Woowala

I usually just use bleach to disinfect things. Might be kinda hard on any rubber gaskets in the python, I don't use one so not sure if there are any. 1/3 cup per gallon of water. Let it sit for an hour, rinse it well, then transfer to a bucket with dechlor or let it dry completely. Stick an airline hose in one end and seal it up a bit with plastic wrap or something.

Yes, gh is general hardness, basically a measure of the calcium and magnesium in the water. The water softener removes cal and mag and replaces them with sodium and I think potassium (might explain why your plants are doing so well). So that could definitely be it. Any white marks on the snails' shells? That would be an indicator of low gh, but a test would be better. Get a test, the liquid dropper kind. One of the easiest and cheapest tests, so that's nice. But I would blame the inconsistent diy co2 if they all died off quickly, like overnight.

Gh level would be helpful. These were neocaridina right? I'm guessing you gassed them with co2, but low gh could explain it too.

Coralline algae. I would leave it and be happy. But if you wanted to get rid of it, lowering your gh would probably starve it of the calcium and magnesium it needs (maybe, haha).

Throw a mop in there. You never know, they might still be spawning. Easy enough to find out anyway.

That's essentially what I was doing, and it worked, but low percentages. This is actually less effort so if I got the same hatch rate this way I'd be happy, but hopefully it can improve. I've got enough fry now that it's no big deal either way, but when I get some P. mellis it'd be nice to know what I'm doing. 😄

I was planning on putting them in water on Friday, but jumped the gun a bit and did it tonight. I dunked all 4 sets of eggs I had, collected on 8/28, 8/29, 8/30, and 9/1. So 9, 8, 7, and 5 days incubation respectively. I noted the number of viable eggs in each, so we'll see when/how many hatch out, but it'll probably be anywhere from a day to never lol. The infertile eggs did fungus up a bit, but it didn't seem to spread to the good eggs. The 8/28 collection I just put on a paper towel. All others I cut an empty tea bag (the kind you fill up with loose tea) into ~3x3 inch squares and put that on top of the paper towel. There's a rougher side to the tea bag which made transferring the eggs from my fingers to the tea bag easier, and it lifted off the paper towel easily with all the eggs when I transferred them to water. So I'll likely do that or something like it going forward.

Yeah if it's easier to do that, I don't see the downside.

They're gorgeous

Probably need it nice and cold with tons of oxygen. Too bad, they're really cool.

I love those sculpins. Ever tried keeping them in a tank?

Sounds reasonable but you could just have multiple sponge filters going elsewhere and swap out the sponge when needed.

Tie it to the weight with some string or a mini ziptie and bury the weight.

It's the added maintenance for me, since they'd like different water than everything I currently have. They are really great though. Once I've kept all the smaller Pseudomugils I'll probably just have to get them and deal with it.

Yeah, kind of a judgment call. I think they can do well in pure freshwater, but do better with salt. If pure freshwater is doable, they'd like the alkaline, slightly hard water the neos would like. Just figured I'd add a 3rd option.

gertrudae or luminatus imo cyanodorsalis maybe if the pH is above 7

Get cpds if you want a fish that hides anytime anyone in the office thinks about maybe walking near the tank. Get some blue eyes if you'd like to actually enjoy the tank.

I only have sponge filters, and moss and subwassertang impede flow and trap a lot of stuff. I'd probably use soil or aquasoil, but probably no reason to use both. I use soil cuz it's cheap and they're fish tanks, not plant tanks. I usually let them sit in some water for a week before adding to the tank in case it causes an ammonia spike, but if it's not much soil I usually don't bother. I've never had a pot fall over, but I have small fish. If that's a problem I'd go with a heavier pot, like terra cotta. Or a layer of gravel at the bottom for weight/stability, capped with soil and then sand or fine gravel. Or just gravel capped with aquasoil if you go that route.

I was thinking, for me I actually really like the plastic fake terra cotta planters cuz they're light and you can move them easily when cleaning the bottom of the tank. I use soil capped with sand, so it might not make a difference if you use heavier gravel. One of a million little future projects is to figure out a nice easy way to get everything off the bottom so detritus collects in one spot and I don't have to move anything to clean.

I use anything vaguely container shaped lol. Take out containers, clear plastic cups, glass jars, greek yogurt cups. Terra cotta or fake tc planters if I sorta care that it doesn't look totally horrible.

I've always just accepted this as one of the many annoying aspects of hatching bbs. I just use a wash bottle to rinse the eggs off the sides after a few hours. But the type of eggs, design and cleanliness of the hatchery might all be a factor. Not running air for the first hour or two to let the eggs rehydrate before turning it on would also probably help.

If that's what it is then yes. It was given to me by someone who got it online where they pick, so no ID. Thanks

Those Etheostoma are so nice. Great job with them too, coldwater stream fish are tough.

Mini update. Things seem to be going well. Well enough anyway. About half the eggs are infertile as usual, but that's nothing to do with this. The real question is whether the hatch rate improves or if the timing is better (they all hatch out at once). I collected on the 28th, 29th, and 30th so I plan on putting them all in water on Friday, when the 28ths will be at day 10, the 29ths day 9, and the 30ths day 8. We'll see what happens. Pics, about 5.5 days old/after collecting. It's hard to get a clear pic with a cell phone and a jeweler's loupe.

Makes sense that heavy tannins would also cause it. If it's getting better I'd just keep doing what I was doing too.