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Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


ShaneB posted:

Any suggestions on a peaceful community fish to add some color and activity?

I've got some boesemani rainbowfish and they would probably fit the bill for you. The females are kind of boring looking, but the males are quite nice. I've got a group of 1m and 3f and they are pretty active in the top 1/3 of the tank.

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Whale Cancer
Jun 25, 2004

Tell me about gouramis. I have a soon to be empty 75 gallon and my kid really seems to like them.

Id like to get a larger one like a blue or opaline but i dont know what else i could put with them. I was thinking denison barbs and maybe 2 different kinds of other tetras.

Are there any other larger 4"+ fish i could stock? Maybe australian or bohemian rainbows?

Dogwood Fleet
Sep 14, 2013
One of the gourami is sitting at the bottom of the tank. It's still swimming around some, it'll go up for air and to eat, but she's just sitting on the sand a lot. How worried should I be?

Zandorv
Nov 22, 2011

Coolwhoami posted:

Looking at aqadvisor, you're probably fine adding even 5 more if you wanted. It will yell at you about filtration capacity but that tool is very conservative about filtration (it inherently assumes that a filter can handle 65% of it's rated value).


A bubbler is probably not necessary given your filter, but there is no harm in running it anyways. A more important thing would be to regularly check levels such as ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, ph, kh and gh to ensure they're OK (apologies if you already are). Assuming you don't have everything, the API master kit is a good starting place, but it does not have a kh or gh test. Your angelfish can grow up to 6" long and 12" high, but if it's chill right now by the time it is bigger it will be fine with its tank mates, although I have read that sometimes they can be aggressive.


It'll roam the sides of your tank too, and if theres lots of dead plant it they will eat that preferentially (I am not aware of blue varieties of apple snail species of the "eat anything including live plants" sort). Until you get them, if there is such vegetation in your tank, try your best to get it out of there as decaying plant matter will produce ammonia, which while fine in the short term (your bacteria will eat that up fine), will lead to increased nitrate concentration which might not be being managed by your water changes. This is especially a potential problem if you're not monitoring nitrates regularly, as prolonged exposure to high nitrate levels can be harmful to your fish. It depends on the tank though, if you have loads of other plants they may very well be consuming enough of the ammonia/nitrite/nitrates being produced.

Thanks for the advice! I do have an API master kit I've been using to test the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH, but I don't have anything for kh or gh tests (I'm not even entirely sure what those are). Where could I find materials for that?

Coolwhoami
Sep 13, 2007

Zandorv posted:

Thanks for the advice! I do have an API master kit I've been using to test the ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, and pH, but I don't have anything for kh or gh tests (I'm not even entirely sure what those are). Where could I find materials for that?

They're pretty common, enough that they should be found at a LFS. I can't make any recommendations regarding brand. Main reason you want to know about them is to ensure your pH doesn't bounce all over the place, and to ensure there's a decent amount of dissolved metals in the water, as depending on where you live that varies a ton, and if they're too low can harm fish long term (and for some fish, quite quickly).

Shakenbaker
Nov 14, 2005



Grimey Drawer

Whale Cancer posted:

Tell me about gouramis. I have a soon to be empty 75 gallon and my kid really seems to like them.

Id like to get a larger one like a blue or opaline but i dont know what else i could put with them. I was thinking denison barbs and maybe 2 different kinds of other tetras.

Are there any other larger 4"+ fish i could stock? Maybe australian or bohemian rainbows?

First off: gourami rule. Secondly three spot gourami (blue, gold, opaline, lavender, whatever) and dwarves often tend toward being a bit grumpy. Pearls tend to be super chill for me. Never kept thick lipped gourami myself but I gather they're more laid back. Snakeskins are twice the size of three spots so if you're thinking big they're worth a look at least.

Tankmates vary depending on what you go with. Three spots generally give no fucks and I kept a pair with a school of black ruby barbs with no problems between either camp. I've definitely heard stories of them holding up against the less genocidal new world cichlids like angels and blue acara, so you have lots of options. Larger rainbows would work just fine judging by the way my large turquoise male handles my blue acara :ssj:

Pearls are much more skittish and very much prefer calmer roomies. Thick lips would be somewhere in the middle I think, but again lean less toward boisterous.

