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I'll be honest, it took some time to decide if I wanted to start a journal. The most upfront reason was, what the heck are they and I've never journaled before? But as I thought about it, I remembered how some of the most beneficial help I ever received was from some obscure article, where some random guy, seemingly from nowhere, replied with the solution I needed. So, the purpose of my journal is to try to be that random guy, who randomly comments, and hopefully has the answer to your problem. But in the form of a journal! You might ask, who is this guy? And I ask myself the same question all the time,<wink>and the only response I can honestly say is; I was a kid who loved fish tanks. So much so, that at age 12, I took my Schwinn bike and went to my local fish store and bought a 55 gallon aquarium. I put that darn thing in my lap and on top of the handle bars and rode 2 miles home. I then went back and under my 1 arm, carried every piece of equipment I needed, in multiple trips, for my first salt water fish tank. A few months later, I had a 20 gallon fresh water tank. I can honestly say. I did pretty well for being so young. I rarely had deaths, I grew some corals, I killed a lot of corals and my fish did pretty well. Without that experience, I would have never learned the single most important information I could have possibly learned and that is: everything I learned 30 years ago is completely irrelevant in todays fish keeping. And anyone one who says, "I've been keeping fish for 30 years" is suspect! After several moves around the country and 30 years later, I found myself back in the hobby and here my journal starts. A buddy of mine, who has been in the hobby for 30 years <---- had the most amazing black water tank. I mean stunning. So he convinces me to start back up, and I did. "I need that sexy blackwater tank", I said, and I went out and bought a 75 gallon, a 40 gallon two 20 gallons and a 10 gallon. This is when I learned the second most important information I ever learned. More than 2 tanks is way too much work! So I sold the 10 and converted 1 of the 20 gallons to a QT tank. All those tank were black water, and boy did I love them. But something happened, something that changes everything! I bought a plant. And today, I have no black water tanks! Here is the main tank today.

Caught this little large mouth bass with a net in my back yard! Currently about 1 inch long and have him in my 5 gal tank. (BTW, his name is Boomy) Here's a video of him on my youtube channel JS Fish Tanks Any feeding ideas? I tried frozen blood worms but he wasn't interested. I dont think hes big enough for feeder guppys yet.

I have been in the aquarium hobby for a bit over a year and a half. At the moment I have a 20 gallon high that is stocked with: A betta that cannot decide whether to be shy or aggressive. More Albino Cories then i should have in the tank after 2 successful breeding projects 5 Albino Cory fry that are 5 days old a goofball of a Panda Garra dubbed Garra Guy 2 mystery snails (Batmobile and Smaug)(both male) 1 Tiger nerite snail (Algaecide) a bunch of pretty cool looking platies a lifetime's supply of mini ramshorn snails a whole lot of bladder snails I'm pretty sure I still have some Malaysian Trumpet Snails alive as well. some mystery fry i found in a bag on the side of the road a few days ago that i have no clue what species they are. Ive probably forgotten some inhabitants that i'll need to add in later. It may seem overstocked, but ive had no issues. That being said, at some point most of the cories will be heading to the LFS. The tank is planted with: a dwarf aquarium lily lots and lots of anubias from 2 plants i got just when i got into the hobby a small crypt tropica some java moss some other anubias species some java fern and windelov occasional guppy grass sprigs water lettuce Here is a picture: I enjoy this hobby from a hobby side, but also view it from a scientific side. I like to breed fish, but im having trouble with platy breeding, and i dont have very many species i can breed. I have a 2.5 tank that has been setup for a long while as well that has killed some neo shrimp but i should be getting some more in a week or two. It has: bladder, ramshorn, and malaysian trumpet snails guppy grass, guppy grass, guppy grass,guppy grass, guppy grass java fern windelov anubias sp. (a small kind and a big kind) and some other assorted stems that really havent taken off here is a picture as well: This will not be the most updated journal as it will fall into categories like dosing ferts where Ill do it if I remember, but thats not usually too often.

I’m a 45 year old husband, Dad, Cardiology NP and NERM starting at age 10 and continuing on and off since then. I’ve been keeping a few different journals and realized it would be better and simpler just to keep one thread. For reference here are the originals: I’ve received a lot of support, encouragement and kindness on this forum. I appreciate this community a great deal. I hope my mistakes and learned experiences can help others.

