drewzero1

Cleaning the tank... I hear about a lot of inexperienced aquarists doing things like taking out the fish, scrubbing the decorations, and replacing all of the water. It really doesn't help that that's how tank cleaning tends to be depicted in media. (Finding Nemo, I'm looking at you!) There are a lot of misconceptions about the nitrogen cycle, but I totally get it. It's taken me forever to remember the difference between nitrite and nitrate. You kind of have to be a little bit biologist and chemist to keep a pet ecosystem going. (Also sometimes plumber.)

Depending on where you need algae control, I've always kept nerite snails and never had to clean the glass. Mine never touched my plants (for better or worse). I like nerites because they don't reproduce, and snails in general because they don't tend to interact with other tank inhabitants. (Aside from loaches and puffers, and other snail-eating fish.) Like @JettsPapasaid, light and nutrients are the real solution to algae. If you do end up deciding to go with otos, wait until the tank already has a good amount of algae so they have something to eat right away. Also, I seem to remember that otos only eat certain kinds of algae.

Ooh, pretty! I'll keep an eye out for that one. Thanks for the suggestion!

@GatorIt's entirely possible that I ended up with males only/females only, considering I only ever had four in my 20L. Now that I've moved up to a 40B I'm starting to build a school again but with peppered corys. I'm not really trying to breed them though... just sharing my experience keeping corydoras in hard water. For now I'm focusing on breeding my WCMM and livebearers.

My pH is 7.6-7.8 and hardness around 300ppm. I've never seen my corys showing breeding behavior. I've been keeping them a year and a half and lost one unexpectedly. The ones I have left have been growing fine and seemed happy until I moved them to a new tank, where they've been very skittish. Another one passed away after the move, more likely stress than water quality but I can't be completely sure.

Here's the 20 gallon when there were still some baby mollies hanging around (April '21): And in its final form (August '21): I've decided I love peninsula tanks! It's a lot of fun being able to view an aquarium from three sides, and gives me the opportunity to see what the inhabitants do behind the scenery-- plus I can stick all of the equipment on one end and try to ignore it. After playing around with furniture placement I figured I could keep the peninsula layout at the expense of some floor space. The tank is supported by an old wooden desk with some extra bracing. Here's the initial fill, after giving the blasting sand an (apparently) inadequate rinse. And after the dust settled a few days, cycle started with used media, and danios moved over (October 31st): The occupants have really started to settle in now. And the newest member of the crew, hiding because (s)he saw me coming: So that's the story so far. I'd like to add more pearly things to keep up with the (accidental) theme, but all I can think of is pearlweed. If anybody has ideas, I'd love to hear!

I finally got my hands on a used 40 breeder, so I'm branching out a bit and trying some new fish and plants. My last tank project was a 20 long that started out as a molly colony and ended up a tropical community after a friend gave me his fish. The molly population dwindled and I ended up with just one molly, some bronze corys, and some unidentified danios. They looked like zebra danios that had lost their stripes, or giant danios that hadn't grown in. Eventually I identified them as pearl danios, so that's my first pearl. After setting up this new 40B and moving the fish from my 20L, I decided the tank could use a centerpiece fish (or possibly a few). I've always wanted to try SA cichlids so my first thoughts were Bolivian rams or acaras, but eventually I decided I needed a pearl gourami. So there's my second pearl. She was added to the tank yesterday and is still getting used to the big scary human who feeds her. (Or him, it may be too soon to start seeing male coloration and finnage.) I managed to sneak up on the tank this evening and watch for a while before being seen, which confirmed that (s)he's only flashing/surfing/cowering when I'm around. I'd like to get some more of these gouramis once my plants grow in a bit more, and when this one can be reliably sexed. Current stocking: 1 male molly, about 2 years old 1 female? Pearl gourami, about 2 inches 5 pearl danios 2 bronze corys, at least 2 years old 2 peppered corys (hopefully more soon to make a proper school) 2 male Endler's livebearers 1 Hercules snail 1 Amano shrimp Plants: Java moss Guppy grass Anubias Dwarf Pond Lily? Water onion? (From the Petco bulb packs) Aponogeton (ulvaceous?) (from a betta bulb pack)

Thanks @Torrey I needed the reminder to give myself grace. Everything else in the tank has been fine, so I went ahead and picked up a young pearl gourami at my LFS yesterday. It appears to be female, but may just be too young to tell. (S)he's very skittish so I've got the lights low today, and I'm trying not to make any sudden moves. I think it might be time to start a journal for this tank. 😁 Apons are up to two inches. Won't be long now!

