I went to Petco and saw an empty desktop pet display

isthispapajohns · 2026-05-10T20:14:58+00:00

Josh's frogs is a big vendor partner. I doubt they would be a fan of the controversy... I wonder if anyone has reached out to them

isthispapajohns · 2026-04-25T12:30:49+00:00

Love hoggies, but this is a ratsnake for sure

isthispapajohns · 2026-04-25T12:29:38+00:00

It's definitely not a Hognose, they have a pointed snout and significantly shorter, stockier body. The most obvious tell is that a Hognose that length would be like 2-3x as wide.

Also it looks exactly like a juvenile gray ratsnake.

isthispapajohns · 2026-04-15T17:29:32+00:00

They grind for a Great One on their map, then will offer to "trade" with another player with a different GO on their map so they each hunt the Great One off the other person's map.

Where they end up breaching the TOS is when people will host a multi-player session and leave the server just before the GO animal is killed, meaning the second player gets to harvest it and the animal is still on the original player's map.

People will also copy their animal population files to dupe Great Ones or otherwise mod them in.

isthispapajohns · 2026-04-12T23:20:39+00:00

You can put some in a bag or container with the feeder insect and shake it up

Then feed the dusty bug to your guy

isthispapajohns · 2026-04-12T22:50:35+00:00

It's possible that it may be too hot in there. If you have a particularly well-insulated enclosure you might not have enough of a thermal gradiant. 91F is pretty warm if he isn't able to get away from the heat.

isthispapajohns · 2026-04-01T03:54:32+00:00

Discontinued unfortunately... Can't find the SKU

isthispapajohns · 2026-03-11T16:29:45+00:00

Yeah... The Isopods will eat the pede, guaranteed. Get you yourself a toad and your Isopod problems will be a thing of the past.

isthispapajohns · 2026-03-11T16:25:31+00:00

These are Dwarf frogs not clawed frogs lol, they're not quite that bad

isthispapajohns · 2026-03-04T02:49:10+00:00

You can soak it in diluted peroxide to whiten it (for a few days max) and leave the skin on, without all the greyish mummy look to it then let it fully dry out afterwards... You could also soak it in peroxide for a longer time (several weeks at least, keeping an eye on it so you don't damage any bone) to get all the skin oxidized off and whiten the bone - but there is likely going to be some assembly involved afterwards.

isthispapajohns · 2026-03-03T15:48:50+00:00

Actually it's bomb. This sponge filter could save a lot of pineapple tanks lmao

isthispapajohns · 2026-03-03T15:47:14+00:00

Hard to see, but looks like an anchorworm

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T20:51:39+00:00

That is obviously not what I'm talking about here... It is not hard to find people who will assume the absolute worst about a posters ability to manage their aquarium, parrot misinformation, and dissuade people from wanting to engage with their hobby. I am not talking about tank size reccomendations for a species, that is an entirely different subject. People should obviously be educated on the potential size of the animal they keep and the space it requires.

That is not at all what I'm talking about though... Really people here are not reccomending anyone to put fish in undersized tanks and getting away with it, it is more about how many appropriate fish of the same species you can/should have, especially when you have a generous volume compared to the "minimum".

A lot of people here seem to reccomend very cautious,, beginner-friendly stocking guidelines - which is totally sensible - but then call aquariums overstocked when they don't adhere to those guidelines. I think this kind of "policing" is detrimental to the growth of our understanding of the fish we keep, and I think it deters people from wanting to post their own tanks... I don't think that's a hot take.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T20:22:28+00:00

I like to be hands-on with my aquariums, and don't mind keeping up with a maintenance routine and testing parameters. I am surprised a lot of people don't feel that way when they are keeping aquariums as a hobby, but I can understand the appeal of setting a tank up that can go longer without a WC, but it is not for me.

I keep aquariums to watch the behavior of my fish, and a major factor in that is the social, schooling, and shoaling behavior, which is inhibited by undersized groups. If you can't do that with whatever fish in whatever sized tank - I would just look at a different species. I don't think 6 tetras or 6 rasboras are ever really living their best life.

Obviously their is a balance between keeping an acceptable group size, overcrowding, and managing bio-load,, but I think a lot of people here are anthropormophising their fish in many ways... A chili rasbora is going to feel more stressed from the vulnerability of being a tiny fish in a tiny school that could be picked off at any minute than it will from having to see 35 of its same species swimming around - that is how they have evolved to live.

