# HybridHerp's 5.5 gallon College Tank



## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

HybridHerp said:


> Here is the polygonum and the unknown plant.


I believe that it is Hydrotriche hottoniiflora.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Hilde said:


> I believe that it is Hydrotriche hottoniiflora.


Are you talking about the straight leafed red plant? That's my wallichi, I'm asking about the lime green plant with the round leafs.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

HybridHerp said:


> I'm asking about the lime green plant with the round leafs.


I was talking about the 1 with feathers, which I see now is wallichi

The 1 in the far right back with round leaves? That is definately a form of ludwiga.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

It's kinda thin to be that IMHO. And RS too green to be a ludwigia in a high light tank.


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## Hilde (May 19, 2008)

HybridHerp said:


> RS too green to be a ludwigia in a high light tank.


It reminded me of ludwiga ovalis 








Try finding in plantgeek.net or plant finder


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Nah, I don't think tbwould be that. I really think its to different


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

There really isn't anything new to say about this tank, other than the fact that I hate bladderwort with a passion and that I need a better pre-filter for the filter on this tank, because the thing I'm doing is clogging the hell out of my filter and not letting it run properly. Any suggestions for that btw?

Another suggestion I need is how I should be dosing this. I'm noticing a lot of holes in my leafs, which makes me sad. For this tank, I'm just dosing liquid ferts from seachem for now, since its such a small tank and its easier for me to transport the liquid stuff atm. I'm just not sure how much fert to add to things in this tank.

I'm debating doing a PPS-Pro style of dosing, or just keeping it EI, but I'm not sure how to liquid EI on such a small tank. Any help would be much appreciated.


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## GMYukonon24s (May 3, 2009)

Nice setup!


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

This is what this sucker looks like as of yesterday. I decided that more or less everything needed a hard trim. I also added a cherry female (pre-berried) that I found while out and about. Might help kick-start some breeding action or something. I'm still waiting on the tangerine tigers to decide to breed, and for the two OEBT to decide to grow big enough to be more visible to the naked eye lol. I also decided to scrap having any sort of pre-filter for now, and just let things do as they will. The amount of vegetation in this tank, I doubt anything with a will would be able to be sucked into a filter.










My L. Red is growing in pretty well. I think I have it more or less bushy enough, now its just a matter of letting it grow up and getting more side shoots. I really should stop being lazy and either dose excel or do DIY carbon or something, cause this doesn't grow as weed like as I've seen some say. Then again, not sure if I could handle that much more plant growth in here lol.









I love my wallichi, but some of the stems are getting a tad ratty at the bottom. I'm just, thus far, too lazy to cut and replant everything. I'll get around to that before the month ends though, I want this tank more or less well groomed before I bring it back to school with me. You can also see my lack of ability to clean the front glass before taking pics, and the nice carpeting of algae on my wood :\
Algae and bladderwort, my two problems in this tank. Also when larger ramshorns die, cause then there are just large clear shells all clumped together.









Polygonum kawagoeanum, I'd say its growing good. I kind of let the bottoms get relatively ratty though, but I'm working on it. I also am still propagating this out a bit more, going to tame the R. wallichi down and have this spreading out more. It really is a pretty plant.









This, this might be a problem though. My glosso carpet is honestly doing TOO well imho, and I really need to tame it back. What I've been doing, little by little, is pulling out extra strands and nodes of my glosso carpet and throwing them into my 75. Granted, they aren't doing that well there (I'll explain that in the other thread) but its better then them being in here. Also, I really should just figure out how to ship plants out, cause I have more than enough of this to start selling.








An attempt at a halfway decent pic of a tangerine tiger. Again, I'm just using my Iphone cause I take most of these pics right after doing water changes and tank maintenance. One of these days I'll break out a real camera and attempt to take real pics.

As far as new things happening in this tank, this really is my only stagnant tank. I'm getting some mini fisseden for the wood though, but really other than that I can't add or do more with the plants in this tank without ripping everything out lol. That and, I can't even THINK of something more worth doing, so I'd say I'm quiet happy with this tank.

However, I do want to start thinking about throwing some smaller fish in here. Moreso in the springtime, I'm going to be stocking my 10 gallon with even more mico fish, so I'd get a few things for this tank while I'm at it.

