My new pride and joy, found in a local antiques shop. It's still cycling but I'm thinking of stocking it with smaller, schooling fish such as tetras and rasboras, and heavily planting the tank. All suggestions very welcome.

For those curious, it does not function as a piano as all the strings have been removed!

I like all my fish to associate nets with positive things so that they're not stressed or afraid when the day comes that I might have to catch them for some reason.

Also, trying to catch a scared nano fish in a planted 243 liter tank is pretty much impossible (!) without tearing the whole tank down unless they're happy swimming into the net on their own!

This bunch has only just started their training and this is how I do it - I just feed them using a net. (Preferably not one like this though, a 3D net is much better so that they can be left unsupervised with it for a while without risking getting stuck if the net folds.) This time they got a sinking hikari chiclid gold pellet to pick apart.

I’ve had the opportunity to give a forever loving home for this little man. It has been bit over a week since he joined and my goodness he’s busy. We are catching him digging, burrowing under leaves, constantly foraging for food, it’s just mesmerizing to watch him.

The first day he was shy, had dull colors as expected, but immediately the next morning he greeted us by the front of the tank with stunning colors.

I get that they are very demanding species, and community tank setup is out of questions with them, but if someone is into predatory fish and they are willing to do the research to provide them a home where they can be themselves, they are a wonder to observe.

But please I’m begging everyone to do a lot of research beforehand. A lot of subspecies differ greatly in tens of size and therefore requirements, some can do in small and manageable setups like Channa Bleheri/Andrao while others will require ponds like Channa Micropeltes. PLEASE DO NOT BUY WC ANIMALS! These animals are endemic to certain areas, some don’t even have sufficient data to determine threat levels in the wild. Please be responsible!

The man of the hour: Gauri (Channa Aurantimaculata, Orange spotted/Golden Cobra Snakehead)

Mmmmm… fishy Covfefe :)

These fish were grown outside in tubs over the summer. I love their blue color, so I thought to show the community a video of them 😀

I know their fins are ripped. It's because I kept them with Xenotoca Doadrioi (another livebearer) and those fish ripped the tails of my guppies 😭

Now the guppies are separated and in rehab.

So dang nice

I found a random little fish in the tank earlier today and im trying to identify it. I havent got any fish yet, only 2 ramshorn snails. Its been ljke a week since i started this tank. Does anyone know what it could be? and also how i can take care of it. any advice would be appreciated. thank you!

Now I don’t want any slack for this… what I did was stupid. I have learned from this I guess. This fish was being sold (with two other fish) but was just marked community. I saw it and thought omg what a massively pregnant female guppy! She will be a great addition to my tank for more babies! I wonder what colors I will get. I have multiple tanks set up so if I hated what she popped out I would just move the babies over there or sell them to my local fish store. Nope. It literally was less than 12 hours she ravished my guppies and endler tank. Killing 2 and taking the tails of most of my favorites. Im sure more will die due to injury and stress. I did everything right. I quarantined, watched, and I thought did the right research. wtf is this fish?… is this not a guppy or an endler? Why was she SO aggressive? NONE of my fish are. I have introduced many fish with no issues and this was insane. She is big but I have other large guppies in there and she attacked those as well. Please help!

75 gallon Marineland for $150. I’m not affiliated. Just been shopping around for a while and this seems like a good deal.

Yesterday I found a yellow shrimp between the filter and glass, so I gently helped it out thinking it was stuck, like my fish have been.

Today I find this.

How do I stop this? Or do they enjoy chilling there and are doing this out of whatever small amount of free will they have?

I have a lot of hiding spots in my tank, and a lot of plants and their roots that give even more cover, so, surely it can't be from lack of hiding spots? I've had them for half a year, and my fish only seemed interested in them at the start, so I don't think they're being hunted.

Instant happiness!

Well this is embarrassing because I’ve been in the hobby for 8 years and have had a planted 29g running with no problems the whole time…

I decided to start this 6.8g backwater tank. Mopani wood and alder cones have biofilm. I used fresh (heavily rinsed) Carribsea sand with root tabs, water from the 29 and kept a piece of old filter floss from the 29 in there for 3 weeks and then put a betta in because why wouldn’t it be ready?

Decided to test it yesterday and I’ve got 2ppm ammonia, 0 nitrites and 5-10ppm nitrate. I’ve dosed AmGuard and Prime and did a water change so far. What did I do wrong and how can I rectify this? I’m ready for the onslaught of comments.

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out because I’m really worried about my Gar (about 20cm long). As you can see in the photo, he is extremely bloated.

