Topfin Aquarium Supply

Easily mistaken for spotted gar.

Spotted gar, Lepisosteus oculatus
Long snout and spots. Spots to a higher degree towards the posterior of its body. Easily mistaken for Florida spotted gar.

Shortnosed gar, Lepisosteus platostomus
The shortnosed gar can be identified by its short snout, and by the lack of teeth rows in the upper jaw like the alligator gar, and the lack of spots on its body.

Long-nosed gar, Lepisosteus osseus
The long-nosed gar is, as the name suggests, identified by its long slender snout, and also by its slender body.

Alligator gar, Atractosteus spatula
The alligator gar has a shor

The screen is then covered by 2" of fine coral gravel. This allows the aquarist to turn over the top inch of gravel occasionally to clean it, without disturbing the anaerobic layer below.

Anaerobic bacteria form in the bottom depths of the substrate and in the water below. As anaerobic bacteria cultivate, they remove nitrates. Anaerobic action produces a fair amount of heat. The heat warms the water layer below the gravel. The warmer water flows upwards, displacing cooler water above the gravel. This action moves water through the plenum at very slow rates. The slow movement of water through the gravel helps to prevent dangerou

Why waste the water and time doing this at this point? To check to make sure the entire system doesnt leak, and that the filters are going to work as they are arranged.

Let me relate one of my notorious anecdotes to you to hammer this point. Years ago, when I was young and foolish (instead of now being middle-aged and more foolish), I helped install an eight-foot tall acrylic system in a San Diego Convention Hotel with a friend/a

Often seen in tiny little bowls in the pet store, this male of this species is fiercely territorial and must be kept in separate bowls or aquariums or they may fight to the death.

With its long flowing fins and vibrant colors, its easy to see why the Betta Splendens or Siamese Fighting F
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To assure this last point is clear. Having low (less than ten ppm) nitrate is desirable, but not essential with fish only, live rock and algae systems.

Your goal in preparing an environment suitable to support your animal livestock is to first get populations of these two bacteria groups going in your new aquarium.

Graph of ammonia, nitrite and nitrate concentrations ver

Fish Out of Water
Although Boni Comandante Jr.’s technique is intended to ship fish used for food, the idea of putting fish to 'sleep' and then transporting them without water is an interesting one.....

lighting help
Alright im gonna make my own canopy and wanna retro some lights in it. Im not sure on what lights to use but i dont want buy anything later down the road. So heres what i was thinking 2 175 watt 10k metal maybe 2 96 watt vhos and 2 acntic vhos then some moon lights. My tank is a 90 gal 48wide 24....

White Worms For The Aquarium

By Alden Smith

Every successful breeder of tropical fish knows that feeding live foods to their charges is one of the best ways to maintain healthy and active fish.

Live foods are overall high in protein. They stimulate spawning, and help to intensify coloration. Live foods enhance the natural tendencies of fish to fo.

vermetid snails, putting them to good use. :)
i have alot of vermetid snails in my aquarium. until an hour ago, i deemed them to be a usless,ugly and very messy. turns out i was wrong, they still are ugly and messy, but certainly not useless. i have 2 snails very close together on a huge gsp rock (approx 2-3" apart) the two are also in the dirrect current of my 301 powerhead.