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I didn't post a whole lot in the previous aquarium thread, but it had a lot of great people giving great information, so I'm glad to see it continue! Here's what my tank looked like a little over a year ago when I started attempting to convert it to a planted tank with the help of the previous aquarium thread: And here's what it looks like as of a week or two ago:  Hopefully the water sprite fills in the upper area of the tank - it's a 36 gallon bowfront. It's definitely not the fanciest tank, but it is extremely low effort to maintain, so it works for me. Here's some of the things that live in it:    
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Jun 16, 2013 16:44
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Shakenbaker posted:Here's a few from the 75 at least: It's just distortion from your camera lens. This is normal to a degree that varies depending on the lens and subject. Since you're taking a photo of a large object with long, straight lines, the distortion is going to be more noticeable, especially if you're using a zoom lens to fit everything in the frame.
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Sep 18, 2013 19:11
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Hey, fish thread. My tank's been doing pretty well until a month or two ago when I had some fish seemingly randomly die on me over the course of a few weeks (one x-ray tetra, two bronze corys, and a kuhli loach). No symptoms or anything wrong with them or the other fish that I could see when I found them, they just died. Then about a week or two ago I saw another cory with what looked like hemorrhagic septicemia and extremely ragged fins, so I moved it to a hospital tank and treated with triple sulfa since that was what I had at the time and the fish was still pretty active and eating. I did order some Kanaplex from Amazon, but unfortunately the fish didn't make it after a few days with no change in symptoms. The day it died, it had gray patches on its body and white fuzz on its tail. Didn't see any other affected fish in the tank until last night when I found another dead kuhli loach and the remaining two kuhli loaches with really obvious ulcers on their bodies, one much worse than the other. I took some photos (linking because they're kind of gross): http://i.imgur.com/SC6MHrs.jpg and http://i.imgur.com/k0Kh2sR.jpg The white area has grown a huge amount since last night - it started off as a small white dot in the middle of a red oval and has since grown to cover the red area almost completely, except for the new redness I'm seeing now that wasn't there this morning. The other fish looks the same, though. I immediately moved both of them to another tank, started treating with Kanaplex, and also ordered Furan-2, though I won't get it until Monday or Tuesday, which sucks. I thought maybe it could be columnaris due to what happened with the cory, but I've never had to deal with it before, and Google is saying lesions like this are more likely with aeromonas bacteria (also never dealt with it before, even though I guess the antibiotic treatment would be the same for both?). Anyone have any experience with this and know of anything else I could do aside from the antibiotics and frequent water changes? I'm guessing I'll have to treat my entire tank now anyway, but I kind of want to see how the loaches do first before I start dumping a bunch of stuff into the water without knowing if it's going to help or not. Then again, I really don't want more dead fish, so... yeah, don't know what the best course of action is there. I'm actually pretty sad about these guys because one of the kuhli loaches was one of the first fish I got when I first started seriously getting into the hobby about 6-7 years ago, and I got the cories a bit later. I got a second loach as a friend for the first one once I realized they didn't like to be alone, and the last two loaches are their babies so I got a bit attached to them since they were a family  Poor fish.
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Apr 12, 2014 01:36
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demonR6 posted:Would decomposing plant matter also cause this as well? Yeah, if what's been happening with my tank the last few months is any indication. I noticed a lot of mulm building up in my filter that wasn't there before, and after testing the water found that nitrates were really high. This is a tank that's moderately-heavily planted and was overstocked but wasn't having issues until the water sprite in the tank took off and grew like crazy. It would break apart everywhere and all the plant matter would get sucked into the filter or the old stems would die off and rot under the gravel. I couldn't keep up with removing the broken/dead stuff, there was just so much of it. Unfortunately I wasn't able to deal with it effectively before my fish started dying, and the past month or two I've been battling columnaris/aeromonas/some mystery bacteria (all the fish have different symptoms except for septicemia which they all get before they die) that's wiped out half my fish and seems to be resistant to the antibiotics recommended for those types of bacteria, so I'm trying salt dips and other stuff on fish that can tolerate it as a last resort before nuking the tank entirely. Fun times! I did end up tearing out all the water sprite and the filter has been significantly less gunky and is running better, so if nothing else, there's that. But yeah, decaying plant matter will gently caress a tank up if not taken care of.
