u/Similar_Anteater_810

So, I built a peat swamp replica (can't say biotope since most stuff isn't naturally found in boraras habitat, for example, I used reptile safe leaf litter (oak I think) since a largeish bag costs half of what 20 catappa leaves cost where I live) I'm a 140l (35 gal) tank, introduced a large mixed school of phoenix and chili rasboras, 35 in total (don't know how many of each since I bought them separately in groups of 20, but there were some of each species mixed in both groups, 5 didn't survive quarantine) and now I keep seeing new babies every few days.

I've found some small "orbs" that I think are eggs (boraras only tank) stuck on the leaf litter, they seem to grow over the course of a few days and then "pop", every time they look like they popped I notice new fry, if my guess is right then I have like 10 babies with 40 or so in the way.

The tank is full of microfauna (I've seen nematodes, some hydra, detritus worms and what looks like smaller, aquatic springtails) and I've noticed both the fry and the adults seem to spend most of their time exploring the leaf litter and snacking on it

I have a 130L (35 gal) 80cm x 40cm x 40cm (32 in x 16in x 16in) tank I made with betta albimarginata or channoides in mind, eventually deciding for albimarginata. I bought a pair that were supposed to arrive to the importer 3 days ago and be sent to me next week, sadly due to a problem with customs (basically the electronic systems customs use in my country failed this week, so processes that should take a couple of hours took a couple of days) and sadly (among many other fish) my albimarginata pair didn't survive.

The importer gave me 3 options:

Waiting for the next import

Getting my money back

Replacing them for a pair of

macrostoma, antuta or channoides

So I'm at a dilema between getting a channoides pair next week or waiting a month for an albimarginata pair. In the experience of people who have owned (and preferably bred) one or both of these species, should I take the channoides?

Turns out I will get an albimarginata pair much sooner than expected (one of the stores I was eyeing will receive a new shipment and pre ordering them was around $50 usd cheaper than buying them normally or un other stores), so they should arrive around mid-late August.

Since I've read that acclimating extremely important with this species I would like to know if my acclimation process sounds good/safe and/or how I could improve it:

-leave the bags to settle for a few minutes to an hour

-open the bag, add some prime and move them to a 1 gal bucket with a lid (if the pair come in different bags I'm not sure if I could mix them in the bucket or if I should have 1 bucket for each)

-drip acclimate for a couple of hours, before finally introducing them to the tank

Also, since they need warm, humid air I have covered the tank with plastic wrap and left a 10 cm gap between the water surface and the top of the tank, the plastic wrap has no holes in it besides the gaps from the cables, should I poke some holes for extra ventilation, or is that enough ventilation (keeping in mind I do open it twice a day for around an hour during feeding), the boraras already in the tank seem to have no problem, but they aren't really air breathers

1st pic is the tank, 2nd pic is the plastic wrap cover, 3rd pic it the gap made by the cables on the right side and the 4th pic is the gap on the left side

Finally got some semi decent pics of my phoenix rasboras in their new tank and I noticed some of them have the expected round markings of phoenix rasboras while some of them have more lone shaped markings, kind of a middle ground between chili and phoenix markings. Is this just due to markings being different amongst individuals, or could it be that some of them are chili-phoenix hybrids?

I just finished building a tank I plan to house an albimarginata pair in, it is 80cm x 40cm x 40cm tall (31in x 16in x 16in) or around 130 litres (around 34 us gallons), planted with various species of cryptocoryne. I also want to have boraras, I currently have 20 phoenix rasboras (Boraras merah) in there at the moment this pic was taken, I would love to add a few more, but I don't want to overcrowd the tank and leave no room for the albimarginata pair I had in mind while building the tank.

I'm in no hurry since I want the tank to mature a couple of months before buying the bettas, so I will probably buy them next year.

I also want to mention that I would like to have a "dry season" where I lower the water level enough to allow the top cryptos to switch to their emersed form for a few months (maybe 4 months per year), but I have no problem discarding this idea in favour of adding more fish

Filled the tank to around 32cm and left the remaining 8cm to try to grow some emersed moss

Finally added the 20 phoenix rasboras today (I used filter material and mulm from my tank with the strawberry rasboras to speed start the cycle and micro fauna), they've been in there for around 8 hours, some of them break apart from the group to forage the leaf litter in groups ranging from 1-5, then return to the group, I expect this behavior will increase as they get more comfortable in the tank

I've almost finished building a peat swamp biotope (just waiting for the plants (mainly cryptos) to arrive) that I intend to house some boraras in as a species only tank, it is 80cm x 40cm x 40cm tall, but I only intend to fill it to 20-30cm. I have 20 boraras merah in quarantine waiting for the tank to cycle, they were the intended inhabitants, but I also have at least (they bred) 25 boraras naevus in a separate tank and if possible I would love to see them in the blackwater tank. Is it ok to mix the 2 species? Or could they cross breed and have hybrid babies?

