MAC

@Daniel the swordtail is a "wild" type of some sort, helleri being my guess as well. As for those eggs??? I have no ideas, did you get a frog in there? @Aubreyim going with mottled sculpin!

Id?

That's rough. Apartments are the worst. I'm always in the back of my mind concerned something will break, leak, or change and the landlord will lay the smackdown.

Live-bearers are great. I'd like to get into some of the more exotic/rare--and sometimes less prolific ones soon!

So, the first tank, bear with me as work out a way to discuss these things in any sort of sensible order. I imagine every week I'll do a tank? I dont know, we'll see. The first tank I'll share is the centerpiece tank in the living room. The Plat Fatties tank. So named because it houses the hungries platy fish you can imagine. There is a TV in the corner by the tank and the fish swarm over to beg for food from the people on television. More on them later. The tank is a 40g breeder. Numerous yellow/red platys, a red lyre swordtail, three Praecox rainbows, a Melanotaenia Splendida inornata, a reticulated siamese algae eater (Crossocheilus reticualtus), a female betta, and a steatocranus tananti who was getting bullied in another tank and had to go somewhere. The rainbows are fairly new additions to the fish collection and I am really looking forward to adding more. Reticulated SAE are super underrated algae eaters, I dont think they get mentioned enough. I am finally enjoying this tank again. For quite some time this tank was way, and I mean way overstocked. The platys were some of the first fish we had gotten two years ago. When I was a kid I had livebearers at various times so I thought a good community tank starter fish would be some platys for a newly acquired 20 gallon long. We started with four that were yellow with red fins but soon picked out a few blue ones to add some mixing colors. It was nice little tank and almost immediately we were spotting the first small fry. Anyone see where this story is going? For a while it was great. I think watching baby fish born in the tank and grow up was a big part in getting my girlfriend hooked in the hobby but it was also a double edge sword. We were getting a bit too many fish and discussions about rehoming some or getting something to manage fry population was rejected and instead it was suggested we just upgrade them to a bigger tank. Was I going to say no to getting a bigger tank? No I was not. But here's the thing about upgrading your livebearer population to a bigger tank; you don't resolve the issue of overpopulation, you only delay it. Fast forwarding a year or so and the platys had their own 40 gallon breeder, population out of control, a whole mashup of color variations going on and now we were getting fish with obvious deformities like crooked spines. Whenever I looked at the tank I could only think about how out of control the situation had gotten. What to do? There was a number of options to reduce the platy population. Aside from just upgrading them to a bigger tank, I instead settled on the second most irresponsible option; I just split the population between other tanks. Because thats not something I'll have to address later on down the road... But anyway, every platy that wasn't the yellow and red variety was removed from the tank, a significant reduction in population. I planted a few more fast growing stem plants and the pothos really got established helping with maintaining good water quality. A few other fish made their way into the tank here and there and seemed to check the platy fry population enough to keep things in order. To wrap this up I do want to say that platys, in my opinion, are one of the best fish in this hobby. Ours are super fun little water pigs that think every time you are remotely near they are going to get fed. A great fish to introduce someone new to keeping fish especially if you want to experience baby fish in the tank. Thanks for checking this out.

I'll start this off by simply stating I have no idea what I'm doing. I have packed a two bedroom apartment with more aquariums that most people would consider reasonable. The story of how this all came to be may eventually get unpacked little by little going forward but the rundown is this: I left a job and lifestyle that kept me away from home for prolonged periods of time, I found myself with an unfamiliar amount of free time, and I moved in with a girlfriend who has no problem with fish tanks completely taking over every room. From there, things just kept going farther and farther down the fish keeping rabbithole. One tank turned into two, two into four, and four into concrete blocks and 2x4 racks across two walls of a bedroom. Its been insane. I decided the next evolution in this hobby would be to actually interact with other fish keepers. Aside from the occasional YouTube comment, I do not engage with any other hobbyists. This is my first foray and hopefully when things in the world are a big less complicated with social interaction I would be up for driving a few hours a month to join a local club, but for now, this will do. So, what is this Journal? Basically I am going to go around the apartment and feature a tank at a time. Talk about that tank, its story, what I've learned from it, its inhabitants and any other thing that comes to mind. Like I said in the beginning, I have no idea what I'm doing. This is going to a real life look into whats going on with these aquariums. I am going to likely have some things people think are good ideas, and I imagine some folks with look at a tank and wonder what was I thinking. Cool. I want to get better at this. Eventually, someday, maybe, we can ditch the apartment and find a house and really get crazy about this stuff. There is alot out there I want to keep. Endless projects I want to pursue. Lets see how this goes.

