Brighten Your Aquarium with the Vibrant Orange Laser Corydora! This week at the Aquarium Co-Op retail store in Edmonds, we received some awesome new fish! We received some vibrant Orange Laser Corydora, Threadfin Rainbowfish, Gold Barbs, and even some beautiful Gardneri Killifish Pairs! This week we have the long awaited Java Moss mat back in stock, as well as Anubias Nana, Crypt. Lucens, and Crypt. Wendtii Green! For this week's tank tip I wanted to share a video talking about how to tell if your fish tank is really cycled!

Hoplo Catfish: A Unique Catfish for your Aquarium! This week at the Aquarium Co-op retail store in Edmonds, we received some fun new fish! Some of the highlights are Hoplo Catfish, Paleatus Corydoras, an assortment of Rainbowfish, and finally some Roseline Sharks! This week we received some beautifully grown Red Melon Sword, Crypt. Tropica, and last but not least Java Fern! For this week's Tank Tip I wanted to highlight one of our favorite Catfish foods. From Corydoras, to Hoplo Catfish Xtreme Bottom Waffers are a great and nutriti...

Eques Pencilfish: A Fun and Unique Schooling Fish! This week at the Aquarium Co-Op retail store in Edmonds, we received some fun and unique fish! Starting off with Eques Pencilfish, Albino Cherry Barbs, Gold Pristella Tetra, and even some Gardneri Killifish Pairs! For this week's plant delivery I am excited to highlight Baby Tears, Pearl Weed, and some incredible Crinum Calamistratum! For this week's tank tip, I wanted to highlight how to optimize and clean your Aquarium Co-Op Easy Flow Sponge Filter!

Nutrient Deficiencies: Why Your Aquarium Plants Are Dying Do you have the perfect planted aquarium setup, but your plants are still dying one by one? It could be from a lack of nutrients. Even if you are regularly dosing fertilizers, your plants might still be missing key building blocks that prevent them from growing and thriving. In this article, we want to teach how to recognize the first signs of nutrient deficiencies so that you can take appropriate measures before your plants reach death’s door. Example of a normal, healthy plant leaf Types o...

How to Pick the Best Substrate for a Planted Aquarium Welcome back to Part 3 of our Getting Started with Aquarium Plants series. In today’s article, we dive deeper into the topic of planted tank substrates. Substrate is the ground covering or “soil” at the bottom of the aquarium that many live plants need in order to grow roots and absorb nutrients. Interestingly, some aquarium plants (e.g., rhizome plants, floating plants, and most stem plants) prefer to absorb nutrients directly from the water, whereas others (e.g., sword plants, vallisneria, ...

Care Guide for Fancy Goldfish – Housing, Feeding, and More Fancy goldfish (Carassius auratus) are beautiful, selectively bred freshwater fish from the carp family that come in many colors, shapes, and other traits. Unlike common goldfish with their single tails and streamlined physiques, fancy goldfish have flowy double tails and slow-moving, egg-shaped bodies that require special considerations. This care sheet answers some of the most frequently asked questions we get about these beloved water piggies. What Size Tank Do Fancy Goldfish Need? Appropr...

How to Upgrade an Aquarium Filter (and Save Money!) Have you ever bought a new hang-on-back filter from the pet store and noticed that the instructions say you have to change out the filter cartridge at least once a month? Most beginner fish keepers don’t realize that you can replace those disposable cartridges with reusable filter media that can last for the lifetime of the filter. In this article, we teach you how to optimize your aquarium filter in four simple steps, using only a pair of scissors. Step 1: Get a Prefilter Sponge Beneficial b...

How to Set Up an Easy Planted Tank for African Cichlids It’s a popular belief that African cichlids and live aquariums plants can never go together. But with the right stocking choices, plants can be an excellent means of blocking line of sight and keeping alpha males from getting too aggressive. Here is a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up an eye-catching planted tank that will do well with fish like mbuna and peacock cichlids. Step #1: Prepare the Aquarium For our setup, we purchased a 75-gallon aquarium that is approximately 4 feet long and...

