Pea Puffer edition.

Discuss anything aquarium related here, including MD fishtanks, tanks, bowls, inhabitants, bettas, shrimp, decor, plants, duckweed and issues. Before asking questions in this thread, make sure you give us at least some details when asking a question, such as:

>Tank size (include dimensions, not just volume)
>Unusual Parameters (nitrate, pH, GH, KH)
>Any inhabitants + how long you've had them
>Age of the tank
>Pictures are always helpful

Tank Cycling:
>www.modestfish.com/how-to-cycle-your-aquarium/

Stocking and Water Change Calculator:
>www.aqadvisor.com/AqAdvisor.php
>www.hamzasreef.com/Contents/Calculators/EffectiveWaterChange.php

Articles and Care Guides:
>www.seriouslyfish.com/knowledge-base/
>www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/
>www.aquariumcoop.com/
>www.theaquariumwiki.com/wiki/

Aquatic Plant Database:
>www.aquaticplantcentral.com/forumapc/plantfinder/all.php
>www.flowgrow.de/db/aquaticplants

previous >>4989102

>>5003131
I have both of those meds already. Gonna start the deworming treatment today, wish me luck.

>>5003204
Good luck! For some reason most least killis are wild caught so usually have parasites.

>>5003192 (OP)
Will pea puffer eat a full grown mystery snail? I'm starting to obsess over creating tanks to breed inverts for both food and tankmates. Cherry shrimp are easy. Cichlid tank solves that cull problem.

But a full grown mystery snail is invulnerable except to a clown loach. And I ain't doing that. I heard pea puffer were mean as shit and eat the shells so I thought they might take out a full grown mystery snail

>>5003470
I'm going for a combination water column dosing + medicated food regimen just to make sure the fish are cleaned out.
I also found one of the two babies alive and well after pruning some of the Cryptocoryne, so it might not be that severe (only those 2 larger females exhibit sunken bellies)

9.5 gallon betta tank
Do you think i could put some nano fish like ember tetras in there?

>>5003526
I think they would eat the snail, if not, they'd stress the shit out of it

>>5004063
>know literally nothing about fish and dont have fish
>suddenly woke up this morning with the urge to get an aquarium
>google around
>bettas are apparently beginner fish and look cute
should I try to get some cute little betta in a giant aquarium when I have my own place

>>5004232
Do it! I have a solo Betta in a 40gal, and zero regrets

>>5004232
Yes you should. Just keep in mind to never, and I mean NEVER put a Betta in anything less than 10 gallons. Surviving does not equal thriving. I feel so bad for those Bettas that are put into 0.7 gallon cubes by ignorant idiots.

I have acquired a couple berghia nudibranchs, I've had them for a day, and one has already cleared the aiptasia that was annoying my zoa. Also its adorable.

>>5004287
10G is overkill for a solo beta. 5g with a sponge filter is fine. 10G if you want tank mates simply so the beta won't better shit out of them all day.

>>5004271
If I had a spare 40g I'd plant the fuck out of it and get like 2 male and 6 female betas and let them hash it out. With enough space and hiding they'd figure it out.

I am going to try and do a little nano vase thing. I'm going to do some small and hardy leafy plants like anubias nana petite and maybe a buce, the substrate will be some leftover aquasoil from my main tank build that I'll grind up and a generous sand cover. I wanted some easy stems for the back but I'm not sure what to go with, any ideas for broader leaved stems that won't mind being in an unheated (but room temp) vase? It's just under a gallon total and less than a foot tall. Water Wisteria seems to be a common suggestion but it grows tall, maybe with heavy maintenance?

shrimp pic when

>>5003755
Maybe do a pair of ottos instead. They're really cute and they can clean out all the algae

>>5004673
Aren't ottos schooling fish who need a group of at least six?

>>5004673
ottos would be cool but i worry i don't have enough algae to sustain them

do they eat waffers?

>>5004580

>>5004782
very shrimpy...
is that a red cherry?
i got one yesterday. they were smaller than i thought.

>>5004791
Mine were small when I got them too but they do get quite a bit bigger, my largest females are about 1.5 inches now.

>>5004811
thats so big.
every red cherry in the store was like 0.8 inches.
now i wanna try to make them bigger.

>>5000547
Update on Shrimp-girl. Thanks for the advice last thread.
We finally went on a date today. Went to the wildlife photography exhibit like one of the anons suggested in the previous thread. Couldn't think of much to say so I don't know it if went that well, but we to Hyde Park after and spent some hours talking before it got late.
She wants to meet up again, so I guess I didn't mess up!

>>5004485
>5g with a sponge filter is fine
>10G is overkill for a solo beta
>beta
>BETA

>>5004820
>Hyde Park
lmfao you live in boston. america's butthole.
you should take her to the museum of natural history in cambridge, if the red line breaks on the bridge (more often than not, it does) you can be all romantic-like while looking at the view.

>>5004865
It's an actual park in London. Which is what that part of Boston is named after.

>>5004864
Only Alphas deserve 10 gallons.

>>5004820
That was my suggestion, glad it worked out. The kid who won the best junior with the slime mould photo got robbed that was the best one in the whole thing. Would meet up for coffee or a lunch etc next bit more low key. Pick somewhere near a different park or the river so you can go for a wander again afterwards if it goes good.

>>5004872

>>5004782
mogged and egg-pilled

>>5004894
>why can't I hold all these eggs

>>5004356
Using nudibranchs for pest control is so cool, I’m trying to get a blue velvet nudi to deal with a flatworm problem I’m having. They’re such crazy specialized and cool critters!

>>5004820
Congrats anon! Show off more of your tank, maybe a full-tank shot, and we’ll do our best to give more dating advice! You’ve lucked out in finding a fellow hobbyist, I hope it works out well for you! My girlfriend doesn’t understand or care about the hobby much unfortunately, which kinda sucks since I wish I could geek out over corals and stuff with her. What’re your plans so far for date #2?

I thought I had lost one with the heat in the last week, they hadn't seemed too happy but I managed to spot them all when feeding today I guess they were just laying low. I like how they sit on things but when they do it on the substrate it's like they're dead.

>>5004864
I'm a terrible speller and on a phone but that doesn't change that you are giving out shit advice and being a fag.

>>5004865
>>5004867
Not either of them but I live in the Boston area too. Hyde park is for if you are bougie but too poor to live in JP or Roslindale.

>>5005189
lol @ the filename

>>5005207
>Not either of them but I live in the Boston area too. Hyde park is for if you are bougie but too poor to live in JP or Roslindale.
Former Boston resident here. Can confirm.
I don't miss the place, but it's definitely not the worst place I've lived.

>>5005232
>>5005207
The suburbs are nicer. Dedham or Newton are nice "right outside" towns, and then you've got real swanky shit like Hingham, Westwood, Weston, etc.

I hate the city of Boston but there are certainly liveable areas near it. They're just all fuck off expensive.

t. Top 5% national income bracket, still feels poor in MA

I named the red one Jupiter because she is larger than any of my shrimp

How's your summer tub looking this year?

>>5005245
>t. Top 5% national income bracket, still feels poor in MA
Ironically I moved to Chevy Chase, MD, so even though I'm in the same percentile as you, I went from subpar to... just as subpar. I do fare a bit better as a household with my wife's income added to the mix though.

