KentFishFanUK

Thanks! Any idea why people say they need sand instead of gravel? I was planning on gravel! I was planning to keep 6 of them, I don't think this is necessarily a hard and fast rule but from listening to people who have done both a group of 6 sounds more fun. Though I've got a 15 gallon set aside for them and wanted gravel so what do I know?! Lovely little puffers in your pics 🙂 also really like the susswassertang, need to remember to get myself some of that.

To be fair even 'young' people I know who own their own houses with gardens (myself included) see gardening as mostly a chore. I think that's probably partly due to time constraints of working full time and raising a young family etc, if I was retired and my kids grown up and I had more time for it I would probably enjoy it quite a bit. I certainly enjoy being outside in the garden anyway!

Probably, I have no experience of actual gardening clubs but just enjoying gardening as* a hobby seems to be pretty well shared between men and women here - though can't say the same about generations, it's definitely not a popular hobby amongst young people. Fishkeeping however seems to be an even spread of ages. All anecdotal obviously, and even then limited to my area. As to ethnicities, unfortunately my area is not very diverse to begin with and obviously that's reflected in the hobby. I imagine it would be very different in London (which is only like 60-90 mins drive away but still)

Will there be a point you just have too many plants for the available c02 and some will die or will it be they just grow more slowly? Obviously if it's so crowded they aren't getting light they won't grow but will c02 be a limiting factor as well? Presumably with enough flow the c02 will stay relatively stable at whatever amount the atmospheric conditions allow right? Regardless of how many plants.

In my anecdotal experience of buying used tanks and equipment on marketplace over the last 6 months, it seems to be mostly women in the hobby in my area. Though having said that the people in my area who are so into the hobby to the point of fish rooms and breeding, attempting making a living out of it etc were all guys - probably because we are less sensible! Edit: come to think of it, I have interacted with a bunch of people on this forum (mostly asking for and getting advice!) and most of the time I have no idea if the person is a man or woman - kind of like it that way! We aren't male/female/American/European/old/young here, we're just Nerms hanging out!

Regarding the "enough hiding places" etc, what do you think would be the best way to provide it? And enough infusoria?

@Jennifer V for the benefit of a plan-to-be-pea-puffer-keeper-in-the-future, what were the things you were doing wrong?

Where can I find your blog?

That's a good idea, maybe like a breeder box that the live food could live in but with a few holes big enough that they occasionally 'escape' into the tank?

Yeah I plan to try out some live food cultures as well but just like the idea of the fish having stuff to hunt occasionally without extra input from me. In the wild they survive to some extent alongside fish, now I know that's not the same as in a tank as they haven't got anywhere to run so to speak. But I wonder if there is enough places to hide and enough to eat etc then enough could survive to be self sustaining, similar to how many people keep shrimp. Probably will have to occasionally replenish their populations but even if they survived for an extended period (rather than all gone in a single day) that would be something

Oh I see what you mean now, will look into infusoria. Maybe daphnia eat infusoria or eat the same stuff as them anyway. Thanks!

Thanks, so is that to feed daphnia specifically? Why lettuce? Thought they ate algae etc

When you say lettuce thing, what's going on there? Literally just feeding them lettuce or is there more to it?

Good thread/question! This is something I think about a lot, I like the idea of self sustaining live food cultures in the tank - as a form of enrichment for the fish (give them something to do/hunt). When I first added fish I had lots of copepods and was fun to watch my Endlers hunt them but they disappeared very quickly haha. Would love a nice mixture of live foods in the tank but not sure how to go about it. Would daphnia survive in the tank with enough hiding places? They eat green water right, would they have enough food to survive without cultivating the green water? What would be the best plant etc for things like daphnia and copepods to hide in so they don't all get eaten immediately? I will be adding some cherry shrimp soon, hopefully they will breed and provide snacks that way but enough would survive to be a self sustaining population as well. Would a population of black worms get out of control in the substrate? They are kind of ugly. Would fish other than Corydoras hunt for black worms if they are only in the substrate? Eventually I will get around to trying out bbs but would like things that are always available not only at feeding time. Apologies everyone for the wall of text and million questions (again)

Perfect think that's given me the confidence to try it then!

