Baby Fins

24/05/2026

Fishroom Walkthrough 🐌

What a busy weekend.
New customers.
Great conversations.
Amazing support.

🙏Thank you to everyone who visited the fish room and for trusting me with your fish, shrimp, and plants.
It’s been wonderful meeting so many passionate hobbyists who share the same love for the hobby.
Looking forward to meeting many more of you along the journey.
Happy fishkeeping,
Alindi 💙

25/04/2026

Are guppies really that easy? Part 2 🤔
Guppies, being typical beginner fish, are often placed in smaller tanks, because when you’re new to the hobby, smaller tanks feel safer — usually under 10 gallons / 40 litres. But that’s not how it works ✋️
Small tanks can be surprisingly tricky to keep clean and stable, even for experienced fishkeepers. I still find smaller tanks a bit nerve-wracking, while my larger tanks are far more forgiving.
Guppies love to eat — and we love to feed them. Overfeeding is one of the most common mistakes… and before you know it, that sparkly tank you set up a few days ago goes from a show tank to “what happened here?”
This is where regular water changes come in💦 They’re important for any tank, but even more so for smaller tanks. I remember how nervous they made me at first, but they’re essential. I’d recommend a weekly water change — think of it as a Sunday water change routine.

Smaller tanks = more risk. A few extra litres go a long way.

07/04/2026

Hatching baby brine shrimp can seem intimidating at first… I know it did for me.
The first few times I tried, I honestly didn’t even know if I’d actually hatched anything 😅
But once I got it right, I understood why it’s so popular.
It’s such a rewarding way to feed your fish, knowing how nutritious it is, and it’s fascinating to watch it bring out their natural hunting instincts 🦁
We feed our fish daily… so why not make it something exciting and enjoyable for us too?
It might take a little trial and error, but it’s worth it in the end.
I’ll be sharing some beginner-friendly baby brine shrimp hatching tips in an upcoming post 🧡

06/04/2026

As someone who has bred guppies for the last few years, I’ve honestly started questioning why they’re so often called a beginner fish 🤷‍♀️

I totally get why people love them — they’re cute, colourful, busy little fish with loads of personality, and honestly, they’re one of my personal favourites too 🤍

But in my experience, guppies have actually been one of the more sensitive and higher-maintenance species I’ve worked with.

A big reason is water chemistry.

Guppies do best in harder, mineral-rich water, and here where I live in Cape Town, my tap water tests at only around 1° GH — which is very soft for guppies long term.

So I personally supplement minerals to push that up to around 5°+GH, but realistically… I don’t see most beginners rushing out to buy test kits, monitor hardness, and buy products to raise it.

A lot of YouTube advice makes guppies sound super simple, but that doesn’t always translate well to the water in my area.

They also often suffer from internal parasites and need repeated deworming treatment, which is not always something beginners are familiar with or prepared for.

I’ve definitely got more to say on this topic… so let’s just call this part 1 😅

12/03/2026

Top 5 Easiest Plants in My Fishroom 🌿
These plants grow effortlessly in my low-tech breeding tanks.

1️⃣ Pearlweed
My first choice for fry tanks — the ultimate guppy fry hideout. I float it to create shade for plants like Java fern and to help nocturnal fish such as Ancistrus feel more comfortable. And it’s also shrimp breeding heaven🦐✨️

2️⃣ Guppy Grass
A fast-growing nutrient sponge 🧞‍♂️ It creates excellent shelter for fish to rest in while still letting some filtered light reach the bottom of the tank.

3️⃣ Jungle Vallisneria
Jungle Vallisneria gives a tank a natural look, and once it starts spreading and filling in, it suddenly makes you look like a proper aquascaper 😉

4️⃣ Bolbitis (African Fern)
A beautiful fern-like plant where new leaves slowly unfurl as it grows. Once it adapts to your water parameters it’s tough as nails. It’s an epiphyte, so attach it to wood with crevices for the rhizome to grip and it will gradually take over the wood 🤗

5️⃣ Subwassertang
A seaweed-looking plant that grows into a soft green cushion that shrimp and baby fish absolutely love hiding in. It grows happily in very low to no light, making it one of the easiest plants to keep 👏

👇 For those interested, this is my setup and water parameters:
Low tech — no CO₂, medium lighting with basic lights and a fairly heavy bioload (lots of fish)
💧 I treat my tap water with Seachem Safe to remove Chlorine and Chloramine
💧 I age the water overnight with an airstone, dropping the pH from 8.7 to about 7pH. I store and prepare my water in a reservoir tank in the garage.
💧 I raise mineral content/General hardness with Seachem Equilibrium and Epsom salt (magnesium sulfate) to reach at least 4–5 dGH.
And that’s literally all I do to keep these plants happy and flourishing 💚

All of these plants are available at the Baby Fins online store 🌿

08/03/2026

Veggie meal-prep 🥒

With hundreds of hungry bristlenose in the fish room, veggie prep is a daily event at Baby fins.
One of their absolute favourite snacks? Baby marrow (zucchini).
Here is how I do it:
🥒 Wash and trim off the ends
🥒 Slice through the middle
🥒 Lightly microwave 3 minutes in boiling water 💧
The trick is not to cook it too soft - slightly al dente.  If it turns mushy, the plecos become little veggie monsters and demolish it instantly 🦖 Keeping it slightly firm lets them graze slowly through the night, which is exactly how they like to eat.
If the baby marrow has lots of seeds, I scoop out the soft middle to avoid mess in the tank.
☝️When the baby marrow is only lightly cooked it may not sink right away. You can weigh it down with a fork, or I like to use the plant lead strips that come with many potted aquarium plants.
If cooked a little longer, many fish and other aquarium critters will also enjoy it 🦐 🐌 🐟

What veggies do you enjoy feeding?

 

19/02/2026