SupersoNick95

Yeah, sounds right. Just wish the tidal had more room for biomedia. I can barely fit any into the basket to have room left for filter floss.

The media within the filter has been cycled for about 6 months. I used the filter in a 10 gallon and 5-gallon krib grow out tank and neither had issues with water paremeters, water changes every month. It just hasnt been running within this specific tank for that long so maybe ill just move it to an empty area where i dont want to plant. The media within the Tidal has been cycled for about 6 months. I used the filter in a 10 gallon and 5-gallon krib grow out tank and neither had issues with water parameters going from tank to tank. I only needed to do water changes every month. It just hasn't been running within this specific tank for that long so maybe ill just move the sponge to an empty area where i don't want to plant.

I think the Coop sponges are perfect. Not too fine which means less cleaning. All that matters for the health of the fish is biological filtration which the large coop sponges provide plenty once cycled properly. Maybe buy an aquaclear or seachem tidal to go along with the sponges? I just don't know how your mobility issues would factor into cleaning. Sponges are by far the easiest for maintenance. I just bought an Aquaclear 20 for a planted nano tank on my desk. I love to "over filter" both for mechanical and biological filtration. I own sponges, a canister filter, and several HOB's and by far my favorite is the aquaclear. Id even swaps my canister on my Tanganiykan tank for a 110 if I could but I just can't be bothered. I own a Seachem Tidal and it is great, runs dead quiet but I just can't stand the shape of the basket, it's my only gripe and it's a pain to clean the motor. You can really stuff the Aqua clears full of stuff and they are super easy to remove from the tank for a yearly cleaning. I have seen many complain of noise but I haven't had an issue... yet lol

I am currently running a medium sized Co-op sponge in my 20 gallon planted tank. I am looking to get better mechanical filtration and would also like more floor space for planting dense background plants. I like Sponges for the simplicity but cleaning them is annoying and they take up valuable space. I am currently running an old Seachem tidal 35 which has cycled media within it, in conjunction with the sponge. Would it be risky to remove the sponge in one shot or should I wait some time before taking out completely from the tank? This tank has been running for almost a year, I'd say about 10 months.

Hi everyone, I had posted a thread on this topic months ago but things have changed. I’ve re-homed all my Shell dwellers as they were making it hard for the other Tang fish in my tank to swim around. The larger fish would rarely ever cross the shellie colony at the center of the tank. Since rehoming them, the other fish have been behaving much more enjoyably, swimming around and exploring places in the tank they’ve never seen. here is my current stock: leleupi (1) brichardi (1) Julidochromis Marlieri (1) synondontus multipunctatus catfish could I fit one more small tang cichlid in this tank? I was thinking a calvus or compressiceps. I’ve seen plenty of videos of 30 gallon long tanks with many many more tang cichlids, for example Prime Time Aquatics has a tang tank with about 10 tang cichlids, even some breeding pairs. I don’t plan on having any breeding pairs so I figured adding one more cichlid would be okay just wanted to check with anyone who may know more. Maybe Zenzo can chime in. I’ve got two large rock piles on either side of the tank with an empty area in the middle that I may add more rocks to just to provide more hiding spaces.

Hello everyone, I’ve had this tank running for about a year now, and everything was fine until recently. I had explosive growth from my Java fern, crypts, and dwarf sag but it all died off about 2-3 months ago. My aquarium never really got near 10-20 ppm of nitrate but plants always grew well despite this. All of a sudden everything just stopped growing and turned brown. Oddly enough, the Anubias have seen explosive growth in the past couple of weeks. However, the new Java fern I added is already melting and so are the valisneria, despite adding a good amount to the coop easy tabs. Anything but Anubias or Swords seems to die off instantly once in the tank. do I just need more nitrates? What range of ppm should I be aiming for? I’m dosing quite a lot every week, almost double what the easy green bottle recommended for a high light aquarium and the nitrates never seem to rise past 20. Maybe it’s a lighting issue? I’m using a Fluval 3.0 with the light intensity somewhere at around 20% for about 5-6 hours a day. I’ve attached photos of my tank along with a water test and my fluval light settings.

OHHHHHH now I see what you mean! That actually sounds really cool! Ill slowly work to set up another mound. The central shell dweller colony sounds awesome. Thanks Zenzo!

Here is the scape after the addition of several more rocks and cave like structures. Also added several more shells. Aggression has subsided significantly!

