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Tiny Lowtax posted:Do they play well with tropical fish? I have a non aggressive tank and would like to keep it that way. I do have one male beta as well. They're pretty peaceable and may only fin-nip when it comes to feeding. For this reason, long finned fish aren't recommended, so I'm not sure it would play brilliantly with your betta.
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Dec 1, 2014 16:18
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SynthOrange posted:Khuli loaches dont eat snails though Can confirm, they're useless lazy bastards.
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Dec 2, 2014 02:06
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Tiny Lowtax posted:Do they play well with tropical fish? I have a non aggressive tank and would like to keep it that way. I do have one male beta as well. They're still puffers - so they might go after fins if they are left hungry. They will probably be too busy with the snails to worry about much else though. http://animal-world.com/encyclo/fresh/Puffers/AmazonPuffer.php
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Dec 2, 2014 04:56
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Bah, 3 out of 7 Harlequin Rasboras have died recently, sucked into the filter. It might be coincidental but before they started dying a bought a bunch of Frogbit from the local fish store, and also had a larger amount than usual of cyanobacteria. After 2 fish died, I blacked out for a couple days, turned the light on again on Sunday, algae gone, continued as usual. Today another fish stuck in filter. I have: - Tested water, it's normal. - Done around 30% water change to be sure - replanted more stuff around the filter to prevent fish from getting sucked in What is happening? Fish are all swimming around and eating normally, though they are probably unhappy at the reduction of their numbers and hence stressed.
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Dec 2, 2014 16:38
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They love the area around your filter? Have you thought about putting a screen or something around it to prevent them getting sucked in?
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Dec 2, 2014 18:27
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I've got some weird semi-clear streamers of snot forming on the corner joins of my new tank already, I'm guessing this is some muck that likes growing on the silicone and because it's a new tank there is nothing to keep it under control. Could it be algae? Or maybe just some bacterial slime? I added some worms and seed shrimp from my snail jail tank and already there are three seed shrimp in the snotty stuff, either they're eating it or it's eating them, only time will tell. I saw a broken off piece of hair grass stuck at the water line and got a good look at it through a magnifier and it had a few rotifers growing on it so it looks like using fish poop water has worked to transfer some starter life to the tank. Regarding the clear slime though, since the tank is planted now I've been giving it between 4 to 6 hours of light a day, should I stop in case this is contributing to the weird slime growth?
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Dec 3, 2014 15:49
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Stoca Zola posted:I've got some weird semi-clear streamers of snot forming on the corner joins of my new tank already, I'm guessing this is some muck that likes growing on the silicone and because it's a new tank there is nothing to keep it under control. Could it be algae? Or maybe just some bacterial slime? I added some worms and seed shrimp from my snail jail tank and already there are three seed shrimp in the snotty stuff, either they're eating it or it's eating them, only time will tell. I saw a broken off piece of hair grass stuck at the water line and got a good look at it through a magnifier and it had a few rotifers growing on it so it looks like using fish poop water has worked to transfer some starter life to the tank. Regarding the clear slime though, since the tank is planted now I've been giving it between 4 to 6 hours of light a day, should I stop in case this is contributing to the weird slime growth? I've had that stuff appear in a new tank I made awhile back, and it was explained to me that it supposedly was a build up of bacteria feeding on proteins that stick to silicone. Did you use one of those cyclers that contain live bacteria? That could possibly explain the excess. Either way, when I introduced cherry shrimp and otos they ate it like candy and it disappeared surprisingly quickly, whatever it was.
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Dec 4, 2014 07:55
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It was gone already this morning, which I think is a good sign that the competition has taken hold (or maybe it just broke off and ended up in the filter). I didn't buy a tank starter/cycler but I already had a tank with infusoria that I used a bit of to try seeding the tank, plus all the plants I've put in were probably covered in various lifeforms, and I've been squeezing the brown gunk out of my other filter's sponge into the filter of this tank. I transfered some more plants across from the fish's tank to the new one tonight, so the fish now have 2/3 clear space and 1/3 plants and they seem to really appreciate the extra room. It will be really nice to see them in the big tank once I can test that it has safely cycled, the master test kit is in the mail and should be here soon, and then they'll finally be in a decent set up and not a half arsed emergency set up.
