The Fish Journeys of Peddidle

I have this vague recollection of having a couple of fish as a kid--maybe a couple of danios or something--for an extremely brief period of time; the typical 'parent buys kid fish without knowing how to care for fish so fish dies' scenario. I dunno, that might just be a made-up memory--it's not real clear.

I had a betta fish for a very brief period of time at some point during the first year or two I was married. Again, not a very clear memory, but this one I know is true. I put a betta fish in a vase with those translucent 'stones' in the bottom and a lily plant in the top. The fish died within the first week. I think I actually overfed it before it even had a chance to die of ammonia poisoning.

I had a male koi betta for about 4 weeks. I was assured that doing a fish-in cycle was easy and blah, blah, blah. I either didn't really understand what the 'fish person' told me or I forgot important details. Regardless, my beloved betta died. He was actually pretty special to me, and seeing him die from dropsy seriously broke my heart at a time my heart needed healing. In jest, I blame his death on not naming him. After all, you can always figure out who will die in a Star Trek episode by noting who was never mentioned by name. To borrow from a dear friend of mine, he was only known as "Ensign Red Shirt." I hope to own a special betta like him again some day.

Today, though, is a different picture. I have a 10-gallon that is completely cycled and ready to go, a 20-gallon that has a couple more weeks or so on cycling, and a betta tank that I just started cycling 2 days ago. MTS in full force and I don't even own fish yet.

After much internal deliberation, I finally decided I'd like 8 glowlight tetras, 1 honey gourami, and 5 cherry shrimp. I've read conflicting information on whether this group of fish will need a 10- or 20-gallon tank to be happy, so I'm going to start with putting them in the cycled 10-gallon, with the option to move them to the 20-gallon once it has cycled. This would be a really great starter plan if I could just. get. some. fish.

Winter months in the 'high desert' of Idaho means shipping fish (and even plants) is impossible (nighttime temps well below freezing, often in the teens or below until March). After stalking our local PetSmart and PetCo for several weeks (to the point they probably think I'm a bit creepy), I decided to only buy from PetCo (hopefully PetSmart will realize the deplorable state of their fish department and reconsider their staffing choices). At the cash register, 8 fish in the bag (which I had not yet inspected), the employee told me I would be surprised when I got home to find out that the new employee had given me 6 Glowlight Tetras, 1 Zebra Danio, and 1 Neon Tetra. Haha, nice catch. Back to the Glowlight Tetra tank we went. After trying for several minutes to catch 2 more Glowlight Tetras, the fish-knowledgeable employee said, 'Uh oh, uh oh, uh oh...' for a minute or so, after which she turned to me and said, 'They have ich.' She showed me the evidence, put the fish back in the tank for quarantine and medication, and, despite my disappointment, left me assured that they know what they're doing and will speak up when something is wrong.

Hopefully in a week I'll be able to bring Glowlight Tetras home, as well as Red Cherry Shrimp. I have a Honey Gourami on order through PetCo but have been told it may take several weeks before they actually get one shipped to them, which is okay since I'd like to have the tetras first.

10-gallon tank:

Substrate
AquaSand (undecided whether I like this choice or not)

Plants
Aponogeton (unsure what type--shoots a long stem to the water surface and has comparatively small leaves)
Java Moss
Anubias
Sword Amazon Compacta
Water Wisteria
Golden Pothos (roots in water, stem/leaves above water--for nitrate control)

Decor
Mopani
Several "aquarium" rocks
One Dragon Stone (Anubias attached)

Filter
Aqueon QuietFlow 10 with ceramic rings, floss, pre-filter sponge

20-gallon tank:

Substrate
AquaSand

Plants
Aponogeton Undulatus
Cyperus Helferi
Java Fern Windelov
Ludwigia Repens
Bacopa
Golden Pothos

Decor
Mopani
Dragon Stone

Filter
Aqueon QuietFlow 10 with ceramic rings, floss, and pre-filter sponge

Betta tank:

Substrate
AquaSand

Plants
Aponogeton bulbs that likely won't sprout (the betta tank is their last chance before being tossed)
Anubias
Water Onion (from betta bulbs package)
Fern (unsure what type)
Golden Pothos

Decor
One "aquarium" rock
One small Dragon Stone (ferns attached)

Filter
Whatever came with the Imagitarium kit

(Pictures don't completely match descriptions above as they were lightly re-scaped after initial setup.)

Pictures are 10-gallon tank on Nov. 24, 2019 (initial setup), 10-gallon tank Dec. 8, 2019, and 20-gallon tank Dec. 8, 2019 (initial setup). (Betta tank and updated 10- and 20-gallon tank pictures will be added soon.)