Also- one of my family traditions is to have a model train running around the tree. A few years ago I inherited my grandpa's models that he used for that, but for the next few years I think we'll be using a wooden Thomas set (at least until my toddler learns how to play gentle 😜).

Ooh, I forgot that my family used to do that when I was a kid. I think I'm going to bring that back this year!

It took forever to catch those little guys. Meanwhile my endler's kept swimming straight into the net, but I wasn't ready to move them yet. 😆 Two of the three aponogeton bulbs that I put in last week now have shoots around an inch. I think the third one is going to be snail food, but two should be enough. A few days before my cory died I had put in some fake plants and redirected the filter outflow in preparation for gouramis (maybe this week? We'll see). I suspect one of the fake plants had something nasty on it that probably killed my poor cory, the tank had smelled odd after I put it in so I pulled it out right away and did a 25% water change. No other casualties so far 🤞. I really hate when I do something stupid and a fish suffers. I thought I had washed those fake plants well enough, and I thought I trusted the source that they were suitable for aquarium use. 😡

I never thought I'd want danios, but a friend gave me some Pearls when he moved away this spring. (His tank was full of fish I swore I'd never own, and I ended up giving them all away except for the danios.) They were so hyperactive and plain-looking that I didn't like them at all at first, but then I watched them for a while and started to notice the purple shimmering scales on their backs and their bold pinkish/reddish fins. I ended up getting a few more to fill out the school when I upgraded to a bigger tank.

Still sick, but glad my kid is doing better today. Unfortunately my fish are not. I lost a bronze cory and a white cloud in two separate tanks today 😟. I've had both fish about a year and a half. My cories have been extremely skittish since upgrading the community tank, and dash for cover as soon as they see me. I think I stressed them out trying to net them during the move. I finished reading through every thread on here that mentions pearl gouramis (except, now, this one!) and as soon as I finish reading the anabantoid book I got from the library, I think I'll be ready to add a centerpiece fish. I like to take my time with research to help decide whether or not I can stay interested in keeping a fish long-term.

Hmm, very interesting. Mine is 2 inches and I've read they can get up to 4 inches! I've been keeping an eye out for another because I'd love to breed them, but haven't seen any locally. Apparently the babies are very small versions of the adults. It's possible you might have got some juveniles in the mix. Cool!

I can't quite tell how big the snails are, but if they're a bit on the large side they may be Hercules snails (brotia herculea). I've got one and the ridges on the one on the right look exactly like it. They reproduce by livebearing, slowly by snail standards; about 1 a month if you have a female and a male (I don't yet).

I have only ever fed mine goldfish flakes 🙄. I had a bunch left over from my goldfish and rosy red minnows. I got the white clouds because I was too lazy to break down their tank after upgrading my goldfish, and have continued to be extremely lazy with that tank ever since. I asked Jason from Prime Time Aquatics during a YT stream and he said in such an established tank (5 years, 2 with minnows) the fry can probably survive on naturally-occurring microorganisms in the tank. Seems to be working so far. I hope I can keep it going when I move them to another tank in a few weeks. My kid brought home a cold from daycare so we're all miserable today and not much is getting done. He only knows a few words but he can say "fish" when he wants to go downstairs, and we got to watch them a few times today... I let him feed an algae wafer. One of my apon bulbs is sprouting.

I gotta try getting some of my wcmm in a jar for photos. They move so fast! A few days ago I managed to get this shot of one of my oldest fry (~5mo) in the office grow-out tank. In other tank news, I put some aponogeton bulbs in my new 40 breeder. I had moved everything from my 20 long so it all seems a bit sparse, hopefully I can get some things to grow out and fill it in. Haven't had much budget for plants this month because I spent it all on the tank setup last month. 😂

I'm Drew from WI and I heard about the forum on the Aquarist podcast. Thanks @Randy! I kept goldfish for a few years before going tropical and breeding mollies. I'm currently setting up my 40 breeder community with cories, pearl danios (not the celestial ones), endler's, and my last surviving molly. I've also been breeding white cloud minnows in a low tech no heat tank. Future plans include small south american cichlids and gouramis (though probably not at the same time).

I'd like a one-way background for my peninsula tank so I can see my fish without seeing the mess on the other side of the room 😜 I also like what somebody else said about a robot that can carry 5 gallon buckets.