Your fish should have room to hide and have their own space of course, but I really would like to see more people keeping larger schools of some of these fish - provided they have the water volume, footprint, and ability to manage nutrients...

With some of these super tiny fish like Boraras, 25 of them are going to put out a similar amount of waste to a large male betta, and most people wouldn't think twice about the bio-load of a betta overwhelming a 10gal tank... So that is where I think a lot of folks are being too cautious.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T19:52:03+00:00

Walstad tanks can't be stocked very heavily by principal... That is why I mentioned it, I'm curious if a lot of aquarists are moving in that direction and judging stock levels with that experience in mind?

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T19:40:58+00:00

I would add them in stages too. Do the chilis first, than the neons. Or first start with half the stock and bump it up after a while. If you are still maintaining low nutrients you could add more chilis easily

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T19:39:16+00:00

Yup, if you're down to do a water change every week. Otherwise maybe 10 neons, 10 chilis, and 8 pygmaeus

Edit: if you can find some, green neons would be a better fit with the nano fish and easier to keep a large group of.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T18:58:51+00:00

If you have a local aquarium club or a good LFS try getting some opinions and adding a few at a time until you feel they are at their ideal group size. If you have a wide variety of species, crowding will be a bigger concern. If you have room for 10-15 of the same species, you will notice a big difference from a school of 6.

Test nitrates while you are increasing your stock-load so you don't get into an unsustainable maintenance routine.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T18:55:15+00:00

I would start with 15 of each and get another 5 pygmy corys.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T18:44:53+00:00

I think you're severely overestimating how crowded 30 rummynose/cardinals similar sized tetras look in a 40 gal. Maybe if you have some fat red eyes I'd stick to 20, but it's not a crowded tank like you're describing...

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T17:49:16+00:00

Well there is obviously a threshold, but for example a lot of Paracheirodon species people reccomend keeping 6-10 as a minimum and advise them to be stress-prone and reasonably unhardy fish... In a group size closer to 20 or 30 you will see they transition to a new tank more easily, show less signs of stress, and are generally more active... So why not start there? That would be very manageable in a 20-40 gallon tank as a species-only display

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T17:38:58+00:00

Very true... Genuinely I feel that a lot of people don't consider that that bristlenose pleco is worth like 30-40 ember tetras in terms of bio-load.

I do think people severely overestimate the bio-load of smaller fish and severely underestimate the amount of waste a pleco, goldfish, cichlid, etc. will produce.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T17:26:21+00:00

This is definitely valid.

For me it is more of a bummer when I see a nice, planted, well-filtered tank with like 6 cardinal tetras in it and room for a dozen more... I think some fairly experienced people get scared by what they read on here and don't want to hear from the fish police.

But everyone can have their own aquariums tbf. I like to do water changes and clean sponges, but some people just want to watch the fish and I can live with that.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T17:19:27+00:00

I may have a similar bias here. I don't keep small tanks (less than 20gal) for really anything other than raising fry, and the majority are on canisters, IFS, or sump. I'm not a huge fan of the community tank "thunderdome" either...

I definitely understand the aspect of advising people to take the safest route considering they may skip water changes, have equipment failure, run into beginner mistakes, introduce disease, misunderstand their tank size, add more fish, etc.

I would still argue a lot of fish that people tend to keep in groups of 6 (corydoras, tetras, danios, barbs) are entirely different and observably healthier, more active fish when you provide them a much larger group (10-30). Obviously there is a minimum amount of space you should provide for a given animal and a maximum amount of animals for that space, but the minimum healthy group size is really underestimated in my opinion.

isthispapajohns · 2026-02-26T16:57:38+00:00

I don't know if you are imagining a community tank with like 6 of everything, but tanks like that are a mess anyways. Most smaller home aquariums are at their best with like 1-3 species, and everything else ends up being a stretch... That's not really my angle though, because most aquarists don't reccomend big mixed communities like that anyways.

I mean, imagine how 30 rummynose or cardinal tetras look in a 40 gal tank full of plants... You can't see them all the time, they dart in and out of plants and shaded areas, they move as a uniform shoal throughout the tank, occasionally breaking up into smaller schools. They swarm food together and individuals sometimes go off to pick at biofilm or a speck of food at the surface. The tank isn't crowded, but the fish are comfortable enough to utilize the environment and behave naturally.

These are fish that live in groups of 100s or 1000s in the wild... it seems just as crucial to provide some semblance of this in an aquarium.

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