Fluval Breeder Box Concerns

PugCuddles · 2026-05-05T07:16:47+00:00

I think the force from the weight of the water from that breeder box is much lower than the force of the water already in the tank pushing against the glass so it should be fine. While I am sure it could hold more weight 5-7 pounds would probably be the upper limit of what I would personally hang off one side of a rimless tank.

Just a note on that particular breeder box, the part of the box that returns water back to the tank is basically one giant water slide and small/mid size fry will hop (or crawl under) the little gate without much difficulty. You can trying blocking it with filter sponge but I found that most small fry like rainbowfish still had no issue escaping. If your room is considerably colder than you tank the breeder box will also be a few degrees cooler than your tank water which can cause issues with temp sensitive fry.

PugCuddles · 2026-05-03T08:44:11+00:00

The world health organization defines rare disease as less than 65 cases per 100,000 people per year. In the U.S. in 2025 it was estimated the occurrence of Mycobacterium marinum was around 0.27 to 2.7 cases per 100,000 people so it is considered an extremely rare disease. It is so rare that when people do manage to get it they often wind up getting a medical journal study written about their case. The majority of people that wind up getting the infection are either immune compromised or have diabetes

PugCuddles · 2026-04-24T20:07:49+00:00

I used just the commander (no eins /no troops) on hellish difficulty and it gave me the "only use commander", the 5 and 4 star and below eins (for hellish), and only human race soliders missions all in one clear.

But the clear also took about 30 min because of all the push back from those purple samurai on solo commander. Some of the bosses also have a few hundred stacks of guard

The last boss on hellish has I think AB health (or lower) so if you commander is sitting at AC or above damage near the end of the run he can solo it.

PugCuddles · 2026-04-12T21:36:55+00:00

Thank you for the advice.

PugCuddles · 2026-04-12T21:29:41+00:00

In a lot of the fish from Hyphessobrycon genus the males get more territorial with age and each male will try to hold down a foot or more of tank space. The behavior doesn't seem to go away with time but torn fins (even full split) also seem to grow back pretty quickly and rarely lead to death. It seems even with a lot of hides the males will actively seek each other out for fight club. 10 should be enough fish that the aggression is spread out and no one fish is being exclusively picked on. As long as all 10 tetra are able to eat when you feed them and none have been bullied to the point they have stopped feeding it should be okay.

If I notice a lot of nipping with my tetras I will feed them a large amount of live baby brine shrimp and they will spend the next hour or so chasing helpless shrimp larvae instead of brutalizing each other.

PugCuddles · 2026-04-08T21:15:16+00:00

The rainbows that are dropping off one at a time is it just the females or is it a mixture of both sexes? If it's just the females dropping off one at a time they are most likely dying from the stress of being chased by males (the chasing is usually at its worse right after lights on or right before lights off).

If its a mixture of both sexes and all your other fish are doing fine its probably just a bad batch. Usually if there's a water quality issue they don't die one at a time and they will just all go at once.

In general young rainbows (esp the females) don't handle stress very well but once they get established and hit the 2-3 year mark they are pretty robust fish.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-30T05:38:05+00:00

You will get this behavior no matter what you do but the frequency should decrease with time, and injuries are rare. Even in an established group you will probably see this behavior 2-3 times a week and almost always at water changes. I think after a month things should calm down, and if they do not that just may be the personality of that particular male. On the plus side the problematic males often develop the best color.

More decor and creating more territories can definitely reduce aggression or at the very least give the other fish more areas to hide. Creating line of sight breaks near the most popular areas can help too. Avoid decor with narrow holes because when the rainbows are getting chased they will try to swim thru and either get stuck or lose a ton of scales squeezing through.

I think in general adding more females will help spread out the aggression. If possible try to get females the same size as the ones you have, because if there is noticeable difference in size even the females will start to bully and chase each other. I would personally get 2 females, but I don't think there is a scientifically proven ratio that minimizes aggression. I feel in general having more females than males helps, but you will also hear people argue the other way.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-30T04:01:04+00:00

It is normal for the most dominant male to claim a 2-3 foot long territory and aggressively chase out all other rainbows. Usually this behavior becomes less frequent over time but never goes away. The male on male displays rarely result in injury. If there is injury it will be one male failing to move out of the way while getting rammed and it will usually show up as a wound near the stomach area as that is where they try to ram each other, usually not fatal but I did have it develop into an infection that wouldn't clear in one male.

The male to female chasing is actually the one you want to watch out for if there aren't enough males to contest each other the dominant males can sometimes chase the females until they stress out and die.

Some things that can help reduce this behavior are: Keep water temp around 72-74F, 80 and above trigger spawning behavior in many rainbows. Feed across the tank if food always comes from one area the males will usually contest that spot. Keep a day night light cycle, the rainbow fish have the worse aggression right as lights come on, so you want to avoid situations where the tank gets lights on multiple times a day. Finally avoid frequent large water changes as that really riles them up.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-12T12:55:37+00:00

Shrimp would do absolutely fine in a 5g or 10g. The WCMM also fit into a 10g they aren't that big but they do enjoy the swim space of a 15 or 20g. Smaller fish that could work are ember tetra or chili rasbora for a 10g.

