laritheloud

Here I am bringing this back up. So I like Pearl Gouramis because they seem like a 'safe,' peaceful bet, but my husband is really pulling for Opaline (or another variation of the three-spot) or Moonlight Gouramis. I know that Three-Spot Gourami variations can be hit or miss in terms of temperament. Does anyone have strong arguments for or against these beautiful fish? Strategies for mitigating aggression? I also have to say I am considering trying out a mild-mannered cichlid for the bottom (electric blue acara, rainbow cichlids, keyhole cichlids, apistogrammas, or rams). I'm coming around to coping with semi-aggressive breeding behaviors, and I've noticed that my Diamond Tetras have chilled out a little bit with their bigger school and with the thicklipped/honey gouramis in the tank with them. I'm finally at a place where I'm pretty happy with how my 29 gallon is going! But now I'm focusing on Fish With Personality and Interactivity for my 55.

Please....

Meet Lady Marmalade the thicklipped gourami. Whom we received by mistake, but she is literally the best mistake ever. Such a friendly fish!!!

Seachem flourish is a plant fertilizer. You use seachem focus to mix antibiotics into fish food, then feed the medicated food to the fish. I'm sorry you lost your ramshorn snails 😞 Anyway, those are pretty large white spots and it doesn't look like ich at all to me. I have no idea what it could be, if he's not acting sick! I hope someone else with more experience could offer some input.

Barbells look eroded, too, so I'm going to agree and say it's probably bacterial. Kanaplex/Furan 2 should help.

I remember your tank from FishLore! Absolutely love your pearls (from a fellow gourami lover).

I have Diamond Tetras. Beautiful fish! They will look gorgeous in a 40. I started with six, they multiplied to nine. I'm surprised by how prolific and successful they are at breeding! I really do love them, and they're beautiful fish, but the males do spar amongst themselves (sometimes violently, it's normal for subdominant males to have some tatters in their fins) for breeding rights. Know what to expect and all will be well. 🙂 If you want diamond tetras (and if I were to start over), I'd go for at least 8 or 9 to start. ETA: They are completely peaceful with other fish and the sparring is limited to the males in the group.

I actually wouldn't recommend dwarf gouramis (though they're adorable and beautiful) only because I'm anxious about dwarf gourami iridovirus. I don't want to invite that heartbreak! Pearl gouramis would be great and very pretty. You can also try a pair of dwarf cichlids like a nannacara anomala, apistogramma, or ram. I'm mixed on angelfish, as popular as they are. Keyhole cichlids might work, too, and I hear they have a sweet disposition.

The bigger the school, the better! I'd aim for at least 8. I use http://aqadvisor.com/ as a starting reference for stocking my aquariums. It doesn't take everything into account (a planted aquarium can often handle overstocking a bit better) but it's a good tool to play with.

This stocking plan can work, and all three fish inhabit different levels of the aquarium. I'm a bit nervous about the rainbowfish only because Boesemani grow to be pretty large (4 to 5 inches per fish). They are a schooling fish and require at least 6 to feel happy. Maybe try a smaller, dwarf variety of rainbowfish and make sure you have enough of them to fill out a school of 6 to 8 and keep them occupied. There's the dwarf neon rainbowfish, threadfin rainbowfish, furcata rainbowfish, sunset dwarf rainbowfish (Melanotaenia parva)... tons to look at!

I'm doing a 55 gallon gourami tank as my next project. Everything I am reading says not to mix gourami species, especially if you go for the three-spot gourami in any variation; the good news about going for only one gourami species in a tank is that going for the three-spot gourami means you can mix and match all the different selectively bred colors they come in (gold gourami, opaline gourami, blue gourami, lavender gourami, platinum gourami) if and only if you get one male and the rest females. Gouramis are social and do well in pairs or in groups... so long as there's only one male. I think with a 36 gallon your best choices would be the Pearl Gourami, the thick-lipped gourami, or the honey gourami. The Three-Spot and its variations would be a single gourami in a 36 gallon tank. By the way, sometimes thick-lipped gouramis are labeled as honey gouramis at the store by mistake. You may see them as 'sunset' gouramis (there are sunset honey gouramis but they're different from sunset thicklip gouramis). Before I did my thorough research I ended up with a sunset thicklipped along with my honeys. We're keeping her, and so far there has been no issues. Hopefully it continues that way as they all grow up.