 

Following

And to answer definitively, the glowlights and honey will do best in the 20. Most schooling fish, even small ones need the larger space to properly school. There are a few nano schoolers fine for 5-10, such as dwarf rasbora and ember tetras and the like, but glowlights get over that size limit. But glowlights are a great choice, nice taste in fish

 

I can't wait to read more!

I love that you are approaching this with patience and applying what you've learned from experience and others!! Yay!!

I have a feeling we are in for some great pics of your fish and tanks! Looking good already... Following this thread for sure.

 

I had planned on keeping a log of my newbie experiences that might prove helpful to others as they get their first tank up and running. I did not. But I suppose there's no time like the present, so I'm starting here and now and will update this particular post when I have something meaningful to add.

*While I was cycling my 10-gallon, I kept meticulous daily records of ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, pH, GH, and KH and sometimes got myself worked up over nothing. I learned that if I haven't done a large water change yet because of cycling the tank, the pH, GH, and KH tests should be left on the shelf for another day. Without regular water changes, these numbers may not remain stable. I went from adding almond leaves because of my source water's pH to contemplating adding crushed coral due to the significant drop in pH and KH while cycling. Now that my tank is cycled, I'm back to dropping almond leaves in it.

*In my meticulous record keeping, I quickly identified patterns, like nitrite being impossible to read because the purple color simply was not on the chart but also was not "darker" than the level 5 nitrite reading. It was an incredibly bright purple and it would start turning purple as soon as the solution in the bottle hit the water in the vial. I kept entering "2-5+?" in my records but felt I really had no idea what it actually was. I kept trying to be patient until I finally decided I needed to see if others had problems reading this test. Of course, the Fishlore forum has valuable information on pretty much everything, so it didn't take long before I found my answer. Yes, this is a common problem. Yes, you can do something about it. Try a diluted test using 1 mL of tank water and 4 mL of tap water. At the very least, the water shouldn't immediately turn purple. You may also want to do a large water change, especially if...

*...Your nitrate reading keeps registering as about 5. I should mention, I use the API Master Kit. For whatever reason, super high nitrates read as fairly low nitrates, generally 5. Once I did a large water change, my nitrate reading was, well, readable (haha, not really, since API's nitrate readings are nearly impossible to determine after about 40, but at least I had a much better idea as to what the readings were--in the 60-80 range). (Note: I read posts that encouraged and posts that discouraged doing this. Do your research before deciding one way or another.)

*Another note on pH, for which I got myself worked up over nothing. The pH in my tank was 7.8 on initial setup (same as the tap water, which is expected). As mentioned above, over the next couple weeks, it started dropping, all the way down to 7.4. Suddenly, after a large water change, it was 8.2. Simple math tells me that if I add water that has pH of 7.8 to water that has pH of 7.4, the combined water cannot have a pH of 8.2. This drove me bonkers. I tested again. I went bonkers some more. Fishlore members to the rescue! Turns out the gasses hadn't left the water yet because I tested so soon after changing the water; this results in false readings. After letting the tank sit for an hour or two, the pH was back where I expected it to be.

*Plants. Will. Melt. The sooner one comes to terms with this, the sooner one can just carry on and let the plants do what the plants are going to do. As dead as they might look, their roots might be growing and they might just be adjusting to the new environment, so don't just yank them (although I did yank some of mine out when I realized they weren't newbie friendly). Give them some time and you'll likely start to see new growth.

*Diatoms. Will. Appear. At first I worried the brown stuff all over my tank was, like, super bad, and it built up to the point that it was almost embarrassing. Then I read it is good and normal and I was like, "Yeah, but it's still almost embarrassing." So I cleaned it up a bit. Well, not a bit. More like a lot. Don't do that! I wiped down the glass, I took a toothbrush to the decorations, I took a Q-Tip to the plant leaves, I swished around the ceramic rings, and I even squeezed out the sponge! Let me repeat: Don't do that! Beneficial bacteria (bb) can only take so much before they'll just up and die on you. This doesn't mean you don't clean anything ever, but make sure your bb colony is established and that you don't "over clean" (who knew there was such a thing as over cleaning!?). I damaged my bb colony. I know that because the ammonia dosing my tank had been easily turning into nitrite into nitrate within 24 hours suddenly posed a challenge. The next day my ammonia was at 0.25 and my nitrite was at 0.5. I worried those numbers would rise and was fortunate they didn't. Won't be doing that again!