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Jun 17, 2014 19:11
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Yeah, hopefully you figure something out. With all the snails and shrimp and fish, it does sound like you have a lot of stuff going on in there in general, though. I did start a RCS tank (with a random amano shrimp that somehow got in the mix) in a 2 1/2 gallon cube tank my boyfriend gave me and even though I only have five shrimp in there, those guys poop a lot. They're so cute, though, so I'll probably post some photos when I'm not on my phone. No clue what I'll do when there's eventually too many of them in there, though. Are there other options besides selling them or turning them into fish food?
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Jun 17, 2014 20:40
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demonR6 posted:The population will peak then at some point will start to diminish as the females who are capable of having babies either gets too low or inbreeding occurs to the level you have an aquarium of sterile shrimp. If you do not introduce new shrimp into the gene pool they will gradually die off. Good to know, thanks! Here's what the tank looks like now. Not much going on yet since I only added the shrimp a few weeks ago and still need to take more anubias/java fern from my big tank when it stops being messed up (which is probably never, so I might just buy more instead):     The shrimp still like it, though. I see them out on the wood a lot just grazing on it, which is really cute, but I've never had shrimp as pets before so everything they do is amazing to me right now.
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Jun 21, 2014 04:51
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Fish Noise posted:Just out of curiosity, any of you ever had to deal with Camallanus? Yes. A few years ago one of my fish had it (kind of hard to miss a weird worm-like thing sticking out of your fish's butt). No idea where it came from, but Google got me to a guy online who sells small packets of Levamisole with instructions on how to dose it in aquariums - http://www.inkmkr.com/Fish/. I ended up buying some from him since I didn't know where else to get small amounts of Levamisole, followed the directions, and my fish was buttworm free after the first treatment. Supposedly, heavy infestations may kill the fish if the worms die and get stuck in the gut, but I was lucky and didn't lose any so I'd recommend trying it since it seems to be pretty safe (unless someone else knows more and has a better treatment).
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Jul 16, 2014 22:03
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Plavski posted:I'm getting started in the aquarium game and am looking at a 140l (37g) tank. I want to have a centre-piece fish like a Betta, but I'm really eyeing up a red-tailed shark. I have done a bunch of research and think I have a good idea as to its requirements, but I need some concrete advice: is this tank too small for a red-tailed shark? I have one in a 36 gallon tank. It's definitely doable, but to be honest, after seeing how big they get and how they behave, I think they need more space than that. They're incredibly active and territorial and would probably do best in at least a 55. I also just don't think they make a great centerpiece fish since they tend to hang out near the middle/bottom and spend a lot of time chasing other fish around. When I think of a centerpiece fish, I think of something that's going to be visible nearly all of the time and not something that's going to be constantly zooming around the tank, chasing and disrupting the other fish (which will happen much more often than not in a smaller space) more than it would be visible or interactive. That's my personal preference, though, and maybe you/others don't share the same view on that, which is fine! They are really beautiful and definitely stand out in a tank, at least, so if that's what you're after then you'll get that for sure. I actually really love them for their personality and behavior which is why I still have one, but if I had the space to get a bigger tank I absolutely would. Here's an older photo of my tank so you can see about how big they get compared to the tank space (though expect them to get a little bigger than this):  Given the fish I have, corys, angelfish, and loaches are fish they tolerate well, though I have heard of people occasionally getting super rear end in a top hat red tailed sharks that will go after anything. Most of the time they tend to pick on flashier fish and may or may not harass them to death depending on how territorial they are and how much area they've claimed as theirs (another reason why bigger tanks are better with these guys). Slower-moving fish that hang out near the middle/top of the tank like bettas are also bad choices. Depending on the shark's personality, a school of barbs or tetras could also work since they tend to move pretty fast and there won't be a single target for the shark to pick on. No matter what you choose, plant the tank well and add lots of decorations to give all of the fish in it plenty of hiding places. It'll keep stress levels lower for fish being chased and give the shark some space to claim as its own where it won't be bothered. Something else to note is these guys are extremely sensitive to temperature changes/other changes in the water and will attempt to jump if anything seems off to them. Make sure the tank is covered well because even a full-grown fish can and will escape from a tiny space if it's determined enough.
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Oct 3, 2014 16:27
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Anyone have any suggestions on what to do with fish tanks during a bug spray? My apartment complex recently changed management, and I just got a note from them today saying they'll be in to spray the entire building Thursday morning. Unfortunately they haven't informed me what they're spraying for, what they're spraying with, or why (and if it's roaches, I hope I can convince them not to spray here because I already use Maxforce roach gel), so I'm probably going to have to spend all morning on the phone with them and whoever they hired to do pest control tomorrow. Is there anything I need to do aside from seal up the tanks as tightly as possible and hope the fish are ok? I know sprays are highly toxic to fish which is why I don't ever use them, myself, so I'm not exactly sure what the best course of action is.
