Sorta-Newbie Aquarist: Advice Wanted!

[zurikitty13]

There's no cool greetings to start an introduction that isn't cliche or overused, right? So, hey, as you can see, I'm zurikitty13. Name comes from my Bengal cat, who I named Zuri. Now, I'm not ENTIRELY new to this hobby, as I'm sure you surmised from the title. I've always loved animals, and for my 5th birthday, my dad got my twin sister and I a 75 gallon fish tank filled with the cast of Finding Nemo. Now, my dad wasn't an idiot, and the crew lasted in there for quite a bit until maintenance fell short a year or so after. The first fish I took care of myself was a blue betta named Bluey, who lived for over two years in a little 10 gallon. Along the way, I've owned a leopard puffer, a zebra danio, a red-tail shark, some guppies, a ghost knife, and a lionfish. I took a break with fish for a while and got a cat, Zuri. Skipping to now, I've recently made a friend who's a fish enthusiast, and I started to remember how much fun fish were. When I was little, I didn't REALLY take care of the fish, but now that I'd seen my friend really get into the technicalities himself, it looked like fun, and I jumped back on the saddle. I found my dusty old ten gallon from years ago stashed in my basement, and started planning what tank I wanted to build.

Well, I had to make a drastic and quick plan, really. A year or so ago, I found a baby turtle in my yard, and he's residing in my 75 gallon. Ever since he was little, we kept platies in the tank with him. Even as he got bigger, he never bothered them. Until we left on vacation, and my dad decided not to feed him for that whole week while we were gone. When we got back, the population had decreased drastically in the tank, although I wasn't sure whether it was because of my turtle or not. My mind was made up when I had to pull one of my platies out of his beak (unfortunately, even though he eventually let go, I couldn't save him). Not wanting him to kill anymore fish, I hurriedly set up my 10 gallon and evacuated my last 4 platies there: one big mother, a juvenile, and two babies. All female, thank goodness.

Right, now to the catfish. I somehow caught a love for corydoras, and catfish in general, and I have put a peppered cory and a trilineatus? cory in my tank as well. All of my fish are pretty small, around an inch or smaller, so it works for now. However, I do have plans of buying a bigger tank and separating my platies and cories for ammonia level reasons. And also getting more cories so they can school.

Speaking of ammonia, my tank is still in the process of being cycled. My ammonia is around .5 ppm, and my nitrate and nitrite levels pretty low. I've got anacharis plants in the tank, and ammo-chips in my filter because the ammonia used to be around 1 ppm. I've been testing ammonia daily, and feeding the fish minimally.

So my questions, specifically, (if you have advice outside of my questions, feel free to tell me!) are:

How often should I change the water, and what %?
When I clean the tank, should I or shouldn't I clean the gravel?
Tips for tank cycling?
In the future, I'm thinking of upgrading to a 20 gallon hex tank. Opinions?
Can cories of different species school together? Is mixing cories species in a tank dangerous/bad because of hybrids?
Also in the future, I would like to use a UV light because I want to put in oilcats and ninja woodcats. Would this negatively affect my cories?
For my future tank's substrate, I want to use something soft for my cories, but good for plants. I've heard eco-complete and tahitian moon sand are good, but both are kinda expensive. I can afford it, but is it worth it?
Any plants that are particularly good for cories? Nothing too difficult to take care of, though! >_<
Any suggestions for a colorful showfish that gets along with cories? (for 20 gallon)
Any species of catfish or whatever that you recommennd/are fun to keep?
Food recommendations for cories that aren't too difficult to do? (ie, nothing live/you need to keep and breed yourself)

Alright, I think that's enough questions for now. The cory hype is high!! :)

[Marine590622]

First bit of advice, find a local aquarium club.... Like http://www.gpasi.org/

second jump start your cycle by getting an aged filter from someone in the club.

Hex tanks have a lower surface are to water volume, so you can not stock as fish.

