u/PhilosophyNo331

Well... it didnt literally explode. I went on vacation for 4 days, expected to come back to virtually no changes in my tanks. My 10 gal looks about the same.. but my 29gal (pictured), my plants all went BOOM. And i havent figured out if im crazy or not, but i swear my tank water looks much clearer than it did the morning i left.

Now it is time to get started working on getting substrate cleaned for the new 5gal tank i picked up over my vacation so i can start working on a cutesy little shrimp tank.

(Also celebrating the fact that only 2 of my glowlight tetra have any signs on nipped fins, hard to say if the tetras went after eachother or if mr.gourami decided he wanted to try and be an asshole- but pretty sure it was the tetras nipping eachother, my gourami- a thick lipped, has been living rather peacefully with his tank mates. The meanest ive seen him is when hes hunting snails)

Guess i go start trimming.

I picked this thick lipped gourami just this past friday, i suspect the gourami is a boy due to the dorsal fin ending in a sharp point rather than it being smooth and rounded, but i just want confirmation that he is actually a boy.

Also any unserious name suggestions are more than welcome!

ETA: Meet Sunkist! (Thanks to the commenter who picked this name. The more i think of it, the more suitable it is for him(?) as he does seem to be a very sweet fish (hes starting to swim up to the glass when i approach instead of hiding and side eyeing me from behind the bacopa in my tank)

Thank you :)

"Everything is healthy and running well. Selling because i need the space"

YOU need space? No, i think the FISH need space. 33 gallons?!

I can see a bunch of ramshorns (but when do you not.. those mf's would take over the world if they could), a very sad looking betta, 3 comet goldfish, 1 single albino cory, the loaches are definitely hiding well, but i would too in a tank like that (i only say that because i see my black kuhlis quite often in my community tank that they live in).

This is my first time ever owning tetra and Ive had this school of glowlight tetras for about a month now. Theyve been happy. They love to interact with me when im in front of the tank. They love to steal the show at food time. But i have this One tetra who i presume is female because even before she got chunky, her body shape was pointing towards female over male. She is my only glowlight who is rather... extra wide. Is she possibly carrying eggs or is she just a greedy fish. Thank you!

Just a tiny little guy in a big world.

I would love some insight on whether these embers have epistylis or ich.

I picked up some ember tetra today and they seem to be rather.. spotty. Ive been doing some reading the past few hours and im stumped. Im unsure whether these guys are infected with ich or epistylis. When at the pet store i could not see any spots on the fish, and have purchased other fish from that store previously with no issue (i know that not an excuse to assume i will Always get healthy fish, i just had hope since i couldnt notice it in store). So i felt kind of silly when i got home, acclimated, added everyone to my community tank, only to then notice i bought sick fish.

For clarification, i dont have a quarantine tank as i dont have the space in my rental to set one up. These fish have also been in my aquarium for no more than a few hrs, i only have lights on to take pictures and investigate my new friends. With that being said, yes, they are in my community display tank, so treatment may have to be specific and catered to what i have stocked in this tank.

I dont want to proceed with treatment until i am certain what these tetra have as i have read that if i jump the gun and increase my temp, if it is epistylis, i will not be aiding my fish, but rather harming them. And i do not want to do that.

They glued an anubias to this nerite....

Shes withholding the lemon flavored jelly beans from me. GIVE ME THE BEANS!

I cant wait for this batch to hatch 🥰

Walked by my tank and noticed one of my corys decided to rest at the top of my bacopa. Ive never seen any of them rest at such high points in the tank, they take their jobs as bottom dwellers very seriously until its time for a lil breath.

I knew there was one pregnant shrimp in this tank... until i dropped some food in here and suddenly im looking at 3 pregnant shrimp.

Im utterly obsessed. I could sit here all day and stare at this tank... my swimming glowsticks (absolute menaces and pure chaos during feeding time), my greedy water puppies (begs me for food anytime im within 1ft of the tank), and the guest star appearance... the shrimpies (here simply just for the vibes). I havent finished stocking this tank yet, but i can already tell when i do have it fully stocked with everything i want in here, i will forget the world around me exists. The plants.. the creatures.. even the pesky bladder snails.. 110% obsessed. I even catch myself fogging up the glass trying to get a good look at the microfauna in the tank.

Anyone else's corys covered in sand 24/7 because of how seriously they take their jobs?

No other plants in my tank have this on the, just my swords. Im assuming its some type of algae growth, but unsure what kind. Sits flat against the stems and foliage, there are no "hairs". Please help me figure out what this is and what causes it. Thank you so much in advanced!

