Register a SA Forums Account here!
JOINING THE SA FORUMS WILL REMOVE THIS BIG AD, THE ANNOYING UNDERLINED ADS, AND STUPID INTERSTITIAL ADS!!!

You can: log in, read the tech support FAQ, or request your lost password. This dumb message (and those ads) will appear on every screen until you register! Get rid of this crap by registering your own SA Forums Account and joining roughly 150,000 Goons, for the one-time price of $9.95! We charge money because it costs us money per month for bills, and since we don't believe in showing ads to our users, we try to make the money back through forum registrations.
 
  • Post
  • Reply
Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Thanks to Desert Bus for getting the old thread started waaay back in 2008 (?!), and getting us started on a new thread. This OP is a collaborative and evolving thing, the work of Cowslips Warren, Fusillade, Desert Bus and myself, and hopefully it'll be updated with materials, corrections and FAQs that keep coming up.



Welcome to the Freshwater Aquarium Show and Tell thread!
This thread is for keepers of Freshwater fish, invertebrates, and plants. It doesn’t matter if you need advice, or just want to share some pictures, that’s what this is here for. In the almost five years since the creation of the original Aquarium Show and Tell thread many many people in here have gone from having no fish to being excellent aquarists. You can too.

First up, we have Pet Island's very own Saltwater thread, Saltwater pics and general discussion." If you need help with a saltwater tank, that's the thread you want!

Fish Forums::
Aquaria Central - Focuses mainly on smaller FW tanks and fish.
Monster Fish Keepers - Focuses mainly on larger fish and tanks.
The Planted Tank - Focuses on planted tanks.
PlanetCatfish - International and focuses on any and all catfish.
Cichlid Forum - Focuses on New and Old World Cichlids

Quality retailers::
Doctors Foster & Smith - Excellent for things such as Eco-Complete and other heavy items, as they charge a flat fee for shipping.
Big Al's Aquarium Supplies - Has a different selection of products than Foster & Smith and seems to be generally slightly cheaper.
AquariumPlants.com - Just as the name implies, lots of plants and plant related stuff.
Kens Fish - Sells fish food and supplies. The main advantage is that they sell food in bulk.

_____



Tank Setup and Filtration
WHOA look at all those beautiful tanks! Look at all those neat fish! This is really awesome! Ready to go? A little planning will help you and your fish further down the road. First off, what size tank do you want to get? Fish tanks are HEAVY -- water weighs about 8 pounds per gallon. Make sure your stand (and your flooring!) can handle the weight being applied to one spot in the room. The size of the tank you purchase will dictate what fish you can keep. Another way to look at this question is: do you have a fish, or a type of fish, that you want to keep? You will then need a tank that can support it. Or do you have a tank already, or can only keep a tank of a certain size due to budget/weight/volume concerns, and want to know what you can put in it?

Filtration is another factor that will affect the health of your livestock. Overfiltration is not possible in freshwater aquaria, other than in terms of unwanted electrical cost. When aquarists talk about "filtration," they’re mainly referring to biological filtration, bacterial processes that consume dangerous chemicals and excrete less dangerous ones, not so much literal filtration as you’d find in a car’s oil filter or the dust filter in your home’s air conditioner - this second kind is distinguished as mechanical filtration. There’s also chemical filtration, performed by active minerals and chemicals.

Biological filtration -
This is the bio part of filter brands like "bio-wheel" or "bio-ball." Such filters don’t do anything themselves but present water to the filter media,which is really just a high-surface-area matrix which makes a good home for beneficial bacteria. This is largely why a new tank needs to cycle in; these bacteria, either introduced along with "live gravel" or bacteria-in-a-can or else hitchhiking on fish and plants, need time to grow to a sufficient colony size to be able to process the excretions of the tank’s expected mass of fish. The bacteria themselves should appear as a dark discoloration or a slime layer on the matrix, whatever form it might take. Do not wash this! New fishkeepers often see their filter has become slimed with nasty muck and fastidiously scrub it all off in the sink, then wonder why their fish died. Without that slime the rest of the filter is basically useless.

Mechanical filtration -
Something with holes in it to let water go through and catch gunk. This Includes sponges (which second as Biological filtration), filter pads, and filter floss.

Chemical filtration -
Very messy fish like goldfish (and all the other cyprinids, who lack true stomachs and therefore have inefficient digestion), plecos, and carnivores will produce more waste, and require higher filtration turnover rates, upwards of 6-8 times the volume of the tank.

Aquadvisor is a website that estimates, based on the size of the tank and the filtration, how much of a load your stock represents on the tank. I’d aim for about 80%. This site works best for ESTABLISHED tanks (see the section below about cycling).

Whether it's an internal filter, a hang-on-back, a canister or other filter types, they all perform one or more of these filtration functions, depending on how their media is loaded.

Lighting
Do you want a fish only, or a tank with both fish and plants? That will affect the intensity (and cost!) of the lights you will be purchasing. The addition of thriving live plants is arguably the single best thing you can do for freshwater fish as they oxygenate the water and take up animal waste. Unless you mean to keep voracious herbivores (like goldfish) or you want to prevent livebearer young from surviving to keep their reproductive rate down, there is no good reason not to plant the tank at least somewhat.

_____

CYCLING and you
You’ve got everything set up, and now you’re ready to get this thing looking like an Amano tank!

But hold up!

Before you start cramming fish and plants into a tank, there’s a bit more work involved. This usually requires a week or two of running the tank without fish in it (or with a very, very small amount of fish relative to the water) to allow your tank to cycle. Cycling your tank is VERY important! It is possible to accelerate the cycling process by adding the bacteria directly from a bacteria-in-a-can product like Seachem’s "Stability," and if the volume of water is great enough relative to the size of the first fish or two, they may well survive the process. Overstocking the tank by adding too many fish too quickly will not end well. It is nearly impossible to keep alive the intended "finished product" animal population if you add it all at once to a tank you’ve just set up. The fish will tell you if there are too many -- by dying back to the number that that your current tank husbandry practices permit.

Let’s avoid fishy deaths as best we can! Please keep in mind that some lead time is needed for nitrogen waste (such as what comes from fish food and poop) to be introduced in sufficient quantity to establish healthy colonies of beneficial bacteria. The process proceeds from protein > ammonia > nitrite > nitrate > nitrogen gas released to the atmosphere. Most beneficial bacteria cannot process nitrates to nitrogen gas, requiring the presence of plants (which consume the nitrate, among other things) or water changes (which dilutes the nitrate, along with everything else) to make that final step.

