[Help me choose]

Never kept threads but gourami might like to nip. Rainbows are awesome though, you could fit 6 Praecox in there, they are gorgeous dwarf melanotaenids. 

[What fish was more fun to keep than you expected and what fish was disappointing?]

I didn’t realize how much I would enjoy watching the neighborhood like antics of Neolamprologous Caudopunctuatus and Julidochromis Transcriptus Gombe. My colony is just starting, so watching the males choose a shell to defend, with their courting behavior, is a lot of fun, as well as the Julies being little cave dwelling torpedos. I get it now. I don’t know why it took me so long to try out African cichlids. 
 

Second the Bolivian Ram. It’s like having miniature geophagus in your community. 
 

black neon tetras. Such a great looking school when healthy. 
 

im only ever disappointed when I’m not a good enough fish keeper to keep my critters alive and happy. 😕

[Species Tank-Does it count if you have a clean up crew?]

I hadn’t considered shrimp. I’ll have to see if there are soft water varieties, I know cherries are supposed to like mineral content. Thanks for the idea and the permission. 🙂

[RO water users]

Tomatoes need lots of calcium, so I pour it in my tomato bed, all year. Even in winter, the calcium’s not going anywhere fast. 🙂

[Driftwood]

It really would be worth a drive to a decent scaping LFS, IMO 

[Species Tank-Does it count if you have a clean up crew?]

I have a this 33 Long that I’ve set up as an “I-wood-gumi” ember tetra refuge. It has about 30 fishies in it for now, and some tagalong ramshorn snails. I do periodically have to clean out a little bit oh green hair algae, and was wondering about a few Siamese Algae Eaters.  

BUT

This tank has been an exercise in self control, to try to keep it species only. It’s SO tempting to add some different critters, and I wonder if I’ll ruin the effect of the species only setup with new additions. 
 

thoughts? 

[How aggressive are pearls really?!? Is 4 enough?]

I have two adult pearls of unknown sex in a 29 community, they sometimes chase each other but otherwise are beautiful cool fish to watch. Very personable, I can almost hand feed them like koi. 

[Product that doesn’t exist that you want]

Second the notion for a sponge filter that isn’t neon green. I know it’s part of the brand and everything, but something about cylindrical and prismatic shapes make the color stick out a lot. A black, translucent gray (à la Fluval) or even a rock shaped base with a random looking sponge would be an interesting product. If you could figure out how to keep it from algaeing the stink out of the canopy above it as well you’d have my money for sure. 

[What would YOU do with a 40 B?]

On 10/21/2022 at 7:20 PM, Expectorating_Aubergine said:

B.

Do shell dwellers. If you get tired of them, they are easy to rehome or sell.

On 10/21/2022 at 7:20 PM, Expectorating_Aubergine said:

 

Welp, I went for it. Found local guy who sells caudopunks and set up a simple tank with Val, shells, and some rock caves made from rocks I fished out of my local creek. So far so good, these are interesting fish to watch. Thank you everyone for your thoughtful suggestions. 

[i wonder...]

So it actually is as simple as mathematical addition and subtraction. 
You add fish food, it has in it nitrogen compounds that your fish turn into ammonia for your bacteria to turn into nitrite and nitrate, as you know. 
 

your plants consume that nitrogen, depending on the plant, how densely planted, light saturation, etc etc, but essentially when they grow, they are removing Nitrogen from your water. 
 

In order for the sum of this math problem to be zero, the nitrogen production needs to equal the nitrogen consumption. The way you can verify it is, as has been stated, testing for nitrogen. All this said, you absolutely can and should let plants live all over your tank, they will reduce your maintenance burden, look beautiful, and make your fish feel more at home. 
 

