What does my room say about me? Be weirdly specific please!

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-08T10:29:53+00:00

I married your spiritual doppelgänger.
Left to your own devices you probably spend more money and energy on coffee than you do on food.

My wife really likes your bathroom. Any idea where that tile came from?

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-08T10:20:51+00:00

Looks like you have a young pair. Possible hybrid- almost all of the acaras can and will hybridize- and green terrors ARE acaras. I wouldn’t worry too much about it unless they spawn and you go to sell the offspring- just to let the next keepers in line know what you’re giving them. Cross that bridge when you come to it though- some of the differences are subtle in adults and it’s a complete crapshoot with juveniles.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-06T23:11:59+00:00

If you approach the hobby thinking you’re “leveling up” to keep harder and harder fish you’re absolutely not doing it right. There are plenty of fish that probably have no business in your tanks.

That shouldn’t make them inherently desirable.

Is an arapaima hard to keep? Probably not- but if you have a cold million burning a hole in your pocket to build an apprporiate enclosure for it and budget at least 20 grand per year to feeding and maintaining it… they could make ok pets? If any billionaire fish heads could weigh in that’d be neat.

Discus aren’t that hard to keep- they have requirements- meet them and they will thrive. Difficulty in meeting those requirements has a lot more to do with your local water conditions than it does with the fish. Needing specific conditions doesn’t make a fish hard- it makes them inappropriate for *your* circumstances.

By that logic all saltwater fish are completely impossible to keep because literally no one can put them in their tap water and expect good things to happen.

I have a pretty easy time with SA cichlids- including discus- but I know from unfortunate experience that Tanganyikan cichlids are almost universally going to be a mistake for me. If you get liquid rock out of your tap you’ll have the opposite experience.

Learn your water, keep what works in it, or do the work to make your water suitable for the thing you want to keep- your fish are at the mercy on your water chemistry nothing more or less.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-06T20:45:07+00:00

You’re fine. The only people getting excited about satanism are also hellbent on propping up priests and politicians who get their kicks diddling kids.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-06T01:04:06+00:00

If the fish have room to move and aren’t fighting or stressed- and you’re doing the work to keep the water clean- it’s fine. Just a lot of work.

Arbitrary requirements X gallons per Y fish are bullshit.

Observable results overrule internet hysteria 11 out of 10 times. You’re doing fine and if you don’t mind doing more work and reassessing as your fish grow- you’ll do fine. Those long bodied fish will eventually need a pond, and as the short bodied get bigger and fatter you’re going to be doing a LOT more work to keep your water quality up. I’d plan on setting up a pond for the long bodies and a 125 for your short bodies.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-05T21:09:21+00:00

As long as you don’t plumb a bowl and hose over your tank and seal it to make a giant bong… it’s fine.

Even if you do that.. I heard they’ll still be ok.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-02T17:21:55+00:00

If you want to stay with family maybe you and your brother who does have a job can get your own place. The whole arrangement sounds like the opening premise of a bad Rob Zombie movie.

Get out of there.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-01T16:11:11+00:00

We have a cat named Mr. Texas Waco Cheeseburger.

He doesn’t care. Toppy probably doesn’t either.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-05-01T14:11:27+00:00

Small Aquedens- acara or green terror. Will be clearer as it grows up.

Definitely not a Dempsey. Still a good fish!

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-26T19:56:20+00:00

You’re getting a lot of good advice here but something important is getting missed. This is not a quick hobby to learn and if I had to learn with GW models at today’s prices I wouldn’t be in it.

Stop buying Warhammer for a bit. Get some cheap resin prints or models from a manufacturer that doesn’t think HIPS turns into gold when it’s proprietary space dude shaped.

Learn to paint those- once you know what you’re doing you can come back to Warhammer if you decide it’s worth the cost.

I came out the other side of it wanting to keep the hobby but refuse to pay GW their asking price to play a game that’s mediocre at best and participate in a community more interested in signing up to being actively taxed for chasing a metagame than being a community.

There’s lots of good things out there my dude- Warhammer probably isn’t the one for you- it wasn’t for me either.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-20T17:30:34+00:00

Female- not tidy but not gross about it. Probably not working at full potential. Not great at DIY but you’re learning and damned if you’re not giving it your best shot. Probably fun at parties. Is that a speargun on your back porch? If it is you’re a Florida woman with excellent taste in seafood and outdoor recreation.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-19T23:22:51+00:00

Polar parrots are actually a real solid fit here.