[bekateen]

Hi zurikitty13,

Welcome to PlanetCatfish. You've got a lot of things going on in your post, so I'm not sure what to say first. But I would echo the advice from marine590622. Make sure you take time to cycle your tank before you add any more fish.

When I clean the tank, should I or shouldn't I clean the gravel?

How deep is your gravel? If you have visible organic waste (poop, rotten plant leaves, uneaten food), you should use a siphon hose to vacuum the material off the surface of the gravel. You can gently push the hose into the upper level of the gravel to get some of the debris which has settled deeper, but don't stir up the whole layer of gravel all at once. (okay, truth be told, I often do that in many of my tanks, but I wouldn't recommend this for you until you get more experience with your tank and you know how the water quality will be affected by potentially stirring up that debris - deep gravel or sand can build up toxic chemicals that harm the fish if you stir it all into the water)

Can cories of different species school together? Is mixing cories species in a tank dangerous/bad because of hybrids?

If you keep similar but different corys together in small groups (one or two fish from different species), you do run the risk of hybridization if they are allowed to breed and the eggs survive and hatch. However, in my experience, if you have groups of corys of the same species (e.g, 4-6 fish of the same species), and you put these groups of two species together, the risk of hybridization goes way down - as long as corys can find a mate of the correct (same) species, they are less likely to mate with the wrong species.

For my future tank's substrate, I want to use something soft for my cories, but good for plants. I've heard eco-complete and tahitian moon sand are good, but both are kinda expensive. I can afford it, but is it worth it?

I use simple "play sand" from a local hardware store in my cory tanks. It's very inexpensive, but it is NOT a particularly pretty color of sand. The corys do very well in it, although it probably isn't the best substrate for growing plants (I kill most of my plants except floating plants, Anubias, and Java ferns; I assume it's my fault and not the sand, but I'm sure there are lots of reasons why my plants die).

Any plants that are particularly good for cories? Nothing too difficult to take care of, though! >_<

See my comment above. Lots of corys like to spawn on plant leaves, and I find that they really like Anubias leaves.

Any species of catfish or whatever that you recommennd/are fun to keep?

Corys, corys, corys, if you want relatively peaceful (get along in communities) catfish that don't grow too big, are mostly easy to keep, and they are active during daylight hours (so you get to see them and they don't hide all day).

Food recommendations for cories that aren't too difficult to do? (ie, nothing live/you need to keep and breed yourself)

The corys I've kept eat just about anything - flake foods, sinking pellets (I like New Life Spectrum brand Thera A+ pellets, 1 mm size), freeze-dried worms.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

As in the question regarging the colourful showfish, there are quite a few of a smaller size, some of the small gouramis are quite colourful. (Do the research on these because some grow too big for your tank), For gouramis the males may be a bit territorial, so pairs are better. Other available colourful fish are some of the dwarf cichlids, but also territorial, the territorial behaviour can become worse if breeding. Both would be good to have in pairs, mostly the males are more colourful. Out of the two, in your case the gouramis I'd recommend more to you, as some of the dwarf cichlids are difficult to keep, and as you are quite new to fishkeeping. I would recommend that you wait for the 20gal tank, completely cycled, before the gouramis, or any other fish, go in.
As you've very clearly seen for yourself, turtles shouldn't be kept with fish, even well fed turtles will go for fish, as turtles are natural predators of fish. Even a bite can kill a fish, via secondary infections, though some people still do this. Most frequently keeping them with common plecos, as lots of algae accumulates in a turtle tank. This is a dangerous practise, for these two reasons this shouldnt be done, the common pleco will attempt to eat algae from the turtles shell, potentially drowning the turtle, if its small, as mentioned the common pleco can also be badly injured.* This isn't a criticism upon you, when new to fish keeping, we've all made mistakes, but its learning from these that makes us better at it. *The turtles/common plecos comments appear to be irrelevant in this case, but I've highlighted it as its a very common, and completely inappropriate practice.

