yeah the water from tap sometimes comes out at 90* or so. great to kill ich, bad for fish.

Some years ago I never worried about the temperature of the water from my sink, because why would I? Never had issues before! Either it was a hotter night than usual, but I filled my hillstream loach tank up about 5/6pm. I worked early morning shifts so was up about 2am for work. And I remember goin...

solid wood it feels like. it's heavy!

This is a fascinating read! Very cool, and congrats!

I am wondering if I can reuse the wood stand; the top is fine but inside the bottom where the shelves are, there is some water damage along the center of the piece.

What is your oldest tank? I have several used ones, and today one one of my newer pet-store-sale ones a few years old started leaking at the bottom. It's a 29 so while it's been an ordeal, if my 55 or 90 leaked, I would be in a world of panic.

Yes my water here is liquid rock. Sadly the importer of African rift catfish has disappeared or I'd get some more typus cats. I know messing with the pH and hardness is usually more problems and causes more issues than it's worth, so maybe I'll sit these guys out. edit: are they blackwater or whitew...

A local source has chameleon whiptails in, and I would love to get some! However he says they need to be in RO water, and I know more bad things happen when you mess with the pH than when you don't. I know with most fish, going from soft to hard water is pretty difficult with acclimation. And tossin...

Looking for a smaller whiptail, preferably Hemiodontichthys acipenserinus.

Thank you!

For medium cories like bronze, would a standard 55 be too deep for them to safely get to the surface? A friend of mine had his in a 125 tall, and none of them lived for long. But I haven't had any in anything larger than a 20 or 29 in a good while.

Down to just four of my adults, and I don't think I have a breeding pair among them. Dave's fish used to get these guys in stock quite often but haven't seen them lately. Any leads for me would be most appreciated.

I just wanted to thank you guys for all of the comments, recommendations etc. I only really need heaters in two of my tanks and only one of those in the winter time because usually the tanks are about 80° otherwise. But for the zebras, I just can't risk it!

You get what you pay for and all that. I need to find some good heaters for my zebras; I was using Catalina as recommended by some fine folks here ages ago, but they appear to be out of business now. Eheim has bad reviews on Amazon, as does Marineland. So USA keepers, what's your go-to?

Those are some beautiful illustrations, would makes some really awesome tattoos in the hands of a good artist!

Today I woke up to the unfortunate sight of one of my larger, adult zebra plecos dead in the tank. I quickly did a water change and scooped her out and realized that I've lost two zebras so far this year. I thought 2021 was supposed to be better than 2020 LOL. But looking back, I realized that the t...

IT IS THAT TIME AGAIN. Get ready for the free all day event, the SAKE! The 2020 Southwest Aquarium Keepers Event (SAKE) will be on Saturday, April 25, 2020, at La Quinta Inn, North Phoenix. We will have a silent auction, a huge raffle, guest speakers, and a betta show! To register, please email azki...

Just blueberry yogurt or any other flavors?

So last December I did my largest impulse buy to date, about 500 bucks for 4 L14 juvie plecos. They hadn't been with the wholesaler long but I was impulsive and wanted to order them before Christmas. They looked good but within a week had sunken bellies and weren't eating. Medication for parasites d...

Maybe you didn't QT enough or maybe the fish died despite the medications. I bought four L14s from a good importer, but over a few weeks, despite the varied diet and medication to take care of the sunken belly and stringy white poop, I lost all four. The hit to the wallet is pretty bad (this was als...

The third one died today. I can't find the body of the fourth, which is odd because they are not small fish. I only had a few BN pleco fry in with them and they all seem to be fine somehow.

So now I have a mostly empty 55. How do I make sure any and all parasites are gone?

Thank you guys! I do have a large branch of driftwood in the tank because they do need somewhere to hide, even in QT. My mom got me some sweet potato today, so that's in the tank for now, and my Repashy finally came, so the bottom scratcher is being made right now. I just don't understand why they w...

Little higher being like 8.0?

Update. Lost the smallest of the plecos today. None of them are eating, and the person I got them from assumed it was because of my pH being too high for them. Very possible, but I've never had any wild caught fish do so bad so fast! I ordered some repashy meat pie (I used the stuff years ago and ha...

I haven't seen any stringy poop from the plecos in a day or so. I did dose with Flubenazole tonight (yay overnight shipping) but how late is too late when it comes to parasites and sunken bellies?

At least the eyes aren't sunken in yet.

Thank you I have some on order now! I just hope it's not too late...

Do you think my Fish Bendazole (what it says on the jar), from thomas labs, will still be safe to use and effective if it expired in 1/17?

I also have Metroplex if that would help.

Lastly how do I know if it's a protozoa problem or basic worms?

I did end up getting a few L14 before the ban. Four of them currently in a 55 gallon QT tank, 80* with a powerhead and three sponge filters, some caves and driftwood for hiding. One of them is often on the glass, so when I noticed a sunken belly starting, I began to dose with Prazipro, and fed garli...

So in 2018 Brazil is banning the export of L14, and many other plecos, if I read it right? My question is, I've always liked L14 but my largest tank is 90 gallons, and I don't know when I can upgrade to, say, a 125 or larger in the future. I do have a chance to get a few 3 inch L14s, and I'm on the ...

I'd like to offer condolences too. Last Thanksgiving I came down with velvet and lost over 100 bristlenose. I won't go into details about how much I spent on medications and heaters (how many times I tripped the breakers) but it was in the mid to high triple digits. I did lose a few other fish at th...

What other fish are in the tank? Did you quarantine the plecos?