10+ Holiday Gift Ideas for Your Favorite Fish Keeper It’s that time of year again! With Thanksgiving’s meal reduced to leftovers and festive decorations popping up around the neighborhood, most of us start thinking about what to get our friends and family for the holidays. If your loved one is obsessed with aquariums but you know nothing about fish, here’s our official holiday gift guide to help you become the best Santa ever! Tank Upgrades Most fish keepers are always jonesing to upgrade their tanks, whether in size, quantity, or stocking sele...

Care Guide for Betta Fish – The Best Beginner Pet Fish Betta fish (also known as Betta splendens or the Siamese fighting fish) are a long-time favorite pet for both beginner and veteran fish keepers because of their colorful finnage and spirited personalities. If you’re brand new to the aquarium hobby, this care guide is for you! Find out the key essentials you need to know to successfully keep your first betta fish. Is It OK to Keep Betta Fish in a Bowl? If you haven’t bought a small bowl yet, we highly recommend that you get a larger aquarium t...

The 5 Best Betta Fish Foods You Need to Try Not all betta fish are created equal. Some are born with bottomless stomachs like a miniature shark, and others are picky eaters who turn their noses up to everything you offer. If you have the latter type, this refusal to eat can be quite stressful. Fortunately, there are many high quality, high protein foods you can try feeding them to whet their appetites. #1 Frozen Bloodworms Given that betta fish eat small insects, crustaceans, and other meaty foods in the wild, frozen bloodworms (the br...

How to Pick the Best Planted Aquarium Light One of the most common questions we get asked is “What light should I get for my planted aquarium?” The short answer is that it depends. To help you get started on your planted tank journey, let’s talk about three different lighting parameters and what they mean for beginner hobbyists. #1 Color Spectrum If you’ve ever looked at the lighting in a cozy coffee shop versus a sterile hospital, you know that “white” lights all vary in color temperature, which is measured in units of Kelvin (K). A s...

Care Guide for Kuhli Loaches – The Coolest Oddball Fish for Beginners Kuhli loaches will either fascinate or freak you out because they look like a wriggly mass of miniature snakes hiding in your aquarium. In this care guide, we answer some of the most frequently asked questions about this popular oddball fish. What Are Kuhli Loaches? Kuhli loaches are a hardy, beginner-friendly fish, known for their unique eel-like bodies, beady black eyes, and bristly barbels or whiskers around their mouths. Multiple species are labeled as kuhli loaches, but Pangio kuhlii is ...

Freshwater Fish Tank Cycling - How to Prepare for New Fish Have you ever seen a fish in the wild living in pure, crystal clear water with no other contaminants? Probably not. That’s because life isn’t sterile; it doesn’t flourish in “pristine” conditions, but rather when there’s a whole ecosystem of microorganisms, plants, and animals that are in balance with one another. So, if you’re looking to set up a brand-new fish tank, let’s talk about aquarium cycling and how to prepare a healthy, thriving environment for your fish to live in. What is the Aqu...

5 High-Quality Fish Foods That You Have to Try When it comes to prepared fish foods, what do you feed? Are you a die-hard fan of Team Hikari or a DIYer on Team Repashy? Or are you like me, who has a serious case of fish food collectoritis and a fridge door filled with half-empty bottles? In today’s world of fish keeping, we have the luxury of choosing from hundreds of fish foods produced by companies all over the world, so when I test out a new product, I generally look for: Ingredients – What is the food made out of and what nutrients d...

Air Stones: The Secret Weapon Every Aquarium Needs Having enough oxygen in your aquarium is one of those things people often take for granted, but it’s so vital to your fish’s health. How can you make sure your fish is getting enough air? Typically, the most obvious signs of oxygen deprivation in fish include lots of resting at the bottom of the tank, a lack of appetite, and rapidly moving gills. In a worst-case scenario, your fish may start gasping for air at the surface of the water, which means it’s definitely time to take action! The firs...