I have this juvenile altolamprologus and I have a feeling it’s a compressiceps but I’m not 100% sure. anyone know whether this is a calvus or compressiceps, and if so which color variant? Thanks!

I’ll go ahead and add more shells to the right side of the tank along with more rock structures Appreciate the response, but how would more shells help curb aggression from the leleupi? Since moving it to the time out tank all the other fish are doing great. Maybe I just need to add more cave structures to the rocky end of the tank like you mentioned.

Here is the current stocking of my tank: 40 Breeder: 1x Brichardi (Juvenile) 1x Leleupi (Juvenile) 1x Julidochromis Marlieri (Juvenile) 1x Compressiceps (Juvenile) 6x Similis Shell Dwellers (several fry in the tank but I am planning on selling once they are of decent size) All the fish are peaceful, except the Leleupi. It has established itself as the "tank boss" and doesn't let the brichardi, Compressiceps, or Julie near the rocky area you can see in the picture. I have noticed the Brichardi has had its fins nipped and constantly stays in the corner of the tank. I moved the Leleupi to another tank with the same parameters in an attempt to disrupt the hierarchy of the tank. All of the other fish are timid, granted the Shellies will defend their corner of the tank quite well, not even the leleupi goes there. Will this "reset" the Leleupi's territory? What else can I do? Rearranging the rocks should be a last resort as I really like the look.

Hi Zenzo, appreciate the response! however I don’t plan on having a pair of brichardi, I only plan on having one, as to avoid a large colony.

Originally had a 20 long tank for a species only tank of Similis shell dwellers. I have recently upgraded to a 40 breeder and have added a goof amount of rockwork on one end of the tank. I currently have about 11 Shellies (6 adults, 5 babies which are pretty small but are readily eating lightly crushed flake and adult frozen brine shrimp) and a Synondatus Mulipunktatus catfish, which supposedly only grows to maximum of 5 inches. (correct me if I'm wrong though.) I'd like to add about 2-3 more cichlids to the tank. avoiding any breeding pairs to curb aggression. (1) leleupi (1) Brichiardi (1) Julidochromis I am not very interested in breeding the Shellies past the 11 that I already have as its a hassle to keep them alive and the increased frequency of feeding has led to several outbreaks of bladder snails. So any new babies being picked off is not an issue for me. would the new cichlids bully the shellies to death? I've seen many videos online of aquarists keeping shellies with much larger fish, specifically Prime Time Aquatics and King of DIY, who himself kept them successfully with a school of 12 frontosa (albeit in a much larger tank)! Please feel free to share your opinions!

I have 6 shellies (Similis), which started breeding a couple months ago. I am planning on growing the colony to a max of about 12 fish. All is well on that front as i have been diligently caring for and feeding the babies. However, this tank used to house an amazon style setup with lots of plants. I remember when I purchased a plant from a local store, it had a a singular bladder snail. Paid it no mind at first (big mistake) and let it thrive in that tank and never noticed the population growing past one singular snail. Fast forward a month or two i transplanted the whole ecosystem to a 20 tall, and left the 20 long with only sand. After I set up the Tanganyikan tank i started to notice a small uptick in the snail population. After the Shellies began to breed i was forced to do twice daily feeding of the fry using Hikari Fry Food. (I missed one day of feeding and the whole population of fry died). After the first set of fry died i made sure to stick to a strict schedule of feeding. This is when the snail population began to boom. I attempted physical removal of the snails and that only lasted a day or two as i always missed some or they had laid eggs that are hardly visible. They reproduce extremely quickly, and I am assuming the heavy feeding is helping them achieve this at a much higher rate. (Is it true that bladder snails reproduce asexually?) I then added a small amount of aquarium salt and that seemed to kill them off for about a week but they have since re-appeared in even larger numbers. What can i do to get rid of them? Will they begin to die off as i stop feeding as often once the fry have grown up? Or am i stuck with them forever? I just don't want them to spread to my two other tanks which at this point feels inevitable. I know they really aren't an issue and actually help clean the tank, but much like Dean i find them unsightly.

Yeah I think that’s the best course of action. Crossing my fingers. Because since getting into this hobby I’ve had bad luck when it comes to aggression from fish that should be fine together 😞

I can’t really relocate the fry at this point. They’re much too small, and I don’t have another tank. my goal is to keep the two kribensis. Whether that means one has to be moved to another tank then that’s fine. I have a 20 gallon community tank with some tetras and a keyhole cichlid. Think I could move the male there?

