CJs Aquatics

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Dried coral I believe, I agree with @Fish Folk

I never have personally but I think the safest practice probably would be to do so honestly

Super cool

When I started this hobby the first success I ever had was with mystery snails, I love them, bought some from a big chain pet store and they bred for me, hatched, the whole nine yards. I didn’t know anything about what I was doing truth be told, I put them in our hard water with guppies and plants, and fed them. Long story short I tried to duplicate this years later after attaining a lot of knowledge and things of that nature. Expecting success I was confused when the same thing your describing happened to me. They were dying off. Recently I dedicated a tank to them, determined. I added crushed coral to my already hard water, and no other chemicals besides easy green for the plants, and prime to dechlorinate. I theorize that the reason they were dying off had little to do with the parameters or age however had everything to do with the combination of them using up the calcium or not enough calcium. I’ve been adding crushed eggshells that I turned to a powder once a week, and I’ve never seen snails this healthy. They literally appeared to have shedded the healthy shell they came with and revealed an even more pristine better conditioned one underneath. I’m convinced calcium is the answer to mystery snail issues, at least it has been in my case so perhaps play around with that would be my best advice. I hope perhaps something in this ramble helped it’s just based on personal experience, trial and error honestly and I wish u the best of luck…

Jealous lol visiting the Co-op/ meeting Murphy is definitely a bucket list item for me, sounds like an exciting experience 🙃

I’ve never owned a puffer I’ll preface by saying that,(want a dragon puffer so bad) however I have dealt with malfunctioning equipment, temperature fluctuations, things of that nature so If it’s anything like other fish which I think it would be similar, I thought I would chime in anyway. Don’t Panic… I would monitor him for signs of stress/ discomfort like you are, (rapid breathing, twitching, rubbing against things, lethargy, the usual suspects, as well as physical things). The stress guard and the air stone was a good call, can’t hurt, but in situations like that often it has been my attempting to overcorrect things that have made them worse then they would be just fixing what was wrong. I would gradually bring down the temp like you have and once it gets to where u keep it, double check your other parameters and just monitor. It sounds like MurderFace (awesome name) is very resilient and you may have been lucky this time if he is reacting normally.

Would anyone who had success with filterless be interested in giving a very broad “how to” on setting this up and what’s worked for them? I’ll preface this by saying I’ve done countless research, even attempted this a few times with little success, but perhaps hearing it from some other club members like those who commented might be what’s missing and also maybe I’m not the only one here interested who struggles with dialing things in filter less, thanks in advanced

I’m very impressed and appreciate the research, trial and error you put into this project

@Paul R I’m interested to hear if you may have something as well this was a cool question

Seashells and a large piece of coral used as decor, originally from Guam that belonged to my grandparents, easily 50+ Years old if this counts

i would listen to @Beardedbillygoat1975, I think his advice is the best advice you could take on the topic

Floor space will be ok in my opinion, you are correct both species prefer to have more floor swim room rather then swim height but it also kind of depends on how u plant it/ hides etc. I’ve noticed with caves my plecos get lazy so they haven’t needed as much space, Cory’s are usually pretty active but they aren’t hard to please. As far as won’t your pleco eat the plant that’s hard to say. I’ve never owned a pleco that even attempted to eat one of my many many swords. I’ve heard that as well that they munch on swords but I’ve just never seen it personally and I’ve had I don’t even know how many different types and variations of plecos, as well as swords. (Never a clown plec tho). Feed them well and I think your swords are safe, forget to feed them and they might be a snack lol again I’ve never had an issue with that I wonder if it’s individual fish specific. I ordered my mystery snails online bc my LFS never impressed me eighter and I love them, breed them, and encourage them…

Let us know how it goes, best of luck

So that’s a tough question to answer because I feel like it is directly correlated to your willingness to maintenance/ skill set. What I mean by this is absolutely I personally think there would be no problem with that amount of fish in the set up you described, I know it can be done, I know I have housed many many more similar fish without issues in the same sized tank in the past. However I’m diligent about my maintenance routine. As long as you do your water changes and tank maintenance, as well as watch for the leftover food/ mulm both species notoriously create, and monitor your parameters as things settle in, it shouldn’t be a problem at all in my opinion

Guppies Endlers Bristlenose Plecos Swordtails Mollies Tetras but if you love the Cory’s you may get more enjoyment out of a species only set up or a biotope for your specific Cory. There’s a really cool tour of I believe alloddball aquatics that Cory from aquarium coop did that may give you some inspiration it’s very corydoras oriented…

I agree with @Colu

First thought that came to mind is swim bladder disorder of some sort, were they quarantined or treated for anything? What are you feeding them? Do they otherwise look healthy/ act healthy as in no visible/ physical signs of anything wrong?

I would try root tabs, maybe try in a corner to see if fertilization is the issue, from looking at this it looks like a nutrient deficiency, perhaps the easy green is getting used up by the other plants. Put a root tab in eighter corner and see if where u placed it if the Monte Carlo appears to grow better then everyone else then u will know if that’s your issue or if it’s something else. This would be what I tried first, I should preface this by saying not an expert by any means just been through a lot of trial and error lol

Mayaca Fluviatilis in the background hiding the filters Albino Full Red Guppies Or Tiger endlers Flame tail tetras or a solid color Molly of some sort Orange Venezuelan Cory’s Java moss on the wood perhaps some dwarf sag or hair grass as a carpet a single standout plant like a rose flame sword or a pink flaming crypt idk I looked at this and it gave me these vibes hopefully it helps lol

I can never dial in the parameters to sustain these, they are amazing but everytime I’ve tried I’ve had minimal success, yours look very good

Micro worms, vinegar eels, both super easy to culture the Co-op has videos on both and as everyone said for the time being crushing flakes to almost powder isn’t a bad practice to get into the habit of as well, I use a pepper grinder, or u can use a mortar and pestle, or sometimes just your fingers, co-op sells “easy fry food” that’s good for small mouthed fish and fry, but personally baby brine for the win which they sell everything u need to do them for a long long time, also super easy… hope some of this helps

I’ve had success with the tiniest of pellets for some picky eaters, perhaps Dr. Bassleers is worth a look, you can also never go wrong with live baby brine in my experience, everything seems to eat it lol

Hello and welcome, those tanks look great, fish look healthy, I’m always excited to interact with and learn from a fellow hobbyist, really like the first picture my aquascaping skills aren’t there yet lol

do you know the specs of the light itself? I didn’t want to look up the wrong one and give you incorrect information. Overall, In my personal planted tank experience, they aren’t very picky about what the lights look light, rather the amount, lumens, K, etc. based on the plants your trying to grow. A vague answer to your question is theoretically it would work but to dial things in we need to take a look at the specs which I don’t know off hand, perhaps another Nerm does and can chime in. I know color spectrum plays a part in different things as well, just not well versed in the science behind that, it couldn’t hurt to try and monitor, and adjust as you saw fit…