Steph’s Fish and Plants

Lookin great! I’ve had my first feed tank for almost 11 months now and it’s been going well! Had mostly success with coral, Altho my mantis shrimp is determined not to let Blastomussa join that list 😅😅 been mainly zoas and some mushrooms other than that. I also have a purple spotted mantis shrimp which is the star of the show. My zoas could be doing a bit better but I could also be doing more water changes 😅😅.

Definitely understandable. My interest waned for a while with covid too and working in a fish store 😅 but these puffers sure keep me coming back. Glad to hear they’re doing well!

Thank you all for weighing in! I’ve been looking at as much stuff Preston has put out as I can find and I’ve been listening to his interview with Randy on the Aquarist Podcast on repeat. I think I’m going to go with the female for the 40 breeder, but I’m debating on getting a pair and either splitting them up or maybe the pair in the 40 initially and separating if need be.

Thanks Zenzo for tagging the master breeder himself. I figured I’d give a little more info as well. My friend is setting up a 40 breeder for me as my current biggest tank is a 20 long. I’ve heard some mixed advice as well on if the 20 would be big enough or not. I’m debating on getting just the female and putting her in the 40 or on getting a pair as I do want to breed them in the future. Could I do the pair in the 40 heavily planted? Or the male in my 20 long and the female in the 40? Or go with just one or the other for the 40?

Hey all. I have a very unique opportunity in that my LFS just got in 4 male and 1 female schoutedeni puffers. However, I only have a 40 breeder to house them in. Down the road I’d love to breed them, I’m planning on doing a 1 male 2 female trio in something like a 75 gallon. However, I’m not sure if for now I should get the female or one of the males. I might be way overthinking this but I wanna make sure that I don’t make it way more difficult to get the complete trio down the road. I could very well be overthinking this but I tend to do that with everything 😅. Those with experience what have been your observations with temperament and also just general availability of males vs female. Thank you so much. pictured first is the female after adding her to the tank (I work at my LFS so I got to do all the moving, it was pretty amazing) followed by the male I was considering (pre move to the tank)

To say that today has been one of the highlights of my fish keeping and fish store working career would be an understatement. The schoutedeni puffers came in today and are looking even more amazing in person than they do online. I’ve been obsessed since the moment the guy walked in. There’s 4 males and 1 female. I’m not sure yet if I want one of the males or the female. But regardless I’m Extremely excited. Theyre full grown and are a mix of wild caught and F1, the guy said he no longer remembers which were which. They’ve been through a round of metro but I will be deworming with a few rounds of prazi pro. and now for the part you’ve all been waiting for… the photos!

It’s been quite a long time, was wondering if there’s been an update on how the now one year old puffs are doing? And if you’re working on another spawn?

Oh my has it been a long time. The past few months have been insane for me to say the least 😅 but that’s not what we are here for. We are here for fish. I had 2 successful spawns of my super red Bristlenose pair but was unsuccessful in raising *most* of the fry. I have 1 remaining individual, I believe the apisto Viejita pair is responsible. I finally got the wood for the aquarium rack fit to the right size and moved the 20long over. However, I tried to leave all the fish in there and while most everyone is ok, I did lose the female super red bristlenose pleco and have yet to find another one since 😔 so I’ve put that breeding project on the back burner. I also did lose one of the halfbeaks but the remaining three are doing amazing, I think I had too many males and so he was getting bullied and outcompeted (this happened about a month, maybe more after the tank move). In better news, I added a group of 6 Beckfords red pencil fish to the 20, 3 males and 3 females and they’ve added so much activity it’s amazing. Also, my tanks have become subwassertang factories somehow because I just threw away probably $15 worth of credit from my LFS bc I was lazy and didn’t feel like bagging it and waiting a day to bring it in (I’ve already brought it in so many times we are kinda full of it anyways at the store). And now for the biggest and probably weirdest bit of news: I’m getting a spotted congo puffer. However, I can’t get the tank setup for him yet, but my friend/coworker/about to be manager at my LFS (I work at my LFS btw lol) Can setup a tank at his apartment for one, so he got a stand today for it and will get the tank setup shortly. At the latest I’ll be setting the tank up at my place sometime next summer when I move to another state and will be upgrading to a 40 breeder during the move to downsize on number of tanks (10g is gonna get the axe. And possibly the 20long as well, we will see). I’m extremely excited as this has been my dream fish for several years now, I’ve got @Preston John podcast interview with @Randy going on repeat to help refresh all the countless hours of research I’ve already put into this fish (and there will be countless more). Alright, I believe that sums it up for now. Attached are pics of the baby pleco from today, I think they’re roughly 2 months old, maybe a little less. I don’t know if they’re from the first spawn or the second. The plan after the move was to setup a fry raising tank and strip the caves but since I lost the female I’ve not had a reason to. I don’t have any shrimp at this time. I will say that my halfbeaks spend most of their time at the top of the tank. I would image a large, well established planted aquarium with lots of nooks and crannies and hiding spaces and a well established shrimp colony you would be alright. I could be wrong, but based on their behavior thus far they don’t spend much time in the same spaces shrimp do. It’s possibly that they’d hunt them given the chance, so I wouldn’t put them with something other than neocaridina to start out with just to be on the safe side.