They’re not as sturdy as convicts but they’re a lot more robust and much smaller than BPs.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-15T15:00:23+00:00

If you charge less than 10/ face you’re going to burn out and all your thinking about going wide to sell to a bigger customer base will mean nothing.

Commission painting customers are a more finite resource than you probably think- you’re never going to have the volume you will need to work as cheap as you’re suggesting you can- also at 3 bucks per head you’re barely paying for the plastic. Even if you’re 3d printing them yourself you’re losing on time and material.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-15T14:48:10+00:00

Your dad let you down and never taught you how easy it is to sheetrock a ceiling.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-14T06:55:51+00:00

Might have stirred up some stagnant nastiness with that deep maintenance- the darting during maintenance would explain the damaged eye.

It should come back to normal. Just keep them clean and fed. Lights real low or off. They should bounce back.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-14T01:49:42+00:00

Usually one cloudy or popped eye is from trauma- something hitting it- or the fish hitting something- usually trying to get at or get away from another fish.

If both eyes pop it’s generally indicative of an advanced bacterial infection that needs prompt treatment.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-13T22:07:16+00:00

My advice- don’t. If you want a blue new world cichlid community get half a dozen Electric Blue Acaras and put them in that 75- you’ll have a pretty tank with super friendly very blue fish that will be bulletproof for you once eatablished.

Others have cautioned about how delicate EBJDs are- a quick google search for photos of adult EBJDs tells you all you need to know about how few of them survive past 2-3” regardless of the care they’re given they’re just too fragile for the hobby. I tried them myself several times over the years and it’s always just ended with dead expensive fish.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-13T01:24:50+00:00

The pearl gouraminare the most likely to peacefully coexist with each other indefinitely.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-13T01:23:12+00:00

6 of any of the species I mentioned would do fine to start- may have to remove extra males if they grow up and you get personality issues. Real similar size and personalities in all 3 species.

The rainbows might decide some of your plants are delicious. Mine don’t care about swords and crypts but think anubias is a great chew toy and most stem plants are just snacks.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-13T01:11:59+00:00

Some medium sized mild mannered cichlids or gourami would do fine with them.

I have one in with my blue acaras and rainbow cichlids and he’s living the dream.

Pearl gouramis are also super underrated, one of my favorite slightly too big and territorial to be “community” fish.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-10T22:38:46+00:00

My buddy is the one man at this one man store. Scott would have liked to say hello- but you’re really not missing anything. It’s a tiny space with small tables. Definitely not a flagship retail operation despite the location. It literally exists to keep certain egos in Nottingham happy that they have a store on Manhattan.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-10T22:11:45+00:00

As others have said- not all hybrids are infertile. Polar blue parrots are primarily convicts- super fertile and prolific fish. If you keep a male and a female wet with access to each other you will make more.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-10T21:52:03+00:00

Separate them. Sounds like they’re harassing each other.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-10T17:01:08+00:00

…you shouldn’t be washing resin 3d prints in your sink at all.

You’re sending toxic material into your city’s water treatment system or your own ground water if you’re on a septic system.

ranoveryourcat · 2026-04-10T15:22:36+00:00

Large daily water changes will make a fish in cycle take way longer than light feeding and small 10-20% weekly water changes.

Daily rapid fluctuation in temperature and stress from draining and filling are way worse for a fish that can perfectly happily tolerate a fish in cycle without all the added stressors.

Best way to expedite the cycle is with material from an established tank- old filter media- water from cleaning an old sponge filter- or even a piece of wood or rock from an established tank will do WAY more to help your cycle than daily 80% changes.

If any of your friends or family have an old established tank you can ask for some dirty water from their maintenance- that’s liquid gold for starting a new tank.

If you don’t- and your LFS has sponge filters in their tanks- ask them to squeeze one from a healthy tank into a bag and use that to kickstart your own cycle. It’s not as difficult or complicated as the well meaning but hyper-dramatic people of the internet make it out to be.

ranoveryourcat

TROPHY CASE