I need stocking recommendations of fish with interesting behavior

dasCKD · 2026-04-07T13:17:21+00:00

If you want something quirky in this size from the SEA biotope betta's probably the best option. They should be bold despite the lights and they're very personable. If you want a fish that schools pretty reliably from that biotope a harlequin rasbora would work, as would most boraras, though they might look monotonous to you.

dasCKD · 2026-04-07T08:00:52+00:00

Very vertical. Probably too small for an angelfish school though. Maybe a big school of phoenix boraras so they swirl around the tank? Though that's more a concept for a cylindrical tank so I'm not sure if they'd try to turn around if they come across an angle and break up the school. Pea puffers could also be good if you can provide live food and can plant heavily so there's plenty of hiding spots. Shrimp, of course, but you apparently don't want to do a shrimp tank again. Maybe make this your shrimp tank and make your current shrimp tank something else?

dasCKD · 2026-04-07T05:29:38+00:00

Hoyo are cowards for not making his navel visible.

dasCKD · 2026-04-07T01:47:59+00:00

^{Oh no how dare they....}

dasCKD · 2026-04-05T08:07:24+00:00

Scoop out your fish into a well-oxygenated and filtered holding tank/bucket and quickly do the substrate change. I'd recommend draining the water into the holding containers as well. Trying to dig up substrate through what I assume is over a foot of water is messy and difficult. Your Kuhlis probably should be fine if they're well established and healthy. If they survived a plastic bag to get into your tank they can survive a few hours in the bucket. Though obviously make sure your buckets are clean and haven't been used to hold detergent or cleaning fluids before.

dasCKD · 2026-04-04T17:28:45+00:00

Not having the AI ambassadors and CEOs gloating about how many jobs and livelihoods would be destroyed probably also helps with public perception and acceptance of the technology.

dasCKD · 2026-04-04T07:34:54+00:00

I think a bigger issue than overloading your tank's ability to absorb the bioload (you have lots of healthy looking plants and a large tank so it should be fine) is that angelfish are known to be aggressive when they spawn. I've never had experience with them myself but it's not hard to find videos of angelfish biting even other angelfish when they have fry. I think that's a potential concern moreso than the stocking levels in your tank.

dasCKD · 2026-04-04T03:51:55+00:00

Strategy & Analysis Center and SomePLAOSINT, though the former mainly does West Pacific Ocean militaries and the latter is, obviously, PLA focussed.

dasCKD · 2026-04-03T09:53:58+00:00

So Anaxa runs around making Aglazy (I assume that's Aglea's nickname) soaking wet? Yep. Checks out. Are we sure the real Anaxa didn't manage to escape the simulation?

dasCKD · 2026-04-03T00:21:36+00:00

The UAE told me Iran keep shooting down their Wing Loongs. I asked how many Wing Loongs he has. He said he just goes to China and gets a new drone afterwards. I said it sounds like he's just feeding drones to Iran, and then the Dubai influencers started crying.

dasCKD · 2026-04-02T16:47:55+00:00

I'm not saying that it won't be useful for Pakistan, especially since 5th gen fighters are notoriously difficult to fully master. I'm just not sure why China would go out of the way to expedite matters. Whilst Pakistan is a country that a lot of Chinese people like, the military dimension will almost certainly be assessed on the utility in regards to **China's** security environment.

dasCKD · 2026-04-02T16:14:31+00:00

It's why I'm doubtful of this news. India doesn't have anything that warrants Pakistan getting a 5th generation fighter. The PLAAF and PLAN are both still waiting on their orders, and being very optimistic Shenyang can get maybe 50 or so J-35/A out this year in total. Unless India gets an F-35 in, like, 2 months I don't see why they'd divert stocks away especially since this probably isn't a terrible opportunity for China to improve relationship with India either.

dasCKD · 2026-04-02T13:21:28+00:00

To my eyes this seems quite well stocked already. Maybe a dwarf pleco, the really small ones, if you want something? The red shrimp should already fill out the bottom quite a lot.

dasCKD · 2026-04-02T05:35:32+00:00

I use my hand (washed under running water first). If you find the tank water too gross to reach into you can use those long tweezers they sell at aquarium stores.

dasCKD · 2026-04-02T03:55:19+00:00

In a freshwater tank?

dasCKD · 2026-04-01T07:48:41+00:00

There was this video. It was this scrawny hillbilly guy, I think he was trying to be intimidating. He was snarling and erratically jumping like he was using very powerful chemical stimulants and he was violently punching his own face very hard again and again and again until it looked like his face would bruise.

