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Good to know. My water is quite soft, but not acidic. GH is about 3 deg, KH about 1 deg, and pH is about 7.5. The RCS have been happy enough in this water. I'll take off the sparkling gourami.

Interesting, I kept Nannostomus marginatus in a 6 gallon many years ago. It was quite an odd tank though, 30in x 6in x 6in, I think. I think I had 8 of them and they seemed to do quite well until I added a bit too much leaf litter causing an ammonia spike and dropsy. They didn't seem space...

I have a UNS 45S rimless tank. It's only 5 gallons, but it has the footprint of a 10 gallon (45cm x 28cm or 18in x 11in). It's just shallow, only 7 inches deep. Right now, it's an unheated, unfiltered, planted windowsill tank with red cherry shrimp. It's been set up for about 2ish years though I...

That sounds like too much micro nutrient fertilizer to me. How often and large of water changes do you do? I believe micro nutrient toxicity is possible but not common. I think black beard algae is a sign of micro overdosing (is this the algae you have?). Maybe try dosing once a week rather than...

With regards to size, I was reading up on discus husbandry recently and captive bred discus can end up significantly larger than wild specimens (9-10" is possible for captive bred discus). Discus breeders obsess over maximizing growth. Many employ a crazy water change schedule (daily or every...

Yeah, I saw that. Maybe what I saw was actually Iguanodectes adujai? Whatever I saw was a pretty large characin, I distinctly remember there was no way they would work in my 20 gallon long. I have no idea if they school tightly or not, but Anostomus sp., Abramites hypselonotus or Chilodus...

Weird, I swear the ones I saw at Aqua Imports were at least 3 inches long. They might've even been 3.5-4 inches. Perhaps the fish I saw at Aqua Imports were mis-IDed? They were definitely longer than rummynoses, very slim though.

My X-ray tetras are pretty good schoolers. I've never owned them, but I really like the look of Iguanodectes geisleri. They might not be good schoolers, and they will definitely be hard to find.

Don't most betta breeders in SE Asia keep the bettas in halved water bottles once they've matured? Of course they do daily water changes and they probably try to sell them shortly after they've matured. Here's an interesting video about betta breeding

10 gallon, depends on the exact species, are they going to be alone?

What size tank? That ratio could work. They just need space to set up territories (the females will set up their own territories too).

I might depend on the species. I was sold Brachygobius xanthomelas, which is supposed to be a true freshwater bumblebee gobies. Other common species are B. nunus, B. doriae, B. sabanus, and B. xanthozonus, all of which should be OK in brackish water (at least as far as I know). I would look for...

You could still add leaf litter and wood. Real brackish environments are just as likely to have these things as freshwater habitats. Could make for an interesting look, and it's a bit of a different take on what a brackish tank could look like.

I currently have a species of Bumblebee goby. It was sold to me as Brachygobius xanthomelas, but it probably isn't that. I keep mine in a 5 gallon (the tank is a UNS 45S). The species I have is very tiny, smaller than Dario dario. There are many different species that are called "bumblebee...

I usually do 50-70% water changes. Every other day sounds good. Seachem Stability might help the cycle go faster?

This looks like a bacteria bloom in the water column. The bacteria are feeding on ammonia and nitrite in your water. It should go away once the tank mature and you get your nitrites down to 0. Regular large water changes should alleviate the problem for the time being. Do not replace your...

What about Glowlight Danios (Celestichthys choprae)? I've never kept them so I can't comment on activity levels.

It's hardly fair to include the cherry shrimp in that calc. You could keep 30 cherries in a 10 gallon comfortably. I had an unfiltered 3 gallon bowl with maybe 15 cherry shrimp in it no problem. 52 fish in a 50 gallon tank isn't too bad. One thing I do notice about this stocking list is most of...

The inch per gallon rule is horrible, don't use it. Stocking is much more complex than the inch per gallon rule would indicate. Use aqadvisor.com as a first guess for stocking, it uses a more complex stocking algorithm. With 36x18x18 dimensions (50 gal) and your above stocking list minus the...

When you say "centerpiece" what are you thinking? I think a school of medium or large barbs or danios could be really nice. I think Tiger Barbs would look particularly good in a tank like that and they have a tendency to be quite bold especially when maintained in numbers. Barbs and danios will...

