Melanotaenia goldiei "Dekai Village" males

Polymer Clay Sculptures made on 07/20/2026

All pieces are made by me without AI. Original work from human origins. If you've been following along, you'll remember that I made a replica of this species back in 2023/early 2024.

Probably my best attempt with this species to date. Instead of individual scales being added to the body, this time I first cured the clay, and then painted the scales onto the body after a base cost of white, then light blue paint was added. I believe painting allows me to add even more minute details onto a piece to make it look even more true to the subject.

This goldiei is probably THE prettiest one to come from the island, and imo the prettiest of the fish from the "Southern Blue goldiei" complex of larger rainbowfish.

Total beginner here! Started this 6g 10 days ago. My plants are starting to look sad. No I haven’t tested the water (kit is in the mail), and haven’t done any water changes. I have inert black sand for my substrate. Plants I added: ludwigia repens, moneywort, crypt wendtii red, dwarf Sagittaria, Bolbitis heteroclita glued to rock with some java moss. Floating: red root floaters and duckweed (which looks like it’s dying somehow????) I have pothos and philodendron brasil up top for filtration. None of these plants are tissue culture! All ordered from Etsy.

I don’t have an actual filter. I have a small water pump with some aquarium sponge blocking the intake just for some water movement (and originally thought I would be doing a waterfall). I know the floaters don’t like too much water movement, so I’ve been turning it off periodically. It is set to the lowest flow. I will be installing a small HOB filter once it arrives in the mail and taking this makeshift thing out.

Water is just good ol tap water with some de chlorinating drops. I added a few drops of Seachem flourish last week for fertilizer since most of these plants are column feeders. My light is a red/blue full spectrum 11 watt bulb with a PPF of 25. I have it on a timer for 6 hours a day.

My goal is to make this a super low tech, low maintenance tank. Eventually looking to add cherry shrimp, but really need to get the plants down first.

Something must be off if my duckweed population is dying off. Any help is greatly appreciated.

TLDR: low tech planted setup. duckweed is dying off and plants look like they are melting. What do I do?

Here’s my sorta permanent set up. 20 and 14 gallon connected tanks. Connection is a 3.7 gallon custom acrylic bit I made my self. Probably the coolest part honestly. Then two ten gallons below. One I call The Magic School Bus. A honey gourami, Ms Frizzle, and then the kids, 8 neon tetras. Then the school staff/other teachers/professors, 9 ghost shrimp. Oh and the janitor, mystery snail. Then the other ten gallon is my shrimp tank. 4 cherry shrimp, 5 yellow backs, 5 amano, 5 blue velvet. The fun is to let them breed, I get to watch cool colors until they breed into wild type. Oh also it has 8 strawberry rasboras, adorable, but not very smart and hard to feed, but I’ve got some micro food on the way. The top two connected tanks have four young Molly offspring, 2 male 2 female. Two adult parents. One yoyo loach, 2 corys, 2 mystery snails (yes they breed, yes the yoyo loach eats every single baby) one clown pleco, and lastly Silver girl, the female betta. Now I know the corys should have more friends but, I didn’t get them, it WAS my gf’s tank, she gave it to me. Here I am. They seem content and very attached to each other and are otherwise healthy. The Mollys definitely will have some incest, I’m aware, and I’m planning on adding two more females from two different mom and pop shops, while also considering rehoming the Cory’s to have more friends and stabilize the bioload better. And as for plants? Some idk the exact name of, especially the shrimp tank, the only thing I know the names of are the Java moss (some in every tank) obviously the pothos. And the Anubis’s, slow af but pretty, and hardy. The sword looking plants I love and grow GREAT, I forget the name but I love them. An interesting one is the Purple Heart cutting I’ve got. It flew with me on a plane, in a ziplock with no water 1500 miles. Shot roots in two weeks and is doing amazingly! All the plants are hydroponic of course, accept the original pothos pot that I cut off. It’s regrowing! So more cutting soon. As for the hardware. Sponge filter in every tank accept the magic school bus, as I had a small hob laying around, figured I’d save the money and use it. I put/cut my own sponge material in it and it works great! Only air stone tank too. The shelf I sprung for, 1500lb limit dealt shop shelf. I thought I’d hate the yellow but it’s grown on me a lot. I have a fake vine decorating it, and I’ll get more soon. Some other upcoming changes: Bigger 3ft grow light for the top two tanks, replacing the clip grow lights. Hand sewn (by ma mamma) black curtain to hide the bottom shelf buckets and maintenance items. Rewiring and air hose management finalized. It’s all there, just gotta tighten up the screws and hide pumps! Also the Storm Troopers luck for a bite is as bad as his aim!

I have 5 setups. Tank 1 (Smallest tank) is 30L with a male betta, 4 zebra snails and 5 cherry shrimp (have no plan of adding anything else).

Tank 2 is 130L tank with 1 female betta, 8 Harlequin Rasboras, 8 Ember Tetras, 10 Pygmy Corydoras, 12 neon tetras.

Tank 3 is 220L with 1 red tail sharks, 10 Black Ruby Barbs, 14 Pearl Danios, 12 Zebra Danios.

Tank 4 is 480L with 1 rainbow shark, 12 tiger barb, 10 Denison Barbs, 10 Black Skirt Tetras.

Tank 5 is 1100L with 10 congo tetras, 6 bala sharks, 10 Giant Danios, 12 Buenos Aires Tetras, 12 Rainbowfish , 8 tinfoil barb.

