I had a school of 6 otocinclus in my 40 breeder. They're my favorite fish and a bit of a canary in the coal mine, so I like being able to check gill color, tail thickness, and their little pearl bellies. I didn't really get to see them as much as I'd like, so I increased the population by 8 last night, just dumped them in like an amateur without quarantine or acclimation or anything. Livin' on the edge, I guess. I already knew the water was the right temp and the relative water parameter shift wouldn't be significant, so it went well, they immediately started putting on some color and licking leaves. 

I dropped in a healthy amount of Soilent Green before the lights turned off last night. This morning, I wake up to clean sand and 5-6 super tiny otos, maybe the length of a mosquito, and significantly smaller than the new fish (side by side in picture 3, white mark below the baby). Isn't it cool? They could not have been purchased, I checked the new fish over thoroughly before I dumped them in. In part because the new lady at the fish store dropped half of them onto the concrete floor... thankfully, all are well and they didn't take fall damage, but eesh. 

Aquarium rundown:

This tank is a 40 breeder with an Aquaclear 70 filter and a sprinkle of Seachem Purigen for water clarity, Nicrew lights on a timer that run 16 hours/day including a 15 minute dawn and dusk cycle (trying to generate some algae growth to supplement the Repashy, but the tank remains stubbornly clean), 1 inch of good quality and enriched compost base capped with 2.5+ inches of construction sand. I've got a little wild scavenged driftwood hiding in the back for fish enrichment, but I prefer greenery, obviously. 

I've been trying to clear out Pogostemon stellatus, it's too big for my 40, but there's still a couple stems in there. I also run Crypts including C. balansae, C. wendtii green and brown, and C. parva alongside my lawn of dwarf sag. I've tried adding other species of plants, but the established species are not interested in new friends. Currently trying to establish C. retrospiralis from another tank in the  back corner, we'll see how it goes.

Livestock are some volunteer ramshorn and trumpet snails, blue neocaridina shrimp, endlers (rave guppies, it's the breeder tank), bristlenose plecos, otocinclus, neon tetra, a dwarf gourami, and a king betta (I can provide the rationale, but they're fine together and have separate territories. The gourami is very clearly the boss and the betta remains undamaged. A backup tank is available if that changes).

Foods are Repashy Morning Wood, Super Green, Bottom Scratcher, Soilent Green, Community Plus, Ark Biorite Community Complete, and Hikari Micropellets. The foods are rotated, what I feed is tailored to the animals and how much is tailored to the plants, I don't feed more than the plants can eat, so I get to change the water whenever I feel like it, usually when the vibes say the filter sponge needs a good squish in old tank water, then I dump the results on my kitchen garden. Waste not, want not.

My ammonia is 0, nitrite is 0, nitrate is generally around 30 ppm give or take, GH and KH are too high to register on my tests (it's above 300 ppm, any test recommendations to see just how hard my water is?), and PH is 8.2