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Today my quarantine gang has moved into paradise 🙂 They are enjoying a gentle sunrise there. I added black neons since my one lone wolf lost his buds to ick a few months ago. I also introduced a Bolivian ram which has an adorable personality. The usual gang are pristella tetras, a mystery snail named York (she's the "Big Apple"), and a zebra nerite snail named Hampshire. 29 gallons For plants we’ve got Java fern, Java moss, and micro sword.

I have never kept a journal so I am not sure if I am going to enjoy doing this or not. I am that… I want to try things at least once type person. I spend a lot of time reading all the fantastic journals on here. Two weeks ago my bearded dragon BOOP’s suddenly passed from a stomach tumor he was diagnosed with last year. Boop’s spent nearly every minute of the day with me including the fish room. He had a shelf in front of each tank he liked to watch his fish and chase shrimp. He was probably a better plant guru than me 🤣 (you have no idea how hard it was finding info on which aquarium plants are dragon toxic) He always tried to eat them when we worked on them. For the two weeks it took me to process the worst of my grief reading everyone’s journals and posts kept me sane and filled the time I normally spent with my dragon. Thank you everyone for sharing your journey. I have had fish since around 7. All whatever I could catch with mom’s kitchen strainer in the creek when I was younger (her rule was no snakes all else I can have) and keep alive using creek water and bugs. This is how I learned anything in nature that fits in something else’s mouth is food. I also developed a weird fascination with all the nifty critters and hitchhikers that end up in aquariums. I’m the weird old lady that even finds value and cool snooping entertainment in hydra. I have been hooked ever since. went through job demands of travel so way more up and down with tanks than I want to think about I watched every video and livestream (although never in live time) the coop had. I wanted more. So I joined the forum. It’s really great as I have no one to talk fish to. Hubby only likes my giant mystery snail but loves that fish make me happy since I rarely leave the house (it’s my garden of eden why would I venture into societies current chaos) I’m new to the internet in the past few years since I retired. I used email but mostly fax before I retired but that’s it outside of works dedicated computer programs. I have never done any other social media so I feel awkward and was and I guess still am a bit intimidated most of the time trying to convey things to others in a way that seems friendly and helpful as typing seems so blunt and impersonal. I try and use a lot of the cute face cartoons. I hate offending others so I hope the cartoon faces convey niceness. Most of my fish keeping knowledge (if you want to call it that and not just ok this worked for me and this distinctly did not) comes strictly from Observations of my tanks over my life, trial error heartbreak National Geographic magazines learning about fish not aquariums and other assorted magazines in the mail. Finding the internet fish keeping prescribed guidelines baffled me and I still wonder if some of the people doing the articles ever actually kept the fish they were writing the article on. Seems fish are supposedly super delicate??? 🤣 I never knew that I always loved fish because they were so amazingly resilient. Silly me. That’s why I got hooked on Cory’s videos he seems to go with what he has seen with his own eyes and learned instead of what the internet spews and is willing to try things just to see what happens. (He also finds benefit in hitchhiking micro fauna and snails 😁) So enough about who I am…just an eccentric old lady who loves fish ….here we go…. My multi tank syndrome has taken a drastic turn since my health declined 6 years ago. Getting old stinks but is also the greatest. I cannot physically take care of large tanks anymore so now it is how many fish and different things can I keep in each tank and healthy. My current tanks that I have up and not in storage are standard 29 gal, 20long, 2 x 10g 8.75 gallon shrimp tank I got on sale and hate but guppies and snails have too many babies and it’s handy for a dozen or more things, 5G QT 2.5G QT i do not ever actually plant plants i float them tie them to something or suction cup them on the wall. Even root feeders do great that way for me. I don’t use fertilizers or chemicals I am afraid of them. I tried easy green half dose in 2 tanks and panicked after 6 hours and did late evening water changes so I could sleep. I admire the fabulous aquascapers I’m not one of them I love plants they keep my fish happy and healthy and grow well for me i stuff every tank to the gills because our water is miserable even in tanks years old with so many plants I can barely see my fish brown diatoms live on. I tried recently using jugged spring water from the store for wc and it all went away … came right back when I used hose water 🤷‍♀️ over the years I’ve come to appreciate the benefits of it though 🤪 the fish and assorted critters like it YUMMY 😋 29 g stock 11 panda corydora, 6f/1m guppy(the wolf pack and Little Boy, Nemo the nerite snail, 3 female magenta mystery snails (the wonder twins and microdot) bladder snails and some stray shrimp that migrated on a coop large sponge filter. I stopped there because my 2 longfin lemon blue eye bristlenose plecos are trying a second time he has not left the cave in 3 days other than to get a quick nibble of the green bean I put outside his door. I’m hoping it’s a fruitful spawn and may need to rehome the pandas and set up another 20 long for them? This is a newer tank set up with established filters gravel plants from other tanks and such so we are waiting for the micro fauna to establish. I think the Pandas and guppies are eating most of it so I may not get much. 20 long is my pleco pair (sweet pea and baby girl) 4 huge male mystery snails 2 magenta (the baby boys) 2 chestnut (chestnut and bandit) 10 celestial pearl danio(only one has a name she is huge and eats everything Meg as in megalodon) more neocaridina shrimp of every color than I can count. Some bladder snails (someone keeps eating them I do believe 😕) many random assorted micro fauna and a gorgeous little colony of tiny green hydra in one corner that never seems to travel or grow bigger even though I feed cpd bbs. I may actually like this journal thing. I’ll detail the rest another day and add more pictures. my pointer/typing finger is cramping at this point 🤣

