Greetings from the East Coast

[Maggie]

Hi everyone, I'm Maggie. Like so many here I recently became re-interested in fishkeeping after being out of it for many years (fam, job, cost, etc). I don't exactly remember what sparked my interest again, but first I read up on and looked at photos of what kind of fish I wanted. I watched several of Cory's videos to hear the descriptions and more about the fish. I knew I wanted a peaceful community tank but didn't really want tetras or guppies. It turns out I really love harlequin rasboras, so I built my dream tank around them, hopefully to end up with around 15 or so. I have a 45-gal tank that is now fairly heavily planted. My showstoppers will be 2 or 3 pearl gourami, and I love the peppered cory cat (planning on 4),  but there are several other adorable cories, too. My tank is about 3/4 done with fishless cycling using ammonia. Algea started growing 2 days ago, nitrates are finally rising, up to almost 20, ammonia and nitrites have been steadily high w/dosing. I am at that "I can't wait" point right now!! I have some trumpet snails that came in on my plants and am wondering how they are still surviving the ammonia bath. I just know I'm going to want a 10 gal for some cherry shrimp, which I've heard are expensive snacks for gourami, so I need a separate tank for them. Then they'll need some fishy companions in the form of (maybe) green kubotai rasboras and a few cories. I am looking forward to learning a lot from everyone and sharing fish stories!

[Mridul Singh]

Welcome!

I'd for sure keep the shrimp in a different tank than the Pearl Gourami; they love eating shrimp (learned that the hard way a few years ago)

For the corydoras, I would up the number to at least 6 to 9. Your tank can handle that many.

Hope the hobby is enjoyable for you!

[ADMWNDSR83]

Great to see you here Maggie, from a fellow east coaster!  I've got 6 cories in my 37 gallon, and will echo @Mridul Singh that you'll want at least 6 cories to get their personalities going.  Other than that the plan sounds great!

[Maggie]

Six cory cats it is, then! Thank you!

[Bill]

On 10/7/2020 at 5:06 PM, Maggie said:

It turns out I really love harlequin rasboras, so I built my dream tank around them, hopefully to end up with around 15 or so.

Me too, right up there with angels. I have them in two tanks, and miss seeing them in the other tanks, lol. 

[Maggie]

Fishless cycling update: this am, ammonia <2 ppm (w/daily ammonia dosing), nitrates still 40-80. Nitrites fell drastically from ~5 ppm yesterday to .25 ppm today, and I'm so happy! Maybe only a few more days before the ammonia-nitrite crash to zero. 

Snail update: I either have an algea-eating assassin snail who somehow was in the plants I purchased (doubtful), or I have a regular trumpet snail who was so hungry he attacked and ate one of his (now several) tankmates. I witnessed and recorded it. I have no idea how to upload a video but if there's a way to clip some screenshots from the video I will try to do that. This guy saw the smaller one, came upon and grabbed hold. At first I though they were mating, but it soon became obvious thats not what it was. I recorded 3 separate vids over about 5 minutes. I guess if there's not enough algea, they resort to canabalism. Any snail experts? Here are pics of them a couple days before. First one is the victim. He looks bigger in the pic, but was about 2/3 the size of the second one. 

[Daniel]

@Maggie,

@Lizzie Block did a nice tutorial on how to post videos to the Forum.

Turns out it is pretty easy. I look forward to seeing your snail video.

[Maggie]

Gifs of various parts of this incident. The black line is some sort of discharge from the victim. I missed that part getting a chair bc i couldn't hold it steady.