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Dec 4, 2014 12:41
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Stoca Zola posted:It was gone already this morning, which I think is a good sign that the competition has taken hold (or maybe it just broke off and ended up in the filter). Or maybe it's slowly crawling its way up your leg right now.
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Dec 4, 2014 13:27
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So given my past experiment with duckweed, and I echo people who have said it before, don't. Unless you have like no turbulence at all in your water, don't. I got some frogbit instead. They weren't kidding, this stuff spreads fast. Dunked it into the tank Tuesday and already it's starting new plants. Fortunately this stuff is easier to herd so I've got it coraled to a dedicated spot, the angels love it and the shrimp want to get up there but with the angels hanging around their efforts thus far have been in vain.
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Dec 4, 2014 20:45
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SocketWrench posted:So given my past experiment with duckweed, and I echo people who have said it before, don't. Unless you have like no turbulence at all in your water, don't. I got some frogbit instead. They weren't kidding, this stuff spreads fast. Dunked it into the tank Tuesday and already it's starting new plants. Fortunately this stuff is easier to herd so I've got it coraled to a dedicated spot, the angels love it and the shrimp want to get up there but with the angels hanging around their efforts thus far have been in vain. What is wrong with duckweed? I just bought some on the weekend  and it looks pretty. I have a little bit of surface turbulence which I've noticed results in the occasional piece of duckweed getting pushed into the filter... is this the problem people complain about?
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Dec 5, 2014 04:54
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Filter, on the glass, on any plants, basically it sticks to whatever it gets near which is a pain. It's impossible to coral to any area of the tank, so unless you're wanting a green carpet over the top of your tank, you're in for a lot of fishing it out of places. Certainly isn't worth what little you get out of it aside from looks. But hey, if you're happy with it, more power to ya.
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Dec 5, 2014 09:18
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SocketWrench posted:Whether from door to door or as some reward, giving out fish is a horrible idea since the days of "just put it in a bowl" are long since becoming memory. This is funny, because my grandmother had a goldfish in a bowl. The drat thing lived for over a decade before we moved it into a 10 gallon tank (and it died shortly thereafter). Then again, she is a clean freak and cleaned its bowl out every single day. Edit: Almost forgot what I came in here for.  My Pigmy Corys are spending all their time hiding in the far back corner of my tank not moving. They used to swim in a school and be really active, but now they just sit there all day and do nothing. I don't see my Betta going after them at all, but maybe they're hiding from it?
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Dec 5, 2014 20:26
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KillHour posted:Then again, she is a clean freak and cleaned its bowl out every single day. There ya go. How many people are gonna do that?
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Dec 6, 2014 01:46
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I've had two planted mini tanks running since August, one is the snail jail and also has mini crustaceans such as copepods and ostracods and some kind of freshwater annelid worm, the other just for mini crustaceans with a single snail to provide digested plant matter for the parameciums to eat. I started with only pond snails but got some nice red ramshorn snails and hydras by accident on some java moss. These snails brought in with them some snail parasites, or perhaps symbiotes, I'm not really sure. I did some research to try and work out whether the snails were covered in flukes but as far as I can tell the snails stayed healthy despite being covered in little worms and the worms themselves are predators for flukes. So I surmised that the java moss/snails came from a source where flukes were prevalent enough to feed the worms on the snails, and kept all of the above quarantined out of my main plant tank (which later became the temporary home for my rosy barbs). In the snail jail, the ramshorns soon outcompeted the regular pond snails, and even the hydras started disappearing. Meanwhile in the other tank, there has been an outbreak of some weird flat worm. My very first snail tank I had to clean out because it became overtaken by planaria and they fouled the water with their mucus; these flatworms I have now are shaped more like elongated barrels and don't have an obvious head end like a planarian so they aren't those. They seem to be predatory as I have seen an ostracod inside one of the bigger flatworms and I haven't seen any copepods in that tank at all for a while. The flatworms are quite tiny though. I had wanted to use the plants from the flatworm tank in my main tank but I'm worried whether the flatworms would be harmful to any fish. But I think maybe they can't be parasitic flatworms as there isn't anything for them to parasitise in the tank that they're in, and yet they're thriving. I'm torn between the idea that a variety of freshwater life would make for a healthier tank, and ewww these worms look horrible and could be parasites. Anyone got any ideas about what make for healthy micro-inhabitants of a freshwater tank?