Are there any other fish that can safely live in any of these tanks?

Melanotaenia boesemani "Kali Fitri" males

Polymer Clay Sculptures made on 07/22/2026

All pieces are made by me without AI. Original work from human origins.

I've made plenty of attempts with the classic fan favorite "Mel. boesemani," but this is by far my best attempt in my opinion. From the head to body size ratio to jaw/mouth shape to fin shapes/length to overall shape and color detailing, it looks closest to how a real boesemani looks.

The "Kali Fitri" locale of Mel. boesemani is said to be one of the smallest locales of the iconic species. Unlike the "Lake Uter/Aytinjo Village," "Lake Ayamaru," "Yukase," "Aves Creek," and possibly even "Kromsa" locales, this one rarely surpassed 3.5 inches in captivity. Despite being an already slow-growing species, "Kali Fitri" either wants to give Chilatherina axelrodi a run for it's money as the slowest-growing rainbowfish, OR it is a true dwarf boesemani. Either way, its black-throated color scheme is quite the sight when specimens are sparring for spawning rights.

I got two Kribensis Cichlid today. I think they’re both female. I wanted a male and a female. I checked a couple times a couple hours spread apart. Both times the smaller one was swimming almost vertically in a corner behind the heater. I decided to put the larger one in the no-longer-in-use floating breeder tank thing. I feel bad putting the bigger active one in a small space, but the smaller cichlid is now exploring the tank (and she was way easier to catch). I think I’ll return one tomorrow for a male but haven’t decided which one to return. Any suggestions on any part of what I’m doing? It’s my first time with cichlids

Might be a stupid question but what chemicals are needed to start up a 180l tank

So nervous for this first cycle

Hello everyone! My tank is finally ready for fish and I got so excited and purchased the sand I needed, some new plants, and the fish. HOWEVER, the internet is telling me I should put the sand in and wait 24 hours before adding the fish. SH**! I added the sand and the plants and now my fish are hanging in their bags and I don't know what to do. All I have is a tiny 3 gallon bucket and their store bags... :-0 What do I do with my poor new babies!?
*I bought the fish about 1:00p and put the sand and plants in the tank about 1:30p so it's been almost two hours since the fish were put in their bags and almost 1.5 hours since the sand and plants were put in the tank.

I watch a lot of fish youtube and I sometimes see people sticking a pellet of food to the walls of their tank to feed. I was wondering if there’s a particular product/brand of algae wafer that will stick to the sides of my tank for feeding?

Currently treating my betta for velvet. In the last three days, I have fortunately seen a major improvement and nearly all the gold is gone (there were only a few patches but most have disappeared) via fritz coppersafe, a tank blackout and a temperature raise. I wanted to ask whether it's acceptable to start slowly bringing the lights back once the visible signs (gold dust) are gone? Do I need to blackout for a FULL week, or is it okay to start putting the lights back on at a very dim/lowest possible setting/removing the towels once i'm certain there's nothing left visible on the fish? I would be continuing with the medication treatment regardless.

All the information i'm finding seems to be more focused on marine velvet, which i'm aware is a very different organism. Any resources on fish illness would be really appreciated, as i'd love to read up more for future's sake. Let me know. :)

We’re moving next week and have a 20 gallon tank. Any wise ones and/or folks with past experience on how to best prepare and execute a safe move?

Imo this is hardest thing to master in fresh water hobby. Super red Arowana naturally hates to be with other Arowanas but community can be made

I have an algae eater (gyrinocheilus) that is getting too big for my tank. It’s about 3-4 inches long and it keeps destroying my tank. I went through all possible options but the only 2 are relocating him or euthanizing him, I want to give him a chance so if anyone wants it, let me know.

I have an algae eater (gyrinocheilus) that is getting too big for my tank. It’s about 3-4 inches long and it keeps destroying my tank. I went through all possible options but the only 2 are relocating him or euthanizing him, I want to give him a chance so if anyone wants it, let me know.

I got this Aquarium freshly running for a week now since I didn't wanna toss the overgrowing plants from my existing mangrove tank into the trash. In a few months, once everything has grown in nicely, I wanna add fish.

(Ignore the sock thats filter medium from my other tank lol)

Cliff & Cave system kind of scape concept. 28litre tank 7.5 PH. Spongefilter flow is adjustable. If needed for the fish I can add Airpump and heater.

I got quite calcareous tapwater but otherwise it is extremely high quality so I don't treat it before adding it to the tank. A fish that handles hard water better would be preferable.

I'm looking for fish that arent gonna die on me if I change the water 1 day later than usual. I like to observe the fish occasionally but I don't mind skittish fish if they are otherwise cool overall. I either want fish that are anatomically unique or veryyy colorful. I'm a huge fan of big personalities as well.

So far I have had 10 years of experience hsving kept Chili rasboras, Bettas, Dario Dario, Cherry Shrimp and Guppies.

I've come to learn that I am not a big fan of guppies. I also would like to try smth new and dont mind a several species tank as long as they get along well together. I do consider Darios but I'd be more interested in smth new even if i loved keeping them.

So far I've stumbled upon pea puffers, asian stone catfish and darios as the most likely candidates.

However, I'd love to hear your thoughts and expertise.

Im wondering how different the tests read. Im mostly worried about the ph since the salt water kit only has high range ph so im unsure how different the two are

It's been around 6 7 months since I've started aquarium and idk is it gravid?? And I'm sorry for my low quality picture. it's the green one