Funnily enough I come across the occasional Nerm in the store. Not super often but every now and then someone will come in wearing the shirt and I always make an effort to chat with them and comment on it It is nice that we do that but it also is a bit of a logistical nightmare sometimes 😅 it almost requires a dedicated staff member, and it’s easy to get overwhelmed with stuff, but once we get caught back up on it it’s a great way for us to offer lower cost equipment options to the local community and it’s a great way to reuse stuff rather than let it go to waste.

I work at my LFS and we get a lot of random used equipment in from people in the area when they’re getting out of the hobby or moving or whatever, and today we had someone who had our maintenance crew come out and take a Lot of stuff, much of which was brand new. Low and behold some of the aquarium coop gems I’m gonna be taking home with me 😅 there was more that could have been from the coop or at least inspired by but there was no proof. The blue pumps were from Amazon but I knew the coop had to have been an influence (tho oddly enough coop price is about 15 cents cheaper go figure) It got me thinking tho, how often do you guys come across Co Op products in the wild?

What a crazy cool fish to keep. I first heard of em from watching a CoOp unboxing semi recently but had forgotten about em till I was scrolling the forum and the coop local announcements and Robert had brought more in. I’m super excited to see how things play out, and I’m jealous for sure. I hope things go well!

So I see you have live plants? How did you pull that off? or am I just dumb lol

Well it’s time for an update. The rack is currently in stasis, I think I need to get the wood cut another time to fit a little less snugly so it doesn’t bow the shelf at all. In better news tho, I got wrestling halfbeaks! These are the gold variety, which have the same bacteria as that which gives the gold tetra it’s color. I got them this morning and drip acclimated them for about an hour or so, maybe even a bit more. CoOp fry food seems to be a hit. Then, I came home to my CoOp order coming a day early. I didn’t have time to really unpack it other than chuck the plants in my tank, but I got the Ziss hatchery so I’m excited to really be pumping out BBS

Glad to see the photos, looks like a fun trip. Ngl I’m kinda jealous of that salad. The new shirts and the sign look snazzy as well. Super cool, glad that y’all were able to go this year!

As someone with anxiety over a lot of things, and with a girlfriend with severe OCD and anxiety, I certainly know what it’s like to be anxious and worried all the time about my tanks. And, tbh, sometimes I still do, but definitely not nearly as much as I did when i first started. Now when I first get something really cool I’ve been after, I’m excitedly anxious bc I want them to do well, but once they’ve been with me a bit and I know they’re doing alright, I certainly calm down. This hobby can be a bit overwhelming at times, especially in the beginning, but as you experience and learn more, you’ll gain confidence, and the amount that you’re anxious will go down. Depending on who you are as a person, it might never fully disappear, but it’ll certainly get easier.