Dogwood Fleet
Sep 14, 2013

Shakenbaker posted:

First off: gourami rule. Secondly three spot gourami (blue, gold, opaline, lavender, whatever) and dwarves often tend toward being a bit grumpy. Pearls tend to be super chill for me. Never kept thick lipped gourami myself but I gather they're more laid back. Snakeskins are twice the size of three spots so if you're thinking big they're worth a look at least.

Tankmates vary depending on what you go with. Three spots generally give no fucks and I kept a pair with a school of black ruby barbs with no problems between either camp. I've definitely heard stories of them holding up against the less genocidal new world cichlids like angels and blue acara, so you have lots of options. Larger rainbows would work just fine judging by the way my large turquoise male handles my blue acara :ssj:

Pearls are much more skittish and very much prefer calmer roomies. Thick lips would be somewhere in the middle I think, but again lean less toward boisterous.

Yeah, my tank isn't really that big, but it does have a lot of hiding places. I don't see the pearls unless they want to be seen. I was worried because there were all these exception to the rule stories where pearls went crazy homicidal, but if anything, the guppies are a little too rowdy for them. They're really pretty when they're out and about though.

Shakenbaker
Nov 14, 2005



Grimey Drawer
Some pearls do have fire in them, no doubt. Doubly so if you've got a pair and the male is getting all :pervert: but that goes for labyrinth fish in general. The difference is where my pearl male got showy while courting, my lavender male attacked me repeatedly because I had the audacity to vacuum the bottom of the tank.

For pearls I think what works best is getting some bottom/mid fish like cories and maybe ram cichlids and letting the pearls have the top mostly to themselves. Lets everyone interact on their own terms.

Dogwood Fleet
Sep 14, 2013
I lost the pearl that was sitting at the bottom of the tank some time during the night. That leaves me with four. Generally I've heard recommendations of 5-7 and that it's better to get them as a group. Should I get more and how soon should I do it? They're juveniles right now.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

Dogwood Fleet posted:

I lost the pearl that was sitting at the bottom of the tank some time during the night. That leaves me with four. Generally I've heard recommendations of 5-7 and that it's better to get them as a group. Should I get more and how soon should I do it? They're juveniles right now.

They're still very new, I'd wait a few more weeks to make sure you've lost all the ones you're going to lose. Think of it as an "in-tank quarantine". I don't know if it's a big thing over there but I'm wary of gourami iridovirus since the quarantine/customs dudes made a big fuss about it here; not sure if it just hits dwarf gourami or if other types of gourami could get it too. Supposedly betta can catch it as well. I'm not saying I think that's what killed your fish but you never know, and if you have it in your tank you don't want to add more fish and lose them too. I've read someone theorising that the virus doesn't kill the fish but it does make them too weak to get the surface air that they need and then they drown. He suggests floating sick labyrinth fish in a shallow breeder net or similar to help them continue to breathe while they're weak and give them a chance to perhaps shake off the virus. If you lose the rest of your gourami I'd be suspicious that it's iridovirus, but for now its most likely new fish syndrome. If you lose a couple more you'll know how many replacements you'll need, and that maybe you should use a different supplier.

I'm using a different seller myself to get 5 more panda cories (if they're still in stock) and maybe 3 more penguin tetras as well as some plants next week. The heatwave last week made me wary of buying anything, although I did manage to keep the fish area cool and no one overheated. This week the weather was milder except another mini heatwave (including fires across the state) today, which is when I would have wanted them to ship. I don't care if they chill their water, I don't trust that it will stay cool for a 37 degree day and the road was probably closed due to fire anyway so I'm glad I didn't risk it. It looks cooler next week and I really don't want the cories to cook. Anyway 8 of each should be enough in that tank, I'm hoping to see some less timid behaviour from the penguins but they aren't small fish so I don't want to crowd the tank too much. If they stay timid I will look at setting a timer so they get some dim lighting during the day. Actually there is no reason why I can't do this right now, the other tanks on that timer won't mind a bit less lighting I'm sure. The cories do seem a lot happier now that I've put in some "caves" for them. All three of them huddled together in one "cave" tonight while I trimmed the plants and did the water change which was really cute! Although it was sad that they were so scared that they had to hide. I imagine they feel a lot less stressed now that they have an actual hiding place.