January 10, 2020:

*If you have nitrates in your tap water, get a pothos plant! These are not fully submersible plants that you purchase from your lfs. They are a very common house plant that you can pick up from your local hardware or grocery store that has a house plant section. First, if you are cycling your tank, expect to have high nitrates--don't panic. As the bacteria builds, a lot of changes are going on in your tank and you're not doing a lot of water changes (if any), so nitrates are going to increase. That's okay. Before you put fish in, though, make sure you get your nitrates to a manageable level (<40). Second, the success you have with a pothos plant does not make it okay to skip water changes. If you have as much success with pothos as I've had (perhaps a little *too* much success since I have other plants in my tank that still need something to feed on), your nitrates will eventually end up at 0 (it took a little less than a month for this to happen for me). Your fish still need fresh water to replenish lost minerals and keep the pH stable. Lastly, if you're not having success with pothos, make sure you're taking cuttings properly. You cannot just cut off a stem with a leaf on it, plop it in the tank, and expect it to work its magic. Cuttings have to be taken at a point in the stem that will allow for root growth and should only have their roots submersed.

To be continued...

 

Pictures of my 10-gallon and 20-gallon on Dec. 11th. The 10-gallon is starting to show off its nice brown diatoms. Yeah for diatoms.

 

Pictures of my 10-gallon, 20-gallon, and 3.7-gallon on Dec. 19th. Not really sure what I'm going to do with the 3.7-gallon tank yet--maybe just put snails or something in it. For now it just hosts some struggling plants and some betta bulbs that don't seem to be sprouting. The 20-gallon is trying to show up the 10-gallon with the amount of diatoms it can produce. I with they'd both just lay off the brown stuff already--enough is enough!

 

Following

And to answer definitively, the glowlights and honey will do best in the 20. Most schooling fish, even small ones need the larger space to properly school. There are a few nano schoolers fine for 5-10, such as dwarf rasbora and ember tetras and the like, but glowlights get over that size limit. But glowlights are a great choice, nice taste in fish

Okay, I will put them in the 20g. I want happy fish. Do you know if it would be best to have one or two honeys? PetCo said that if they're successful in getting them, they come in 3's. I'm pretty sure I don't want 3 (right? I don't want 3?), but I'm not sure if I should get 1 or 2 then? I'm assuming it would partly depend on whether they are male or female? I'll be researching to find out, but it can be difficult to know which information to follow.

Thanks for the follow!

I can't wait to read more!

I love that you are approaching this with patience and applying what you've learned from experience and others!! Yay!!

I have a feeling we are in for some great pics of your fish and tanks! Looking good already... Following this thread for sure.

Getting the tanks set up properly and finding suitable fish locally has taken so long (aka: patience) that my hubby says my hobby "isn't fishkeeping, it's aquatic plant growing."

Thanks for the follow!

 

They do best in 3s I believe, 1 male and 2 females. That's how most keep them, or singly too but I hear they're a bit social. I have a dwarf gourami which is a whole other ball game lol but honeys are healthier and friendlier so a very nice choice to stock with

 

Oh my goodness, it finally happened! I GOT FISHIES! Funny enough, the exact type I said I Do.Not.Want. is the Type.I.Got. Life is sometimes funny that way. So, guppies it is! (These are for my 10-gallon tank that has been cycled for awhile now and that I have gotten tired of dosing ammonia to in order to keep the cycling going, not for my 20-gallon that will have Glowlight Tetras, Honey Gouramis, and RCS.)

I have to admit, I'm a little hesitant to post this news--what if they get sick? Or worse, what if they die? What if I completely fail and turn out to be a bad fish owner!? <shudder>the pressure<shudder>

On the other hand, I've done everything I could--researched, cycled, been patient, been patient some more--and what if I succeed?! <happy dance>the excitement<happy dance>

It seems the most appropriate choices I can find locally for my 10-gallon are guppies, mollies, and platies. Because of bioload and flashy cobra tails, I went with guppies. I brought home 3 male Cobra Guppies with the plan to bring home 3 more males when they get blue ones in.

Fortunately, despite our hard water (ph 8.0+, GH 15+, KH 12+), the local PetCo uses tap water instead of R/O for freshwater fish, so water parameters at the store are essentially the same as water parameters in my tank. I floated the bag for 15 minutes, added a scoop of tank water, floated for 15 more minutes and then released the fish who were, by this time, very eager to break free of the bag and explore the tank. They've been swimming around quite energetically since.

