What do you get when you cross a Guppy with a Molly? No, that’s not a joke. A lot of people aren’t aware that different livebearers can interbreed. They fall into two groups. Mollies, Guppies, and Endlers can breed to produce offspring. Platies and Swordtails can breed to produce offspring as well. I pulled the bonehead move of leaving on male Guppy in my community tank with my female Mollies. Even though I knew that cross breeding was possible, I thought they male Guppy was way to small to mate. Well, this is what I have now.

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I haven’t been keeping up with my tanks too much lately. They’re being sustained, but I wouldn’t say they are flourishing. I can see that some of my Dwarf Crayfish have died. They turn orange in color when they die, like the color of a cooked shrimp. I haven’t gotten around to cleaning out the tank and removing any bodies, because I know in the back of my head that the rest of the crayfish will scavenge anything left around. What did catch me by surprise was this.

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One of the great joys of keeping an aquarium is creating natural looking environments for our fish. Once you get a glimpse of some of the gorgeous planted aquariums online, the urge to go with a planted tank is overwhelming. Unfortunately, unless you have someone knowledgeable holding your hand, the major pet store chains are your guide. That spells out trouble as their staff’s aquatic plant knowledge is normally at zero, and their product labeling is confusing.

Both PETCO and PetSmart carry a line of plants in plastic tubes that are labeled under a sign that notes they are for terrariums and aquariums. While that sign is technically true, I would say only 15% of the plants are actually meant to be in an aquarium. The rest of the plants are not meant to be submersed completely in water. What happens you submerse them? Nothing at first, as the plants are grown in such a way that makes each generation more resistant to being underwater. That still doesn’t make them aquatic plants. They will not thrive underwater, and eventually these plants will rot away.

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Detritus is the biological term for fish poop. People often wonder if there is some animal that will consume the waste of other organisms in the aquarium.

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I’m finally settled into the new home. The plants took a beating in the move, but they’re slowly coming back up. I never put the Moai statues back into the tank. I wanted to go with a more natural look, so I added some more natural scape pieces.

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It’s been a while since I’ve posted. I am alive, but unfortunately there are more pressing matters than aquariums unfortunately. I’ll leave you with this video I found a while back and stumbled upon again. This is why I sometimes wish I lived in a tropical climate. Then I could build this in my backyard.

Posting hasn’t been on my mind lately. Escrow closed on the new home about a month ago, but I’m still not in the new home yet. I knew it would take some time, even just to move the fish tanks, even though the new home is only fifteen minutes away.

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With the upcoming move pending, I have let my tank go into a stand still. I have been preoccupied with signing paperwork for the new home. It’s ridiculous how many stacks of paper have to be signed. There are clauses for radon, asbestos, termites, earthquakes, mudslides, and I think I saw one in there about Godzilla attacks. I digress. I haven’t purchased the rest of the plants I wanted to fill in the areas that need some planting, because I figure I’m going to have to pull them up and replant them later. My dosing schedule for fertilizers has gone out the window as well. Still, my plants seem to be growing decently, which exposes another problem for me. I haven’t trimmed my plants in a while.

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Sorry for the break in posting. I may be moving in the next month. That’s good news, but I’m definitely not looking forward to moving my tanks. The move isn’t far, but breaking everything down is a pain.

Well, it’s been just about two weeks since I got my Olive Nerite Snails. I wanted to see if these little guys could live up to their fabled algae eating skills. I let my 20 gallon tank get some algae built up before the guys arrived. I put a single snail into the 20 gallon tank. Check out the before and after shots.

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