Adding aquasoil at this point is not a great idea. There are aquasoils that actually have nutrients (e.g. Amazonia, ControSoil), and there are "aquasoils" that are basically inert (e.g. Fluval Stratum). The aquasoils that actually have nutrients will leach ammonia upon initial introduction to...

Yes, this tank has already been set up for a few months and has stabilized nicely. The dirt is quite old, it was moved to this tank from some small planted bowls I had set up for over a year. That's good to hear about feeding. I was under the impression that not all fish could handle that...

Honestly, I don't know how they get the backgrounds to look that good. You can definitely tell when it's not done well (e.g. the 4th example). I think a large portion of it has to do with how you light the background, and how to scape the foreground. Luckily, you have a very deep tank, which...

I would not do a black background, a 3D background, or a printed background. None of the photos you posted have backgrounds like that. You need something like a frosted, dim, white-blue background like what you see in professional biotope contest tanks. For example, look at all these biotope...

I have a 7 gallon, 12x12x12in cube (26 liter, 30x30x30cm cube) at my office that I'd like to get inhabitants for. I'm planning on having some shrimp in the tank. The tank is unheated, has a dirt-doped substrate, and will be well-planted. I was thinking it would be nice to get some fish for it...

I'm pretty sure the RCS and dwarf cichlid or gourami are not compatible. The cichlid or gourami will definitely eat the baby RCS and probably adult RCS too. RCS might be able to survive in the same tank if you provide enough cover but you probably won't see them much as they'll have to hide to...

I would definitely get some floating plants like Amazon Frogbit, Red Root Floater, and/or Salvinia. The Amazon Frogbit grows large roots which I think would suit the desired aesthetic. You could shoot for something looking like a flooded forest or Igapo. Here are some cool videos showing...

I've gotten the impression from your posts that you want to have a low tech tank (no CO2 injection). In that case, I don't recommend getting a really strong light. High light is only good on tanks that supply lots of nutrients (fert dosing and/or aquasoil, CO2 injection). High light, high tech...

I'm not a master at planted tanks, but I know a bit about them. LEDs and fluorescents (T5s in particular) can both be good for growing plants provided you pay some attention to the spectrum of the lights and to the amount of photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) the lights give off (wattage...

So it sounds like the utility is softening the water. This is annoying as there is basically no (easy) way getting around the fact that your water is softened. You should ask your local fish store how they deal with this. Honestly, I'm not sure which fish would survive well in softened water. A...

I agree about matching fish to your water. My point is that a lot of water condition information available online for aquarium fish is anecdotal and incomplete. Bumblebee Gobies are a great example of this. Previously they were thought to be brackish only. However, as collection information...

Nonsense, there are many fish that can span the range in pH. Consider Pseudomugil gertrudae, these have been collected in the wild in water conditions spanning Temp. 12 – 34° C pH: 3.68 – 9.4. There are not "two types" of fish. This binarity is just flat out incorrect. That's why pH is...

Unfortunately, I just found one of the gobies dead. It wasn't the one with the bad eye, it was the other one that I mentioned was looking a little bad. I don't think it had been dead long, but it was entirely pecked clean. Perhaps there is more aggression in this tank than I had originally...

Dang, it definitely says "anti-fungal" on the Kanaplex package.

Kanaplex is marketed as an anti-fungal as well? It looks much more like fungus these days than excess mucous. I could take another photo.

This is possible. However, the retailer that sold me the fish told me they came from freshwater, therefore I assume they came from a blackwater-like habitat. I've decided to dose kanaplex. I've also been doing water changes. Hopefully that will solve it. The BB goby I showed a photo of will...

That's incorrect and based on outdated information. We now know that Bumblebee gobies occur in two distinct habitats. The first are coastal brackish habitats (e.g. estuaries, mangrove, etc.), and the second is ancient peat swamp. Often the same species can be found in both these habitats. In the...

Thanks for the reply, Colin. The tank has soft water KH is 1-2 deg and GH is 3 deg, and pH is 6.6-6.8. I've been led to believe that this is OK for Brachygobius species. I think the old school belief was that these were brackish fish, but it sounds like many of the species have now also been...

I have 6 Bumblebee gobies (sold as Brachygobius xanthomelas, but they are not) I received about a week ago. I bought them off aquatic arts and they were shipped to me (first time I've done this). Today I noticed a cottony growth on one fish's eye while doing a water change. Another might be...