Side note: Hopefully my Honey Gouramis will come in soon (maybe a week or two) rather than not at all (that's a possibility). PetCo says they arrive to the store in 3's. They seem to be a social fish that prefers to have at least one other friend of its own kind to hang out with, so I plan to bring home 2 of them, if not all 3.

 

Just a quick update to say my fishies are still happy and healthy, the tank is still battling a bit with brown algae but has seen improvements, and nitrates are well under control now that I've had pothos in the tank for nearly a month (thanks to whoever made that suggestion to me!). In fact, they're so low (zero, really) that I might have to consider adding Flourish or something to make sure my live plants don't starve. Before I try something like that, I'm going to add a few more guppies to the 3 that are already in there. More fish = more poop = more nitrates maybe?

Oh, and I bought a hefty, adjustable heater (200w) to replace the lightweight, nonadjustable heater (100w) that came with the tank and couldn't hold the temp during our winter nights, so I had to rearranged the 20-gallon again to make room for it. It's still empty, but maybe I'll have some success in bringing fishies home for it today.

Oh, also, I bought a 7.5-gallon "shrimp tank" for a super deal (just shy of half price) that I'm setting up as a betta tank. My other two tanks are planted, and my 3.7-gallon has a few plants in it (no fish or invertebrates). This tank is going to be 100% fake stuff! I'm kind of excited to decorate something this way--it's very much not the type of person I am.

 

Honey gouramis finally came in, so I now have fish in my 20g. I was hoping for 1 male and 2 females. It didn't really work out that way--I think I ended up with 4 males. (Long story short: I realized that ratio was probably not going to happen once I saw the group of HGs the store got in, so I threw caution to the wind and figured I'd give what's likely 4 males a try. Hopefully it works out. If not, it's just a reason to get more tanks, haha).

Impulse buy while I was there: 3 amano shrimp. One is much bigger than the other two, so either there's an age difference or the biggie is a female. I wouldn't mind little shrimplets (probably not what baby shrimp are actually called, but it sounds good), so I'm kind of hoping it's a female. The smallest shrimp already had a filter accident. I think it happened when the shrimp had only been in the tank for an evening and the guppies were kind of freaking them out--shooting across the aquarium like crazed lunatics (the shrimp, not the guppies). I couldn't find one just before turning the lights off but figured he was in hiding. Still couldn't find him the next morning but had to head out for awhile and figured he'd maybe show up by the afternoon. Still couldn't find him in the afternoon. After a thorough aquarium search, I lifted the lid off the filter and there he was. Poor little guy had tried going through a hole that was way too small for him and had gotten stuck. His body had turned a real gray color. I thought he was dead for sure. Nope, he wasn't. I pulled him out and he disappeared for the rest of the day. By evening he was chomping on algae with the other two. The guppies don't seem to be freaking them out anymore. One of the smaller ones has already molted.

When I picked up the HGs and shrimp, I saw a crowntail betta I really, really wanted to bring home. I wasn't sure if my betta tank was still cycled, though, because I had removed some of the filter media to start cycling a larger betta tank. I went back to get her a couple days later, after testing the water and making sure the cycle was holding, but she was already gone. Came home with a male dragon scale instead.

Everybody seems happy, healthy, and settled in.

 

Following

 

Honey gouramis finally came in, so I now have fish in my 20 gallon. I was hoping for 1 male and 2 females. It didn't really work out that way--I think I ended up with 4 males. (Long story short: I realized that ratio was probably not going to happen once I saw the group of HGs the store got in, so I threw caution to the wind and figured I'd give what's likely 4 males a try. Hopefully it works out. If not, it's just a reason to get more tanks, haha).

Impulse buy while I was there: 3 amano shrimp. One is much bigger than the other two, so either there's an age difference or the biggie is a female. I wouldn't mind little shrimplets (probably not what baby shrimp are actually called, but it sounds good), so I'm kind of hoping it's a female. The smallest shrimp already had a filter accident. I think it happened when the shrimp had only been in the tank for an evening and the guppies were kind of freaking them out--shooting across the aquarium like crazed lunatics (the shrimp, not the guppies). I couldn't find one just before turning the lights off but figured he was in hiding. Still couldn't find him the next morning but had to head out for awhile and figured he'd maybe show up by the afternoon. Still couldn't find him in the afternoon. After a thorough aquarium search, I lifted the lid off the filter and there he was. Poor little guy had tried going through a hole that was way too small for him and had gotten stuck. His body had turned a real gray color. I thought he was dead for sure. Nope, he wasn't. I pulled him out and he disappeared for the rest of the day. By evening he was chomping on algae with the other two. The guppies don't seem to be freaking them out anymore. One of the smaller ones has already molted.

