Jump to content

KatGoneFishing

Members
  • Posts

    63
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

Everything posted by KatGoneFishing

  1. Been a while, kept forgetting to update. Mixed news, but mostly good. I did end up losing a second cory, again very much not sure why because it was one of the middling ones with not much apparently wrong beyond some fin loss. So I'm down to four now and honestly, not sure if I'll try to get the group back to 6 or more or not. Might depend a bit on how other tanks/future plans pan out. But the others seem to be on the mend! Of the four remaining, two are big and healthy, active and doing great, the very picture of corydoras health. The other two are still smaller, one fairly significantly so - given everything, I'd be somewhat surprised if they get as big as the other two, but hopefully the littlest one puts on a bit of size - but I'm seeing full bellies and a lot of fin regrowth, they're active and not hiding anymore, and those dorsal fins are sitting tall, not clamped down the way they were for a while. So I'm very optimistic with them and I expect to see them continue to recover. The shrimp in that tank have started showing up with fuzzy white growth on their faces, so that's a new issue, but at least it's not further complications with the cories, lol. My teal betta is still hanging in there. He was doing much better for a bit, but we're back to lethargy and clamped fins, though his appetite is still great, so I'll keep working on that. There's nothing like fungus or fin rot or something to give me a clear indication of what's wrong, so it might be a bit trial and error to see what's happening. We'll see how it goes.
  2. Yeah, I think generally getting them food is the hardest part right now, with the way the snails mob the wafer bits. They all seem to react well to food being present, at least, getting all excited and doing their best to triangulate the food's position, they just get crowded out by the snails after a little bit. I'm going to try pulling more snails as we go, too, to help that part of it. I'll keep an eye out tomorrow when I feed, see how they're doing with it. I might drop a second airstone in the tank at least for a little while, make sure that's doing all right with the meds in the water and all. I have the sponge filter/airstone combo already, but it's a larger tank than my others and couldn't hurt.
  3. Betta update: if you saw this fish swimming today, you would not believe that he was having issues staying horizontal just three days ago. He's acting completely normal again. I'm still going to do some salt and IAL for a bit, see if the scale thing clarifies one way or another, but the swimming seems to be resolved, which is a huge relief. Cory update: I lost one of them last night, woke up to find snails climbing over him and zero response when I went in with the net, so that's unfortunate. The surprise was that it wasn't the original skinny one or the other one that started looking skinny, it was one of the other two with damaged fins, but no other issues that I could see. So maybe he had something else going on. The others are still with me, at least. I'll be starting week two of the meds tomorrow. I forgot the second dose of prazipro this last week, so it was just one dose each of expel p and prazipro, but we should get it in full this coming week. Operation Snail Removal has gone well so far, too. I think I've managed to remove a decent chunk of them and I'm just going to set up a nice little tank to keep them in, because I've got some lovely gold and blue ramshorns being produced that I'd like to pursue a bit and the local puffer folks post relatively frequently looking for feeder snails. So hopefully I'll be able to keep on top of snail population and give the cories a fighting chance at getting food, as well.
  4. @xXInkedPhoenixX The preset heater was used for probably about a week before I realized the issue, then another week of fluctuating/a-bit-low-for-a-betta temps before I got the new heater and it's been stable since Friday. But I do have a sponge filter with airstone running and the temp didn't actually get above 83F-ish (it was more a concern because the heater was supposed to maintain 76-78), so at least the water was kept moving for gas exchange. I did give him a bit of Maracyn last week, though I realized today that I got the instructions mixed up with the Paracleanse and did not actually do a full run of the Maracyn. But that will hopefully have helped a little if anything did start up because of the warmer temp. With any luck, salt and the IAL will be enough to resolve the rest and he'll be good to go again.