I'm debating doing endler guppies or doing some sort of dario or badis sp., or just having a small school of something or other. The one thing with this tank is that it is densely planted and open top, so whatever fish I do get shouldn't be too shy and shouldn't be known for jumping. But that's a thing for another time. Hopefully by then, I'll at least get a tangerine tiger berried or something. That'd make me feel worlds better about buying fish. I don't expect this journal to be getting updated too frequently, however I might also use this journal for my terrestrial plants as well, since those come with me to school as well as this tank. Adding a bit of variety is always a lovely thing


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

On a side note, I really need to get my act together with fertilization in this tank. I'm just using liquid stuff for now, and while I have enough trace and iron, I'm lacking in macros not named potassium. I'm also wondering if I should be doing a PPS-Pro schedule on this, or a modified EI? I tend to do water changes of some sort once a week, simply because once I see the water starting to evaporate I just say "the hell with it" and drain some and add new water.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Not going to bother with pics, but I did get some mini fisseden for this tank.


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## jamntoast (Apr 16, 2012)

it looks like that unknown plant is a bacopa carolina would be my guess, not really 100% sure though


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## Monster Fish (Mar 15, 2011)

If you're already doing the weekly water changes, you're better off going with an EI schedule.


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## Xalyx (Sep 26, 2010)

Can you give me a more in-depth explanation on how you manage to travel with your tank? In a car? Handled how exactly? I'll have to possibly do the same thing in the upcoming year so it'd be nice if you explained the whole thing to me.


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## PeterN1986 (Jun 15, 2011)

I had my 20 gallon tank that I started at home in NYC. Then I got a new job in Pittsburgh and drained a little over half my tank and carefully put it in my car. I drove it 7 hours straight from NYC to Pittsburgh, with all that water sloshing around going through the Allegheny mountains. I miraculously lost ZERO fish during that trip. When I set the tank in my Pittsburgh place, there was a lot of dirt and sediment floating around, but it settled in the next two days. 

Then 8 months later, I moved from Pittsburgh to Philly, which is only a 4 hour drive. Drained half the tank again, but I lost some fish this time. No water spillage in either trip, just don't brake hard!


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

This tank kind of had a major meltdown, so I think I'm going to re-scape, keep mostly the same plant species, and start fresh over the summer

Thinking of having a moss wall, ACTUALLY getting diy co2 going like I wanted to....and doing better with shrimp and keeping on top of things better.

Also thinking of having some wood come out of the top and using a different carpeting plant, since the glosso was nice but it eventually chocked itself out because I wasn't really sure how to trim it. I'm thinking of switching to UG or HC or just doing DHG Belem by itself, or maybe marsalia since it grows slower and looks similar to glosso. Or just keep glosso and actually keep it trimmed nicely.

I'll link this journal to a new one once I start re-doing things. I want to focus more on doing a nice aquascape instead of just having a nice collection of plants.


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## PeterN1986 (Jun 15, 2011)

HybridHerp said:


> This tank kind of had a major meltdown, so I think I'm going to re-scape, keep mostly the same plant species, and start fresh over the summer
> 
> Thinking of having a moss wall, ACTUALLY getting diy co2 going like I wanted to....and doing better with shrimp and keeping on top of things better.
> 
> ...


How did you get your glosso to grow so lush without CO2, and how long did it take to get that way? I added marsilea minuta from H4N last week to ~75% of the foreground of my Mini-M and it does grow pretty slow so far. I'm going to be trimming/tearing out some of the java moss from the tank too, if you are interested.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

PeterN1986 said:


> How did you get your glosso to grow so lush without CO2, and how long did it take to get that way? I added marsilea minuta from H4N last week to ~75% of the foreground of my Mini-M and it does grow pretty slow so far. I'm going to be trimming/tearing out some of the java moss from the tank too, if you are interested.


It didn't take long at all, although now its a mess. The combination of dirt substrate and high lighting let it explode. But I couldn't keep up with it.

Since I'm re-doing this tank, I'm thinking of doing Mini-M in place of glosso, that way it wont get out of control so quickly. The glosso I have left though, I can throw into a grow out tank just to have around, same with the E. belem I have still kicking it.

I might even try and get both established in my 75, idk yet.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

The re-do has begun (actually, I've finished the substrate and have filled with water and added a very very VERY small amount of plants....but for some reason I don't have pics yet...boo).

