Leaderboard

The good news is that the kits were in the main package!

Yes, the levamisole degrades with light. And you don’t need a wait time to treat with kanamycin since it is not absorbed into the tissues and acts more like a topical. It’s great for surface stuff and fin rot as long as it isn’t going too deep. As much as I like kanamycin for its antimicrobial spectrum it has somewhat limited use for fish if it isn’t injected. 🤷🏻‍♀️ I’ve begun to much more toward Maracyn 2 for anything that I think might be a systemic, internal, or deep tissue infection.

My Bolivian rams are doing fabulous. I’m so tickled with them. They are still very young but I can see a touch of red on the tail sides. It’s not enough to show in photos yet. One little on as it puts on size is showing a minor spinal defect towards the tail. Still spunky , eats well and is very friendly and fearless. However it has an odd gate to its swim and tires easily. Then it rests on the substrate and scoots along. It will need removed from the group when they get near sexual maturity. Maybe it can live with my frogs as long as the defect is not severe enough to degrade quality of life to discomfort. Yesterday I upgraded them to a 15 gallon to grow out more. I need to get more plants for them. They are all nosey and playful. Not shy or nervous at all. As soon as I sit in front of the tank they come running. Little beggars 🐷. So I do t feel it’s a rush for plants. They will grow in. I did get a few tiny crypts from the club auction this weekend. I’ll put those in with them.

I have had this growing in my cooler (70°) tank for a few years. I transferred some hornwart frm that tank to my warmer (80°ish)tank. A month ago I was cleaning the sponges from my hob and noticed the growth of it inside. Today I noticed it had spawned a new one and the original has doubled in size!! Such fun watching a habitat grow! Just thought I would share what I thought was interesting. The last pic is when I first noticed it.

I moved my strawberry rasboras from their 10 gallon tank to a 20 long last night. When I bought them and put them in I had 8. I transferred 28!!! They have been busy! I love seeing them grow into a bigger group. 💗

Good news and my blunders. When I got the first 3 Bolivian rams it was a surprise find at a club auction hobbyist bred. Couldn’t pass it up. I came home needing to dig a tank out of storage and set it up while the rams hung out in their bag. Rushing is never a good idea. I use thick rubber-ish material shelf liners to sit my tanks on and to place between tanks sitting inside one another in storage. Day before yesterday I moved the rams to the 15. Yesterday I broke down the 10 they were in. Apparently I never removed the liner from the bottom of the tank. It stank indescribably and had all manner of goo under it. The rams are all 6 very feisty now and even more active than before. The one I thought was showing early signs of a bent spine is up and rolling with the pack. I cannot tell which it was and none show any signs of a bent spine. My guess is either the liner was leeching something not good or the goo and smell and hydrogen sulfide was beginning to over power my poor babies or some combination of the two. Im mad at myself for such a foolish error but elated all my kids are doing so well in spite of my blunder.

Since Spike is eating for 3 days consistently (had white worms again this morning) we are still continuing on with Plan A, the @Odd Duck Deworming Treatment. I did the 50% water change this morning with a thorough vac. I like to do the water change in the morning and let them relax during the day, then do the next dose at night. The next dose will be levamisole (Expel-P). Question - why are we blacking out the tank? Is it to keep the meds from degrading or is it for fish comfort and stress reduction?

50% water change. Everyone did good with the Expel-P treatment. Got a photo of Spike. His activity level seems good and he’s using mid-level of the tank today.

That would point towards a power conditioning issue perhaps. Are you using a surge protector or anything? Yes. Others have reported this issue as well.

Mine was packed in my package as well when it was showing separate.