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Oct 15, 2014 07:08
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Did someone say shrimp?    In case anyone was on the fence about shrimp, because everyone needs a tank full of shrimp. demonR6, I love those comparison shots and the giant moss ball full of shrimp. Here's what my tank looked like in June last year, a month or so after I started it: 
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Jan 16, 2015 06:03
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demonR6 posted:It's coming along well. Has the shrimp population increased? Yeah, I started with just five shrimp since I didn't know how many I'd end up with and then quickly lost count, haha. The two biggest ones in there are the only ones I recognize, and they're part of the group I originally bought. Seems like they've stopped breeding as quickly, though it also got unexpectedly cold in my apartment this past month so I assume those things are related. They're doing ok otherwise! Also, random question, but has anyone successfully dealt with rhizome rot on their anubias plants? I only just found out that was a thing after I noticed the ones in my 36 gallon losing leaves due to parts of the rhizome turning brown and mushy (none of them are buried). At this point I'm assuming I'm going to lose them all since it sounds like there isn't really anything that can be done to save them, but maybe someone in this thread knows something Google doesn't.
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Jan 18, 2015 05:37
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Gillingham posted:What kind of maintenance do you do on that? I never had luck fighting algae and plants dieing, then again I'm in socal where temps are not very friendly towards anything. I've sold off most of my gear but did keep my little fluval EBI that I've been meaning to do something with. Pretty minimal. It's a 2 gallon tank with a light that's overpowered (it was the only one I could find for freshwater plants that fit the lamp) so I don't add ferts and don't have a heater in it. Algae grows like crazy, but it's just green algae that the shrimp will eat. I do throw in bits of algae wafer for them, too, and I clean it up and scrape the algae off the tank regularly. I did get some black beard algae in there by accident when I pulled some anubias from my 36 gallon, but it doesn't seem to be spreading or growing much, at least.
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Jan 26, 2015 17:16
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When I moved, I drained all the water out of my 36 gallon tank and removed any decorations and plants, but I left the substrate in. I think you could probably get away with leaving some water in a smaller tank (I did this with a 10 gallon before with no issues), but I wouldn't feel safe risking it with a larger one due to the added weight of the water and everything else. I've only ever moved short distances, but my next move will likely be across states, so it's kind of good this came up now and that the advice given is pretty much exactly what I was already thinking of doing! Every time I think tearing the tank down and giving away or selling everything would be easier, I realize I couldn't actually bring myself to do that, so everything is just going to have to come with me even if it is a giant pain in the rear end.
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Mar 25, 2015 16:48
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Fejsze posted:Is there any way to train fish to eat food floating on the top of the tank? I had this issue with my x-ray tetras for awhile. They just need to get used to the tank before feeling confident enough to venture outside their normal comfort zone. Eventually they'll realize it's safe to move around everywhere and won't wait for the food to come to them, but it is kind of annoying to deal with in the meantime.
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May 13, 2015 15:32
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I had the same experience with my red cherries turning brown after about a year. I added a few new bright red ones, but they didn't last long since my shrimp stopped breeding and started dying off recently. At first it was kind of slow, so I assumed those were all the ones I originally got reaching old age, but then the past week it's been sudden mass die-offs of the remaining ones, even younger ones. I tested the water for everything except water hardness and carbonate hardness, but I ordered that test kit from Amazon yesterday. Nothing funny showed up on the other tests, so aside from a possible molting problem, I'm stumped. Hopefully that's it and I can fix it and get some more shrimp, though they were really thriving the first 8 months I had them so it seems weird that there would be a sudden change to that.
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Sep 21, 2015 23:52
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Yeah, I definitely plan on testing both my tap water and the tank water to see what's happening there. I'm not sure how to fix it if that is the issue, but I guess I have some time to read up on it while the test kit gets here. I still can't believe every store I went to was sold out of that one or just didn't carry it. Sucks since I really don't want all my shrimp to die before I get this sorted, but that might actually happen shrimp friends, nooo.