So I have had a kribensis pair for about a month in a 20 gallon with the intention of letting them breed. so far they have produced free swimming fry. The fry are doing well, and have progressed to eating crushed flake. Both parents would also care for the fry, taking turns making sure there were no predators in the tank, even though it’s just them and their offspring in the tank. just yesterday the weirdest thing happened… the male started caring for the fry but then also started incessantly chasing the female around. I found her this morning hiding behind the hang on back filter. She had badly damaged fins. I have since put the male in a time out net within the tank. The female is already back to her normal self. will this behavior from the male continue once I reintroduce him? Her fins are so badly damaged that I’m afraid of putting him back in. It’s so discouraging because up until this point they had become such a nice bonded pair, always swimming together. I have a community tank I can put him in, but it would suck not having them in the species only tank. Attached is a picture of the female and her badly damaged fin. It’s almost completely gone 😞

Yeah, I’m going to rehome the female and keep then male. He only seems to get aggressive during breeding, which is literally every two weeks 😂

UPDATE: fish is acting normal again. Since they all look very similar it’s hard to differentiate which was the one acting weird so I can no longer monitor him😂 I had decided on doing the quarantine trio (minus maracyn) so just paracleanse and ich x. He began to behave normal after one day of treatment. I ceased feeding for 5 days and just fed them frozen brine shrimp which induced some pooping. Their poop looks good. all fish acting normal!

I currently have a planted community tank with: Breeding Pair of Apisto Cacatouides 5 Phantom Tetras 5 otos I am thinking of taking back the female to my LFS because they began to breed and The male patrols the tank and chases anything that gets close to the bottom third of the tank. The tetras are stuck in one corner scared for their lives making the tank look stagnant. I fear that this is unnecessarily stressing out the apistos and the entire community as well. My LFS has some Male Apisto Viejita, and am interested in purchasing one. Could i house two males of differing sub species of apisto in a 20 high? would they still become territorial even if there are no females present. I would be fine with just the original Male apisto but i have fallen in love with the entire species and would enjoy having just one more with different paterns. EDIT: Could i substitute the female apisto for a bolivian ram?

I’m thinking this may be the issue. These fish are very feisty and constantly go at each other several times a day. Wouldn’t be surprised if it got damaged through fighting. Any way to help fix this issue?

The free swimming is completely normal. I have ceased feeding the entire tank for about 4 days just to give its stomach a rest. No sign of breeding tube or anal bulge but I’m not 100% sure so I’ll give it a good look once I get home. today I observed it throughout the day and it was swimming much more often and interacting with the other fish. I did notice before I left that it began fighting with another Shellie and then started laying down again.

The shell is an ikea cabinet, but I reinforced it with 2x4’s and a plywood sheet for the tank to sit on. It’s a little less rigid than I would prefer. I’m moving out within a year or two so it should hold until then.

UPDATE: I made the mistake of citing the wrong filter model in my initial post! It’s a sun sun 302, with the pump mounted inside. so flow turned out to be slightly too much so I went and ordered a ball valve to put on the outflow and drilled extra holes in the spray bar as well! It’s working great so far! my main purpose in buying a canister was for noise and aesthetic purposes. I built a diy stand which has doors that way I can hide the filter underneath and it’s done a great job of keeping ten tank near silent. here’s a picture of the ball valve installed:

pH: 8.4 Nitrates: below 20ppm Hardness: 300ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Ammonia: 0ppm KH/Buffer: 180-300ppm Water Temperature: 79 degrees so recently I have noticed one of my Shellie’s acting oddly. He will sit like this for most of the day but then infrequently he will get up and swim around and find a shell to inhabit. when it does go around swimming he looks perfectly normal. He (or she) sometimes also will display against some of the other Shellie’s through tail slapping. It sitting at the bottom only recently started and was somewhat sudden. I was gone for a day in University and came back to it sitting at the bottom. It seems healthy other than this weird behavior. Could it have been that he or she got picked on by one of the other Shellie’s displaying dominance? I know they can be quite aggressive towards each other and may even kill each other. Tank is a 20 long with 6 shellies. Shell to fish ratio is about 5-1. It’s also “overfiltered” with a canister filter meant to handle around a 55 gallon tank.