When in doubt, the name says a lot. I’ve had Red Devils leave me bleeding for several minutes after I stuck my hand in the opposite side of the tank for a second. I’ve had flowerhorns bite my hand while it was still out of the water during feeding time. I’ve also heard of someone’s breeding convicts wrecking their adult flowerhorn to shreds, same with breeding red jewels. Working at a fish store, I’ve heard a lot over the past several months, and the stories only get wilder and wilder. Someone had zebra danios rip their betta to shreds. I’d say red terrors are pretty high up there too.

I don’t know a lot about freshwater clams, but I’ve heard that they can be a ticking time bomb because when they die, you won’t notice right away and they’ll release ammonia (as dead aquatic animals do) and that ammonia spike can be detrimental to your fish if not caught in time. Dont let that completely dissuade you, just be sure to do a lot of research. And like I said, I haven’t really looked into them myself.

To @Stef’s point, there’s also a FAQ page on fritz’s website that I used that walks you through how to make smaller doses of their powdered meds, I used that before for a sick betta I had in a 2.5 gallon. It’s a few more steps than dosing for 10 gallons but it’s easy.

If you’re gonna be doing mass amount of tanks for the same room, I’d say heat the room to whatever temp keeps water at the temp You want most of the tanks at, then heat the few tanks you want hotter, aka discus/ram/pleco tanks (if you’re even working with those). Properly insulating the room and getting a heater for the room will be more $ up front but a Lot less risk and hassle in the long run.

Anddd this would be the Co Op effect in full force 😅 I too am very excited for the nets. Will probably get one when they drop. For now tho, time to upgrade my brine Hatcher and get new plants 😅

I agree, my best guess is freshwater sponges. Regardless I’m very intrigued and I hope you update this if you figure anything else out about it.

As far as I’ve heard and to my knowledge, I don’t think fluval changed anything other than branding. Now granted, I don’t have misled to compare (I actually don’t own an actual aqua clear rn just the sponge bc my HOB still works, why replace what ain’t broke). Do take that with what you will, perhaps someone else is more versed in it and can voice their experience with the rebranding and changing of the product.

Orlando is new for this year. It started a few years with just chicago, then added dallas. I wouldn’t be surprised if they continue with all three, or keep at least chicago and Dallas since the two guys who started it live in those 2 cities. I really enjoyed it the year I went, I only went one day. If you’re planning on going, save save save. You will find more than you planned on getting. And have a plan on how you’re going to transport things, especially if you’re flying in. I’m a few hours away from chicago so I just drove. If you think there’s any chance you’ll get fish, have a plan on how you would transport them. If it’s by car, have a usb air pump and a few buckets on hand. If it’s by plane, figure out if you’re gonna ship them home to yourself or take them on the plane. If you’re into both fresh and saltwater then try and give yourself enough time to shop both. Super high end corals are gonna go quick and a lot of vendors were sold out halfway through day 2. Plan out which talks and events you want to see and plan things around that. Also, a lot of the YouTubers we’re willing to sign things, so bring something just in case if that’s something you’re into. Aquatics is the biggest part of the event but there’s also a lot of random reptile stuff, and a really heavy focus on art as well. Finally, get there Early. I’m talking at least an hour. The line to get in Is going to be insane. Check out their video from Dallas 2019, they had to literally kick ppl out because it sold out and the line went out the parking lot. and don’t forget to have fun!

Thanks for the advice everyone. I definitely should’ve known I was gonna be doing this sooner because I need to get tanks on it yesterday, anddd now the wood is just too long. Home Depot cut it for me but I should’ve gone 1/2” shorter than I did because it won’t fit. I’m running on a deadline and might just have to move everything twice because I have to have the tanks moved by the end of the day tomorrow (Friday). I don’t have any sort of cutting tools that would work, or stuff to paint. I did get a husky rack that’s 18x36 and has the wire shelves. And assembling that has been no issue. But the wood is just a hare too long and also for some pieces too wide.

This actually happened a few years ago I think. I recall buying aqua clear fluval products with the box like that a couple years back from Petco. Could be tho that a lot of suppliers and wholesalers still had lots of back stock of the original aqua clear boxes so you’re just now seeing the change?