Hey everybody! I don't know if anyone will read this after I've been awol so long, but here's an update anyway. I never quite seemed to have time to figure out what went wrong with the water in the tank we had set up for the kids, so we ended up getting some of what they wanted for my tank. The new additions are several guppies (who have not been around long enough for babies yet, and I'm not sure babies won't all get eaten, but we'll see), 2 mystery snails (all the ones I had before have passed, we will not be hatching eggs this time), and three hillstream loaches. We bought the snails and loaches the day before Thanksgiving and they've settled in nicely. The snails have about doubled in size and are around an inch front to back. This is Penny, named after the previous white mystery snail. We also got a blue one, who has not been named yet and was hiding when I took photos earlier. The hillstream loaches have been out in the open a lot more than I was expecting, which is super cool. They really like the anubias and the fake wood it's attached to. I have seen them eating flake food, guppy pellets, algae wafers, and a locally made bottom feeder pellet. They had been in a very small tank, less than 5 gallons at the store with at least 6 other hillstream loaches plus a few fish, and they were very excited to have more room. They were zooming around the tank the whole evening when we brought them home. I was unable to get a decent photo of the guppies. And just when I was beginning to think The Big Snail, our original nerite, who we've had for over 4 years now, had died in the gravel somewhere here he is, chilling on the front glass! I go months at a time without seeing him. My other two black racers hide a lot as well, but not as long as this guy. My two horned nerites are almost always easily visible, and I can catch a view of my red onion at least a few times a week. (That one is now bigger than The Big Snail.)

Where did you get this divider? If you don't mind me asking.

@nabokovfan87those chain loaches are Brilliant just so interactive and enjoyable. I’ve really enjoyed this trio of Nigerian red Killifish. I see them more often, their colors are out and vivid and although people say killi females are bland this bold black and white with flecks of pink and purple is really stunning. It’s a great little 10 g cube and with the frogs it’s just really enjoyable. Some new planting and it’s just a nice cozy little scape for my son to enjoy! Have fun everyone!

@GuppysnailI think we all have had these moments - plastic wrapping, some corner on something that’s sharp, too much of this or that. You’ve done a great job with your BRs they look great! Enjoyed catching up on all your adventures continuing to have fun in the hobby!

@Macready agree with not feeding.

I'm glad to hear they're all doing well now, that must be a huge relief!

As I understand it, generally when treating you are not supposed to feed. However, in practice, I can't do it! I usually feed a very little amount on day 3 or 4. My thought would be if she eats you can probably get away with a little food (emphasis on little). My hunch is leftover food rotting in the tank will give off more ammonia then output from the fish. Do you have a method of testing water parameters? strips or api water test kit?

Howdy @Matt B, ah I had misunderstood. The heater is only a couple months old and has not reached its end of life, best I can tell. No "EL" warning, or any code on the display. Just the temperature. I confirmed the temperature is accurate with a laser thermometer. The heater works really well except for the noise. Update: I removed the suction cups just to complete the troubleshooting. The sound changed again, shorter duration and higher pitch. I wish I had recorded it throughout so I could control for wishful thinking 🙂 . One final test, I received my easy flow adapter yesterday and installed it, judging by how much stuff is floating around in the water column now I believe I've increased the flow significantly, even more than before. So I'm going to test that for a bit and then I'll likely replace. Hopefully this thread shortens someone else's troubleshooting in the future. Assuming someone else is bothered enough by the noise like I am. Thanks for all the input.

Meds are light sensitive, yep! It's just the one med, for 24 hours. Paracleanse you don't have to black out the tank.

Maintenance day. Had to clean the clown killifish tank filter sponge since June if I am not mistaken 🙂 ah well One of the clown kilifish fry is a male, it has a distinct tail pattern now. Kind of soon after only three months but hey, I have one male one female fry. All the other tanks are ok, I did maintenance on all except indostomus one ( once a month, but I did top it off) and luminatus tank ( i do so mondays/tuesdays) We have heavy snowfall and one of my dogs love it. The other wishes to go home :))

Does the double outlet version output 1.6 L/min air flow per outlet or in total? Link to the product: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/air-pumps/products/aquarium-co-op-air-pump?variant=40428791922757

