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I disagree with a variety of posts here, 15 gallons is a perfectly fine size, but your temperature, flow choices, and tank size will definitely limit what you can reasonably keep. I think you should look for a small bottom dwelling species that likes higher flow and low temps. The bottom...

Honestly, I would prefer CO2 over lighting. The benefit of CO2 for plants is significant. I bet the guy at the store suggested you upgrade lighting because insufficient lighting will cause carpeting plants to "reach" for more light which can ruin the look of a carpet. However, running strong...

I should've been clearer. I have no intention of keeping the fish I catch. I'm more interested in seeing what's around kind of like herping. I don't really have a good place to keep any of them anyway. I'll look at the local regulations for catch and release.

15 gallons will work fine. You will probably want a filter at that size if you want to keep fish. It'll almost certainly freeze if it gets below freezing and it's above ground. When I visited Thailand, people kept Betta year round in large outdoor pots (big but probably not much more than 20...

I'm moderately interested in collecting local fish (Colorado). What type of net would y'all recommend? It seems like the main options are a casting net, fishing nets with long poles, or some kind of folding net (seems to be favored by Heiko Bleher).

Very hard to tell by the photo, but they are most likely detritus worms or planaria. Detritus worms are harmless, but planaria can be carnivores. Planaria have wedge-shaped heads and eyes (not always visible) while detritus worms do not. I got planaria in one of my shrimp tanks and they would...

Another cool option would be a tank with Northern Studfish (Fundulus catenatus). It's a US native, the males are neon blue with stripes and it's the largest known killifish.

A few ideas would be Something with a massive school of decently sized loaches done up in a semi-biotope. A large discus tank. A paludarium with reed frogs living over Microctenopoma ansorgii. Check out Orange-Spotted Sunfish. They're smaller and showier. I caught one on a rod once and I was...

It's good to go with what you know will work. Honestly though, at that price point a used iPad is a little cheaper and definitely higher performance. This one has an actual SSD vs eMMC and the Apple A13 processor is rated about 200% faster than the Intel Core m3-8100Y Processor on the ASUS. The...

Not an expert on this, but video editing is generally considered a fairly demanding process on computers. I'm pretty underwhelmed by all these options. Processor: First option has slowest clock speed (2 GHz), but most cores (8). Second option has middle clock speed (2.1 GHz) and 4 cores. Third...

FYI, the algae looks like staghorn algae. In my opinion there was some pretty bad advice in this thread. There was some good advice too though. Seachem Excel can be used to treat algae, but you have to be careful because it can reduce dissolved oxygen levels to the point that fish suffocate. I...

What tests you need depends on what you want to do, and how complex you want to get. If you just want to keep freshwater fish. You may be able to get away without test kits. You will need to test ammonia and nitrite when cycling, but assuming you're doing large weekly water changes you really...

Good points. I'll probably just have to add a heater if I get those guys, and keep it at 76-77F or so. I was aiming for a really clean look without any equipment except canister filter inflows, but it's not that hard to hide a heater, and if I really cared I could get an inline heater.

I'm planning on picking up a UNS 75P sometime in the next year (~36 gals, essentially a rimless 40 gallon breeder). I want to to a stream set up with sand, rounded pebbles and stones of many sizes. I want to base the tank around a bottom dweller. Some initial options I came up with were Panda...

What testing kits do you have? Can you tell us what the maxed out value was at least? You want the liquid tests not the test strips. What are your actual water parameters (like the numerical value)? If the bristlenose is OK, water hardness is not the problem. Skinny would suggest a parasite...

The Chubby comes from rocky rapids on the Rio Tocantins. You could add some rock work and build some caves. I think rheophilic have a preference for tight caves. It would also probably prefer rapidly moving water.

They're from central Vietnam, the Quảng Nam province and Thừa Thiên-Huế province. I looked at historical weather for major cities in those provinces and the lowest monthly average was 63F at night and the highest monthly average was 95F. I imagine 75F would be just about perfect for them.

Yes, the shrimp population will probably be able to survive, but I personally think shrimp would be worse than small fish. I guess it just depends on if you would feel bad about losing some shrimp. If you're keeping super high quality designer dwarf shrimp, you probably don't want to keep any...

El Nino Fern (Bolbitis heteroclita) is not a true aquatic plant. It will eventually just wither and die when kept underwater indefinitely. Its a great terrarium/vivarium plant though. I don't know why Petsmart insists on selling non-aquatic plants as a aquatic plants. I guess they just don't...

I'd thought I'd just add my two cents. I've kept two male bettas in community tanks (different times and different tanks of course) and I never had an issue. I actually even kept one of the bettas with other anabantoids (three Samurai Chocolate Gouramis) without excessive aggression. The betta...