I've been posting my photo updates on the Facebook group, so I figured I would use the forum to do journaling. It will also be nice to have my photos centralized so I can look back on them. I currently have 5 tanks: #1 10g with ember tetras, guppies, cherry shrimp and ramshorn snails. -I recently moved over some of the colorful guppy fry from my brackish tank to act as dither fish for my shy ember tetras. -I'm working on growing out some of my ludwigia rubin cuttings for the background plants. I also sorta don't like how the melon sword doesn't go all the way to the top of the tank, so I am trying to grow some hygrophila behind it. I may just go back to suction cupping a floating plant back there. -I swapped the kedagang that was on the center rock with the black pearl that was on the right log so it is more symmetrical with the left log that also has kedagang. -I've been struggling to deal with planaria in this tank, that I think is preventing my shrimp for repopulating. I've tried expel-p a few times, and am currently finishing a dose of prazicleanse, which also doesn't seem to be doing the trick. Going to try "no planaria" next week. #2 16.9g + penn-plax trutle topper brackish paludarium with guppies, gold claw fiddler crabs, indonesian batik fiddler crabs, a red claw crab, nerite snails, amano shrimp and ghost shrimp. -These pictures are a bit dated because I didn't have a chance to take photos today. -Figuring out what plants will work in a brackish tank has been a process. Most of my anubias has rotted and died, and most of my crypts melted all the way back. Some of the crypt parva is hanging in there. Some of bolbitas fern seems to be doing well. Val, hornwort and maybe even my rubin sword and hygrophila are thriving. I'm going to try micro sword for the foreground, since it is supposedly one of the most brackish tolerant plants. "King" "Crabby" #3 29g with an angelfish, german blue rams, platies, honey gourami, ottos, kuhli loaches. -This tank is my closest to being "complete." My water sprite died off when I raised my temperature in preparation for my blue rams, so I have been working on replacing them. Currently trying a green rotala on the left and hygrophila pinnatifida on the right. Other than that, I am happy with where the tank is "Derp" (my partner painted this for me for my birthday) #4 40g breeder with a fancy goldfish, bristelnose plecos, zebra danios, swordtails, peppered corys, mystery snails, and apisto borelli. -My orange and black goldfish Jasper recently died of dropsy, which was heartbreaking, so am moving away from keeping goldfish for the foreseeable future. -I recently added a black mystery snail "chocolate chip", so now I just need a chestnut mystery snail and I will have one of every color combination. -No particular goals for this tank. I have a lot of slow growing plants, that I am curious to see how they will shape up. "Jasper" (RIP 😭) and "Ruby" "Phantom" "Chocolate Chip" #5 75g with pearl gourami, roseline sharks, siamese algae eaters, flagfish, reticulated hillstream loaches, bolivian rams, a rainbow shark, indian lilac crabs, CPO crayfish, a blue kong zebra crayfish and amano shrimp. -Recently moved the log on the right in front of the dwarf sag because it was being completely blocked. I decided to add repens in front of the log, because I saw some nice ones at my LFS. -Decided to use larger anubias species for the top of the center cave instead of the nana petite that was there. "Mortimer"

This will be my first attempt at a journal. I currently have a 29gal guppy tank with a 10 gallon guppy grow out tank. I wanted to try something new. So I'm setting up a 10 gal neo shrimp tank. Thanks to everyone who gave me tips and advice to get started. I just started setting it up today. So it's only been filled and started the first sponge filter. When I cleaned my hob from the 29 I put all of the dirty tank water from it into the shrimp tank to help jump start the cycle. So the first pics will come one the tank clears up. I will be ordering an additional sponge filter and plants soon as well. It's going to be a slow process but I want to make sure I have it well seasoned before I get some shrimpy friends. So stay tuned for all the fun!