  5. Yeah, the fact that the pale spots were the whole scale was why I hadn't been worried about them at the beginning, but the black markings down his side are newer and thus slightly more concerning, since from some angles it almost looks fuzzy? But looking closer at my second photo, it might just be scale pigment changing, since each scale seems to have a darker dot in it. The splotchiness of the fins is probably the oddest part to me, since I've never seen it before. I'll keep an eye on it and we'll see how it goes. I've had him about two months, now, and all of this is fairly recent developments in the last...two weeks or so. The original issue was flashing, which got him a move into the hospital tank and a round of paracleanse, followed by a pretty quick turn to going vertical when not putting in a lot of effort and a fair bit of lethargy. Part of that was probably the heater (preset heater that I'd gotten for the tank was too hot, which resulted in fairly low average temps while I got a replacement from ACO), but he's had consistently warm temps in there since Friday and that seems to have helped the energy levels over the last few days. I haven't seen flashing since, at least, so the only lingering issue is the swimming. The salt is definitely still on the menu when it arrives, since the tilting hasn't entirely cleared up. I did fast him for a few days last week, then have been feeding mostly frozen daphnia with a few pellets since about Saturday to give him some roughage, and there has already been a lot of improvement in that area. I'll toss in an almond leaf and add salt when it arrives, see how that goes. I'll see if I can find good epsom salt locally, too, just in case, though hopefully I won't end up needing it. Thank you so much for the input!
  6. Really great news with Teal'c, a lot of his swimming issues have decreased or gone away, he is much more active and alert than he had been, swimming around the tank even when I'm not right in front of it. The steady, high temperature and some roughage with the daphnia have apparently worked wonders, even without the salt (which is supposed to arrive today, though the tracking doesn't update very well, so I'm not very confident in this). He does still trend towards vertical a bit when he's not in motion and there's a bit of resting on the bottom, but it's much less pronounced and a bit more normal looking, so I have high hopes for that resolving, as well. All that said, we're back to something that I don't know enough about to know whether it's normal or something to be worried about; his discolored scales. At the moment, in dim lighting, he looks fantastic, but when I get a light on him, he looks...dirty is a good word for it, I guess? There are some scales and patches of discoloration along his body and into his fins and it's almost like he's got specks of dirt on him, in a way. His color is not solid and totally vibrant the way I'd assume a totally healthy fish would be. He's had some discoloration since I got him, mostly the very pale scales and spots on his fins, but the darker patches are newer. Got a nice bright light on the tank and managed to get a couple of pictures. I haven't seen him flashing or anything yet, so I don't think it's actually bothering him at the moment, but it doesn't seem normal to me.
  7. I think I may never try another heater that isn't ACO, ahaha. The 50W works a dream after the Fluval hiccup. Holding steady at 79F and Teal'c seems to be a bit more alert and energetic, which is great to see. He's taken to resting under the sponge filter now that the Fluval heater isn't there for him to wedge himself behind and I'm thinking about picking up a pleco cave or something for him to hang out in that will also block some of the water movement. Absolutely great appetite today when I gave him more daphnia, though, he put a lot of effort into chasing them down and even started recognizing the pipette that I was using and would grab a drop of daphnia from the tip of it. He's still not swimming well, it takes him a lot of effort to move around and he sinks and flops over very readily, but the will is there and I can only hope that I can help him turn things around and get him back to full health. Salt is still showing for Tuesday delivery. (I tried the daphnia with my other betta, he just looked at me like "where's the food???" so I think we'll stick to pellets with him for now, lmao. The snails in there will feast well today. The minnows and tetras love the daphnia, though, it's the perfect size for them. And the Hikari First Bites are the perfect size for the WC fry.)
  8. Day 2 of parasite meds survived! Everyone is alive and accounted for, even the shrimp (well, at least one as of five minute ago, I am eternally unsure of the actual number of living shrimp in that tank). The cories are rather displeased about it all, only one or two up and swimming at any given point. And the honeys are I think just confused and unsure overall. It will be nice to come out the other side of this and hopefully have a healthy, happy tank again. The fuzzy bits on the tetra are persistent, so they might get a few rounds of Ich-X, we'll see how it goes. The daphnia was absolutely a hit with the betta, he was very hungry and snapped them up as best he could. So I'm feeling a bit optimistic about his appetite, at least. He's still swimming wonky, as if it's a great effort and his back end sinks as soon as he stops concentrating on going forward. He's resting on the bottom pretty much any time he's not coming over to say hi and look to see if I'm feeding him. Visually, I think his scales are looking better than they were, but he's definitely not out of the woods yet. He is also looking a bit skinny, but I'm not sure how much of that is true and how much is just me being a helicopter mom. I did decide to do a round of Maracyn while I wait for the aquarium salt to arrive, so he's had a round of Paracleanse and a round of Maracyn all told. Currently not sure if I should do a second round of something or just wait for the salt and see how that goes. The ACO heater arrived, so that's been swapped out and set to 79F, so we won't have fluctuating temperature on top of everything else going on. In silver-lining news, though, I spotted 3-4 white cloud fry in the kitchen tank that are about a half centimeter big and entirely too cute for their own good. I'm pretty sure they've made it longer than the first set did, already, and I'm a bit better prepared for fry in general now, so hopefully I won't lose this batch. Never a dull day with fish around, apparently.