Here is an excellent site about Fishless Cycling:
The Nitrogen Cycle

Maintenance
Keeping a tank running once you’ve got your tank cycled isnt that hard. For the majority of tanks, it’s just a matter of replacing 25% of the water and giving the filters a light rinse in the removed tankwater or in dechlorinated tapwater (so that you dont kill off the bacteria you’ve been working so hard to cultivate), to remove excess gunk and keep decent flow through your filtration system. The purpose is mainly to remove the stuff that cant be broken down any further by bacteria, i.e. nitrates, and keep them at levels that are healthy for the livestock in your tank.

_____



GOOD beginner fish:
Knowing is half the battle! Before you get a fish, any fish, be sure to do some research on it. Find out the max size of the animal, any specific dietary needs, requirements for temperature, if it needs more of its same species. Do not always trust what the store tag says.


Male Betta - these gorgeous and varied fish work great as a single centerpiece, but can also work in a sufficiently spacious community setting as long as there are no fish that nip fins, or fish that have long fins. Some male bettas, like the plakats, are bred to be fighters, so keep a good eye on them, or really any betta. The common pet store ones are veiltails, but other varieties are becoming available. As they’re usually kept in poor conditions in pet stores, ensure the fish you’re buying is responsive and active. Lids are essential for these jumpers.

Female Betta - works in a community setting as a single fish or in groups. Multiples will help spread the aggression. Three might be ok, but I'd try for a minimum of five.


Corydoras Catfish - I'd recommend a group of at least 6, but the more you have the happier they will be. They prefer schooling with other cories of their own color pattern. They require a softer substrate that won’t harm their whiskers/barbels, like sand or smoothed gravel.


Kuhli loaches - Look like little eels or shrunk down dojo/weather loaches. Scaleless fish that prefer sand to gravel. They will not go after snails, unlike most loaches. Will stay hidden most of the time unless there’s abundant cover to help them feel secure.


Bristlenose Pleco - Tops out at about 5", and eats algae its whole life. Will happily munch on other food if algae is low, and will also eat away at certain types of driftwood.

Danio (any type) - works best in groups, and there are multiple available species, including genetically modified UV reactive Zebra Danios. Avoid Giant Danios unless your tank is 30" long or more.

White Cloud Minnow - Schooling fish, so you need 7 or more for them to be really active and happy. Can handle colder water temperatures.

Guppy - the males can be extremely pretty, and the females give birth to live young. Guppies are often found in two types, the "fancy" guppy, which has a rippling iridescent caudal fin and is well-colored all over, and the "Endler’s Livebearer," a guppy-like fish which is very much smaller and silver with brilliant gem-like color spots on the adult males. Be careful of having too many males; they will fight each other, tear fins, and stress out the females. Fry will usually be eaten by any fish in the tank.
Note: for the common livebearers of the guppy, platy, molly, and swordtail, you want 1 male per every 3-4 females. The females can store sperm for up to three months from one breeding. The male will harass a single female to death, so multiple females is a way to spread out his stalker love.

Neon/glowlight/head-and-tail-light/cardinal/rummynose Tetra - All of these small and glimmering fish are broadly similar in behavior and needs. They school tightly in large numbers and are stressed otherwise. The cardinal looks almost exactly like the neon but grows much larger and its red line runs the full length of the body. Minimum school should be 6 fish, but more is better.


Gouramis - Gouramis are reasonably tough, colorful, appealing, and can sip air from the surface to make up for poor oxygenation (not that it’s good to have poor oxygenation, but it matters less to them than to most others). They are semi-aggressive and should be kept in small groups. One might be bored by itself, two may fight, three or four should be fine. They can keep up with barbs (such as cherry barbs but beware of tiger barbs or tinfoils) and usually don’t mind other nippy fish. Gold, opaline, and blue gouramis are common in chain stores, as are dwarf gouramis. Males are everywhere, females are usually harder to find.


Invertebrates
Ghost Shrimp - Very active. Excellent at cleaning up, but not so great at algae removal. They will eat anything, including the fins of long-finned fish, such as male bettas and guppies. Sold as feeders for the most part, bred in large ponds in Florida, so if your ghost shrimp ends up with longer ‘arms’ you don’t have a ghost shrimp, but a larger species of macrobranchius that will eat your fish.

Flower Shrimp - Will find the best spot to filter feed and pretty much stay there. If it’s not successful in the tank, it will escape looking for greener pastures. Best in a well established planted tank with a lot of circulation.

Amano Shrimp - Great algae eaters. Not super active, but extremely useful. Do not successfully breed in freshwater but the females will carry eggs.


Cherry Shrimp - Great clean up crew and a very hardy shrimp, suitable for a beginner. Not a great algae eater. Will breed prolifically if given the chance.

Other Ornamental Shrimp - Some are similar to the Cherry Shrimp, some need more specific water parameters.


Snails - Some people love them, others hate them. The main problem with many snail species is that they will rapidly reproduce and can overrun a tank. Not feeding an excess of food and having fish species that do prey on snails, like loaches, can help control this issue. Some species dont have this problem like apple/mystery snails which are single sex, or nerites which require brackish water to reproduce. But in a tank with a food chain, they make great snacks for snail-eaters.

Clams - Freshwater Clams are a terrible idea for any aquarist. The first thing they do is bury themselves. This makes it very difficult to judge their health. They are filter feeders, so they work best in established aquariums. If they happen to die, be prepared for surprisingly large amounts of water fouling, and hope (since they’re buried and invisible) that you notice quickly. Not recommended. Also many are considered invasive species and their offspring larvae can pass through waterways.


TERRIBLE beginner fish
(by terrible, we mean ‘will meet an untimely end or cause another tankmate to meet an untimely end’ or ‘gets fuckin’ huge’)

Flowerhorns - Flowerhorns are brutes and during puberty and maturity will sometimes beat other fish to death just for something to do. Their provenance is sketchy, being a hybrid of several American cichlid species, making their behavior unpredictable. One individual might have negotiated a peaceful understanding with its tankmates but kill anything new added, another might kill only other cichlid competitors, another might defend a territory (of variable size) with deadly force but not seek trouble otherwise, another might kill for thrills.

Oscars - Oscars are the American cichlid most likely to be found in chain petstores, and the American cichlids are on a whole other level aggression-wise from community fish, even from nippy community fish like tiger barbs. They have great personality but are best for a single-specimen tank, and when a 55 is the bare minimum, they are usually overcrowded, leading to more aggression issues.

Misc African Cichlids - In many stores you will find a mishmash of General African Cichlids, which usually means hybrids of already aggressive fish. These fish cannot be kept with the standard community fish, and even among each other will wreck havoc.