Whether they can mix or not, I also want to ask, how many boraras would you recommend I keep in this tank? Would the 45+ I have be overcrowding?

A few weeks ago I posted about some weird behaviors in my strawberry rasboras, but forgot to update that it was breeding behavior and some fry started appearing, then they stopped appearing and I assumed the parents ate them, today I saw 1 of them again

Last pic is from the last time I saw it, second to last pic is a comparison with the adults

I've had a couple of bristlenose plecos (2 longfin albino and 1 normal super red) for over a year in a 55gal tank. Recently I've noticed the super red (male) and the female albino spend most of their time hiding (they used to spend most of the time in the open), today I was finally able to take a good look at them and the super red has some white on his fins (as if he brushed against something, saw it a few days ago, but couldn't take a pic, it isn't there today) and sticking his nose out of the water, while the albino female has holes in her fins.

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I don't think it's something wrong with the water (ammonia, nitrites and nitrates are at 0) since the male and all their babies seem to be totally fine and I also bought a few long fin bristlenoses that are in quarantine receiving daily water changes with water from this tank. But that also means I have no idea what the problem is or how to treat it

Got a few more strawberry rasboras, but it seems like one of them is deformed, does it look like a genetic deformity caused by inbreeding or something else? Or like a serious illness (like TB) that would mean immediate euthanasia?

Either way the whole group is going into quarantine

A year ago I bought 3 honeycomb plecos, but they came infested with ich and 2 of them died, after waiting a few weeks I bought another 3 and they all died within a week, the last survivor stopped appearing like 8 months ago, so I guessed the tank wasn't right for this species. Eventually the tank housed a group of cardinal tetras and otocinclus.

I'm currently dismantling this tank to switch it for a bigger one for another project and saw the lone honeycomb, so I'm considering moving him to another tank, but he looks very different from the last time I saw him (last pic) and I want to make sure he is healthy, wouldn't want to pass some illness to my other fish. Couldn't get a top pic since he went into hiding, if I'm able to take more pics I will post them in the comments

Immediately after writing last post (where I asked if the white spots could be an illness) I noticed some new behavior, it looks like it might be breeding behavior(?), the (I assume) male with the white spots hovers slightly below the (I assume, since it is slightly larger, less colorful, fatter and with no spots) female.

They had already spent a couple of seconds at it before I started recording

I recently got a group of 16 strawberry rasboras from my LFS, they seem fine, but within last week they started developing some white spots that don't look like ich, only other change I've noticed is that the ones with the spots seem almost hyperactive, chasing and being chased.

Pic is of the only decent photo I could get (again, they seem hyperactive, had to bait them with some brine shrimp), the white marks in the individual on the right

Important parts:

61cm (2') x 31cm (1') x 40cm (16") tall tank

pH 5.5

GH and KH basically 0

Filtration: 1 old sponge filter

Current amount of rasboras: 16

Tank mates: cherry shrimp, snails, common otocinclus, giant otocinclus.

Feeding: micro fish food (forgot the brand ATM), microorganisms, baby brine shrimp and homemade herbivore/algivore wafers

Backstory:

I initially set this tank up 1 year ago (+1 year dry start to get the moss growing just right) intending for it to be a high tech cherry shrimp tank with some additional otocinclus and a few chili rasboras, but things got in the way, high tech wasn't my thing, the otocinclus were in terrible shape and when they finally got back to good shape they started breeding, so I postponed the chili rasboras for about a year, last week my LFS received 20 strawberry rasboras, so I bought 10 to try them out (rookie mistake, bought them the same day they arrived), liked them a lot and went back the day before yesterday for the remaining 10, they only had 6 left, so my group is currently at 16 fish. I have fallen in love with them and would love to get more, but first I would like to know from people with more experience how many could be kept comfortably in my tank (I've read the suggested care guide) and any advice is welcome.

Only maintenance the tank gets is the occasional 20-30% water change and rarely a bottom syphoning (when the mulm gets over an inch in depth), this seems to work out great for the current inhabitants and the tank is flooding with microorganisms that I've seen the rasboras occasionally snack on. Sometimes I add a bunch of dry leaves after a water change and let them disappear while the tannins get removed over the course of months by water changes, so the tank has months of being blackwater and months of being clear water.