I have a tank that has been up now for over 2 years. I initially used bagged aquasoil capped with play sand. I've let the plants get out of hand, and although the tank is healthy, it looks bad and I'm not happy with sand in the long run. I'm afraid to make too many changes with the fish in, so I am thinking I should setup a temporary tank in a rubbermaid tote and move the fish and shrimp there while I work on the tank. Alternatively, I could vaccum out the sand over a few days and slowly replace with the smooth gravel I intend to use. Either way, i'd be pulling the plants out and re-planting. Do you think I should set up the temporary tank for the plants and fish while I redo their tank, or try to do it with the fish in? I'm not sure which is more effort, and/or better for the livestock. I suppose a third option would be to very slowly make the changes over a period of weeks or months, doing only a little at a time so the tank isn't too upset all at once. Once concern I have is releasing whatever lurks beneath the sand; I am afraid of some anaerobic nasties, or gasses that could be lurking down there.

Oh, I understand now. I hope your fish fully recovers and that you face no more spikes. @JillianGarcia05

She got pop-eye/swollen eye and also an ammonia burn on the top of her head. So this is to help ease those issues. @Macready - yeah that's what I thought. So I only gave her a tiny bit of food. But I'll hold off on feeding her again until tomorrow/Thursday. I have the API water test kit that I've been using. Was instructed to wait to test until I do the 25% water change. Since i was babying the tank for almost two weeks with water changes and testing to help with the ammonia spike.

I need some clarification. Why would someone recommend using medicine, Maracyn, after an ammonia spike?

Ok, that makes sense. Maybe leaving the rams off as well would be good.

I think 16 cichlids is way too much in a 55, but maybe that's just me. I had three male apistogramma hongsloi in a 55 (similar size and temperament as macmasteri from my understanding) and that felt cramped in a lot of ways. Without a female, they did get along well, though. I'd worry that a blood bath (or blood baths) could ensue when some of these cichlids want to spawn. You might be better off leaving the second pair of apistos out of the mix?

If you haven't, I would get in touch with coop support. Electronics whine isn't usually a good noise on a heater.

I think I already knew the answer, I just needed to confirm it. Thanks!

BREAKING NEWS! Kratos goes on a big adventure! King Koopa nerite For those just tuning in, this snail hibernates and/or filter feeds 90% of the time. If you are ever looking for cleanup crew, this guy ain’t it! 🤣 🥲

Thanks for the vibes! Looks like the majority of them have hatched.

What I would suggest is doing full course of maracyn then follow up with a full course of paracleanse if your seeing no improvement after the course of maracyn add an extra air stone during treatment

So, I just noticed. My indostomus tank is chock full of cyclops!!! Mostly on and near the surface, in the hygrophila, salvinia. But there are A LOT of them. I do not see them in the bottom parts of the tank. On one hand amazing news, cause hey, free food source for the indostomus. I am fairly sure I introduced them when I fed frozen cyclops some weeks back ,I read that the cyclops can have eggs that later on hatch from the frozen ones, I guess it was true. I will scale back on feeding the microworms/bbs, will do more no feeding days to help maintain the population. Now to the question. In the setup I have with the feeding I have, I should have had some indostomus babies. And I dont. Is it the ramshorns or is it the shrimp. I am contemplating removing the shrimp and bumping them to the clown killifish tank. Any tips on how? Much appreciated

I found a bunch of articles about "slime coat disease", and the pictures matched what I'm seeing on my fish. Thank you for that observation! I'll start with kanaplex and salt, but I ordered a bunch of meds for different bacterial/parasitic infections that could be causing issues with their slime coat.

Temp 77°, ph 7.2, ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate about 20ppm. The white patches are hard to see, but they are towards the back of the body and are visible in the first 2 pictures. I'll try to get better pictures. I bought the fish yesterday in Oregon and noticed the symptoms when I got them home, so thankfully it's not something that developed in one of my tanks. I suspect the sick ones were hidden away because I didn't notice anything at the store. I'll move them out of the tank right away and start treating with salt and kanaplex. Thank you!