Convict cichlids - Cichlids that reproduce faster than guppies, exhibit aggressive parental care to the point they will attack your arm, breed in anything that holds water, and have up to a hundred fry at a time? What’s not to love? Oh, and if you keep them in a tank with large cichlids like Oscars, they will maim and beat the Oscars to the other side of the tank, if not kill them for being a danger to their fry.

Common Plecostomus/Sailfin/Gibby Pleco - Often referred to as "algae eater fish." They do technically eat algae, but not all species are thorough about it, preferring things like vegetables and the slime coats of slow-moving fish. Even a pleco who does scrape your glass is not "cleaning the tank." He’s just turning the algae into poop. Also some pleco species grow to enormous size. Many other algae-eating fish are better, but if you must have a pleco, get the bristlenose species. Let’s put it simply: common plecos are sometimes food sources in their native environment. See your forearm? That is how big they will get, regardless of your tank size.

Other Plecos - sometimes you’ll find an awesome pleco that costs some good $$. It isn’t gray or black like the common or gibby pleco, perhaps it is green with stripes (like a royal pleco or royal panaque). Or it’s a fine green-yellow or even blue. Before you grab up the cool fish, ID it first: panaques grow to a thick 14 inches and need hard wood to chew on, and will destroy an acrylic tank. Green phantom plecos are feisty, blue phantoms need high oxygen in their water, and other plecos simply require softer water, or riptide-like current. Or, like the royal pleco, will reduce driftwood to sawdust poo poo in a matter of days. Yes, they will die without driftwood to demolish.

Rubbernose/Thomasi Pleco (Chaestostoma sp.) - You’ll see these quite commonly at PetsMarts and various other chain stores. They need lower temperatures than most other tropical fish and don’t do much good against most algae anyway. Males can be somewhat aggressive.

Redtail/Tiger Shovelnose/Lima/Gulper/Giraffe Catfish - These catfish will reach sizes the average fishkeeper can not handle. When buying a Catfish, DO YOUR RESEARCH! A lot of them can reach sizes of four to five feet, and will eat all your other fish along the way. There are a lot of Catfish choices out there, so do your research.

Chinese Algae Eater: Sold in brown and ‘gold’ forms, these are not catfish at all, will not eat algae, you will destroy your tank trying to catch them, oh, and they get about a foot long and suck off the slime coat of every other fish you own. If you can’t find bristlenose plecos and still want an algae eater, go for a trio of otocinclus. Leave the CAE at the pet store.

Clown Loaches: Also called ich magnets, these high-stress fish max out at a thick and girthy foot long. Yes, they take time to grow, but they require pristine water and need to be in large groups, as they are very social fish.

Piranha - Yes, some pet stores sell these large tetras. They are related to pacu, but don’t grow as large. They are a very specialized fish and extreme care has to be used at all times when working in their tank. Not for beginners or even most advanced fishkeepers.

Pacu - Are you ready to take care of a 3-4’ long fish weighing 50+ pounds? Do you enjoy making your own aquariums using 1" acrylic and plywood? Then Pacu are the fish for you! Also, they need a lot of buddies to be happy, so you’re looking at 10 or more!

Arowana - Let’s say a pacu isn’t enough for you. You want a fish that can get to four or five feet, is strong enough to knock the lid off your tank when it leaps out, and will eat almost anything you put into the tank with it? Sold! Also several species are CITES registered and can only be kept with a permit.

Dragon Goby - These long fish need brackish water and are sift feeders. jadebullet's posted more about them: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?noseen=0&threadid=3554965&perpage=40&pagenumber=1#post416548419

Green Spotted Puffers - Super cute, but love biting things. Will eventually die if not converted to brackish or saltwater as they get older. Excellent at destroying pest snails, but smaller loach and botia species are more appropriate for a community tank. Puffers do not inflate in captivity unless very ill or scared shitless, as in how a human might urinate in a state of mortal terror. Keep them for their appealing pertness and intelligence, and don’t expect the inflation trick to ever come up. There are a few fully freshwater puffer species, such as SA Dwarf species,Fahaka, and Mbu, but these are best left for more experienced fishkeepers.

Black Ghost Knife: You know how some guys get huge lifted trucks with spinner hubcaps to make up for micropenises? That’s what a BGK does for your tank. But unlike the truck, this fish stays hidden much of the time. But they still grow almost 2 feet in length, will usually only eat frozen or live foods, and if they can’t find food they like, will tear the fins or eyes off other tankmates.

Bala/Redtail "Sharks" - These cyprinids (the carp/minnows) will get upwards of a foot long, and are very energetic. Adults will injure themselves and destroy plants if not housed comfortably in a 100+ gallon tank. They need to be in groups, and a group of large bala sharks can easily damage your aquarium.

Iridescent "Shark" - Another catfish sold for very low prices at chain stores, that can get to four feet long. They are schooling fish, and are caught for food in their native waters. Pangasius cats should be avoided unless you have a swimming pool and plan on a fish BBQ in a year or two.

Tinfoil Barbs - Not actually related to smaller barbs. Another tank-buster. Very skittish, will grow at least 8 inches long and out-eat other community fish. Sold alongside things like tetras and have some similar behaviors, but grow to a hundred times the mass.

Goldfish - Goldfish are a tragedy and almost no one who keeps them should be allowed to. What most new hobbyists think of as a goldfish is only an infant. Goldfish are a foot long (at least) carp with a lifespan of fifteen to twenty years. In addition to their great size they are also one of the most demanding freshwater fish chemically because of their oxygen needs and waste production. They absolutely cannot be kept in a "goldfish bowl." They will quickly die. A good way to think of it is to imagine a scenario where almost no one knew that dogs were any bigger than a human hand, or lived longer than a few days, because so far as they knew the normal, traditional way to keep a dog was to seal it in a plastic bag as a puppy and leave the bag in the trunk of their car.

If you do want a goldfish, each one needs a minimum of a 20 gallon tank, with a heavy filter and daily or every other day water changes. They’ll devour almost every live plant, need cool water, and cannot be mixed with hardly any other fish.

Koi - These fish belong in ponds, not aquariums, unless you are growing out fry. Bred to be viewed from above, koi need large ponds or swimming pools to accommodate their high waste output and need for swimming space.

Eels - What is commonly sold as the ‘freshwater moray’ needs brackish water. ‘Peacock eels’ will get about 10 inches long and will eat any fish they can catch. All eels are great escape artists, and the crack at the back of your aquarium lid is perfect for them to squeeze out of.

