nabokovfan87

Could it have been introduced via hardscape or has the tank been established for a while? I think it's a type of moss of some sort based on structure it is showing, but entirely guessing. Coloration looks slightly pale for most mosses.

I feel your pain. Has it been something that focuses on one specific plant type or is it on everything? Broad leave plants only? @Seattle_Aquarist might be the one to help you out here too!

Interesting! Let me check the dimensions. I think Racheal's videos on hillstream/borneo loaches are so interesting. When someone has a love of a specific species and spends so much time with them, it's really cool to be able to get those insights. Slightly smaller version of a 40B. PLENTY of space and plenty of room. Very cool. What kind of wood and rocks do you like to use? I saw this random EU rock that might be available here. Looks like Seiryu a bit, but without the calcium stripes. It's called Rhino / Rhino skin stone. Slate might be a pretty awesome option as well.

Hello @Caidenh24 On the ACO Youtube there's a talk given by an aquatic vet. She recommends that for anything you're considering using looking up what is called an MSDS or MDS (essentially, it's a breakdown for safety across manufacturing which gives safety type roles the ability to use chemicals they may not be familiar with, proper storage, disposal, use, etc.) As a part of those sheets it has the chemical breakdown of what is actually in the meds. Some of them will say "proprietary formula" but sometimes you'll get an insight into some differences. One might have the same anti-bacterial med but in a different dose, or with something else mixed in. an example I can share.... API vs. the Fritz meds, for me I prefer the API versions (general cure, erithromycin) just because they are a bit finer and dissolve easier. It's a slight difference, but given the choice between the two my preference would be for the one that's slightly easier to use. Melafix MSDS: https://apifishcare.com/pdfs/products-us/melafix/api-melafix-safety-data-sheet.pdf Consists of Cajeput oil (botanicals) Maracyn MSDS: https://fritzaquatics.com/assets/files/uploads/Mardel-Maracyn-SDS-2014.pdf Consists of Erithromycin (antibacterial med)

I am making some Chicken shawarma tacos tonight for dinner. Pretty good and a bit light. If you want some "inspiration" for alternate taco options 😉 @Torrey Was the one you're running something that was ran on year 1? I'd love to see some examples if possible. Seems like an interesting challenge. I feel like I should have something for @Beardedbillygoat1975's contest, but I really don't know how much progress, if any, I've really made recently.... Again, really awesome stuff. Thank you everyone for putting this stuff together.

I actually really like the tank! If you've never had a tank dedicated to amanos, I'd highly recommend that with something like otos and just focus on plants and a passive enjoyment. I guarantee there will be plenty of activity to keep you interested. Again, that's if it's something you haven't had before. If you want to do something a bit more exotic, I'd recommend checking out some of the talks by Chris Lukhaup and trying to find something unique that he shows off that is interesting to you. For me, I really like the tiger shrimp, black rose shrimp, jade shrimp, etc. They all have unique water requirements and you can find something that fits your water and potentially be a "fancy" shrimp that isn't common to the hobby or your local shops. He does have a talk on the Aquarium Co-Op youtube, members only. It's a really fun one. For more details obviously on care requirements you need to do a bit of research, but it's a good one to try to see all the varieties and a bit about how new varieties are introduced.

a 29G tank (not sure if you mean 29G or specifically 30G, I'll assume 30G!) has the height which gives the hillstream loaches a place to hide. Mine liked to hide on the back of the tank, right by the filters because it was a black background. When they weren't there they were on the stacks of pleco caves and would eat aufwuchs and such on the bottom of the tank. If you want to keep those in particular, I think that's the type of a tank you want to setup to enjoy them the best. Something like a 20L where you have a lot of floor surface and not necessarily height. If you want room for hardscape you can run a 29G (same dims as the 20L, just taller). If you have a 30B / 30L compared to a 30H tank (24" long) then I think that's also a perfect tank size. I would have the filter central to the tank and accent each corner aside the tank with an airstone or something like the ziss bubble bio. Lots of flat rocks for them to graze on will also be extremely beneficial environment for them. Even something like pottery from the garden section is the type of ceramics mine enjoyed hanging around on. As far as temp / environment. Corys, rasboras, barbs, loaches, etc. will all enjoy similar temp / aeration as the hillstream loaches or borneo loaches.

