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Tetras (and some rasboras) definitely do have “sleeping” colours so don’t worry about that too much unless they stay pale in the longer term. Hard to say what that bubble is though, it looks like a fluid filled cyst under the skin which might not amount to anything at all or might indicate some other problem. If the fish is acting ok, not hiding, still eating, just keep an eye on it. Fish are transparent enough that we can see their swim bladders and their other body parts, and I can’t tell if that’s one huge cyst or if I am seeing the top of the swim bladder and the bottom part is a smaller bump.
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Feb 20, 2023 05:37
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Stoca Zola posted:Tetras (and some rasboras) definitely do have “sleeping” colours so don’t worry about that too much unless they stay pale in the longer term. Hard to say what that bubble is though, it looks like a fluid filled cyst under the skin which might not amount to anything at all or might indicate some other problem. If the fish is acting ok, not hiding, still eating, just keep an eye on it. Fish are transparent enough that we can see their swim bladders and their other body parts, and I can’t tell if that’s one huge cyst or if I am seeing the top of the swim bladder and the bottom part is a smaller bump. Thanks! They are back to normal, turns out like me they just had a bunch of food last night and were bloated. Unfortunately I did lose one, however it developed an injury sometime last last night, possibly got pushed against a rock or something, and died in their grass beds this morning. I added some stress coat yesterday morning but it was a fairly serious injury. I am going to set up a quarantine/ hospital aquarium today. Do small tetras like cardinals get too stressed from being alone, or is it better to try and treat the group if something like this happens again? Also is too low of a PH a bad thing? I dropped in 1/5th of a cattapa leave, a piece of almond bark, and a small casuarina cone for the shrimps and my PH went from 7ish to 6 overnight. All the fish are swimming happily and I think the skrimp took a nibble from the leaf. Next time I am just going to do a little piece at a time. Thank you everyone for all the help. Tenchrono fucked around with this message at 15:56 on Feb 20, 2023 |
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Feb 20, 2023 15:54
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It's a good idea to research the kind of water your particular fish come from but on the whole what matters more is stability. Tetras generally come from soft (low mineral content) river waters of South America, except for Congo tetras which are african but still from rivers. This water tends to be slightly acidic so these fish are fine from pH 6.5 to 7.5. Blackwater fish tend to come from still waters in various parts of asia, where leaf litter, driftwood and other things leach tannins into the water, causing it to darken and become more acidic. Bettas and licorice gouramis can handle these conditions, and crystal shrimp prefer lower pH too. Don't get your shrimp advice confused and use crystal shrimp products with cherry shrimp, since cherry shrimp prefer higher pH and more mineral content in the water (having said that, cherry shrimp are quite hardy and can adjust to stable conditions). They still love grazing on the same biofilm that crystal shrimp do though, and that will form nicely on the items you've added. I think if your water is changing pH too fast you might need to measure your kH (carbonate hardness) of your source water and take steps to make sure you have some buffering capacity, this will help keep your tank more stable in the long run since biological processes will make the tank tend towards being more acidic over time. I think I remember your substrate looks like it might be an active one? Some of those substrates will keep the tank around pH 6 for plant growth (some plants do better at this pH) and for crystal shrimp and if this is the case there's no real point fighting with it, anything you add will get cancelled out until the substrate is exhausted. So as long as your pH doesn't go under 6 it should be fine for the fish and the shrimp will probably be okay as long as they are getting minerals in their food, maybe occasional feeding of shrimp specific food could help.
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Feb 20, 2023 17:28
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I've had extreme back pain for the last few months and my 5 gallon tank with a betta hasn't been as well maintained as it should be. I did a full water change today because I realized it had been a while and I was feeling alright, and for the first time in a while I got a good look at my betta. He is not doing well. I don't have any pictures because he's not feeling like coming to the front of the tank, but he definitely has fin rot. I've never had a fish before. Is fin rot something he can come back from once the tank has been cleaned?
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Feb 20, 2023 17:43
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B33rChiller posted:wow that's really surprising to hear Good shot with side lighting today. Most of the leafy plants are planted in the two holes in the bricks that make up my "reef" on the back right. You can get a blurry look at all the java moss and co towards center left  Gonna clean out the leaves at some point, I think the minnows and golden killifish prefer burrowing in them during cold weather and probably provides minimal insulation from the water above Water temp is 55F today
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Feb 20, 2023 19:17
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TTBF posted:I've had extreme back pain for the last few months and my 5 gallon tank with a betta hasn't been as well maintained as it should be. I did a full water change today because I realized it had been a while and I was feeling alright, and for the first time in a while I got a good look at my betta. He is not doing well. I don't have any pictures because he's not feeling like coming to the front of the tank, but he definitely has fin rot. Indian almond leaves (catappa) might help since tannins have antibacterial properties and clean water does go a long way towards helping with fin rot. Broken fin rays can’t regrow but any of the flexible membrane between has a decent chance of growing back. If your fish is still eating he has a fighting chance of getting better, nutrition is important for building up the immune system and regrowing damages. Just take care not to overfeed or you’ll end up with stinky water again.