_____

Food and Feeding
There are about as many commercial fish foods as there are goons, but the most important part of feeding your fish is limiting what they get. Feeding once a day for the standard community tank is plenty; many aquarists feed every other day, or six days a week, and fast the last day. Feeding depends on what you have in the tank; a tank full of guppy adults and fry will need more food than only adults, but keep in mind the more you feed, the more the fish will prove why you don’t drink aquarium water. In short, more feeding equals more poo poo, equals more water changes. A fish’s stomach is roughly the size of its eye.

But larger predatory fish (like that giraffe or shovelnose cat you didn’t research before you bought) will often eat one large meal and then need to fast for a few days. Breeding fish will require more food, and fry will require even more.

Types of Food

Flake: standard commercial blends good for a mixed community tank.

Pellets: better than flakes in that they pack more of a punch in a smaller size food. Come in a variety of sizes.

Wafers: algae wafers are the most common example and good for grazing fish, like plecos.

Frozen: ranging from beefheart to mosquito larvae, great treat and overall a good diet for almost any fish.

Freeze-dried: dried forms of frozen worms and shrimp. All right for treats, not for a steady diet.

Live: ranging from blackworms to shrimp (such as ghost shrimp) to goldfish. Used to condition fish to spawn.

A note about live feeders: goldfish are not the natural diet of any other fish, and feeder goldfish are ripe with disease and parasites; they are bred by the thousands in large vats and the fish are given the most base of care to move from the wholesaler to the pet store.

If you do have fish that are piscivorous, or you want to feed live fish to yours, small livebearer fry are fine, but the key is to know where they came from; if you have a tank of tiger barbs who love guppy snacks, keep a spare tank of breeding guppies, and that way you control how the feeders are fed and treated and the risk of parasites and disease spreading is low.

The same holds true for ghost shrimp; buy several and keep them in a QT tank, monitor their health, and ensure what you are feeding is getting good quality feeders.

_____



A little greenery for your tank
As touched on earlier, plants provide many benefits to a tank. They oxygenate the water, soak up waste products and turn them into more plants, provide cover for your fish to help them feel more comfortable and they’re just pleasing to look at and provide a great backdrop for your fish and other water-dwellers. Here’s a few beginner plants to start off with. These are easy to care for and grow in practically any fishtank as long as you have light.

Mosses (Java, Christmas Moss, Peacock moss, fissidens, many others):
Slow growing and tolerant of low light conditions. About exciting as watching paint dry but they’re hardy. Java moss has been reported growing back off dessicated driftwood after being stored for years! Tied to driftwood or rocks, they’ll grow slowly but surely and form dense bushy growths over time, perfect for foragers and fry.

Anubias
A slow growing leafy plant, comes in many sizes, shades and shapes. Another plant that does well in low light and neglect. Best grown anchored to rock or driftwood or loosely covered in substrate. Burying it will kill the rhizome. Hardly anything ever eats this plant due to its toughness.

Floaters (duckweed, frogbit, hornwort, water sprite, etc)
There are many types of floating plants, and all are very fast growing due to easy CO2 access at the surface of the water. They’ve all got great reputations for soaking up plant nutrients and out-competing algae.

Java Fern
Java ferns are another rhizome based plant, and should be treated much like anubiases. They come in many varieties from narrow leafed to broad or even lacy forms.

Cryptocorynes
These mid-sized bunch plants are great in the mid-ground of a tank. They require substrate of some sort to anchor their roots in.

Vallisneria
Another plant that requires substrate, these have long elegant leaves. Planted en-masse, they form stunning, wavy backdrops.

There are many other plants that can be grown in an aquarium, but they will require more effort and preparation, which may or may not include high level lighting, carbon dioxide systems, fertilizers, both liquid, solid and substrate based, root heaters, actual dirt, etc. The Planted Tank is probably one of the more comprehensive forums dedicated to the topic of fishtank based plants.

Links to Planted Tank's galleries thanks to demonR6:
Java Moss Christmas Moss Peacock Moss Fissidens Fontanus Taiwan Moss Willow Moss Anubias Lesser Duckweed Amazon Frogbit Tropical Hornwort Water Sprite Cryptocoryne (Crypt) Wendtii Vallisneria (Jungle Val) Java Fern

_____



The Rogues Gallery of Fish Disease
In short, the best way to avoid diseases is to quarantine, quarantine, quarantine. A basic QT tank can be as small as a 5 gallon, as long as you have a filter and heater. QT every fish you bring home, and if you bring home a few from different sources, in the ideal world, you QT them all separate. Quarantining your new fish in a 10 gallon tank for 2 weeks insures any disease can usually be found, and a 10 gallon is a lot easier to medicate than a 55 or 100 gallon tank.

But sometimes you bring home sick fish. It’s the way of the game.

Little opaque white spots:
"ICK!" you say! Well, you’re not too far off the mark. Ichthyophthirius multifiliis, also called ich, is one of the most common parasitic diseases encountered in the hobby. Here is an excellent article for identifying, treating, and preventing ich.

Hazy!/It’s fuzzy!
In most cases, this is a fungal infection, which usually arises as a secondary infection after an injury. However, this may also be an infection with Flexibacter columnaris (aka Flavobacterium columnare), a VERY aggressive bacterial infection that can wipe out entire tanks in a few days. The treatments for both are different, so choose wisely. This article helps you tell the difference between the two.

Injuries:
Is your fish knocking into poo poo? Is it getting shitbeat by one of its tankmates? It’s time to redecorate, get a bigger tank, or separate. Wounds can be topically treated by irrigation with household (3%) hydrogen peroxide, taking care to not let any get into gills and eyes. Add a water conditioner like Stresscoat. These will help your fish from getting attacked by secondary infections.

My fish is too skinny. :(
Internal gut parasites should be treated with medicated food. Isolating the fish so that it does get the food will help. Bullying by other fishes in the tank could also cause it to be feeding poorly, so observe your tank to make the right call.

My fish is too fat! :(
Quit overfeeding him! However if its being sluggish and unresponsive, the culprit may be constipation. The recommended course of action here is feeding it a fishy laxative, a mashed, boiled and shelled pea. Getting fish to eat these is much easier if they're exposed to them when they're healthy, rather than when they fall sick.

Ulcers
- On head and lateral line: Tiny little pinholes with red interior, possibly oozing white goo. This is an advanced, exterior manifestation of what is likely a systemic infection caused by parasitic diplomonads like Spironucleus or Hexamita that starts in the upper intestine. There’s some controversy if hole in the head disease and lateral line disease is caused by the exact same organism, but their treatment is the same. Requires advanced care and possible FORCE FEEDING HORRORS.
-On body: If you fish looks like it’s been shot, it’s probably an ulcer caused by some sort of gram-negative bacteria, most likely Aeromonas hydropilia or A. salmoncida. Here’s how to better diagnose and treat.