>>5005360
Are cats/birds not interested in your fish?

>>5005377
I have a cover thing I put over it at night to keep the critters out. You can see it in the back. One time I found a dead drowned rat at the bottom. Even with that in mind, I'm pretty sure a few of them got snapped up by something. I have two white ones in there, now only one is still there and I never found the body. I never lost every single one in the 4ish years I've been doing this.

>>5005374
The big cities suck so much these days. My wife and I make north of 240k between us, and can't reasonably afford the second kid we both want without cutting back on the QOL for our current one.

Tip for those who may consider pairing corys with cherry barbs: cherry barbs will bottom feed. You have to account for this when attempting to target feed the corys. I found out if I put full size wafers in the barbs and corys will bicker over access to it. If I crush the thing in to smaller pieces it eliminates the chance for conflict.

>>5005448
>My wife and I make north of 240k between us, and can't reasonably afford the second kid we both want without cutting back on the QOL for our current one.
Are you us? lmao that's exactly the situation we're in. First child was pretty rough on my wife's health though so even if we could afford it, it's likely we wouldn't.

I keep having nightmares about fish. I reputedly have dreams where I discover random bowls or tanks of abused/neglected fish that are starved/dying and i freak out and try to nurse them back to health but theres so many that i get overwhelmed. IIve had this dream at least 10 times. What is the psychoanalytical meaning here

>>5005778
Those are anxiety dreams. Either your fish stress you out in some way you're not conscious of or it's related to something else and just happens to be about fish in your dreams.

>>5005245
Uh oh Boston talk aquarium edition. Massholes can't resist. I'm actually a south shore fag but I'm close enough I just say Boston.

What brick and mortar so you go to?
>lovely pets in Kingston
Good selection of fish, all super healthy. They have a very limited selection of plants, but they thrive
>Uncle Ned's in Millis
Cool selection. Awful hours. 90 minutes west of me so I've only been there once.

There used to be a place right on the Sharon/Canton line but it was gone last time I looked.

>>5005954
> Tropic Isle Aquarium
Bulletproof fish, I only buy from them. Only had one die in all these years. Expensive as fuck, though.
> Love the Reef
Great selection of inverts, they also test your water for about $10.
> European Aquatics
Cheap corals, but I'll never buy fish from them ever again, they always die.

>>5005954
>>5005970
Yeah the one down 1 near Sharon is salt only these days, they shut down the freshwater stuff and sold off all their tanks a year or so ago.

I go to Tropic Isle when I go to a store, but honestly just get stuff delivered more often than not.

>>5003192 (OP)
newaquaanon here, I would like to build my own tank diy style, what glass should be fine for something between 20-40g? and what glue(?) and sandpaper must use(for the borders after the cut)?
I'm planning to have only plants, I think the most easily are the limnophilas(ambulias) and cabombas, but which more are a go for a good start?
I have seen there are a bunch of things to fertilizate it, but I plan to use only natural light, but want to avoid algae, what does it need? and how long must be cycled the water?(ratio,ex. 1galon must be changed every 1 hourssecondsdays).
Thanks anons.0KR2T

>>5006121
>what glass should be fine for something between 20-40g? and what glue(?) and sandpaper must use(for the borders after the cut)?
There are lots of tutorials on this. It's a lengthy subject. If you only want plants and no livestock, the tank setup is easier in terms of acceptable water parameters. Light is required. Algae control is another lengthy subject.

>>5005778
I have similar dreams. Recent one I remember is me getting betta fish after betta fish, but they all die and decompose and I don't know why.

Also moving to a new house, that came with built in fishtanks in every wall and it's too much fish to take care of.

Is it possible to tell what species of oto they are and what gender?

>>5007099
looks like otocinclus affinis
dunno about genders

Here's my 40 gallon tank. I posted in the last thread and someone suggested floating plants so I bought some. Wisteria is the fastest growing plant I've had in an aquarium. Also got some pennywort and Amazon frogbit.

I have 2 ryukin and 10 danios. I'm thinking about adding like 15 white cloud mountain minnows. There's also about a dozen or so shrimp hiding in the back. A few live in the floating plants.

Aquaclear 70 and Imaginarium 40 G sponge filter.

>>5007236
The floating plants will start to compete against each other. I find that whole process mildly entertaining. Very slowly one species is going to take control of the tank meanwhile the others will shrink back in deference. I had duckweed, frogbit, and red root floaters at one point. The frogbit was boss plant I think mainly because there was a lot more of it to begin with. When I pruned back the frogbit, the duckweed would surge. Red root always had to be babied in a separate corner.

Hi. I am a noob at fishkeeping and I would love some advice. I have a 10gal heavily planted tank that's been established but with no fish for months. Just tiny snails that came in on one of the plants. Recently I set up a second filter with lucky bamboo and a week after that I bought two oranda goldfish. One of them is thriving but the other one spends most of his time hiding/resting near the bottom just facing the wall. He comes up to eat but doesn't do much else. I noticed his scales are flaring off his body. Water tested ammonia at 0.25-0.5ppm and nitrate at 5-10 ppm.

When I google it I only get results for dropsy. I think he's stable since he's eating but he's been like this for over a week now. There are no fish vets in my area.

I'm considering giving him a salt bath or adding it to the tank. I've heard some people say salt baths can be beneficial for goldfish but I don't want to stress him unnecessarily. Any advice? I'd like for him to feel better

>>5007300
These friends

Fish frens.
Is there a plant that grows in low light conditions and is easy to keep? Got a big piece of wood hanging in the back that blocks 90% of light. Threw asian marshweed in there and while it grows, only the top that reaches the light has leaves. The rest of the plant is plain sticks.

Retard here, will water that's "too pure" kill fish? I'm tryna keep some rosy reds in rain barrels but each time I put them in I never see them again. 0Kh 0Gh 6.4Ph because it's rain water. Do I need to put some limestone in or something?

>>5007236
Looks great anon, what are those red plants in the background?

>>5007411
Depends on the fish, but generally they'll be expected some level of hardness and you should remineralize. People will shill products like the shrimp powders but unless you're in a third world country you should just add back an amount of tap water.

>>5007302
>>5007300
they don't look bad, which one is the sick one?
maybe it's just bloat? in that case you can feed them de-shelled boiled peas

>>5007281
I can see it starting. They are twisting all over each other. Wisteria had the most added initially so it's the front runner. The roots in the picture are all from wisteria. The frogbit is growing pretty fast and propagating so it might hold it's own though.

Pennywort is disappointing. I had heard it would actually grow the fastest and hardiest, but it's getting lapped.

>>5007429
Thanks. The red floaters are alternanthera reinecki. They do better planted but are alright floaters. They've all curled up so both tips point up.

>amanos fighting over a pellet
>one picks ups a whole aquasoil ball and runs off
Retarded fucking things.

>>5007474
Yeah, they don't know aquasoil has much more value than a food pellet. Idiots!

>>5007302
Nigga you need a bigger tank. I don't think you need 40+ for two goldfish but a 20 long at a minimum, with way more filtration and plants and regular water changes. Goldfish are tanks, but even so, a 10 gallon with internal filtration isn't capable of avoiding ammonia spikes with two goldfish in it.