I had my first spawn of bristlenose, they were almost a week after losing the egg sack. I have done plenty of water changes about every few days. I have been feeding plenty of zucchini, green beans, cichlid pellets, krill flake food, and some algae wafers. Also getting out food that has set for longer than 24 hrs. Today I did about a 50% water change and every single one of them are dead. Guppy fry in tank are doing just fine. What could be the cause of death? I do not want to make this mistake again. Thanks in advance.

I recently learned about the Snow White bristlenose pleco and have fallen in love with them. I am planning on getting a group of them to grow out and breed, but I just have a few questions before I spend the money, especially since they’re not cheap. I’ve been doing quite a bit of research on them and it seems that some people claim they are more sensitive than regular bristle nose, so I’m wondering if anyone here has experience keeping the Snow White variant. As far as a group goes, would 4 or 5 be a good starting group to grow to get males and females? As a follow-up, what would be the best foods to give them to ensure they stay healthy? There are so many brands and foods out there, so I’d like to know what has worked in other people’s experiences. My only other main question would be how old, or what size, do the plecos need to be to before they can start breeding? I’ve bred other fish species in the past (goldfish, green ear sunfish, Ricefish) and am currently trying to breed my trio of African butterfly fish and group of CPDs, but have never bred plecos. I know bristlenose are some of the easier plecos to breed, with some saying all you really need is a cave and they’ll spawn, but I’d just like to get as much advice as possible. Any recommendations are greatly appreciated!

What repashy should I get for my bristlenose pleco? -Soilent Green -Morning Wood -Community Plus

As I sitting here having coffee contemplating the mysteries of the galaxy,something occured to me. I have journaled my shrimp sanctuary, Cory breeding adventure and learning how to hatch and raise mystery snails. But I have never done anything with my main tank! How did that slip by without me noticing?! I mean I have mentioned it in my other journals but never put a lot of focus on it. How rude of me for those tank inhabitants. It has always been a guppy kingdom with a few randoms in the mix. I think it was easy to overlook a nice it has been setup the longest and is established and stable. Then with the help of my main partner in crime @Guppysnail and other accomplice's @Chick-In-Of-TheSea@nabokovfan87 @Cinnebuns just to name a few. They have opened me up to so many other types of fish and other critters. Different styles of setups and modifications. As well as loads of tips and tricks. Out of that it has given birth to my next addiction, I mean adventure. The least Killifish! I have always enjoyed my guppy's and always will but I have a new vision for my main tank. Right now it's a few guppys, 2 mystery snails 1 nerite, my newest crew of 6 paleatus corys and my last solo variatus platy. I have had so many generations of guppy's through this tank. But I think it's time to change directions with a new fish. I love livebearers of all kinds. And the suite the type of water I have very well. Very hard water out the tap. 12-15 gh but surprisingly 0kh. I have a few more guppy's to rehome but I'm going to try and keep my main male guppy gumball and my solo platy brownie. Both names by my daughter. And of course my snails and corys will stay as well. Ever since @Guppysnail introduced me to the least killifish I have been fascinated with them. So I thought my 29 gal would make an awesome killifish mansion. I think with there size and slow rate of reproduction in a sense would work wonderfully. NOw a bit about the tank itself. Standard 29 gal moderately to heavy planted I would say. I took out the driftwood I really like the look of just a planted tank. The only other decor is a smallish fake rock cave. I run 2 med co op sponge filters and a tidal 55. Yeah I'm an over filter junky. Gravel substrate with some crushed coral mixed in and some in the tidal 55 to keep my kh at a 4-5. Lighting is a hygger 24/7 light. Plants are Java ferns,Pogo's, Amazon sword,dwarf aquarium lilly,dwarf sagataria,Anubias nana petite and gold coin. Along with a good amount of floating water sprite. I'm hoping to get my killifish delivered to me in just under 2 weeks. But in the meantime I have a few things to work on. I have some modding to do to my tidal 55 to get it killifish safe. My aquarium silicone will be here today to so I can work on that tomorrow. @nabokovfan87 has done the heavy lifting on that so I know exactly what needs to be done to get it Killifish safe and running at optimal conditions. As well I'm going to order a diffuser for it as well found by @Chick-In-Of-TheSea. I know this is probably the longest post I have ever made on the forum. Sorry not sorry 🤣 but I don't think I would have come this far in 6 months time in my fishkeeping passion if it were not for the people I have mentioned and countless others. Lastly I will post a pic of what the tank looks like right now.