  9. Everyone in the 20gal has survive the first day of Expel-P, at least. Prazipro has been dosed, so now we see how that shakes out. I'm sure the honey gourami are very confused as to why they haven't been fed for the last day or so. Almost sucked up a shrimp while doing the water change today, though, oops. I'll do a second dose of Ich-X on the tetras tomorrow. It was really interesting to see how the blue spread through the water, tbh. They're at least in good spirits, still very food-motivated, and after how shy they were (and occasionally still are) it's very gratifying to see them more relaxed and willing to come beg for food rather than just watch it from a distance because I was too close to the tank. Teal'c has continued to hang out behind the heater, but will come up and does his absolute best to greet me and beg for food, so I'm hoping he'll be very happy to get fed tomorrow. Frozen daphnia, which will actually be a first for him with me. I know the minnows will be absolutely over the moon to eat up the rest of the cube and I might try some with the other betta, see how he likes them. I should be able to swap out the heater tomorrow, as well, give Teal'c a nice, steady temp that's comfortable for him. The salt is taking a bit longer to arrive, though I'm hoping it comes sooner than the tracking says it will.
  10. Yeah, that's kind of what I was thinking. It doesn't look bad at all yet, just a small bit on one fish, so hopefully won't take much to clear that up.
  11. In terms of want, those gorgeous midnight rams would be the top of my list, though at $35 each (iirc), $50 would only get me about one and a half, lol, so maybe not the most economical choice. If someone handed me $50 and let me loose in the store, though, I'd probably come out with the hoodie and some java moss, with some long looks at the anubias and crypts.
  12. My three really enjoy Bug Bites tropical formula, though I do have to crush it up a bit to make it small enough for them. They've gotten better about mid-water feeding, but the first time I tried to feed frozen daphnia, they didn't seem to know what to do about anything in the water column, lol. I need to try again now that they're doing it more, but they do still tend to prefer surface feeding. Xtreme nano pellets are also acceptable, though they don't seem as enthused about it as the Bug Bites, and the couple of times I tried flake they were not impressed at all. I haven't tried live foods with them, yet, but they do have small mouths, so small foods like that would probably be great!
  13. I spoke too soon, sigh. Little fluffy white bit on one of the tetras this morning. Guess I'm getting a full crash course in fish illness and medication this week, lol. I just hope the white clouds don't also sprout something in the next couple weeks.
  14. Oh man, that would be rough. this is only like, four degrees off from where I want it and it's still frustrating. And on top of everything else, too, ugh. I'm really hoping so, I'd like to go back to enjoying my fish and not worrying about them so much. Oh, good to know for the salt dosage, thank you! And I do have frozen daphnia on hand, I'll give that a go in a couple days when I feed him again. And I was considering bumping the 10gal temp up, too, so I'll probably do that, too.
  15. Yeah, I think I ran my fingers over it for any noticeable sharp bits when I first got it, but it's been about three months now since I bought it, so I can't remember. I'll check it over and take some sandpaper to it if needed. I tried to be pretty aware of whether or not any purchased decorations had sharp bits on them - so many didn't have filed down seams or were just rough to the touch, even on things that were supposed to be smooth objects. I think I only have...four non-natural decorations between all the tanks, plus a few silk plants. Oh, no worries! The 10 gallon that I had this betta in originally with the ember tetras is set at 77F with a 100W ACO heater. There didn't seem to be any issues with energy or overexertion during the two months that he was in there, at least not that I noticed. The 5 gallon hospital tank that he's in currently has a preset Fluval heater that is supposed to hold temp between 76-78F (I think it's actually the same one that ACO sells on the website, which was coincidence lol). It is instead bringing temp up to 83F if left to run. So I've got a 50W ACO heater on the way to get the temp stabilized and less of a stressor and I'm actually same state as ACO, so it should be here quick. I keep the house in the 73-75F range, so ambient temp isn't absolutely frigid in the meantime. I have a thermometer in the 5gal now and I've managed to keep it in the 75F-ish range the last day or so since realizing the issue with the preset heater.