Going to also try out manzita wood for the first time ever for this tank. Should be cool. No idea what plants and inverts/fish I want for this tank though, although I do know I want at least a single type of shrimp, maybe a nice neocardina variation like blue velvet or something. And maybe some badis badis or some endler guppies or something....literally clueless as to how I want to go about this tank.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Oops, I never updated this *fail*

I still need hardscape in this tank, and to do things with my plant selection, and shrimp, and fish.....okay I need to do a lot in retrospect but its starting to head somewhere at least 

So far the stock is just 3 endler fry, mts, ramshorn snails, and physa snails. All I know aside is that I want some neocardinia variety in this tank, and maybe some horned nerites. I'd love to try some badis badis in here as well. I guess this is going to be a mini and portable version of my 10 gallon lol



FTS



Duckweed and Frogbit. There is also RRF in here, but its being over run by the other floaters, which is a shame but perhaps it will bounce back for me.



Wallichi and colorata. I have a lot of Rotala's now it seems, even though I'm more into ludwigia species....go figure 



Banana plant that I had around along with H. araguai. Not sure if I want either to ultimately be in here, as I already have both in my 75. Thinking about it, an erio might look nice where this banana is...and would be more appropriate for this size tank.



What is this? Its either a ludwigia or alternantha....

Aside from these plants, I also have DHG belem that's slowly spreading. Thinking about mixing marselia in with it as well, but perhaps not. I also have L. nummularia 'gold' that survived the previous incarnation of this tank that is slowly growing in here.

I really need to get some diy co2 or a paintball thing going on in here....probably yeast over paintball though due to yeast probably being easier to move around than a paintball canister...plus not sure how my RA's would feel about that


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

I want an opinion. What kind of hardscape would be cool in here? At first, I thought mopani driftwood would be kind of nice, but now I am not so sure.

Maybe I shouldn't do wood at all and should do rocks of some kind....opinions please?


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Still no hardscape...almost considering not having any hardscape in here at this point.


Full Tank shot...I'm not going to bother with a list of what I have in here until I actually have more things in here lol



I like floaters, especially when they are guarded from the filter and can grow like mad. Its just duckweed, frogbit, and red root floater....going to try and phase out the duckweed so that it is more frogbit and RRF.


Grass is spreading, E. belem. Always fun.


Lone Endler male...he has two female in here though. Really small but the colors started appearing last week.


Not sure if I want to keep the araguai and banana plant here....already have both species in my 75. Might keep the banana plant if it can flower though.


Colorata doesn't like being blood red for me. Probably because I don't actually dose anything in here....should probably start dosing at least trace.


Idk what this is, it isn't doing much though...might just toss it into my grow out tank.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Okay, so, I don't have pics yet, but I will soon because I'm getting a few new things.

One thing though, that I can't figure out, is what plants I want to keep in this thing.

I took out the unknown thing (realized it was L. glandulousa and I want it in my 75), the banana plant, and the araguai....and I've been letting the floaters do their thing.

There is a piece of wood I have for this tank that I found at a lfs that is pretty nice, going to cover it in some TRUE mini fissidens....but I'm stumped on what else to keep in here plant wise.

And fish wise as well. So far I have a trio of endlers, and am going to be breeding fire red cherry shrimp in here, as well as my mess of snails. I might want to do chili rasbora in here too, or something.....maybe not little red fish maybe a different color lol.

Ideas guys? My ideas for this tank have been meh as I've been focusing on my 75 more than anything.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

Boom, driftwood. Not sure what kind of driftwood mind you, but I like it and its nice. It sticks out a bit though, but that's fine.



And a new plant addition....a very, small addition  In time, a lot of time, it should spread throughout the wood. This is Fissidens splachnobryoides, bought it from h4n, he always does well by me. From my undersanding, its basically the smallest fissidens possible....seemed like a perfect idea for a 5.5 gallon.



The Fire Reds are doing fine. I'm actually getting more of them tomorrow, which will be sweet because I only have 3 females (eye roll).

As far as other updates....I got a PPS Pro fert package coming in from nilcog tomorrow as well, meaning this tank will have a regular fertilizer schedule from now on. Still have to work on the DIY co2 though, I keep forgetting. Then again, the floaters lower the light intensity. Speaking of floaters, my RRF is now flowering, and doing really well in this tank .....as is the duckweed but whatever. The frogbit is doing nicely as well. I might, maybe, throw in some dwarf water lettuce once I remove most of the duckweed, but then again doing that means less RRF, and I really like this RRF.

