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Sorry for your experience. Killing so many fish that quick, it had to be a fertiliser or pesticide. So it's just a case of diluiting it until it's not harmful anymore, so as Tony said, give things a few soaks and rinse and it should get it to a level that it isn't toxic anymore. If you have activated carbon that you can add to your filter, it'll help remove any toxins around your tank, then just a few water changes. It is a bit of a guess when it's safe to put life back in the tank, maybe a week of activated carbon and as large of a daily water change as you can, even 20% a day should get it safe after a week.

Normal, non-gel, superglues are often just cyanoacrylate, which is non-toxic and used on humans and animals for a long time now. The aquarium ones are usually 100% cyanoacrylate, because it can be hard to find the ingredients on most superglues in the shops these days. But if you take your time, you'll find one a lot cheaper than the aquarium ones. As for the other types of glues, most will be fine once dried and given a quick wipe, but there are some that will leech harmful chemicals, so if it's not cyanoacrylate, maybe just do some research on the ingredients to double check.

I talked it over with my hubby and he agrees that we should be cautious and do the quarantine process. Our local PetSmart has tanks on sale so I will pick up a small tank and other supplies to do this thing. Thank you for sharing your method. My goal is to have a healthy ecosystem for my fish. Sometimes, allot of times, I over analyze and get in a mental tangle. Far too often, I let perfect get in the way of progress. Hubby and I are pretty risk averse. I listened to a podcast of KGTropicals on quarantining last night. They mentioned that for the first set of fish, the tank IS the quarantine tank. After that, a separate tank is needed for quarantine. I love @Irene. That video is very helpful although I don't think I will be using the meds process. At this point, I am thinking salt and observation.

Well, I am not expert (notwithstanding @Rube_Goldfish kindly calling me out as such). Here are some tips: (1) You need to carefully obey the fish and game laws in your state. Be 100% sure that you're legal. (2) Never bring a fish home to a tank unless you know exactly what species it is, and have carefully studied it beforehand. (3) Bear in mind that many species will require a more expensive diet. Frozen bloodworms are typical. Other frozen foods are good -- Daphnia, etc. Just beware that the cost is higher than flake foods. (4) 10-gallons is a small volume of water. Be sure that you select legal species that can actually thrive in that volume of water. (5) NANF -- i.e. "North American Native Fish" -- should not ever require a heater. Some require cooler temperatures than normal. Many require extra dissolved oxygen. I build DIY Spray-bars [here's a great video link], add extra sponge filters and air stones. For my part, I do _not_ keep natives from our area due to State regulations. However, I _buy_ US Natives that are in the hobby trade as long as they are not blacklisted by my state. I do wish that I could keep and propagate natives from the creek near me. Just today, I was out micro-fishing with my kid, and he caught some HOT Rosyside Dace all colored up. Check these out: But to keep and propagate natives from my waterways, what I would need is an up to date Aquaculture License from the State. That's not terribly hard or expensive to come by, but it gets tedious. So . . . I buy fish from out of my area. Here's a smattering of species I have kept (all photos are from my own tanks) . . . Rainbow Shiners (Notropis chrosomus) Catawba Greenhead Shiners (Notropis chlorocephalus) Fireyblack Shiner (Cyprinella pyrrhomelas) Southern Redbelly Dace (Chrosomus erythrogaster) Mountain Redbelly Dace (Chrosomus oreas) Banded Sunfish (Enneacanthus obesus) Florida Flagfish (Jordanella floridae) Bluefin Killifish (Lucania goodei) Okefenokee Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma okefenokee) Gulf Coast Pygmy Sunfish (Elassoma gilberti) Rainbow Darter (Etheotoma caeruleum) Banded Darter (Etheostoma zonale) Orangethroat Darter (Etheostoma spectabile) Lowland Shiners (Pteronotropis stonei) Tessellated Darter (Etheostoma olmstedi) I am pretty sure there's more . . . but I have now lost track. I recall watching a fascinating video from an aquarist in MI a while ago catching Sticklebacks and designing a tank for them. Beware! These are some of the meanest little fish on the planet. But his species-only setup was inspiring. (I am not sure exactly how LEGAL this was) Feel free to message me if you have followup questions. I'm less on the CARE Forum lately, but always happy to help if I can!

How was the aeration? An oxygen crash would be my first suspicion, tho you do mention fish dying afterwards. Second guess, if it was a nursery plant, many nurseries include various forms of slug poison in their potting soils, some brands are nastier than others. In that case, a double water change of >90% is going to reduce the concentration to pretty much zero. Let the water sit in the tank for 24 hours between changes if you can and you won't need to scrub everything, tho I understand if you want to anyway for peace of mind. But who knows, maybe your fish devoured a bunch of fertilizer pellets. Doubtful, but you never know.

