MAC

I would go with a small group of White Cloud Mountain Minnows and maybe some Cherry Barbs.

Nice! Gardneri are great fish and fun to breed. I always have a hatchery and grow out going from my pair. My LFS loves them too.

Platys are great fish. I've found them to be excellent tank mates for fish that are a bit skittish. The platys seem to share some of their confidence! I had a really amazing color combination emerge from my platy group that I tried to select for in breeding. Maybe one or two fish from a drop would turn out looking how I wanted and I eventually ran out of time and tanks trying to work on it. But while it lasted they were awesome

1. We had an aquarium in the family room growing up. But the first tank I had that I was responsible for was full of white cloud minnows. 2. My 75 gallon 'hillstream' because it has turned out almost exactly as I envisioned it as the main display in the house. 3. Been on the aquarium co-op train for a bit now. 4. Putting all my lights on timers. 5. Identifying and treating fish disease. 6. Breeding pair of Pelvicachromis taeniatus 7. Once or twice a month, generally. Depends on the tank. Some tanks still get biweekly changes. 8. Id probably go with the rack of 20g's because I could do different things 9. I spent at least 30 minutes looking at a tank in the bedroom right before answering these questions. 10. Live Baby Brine Shrimp. No doubt.

Saw platinum halfbeaks for the first time the other day. Now I have platinum halfbeaks

As an inside joke we should say 'Chicago O'Hare' when out of reactions. Anyway, my old muck jars of infusoria I used to feed small fry always had a funk to them. For little cichlids though I always went straight for the BBS. When I had cichlid fry in community tanks I also dropped in sinking pellets like bug bites. The tetras and others would let that stuff fall to the bottom and the little cichlids could pick at it for awhile. Not sure how well that'd work with the corys I. The tank. Congrats on the spawn!

To be honest I'd never seen a flowerhorn in-person before but when I saw this guy that was my first thought. It'll be interesting to see what comes as it grows up. Only about 2.5 inches right now.

@Coludoes it look like a young flowerhorn? Based on coloration and red eyes that was my guess. But considering it came from a big box, who knows.

Tldr: What do think this fish is? Today I was at the local big box store to pick up some miscellaneous items and, as usual, I made a lap through the fish section to see what was swimming about. This time something caught my eye. Amongst the few Cichlid tanks there was a single fish being kept by itself that rushed to the front of the glass as I made my way by. Unlike 3/4 of the fish in the store, this fish was alive! Feisty. And absolutely brilliant in color. Now, I've been in the market for a sort of 'wet pet' or mascot fish for my fish room/house for awhile and here this little fella was really working to get my attention. So Im thinking I just found the right little monster to dedicate way too much space and water to. The question then became, well little fish, what are you? The label on the tank said Electric Blue Jack Dempsey, but I've had those before, and this didn't look electric blue. So I asked the person designated to catch fish that day if they knew. They did not. So I told them what I thought it was. They said, 'yeah I could be that.' So I asked if they would sell me the fish at the price of the fish I thought it was. They said the would. And in the bag it went. So here we are. I'm fairly confident I know what this fish is, but what better place to ask a community of much more experienced and knowledgeable people their opinion. Here it is about an hour after getting into it's QT tank. What do you think? @Coluwhat do you say?

That's fortunate. I held out as long as I could until I was basically forced to upgrade to a smart phone for work in the early 2010's.

Considering the fish were just moved into the tank I'd guess the fish may have gotten spooked and dove into the sponge. It's probably a one time unfortunate event.

I don't see any problem with rosy barbs and paradise fish. The only fish I've had trouble keeping with paradise fish are other paradise fish.

A very simple setup that I really find attractive is stack of large rocks with anubias and/or bolbitis. Maybe if you're looking to change things up look into those types of setups. I recently rescaped one of my tanks in this way and and really liking how it's turning out.