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Sep 22, 2015 00:30
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SynthOrange posted:My betta wasnt struggling at all, just breathing heavily. I placed him in a tiny tub with some tankwater so he wouldnt thrash around being out of water which allowed me to get the scissors into place. First cut took his head off, and I hope the gill movement immediately after was just a nerve reflex. In any case after that I cut it in half again. Blegh. At least it was quick. I'm sorry you had to put him down, but I think you did the right thing. I've had fish get to that point with no hope of recovery and always regretted not sparing them more suffering later. It might have been violent for you, but if it makes you feel better, the gill movement was involuntary from the sound of it. I learned how to gut and clean fish when I was a kid, and even with the heads quickly and completely severed the bodies would often still move for a few seconds or more. Disturbing as hell, but they were definitely not alive when it happened. Also, thanks to whoever mentioned Purigen earlier. I got some for my tank to try it out since no matter how many water changes I do, the water's always a bit yellow. That cleared it right up, and the fish seem a little more active today on top of that, so I'm pleased with it already. Edit: Stoca Zola, I finally got my test kit in and will be doing the same tests you just did in my own tanks and with my tap water tonight, but I'm still not completely sure what's ideal for shrimp or how I should fix it if something's wrong. Guess I'll see where my water's at and then go from there. Not Your Senorita fucked around with this message at 16:19 on Sep 28, 2015 |
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Sep 28, 2015 16:10
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Might be a dumb question, but are you sure it's the motor? Every Aquaclear filter I've had rattled or was otherwise noisy because of the lid on the top being a little loose, so I just leave it off. If it is the motor, that sucks, but if you haven't had it that long hopefully you can get a replacement.
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Sep 30, 2015 15:35
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Finally tested the KH and GH of my water and found out the GH is pretty much as low as it gets, so that sucks. I know my city generally has softer water, but I guess where I live is on the extreme end of that. It probably has something to do with why my shrimp have all been dying and why my plants look kind of gross lately, though! I got some Seachem Equilibrium from Amazon to bring it up a little bit, so hopefully that'll help.
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Oct 4, 2015 17:31
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ShaneB, just something to watch out for in case you didn't already know since you mentioned the plant looking a little funny: Cryptocorynes like your plant tend to go through a melting period where the leaves turn mushy and fall off after a major (or sometimes minor... one of mine started melting when I added an extra dose of Excel a week to help my amazon swords grow better) change in their conditions. It looks like the plant is dying, especially if it starts losing a bunch of leaves at once, but it's not. It just looks gross for a little bit before it grows new leaves to replace the ones that melted off. It's kind of annoying but mostly harmless as long as you don't let all the melty leaf bits rot in your tank.
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Oct 12, 2015 20:23
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Yeah, the ends of some of those leaves definitely look melty to me. It'll spread through the whole leaf and then the stems will go mushy, too. Fortunately, established plants usually grow leaves back really quickly after a melt, even if they lose all of them. I'm hoping yours won't lose too many since you moved it to much better conditions than it was in!
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Oct 13, 2015 15:41
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ShaneB posted:Should I just pull all the stems with bad leaves off at the base? Some aren't super attractive and I was just hoping they'd perk up. I'm completely new to growing anything, aquarium or otherwise. Yeah, if you see leaves that have mostly turned to mush or are slimy/fuzzy like that, you can just pull them before they disintegrate into the tank since they're as good as gone. If it's a leaf with a tiny bit of melt at the tip, maybe wait and see what happens since sometimes those don't keep melting.
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Oct 13, 2015 15:51
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ShaneB posted:Edit: poo poo. There seems to be a fungus starting on my driftwood. I'm concerned I have a fungal infection starting... that might be on the plant leaves as well? Just saw this! I see what you're talking about on the plant leaves in the picture, and it looks like it might be a bacteria or fungus growing on the decaying plant matter. I don't see it on any healthy leaves, so removing the dead/dying ones should fix it. As far as the driftwood, I know sometimes new driftwood does get a weird slimy bacterial growth on it (I don't remember what it is exactly) after putting it in a new tank and tends to clear up on its own. Yours isn't new, but since you tore down the tank and re-established everything, that could be what it is. You can try scrubbing it off if it's really bothering you, but it'll probably grow back until it goes away on its own. Shrimp, snails, and sometimes fish will eat it if you want a more natural way of controlling it until it goes away.
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Oct 13, 2015 16:56
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The API ammonia test has always had a slightly greenish tinge for me, too, even when just using dechlorinated tap water that hasn't been added to my tank yet. None of the tests line up 100% exactly with the printed colors for me, but most of them are obvious enough that I can tell what they're supposed to match with. The ammonia one drives me insane every time, though, because it's one that tends to read very differently depending on your room lighting and surrounding colors. The suggestion to test clean water and match the color against your tank water is a great one, since that's what I've been doing lately and it is way easier to see if there's a difference or not.