Update: First "pinkish" leaf

Normal superglue is also aquarium safe I never buy the aquarium safe kind. Just the normal ones.

Oh wow. So sorry for your losses. Sometimes this hobby is just rough. And there really isn’t a lesson to learn there. Maybe not to use the tank as a shelf. Which we all do anyway. as for what was in the plant. Who knows. Could have been anything. Even mild pesticides. For cleaning whatever it is. Just a soak in the tub and a good rinse off should work for your hardscape. But how do you know for sure. If your plants are alive. I’d try and keep them that way. In a tub. Set aside from the tank. Think of it as a quarantine for them. Then I’d take the water way down to the substrate and vac it up really well. Possibly adding water back in and draining and vacuum it again. At some point you should be at almost a negligible amount of contamination. but after all that work, it’s really just a guess as to whether it’s gone or not

Every time I haven’t quarantined fish I’ve regretted it. Maybe I’ve just had some bad luck that matched with when I thought “it’ll be fine” but it has always come back to bite me at some point. And then I feel silly because I have everything to do it effectively and I should’ve just done it. The piece of mind for me alone is worth it. Also, at this point I’ve spent 4 years building and maintaining super healthy ecosystems. It’s worth the time, energy, and resources to ensure the new fish do not upset the healthy ecosystem. I guess I’m the odd one out here that does in fact quarantine with meds. I do the trio and let it marinate for a week, and then do another 5 weeks or so after that to ensure something doesn’t pop up. Again, the time and resources is worth it to me to ensure I don’t disrupt the healthy ecosystem of the display tank. As far as the tank itself, I use bare bottom 10 gallon tanks with a small ACO sponge filter and a small heater. From there, I’ll throw some Java Moss or PSO in there and viola, you have a quarantine tank. I’ve never personally seen meds crash the cycle. Once the fish get moved to the display tank, I keep the snails in there and feed them a couple of times per week to keep the cycle going. There is always many ways to get to where you want to go. This is just my method and has worked well for me for the past 4 years.

I have been trying to supplement my current population of Marble Hatchetfish (Carnegiella Strigata) for the last month or so. My local fish store is out of stock and I have checked numerous websites online and they are out of stock as well (Discuss Madness, Dan's Fish, Ebay, Wet Spot Tropica, and more). I know Marble Hatchetfish are almost all wild caught. Does anyone know when these little fellas are "in season"? Thank you!

https://aquariuminfo.org/co2calculator.html Find your co2 levels with ph kh and tank size calculations

My nerite is a female. She laid eggs. Lots of em. The pics are only half of these white sesame seed looking eggs. Pictures!

Valid points. I think the whole experience has made me jumpy about anything being a culprit. It’s going to be a while before I am in a place to buy new things for it. Currently I’m in school and we all know how expensive life is right now. I’ll follow your advise and go from there, thank you!

@Colu He seems to be doing better after the maracyn. When hes resting hes not bending his body like he was before and he seems to be eating a bit better.

My reasoning for not being excessive about scrubbing all surfaces is this: Whatever you got came from a house plant (most likely worst case in the soil) so there's not a huge amount of it; you didn't spill a jar of liquid pesticide in. Whatever it is clearly got into the water column. Most likely, it's a hydrophilic substance; most consumer poisons are because hydrophilic molecules are far more biologically available and likely to pass digestion without deactivation, easier to spread, and the latter also coincides with it obviously being up in the water column. So it's not going to really want to stick to surfaces. Some physiosorption. Equilibrium constant will strongly favor solution. So empty the tank. Flood the tank. Wait. Empty and fill again. Some chance it could remain in biofilms, then it could affect algae eaters. So if you are nervous for your ottos: scrub it all down. (You definitely don't need to boil anything and that won't necessarily deactivate the molecule.) But if the algae is toxic, then all of your algae eaters are already dead. I only see two siamese eaters on the list, and I doubt that's your entire cleanup crew. Ergo, they got it in the water column. But it's your fish and your peace of mind, and scrubbing isn't going to hurt (other than deleting all your hard earned biofilms and good bacteria).

That can be true. I don’t mind prophylactically treating my fish. Just like I vaccinate my dog, or myself for that matter. It’s worth it to me for the longevity of the ecosystem and piece of mind should I ever want to add another species to the tank. I’ve had species only tanks and took the “well, this IS their quarantine tank” route and still looked back and went “ya… I should’ve just not been lazy and put them through the whole process, and then moved them to this display species only tank”. To each their own. You gotta find what works best for you and what you’re comfortable with.

