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I haven't had a chance to visit Aquarium of the Pacific, although I've heard very good things about it. I am inclined to agree that the National Aquarium in Baltimore is top tier though ;) I grew up in the DMV area, so I'm partial to it. I actually once got to SCUBA dive in their Atlantic reef...

They might be doing fine in the short term, but the real issue with water hardness is long-term physiological effects. Softwater fish do not have the physiology for processing out minerals from the water that enters their bodies. The result is that their kidneys get mineral buildup over time...

Maybe try looking for local hobbyists who might be selling livestock on facebook/facebook marketplace? Mail ordering is expensive, although there are definitely some good sellers with good reputations. I have the same problem as you, where I live in a small, remote town and have a local pet...

How do your fish normally behave when you turn the light on? Did he truly look out of control in his swimming, as in he could not orient himself correctly, or was the swimming simply energetic and erratic? A sudden on/off of a light can really stress fish out and cause them to frantically dart...

My bad for making the generalization and assumption! Now, if you're going to go challenging generalizations made about the African cichlids, are there any that are peaceful enough for a community tank?

I'm not familiar with Don, no. He sounds like he was a very interesting and knowledgeable person. The P. nicholsi seem like really cool fish. I've heard a bit about them. Definitely too nasty for my setup as it'll be a community tank, and since they're African, they need much harder water than I...

Hmm... I've definitely seen sandy bottoms with rocks like this in ocean habitats. Waves can do weird things. They create incredibly repetitive (incredibly wave-like) patterns in the sand and those repetitive forces tend to equal regularity. The sand waves are usually very evenly spaced, and so...

I've definitely noticed this in my researching of apisto species for my tank. For example, my front runner species, agassizii. I can hardly even find photos online of what the wild form looks like. Dan's Fish was the only US seller I found online that stocks wild agassizii and that listing is...

It's not his nostril. CaptainBarnicles is correct, it looks like a lifted scale. His nostrils are below the scale.

I was considering zebra otos for my biotope aquarium, but due to high cost and population concerns in the wild, I will almost certainly break the biotope and go for a more common oto species. They're very pretty fish, but are tricky (and arguably unethical) to source, and that's a lot of money...

I really appreciate you saying that. And yes, Jelly absolutely should be thanked. It's been fun getting back into fishkeeping, albeit not cheap. I was really the only one who could've taken the tank and I don't know what would've happened to it if I hadn't. But the sense of obligation to improve...

Thank you! And yes, the zip ties are for attaching rocks to the wood to weigh them down. I actually have to move at the end of the month (it's a really short distance, but I'll still need to dismantle the tanks), so at that point I'll remove the zip ties and test the wood. If any still floats...

If they make it onto the the next Broadway production of Cats, I'll let you know

So, the inciting incident for me getting back into fishkeeping was adopting a 5 gallon tank from an undergraduate in my lab who was moving. The tank had a single neon tetra in it, the last of a small school. Since she was the only fish in the tank, I decided to name her. It would feel weird if I...

Personally, I wouldn't mind if it stuck around 😂 That's a fantastic screenshot Ominous for sure, but in a weirdly cute way

Truly the face of beauty: ⚫-⚫

I agree with Colin. It's going to be heavily dependent on what the setup actually looks like, what livestock is in the tank, the history of the fish and tank itself, any potential diseases, etc. You want to investigate why the person is selling their tank. What species of fish are included in...

Most of the filtration I have for my tanks are sponge filters and I do like them. They're very safe and good for fish that like low flow. That first air pump you linked looks like it'll be more than enough to power a sponge filter for your tank size. The second one is probably too small. If...

This is my 5 gallon tank, the thing that dragged me back into this hobby A bit of background: I adopted this tank and its residents back in December from a colleague who was moving. It came with all the things you see here (as well as a lot of cyanobacteria and duckweed...). Things will be...

I'll concede that it's possible for an epistylis infection to occur in a new fish if it already had a bacterial infection upon introduction. However, picking and choosing which narratives you like best is not appropriate if your aim is to seek the truth of a subject. Many of these papers...

I highly recommend reading this post written by a person who works on/studies fish parasites. It's long and detailed, but is amazingly informative for diagnosing ich vs epistylis. I will give you a rough, short answer for your specific case, but I implore you to read the post I've linked, as...

Yes, I would think you probably do. Most rainbowfish prefer slightly harder water, but mine is only about 20ppm for both general and carbonate hardness, so it's too soft for them.

I do really enjoy rainbowfish. They're very beautiful. I wanted to plan a tank for pseudomugil and threadfin rainbowfish, to replicate a Papua New Guinean or northern Australian habitat, but my water is too soft for them. Maybe someday I'll decide to get them and just supplement the water with...

Oh, yes, I misunderstood your meaning earlier. He considered the fish "not worth buying" by his personal standards because he only buys diseased fish. Yes, that would be a relief.

He does seem like an interesting fellow. And yes, I'm definitely lucky to have been able to watch all of this and talk with the vet. He only comes to us rarely, as he normally works for a different, larger institution. He also used to work with ornamental fish, primarily ponds and especially...

Definitely a good plan. Quarantine rules apply to neons too, since they're often also from large farms, but they're not quite as notorious as the dwarf gouramis for illness. If they pass their quarantine, they're pretty solid fish. The best way to lower the chances of getting sickly fish is to...

Well, firstly, you need more neon tetra. They're a schooling species and become stressed and feel unsafe when they don't have conspecifics in the tank. You should have at least six of them, but more is better. Although, I don't think I'd put more than maybe 10 in that sized tank. As for the...

It's always nice to finally get critters in the tank. They look great! You're right, they do look to be a pretty decent grade. Hopefully they breed plentifully for you.

I think the frozen foods will be just fine, but nocturnal feedings in general will definitely be the way to go. You can feed out some of the moina/daphnia in the evening after lights out on the tank once the kuhlis have come out, and try to observe any potential feeding behavior. If you have a...

So, I figured the best way to answer this question would be to try to find out what they eat in the wild. There are surprisingly very few studies that look into this. The best I got was "insect larvae". I did find a few other papers that talk about similar freshwater loaches (all of the genus...

Colin, I promise I know how climate change works. I'm not saying it's not serious and I'm not saying it hasn't gotten worse in recent years (it definitely has). All I'm saying is that there won't be a sudden, apocalyptic die-off of phytoplankton and other marine life. There won't be a sudden...

I should assure you that things are not quite this dire. Ocean acidification is absolutely a pressing issue, both for corals as well as many other organisms in the ocean. However, the decrease in pH is not a rapid process and wouldn't ever be. Projections for high atmospheric CO2 concentrations...

The crawling white bugs are copepods. I'm not sure about the worms, but they look like some sort of nematode. They won't be anything to worry about, especially the copepods. What you're doing right now is growing a whole pantry of snacks for your eventual fish residents, so keep it up ;)

Sorry I haven't updated this journal in a while, but hopefully this is a good enough update to make up for it. A little bit ago, the vet stopped by to check out some of the animals. I learned a lot through talking with him and was very glad my volunteer shift lined up with his visit. To start...