I've made the first inroads into stopping the guppy population explosion and got the males and females separated in two of my smaller tanks (only 2 big tanks and 2 plastic tubs to go!). At the moment there are still 5 or 6 fry in each tank too but I should have a few weeks before I need to move those out. These guppies are all spotted ones, no bars or fancy patterns and under regular lighting I thought they looked fairly plain. A couple of black and orange spots, some of the black spots on a larger white spot, and a couple with bright white spots on the end corners of their caudal peduncle, like a paraguay tetra or a dwarf cory. But with all of them in one tank and lighting the tank a little more from the side it became apparent that they have some really nice iridescent colours going on as well. Purples, yellows, a splash of blue and green here and there. I tried to take a picture just now but they are all sleeping and have their colours dulled down and I felt mean for turning the light on them and waking them up. Anyway I'll have to try getting my real camera out and doing a flash photo to see if that picks their iridescence up a bit better. Is there a particular lighting technique to use for getting the best display of iridescent fish? The direct top-down lighting doesn't really do them justice at all.

Dogwood Fleet
Sep 14, 2013

Stoca Zola posted:

They're still very new, I'd wait a few more weeks to make sure you've lost all the ones you're going to lose. Think of it as an "in-tank quarantine". I don't know if it's a big thing over there but I'm wary of gourami iridovirus since the quarantine/customs dudes made a big fuss about it here; not sure if it just hits dwarf gourami or if other types of gourami could get it too. Supposedly betta can catch it as well. I'm not saying I think that's what killed your fish but you never know, and if you have it in your tank you don't want to add more fish and lose them too. I've read someone theorising that the virus doesn't kill the fish but it does make them too weak to get the surface air that they need and then they drown. He suggests floating sick labyrinth fish in a shallow breeder net or similar to help them continue to breathe while they're weak and give them a chance to perhaps shake off the virus. If you lose the rest of your gourami I'd be suspicious that it's iridovirus, but for now its most likely new fish syndrome. If you lose a couple more you'll know how many replacements you'll need, and that maybe you should use a different supplier.

I'm using a different seller myself to get 5 more panda cories (if they're still in stock) and maybe 3 more penguin tetras as well as some plants next week. The heatwave last week made me wary of buying anything, although I did manage to keep the fish area cool and no one overheated. This week the weather was milder except another mini heatwave (including fires across the state) today, which is when I would have wanted them to ship. I don't care if they chill their water, I don't trust that it will stay cool for a 37 degree day and the road was probably closed due to fire anyway so I'm glad I didn't risk it. It looks cooler next week and I really don't want the cories to cook. Anyway 8 of each should be enough in that tank, I'm hoping to see some less timid behaviour from the penguins but they aren't small fish so I don't want to crowd the tank too much. If they stay timid I will look at setting a timer so they get some dim lighting during the day. Actually there is no reason why I can't do this right now, the other tanks on that timer won't mind a bit less lighting I'm sure. The cories do seem a lot happier now that I've put in some "caves" for them. All three of them huddled together in one "cave" tonight while I trimmed the plants and did the water change which was really cute! Although it was sad that they were so scared that they had to hide. I imagine they feel a lot less stressed now that they have an actual hiding place.

I've made the first inroads into stopping the guppy population explosion and got the males and females separated in two of my smaller tanks (only 2 big tanks and 2 plastic tubs to go!). At the moment there are still 5 or 6 fry in each tank too but I should have a few weeks before I need to move those out. These guppies are all spotted ones, no bars or fancy patterns and under regular lighting I thought they looked fairly plain. A couple of black and orange spots, some of the black spots on a larger white spot, and a couple with bright white spots on the end corners of their caudal peduncle, like a paraguay tetra or a dwarf cory. But with all of them in one tank and lighting the tank a little more from the side it became apparent that they have some really nice iridescent colours going on as well. Purples, yellows, a splash of blue and green here and there. I tried to take a picture just now but they are all sleeping and have their colours dulled down and I felt mean for turning the light on them and waking them up. Anyway I'll have to try getting my real camera out and doing a flash photo to see if that picks their iridescence up a bit better. Is there a particular lighting technique to use for getting the best display of iridescent fish? The direct top-down lighting doesn't really do them justice at all.