When I picked up the HGs and shrimp, I saw a crowntail betta I really, really wanted to bring home. I wasn't sure if my betta tank was still cycled, though, because I had removed some of the filter media to start cycling a larger betta tank. I went back to get her a couple days later, after testing the water and making sure the cycle was holding, but she was already gone. Came home with a male dragon scale instead.

Everybody seems happy, healthy, and settled in.

Female Honey Gourami have a orange band across the dorsal like the last picture has, I believe that's how you tell.
I can't tell the ones in the bag, could you get a photo of them in the tank?
Following your tanks look amazing

 

10g: The amano shrimp have settled in and get along great with the guppies. Their extra activity seems to have brought back a bit of brightness to the tank I thought it had been lacking while my plants slowly started to die. The 10 gallon didn't get hit as hard with struggling plants as the 20 gallon did, but it just wasn't looking as green as it used to. Also, I added marimo balls to the tank, which have definitely helped. I only bought 6, but they sent me 8. They're all in good shape, and I'm quite pleased with them. (Tank update picture below.)

20g: The 4 honeys are also all settled in and doing great. They really like to come to the glass to see what I'm doing, and they play a really cute game of follow the leader as they go on a group outing across the tank. I've noticed one of them seems to spend more time away from the group setting than the others. Hopefully this isn't an early indicator that he'll get picked on later on. I'm hoping the plants start to grow again now that I have Thrive (shrimp-safe kind) and did the first dose today. I know the honeys would prefer a better planted tank, especially if I add tank mates in the future. Despite the plants struggling lately, I harvested 4 little ferns from my 20 gallon and dropped them into my betta tank (quite literally--I opened the lid and dropped them in). I'm still really battling brown algae, but the 10 gallon has gotten much better now that it has been running for a couple of months, so I'm hopeful the 20 gallon will get there soon too.

3.7g: Wilbur is happy as a clam. He's learned when feeding time is, which he really didn't seem to understand for the first week--he'd fight his reflection and hide in his floating log and do just about anything but eat when I'd drop a pellet in. He comes to the glass whenever I come near his tank. He's a bit of a feisty fella. If his floating log isn't quite where he wants it, he'll push it over. If he gets in a narrow passageway between his log and the glass, he tries to fight the log rather than just turn around and swim out of there. I've also heard him jump a few times, once obviously hitting the glass lid. It will be nice when I can finally put him in the larger 7.5g tank.

7.5g: Two weeks in and still no nitrites. Ammonia has slowly gone down by 1 but no sign of where it went. This is my first artificial tank and it is taking FOREVER to cycle compared to the planted tanks. Besides cycling slow, I have been having bad luck with heaters for it. The 50w that originally came with my 10 gallon kit but couldn't hold the temp well enough is also not holding the temp well enough for the 7.5g. Some days I catch it being as low as 74, though most of the time it's 75 or even 76. I'm pretty sure it's preset at 78, though. I ordered a compact, adjustable 100w (Hygger). The first one was defective--started loudly sizzling when I turned it on and steamed up the glass lid in a second--so I was overnighted a replacement. The replacement didn't sizzle but it did make a quieter popping noise, especially when in the upright position, which is the position I want the heater to be in. While I didn't notice anything clearly dangerous about it like I did with the first one, I'm not willing to risk it, nor am I willing to live with a heater that makes noise every time it heats. So I'm looking for yet another one. I did manage to finish decorating the tank. (Tank picture below.)

Additional musings: After having breadtags kicking around the cutlery drawer for years, I finally decided to throw them out this morning. Of course, after I threw them out, I needed them, haha. Isn't that the way it always goes? As I was doing WCs and cleaning filters and swapping out heaters, I figured it would be nice to have a quick, easy way to tell which cord belongs to which appliance. That's when it dawned on me. Years ago I had seen a tip on labeling cords--to use breadtags with the appliance written on them. Yep. I had to dig around in the garbage to find the tags. I needed at least 12 tags--that's a whole lotta bread I'd have to eat to get that many tags! They work perfectly for the purpose. I was even able to assign colors so I don't have to read them: red is for heaters, white is for filters, orange is for lights. (Breadtags picture below.)

 

10 gallon: The amano shrimp have settled in and get along great with the guppies. Their extra activity seems to have brought back a bit of brightness to the tank I thought it had been lacking while my plants slowly started to die. The 10 gallon didn't get hit as hard with struggling plants as the 20 gallon did, but it just wasn't looking as green as it used to. Also, I added marimo balls to the tank, which have definitely helped. I only bought 6, but they sent me 8. They're all in good shape, and I'm quite pleased with them. (Tank update picture below.)

