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In excess, that could become a problem, but selective breeding is also how special varieties of fish are created. If you get a particular fish that has a look you really like, you can selectively cross it with similar-looking fish to enhance that feature. It should not be a problem for your guppies.

Take care of the water, and you should have plenty o' platies soon.

A heater can raise the temperature 15 or so degrees above the ambient temperature when you have 2-5 watts per gallon. Heaters can be insufficient for a given tank size and room temperature, but they can also start heating and not turn off. As a result of this danger, it is better to have two...

There's nothing to give perspective, but many of these koi are over 1 meter long.

Buy one male and three female guppies that you like and keep them in good conditions. Soon you will have enough to keep 45 and sell more.

That's crazy that nobody in your area keeps fish but there are people who raise them in ponds really close to you.

And botia loaches, julies, and a few other fish like to eat rams horn snails. They are much easier to control than Malaysian snails that bury themselves under the gravel and have shells of steel.

But what if you killed him after your father was conceived???

That is a female platy, the darkness behind the abdomen indicates that she is pregnant, and adding floating plants will help you keep some babies alive. As far as when you can expect babies, don't hold your breath, but prepare for them at any moment. Your fish doesn't look ready to drop babies...

You have a few things to work out, but moving up to a bigger tank is a good problem. First, filtration: Whatever filter you were using on your 25 gallon will have filter media in it that will have the bacteria that break down ammonia into nitrite and nitrite into the less harmful nitrate (When...

What filter are you currently using in your twenty gallon? Use that in the 85 when you start it. If you have the same fish and same filter with 65 more gallons, you already have plenty of capacity to add more fish. Get those guppies that you want. Also, I would recommend keeping the smaller...

I'm traveling across Japan on the Shinkansen with my son on our way to see Himeji Castle...and some really big koi.

I agree that reproduction is a fundamental desire for fish--and other creatures. I would say, though, that most fish will not reproduce if the conditions they are in wouldn't give their offspring a good chance at success. Were this not the case, most fish keepers would (unintentionally) become...

One of the canister filters used to have an attachment that was used to turn it into something like what you are suggesting. I think it didn't catch on because it necessitated more frequent canister filter cleanings. I would recommend clear plastic for the vacuum tube so you can see what is...

I had an Oscar in a 55 or 60 gallon tank in my youth. He or she was kind of like a puppy and would swim excitedly in circles at the front of the tank, begging for food when I walked into the room. It might not have been an ideal setup, but the fish was not neglected, was far from listless, and...

Another fish that could work well in a heavily-stocked but well-filtered 20 long is white clouds. With a sponge filter powerhead combo on one end, you could have good oxygenation and current, too. A Hamburg Matten filter would give you more filter area, but using a powerhead aimed from one end...

With the right filtration, water changes, and plenty of plants, thirty guppies wouldn't even be stressed in a 20 long. I had a huge group of guppies in a 29 that would constantly breed and I would constantly sell off groups of them to my lfs only to find the twenty that I sold magically replaced...

The gasping at the surface could also indicate too much ammonia or another water parameter problem, but passing something that big relative to body size would make just about any creature gasp for air.

It almost looked like it had swallowed and passed a whole sinking pellet. If you feed them sinking pellet food, you might want to ease off for a while or just make sure that what you put in is small enough for your fish to handle or too big for them to swallow whole.

This clip was too short to show any pugnacious behavior , but the gameshow style music in the background would have made that an odd oxymoron. I'm glad that their aggressive behavior doesn't extend to rams--not particularly tough fish by most measures. It's probably true that fish aggression...

It sounds like stress from water parameters and aggression were both factors. It also seems like you have received good advice and acted appropriately. As for cleaning your filters, just shake out most of the sludge in a bucket of old tank water during a water change so that the filter doesn't...

I can also say that I have had a good experience with Wet Spot. Getting fish shipped can be a gamble, though.

Thanks. That's my budget solution to adding multiple sizes of hiding spots for my fish. It worked well for small crayfish, too at one point. My cichlids had crayfish to eat regularly, but some grew big enough to keep the cycle going.

Does Buster listen to ska?

The dark (gravid) spot behind the abdomen is a good indicator of pregnancy in livebearers. They will get quite a bit rounder than that before giving birth. You have good hiding spots in your tank, but additional floating plants--like hornwort--are great for increasing the survival rates of the...

If antibiotics are unavailable, do you have access to Melafix or King British Fin Rot & Fungus Control? I have used Melafix in the past, but haven't had fin rot in a tank for decades. The King British medication isn't one I'm familiar with, but I imagine it's available in the U.K. If you are...

Okay. I had a different thread in mind and just went back and double checked what you had written earlier. You were worried about your Cories not liking the salt. When you added it previously were the Cories acting differently? I don't think that cories are as sensitive to salt as their...

Have you tried adding a little bit of rock salt (or any non-iodized pure salt) to the tank? You could start with 1/2 tablespoon per ten gallons and go up to two tablespoons per ten gallons, keeping a close eye on how your fish respond. It looks like your molly has fin rot. This is caused by...

I wouldn't recommend doing anything sudden with the molly. He is stressed and could have saprolegnia or another issue--it is hard to tell from the video. Do you have a separate tank you could put him in and increase the temperature and salt content gradually? From what I saw, your other fish...

What were the mollies acting like at the store and after you brought them home. Were they shimmying with clamped fins? I put mollies in my tank as its first occupants--after cycling the tank--but I looked at five different tanks of fish before finding some that looked healthy enough to buy.

I have raised tropical fish for most of my lifetime and have had countless tanks along the way. As a child, I bred guppies, bettas, mollies, convicts, jewel cichlids, and a few others. Since that time I have kept more than I can mention and have bred brichardi, various mbuna, aulonocara...

Oops. This thread is dead.

Cyprichromis are best in schools of ten or more and can get up to 6 inches with jumbo varieties. Though peaceful with most fish, I don't think they are a fit here.

I had some ramshorn snails in a tank, but when I added Julidochromis Marlieri, my snail problem disaappeared. If you have Tanganyikans, you could probably add julies. as long as the snails aren't Malaysian snails with "concrete shells," the julies will tame the problem.

You can put some peat moss in a filter bag and filter through it to lower your tank's ph naturally. I would watch it closely, though, to avoid quick swings.

After the water change, you could bump the temperature up to 82 and put a tablespoon of rock salt per five gallons to try to speed the natural healing process. If that doesn't work, API Melafix is a good treatment for fin rot. From your pictures, I couldn't even tell if the tail was rotted or...

If you don't have an established filter for that tank, the substrate could benefit you. Of course, if you get a bit of filter media from another tank, that could help you cycle the new tank without dealing with the plant substrate.

I wouldn't change filter pads. The older they get, the more beneficial bacteria they grow. If your water is not testing for ammonia or nitrites, though, that isn't the problem. Have you tried adding a little rock salt--like a tablespoon per five gallons? Mollies often appreciate a little salt...

Julies stay close to the substrate and gouramis usually stay in the mid to upper strata, so as long as they can all handle your water parameters, they should be all right together. Julies tend to be toughest with their own kind, anyway.

I would cancel the tropheus and get 10+ cyprichromis leptosoma. They have very interesting schooling and mid-tank breeding behavior. Include a high column of rocks at the back of the tank to give their fry a chance. Tropheus are best kept by themselves due to their diet. If you give their tank...