Solidus1833

you can always try the tile method after you soak them in a 35gallon tub/trashcan. drill holes through some tile, and use zipties to attach them to the wood. depending on your substrate, it may have enough surface area and weight to keep the wood sunk. I've always struggled to get my large pieces of wood to sink. even after boiling them in a large steel vat using some propane outside. they still floated. so you may still need to weigh them down. OR!, I've also seen some examples, where putting up a new aquarium, and they glue/epoxy the wood to the bottom glass using the tile method as well.

August 2020 here.

Some times I catch one of them trying to sleep on a soft stone. Or right under it. But most of the time they take turns sleeping at the apex of the bow front. Possibly because flow is strong there. They could probably just leave their mouths open and have water rush through the gills maybe?

Its difficult to get images when they nap because they 'alert' at the sign of any movement outside the tank. But I was just watching some F1 quals and noticed I had some Clowns napping. I enjoy these goof balls, one of my favorite species.

If you zero nitrite, I'd leave the tank until your nitrate hits around 80ppm or whatever your 'WC' target is. Good job, glad you recovered.

Just finished my weekly WC about an hr ago and noticed my Royal Plec is supper happy and leaving me presents.

I'm assuming CPD is 'celestial pearl danio'? First, I would try and keep your wet fingers from contaminating any food repository you use. I dont think this could 'poison' your food, but it will foul it up quicker. As for our CPD issue, it may not be disease related, and more water parameters related. Is your PH too high/low? is your water hardness too much or little for CPD's? What are your water parameters? What are the water parameters of the location you purchased the CPD's from?

Listening to my dojo loaches make 'machine gun' sounds at the water surface in the evening will always get me. And, dont get me started on the clown loaches. ARE U DEAD!?! oh.. no ur just sleeping... Watching them play water polo with bladder snails is also extremely entertaining.

you could try repashy, and when you mix up the repahsy paste it on some rock or wood. The hill streams will naturally graze that way. Dealing with competing fish during feeding can be a difficult task. I myself have to try and trick my dojo loaches to one end of the tank so my pleco's get their foods. Dam dojos are stringy water piggies. they eat EVERYTHING

Remember its a balance. Too much water change will result in a stagnant cycle or crash it. If you are referring to nitrite, then you must wait it out. Do 30% a day and detoxify with prime if there are animals in the aquarium. If you are referring to ammonia, you could be getting a false reading as water conditioners like prime will cause this. Beneficial bacteria will take care of that overtime.

I agree with @SWilson about the BN behavior, While I've not owned a BN for a while now, I've had 3, two that lived to about 11, and the third I rescued then rehomed. I've never seen a BN 'attack' the surface. I've seen em sort of graze above the waterline if you have calcium deposits or algae. My corydoras and dojo loaches do this all the time. Well the dojo loaches are more making their very own machine gun noises for fun. Also creating fish flatulence (on demand). You have an air-stone which was going to be my first question, so to be honest I'm not sure.

My first thought is, good on you. You seem to have really done an admirable job for your first aquarium. As for dosing stability, you shouldn't need to anymore. The BN pleco alone is enough to feed the beneficial bacteria. Stability works over a 3 day period. So say, you dose stability on day 1, and by day 3 the excess bacteria has come and gone 'cloudy water'. What's left is the beneficial bacteria keeping balance in the aquarium. As for 'he/she', if the fish has few/short whiskers, its a female, if long and numerous, its a male. The more you feed the more waste the pleco will produce. Besides that I'm not sure why you keep having ammonia. A plant could alleviate all ammonia from your tank, I highly recommend at least one plant. Is this also after a water change? Water conditioner's like Prime will give false ammonia readings for a few days after a water change. As for why you lost fish 'assuming you cycled the tank' it could have been ph shock. The damage could have already been done that's why the fish died later as well. Most pleco's however especially BN's are very hardy. How high is your PH from the tap? If the fish you purchase are coming from say, 7.0 and you place them in 7.8, that could be quite a shock. So for further stocking, maybe you should slowly acclimate new additions to your aquarium water. 'IF' your tank has not cycled completely and you find nitrites, then you can continue and cycle using the 'fish-in' method. Use prime to detoxify nitrite and do a 30% WC once a day. Too much and you crash the cycle, too little and the nitrites will take off. But you should not need to dose for waste cause that BN will do all of that for you. I've completed a 'fish-in' cycle with stability and prime in around 6 days using a BN, its definitely doable.

My first question is, is the tank cycled? Did you set this tank up then immediately add live animals or did the cycle complete? If this is the case, you are now going to go through a 'fish-in' cycle and need to treat the aquarium accordingly to save as much as possible. My second thought here is, 8.0ph is really high. Some species can live that high, but most like ph as close to 7 as you can get. You may need to remedy this.

The pleco looks nice and pudgy to me. Ahahah. That frog! Perfect belly