I removed some plants as well. Currently, aside from the fissidens, the only plants in here are DJG Belem (which is spreading slowly but surely), the Lysimachia nummularia ‘Gold’, which is slowly being propegated out, Rotala wallichi, and Rotala colorata. Everything will be looking better once I have ferts though.

Thinking still about fish I want to add. Green neons seem like a neat idea, as well as any other nano schooling fish that exists (except ember tetras since those are rocking it in my 10). Still thinking about doing a badis or dario species but, those are expensive, hard to come by, and a little difficult so I might not bother.

I do want to get 3 nerite snails of some kind though, and maybe an amano shrimp or two, just to be my algae eating team.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

I'm getting in some horned nerites and 10 green neons on tuesday...I'm excited 

Also just realized I haven't updated this thread in longer than I thought. I've added some plants since my last update.

Threw in some blyxa and Ammania sp. Bonsai, as well as some Alternanthera reineckii var. ‘Rosaefolia’. The shrimp are breeding, there are three small albino blue eye bristlenose plecos growing out in here, and I have a black mangrove in a riparium planter.

I'm going to be going back to school in week, and I intend on bringing this to school with not this weekend comming up, but in a week or two (when I can come back and the only important item I am bringing back is the tank).

Also going to be applying for a job taking care of zebra danios....would it be tacky if I asked them if they wanted me to show them my tanks so that they know I know fish things? I mean I don't have much of a resume to write about but I'm pretty sure I know how to take care of fish better than the average person lol


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## The Plantman (May 5, 2010)

What is the covering plant I like that! I'm looking for something like this.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

A taste of things to come. I really have to get this tank to stay one way for a longer period of time sigh. Hopefully once it actually stays with me on campus like its supposed to that will happen (didn’t have it with me for the “spring” semester because the “spring” didn’t happen for like a week….also, ammonia spikes suck).


At least I can still grow floaters like no tomorrow.

Debating what fish I will put in here, and what plants species will end up also calling this home.


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## MadJackal55 (Jun 26, 2014)

What fish did you end up in this tank? And how far is your travel/how do you travel with the tank normally and how often? I'm doing a moderately planted 5gal for my dorm this fall and setting it up/cycling it now but I'm still unsure of what to stock because there's a lot of competing opinions about what works in a tank so small, hopefully the plants help keep the water quality stable.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

MadJackal55 said:


> What fish did you end up in this tank? And how far is your travel/how do you travel with the tank normally and how often? I'm doing a moderately planted 5gal for my dorm this fall and setting it up/cycling it now but I'm still unsure of what to stock because there's a lot of competing opinions about what works in a tank so small, hopefully the plants help keep the water quality stable.


Currently no fish, just some orange shrimp. I'm going to be grabbing fish for this once I get back from vacation. I'll probably post current pics tomorrow as well. I used to have dario hygension, green neons, and endless, but the tank crashed when I ended up having to leave it home for the spring. My parents didn't really get how to do water changes on a tank this small (plus it got way overstocked because the endler population exploded and I didn't know what to do about it).

I'm thinking I'll just stick to a small school of something, green neons perhaps or something of similar size. Ember tetras would work grey but I got them in my 10 and don't see the point in having them in multiple tanks.

I travel like an hour, what I do is I just take the filter off the tank, drain half the tank, seran wrap the top, and call it a day. Ideally, I just bring the tank there once a semester and bring it back home once a semester, so that it only has to travel twice in a single semester. I don't really get long breaks at my school so it works nicely.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

So, I gave up on the whole shrimp thing, which is fine honestly, I’d rather do a dedicated shrimp tank right from the get go. This tank comes with me to school and more people like looking at fish than at shrimp, and I’m better with fish, so I figure I’ll stick with fish.

This is a rebirth, I REFUSE to let this tank sit at my house for weeks at a time with my folks, it is mine and will come with me to school.