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Dec 6, 2014 05:15
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Desert Bus posted:On the upside you will probably get to explain death to your daughter and get that difficult conversation out of the way. SO AUTOPSY TIME. Subject was a Cyprinid in a 10 gallon tank with 3 goldfish, tail damage is due to where the subject was found, tail inserted into the pickup tube for the filter (likely sucked in). Of note are the black/grey scales located at several places on it's body which were not noticeable earlier. Other fish in the same tank have the same notable black/grey marks. Death occurred about 12h after a water change, unknown if that is causation or coincidence. Postmortem water tests show nitrites and nitrates are fine, water is soft to moderate (75 to 150 PPM on the test strips we have), PH is neutral and ammonia is between .5 and 3.0 PPM.  If I am looking at things right in the article linked in the OP, I'm suspecting Columnaris but I want a second+ opinion before I do anything. The other 3 fish are showing similar signs, all 3 are showing signs of stress (dorsal fins are flat, hiding in depressions in the gravel near a bubbler intake most of the time or tight crannies, usually all together, they are barely eating, and they were pacing for a few days but have stopped that). We thought it was ammonia at first, so we installed the upgraded filter, extra charcoal and stepped up the water changes (bubbling the new water for at least a few hours before we changed it), but they've been like this for at least a few days. Are they at the downward spiral of no return at this point or can something be done to save them? I just got an even more upgraded filter (300 gallon/hour filter and more air stones) and are wondering if we should use them with these fish or... well, save them for the fish that have a chance?
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Dec 6, 2014 07:30
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So a bunch of pages back I posted about my nice big firemouth that made a miracle comeback from what seemed like some sort of paralysis. Sadly it came back and this time there was no comeback. I put him in quarantine again but this time he didn't seem to have any fight left and I eauthanized him a few days ago. Since that time his oscar tankmate has become super sulky. For a new tankmate for him (75g tank, no other fish) I'm thinking green severum, jack dempsey, or green terror. He never really picked on the firemouth at all, and even tolerated much gill flaring and charging without either looking overly concerned, or fighting back. Based on that I think severum might be the best fit. Thoughts?
