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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