After months of gathering, bartering, trading, scraping, boiling, soaking, cleaning, and most of all waiting we have finally started setting up our 40 gallon breeder tank. The plan is for it to be a heavily planted community tank stocked mostly with fish that are described as "easy to breed". We already have guppies and cherry shrimp in our current 14g. The plan is to move them over once things are cycled. Odds are some ramshorns will tag along for the ride... Once things are established the plan is to add three honey gourami (1 male 2 female) and some hill stream loach or otos (maybe both...). For now the next steps are 1) Get a lid 2) Get substrate 3) Get a light 4) Settle on a final hardscape layout and glue things in place 5) Order some more plants

We have been working on our new fish room for the past several months and thought we would share a little of the build with everyone. I'll update this thread as we go along and include individual tanks and the other walls as well. Rack System: 1-5/8" Pre-Galvanized Unistrut, 1/2" Hardware and 1/2" Plywood for the aquariums to sit on. Air: Central air system that loops through out each row of aquariums and throughout the room. Filtration: HMF Lighting: Fluval 3.0 Top Row Aquariums: (10) 10G & (1) 20L . Middle Row: (5) 20H & (2) 40B. Bottom Row: (2) 120G & (1) 60 Cube. Electrical: Each row is protected by (1) GFCI, has multiple quad outlets above the aquariums and is in PVC conduit & bell boxes. Substrate: Black Diamond Blasting Sand except for the snail breeding aquariums, they have crushed coral. All bottoms and sides of the aquariums are painted black. All aquariums but the dedicated snail breeding aquariums have plants. Several years ago when our kids started moving out we had begun a different fish room. We had it going for about a year and Michelle's mom moved in with us so out it went but the below photos are what it looked like. It was no where near the size of what we are building now. A couple of more kids moved out and fast forward to last year and we started out with a rack and a hand full of 10G aquariums. Well that didn't last long and we went full on into building a fish room. Below is the bottom row rack portion being built for the aquariums to sit on. We had planned on doing 30XH but we couldn't get them so we opted for 60G cubed in the middle of the 120G. Here is my wife painting the 1/2" plywood that all of the aquariums sit on. The following photos are of the progress made (when I remembered to take photos.) Our grandson had to make sure that Pawpaw's measurements were correct :). Here we are putting in the air valves, we installed (2) valves for each 10G & 20H. The 20L and 40B got (4) valves each. We are planning on a fry system on this short wall above the return vent. We are planning to run double air pumps and we have each wall & air pump to where a valve can shut off the air flow so that we can keep air going while working on different sections / pumps. We are finally installing aquariums! We had the bottom row aquariums delivered today and a 180G for the center piece on the other wall. If you have any questions please ask and we will do our best to answer them and we will keep updating this thread as we go.

Hi all! A couple of fellow Nerms have been asking ' Since you keep on talking about your fish breeding why not do a journal?'. I have and this is it! I've called my journal @TheSwissAquarist Journal 2.0 because I'm super bad at doing journals, but this time I might as well give it a shot, but don't be surprised if journal number 3 turns up! The fish: I've bred a decent amount of fish (not for me to say!) and in the last year it has been my main fixation: keep 'em, breed 'em, and have fun! I've spawned angels, BN plecos, bettas, and currently working on some other stuff (I'm writing this off the top of my head 😜). For starters I'll just post a nice pic and update it 'à fur et à mesure' (French for as it goes on!). Need to find a good one... This is a pic of my Pseudomugil Luminatus. Fun fish to keep, and I'm very pleased with catching them like this! I fed them with some BBS, small water change and a day later they spawned! Pic from ≈ 4 months ago. I understand that some of my claims of breeding fish have been met with (understandable!) scepticism, and I shall try my best to find any pics of fry I have taken and keep this journal up dated with my current projects. Have a nice day!

