Flumpweesel

One of mine was gravel eater one never did. The one that ate the gravel mainly did it to get attention it would use the stones to tap on the glass to get attention it throw mouthfuls at me. It never suffered ill effects from it. Just go with what you will find easiest to maintain as there is no telling what your fish will do anyway. But you will be cleaning up after these guys either way.

I remember going to a LFS store back in the 80's (I was very young) with my mum and staring in wonder at the lion fish and the seahorses just the idea that something so exotic could be bought and kept at home. Add to this that there LFS was in a tiny village and was one of only 4 shops there it was a kinda magical experience My mum was fascinated by the anemones all of which was far out of our reach. I don't plan to try marine until I retire so fingers crossed I will get to keep these one day. Having only just stepped into tropical I'm still astounded regularly about what I get to keep. I also dream about a koi pond but I think I'll have to be happy setting up for rice fish given my tiny yard.

I have pygmy and regular corys on gravel for years no issues at all, those pebbles are lovely and smooth very similar to my pea shale.

I finally understand why drinks dispensers were added to fridges. Here in the UK it always seemed like a waste of food storage space.

He's been running that store in Germany a long time and it has probably evolved over time, Cory is about to triple the size of his store soon if he does that every 5 years he'll be catching up.

Yep no soap as a rule, just half fill with tap water and shake repeat until clean. I do have a small bottle brush which is occasionally used when they have a stain from being left to long.

I can't think of anything like that in the UK we are probably nearer the USA in shop options except we have a lot of LFS , one franchise chain and the UK equivalent of Pet smart. It would be interesting to hear from the other europeans how the shopping looks in their countries. I remember a post from a French member struggling to find somewhere to buy an aquarium in France .

Is the water is the same, just net and drop. The fewer steps in the process the better for the fish I think.

So we like fish and people who love is know we like fish I thought it could be nice and maybe amusing to see some fish novelties we have acquired and been gifted over the years. Here are a few of mine including a strange rubber purse that inspired this thread

Bet these fish look forward to seeing you now. Really glad it's going well.

There is a tank company here that does lovely solid oak stand all bespoke to their tanks they are always offered monthly payment terms because they are very expensive but the installment plan makes them almost an impulse by. Browsing the second hand sites shows what a mistake that sort of impulse can cause. I was raised that credit is for emergencies and paid off as quickly as possible.

Hi from a red rose, welcome I'm sure we can be friends.😝

Not many pictures it seems but here is what I have, my goldfish died in 2018 while I was away the tank is now a tropical (not ready for another Goldy yet). This shows it is set into what should be my fireplace in the living room I was very lucky that a standard tank was such a good fit. And a couple of my big goldies

Are you checking the temp or is that what the heater is set at. Often worth a double check and warm water doesn't hold O2 the same. If you can add another air stone it won't hurt and might help while we figure things out

What a beautifully huge tank sounds like a lovely plan. I had two comets and some corys in 230l tank for years but it was looking very full towards the end the comet that is my avatar is about 25 years old and about a 30cm long at that point the other goldfish (feeder) had reached that within a couple of years. I did water changes every 2 weeks ish and filter clean every month or so. (1 canister + 1 internal for me) I struggled finding plants that could go the distance with the goldfish anubias survived but everything else spent more time floating. So you will probably find the maintenance will scale as your fish grow but your approx 3 times the volume and 3 times the fish on my set up so I'd say that would work. Can't wait to see pictures.

Nice idea for having a group of mini scapes you could do 4 seasons or a geographical theme across the set. There only snag I foresee with joining many tanks is you will always have to medicate them all so if any sick fish, ick or fungus get in one tank the whole row is at risk. This can obviously be an issue if certain tanks are sensitive to different meds. (shrimp, snails for example). And treatments will be more expensive due to increased volume. You would end up with them all at a very similar temp range as well so might not be as flexible although with nano fish that isn't as much of an issue. These are the issues fish stores have that use these systems, one near me has about 8 large sump sections and won't transfer fish from one section to another to minimise the risks. @Scapexghost you could have a very impressive aquaponic set up instead

I have found humanist ceremonies very moving.

That exceeds my casual browsing effort levels.

Same for me if I try to look at plants - which is a shame as I uses it as care guide every now an then. I can't buy anything but it seem the settings for Canada are just a blanket out side of USA as it lets me view some products. Still probably saves them from a lot of pointless queries.

I was going to do something filterless using a swan muscle or two to help out. But kinda lost my nerve. Maybe I can revisit that plan.

You can buy brushes to clean it with as well. The smooth is pretty easy to flush out and clean the ribbed fluval stuff can be more work. Soak the entire length in warm water to loosen the grot and make the tubing more malleable. Depending on how much you need you might choose to replace it's generally not that expensive. Before you start though make sure it's the right length for your set up I'd be really miffed if I spent time cleaning it just to find out it's short by 1"

I can't give much advice on how to manage people but I am will add that I have attended weddings that have cost a fortune and weddings that have cost only a few hundreds, event is the same two people pledge their lives to other and everyone is happy. Oh and there is generally cake. My advice is don't get into debt and accept that not everyone will be able to go ( COVID showed us we can't plan for everything). If you want elderly relatives you will probably have to stay close to home , if you want a lot of people it will have to easy to attend. The media has sold us on the unique wedding experience but think about the weddings you have attended what do you remember and what do you enjoy. My brother's wedding was 17 people we sat round table together as one family after the ceremony. People who love you will wish you well regardless of being invited or ability to attend.

That's me every time I go to the lfs I come back with something i didn't intend to get

Or is the issue with the trademarking fish and the sterilisation of them to prevent home breeding. This is a worry as imagine if this became the norm and home breeding became illegal. (There was a lot of debate around this in the seed world ) Glo fish are illegal in the UK and EU so I've never seen a Glo fish. The science is interesting and the background of using them to trace water causes (would need to sterile for that) is interesting to. I imagine your nephew though this was pretty cool. I think a cheap exciting to look at hardy fish is a great way of bringing kids into the hobby but should we be teaching about the beauty of natural world I suppose they are a stepping stone fish. I would have probably wanted them in neon decade but I was I kid then and glow in the dark was/is cool. I have no idea how many of the fish I keep are in a wild state or selectivity bred i think keeping an eye on the heritage of what we have is almost impossible.

Green or printed background but only black hides our hardware inside the tank so you are probably in for some trial and error before you settle. I've done patterned blue in the past but that was inside the tank and I could lift it out and deep clean to keep the algae in check.