Clamped fins
Internal parasites and general discomfort. Treat with anti-parasitic medication.

Breathing hard
A sign that your fish is struggling for oxygen. Causes could be water parameters going off, water contamination, gill parasites, or decreased oxygen in your tank.Only the first can be easily assessed, the others will have to be arrived at through careful examination of your fish and routine. High ammonia and nitrites can very quickly be diagnosed with a test kit. Gill parasites can cause inflammation and redness in the fish’s gills, if you can examine them and should be treated with anti-parasitic medication. Low oxygen levels can be treated with increased aeration, with an airstone, aiming your filter’s outflow so that it breaks the surface or plants.

Setting up a Quarantine Tank:
Setting up a quarantine tank is highly recommended, and relatively easy if done right. A quarantine tank is a place to house new fish until you’re sure they’re disease free, or to house a diseased fish so you don’t have to medicate your entire tank.

At minimum you need a ten gallon tank or rubbermaid tub, a heater strong enough to raise the temperature to at least 90f, a thermometer, and a filter that will accept filter media from your main tank. Running an extra sponge filter in your main tank is a great way to always have a seeded filter for your quarantine.

Other tank issues
Help my tank is overrun with algae!
Algae is a sign of too many nutrients and lighting. You could keep cleaning it up manually, but ideally you'd also be reducing lighting and nutrients available to the algae. Try reducing your lighting hours, introducing a break in your light timing (the theory is that algae do not handle lighting changes as easily as plants), reducing nutrients by making sure you're not overfeeding and keeping up with your water changes. Excel is great at staving off algae, but this will depend on how well the rest of the tank tolerates it. Invertebrates and mosses will come off worst during high excel doses. If you're considering biological control, amano shrimp, nerite snails and various algae eating fish are available, but please do research before picking anything up, or you might end up with a 1 foot long pleco poopmonster in your tank eventually.

Help my tank is overrun with snails!
Like algae, snails are a sign of too many nutrients in your system. Nothing to do with lights though. Notorious hitchhikers, but they can be dealt with. Make sure you're feeding the right amount for your fish, remove uneaten food, clean your substrate and you should put a stop to snail population booms. Removing them is more of a chore. There are snail traps, from simply putting a lettuce leaf in and hauling it out along with the snails in the morning, to more expensive mechanical traps. Biological control is an option, with many species of loaches enjoying snail meat, as well as assassin snails being good options.

Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 09:14 on Jun 18, 2013

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Troubleshooting Continued:
Anyway, if you're having problems and want us to help out, letting us know as much about the tank as possible will help. How old's the tank, what lives in it, frequency of water changes, test your parameters and post them, the more the better!

And now various PI Fishtanks! from the last thread:
Lacrosse


fknlo


Kharnifex


demonR6


Synthorange


Mr Despair


Fusillade


Now back to staring at tanks full of water and bloopers. :allears:

Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 10:27 on Jun 16, 2013

Desert Bus
May 9, 2004

Take 1 tablet by mouth daily.
Nice work! You three managed to finally give this thread the OP it deserves while I was busy being miserable. Thanks!

Have some pics to start things off!

South American Bumblebee Catfish:


Polypterus Endlicheri:


Praecox Rainbows and a Siamese Algae Eater:


Zebra Nerite Snail:

jadebullet
Mar 25, 2011


MY LIFE FOR YOU!

SynthOrange posted:


Dragon Goby - These long fish need brackish water and are filter feeders (as in they need tiny microscopic live food). They will eat any fish that is small enough to fit in their mouths too.


I just want to hop in here to correct this as it isn't entirely correct. Dragon Gobies do need brackish water, and a fine granule substrate such as mud or sand. You will know the Violet Goby, it's true name should you find one labeled as this in a pet store, is happy with the aggregate because they will start kicking up the sand and terraforming the tank. You cannot expect to keep a properly manicured tank with one of these monsters. For reference, the one time I put some new plastic plants in the tank for the guppy fry to hide in. I came back an hour later and I guess he didn't like the plants because we couldn't find them. He had moved all of the sand from the bottom of tank and piled it on top of the plants. I am not exaggerating either. It was all of the sand.

They also grow to be quite large. I got mine when he was only 3 inches long, and after a year he is a little over a foot long. They can grow between a foot long and 2 feet long depending on how well they do.

They aren't filter feeders as much as sifting feeders. They will gulp up mouthfuls of sand and sift out the particulates of food. This isn't their only feeding method though. They absolutely love blood worms and will be perfectly fine with eating smaller food that winds up on the bottom. They also have a bunch of teeth which they use to scrape algae off of rocks. They will not eat any fish that will fit in their mouth, as their mouths are much larger than their throats, which is what restricts the size of what they eat. They can't eat anything that won't go down their throats. They also tend to avoid trying to eat fish anyway because they are too fast. The Dragon Goby is practically blind, and quite slow so their ability to catch and eat fish is very limited. Bumblebee gobies and guppies make great tank mates for them, and they can both easily fit down the gullet of a Dragon Goby. That being said, he will devour fry by the mouth full.

This blindness is also something to keep in mind when you pick tank mates. You need to make sure that the tank mates aren't too aggressive as the Dragon Goby will have trouble getting food before the others eat it all.

I personally love my Dragon Goby and I find him to be a very rewarding fish with an amazing personality. That being said, it isn't a beginner fish due to the fact that they get very large, and require a brackish tank in order to survive. They are very docile fish though, and are not aggressive predators as some fish stores claim they are.

And with that, I segue into some pics of Squidworth, my Dragon Goby, that I took last night after I transplanted him into his new tank.

He is quite large




Should anyone be interested I can write up a guide to Dragon Gobies and their tank mates.

jadebullet fucked around with this message at 12:56 on Jun 16, 2013

Cowslips Warren
Oct 29, 2005

What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?

Grimey Drawer
Yeah, we probably should change that in the OP.

That said, where would brackish posts go? Here or in the marine thread?

jadebullet
Mar 25, 2011


MY LIFE FOR YOU!
I personally vote for here as brackish isn't too much different than a freshwater tank where as a marine tank requires much more work from what I understand. Also most of the fish in a brackish tank are on the freshwater side than the marine side. (Guppies, Mollies, shrimp.) The only true marine fish that I have in my tank are some small hermit crabs that I acclimated to the tank conditions.

DenialTwist
Sep 18, 2008
In the beginning the Universe was created. This has made a lot of people very angry and has been widely regarded as a bad move.

