramis with my city water because it is not soft enough; I would need an RO system to provide the right conditions for their tank. If you're interested in chocolate gouramis I strongly recommend reading about their needs. They come from acidic blackwater environments (ph 4.0 - 6.5 water) and don't live terribly long if you cannot provide that!

Absolutely do not add a dwarf gourami to this tank. They can vary a lot in temperament and some of them are pretty aggressive to fish that look like themselves; I would worry the most for your thicklipped gouramis, especially in an already-crowded 29 gallon tank. Dwarf gouramis are also a bit fragile health-wise; if you can ever source wild dwarf gouramis they are supposedly much more mild and similar to honey gouramis in temperament. I've never seen wild dwarf gouramis in the USA, though. If you really would like to try a dwarf gourami, I would get a separate 15 to 20 gallon tank and create a smaller community around one dwarf. Treat the gourami more like a male betta in a community tank. I think you'll have much more success this way!

She's a beautiful lady!

All on their own, yes. It might have been stress spots or lymphocystis. Definitely wasn't ich OR epistylis! Who knows what it was....

Arugula salad for 8 week old babies 🙂

They went into the coop all by themselves to sleep last night! I'm so glad they're loving the outdoor life!

I'm back after their first full day outside and they are having the time of their life scratching around in the dirt and straw. Love these little birds! We'll see if they can find their way back into the coop this evening. I turned on their light and I'll move the food back inside to try and entice them.

They had to be scooped up and placed inside. They also took a few hours to get brave enough to go back out in the run this morning. Some people lock up their chickens in their coop for a few days but I don't feel right doing that, so I'll just return them in the coop in the evenings if I have to. I did stick a stick-on disc nightlight in there and it's on a timer, so it'll go on for about an hour after sunset to hopefully entice the chicks to go back inside.

Hmmmmm. I'm not sure if I'd totally call that white stringy poop. It's white, sure, but when I noticed white 'stringy' poop from my very sick pseudomugils, it would be accompanied by cottony white, stringy discharge and very little digested matter. Since the fish is acting a little off, I'd monitor after your last dose and ensure he is eating. Whatever it is doesn't seem to be contagious yet. Are all of his poops consistently white, or is it intermittent? Other things you can try is straight-up prazipro (praziquantel) or another dewormer mixed in food, since he is eating again.

Neos and amano shrimp are very hardy! Just start with 10 to 15 of them in an established, well-cycled tank (preferably with plenty of scuzz) and they will take off. Keep water changes to 25% or less and hardness stable, that's all. I also exercise caution and drip acclimate all of my shrimp, but I've heard you technically can just float and add water to the bag in increments and they'll mostly be fine. Caridina shrimp (bee shrimp, crystal shrimp) are tougher for a lot of people. I wouldn't feel good trying to keep them because my water is too alkaline for their liking; I would need an RO filter to mix up their preferred parameters myself.

My babies made it outside! https://streamable.com/ncw72o https://streamable.com/cdm2sf Welcome home, ladies! (Once they get used to their home they'll have daily 'free range' yard time; we plan to extend the run area with a big walk-in pen.)

@Hobbit had this on one of her honey gouramis and it never caused him any issues! In the meantime, I've kinda realized I must have a runt honey gourami because my little gold female doesn't look nearly that plump or big...

Could be guarding a nest but I actually don't think it's necessarily true @Cinnebuns! My gouramis have literally never bred and sometimes the males just like to guard their 'area' where they think they'd like to build a nest. Even if there's no nest and no eggs. Either way, looks fine to me! He's not hurting her so that's the biggest concern. In spite of the fierce chasing, I find them to be fairly gentle fish. 🙂

I've heard great things about cream legbars and cochins in terms of personality. Wyandottes are gorgeous and I'm getting mixed messages about their temperament! Some say they tend to dominate a flock so it's interesting that yours is at the bottom and sweet with you. I have two easter eggers that look like they're getting some large muffs and I can't wait to see what color eggs they lay. Hoping one of them will be a fun green or blue. Right now my Australorp, Betsy, is the boldest chick. None of them are okay with handling but she will come right up to me and peck at my long strands of hair. She's very curious and likes to watch what I'm doing. Eleanor is the first to leap up to my hand for treats. The two eggers are goofy as heck but very sweet. I think once they go outside and I can sit beside them and let them approach me, they'll warm up faster to handling. I'm just being patient, talking to them softly, and spending a lot of time near them.

I'm so sorry for your loss, @Sal. I hope your two new precious chicks fill the void and thrive. ❤️ @JawjagrrlI love that picture of your very young flock! My babies are almost to that exact age, they look so similar to this picture! Adorable!

It's basically a dog pen branded as a chicken pen. The bottom has a waterproof coating. It's not... the only part of the brooder. We spoiled these little chicks, and they started out in a cardboard setup and I basically added-on with the pet pen. At 4.5 weeks they are starting to roost for sleeping at night and they rarely use the heat plate anymore!

Neither is any cause for concern! For the chasing, you'll see this often from the male gouramis. Male gouramis will chase their 'friends' and potential mates. You shouldn't see any real violence; I occasionally see a slightly torn fin, but it never lasts, and it's never super aggressive. Usually it's a short burst, the other fish zips away, and all settles back to normal. For the bottom-resting, Gouramis like to 'sleep' at the bottom of the tank sometimes, especially when they're chilling out in the evenings/nighttime. My honeys like to either rest at the bottom or the top. My thicklips are the same. Sometimes they'll drift in place near some floating plants with their feelers out, other times they'll just sit upright on the bottom and rest. It's only a concern if you see them flopping onto their sides or getting really weak. So long as your fish are eating and swimming normally throughout the day, resting on the bottom occasionally is no problem. 🙂

I did an extra water change and treatment today just to be sure. Now I'll just monitor, no antibiotics. Thanks, Colu. Can't believe I let myself fall into panic traps, lol!!

OH NO, @Sal!!! HOW ADORABLE!!!!!!! Ours are a month old already and so big! Enjoy the tiny fluffball stage while you can!