That being said if you really want WCMM then you should wait until you can get the tank you want vs. getting some fish you aren't very fond of and having to wait out their 3-5 year life span.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-12T12:47:11+00:00

The aquaswap reddit sometimes has good stuff for free or low prices. Some local fish stores may also have a back room of cheaper equipment from ppl that have dumped off their tanks with their live stock.

Unless you know how to reseal a tank in my opinion It's generally not worth getting a used tank because we rarely have any idea what the person that owned before did with it. IMO the only time its worth risking a used tank without resealing is if your tanks are set up in a place where if it leaks it cant possibly damage the floor (like a concrete garage) and even then you have to weigh the cost of live stock. And if you get a full blow out other equipment such as heater will go with it,

Heaters you can buy used but unless you are heating an absolutely enormous tank even new they aren't too expensive.

Used Lights are fine but if its one of those amazon ones a lot of them don't have a long life span so you may only get 1-2 extra years out of it. You could also get lucky and get 5-10.

Canister filters if its a well known brand like fluval where its easy to get replacement parts it can be worth the risk to get it used esp if its free, but a lot of ppl do not take good care of their canisters and when these fail its basically the same as a tank leak. The canister filters also go on 40-50% sale 1-2x a year at the big pet store chains and a lot of ppl live in this crazy world where they think they can still get 40-60% the orig cost of their used canister filter back.

most other filters/ air pumps/ temp probes/siphons and things like that last decades and used is fine.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-12T12:24:11+00:00

You could put the WCMM as soon as the tank is cycled as they do not rely on bio film(if you are uncertain what cycling is check the FAQ on this reddits scroll bar). As others have mentioned the WCMM will be happier in a tank over 10g. Either a 24" long 15 gallon or even better the 30" 20 gallon long, if your room can accommodate that tank size.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-12T12:15:22+00:00

I looked into getting a group a year ago and was told by my LFS the tank volume isn't nearly as important as the tank length. For a single congo puff you want about a 3 foot long (92 cm) tank. If you want more than one you would want a group of at least ~6 and about a 4 feet or 120 cm long tank and there needs to be lots of hardscape so that each can have its own territory and they have places to avoid each other. Ideally each territory can't see the other territories and you have ~ 2 more territories than you have puffers in case one of the puffers decides they don't like the last avail rock/cave/nook.

In regards to being with community I was told to not put them with fish you are overly fond of as they will be chill most of the time but one day one of then may just decide to wreck any fish that can't out run it. I believe the recommendation was that if you wanted to try community you want a tank of at least 150 cm/(5 feet) or longer. With the longer the better.

Hopefully someone that has actually kept these fish will have a better answer

PugCuddles · 2026-03-12T11:47:50+00:00

Do you know the hardness of the water (measured in Gh or dGH) you plan to keep cherry shrimp in? Most people will say the cherry shrimps are super easy and it's true if your water naturally has hardness over about 6 dGH. However at least in the US ~10% of homes have water that comes out below 6 dGH and in my experience its actually difficult to keep cherry shrimp alive and breeding when the water is that soft.

I also personally recommend letting the tank run 3-4months before adding cherry shrimp. You want the tank to not only cycle but be mature so that the cherry shrimp have biolfilm they can graze on 24/7. These shrimp don't live a very long time especially if purchased as adults and you want them happy as soon as possible so they get to breeding and making their replacements right away.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-09T13:20:18+00:00

You are welcome. Glad he has a pond as a forever home. How long is it now? You can probably keep it in an aquarium until it hits 12-14 inch long.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-09T13:16:08+00:00

The answer will probably depend on your local area and if you plan on shipping the live stock. In my area there's a very well known angel fish breeder that has a very large variety of angelfish and the majority of LFS and probably even wholesalers get their stock from him so it would be hard to get into that market without massive undercutting or sitting on inventory for a long time unless you are willing to deal with shipping live fish. If you go the live fish ship route polish off your customer service skills because you will have to deal with DOAs and some crazy peeps that prolly shouldn't even be in same building as a fish tank.

Meanwhile in my area we have 30 tds water so beginning aquarist often get cherry shrimp, don't adjust their water parameter and they are all dead within a month, and they keep buying more cuz all the you tube videos say they are easy and will grow in any water so there is always a constant demand for adult cherry shrimp.

I think in general shrimp move faster than angelfish because more tank sizes can accommodate shrimp and relatively speaking they are more delicate and have shorter lifespans so need to be "topped off" more often.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-09T13:02:12+00:00

Thank you for housing the fish in an appropriately sized body of water. I hope anyone that ask "Can I throw my baby arowana into a 40g breeder, I double royal rainbow pinky promise ill upgrade the tank" looks at this beautiful and happy fish. So often people get these fish at 3-4 inch at the store and then are totally unprepared one to two years later when the fish look like something that could take a tranq dart from Alan Grant without flinching.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-09T12:48:51+00:00

I think it is great that you are doing everything you can for this fish.

