Recent content by The_Labyrinth

Pictures of my new guys. I got them a little over a week ago and I believe it is 2 males, one very old and 1 very young. I see nothing 'female' about the smaller one. However, they are adapting very well and get along great. Each day they come out to free swim more and more. I'm looking for...

It looks like the weight of the tank is making your camlock hole (intial location) shift and it wided the hole. Typical for partical board. Someone suggested to not let that get wet at all and that is good advice as particle board will absorb moisture and get weaker. Overall, do not be too...

Well said. I generally choose to keep just about any other species other than the Blue Gourami variants (Blue, Opaline or 3-spot) and I can usually freely mix/match them with little to no issues. You will get more aggressive individuals on occassion, but nothing that you can claim that you...

I agree if one is unable to give time to time. Exactly, the 'source' of the water needs to change to do effective water changes.... adding not-so-great water during your water changes introduces other problems which is not always a good solution, better to give the existing water time to...

Yes, that is why this is an example of balancing the good with the bad. If introducing water to decrease ammonia and nitrates, that also creates increased nitrites from the tap source - one needs to be careful. Getting rid of the nitrites is difficult. If you are doing water changing to...

And sometimes your filtered air is much better than the outside, because it is 'conditioned'. Perfect example is a post that I just commented on where the person's tap water introduces more nitrates than the standing and conditioned tank water. More to it than that - but sometimes you make it...

Late to the game here, but it sounds like a typical example of excess water changing doing more harm than good. Getting rid of your previous substrate certainly did not help. It is imperative that you patiently let the natural biological cycle happen again (but do not let the ammonia and...

Look up the definition of 'stagnant'. Filtered aquarium water is certainly not stagnant, and then add in the biological, mechanical, chemical and environmental (plants, driftwood, etc.). Assuming a lot of people live in air-conditioned homes and seldom, if ever, open windows to let in a...

Ummm, never in my life of 50 years of fishkeeping (except once for a salt water aquarium crash with bad liverock) have I ever done a 50% change or more in a week. 20% weekly is recommended, 30% if you missed a week. I might do a 20%+20% in a breeding tank during a week's time, but let's not...

The 3rd picture, yes... just an ordinary run of the mill betta female.

My measurement of success is indeed having a community tank that I really do not need to mess with too much. I always have other side projects, breeding tanks etc, which require constant hands-on. But yes, you are on track with what you say... sit back and just enjoy your tank at times. With...