Fish forum virgin...

[MozNE]

The tank with its old owners setup

[MozNE]

A guppy male I bred

[Fishtales]

Great photos @MozNE I really wish I had took a photo of Little Boy my Sailfin when I first got him. They really do sprout in size the first year or two! Mine was like a tadpole when I brought him home, lol James is a very handsome boy.

Yes they poop a lot, they force you to get a bigger tank, need the filtration of a gazillion little fish and you have to build your own caves that they can fit in but just look at them!

After spending more time around my tank which is in the spare sitting room I have found he is so much more sociable with me. He will stay out when I am sat right up to the tank and comes out to eat during the day. Do you find the same thing with James? I am thinking yes since you have managed to get a lovely pic of him Have you tried him with Butternut Squash? Mine loves it, I boil a chunk for a few minutes to soften it and run it under cold water

[MozNE]

I've never tried him with any veggies yet but my lfs have told me to try him with something new and exciting to him, I assume my corydora will enjoy it too, (3x Sterbai 2x Albino 2x Clown). My fish are great most of them will hand feed especially the guppies and Gourami. And my Pleco will feed from tongs.
James loves to sit out in the open, I spend hours each day watching them, just sat by the tank. My dogs often watch them too.

Currently I'm using an ef1000 which will cycle roughly every 20minutes. And I'm still deciding on wether to build a sump with 2000 lph flow rate for my 180 gallon. I'll be transfering James into there so he can be the centre piece for my display/show tank.

I'm currently watching videos on an underwater waterfall, I'm going to start getting everything designed and structures built/placed to provide plenty space for everyone that's going in there.

Best to over prepare right?

Just unsure if my honey and 3 spot Gourami would fair well as tank mates to the pea puffers (I'm planning 10 so plenty of space).

My vision is to have it like a jungle with vines (driftwood), trees (probably long leaf java) and moss. A few of my Buddah statues placed in there and of course my waterfall and some rocks, with a planted substrate (an inch of each gravel and soil) with guppy grass and dwarf hair grass carpeting the front.

[Fishtales]

Wow! Your plans sound amazing @MozNE I haven't heard of an underwater waterfall before but love the sound of it. Your fish are going to be so lucky, all of the planting and wood will give them so much to explore and lots of shelter.

I think I need to spend more time with LB before I can try feeding him with tongs, but it just shows the kind of relationships you can build with your fish.

Cory are mainly carnivores but still might eat some veg. My aeneus cory might have a little nibble but aren't overly interested in veg. Also you may find your pleco just prefers his veg raw. I boiled it for a couple of minutes because he didn't show an interest in it when I tried it raw. He really likes raw red, orange and yellow bell peppers though.

Currently my filtration is 2 x Aqua One aquis 1050 external filters and 1 x Aqua One Ocellaris 850 on my 5ft tank. My Sailfin is approx 11in and nearly 3yr old. His growth length wise is much slower now, but he is still growing and is filling out, very chunky. I will have 6 juvenile clown loach joining the tank from quarantine after Christmas. This means in about a year I will probably look at upgrading my filtration by about 1000lt. Especially as they will still be in the 5ft tank.

As your tank will be much bigger a sump would make sense. I confess I don't really understand sumps and am a bit scared of them, so even when I manage to upgrade my tank I doubt it will be something I will use.

And yes definitely better to over prepare or you end up with a tank like mine

[Ric]

A guppy male I bred

Beautiful flame colours

[MozNE]

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Beautiful flame colours
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Thanks, he's already fathered his own batch at 4 months it crazy to believe how fast they breed, I bought a tuxedo male to breed with the offspring from the babies. And I'll breed this fella with the babies from him to my existing trio of year old females.

[Gingerlove05]

Its around 3-4 months a lot of fish (particularly most of the livebearers) develop into male/female and can start breeding. Even our apisto fry tried breeding and laid eggs at around 4 months
They dont hang around