etherealmilk
New Member
Hey everyone! I've only just recently heard about TFF, but I'm excited to be here.
I've been an intermediate aquarium hobbyist on and off ever since my younger adolescent years due to my family also being heavily involved in the fish-keeping hobby, and have just recently decided to start back up an aquarium of my own about two months ago back in September after taking a break for a couple years. My early tanks mainly consisted of bettas or tetras, but nowadays I'm much more in love with bottom-dwellers. Currently, I'd have to say that cory catfish and kuhli loaches are my top two favorite fish friends. ❤
My new tank is a freshwater 20gal, lightly-planted with a mix of live and artificial decorations, as well as a couple nooks for my loaches and cories to hang out, though I'm hoping to gradually add more plants along the way! Current set-up consists of 7 black khuli loaches, 1 otocinclus catfish, 1 albino cory catfish, 3 zebra danios, and an adolescent sunburst mickey mouse platy that snuck into one of my loach purchases as a baby fry!
It was a rough first start during the first month though, because I originally had 8 cory catfish instead of the loaches, but then after one of them died (I believe he might have unfortunately been sick when I bought him), 4 of the others began to die in the following days after I assume they caught whatever he had (water quality was tested and found to be good, so it was either sickness or just stress I figure). Left with just the 3, that was when I decided to get the loaches, and they were doing fine for a while, before 2 more of the cories eventually passed on as well because of a nitrite spike that I didn't catch until too late. The same fate occured for 3 of my otos too, as I had 4 otocinclus catfish originally. There were also 3 initial stowaway platy fry, but only 1 of them survived into adolescence.
Along with my fish, I also have a large golden mystery snail, and a tiny black nerite racer. I love my golden snail to death, and she is definitely one of the biggest stars of my tank, as she's always super active and trailing around for most of the day. Her name is Katherine.
Recently, I've also gone ahead and added the 3 zebra danios, and have also taken in an injured guppy from one of my other family members' tank that was being harassed by her tankmates. The poor thing's tail fins are completely nibbled off and she was bullied into only hiding away in the corner of her previous tank, so I hope that the more peaceful nature of my primarily bottom-dweller tank will be enough to help her regrow her fins and become a little more bolder!
That's it for now though! Very glad to have found this forum, and I can't wait to learn more and brush up on my knowledge from you all!
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The various names of my fish as well for some extra tidbit fun (all names courtesy of my boyfriend):
- Rob Zombie the Albino Cory Catfish
- Plank the Otocinclus Catfish
- Katherine the Golden Mystery Snail
- Gary the Black Nerite Racer Snail
- Little Weiner the Sunburst Mickey Mouse Platy
- Alice the (White Tuxedo? Fancy? Still determining) Guppy
Zebra Danios -
- Big Debbie (for being the largest of the 3)
- Little Debbie 1
- Little Debbie 2
Black Kuhli Loaches
- Violence Jack (has a scar on his flank)
- Boogie Master 1
- Boogie Master 2
- Boogie Master 3
- Twinkle Toes (is the tiniest of them all)
- Salsa (very active in the daytime)
- Tango (also very active, his partner in crime)
I've been an intermediate aquarium hobbyist on and off ever since my younger adolescent years due to my family also being heavily involved in the fish-keeping hobby, and have just recently decided to start back up an aquarium of my own about two months ago back in September after taking a break for a couple years. My early tanks mainly consisted of bettas or tetras, but nowadays I'm much more in love with bottom-dwellers. Currently, I'd have to say that cory catfish and kuhli loaches are my top two favorite fish friends. ❤
My new tank is a freshwater 20gal, lightly-planted with a mix of live and artificial decorations, as well as a couple nooks for my loaches and cories to hang out, though I'm hoping to gradually add more plants along the way! Current set-up consists of 7 black khuli loaches, 1 otocinclus catfish, 1 albino cory catfish, 3 zebra danios, and an adolescent sunburst mickey mouse platy that snuck into one of my loach purchases as a baby fry!
It was a rough first start during the first month though, because I originally had 8 cory catfish instead of the loaches, but then after one of them died (I believe he might have unfortunately been sick when I bought him), 4 of the others began to die in the following days after I assume they caught whatever he had (water quality was tested and found to be good, so it was either sickness or just stress I figure). Left with just the 3, that was when I decided to get the loaches, and they were doing fine for a while, before 2 more of the cories eventually passed on as well because of a nitrite spike that I didn't catch until too late. The same fate occured for 3 of my otos too, as I had 4 otocinclus catfish originally. There were also 3 initial stowaway platy fry, but only 1 of them survived into adolescence.
Along with my fish, I also have a large golden mystery snail, and a tiny black nerite racer. I love my golden snail to death, and she is definitely one of the biggest stars of my tank, as she's always super active and trailing around for most of the day. Her name is Katherine.
Recently, I've also gone ahead and added the 3 zebra danios, and have also taken in an injured guppy from one of my other family members' tank that was being harassed by her tankmates. The poor thing's tail fins are completely nibbled off and she was bullied into only hiding away in the corner of her previous tank, so I hope that the more peaceful nature of my primarily bottom-dweller tank will be enough to help her regrow her fins and become a little more bolder!
That's it for now though! Very glad to have found this forum, and I can't wait to learn more and brush up on my knowledge from you all!
-------//-------
The various names of my fish as well for some extra tidbit fun (all names courtesy of my boyfriend):
- Rob Zombie the Albino Cory Catfish
- Plank the Otocinclus Catfish
- Katherine the Golden Mystery Snail
- Gary the Black Nerite Racer Snail
- Little Weiner the Sunburst Mickey Mouse Platy
- Alice the (White Tuxedo? Fancy? Still determining) Guppy
Zebra Danios -
- Big Debbie (for being the largest of the 3)
- Little Debbie 1
- Little Debbie 2
Black Kuhli Loaches
- Violence Jack (has a scar on his flank)
- Boogie Master 1
- Boogie Master 2
- Boogie Master 3
- Twinkle Toes (is the tiniest of them all)
- Salsa (very active in the daytime)
- Tango (also very active, his partner in crime)