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Feb 20, 2023 19:32
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Yeah, he's still eating and since I cleaned the tank he's been a lot more energetic. The flexible membranes aren't in great shape but I think the fins themselves are fine. I think I caught this early enough. I also have a friend who is gonna come over after work to give me some fish antibiotics to help out.
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Feb 20, 2023 21:01
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Yup I chose the “shrimp and plant” fluval thinking it would be okay for cherry shrimp too :facepalm:. I bought a water distiller and some neocardinia specific gh/kh stuff to remineralize the water that I’ll slowly start changing out.
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Feb 21, 2023 01:32
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Unless you are aiming to breed certain fish or going for a blackwater thing, don't gently caress with the pH, you'll usually cause more harm than good.
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Feb 21, 2023 02:25
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Thinking about shrimp. I'll need to restock the dwindling number of original 2.5 y/o Amano shrimp in my 75G tank and am debating also picking up shrimp for my heavily planted 10G tank. Currently I've got 3 very happy Short Nose Algae shrimp in there along with 8 Celestial Pearl Danios, 2 Otocinclus, and 2 Gulfcoast Pygmy Sunfish so it's a pretty chill tank. The tank is well established, I just need to settle on a variety of shrimp to chomp away at algae/leftovers/dead plant matter and look fabulous while doing so. I'm also tempted to replace the bamboo shrimp I had in the 75G for ~6 months, but I'm still not quite sure what (very suddenly, without obvious signs) happened to them.
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Feb 21, 2023 03:24
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I had an episode with one of my corydoras developing swim bladder disease. I've been overfeeding them rich foods so this was my fault. It could have also been damage from a year ago when I had a camallanus redworm infestation (no worms sighted since). I saw he was laying on his side and sometimes even upside down on the ground. He didn't look good and I thought he was not going to last much longer. I read up on it and it was listed as very difficult to treat. However, I did it! I used API Melafix each day for 2 weeks, with three 25% water changes in between (one every 5 days). I thought Melafix was a placebo-type of medication but I'll be damned if it didn't work. I also substituted their diet with blanched and deskinned mushed peas, like I've read up on here and other forums. I noticed by the end of the second week he was upright again and looking better, but still not 100% but not at deaths door, either. I've never had much luck with treating fish diseases in the past, besides the redworm incident, so any success stories I can share are good. 
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Feb 21, 2023 03:27
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Stoca Zola posted:SocketWrench: this tank has 3 filters and has been running for years! I can't believe it would lose cycle just from a water change, I'm due to do one again so I'll keep an eye on it to see what happens. What about substrate then? Any buildup underneath it? My work tank got cloudy for a bit and turns out it was a bunch of stuff under the substrate I hadn't managed to vacuum out properly
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Feb 21, 2023 14:26
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It's a sand substrate so everything but the finest stuff sits on the top - but I bet what happens is the striped raphaels get frisky from the water change and redig their caves and stir up the fine muck, probably releasing enough fine junk for a quick bacterial bloom before it gets consumed a couple of days later. And you never see them do it because they're super nocturnal, which is why its always fine directly after the water change but completely garbage by morning. I think that's a plausible explanation!
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Feb 21, 2023 15:07
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 Aw man, that's not how I wanted to start my week
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Feb 21, 2023 15:53
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Do you have anything you can use as a hospital tank? Looks a lot like ich and a lot of ich medications can stain your tank decorations. On the upside it's fairly treatable, treatments are readily available, fish respond well and usually recover well.
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Feb 21, 2023 17:04
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I picked up some “otocinclus” from pet supplies plus today and…the clerk didn’t know what she was doing and my cell service sucked so I couldn’t look up a picture. In any case/they look a bit different from each other. Thoughts?  
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Feb 21, 2023 18:40
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Stoca Zola posted:Do you have anything you can use as a hospital tank? Looks a lot like ich and a lot of ich medications can stain your tank decorations. On the upside it's fairly treatable, treatments are readily available, fish respond well and usually recover well. I don't like medication for ich, only reliable treatment I've found is raising temps to 85-86F for a week (make sure to increase oxygenation with an air stone)
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Feb 21, 2023 18:52
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nwin posted:I picked up some “otocinclus” from pet supplies plus today and…the clerk didn’t know what she was doing and my cell service sucked so I couldn’t look up a picture. My thoughts, having experienced a similar situation is to treat them the same. They should have no problem living together. They do like having lots of other otos around though. Schooling fish, safety in numbers, lower stress, etc.