In need of some advice. We lost power for about 15 hours yesterday after we had a severe thunderstorm, power wasn't restored until 6am this morning. I put the filter media in bags in my aquarium with tank water. Back to this morning, my 29 gallon which houses my angelfish and bristlenose pleco was littered with bubbles across every edge of the aquarium. My angelfish was in distress with heavy breathing. Did a quick test and found that my nitrites were measuring in at 0.25 ppm, ammonia 0ppm, and nitrates at 40ppm. I did a 30% water change, dosing Prime and Stability. I'm going to retest later tonight and tomorrow morning. My question is, with my cycle "stalled" from the power outage, what can I do in the meantime until my nitrites are completely at 0ppm? I have 3 other aquariums running currently, and my 29 gallon is the only one having cycle issues after testing my other tanks. I can't take any filter media from any of the other tanks, I'm too afraid it'll cause issues as well for those tanks. First picture below is the test results from this morning, and the second picture is the 29 gallon as of right now. The angelfish and pleco seemed to have calmed down, both acting more normal now. Filtration running is a Aquaclear 50 with a Large Aquarium Co-Op sponge filter. What would you guys suggest in the meantime?

Hey guys, I live in the Seattle area. I recently found some snow white bristlenose plecos from a neighbor and I'm getting ready to buy a dozen to start a breeding project. Has anyone worked with these? He says they seem to die really easy? Joe

I have a 29g planted tank, it only has ottos, corydoras & 1 baby super red BN. After adding new fish this tank broke out with fungal infections. A combo of Kanaplex & API furan-2 knocked it out. But at the end of treatment my pleco started showing signs of something odd on her head. Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrates: under 20ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Chlorine: 0ppm. GH: 150ppm. Alkalinity(KH) 60ppm PH: 7.6- Temp 76°-78° I'm going to upload a photo of the tank & then of her progression. This has happened over the period of 4-6 weeks. I don't know what it is or how to treat it. I keep posting on Fishlore & nobody is responding! & I am starting to be consumed with worry & panic! the last photos are from today. Is this a parasite, fungus, bacteria? HITH?

I was watching a video recently in which info about Bristlenose Plecos came up and it was mentioned that they are notorious for eating sword plants even if fed well. I was considering adding some to my current planted tank however I have 2 well established compact Amazon swords. What is your experience with the Bristlenose Pleco? Have you ever heard this before?

Last night I had to move my 4”ish male bristlenose and I used a fine net. His bristles right at the corner of his mouth got tangled. (are these bristles or more like a barb?) I had to cut him loose with sissors, it had to be stressful for him beyond what was needed. How do you move them? Maybe a corse net with bigger holes? I think trying to catch one in a cup/ container would be almost impossible. And maybe this question applies to all catfish or fish with bigger spine and fins? I’ve had bristlenose and catfish get a little tangled before but always got loose fairly easy. I seen this guy this morning swimming around but he ducked into a cave before I could get a good look at his fins.

I have a pair of longfin lemon blue eyed pleco. Babies are mostly lemon or peachy but about 10 are pure white. amelanistic I’m guessing??? Are these the same as snow whites? I couldn’t find much info on Snow White ancestry. Thanks for the help

He’s been fanning for a couple days now so I set it up!!! 😁 then got to thinking “did I pull them to early?” Feel like might have pulled to early, how long do you wait to separate the male from babies when breeding bristlenose? Got a little worried because this is an Oscar tank with a catfish as well as the two parents the father is a chocolate and mother is a albino. Will the albino babies be more prone to have albinos when they breed? Because when I sell them I will be honest that their mixed. If you breed two albinos your not guaranteed all albino correct? I have another batch from these parents about 1/3 is albino this batch seems about 1/2. babies just fuel my desire to do more, get more tanks, buy more equipment, ect with that being said my wife will probably freak out when I tell her tomorrow. Yes tomorrow I’ll just enjoy tonight. 😂😂😂