Mosquito fish Gambusia affinis

Nature blew my mind today https://www.npr.org/2022/10/28/1132171095/a-non-stop-flight-from-alaska-to-tasmania-may-be-for-the-birds-and-a-possible-re

@Beardedbillygoat1975 I got these guys in October of 2020. They are awesome. Definitely a favorite in the house. The pair is the only fish in the tank, a 20 long with spongefilter against a living room wall. They are very interesting in what's going on outside the tank and always come out to greet me. I've had no problems with feeding them, they like bloodworms, vibrabites, bugbites, but they go nuts for little live earthworms. The tank has a colony of ramshorn snails and green jade shrimp culls that have all gone back to 'wild' coloration. Puffers don't bother the adults at all. Very rarely do they nip or get aggressive and its usually over a bite of food. I've seen the male display to the female only a time or two when I had them at my other place with soft water. I'm on a well now with very hard water and they adjusted just fine. Id be interested to see if you or @mountaintoppufferkeeperare able to breed them. I've thought about messing with my water to see if mine will spawn but they're doing so well and the tank basically runs itself at this point I'm letting them be. Next time I see some for sale though I'll probably pick up another batch for a project They are really outstanding little fish.

We will be watching this thread closely

Thanks @Colu. I'll hit em with the kanaplex along with the salt and botanicals and see how that goes.

I wondered about that too. There's over 20 other aquariums that get the same water with fish, shrimp, snails etc all doing great. Angelfish aren't haven't any trouble spawning either. I don't know, I'm perplexed. I figure there's some bacteria or something that for whatever reason is able to get a foothold after a spawn. Was curious if anyone had ever heard of such a thing. It's really doing a number on my winter breeding projects.

@Colu,yes I forgot to include ammonia. That's the first thing I test when something seems off. Each tank reads zero ammonia with liquid kits. I'm also on a well so there is no chlorine in my water. As for nets I have many and they all go into saltwater after use and then rinsed and dried completely before resuse. In all three occasions the fish appeared fine. Acting and eating normal. Courtship displays and then the female would disappear into her cave or in the nannacara's case a corner of the tank with eggs. Then days later when I would expect to see the female with free swimming fry they have been bug eyed and rapidly losing health. The only thing I have done differently recently is throughout the summer I maintained a tote solely to harvest mosquito larva. Every aquarium was fed from that tote so it would be off if something only bothered the spawning cichlids.

In the last month or so 3 separate species of dwarf cichlids have developed similar symptoms immediately following a spawning attempt. These are fish I've had for quite some time and all three pairs have had previously spawned without issue. They were in the same tanks as those occasions. All the females seem to develop a rapid onset of Popeye, stop eating and very quickly deteriorate. In one case the male had identical symptoms, in one case the male only developed clamped fins and hid away, and in the other case the male went on as if nothing wrong. All fish have their own tanks without tank mates, live plants, and numerous caves/spawnsites. I did not see aggression between the pairs. And I try to regularly vary the diet between live/frozen/prepared foods. Tanks: Apistogramma borelli, 10 gallon. 74°f Nannacara anomela, 55 gallons, 76°f Pelvicachromis taeniatus 30 gallon,76°f Image is current krib female with recently developed symptoms. Right now everyone but the krib are in hospital receiving para cleanse and maracyn. Female apisto died today after 1 week of treatment. Nannacara pair symptoms not improved after 3 weeks hospital and 1 round meds plus salt. Krib to begin treatment. If anyone has any suggestions on what is going on? Ideas to prevent or diagnosis/treatment that'd be great. I think it's very strange this all happening at once. I'm usually pretty good at not cross contaminating tanks and these are spread between different area of house.

Looks like snail eggs

Bubble nests at the surface, correct! It's quite the sight.

I think I've got a perfect fish. Megalechis thoracata, the marbled hoplo catfish. I've had mine spawn a few times in a community tank so I never saw any fry but they are a super fun fish. Peaceful, playful, easy to sex pairs, can be unheated and don't get too big. And they are bubble nesters so you could pluck the eggs easily to hatch and grow out elsewhere. Here's my big male behind dirty glass One of the earlier posts mentioned nannacara anomela. I really like those little cichlids and found they are very easy to spawn, however, the females are relentless towards the male. Even in a well decorated 55 with a single male and 3 females I couldn't keep the male safely in the tank after females were in eggs. Really interesting little fish though I really enjoy the color changes the females go through