I have one of those oops fishkeeping stories that starts with well-intentioned kids gifts, zero knowledge & quickly dead fish. Feel bad, learn stuff, meet cool people, start again, "accidentally" buy three tanks while learning. You know, that old chestnut. Anyway the 15 gallon attempt number two (with enough knowledge to keep the fish alive for a month and spending a small fortune), has gone really well and the family and I are ready to do something with the other tanks. Here is a list I am keeping and adjusting as I build the built in fish area for the 32 gallon in the living room, and finish remodeling my office to house the 15 and the 2.6. Interested in feedback on the stocking ideas: Fluval Spec 2.6 Gallon Amount Species Common Name Notes 6 Cherry Shrimp Color and interest 1 Olive Nerite Snail Algae 1 Water Sprite In Substrate 2 Java Moss 1 substrate, 1 floating Substrate Spectrastone Fast River Gravel w/ small amounts of Fluval Stratum underneath Hardscape Driftwood, small river rocks Heater Fluval P10 Filtration Spec OE with AqCoop Nano sponge & Ziss water stone Lighting Spec OE light Fertilizer Easy Green Fluval Flex 15 Gallon Amount Species Common Name Notes 1 Honey Gourami Centerpiece 6 Harlequin Rasbosas Small shoaling group 2 to 3 Red Racer Nerite Snails Algae control 3 Albino Cory's Clean up crew 1 Water Sprite Corraled Floater 2 Aponogenton Crispus Background 3 to 6 Anubias Nana Petite Planted in Drifwood 3 Java Moss Foreground Substrate Small amounts of Fluval Stratum strategically burried under Spectrastone Fast River Gravel Hardscape Dark driftwood (Seasoned) & Grey Slate rocks stacked and glued into a cave for quiet time Heater Fluval P50 Filtration Flex OE with biomass in both slots and standard split head, filter floss at intake grills, & Aq Co-op small sponge filter w/Ziss stone Lighitng Flex OE light bar Fertilizer Easy Green Fluval Flex 32.5 Gallon Amount Species Common Name Notes 4 Salt & Pepper (hasbrosas) Cory's 1 large 3 small for ID on Jack's original fish 2 Blue Moon Platy's m&f (maybe we get some frye) 1 Large Mystery Snail Lynde's original snail (big fella) 2 Gold Racer Nerite Snails Amp up algae control with the big fella 6 Zebra Danios hope to school with the Glofish Danios 3 Glofish Danios 1 Purple (Lillie's fish), 2 Blue...just in case shoal splits from Zebras. 1 Water Sprite Corraled floater to propogate other tanks 2 Amazon Sword Background 2 Java Fern Background 4 Java Moss Attach to Driftwood/rocks in Midground 2 Cryptocoryne Lucens Foreground Substrate Spectrastone Special Black with strategically placed Fluval Stratum underneath Hardscape Driftwood, Sponge Bob's House, Large & smooth river stones from yard Heater Fluval M200 Filtration Flex OE with biomass in all slots, filter floss at intake grills, Aq Coop Medium sponge filter w/ziss water stone Lighting Flex OE Aquasky with App Fertilizer Easy Green

Early morning search for elusive Lincoln’s Sparrow We may or may not have been trespassing… 😬 Monarchs migrating…

I hadn't intended to get back into fishkeeping, in fact, I was picking up that 2 gallon used aquarium to be used as a terrarium. But somehow I just couldn't resist putting a couple of guppies into it, and then a pink snail. Now I'm trying to learn to grow live plants, create ecosystems, and breed livebearers. It's a lot of fun, but it's like an entirely new hobby! In past years I've kept cichlids, at another time fell in love with fancy goldfish, and most recently failed to keep a number of fancy guppies alive. I was going to try again when I found Endlers. I fell head over heels in love with them, and am now the happy caretaker of two breeding colonies. My very first batches of fry are starting to color up! Darkwater 10 gallon, 3 months old, 72F - misc varieties of Endlers, predominantly black bar, received from a local hobbyist. Also 6 hasbrosus corydoras, 4 green neons, and an army of snails. The water looks like iced tea when I change it, but the water lettuce, hornwort and duckweed seem to love it. N Class 10 gallon, 3 months old, 72F - N class red chest Endlers from Shenandoah Aquatics, which I dream of supplementing someday from AdrianHD, but not just yet. There are 4 corydoras paleatus in it, which were purchased by mistake when I was trying to find corydoras habrosus. They seem happy, though I have plans to move them to a bigger tank so I can add to their little group. Japan Blue-gold lyretails, less than 1 month old, 76F, this is a 5 gallon quarantine tank suddenly turned into a temporary breeding tank. My pair from Dansfish arrived, and the female promptly gave birth to half a dozen tiny golden fry. I didn't have anyplace else to put the adults, so I added a bunch of acrylic yarn for the babies to hide in, and put in a few more ladies so the original mama didn't get hassled too much. This is temporary, and I need to be figuring out a solution involving at least a 10 gallon. 20 gallon for egg-scattering fish - new, finally regathering the fish that were scattered into makeshift tank situations when their tank broke a couple weeks ago. There are 10 galaxy rasboras/CPDs, 3 white clouds (the 4th died last night), and 1 rainbow shiner (the other 2 disappeared). There are a few misc male endlers in here, who are flirting madly with the poor single shiner. Zoe's 2.5 gallon - darkwater tank for a gorgeous Betta, a little Valkyrie. She's a halfmoon mustard gas Betta that I impulsively imported from Thailand when I fell in love with Irene's Betta Sonic. I spoke with the breeder, who was super sweet, and am keeping her in water with a bit of salt and some of the almond leaves he recommended, since he uses them with his fish. I adore her. I feed her frozen bloodworms in the evenings, and a few pellets in the morning. Wash's 2.5 gallon - he hasn't arrived yet, he was ordered at the same time that Zoe was, though from a different fish farm. Hopefully he will arrive tomorrow. I will never ever import fish again. Every tank, apart from Zoe, received the first dose of Paracleanse last night. They will receive another dose in 2 days.