[zurikitty13]

Make sure you take time to cycle your tank before you add any more fish.

I would recommend that you wait for the 20gal tank, completely cycled, before the gouramis, or any other fish, go in.

Oh, I don't plan to change anything until my tank is cycled. I'm asking partially about my current 10 gallon and some plans for a future bigger tank, probably 20 gallons. Sorry if that was confusing!

How deep is your gravel?

Well, okay, gonna be honest, I made a bad mistake. I originally just had generic blue gravel in the tank, but I read about needing softer gravel, and I wanted plants. So I bought Floramax, and discovered that it wasn't so soft. My tank was finally starting to produce some nitrite, and I didn't want to lose any of the good bacteria in my blue gravel, so I just put the Floramax on top. The bacteria died I think, and now I'm worried there are dangerous toxic air bubbles or something? I remember reading something like that somewhere. Any suggestions for how I can fix this mess? As of now, everything seems okay, but I would like to safely take out the blue gravel without disturbing the budding cycle of my tank.

If you keep similar but different corys together in small groups (one or two fish from different species), you do run the risk of hybridization if they are allowed to breed and the eggs survive and hatch. However, in my experience, if you have groups of corys of the same species (e.g, 4-6 fish of the same species), and you put these groups of two species together, the risk of hybridization goes way down - as long as corys can find a mate of the correct (same) species, they are less likely to mate with the wrong species.

Okay, but I guess my question is, would it be bad if it happened? I don't plan on breeding cories, and if I did, it'd be same species, but why would a hybrid be problematic?

This isn't a criticism upon you, when new to fish keeping, we've all made mistakes, but its learning from these that makes us better at it. *The turtles/common plecos comments appear to be irrelevant in this case, but I've highlighted it as its a very common, and completely inappropriate practice.

Oh, I completely agree. I just learned the hard way. I'm not putting anything in the tank with my turtle anymore.

Sorry just in general if my original post was all over the place, but thanks to everyone for the helpful advice!

[pleconut]

The toxic air bubbles could be what is down to anerobic bacteria. To be completely honest I am unable to advise on this, only that removing the gravel could cause a problem to the fish, especially in the size tank you have. And doing so could disrupt the cycle. @bekateen you had a topic in the past - can i stir gravel during water changes, i think there was a lot of info shared, some of which may help here, are you able, if possible, to provide a link. (Apologies also, links are not my forte!)

[bekateen]

Hi zurikitty13,

... now I'm worried there are dangerous toxic air bubbles or something? I remember reading something like that somewhere. Any suggestions for how I can fix this mess? As of now, everything seems okay, but I would like to safely take out the blue gravel without disturbing the budding cycle of my tank.

When I first joined (and later too), I had lots of questions about gravel. Here are two threads about gravel that might be helpful:

• Opinions about stirring sand or gravel during weekly water changes?
• Using deep gravel and bacteria to control nitrogen

It's fair to say that my thinking and practice have evolved from keeping lots of substrate in a tank to the point that I don't put much substrate in (but I also don't like bare-bottom tanks): I keep about 1-2 cm of sand or very fine gravel in the bottom of all my tanks - enough to cover thoroughly, but so thin that if the fish or water currents push it around, then some bare glass may become exposed temporarily.

If you suspect toxic gas buildup in the substrate, I would recommend first transferring some of the tank water to a bucket and move all the fish into the bucket. AFTER all the fish are removed, scoop out as much substrate as you think is necessary to bring it down to the desired height, and stir the remaining substrate to expel any remaining toxic gas. Note - just because you see some gas bubbles release from the gravel, that doesn't mean with certainty that it was "toxic" gas; it could be just carbon dioxide or other harmless gases. If it's toxic (Hydrogen sulfide), then you'll probably smell a rotten egg odor. After the gas has escaped, do a large water change (80-90%) and aerate the water for a while before returning the fish to the tank. That should be safe.

