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I see HUGE behavioral differences between fish I raised together from very small, and larger but immature ones I buy. I've always sold all the young angels I raised (nowhere to keep them) but if I ever go the angel route again with nice wild types, and they breed, I may try that.

That fish is a weird one, because it really has loyal keepers. I found it too large, and being a flighty sort, too colourless. I had them in the 90s, bred them, tried to share them and moved on. But a lot of people who get them fall for them and keep them generation after generation. It's...

You still get a lot of mulm catching on the lava rock or other biomedia. You can go far longer between cleanings, but you have to access it. I have a 30 gallon with a homemade undergravel that has been working really well. I had a powerhead on it and I got zapped by it - a little current leak...

I don't know if an Eco-System tank is a brand, or if it's a recycling of the old balanced aquarium myth, where a tiny body if water is supposed to be an ecosystem. If it's the latter, you are seriously overstocking. If you go with the no water changes, plants will solve everything set ups, a 40...

The pictures are not clear, but the fish look very young. Did you just get them?

The number one rule for a Cichlid is to protect the children, or to protect the preparations for making children. That can get twisted in a confined space, but it is their strongest drive. When it does get twisted, it's generally on us for something we set up wrongly. That makes every...

@Back in the fold If you need to talk or just vent, PM me. I'm out here, thinking of you.

There's something fishy about those designs.

I haven't seen those for ages. I had a friend who maintained them for 30 years. Not my favourites, but interesting, tough fish.

The big fish events are worth it. I've had fun with Ian Fuller at one we both spoke at- he's a good guy. Just because a person has expertise doesn't mean they aren't accessible. If someone attends a convention, they aren't there to avoid everyone. They're into sharing info. When you say you'd...

The gravel is a food trap. It makes more sense to root there because they are finding something. On smooth sand, most filtration moves fallen food to a rougher surface - the gravel. I set up Cory tanks with sand, and no gravel. I've never understood the golf course type set up, with sand traps...

As soon as you sense something's off, you should immediately do a 50% water change. The scrubbbing and cleaning has probably reduced the cycle to close to zero, and is probably the start of the problems. The dirt had to come out, but once that was done and the glass was clear, you were good...

I'll come at this very low tech. I have one red eared slider female who is now 40 years old. Her sisters (I assume) died at 37 and 38 respectively. They were bought in 1984, and I inherited them 30ish years ago. They've done okay. My survivor has piled bricks with a flat stone on top to haul...

It's 17c/63f, with a stiff breeze from the north , cloud and sun, and the light in this room filtered through red maple leaves. Kinda nice. I put what is either Bathyaethiops greeni or B. breuseghemi (I think greeni) tetras from the Congo region into a breeding tank, and then right next door...

The high tech tool called a dollar store turkey baster is really good.

I always made sure pulcher fry had enough to pick at in the tank, but also added freshly hatched brine shrimp. They grow faster and seem to thrive well on additional food. With taeniatus/kribensis they made better breeders to keep the lines going. With pulcher I never tried to get many...

Judging from how the angel and krib are interacting, someone wants krib fry as a food supplement...

How well the plants absorb added ammonia will be the question. That may depend on what plants you're using. All I can tell from the photo is they look great, and very healthy. Hopefully, this post will be a bump and bring in one of our fishless cycle people. You don't want the plants getting...

By sea weeds, you aren't talking about salt or brackish water stuff, right? Both tanks are freshwater?

I have never been able to grow that plant indoors. Not many people can.

The female in the vid is a really nice krib, a Pelvicachromis pulcher. They can be very variable species.

I just discovered that R.J. Lechmere Guppy was not a clergyman, as the usual stories about the naming of guppies say. I've known enough church guys who acted like guppies that I always thought it made sense. But no, he was an aristocratic British naturalist who lived in Trinidad and died in the...

I love that one. A hobby kribensis isn't a kribensis. It's a pulcher. That was a mistake made 60 years ago, if not more, by an importer. The real kribensis was sold for decades as taeniatus. That was a mistake made by hobbyists because of a mistake made by an importer since there already was a...

Maccas in Australia? McDo (or McDough) in Quebec. I will celebrate by ignoring the holiday so I can live to ignore many more National Cheeseburger Days.

Half the fun in this hobby is adjusting things. I never get through a week without some sort of improvement (or miss) in the fishroom. Adjust this, modify that, re-adjust this, add that... there is no 2x4 that can't be turned into something else, no tank that can't be redesigned. Yesterday, I...

Wild splendens were fast moving, short finned fish. They seemed less aggressive than domesticated for gambling bettas, but I base this on one pair. It isn't much of a sample. They tolerated some babies growing up with them, and males didn't fight. I had moderately soft water, and they were...

I keep carbon inserts in case I have to remove medications at some point. Carbon in filters are a relic from the no water change era of fishkeeping. Back then, tanks could smell very bad. People didn't like the swampy smell of a room with a tank. If you are into the online father fish group...

You could if the water is different where you go. But only about 50% of it at most. It's just dirty water now.

Watch your heater. I got my first equipment zap in about 10 years a week or so back - a fault in an older powerhead that hadn't triggered the GFI outlet. It hurt. Electricity and water... But if the heater was running full tilt when you unplugged it and the room was cool, you may have gotten...

It won't be that upset. Put it in a jar with a lot of air at the top. Empty the tank. Carry it over, refill with dechlorinated (or dechloraminated water) at the same temperature, and put the fish back in. I would give the fish priority when you are settling into the the adventure.

This is a good place. I don't focus on catfish, but there are some people here who could help. Advice is free, and there are people here who will give excellent guidelines. The fish won't read it, and who knows if they'll cooperate.

Over the years, I've enjoyed keeping Betta albimarginata, burdigala, coccina, edithae, foerschi, fusca, persephone, picta, prima, rubra, rutilans, simorum, simplex, smaragdina, strohi, and wild caught splendens and imbellis. They ranged for 4 inch mouse coloured mouthbrooders from fast water to...

They are bubble nesting Anabantoids, usually called "bush fish". There are some big ones, including the semi-popular Leopard Bush Fish (Ctenopoma acutirostre). These are one of the micro version, in effect the dwarf bush fish. The most popular one is M. ansorgii, a real beauty, but I like blue...

I find it a little weird, but then I look at some of the angels with stubby fins, balloon fish of any sort, some of the long finned mutation trainwrecks out there, and someone will buy them. How many Betta rescue threads have you seen, especially on FB, where people brag about saving fish that...

You could use a siphon hose through a coffee filter type thing - whatever's lying around. Just let the water fall back into the tank. Or siphon normally, and drop a jug of water in after to compensate.

The sponges would be destroyed. I'll be a devil's advocate. If I buy a popular, mass produced fish in a pet shop - any livebearer, rainbow, barb, etc that is a mainstay, bread and butter fish, I assume it is carrying tb. Whether that tb will be contained by the fishes' immune system, or...

I wanted to get a photo of a Microctenopoma congicum bubble nest. So I put a pair in a 10 gallon. I cut a piece of driftwood so it fit snugly across the tank at the surface, front to back. This created a flatwater zone, and the male obliged by building a lovely nest in there last week. I got my...

Which one is you? One of you resembles a fish, which gives your family great credibility in my books!

I would have a look at my decor. Those aren't numbers to worry about, though you didn't say which species of fish are involved. The usual culprits for a rising mineral level are the substrate and decor. Do you have any rocks or gravel in there that could be dissolving? We all do things...