Tyler Kaplan

Wow very interesting. I'm sure this dynamic of managing the aggression is even more sensitive with there being two different breeding pairs at the same time! Are you noticing similar sized clutches or is there a lot of variance?

Very fun! Can't wait to get some fry myself. How long do you wait to pull the eggs?

Fantastic photos - Congratulations! How long have the pair been together!

I would think about something like the Dario dario - Scarlet badis! Very fun little fish, super colorful. Does wonderfully in a heavily planted tank.

Apologies for the delay, super busy with work! The puffer is doing great, thank you all for your wonderful advice. I actually grabbed this guy from The Wet Spot, as I ended up waiting a couple of weeks before getting him. My fish room is slowly turning into a puffer room lol... Just picked up a 180 for a Fahaka (one day I will convince my partner to allow a mbu display in the main house, one day...) I'm really enjoying the different Pao species; my baileyi in particular is so active and personable Please let me know what you think! Sorry for the terrible photo quality, I have to zoom in all the way to the back because this one is insanely camera shy.

The most aggressive fish I've every owned was a wild caught betta; I'm convinced it killed/fought for fun.

I would say it should be just fine - the overall environment that they are in will play a much more impactful role in the overall health of the anubias; things like light and fertilizer. Sure every leaf will not be as efficient as possible right now, but anubias is not a fast growing plant. Overtime, and as things grow, the plant will naturally put its leaves where it wants them to be. On top of that, anubias is known for being hardy so I really don't think you have anything to worry about. I'm actually doing something of an experiment right now with anubias, I have about half a dozen different types in a tank that is getting extremely minimal light, and seeing how it affects the growth. It's been two weeks and most strains barely have a single leaf that has gone yellow - I believe that it's an extremely hardly plant. I've only every lost one to anubias rot. As for the aquascape, I think that once you give it a little time and it starts to grow in you will be a lot happier with it, I think what would go a long way is some other accents in the tank around the foreground. Maybe even some dwarf sag around that can grow around it, extra plants to break up the line of sight between the puffers is also a good thing. If you don't want to go down the side of more plants, I think even a couple of good stones (around the base of the wood, to make it look like the wood is coming out of the stones) would go a long way in making it have more depth, even small accent stones littered across the black substrate would benefit the scape in my opinion. Good luck and have fun!

Have you considered something like hydrocotyle or pennywort? You can just float it on top and the leaves should provide some nice shading, and you won't really have to worry about it with the filters.

Thank you very much to everyone for your valuable input, I'll proceed with the purchase with confidence! And of course share an update photo when they're eventually settled :D!

Hello All, I am hoping to get some help in making sure this is the Schoutedeni as opposed to the Nigroviridis and Fluviatillis! I have finally found a place to get the Congo Spotted Puffer, but would appreciate the second opinions on the pictures they sent over to make sure I'm getting the right species. If it were just me I'd say they look like the Schoutedeni, but because I've never actually seen one in person it couldn't hurt to ask!

Congratulations! There's nothing like the first time a fish gives birth in your tank. As for tips, by far the biggest thing to keep in mind if you want them to survive is that you want lots of cover for you little guys to grow up and not become food for every other fish in the tank. The parents can and will go after them, so you want to make sure there is some cover! My absolute favorite thing to use for breeding livebearers is java moss, other than a very think clump of water sprite IMO it can't be beat. Feel free to try different things to find what works for you and your fish. If there isn't a lot of microfauna in the aquarium then I would consider feeding them directly, something like a cyclops, daphnia, vinegar eel, live baby brine, or even finely crushed up flake food will do the trick. Fun fact - Mollies can go 100% saltwater!

They seem to strongly prefer aquarium water to their water bowls...

Do you have a local aquarium society? I've never seen them being sold at a local fish store, but there are at every aquarium society meeting's auction!

Although I think that it's hard to keep most fish in that size, I like the Scarlet Badis for smaller tank setups!

I would encourage you to add you plants right away, and not wait for the tank to be cycled! In fact, when you add them right away they can offer some valuable information about how your tank cycle is doing. I like to add all of my plants first, and when I start to see some nice sustained growth from the plants I know that the tank is getting established. After I see some growth I usually add in a couple of strong fish like a platy to see how the system will respond, and go from there. I would avoid adding in everything at once unless you are more experienced in dealing with the ammonia spike that is likely to come with that. I would strongly agree with Fish Folk that you should either choose the hillstreams or the bristlenose, not both; it will already be a tighter fit (especially for the loach) and they will be competing at similar places in the water column, Good luck, and happy fish keeping!