>>5003755
>>5004782
>>5004820
>>5004894
>>5005189
>>5005310
>>5005360
>>5007099
>>5007236
I have full confidence that I could easily beat the shit out of all of these aquariums one on one. I don't think any of them would last longer than a minute in combat.

>>5007484
Everyone thinks they're a real nigga punching aquariums until they gash open their arms on broken plate glass.

He is maturing

>>5007432
The orange one. His scales look damaged to me but it's hard to capture on camera, and he spends most of his time just Blair witchin it in the corner.
>>5007483
Yeah I figured this might be the case. I was hoping they could find equilibrium with all the plants but I'm still doing water changes every other day.
I'm thinking of medicating the tank and adding a small amount of salt. Anyone have experience doing this kind of thing?

>>5007490
The big weak point of most home aquariums when it comes to a hand to hand combat environment is their stand.

>>5007494
Sweep the legs... clever girl.

>>5007371
java moss, anubias, cryptocoryne, hornwort, bacopa caroliniana can grow in low light.
not sure if they can deal with 90% of light blocked though.

>>5007493
10G is too small for even one. 29G is the min for 2. And you need strong filtration, twice the tank size. HOB and a sponge works well. Look on the bright side, your about to have a spare 10G Tank to fuck around with.

Petco style anubias and java ferns don't suck up that much nutrients. Plus I'm assuming you aren't supplementing with CO2. Those slow growing plants mostly help by serving as a medium for cycle bacteria to grow on. And based on your pictures your tank is sparsely planted.

>>5007493
As the other anon said, get a much bigger tank (40G breeder is good), add at least another big-ass sponge filter but ideally also something else - I'm a fan of the moving bed air powered filters - and then a lot more plants. Anything that doesn't both touch the air and grow fast doesn't absorb much in the way of nitrates, so a bunch water lettuce, duckweed, hornwort, anacharis, or similar floating/unplanted stem plants will do a lot more than a few slow growing.

For refefence, something like picrel is what you could call heavily planted.

>>5007506
bacopa seems to stunt when shaded and will drop it's lower leaves if it only gets light at the top, in my experience.

>>5006128
thanks, I just did assemble a small one for testing more or less 5 gallons.
Got a bit of sand, but I don't know how to measure the water parameters (ph,clorated phosphorus,nitrawhatever), and didn't get antialgae.
IDK if theres some diy for the algae?
By the way, thanks for the reply. really thanks.

>>5007584
Testing can be done with an aquarium test kit. You can either use the API master kit for freshwater or test strips. Algae control consists of lighting duration (don't exceed 8 hours per day on a new tank) and livestock (stuff that eats algae), etc.

>>5007520
>>5007508
Thanks for your input. Put them in my big tank. Instant recovery. I will add more plants and put a sponge filter in here too. What can a 10 gallon tank handle?

>>5007677
Fish police will tell you not much but as long as it's planted you can do a fair bit. But I always think the best thing to do in smaller tanks is do a species tank of something schooling, if I had one lying around I'd have a dozen CPDs and some snails as clean up.

>>5007506
Well.. maybe not exactly 90% but it's a corner under the wood, behind the rock.. so there is barely any light. I thought the marshweed would tank it and while it does.. it's not pretty.
Cryptocoryne looks cool, google's AI also recommended that but ofc I can't trust that fkn thing.

>>5007799
If you choose crypts don't freak out if they melt at the start, they often do that in a new tank. They will grow new leaves back.

>>5007807
Heh, thanks for the warning. I actually had my phostemon melt on me https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/4498/4498
They grew to the surface, made lovely purple leaves and from the floor up started disintegrating. Cut the tops off, replanted, they are still growing fine. Never figured out why they did that.. only guess I have is cause I have no co2 pump.

*Pogostemon
Just had an aneurysm..

>>5007677
for real? You had a big tank all this time?
glad to hear the goldie is doing better

>>5007677
I did sparkling gouramis in my 10 gallon, another one I did small kilifish, currently my only 10 gallon is a shallow UNE shrimp tank.

>>5007677
As another said, sparkling gourami are probably the most interactive and interesting thing you can put in a 10G. You could also do a micro community with pygmy or habrosus corys and a tiny schooler (CPD size or smaller). Maybe even throw in an oto or three to be the "micro Plecos", and then whatever snails fit the parameters because snails are free. Could also throw in some neo or amano shrimp, they're also free.

This all assumes adequate filtration and a ton of plants - the former gets harder as your population grows without just sticking a real canister on it.

>>5007677
>What can a 10 gallon tank handle?
A Betta
>>5007895
>sparkling gourami are probably the most interactive and interesting thing you can put in a 10G
Bait. That's bait. Get a Betta instead.

>>5007932
Betta objectively more willing to interact. Although I will say I had 6 sparkling in a low PH (not quite blackwater, but close) tank, and got them content enough to start breeding. Although they did tend to hide if other fish where around, when alone they where always curious and watching things.

>>5007945
>got them content enough to start breeding
additionally, have you considered the fact that women like bettas? why look after fish that breed, when you can bring a woman home to see your betta and do the "breeding" yourself?

>>5008233
Generally if a fish is breeding its at least a little happy and showing more natural behaviors.
Also im a faggot whos man is equally into fish tanks.

>>5008236
Based gay anon. Wish I'd have been gay, sometime. Melee and autism with a BFF followed by getting my dick sucked? That's living life.

>>5007932
Bettas are fine. The various wild ones are more interesting than splendes imo. And either way, 6 sparkling gourami are more entertaining than one betta, while not being "babby's first fish"

Thanks to the anon in the last thread who recommended thickening the sand cap in my cloudy Walstad tank - I dumped a bunch more sand in and while there's still a bit of haziness, things have improved very noticeably.

>be me
>eating high-fiber diet
>farting in my sleep all night
>notice the aquarium in my bedroom doing much better than my other aquariums
>plants are lush
>the endlers have long exceeded their lifespan
did i just come up with a cheap CO2 and nitrogen injection system?

>>5008399
That's good, though without any water movement it might take ages to clear up properly. I was reminded of some post a while ago when someone said Father Fish's kids fucked up a tank in the same way.

I think the fan actually works.. Anons told me to get a fan to cool my tank. It was sitting at 31°C about 2hrs ago. Now it's on a stable 26°C. But the water level fell by about 1cm..

>>5008537
Are you the guy who thought you couldn't cool the tank below the air temp? Lel. Yeah needing to top off is a pain if you don't have a system, if you're just using tap water your tds will go up quite bit if you do it for a long time, you'll need to do larger water changes or buy some distilled water.

>>5008542
So u remember me! Heh, yeah.. I'm pretty stoopid.
I'm currently still fighting the high pH. 2 days ago it was 7.8, now it's 7.9 again.. it's a pain.. I'm gonna get mineral salts so I can harden up my RO water. Mixing it with tap doesn't work.. pH always goes super high.

If I'm doing a fresh walstadt, do I squeeze my existing filter gunk into the undersoil when I soak it before the sand goes on, or into the tank after filling?

>>5008592
In the tank with all the hardscape so bacteria can start colonization of all surfaces.

