sumplkrum

I have lots of Java Moss. If it's down near the substrate, it tends to collect crud. If it's too close to the surface, algae tends to grow on it. If you attach it to a wood and it grows well, you have to trim it all the time. I find it works best if you kinda leave it free-floating, like a tumbleweed. The strands kinda grow apart from each other as they reach up for the light and the space between them keeps it as an airy lace. Does really well in my 5 gal fry tanks. There's lots of ramshorn snails to keep it clean and it makes a nice airy carpet for the fry to swim through.

Honestly, I like the diversity of the content. Mixing it up is good. I watch your channels because the videos are good quality and if there is advise, it's common-sense. There are hundreds of other fish channels on youtube. They tend to touch on the same topics, some of them have very high quality production, and the advice is generally good. ... Aquarium Co-op just has a very good presentation. It's not a company or a personality talking to you, it's a friend. As an experienced aquarist, I prefer the long members-only talks. That's probably not-so for the majority of viewers.

Java moss-filtration might be a thing? 🤔

I prefer to keep an opening in the middle of the tank, so the swords would be positioned at either end to fill out the sides. Otherwise, I think that's about right. Enough space to swim, but plenty of veg. Good job.

There are some options to help speed things up. If you know someone else that has a fish tank, or maybe your local store will help, you can get a bit of filter material to help seed the tank with the bacteria you need. There are a few different 'quick start' products that add bacteria to the tank. Adding more live plants won't hurt either.

I let it work it's way into the gravel so the plants can eat it. If you don't have many rooted plants I guess bacteria still eats it, but it becomes unsightly in excess. I don't really vacuum the gravel. I gently swish my hand to move the water near the bottom, then vacuum up whatever loose stuff kicks up. - You could add a powerhead near the bottom of the tank to add more movement. Make sure the fish have somewhere to rest though. You don't want so much flow that they're just constantly fighting the current.

Apologies. I was remembering it backwards. Thanks for the correction.

Ram and Pearl Gourami have been my choices as well. If you go with a Ram, they like the water temp to be 80F. That should work fine with your other fish.

To my mind, that's not even close. But it depends on water change schedule how much you're feeding and a lot of other factors. Is there a problem you're trying to solve, or are you thinking of adding more animals?

Killing the light would be the first thing to do. Algae doesn't grow that well without lots of light. I'd start by turning the light off for a couple days, then reducing the intensity by half after that. You can manually clean up the plants with a clean toothbrush. The algae eater is obviously not doing his job well enough. Long-term, I'm a fan of floating plants. They suck up a lot of the unused nutrients that algae is fond of and kinda solve lighting problems naturally.

If I had the space, I'd try Otocinclus. I had a terrible time finding any to buy last year.

Interesting. Reminds me of the feeder cages you use when carp fishing.

The freshness is preserved. I have like 4 cans in my freezer. It's heat you have to worry about.

That would be your choice. As long as basic needs are met, the fish won't care. If you like the breed you have, more will be more. If you want something that's a change of color or maybe less shy, mix in a new school of something else.

Personally, my corys and guppies go nuts for them. If it takes them a while to finish it, it's giving them something to do. I only put one wafer in the tank at a time. Any more is a waste. Snails also love them, but too much food for snails makes a population explosion.

I'd say more corys. It's not like the tank is overcrowded, so another eight couldn't hurt. The more there are, the more you'll see them.

Making more guppies is a Guppy's super power. Females that breed can store enough sperm to have eight more batches of young. Separating males from females can work eventually, but it's a long-term goal - not an immediate solution. You can add more tanks, ponds, even a swimming pool. Eventually they'll fill that up and you''ll have that many more guppies. ---- If it's not a serious problem, you can just let the population fill up the tanks. Eventually new babies won't survive there any more. Keep an eye on your water parameters. As the tanks get crowded, you might have to do water changes more often. Eventually, you should reach an equalibrium where there are so many adults that new fry just get eaten. ---- The other option is population control. Putting the time into separating the fish by sex and controlling breeding. Start by moving the adult females to one tank, the adult males to another tank, and the babies to the remaining tanks by size. 1. Keep selling what you can. 2. If the adult females have babies, move the babies into the baby tanks. 3. As the babies get larger, separate them by sex into the adult tanks. Keep following the above until you have more control over the population. Then it's your choice how you want to set up males and females to interact.

If it's just 1 or 2 eggs at a time, I'll use my fingers. If it's a bunch, I have a bad habit of dropping some. So I have a little shrimp net that I'll drag along the glass to collect them.

The Octopus and Wisteria and will likely grow way faster than the Vallisneria initially. You'll probably have to trim those plants to keep them in-line. Once the Val roots in, things should balance out a bit better. As the Val gets tall and controls more light, it'll send out shoots and propagate. Then you might have the opposite problem and have to trim the Val. 🤔

Having fish outside they are much closer to nature, so there is a possibility. Birds and other wildlife might transfer something when they come to drink. An undesirable insect might make it's way into the tub. Like a garden, it's only a semi-controlled environment. That being said, fish come from nature and they certainly won't die at the drop of a hat. The common parasites we see in the aquarium hobby aren't going to flood your tubs. It would be reasonable that when you bring the fish back inside, you keep them in their own tank for observation before adding them back into your communities. Personally, I wouldn't bother using meds unless there's an actual noticeable problem that needs to be addressed. Meds themselves are a stressor that your fish don't necessarily need.

For the Rams, make sure your water temperature is at least 80F. They can survive lower temps, but tend to become discolored and unhappy. I do keep Pearl Gourami with Bolivian Rams. The Gouramis might act tough if the Rams are young, but the Rams will be the real bosses of the tank as they get larger. Generally they get along well as the Pearls will habitat the top of the tank and Rams will stay closer to the bottom. Plan a layout that breaks line of sight using structure and plants in case there are hostilities. It's probably a good idea to have a backup tank in case things go bad. If it does turn into a blood bath, it'll be because of the cichlids.

I use little terracotta pots for plants I want to protect from Corys. They sell tiny sizes at Home Depot. I don't see them on the website, but I have about a dozen I picked up at the store. They're about 1.5 inch in diameter. Plant goes in, then a small rock on top to hold it down. I like to bury most of the pot in the substrate so there's just a circular border around the plant roots. Works ok for shallow-rooting plants and holding down anubias and java fern. You could also put root weights around a bundle of pearl weed. I'd probably put a weight on each end, then shove it as a strip into the substrate.

Dragonfly Nymphs are nasty predators. But they're underwater bugs that don't really come out of water until they're ready to morph into Dragonflies.

Personally, I'd leave the fry where they are. You'd probably have to tear that tank apart to net them out, and the stress on them might kill them. Let nature take it's course. You have the other tank with fry so those are your backups. And if the fish are spawning this readily, you'll have more batches in the future.

As long as the fry has somewhere to run to, you'll be fine. Generally, the parents are too fat and lazy to really chase them down and the babies are darty enough to get out of the way. You might lose a few babies that are too dumb to move, but that's good natural selection. Also, the mother guppy is usually fine with the fry. It's the other fish that will chase them. The male might bump into her hoping to grab some as they pop out.