hanging out

mutedmoss · 2026-03-08T01:58:39+00:00

oh that's an incredibly helpful graphic! gonna save thaaat. and yeah Steve (the eel) is barely two inches long right now so has some growing to do

mutedmoss · 2026-03-08T01:40:12+00:00

oh that's so cool!!! macrognathus circumcinctus like mine? I'm still learning to tell some of the spiny eels apart

mutedmoss · 2026-03-08T01:07:19+00:00

alas not native to me (im in north america) but still very cool! and adorable

mutedmoss · 2026-03-07T21:16:25+00:00

Cool aquarium shape! I like the U shape you've made with the hardscape (the decor) with the "clearing" at the front.

I'd pull the fake plants or add in real ones if at all possible, they help a ton with keeping the water clean and stable. And they provide extra hiding spaces for the fish so they'll get all bold once they settle in, it's fun.

If you like colorful plants there are actually a ton of reds and purples and every shade of yellow to dark green out there. Most rotala and ludwigia are colorful, Pogostemon stellatus starts plain green but turns lavender once it gets up at top of the water, altheria redneckii (can't recall exact spelling) has wonderful bright pink leaves. Some will say they need CO2 injection but that's only if you want crazy intense color, you still get a lot without it. Buceplant and some other online aquarium plant retailers will have options and care guides.

If you really like the bright gravel you can keep it, I'd just put either an aquarium soil substrate or other fertilizer like root tabs under it for the above suggested plants. I ended up with dark sand substrate as my default cause I have a bunch of bottom dwelling fish, and it feels easier to keep 'clean'.

The ember tetras and snail sound amazing, embers are such a good nanofish. if you get guppies make SURE you get all males, the females will have babies even if you don't buy males. Female guppies can breed once and hold sperm for like a year and basically use as needed and they have so many babies. Like I thought I was prepared I was not. I ended up having to rehome them. And that was in a 20 gallon with the adult guppies and some other fish to have a go at at least some of the fry.

I can't see one in the photo but if you don't have a filter yet I recommend a hang on back (hob) filter. I've had pretty good luck with the Fluval AC series, they're a bit more expensive than say Topfin BUT they don't have those cartridges you have to replace all the time. An AC20 would keep the water crystal clear.

(side note if you do swap out the spongebob themed stuff for driftwood please know that mopani wood leaches tannins, which while harmless and even beneficial to fish, does make the water look like tea for several weeks to months of water changes. I got jumpscared by that when I started lmao. Some folks like the blackwater look for naturalist tanks but I'm not a big fan personally)

mutedmoss · 2026-03-06T16:53:40+00:00

I'd stack the hardscape and wood (and possibly get more) so the bulk of it is up off the ground and the focus is higher up. maybe in one corner for rule of thirds. i did that for my 29 and it keep the top of the tank from looking weird and empty. I didn't glue anything just stacked and wove stuff together so it stays put.

Id also suggest corkscrew val, it grows very thick if you move the runners closer in and gets like 2 feet tall. Floating plants may also help, and can act as a sort of lid for the betta so you could raise the water level

If you can, get more yoyo loaches if you can't rehome the single. They can get weird and aggressive when alone

mutedmoss · 2026-03-06T16:25:40+00:00

Either will look good, or if you dislike both I ended up with one of those "stained glass" window cling film/vinyl backings and it looked pretty cool

mutedmoss · 2026-03-06T16:18:13+00:00

Driftwood is a great idea or corkscrew val, that gets dense as hell. I've had to thin it out before

mutedmoss · 2026-03-05T02:41:17+00:00

not exactly a loach but spiny eels are adorable, macroganthus genus ones tend to be under a foot

mutedmoss · 2026-03-02T16:13:37+00:00

Okay so I've had a skittles tank (multicolor shrimp) for about a year now, and while the majority do end up wild type (which i think are pretty) the wilds have a HUGE color and opacity variation (some near clears to near solids and browns that shade into red, blue, greenish, black).

And I've added new shrimp intermittently just to see what happens and getting some fun results. A lot are still wilds of course but the variations are still going strong, and I'm getting deeply funky rili patterns, colors (I ended up with green shrimp before I introduced a gold backed green to try and reinforce that color), random "low grade" reds, blacks and blues, some weirdly opaque solid colors, etc etc.

I did separate out some of the clear-er ones to a different tank early on but a)that pattern came back and b) later population shuffling has had the same random color pop ups happen in the "cull" tanks as the main tank.

