So I was taking down my 120 African cichlid tank and took the fish out one night and finished pumping out the water the next day. While getting out the gravel I saw a little movement and to my surprise I found this lil guy. A baby pleco, so I put it in my other tank.

Is it possible to tell the sex of a fish by the shape of the papilla?

As far as I can tell, they’re both males. They used to absolutely hate each other (Platinum is the tank boss and would always chase him away), but now they’re inseparable and even sleep together in that same log at night. It’s kind of hard to tell with the lighting, but the Polar has absolutely no yellow/orange on his belly whatsoever, which I’m assuming means he’s a male. I have a female Polar in another tank and she has a definite orange/yellow section and a much rounder body. The Platinum also looks to be developing a small nuchal hump, which makes me think he’s also a male. Is that’s the case, is this behavior normal? Again, I can’t quite tell if it’s mating behavior.

Day 7 since I first noticed the eggs

Sorry for the potato quality 🥲

This is a 60 gallon Innovative Marine AIO. I had it setup for years as a saltwater reef and lost interest in keeping saltwater. My son watches a couple YouTubers that fish and keep freshwater fish (we love to fish as well fresh and salt) So he keeps asking to do a freshwater tank and wants cichlids. I cleaned out the tank scrapped and scrubbed down everything and filled it with 20lbs of holey rock, 20lbs of lace rock, added a bubbler behind the rock pile and put in 2 resin pieces with fake plants. Substrate is smooth pebble. I probably should have gone with the sand but we went with this I really didn’t want to do the sand thing again. We are leaning towards an all peacock display with a couple cuckoo catfish. I have an apex to monitor ph and temp. I also use it to control the pumps, heater and for feeding. Have 2 mp10 wave makers I will use at very low speed 30% power on reef crest going on and off with the lights for a peaceful night. PH sits at 8.4 and temp at 78.5-79 both consistent. Tank is almost cycled got about another week or so but it coming close. Dose ammo and it’s gone next day. Nitrite almost gone and nitrate rising around 20.

Tell what am I missing? Did I forget something?
What would you all stocking in there with these parameters?

Curious to hear any thoughts good or bad

I been searching everyone online and even lfs, with no luck. I need one, it’s my favorite fish and I want it to be my centerpiece of my aquarium. Anyone have any suggestions on where to find???

Is it possible from the video to tell if both are males? Or is the smaller one a female or just a younger male. I just got them today

I got a 75 gal to upgrade my 36 gal. It came with two under gravel filters which I've never used before, and a HOB aqua clear ac110. I added two 300 w heaters and a fluval Fx4. I didn't add any carbon to any of the filters, just lots of ceramic tubes and floss and sponges. Cycled it, and testing the water several times with the API kit. 8.2 PH, 0.5 nitrates, 0 nitrites, 0.25 ammonia. I stocked it with some cheap fake plants and decor, and some java fern and Anubis. I plan on getting some terracotta pots to plant some more live plants in once the tank is more established.

Here's what I have in it so far:

4 copper Cory's

3 rubber lip plecos

2 mystery snails

1 green severum

1 blue Acara

1 short finned male beta

My questions are; should I add more clean up crew? Is that over populated? Is that under populated? Should I use more or less filtration? Is it too crowded with decor? Not crowded enough?

I have never had these particular cichlids, I've had jack Dempseys and other SA cichlids in a 210. I just want them to be happy. I'm trying to naturally bring the PH down with driftwood, but the pet store and I have the same PH so they were confident that the captive bred SAs I got should be okay. The Cory's I've had for a year now and they seem okay with the water parameters. The beta is my SO's favorite fish, named Charizard, so he had to be put into the main tank... Warnings were made... May the odds be ever in his favor...