Perfect so it's not a completely daft idea then! Thanks for your reply, did you have anything that's considered a bit 'sensitive' like shrimp or otocinclus etc when you did it?

Thanks! Long term I was thinking I only want to use it to get things started, clear the algae and help the plants get well established then hopefully keep on top of it with algae eaters and lots of plants etc and won't need it again (i.e. like you say, I don't want to complicate things! I want a low tech set up). Basically a head start rather than easy fix as I'm struggling to balance the aquarium to get it under control (and it seems to be damaging some of the plants). I considered the same thing with actual c02 but it seems I need to either keep it up or not start at all. However I don't want to harm my live stock or ecosystem in general so wondered if anyone here had any success stories/bad experiences with it.

Ok so was hoping I could hear other people's views and experiences again. Specifically with seachem flourish excel (Aquarium Co-op has their version, easy carbon? Can't get it in the UK yet though). So I've been reading about Seachem Excel and was considering giving it a go to help inhibit algae (then after hopefully keeping it in check with algae eaters) and give plants a boost to get them well established (not necessarily long term use, I don't want literally zero algae). I know there are opposing opinions on if the product works, if it works how it they say it does, is it safe and is it even what they claim it is (or more specifically, what they claim it isn't) etc. Despite that, it's obviously a good selling product and lots of people swear by it and claim they saw immediate results etc so however it does works it seems worth trying at least. Lots of reports of good results with algae and plant growth even when under dosing and not spot treating. My first concern however is safety, is it safe for my community fish and shrimp and snails? (Specifically neon tetras, endlers, corydoras, otocinclus, honey gouramis, cherry shrimp and nerite snails). They claim it is if you follow the dosing instructions but was hoping to hear people's experiences. Secondly, if it inhibits algae and at higher doses is a disinfectant even - does this mean it would theoretically kill/inhibit bacteria and other microorganisms as well? Obviously it isn't killing off people's nitrifying bacteria or everyone would be reporting crashed cycles, but what about the other good bacteria etc that makes the tasty biofilm for the tanks inhabitants to eat? Anyway thanks for reading if you got this far, hopefully can hear a few people's experiences and knowledge and get a discussion going 🙂

A welcome surprise IMO! Haha I prefer hillstream loaches to pleco's

Nice pic and lovely fish! The big one is definitely sewellia lineolata but to my untrained eye the other two could both be different for all I know. Either way they are great fishies!

Here you go I found the instructions for you: "Aquarium Soil Powder is further an active bottom layer that lowers the pH value and slightly affects the water chemistry. We recommend that you change 25-50% of the water min. twice a week during the first 4 weeks after establishing the aquarium." So yeah minimum twice a week for 4 weeks so you just need to do more water changes and you should be good to go!

@Slick_Nick in that case my money is on the Tropica soil powder! I think it calls for twice weekly water changes until it stops lowering pH.

Tropica aquarium soil powder lowers pH for a while, it's what I used and I read somewhere (might even be on the bag?) you need to do a lot of water changes for the first four weeks and then it should stop lowering pH after that. As others have said if you are already injecting c02 as well then that also lowers pH.

I bought a gastromyzon ocellatus sold to me as a sewellia lineolata (reticulated hillstream loach). Apparently the wholesaler just sells them as 'hillstream loaches' and doesn't specify which ones (at least that was my fish guy's excuse). I think they can't interbreed but I think two different species in the same family (i.e. two different gastromyzon species) can. Though I could have that wrong, the whole species/genus/family etc terminology confuses me! Anyone able to dumb it down for me? Unfortunately my one died in my community tank 😢 but until then it was my favourite fish, so now I'm planning a 30g hillstream biotope tank! @ArtemisCai do you have pics yet?? Edit: ok I followed that link from @Biotope Biologist and I think I get it, the different hillstream loaches are in the same family, but separate genera. Different species within the same genus can cross breed (i.e. two gastromyzon species') but members of a different genus (i.e. sewellia) can't crossbreed with them. But they are all in the same family. Still not sure if 'family' simply means they are put in the same category for studying purposes because they share traits or if it means they share a common ancestor or what though?

@Patrick_G I'll check them out thanks!