Aquariums and Fish Keeping

This is a documentary examining the sustainability and benefits of the aquarium trade towards Amazon rainforest conservation. It's eye-opening no matter what side of the argument you're on. Plus it's neat seeing where some of your favorite little tank buddies come from!

How does the nitrogen cycle “survive” large or even 100% water changes? I don’t want to stir up a discussion about what is best, and I understand that we all live in different places were conditions and water quality is different and also that we all choose to keep our fish differently because we thinks its the best for them. Therefore I am simply looking for an explanation on how the idea of regular huge water changes works in practice.

I see recommendations of very large water changes in goldfishkeeping, especially in bare button setups and grooming setups. This is very practical, for systems that are heavily stocked. I also see them have filters in them, and this I can’t really understand, unless they are there only for mechanical filtration.

What stirred up this thought, came from a recent experience where I lost some fish. I had a tub with 10 fry in a tub (90 lit – 20 gal) with fresh tap water (no chlorine or chloramine in our systems here). I added a cycled filter from my main tank. I then added the fry (after acclimatizing them slowly) and I expected this to work well. The fish got a very serious fungal infection within 3-4 days, and I lost most of them.

My theory of what went wrong is, that the cycled filter did not have access to ammonia and nitrite to maintain the bacteria balance, and therefore crashed. The breeder that I got them from, told me that he changes the water daily, but he had approximately 100 fry in a tub that was the same size, so I assumed that a cycled filter would have not issue with keeping up. I fed them 3-4 times a day but very moderate quantities so I did not expect the system to crash like this

So my question is, do very large water changes work, if they are not made often? Don’t larger water changes crash or almost crash the filter in systems that reliant on biological filters? In systems that are reliant on biological filtration, is partial water change not better, to maintain a more balanced filtration performance?

I've been fighting it for awhile. Various nutrient levels, light levels, etc. Considering getting a nerite snail, but heard they can be a bit of an escape artist. Any tips?

I recently upgraded my phone, and I'm having a better time with tank photography. Here is the least potato pic I've taken of my boi Diogenes.

He's recently turned very blue. He deffo was not this blue even last week. He was, tbh, kinda shit-colored with blue tints in his fins when I first got him.

He's also the most puppy-like out of the couple-few bettas I've had. Corbulo was leery of fingers and faces near his tank, but Dio just wants to see what's up. I wonder if it has anything to do with breeding -- are wild types or wild hybrids less grumpy than most bettas?

They're (impossible to tell gender until they quite literally start breeding) pushing past 2 inches! The patterns are coming in on the dorsal and tail especially right now! They will keep growing up to ~10 or so inches, so a long road ahead! They'll be the tank boss when they're bigger but for now that's left to the Angelfish and Electric Blue Acara :)

If you're curious what an adult looks like, check out this great video by PrimeTime Aquatics (channel definitely recommended)

My poor dude Corbulo kicked the bucket a few weeks ago when I fucked up planting his tank. I've been waiting to see if I killed the plants, but at least one (1) is growing.

I already had 'Diogenes' picked out as a name for my next betta, and it seems like a name for a something in the yellow-red spectrum. Except I also liked the look of the 'alien' boys, which mostly come in blue.

So I picked a rather bland speckled boy who may or may not be a wild type. I hope he brightens up as he grows.

My crypt undulata has had 3 weeks to melt and be dramatic, but I can't really tell if it's doing anything under the fuzz. How long before I can say that I gave it a good run before I yoink it for something else?

My anubias, planted at the same time, gave me a new leaf so I'm not totally hopeless.

About 10 days ago I noticed a baby fry (believe its a guppy) and now there's 3 more! Funny thing is that I took this picture earlier this morning and now there's another one! So I now have 5 baby guppies!!!

Got back in to this hobby about a year ago. Currently only have a 20 gallon tank, which houses 12 fishes, making it a community tank.

Things have been great but have to admit I have lost some due to not knowing what I was doing.

Fast forward and things have calmed down, without any others dying. Nitrate has been a constant battle which has led me to weekly water changes (50%). Also as of late but cutting how much I feed them in basically in half.

What it seems to be happening is that one of my Goldfish who is currently all white (used to be gray) is now turning orange. Is this normal?

I picked up one of these fluval 13.5 gallon aquariums, and it has a little chamber for filtration on the back. SOMEONE ripped up the default foam block that fits in there, and it got me wondering if I could use some of that modular foam that comes in pelican cases? Or should I just buy the replacement?

This fish has been getting worse over a longer period of time. It does not seem to be related to swim bladder issues, but more neurological. I suspect that it has gotten an aneurysm or brain damage some how.

When the bombs fall, I want to be sure they get into a GOOD vault.

Hi friends!

I have a question about one of our dwarf pea puffers. We've recently noticed a pair of nubs beneath their mouth. No other signs of distress that I can see -- still social, active and eating. The tank has two other dwarf puffers and a Florida flag that aren't exhibiting any similar symptoms.

What's really curious is that the bumps appear to be symmetrical; one on either side of the chin, and nowhere else on the body.

Might this be early lymphocystis?