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Dec 6, 2014 20:37
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Firestorm - if your ammonia level is 3.0 that's most certainly the problem. Even .5 is toxic. Try getting an ammonia blocker like prime and make sure to keep dosing it and bump up your water changes to see if the other fish improve. Look up "new tank syndrome" and see if that sounds right. Git Mah Belt Son fucked around with this message at 02:58 on Dec 8, 2014 |
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Dec 8, 2014 02:54
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The master test kit arrived today so I did some testing. The small tank (I am guessing it's 5 gal at most) that is the temporary home for the three fish has ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 5ppm. So they are fine to stay in there a while longer while the big tank settles down, and I could probably get away with not water changing every single day. I'll probably still do it, it's fun in a small tank and the fish follow the gravel vac around and check out what gets stirred up. I've been using an air hose attached to the plastic body of a syringe as a mini-vac but I've ordered a proper one for the other tank. The big tank is showing somewhere over 0 but under 0.5 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 10-20 nitrate so it hasn't finished cycling yet. Looks like there is no point using water from tank A to try to feed tank B, I'll stick to the fish food method for now. I'm quite relieved about the first result and pleased with the second. There should be enough "food" in the big tank for the bacteria not to starve and the colony size to build up and it looks like the small tank will be suitable as a quarantine tank once the big tank cycles and I can move the fish over. The piece of wood that I bought for the big tank is still soaking in a bucket, it's had a week underwater and is much heavier but still too buoyant; the water colour is good, not very brown at all. I want the wood to be already established in the big tank anyway before I move any fish there so that I'm not adding something new and affecting the water chemistry. The pH is 8.2 in the big tank and 6.8 in the bucket of log/water so I think it will help without making the water too drastically acidic. My sister was really anxious about the wood since knows someone who added a big piece of wood to their cichlid tank and it apparently killed the pleco and made the cichlid get holes in his head, but a) why would you add wood to a tank where you want the pH to stay high b) the pleco probably gnawed on the wood c) I thought hole in head disease was caused by specific organisms, not wood. Anyway I think with just barbs, corys and rasboras the pH isn't going to be that big a deal as long as it doesn't get too high, and the wood won't hurt them. It's been really good for me I think, trying to get started the right way with aquariums. Checking the fish morning and night and doing the daily clean and water change has been a good way to break some old bad habits and add something different, positive and relaxing to my daily routine. I managed to kill a danio and some kind of catfish when I was a teenager most likely due to not knowing anything about cycling a tank or how to ensure adequate oxygenation, I don't think they even lasted a week. It was really upsetting and like many newbies an early bad experience put me off for a long time. It's a lot different now, there is so much good information on the Internet and I'm really glad that I decided to have another go.
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Dec 8, 2014 04:24
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I realized I never posted pictures of my tanks. Oops. 30gal, general south american fish only.  Blue rams.  There's a pair of these L010a catfish. They're pretty cool and weird-looking and very peaceful so I had to grab them.  My bowfront is constantly a hot mess.  And so is the fattest of all female bettas. This is Cleopatra. I've never seen another female as crazy colored as her.
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Dec 8, 2014 05:29
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That's bullshit, you cant just post a picture of a tank filled with air and have us believe it's just a really, really clean tank!
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Dec 8, 2014 06:32
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SynthOrange posted:That's bullshit, you cant just post a picture of a tank filled with air and have us believe it's just a really, really clean tank! I apologize for nothing. Actually, though, I forgot I had another question-- I'm having a lot of issues with bio-film on the surface of my 30 gallon. Everything I read says it's either "not enough surface stimulation" which there SHOULD be seeing as my bowfront with little to no surface stimulation has never had this issue, or that it essentially boils down to "your water levels are hosed" which is also not true. I skimmed it off yesterday with paper towels and it did well for a bit but today it's come back pretty fast. Not really sure what to do here.
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Dec 8, 2014 06:55
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Git Mah Belt Son posted:Firestorm - if your ammonia level is 3.0 that's most certainly the problem. Even .5 is toxic. YEAH... we went to change the water today, none were moving but they were living. Pulled them into a small bowl so I could do a complete water replacement and they were all fuzzy, one was just at the top of the water (still breathing) and the other 2 were at the bottom but none of them were moving. The poor guy at the top had his fins all shredded, and the other two were just slightly better. None of that was obvious while they were in the tank. So we culled the tank. Transferred them into some Jack Daniels and they were in pain no more. We're gonna clean the tank, pitch the rest and start from scratch with a properly cycled tank in a few months. Is bleach OK for sanitizing the tank as long as we rinse thoroughly (I was thinking flush with tap, then rinse with distilled)?
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Dec 8, 2014 20:13
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Cleaning with bleach will be just fine, just be sure to rinse thoroughly when you're done. Don't worry about rinsing with distilled water, tap won't hurt anything.