A wet/dry vac might be the easiest solution, and they come in very handy for fish keepers.

I don't buy much pantyhose, I swear.

I had a 100G guppy tank outdoors (shout to Lucas Bretz @ LRB Aquatics for the idea!) that I successfully overwintered using Lucas' techniques only to have it completely wrecked last summer by Water Hyacinth I put in the tank. Oh, that stuff was growing like crazy and was absolutely beautiful! Unfortunately by the time I discovered how invasive Hyacinth actually is, it had overtaken the tub, crushed my cycle, and destroyed the whole tank. I'm trying again this summer, tub is cycled (again) and I put three Comets in last week

I second @Sacah’s recommendation for activated carbon and you could also consider Purigen. I think after that watching the remaining stock, plant and algae growth and monitoring for abrupt changes in nitrates etc. if it’s doing well in 2-4 weeks I’d start restocking very slowly. It’s very difficult when something out of our control leads to fish deaths. I lost nearly my whole fish room due to a power outage caused by a rabbit building a nest in my garage and ending up blowing a GFI and a breaker. Poof went my rate plexus, Corys and rainbows from some of my heroes in the fishverse. Ugly cries but I’m still here, slowly building back up but doing it smarter and saner hopefully. Have fun and take care of yourself. Recognize the impact on your Mom like you have helps. I screwed that up with my Fishwife and regret it to this day!

@Rube_Goldfishyou rang?! As one of the old timers on here I guess I’ve created some content that’s being called back which is cool! It depends on the tank, the goals and the wishes of the keeper and of the bettas. I have had chill bettas and I have had spicy ones. As Gump said you never know what you’ll get. I’ve also had them be fine and then suddenly become murderous bastards. Kuhli loaches are great but you need a good number - over 10 - to see them very often in a 20 g. Even then you may only see them right before the lights go out or after the lights go out depending on the group. They go well with a betta as they’ll hide easily and camouflage very well. Corys - although they’re in the process of changing many of their names - are a diverse group in terms of temps they will tolerate, behaviors and looks. As the founding member of the Panda Cory Appreciation Society I’m a fan. Presently I have Coryadoras aeneus, venezuelanus, hastatus, pygmaeus, similis, gold lazers. I would actually favor a larger group of a dwarf Cory vs a larger bodied one. I think the diminutive size would help them be less threatening to the betta. But once again it’s betta dependent. Plecos - Ancistrus could work but I’ve had Bettas who couldn’t stand them. I had one that hunted the clown and rubber lipped plecos. Cover and a very narrow cave only the pleco could access would be best. Another algae eater is the otocinclus - in groups and with some sword plants you can sometimes even breed them. I’ve never had a betta go after them! have all the fun and enjoy the ride!

Keep in mind it's not just about protected species. You need to check if there are regulations on keeping any native fish. Raising trout, for example, often requires a permit.

you've done it before, it'll be fine this time too!

I think @Fish Folk is our resident North American native fish expert, though not Michigan, to my memory.

Is it NOT bad? I found a larger one in my established and populated 20L (it was an amazing and graceful thing that I took out entirely, not breaking it up) and again today a small one on the glass. I have fish and shrimp. Lots of live plants and snails. The pests I don't mind are snails and detritus worms. Pests that freak me out - everything else. I don't hate hydras after reading https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/hydra , but I have a lifelong cringe because of reading Hans Christian Andersen's "The Little Mermaid". The polyps were monsters and I equate them with hydra! I grew up with the book, not the video, and it affected me this much lol

This is looking great! Are you building in auto water change or still going to use siphon hoses to drain and refill tanks?

I just go to my local dollar store and buy packs of the super glue gel. I haven't bought any for a while, but it used to be like 4 small tubes in a pack for a dollar. I would buy several packs at a time, because most of the time each tube is a one time use because you can never get the lid off to use a second time 😂

I snipped all but one tendril to encourage this sundew plant to open up its flowers and put energy into leaf production, aaaand.. it shot up 2 more tendrils. How defiant! 🤣

Hail hydra. There, I said it.

How long has it been with you? Maybe it is stressed, so, you cannot see its true colors yet. Here is what my Bolivians looked like newly arrived:

Yes, the goal would be to breed them but I will attempt that in about a month. I am taking a two week trip soon and as much as I love my family I don't want them to have the task of feeding and ensuring the fry survival if I am succesful.

I don't think furan-2 will be beneficial at this point I wouldn't recommend further treatment

thanks It might be a few month before i can save up for the 10 gal

Cory is right, if the water was so unsafe they would have said not to drink. The city I used to live in had a very old system and would put boil warning often. I only ran into an issue because they changed from chlorine to chloramine. I lost fish due to the freed ammonia.