Yeah, nothing's happening until after Christmas. I never tried dwarf gourami as I had heard about the iridovirus and some of the other problems that came with it. If I notice another one getting weak like that, I'll keep the shallow breeder net idea in mind.

I lost my panda cories to an unexpected heat wave months ago when I was out of town. I'm wondering if they're the best choice for you since heat is an issue for you. I picked my current stock on the basis of whether or not they'd be able to handle the summer temperature in my room. I have air conditioning, but I live in a weird house with my room on the top floor and the AC doesn't work as well up here, so I made sure to stock fish that can handle warmer water. I'm lazy and don't like worrying about keeping the tank cool, so it was the better option for me. I'm not a fan of mixing and matching cory species, but it might be the best option.

Coolwhoami
Sep 13, 2007

Stoca Zola posted:

I've made the first inroads into stopping the guppy population explosion and got the males and females separated in two of my smaller tanks (only 2 big tanks and 2 plastic tubs to go!). At the moment there are still 5 or 6 fry in each tank too but I should have a few weeks before I need to move those out. These guppies are all spotted ones, no bars or fancy patterns and under regular lighting I thought they looked fairly plain. A couple of black and orange spots, some of the black spots on a larger white spot, and a couple with bright white spots on the end corners of their caudal peduncle, like a paraguay tetra or a dwarf cory. But with all of them in one tank and lighting the tank a little more from the side it became apparent that they have some really nice iridescent colours going on as well. Purples, yellows, a splash of blue and green here and there. I tried to take a picture just now but they are all sleeping and have their colours dulled down and I felt mean for turning the light on them and waking them up. Anyway I'll have to try getting my real camera out and doing a flash photo to see if that picks their iridescence up a bit better. Is there a particular lighting technique to use for getting the best display of iridescent fish? The direct top-down lighting doesn't really do them justice at all.

I'm currently trying to manage a moly explosion of the same sort, and based on the bellies of the two females, probably guppies soon too. I'm going to try making a bottle trap, i'll post about it how it goes. I'm mainly worried that as they get bigger that they'll overwhelm my filter, or increase the nitrate levels too high. Livebearer regret.

What sort of lighting do you have? That can make a big difference on colour. You might not have a lot of options if you have plants, but lighting can make a huge difference in the appearance of fish. As for taking pictures, flash is likely going to either reflect off the tank or at best the scales of your fish, and probably scare your fish a bit, so I don't recommend it.

Other photo tips (that I can't really try because I bought a bow front and that makes taking good picture incredibly difficult): Try keeping your lens at the same angle as the glass to minimize If you have a camera that isn't point and shoot, a lens hood (or makeshift one) might help with reflectivity, and if you're familiar with manual shooting, Nikon suggests "Shoot on Manual + Auto ISO + 1/125 sec. + f/5.6" as a baseline to start.

Dogwood Fleet
Sep 14, 2013
Another question: the pearls touch each other with their ventral fins fairly frequently (although they are doing that with most things in the tank right now). They'll tend to do it when the lights come on or after I've put food in the tank and they come together as a group. Is there anything that I should read into this other than that they're feeling their way around?

Whale Cancer
Jun 25, 2004

So on the gourami talk, I like to try to keep my stock at least fairly geographically similar, same country/continent, what else comes from the same region as gourami?

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

http://fish.mongabay.com/biotope_se_asia_pool.htm

FISH:
Gouramis, Bettas, Rasboras, Loaches, Glass Catfish, Cyprind sharks, Flying Fox

republicant
Apr 5, 2010
Sheldon (my aquatic turtle) was basking on his dock and I was looking at him, and saw a very very small white mite-looking insect crawl down his shell. Wtf??? My first instinct was to grab the turtle and put him in the water. I don't see any others anywhere but I guess it's time to give the tank a good thorough cleaning and pay special attention to his basking areas. Tired of these random unwanted pests.

Whale Cancer
Jun 25, 2004

No no no, hell no on bettas, flying fox and glass cats. I could get along with rasboras, red tail sharks and definitely loaches though.