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Dec 8, 2014 22:13
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Man, sorry about that Firestorm. That sucks. :\aerialsilks posted:I apologize for nothing. What do you have going on as far as surface agitation is concerned? For my tanks, one has the water output under the water line but pointed at the surface to get movement going, while the other has a HOB filter. Both are enough to keep film from forming except at corners. As for the differences in your tanks it looks like the bowfront is just more densely populated by plants and creatures, so that contributes?
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Dec 8, 2014 23:36
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What's wrong with our betta??? the last day or two I noticed he wasn't very active. Today I noticed he has some kind of white stuff on his fins. It doesn't appear to be ick. He's now just laying on the bottom of the tank. We always keep our water clean and have plenty of other fish that are thriving. We recently purchased 5 new fish about a week ago, 2 of which have died. The ammonia levels are fine.
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Dec 9, 2014 01:22
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Sadly when bringing back new fish, there will be losses due to disease, poor handling, etc. Hopefully you've quarantined them from your main tank? Your betta looks like he has raised scales which unfortunately means dropsy which none of us in this thread have had any luck treating. Cant really see what the white stuff is, could be fungal or bacterial taking advantage of a sick fish too. I'd sadly have to recommend an euth.
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Dec 9, 2014 01:32
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RE: Sick Betta, it looks like it could be a particularly nasty advanced form of fin rot that's reached the body. I've seen a handful of bettas get that weird "body rot" look before(and dwarf gouramis too, pretty frequently), and they never pulled through. The gouramis sometimes do maybe 50% of cases.SynthOrange posted:What do you have going on as far as surface agitation is concerned? For my tanks, one has the water output under the water line but pointed at the surface to get movement going, while the other has a HOB filter. Both are enough to keep film from forming except at corners. As for the differences in your tanks it looks like the bowfront is just more densely populated by plants and creatures, so that contributes? I have a 50-rated Marineland HOB filter going on the 30 and a 75-rated Filstar canister(this thing loving sucks) on the bowfront. There's a pretty decent amount of surface agitation going on in the 30gal and all my levels are reading where they should be, so I'm not really sure what's causing it. Even way back when in the olden days of setting up the bowfront, it never got any film on the surface(though some old unfiltered betta tanks did-- though even the current filtered ones don't have much or any surface agitation at all). It's just a little frustrating but at least so far it hasn't proved to be harmful. More tank pics, too!  Sadie's tank.  And Sadie the half-blind dragonscale himself.  Mozart's tank.  Old pic. Mozart was a rosetail halfmoon but then he got fin rot and now his tail is half the size it was. Part of the reason why I don't get halfmoons anymore-- they all end up with fin rot no matter what I do. He's the only one to ever pull out of it.  2gal Fluval Spec with a trio of Nelson's lampeye killies in it, and some cherry shrimp that are slowly dwindling. Pay no mind to the algae chemical, I don't use it in the tanks.  5.5 gallon with only baby platys in it right now. Once they're big enough to go in the bowfront I'll either do some nano fish and shrimp in here or maybe a single dwarf gourami, or something. Dunno. aerialsilks fucked around with this message at 02:16 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 02:14
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Well folks, I have done the impossible, I have failed to successfully keep cherry shrimp alive. 10 gallon tank with an ac20, pH is 7.2, temp 78 degrees, ammonia, nitrites 0, nitrates negligible, general hardness 180 (highest scale on the api test strips). No medications have ever been used in the tank. After the tank cycled I threw a couple otos in, and then in September I started putting cherries in, and none have survived more than a few weeks. They are surviving their molts, and otherwise seem healthy and then.... Not so much. My immediate assumption would naturally be the hard water, but people seem to agree cherries do fine in soft or hard water. Past that, all I can assume is heavy metals in my water, my house being about 80 years old. I am gonna start doing water changes with rodi water to see if that improves the situation. Other than that, any ideas?