I set up my first planted tank about 5 and a half weeks ago, and stocked it with 20 cherry shrimp (10 each from two different places). I have been working on filling it out with plants and rearranging a few things over the weeks. Most of my hornwort was wedged in down low and started exploding, but then it went through a big shed after a few weeks. I decided to pull most of it out and let it float, and it seems to be recovering well. The shrimp seem to be doing well and have started breeding. There are little ones all around the tank now. My first bunch of plants were from my lfs (and some locally harvested moss) but I finally got around to ordering 10 plants in from aquarium co op. I'm pleased with how they arrived. Some were a little smaller than I expected but some were bigger, and overall they seem quite healthy, so I am happy. Also got easy green and root tabs. Hopefully the new plants all do well and everything grows in the coming weeks. I'm pretty happy with how it is looking overall.

Fishkeeping, a hobby I once enjoyed as a child and young adult that gave way to adulting, being a father and well...life. Now that my only child has grown, graduated university and started her adult life, I have found more time(AND MONEY) on my hands. Saving, of course, is always a thing for later in life, but what about my mad money?(Yes, I am lucky enough to have some in this crazy economical world we are living in believe it or not!) Well, during COVID I got into watching A LOT of YouTube to kill the time as I was at the end of my 23 year career as a chef in New Orleans, back home on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and doing nothing but walking beach line collecting driftwood(reselling). One of the channels I got into was Cory and Dean on Aquarium Co Op, amongst a couple other channels I adore like MD Fish Tanks & Dan's Fish. In watching these Youtubers I learned a lot with the interest of getting back into it once I had the time and money. Fast forward 3 years and a complete 180 in my career choices as I joined the United States Postal Service, needless to say I have worked and saved a ton. I decided besides a couple vacations I have wanted to take, I would begin fishkeeping again. My first tank purchase was a Lifegard 10g Rimless, of course my plan was to go planted and have a nice tank to enjoy. Here's the breakdown so far of what is in the tank... Substrate: Fluval Stratum(in 4 small media bags...regretting this as its hard AF to plant into...think they aren't the right bags) with top layer light aquarium sand and small pebble mix. Feature pieces: Dragon Stone and Lava Rock purchased raw, cleaned heavily before adding. Plants(so far...): Alternanthera Reineckii "Variegated", Bacopa caroliniana 'Yellow flame', Dwarf Chain Sword (Echinodorus tenellus), Valisnaria Spiralis Italian and Java Moss. (ON WAY to still be planted): Hornwart Coontail for the top of my tanks(for the holding tank(s) for fry) and Rotala Rotundifolia "Red" Hardy Aquarium Plant. Filter: Fluval Aquaclear 30 with Ammonia Reduction and Crushed Coral(some crushed coral in substrate) plus a sponge filter I am seeding for holding tank for pregnant ladies. Lighting: Fluval Aquasky with personalized settings based on my sleep schedule lol Livestock: (Currently)3x Albino Yellow King Cobra Guppies(2 females/1 male...both females pregnant currently est 7 days gestation), 10 fire red neocaridinas & 5 purple mystery snails. (On way) 3x Blue Dragon Guppies(2 females, 1 male...thinking I might get some cool hybrids from the two types until I separate them in a few weeks to their own tank), 10 more Blue Dream shrimp & 4x Gold Laser Corys(unsexed & very young...holding them for another tank later on). Results so far have been pH drop, thanks to advice in here I realized even though my tap water runs a pH of 7.4ish the Fluval Stratum substrate dropped pH to 6.6 range...added crushed coral and wonder shell to help with that, minerals needed for livestock. As so surprise since the tank is cycling, I have had daily spikes in ammonia but not much really at all in nitrites/nitrates. I have combatted this by doing daily water changes of 20% which keeps it minimal at best. Anyways, hope you all enjoy my progress. Will update as I go along! 🙂 P.S. Sorry for photo quality on guppies...they are nonstop little buggers lol. If you have any advice or suggestions, feel free to drop em! I am documenting this on video some as well to put on YouTube eventually, although I am nervous lol. Thanks!! Check this out to help me which my parameters, any help would be appreciated!>> Low pH in new planted tank