True, by stirring the substrate you will disrupt your cycling bacteria, but not by much (a few days?), and in my opinion, you're much better off getting the potentially toxic gases out of the tank (plus you'll remove lots of the buried organic waste material which we discussed in an earlier post, although if this is a new tank, there should not be much organic debris in the gravel at this time). And don't worry about the big water change. Remember that most of the bacteria in your tank are attached to surfaces (glass, decorations, and especially in the substrate) not floating free in the water, so you won't lose all of your good bacteria by doing this.

Okay, but I guess my question is, would it be bad if it happened? I don't plan on breeding cories, and if I did, it'd be same species, but why would a hybrid be problematic?

If you search through these forums for the words corys and hybrid, hybridize, and/or hybridization, you will find lots of posts where people discuss this. In the aquarium hobby, there are generally two groups of breeders - people who want to keep the fish in their tanks as close as possible to the original specimens brought in from the wild (these people do not like hybrids) and people who want to play a mix-and-match game with different species to see what new types of fish they can "create." Since many of the people on this website express an interest in protecting wildlife, and view their captive breeding efforts as a way to help preserve species which might become extinct in the wild, you can imagine that these same people do not approve of intentional hybridization of fish. And in fact, they encourage other people to take actions to intentionally avoid hybridization.

The hybrids are sometimes called "frankenfish" in reference to the monster created by the fictional Dr. Frankenstein. Sure, some hybrids occur in tanks by accident (like what you're describing), but when they do, most people want to ensure that these hybrids don't accidentally get out into the real world (by trading or selling the babies to other people or to local fish stores).

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

Thanks for providing those links Eric.

[Marine590622]

Well said Eric, I would echo removing the fish, plants, structure and then finally removing all the gravel and only putting back in the gravel that you want. I doubt this will have much effect on the cycling unless there is hydrogen sulfide building up in the substrate, in which case sooner or later the cycle and the fish would be killed by the release of the gas when the gas built up enough to leach through the substrate and into the water column itself.

[pleconut]

Could the gravel also be mixed with something more suitable for the cories, without losing too much beneficial bacteria?

[bekateen]

As mentioned above, personally, I'm not a fan of gravel* for my south American fish at all, except very fine gravel (almost sand, but coarse enough that it's not prone to float in the water when stirred up by fish). Otherwise, I'm convinced that sand is the way to go.

* To clarify, I realize that there are lots of fish which are adapted to living over gravel, not sand. But I'm not talking about those fish.

[pleconut]

I wasn't a fan of sand. But i also find courser sand is better, easier to clean and doesnt end up in filters, i think the basic rule of thumb, regarding cories, is that its not sharp, (rounded) and that its light enough so they can move it easily when they forage, and most importantly kept clean. I used gravel for cories in the past, but I was wondering if it can be corrected once its been done, without a detrimental effect on the fish, or the system.

[bekateen]

There's nothing to stop a person from blending some sand and some gravel together. That won't hurt anything and it can create some interesting textures on the aquarium floor (and sometimes it looks more natural than sand alone), but it won't fix the problems described above. In fact, I suspect that sand is worse than gravel in regards to trapping gases because sand compacts so much and gravel will naturally leave larger spaces/channels between the gravel grains due to the fact that larger gravel doesn't compact as much as sand. Still, if your sand/gravel is pretty shallow, neither of these is a larger problem than the other in regards to building up dangerous amounts of toxic gas, as long as you also vacuum routinely to remove the organic debris which can ferment in the substrate and promote (harmful) bacterial growth.... At least, I think this is all true.

[Mol_PMB]

In response to the last point, a substrate where all the grains are about the same size will usually permit good water and gas flow through it and prevent anerobic bacteria. It doesn't matter whether the grains are big or small, as long as they are all of similar size.
Substrates composed of mixed grain sizes are denser - more of the volume is taken up with stone and less with water, so there are fewer 'channels' for water and/or gas movements. These are more prone to problems.