>>5008520
>some post a while ago
This is like... Appeal to authority, but there is no authority.
It's gonna be fine with no water flow, there are plenty of no-filter tanks on YouTube (Flop the Flowerhorn)

>>5008601
>no-filter tanks
the thing that concerns me is that with no water circulation, don't you end up establishing a gradient of dissolved oxygen across the tank? i.e. very little oxygen at the bottom. The amount of oxygen actually contributed by the plants must be tiny.

>>5008601
>This is like... Appeal to authority, but there is no authority.
Sorry, I didn't phrase this well. I meant that I remember when people were talking about failing walstad tanks that people who were related to or involved with father fish's channel had failed dirted tanks and it seemed that a thin sandcap might have been the case. Normally the recommendation is for a sandcap that exceeds the depth of the soil by 1.5x but anon's tank had very uneven sand depth that was very thin in places.

Tank will be fine without water movement generally, I just meant if you've already created a mess it might take a lot longer to go away than you'd normally expect without a pump of some kind.

>>5008615
Most examples of filterless tanks are quite small and it's not a big deal there except in cases where you get a complete biofilm covering on the surface.

>>5008615
>gradient of dissolved oxygen across the tank?
Yes, that is true. And I'll be honest, most of those aquascapers have shallow tanks so it's not as much of a problem for them.
As for oxygen generated by plants, I know hornwort makes all those bubbles that you can see, but I'm not sure how much that is compared to the overall amount of oxygen in the tank.

>>5008476
On the one hand, it's likely your bedroom tank has other factors making it more successful (for one, you're probably paying it far more attention).
On the other hand, CO2 in a tank is measurably higher in more enclosed, more crowded (with people) rooms with low circulation. This is something people with reef tanks struggle with as it lowers pH. Some people even run an airline from outdoors to indoors to alleviate this.

Post 20Gs

>>5008887

That's beautiful. What are you using for light and filter?

>>5008887
nice
that's a long vallisneria
also looks very low stock, any reason for that?

>>5009061
Thanks, the light is some chinkshit brand named Xilong and the filter is just a sponge.

>>5009121
Fucking platies were eating it for a while, once they stopped it took off like a rocket. The stocking is 7 platies and 7 cardinals, which I think is plenty.

R8 my aquarium
>50L
>3 serpae tetra (5 died of a mysterious cotton-like disease)
>1 otto
>Vallisneria and a couple of snails

>>5009290
i forgot to attach

>>5009291
That's great. I love val jungles.

I like bladder snails and duckweed actually and I'm glad I got them for free

>>5009370
The world has moved on, most people know that snails are a net positive now. Duckweed isn't that bad, the problem is when you've got other floaters that it's competing against. You have to essentially remove all your floaters and then slowly add them back in to avoid contamination.

how do you deal with fish that's passed away? I used to bury them in the backyard/flush but this time I've let a cory return to the fishtank's ecosystem, possibly to the chagrin of his tankmates

>>5009481
If I find it I bury it in the garden. Sometimes it's back behind some decor and the crew polish it off before I notice what happened.

>>5009481
If it died of old age, I bury it in my backyard.
If it died of disease, I throw it in the trash.
Disease is kegare energy, don't want that in my house.

Cleaned my filter today. Counted 30 bladder snails deep in the sponge and even had some in the rotating parts.. I wish my snails weren't so fucking stupid

Why do otos live zucchini so much?

>>5009568
*Love. Forgot pic.

>>5009569
>>5009568
Do they really need feeding? I was thinking about getting 2 for my 30L tank.

>>5009573
I got them for a 36l tank but I don't have a ton of algae because I have a lot of floaters so I am trying to be careful. They are also newly bought.

>>5009576
Makes sense, I even feed my bladder snails sometimes.. usually tree seeds...
I don't have any floaters and my rocks, plants and tank glass are constantly covered in thick, green algae layers. Cleaning them by hand is horribly annoying so I I thought otos might be perfect. I don't trust snails or shrimp to eat those thick things.

>>5009205
>The stocking is 7 platies and 7 cardinals, which I think is plenty.
Anybody gonna tell him?

>>5009377
That's not true - frogbit absolutely moggs duckweed and it's not even a close contest.

>>5009646
>That's not true
What's not true?

rate my aquascape

>>5009672
I'm not a "DUUUDE WEED LMAO" guy but why do potheads always make it their whole personality?

Would corydoras make good indoor pond fish?

>>5009692
I don't see why not

>dirted tank owners being autistic
No surprise

>>5009686
As a recovered DUDE WEED BRO, addiction + insufficient drive to focus on anything else.

Now I'm a borderline alcoholic, and my personality is being irritable and curmudgeonly. Like god intended.

>>5009737
so now alcohol became your personality

>>5009761
Exactly! It's like weed but angrier.

just set up a tank recently and i noticed this one neon tetra just sort of sits in the corner not moving, is this normal? he's definitely alive

>>5009793
How many do you have? If it's new to the tank and you have plenty, may just be growing pains. But it is definitely a sign of stress and/or being bullied.

>>5009807
i got 12 of them on friday, none of the others seem to have any issues so far
i'll keep an eye on him for now and see if anything changes but any ideas on what i should do if he stays there/how to help him?

>>5009672
needs more GREEEEN star polyps

>>5009793
neons are too inbred and fickle, i've started replacing mine with cardinals as they started kicking the bucket. so far the ratio is 70% neons, 30% cardinals, but eventually i'll have 100% cardinals.

>>5009837
You'd think that, but you'll have one or two neons that live to 5+ just to spite you

New tanks for nothin kino just dropped
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qp0SIJNtIKM

>>5009876
Man what a cool idea for a tank.

>>5009870

I've had one solo neon and one solo glass catfish that have lived for over a year after their tank mates died. I switched Iverson to a Coldwater goldfish tank and they don't seem to give a shit.

So I let family watch my tank and its nuked is the bubble and scoly savable or should I just scrap everything? literally everything died aside from my conch, and my watchman goby.

So I bought a second hand tank and one of the overflow boxes broke in transit do you think I could just clamp overflow and black box down for the top one? Also, which U tubes go on the left? the broken one has 2 pipes while there's only one on the right

>>5010186
what the fuck did they even do? how long did they watch it for?

>>5010200
I told them to feed once every two days, and a water/test change every thursday. They were supposed to watch the tank for a month and sometime during that month all the fish died one weekend and we don't know what happened then they stopped doing water changes. I even gave them a sheet to report to which their most recent report was:
DKH 7.7
pH 8
0.5 ppm phos
430 ppm ca
1482 ppm mg
0 ammo
0 nitrite
4 nitrate
but that was on 5/29/ so I'm guessing moving the tank to their house was the killer but we moved the tank before the 15th of that month.

>>5010186
holy shit

>>5010186
Wtf, did you leave it to them during an entire semester?

Reporting back that those female Least killis are putting on weight again. Doing a third round of Levamisole dosing, but I can't help but wonder if they ever had parasites at all.

>>5010209
Uhmmmm did they add chlorinated fresh water or something? That would explain the sudden deaths and suddenly stopping the water changes

I have a mutant ramshorn. Surprised it doesn't get stuck in plants.

>>5010186
This looks eerily simular to what happened to one of my tanks after my ATO kept dumping freshwater into the tank dropping the salinity to 1.0.

Im gonna say overfeeding + topping off with untreated tapwater. Or overfeeding + no waterchanges at all.