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Feb 21, 2023 19:31
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nwin posted:I picked up some “otocinclus” from pet supplies plus today and…the clerk didn’t know what she was doing and my cell service sucked so I couldn’t look up a picture. Neither of these are otos. Neither of them are friendly small algae eating fish. The checkerboard stripe is 100% “Chinese” algae eater, Gyrinocheilus aymonieri? The other one could be a flying fox or a “Siamese” algae eater. Do some research and decide for yourself but I feel pretty sure they aren’t suitable for your tank at adult size. Edit: Siamese algae eater Crossocheilus probably isn’t right for the solid stripe guy, because the pigment doesn’t go all the way into the tail fin. And I think not flying fox either because of the lack of pigment. So I’m not sure what that dude is - they are both definitely asian fish not South American catfish, planetcatfish.com has info on otos for a pic comparison. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 19:49 on Feb 21, 2023 |
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Feb 21, 2023 19:33
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Stoca Zola posted:Neither of these are otos. Neither of them are friendly small algae eating fish. The checkerboard stripe is 100% “Chinese” algae eater, Gyrinocheilus aymonieri? The other one could be a flying fox or a “Siamese” algae eater. Do some research and decide for yourself but I feel pretty sure they aren’t suitable for your tank at adult size. God dammit pet supplies plus. I’ll be taking them back.
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Feb 21, 2023 19:51
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At a glance it's not a Siamese Algae Eater, the black line on its side doesn't extend into the tail fin. Chinese Algae Eater seems likely as you say. They get big and have a reputation for aggression.
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Feb 21, 2023 19:52
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Is there a fish egg expert in here? I have pygmy corys, gold tetras, and cardinals for fish. And some cherry shrimp and various snails as well. These dont look like snail eggs that I have seen before as they have usually been in a “sack” and not stuck to glass. Google leads me to believe they are from the pygmy corys. Super hard to tell but they are small clear orbs with tiny tiny white dots in it, and they are all individual. It must have happened last night.
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Feb 22, 2023 17:33
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Either pond snails or ramshorns will lay eggs like that. Pygmy cory eggs (and cory eggs in general) are laid singly or in pairs, or if the fish gets lazy they'll pile a cluster together. But they're fertilized one lot at a time and the fish tend to place them all over the tank on leaves, glass, wherever the cory likes the amount of water flow. You definitely won't see a skin of jelly around the batch of eggs like you do with snails. Another indicator of corydoras eggs is that they yellow up over time, the entire shell will darken not just the speck in the centre of the egg.
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Feb 22, 2023 17:57
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Ahh its the pond snails then. Thanks!
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Feb 22, 2023 18:17
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nwin posted:I picked up some “otocinclus” from pet supplies plus today and…the clerk didn’t know what she was doing and my cell service sucked so I couldn’t look up a picture. That guy is gonna be an rear end in a top hat in your tank I had one in my tank years ago. He tried picking a fight with a breeding pair of angelfish
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Feb 22, 2023 19:40
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SocketWrench posted:That guy is gonna be an rear end in a top hat in your tank He’s already back at the pet store.
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Feb 22, 2023 19:41
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nwin posted:He’s already back at the pet store.
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Feb 22, 2023 23:20
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B33rChiller posted:Lol. Get outta here, imposter fish. Haha I saw what a pain in the rear end it was for the clerk to capture him in a net. No way I was going to let him loose in my tank.
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Feb 23, 2023 00:34
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Looking for recommendations for dense-ish carpeting plants, ideally that grow shorter than 5cm under high light conditions, that don't have a hard requirement for high CO2. So far the list of options I've got is: Lilaeopsis brasiliensis Echinodorus tenellus Eleocharis bellem Micranthemum tweediei Marsilea hirsuta Glossostigma elatinoides Utricularia graminifolia I know some of these grow taller in lower light, but I am aiming for a high light tank setup (and don't mind trimming those that might get up around 7cm if necessary), and I know some will do better with additional CO2, but will still live without it, unlike something like HC. Am I missing any obvious options here?
