Parakeett

I am beyond in love watching this tank develop. It started on a coffee table at the beginning of April that I realized wasn’t going to cut it. Within two weeks, I’d built and stained my very first custom stand to sit at the perfect height to appreciate from my couch or sitting on the floor in front of it (20 inches high instead of 30). In May, I fiddled with an easier to maintain hard scape, started adding houseplants directly in for emersed / hydroponic-type growth, and more aquarium plants. A little fiddling with the stocking as my Gold Barbs here grew and found a home in a larger tank in July. Now things are really growing in and getting adjusted to made this tank a central focus of my living room 🤗 This tank is home to 11 harlequin rasboras, a sunset gourami, and this hunk of a long fin bristlenose that I’m excited to see age. Plus a hill stream loach that I have been trying to snag several times a day for a few weeks that refuses to leave for his new spot and I refuse to move any decor to get him. I know in my soul adding CPDs is probably the wrong move, but man would I love to see them here too.

I’ve been trying to get better too while I haven’t watched Jimmy’s, I’ve watched some others. The biggest take-aways from what I’ve watched are bright tank with a dark room, keep your phone parallel to the tank, and patience waiting for fish to be in frame and of going through a bunch of bad photos as you improve. But really as just someone that wants to show people my cute and cool fish, my clarity of images has gone up a lot just remembering to stay parallel to the glass (I put a thin case on my phone so that the camera lens is just barely tucked in and then push the whole phone onto the tank, definitely parallel and then tank and lens are protected!), the moment I tilt even a few degrees to get a better angle, the clarity drops off a cliff. Maybe turning the caves so they directly face a side of the tank you can lay your phone flat against would help too I’m up from all terrible pictures to a decent one in every 10-15 (progress not perfection, right?).

I love your tank! It’s kinda an optical illusion, the left side looks like it goes way further back than the right. So cool!

Yay! Did you see the new club someone started - Space Coast Aquarium Society I think it was called, coop posted about it. I’m a little too far in Sarasota, but maybe close enough for you?

This is wonderful - I always thought the straight blue was too intense, now I want to try all sorts of blends that just have a little bit of blue!

I have a fairly heavily planted 13 gallon with lots of water column feeders (Amazon sword as well that has root tabs) and I feel like I am constantly checking water and finding I don’t have any nitrates (nitrites or nitrates) despite adding 2-3 pumps of easy green 1-2 days before. I just wanted to be sure that there isn’t a technical max if my plants and fish are happy. The new Java fern leaves have a very dark tip and other plants may yellow tips here and there, so I think they are definitely going through the fertilizer faster than I would’ve thought.

I picked up the most beautiful female crowntail betta at an auction at my local aquarium society this week, only to notice she had a very swollen abdomen on the way home. I brought her home and have been keeping in a gallon mason jar short term with 50% water changes twice daily (7.0pH, 78F heater, 0 ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite), but just upgraded to 3 gallon fish safe tub while I figure out what’s happening. I fasted her the first two days, but she has been pooping with no decrease in abdomen size, but scales seem laid flat in a nature position. Appetite has been good since I started feeding this morning. I talked with my LFS owner and he said possibly egg bound and to research further. I have seen a few mentions that crowntail females can have slightly different body shapes, but I wanted another opinion before going in the wrong direction. Thanks!

I picked up the most beautiful female crowntail betta at an auction at my local aquarium society this week, only to notice she had a very swollen abdomen on the way home. I brought her home and have been keeping in a gallon mason jar short term with 50% water changes twice daily (7.0pH, 78F heater, 0 ammonia, nitrate, and nitrite), but just upgraded to 3 gallon fish safe tub while I figure out what’s happening. I fasted her the first two days, but she has been pooping with no decrease in abdomen size, but scales seem laid flat in a nature position. Appetite has been good since I started feeding this morning. I talked with my LFS owner and he said possibly egg bound and to research further. I have seen a few mentions that crowntail females can have slightly different body shapes, but I wanted another opinion before going in the wrong direction. Thanks!

@Guppysnail phew! I was just worried something was going very awry (I mean, it’s still a work in progress in general), but things that eventually fix themselves can enjoy their stay while they’re here. Eventually that piece will sink completely and my snail can enjoy (I pulled it from the tank initially, soaked it in a liquid carbon, and has scrubbed it, when I put it back the biofilm returned with a vengeance). It just happened to be in a very high flow spot so I assumed the worst. Thank you!!

Please calm my soul and tell me I’ve joined the spiderwood biofilm club - it looked so dark initially I panicked and was like ‘how did I get black beard algae so fast in this new tank’? Its technically manzanita wood, but it’s right around the 7 week mark 😅

@Torrey Thanks for having me! That is such a wonderful wealth of experience. It's nice to get to try all sorts of things and find what works for you in the moment. @hannah662parker I did not expect to learn so much about diagnosing and treating fish when I first started, but it definitely makes sense that they're not something you can usually bring into the vet for an exam!

@Fish Folk those are beautiful! I'm hoping my tanks grow in and lush like those - everything aquatic is an exercise in patience for me. I love your new cold water guys, I would be obsessed with them. @Cbass They look super cool and the earth worm feeding is extra fun! I don't think I could ever have multiple tanks of them since they can't cohabitate and they have such specific requirements, but I do like having something different in each aquarium and he has such a personality that I'm glad to have him.

Hello hello! I started with the hobby at the end of February telling my boyfriend I was interested in maybe starting an aquarium since I loved my friend’s at work, but I told him not to worry because I was gonna take it slow a steady and do some research. Two days later I was buying a 13gallon off Craigslist from someone who had over 1000 gallons of aquariums in their home breeding cichlids that had only started fish keeping two years ago, I immediately knew my fate would be similar. I now have 4 aquariums in the apartment - 5ga Marineland Portrait my friend gave me with a murderous betta, 13ga with Panda corys, Ember tetras, and nerite snails currently doing the med trio together after I saw some worms dancing out of a snail, a 20L with my axolotl Soul Eater gifted to me from my aquarium loving work friends, and a 20ga high that I set up because I loved the Gold Barbs too much that the LFS said I could return once my 13ga was cycled. I have been fortunate enough to have had cycled filter media go into all the tanks except the 20high which got someone wood transplants instead. I feel like such a scientist using the master test kit to check on everyone. I have also gone quite plant crazy with mostly Anubias, Java fern, and Amazon sword (but there are a few stem plants I’m trying out) but the lotl got Pothos cuttings out the back instead. I ended up with black beard algae in the 13 gallon already, so everything is just a work in progress, but loving it so far 🤗 I have paused for now for more aquariums, the plan is if I’m still 100% invested in six months and not burned out, then I’ll add a 5 gallon shrimp haven in the bedroom. Added some pictures that show off my aquariums, they’re not all exact of today because I’m a tinkerer, but you get the idea. Have a wonderful day, Jennifer