Desktop Aquatics

Honestly dry foods were hard for me to get right... 6 months in the hobby I have switched to full frozen and gel foods. love the rapashy line I feed 3 different types once a week and then frozen baby brine shrimp and brine shrimp every day. This has worked for me personally. When I do feed dry, aka when my gf has to take care of the fish, I have her feed a pinch of vibra bites

Late 1 month update! Still counting 20 at a time but easily could be 25-30! They are still in with mom and dad as I do not have room for another tank at my house. Every other day water changes and frozen baby grime shrimp and bow adding spawn and grow rapashy 1x a week! All are looking pretty decent size and healthy

@s1_ yah they have been sold out at all the petcos near me for the last 6 months havent seen any come in or even available on their website

I saw those on amazon the 15 but $92 for those is kinda crazy if you ask me but you know if its the only option might have to

Thanks @Tihshho! Price isn't a huge concern, but those custom companies would be a last resort they are soooo much more expensive than other tanks is what I've seen. Not trying to pay $150 for a 15 gal lmao when I'm trying to order like 10 of those. The breeders I knew would be way harder to source than the 15's but I got 6 months before I'd really need them and wanted to get everything put together.

I have been looking all over locally and online trying to find 15 gal tanks and 30 gal breeders? These seem to be extremely uncommon recently which is a problem as for planning my new rack these were the 2 style of tanks that would fit my footprint perfectly. If anyone has any idea of where to locate these or would it be easier to call my local stores and see if they can order them in specifically for me?? I won't need them for a 6 months but just when planning and locating these kind of things finding them is half the battle.

Nice video showing a few of the fry with mom

its been a couple weeks! still have my estimate is 15-25 fry that have good size to them. I'm expecting a couple more weeks before i can sell them to my local stores.

This video was awesome! So natural, this is the content I love from Cory and dean. Can’t wait for more video of their Peru trip!

Thank you @Tihshho! All of this is extremely valuable! Currently yes I have one tank that I maintain and could easily handle more. My expansion for when I move isn’t a room just yet 😂. I’ll have a dedicated office and will have enough for a rack but not a room by any means. Probably like 4-9 tanks depending on configurations I decide to go with. My goal is to be rotating species on the rack and keeping my desk for my “display” fish. Not breeding for profit just to help maintain my hobby and get some notches on the good ole breeding belt. so my main thought was to have 4-6 tanks for pairs/(other fish maybe not for breeding) and then a row for growouts. Definitely not trying to become over burden by my hobby just yet. Thinking mostly small tanks with the larger grow outs but with what you have told me maybe small tanks it is. But thanks you a lot will be asking more questions as I finalize plans and thoughts!

in my 17 gal "blackwater" apisto breeding tank I add a good handful of live oak leaves i bought online and then probably 5-7 almond/mangrove leaves. I replenish about once a month give or take a week depending on the decomp of the leaves. I leave all the leaves in to decay and just add as needed. I also use botanicals like seed pods for breeding and looks everything breaks down eventually. My fish love it, the tetras eat off of them and go through them and the apistos love all of it.

That is what I was worried about I’ll probably just do smaller grow out tanks then, just trying to plan out my new rack I’ll be working on when Im moved. I’m just trying to fool proof this system before building it in 6 months.

So basic question probably. Can you grow out multiple species of apistogramma in the same 40 breeder? Like 3 different species that were all progressing at the same time or is it better to grow them out separately

yah so my plan was to have a 40b divided into thirds and having a breeding pair of apistos in each third

Has anyone used separators on a 40 gallon breeder to make 3 tanks out of it for breeding purposes? I was considering buying 3 40’s and separating them into 9 smaller tanks for a 3 tiered rack. This would seem easier than a couple 20’s or a ton a 10’s. examples of how this looks would be amazing!

My apisto steel blue pair and my smallish school of cardinal tetras

Well I’ve never been one to journal but I’m nearing the 6 month mark on my first aquarium. Brief breakdown of my long journey and intro into the hobby: setting up an aquarium has been a dream of mine for the past 10 years since stumbling upon a YouTube video by uarujoey at the time. I was hooked! My parents had a 55 that was a community tank ( honestly hated it, never felt a connection to it ever!) that they did eventually get rid of after I started high school but never did I know the scale fish keeping was done. After going into the rabbit hole that was fish keeping YouTube back in 2010 my parents wouldn’t let me have a tank. I waited 4 years until I graduated high school when my parents let me have dart frogs! I kept dart frogs for about 4 years during college and bred about 6 different species of ranitomeya before I sold them off when I moved out of my parents. A 2 year stretch of not have any exotic pets while I finished college leads us to 6ish months ago when I finally decided to set up my desktop aquarium. I had just built a large desk setup that held my pc and 3 monitors and I had a 25x13 space on the end of the desk I knew what needed to be done. I ordered a 60p (17gal aquarium) online and decided I wanted to keep South American dwarf cichlids. I found a local fish store that had some apistos and I knew this was for me. I set up the tank in March let it sit for a month until cycled and added 12 cardinal tetras! Then about 3 months later I got my apistogramma blue steel, sold as borelli 😅, and have since got them breeding. It took about 3 months of them maturing and I am raising the first fry in this desktop aquarium! This has been by far the most fulfilling hobby I’ve ever been apart of and I can’t wait to continue this journey with all of you! make sure to follow my journey on my Instagram desktop_aquatics for dailyish pictures and I’ll continue to post journal entries on this forum post! here’s my tank and species inside!

Keep me posted I’ve been looking for one also for the future!!

I thought I could do the same but ended up rehoming my corydoras as they were getting bullied by my apisto pair. But if you like corys more I’d stick with them I just enjoy my apistos more

Cool video of fry feeding in the leaf litter and why it’s important to have detritus in your aquarium

Update! the fry are looking great, left everyone in the tank. looking for a new home for my corys as they are getting beat up by the male.

Part of my hobby expansion is getting a large tank probably about 100 to 125 for a group of Gymno balzanii, I have never kept larger cichlids and have been doing alot of research on them but havent been able to find much about keeping them in groups larger than trios in a 55... has anyone kept larger groups? also with a tank that size I wanted to do a biotope and put in some a.borelli and a larger school tetras from the region. stocking I was thinking would be a group of 6 balzanii with 2 males 4 females, a pair of borellii, some smaller plecos and a medium school of tetras(looking for suggestions). Might be alot for this tank but this post is for bouncing ideas to start the ball rolling!!! Would love to see pictures of peoples set-ups for these guys and suggestions for species I could also put in here.

I pose this question to get an idea if I am over water changing or just get an idea about what everyone else does. I personally do a 30% water change twice a week on my 17gal aquarium. It has worked great for me and my parameters are steady and the fish are extremely healthy and breeding. What's your schedule? how much and how often do you change your tanks water? P.S. this isn't really asking for advice, just peoples experiences!

Found him about 6-7 years ago when watching the King of DIY on YouTube as a suggested video. I’ve been watching off and on for about as long and just recently became a member and joined the forum after I set up my first aquarium!!! Never looking back I love the community and the YouTube channel! Proud to be a nerm!!

Welcome!! I am also fairly new to this hobby with probably 10 years of research and interest but only 6 months with an actual tank!! Glad to see other new nerms!!! Best of luck with your hobby!