Nanotanks

Thanks so much! I grew up catfishing with my grandpa, and otos are mini catfish. They hit the nano and the nostalgia hard for me. I plant cycled my tank, and the otos were the first in. I got 12, but even with a good local fish store and trying to get healthy ones, I still lost 4 over a week's time, as they did not eat the newly offered foods. The other eight, at 1/1/4" to 2" are the biggest fish in the tank. They are led by Princess Fathead, who I think I is a golden oto (afiinis), while the other are the more common oto (vittatus). I did manage to get them to spawn! Unfortunately, I was not expecting it, so did not know where the eggs were located. Even seeing the fry was a surprise- I thought they were detritus worms! There are maybe a half dozen fry left. I took a decent photo of one today; at ~2weeks, it's about 3/4", but less than 1/4" wide. That's the last photo in the set: it's up against the glass.

Started about four years ago, and thought I knew what I was doing. Made every mistake you'd expect someone to make, who knew what the puzzle looked like, but had no idea how the pieces fit together. In the end, I was defeated by the implacable fertility of snails, livebearers, and duckweed. I gave up. It hurt my self confidence. But now I've regrouped. I'm four months into my new tank. I'm still not a journeyman, but I know what I like: nano planted tanks, shrimp, and nano fish. I especially like otos. I might get some flak for this: I do not like snails. At all. Thanks Irene, for the alum dip video! You're one of the reasons I got back into the hobby. I know people say just feed less, but I had a snail explosion in a tank that had never even seen fish food; they were feasting on algae, diatoms, and all the things that I want to feed my otos and shrimp. So not only are the competing for bioload, they're competing for food. Just my personal opinion, and I respect all snail lovers. Here is a pic of my hardscape that I planned out for the tank, day 1, and the current product. Any questions, comments, or criticisms are welcome. Thanks everyone! Edit: Oh yeah, Low tech, HoB Aquaclear 50, airstone, and fluval 3.0 planted light.