My first planted tank has been going through a major up and down battle against black beard algae after originally attempted to get an algae filled tank for otos, so I've decided I will start a new one. Tired of the 2 year battle at this point and hilariously enough neglecting it helped it restore balance on its own. Perhaps will attempt to fix it up in the future. Now starting my journal documenting my journey into planted tanks. Attempt 2! I ordered some frogbit already, I have a 10 gallon rimless aqueon tank, and will be using a Finnex PF 7 Nano Aquarium Hob Power Filter (7.5 gallons). I will also most likely put a sponge filter at a later date. Any suggestions on lights? My last tank was the fluval flex 9 gallon so it came with a light. I would prefer something under $60 even more so under $50. It would be for a densly planted tank of frog bit, amazon swords, java ferns, anubis and java moss. I'm willing to go a bit over if it is truly necessary, but would prefer to keep in budget. Keep in mind it would need to go on a rimless tank. Since mystery snails are out of the question with it being rimless, would love suggestions on algae eaters when it is done cycling. For now only frog bit will be going in, no other plants. They were originally for my turtle tank, but was warned there might be snail eggs by seller even if no visible snails so decided to put them in a different tank until they are in the clear. I don't want to have to chase down little snails in a 75 gallon. I personally am hoping to be able to get Otos or perhaps khuli loaches? If I do have a bladder or pond snail issue, it will become a pea puffer tank however. End of Day 1 of Journal. Thank you in advance for suggestions and guidance!

Took a break from scaping when the pandemic happened. Took two neglected turtles in and then it outgrew the 20g long, luckily I have a friend who has a huge pond that wanted turtles. 11/21 20 long scaped with the OG dither fish still in the tank. Hardscape was just some leftover I had from a previous setup which wasn’t a lot cause I gave most of them away. I also put a black piece of corrugated board in between the sand and aquasoil because I had big cories at this time and I knew they’d be mixing the substrates. Cories started spawning nonstop. Eggs were everywhere but most of them were eaten by the guppies or danios 11/27 Roommate felt bad about the rocks being incomplete so he took me to a fish store and bought some more dragon stone. I had all the rocks in front cause i didn’t wanna disturb the stem plants in the back 12/05 Found a super cheap 40 breeder with stand. Grabbed the tank and moved all the fish from the 20 long (at this point the OG fish; cories, guppies and danios) have been rehomed. I opted for all sand but I do have some aquasoil in media bags with some root tabs underneath the sand. 12/14 Tanks current state. Some plants have grown fish are looking better [*]low tech no co2 tank [*]liquid ferts dosed once or twice per week [*]light on 10 hours a day Plants: [*]anubias nana petite [*]some random anubias that was on sale at petsmart [*]El Niño fern [*]windelov Java fern [*]buce [*]hygro pinnatifida [*]bunch of rotala (h’ra, ceylon, wallichi and bonsai) [*]ludwigia palustris and some super red variant [*]ammania gracilis [*]some big leaf hygro which I’m assuming is corymbosa [*]hydrocotyle for carpet [*]rotala bonsai -myrio green Fish: [*]pair of Bolivian rams [*]lampeye killi [*]furcata rainbow [*]ember tetra [*]female bettas [*]ramshorn and mystery snail [*]Pygmy Cories (pygmaeus and habrosus) Will update this thread when the plants have finally started growing. Some stems are already showing signs of new growth but tank still needs more time.