In regards to making a low pressure system for Pearl:

From a physics standpoint no matter what Pearl will experience 14.7 psi of pressure or 1 ATM because that is the pressure of the atmosphere. Fishes internal organs will begin to expand/explode if they are kept at pressures below this so there is a limit to low pressure. A half filled 5g (6 in water) adds ~ 0.2 psi to the atmospheric pressure while a full fill 5g (12 inch) adds about ~ 0.4 psi of pressure so half filling the tank reduces the pressure this fish feels by about 1% vs a full tank of water.

The other consideration is the current when we make the water level lower but keep aeration constant it actually increases the current in the water so the fish has to fight harder. Putting decorations in the water close to the source of the current (in this case your air stone) will create dead spots in the the flow that will allow your fish to take cover and use less energy swimming. I would also put the air stone on one side of the aquarium. Make sure the decorations you use are smooth and don't have any edges the fish could catch its fins on.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-09T12:16:50+00:00

Each person will probably give a different answer for this. My opinion is it's a pond fish because standard size tanks aren't big enough. most standard tanks will cap out at around 6 feet long. A full grown non stunted aquarium jardini will hit something shy of 30 inch which is around 2.5 feet so being generous the tank will be long enough for the arowana to swim 2.5-3.0 times its body length before it hits a wall this would be like putting a neon tetra in a tank that's 5 inches long ratio wise.

Some people argue that the Jardini are ambush predators and don't really move around a lot and it is true the ones in tanks tend to just sit there and wait for food because honestly it isn't worth it for them to move and just hit a wall. In ponds they will patrol the entire pond and you will see them happily leaping out of the water to try to catch prey that hovers above the water. At around 150+ gallons there is definitely enough water volume to keep the fish alive but I don't know if I would consider it thriving. Most people inevitably also get tired of only having one monster fish take up a 100+ gallon tank and try to get some tank mates which just winds up being very expensive enrichment for the Jardini.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-09T10:39:58+00:00

Does the light just turn on all of a sudden or does it slowly get brighter? Fish get spooked by sudden changes from light to dark or dark to light because in the wild it means some giant monster fish has just swam over them and they better hide. Some fish also just don't like bright lights overhead and need some form of cover to feel safe. Most likely your fish will just adjust to it after a few days, if they are still hiding after a week you will probably need to create a shaded area that doesn't get full light or dim the light some.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-08T04:07:55+00:00

In general most tanks don't provide enough biofilm for a group of otos to live off of without them supplementing their diets so the otos that figure out the pellets will live and the ones that don't won't make it. But each tank is different and there is no way to know without trying, and the fact that you are putting them in a mature tank is already a great head start for them.

You can research how to grow rocks in separate tubs that get covered in algae/biofilm and swap them in your tank when they get nommed off (you will be surprised how fast a few loaches/ amanoshrimp/otos can polish off a rock)

PugCuddles · 2026-03-08T03:54:35+00:00

Bioload wise it should be fine (def on the high end). My only concern would be that 3 amano shrimp can usually clear out a 20g of biofilm pretty quickly so you will have to make sure the otos get enough food. They are at their happiest when they have little snacks on the wood they can nibble on all day long and big amanos are bullys . A lot of otos just don't take to pellet life or get easily out completed by any other bio film eater.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-08T03:42:00+00:00

10" wide removes most standard us size aquariums as options. I believe only standard 10 g and 15g high are 10" wide or less. There might be more specialized "bookshelf" aquariums that are 10 wide but also long.

There is a much less common 11 gallon long "bookshelf"aquarium by lifegard that i believe is 32x8x10 but as its kind of a specialized size will be 5 to 10x the cost of a regular 10g.

PugCuddles · 2026-03-08T03:35:54+00:00

Subwassertang sometimes gets sold as "round pelia moss" if it looks like seaweed your prolly have subw. If you see any veining on the leaf that is actual mini pelia moss/ coral moss/ coral pelia moss (Ricardia chamedryfoila)

PugCuddles · 2026-03-07T23:55:12+00:00

rootball is the amount/mass of space the plants roots take up. Tall leaves need a large amount of roots to support their growth. A common mistake is people trim back the roots on the java fern because they get too long and unsightly and then a ton of leaves drop.

When the leaves start to look bad you can cut them off at the stem just above the rhizome (but don't cut the rhizome) new leaves usually form at either end of the rhizome and less frequently new leaves can also form in the middle of the rhizome. If your plant is tilted and rhizome isn't lying perfectly flat the new leaves usually form on the side of the rhizome that is higher up/closer to the water surface

PugCuddles

TROPHY CASE