(Parameters: 7.8ph, 0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, 20 nitrates, 6 dkh and 15 dgh, temp 76F, nit sure if this is relevant, but included just incase)

Come home from work and was checking out my tanks to see how everyone is doing, only to end up playing wheres waldo with one of my mystery snails.. now that i know where it is, its in such an obvious place, but i, for the life of me, could NOT find this snail. The panic stared settling in and despite having a lid on this tank, and a pothos and monstera blocking off the open ares on the lid.. i was convinced it houdini'd its way out of the tank. I searched everywhere. Or at least i thought... as soon as i open the lid, roll up my sleeves, and preparing to completely dismantle my entire tank just to find this ONE snail. There it is.. having a peaceful little food coma nap. Crisis AND panic adverted. Now you get to play spot the snail? Can you find it?

Side note: yes, ive called it "it" this entire time because i have no idea the gender, ive tried checking this snail FOUR times.. it is Stubborn. The rest of my snails.. easy as pie, they has zero hesitation showing me what they were.

Another side note: dont mind the cloudy water, currently battling a bacteria bloom because i was naive and decided to completely uproot a decently sized amazon sword (to move into another tank), not realizing i should have just wiggled it out a little bit, trimmed the roots to free the plant, and let the rest of the roots remain to eventually become food for my other plants. Im new to the hobby, and despite my weeks worth of researching and reading about things in this hobby, i always find there is something that will quickly humble me and make me realize that i have more reading to do.

Anyways, good luck, youll probably find this snail quicker than i did!

Every since moving my corydoras to a new tank, the babies have been out and about in their own tank more often and i love it. They're so adorable, even tho they're a little hard to see

I couldnt stop myself from messaging them and trying to get them to either change or fix this listing before someone buys it thinking its okay to put any live creature in here, and to avoid promoting abuse. I did also inform them to rename the listing to "critter keeper" because thats exactly what it is. The measurements of it make it just barely a gallon...

Its a happy day for the shrimp! The corydora got evicted today (to go to a bigger community tank im working on) and i have never seen so many of my shrimp in one place at the same time. Usually theyre in the plants or hiding in crevices on the driftwood, but today it was a full on party. Also dont mind the water. Catching the corys stirred alot of sand up and a little bit of a bacteria bloom (i was a bit naive and was over feeding my tank for a bit, but working on that)

Heres some photos i managed to capture of the shrimp party. I will also preface, i don't own these for a breeding project, theyre fun and adorable and if i could i would just watch them from sunrise to sunset.

I put some spinach in the tank for my shrimp and the mystery snails and i guess the corys have decided i also put it in there for them. They never go after any other veggies I put in the tank for the shrimp and snails, but i guess spinach is a different story?

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Anyways, does anyone elses corys occasionally munch on veg placed in the tank for their tank mates?

After 18 days of impatiently waiting we finally have our first reading of nitrites and nitrates! (Also added a pic of tank, dont mind the yuck, ive been doing a very heavy handed ghost feed every so often, and today was one of those days)

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I live in canada, where it is rather difficult to get a hold of good ammonia sources to help things move along a little faster (regulations.. yippie). Dr.Tims was either sold out, or the shipping would be more than 10x the price of the item, and i had nothing else i could add to the order to even make the shipping worth it. Clear ammonia is also an iffy thing to find, the ones available in my area either had surfactants, dyes, or just straight up didnt have the msds available online for consumer use. So that became out of the question.

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So raw shrimp method it is. I stuck one peice of raw shrimp (in some 100% cotton cheesecloth... the pet stores were sold out of media bags and i didnt have nylon on hand). I also proceeded to ghost feed along side the shrimp just to boost the ammonia source to accommodate for the plants in the tank (it took me 2 weeks of cycling before i learnt silent cycling is a thing. Who knew.) I was am aware that the shrimp method would be slow and tedious.. which is painful for an impatient person. But alas... i must wait, let the yucky rot water do its thing because what else is there to do.

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Related side story: a few days ago i was cleaning the area around my tanks. I came across a container where i eradicated a small handful of bladder snails from my 10 gallon, and some old catappa leaves i stuck in there to discard. No idea how old it is. Usually i would admit that i was forgetful or got distracted and say ew when i inevitable dispose of the yuck. But then a lightbulb went off in my head... that tucky little container is SWIMMING with ammonia. So i took a larger container, strained all the gross stuff out and diluted the gunk with some tank water, and then tested the ammonia from that. 2ppm! Great! Dump it in the tank! Waited 30 minutes, tested the ammonia in the tank.. 0.50ppm ammonia! Epic! Especially after it sat at 0.25ppm for SIX days. I celebrate my yucky accident and go to bed.

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Next day rolls around (yesterday) i test the ammonia and figured i would check nitrites. Ammonia was still 0.50ppm, and nitrites were readable, but not quite 0.25ppm. I still celebrate the progress that im finally seeing (also note ive been dosing seachem stability). I go on about my day, go to bed.. and then were at today. I decide its time to do a full test. See if nitrates are showing up, and BAM! We have 3 colourful test tubes that finally arent colours that mean 0!

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Was that alot of information just to explain my cycle is still taking baby steps? Yes. But im excited, give me a break lol.

When you need to take a moment to process all that sand you just sifted through..