He's perfectly tropical. That's in the US?? Are you in Florida?

They darken up with black substrate, turn brighter green with plants, etc. Same fish here, yellow bands and green altered…

Well life is interesting- Karma, dharma, flow, all the things we talk about that guide and shape us as beings lead us to where we are or should be. Father’s Day is always tough for me. I didn’t have that ideal Father and instead had many father figures, friends and mentors who’ve guided me. I had a step-dad who’s been more than my own “dad” and well he’s been ill lately and then my biological father decided with my grudging blessing to come for Father’s Day weekend. It was a lot. My wife was coming down with something so childcare plus emotional journey it weighed on me all weekend. But it also Led me to information that one of our amazing fish shops had Betta albamarginata the Strawberry Betta the smallest mouthbrooding betta we have in the hobby if I’m not mistaken. The Fish Wife said hey bud you need some me /dad time of your own go and explore! This is the shop Cory mentioned on a stream that carries the blueberry snails and has a number of really cool fish species. They carry ADA and high end aquascaping supplies north of Seattle. I’ve been coming here since they opened over a year ago now and it’s really progressing as a shop which is great to see. Chang Wu the owner did indeed have not only Betta albamarginata but also Betta api api so we discussed my build and project. He gives good advice as he has bred both and in the end I went with the Betta albamarginata. In addition, with the Fish Wife’s input we decided to go with Chili rasboras which was fun since Chris Lukhaup had been discussing them recently and they really are a beautiful aquatic animal. I’ll post the progress. I took some of @Odd Duck’s advice with big crypts as I’ve got a few around the house and fishroom. Pardon the initial murkiness. I’m working with akadama soil. This is a Japanese volcanic clay that is used in bonsai. Many shrimp breeders use it in Caridina setups as an alternative to aqua soils. The fish wife likes the natural tones that soften the aquascape. She is tired of the harshness of the typical black aquasoils. I’ve had some Brightwell Rio Oscuro cafe before but there’s something about the more clay like akadama that really makes this a different scape. In terms of the Betta albimarginata I bought a pair and they’ve tolerated each other very well. She’s definitely the dominant fish. In discussing this with Chang Wu if they get to breeding and she’s forced him to breed more that she should then I can buy another male to disperse the breeding energy. The stones are all lava rock, the piece of wood was something we found on Kona and brought back, it might be from a palm tree trunk. Substrate system is some laterite, pond soil, and lots of akadama. Filtration is one of those double sponge filters that I rotated the fenestrated plastic pipes to run parallel with the bottom of the bowl then covered them with small lava rocks then put the substrate over the top to make a sort of UGF. Here’s some videos of the setup. I’m having fun and I think it shows in the fish and the scape. I am really having fun and appreciate y’all coming along for the ride!

Not a whole lot different in three months. Still one of my favorite tanks to do maintenance on.

This is a child’s jewelry bead used to keep parents from eggs. However magenta mystery snails are beautiful but need tight fitting lids or they escape.

I decided to try my hand at making some food for my fish. They are all omnivores, so after a little research and an inventory of what I had on hand, I ended up with spinach, broccoli, peas, winter squash, blue green algae, worms, shrimp, and whitefish filets. Puree, press out the water, and freeze. The fish seem to like it, but I'm a little worried that I may be missing something vital and alternate with flakes. Any thoughts?

No only add dead dry mulberry leaves. @xxannan

That is what most recommend and use for the intake line of the sump. Great suggestion. @Rube_Goldfish

Happy to report I got my plants from Aquarium Co-Op and the fertilizer casuals. Happy to see the plants were in really good shape after days in shipping route. I really like the sticker and the insulated reusable transport Aquarium Co-Op bag too. I used the bag to sterilize the plants. Will keep using it too. Will defiantly order more plants from Aquarium Co-Op in the future. 😊😊😊

Thank you, Colu☺️ . So you are saying don't use Maracyn and Maracyn 2 together but use Maracyn 2 with Aquarium Salt 1tbl/5 gal and put him back in his regular balanced tank. Thank you again. This makes sense, he was also showing signs of stress trying to swim back in to his home tank from the hospital tank. 😥 Thank you Tony s!

my guess is they are being choked out for lack of light.

Quarantine or not, water changes will get intense at some point or another. Things pop up and all of a sudden your usual maintenance got longer and much more expensive. Welcome to the hobby. It’s a great hobby, but cheap it is not.

Officially hit 30.1 ppm co2, what a difference a diffuser makes!

I raise baby mysteries with Endlers. They are about as nice as they come. They never nip at them. Unheated as well.