20 gallon: The 4 honeys are also all settled in and doing great. They really like to come to the glass to see what I'm doing, and they play a really cute game of follow the leader as they go on a group outing across the tank. I've noticed one of them seems to spend more time away from the group setting than the others. Hopefully this isn't an early indicator that he'll get picked on later on. I'm hoping the plants start to grow again now that I have Thrive (shrimp-safe kind) and did the first dose today. I know the honeys would prefer a better planted tank, especially if I add tank mates in the future. Despite the plants struggling lately, I harvested 4 little ferns from my 20 gallon and dropped them into my betta tank (quite literally--I opened the lid and dropped them in). I'm still really battling brown algae, but the 10 gallon has gotten much better now that it has been running for a couple of months, so I'm hopeful the 20 gallon will get there soon too.

3.7g: Wilbur is happy as a clam. He's learned when feeding time is, which he really didn't seem to understand for the first week--he'd fight his reflection and hide in his floating log and do just about anything but eat when I'd drop a pellet in. He comes to the glass whenever I come near his tank. He's a bit of a feisty fella. If his floating log isn't quite where he wants it, he'll push it over. If he gets in a narrow passageway between his log and the glass, he tries to fight the log rather than just turn around and swim out of there. I've also heard him jump a few times, once obviously hitting the glass lid. It will be nice when I can finally put him in the larger 7.5 gallon tank.

7.5 gallon: Two weeks in and still no nitrites. Ammonia has slowly gone down by 1 but no sign of where it went. This is my first artificial tank and it is taking FOREVER to cycle compared to the planted tanks. Besides cycling slow, I have been having bad luck with heaters for it. The 50w that originally came with my 10 gallon kit but couldn't hold the temp well enough is also not holding the temp well enough for the 7.5 gallon. Some days I catch it being as low as 74, though most of the time it's 75 or even 76. I'm pretty sure it's preset at 78, though. I ordered a compact, adjustable 100w (Hygger). The first one was defective--started loudly sizzling when I turned it on and steamed up the glass lid in a second--so I was overnighted a replacement. The replacement didn't sizzle but it did make a quieter popping noise, especially when in the upright position, which is the position I want the heater to be in. While I didn't notice anything clearly dangerous about it like I did with the first one, I'm not willing to risk it, nor am I willing to live with a heater that makes noise every time it heats. So I'm looking for yet another one. I did manage to finish decorating the tank. (Tank picture below.)

Additional musings: After having breadtags kicking around the cutlery drawer for years, I finally decided to throw them out this morning. Of course, after I threw them out, I needed them, haha. Isn't that the way it always goes? As I was doing WCs and cleaning filters and swapping out heaters, I figured it would be nice to have a quick, easy way to tell which cord belongs to which appliance. That's when it dawned on me. Years ago I had seen a tip on labeling cords--to use breadtags with the appliance written on them. Yep. I had to dig around in the garbage to find the tags. I needed at least 12 tags--that's a whole lotta bread I'd have to eat to get that many tags! They work perfectly for the purpose. I was even able to assign colors so I don't have to read them: red is for heaters, white is for filters, orange is for lights. (Breadtags picture below.)

I wouldn't worry about the Honey spending time on it's own, while they are social they aren't "Schooling" fish so it's normal for them to spend time apart

 

I love your bread tag idea. I'm stealing this!!!

 

So I did a thing today--7 things, if you count them individually. I've been having the hardest time finding more guppies to add to my guppy tank. Not that there aren't any guppies around here, but they have to be (1) healthy appearing and (2) catch my attention enough to want to bring them home. I keep finding one or the other, but not both. Found myself at PetCo just as they were acclimating the new order and, to my surprise, they had 7 endler guppies. I know endlers are pretty common, but this is the first time I've seen them locally--not sure if that's because they don't usually carry them, because they're new to their ordering selection, or because someone always comes along and buys them all up before anyone else gets the chance to see them. In any case, I made a bit of an impulse buy and bought them all (I had read up on them a bit before but since I hadn't found any locally, I crossed them off my list of possibilities and forgot pretty much everything I had read about them). As I started acclimating them, I did some quick research (which I would have done at the store if dear hubby hadn't used up all our data for the month) and discovered what I was afraid of--they'll breed with guppies. I don't want fry. Tossed around the idea of putting them into my golden honey gourami tank that is still in need of additional tank mates but decided to first try sexing the new fish. After studying them for close to an hour, I decided I'm 99% sure they're all male. Guess time will tell... I ended up with 3 of one pattern, 3 of another pattern, and 1 of a less colorful pattern (quite sure it is simply a less colorful pattern and not a female).