Not Your Senorita fucked around with this message at 21:09 on Oct 19, 2015 |
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Oct 19, 2015 21:06
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Yeah, I would. Even if only two of them have it now, it'll spread. I'm dealing with the same thing in my tank right now where all of my rummy-nose tetras have ick but none of the others have visible signs. Unfortunately I can't get my heater to heat my tank past 84 degrees right now due to the cold, and my apartment has lovely heat, too, so I'll probably need to throw a second heater in there just to bump it up that extra two degrees. I was really disappointed I had to return some angelicus botia loaches the other day because they kept punching huge holes in my amazon sword. Not even to eat it but just for the hell of it, I guess. I had the same problem but to a lesser extent when I had more of them awhile back and never figured out what caused it until now. Sucks because they're awesome fish, but they were gonna destroy that plant if I didn't return them they didn't want anything to do with the other botia loach I have, either. I got him with a previous group of angelicus botia, but his pattern doesn't look like any of them or any other botia loaches I've seen. Is anyone good at IDing these guys? Or is it possible he might be a hybrid? I can post a photo later if anyone wants to take a look.
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Nov 9, 2015 20:41
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ShaneB posted:Is it just most correct to bump up the temperature and get a LFS treatment in a bottle? You won't even need other treatment, most likely. If you do get something you'll definitely want to make sure it's safe to use in your tank since a lot of them aren't. All I've ever done to get rid of it is raise the temperature for a couple weeks and do more water changes with a gravel vac during that time to help remove the parasites, and that always seems to work just fine for me!
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Nov 9, 2015 21:14
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Cowslips, that really sucks Whatever got your fish must have been similar to what wiped out half my tank last year since all of my fish had the same symptoms. The ones that got visibly sick all died within a day or two despite medication while those that survived never showed any signs of illness. Also, sorry about your angels, ShaneB. If you saw inflammation and red streaks on its body and fins, it sounds like the end stages of a bacterial infection spreading through its body and blood stream. Better keep an eye on your other fish to make sure it doesn't spread to them as well since, depending on the type of bacteria, it can be really contagious. Republicant, I'm also in for snails! I love them and want more in my tank, especially nerites. I'll take anything interesting, though. Mystery snails are my favorite, but I don't have a large enough tank to keep them since the fish in my 36 gallon constantly pick at them.
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Nov 23, 2015 17:10
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You'd basically have to pull every fish and medicate them in a separate tank to do it without destroying your tank's cycle and potentially harming the plants. It may not spread beyond those specific fish if they had it before you got them so it might be best to wait and see how the rest do first, but my usual go-to for mystery bacterial infections is a combination of Kanamycin and Furan 2. It's a strong combo that covers almost anything bacterial, and fish seem to tolerate it well.
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Nov 23, 2015 17:20
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Slugworth posted:Man, never getting an angel again. Established tank, everything else doing wonderfully for years, angels just up and die with no warning after about a year or so. Every. drat. Time. Never again. I kept having the same issue, though I finally was able to figure out they were getting hole in the head (the internet is a really terrible resource for this disease, unfortunately), and nothing I tried for any of them was ever able to stop it before they died from it, so I've just given up since that poo poo's probably gonna be in my tank forever now. Sucks because angels are my favorite fish to keep for their personalities, but I can't subject any more of them to the deathtrap that is my aquarium, I guess, unless anyone knows how to get rid of it in a planted tank without messing it up.
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May 2, 2016 18:47
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I had a similar issue with my cherry shrimp. They thrived for about a year and then started dying off and never recovered. I couldn't even keep ghost shrimp in that tank, they would all just die after a month or two. Something definitely changed with my water, but recently I put a betta in that same tank and he immediately got some kind of horrible, stubborn fin rot. I treated him, then moved him, a mystery snail, and some new ghost shrimp to a new, bigger tank. All was fine for the past month or so, but my betta's fin rot came back last week with a vengeance and suddenly the shrimp started dying again. There must be some kind of lovely bacteria killing them and my fish brought it to the new tank with him. Whoops. At least now I know why they were dying even if it took me more than a year to figure it out  Might be worth looking into for anyone else who's having similar issues since without fish it was impossible for me to tell what the shrimp were actually dying from.
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Dec 6, 2016 18:37
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