drewzero1

It's been a few months coming, but I finally have a centerpiece fish again. I've been waiting until the mollies had a chance to get established and start producing fry. (It turns out they're the real stars of this tank.) Today I've added a male pearl gourami who was picking on other fish in my dad's hex; so far so good here but I'll be keeping an eye on this one. (No name yet in case I end up having to rehome him as well.) Edit: upon further reflection it's pretty likely this is a female. I forgot they also could have orange on their throats.

If (when) I were to get a fresh start on my 40 I would go either South American (blue acara with black skirt tetras and either brochis or banjo cats) or North American (rainbow shiners, darters, maybe some sunfish if I could get them). I haven't researched either of these options too hard yet, since my 40 mishmash is pretty okay right now.

A freshwater clownfish would be pretty awesome. There are a few fish with similar(ish) coloration but nothing mimics their distinctive swimming pattern enough to fool a keen-eyed kid. 😜

I'll be doing that too when we have our second child, around the holidays. I'm very nervous and excited. I'll let you know how that goes! I've never really been into Bettas, but this thread is making me reconsider. These are some remarkable transformations, @xXInkedPhoenixX!

More new mollies a few days ago. I've lost count! 😍 Noticed today that the canister filter was doing absolutely nothing. I opened it up and cleaned out the impeller, but still had a tough time getting it to prime. Ended up clouding up the water trying to get the filter primed so I did a quick water change as well. The disturbance moved a clump of moss which gave me a rare glimpse of one of the banjo cats. I think I still have two, but it's really hard to tell. It's starting to cool down in the basement so I'm attempting to cconstruct a foam-core jacket to try to keep more heat in the tank. (I've since painted the foam board black and plan to clean up the seams, but will not be making the box fully airtight.) A few people have reached out to me with suggestions for reducing heat loss in the winter and I'm going to test out some of them this year. Next project is rehabbing the minnow tank, seen in the background here in brilliant Algae Green. I've been working on getting their outdoor home ready for next summer but the weather is telling me I'd better hurry up.

I set up my 40 as a peninsula tank in the middle of my home office, so I've got a desk chair on one side and a padded folding chair on the other. Plus a stool for the kiddo to stand on and feed the fish an algae wafer every day. Sitting on the stool also gets me closer to eye level with the fish, great for keeping still to watch the skittish ones come out. Right now I'm sitting on the folding chair with the 40 on one side of me and the pico reef on the other. It doesn't get much better than this!

Pretty! My LFS sometimes gets variatus in. I'm hoping to keep some in a pond next year, once I'm done building the new setup.

Draft got deleted (oops!) so I'll take it in chunks. 1.) Favourite fish? Mollies for sure. They're so beautiful and versatile, and fun to watch.2.) Least favourite fish? Of the ones I've kept, my least favorite has been the common pleco. They get way too big to have any business being in any of my tanks.3.) Favourite fish YouTuber? Prime Time Aquatics. Their videos are pretty consistently good and they have similar (hard) water to mine.4.) Favourite non-fish YouTuber? Robert Dunn of the channels Aging Wheels (cars) and Under Dunn (wood shop/other projects).5.) Favourite food? Rice. It's so versatile, and it's even good by itself or with a bit of hot sauce.6.) What fish would you like to be the most? Maybe a sturgeon, they seem very wise. However a lot of them around here end up on the pointy end of a spear, so maybe I don't want to be a fish. ("I'd like to visit the sea, but I don't think I'd like to live there...")7.) What was your scariest moment? Either bodysurfing or carsurfing, definitely wouldn't try either again.8.) What country do you want to visit the most? I've learned a lot about the UK, and I'd love to see it. I flew over it once on my way to Germany, would love to go back there as well.9.) Cats or dogs? Catfish. (I like dogs slightly more, but we don't keep anything furry in the house.)

Sorry, I've had a draft up in another tab for like a week now. So many questions, so little time!

Oh my gosh, my toddler needs to see this. He's obsessed with clownfish and "mommy knees".

I have one amano, I was worried about the fish picking on it but it holds its own pretty well. You can always see it at feeding time making off with flakes or pellets that the fish didn't get to. I had two more but they passed soon after I bought them, so it ended up being a bit more of an investment than I was hoping.

