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I'm in the "egg layer" wait. I set up 2 species to spawn. Looking at the females before and after, I think the deed was done. They spawned over an egg protecting set up, but I can't see eggs. Both species are supposed to have tiny eggs, so that means little. By today, they'll have hatched, and...

That looks to me to be the 'gardneri gold' linebred morph. It's a colour mutation, and a nice fish. I had a friend who was crazy about them and bred them for years. His fishroom was out in a village in the woods, north of northern Maine and far from any large place where he could get fish. So he...

Oops. or filter capacity? Filters rated for 55-60?

I'd argue you can't do a Walstad tank without first reading all of her book. There are a lot of cherry picked versions online, but it's one of those things where you have to understand what you're doing to troubleshoot later on down the line. Those tanks are an entire process. I'm a fish first...

I don't often disagree with Colin, but I see no hexamita. I would do the basic, 30-40% water changes every week, forever, no matter the tank size, and just keep an eye on it. I've had cysts on the fins of angels in very soft, low calcium water, but it makes sense it would be more likely in...

55-60 what? You have to frame the question more clearly or we are just guessing. 60 embers or 60 oscars...

Fin cysts sit on the rays, directly. usually, a bite fractured the ray, and that develops as a result. The pectoral would worry me more, but it's also a common injury spot. Viral fish pox things are all over the body. Young angels have ways of hurting each other. But your angel has wild type...

It's one of the nicest angels I've seen on the forum. And to me, those look like cysts, probably from old injuries. They often have them, and they're harmless.

Plants are plants. The availability of species may change, as with fish, but the info is still good. The technology really changes - I can grow plants with LEDs I couldn't with fluorescents. But there were plants that went nuts with old incandescent lights that I couldn't grow with fluorescents...

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.