I think it's going to be hard to get a precise ID on these guys partially because there are probably some undescribed species being imported. See if the seriouslyfish page helps with the ID at all --> https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/parosphromenus-sp-sentang/ There is another possible...

I feel like it might be P. sp "Sentang". I feel like I've seen these available the most recently. The blue outline on the fins seems more like sentang than bintan as I think bintan have a good amount of blue on the fins themselves.

TwoTankAmin does raise a good point, but you can absolutely run CO2 in a 33L. While it might be good idea to start with fast growing stems I think you'll probably want to pivot towards slower growing and shorter carpeting plants for maintenance reasons. Lots of people maintain smaller tanks with...

I don't actually have CO2, but I looked into this a while ago for my 20 long. I would recommend a kit. I don't think it's cheaper to get the parts separately. Inline diffusers are better than in-tank diffusers, but you need a canister filter to use an inline diffuser. Drop checkers aren't...

Freshwater shrimp do not prefer soft water in general. It varies quite a bit between species, but the most common species in the hobby, red cherry shrimp (Neocaridina davidi) and bee shrimp (Caridina cantonensis), have different water needs. Note, the most common bee shrimp color variety is...

7ft is long for a 125 gallon. Any idea what the length, height, and depth are in inches? Byron does have a point. A 125 gallon is borderline too small for clown loaches. You would ideally have an 8+ foot tank and you would get more like 8-10 loaches. If I had a 125 gallon I was just setting up...

You could wait for him to pass or you could euthanize. Do not put in the freezer directly as this is a slow, cruel death. The non-violent option is to use clove oil. You can find directions for how to do this online. You will need to remove the Bala from the tank to separate container and...

14 years is a good long life for an aquarium fish. Bala sharks often don't make it past 10 years. I think it might just be approaching the end of its life. I don't know what your bandwidth is these days, but I strongly consider getting some loach buddies for the clown loach. Preferably other...

Unlikely for aeration to be a problem based on what you said. If it was the clown loach would be doing poorly as well. How old is the Bala Shark? Could be old age based on what you said. Technically, a 125 is just barely large enough for those fish in my opinion. Both of those species are...

For actual hillstream species, I think 20x turnover is fine. Note, there are plenty of species of danios, barbs, etc. that don't come from swiftly flowing waters. If you can, design in an eddy or two behind rocks/driftwood where fish can rest just like they would be able to in an actual stream...

I've had a pair of samurai chocolate gourami for about a year in a 20 gallon long. They're in great condition, and actually quite robust in my opinion. They haven't successfully bred, but I see courtship behavior all the time. They eat flake food no problem. I did get excellent quality fish. The...

Seriously fish is a good resource in general https://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/carinotetraodon-travancoricus/ Puffers are die-hard predators, even the pea-sized ones. You could have tankmates, but the need to be robust, fast, and not have flow-y fins. The way they are kept at the LPS is...

I kept a male betta with X-ray tetras and rosy loaches for years with no problems. I think you'll be fine, just avoid any other long-finned species besides the betta. A lot of people on here have strong opinions about keeping bettas in very specific setups, which I mostly don't agree with...

I don't keep frogs, but I've spent a fair amount of time studying dart frog and reed frog husbandry before I pivoted to a crested gecko. One thing worth considering is the amount of noise the frog will make. Most frogs are nocturnal, and some can be quite loud. This can be a problem if you're...

If you want to go the extra mile, get higher quality liquid tests like the Salifert freshwater tests. I started using the Salifert tests on my reef tank and they are noticably easier to use than the API test kits. They are more expensive. If you're feeling posh or have poor eyesight and/or...

I went down a big information hole. I definitely think they are Apistogramma sp. steel blue. These are often sold as Apistogramma agassizzi by pet stores by accident. Anyway, steel blues are believed to be an artificial hybrid that came out of Asian commerical fish farms in the mid 1990s. No...

We really need a better photo than that. Ideally you would get that fish over a darker substrate with a dark background because it's coloring is washed out in my opinion (it'll look better with a darker substrate too). In my experience, sexing young Apistos is hard. Sneaker males are a thing...

It probably depends on the store, but I believe these cups get 100% water changes daily. Ammonia is unlikely to build up and there's no need for a filter or for the cups to be cycled. Like Morganna said, these cups are temporary and just for display. You can't put the betta's in a standard...

Even if you kill every bristle worm you see the tank will still probably have bristleworms. They're seen as beneficial though so there is no need to get rid of them besides the fact that some think they look gross. If the aiptasia come back consider getting a peppermint shrimp. Mine did eat my...

There isn't a fundamental difference between filtration in saltwater and freshwater. However, saltwater tanks typically have much more complicated filtration systems because you want to avoid large and frequent water changes at any cost. Mixing saltwater is a pain, and the salt can be quite...