SanityChelle

If they're just cuttings, they'll be fine in a bucket in a sunny spot for a day or two.

Hi, if you can get a picture of them flareing (hold a mirror up to them and they will), we'll be able to tell if they halfmoon, super delta or delta. In terms of rarity, "Killer" is a common red/blue crowntail with severely broken fin tips. Does he spend much time against that grate? If he does, the current might be too much for him. The white one (I can't see his tail that well) looks to have a few red spots on him, and rather messy fins. Maybe slightly uncommon because of the white? But not much above the ones usually weekly imported to Animates.

Looks awesome! It also sounds like you're doing exactly what I'm planning to do, even down to the same filter! I'll definitely be keeping an eye on this. The scape looks really cool too! What type of rock is that?

I think it's water movement that keeps good bacteria alive. I wouldn't think the temperature change would kill it off. Just a guess, though.

Apparently, they seem to like sand better.

My little ones have tried, digging pits under rocks etc, but I think the eggs were eaten by snails or the minnows in the tank.

Awesome! Totally going to be keep an eye on this one for my own research! For your stocking, did you stock for adult fish and just waiting for them to grow, or did you stock with the intention of getting rid of the more aggressive fish as they grow? I've been told that if you're buy juvies, you should buy at least double what you intend to have as adults, especially if you can't sex them yet.

For a long plant, go with cyperus helferi. I literally got two decent sized plants for my WCMM tank this morning, and they look gorgeous spreading out from the corner, and works nice as a cover too. Totally my new favourite plant. Java fern and anubias are good, but I've found them both to be really slow growing. They do look nice though. My plants are all placed one side and make like a jungle area, with the rest of the tank open water for them to get their chase on. I've never tried crypts, and I'm experimenting with an amazon sword at the moment. My other plants are stargrass, all three types of java fern, anubias, and a bundle of pennywort, which the minnows like pushing themselves in to. Sorry for the ugly picture, my phone's camera is terrible.

Can you grab a picture of him next time he's on the glass? What type of substrate do you have? Could it be eggs?

Java fern is one of the easiest plants to grow in a tank. It seems weird that it's the one that's unhappy. Is there any chance you can post a picture of it?

Ah thanks. I think he's stopped digging at this point. Plus it's probably for the best that they don't breed, since they're off different species. I was just more trying to understand their behaviour and if interspecies breeding was possible.

Maybe he's just trying to be hopeful. I've only got small gravel and no sand, but he's dug three or four pits that I can see, and they've got a system of caves covered in plants that I can't see that they spend most of their time in. I've also got minnows in there, who eat their own eggs, so if they choose to lay in the open, the minnows will probably clean them up. I don't think the minnows go in the densely planted cave bit much though.

Hey, has anyone ever bred hillstream loaches before here? I just got a new male hillstream, and he's busy digging eggpits close in to rocks. I only realised he was a boy (and that my old hillstream was a girl) after noticing little tentacles around his mouth underneath. They're slightly different species to each other, so I have no idea if anything will happen, I'm just super curious about it. The female is a beaufortia kweichowensis (bottom in image), while the male is a bit smaller, and more like the myersi type in the upper left.

They're happy little fish. I feed mine flakes just fine, just the tiniest of pinches and only want they have eat in a few minutes, once a day, then they get one day of no food once a week. They also love to steal mini algae wafers and pull them apart. Can I see a picture of your tank? I'd love to see a tank of 70 wcmm!!

I've never seen a small aro! His eyes look too big for his body - so cute!

Ah the LEDs just came with the tank (in lid lights). They seem to be doing alright for most of the plants in there. The red rubra I'm just kinda trialling at the moment, one seems happier than the other. This mystery algae is just kinda freaking me out.

About six months, maybe a little bit longer. Someone said it might be the lights, but I have LEDs in there.

I've tried a few of the facebook groups, but noone seems to know what this is and what's causing it. It started to appear on the rocks of the tank a week or so ago, and I've just noticed it appearing on a few of the plants closest to the rocks as well. It's not slimey, and it's not fluffy like BBA, it just looks like someone has been dotting things with a black felt tip pen. I was thinking of scrubbing it off (was hoping not to as my hillstream likes the green spot algae), but now that's it on the plants, I'm super worried. This is my tank at the moment. It's 38L, I do a full bucket water change and gravel vac every week, and dose a quarter of a teaspoon of excel every few days (I got told today that I need normal flourish as well). The lights are on for 5 and a half hours a day. Actually just remembered a week ago I swapped my carbon out for bio media instead. Could this have any affect at all? Serious help is needed, especially now that it's on the plants too.

Chuck up some photos! I'm sure it'll be helpful.

"Oh, you can't reach? Here you go, buddy..."

Anubias are super easy plants as long as the roots aren't covered, but they're pretty slow growing. If you get a few stem plants in the back, they'd be good for keeping the algae away. If you're going for interesting plants, I recently picked up some beetroot rubra (Alternanthera Roseacefolia) stems and the roots have just gone crazy, even without proper Co2. It's a wonderfully coloured plant, and contrasts beautifully against other green plants. There's a guy on TM that sells it for super cheap.

I don't know much about marine (would love to get into it if I had the moolah), but that seems like a real small amount of fish for such a large tank. Is that because it's harder to keep the water quality constant in marine, or do the corals affect the balance somehow? The tank is ridiculously beautiful, by the way.

Can't wait for a full tank shot of this! The corals look beautiful.

Update on the tank. I've added five longfins which are quite lovely. The planting is a big chaotic, but we'll see how it goes.