I've had success with Hikari Firstbites as well as baby brine. I put some of the powder in a small cup of tank water, wait for it to sink to the bottom of the cup, then I suck it up with a syringe and gently squirt it on the substrate in the fry tank. They love it. Really the only thing you have to ...

Thanks for the input gentlemen. I siphoned up the Eco-Complete where I didn't intend to put plants, then put the tube into a bucket containing the pool sand and distilled water and just siphoned the sand onto the bottom. The result is Eco-Complete along the back and sides of the tank with sand in ...

Hi all-- I just set up an Amazon biotope tank and used the black Eco-Complete planted aquarium substrate with the intention of covering it with a layer of pool filter sand for the cories. I have been told by my LFS however that the sand on top of the Eco-Complete will hamper its ability to pull ...

Styrofoam is safe for aquariums? It's not coated in chemicals or anything?

Thanks guys-- None of the rocks bubbled at all when I placed acetic acid on them (one of the many benefits of having a biochemist wife) so I seem to be good to go on that front. I am going to bolt and/or silicone the rock formations together and place them on top of my bottom layer of substrate ...

You will end up losing about 20-30% of your fry in the first few days. Out of the 20 or so you have, I'd say you can count on 7-10 making it to full maturity. If they're not eating, try taking some baby brine shrimp (frozen will do) and defrosting them in a cup of water, then use an eye dropper or a ...

Hi all-- I've been gathering rocks which I will eventually bolt together to form natural looking caves and crevices for my corydoras riverbank biotope. I'm wondering if there are any rocks that I should avoid that will adversely affect the water or might release toxic metal compounds into the water ...

Thanks for the input, Ian. Most of my cats are peppered cories, so the tank will be primarily geared towards them. I think most will be relatively happy with a riverbank root-snag kind of environment with clear water, low flow, lots of tree roots, and some leaves scattered on a sand substrate. I ...

Would pitbull plecs fit the bill? As I live in Florida, I think I might go foraging for driftwood along the beach and the canals for some real stuff. I find driftwood to be rather overpriced, and I mean, what could possibly go wrong looking for it myself? http://images.clipartof.com/small/442460 ...

And what's the word on using grapewood as driftwood? I've seen and heard conflicting things about it. Is it safe to use in an aquarium or should I avoid it? I have a nice piece that approximates tree roots that I was going to boil for a few hours and soak for a week or two, but if it's not a good ...

Tetra Whisper filters are absolutely terrible because they suffer from a major design flaw. They use mechanical and carbon filtration by means of a "bio-bag," which is basically a mechanical scrubber bag with some activated carbon inside. The only problem is that a day or two after installing the ...

And any thoughts on a C02 system? Is it necessary?

I know that cories prefer water that has a very low flow rate, almost stagnant. Would a canister be overkill? And what are folks' thoughts on lighting? Right now I have a standard fluorescent tube light but have been thinking about the dynamic lighting solutions or an LED.

Thank you everyone for the great replies. As you can see, I'm rather attached to my shoal-- they've rolled their eyes all the way into my heart, you could say. Anyhow, I had been considering going with a layer of potting gravel for the plants followed by a layer of sand but again, I was concerned ...

Hello everyone, I'm new here, but I've been lurking on this site for quite some time. I am looking to break down my current 20-gallon long tank (30x12x12) and replace it with a 37-gallon (30x12x22). The smaller tank is currently occupied by a breeding shoal of peppered cories, a few pitbull plecos ...