80 degrees is on the high end for most corydora species. They like cooler water, closer to 76 - 77 degrees. Tetras are usually okay with hotter water. Still, it seems odd that temperature alone would kill them all so quickly. Do you have zero ammonia, zero nitrite, 20 or less ppm nitrate? Did you notice anything about the corydoras before they passed away?

This is really strange. My pH is 8.2 after degassing off the tap, and I have no trouble keeping corydoras in my water. Are you sure there isn't something else going on?

I have to trim mine today. It's absolutely insane how much it's grown.

four lily pads to the top and it's been in the tank since early april

My water isn't quite as hard as yours (8.2 ph GH 10-12 KH 10-12), but water lettuce is a great floater for us. It'd be a little large for your betta tank, but something to consider for the future. Water sprite grows a bit too well for us, so I don't see why it wouldn't work for you. Ludwigia Repens also grows like a weed. Red Dwarf Aquarium Lily will grow just as well as your tiger lotus (which also grows wonderfully for us). I had success with 1 out of 2 Amazon Swords, so it's a 50/50. Java Fern looked terrible in my tank for 3 months before it started looking okay. I'd try some vallisneria, though mine doesn't actually grow as fast as my other plants. Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus will overwhelm your tank. For mosses, Taiwan Moss grows really nicely in my tank (I pull out trimmings every week), and I recommend that over Java Moss.

I have a CO2Art and I'm happy with it. I bought the kit. It comes with everything you need except the CO2 cylinder, which you can pick up as a 5 pound or 10 pound canister at a local welding supply or compressed gas store. This model comes with little black silicone o-rings and there's no need to add a washer (though the instructions will tell you to add a washer). Don't make my mistake and just screw the large nut onto the cylinder, then open 'er up and check for leaks. It's really straightforward to hook up and to use, first gauge will read out the total pressure available inside the cylinder, second is the working pressure that's going out to your diffuser. For CO2Art in-tank diffusers you need to set the working pressure to around 30 to 40 psi, I have mine at around 35 psi. Bubble counter is nice and precise, I started at 1 bubble per second and went up from there. I was an utter novice with CO2 and regulators, but I learned a whole lot just adding this to my tank. 🙂

Not for healthy, hardy adult fish. It can be stressful to sensitive fish or to young fish but total ammonia readings have to be quite a bit higher before the un-ionized, 'free' ammonia becomes toxic. Only a low percentage of total ammonia readings contributes to free ammonia, even at higher pH levels (though the higher you go, the more free ammonia). No need to hit the panic button but there is a need to work to control the spike. Unless you're me, then you'd panic immediately at 1.0 readings, water change with prime, and watch your precious water children like a helicopter parent.