The purpose of this journal is to document my adventures in aquarium keeping as my hobby transitions into its next phase where I settle into a more long-term focus on breeding nano-fish and fresh water crustaceans as well as growing plants well. Over the past 30 years, this hobby has been a true joy for me, it has allowed me to learn so much about both myself and the world around me. It is my hope that my documentation of my aquarium-based journey will inspire others to continue to push their hobby to the next level. In light of recent success I have had selling fish and shrimp in my local market, I have decided to extend my 6 10 gal breeding rack into a larger 10 gal rack holding eight aquariums. Utilizing this new structure which I have affectionately named the "Aquarium Wunderkammer", it is my hope to continue breed Danios, Badis, Pygmy Sunfish, White Clouds, Fire Red Shrimp, Blue Dream Shrimp, and Dwarf Crayfish for both fun and a small profit. I think this new project of mine is novel because it utilizes a sliding rail system usually used in cabinet making that I have not seen utilized for an aquarium rack. By placing these aquarium on cabinet sliders, the aquarium can be moved away from the shelf they normally rest on, greatly increasing the amount of available aquarium which can be accessed for maintenance and catching of livestock while maintaining a small footprint. Thus far in my in hobby experience I have not seen a system utilizing cabinets sliders and aquariums, so if you have similar thoughts, you can now see an example of one of these systems in action.

7 months / 7 tanks i just now went back to the well to grab a 10gallon 1/2 price Aqueon BB PetStore tank while the getting is good. i want to try a dry start with the Monte Carlo that need thinning and thought wtf? yolo! i deserve this… i may have a problem 🤷🏽 potter, teacher, antique dealer and greenhorn fish keeper journal. coming at you from the Rocky Mountains of Colorado. ~1~ a long , long time ago…my now delightful significant other returned from the Pacific NW with a mason jar terrarium and gifted it to me. thoroughly charmed, i added it to a display of new work presented for a holiday show, for ambiance. i had nice pots for sale, i was proud, but - all anyone cared to talk about was that mason jar terrarium so i sold it. fast forward a bunch of years. mushroom foraging got me into the forest floor - got me into moss - made me think - i should recreate that mason jar terrarium. so i did. made a few more& found that i really enjoyed keeping living things in glass jars… ( not mine ) enter Harriet Tub Man. december 2o22.

Wow, keeping a journal of tank stuff seems like so much fun! I'm going to give it a try and see if it sticks. It'll be fun to watch the progress over time. Okay, like I said in the intro section, I'm a returning hobbyist who lives in Kitsap County, WA. I've kept both fresh and saltwater tanks in the past, but haven't had one for a few years now, maybe going on five? Anyway, I'm restarting again from scratch! Exciting times. 😁 It may be a challenge figuring out what to keep in this water, it will be my first time starting up a tank since we moved across the country. I always had tanks in city water and here we're on a well. The water is SO HARD, GH registering between 100-150 with a KH around 80. Luckily the pH isn't bad, right around 7. We do have a tiny bit of nitrate in the water, but it's only around 10 so not too bad. I currently have a 15 gallon cube that I just got for my birthday. Started up on December 22nd. I fed the tank every day and waited until I saw measurable ammonia on the 28th to add a bottle of nitrifying bacteria. It took 4 days to get to 0 ammonia, and there hasn't been any since. Currently waiting for my nitrites to drop all the way down to do my first water change, but I've already got quite a lot of nitrates in there, so probably any day now. Water has been cloudy since I added the bacteria, but finally today it seemed to start really clearing. I've got three plants in there right now, (pennywort, dwarf chain sword, and pogostemon stellatus) with several more on the way this week. Once my nitrites have gone away I'll be headed to the fish store to get some neocaridina shrimp. I can't decide between all the lovely colors, so I'll likely just go with whatever they have the most biggest ones of when I get there. I've kept them in the past and really love their antics. Eventually I'll add a school of nano fish, but that's a ways down the road at this point. Later on this year I'll be upgrading to a bigger tank, a 29 gallon high (that's why I have the giant filter sitting in the 15 right now 😉) We still have the stand for my old 20 long though we didn't move the tank with us, so I'm just going to repurpose that from being the table in my husband's office that holds some computer equipment and a lamp back to its rightful job. I regretted the smaller size tank almost immediately, hehe! But it's probably good for me to start off slow anyway. I love raising aquatic plants, so I'm toying with the idea of going high tech with CO2 and the whole nine when I go to the big tank. We'll see though. Okay, here's a picture from today!

29 gallon community tank before and after trimming. I even trimmed back my bolbitis which I hated to do but it was heading across the front of the tank. It usually takes a while for me to start liking the tank again after a trim but I like it a lot this time around. It also allowed me to float some of my wisteria trimmings which I always like doing. Tank inhabitants lost in the forest: Several Apistogramma Cacatuoides(triple reds), Amano Shrimp, Celestial Pearl Danios, Blue Ramshorn Snails and Cherry Barbs. Plants: Water Wisteria, Ludwigia Repens, Bolbitis Heudelotii, Java Fern Windelov, Anubias Nana, Anubias Barteri. Struggling plants: Monte Carlo, Staurogyne Repens.