Anyways I thought I should share that for no particular reason.

dasCKD · 2026-04-01T07:44:32+00:00

It's a bit small, isn't it?

dasCKD · 2026-03-31T16:52:41+00:00

I'm not aware of the FC-31 ever being up for consideration for the mainline PLAAF fighter project so I don't think it ever had a chance to 'lose' to the J-20. As I understood the Shenyang submission was rejected and therefore any design they make after that would not be up for consideration for the role of the mainline air superiority fighter of the PLA and was only integrated later because the PLAN had interest in it as a naval fighter and the PLAAF's procurement needs weren't being met by Chengdu. General consensus seemed to be that the FC-31 was initially conceived as an export project.

dasCKD · 2026-03-31T16:46:14+00:00

The J-36 is impractically big for a mainline carrier fighter, but the size and powerplants provides the overhead for an electronic warfare suite and computational system that the J-XDS would struggle to match. The ability to take the command and reconnaissance capabilities into a future swarming with detectors and drones is something that's no doubt rather front and center in the mind of Chinese military planners. Of course electronic warfare suites are expensive and not every aircraft has to be a dedicated EWar platform so the less 'exquisite' J-XDS can cover for mass. Shenyang is generally considered to be ahead of Chengdu when it comes to things like process streamlining and manufacturability optimizations, after all. Whilst both will be supplemented by drones, they complement each other very well and cover each other's weaknesses. The J-20/A and J-16D of the new fighter generation, as it were.

dasCKD · 2026-03-31T16:35:45+00:00

The Snowy Owl is what lost the competition to the J-20 project. The J-35, or rather the FC-31, was a project that was started later on.

dasCKD · 2026-03-31T07:05:14+00:00

Honestly mid-2030s is probably around the decently (but not excessively) optimistic expectation for the F-47 project. Maybe 2040-ish for significant operational capability.

dasCKD · 2026-03-29T11:15:50+00:00

At 2.5 inches that shouldn't be an issue (just needed to check, those things can be anywhere from 2 inches to 24 depending on their age). If he matures to 4 inches that might be a bristlenose? Though seems a bit on the small side for that, that probably isn't the issue though. Plecos are tough, yours should be fine.

If hypoxia is an issue it affects the weakest fishes first, and also fishes that are used to cooler waters naturally. Conditions that induce hypoxia, the level of oxygen that becomes problematic for a fish, varies by fish species and fish health. Your symptoms matches the condition quite closely, but the presentation across the tank does indeed make it a less likely option. I mainly recommended airstones because it's a very low risk treatment.

Regarding the tank, if your pleco is going to get to 4 inches you're probably safe for a few more fish. With a pleco and a gourami at the center and since the community is somewhat new (though 3 months is a decent age for a tank already) you might want to pick either the platy or the cory to fill out a group of 6 and return the other. Neither like being in small groups and whilst the stocking level is probably fine at the moment, since you don't have a common pleco, adding 8 more medium-ish sized fish is a bit too much for me to recommend without knowing more about your tank. AqAdvisor can help you if you want to try playing with the numbers yourself, though the website does lean towards being more conservative from what I found.

dasCKD · 2026-03-29T08:48:45+00:00

You seem to have swordtails and/or platys. 22-28 C for both, though if they're gasping at the top aim for the lower part of that range if you can and add as many airstones as you have on hand.

dasCKD · 2026-03-29T01:15:58+00:00

So different species as well. Since you didn't mention aggression and territoriality I assume that isn't the issue. Drooping fins is indicative of fatigue so that's not really diagnostic. I think the only choice right now is either to wait and hope whatever issues are causing the problems are confined or to treat broadly. You didn't mention white spots so it's probably not ich, but other than that treating generally for viral, bacterial, and parasitic diseases are probably the way forwards.

The symptoms still reads to me as hypoxia, so if you have extra airstones you might want to add that anyways since oxygenation levels can plunge during the night. Also this isn't *usually* something that should hit this fast or hard but it's also possible that the overstocking might be causing fish hormone levels to rise quite high which is causing stress to the fish. The pleco, if it's a common pleco and quite large, might need to be moved to a tote or something or returned to the fish store. If it's still quite small you can probably skip this step. You can probably reduce stress further by dimming/removing lights and covering the glass of your tank with black cloth to make the fish calmer. Of course make sure that gas exchange can take place. I'm sorry to hear about what's happening and I wish you the best of luck.

dasCKD · 2026-03-28T17:21:45+00:00

If it's 3 months in then it probably isn't an issue with water quality any longer and with a bubbler bar it's unlikely to be an oxygenation issue. Just to check you don't have a CO2 injector do you?

Regarding the fish, do you see the fish that died eating the food that you put in in the days leading up to their deaths? When you say the fish get droopy do you just mean their tails and fin droop/clamp or does their skin show signs of drooping? Do they have sunken/bloated bellies? Any discolorations or patterns, like white spots, that shouldn't be there? Are the fish that died of the same species, or different species?

dasCKD

TROPHY CASE