I've noticed the tail of one of my guppies has gotten blacker. I like the change; it looks a lot more bold than before. I'm guessing this is something that happens as they mature and that my other two guppies' tails will eventually do the same.

One of my amano shrimp is berried. It's kind of funny watching her try to go about her usual business with about a thousand eggs under her. The color of the eggs has started getting lighter. I'm going to let the larvae die off in freshwater.

Wilbur was naughty during last WC. I took the filter out to clean it and he swam through the small tube hole that goes into the filter compartment, that goes into the sponge compartment, that goes into some really narrow water flow compartment, that goes into the filter media compartment. Yep, he had me play a little game of cat and mouse, which started out as amusing but turned to concerning after trying for about a half hour to net him without any success; at that point he just kind of started floating and gasping. By the time I got him out, I thought for sure he'd be at least as stressed as I was. He wasn't. He ate his dinner as if nothing had happened. Jerk.

The brown algae in the honey tank isn't declining at all. I had to do a pretty severe trimming of the aponogens because of it, so now I'm working at adding more plants and hoping to add either amano shrimp or some bottom dwellers soon.

The 7.5g still isn't cycling. I ran a full course of Stability, added more seeded media that I'm pretty sure wasn't actually seeded (not enough bioload from understocked tanks combined with a significant amount of media housed in the filters probably resulted in the particular media I pulled not being seeded). If it doesn't start processing ammonia by next week, I'm going to change it to a planted tank since I haven't had any problems cycling planted tanks. I managed to find a new heater for it... or so I thought. After two duds from Hygger, I bought an Eheim. I'm quite sure it's a good little heater, but I don't think I got high enough wattage for the temperature difference it needs to make. Ideally, I'd like to find a compact 75w adjustable heater but haven't found one so far, so I had to choose between 50w and 100w. Given the size of most 100w heaters, I opted for a 50w and an unreasonable amount of hope. At least this heater gets the water to 78 instead of just 76 and hasn't shocked me at all, so I'm going to keep it while I continue to look for something more suited to my tank.

Next week we'll probably be in the 'big city,' so we're planning on hitting all the fish stores. Hopefully I'll bring something home, like more fish to finish stocking my honey tank.

 

First casualty: One of the yellow/black endlers. When I researched compatibility, most information was about how endlers won't go after amanos and that they should be compatible. None of the information I read said that amanos will go after endlers. Poor little fellow. I'm quite certain the amano killed the endler and not that the endler died and was picked up by the amano. After doing some reading on forums of others' actual experiences rather than websites on what should or shouldn't be compatible, it seems amanos going after endlers is somewhat common. I don't want to lose any more endlers, so I moved the amanos to the honey tank. Not exactly what my plan was, but it seems with fish you sometimes just have to go with the flow. The 20 gallon needs a good algae cleanup crew anyway.

Side note: I took some pictures of the endlers. The benefit of pictures is that they give the opportunity to really look at the fish without them moving all over the place and to blow the pictures up to spot things that would otherwise escape attention. The downside is that pictures can sometimes make things as simple as dust specks on the outside of the tank or tiny air bubbles and floating particles on the inside of the tank look like ich if it happens to be in front of a fish, or use of the flash can cause the natural shimmery look of fish to suddenly be glittery in spots. I'm going to take the wait-and-see approach for the moment, because I don't want to treat the fish for a problem they might not actually have.

 

I've finally finished stocking my tanks! Well, sort of--not everyone is in the right tank yet, but the head count is complete thanks to a trip to a bigger city.

New additions: 6 salt & pepper cories (habrosus), 4 neon green rasboras, 4 harlequin rasboras, 1 dumbo ear guppy, and 4 nerite snails.

Because of my scary female amano shrimps and the shockingly tiny size of the cories, I opted to put the cories in with the guppies/endlers until they grow a little bit. They're barely bigger than my pinky nail right now but will be moved into the 20 gallon once they don't look like lunch to the shrimps.