Hurray a new thread! So I just thought I would share some of my amateur cellphone pictures. I currently have 4 fish tanks (but I only have pictures of two because two are boring)

First up is my low low tech 29gallon community tank (my first ever planted tank):

Here it is from September 2011



And here is a fancy gif google made for me from trying to take pictures of it more recently:



Fauna in this tank(nothing fancy): 5 albino neons, 7, albino cories, 1 male betta, ?? platies, ?? cherry shrimp, 6 amano shrimp, 3 assassin snails

Next is my 4 gallon shrimp tank:

I just set this one up a few months ago but it doing awesome even if I don't have any baby yellow shrimps yet:



and here is one of the shrimp showing off how awesome he is



Fauna: ?? yellow shrimp, 1 assassin snail

My other two tanks are one mid/high tech 40 breeder that is just now cycling and the other is a biocube 29 with a lone male convict in it because I am weird and really like him but he pretty much hides in his cave all day and only comes out to bite me when I clean the tank or when I have food. :allears:

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Thanks! Linked your post for now, and if you decide to write up a more detailed one, I can update to that as well. What a face on that goby. :3:

jadebullet
Mar 25, 2011


MY LIFE FOR YOU!
Awesome. I will write up a more detailed post later on today outlining Dragon Goby and brackish tank care.

Eifert Posting
Apr 1, 2007

Most of the time he catches it every time.
Grimey Drawer
Thinking about getting an otto temporarily to help with hair algae. It's not likely to have issues with betta or shrimp, right? I have an aquarium store I like that will basically give me a rental.

jamontoast
Jun 29, 2008

Toussaint Louverture posted:

Thinking about getting an otto temporarily to help with hair algae. It's not likely to have issues with betta or shrimp, right? I have an aquarium store I like that will basically give me a rental.

If the issue is exclusively hair algae, I wouldn't bother with an otto at all. They eat soft surface algae, and won't touch the hair algae. A Siamese algae eater should do the job, though.

Failing livestock based solutions, spot treatment with Excel, or very carefully dosed hydrogen peroxide should also get rid of it.

Dr. Despair
Nov 4, 2009


39 perfect posts with each roll.

Toussaint Louverture posted:

Thinking about getting an otto temporarily to help with hair algae. It's not likely to have issues with betta or shrimp, right? I have an aquarium store I like that will basically give me a rental.

I have 3 otos in my tank, and there are still a few leaves where hair algae grows unabated.

Not Your Senorita
May 25, 2007

Don't you recognize me? It's-a me, Mario!
Nap Ghost
I didn't post a whole lot in the previous aquarium thread, but it had a lot of great people giving great information, so I'm glad to see it continue! Here's what my tank looked like a little over a year ago when I started attempting to convert it to a planted tank with the help of the previous aquarium thread:



And here's what it looks like as of a week or two ago:



Hopefully the water sprite fills in the upper area of the tank - it's a 36 gallon bowfront. It's definitely not the fanciest tank, but it is extremely low effort to maintain, so it works for me.

Here's some of the things that live in it:







Cowslips Warren
Oct 29, 2005

What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?

Grimey Drawer
Iiiiiiiii guess I can dump some pictures too.


Here's my pride and joy and reason I am so poor:


Yes, they are adults, no, have not bred them yet. I finished a month long dry season (daily water changes of 10%, cleaning the filters every other day, daily scrubdowns on the tank) only to find the heater had died, and the work was for nothing.

BUT am trying again! With the dam now up in Brazil, there will be no more wild zebras again.

As in seriously, whatever isn't smuggled out will suffocate and cook.


And my other breeding project, still too young to make babies, my L260s.



drat, I thought I had more pictures. Ah well, here are two of my pleco species!

Cowslips Warren fucked around with this message at 18:00 on Jun 16, 2013

Crab Dad
Dec 28, 2002

behold i have tempered and refined thee, but not as silver; as CRAB


Bay Area fish keeper checking in. Hope to find goons to trade with.

demonR6
Sep 4, 2012

There are too many stupid people in the world. I'm not saying we should kill them all or anything. Just take the warning labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself.

Lipstick Apathy
Thanks for all the hard work on getting a new thread up and running.

Started working on the bowl again as sharing some pics.



I am thinking to add driftwood to this again, still undecided though..



Covered and ready for a few days of festering before I plant it.



demonR6 fucked around with this message at 03:00 on Jun 17, 2013

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

I got this 5 fish tank as a birthday present a few years ago.

http://www.petsmart.com/product/index.jsp?productId=4056278&lmdn=Brand&f=PAD%2FpsNotAvailInUS%2FNo

I had a betta there, and now I have two male guppies. I know I can't really have more than 1-2 fish in it unless they are very, very small, but I'd like to try and have a few live plants in it to make it prettier. I've never had live plants, though, so I'm not sure where to start or what plants to get. Any suggestions?

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

After all that work on that OP, with its very own plant section, Chido how could you! :qq:

I get most of my plants through ebay or ordering direct from stores. Which ones are probably not relevant though, since I live in Australia. Go easy first, it's tempting to get a whole lot of plants at first, but ease in step by step and make sure you've got enough space in your tank. Start off with floaters, like frogbit, and anubias, java fern or a mossy bit of driftwood for your main feature. None of those require planting, just securing to a heavy object.

Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 03:41 on Jun 17, 2013

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

SynthOrange posted:

After all that work on that OP, with its very own plant section, Chido how could you! :qq:

I get most of my plants through ebay or ordering direct from stores. Which ones are probably not relevant though, since I live in Australia. Go easy first, it's tempting to get a whole lot of plants at first, but ease in step by step and make sure you've got enough space in your tank. Start off with floaters, like frogbit, and anubias, java fern or a mossy bit of driftwood for your main feature.

I read it but I'm so bad at anything fish that I don't know how many anubia nanas I could cram in it, or the kind of soil/gravel/substrate. I only have the generic white gravel that I was given and for the few bags of substrate I saw online, they all seem to be 15lbs/7kg bags, and I kinda get the feeling that's too much substrate to put into the small tank.


I just don't know about quantities :ohdear:

Edit: The plants I've seen in petsmart often have a metal thing as a weight. Is it ok for me to leave it? It won't kill my fish? also, stop being in Australia come to California, set up my mini tank and I'll let you play with the chickens :D

Chido fucked around with this message at 03:51 on Jun 17, 2013

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Just depends on how densely planted you want stuff. If you're buying online, most will have descriptions of exactly how much plant you're getting. If you're planning on planting in the gravel, you should have it at 2 inches deep to ensure the plants can root properly. Otherwise it's mostly an aesthetic choice. Any of the listed plants will grow fine in a 5 gallon tank.

