genuine_red

Thanks for the info, it's good to know what I'm up against. I should count myself lucky that I saved the four that I did. (They are all still doing well in their separate tank after five days on ACO fry food. I've purchased brine shrimp hatchery equipment and eggs, just waiting for delivery.) I have now added guppy grass to both the parent and fry tanks. Those tiny fry are not shy in the least and are fascinating to watch. In the research I did, some breeders warned against breeder boxes and nets, saying they cause stress for the pregnant female, but now that I know they're likely to eat the fry, I'll probably try one. I had absolutely no trouble breeding and raising Black Moscows. If the parents ever ate any, I wouldn't have known since each batch was huge. I ended up giving that entire breeding project away because I couldn't keep up. They were absolutely gorgeous specimens. I kept four males for a display tank and now wish I'd kept more. Thanks again for sharing your knowledge.

One of my Albino Blue Topaz guppy females delivered fry yesterday. I just received the breeding pairs on Dec 2. One of the females seemed to possibly be pregnant - or she was just wide. A couple of days ago I thought I saw some tiny glowing circles in her belly (albino eyes?), so I was keeping an eye on her. She still wasn't all that big, but she gave birth yesterday. I managed to save four fry that had dug themselves into the substrate. I could only find two fry that were lost to the parents. I had ordered guppy grass a month ago for fry to hide in, but it hasn't arrived yet because of current shipping delays. The gupplets are in their newly cycled tank and doing well so far. In my research (which I stupidly did after ordering them), I learned that Albino Blue Topaz guppies specifically are more difficult to breed than regular black-eyed guppies. It seemed like the problem most often mentioned was the fry were more likely to be eaten by their parents. Does anyone know if that's the difficult part, or are they just more difficult to raise? If the latter, any advice on how to do it successfully? Or is there a problem getting them to breed to begin with? Or maybe they don't breed true? Any help would be greatly appreciated!

I've lost four nerite snails out of gaps in lids, so be mindful that once they start up a wall, they sometimes just keep going. Even though they're beautiful, I find in my small tanks that the nerites' constant white dot egg laying is distracting to my aquascape. And those unsightly eggs are stuck on pretty permanently. I've had trouble scraping them off with a razor blade! They deposite them on rocks, wood, and even the aquarium glass. I've decided to not keep them anymore after this batch is gone. That's my rant. As far as tank mates for a betta, I remember Cory saying to avoid fish close to the color of your betta. Cautionary tale: I moved my friendly, calm little blue betta from his solo tank to a tank with very active fish. These were just white cloud mountain minnows, so not fin nippers or anything, just active and playful. The constant motion seemed to distress him so much that he took to hiding in the plants and hardscape. By the time I took a good look at him a week later, he had shredded his flowing tale fins on the hardscape's sharp edges. I moved him back to his old tank, but his fins never healed. Due to some other stupid mistakes I also made, he was gone within a couple of months. Note that he did well when I added chili rasboras to HIS tank earlier. Chilis just have jerky little motions. (Unfortunately, the chilis were not healthy and didn't live long.) His reaction to the active fish could just have been a quirk of his. I do want to warn you to be very careful of any sharp edges in your hardscape if you have a betta with long fins. Good luck!

If you have dogs or cats (or humans who may chew on leaves), beware of pothos. According to the ASPCA, it is poisonous to these creatures. I can't have any plants, or even flowers in a vase because my cats just can't seem to leave any vegetation alone.

I can't remember ... do they come with instructions? That would be helpful.

Lint is always "into" something.

Cheeto recycling himself

I purchased I think four of them from ACO, and they all clogged. I also could never get fine bubbles out of them no matter how I adjusted the tightness, so I was stuck with big, blooping bubbles. I tried them inside sponge filters as well as on their own in the tank. I use ACO's USB air pumps (always have since I started this hobby) along with tightening valves, so I'm pretty sure it wasn't the air pressure being too high. Anyway, because of this and the constant clogging, I tossed them all (who needs the hassle?) and went back to the cheap discs that I can scrub and then inexpensively replace when necessary. I get nice, fine, quiet bubbles. Here's a question: IF the problem with clogging is hard water, and a large portion of the U.S. has hard water, how can they be sold as "never-clog" without a "soft water only" disclaimer?

What a gorgeous aquarium! Your first? Really? Wow! In mine I also have four honey gouramis and three dwarf chain loaches. The blue color of the "green" neons along with the bright gold-orange of the gouramis and the bold black and white of the chain loaches is quite magical. The loaches are extremely playful, and very friendly among the other fish, but they're expensive (I paid $15 each at my lfs). I first learned about the honey gouramis on an ACO video. They're nice guys, cute as buttons, and don't bother anyone. All my gouramis are males (brighter color) and they don't fight. In another tank I have golden white cloud mountain minnows (bright peachy-gold) along with ember tetras (bright red-orange). And in a third tank I have a couple of varieties of guppies (all males, no fighting) along with snow white rice fish and pygmy cories. I would highly recommend any of these nano fish for a community aquarium. As for me, from now on, I will ALWAYS keep guppies. They come in endless colors and patterns, and they are such entertaining and calming fish to watch swimming among an aquascape. I did a lot of research before buying any fish to make sure there wouldn't be problems like fin nipping or anyone snacking on anyone else. The only impulse-buy fish I ever got turned out to be a real meany and I had to give it away. It was a male dwarf blue gourami. He didn't eat the other fish, but he chased them to the point of their exhaustion and stress. He proved that not all gouramis have the same behavior, and that I should have done my research. The best info I found was on Rachel O'Leary's Species Spotlight videos and ACO's and Prime Time Aquatics' "best fish for an X gallon aquarium" videos. I learned it's important to know how many of one species to keep as a group so they feel comfortable, which I hadn't considered. I also learned if a species you want is a "jumper," and if you don't have a lid on your tank, the fish may wind up on your floor. After all your research, your next consideration should be color combinations you find pleasing. Since your neons are blue and red, the bright gold-orange dwarf honey gouramis may be a good choice. They also are a good contrast in size and shape. Mine are about 2 in. and a kind of oval shape. For adorable fun at the tank bottom, pygmy cories are a blast. Finally, this is just personal preference, but I stay away from shy fish like the extremely popular CPDs, khuli loaches, bristle nose plecos, etc. I mean, no matter how pretty or cool, what good is a fish you rarely see? Hope that helps! Let me know what you choose!