Thanks for that link. Wish i had a big enough tank for mass shoals of balas and clown loaches.

republicant
Apr 5, 2010
I remember posting here several months ago about stockpiling 500 mL bottles of Prime, and was warned that dechlorinator can go bad if not used quickly enough. Now I'm regenerating my first batch of Purigen and I've definitely found a way to use up all the Prime, my god. It doesn't help that I overkill the hell out of Purigen and am running 13 bags of it, about 1,300 gallons worth of Purigen between 100 gallons worth of tanks. Holy crap. And that's on top of overkill power filtration and multiple sponge/air filters in every tank. But all my tank water is crystal clear like it was just poured from a Brita pitcher.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008


A guppy picture apparently taken with a potato. Can't find the charger for my real camera! Also featuring the crumpled brown paper tank background. This was my best shot out of many and I cropped out all the ugly blurry bits. It didn't leave much! Anyway when lit from the top only the orange black and white parts show but he has a lot more colour than that.

Most of my lighting is LED which probably doesn't help the pictures, I remember reading somewhere that the narrow bands of frequency in an LED can play havok with a camera sensor.

Anyway I wanted to show the difference moving the light a little bit makes; this tank is a Fluval Spec V, standard LED lighting which I think is 6 emitters. I took the light out of the bracket and brought it forward and angled it a little and you can see the results in this video. It would be easy to think yeah, these feral/wild coloured guppies are pretty plain, and until I messed with the lighting I had no idea how bright they are.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxcDp8HaS_U

Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 15:50 on Nov 26, 2015

Beastyfella
Mar 5, 2008

I have lost all powers of reading comprehension and counting ability hours ago
Hi fish thread. I've had an old eclipse 12 bowfront running for a while that pretty much manages itself other than food and water changes. The hood/light has failed several times and I'm getting tired of it so I think it's time for an upgrade.

I'm looking at getting a 29 gallon rectangular starter kit, and assuming all the fish survive the transfer after cycling, I was wondering what might get along well with the current inhabitants.

3 female bettas, 2 bristlenose pleco, 1 mickey mouse platy, and some mystery snails. Our city water is fairly high ph (8+) and pretty hard too.

Coolwhoami
Sep 13, 2007

Beastyfella posted:

Hi fish thread. I've had an old eclipse 12 bowfront running for a while that pretty much manages itself other than food and water changes. The hood/light has failed several times and I'm getting tired of it so I think it's time for an upgrade.

I'm looking at getting a 29 gallon rectangular starter kit, and assuming all the fish survive the transfer after cycling, I was wondering what might get along well with the current inhabitants.

3 female bettas, 2 bristlenose pleco, 1 mickey mouse platy, and some mystery snails. Our city water is fairly high ph (8+) and pretty hard too.

The biggest thing is to ensure if you get your fish non-locally that you acclimate them slowly to your water (drip acclimation is best). Since you have female bettas and not a ton of other fish, i'd say avoid fish elaborate fins that could be construed as another betta, as they might try to beat the poo poo out of such fish. This means most african cichlids, which would be ideal for your water parameters, might not be a good option unless you're confident your bettas aren't jerks. Your plecos and platy will likely be fine with any inhabitants you add.

Do you have plants in your current tank, and would you want them in your new tank? What sort of filter/light comes with the kit? I ask this because after getting my kit, I've ended up replacing or supplementing a lot of the stuff in it with other things (the lights were useless for plants), so depending on your intentions it might be cheaper long term to just get a tank on its own unless it's a really good price for the kit.

republicant
Apr 5, 2010
Mystery snails are very... mysterious. Ever since I treated the tank with fenbendazole, all 15 mystery snails in the tank have been.. failing to thrive. Very much alive, and would quickly react if you poked them, but five or six of them would not move at all, just hang out upside down with their trapdoors open and pretty much act like they were on death's door. The ones that weren't upside down on the bottom would be on the glass, but they would just sit there all day and not move anywhere. I tried moving the one that was first afflicted to another tank to see if something in the water was poisoning it, but it acted the same. All of the rabbit snails and ramshorns were fine. I've had this happen before, to my very first mystery snail, who survived like this for several weeks before finally passing. The only thing we could think is that this tank is kept around 79-80° and maybe it was the temperature, so my boyfriend put a bunch of them in the cold 75° cyprinid tank and they perked right up. (The tank I moved the sick snail into was also 79°.) I put all the rest of them in there and it's like they've been given a new lease on life, they're actually crawling around again. So obviously the high temperature was the problem, but the thing is they've been in that tank for a couple months now with no problems, and now it affected all of them at the same time. And with the one mystery snail that was affected before, it was in the same tank with other mystery snails and all the other mysteries were fine while it was the only sick one. I'm just glad we figured out what the problem was.