Last month I tried making some food for my goldfish. It turned out quite well so I thought id share it with you guys

I'm not on other social media b t if you sill are you are more than welcome to share it with others

150gr mixed shellfish or shrimp
100gr cod fish
150gr peas
1 garlic clove
½ squash
½ carrot
1 teaspoon Kelp 
1 teaspoon Spirulina

(You can replace the algae powders with crushed multivitamins but it is not reccomended) 1½ teaspoon Agar (ideally more)

EDIT: I have since experimented some more with this, and found out that agar works best when it is boiled. Simply boil it in some water, before adding to the blend. Also use more Agar than described here

This was sold to me as an amano shrimp. When I first got a closer look at it I thought it was a low grade neocaridina as it had a few patches of darker pigment, but now it is pretty much all darker cryptic colored. I noticed these vibrating things next to its face while it's eating that my other shrimp don't have - is this some other kind of caridina shrimp maybe? Or is it a parasite at work?

I have been banned from Fishlore, and the worst part is, that I was actually enjoying my time there! Now, even if they lifted the ban, I wouldn't feel like it would be the right place to be.

After leaving Reddit due to Spez, and also Facebook/Instagram due to their subscription trick back in November, I have been pretty isolated when it comes to my hobbies. So I have been looking into forums that I already missed when they came out of fashion in the early 00s.

Anyway. I was enjoying my time on Fishlore, and got to get and share advice so everything was fine. At some point, I offered to help content creators (I assumed there were fish- youtubers, streamers, tiktokkers, facebookers) that may need help with logos, graphics, videos etc. A way of giving back to the community, with something that I was good at. I specifically mentioned that this was on a pay what you can basis, and free was also an option if any were struggling. I have previsouly done this with other hobbies that i have been involved in, and people have enjoyed plenty of free work. I even spend two days making examples of fish-logos and a fishlore promo video to show and inspire any who may have been intersted

This must have registered as spam, because I recieved an email stating that I had been banned due to breaking the rules. No warning, no details. I can see that i have 2 unread messages in the forum, that i can't read because i am banned. I get no replies to the emails i sent them and even their Privacy Policy mail is either ignoring me or not being checked.

Anyway - I just needed to get this off my chest. Thank for listening!

Back when I set up my 720 liter tank, I gradually came up with a DIY filter, based on sewage piles filled with filter materials. It worked really well, and although it had kind of a Super Mario feel to it, it didn't look quite as good as I'd like it to. I decided therefore, to take the experience I had from that, and built something that worked as well, but also looked good (or at least better). This is the original setup, with sewage pipes, stacked onto clay bricks:

As the tank is currently empty, while I am treating the fish for flukes in a smaller tank (a half filled 530L/140gal), I decided to plan this out a but better, and also take pictures while I was making it. I am not at all very handy, but it seems to be getting along pretty well. I must have spend more time making this video/illustration/render, than I have spend making the actual filter..

https://imgur.com/6o7zaqM

As explained, I am not very handy, so in order to mount the acrylic plates (ordered precut to measure) I had to freestyle a template using some bricks, wood and a little bit of paper.. If it works it works. Silicone dries fairly fast so I was able to complete this within a couple of hours. I am building two of these, and each will have two power heads that move 1000L/hour.

At the moment, I am waiting for the silicone to dry completely and for my order with filter mats and ceramic filter media (and filter bags) to arrive. I am also very excited to try out a phosphate remover that I ordered, as I was having issues with black beard algae and brown algae from too much silicate in our tap water.

Hey all! Hoping somebody can help me; I bought some shrimp earlier today and a couple of these fellas snuck into the bag without anybody noticing. Anyone know what they are? I want to make sure I take care of them :) thanks for any help!

I got half a dozen dwarf chain loaches to compliment my 6ft community tank... And the stupid things have spent more time in the weir and the sump than they have in the tank.

I literally just fished three of them out of the sump, and the second I put them back in the tank one went directly to the overflow and straight in to the weir again. At some point it'll reappear in the sump.

I don't even think they'll grow big enough to stop being able to squeeze through the weir guard so I guess they live in the sump now.

I started setting up this tank December 15 2023. It was my quarantine tank but I decided to do a new setup to cull male guppies. My main tank has 100s of them now so I'm trying to separate them and get ready to giving them away or something.

After adding in the rocks I got busy with the holiday season and redecorating the whole room. The tank sat with a single snail in it until today (Jan 22)

May have impulse purchased a group of these Hara jerdoni aka anchor catfish. They only get about an inch and could not resist! Just wanted to share because they are cool little fish.

Looking for more plants to keep a lid on hair algae! I do water changes, but I think more plants would help.

I have a concern with some of my fancy goldfish that seek the surface after being fed. They sit there gulping air in and I am concerned that they may get swim bladder issues from it.

Why do they do this? I have plenty aeration (2 Airstones and a lot of surface agitation). Also it is only 4 of them that do it. The rest just swim as regularly.

The tank is slightly overcrowded. They are in a 140 gal while I reorganize their 190 gal. but nothing extreme. Also they did the same when they were in the large tank so I don't expect it to be down to overstocking.