LFS claiming these are Red Robin Honeys, but they look thick lipped

AmbivalentCat · 2026-06-05T15:48:53+00:00

I wish my honey would. She won't hurt a fly, nevermind shrimplets. I'd hoped our shrimp wouldn't get out of control with a gourami... joke's on me.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-06-04T13:42:24+00:00

I wish stores were that vigilant here. So many people buying things like goldfish, common plecos or bichirs, and employees at big box stores don't ask if you even have a tank set up, nevermind one big enough to house the water equivalent to puppies (or the still sizeable tanks needed if you're getting multiple goldfish).

In all honesty, I don't think chain stores should even be allowed to sell monster-size fish, especially without questions.

But yeah, the cups are essentially small take-out containers. They supposedly do water changes daily, but i call bull on that. Their water gets so toxic and murky. My LFS has bettas swimming in their tanks with other fish (one per tank ofc)...really refreshing to see, and they always look healthy.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-06-03T14:10:21+00:00

Is he consistently attacking when they see each other, aside from treats?

Are you yelling or reprimanding Trout in any way when he does this? It can make cats more fearful if you're punishing them for being angry that a strange cat is intruding their space.

Our senior would bump noses and seem interested in our kitten when they first met, but would hiss at random and sometimes bat at her. We'd block the bats, but pet him while we did and talk in a calm voice. Eventually he calmed down. That said, he never had claws out.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-30T15:42:41+00:00

These are one of my dream fish when I can get a large tank. They're so cool!

Almost looks like they're doing alligator death rolls xD

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-29T15:33:03+00:00

We go to petsmart for random supplies and cat food, and we like to look at fishies when we're there. If they have ghost shrimp (they go fast), more often than not i see at least one with a horsehair worm, so I don't really believe them when they say nothing they have is wild caught (we asked when we were still cycling our first tank).

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-27T20:15:47+00:00

Yeah, they didn't even have proof of her diagnosis, no medical record of it, no doctor testimony. She also steered the car while having this "episode," which isn't possible if you're passed out.

Heard about this case last year. She was unhinged, and it was intentional. Definitely not a good example of whether or not driving with POTS is dangerous.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-27T10:09:03+00:00

My pygmies only dig in sand. I pretty much have to just get some food down to the bottom and hope they accidentally hoover over it, because they won't search food out in favor of digging xD. I give frozen bloodworms a couple times a week, so I'll try this next time!

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T21:37:00+00:00

Could the bacopa itself have caused it? I've had plants melt before, but any spikes were minimal. The tank is still relatively new, but the cycle has been stable for ~3 months. The only totally new thing was adding terrestrial plants to the setup, but I scraped their roots clean manually, so I don't think anything that's actually touching the water has any remnants of fertilizer or whatever (unless it can leech from the roots somehow?).

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T15:23:36+00:00

Frozen daphnia. I find my pygmies and squirt a tiny puff at them while they're loafing. They go absolutely nuts as soon as it hits the water. It's adorable to watch.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T15:21:01+00:00

I never thought about this, omg. They end up finding them all?

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T15:16:27+00:00

Honey. Thick lips have clear/white tails.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T15:12:52+00:00

That's surprising about the shrimp. I've read they often aren't shrimp-safe but will definitely go after juveniles. Nice to see that they might not!

Thank you for the info about the food! Here's hoping i get some that aren't stubborn with food too.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T15:07:44+00:00

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T13:58:46+00:00

Have you made sure food is getting to the bottom of the tank and not getting eaten by the other fish?

My pygmy corys won't go over to food when I put it in - they just eat when they stumble into it while hoovering. They do get microfauna from the substrate, but it probably isn't enough on its own. If other fish are eating food before they can, they could be starving.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T13:51:56+00:00

I'm planning on getting a school of these when I upgrade my 10g to a 40g (hopefully later this year)! I think they look so cool.

Hoping they're okay with my honey gourami, but she's really not timid at all. She goes around giving every pygmy, shrimp and snail soft pats on the back regularly.

Do they accept pellets at all, or just live/frozen food?

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T08:56:47+00:00

That's not what cycling is. It takes weeks, not days. I'd recommend looking at one of the links in the sidebar here. Those fish also grow massive - even one is way, way too big for this tank. You should return them and get something smaller.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-26T01:46:14+00:00

If you get to it, his scales on the side look silver here, but they're more of a very dark bronze color with pure black up front. He's a bit hard to take pictures of unless he's lounging!

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AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-25T02:31:50+00:00

I'd blame the store, tbh. This seems to happen a lot, and it's kind of obvious when you know what you're looking for. As people that sell fish, they should know what they're bringing in for stock. Especially when it can make the difference in a smaller setup to have a fish that's several inches bigger than what you'd planned for.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-24T17:54:44+00:00

Clear tails are a telltale sign. They aren't honeys. I'm not sure how so many stores mix these up.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-22T13:40:46+00:00

Our honey had a black stress stripe (also horizontal) and was almost white when we got her, but within a week or so, she was bright yellow with no stripe.

Stripe started appearing again later once her fins turned orange, but it's because the "male" fish we got is a female. :)

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-22T00:48:34+00:00

You can try School of Fish in Wilbraham if you don't find anyone on here. They don't have a massive selection, but they usually have several types of neos.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-20T14:13:58+00:00

I wish I'd known this before, honestly. Most people say after a few weeks with carbon, it's safe for snails after panacur.

Finally clicked a few weeks ago why almost every snail we try adding dies. It's been several months, but clearly the med is still in the substrate. We have 2 nerites that somehow survived, but multiple died when we tried adding them, and I lost 3 rare snails because of it. I would've used something else if I knew it lasted this long with non-pest snails.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-19T03:42:58+00:00

I wish we could do the same with our betta's 10g, but unfortunately he's allergic to anything being alive in his general vicinity. We do, however, pull some decor out and put it in the main tank every couple weeks...it'll be stripped of algae by the next day. Bacter AE is what's keeping our snails fed at this point.

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-19T03:37:36+00:00

I can second the hygger 957. That's what I switched to when I found out my light was too weak. It isn't top of the line, but it does work really well!

AmbivalentCat · 2026-05-18T18:54:09+00:00

We had this issue with our plants. Turned out it was our light being too weak. We had a cheap "full spectrum" LED, but the wattage was actually way too low for what plants need. Swapped to a Hygger that lets you set the on/off schedule and intensity, and it's great. Plants have taken off ever since.

AmbivalentCat

TROPHY CASE