If you're struggling to visualise this, think of a big bucket. 'Fill' it with big rounded rocks. It's full, right? But there's loads of space in there between the rocks, and you could pour a gallon of water in there.
Now try again, but fill it with half inch pea gravel. There's still loads of space around it, it's just all on a smaller scale. You could still pour in a gallon of water.
You could do the same with rounded grains of sand of a consistent size. It's just the same but on a smaller scale, and you could still fit in the gallon of water.

BUT, if you fill the bucket with a mixture of big rocks, gravel and sand then the smaller bits fill up all the gaps between the big rocks, and there isn't nearly as much space left for any water. That's when the circulation gets blocked off and the nasty bacteria grow.

For cories I would advise using an inert sand substrate designed for aquaria, or pool filter sand.

[bekateen]

Thanks for the info, Mol_PMB.

I can easily envision the example of how filling in crevices between big gravel with fine sand will lead to poor circulation; so that's not a problem for me. I think my struggle is with imagining that a uniform fine sand still provides good water and gas flow (when compared to flow between larger gravel stones).

Please don't get me wrong - I'm not arguing or disagreeing with you, I'm just flummoxed to imagine this to be so. I'm imagining that the channels between small grains would be much finer (obviously) than channels between larger gravel stones, and while there might still be the same amount of water, the narrower spaces would alter the relative importance of forces such as water adhesion (to sand) and cohesion (to other water molecules) and thusly impact water circulation within the grave for the worse (compared to water flow created by wider channels between larger gravel stones).

The part of my experience which tries to tell me that uniform fine sand should still have good circulation (equal to that of coarse gravel) comes from the easily observed phenomenon that water-saturated fine sand (like that found along the water's edge of the ocean on a sandy beach) itself behaves almost like water: when saturated, the sand sloshes and moves like water, but as water drains, the sand seems to solidify. I wouldn't be surprised to find out that this observation is due to some completely different and irrelevant-to-our-topic phenomenon, but that's okay. I'm not looking to commit more brain power to this right now... Sometimes, thinking makes my brain hurt. LOL

No matter, this is definitely not my area of specialty, so I'll take your word for it. Furthermore, that's why I advised (above) the thin layer of substrate: sand or gravel, it won't be thick enough to promote anaerobic bacteria and toxic gas accumulation.

Thanks again, Eric

[zurikitty13]

If you search through these forums for the words corys and hybrid, hybridize, and/or hybridization, you will find lots of posts where people discuss this. In the aquarium hobby, there are generally two groups of breeders - people who want to keep the fish in their tanks as close as possible to the original specimens brought in from the wild (these people do not like hybrids) and people who want to play a mix-and-match game with different species to see what new types of fish they can "create." Since many of the people on this website express an interest in protecting wildlife, and view their captive breeding efforts as a way to help preserve species which might become extinct in the wild, you can imagine that these same people do not approve of intentional hybridization of fish. And in fact, they encourage other people to take actions to intentionally avoid hybridization.

The hybrids are sometimes called "frankenfish" in reference to the monster created by the fictional Dr. Frankenstein. Sure, some hybrids occur in tanks by accident (like what you're describing), but when they do, most people want to ensure that these hybrids don't accidentally get out into the real world (by trading or selling the babies to other people or to local fish stores).

Now I understand; thanks for clearing this up!