The top off question, once again, others have touched on it, but every time you add tap water you aren’t simply adding H2O. All the minerals and chlorine are also along for the ride. If you have livebearers or rainbows or African cichlids that love insanely hard water, you may get away with the minerals part, but nothing alive likes chlorine. You have to at least let it evaporate out of the tap water. ACO’s test strips are awesome for this because they include a chlorine test pad. Pour a 5 gallon bucket of tap water and check it. Then let it sit out for 24-48 hours and test it again. (Then do it with an air stone in there to see what it does) 

TL,DR: Topping off works best if you use RODI, have a massive plant to fish ratio, and test for Nitrogen regularly. But it can work. 

[How Do You Acclimate Your Fish?]

I follow the Aqua Huna method which they include with their shipments. It’s similar to some other have posted. Float in your tank for 15-30 minutes to equalize temp, pour out into a separate vessel all water and fish. Add half again as much volume from your tank’s water and set a timer for 15-30. Repeat step 2.   Net your fish out of the vessel and release into tank. 

[Small torpedo shaped black lateral line stowaway]

Thanks for the expertise everyone! She is still doing great, finding her place in a crowded community 75, I need to decide what to do, whether she will be happy by herself or if I should find someplace else for her to be, get her some buddies, etc. The males appear quite colorful, I haven’t kept Killis except for flagfish, but so far this girl is a model citizen in the community so maybe a small group could work. They don’t seem to be commonly offered for sale but maybe because they’re native minnows in Florida. 

[300 gallon White Cloud penthouse]

On 10/24/2022 at 5:43 PM, Jazz Pizza said:

@NofishB4 I actually have a school of a dozen or so LF white clouds. I’d like to keep them in their aquarium because they are gorgeous. I wanted to keep their short finned cousins in the 300. Cory’s are a must, I’d like to add 50 or so, but I also don’t want to spend an arm and a leg. 

Paleatus Cories don’t get enough credit, they are bread and butter but super hardy, exhibit all the best Cory behaviors, and some I’ve had even have a nice emerald sheen to them. Can’t argue with the price either. 

And they would go along well with a massive cloud of another often overlooked yet awesome fish; the white cloud. 🙂

[Fishies in the sun]

That time of year when my 75 overstocked community gets about 20 minutes of a six inch wide band of direct sun in the evening. Looks like I also need to clean my glass lol. 
 

[Small torpedo shaped black lateral line stowaway]

On 10/24/2022 at 1:35 AM, TheSwissAquarist said:

 

here's a picture and link http://www.rainforestprotectorstrust.org/endemics/black-lined-barb

Also known as systomus pleurotania

Man that fish looks an awful lot like a juvenile siamensis. I’d be a terrible Ichthyologist, so many similar looking fish! 

[Small torpedo shaped black lateral line stowaway]

Here are some shots. I think she looks very much like a female bluefin killi. 

On 10/24/2022 at 5:04 PM, Fish Folk said:

That's a good candidate!

Can you take a video? It the fish pretty shy? My L. goodei are VERY shy...

Do you use your iPhone to upload video? I got a format restriction when I tried to upload an mp4 from my iPhone. 

[Small torpedo shaped black lateral line stowaway]

On 10/24/2022 at 8:31 AM, Fish Folk said:

Maybe a female Lucania goodei ??

Did your order originate in FL?

Not 100% sure on origin of order, but it was an LFS I only frequent occasionally due to distance, and I think I remember Florida being the origin. Thanks for the photos, my guy looks very close to that goodeid, now I need to research. 

[Small torpedo shaped black lateral line stowaway]

Picked up some silver tips at my LFS and this guy came along for the ride. Anyone have any idea what it might be? I don’t think it’s a Siamensis. 

 

[What would YOU do with a 40 B?]

Are those Bleeding Hearts? Beautiful garden. 

[I have guppies]

They are hardy, but throw some plants in there, they take up nitrates, nitrites, and ammonia which are all in the water and can hurt fishies. Floating plants like giant duckweed, frogbit, or even cabomba or anacharis are inexpensive insurance to keep your fishies breathing easy, plus they look great and fish like to hide and play around them. Share some Gup pictures! 🙂

[What is your favourite fish combination for a co]

Can you share how hard the water will be? I really enjoy the hardiness, colors, and antics of Hi Fin Variatus Platy, but they prefer high PH. 