Quick updates The Fundulopanchax Gresensi seen to live their biotope! They're color really pops in all the shadows The Japan blue gold guppies population continues to grow rapidly: The Nothobranchius Eggersi are so going strong. I've added a spawning cup to collect more eggs before they're fully part breeding age: The Aphyosemion Ocellatum female seems to be fattening up. I think the white worms are helping. The Nothobranchius Guentheri have been reunited in a new tank. I tried putting him in a community setting again and it didn't work out (lots of nipped fins).

Howdy Nerms this is the first entry of I hope many to the Haverhill aquarium society. I have kicked around this idea for years and well dang it is time to dive in. I ask myself why get involved yet another life sucking endeavor for children (25 years of giving it away talking here) well it is about connecting to kids. Yuck I said. I usually don’t share my Nerm status because less I be judged but for the most part kids are interested in anything passed the goldfish even though they eat green floating plants. So here is the build so far all because I found an excellent marketplace sale and then when he heard it was for a school he threw is tons more. See ya soon! Tedrock

Ive been very confused why ive gotten no fry, or at all signs of gestation from my purple female in the 2gallon. Parameters are perfect. she is well fed, and there is cover. Ive decided to start thinking like a gravid platy. I believe that it is not true that platies dont care about their fry, rather they dont care about their fry after birth. Often a female platy will try and find somewhere hidden from predators to give birth to try and give her fry the best chance of survival. I noticed that there were no signs of further gestation on this fish which was odd as she showed a gravid spot when i added her in. I noticed that she spent most of her time in that tank hiding in the back, as far from me as possible, so she is probably stressed out and worried about predators. If she thinks there is constant risk of predation in an area, she wont drop her fry and might consider gestation to be a complete waste of energy. So im trying to make her feel as comfortable as possible. What Ive done is taken a small trick from discus breeders to make the fish feel more comfortable which is blacking out the sides. The back of this tank is a matten filter so i cant work with the back, but i cant see through it either. The sides however i covered with black plastic from an outdated planner, to try and make her feel like she is in a safe area. The other thing i noticed was that there was a decent amount of light going into the tank, and these fish probably want to give birth in heavily planted areas with much less light. I accomplished this with two remaining parts of the planner cover. By strategically placing them on the lid i can control how much light, and where gets into the tank. The V setup i have now allows more light at the front, but less and less as the tank goes back, to imitate a thrush of plants with various light spots. The female has been noticeably less shy and has been more eager to come to the front now that ive made these changes. I also implement hair algae in the tank as cover for fry, due to its complex structure giving the fry lots of hiding spots. \ These are just some ideas i had "thinking like the fish", im not sure if they will work but im hoping they will, either way it was a fun experiment.

Acrylic is unlikely to leak, since the edges are literally melted together with chemical bonding. That's kind of a huge advantage. The biggest downside to me is that you have supporting acrylic on top leaving a smaller hole to get into the tank, you will have to lean over to get in, and that can get to be a problem reaching the bottom depending on tank size. There are usually precut holes for filtration, etc, that may limit your product choices. For instance the slot for a HOB may not be as wide as you want. Also, the top tends to bow over time. Stand also needs to support the entire bottom, rimmed glass need sit only on the rim. Rimless also needs support. If you like curves on your tank edges, it's easier to find. I don't really like the distortion it provides. Speaking of which, I think there is a higher refraction to acrylic. I've never seen scratching be as big a deal, what scratches exist aren't terribly noticeable with water unless you're looking for it. Also, just be careful in not using items that will scratch. Glass people start to worry about the silicon after 10 years. Earlier if it's moved around. I've noticed the glass is also a lot thinner than when I started fishkeeping. Don't really seem to have much to say about glass. That said, I've had both, and I like both. Whichever you get you'll be happy with.

