sumplkrum

I guess that means albinos. What strains are you working with? 4 months is a long time. You should be able to tell by body shape and coloring? I'm also thinking albinos tend to be more clear-bodied. Even if the gravid spot isn't dark, maybe you could put a light on them. Have them in a specimen container with a desk light angled behind them. Use a big magnifying glass and get a better picture of the anatomy.

I'm not sure what a 'copper' guppy is supposed to look like. Is this it? Based on the pictures, you have quite a variety. Some females are blond. The males are a bit all over the place. I assume the male was what you wanted. Maybe one of the females was from a different strain or as lefty said, stuck by someone else?

As long as you're culling bad fish it shouldn't be much of a problem. What you don't want is something with a bent back or off-color reproducing. Not selective breeding, but a little bit of population control goes a long way. A few years down the road you might have to 'freshen up' the gene pool, but that's a long way off.

I'm sure you mean 4 week old fry. That's where it's hard to tell. Boys might have a dot of poop back there. A gravid spot will be larger and farther up on the abdomen. I use a large magnifying glass to get a better look. (weird hobby 🙄) At 4 weeks some of the females won't be showing. I'll check them again in another week or two. My strategy is to assume they're all males unless I clearly see a gravid spot. If it is female, I'll move it to another tank. The original male tank, I'll check a few times as they grow. Once you get to six-seven weeks, they should be clearly developed and separated. If you have one straggler female in with the males, it's no big deal. If you have one miss-identified male in your female tank, that could be a problem. Gonopodiums are obvious, but many fish will develop them late. You'll be able to tell it's male just by the coloring/body shape. Keep in mind, some of your best males might not show them until they're a few months old. I've actually purchased adult guppies from a fish store that didn't have gonopodiums just to see what would happen - eventually they did grow in.

If the plant has weak spots in the leaves, the snails will eat it out. But they don't kill healthy plants, especially hardy leaf plants. I did a have problem when I first got some Water Sprite. I just had it floating and they ate the delicate little leaves until there was just a stalk left. That being said, the plant was likely stressed from transit and even with the beating it took I still have some Water Sprite left. I have a tank with Amazon Swords and Vallisneria that was so overrun with ramshorns that the population started dying off. The plants remain undamaged.

I feel like 'Evil Guppy' should be a brand for something. 🤔

Kuli Loaches also come in a 'pygmy' size. I have a few and they're about 25% the size of the normal ones. I also wouldn't put too many Hillstream Loaches in a 15 gal. They're comfortable as a group, but also a bit territorial. I'm not sure they actually hurt each other, but they will fight for dominance.

That's how they decided to ship the tank? 😳 It looks like that tiny pallet is too small for the tank, and there's no padding at all. There's like zero chance it would have arrived to you unbroken. And I guess we can tell who this company is by the box. So we'll know exactly who to NOT to buy a tank from.

The black window cling stuff. It's super quick, and if I want something else, it just peels right off. You don't really need to spray it with water even though the directions say so. It'll stick pretty well regardless. Just roll it onto the tank, press out any bubbles, then trim it to the tank edge with an exacto blade.

I use easy green weekly. Root tabs I only apply to the Amazon Swords once a month or so. I have basic gravel as a substrate and the swords are root hogs. If you're using a fertilized substrate, you might not need root tabs. If your nitrates are too high, try halving your dosage and track how things go from there. In my tanks, plant density is high so I actually double-dose.

I have two of them. One runs five sponge filters, the other runs six. I use gang valves to balance the air and Ziss airstones which I can adjust (tighten or loosen) to control flow. They sit on the top shelf of my tank rack, and all the hosing goes down to the lower racks. I have them sitting on a piece of packing insulation to eliminate any vibration. Then there are a couple more insulation blocks between the pumps and the rest of the room to limit the hum noise. I really never hear the pumps unless the rest of the house is dead silent. So far, I have not experienced them switching into power save mode. I suspect if they are overly noisy, there may be too much pressure trying to push air through the airstone. I have had to adjust the airstones as they started to clog.

Their color 'developes' over time. Kinda fills out as they get older. The patterns won't be different, but the color will fill in or adjust over time. If you're trying to separate the sexes, you want the males apart from the females before they form gonopodiums. If they're starting to show color, watch the anal fins. If it's starting to look like a tube, you gotta get them separated. When sexing it can be difficult to tell sometimes at an early age. I err on the side of caution. I see a nice dark gravid spot, it's a female. Otherwise I assume it's a male still developing. I'd rather have one female in with the males than one male in with all the females.

If the water looks cloudy, I'll clean it. But otherwise, I don't like disturbing the tanks. Cleaning a tank kicks up all the mulm, and a water change means you have to aclimate or risk a shock. I feel like it's more of a risk sturring things up than not. I also have lots of ramshorn snails. Most likely anything there that's harmful, they've already eaten it.