Here’s what this tank is rocking right now
Current Fish/Inverts 
o	Paracheirodon simulans – “Green Neon Tetra” x7 (lost one in first day, expected since they were new to the stoer)
o	Brachygobius doriae – “Bumblebee Goby” x3 (kinda might get 3 more maybe)
o	Planorbis arnoldi – “Mini Ramshorn Snail” x#
o	Planorbarius corneus ¬– “Ramshorn Snail” x#
o	Melanoides tuberculata - “Trumpet Snail” x#
•	Foreground
o	Eleocharis belem - “ Dwarf Hairgrass”
•	Mid-Ground
o	Nymphaea zenkeri – “Tiger Lotus”
o	Hygrophila sp. ‘Brown’
o	Cryptocoryne becketii petchii
•	Background
o	Rotala rotundifolia var. ‘H’ra’
o	Persecaria sp. ‘Kawagoeanum’
o	Rotala sp. ‘Nanjenshan’
o	Rotala sp. ‘Vietnam’
•	Surface
o	Phyllanthus fluitans – “Red Root Floater”
o	Ricciocarpus natans – “Purple Root Floater”
o	Spirodela polyrrhiza – “Giant Duckweed”
•	Hardscape - Fissidens fontanus – Fissidens
•	Riparium - Fittonia albivenis
•	Dirt capped with Sand
•	Some cheap but reliable nano heater
•	Ray2 Ultra Slim 16” DS
•	Whisper 2 Power Filter
•	Fertilizers - PPS-Pro

Surprisingly simple list given my other tanks. And I like it with just these few species…I just want the Hairgrass to spread more and the Nanjenshan and Vietnam to bush out and it will all be good. Might even add some of that Madagascar stem that’s a weed in my 10 gallon to this tank. Otherwise I just need the Fissidens to spread, and the floaters to spread. Fun fact, my PAR at the substrate is still like 50+ but I’m not getting algae issues (knocks on wood furiously)


I do like how this tank is shaping up though. It’s a cute little piece if I do say so myself.


This was right after I added the plant, it started drooping. Its now completely fine and erect and I’m hoping it bushes up. I might add the pink veined variant as well, my mom has this and the pink one in a little terrarium in the living room so I can always clip a top and see what it does. However I was feeling the white vein for this tank instead of the pink on green.


Surprisingly well behavied. I will eventually regret this I know but on that day, I will replace the lotus with a micranthra. I just figured that the red tiger lotus deserved some love in one of my scapes. It’ll be great if it stayed this size for me though, so far its been.


Green neons are one of my favorite nano fish. If I upgrade my high tech 10 ever and make it into like a 20 or a 30 I’d want to put these guys with my embers because I think that would be one SICK looking fish combination. Both school great and are vibrant and hardy.


Ugh, these guys are quickly stealing my heart though. I’ve done my research and am experimenting with these a little but I’m very confident that this will work. I feed the tank and saw them eat their fill so I’m not concerned about food. Monster Aquarium in Flushing has had these guys for some time now so these guys are sturdy for sure. The green neons also came from that store as well.


Ugh, stop, fish, you cute. I might one day have to do a species only on these guys and breed them since it doesn’t seem too hard with a large enough group. I am considering getting 3 more though since they are so small and they provide a bit of extra movement but not quite as much as I was hoping for on their own.


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## HybridHerp (May 24, 2012)

In light of recent events, I’m going to try and cheer myself up with thinking about this tank. I recently did a hard trim on it so its going to take a few weeks to grow back and look 100% pretty again, but its doing well.

Current Fish/Inverts 
•	Paracheirodon simulans – “Green Neon Tetra” x7
•	Brachygobius doriae – “Bumblebee Goby” x6 (might be 4 now though)
•	Planorbis arnoldi – “Mini Ramshorn Snail” x#
•	Planorbarius corneus ¬– “Ramshorn Snail” x#
•	Melanoides tuberculata - “Trumpet Snail” x#
Foreground
•	Eleocharis belem - “Dwarf Hairgrass”
Mid-Ground
•	Hygrophila sp. ‘Brown’
•	Cryptocoryne becketii petchii
Background
•	Nymphaea zenkeri – “Tiger Lotus”
•	Rotala rotundifolia var. ‘H’ra’
•	Persecaria sp. ‘Kawagoeanum’
•	Rotala sp. ‘Nanjenshan’
•	Rotala sp. ‘Vietnam’
Surface
•	Ricciocarpus natans – “Purple Root Floater”
Hardscape
•	Fissidens fontanus – Fissidens
Riparium
•	Fittonia albivenis

I want to replace the belem since its not doing so hot, and I want to add some RRF and a black background, but otherwise I like how this tank is going. As far as livestock goes, I’d want to add two horned nerites at some point and maybe some more green neons since they are still very shy (which makes the tank a little boring to look at).

Anyways, here are pictures.



Dw, it will grow back.

This is doing very nicely.
 Rotala sp. ‘Vietnam’ may not be working out the best in this tank, but for not its fine. I’ll remove it later.

Can’t end without a pic of one of these. Easily one of my favorite nano fish.


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