Although you can certainly have a lot of success and fun with breeding these, I would say that they are not ideal for the first time/novice breeder. If you're heart is set in rams, I would consider something like the Bolivian Ram at first because they tend to be a heartier fish. That being said I wish you luck on whatever you choose to work with! For the apostos, try to get a breeding pair if you can, it will make it a lot easier; and most people will have success keeping them in a separate breeding tank. The females tend to take a much more active role in rearing the fry so that can be a great experience to observe!

If you're working with only the 3.5 gallon tank it would be my opinion that adding neon tetras into Morpheus's tank would not do either of them any service. Neon tetras would be happier/less stressed in a bigger group than you could do with the 3.5, which is usually why they are not suggested for that tank size. It really comes down to a bettas individual personality when it comes to compatibility for tank mates; are they a boy or girl? The boys tend to be more aggressive/territorial, whereas the the female bettas are sometimes more tolerable of other fish; though of course each individual fish is different.

I think that it really comes down to the personalities in the tank. There are some tanks where it would work out great, but if you get a betta that absolutely just loves cherry shrimp, they will hunt them. Personally, I've had a lot of success with ghost shrimp and bettas because they are larger and actually have little pinchers so they can defend themselves to a very small degree. If you're not completely in love with cherry shrimp, I would consider Amano shrimp, as they are a little bit bigger. There are a lot of things you can do to make the cherry shrimp's lives easier, there is a big difference between surviving and thriving! A tank with lots of moss and rock formations will house a shrimp way better than a bare bottom plant-less setup. As a general rule of thumb the more plants the better, as it will give them more places to hide/break line of sight and be a food source for them to scavenge. I really like java moss and Christmas moss for them, as they like to go in and out of it; provides great cover.

Hi Will, I think your tank looks great! Given some time, it will really grow in and look fantastic. I would look into getting some root tabs for the tank; with a nice thick gravel bed like that you can really have a vast and strong root system. Good luck!

Finally managed to snap a picture of one of my young fry venturing out of the java moss to see what there is to see! Usually the little ones never really leave the moss, but I managed to catch this one checking things out. He as born with about a half dozen brothers/sisters, though they are much more camera shy! This tank is a breeder for both platys and guppies so I'm not sure which species they are yet.

If the main goal is to maximize color, I think you would be hard pressed to find something better than a livebearer tank. They have such a wide variety and look great when they are happy and swimming around. A solid group of them would go great in a 10 gallon! Endlers might be something worth looking into; they usually grow to be on the smaller size compared to a platy. Good luck!

Hi Khole new fish, Anubias is one of my absolute favorite plants! It's so easy to work with and can go in almost every planted scape. When I first started working with it I would try to wedge it between rocks or other hardscape, but nowadays I usually just use a drop of super glue to get it exactly where I want it. With a little planning you can really make it look exactly how you want! Another really cool thing about anubias is that there is a huge variety of different kinds, coming in shades from a bright lime green to a deep foresty black; from small anubias nana petite to towering anubius gigantea; with every leaf shape in between! One of my favorites of all time would have to be coffefolia, but really it comes down to personal preference. This is one of my first scapes, it has something like half a dozen different anubias in here. You can play around with it by putting the smaller plants in front, bigger in the back. (This is a 10 gallon for my plakat betta, he shares it with a couple of vampire shrimp and a khulli!) Overall it's a really easy plant to work with and change. Just go ahead and try something, if you don't like the look of it there are easy to just move around until you are happy. Good luck and have fun!

Hi April0617, I would generally air on the side of keeping things how they are right now, especially because I'm assuming when you say 'lightly stocked' you are referring to the fertilizers, and not the amount of fish in the tank. If you're already at 20 ppm nitrate, that means there is food for the plants in your water, they aren't starving to death I'm assuming. How long have you been dosing the current amount of fertilizer, and is there something that happened to the plants that made you think they aren't as healthy as they could be? If everything looks good I would say not to worry about hitting a specific level of something (of course this doesn't apply to ammonia and nitrites!) Hope this helps a little bit and good luck!