In a store when you're talking to customers, the best suggestion I can offer is to just talk in layman's terms -- simplest possible. Most customers want basic information. They want the how, why, and how long. Don't go into detail like this unless they ask questions about it, because otherwise they'll be overwhelmed. Place the information into context for them, like starting up a new tank and giving their future fish a healthy and happy home. "When you're starting a new tank, you have to start up a brand-new ecosystem so your fish can live happy and healthy. In order to do that, we need to grow a lot of good bacteria on all the surfaces and filtration in your tank. The good bacteria takes care of all the toxins in the water that will harm your fish. They eat the wastes your fish give off (ammonia) and make it much less toxic, so your fish aren't poisoned by their own wastes. It takes time to grow that bacteria! Now, you can grow that bacteria quickly by borrowing an old sponge from another tank that's been running for awhile -- don't clean it in anything but conditioned, dechlorinated water, because chlorine will kill all the good stuff and you'll be back to square one. You can also start it from scratch by dumping in a bottle of bacteria, 'feeding' your bacteria with something toxic for them to eat (decomposing fish food, a few drops of ammonia, etc.) and testing your tank water with a test kit or with test strips to watch your waste levels go up and down. At first, you'll add the toxins to the tank--" I think you get the picture. The biggest tip I can tell you is to simplify, simplify, simplify and talk in generalities. Give customers easy-to-understand snippets of information, and let them open the doors to more by letting them ask questions. When you talk in water chemistry terms right out the gate it's a lot of information and very overwhelming, and I know I felt that way when I was first getting started. It was much easier for me to understand once I got my hands wet and started to watch the process in action. My brother is a surgeon in residency and definitely has to challenge himself by talking in layman's terms to patients, so it's the same kind of deal. Hope this kind of guideline helps you reach your customers better!

I've seen ich in a tank once at my LFS, and they had marked the whole tank as not for sale and began treatment. They were not available for sale for at least 3 to 4 weeks after that (I stop in to the store weekly). They don't quarantine their stock prior to putting it on the sales floor, but they will isolate an entire tank and treat when they see a problem. That said... There are zero freshwater tropical fish stores in my area that actually quarantine their stock prior to sale. I've asked around. Only the saltwater specialist shops quarantine. The stock I've bought from my LFS have all been very healthy (when I tried out a new store I ended up with unhealthy stock and lost a fish), and I practice a quarantine at home with no issues at all. Basically, if you see ich in a tank and they're not being treated, I'd alert a salesperson and see how they respond. I'd also ask if the system all shares water.

It could be flukes. I'd observe for another day or two, and if it's really frequent, I'd dose the tank with PraziPro. Leave it in for 5 to 7 days per dose, count on doing about 2 to 3 rounds before judging whether it's successful.

I agree that those dutch aquascaped planted tanks are truly stunning works of art. I couldn't even begin to strive to have a tank that looks like that, and it's probably partly because I'm worried about the optimal health of my fish and inverts over the health and beauty of my plants. I do water changes every week because I want the glass to look nice and I want to clear debris, but I don't necessarily have to do water changes according to my tank parameters. A natural look is a valid and equally lovely way to run a tank. We're not in a contest on these forums to run the best/most artistic/most flawless growth and professionally-pruned aquascape, or, heavens, I'd be a total loser here. 🤣 It's probably better to say 'to each his own.' It's valid to do water changes to control the nutrient levels in your tank and dose according to EI, and it was a good answer to the top level question. It's equally valid for people to take a more natural approach and enjoy their living ecosystem.

In any case, I did a google search about neon tetra aggression toward each other and it's definitely not unheard of. I'm going to go back and default to "I really think this is just how tetras are sometimes."

It's just my specific experience with tetras (diamond tetras). There is one alpha male who looks absolutely stunning. His fins are perfect, he absolutely sparkles, he's colorful and dominant. He clearly runs the entire school. He claimed one corner of the tank as the breeding grounds, and only he is allowed in that area when he's in the mood -- which is extremely often (I'd say a few times a week). He will display and court the females over to his corner and they'll scatter eggs together. If he catches another male or his competing male approaching, he will chase the male to the other side of the tank, best case scenario. If he spots another male actively displaying and courting a female, he will nip, ram, body-slam, and spar the offending male into submission. The tetras will only do this to each other. They have never once attacked a fish that wasn't each other, and it is only the dominant male that attacks his challengers. The rest are perfectly peaceful. I'm concerned about the challenging male as I've seen scales go flying and he often has tattered fins, but so far, the wounds seem to be only superficial. I keep a close eye on him and if he ever starts declining I'll net him out and put him into quarantine.