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Feb 23, 2023 04:45
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Sorry for the constant barrage of questions  Is there something wrong with this gold tetra I got earlier? I picked up 4 more to go with the 6 I currently have from a store that I havent gone to yet in denver and its slightly miscolored? Sorry the quality is bad, they are fast lil dudes. The 4 are currently in a quarantine tank and I treated with general cure and fish n fin. It has some black mottling on its top and near its tail, all the fins are still in good condition. Its not raised and it is eating fine and hanging out with its pals. I just havent seen a gold tetra with a good amount of black on it, some of my others have some black lines, but not like this.  I am hoping that the 4 extras to bring them to 10 make them slightly less skittish. They currently school / shoal with the pygmy corys and dont seem to mind but the corys like to go on their own sometimes and the gold tetras hide when they do. Tenchrono fucked around with this message at 05:19 on Feb 23, 2023 |
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Feb 23, 2023 05:12
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Wish I could get a second mystery snail without having to deal with having a thousand mystery snails Love this little dude https://twitter.com/RottenTunaGames/status/1628531154423803905?s=20
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Feb 23, 2023 07:00
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If you stay on top of it, their egg clutches are easy to remove before they hatch. They lay above water too, so just leave a little room at the top of your tank, and just pluck the eggs off the glass. With mystery snails, you don't get thousands unless you let them hatch.
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Feb 23, 2023 15:10
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Tenchrono posted:Sorry for the constant barrage of questions might just be miscoloration?
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Feb 23, 2023 15:34
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I've sometimes seen black from ammonia burns from fish in really bad conditions (during shipping for example) or for pigmented fish with nerve damage, sometimes the affected region can no longer be controlled and the pigment goes fully black. But I've not seen ammonia burns in tetras so I don't know if that is how it looks. I figure if it's a new fish it probably had some rough times on its way to your care, and with clean water and good food it will recover if it can.
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Feb 23, 2023 15:44
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Cowslips Warren posted:might just be miscoloration? That's what I am thinking, and what the store I regularly go to as well said. I am going to finish up the medicines I gave them this week. Thanks again!
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Feb 23, 2023 15:46
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Got a replacement glass top since my old one has a crack. I'm not sure I like the design as much as the old one though. The old one's hinge was toward the front, meaning the piece of glass you lifted was smaller and the back larger. Now the hinge is right in the the middle. Except that's where I want my light to be. The glass is also thinner, which might be a good thing in that you probably don't lose as much PAR but it sucks in that it's probably easy to break.
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Feb 24, 2023 00:55
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Today I went on a long walk. I saw some nice flat, weathered rocks. Now I'm re-scaping the 75G AND I CANNOT STOP SEND HELP! Edit: Also got my TDS meter in today. Tap water is 178, 75G is at 353, 10G is at 578. Yikes, I probably should have had one of these earlier. Warbadger fucked around with this message at 03:18 on Feb 24, 2023 |
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Feb 24, 2023 01:49
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Lareine posted:Got a replacement glass top since my old one has a crack. I'm not sure I like the design as much as the old one though. The old one's hinge was toward the front, meaning the piece of glass you lifted was smaller and the back larger. Now the hinge is right in the the middle. Except that's where I want my light to be. The glass is also thinner, which might be a good thing in that you probably don't lose as much PAR but it sucks in that it's probably easy to break. you can diy a glass or acrylic top pretty easily or make modifications to your existing top, if you don’t like yours Amazon sells a lot of clear acrylic hinges of various sizes and lengths A common DIY trick is to replace the opaque flexible strip holding the pieces of your top together with the aforementioned hinges by sticking them on with superglue/UV-cure glue
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Feb 24, 2023 03:32
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So my PH has still been falling a bit, down to below 6 now. I bought the API gh / Kh kit and it blew my mind. I assumed my city, Boulder, had hard water but it’s incredibly soft. GH is maybe 2 drops, 3 if you are being generous with the lighting, and KH is 0 , the vial instantly turns yellow, PH is 7. I know fighting the substrate is kinda hard, but should I switch back to a hob / buy a canister and add some crushed coral slowly to increase the KH if I can? I am worried that the low PH killed the cycle completely and the shrimps arent getting the nutrients they need. I dont know if its possible to change out the substrate at the moment.
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Feb 24, 2023 05:26
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I think a hob with sponge over the inlet and full of crushed coral might help, I don’t think you’d need a full canister. I wonder if they’d pick at cuttlebone? I know of snail breeders using cuttlebone as a calcium source for their snails to graze on but I don’t know the practicalities of it since that stuff floats. I’ve personally used the kind of coarse grit used for chickens to help with egg formation, the one made from crushed oyster shells (someone I bought a filter from second hand had one of their media trays full of it). But aside from that I still use seachem alkaline buffer in all my water change water. I don’t think you’re going to have a crashed cycle since the bacteria should start functioning as the pH climbs but it is definitely something to watch out for. At lower pH any ammonia stays in the less toxic ammonium form so you might not notice anything going wrong in the tank, then as pH rises the ammonia becomes toxic again. Stoca Zola fucked around with this message at 05:43 on Feb 24, 2023 |
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Feb 24, 2023 05:38
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