Kutubu (turquoise) Rainbowfish are also very hardy and gorgeous and would look great in a 55, also hard water. 

[What would YOU do with a 40 B?]

On 10/18/2022 at 2:23 PM, Patrick_G said:

I’d lean towards a plant farm type of tank. I tend to ignore the fish in the tank under my 75 so a more static, but still decorative tank would be my choice. I’m thinking a thick jungle for plant grow out, and just a few fish like Otocinclus, Siamese algae eaters, and maybe a feature fish like an Electric blue acara. 

This is a very intriguing idea. The less is more tank. Thank you. 

[What would YOU do with a 40 B?]

On 10/17/2022 at 12:44 PM, BrettD said:

Is it possible to store it somewhere out of sight? That way you can wait until inspiration strikes.

@BrettD It kind of already is! It has always lived under my 75 so it’s not really in the way. 🙂

On 10/17/2022 at 2:44 PM, cavdad45 said:

A 40-breeder with shell dwellers is pretty cool

@cavdad45 I looked into this, zenzo has some awesome content, and I am seriously considering doing Neolamprologous Caudopunctuatus, especially if I can also keep Saulosi in there without any carnage. 

On 10/17/2022 at 4:13 PM, BlueLineAquaticsSC said:

Easy idea: breeding convicts. Pretty much Everyone who has ever breed cichlids has at one point bred convicts, and they all say how entertaining they are watching them parent their fry. Breeding a mouthbrooder instead of live ears will change it up and show you new behavior. 
 

Harder idea: if you like setting up a little ecosystem, you could step it up a notch and do a planted, bio active, paladarium. Something like SepaeDesign makes in his videos. I’ve been thinking about setting up a vampire crab paladarium for a while.

profit tank: Cory has a video series on breeding for profit out of one 40B. Fancy Guppies, Cherry Shrimp, BN plecos. Might open up a new part of the hobby for you and supplement you expenses a little.

@BlueLineAquaticsSC those are all great ideas, thanks. 

On 10/18/2022 at 10:39 AM, JettsPapa said:

I have a 40 gallon moderately planted community breeder tank with (currently) eleven pearl gouramis, along with tetras and corydoras.  I wouldn't hesitate recommend doing something similar.

Pearls are my favorite gourami followed by the sunset dwarf, just beautiful fish and lots of personality.  I have two pearls in my daughter’s 29 and 1 Sunset in a red morph in my son’s 20 long. Thank you for the suggestion. 

[could I use co2 with a sponge filter or should I get a hob?]

There is a cool video @Cory did where he visited a LFS in San Francisco that used upside down Gatorade bottles lashed into the back corner with suction cups and a little float indicator nug of polystyrene foam, and the owner had tons of just awesome overgrown jungle tanks. Rather than use a regulator in every tank or even shared, he would just go fill the upside down bottle with gas until the float was almost at the bottom using one tank and a gooseneck spray bar with a trigger release. 
 

Ive done some experiments with upside down Tupperware floating up against the canopy, the idea being that gas dissolves into a liquid as a function of its surface area. It why more, finer bubbles works, and why you want them to stay under water for as long as possible.
 

The method in the video makes a very large interface of gas to water that stays in contact until all the gas is dissolved or is topped up.  

[What would YOU do with a 40 B?]

On 10/17/2022 at 12:30 PM, Zenzo said:

@B7gwapSaulosi are dwarf mbuna, and are a bit smaller than labs and other mbuna. They would do well in a 40B due to their smaller size and dimorphism between the males and females. Essentially, you get two fish for one because of their differences in appearance. Aggression is similar to other mild/moderately aggressive mbuna. I would say that the aggression is similar to a group of labs. 

@Zenzo Wow thank you for responding, I watch your ACO content so forgive my being a little star struck. do you think that Saulosis and Caudopunctuatus could coexist in a 40B with some hardy Val and well rooted crypts?