There are two very similar species commonly sold as ghost shrimp. The one you want is from the genus Palaemonetes, a primarily carnivorous scavenger that in my experience will leave fish alone. The more sinister variety is of the genus Macrobrachium, which has long arms with little pincers and will catch and eat small fish. Aquarium Breeder has a page with descriptions and pictures of both species. I had my ghost shrimp for about 6 months. Their lifespan is reported to be about a year in total, and with them being my first shrimp, I quarantined them for a month before adding them to my tank. (I don't recommend going that long for something with such a short lifespan.) I didn't notice a huge difference in algae or uneaten food after adding them, but they sure were fun to watch. If my current cherry shrimp experiment fails, I might have to try them again. Sure can't go wrong for the price. I let my guard down in a fish store today, but only a little... I nearly bought a crab but walked out with a snail instead. I didn't even mean to go in there in the first place!

Why are manhole covers round?--Because manholes are round. I think we need to create a net with a rounded edge to match a rounded tank. But food in the net also sounds like a really good idea. In fact, forget the net, I used to have mollies that would swim into my cupped hand to get food. 😆 I've had some success with leaving the net in the tank for a minute to let the fish get used to it. That worked well for catching the WCMM out of my patio pond, when chasing them around would just stir up the muck on the bottom.

Wow, that sounds like a struggle! I gave away a 55 and a 15 column partially because they were taller than arms' length and I didn't want to deal with that any more. When I broke down the 15 there was so much poop in the gravel. 🤮 When I upgraded from my 20L to 40B I had to tear the place apart to catch my bronze cories. They're quick and really blend in with black sand. It's been almost a year and they still dive for cover when they see me 😢

There's a fish store on my way to work and another one that's pretty close to the way home. It's a daily struggle not to stop in to one or the other... just for a peek... 😜 Honestly though I'm so anxious I even research my impulse purchases. Can't say I regret any fish I've bought in recent memory, though at the same time I do regret a few I didn't buy when I had the chance.

When I got mine to breed I just had a thick mat of java moss covering the bottom of the tank. When I started seeing fry (surprise!) I added guppy grass from another tank so they had somewhere to hide. Mine winter over at about 50F, but I've only seen new fry during the summer when it's about 70F down here (in my basement fish room). As always though I'll defer to whatever @WhitecloudDynasty says (because he does this on purpose!)

I'd be interested in doing one (if anyone wants to hear it 😜).

I second the pearl gourami suggestion. I've heard mixed reports of shoaling vs. single, but I'd personally go with one for a centerpiece. In my limited experience mine tended to chase mollies around. (Adding more real and fake plants helped a lot with both aggression and shyness in my pearl. Feeding two places at a time also helped food aggression.) Some have said they target cories, but mine didn't seem to notice them. My favorite schooling fish for across-the-room viewing is the skirt tetra. The tall, narrow body makes it easily visible from a distance without it having to be a huge fish. I didn't have mine at the same time as my pearl so I can't speak to their compatibility.

Here's a pic of the siphon and a napkin drawing of the operation: I'm sure I stole this from somewhere, but I don't remember where. I built a few about 5 years ago and haven't tasted my aquarium water since.

Here's my duckweed comb. Just got my printer so I'm pretty new at it. I combined two models I found online: Duckweed comb: https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:3877708 Fish skeleton keychain (gives grip to the handle): https://www.printables.com/model/68044-superior-articulated-fish-bones I left my siphon hose at work, so I'll add a pic later.

I cut the bottom off of a 20oz soda bottle and drilled a hole in the cap to fit my water change tubing. I can start a siphon by scooping up a bottleful of water, then tipping it up to fill the tubing, then tilting the bottle back into the water. The bottle also doubles as a gravel vac. My other diy tool is a 3d printed duckweed comb. Previously I'd been using a long-handled fast food plastic spoon, but kept scooping up water with the duckweed. I'm finding that a comb usually works better!

I have one and love it. The main drawback I've found is that if the ambient room temperature is much colder than the tank water, the box won't be as warm as the tank.

Seriously Fish lists the espei at 5.5-7.5 pH, my tank is 7.6 and they did well. They do also note that the ideal pH for spawning is 5.5-6.0, though that was never a goal of mine with them. What's your water's pH? I've kept pearl gourami (and hope to again soon!) and they definitely get too big for a 10. A honey gourami might be a better fit for a similar looking fish. I've had mixed results with honeys but they are one of the most peaceful gouramis.

Welcome! I love hearing about getting kids involved in fishkeeping, and when they get us involved! At different times my 10 gallon has been home to white cloud mountain minnows, espei rasboras, endlers, and sparkling gourami. I'd recommend them all in their own way. A ten might be a little small for a school of corys, unless they're dwarf or pygmy cories. My dad had pygmys in his 15 and they were hilarious to watch.

They are a bucket list fish for me, but I'm waiting until I can handle them and try to breed them. I guess I'd better get ready a bit quicker than I've been. 😱