I had similar results. My old API kit says my tap is 7.2, while the coop strips say it's 6.8. I'm practical, and assume that means my water is 7.0. The fish don't seem to care either way, so we're good. 🙃

My exwife would call it an 'ugly fish'. 🙄

I have Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Crunchyroll and all my xbox games. But my tanks are in the living room, and even with the tv on I spend most of my time sitting on the couch and watching fish swim.

Two filters on a 15 gallon is more than enough filtration. Ten fish should be fine unless the molly's are large. However, ten smallish fish should be fine for a 15 gallon. If they are large adult molly's, you will need water changes more often. Having extra filters is not a replacement for water changes. You will always get some algae on the glass. That's pretty normal. If you have lots of it, that's means there's too much light or nutrients. If they are not overfeeding then it's a light problem. If you have green water, that's also a 'light plus nutrient' problem. Unfortunately, you can't really water change your way out of an algae bloom. If the root problem doesn't get solved, it'll just come back. What kind of plants do they have in the tank? You say four, but they could be tiny or very large. Rooted, floating, do you know what type? Having more plants could correct the balance. Darkening the tank for a while will only temporarily solve the problem. It's not a guarantee that your green water won't come back. The root of the problem is that the nutrients in the water (waste, food, minerals) and light are not in balance with the plant load. If you can't reduce the amount of light, your options become rather limited. If timers are not an option, you can put electrical tape over some of the nodes on LED lights. Say block out half or one-third of them to reduce the light intensity.

No light adjustment, but you can do the old trick of putting electrical tape over some of the bulbs to reduce the light. You'll also want a timer. Regular plugin dial ones work fine or the coop sells the wifi ones.

Do you have other plants? Java Fern is a slow grower. A lot of other plants will make use of the nutrients in the water and outgrow it. I have fairly heavily-planted tanks and Java Fern doesn't do much more than hang-on even though everything else is thriving.

The implied need to have so much stuff and added cost. I remember growing goldfish in a garden pond when we were kids. They would freeze over in winter and come back to life in spring. We barely ever fed them because they ate all the bugs and stuff in the garden. There was almost no care and we had a colony that grew, bred, and lived in a thriving environment. My uncle had killifish colonies that he raised in dark tanks with no air, no water changes, and minimum attention. Watching guys on youtube breeding guppy strains in Thailand in half-cut milk jugs and a puddle of water. Then I look at how much stuff I have now (bins of junk), how much money I spend each month, and laugh. 😅

The sponge filters are good for quite a while before you have to clean them. You'll usually see algae starting to grow on them and that's a good sign it may be time to squeeze them out. I leave mine at least a month before messing with them. If you're using the Ziss airstones, you may need to adjust them. The felt inserts do clog over time and reduce your airflow. Just loosen them up a little. Eventually you may need to replace the felt inserts (you get a few extra when you buy them). If you're gravel vacing, that's probably just releasing extra gunck into the water and spiking the nitrites a little. Could also be over-feeding if there's only three fish.

Coop test strips. I have liquid test kits, but rarely use them. If you only have one tank, the couple minutes to use them is fine. However, I have 13 tanks. Dipping test strips is just way easier and I find I test without hesitation rather than just assuming everything is fine. Python Totally worth the money even with the added cost. I'm still using the original one I bought 20 years ago. The hosing is still pliable and in good shape. You'll never have to buy another one. Get the extra hook end to hang it on a tank. I also suggest getting a metal connector to attach to your faucet because eventually the plastic one will get stripped and wear out (you can buy them on Amazon). Probably the next most important thing are meds and having a plan for quarantine. You need to have that figured out before you buy fish. Filters and that jazz are more personal choice and depend on your intended use. Depending on your fish selection, you may not need a heater. Plants you might want to think about. Crushed Coral if you need to buffer your water.

I cut the spout tubes in half with a hand hacksaw. Just go easy since the plastic isn't that thick. No problem at all.

I wouldn't use it as a substrate by itself because it doesn't really have a 'heavy' consistency for holding plants. You'd most likely want to mix it with something else. Another thing, if it's been in storage for a long time, be careful that it hasn't absorbed anything accidentally. If the container isn't in great shape who knows what it's absorbed. Lastly, if you add it to a tank it's going to suck nutrients away from your environment. Once it fills up, it'll slowly leach out. If charcoal is your main substrate that will probably be a big swing affecting your parameters and possibly causing a crash. I'm wondering if it might be better to soak the charcoal it in fertilizer beforehand, then add it to substrate in small amounts as a fertilizing agent. That way you'd have a more controlled nutrient release and can measure the effects over time.

The filter shouldn't need changing that often and it should be plenty strong enough for a 15 gallon tank. Light + Nutrients = algae The trick is that Light + Nutrients also equals plant growth. Right now your tank has an excess of one or the other and the algae is growing faster than the plants can use the excess. It also sounds like no one really has time to care for a tank that needs a lot of attention. My suggestion would be floating plants. They'll block out excess light and use up excess nutrients in the water, essentially out-competing the algae. If you end up with too many floating plants, it's a simple matter to remove a handful to thin them back out.