Also, hauling around buckets of water is a pain, dealing with sick fish is a pain, but I recently adopted a male guinea pig and I just found out that he has a "butt pouch" and part of owning a male guinea pig is routinely cleaning that out so... I kind of appreciate all the inconveniences of the fish hobby now. Be thankful you don't have to get up close and personal with your fish like that, yuck.

Cowslips Warren
Oct 29, 2005

What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?

Grimey Drawer
Woot woot. Another pair, not yet breeding but close to, of blue-eyed bristlenose plecos dead. Some of the babies I threw in the 20 long died. The shrimp continue to do fine. And days like this I wish I'd never bought that loving 55, because that was where all the poo poo started. Sigh.

In other news I had some brown bristlenose fry get sucked up by the Python and emerge fine in the sink.

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


Yay, ich outbreak in my 90 planted tank. :cry:

No clue where it came from, haven't added anything to that tank recently. It's full of plants and snails, so I'm cranking the temp up to 85 and will have to hope for the best.

Coolwhoami
Sep 13, 2007
So other than over-straining, what might be the cause of bright redness at fin joints? Water parameters look fine, and only one of my danios (a long fin) seems to have anything, and it doesn't seem to be bacterial, so I assume it's just damaged his fins by swimming too hard or something, but that seems odd.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

I've seen it on a beacon tetra who may or may not have died a few weeks later even though it went away. Always suspect bacterial, check your nitrates aren't too high, any other signs of stress (male danio sparring?). If it wasn't there before it shouldn't be there now, but for now all you can do is try to remove stressors and monitor the fish.

I put an order in today for more cories and a couple more tetras, some plants and some food. Weather is great for shipping fish this week! Found out after order placed that they don't ship until the following week. It's a heat wave again next week so we will get to test their chilled water shipping technique and possibly also their live shipping loss replacement guarantee.

Cowslips Warren
Oct 29, 2005

What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?

Grimey Drawer
Looking at a Chernoboyl style meltdown. Not in one tank. In all of them. I use 1 Python water change setup, and if one tank has velvet, they all do. I've seen it at least in two, perhaps three. The spots that are visible seem to show right before it's too late to do anything. I'm looking at losing all my breeding pairs of plecos and their fry. Already lost 2 L260s too, and my African cats don't look so well. My P typus cats are incubating eggs, which might be their last time.

I don't even know where the poo poo came from, I QT everything for at least a month. But here we are, over 30 dead fish later. I can't medicate the scaleless fish safely but tomorrow I may as well try with Paraguard, and hope it doesn't kill all my inverts, because no amount of Prime will contain that ammonia spike.

Qt, people. This is why I urge a 10 gallon QT, because when you miss something, you can lose every drat fish.

Enos Cabell
Nov 3, 2004


drat, that really sucks Cowslips.

Bulky Bartokomous
Nov 3, 2006

In Mypos, only the strong survive.

So sorry Cowslips

Synthbuttrange
May 6, 2007

Jeez did you desecrate a graveyard or something? :(

Slugworth
Feb 18, 2001

If two grown men can't make a pervert happy for a few minutes in order to watch a film about zombies, then maybe we should all just move to Iran!

Cowslips Warren posted:

Already lost 2 L260s too, and my African cats don't look so well. My P typus cats are incubating eggs, which might be their last time.
I was wondering if you were the guy with the L260s when you first posted your woes. That sucks man.

Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

Cowslips that's gutwrenching and awful, my condolences. I've heard good things about paraguard so I'm crossing my fingers for you.

Coolwhoami
Sep 13, 2007
Those poor Plecos, that's awful Cowslips :(

What temperature are you running your QT tank at? Given that most, if not all, diseases for aquatic fish proliferate faster in higher temperatures, I wonder if running a QT tank on the hotter side might not be a bad idea, since you're more likely to see symptoms faster, although it will also be hard on new fish that are already stressed due to transportation so its not an amazing solution.

Cowslips Warren
Oct 29, 2005

What use had they for tricks and cunning, living in the enemy's warren and paying his price?