I just both these two fish, a male and a female bristlenose plecos. I asked for the biggest ones they got. I chose a pretty big male but they didn't have any common bp females of the se size. This is the biggest I could find. I want to attempt breeding them, but I worry that the female will be too small. Any thoughts. They had a female from the yellow variety, but they are twice as expensive and I didn't want to mix the common with the yellow. Here is a photo straight out of the bag

My young (less than one year old) bristlenose plecos laid a few eggs. The albino male guarded the eggs and when they hatched I took the cave out and poured the contents into a 20-gallon tank that is overrun with algae and has a few otos in it. There were only 12 to 15 fry. Now they are more than a week old, but they look black or dark gray. There are two females that could have laid the eggs - one albino and one super red. I suspect it was the red female that laid the eggs, but I'm not sure. Are week-old albino bristlenose fry supposed to look dark-colored?

Two days ago I was at my LFS. I saw a grown bristle-nose pleco and I wanted to buy him straight away, together with a bigger female to try and breed them. I went to look around for a bigger female but couldn't find some the same size as him. Side question: will bigger plecos be more likely to breed then smaller ones? Anyways, I saw the male eating a dead fish. I pointed it out the a worker who took the dead fish out. I didn't want to buy the male because I don't have the space to quarantine him, so I told the employee that I will wait a few days. The question is; Would it be ok to buy the fish, in a couple of days so a week has passed and introduce him to the community tank? All the other fish in the tank looked healthy and the store has automatic water change, so I thought that I would buy him after I made sure he survived for a week. Is this a rational decision?

All old people are required to share photos with everyone of their new grandkids so I thought I would….😁 Longfin lemon blue eyed bristlenose pleco had a good hatch so I worked hard to grow biofilm and infusoria in the tank. I was looking today at the few early escapee BN fry and found 5 free swimming CPD roaming about the tank 😁

Anyone breed these I brought off aqua bid and some have brown/blackish spots on them. With this go away with time I’d say 4-6 months old. These low quality is that why uniformed red all over. Or maybe my lighting half my tank have red leds turned up and other side blues turned up just experimenting with plants.

I’ve never seen Plecos go at it this frequently. Must be doing something right…. But sheesh!! Gone be a TON of them in here. This is the third batch of eggs in just about 45 days… Maybe it’s all this I’m feeding…

Any idea what this brown spot is on my bristlenose pleco’s back? It just kind of appeared about a week ago. It doesn’t appear to be getting any larger. Included an image from my macro lens. All other fish in tank healthy. He appeared to be scratching his back this morning. First time I’ve seen that happen. 80 degrees 0/0/20 (ammonia, nitrite, nitrates) pH 7.2 kH 2, gH 10

After acquiring the almost adult pair back in I think March/April, I finally have super red babies! I believe this is the first batch and there were roughly 20-30 in the cave. I put one in a breeder box to save and let everyone else loose. Lots of algae built up in the tank to feed all the babies. I believe they’ve been out of the cave for ~4 days now, I think they’re almost at the 2 week old mark. Photos are from the first few days I found them.

I would like to breed some common bristle nose plecos. I already have two females (fully grown and at breeding size), and am planning to add a male soon. I have 2 caves and one coconut shell, as well as rocks and driftwood. I have tried breeding plecos in the past without much success. I know there needs to be a cave, driftwood and the plecos have to be fed veggies. I did all this but never had any success in the past. I would feed them algae waffers every night and veggies(mostly zucchini and green beans) twice a week. I never had any breeding behaviour. Is there something I'm missing? Any advice would be appreciated

Hello all, I have a bristlenose pleco that is being a bit of a problem child. He (he is starting to grow his bristles) is getting aggressive with my bronze corydoras. He usually chases them when I feed the tank, but as soon as he starts eating he stops caring so much that they can even eat the algae wafer that's in his mouth. He also puffs his spikes out and chases them when I put in some zucchini for him, which the corys show zero interest in. I've been noticing a few split fins in my corys, and I have had one in a hospital tank recovering from an eye injury/infection and fin rot which I now think I can blame on the pleco. Has anyone else experienced such aggression from a BN, and do you guys think I might just be a puberty thing (like I said, he's just started growing in his bristles) and he'll settle down soon?