The weights are pretty common. I've seen them used a lot. I dont think they're harmful, but I remove them and plant in gravel anyway.

Synthbuttrange fucked around with this message at 04:15 on Jun 17, 2013

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

So I don't need substrate, regular aquarium gravel will do? also, for tank cleaning, once I the plants growing I shouldn't move them, right? Usually I clean my whole tank every 4-6 months and rinse everything, but save at least 50% of the water to add it back once everything is done.

durrneez
Feb 20, 2013

I like fish. I like to eat fish. I like to brush fish with a fish hairbrush. Do you like fish too?

Chido posted:

I read it but I'm so bad at anything fish that I don't know how many anubia nanas I could cram in it, or the kind of soil/gravel/substrate. I only have the generic white gravel that I was given and for the few bags of substrate I saw online, they all seem to be 15lbs/7kg bags, and I kinda get the feeling that's too much substrate to put into the small tank.


I just don't know about quantities :ohdear:

Edit: The plants I've seen in petsmart often have a metal thing as a weight. Is it ok for me to leave it? It won't kill my fish? also, stop being in Australia come to California, set up my mini tank and I'll let you play with the chickens :D

Are you in the LA area? I've got a ton of hornwort FOR FREE if you're interested.

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

durrneez posted:

Are you in the LA area? I've got a ton of hornwort FOR FREE if you're interested.

I had to google what plant it was, how fast does it grow in you experience? Also, my tank has a lid, would that affect the plant's growth as google says it's a surface plant. And I live in El Monte :).

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Chido posted:

So I don't need substrate, regular aquarium gravel will do? also, for tank cleaning, once I the plants growing I shouldn't move them, right? Usually I clean my whole tank every 4-6 months and rinse everything, but save at least 50% of the water to add it back once everything is done.

You could use regular gravel with rooting plants, just add root fertilizer tablets. Makes sense if you're only planting a few small areas of the bottom.

Why're you cleaning out the whole tank every few months? Algae/poop buildup? But yes, once plants go in, they stay there unless you're replanting.

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

SynthOrange posted:

You could use regular gravel with rooting plants, just add root fertilizer tablets. Makes sense if you're only planting a few small areas of the bottom.

Why're you cleaning out the whole tank every few months? Algae/poop buildup? But yes, once plants go in, they stay there unless you're replanting.

I guess I thought it was gross not to rinse the gravel every now and then because I don't have plants that would absorb the poop from the fish. I don't have any algae problem or poop buildup, so I guess I should stop? :ohdear:

daggerdragon
Jan 22, 2006

My titan engine can kick your titan engine's ass.

Chido posted:

I guess I thought it was gross not to rinse the gravel every now and then because I don't have plants that would absorb the poop from the fish. I don't have any algae problem or poop buildup, so I guess I should stop? :ohdear:

Eh. That's just making more work for yourself. Every water change should be stirring up the gunk from the substrate anyway if you're using a hose or a suction tube.

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Ah, if poop buildup in the gravel is bothering you, then you have various gravel vacuums that you can use to clean them out. They come in gravity, faucet or battery powered, and are designed to suck debris out of your gravel at the same time you're siphoning out water for water changes.

Why you do this is to prevent decaying matter from producing lots of trapped gas in the substrate that could potentially bubble out all at once and poison your fish. Quite a few fishkeepers here dont though, because we've got ways around it with plants and creatures that live in the substrate, stirring it, like trumpet snails and worms.

If you've planted some plants, you can still use a gravel vacuum in areas around the plant without harming it.

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

I see. I'm actually getting a bit excited about getting plants and try to make my tiny tank look decent. I kinda want to add a couple more fish but with such a small tank, I think I can only get maybe 2 more guppies. I also need to look for a better light bulb because the one it uses has a yellowish light that dulls the fish colors. I'll check the plants in aquariumplants.com and see how much the shipment costs. Thank you guys!

cheese
Jan 7, 2004

Shop around for doctors! Always fucking shop for doctors. Doctors are stupid assholes. And they get by because people are cowed by their mystical bullshit quality of being able to maintain a 3.0 GPA at some Guatemalan medical college for 3 semesters. Find one that makes sense.

LingcodKilla posted:

Bay Area fish keeper checking in. Hope to find goons to trade with.

San Jose in the house! Do you have plants? I'd like to buy someones extra Wisteria and swords and whatnot to get started soon.

durrneez
Feb 20, 2013

I like fish. I like to eat fish. I like to brush fish with a fish hairbrush. Do you like fish too?

Chido posted:

I had to google what plant it was, how fast does it grow in you experience? Also, my tank has a lid, would that affect the plant's growth as google says it's a surface plant. And I live in El Monte :).

It's a super easy plant to maintain. I started with 2 plants that had crazy a lot of lateral growth; it basically looked like a pine tree. I had to trim a lot of it and put about 2/3 of it into a .75 gallon tupperware and it's more or less filled the whole thing up. The only caveat is that I have a Walstad setup in my tank and tupperware. I don't think having a lid would affect the plant's growth. In my tank, I have it in a pile sitting above the substrate and it's doing all right. It'll probably grow slower in a non-Walstad or a non-high tech tank but it's a pretty tough plant. I have PMs or you can email me at flexmagic at-----gmail dot com.

I'm heading out to your area tomorrow, too! The UFC gym out there is so nice. :allears:

durrneez fucked around with this message at 05:55 on Jun 17, 2013

Neitherman
Sep 25, 2006

He will die without safety brief.

Wow, excellent OP Synth! I just got back from a week long visit to New England and I'm pretty beat so I'll have to delve further into your plethora of information tomorrow, but I'm quite excited to see how thorough you were with it! Maybe I'll learn something new before getting back to the grand adventure that is fishkeeping tomorrow.

JuffoWup
Mar 28, 2012
I guess I'll add a shot of my aquarium while I'm at it:



Added some java fern and an amazon sword a few weeks back and they have been doing well. The dwarf baby tears has also taken off giving a nice ground cover. I took this shot this morning while they were feeding as it is the best chance of catching the CPDs in the open.


Also, there is such a thing as over filtration as I have been experiencing it. This mostly concerns water flow though. I suspect I could use the old pump if I went and retrofitted the system to have a pair of spray bars running instead of a jet nozzle. I replaced the included 211gph pump with one that only does 40-80gph and the cpds will actually play out in the open at times. Especially when I have it set to around 60 or 70. At 211, they just hid all day and never came out.

Since the water change, I haven't seen him, but I have seen a few fry as well. At least they are happy I guess.