When I first joined (and later too), I had lots of questions about gravel. It's fair to say that my thinking and practice have evolved from keeping lots of substrate in a tank to the point that I don't put much substrate in (but I also don't like bare-bottom tanks): I keep about 1-2 cm of sand or very fine gravel in the bottom of all my tanks - enough to cover thoroughly, but so thin that if the fish or water currents push it around, then some bare glass may become exposed temporarily.

i think the basic rule of thumb, regarding cories, is that its not sharp, (rounded) and that its light enough so they can move it easily when they forage, and most importantly kept clean. I used gravel for cories in the past

a substrate where all the grains are about the same size will usually permit good water and gas flow through it and prevent anerobic bacteria. It doesn't matter whether the grains are big or small, as long as they are all of similar size.
Substrates composed of mixed grain sizes are denser - more of the volume is taken up with stone and less with water, so there are fewer 'channels' for water and/or gas movements. These are more prone to problems.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who has so many questions! I don't have any reason to believe that my gravel has any N2 or H2S build-up (it's only been a little under a week), I was just worried it was going to happen because I made the gravel deep. Anyways, how do you guys feel about http://www.drsfostersmith.com/product/p ... nt=Default eco-complete plant substrate for cories? I'm going to purchase and cycle a 20 gallon or so tank, and I was wondering if this'd be a good gravel to use. Grain size is .2-.7 mm for the black coloration. Also, the ph in my tank is kinda acidic, and I read adding baking soda or putting in seashells is a good idea. Opinions?

I'm cycling a 10 gallon tank with two cories and one full grown platy, one juvenile platy, and two baby platies. Both the cories are small as well, so I don't think the tank is overcrowded, and that home isn't permanent. Anyways, my plan for cycling this tank is to do a water change, add Seachem Prime, and some SafeStart bacteria every other day, as my ammonia levels are still around .5 ppm, along with daily readings. I read on the Seachem Prime website that if you're cycling a tank, adding a normal dose every other day is safe. As for the bacteria, I'm only going to add as much is necessary for however much water I changed. Is this a good system until my tank is cycled? Oh, and I have a hanger Aquaclear Filter that I loaded w/ a carbon-filled cotton, a sponge, bio-cubes, and ammo-chips. I know to change the ammo-chips every 5 days, but how long should I wait to change everything else? Thanks for answering my myriad of questions; this has all been super helpful!

[Mol_PMB]

Eric, you're absolutely right there are other factors that occur at the smaller scales, and these can be significant to water flow (though not really to the volumetric percentage of water). However, for most aquarium sands with a grain size between 0.5mm and 2mm, they're still vast compared to the size of water molecules, and there are still passages for diffusion of liquids and gases.

Perhaps we should think of maximum substrate depths in terms of the grain size?

My belief is that the real problem with fine sand (e.g. some playsand) is that there are a variety of grain sizes, allowing it to compact and become much denser than sand with a more constant grain size.

Although plant substrates have this issue too, they tend to be used with plants in (!) and the plant roots promote the diffusion of chemicals within the substrate.

I must say I'm not an expert in this field; it's a long time since I studied soil mechanics!

[zurikitty13]

Oh, and one more important question:

When I had a ghost knife fish (which is nocturnal) I used a UV light in his tank so he would come out during the day. He couldn't see it at all, and it worked beautifully. I'm thinking of getting woodcats in the future, and I was wondering if they also can't see UV light? And if they can, what's a good nocturnal lighting to use with them? I read around and saw debates about whether or not catfish can see red light and blue light, but I couldn't find anything concrete.

[Mol_PMB]

I thought UV light was harmful? Perhaps I am mistaken.

[bekateen]

I would guess they mean near-IR. Even it it was near-UV, that doesn't penetrate water very far, does it? I don't know what's available as a tank light.

[zurikitty13]

I thought UV light was harmful? Perhaps I am mistaken.

I would guess they mean near-IR. Even it it was near-UV, that doesn't penetrate water very far, does it? I don't know what's available as a tank light.

Light in fish tanks seems to be a very undecided topic among aquarists on what works and what doesn't. Turns out, UV light is harmful to fish, or at least it is from what I can gather online. It seemed like its harmful the way the sun is: if you are constantly under it, then you'll get sunburnt and eventually slowly die from radiation poisoning or something. Maybe if I provide shade for the fish it wouldn't be a problem to use? I don't know if they'd be able to see it or not anyways; some fish can see UV light. Oh, and I think I used a blacklight for my ghost knife, which is basically UV light anyways, just that the bulb has a coat that removes all visible light minus the purple spectrum.