Sounds just about perfect! The only thing that would make it better is if you said it was a 65G lowboy style tank. I found one.... One day it'll be mine! First, I will say that you might want to consider removing the fish you're planning to, modify the scape slightly (move things around to force new territories or just change the traffic patterns in the tank) and then let things settle for a few weeks before adding anything. This also gives you a gate/timeline of when to put things into a QT tank while the display settles due to the changes. Ok so... rummy nose and emperor tetras seem to be the focus on this one and from what I've heard emperor's can be a bit tank-bossy compared to smaller fish. Not detrimentally or aggressive, but they are bigger and might scare other fish or intimidate them. I think this sort of pushes you towards a specific fish size or fish that end up in a certain area of the tank. I would lean towards more tetras, just due to compatibility or something that is a bit reclusive. I don't have specific answers for the second one. Maybe a bolivian ram? As for a tetra, these might work if you add a smaller school into the tank. -Penquin tetra -black emperor tetra (aquahuna has them) -glowlight tetra (unique, very cool fish) -cardinal/albino cardinal tetra (slightly bigger than neons) -black neon tetra (slightly bigger than neons) Also: -Celestial Pearl Danios (temp, just verify it's fine) -pencilfish (similar region of origin) -clown plecos -dwarf praecox rainbows (I would think these are specifically the ones that fit)

How is the tank doing?

I have ran three or four tests so far. I just setup the fully modded basket last night with the modified intake. I'll let you know here shortly. I have everything in the basket sealed now and this is the first test with those little slits sealed up as well as the window cutout. On previous texts, I do notice some issues. so it isn't perfect but I think there is a happy medium that will work well and remove the skimmer. Thank you!

I've been waiting to see how big they get. I mean maximum they are about 1/4-3/8" at best. Very very thin. They had free reign of the tank when I was sick and plenty of food at that time. I really don't know what it is but they are tiny things. Reminds me of..... These at 19 minutes into the video. Next time I see one I'll try to record a video with scale or something to give a good idea of size. https://youtu.be/XyThB1akG8c

The video posted, those are much much bigger than mine. Probably 4x the size.

Only a 29G tank. 😂

In my 55 and 75 I ran two 75G rated HoBs and then I had one or two ziss bubble bios. Easily id suggest: 1. HoB on each "section" of the tank intake on the left, output towards the center of each. 2. Airstone in the middle of those two. 3. Thermometer underneath each HoB I had Borneo loaches, they did pretty good for a long time, but eventually I had issues when the tank crashed.

Help the shrimp too. Yes. I'll check salinity with refractometer in a little bit. I assume it won't touch the worms. I really wish I had some fish to eat them. Might have to get some barbs.

What do you mean 10 ppt? Definitely possible. I think they were in the tank before they were in the filter at all. I had been running tests on filtration and swapping parts to remove the skimmer and modify the efficiency for the seachem tidal.

Pretty much all of them I think prefer high flow, but I think it depends what you mean by low flow? Are you able to add an air stone to increase oxygenation? The big thing apart from flow is also temp. Some, like hillstream might want a cooler tank than other species just to boost up that oxygenation. I cannot speak to it personally, but it's just the two things to research for any loach.

In this thread Odd duck had posted a regimen for treatment. It's really good in my view and I'd recommend looking at that. Secondly, there are different methods for deworming. PLEASE watch the video ACO made for treating with paracleanse. It's also linked on the store page and there is a blog article. To your list of meds, also have salt on hand. For any admins or mods, on mobile, I can't erase the text below because it has a usertag on it. On desktop that issue doesn't happen but on my phone it does random things like this with letters when I try to delete text. (Android phone). @Odd DuckhhasDuckhhDuckhhasDuck I would suggest a bit of research first, then understand if you have enough meds on hand. You're good to have to dose it 2-3 times and use multiple medications, give the fish rest, etc.

I added the second round of Paracleanse for this dose as well as salt. First dose didn't touch the worms, wasn't expecting it to, but I'm just noting it here for the sake of full information. Thinking back to the timeline of events I think there is two or three potential points of logic for this series of issues. 1. The meds were added and then a few days after full treatment (5 days) the worms were seen in the WC at night. I removed the air stone several days after treatment, worms noticed on about day 9-10. 2. Between everything above it was right after the house got sick and I wasn't able to keep an eye on tthings.I was the last to get sick. As a result of this the filter crashed in the sense of flow and aeration while I was under the weather. 3. Amano shrimp acting very strange and chasing one another. Several days later a few appeared discolored. Oto appear stressed and struggling as well at this time when flow was low. 4. I added the airstone back, fixed the HoB flow and then monitored the situation. 5. Worms reproducing or congregating on the high flow region of the tank (HoB outflow) Possible theories of the above series of events: A. The fish had a parasite and it is now in the water column, should be dealt with chemically with further courses of medication. (Essentially the meds forced the parasite off the fish) otos and corydoras in the tank with amano shrimp B. The shrimp had a parasite. I recall long brown poop on two amanos, one of which has now passed, and I didn't think anything of it at the time. C. Something from the plants, very unlikely, but that's essentially the only thing that is "new". D. It's due to the tank crashing in terms of oxygenation and flow which caused some kind of detritus worms to appear. Nothing in the tank will eat them in the HoB.

