josephnoctum

So all my tanks are doing good and lots of breeding has happened over the last few months. It kicked off with my Bolivian Ram babies hatching out on Aug 8th. Then my Honey Gouramis got in the mood and I had fry on the Aug 19th from them. Then just this week I saw a little red dot on one of my tanks and discovered my Super Red Bristlenose pair had babies a couple of weeks ago. They are all in grow out tanks right now and doing great but I’m been finding various conflicting information on how big/old each of these species should be before rehoming them/selling them. Anyone here know what a good grow out time or size should be for each of these species?

Ah! I didn't realize from reading the first post your where dyi'ing your own Repashy. That's pretty cool. I for me I think the real stuff is completely worth it. Great ingredients, and easy / time saving, but DYI'ing your own is pretty awesome.

So I feed a mixture of things, Algae wafers, Repashy, Bottom feeder crumbles, and veggies. For the Veggies I just take bamboo skewers and then push the veggies through them and skewer it to the substrate. I've seen others take stainless steel forks and bend them so they sit flat on a bare bottom tank while holding the veggies in place. For Repashy I have small Tupperware that I make mine in and follow the 2 parts water to 1 part Repashy to make a bit more solid jello with it. I'll then cut that up and put it the left overs into the fridge. It can last up-to two weeks in there but I usually run through it in about a week. For my plecos I mix the Morning Wood and the Solient Green Repashy together. So one teaspoon of each kind with four teaspoons of water lasts me about a week.

Dremel and PVC cutter are my two most used tools since I started keeping fish. Congrats on the spawn, Rams are ones I have not bred yet but they are going in the next tank I set up.

Others have said this but it I'll reinforce it. Especially in Betta's they are not the "beginner" fish they are marketed as or possibly once were. They are difficult and as someone who has kept a ton of bettas and been absolutely heartbroken every-time one passes early (or even late in life, I do love Bettas). There is lots that can be said about the way they are kept prior to reaching their home, or the genetics of how they are interbred. As for Pea Puffers they are a more advanced fish to keep. One of Cory's videos helped me out early on in my fish keeping journey where he and Dean we're discussing that no matter what fish will die on you, and most of the time you don't know why. With all the experience they have they still have fish die on them but they have the experience to help give the fish good lives and help them have a chance to recover if they get sick. That experience comes with time, and with loses. If you are feeling the need to take a step back and take a breath then do that but I encourage you to not give up. It sounds like you care about the fish and the hobby in general and you are the kind of people we need in this hobby. People who care.

^^^^^ There we go, that's the answer I was trying to phrase. I pretty much love them all and when I get a new one into the house that I haven't kept before I'm obsessed with that one until the next comes along. Still love the last one just as much but it's that endless new discovery that keeps me hooked.

Tetras like a darker environment to breed in, usually they trigger in spring around dusk, sometimes during a storm. Water changes, soft water that is a bit cooler, dim light. Depending on the species I've used a soft storm effect mode on my Fluval Aquasky to help trigger breeding. Some of your easier tetras to breed are Ember Glowlight Emperor Black Phantom and Pristella's Although I would call no Tetra "easy" to breed. I usually make a grate out of crafters mesh held in place by suction cups to suspended above the bottom of the breeding tank so the eggs will drop through but the adults can't get to them to eat them. I'm currently working on conditioning some Toucan Tetras (Tucanoichthys tucano) and Gold Tetras (Hemigrammus rodwayi) to breed In the breeding tank I'll mix it 50% water from the tank I conditioned them in and 50% RO water for that nice softness, then do a 50% cooler water change with the RO water right at dusk. If they don't breed that night the next night I'll do the water change again and then add in some storm lighting. No breeding in 2 days I put them back in their regular tank and try again in a week or so. It does help if it's actually a stormy night when you put them in the breeding tank, they can feel that barometric pressure drop inside the aquarium.

Such a tough questions. As all the rest have said, Apistos are easier and friendlier (for the most part, there is always that one fish who is like, naw hold my beer I'm gonna fight them all!). But a really good pair of Black Rams can be so exciting, rewarding, and just straight up fun when you get it right.

I have a series of tanks I'll use, display tanks for holding colonies of the fish and conditioning them, breeding tanks for when I want them to spawn, and then grow out trays and tanks for the fry. It take a little time and experience to get your own process down but you can develop a system. It also helps to get a LFS, a local fish club or group/community, and participate in things like Aquabid to help you move fish quicker once they are of size to sell. I can say that for me early on there was a couple of phone calls to my significant other of, "well honey we have to go pick up another 10 gallon at the store tonight. We're going to have another batch of kitchen counter babies" Luckily for me she is just as into it as I am.

Yup that's exactly what those are, Malaysian trumpet snails. I usually will leave a few of them in my tanks because I don't mind that they churn the sand for me and I'll feed the extra babies to my loach. Now I'm not 100% sure about that puffer. I've never kept one of those but I know my friends Pea Puffer will hunt these down with a vengeance and I've seen no ill effects from it.

I've got two pots of that from the Co-Op and it is doing so well. Typically I've got a "Garden" tank that I'll put new plants in to, still in the pots to allow them to adjust to my water and let them go through their melt/conversion periods. I've never had to do that with any of the plants delivered from the Co-Op though, just pull straight out of the pot and go. My stellatus is doing so good it's about to have a large trimming that's headed to my porch pond in about 2 weeks.

I'm in agreement with the others on this. Usually I'll go with community tanks for displays in the living room... or kitchen.. or bedroom... or home office, ( 🤣 )but for breeding projects I'll set up species only tanks. For me it just makes the process of taking care of and conditioning the parents, and separating the fry or eggs (if necessary for the species type) much easier. If you don't have the space a divided tank can make a good option.

This caused me to look around and all but three of mine are Aqueon or Fluval. I want to check out some others but I keep going back to what's working for me.

Yeah... I'm printing that one out. I usually don't do stickers on my tanks but I'm about to buy a new CO2 canister and that is going front and center.

I personally have gone the aqua soil route, I typically will do layers with the aqua soil sandwiched in between and capped with sand (personal preference). I will rarely add root tabs unless I have a heavy root feeder that is struggling after it's initial melt and then re-establish. I'll take the easy green and actually split the dosing out for the week. This was an idea I got from Bentley Pascoe. For example a 30 gallon would get three pumps of Easy Green a week but instead of all three at once, I'll split that every other day with a day off for water change day. (i.e. Sunday 1 pump, Monday nothing, Tuesday 1 pump, Wednesday nothing, Thursday one pump, Friday nothing, Saturday water change)