Grimey Drawer
In good news I have way more assassin snails than I thought. Bad news is they came out to feast on the last two L260.

Now the hillstream loaches. Breathing hard at times. Oh yay.

Coolwhoami
Sep 13, 2007

Cowslips Warren posted:

In good news I have way more assassin snails than I thought. Bad news is they came out to feast on the last two L260.

Now the hillstream loaches. Breathing hard at times. Oh yay.

Crap. I am bummed and they aren't my fish.

Two of my danios are exhibiting dropsy, ones pineconed and the other wont swim much before stopping. The one I posted about earlier I suspect is also going to have issues but I can't catch the motherfucker. Ughhh. I don't even understand where this came from, my water parameters are fine and nothing new has been added in awhile.

dumpieXL
Sep 7, 2007
redacks
Do I blame the lone bristlenose pleco, or the new rampaging gang of ottos for eating my cherry shrimp?

jkin: thanks petco ich otto
:watches one try suck on pleco..

Okay kids, we're moving.

dumpieXL fucked around with this message at 06:26 on Dec 3, 2015

dumpieXL
Sep 7, 2007
redacks
Ottos act like bugs in my tank, loving std fish. :bahgawd:

-Inu-
Nov 11, 2008

TWO HUNDRED AND FIFTY CUBIC CENTIMETERS
Does anyone know what this red thing on my GBR is?

I got home from work tonight and noticed that one of my GBR's colors was looking absolutely STUNNING. I got closer to take a picture to show a friend and noticed this red...thing on his body. I'm assuming it's not good.








- 40G breeder, not overstocked
- 0/0/14.8
- 50% WC done recently
- Nothing new added to the tank
- He's swimming around as if nothing is there. Not lethargic or acting strange.
- Other fish in the tank look normal.

ShaneB
Oct 22, 2002


OK all, kinda panicking now... every one of the 5 fish (2 koi angel, 2 blue angel, 1 koi swordtail) has now died. They each did the same thing - turned from a normal fish into a gasping fish who ignored food and then a few days later died. I now have one of my earlier swordtails gasping and not moving at the bottom of the tank, and potentially one of my corys just seems to be sitting there.

This is in combination, perhaps unrelated, to a big bloom of brown and green algae.

Again, my water is always pretty awesome. Ph of like 7.8, no ammonia, no nitrites, 5ppm nitrates.

I am super worried I'm just going to slowly lose my entire tank and unsure how to treat this mystery issue.

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Stoca Zola
Jun 28, 2008

Gasping is either bad oxygenation (water too warm, insufficient surface agitation?) or some gill issue (flukes, velvet, burned from chemicals in water?) but since your newest fish died from it first I feel like they might have brought some pathogen into your tank. Or it could be that they were weakest due to stress and succumbed first to whatever it is. Has anything else has changed apart from the new fish? Any dusts or sprays in your home? Your water supply might have changed and be bad due to dosing at the treatment plant, might need more dechlorination or prime or whatever than usual. There could be something in there which caused the algae bloom (maybe). I think it's unlikely that algae would directly hurt your fish, but is the bloom big enough that it could deoxygenate the water overnight? I would imagine if it was an oxygenation issue you would see your cories sipping air from the surface more often, so if they aren't doing that it's more likely to be disease or parasite related. Did you see anything unusual about the dead fish, examine the colour of their gills, etc?

-Inu- normally red on a fish I would jump straight on bacterial infection but that looks like a red mark flat on the surface with a real crisp border. If the GBR's colour is good does that mean they are more likely to get frisky or fight? It could be an abrasion, really all you can do is keep an eye on it and judge by the fish's behaviour.

I'm probably going to try and set up a plastic tub for quarantine for the new fish (assuming any of them survive the heat) after reading these tales of woe. I hadn't really planned to do it, then I set up the spare hospital tank and I've had it running a couple of days but now looking at it I'm starting to think it's really not big enough for all the fish to fit. It's certainly nowhere near 10 gallons. The other thing I want to do is set up a jar to do hydrogen peroxide dips of my tools in hope of safely disinfecting any bugs instead of spreading them. I've been really slack with it lately, always intended to buy separate tools per tank but never got around to it. After these new cories and tetras I'm not going to get any new fish so this is my last risk to my tanks for a while and I don't want to blow it :(

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