Getting back into the hobby after 15 years

[MatticusRexxor]

One week after adding the new fish.  The plants are really taking off—especially that dwarf water lily.  I’m up to five lily pads, and it’s kinda starting to take over that corner of the tank.

[Vanish]

You can trim the lily pads off if you just want the underwater leaves.

I'm sorry you didnt get answers to your stocking questions sooner!

[Levi_Aquatics]

My water lily never really took off. Yours looks great!

[MatticusRexxor]

My water parameters remain steady, so I think I’ll be adding a gourami of some sort tomorrow.  I take it that a Blue Gourami will get too big, so I’m thinking of a fire or neon blue.

[MatticusRexxor]

I ended up getting a neon blue dwarf gourami, who I’ve named Blue for the time being.  He’s still very shy, but he did enjoy some frozen bloodworms as a first meal.

I had to do a little pruning of my stem plants and water lily, as they were starting to block out the light for the other plants.

[MatticusRexxor]

Found the gourami dead this morning.  No idea what happened, since all the other fish are thriving.

[MatticusRexxor]

Checked the water again today (did a water change and a filter cleaning yesterday after finding the dead fish).  Using the Aquarium Co-op test strips my results were:

Ammonia: 0

Nitrate: 10

Nitrite: 0

Hardness (GH): 300

Buffer (KH): 80

PH: 8.0

Chlorine: 0

 

So, good water conditions, if very hard.  Maybe the Gourami just couldn't handle the PH?  Thinking about replacing it with some platies and/or mollies.  I'm also starting to get a little bit of algae on the sides of the tank now that spring is here and the tank is getting more indirect sunlight.  The bladder snails didn't seem to be making a dent in it, so I had to get a scraper.  Maybe I should invest in a bristlenose pleco?

[MatticusRexxor]

Decided to go with some Mollies to replace the gourami.  Got three females and one male.  They weren’t in the tank for 15 minutes and the male was already pestering females.

[Hannah Parker]

If you got the gourami from Petco it's possible that it just wasn't strong enough, had weak genetics or was already sick. It could be multiple things. It could be the same but I usually have better luck at a small local fish store. I always get sick fish at Petsmart or Petco. I can't recommend Platies enough! They are so hardy and fun. I had bad luck with mollies but I hope that yours do well and thrive 🙂 I think livebearers are underrated as centerpiece fish, their energy is awesome. I think they should be able to keep up with your danios well. 

[MatticusRexxor]

On 4/27/2022 at 9:11 AM, hannah662parker said:

If you got the gourami from Petco it's possible that it just wasn't strong enough, had weak genetics or was already sick. It could be multiple things. It could be the same but I usually have better luck at a small local fish store. I always get sick fish at Petsmart or Petco. I can't recommend Platies enough! They are so hardy and fun. I had bad luck with mollies but I hope that yours do well and thrive 🙂 I think livebearers are underrated as centerpiece fish, their energy is awesome. I think they should be able to keep up with your danios well. 

All of my fish have come from the same Petco, and most of them have done very well.  I did lose half of my initial batch of Corys (one albino confirmed dead, one albino and one peppered missing), but the second batch has absolutely thrived.  All three of those three peppered Corys started growing immediately and haven't shown any signs of slowing down.  I might have lost one or two Danios during all of this time, but it's hard to get an accurate count of them when they're constantly moving.  I've got at least eight or nine out of the original eleven in there.

The gourami was the outlier, and he lasted more than six weeks.

[Hannah Parker]

On 4/27/2022 at 5:10 PM, MatticusRexxor said:

All of my fish have come from the same Petco, and most of them have done very well.  I did lose half of my initial batch of Corys (one albino confirmed dead, one albino and one peppered missing), but the second batch has absolutely thrived.  All three of those three peppered Corys started growing immediately and haven't shown any signs of slowing down.  I might have lost one or two Danios during all of this time, but it's hard to get an accurate count of them when they're constantly moving.  I've got at least eight or nine out of the original eleven in there.

The gourami was the outlier, and he lasted more than six weeks.

That's awesome, you must have a great quality Petco by you! At my previous house the local Petco also had great fish, but since we've moved the one by our house doesn't at all 😞 I guess it just depends! I'm glad your fish are doing so well! 🙂 

[MatticusRexxor]

It’s been awhile since my last update.  The Mollys have settled in nicely.  The females are all in various states of pregnancy, but any fry seem to get eaten immediately.  I’ve purchased some plastic plant clusters to give any further fry more of a chance.  I had gotten down to six danios, but all the other fish were thriving.  I just added four danios and a clown pleco to help the snails with the algae on the walls.

 

 

[MatticusRexxor]

The pleco didn't make it..

[MatticusRexxor]

Spotted two baby Mollies this morning.  Hopefully there’s enough cover for them to grow up!

[MatticusRexxor]

Baby fish count is up to six!  A couple are getting too big to be considered snacks by even the big female and are getting much bolder.

[MatticusRexxor]

Checking in again after a couple months.  Things are mostly the same, though I now have a second wave of baby Mollys.  They're starting to become bolder, though they still avoid the biggest female.  I did lose one female Molly during this time, and I'm down to 3 Danios.  All of the other fish, though, are doing fine.

Yesterday, I even noticed something new: I had a new, tiny Peppered Cory!  Yes, it seems that my Corys have bred at least once!  I confirmed it earlier today: I now have six Peppered Corys (including an itty bitty baby) and one albino.

[MatticusRexxor]

I've removed one of the sponge filters and replaced it with a medium-sized Lee's Triple-Flow internal box filter because I'm tired of waste exploding everywhere any time I try to do tank maintenance.  The box filter is full of Aquarium Co-op Bio Rings and Big Kahuna filter floss cut to fit, and I replaced the default airstone with a Ziss one from Aquarium Co-op.  I also removed the last of the plastic grass mats, as they were just collecting waste.  Less than 24 hours later and the white, courser section of filter floss is covered in waste that had either escaped the previous filter or otherwise hadn't been filtered 😧

My intention is to replace the other sponge filter with a small Triple-Flow in a few months.