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Dec 9, 2014 02:18
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Fire Storm posted:So we culled the tank. Transferred them into some Jack Daniels and they were in pain no more. While you're cleaning the tank, for next time please buy some clove oil. It's cheaper fish euth than Jack's, and you're gonna want all the Jack's for yourself while you're sobbing into your tank. :P
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Dec 9, 2014 03:07
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If I go for better fish and not goldfish, is a filter that's 300 gallons/hour for a 10 gallon tank so much overkill that it's bad? If it's bad, I'll return the unused power filter (Penn-Plax Cascade 300) and it's filters and just buy something more appropriately sized next time (EVERYTHING other than the air pumps and the tank itself is getting pitched to make goddamn sure.) EDIT: Oh, and after changing all the water aside from what was in the gravel and pulling out the fish (you know, before we realized they were beyond the point of no return), I tested the water 6 hours later and it was ~.5PPM ammonia. Yeah, I'll make sure the tank is properly cycled next time. daggerdragon posted:While you're cleaning the tank, for next time please buy some clove oil. It's cheaper fish euth than Jack's, and you're gonna want all the Jack's for yourself while you're sobbing into your tank. :P Fire Storm fucked around with this message at 03:59 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 03:56
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SynthOrange posted:Sadly when bringing back new fish, there will be losses due to disease, poor handling, etc. Hopefully you've quarantined them from your main tank? He started swimming upside down. We had to put him down 
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Dec 9, 2014 04:12
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Well my first nasty case of fin rot something.. The pic from today is just a really bad silhouette (I didn't want to flash him since I know he's stressed out but I think it more than gets the point across. Elvis a month ago:  Elvis when I got home today:  The odd thing is that he is just as active and is way faster than he usually is...I can only guess it's because the poor guy is used to a lot more drag from his massive dumbo fin His pectorals and body appear fine right now at least.Trying to treat him with new water, stress coat, a tiny touch of aq salt and some lite meds:(. Does fin rot usually come on in like 24-48 hours or am I just a terrible father and somehow didn't notice this for the last week? A large farva fucked around with this message at 05:30 on Dec 9, 2014 |
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Dec 9, 2014 05:21
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SynthOrange posted:That's bullshit, you cant just post a picture of a tank filled with air and have us believe it's just a really, really clean tank! Wait, what? Tank water isn't supposed to be clear? poo poo, i've been doing it wrong this whole time
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Dec 9, 2014 12:45
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Fire Storm posted:If I go for better fish and not goldfish, is a filter that's 300 gallons/hour for a 10 gallon tank so much overkill that it's bad? There is never too much filtration. It's the suction and water return making a current that are the problem. your fish will burn themselves out if they're constantly fighting a current
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Dec 9, 2014 12:50
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I don't know why people bother with clove oil when tossing the fish into a garbage disposal or blender is quicker, less frightening, and just as painless.
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Dec 10, 2014 00:11
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 a blender? Really? Is clove oil that bad?I've had two consecutive zero readings for ammonia and nitrite on my new tank but I'm not sure if that's because there's not much in there or if the biofilter is working. I'm relying on pellets that claim to be 53% protein so that should be rotting down to ammonia, surely. I bought a battery air pump for emergency back up oxygenation and it arrived yesterday, so I'm feeling like some kind of psychic as there has been a power outage all morning so I've got good use out of it already. How long without flow does it take before the filter bacteria start dying off though? Or should it survive as long as it's still wet? I don't mind having to start the cycle all over in the new tank but it will be lovely if the temporary tank has to cycle again to because of this power failure. I might as well do a fish cycle in the new tank if that happens.
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Dec 10, 2014 03:54
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The Dregs posted:I don't know why people bother with clove oil when tossing the fish into a garbage disposal or blender is quicker, less frightening, and just as painless. 
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Dec 10, 2014 04:48
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That gravel is gonna gently caress up her blades.
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Dec 10, 2014 04:57
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| # ? May 7, 2024 13:45 |
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quit posting about killing fish and watch some live koi instead https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p56GO9PuIKA
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Dec 10, 2014 05:12
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