In the future, I would like to own Honeycomb Tatia (Centromochlus Perugiae) and ninja woodcats (Tatia Musaica) and both fish are nocturnal. I want to be able to see them swimming around at night, so I either want to use a light they can't see or something they'll accept as simulating night light. Basically, whatever lets me see them at night. I've looked around for a bit, but there's contradicting info everywhere, and I'm not sure what to do. I heard some people use blue lights, but it seems to have not worked for a lot of people. Red light was another light some people use, and I use it for my turtle, but he obviously has different eyes than fish do, and I've also seen people report this doesn't work. Same story for UV, but with the added bonus of maybe being dangerous to fish as well. What do you guys suggest? I tried looking up info about those specific fish's eyes and what they can see, but couldn't find anything.

[bekateen]

To clarify my previous comment, I had to look it up. When we're talking about depths like those in aquaria, UV light penetrates just fine - there is some loss, but not enough to call it safe.

That said, of course, there are different ranges of UV light, A, B, and C. UV-A is the least harmful, and this is what is emitted by blacklights.

If you read websites about those new "Glofish," some of them recommend using "actinic" lights instead of black lights, because blacklights provide relatively poor lighting if the objects you're viewing don't "glow-in-the-dark" or fluoresce when exposed to UV light.

You can see more about this here: Actinic Light vs. Blacklight – Highlighting Fluorescent Livestock and Decor and Aquarium Lighting: Choosing the Proper Lighting for Your Aquarium.

Cheers,
Eric

[zurikitty13]

To clarify my previous comment, I had to look it up. When we're talking about depths like those in aquaria, UV light penetrates just fine - there is some loss, but not enough to call it safe.

That said, of course, there are different ranges of UV light, A, B, and C. UV-A is the least harmful, and this is what is emitted by blacklights.

If you read websites about those new "Glofish," some of them recommend using "actinic" lights instead of black lights, because blacklights provide relatively poor lighting if the objects you're viewing don't "glow-in-the-dark" or fluoresce when exposed to UV light.

This has been really helpful (plus interesting and educational), so thank you! I think actinic is the best way to go, then. I'd honestly never heard of them before today. Plan so far is to cover the top of my tank with some greater duckweed, which'll filter out some of the light, and create dark areas in the tank with little openings of light (a cool aesthetic imo). Use this light during the day, then just nothing at night. HOPEFULLY these darker conditions will make them feel safe enough to venture out during the day a bit? Oh, and decor or fish that are illuminated by this light, are they visible to nocturnal fish, or just to other fish? Like, is that only visible to us, or can the fish see it too? Cos if that's the case, then I won't mix any glow in the dark decor for my nocturnal tank cos it would scare them away, right?

[bekateen]

Let me be clear that I've never used actinic or black lights on aquaria, so I am not specifically endorsing one or the other over conventional red or blue LEDs for dim light effects.

The idea of floating cover (plants, etc) is a good one as long as the floating plants don't get sucked into and clog your filter intake (I've had duckweed and frogbit do that). Myself, I lucked out and found a piece of driftwood on a shoreline which never sinks - it's been in my tank since August and still floats (and blocks a lot of light)... I wish I knew what type of wood it is so I could get more.

I don't know what wavelengths your specific fish can see, but if I were you, I'd start with the assumption that they can see glowing decor. So I can't envision that to be a good idea.

Cheers, Eric

[pleconut]

Brightly coloured substrates, decor, plants (that are not green), ect are known to unsettle many fish, even those that dont glow in the dark they prefer to be in more natural surroundings, Any wild caught imported fish wouldn't want to be in this environment. In my opinion It looks better to observe them this way, and the fish are more likely to behave normally. (in the cases of most fishes)