Moved a large Threadfin Acara out this past week. Starting to watch these Discus to see if any pair off. Water change with ramblings… Feeding, with more ramblings… I recommend to every aquarist: if you keep Rams or Amazon fish, at least try keeping discus. Easily my favorites.

Recently, I was told there is a national blackworm shortage. So naturally, I saw this as a great opportunity to exploit the locals for that cash money. ...er ...I mean as my moral duty to keep my local friends' fish healthy and fed. Yeah, that one. Time to figure out blackworm culture. Wild Collection A little research on blackworm habitats revealed they can be found in shallow water near the edges of marshes, swamps, and ponds with muddy sediment where they feed in decaying vegetation. Well ...there's a shallow, still creek with a mud bottom near my work. Not really a creek. More like a very long depression that stays filled with rainwater most of the year. I was hoping to find a private spot to collect because I don't like people coming around and asking me what I'm doing. NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS, OFFICER! Unfortunately, most of the creek is behind fenced private or state property except for one spot along the road where people like to dump their latest stolen car after stripping it for parts. That's what these spots are for after all. I hadn't pulled over to look before my first collection trip a couple weeks ago so I wasn't sure if there'd be much life but wow it's everywhere. Judging by the amount of invertebrates I saw swimming around freely, it's doubtful there are any fish there which makes the spot even more ideal for something like this. Now enjoy some pictures of the collection site: Shallow, mud bottom. Lots of decaying vegetarian but not enough to foul the water. Directly off the bank where the water level was higher a couple weeks ago. Grabbed a small wad of vegetation, found a blackworm first try. Separating from Debris I took a 5 gallon bucket full home and dumped it into a 5 gallon tank. To clear up the water I put in a little USB pump with a sponge over the intake. Last time a few blackworms burrowed through the sponge so I'm pumping the water into a breeder net to catch the new baby pieces. To collect the worms from the tank I made a plastic mesh cylinder filled with rocks. The first time I tried this most, if not all, of the blackworms climbed into the tower after 24 hours which made it easy to relocate them into a separate 10 gallon tank without the decaying veg that came with them. The tank sat for 3 or 4 days before this and was not aerated so they may have climbed the tower to reach the surface for oxygen or to escape the decaying plant matter. Or perhaps they were simply looking for a sweet bachelor condo where they can reproduce asexually and no one can hear them cry at night. It's hard to get the ladies when you're a worm. Culture Tank The blackworms are being kept in the same parameters of all my fish, 68-74°F, ~7.8 pH. Ramshorn snails, scuds, daphnia, cyclops, and newly hatched CPD fry (the container hanging in the front is a DIY fish egg hatchery) are being kept in the same bare bottom tank with a thin layer of detritus, an aquarium co-op coarse sponge filter, and a clamshell container filled with K1 biomedia. I made two more taller blackworm towers for the culture tank, one filled with lava rock and the other with pea gravel. The worms are showing a clear preference for the pea gravel so far which they populated a couple days after being put in the tank. I'm sure it's far less harsh on their soft, pathetic worm bodies. Soon I'll make a third with a mix of the two. I had the idea for the blackworm tower because most blackworm culture guides recommend keeping them in only a few inches of water of oxygen. Since the tank is a polyculture of multiple organisms and for water quality reasons I want the tank to be full to the top. If shallow water is necessary then these towers will give the blackworms a way to live closer to the surface. There seems to be an equal amount of worms living near the top and the bottom of the towers however. And for some reason a lot less around the middle. The towers will also provide for much more space to populate other than just the bottom of the tank, make population growth easier to monitor, and the gravel will help with fragmentation. I haven't tested this yet but I'm also hoping the towers can be removed and rinsed over a bucket for easy harvesting. (1)

This is my 125 community tank. It consists of: 10 bleeding heart tetra 8 Columbian tetra 8 skirt tetra 8 king blue tetra 4 sword tails 3 male bristlenose plecos 2 pearl gourami 1 male apistograma hongsloi 1 male black marble anglefish. Going to add to those numbers on a few things. Also looking too add something else that's not in the tank to it. Any suggestions? My intention right now is too add 3 more Columbian tetra 3 more king blue tetra 4 female sword tails and 3 platy Maybe some hatchet fish? Maybe some keyhole cichlids? Let me know what you guys think!