I'll have to snag a picture for you tonight. I have two plecos in my tank, only a single piece of wood, and you'd almost never see them if you don't know where to look. Depending what kind of pleco you want you're going to have different locations they like to hang out. Pleco caves are really cool too. Difficult to get the size right so I have a few on hand now as a result. The plecos definitely love caves specifically just to feel safe when hiding out during the day. But, I just wanted to say that the fish will definitely be fine with exactly what you have now and hide perfectly fine. That's their specialty!

Woke up to a dead amano today. I'm guessing something happened and it wasn't able to molt properly? It is one of the red ones.

The two biggest issues are: 1. People getting pets they cannot handle, are illegal, or they don't do any research beforehand and the animal escapes. 2. People do not have a place to surrender pets and would rather screw up nature than euthanize something.

Because it's a 55G I give you one of my favorites for a recommendation. Coloration on the photo isn't great (just a camera thing) but they have this blue and yellow and black banding that really cool to me. Zebra loaches! I think they should be ok with everything you have and it's a bit of a unique fish species. Definitely do research on care and all of that, but I think some of the dwarf loaches might be a good place to look!

Agreed! It's such a nice look in my view too. Worth the extra work on cleaning time. It is definitely exciting and a very.... Impatient time of the hobby for me when a tank is sitting there staring at me. I have a piece of driftwood, a stump type of thing that looks very similar to the one you have! Very cool piece because the fish can get underneath and use it as a cover and hide out, which makes me go right to thinking about corydoras and what not. I think as far as scape and rocks and such I like what you have. I mentioned that stump I have. One of the things I like to do, and again this goes back to species you opt to keep in the tank, is to have an anchor and then have a lean-to type of "cover". So in the family tank I have this piece of mopani held up by a lava rock on one side. My entire goal is to make sure that the fish has a cover because that fish hides all day. She has a favorite piece of wood, she has a specific way she likes to face, and if I adjust things slightly and don't put them back to her satisfaction she lets me know. It's a fun way to approach the tank you have in work here because I think it's a candidate for this type of method. Let's say you have a smaller to medium size rock. You can set that towards the front-center or middle-center region of the tank and then use that to give yourself something to set a piece of wood from the top of your stump and then it arches towards the right of the tank. It gives that piece you have some life because it's a slightly flat shape in some dimensions. It has some movement to the form, but it's also not a ton of cover. It's an arch, an "A" shape but it could have a pretty good aesthetic if there was slightly taller piece of wood with a few branches giving the scape some height. Adding in some rock where the wood meets the sand gives the tank a very nice texture variety I think or can be used to visually stabilize the wood at the specific angle you're wanting to highlight. You can also take the piece of wood you have and invert it. The part that points towards the center of the tank, if it was up, leaning on a good size rock or wrapping around a rock might give that same height to accentuate the 29G and fill the vertical space or the front to back dimension a bit. I would flip the wood in all sorts of directions and take photos of each and just see what you prefer. You might find a piece of wood that goes extremely well with the piece you have to accent it just the right way and slightly boost that cave/cover section underneath that you have right now in your layout. As for plants, I kind of get a dwarf sag vibe from the foreground. I think a wall of pogostemon stellatus octopus would add a nice wall on the back of the tank and highlight the color of the wood really well too! Another option for the back is something like Scarlet Temple or Bacopa Carolinia. If you prefer red as the scheme go with the ST, but if you want to stick with that bright green contrast and making the wood "pop" I think either PSO or the Bacopa will do nicely when it fills in.

Love Jeremy Wade and his shows. Fun fact, he almost died from an Arapaima because he hit him in the chest so hard and made his heart stop. It's one of the few fish he is actually afraid of. Here's the extended clip the news used with that story. Here's an example of how crazy they can be, especially at size. Highly recommend that show if you're into fish or just seeing interesting stuff.