Desert Bus
May 9, 2004

Take 1 tablet by mouth daily.
It's that time again folks! I've got a surplus of healthy Malaysian Trumpet Snails!

Here's a link to the sale thread:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3555118

You know you want them, so buy buy buy!

demonR6
Sep 4, 2012

There are too many stupid people in the world. I'm not saying we should kill them all or anything. Just take the warning labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself.

Lipstick Apathy
On the topic of plant selection, please do yourself a favor and read the plant profiles section on The Planted Tank forum. It is a great resource and has really good images of all the plants represented along with the water and light requirements. Nothing sucks more than buying a really neat plant only to find out it needs high light and C02 then your plant dies and you are scratching your head why.

Once you find a few you like and think would work, post up and ask us since we may have our two cents to add.

Using plain gravel or sand you will not be able to sustain healthy plants unless you are using root tabs or adding liquid ferts to help maintain your plants. Fish poop makes great fertilizer but is not the be all, end all to maintain healthy plants.

jadebullet
Mar 25, 2011


MY LIFE FOR YOU!
So I have one of those bubble clams and I am having a bitch of a time with it currently. It is held together at the hinge with a single metal pin that comes in from one side only. Anyway, my dragon goby keeps playing with it and the pin ends up sliding entirely out so the top of the shell comes off. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to secure the pin that wouldn't harm the fish at all?

Edit: As for plants, I have had good luck with swords and java ferns in both gravel and sand substrate. I make sure that the tank is in an area that gets ample light, and I add API Leaf Zone as fertilizer ever so often to feed them.

jadebullet fucked around with this message at 14:29 on Jun 17, 2013

demonR6
Sep 4, 2012

There are too many stupid people in the world. I'm not saying we should kill them all or anything. Just take the warning labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself.

Lipstick Apathy

jadebullet posted:

So I have one of those bubble clams and I am having a bitch of a time with it currently. It is held together at the hinge with a single metal pin that comes in from one side only. Anyway, my dragon goby keeps playing with it and the pin ends up sliding entirely out so the top of the shell comes off. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I can do to secure the pin that wouldn't harm the fish at all?

Edit: As for plants, I have had good luck with swords and java ferns in both gravel and sand substrate. I make sure that the tank is in an area that gets ample light, and I add API Leaf Zone as fertilizer ever so often to feed them.

Heavy test fishing line.. if you can run it through, tie it off with a couple of loops through it and done deal.

demonR6
Sep 4, 2012

There are too many stupid people in the world. I'm not saying we should kill them all or anything. Just take the warning labels off of everything and let the problem solve itself.

Lipstick Apathy

demonR6 posted:

Heavy test fishing line.. if you can run it through, tie it off with a couple of loops through it and done deal.

I made some links to the plant profiles on TPT if you would like to update the OP. I will edit this if you choose to use it in the OP (or not) to remove all the clutter.


Mosses -
Java Moss- Low light, slow growth, very easy to keep.

Christmas Moss - High light, slow growth, hard to keep.

Peacock Moss - Medium light, fast grower, easy to keep.

Fissidens Fontanus - Medium light, very very slow growth, easy to keep.

Taiwan Moss - Medium light, fast growth, easy to keep.

Willow Moss - Low light, slow growth, easy to keep.


Anubias - Low to medium light, very slow growth, easy to keep.

Lesser Duckweed - All ranges of light, fast grower, easy to keep. Caution this plant can overrun your tank in a very short amount of time choking out all the light.

Amazon Frogbit - Low to medium light, fast grower, easy to keep.

Tropical Hornwort - Low light, very fast growth, very easy to keep.

Water Sprite - Low to medium light, very fast growth, very easy to keep.

Cryptocoryne (Crypt) Wendtii - High to low light, slow growth, easy to keep. There are a number of varieties available under this species, picked one of the more common US varieties.

Vallisneria (Jungle Val) - Low to medium light, very fast growth, very easy to keep. One of many vallisneria variety.

Java Fern - Very low light, slow growth, easy to keep.

Queen Gnome
Jul 30, 2006

Her Lawnliness
Hey everyone! I was hoping to get some feedback and ideas for potentially getting a dwarf puffer. I had fish as a kid, but nothing too complex. I've had many pets over the years, and am pretty dedicated to taking care of them and learning all of the specifics. After browsing some of the shops, I've fallen in love with dwarf puffers :doh:. They are the god damned cutest little guys, and I'm really considering getting one.

I'd like to get a pretty nice tank for one, possibly two, puffs. Nothing too big, but adequate. Does anyone have suggestions or experience keeping puffers? I've read up on their diet and am cool with getting bloodworms and snails to feed them, but that's pretty new territory for me. I've never planted a tank before or even made a nice looking one, but I'm really excited to give things a go...sink or swim!

The place I'm looking at in Tokyo to get the fish is a pretty respected aquarium shop, but I want to do things right.
http://www.a-forest.co.jp/ (in Japanese)

I'm also going back to the states to visit soon so I could pick up supplies there. I'm nervous, but excited! :ohdear: Let me know what you guys think if you have time!

Chido
Dec 7, 2003

Butterflies fluttering on my face!

I met Durrneez and she gave me some of her plants, that was so nice of her :3:. I'll post pictures of my lame tank after I take the fake plant out and put the new one inside!.

Adbot
ADBOT LOVES YOU

Cowslips Warren
Oct 29, 2005

What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?

Grimey Drawer

Queen Gnome posted:

Hey everyone! I was hoping to get some feedback and ideas for potentially getting a dwarf puffer. I had fish as a kid, but nothing too complex. I've had many pets over the years, and am pretty dedicated to taking care of them and learning all of the specifics. After browsing some of the shops, I've fallen in love with dwarf puffers :doh:. They are the god damned cutest little guys, and I'm really considering getting one.

I'd like to get a pretty nice tank for one, possibly two, puffs. Nothing too big, but adequate. Does anyone have suggestions or experience keeping puffers? I've read up on their diet and am cool with getting bloodworms and snails to feed them, but that's pretty new territory for me. I've never planted a tank before or even made a nice looking one, but I'm really excited to give things a go...sink or swim!

The place I'm looking at in Tokyo to get the fish is a pretty respected aquarium shop, but I want to do things right.
http://www.a-forest.co.jp/ (in Japanese)

I'm also going back to the states to visit soon so I could pick up supplies there. I'm nervous, but excited! :ohdear: Let me know what you guys think if you have time!

For most fish, two is a bad number; three or four, even five, means that any aggression issues are spread out. Of course that depends on the size of your tank too! But a well planted 10 gallon can have probably 5-6 pea puffers.

  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • 5
  • Post
  • Reply