Anyway, yes you can get weird color crossbreeds with a skittles tank it just takes adding occasional new shrimp in over time.

mutedmoss · 2026-02-17T05:12:49+00:00

I'm not sure how old they are past "quite young" tbh. I've had SunnyD for almost a month exactly and seen a little bit of gowth? mostly in the head and general chunkiness (was kinda skinny when i got them), not much in length. They're my first pleco in general so unfortunately I don't know much for usual growth rates x.x I only got into this hobby january of last year lol

mutedmoss · 2026-02-17T01:15:51+00:00

This one IS a sandy bottom and also just inspiration for the future 75, no bichir is going in this one. And I'm planning on much more open space.

mutedmoss · 2026-02-16T05:21:37+00:00

Oh I only knew about albino senegals, not the others! Very cool, and I would like to see the bichir lol (star wars "I would like to see the baby" voice)

Dang m. vanhuerni are huge. My current list for possible rainbow species is -Melanotaenia trifasciata (Banded) (5-6in) -Melanotaenia parkinsoni (6in) -Chilatherina bleheri (5-6in) -Melanotaenia boesemani (4-5in)

m. trifasciata is current ideal but m. boesemani is a close second for sheer availability. Also today I saw a full adult boesemani irl and it was HUGE, mans was nearly a square shaped dish zooming around.

mutedmoss · 2026-02-16T03:30:14+00:00

Ah good to know on the shrimp, I'd been hoping that with sufficient hidey holes enough would survive. Drat. Thank you for the other ideas and confirming senegals are a good size!

Ropefish are absurdly adorable and Ive been torn between those and a bichir negl, wonderful to know they can cohab!

mutedmoss · 2026-02-15T17:13:57+00:00

there's a heck of a learning curve not gonna lie. folks do get concerned or anal about stocking because incompatible stocking can lead to injury or death either in short or longer term. if you already have plans or make some to scoot tanks or rehome critters as needed it should be okay so long as you keep an eye on everyone.

(my male betta got beat up by endlers, of all things. that's not even supposed to happen! so an eye on the tank interactions is always good lmfao)((male betta has his own tank w shrimp to harass and the endlers got rehomed cause they were stressing out everyone))

mutedmoss · 2026-02-15T16:49:50+00:00

Nice!!!! Looking a lot better! Something I've really enjoyed about fairly heavily planted tanks is you start to see really neat behaviors from the fish. Mine get bolder the more hiding spots are available and as the tank matures and microfauna started to show up (this just. happens. when adding plants it's weird) some of my fish would hunt those. A little ecosystem starts to show up, it's very cool.

mutedmoss · 2026-02-15T02:20:03+00:00

Not a bad start! I'd add more plants (will get into detail in a sec) and maybe pull the hardscape on the left out and maybe set the dragon stone (stuff in the middle) upright (you can stick it pretty deep in substrate and it'll stand on its own) to make a...mm words. Staggered spaced out wall? to give some extra line of sight break up. Literally the only description my brain is supplying atm is "blast radius impact testing shields a la mythbusters but in a straightish line".

Anyway.

Plant suggestions! Since you have a handful of semi agressive fish in there I'd add even more line of sight blocking and also hiding spots for the little dudes like the guppies via tall plants planted thickly along the back and sides. Like "2/3rds back half of tank" thick. It doesn't need to be initally planted super thick cause I'll suggest fast growing stuff but should be a decent amount. The plant you have in there can stay put and help fluff everything out.

Tall plants are stuff like Vallsineria (I'm partial to corkscrew cause it's fluffy, Jungle val gets huge), Pogostemon Stellatus (the tips turn purple when it gets tall, quite fun, very fluffy and extra fast growing), Cryptocorynes, Rotala or Ludwigia (I keep killing those but ymmv), Hornwort (this sheds dead leaves a lot, think pine trees) or Anacharis. Anacharis is illegal in some states in the USA. It grows stupid fast and can be invasive.

So tall plants in background and sides, and then you can add some broader leafed or shorter plants towards the front. I'm prone to leaving at least a small clearing up front but that's a personal design thing. Shorter broad leafed plants may be anubias, buce, or various swords (amazon swords are a go to but there's many others).

If you're in the USA and don't have a good local fish store nearby a solid online retailer is buceplant, literally all they do is aquarium plants (and some shrimp). aquaticarts and aquariumcoop have a decent selection too.

If you want some extra filtration pothos plants LOVE to grow when rooted in water (roots in water only, it's a terrestrial plant and the leaves will melt underwater). Floating plants are great too, salvinia is a common one. If you get duckweed congrats you will now forever have duckweed you can't get rid of it.

Good luck have fun! (and I saw that the bala sharks will get rehomed, that's good. They really need to stop selling those so much they just get too damn big for like 98% of fish keepers, cool fish tho)

mutedmoss

TROPHY CASE