Anjum

Anjum is my real name. I figured it's weird enough, it already sets me apart. Plus I'm about the least imaginative person I know when it comes to naming anything. 😅

He really is 'Merica themed, isn't he! And yeah, never say never, it's a jinx. I used to say I'd never get married! 🤣

Prompted by a post elsewhere, and spouses who do not condone turning one's home into a "fish room", I thought I should add the preliminary plans for my Epic Jungle Shed! ( @Minanora 😁 ) I have this 12'x16' shed/mini home. I used to basically live out of it, at another property, before I was married. It's built on skids to be "portable" (but it takes a big truck, 2 pilot cars & a couple thousand $$ to move it). I had it delivered initially, unfinished, and my husband (then boyfriend) & I finished it (mostly). It's extremely well insulated & is fully wired & plumbed. When we were going to be married & I moved in with him, I had it moved to our current location. It's just been used for storage for the last 2 years, and hasn't been hooked up to power or water (but we ran an extension cord to it so I could run a small oil heater). He's planning on trenching over the electrical very soon, and hopefully hooking up water too. But electrical is the big thing I'll need to get it going. I have a vision of putting in some high-powered lights to grow tropical plants & setting up as many tanks as I can handle, only one or two at a time, so as not to get ahead of myself. I.am.so.EXCITED! I don't have many pics of the inside, I'll add those as we get it ready. But this is a bookshelf my hubs custom built in the shed (no books on it now, this is from when I was living in it).

13 tanks in 2 years... amazing what a supportive partner can do for one's MTS 🤣 My husband only likes my tanks to the degree that they remain aesthetically placed in the house, which means I only have 3 😢 At least he's supportive of turning my shed/mini home into an epic jungle shed... soon, soon. Love all your stuff! #Goals

I really like the black rams, so striking! Best of luck on breeding!

In addition to all the suggestions above, you can contact your LFS & see if they want some snails.

When the food decays enough to produce ammonia, the plants you added will initially eat up the ammonia/nitrites/nitrates before it has a chance to register on your tests. But the plants also probably brought some beneficial bacteria to help start the cycle. I'd keep doing what you're doing (or use something cheaper to ghost feed if you like) until you start to see something on your tests. Even my heavily planted tanks will usually register a small amount of nitrate. Your cycle isn't finished until you're getting a nitrate reading. You may see no ammonia, but be getting a nitrite reading because those bacteria take longer to proliferate. Nitrite is still detrimental to fish. This video helped me understand it all

The paleatus corys are pretty hardy. I'd say add them 1st. I'd try to feed them 2 or 3 times a day though.

I've seen people grow it out of aquariums before. I'm interested in learning more, as I just found some sprouting in my pantry 😅 I assume you'd cut off the sprouts (slips) & root those in the tank? Seems like putting a whole sweet potato in the tank could cause problems??

Dang @rockfisher thank you for that raw truth. It needs to be said. The photos make it look like a a bomb went off.. and it probably is like that in a way. Please take care of yourself & don't be afraid to ask for help. I'm glad your neighbor is helping you out, that's awesome! I hope your hospital stay is brief. I pray you hear from your friends soon. I will keep y'all in my thoughts 💛💛💛

Forgot to include a recent pic of the 29. It needs a trim.

Congrats everyone! This was fun! 🤗

I love the Cory!

@rockfisher oh thank you so much for updating us!! I've been checking this thread every day hoping to hear from you!! I'm so glad you are ok & didn't sustain worse damage. The photos on the news are just devastating... Hang in there & take care 💛

Time to update my journal! A week ago, I moved the 3 guppies & 1 SAE from the 10 to the 20L. It's growing in nicely. I'll have to get better pics soon in proper lighting. I'm hoping to get to the Co-Op soon & get Medaka for this tank. And now that the 10 is empty... I will begin prepping it for SHRIMP!!! Finally, I will get my shrimpies. Blue neocaradinas. I'll probably get these from the Co-op too, so can't plan my trip until I know this tank is ready for them. My main concern right now is this tank might have planaria. I'm going to get one of those cell phone microscopes so I can try & positively ID what's in there. I can remove as many of the snails as possible & treat the tank w/ No Planaria if need be.

Well if you snowboarded, you would be kinda surfing the snow 🤪 Amazing birthright though! Just wow. I hope you can post some pics later in the season! I live close to a local ski area, but it's just a little no-name place (Steven's Pass, Cascade Mountains). My brothers & I snowboarded when we were younger. Now they have kids who are approaching the age when they can go (they've already had them on the mountain doing little kid stuff but they'll be able to ride the lifts now). I haven't been up in years but I think it'd be fun to go with the kids. That's probably more my speed now in my middle age 😅

Wow! Do you ski in the Swiss Alps??

Cory close ups for my last 2 photos!

I'm not personally familiar with alum soaks. But some members of this forum experimented with, and did a great write up, on using a soda water soak to clear plants (and anything else you can soak) of pests, eggs & algae. It's completely harmless to the plants, actually appears to be beneficial. It may affect beneficial bacteria ( don't remember if that was addressed ), but is generally much more mild than other methods tested.

Amazing work! As a former bartender, I was trying to see what kind of liquor collection they had there 😂 Scotch? Bourbon? Maybe cognac?

Idk anything about loaches, but best wishes to your goldfish! I can only imagine the forces involved in a hurricane stress fish out a bit...

@Patrick_G you're a PNW local, correct? Ever seen any of our local carnivorous plants? I used to live in Skagit county & there was a tiny lake in the foothills of the mountains that had tons, couple different varieties (sorry, don't remember exactly which ones). I've heard of a population somewhere in the foothills around the Duvall/Carnation area too.

A couple months ago I got a crypt wendtii, anubias nana petite & anubias coffeefolia & scarlet temple from the Co-op. Little to no melt on any of it, even the crypt! The crypt was several small plants in one planter, so I divided it up & stuck a root tab under each one. They're all producing new leaves now. Anubias is super slow growing, so not much change there, but they're doing well. I love the wide selection of anubias they have. The scarlet temple was a few stems in one pot so I was able to separate that into a couple sections too. It's more of a high-tech setup plant (& I'm decidedly low-tech), but I wanted to try it anyways. It's grown & is emersed now. ETA: I should add, I'm local & bought directly from the store, so no shipping. YMMV.

hmm so couple things: I feed repashy, but the gelling agent in that is locust bean gum. I don't think there's anything wrong w/ beef gelatin from a nutritional standpoint, unless you're feeding strictly vegetarian fish maybe. I'd be inclined to presoak your gel food so it's already absorbed all the water it's going to before putting it in the tank. I can get my water column feeding fish to eat the repashy by squishing it so that it dissipates like a powder in the water. But it still quickly sinks, so most of it ends up going to the corydoras anyways. I've seen someone here on the forum insert suction cups into repashy as it sets up so they have a cube of gel on a suction cup that can be attached to the side of the tank. In a similar vein, the tray feeders you showed could work well too, but I personally haven't tried it.

Ingredients are comparable to most prepared foods. Protein content is lower than a higher priced food. I'm sure it's a fine feed, but if you're trying to get cories to breed you'll want to supplement with something high protein like frozen bloodworms.