#aquarist

[thefishfiend]

These are large African Catfish. Reason there is large plastic sheet over them? Because they learnt to bump the tank and knock food into the water. Now, if they hear/smell food, they will pop their heads up like so.

[stiickleback]

ok so yesterday my coworker/friend went to go mop and she saw some little things moving in the mop bucket (don't ask me why there was still water in there because i don't know lol) she looked closer and saw that they were brine shrimp

which is very silly and odd but not quite unexpected because we are aquarists and we have brine shrimp hatching cones that we raise them in to feed our jellies. and sometimes visitors mess with the knobs on the tank and then end up dumping them out (which fills me with RAGE because you can't accidentally do that. you have to be purposefully reaching around the hatching cone so like why the hell are you messing with our stuff but anyways that's not the point) so then we mop them and yeah ok that's how the eggs got into the bucket. but not only have they hatched, they are thriving adults !!!!! and they are thriving so much that some of them even have EGGS!!!!!

ok now here's the kicker

THEY KEEP DYING IN THEIR HATCHING CONES !!!!! SO OUR BATCHES KEEP FAILING!!!!! EVEN WITH THEIR REQUIRED WATER PARAMETERS THEY ARE FAILING.

SO. WHY. THE. HELL. ARE THEY ALIVE IN A MOP BUCKET OF ALL PLACES

so you're telling me that our brine shrimp (that keep dying) that we are dutifully caring for with specific water parameters for maximized hatching etc etc etc are so happy in a Mop Bucket that they are fucking ????? these little shrimps are porking on company time in company supplies ???????

(update: my other friend @plaguedocboi took them home yayyy)

^ the soggy children

edit to add:

no how else are we supposed to get Mop Bucket Shrimp

[marinebioblr]

Close encounters!

My beautiful koi betta Bisby has had a jumping spider neighbor taking advantage of her tank light to hunt bugs under for some time, and recently they met face to face! Very happy to capture each of them acknowledging the other - and Bisby's quick look back at me as if to say "you're seeing this too right?!" 🧡

Edit ✨️ For all those concerned, yes, she does have a lid! I'd just cleaned and was hanging out right there where I filmed from at my office desk. If you are new to fish keeping, please invest in a good lid or when picking setups, favor tank kits that include one!

[iridescentclouds29]

After too much drama with this tank it seems it’s stable again. Planted new background plants and we’ll see how it goes :)

[nightmaresyrup]

Panda Corydoras

These fish are fun to watch. They congregate and brush the tank floor with their whiskers. They do this in the most jittery and wiggly way imaginable.

Now, Imagine a person doing ALL that!

[mushroomslayer]

One of my khuli loaches just existing

[truthwithlight]

the difference between the general aquarium subreddits and the aquatic snail subreddit is so funny in regards to certain snail species. general subreddits will see someone post a bladder snail or a ramshorn snail or a malaysian trumpet snail and be like "pest snail! reproduces too much! get rid of it! kill it! good luck getting your tank back to normal! get an assassin snail to kill all your pest snails!"

meanwhile the aquatic snail subreddit is like "they'll reproduce a ton if you overfeed them but they're good for keeping your tank healthy since they clean up all the stuff that can spike your ammonia! plus they only eat dead plants and you can have hundreds in there safely without it causing any parameter spikes or outcompeting other livestock if you want since they keep their population at equilibrium with the amount of food and/or waste in the tank. the only problem is if you don't like the look of all the snails on the glass :)"