It’s also more difficult to grow and it’s a slower grower.

That’s why I was thinking my frogs. They are not fast eaters and they ignore everything but live food. Only other things are neocaridina and 2 nerites.

So while i know i have had them only for a short while and their behavior is not necessary how they will behave after a while, but still. They colored up nicely, given they were in a bright lit box and now in nice leaves dark forrest. All of the rasboras have a prominent stripe, which leads to fun times. Pygmy corydoras will sometimes school with them, confusing them for their own kind, but same goes for the rasbora. Will swim and follow a pygmy cory for a while 🙂 I saw them swim in a full school twice, what a view. They are starting to be bit fuller in their bellies because i feed them heavy, bbs and microworms, to give them the best chance to acclimate and make it

If I may tag onto this thread, I noticed a very long wait to receive my last order, after they switched carriers. I believe it was 10 or 11 days. I am okay with that, but I have a bit of a parallel frustration, if I may share respectfully: I just went to order one or two of those new easy flow kits. Apparently now, there is a bump in the minimum order to $19.99. I would completely understand this, if I wasn't paying for shipping. But if shipping is on my dime (which it is...and probably always be, now that I noticed another change of "free shipping" being raised to $100), then I respectfully don't understand why I can't just order what I need. If it is under the heading of reducing shipping waste, then an arbitrary value doesn't necessarily correlate to a box size, or empty space within a box. Reducing shipping waste could simply be the shipper having appropriately sized boxes available for a variety of order sizes. But in principal, if I am paying the shipping charge, I am not grasping why I am limited, from a customer perspective. It completely prevented me from ordering a new product to try out. So, in short...it was I trifecta of changes: Much slower shipping (for my location), $100 free shipping bump (quite alot of money), and a bump in a minimum order value, due to "shipping waste." I express my frustration completely respectfully, as I appreciate the Co-op, and will continue to be a customer, albeit less frequently. Additionally, I have not heard any recent livestreams, so it is completely possible that these points were addressed thoroughly within.

Exactly. I have my female bettas one in a 33g tank another on 42g tank. People say bettas like small tanks. Just no. Only those long fin males or dumbo ears do better in shallower smaller setups because they seriously have a quality of life issue when it comes to swimming. My females and plakat males are everywhere in big tanks and easily can go bigger than what I keep them at

I would love having a tutorial! I’d buy you a jug just to get access to a tutorial from you! I can gift via Amazon, you know! 😆

Yeah. I agree. It's like biofilm for the most part and maybe that stagnation is causing things to sit and build up and then end up with that algae/slime forming. It does hurt gas exchange. Whether that matters given the sump oxygenation is tough to say without testing the levels.

In my opinion, Honey Gourami ideally would go in a minimum of 10 gallons, ideally 20 because they are pretty active and like the larger footprint. Also, kuhli loaches can grow to 5 inches, which is 1/3 the length of a standard 5, so keep that in mind.

I had 2 really pretty sword plants still connected by the runner. The susswassertang nursery overthrew so much I thought they were dead. I was thinning the crazy dense moss today and found the swords still alive INSIDE the moss. Crazy! I pulled them out front and pushed the nursery back so they get some light. They have grown curly que miss shaped. Now they will probably die on me 🤣

It's totally normal, I talked to support and they said their's do it as well. I have it in my bedroom with little to zero background noise so I hear it really well. It makes a high-pitched sound when it's actively heating. I have a degree in electromechanical technology and when a lot of power is put across resistors, heating coils, or inductors it can make a high-pitched sound. Any of those three things that heating elements commonly use get an insane amount of power sent across them for what they actually are. For reference, the average LED bulb in your house nowadays uses around 5 watts and 20 of those bulbs worth of energy are put across a component that's smaller than your thumb. There are ways to negate the noise and I'm sure when further iterations of the aquarium co-op heater come out, it will get implemented as it gets better. I have noticed with time the sound has gotten noticeably much more quiet.