Save the conch and the goby, the rest can be handled through some work. I use reef flux for when I have bryopsis that bad.

>>5010577
that little nigga looks really weird

>>5010577
Whoa! Cool.

I put a single grain of rice into my shrimp tank and they're all fighting to the death over it, guess they like it

>>5010577
that looks sick as hell. breed them and sell them. i'd buy one

>>5010734
Do you feed them well? Maybe they are just hungry in general?

>>5010734
Your rice paddy biotope is off to a bad start.

>>5010746
I'm never really sure how much to feed them, generally I put a single pellet of food every 5-7 days. It's a 5 gallon tank and shrimp and snails are the only things living in there. I'm trying to avoid cloudy water which I know can result from overfeeding.

>>5010577
real?? more pics please

>>5010759
I feed mine every other day. 10 gallon tank with however many shrimp have bred in it. I dont measure though. Maybe 1/4-1/8th of a teaspoon of food at maximum?

>>5010759
Uh that seems like barely any food for them. I give my shrimp and snails 2 small sinking wafers (mostly to bait snails really but shrimps also eat them) that I take out after like 6 hours and about 6 small pellets that I leave in the tank.
Next day I give them spinach/basil/parsley/nettle/cucumber/zucchini (2 of at a time) then next day I give no food.
If I have lots of shrimplets I sometimes crush the wafer into powder and spread around tank so it's easier for them to get some food.
5-7 days without food seems to me like survival mode not thriving.
>>5010786
Real. I'm about to go to sleep so tomorrow when/if I see it.

>>5010810
>>5010817
maybe I'll try increasing the feeding frequency, but there are plenty of shrimp in there and they seem to be doing fine - not sure what the obvious signs of insufficient food would be, though...

>>5010825
>obvious signs of insufficient food
I think your video is exactly that. My shrimps never freak out like that over food, they are calmly picking at pellets or veggies and swimming around not trying to swarm it in a deathmatch manner. All your shrimps have is biofilm and algae and maybe a rotting plant sometimes, barely any protein. Lots of berried shrimp is also an indicator of good conditions. My shrimps barely released first batch of eggs and now they are berried again like it's some factory.
I'm not very experienced so it's just my observations and whatever info I've gathered doing this hobby.

>>5010835
>veggies
do you have to blanch them or are there things you can put in raw? I'd have thought that vegetables were low nutritional content but I suppose they have micronutrients

>>5010880
I boil them for about 10 minutes. Raw might be fine for amanos but neo caridinas seem to be too weak to deal with it unless you leave the piece to decompose which I wouldn't do. Try both ways, see if they can handle it.

>>5003192 (OP)
are there any good US websites to order from anymore? All the good ones from back in the day are either gone or have like nothing as far as cichlids go.

>>5010904
and wtf are jack dempseys unavailable anymore? All im seeing are the electric blue ones which ive always thought were both boring and ugly.

>>5010786

>>5011001
Thanks for the pics, this is absolutely insane

>>5011003
Got a short video too.

>>5011004
Look at it go, I have never seen anything like it.

>>5009569
Feast

>>5011045
Why otos gotta be so cute? Damn kittenfish; wanna cuddle them. Pisses me off.

>>5010577
breed it. sell the offspring as retardshorn

>>5011413
>retardshorn
kek

>>5009876
Absolutely love this. I'd sarcastically doompost about how I'll never make anything as imaginative and beautiful as that, but desu every time I see him post my appreciation for my big dumb box of val, snails, shrimp and fish is renewed.

>>5011045
That is a fat fucking oto. Good on you, they're often emaciated.

>>5011004
You should separate it and try to breed more. People would pay good money for long ramshorns

>>5003192 (OP)
>cheap knock-off sobo heater has its dialer stuck and I can't change the temp anymore
bruh

I guess cory and guppies at forever 23-24C is ok

>>5011727
Don't cheap out on heaters. Those fuckers can cook and kill your entire aquarium.

Wonder where you guys live that you even need heaters. Even when it's -15°C outside, I'm sitting in a comfy 20°C room and my water is even warmer.. probably from the lamp. Lowest I've seen was 22°C water temp.

>>5011883
Yeah summer heat is a bigger problem. Heating the tank is easy, cooling it a fucking pain in the ass.

>>5011899
Got myself a little fan from aliexpress with a sensor and whatnot that automatically goes on when it gets too warm. It's having an easy time cooling my 30L tank but it destroys up to half a liter of water a day. Having to hook up the RO every other day is what's causing me pain.

>>5010817
>>5010835
This might be a stupid question, but doesn't you snail population explode with all that food? I find that whenever I add some pellets/veggies/blood worms, the snails are on them way more than the shrimp.

>>5011964
Snails do multiply fast and bodyblock shrimp from food but removing them from the tank is easy exactly because they all gather on food. I'd rather remove some snails than let shrimp live with barely any food.

>>5011964
Your tank/population might not be big enough for this to work, but I find that adding a bit of extra food for the fish/spreading the food around helps the shrimp eat their fill, since they can get around much faster than the snails. I don't add algae wafers though, since there's lots of surface area for them to graze.

>>5011986
>removing them from the tank
And then what? Do you just throw them in the trashcan? I feel bad even when I give the plants a haircut and I go through the cuttings to make sure no snails are on them before I throw them in the trash.
>>5012015
I do have plenty of shrimp, and I see them berries occasionally, but I find that the ratio of snails to shrimp has gone way up over the years.

>>5012120
>And then what? Do you just throw them in the trashcan?
You can boil snails in the same way you would lobster or crab. This is pretty much instant. Alternately you can crush them.

>>5012120
The unfortunate reality is if your hobby is live things, from time to time you have to cull. Wait until you start breeding guppies or shrimp.

>>5012135
If you live in an area that has any birds whatsoever, especially seagulls, just toss them outside. Let nature deal with it.

I want to do an aiptasia jar tank (love saltwater, live in shitty apartment), Any advice?

>>5012120
I have an outside bucket that's about 5 gals that has some hardier trimmings in it, I just throw them in there.

>>5011715
The real hero is the zucchini.

One oto finally trying the algae wafer

So my display tank is cycled but my sump doesn't have enough water for the pump to work once I add water to the sump how long would it take for it to be okay to add fish I don't need to wait to add water to it right?

>>5012406
You're adding a sump to an existing system? Then yeah you can add things straight away.

>>5012408
no, I got a 200g tank like in may let it cycle for a month and the sump was dry aside from a small bit of water in the media everythings connected I just need to add water so the sump's pump doesn't dry run.

>>5005768
It's worth it to cut back, but the health risk makes it her decision.

Any saltwater fags ITT? Any recommendations for cool live caught websites like Gulf of Maine and Tampa Bay Saltwater? Getting bored of Indo imports.

how do you deal with fish dying? does it effect you emotionally?

I had given up on establishing a shrimp colony in my goldfish tank. Then yesterday I lift a log because I wanted to tie an anubias to it. Shrimplets everywhere. My first thought was oh shit the goldfish is going to snatch them. As of this morning they're now all along the planted back and sides of my aquarium.

I'm pumped. Tried explaining it to the wife. She simply asked me to make sure I clean up the water drippings on the floor.

My take away is that once a neocaridina gets fully grown they no longer appeal to fancy goldfish.