The tag for the harlequin rasboras said "purple/blue rasboras." Of course, I get the guy who knows absolutely nothing about fish, so he couldn't tell me what type of rasboras they are. It really doesn't matter much to me either way. There was a school of 8 rasboras swimming in the tank--perfect amount--so I went ahead and bought them all. I have never met someone so daft in my life, though, as the guy who netted the fish for me. He chose the biggest net they had so he could "catch them all at the same time." I pointed out that regardless how many he was able to catch at the same time, he'd have a difficult time getting the fish to drop into the bag with a net opening twice the size of the bag opening. He averaged catching 2 at a time, not all 8 in a single swoop, and he made comments about hoping they all make it into the bag and not on the floor almost every time he went to put them in the bag. One of the times he netted a fish and a dead fish (dead fish happen sometimes, even in the best of stores--that in itself is not enough to make me decide not to purchase fish). He starts holding the net portion in his hand, trying to open it up enough to 'see what's in there.' He just kept saying that he scooped up two things and needs to see what the other thing is. I couldn't believe that I had to tell him several times to just get the fish in the bag because it's a fish and needs to be in water and finally just grab the net from him to do it myself. As I dumped the poor fish in the bag, the dead fish also partially made its way out. The guy said we should just drop it on the floor, which is exactly what he did. That said, out of the 7 stores I went to (big chain stores, little chain store, and local fish store), this one actually had the best selection, the cleanest tanks, and the healthiest-appearing fish. Clearly, the usual fish person was not working when I went there and I got stuck with the village idiot.

My 7.5g that I decorated with all plastic stuff has now been redecorated with real stuff. It was still refusing to cycle, so I decided to just go with what I've been successful with in the past.

Past my bedtime, so I'm going to slap some pictures on this post and call it a day.

 

Update on 7.5g cycling: As a "plastics" tank, 5 to 6 weeks of cycling produced essentially zero results. As a planted tank, I'm seeing a small reduction in ammonia (about 0.5 to 1.0 reduction, from 4-ish to 3-ish) and just the absolute very beginning of nitrites. It hasn't even been a full 24 hours yet. No joke. I wouldn't have noticed the nitrites except that I was testing other tanks with absolute-zero nitrites, which made the difference in blues on the test results quite apparent. The 7.5g showed a slightly darker blue with just a hint of purple in it. I wouldn't have noticed this if I was testing the 7.5g by itself.

My plan had been to use all the media that had already been in the filter for the 5 to 6 weeks of cycling and not clean the filter at all so that any bb that may have started to grow wouldn't be disturbed, but Stability combined with a failure to cycle had created a brown gunky mess in the filter. I ended up thoroughly washing the filter and all filter parts and replacing all media except a few ceramic rings.

I'd be totally surprised at how quickly the cycle started if it wasn't for my other 3 tanks cycling just as fast in the past (nitrites becoming barely apparent by day 2). I don't know what to give credit to for the quick cycle. The "plastics" tank was the first time I tried Stability, so it wasn't that. One of my other 3 tanks started out with a different water conditioner, so it wasn't Prime. One of the tanks started with a carbon filter, another with a carbon filter for the first few days, and another with no carbon filter (and this one has no carbon filter), so it wasn't that. Things that have been the same in all the tanks: AquaSand substrate, live plants, ceramic rings. It's a mystery to me, but any tank I set up in the future will be a planted tank with AquaSand simply because that's what has worked super-well for me.

The heater in the 7.5g is also working pretty much perfectly now--perhaps better flow with live plants because they sway with the water movement rather than plastic that ultimately stands still and interrupts the flow? It still drops a bit more than I would like at nighttime (to about 78), but our house is only 65 to 66 degrees at night and I'm asking it to heat the water all the way up to 80. Being that it's only a 50w heater, I think I'm pretty happy with it.

Random pictures of my betta attached. His coloring looks much different with the flash (I don't take flash pictures very often--I'm sure it stresses the fish). His true non-flash colors are blue and coral rather than teal and red.

 

This is why I have fish:

I'm sitting on the couch in my home office, trying to work through a demanding project with a tight deadline, and every time I start to feel overwhelmed, I look up and take a few deep breaths and watch...

golden honey gouramis almost just floating around while pecking at food...
harlequin and 'neon green' rasboras alternating between pausing and darting back and forth as a flashy school of fish...
amano shrimp rolling substrate to get all the goodies off it...
fancy guppies and endlers exploring every corner and crevice of the tank while filling it with color...
salt & pepper cories playing games of 'am I dead or just sleeping?' between energetic periods of eating...
a betta flaring at his own reflection and then deciding he's not much of a threat after all...
and nerite snails performing a shockingly good cleanup job.

This is the best view one could possibly have from the corner of an office couch, surrounded by papers and reference books, and too many cups of tea.

 

An update, please! I absolutely love these tanks! But so, so, so jealous

 

great tanks and great commentary. keep up the good work.