It's hard to make out in the pictures but there's some white scuff or damage behind both eyes above the pelvic fins and around the base of the dorsal. Also a similar white bump on one eye. Probably going to end up moving the pair away from the fry into a separate tank and see if anything improved.

Update ~20% water change on Saturday and noticed stringy poop. Actually more like a fine hair in diameter, dosed General Cure. Today much more inactive and clenched fins but still hanging out with fry and puttering around. One of the areas that had looked like a scrape or scuff seems to be slightly raised like a small white pimple. I'll try to get a picture when the lights come back on. If anyone has an idea what could be going on I'd appreciate any help. Right now I'm treating as if it's a parasitic infection with GC and will be increasing water changes. I'm wondering if I'd be wise to remove her and get set up in a hospital tank to treat with salt and/or additional meds.

First, Temp78 Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 20 Gh/kh 3/3 Ph 7.0 I have a pair of pelviachromis taeniatus alone in a 29g with about 2 week old fry. Today I noticed the females color has completely changed and she looks a bit ragged. There's no change in her towards the fry but she is now hyper aggressive towards the male. This is their first spawn and also mine with dwarf cichlids. My concern is obviously what might be going on with her, but also if it would be a good idea to remove the fry to grow out in their own tank. Thanks all

It's not for the long term, but I found the hob to be a great spot for starting avocado trees

609/21.75/28 This includes four totes/patio pond(s)

Replace your hob filter cartridge every 2-4 weeks...

The Chazy formation! I love Lake Champlain, family has a long history there. I even have a secret spot to find trilobite fossils on one of the Hero Islands.

It may just be the area that I'm in, but for some reason 36" x12.5x 17" tanks have been showing up on craigslist. I use cinderbocks and 48" 2x4s to hold tanks and the 36" fits perfect between the stacked blocks without sticking out wider than the rack itself. The extra footprint of the 40b would be nice for the fish and is more fun but given I can just plug these 12.5" wide right into the space below makes it really easy.

Thanks @Paul, @Rikostan, @Streetwiseand @Alison -I have a pair of f. gardneri killis that are producing lots of eggs. Ive been checking out all the different projects people have going on. Ive been thinking about starting a topic/post/journal that follows what I have going on with all my tanks. Its nothing super exciting, but I think it might allow for some feedback on to things I can improve or some tricks I'm missing out on. We'll see.

Since I owe the rapid acceleration of my fish hobby to Aquarium Co-op it is only fitting that my first experience with any sort of forum, or group, or club, or really anything outside my own abode is here. Hello! The past two years of my life has seen dramatic change in lifestyle and with more time at home and settling in my hobby has exploded. Aside from a four year stint in the military, I have had some sort of aquarium for well over 20 years. I even maintained a 29g community tank while living without running water in a cabin in Alaska. However I was very still very much a novice, casual fish keeper with a tank or two who knew enough to change water and keep fish alive and that was enough. But now, things are different. I hope to use this forum and community to break out of my shell a bit and interact with other fish keepers. Together with my girlfriend we have amassed 20+ aquariums in our two bedroom apartment and it only feels natural that at this point its time to put myself out there a little bit to learn from others, get help when needed, and share my missteps as I have definitely learned a few lessons the hard way (convict cichlid fry, anyone?). I think more so though, when I look around and see at least one aquarium in every room of the house, I want to know people just as crazy about this hobby as we are! At the moment, many of my tanks are mixed bags of the standard fare "beginner" fish that one purchases when just starting out like guppies, platy's and tetras along with a few early impulse buys that have dictated stocking and tank options--an awesome, personable sengal bichir named "Monster" and a very special, very derp, petco rescued electric blue Jack Dempsey. Although I do keep a couple less common West African species I hope to widen my experience with more and more amazing fish species as our hobby evolves and very much am interested in keeping species for conservation that are rare or threatened. I am not sure what else to say for an introduction, interested to see where this goes and hope to share this awesome hobby with people who are like minded. Thanks all, be well. MAC