You can put ANY fish in a community aquarium. Even one of each kind you want. Several suddenly missing fish, a few carcasses, and an African Butterfly fish that apparently launched itself from the topless tank and was found two weeks later flat and crispy under an area rug.

32 total gals / 10 gals avg / 3 tanks

I'm all bare root now too. I've noticed in potted anubias, for some reason the rock wool gets kinda sucked into some of the roots and prevents growth in those particular root sections. Anubias aren't cheap either!

Seachem Tidal series. Saw it on Prime Time Aquatics YouTube channel. It has a built-in skimmer AND it's self priming! Super quiet too.

Thanks for the compliment! That's Cryptocoryne Wendtii Green. I got it on eBay as a bare-root plant instead of potted. For some reason, it never melted, just took off growing.

I've bought from Aqua Huna before and they are indeed outstanding! Green neons (paracheirodon simulans) are not glow fish. They are a distinct type of tetra. They look like a regular neon tetra, but they're smaller (mine were about 1/2 to 3/4 inches) and the red stripe on their belly is kind of dull, making the blue appear a bit more greenish. And from a distance, they can have the effect of glowing cobalt blue. I paid about $5 each, which adds up when you purchase 15 of them!

Thanks for the compliment! I would love to have the green neons again, but they're SO expensive! My LFS doesn't carry them and will only order them if I'll buy (I think they said) like 50. I have 9 ember tetras in another tank, and their bright orange would look great with the gold honey gouramis and b&w chain loaches. Unfortunately, they are shoaling instead of schooling fish. The schooling made the green neons look amazing. I'll have to think about it.

I've heard that the snail population is a good indicator of the health of the tank. As in, you will have an abundance of snails (assuming you have them in the tank) when you have a lot of algae or mulm.

Oh wow! I didn't even have the patience to breed guppies!

I'm talking about this because ACO's most recent newsletter was about it. This is a cautionary tale. A few months ago I bought some anubius from a trusted source and put it in a tank that already had quite a bit of anubius in it. (Okay, so I didn't quarantine it. Guilty.) It quickly started losing leaves. After a few days of this, I checked the plant more closely and noticed that the rhizome was now mushy. I googled it and learned that this was known as anubius rot disease. It's considered uncommon, however it can spread to the other anubius in the tank. Unfortunately this was my experience. Even though I immediately removed the infected plant, I ended up losing all the anubius in that tank within a couple of weeks. I have a lot of anubius in all my tanks and, because it took out plants that had been in there and healthy for months, I'm pretty sure they were infected by the new plant and it wasn't anything I did--if I ignore the fact that I didn't quarantine the new plant. Please note that I still don't quarantine plants.

I checked and my water has chloramine added. After some google searching, I learned that chloramine is a product of adding ammonia to chlorine! I also read that dechlorinator must be added to the water before adding that water to the aquarium to avoid chloramine-related fish harm and death. I sure wish that specific ammonia + chlorine = chloramine info was included prominently in basic beginner-level videos. I've watched so many videos where the wonders of the "Python No Spill Clean and Fill Aquarium System" were touted with no specific reference to the dangers of not adding dechlorinator to the tank first. I would love to see a video that addresses that danger specifically and maybe lists popular beginner-level fish that are more susceptible to it. If I only had one aquarium (stop laughing), losing those fish may have been enough to make me quit the hobby.

Thanks Mr. Ed. I've always filled that tank with the python, but I've always treated the tank water first, as you said. I don't usually change that much water at one time, so I would think that played into it as well. I always refill my other aquariums using a one gallon jug that gets treated one gallon at a time. This particular aquarium sits up high and I have to use a ladder to work on it, so the python is more practical for refilling--and helps me not put off tank cleaning. Well, I could "if only I had" myself for days, but those remaining fish and my other tanks need tending. I had a great experience with the green neons and I won't hesitate to keep them in the future.

These two ideas are just stabs in the dark. 1. Did you attach the new anubias to something? If so, did you use superglue? If so, was it gel superglue? I understand that the non-gel superglue can be toxic, but I don't know in what way or how long it would take to hurt any fish. 2. I had a horrible experience with overly enthusiastically spot treating hydrogen peroxide on BBA on submerged plants (which means it was introduced directly into the water, even if aimed at specific areas). All seemed okay until the next morning when I found four dead pygmy cories, three dead nerite snails, and one dead peacock gudgeon. I lost the other gudgeon by the end of the day. Unaffected in the tank were four juvenile and three adult guppies. Just ruling out stuff.

What an interesting topic! What a great project! I love my regular gold white clouds. How long have you been working on this?

This is a pest snail feeding upside down on the film on the tank water.