Devi

I wouldn’t use leftover foam, as someone mentioned, you don’t know whats been on it, could be dyed or treated in a way you don’t want, but absolutely don’t buy the replacement either, you can buy filter foam in big sheets and just cut off whatever you need.

Just to illustrate because I assume we’re not in the same country, this is what I mean.

What were they getting stuck on in the tank as it was? It still looks really bare. Maybe it’s all in the breeding.

Because of how fancies are deformed swimming can be a real struggle. Things like swimming upside down happen less when they have resting spots as in a heavily planted tank or you can buy betta logs or leaves.

Fish would also prefer a busier environment above a bare one.

I like how at first the darker collie and the little dog were really nervous but you just kept calm and repeated your movements in a really predictable way to settle them. You can see the realisation dawning on the collies face when he realises what’s happening and is like “Ah yes, I understand”.

Great trust building.

Looks like a livebearer, can’t really say further than that but I’m going with the guppy guessers.

What species are we considering ‘finger monkeys’ here? Cause there’s three species in the video that I can see. Nevermind that ‘finger monkey’ isn’t a name for any of them.

So I had the easy tanks as a kid, the neglected goldfish in a bowl, the guppy breeding tank, but then I got a job in an aquarium, I made friends with an octopus, and got my first saltwater tank. I will say that for a few months I was reading everything I could and wrapping my head around it all. I think that’s the key, just reading like mad.

I got an all in one kit from my LFS, so I knew everything worked together, and at first I set it up with the rock, sand, and water and just chilled, I watched the tank, allowed it to cycle, and enjoyed all the hitchikers. I continued reading.

I accidentally got an SPS coral as a hitchiker so that accelerated my coral journey, but I bought things around 6 weeks in, then first fish like 8 weeks? CUC was probably 2-4 weeks.

If you go in, do no research, and just do whatever, then you’ll struggle, but if you read then it’s not really hard at all.

I got into planted tanks and paludariums later and have realised that’s much harder!

Tip of the nose, super sensitive so will hurt like hell, weird shaped so hard to do anything good, and it’s right in the centre of your face so it’s a jobstopper.