>>5012765
Also I'm embarrassed to say it took about 40 shrimp in 4 dumps to get here. I didn't drip acclimate any of them. When the first batch didn't die right away I figured it was unnecessary and each new batch went straight in. I didn't know it actually kills them like a month later.

So my other take away, drip acclimate.

>>5012594

Addictive reef keeping isn't bad if you're looking for Caribbean stuff. Owner is a retard tho

>>5012801
At least shrimps that were born in your tank will be better suited to it's parameters. I started with 10 cherries and their first batch of offsprings was about 30-40 shrimplets. And they are berried again, guess they are feeling comfy.

>>5012846
Yeah I am.glad for that. Right now my main concern are the danios on the tank. They can squirm into tight spaces and eat the shrimplets. I've been over feeding the last two days to give the shrimplets a better chance and build up some more biolfilm.

They did such a good job hiding I didn't even see the berried females.

I got one of those cheap clip on macrolenses and it's actually not bad considering what it cost.

>>5013220
Yeah looks nice.

>>5013220
I also had to go overseas during the heatwave here and the pearlweed and hydrocotyle went absolutely insane.

>>5012801
>I didn't know it actually kills them like a month later.
I don't think this is the case, dying roughly a month after introduction each time sounds like a molting issue.

>>5013380
It specifically causes molting issues. At least that's the prevailing wisdom. I'd like to think I created some fedaykin shrimp through my ignorance. I've counted 14 shrimplets so far at various stages.

On a side note, I went from buying my.fish at petco no quaratine tank guy to actually doing some of the things in the tik tok (if they pass the smell test) and I get good results every time.

so it turns out my pipes are leaking for my display tank and my overflow boxes are for a 75-125 gallon tank and I have a 200g... atleast my conch is happy but I havne't seen my watchman goby since he was placed in the new tank

6hrs of light a day bad while a bacterial bloom from over fertilizing is going on?

>>5013877
Bacterial blooms (you've got cloudy/milky water?) are probably unrelated to over fertilising, unless you had a lot of algae that died off or something. Light won't affect it unless it's cyanobacteria. Post pics.

>>5013888
No it's not, I know for a fact it's the fertilizer. I had this tank for half a year now and I know the fertilizer is doing it. Cause whenever I add it, BLOOM. Like.. immediately.

>>5013889
Hard to comment without seeing, lots of people use complete fertilizers without this happening even people that use urea.

>>5013892
Lemme go take pics then.. gimme a few..

>>5013892

>>5013892
And yes, this only ever happened in the... checks date.. nearly 8 months I had this tank when I add this liquid fertilizer

>>5013895
Not sure at all, it's not even a complete fert apparently it doesn't have N or P. Also unclear from the photo Whether the cloudy water is algae or bacterial, up top under the light it looks whitish but you have algae elsewhere. Sorry. Would just throw it away, do a big water change and try a complete fert in low doses instead. If you dont want to make your own there's plenty around, I use tropica complete. I'd mix my own if I had a bigger tank but it costs three coffees for an entire year of it.

>>5013900
I don't do water changes. I just fill up. I only have plants and snails, they don't need water changes. I know I have algae but I'm winning the war. Used to have black beard and hair algae.. those have been eradicated by changing my parameters. This is just another bloom, it's always crystal clear otherwise. It's already fading, was way worse a week ago. Probably gonna take a week to clear up.
I honestly have no idea if I should even use fertilizer since I have about 150 bladder snails covering the ground in shit that should fertilize the plants. I just gave it another try to see if the water can now take the liquid but it still blooms like it did half a year ago.

>>5013900
Here, that's what is was before I added the fert. That's how it always looks even with extreme algae. Just endless snails and my plants going a lil crazy.

>>5013220

>>5013902
First of all, check whether it's a bacterial bloom or an algae bloom: take a paper towel, drag it through the water a bit, take it out and look at its surface. If it's green, it's an algae bloom, and it might look whitish under the lights. I had this issue.
Second: why do you use fertilizer at all? Do you have problems with your plants growing? In your last pic I can see them growing just fine.

>>5013895
Stop adding the fert then, jfc. If X causes Y, and you don't want Y, stop X. This isn't rocket science.

What sort of fert has neither P nor N though? Those are the primary two things you add a fert for.

>>5013936
Well stocked tanks don't need N. P I'm less sure about, I think there's a belief that excess phosphorous contributes to algal blooms but we know now it's more complex than just a single outlying nutrient.

>>5013936
In my tank K is the problem. Lots of holes in leaves.

>>5012838
>>5012594
Yeah I've ordered from that guy a few times now. He has absolutely smoked away all his braincells. But his prices on a lot of stuff is pretty good and the shipments arrive in good condition.

Will bettas be chill with shrimp or am I really better off giving it absolutely no tankmates if I get one?

>>5014120
betta and shrimp always seem to depend on the individual betta. some don't care, some go genocide, some will work for some time and then randomly chomp shrimps

>>5014120
It really depends on betta's character. Some are chill with shrimp, some attack them. I've seen ppl advise to add shrimp first and then betta some time later so it considers shrimp as a natural part of the tank and not food.

>>5013941
i have a 20gal long with 10 guppy females, and it's always running low on D unless i dose it

>>5014120
so far, for me it's been 50-50. the first betta i've had murdered every single thing in that aquarium. i'm now on my second betta and he's extremely chill.

My spotted congo puffer having a snack

Hard to record and feed so I ended up dropping his food shortly after, and need to do a water changed + trim up a little

>>5014182
cute fella

>>5014182
AW I LOVE PUFFERS

>>5014182
Spotted Congo Puffers do well in a community tank? I want to have a shoal of 15 Pea Puffers in my 29 gallon and I know the tank should be species only. It's the case for most puffer species.

>>5014293
It really depends on the age of the puffer when you introduce them, and the fish you house them with

If you get the puffer at an early age like mine, and house them with fast moving tetras you'll be fine even when they get to max size. I went with Congo tetras because they can grow pretty big & move 100x faster than my puffer, a large leopard pleco, and a leopard bush fish. (I'd say maybe don't get the leopard bush fish because they CAN be aggressive, I just got lucky)

It's just you need to get a much larger tank to keep them from getting antsy, stressed, and aggressive, my puffer that's smaller than a betta has a 75gal

>>5013936
Hey, I wanted to test if it'll still cause it and I did. Now I have my answer and know for sure not to use it again. Learn by doing. Also no idea what's even in that fertilizer.
>>5013914
Well no matter how much I drag it through the tank, it stays crystal clear. Pure white.. no it's as I said just bacterial bloom again.
Why I use fert? Well.. the Pogostemon stellatus https://tropica.com/en/plants/plantdetails/4498/4498 keeps disintegrating for some reason.. They grow up to the surface, then from the ground up they starts falling apart, leaving only tiny strands of fiber. I then cut the tops off, replant em, repeat. No idea why they do it so I used the fert again to see if that helps.

>>5014394
>They grow up to the surface, then from the ground up they starts falling apart
This is common behaviour for a lot of aquarium trade plants, since in the wild most aren't true aquatic plants they're marginal species designed to survive seasonal flooding. Makes sense to prioritise above surface growth where the CO2 concentration is several hundred times greater. Try trimming and replanting before it gets there.

