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Hello everyone! I’m so excited that I have found this forum! I have been on other pages and haven’t been able to get help. I sometimes have a lot of questions since I am a newbie. I have had a Betta for almost a year. And have kept him well. But would love to do better for him. I have never used live plants and I am thinking about getting a few just to try. I have no idea what I need as far as substrate or anything as far as plants go. Do I need a bubbler to keep plants? And where can I get clean plants that wouldn’t have a million snail eggs? Lol. Any suggestions or info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks for your time, and I am looking forward to talking with y’all! Carrie T

I got my first aquarium when I was 15 (1985) that I bought with yard mowing money and have had at least one since then except for about 4 years in the early 90's. I currently have 3 running at the moment. A 10 that I am trying to do small shrimp in with some success (not great), a 30 that has been going since 1998 that currently has 3 female and 1 male Cherry Barbs, a pleco, and a catfish that I have had since 1998, and an 80 that I just set up a few months ago. It has Von Rio tetras, Neon Dwarf Rainbows, Corys, and a Dwarf Gourami. The 80 has been a challenge, I find it hard not to keep buying more tanks to set up for different fish, shrimp, etc.... Anyone know what type of catfish this is and possible life expectancy?

Has anyone ever been? I'm driving down to FL with the family, and this is a possibility to stop along the way. I'm asking, as my family of four would be about $100 to go. I've been to other aquariums; so I understand it's typically expensive. However, I've never had to pay this much. Is it worth it?

Hi there, everyone. I'm Kasy in Memphis. We started our indoor tanks to keep our 2 (outdoor) plecos alive over the winter but ended up with 2 tanks so bought a few fish to populate the 2nd tank. So - 2 plecos in one and a couple mollies, and 2 platties in the other. Surprisingly, the mollies have already expanded their family by 2. I came here to learn about cleaning for the tanks, mostly, but there's all kinds of fun stuff to learn. I'm looking forward checking out what everyone else has.

I have very hard water here in Nashville. I just started a dirted tank with three absolutely beautiful German rams included in the tank. My current GH test was 8-9 dH. Is this too hard for rams? If so, best way to soften?

Hello from Tennessee! My husband and I bought our first tank 7 years ago. It was a 55g kit and was still in the cycling process when I found out we were gonna be parents! So that tank got broken down and packed into the attic, and I've had to enjoy various youtube videos to get my fishy fix. About the middle of this year I made the decision to start our first fish tank again! But with a smaller 20 gallon tank. To get everyone excited to help with the tank, the little one and husband got to pick out the first fish. (she helped through the process of cycling and I drew up a coloring sheet for the nitrogen cycle and helped track the parameters through our fishless cycle) They picked neon tetras and a dwarf blue gourami. So off to the fish store and the neons were picked up, as well as the gourami. Only my husband got a gold gourami because they had no blues and he assumed it was a dwarf. I told him to look it up, knowing it wasn't. He was sure, so we went home with them and I was sure that 55g would soon be dusted off. *evil hand gestures inserted here with a flash of lightning and thunder* Sure enough the gourami grew a bit and started to get aggressive. So a bare 55g is on the coffee table temporarily and housing the lonely gold gourami, Bayek. (any Assassin's Creed fans here?) We went back to the lfs to have a look at fish and grabbed some guppies for the husband's new choice to stock the 20g. My stocking was a freshwater pompom crab and a bamboo shrimp, as well as 3 amanos and a few colors of mystery snails added sporadically over the months, if you're curious. My question to you is how you'd stock this 55g with but a lonely gold gourami. My husband wants a pleco, and the lfs has some super red bristlenose they breed in-house. I'd like to scape it with driftwood and lava rock. A substrate of black sand. Plenty of epiphytes, and possibly a variety of crypts if the fish are compatible. I would probably move a couple snails over and possibly install a powerhead and move the bamboo shrimp over as it generally hangs around the sponge filter in the 20g, and I'd love to see it on a plant or driftwood or something prettier than airline tubing or other places that it finds to be the best flow with just a sponge filter. I'd love the gourami to be the centerpiece fish, because he has such a story. Ideally, a schooling fish like rummynose tetras or Cory loves to suggest silvertips because they follow your finger, and I think the little one (and myself, lets be honest) would love that. I'm wondering if enough of them schooling would be successful in keeping the gourami at bay? Let me know what you'd do. To wrap it up, my antisocial self feels like this freshly born guppy fry from our tank entering this beautiful community of nerms. (the bubbles are from a water change, its been a crazy year. I'm sure that first water chance as a fry feels kinda the same, lol)

Hello, my name is William, everyone calls me Will Billy tho. Im from Clarksville, TN. I’m sorta new to the hobby. My older brother who raised me was big into the hobby when i was a kid and he got me my first 10 gallon. He taught me how to care for my pet fish and showed me the ropes so to speak. Fast forward 20 years later i just got back into the hobby about 6 months ago with a 55 gallon nano tank. I love nano fish, but i wanted a big nano tank so i could have more of them swimming around. I have a typical nano tank with harlequin rasbora, neons ( one of my favorites ) guppies, cory cats, otto cats, and mystery snails. However my centerpiece fish are 2 golden dojo loaches. I know bottom feeders for a centerpiece is a little unusual but I love my dojo’s. Hands down my favorite fish of all time. Ive named them Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious and Bob. Ive trained them to eat bottom feeder pellets from my hand, and they will even let me pet them while doing water changes. Im not joking either my wife freaked out a bit when Bob let my 4 year old daughter reach in and gently grab and hold him. I was stunned as he laid there while she held him and then when he had enough he swam off. So cool. Anyway im rambling a bit. Here is a pic of supercali below. Bob was a bit camera shy at the time. Glad to be a part of this forum and glad i found aquarium co-op. I love Corey’s videos and the plants and supplies. See you guys around

Hey there, I'm pretty new to the hobby except for the occasion bett a growing up. I hope to learn lots and maybe even contribute in the future! If anyone around Nashville raises guppies Id love to be in touch! randy

Hello everyone! My name is Mitch. I’ve been keeping an aquarium for almost eight years. We started with a 10 gallon, and after a couple of upsized we know have a 75 gallon tank in our living room. It is a freshwater planted tank. I’ve been experimenting with growing plants for the past few years. My first attempts were disasters, but once I found Aquarium Co-op on YouTube I started making corrections to my setup that have led to successes. My current tank has a gravel and sand substrate. We love watching our Corydora in the sand. We also have Otocinclus helping with the algae. I enjoy watching them the most. We have schools of neon tetras and Harlequin Rasboras that keep the middle of the tank active. Our Cherry Shrimp colony is thriving, and I recently realized that I have a bunch of Red Rilis. Oh, and I have a growing colony of Mystery Snails and a couple of Nerite snails. I am very thankful for Aquarium Co-op and the knowledge shared on the channel, site, and Facebook group. I am looking forward to participating on this forum. Here is a picture of my tank. I still have a lot to learn. Haha.

I am a native east tennessean. Live outside knoxville. Have 8 tanks mostly doing live bearers and low tech plants.