I keep many small aquariums in my apartment, mostly Walstad-style, with organic soil from a local composting spot. I enjoy running really stable ecosystems. These photos don't show much of the fish and shrimp. I also keep some outdoor tubs here in Vermont. Cheers, Jason

This is my 55 gallon Asian community tank. Currently stocked with Red ruby Barbs, a 3 spot gourami and some pictus catfish(not Asian obviously lol) that are being moved to a 40 breeder in a few months to make room for yo yo loaches. The plants are not Asian. At least not all. There is some hornwort, egeria densa, dwarf saggitaria , some kind of rotala (coin leaf I think?), Triple red ludwigia, water lettuce and a tiger lotus. The plan for this tank is to eventually make a tiny fish room off the side of my bedroom so I'll eventually move these fish back there as well as the fish in my 125 gallon to make room for some rainbow fish in this tank and maybe something bigger in the 125. Going to start a journal for that one too. Let me know what you guys think. All questions and suggestions are welcomed.

Rebuilding the 10 gallon this weekend. Just got a bunch of new plants:) I discovered the crypt lucens I bought is too large, so I’m gonna swap it with the crypt parva from my other tank (sorry fat Kuhli). I’m going to take my time planting this one.

So to start off i am currently invested in 4 tanks ranging from 5.5 up to 30 gal. Been in the water about 2.5 years now, Dang carnival goldfish got my 2 year old and I at the time.. stopped on the way home got the cheapo acrylic 6.5 walmart tank with a lid and a 10 gal filter.. oh man did i not know how bad my wallet would hurt from the time i opened google upon getting home and now, but wouldnt trade the hobby and how much its brought into my life even it seems to take up more hours of my weekends then id like its worth it! Starting off I have my 5.5 my intro to plants... beeen through alot of growing pains in that tank. Equipment is a Hygger auto timer light (little lcd screen most all my lights are), a sicce nano internal, and and a ziss airstone, no heater (77-79f). This lovely rectangle housed a number of super nano fish over the 1.5 years its been up and running, the current inhabitants are 1 dwarf puffer and 1 oto. yes i know about all the things they both need. I have my reasons and i find them acceptable. the plants i have going in there at the moment is Val, elodea, ludwigia repens (red?), and ludgiwia broadleaf red (dont remeber but its one of my favorite), with salvinia floaters on top, and a peice of drift wood. Up in size from there is my Fluval 15 Flex (scored on FB market place for 65$ and it happens to be a dream tank of mine) its been up for about 4 months now and doing amazing. All standard equipment that comes with the flex with the addition of a hygger 5 gal sponge filter and a Fluval 100w heater (79-80f). This amazing cube is housing a small fully grown (2.5in) polar blue cichlid, 8 ember tetras, and 1m1f sword tail. it also has Val, Anubias Barteri, Asian water fern, ludwigia broadleaf, and a crpyt I was gifted i cannot identify, a couple peices of drift wood. Onward! my 20H has been running a month (recently broke it out of storage). This bad boy my first Aquarium Co-op Course sponge filter!!! hygger double sponge with bio ball container on bottom, and a Fluval U1? 15 gal internal filter, hygger light, cheap amazon adjustable heater (75-78f). This is my least stocked tank... 1 fully grown rescue opaline gourami (5.5-6in). Plants is pretty low too 2 Java Fern and 1 Water sprite (planted) For the finally is my horribly over stocked 30 gal... alright bear with me here and dont yell at me the 20 was suppose to be a community too but someone is a bully.. it has a tetra whisper 60 gal HOB, a 40 gal hygger double sponge with bio ball containers, a aqueon 150w heater (75-78f), and a hygger led light. This is the crazy part but everyone is getting along just fine. 1 polar blue, 1 gourami, 1 clown pleco, 2 yoyo loach, 6 corydora (aneus green), 3 leapord danio, 4 zebra danio, 3 platy, 4 Molly (1M3F). Val, Ludwigia Repens, and a huge Anubia Barteri, and Asian Water Fern. Huge piece of drift wood and river rocks. Yes i could do better but im learning and saving money to do so, as this is a hobby and i have a family so ya know every day is something new and some days are easy, that being said i started this journal to remind myself where im at and where i was when i look back in the future. this hobby is my escape and i love every aspect of it. As my future of an aquarist i want to start to breed Corydoras of all species and also get into more livebearers so far ive seen fry from time to time in the 30 gal but i never see any make it to a good size ( you could guess why huh). Thanks for taking the time to read and give input into my aquarist hobby! (Pics in order of listed) (also some pics are a week or two old so things have changed)