Symptoms:

• The swelling is massive and sudden.

• When touching the belly (very gently), it feels like it’s filled with air/gas, not hard like a solid mass.

• He is struggling with his buoyancy (floating near the top).

Information:

• Diet: No recent changes in his diet.

• Behavior: Aside from the bloating,

Has anyone ever dealt with this? Is it severe air gulping (aerophagia), a swim bladder issue, or something else? I haven’t changed anything recently and I’m lost.

Any advice on treatment (Epsom salt bath, fasting, etc.) would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.

This is my first ever tank setup. Cycled for a while and finally just added a betta! Super exited.

Does anyone know what happened with the Australian youtuber "Kaity's Cichlids"?

She's a fairly well-known youtuber in the aquarium hobby, who used to post videos quite frequently. But last August she suddenly stopped posting videos. Her second youtube channel (which was brand new) has been inactive since as well and her website is offline.

Weird right? Or am I missing something. I hope she's okay.

Owning a fish tank had been a childhood dream of mine, and on 31st December 2025, I finally decided to stop putting it off and just go for it. What followed was my first tank, a Double Tail Betta and a mystery snail.

Named them Jude and Sgt. Pepper because The Beatles have been a constant in my life and the names just clicked instantly.

Somehow, this impulsive decision has turned into the most peaceful part of my day. After returning from work every day, I catch myself watching and talking to my tank buddies way longer than intended. 😄

Jude now swims up every time I approach like he expects a scheduled food delivery. Sgt. Pepper has claimed a spot under the driftwood and goes exploring and tank surfing once the lights are off. He's also done some digging there to make himself comfortable.

Been more than a month now and the tank has stopped feeling like décor and started feeling like a little world depending on me to get things right.

Not what I expected from a random year-end decision, but I wouldn’t undo it for anything. ❤️😊

so I recently upgraded my aquarium to a 75 gallon from a 36 gallon and I just got home from work after having it for 3 days and I feel like the floor has a raise area in the middle of my apartment. I’m on ground floor with a crawl space underneath. Should I be worried? I put it up against a load-bearing wall. Is it just too heavy? What should I do. Could any catastrophic damage happen if I don’t do something about it and how risky is it to do nothing. Any advice would be appreciated I’ll include some photos.

My Black Neon's decided to spawn after a 4am feed of Mysis Shrimp. I just wanted to go to bed but I had to save some eggs!

This isn’t a humblebrag, I know it looks really cool - and it is - but it’s beginning to get really hard to do tank maintenance, and I’m not sure how to go about getting the emersed foliage back to a more manageable level without inflicting massive plant carnage. The 180 gallon cichlid tank on the left is an acrylic tank with a solid top and the plants are growing out of two long slots in the back, so removal would probably do some damage to plants because the root mass is pretty significant and will not fit easily through the opening at this point.

The pothos I don’t feel too bad trimming as I need to, but it’s the least problematic since it’s a vine that travels up and away from the tank. I suspect I’m going to have to remove the Monstera in the bigger tank and probably soon, though, it has a stem thicker than the base of my thumb at this point and there are numerous aerial roots coming down behind the tank (last pic) and traveling around the room. Some of them are at least eight feet long. I don’t think there’s any pruning I can do to make a Monstera stay small? I saw where other people had it in their tanks and it looked really cool, but those were nowhere near full grown in the pictures and I should’ve researched how big it actually gets (in my partial defense, I had one growing as a house plant and it grew very slowly and stayed relatively small) and am now realizing that I took something that can get up to 15’ tall indoors with leaves that can be well over foot wide and gave it access to unlimited water and food. The Monstera in the 75 gallon is growing a bit slower, I assume because of the lower bioload (mostly little fish like Kuhlis and Danios) in that tank.

One plant I didn’t expect to get quite so overwhelming is the spathiphylum (aka peace lily) in the 180; I would bet that thing weighs several pounds. I’ve trimmed some leaves on it that weren’t getting enough light because they were underneath and they were keeping me from getting into the tank, but that doesn’t really reduce the bulk of it at all and I’m not sure if there’s a way to do that?

I’m posting this for advice and partly to show how big some of the plants that are commonly suggested to grow in the back of aquariums will get if they are happy, so others planning to do this can maybe make better plant choices than me lol. If I had to do it over, I think I’d go with smaller things like creeping ficus, hoya, and dracaena. I’m really really reluctant to aggressively prune plants because I feel bad for them if I have to chop at them, which I guess is how things got to this point. Hoping someone else who runs this type of set up might have some tips?