>>5014470
I see, so nothing I can really fix. Well I am replanting the healthy tops whenever I start seeing the bottom fall apart. Guess I'll just repeat that. Maybe some day they get used to the tank life.

>>5003192 (OP)
Is 25-26C a good year-round temp for guppies?

there's a pond in my city with koi
and I'm going to add add some ramshorn snails to it but I also want to add water lettuce, duckweed and salvinia and was wondering if they koi will eat the floating plants

>>5014622
Floaters are candy for any cyprinid bigger than a minnow (especially goldfish), not worth it.

>>5014622
I have hyacinth in my koi pond and the little bastards love to pick at the roots, but they haven't killed them and the hyacinth is doing excellen

>>5014300
I love how he rests on the driftwood

Went to my LFS to get more Silver Tips and Cardinals, and I was immediately intrigued by these Darter Tetras and got myself 4 of them.

Would a glass top/lid be better than the dark plastic hood that came with my 10 gallon?

>>5014774
Those default plastic covers usually have light built in so when you remove it you remove light. Sometimes you want to remove lid and keep the light on so imo separate lid is better.

>>5014774
It's a convenience and appearance thing.
>>5014780
Glass lid also allows you to use a variety of different kinds of lights that shine through the glass without being mounted to it in some way.

>>5014622
>intentionally introduces invasive species to local pond
Devilish.jpg

>>5014840
can't be worst than the plastics people throw and the dirt colored water
do koi even like living in dirty water?
there's not even algae growing
this is a drawing of it
there's one orange koi and the rest are black

now that I think of there are also a lot of ponds empty of life around my house I should add the floating plants, snails and some guppies to those too.

>>5014847

>>5014622
They won't be able to eat the duckweed fast enough. You would actually be doing them a favor. I don't know where you live but here, an uncovered koi pond will last about a couple hours before the birds pick it clean down to the last fish.

>>5014840
Obviously he's not going to do that but it would be funny. Ramshorns will overwinter just fine so it's potentially a permament addition.. He could actually be endanger the fish though because it would attract even more birds. And birds are attracted to birds.

>>5005778
Unironically describe your entire dream to ChatGPT. I had some weird dreams lately and I have asked ChatGPT to explain them to me and it found the underlying problem of the weird dreams. It actually made a lot of sense once it told me what the significance of some events in dreams actually mean. I have an exam coming up for my real estate license and ChatGPT figured that some elements in my dreams mean I’m stressing about something like an exam or test. I didn’t even mentions exams or tests.

>>5005778
I had a dream last night where I was in the bath with a betta fish, and it kept trying to nip at my penis while I was cutting my fingernails.
Very strange dream

:3

>>5014932

>>5014932
good camo

>>5014936
based

>>5014876
Koi ponds can - indeed should - be deep enough for the fish to hide in the depths from predation. And there are very few birds that can take a full sized koi.

>>5014847
They're both bad for different reasons.

>>5014706
that's a goby

>>5014847
>this is a drawing of it

>>5007484
I kneel CQC chad

>>5014182
>>5014300
Post moar puffer

>>5015125
No, it's a Darter Tetra. It does look like a Goby, though.

Was clearing out the freezer and saw the spinach, decided to give it another go and now they can't get enough. Funny that.

>>5015253
Same happened with cucumber today. Usually they are not very interested but today it was covered in shrimplets.

>>5015309
Wonder if it's something to do with the heat, tank's about 4c warmer than normal.

My dumbass didn't rinse the black sand that I bought bc the label said to not wash it. Now my water column is messy and black. My tank's been cycling for 10 days now, should I buy a water clearing solution?

>>5015386
Yeah theres a bunch they all work the same theyre called flocculants, all the brand names like seachem and API have them. Add some fine filter floss before you put it in then take it out a few hours later.

Opinions on this test for freshwater aquariums?

>>5015528
Those parameters are not something you necessarily need a dedicated test for unless you are specifically trying to achieve a level of hardness that is different from your tap water. For example, if you are doing blackwater biotope and trying to drop the hardness or you're doing african cichlids and want to increase it. Otherwise any of the cheap multi-test strips will have these two included on them if you want to vaguely monitor.

>>5015530
I don't have strips, but rather the API Master Kit. I was thinking to get this to complete the collection, as well as have it for my future Pea Puffer tank.

>>5015540
Yeah for that it's not necessary. You can look up your tap water parameters from city data anyway.

Say, how hard is it to breed oremi tilefish & longfin clowns? they look cool and would love to make some money on the side since they're both really pretty fish.

>>5015541
I wouldn't trust any parameters they give you. In my case, all they offer is °fH and they say it's usually 30-34 but sometimes drops down to 15°fH when they use water from lake constance. They have no idea what the parameters are at any time. They just know it varies greatly.

>rearrange stuff
>take zoas out of basket
>ready to glue them down
>the one labeled Paly mix (?) Immediately begins to slime all over everything. Never seen so much slime
>this makes the process take longer
>finish go to grab next zoa from basket
>2 heads have grown onto the basket resulting in them being ripped off and left attached to the basket
>now I gotta figure out what to do with 2 random zoa heads attached to porous plastic, and a water change for all this slime
>on the bright side I got a few new unrelated coral
I'll probably post a pic of my tank later once things calm down and let people decide where I should put these new fellas. Got my first duncan!

A feast of kabachok

Galaxy betta

>>5016862

>>5016856
I haven't even noticed the oto at first.

10 gallon. Juvenile female betta, 4 danios, 1 rabbit snail. That dark shit keeps growing on leaves. I rub it off but it returns. Wat do?

>>5016968
floating plants, you've got aquasoil leeching lots of nutrients but not enough fast growing plant mass to slurp it up. Bettas love floaters too and none of your existing plants will be bothered by a little bit of shade (but don't let them get out of hand).

>>5017036
Thank you very much for your response. Do you have any specific plants in mind?

>>5017122
Pistia, Salvinia, Hornwort, Red root floaters or Amazon Frogbit. Any of these will do the job.

>>5017233
Frogbit is the best though

>>5016968
That’s green spot, I think. A symptom of low phosphorus.

I have tons of detritus worms in my cycling 5.5 gallon. What are the chance that I have other microfauna in there?

>>5017373
If you have plants in the tank chances are you have lots of other microshitters like seed shrimp, limpets or something else.

>>5017467

If you don't 100% trust the source, put your plants on a jug with water for a week. If you don't see anything put them in the tank. My big fear is planaria. I've never got anything but ich before I'm the tank.

A lot of people bleach and de-worm so it doesn't seem to hurt the plants.

>>5015818
Breeding clowns is very common. The hardest part is just feeding them. However, if you don't buy a breeding pair off the bat, you may be waiting a LONG time before they start laying eggs. Sometimes years. Then they lay eggs very regularly. Expect heavy losses.
For tilefish, they're generally wild caught. Their breeding behavior is not nearly well documented, and cases of successful captive breeding are rare. Getting a breeding pair is also pretty tough as they don't have obvious dimorphism and having a group then waiting until they pair up is not an opportunity that comes up a lot. If you can do it though, you would make WAY more money than breeding clowns.

Today's menu is spirulina tablet, everyone has gathered

Today's menu is spirulina tablet, everyone has gathered

Literally every fishtuber. I don't see the appeal. Its a autistic nigger fish that jumps out of tanks at the drop of a hat.

