Info AquaScape

Ever wonder what an aquarium society is like and if you should join one? In Part 2 of my series “Confessions of an Aquarium Addict,” I interviewed Ben Rogers, the president of the Colorado Aquarium Society, for a behind-the-scenes look at fish clubs. Topics include: ▶ What are the top things a fish club must do to be successful? ▶ How do you become president of an aquarium society? ▶ What does it take to host an aquarium convention? ▶ Why should fish keepers join a fish club when there's so much online information? Related Links ▶ Colorado Aquarium Society ▶ The Garden of Eder (our latest aquarium society presenter) ▶ Aquatic Gardeners Association (AGA) Question of the Day What kind of aquarium addict would you like to see me interview next? Comment below to share your suggestions because I'd love to hear them. Enjoy your aquarium and I’ll see you next time! Subscribe to my YouTube Channel , where I share practical fish care tips to help busy aquarists spen...

Why do Betta Fish Flare at Their Reflections? A common persoalan that fish owners see is their pet betta keeps seeing his own reflection in the aquarium wall and he won’t stop flaring at it. The reason why he’s spreading his gills, fins, and tail is because he’s trying to make himself look bigger and scare away the supposed competition from his territory. This flaring behavior seems to happen most often when: a betta fish is introduced to a new aquarium the tank light is on but the room lights are off the sunlight hits the tank just right during certain parts of the day Is It Stressful for My Betta to Flare at His Reflection? So is this really a problem? I mean, it's kind of cool seeing your betta fish displaying all his glory. Well, some bettas will get used to it and eventually ignore their reflection. Sometimes the reflection only shows up for a short while each day, so a little sparring exercise can be good for them. However, in my case I noticed that my betta ...

Ever wonder what it takes to convert your fish breeding side hustle into a full-time job? As part of my new series “Confessions of an Aquarium Addict,” I interviewed Greg Sage of Select Aquatics about what it takes to run a one-man aquaculture business from his basement and how he became the premier source of rare livebearers in the US. Topics include: ▶ What are your main challenges when starting a fish breeding business? ▶ How do you differentiate yourself from the competition? ▶ How do you decide which species to breed? ▶ What's the secret for making online fish sales profitable? ▶ How do you get new customer leads? ▶ What is Greg's favorite and least favorite part of the job? ▶ What is Greg's #1 piece of advice for someone wanting to breed fish for a living? Related Links SelectAquatics.com , where you can buy Greg's fish and dry goods  Behind-the-Scenes Tour of Select Aquatics How to Ship and Quarantine Fish Question of the Day What kind of aq...

It’s summertime and your 6-year-old kid is growing up, no longer content to share a birthday party with his younger sister whose birthday is a mere 2 weeks later. What do you do? The thought of planning a full-blown Pinterest-perfect party with themed Transformers (his favorite) decorations, games, and foods was just exhausting. Sorry, I work part-time, my parents are in town, and my kids are out of school. Ain’t nobody got time for that. So here are the steps I took to plan a low key celebration that my son claimed was “the best birthday party ever!” Step 1: Request Form I had my son fill out a request sheet. Kinda like when you plan a baby shower, you ask the mom-to-be what their favorite color is, who they want to invite, their favorite foods, and so on. That way my son gave me a bunch of ideas as a starting point and he got to practice his writing skills over the summer. Bonus points! Extra hint: ask him to limit the number of guests because fewer kids means less mess and l...

I got to visit the Aquarium Design Group (ADG) in Houston, TX recently where they have an incredible showroom featuring their custom designed planted, hardscape only, and saltwater aquariums. The Senske brothers have combined art, design, and architecture to make a collection of beautifully sophisticated aquatic installations. They also have a full retail aquarium store where you can purchase live corals and plants, fish, hardscape, aquascaping tools, and more. Here is a visual tour of some of the most impressive fish tanks I saw displayed during summer 2018: While I don’t have all the details of what each aquarium entails, here is some information I collected from ADG’s Instagram (certain aspects may have been altered): 90P Planted Aquarium: Blyxa “red” sp. in background (used by Amano), uses CO2, Twinstar 900E light with inline dimmer 90cm Tank with Lava Stone: Eleocharis acicularis “mini” (from Tropica tissue culture cup) as carpet, coral moss (Riccardia chamedryfolia) on the ...

Do you have an adorable two- or three-year-old who is simultaneously the love of your life and the bane of your existence? Yeah, got one of those, too. Keep reading to find out how we survived the terrible twos and threes. Now, my son is like me, super chill and compliant by nature, so we hardly experienced the terrible twos with him. My daughter, on the other hand, is like her father, a strong-willed force of nature who has to do everything herself. Her “terrible twos” started when she was 18 months old and lasted until now when she’s about to turn 4. That first year was intolerable because we could not figure out what made her tick! She didn’t seem to respond to any kind of correction or training. Corrective Methods We Tried First We tried positive reinforcement, but she didn’t care about our approval or rewards. She cared more about getting that lollipop into her mouth now! We tried swatting her on the hand or butt, and… it would only add fuel to the fire. Instead of instill...

Bucephalandra is such an easy and beautiful aquarium plant that’s perfect for low tech planted tanks and nano aquascapes, but is it worth the hefty price tag? Keep reading to find out more: What is Bucephalandra? Location: This beautiful plant is found along banks of fast-moving streams in Borneo, using its strong roots to attach to rocks. In the aquarium hobby, we usually grow them underwater as submsered, but because of their locale's wet and dry seasons, they can also be grown out of water as emersed plants. There are over 200 varieties but less than 10 named species last I heard. Size: The plant grows to about two to four (or more) inches in height, and even taller when grown emersed. The leaves are usually half an inch to four inches long, making buce a good plant to grow in the foreground, mid-ground, or attached to hardscape. Appearance: The most common varieties on the market are usually seen with oval-shaped leaves that have a wavy edge. However, many other...