>>5018056
have you considered not watching fish youtubers?

Monster fish are lame. I'd rather have a thousand little fish than one big fish.

>>5003192 (OP)
Ever since I moved to a new place I've had problems with my pothos trimmings rotting that I never had beforehand. I let it dry out and everything, what causes this? Should I test for acidity, is it some kind of mineral deficiency?

>>5018145
Counter argument, 999 little fish and 1 big fish to be their Holy God-King Emperor

>>5018243
You didn't check the parameters after moving?

>>5018261
No, it was only 10 minutes away so I assumed it had the same municipal water. Apparently not.

5.5 gallons is too small for Ember Tetras, so what fish can I get to control my microfauna population? I was thinking maybe a Sparkling Gourami.

>>5018278
Retarded to assume.

>>5018395
Least killis. Sparkling gourami are also fine. Or guppies/endler males.

>>5018396
>Retarded to assume.
Yeah, probably, but that's the current situation and now I have to get it solved.

>>5018247
What big fish could you do that with? Pleco?

>>5018056
>>5018145
Lots of tiny fish are 10000x more autistic. See: Cory, literally every single nano tank youtuber, your mirror, etc.
>inb4 assblasted replies
I didn't say small schooling fish were bad. I keep CPDs.
Asian arowanas are way overrated in the way that luxury items are overrated. Chinese people especially value them due to retarded feng shui stuff, and thus created a premium market. Youtubers, seeking clickbait, are always on the lookout for more and more exotic shit. It's also why monster stuff in general is popular on YouTube. They want to show off stuff that most people can't reasonably do.

>>5018395
>5.5 gallons is too small for ember tetras
I mean not really provided you don't have any other fish. 6-10 in that with a few small snails is completely fine, would just have some fast growing plants and a small sponge filter for peace of mind.

>>5018414
Water change with distilled water + seachem equilibrium & alkaline buffer to ideal parameters. Get gallons from the grocery, should be about $1/gal

>>5018496
Celestial pearl danios?
Fucking based. Had some several years ago. They're so cute. Like tiny trout.

Shrimp have taken up residence in my wisteria. I love it. Probably 20 now living at the top of my tank.

Also, what's your recommended auto feeder when you're on vacation?

>>5018693
a non-retarded friend

>>5018693
Depends how long. The vast majority of autofeeders are the rotating barrel type, in which case there are plenty and they all have the same issues with consistency, especially for smaller quantities.
I really like these:
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRCWP16K
However it's very limited in the number of days you can use it, especially if you have multiple feeding sessions a day.

>>5018701
I'm going to be gone a week. I've used the rotating barrel one many times in the past with no issue. I don't have exacting food conditions. I was just going to mix pellets and flakes into the barrel and have it spit it out twice a day. I figure the fish can tolerate a slight underfeeding for a week.

I'm going to buy a new one this week. I might try that one you linked. Thanks

>>5018811
I've used those dissolving food blocks from PetCo a handful of times and they've always been fine when I came home.

Day 16 of fishless cycling my 5.5 gallon. Still lots of worms.

pH: 6.6
Ammonia: 0.5 ppm
Nitrites: 5 ppm
Nitrates: 5 ppm

Yesterday my nitrites were at 2 ppm and nitrates were at 0 ppm, looks like everything's proceeding nicely. Thoughts?

>>5018930
What plants have you got in it?

Do you guys do anything with trimmings other than compost?

>>5019087
I put them into my non aquarium plants. No idea if it helps them tho.

>>5019087
I throw it away. Got no other use for it.

>>5019058
Java Moss, Limnophila Sessiliflora, and some others. I have some Salvinia on the way as well. Nearly all my plants are heavy nitrate sponges.

I'm like 90% sure I've lost one of my new fish, I've only been able to see 7 out of 8 at once for the past few days. Problem with a shrimp tank I guess is that if you don't see it straight away nothing gets left behind

those of you who keep bettas with other fish: have you ever managed to keep them like that long term? i got a crowntail a couple of months ago, and this past week he's started resting on the bottom, barely eating, and now losing color too.
or did i simply fuck up by getting an inbred crowntail betta?
> inb4 simon
yeah, yeah, i know, but i bought this one from the LFS where i buy all my fish, not from petco/petsmart.

>>5019087
i sell or trade them on facebook aquarist groups

I have 2 29 gallon tanks because sometime in the past year or so I thought the original was leaking but it turns out it was actually the filter housing.

My 29 gallon has no fish in it and hasn't for a few months. I haven't been running the filter or heater in it either after the last of the fish died. It does have some plants though. I haven't filled the water on it and its evaporated down to about half capacity.

I'm thinking about taking a break from it all to be honest. I was never as consistent with doing water changes and maintenance as I should have been, and I rarely actually watched the fish for a good while now. It felt like a never ending chore that I was just doing the bare minimum upkeep on, and I'd have lots of algae growth on the glass that I'd take a long time to clean off. My tank rarely looked good to just look at for a while now. At the same time I feel bad about totally shutting it down. I've had at least one tank running since 8th grade.

Part of it is it's location. I got used to them over time, but the pump sounds would slowly drive me crazy at least a little bit with them being in my room. Plus I dont spent a lot of time there anyway. And it's also taking up desk space. (I have a stand but it's not in use right now)

What do I do? While finding myself with 2 29 gallon tanks suddenly opens up some ideas I've always thought might be neat, I'm wondering if I just need to take a break for a while?

Thoughts?

>>5019422
Take a break. Switch to houseplants or jariums. As for the tanks, if you're done put them on fb marketplace. 2 29g tanks with some equipment would disappear in a couple days.

I don't understand how I can have one single strand of vallisneria that's like 2.5ft long and none of the others are even one foot. It's twice as tall as my tank if I straighten it out and none of the others reach the surface.

Cherry shrimp babies :)

>>5019727
It's nice to watch shrimplets swarm food.

Do amanos eat baby shrimp? I want to get one to help with a stringy algae problem but don't want to lose the shrimplets

>>5020605
They don't hunt on purpose but can in theory eat a weak/molting shrimplet. If you have lots of plants and feed them well and your cherries are breeding well I wouldn't be worried about losing shrimp to amanos.

>>5019248
What does Simon mean?

I have had success with keeping bettas and other fish but within a few years they always develop some type of bloat that prevents them from swimming to the surface. I have kept them alive for months like that by putting them in a cup with holes in it suspended right near the surface where it's easier to thrash up for a gulp of air.

>>5019248
I work at a fish store. Mom and pop shops get their fish from the same wholesale retailer as large companies unless they breed their own fish.
Ignore virtue signalers. Can't realy tell what's wrong with the betta as resting on the bottom can be a symptom of many illness, but definitely unrelated to tankmates.

>>5020886
LFS quality varies wildly from store to store so you have to be prepared to walk in, look carefully, and walk out if need be. Mom and pops tend to be better at quarantining and treating sick fish too. And the tanks are much cleaner. No snail feasts on dead guppies. Their plants are also 1000x better. At this point I'm more likely to put a petco danio in my thank than a petco anubias.

You're tubbin' right?

>>5021011
my whole backyard is a pond at this point. it's being a very rainy July.