  16. The 10gal does have live plants, including an anubias. I haven't had any issues yet with the log, but I'll definitely keep an eye on it and possibly remove it if the betta does go back to the 10gal. The ember doesn't rest on it, at least, I think she just likes having a cave to hang out in. I'll look into options for the 5gal, thank you! This guy did occasionally flare at his reflection in the 10gal, but I haven't noticed it being more than an occasional thing, and the 5gal doesn't have a light on it, at least. I have sponge filters with airstones on all but one of my tanks (and that tank has white clouds), so I'm hopefully good there, though I do have extra airstones on hand if needed. I don't have salt on hand, at the moment, it's on its way, but I'll be giving that a go as soon as I can. Morning update: checked the tank this morning and he's out front resting on the bottom of the tank instead of behind the heater, which is a change I appreciate, if only to save myself the tiny heart attacks of looking in the tank and not seeing him right away. He's at least alert enough with enough energy to see me and swim up to the surface, even if he does go back down pretty quickly.
  17. *puts down the cardboard and scissors and looks at the blankets and towels in the hutch under the tank* Towels, right, I was definitely thinking towels, too. I thought maybe the difficulty swimming was flow related (he was in a 10 gallon with a decent amount of plants before, currently in a fairly bare 5 gallon), so I turned that down a few days ago, but didn't seem to make much difference in his activity level and I ended up turning it back up to at least make sure the water wasn't too still for oxygenation. I did turn the heater back on for a while today, but he's still doing it, so I'm not sure if it's temperature or it just feeling better than being in the open. The discoloration isn't fuzzy, just as if the scales have gone a brown-gray. I'll definitely try the salt when it arrives. Would the bacteria meds be helpful before that? I do have both maracyn and ich-x on hand. There are a couple of fake plants with leaves broad enough for him to rest on at different levels in the tank, but I can get one of those floating logs to give him a more enclosed option closer to the surface, as well. I have one in the 10gal that he seemed to like, but one of the ember tetras also really likes it, too, and I can't quite bring myself to take it away from her. Now that I'm thinking about it again, though, I wonder if maybe he's also just...sleeping/resting a lot because he's not well? My other betta seems to have taken to sleeping in a brick thing with holes that I originally got for the cories while they were in the quarantine tank, tucking himself into a small, enclosed space. Maybe the heater is just providing the closest thing to that in the hospital tank. Thank you again for all your help with this, by the way, I really appreciate it. It's felt a bit like a three ring circus the last while, between the cories and this betta and life in general. (Why did the towels not even occur to me, that's honestly kind of embarrassing 😅)
  18. Alright, Expel-P and Prazipro acquired (LFS was out of Paracleanse, so I figured I'd at least do the regimen with the same meds from start to finish and got the Prazipro). I'll start treatment tomorrow. Just need to figure out a decent way to blackout the tank. My teal betta is now worrying me the most, ugh. He's laying on the bottom more often, his chin/belly has become discolored over the last few days, and he's taken to wedging himself down next to the heater. He came out to greet me and was decently active for a few minutes before just abruptly flopping over on the bottom for a minute, but he just spat out his food this evening and didn't actually eat it, which is a first. I've got a 50W ACO heater on order, just going to try to keep the water somewhat heated without getting too warm until it gets here. And I do have aquarium salt on the way, as well, to have that on hand, at least. But I can't see any particular symptom that will give me a more direct indication of what's wrong with him. He's having trouble staying level when not moving and doing the curling lay down, but no pineconing of his scales or noticeable bloat. No white dots all over, no fungus, no popeye. No fin rot that I can see, no visible parasites on his scales. His scales are discolored, but not yellow/rust. The previous tankmates, the ember tetras, are active and healthy-seeming, no sign of a transmissible disease that lingered in that tank so far, at least. Ugh.
  19. Got it, thank you. Would I start week 2 on day 7, then or give a day of rest and just start again a whole week after the first Expel-P?
  20. Oh, this is fantastic, thank you. If I'm understanding right, I'll do the first dose of Expel P after a WC, then blackout the tank for 24 hours. Then I'll do another WC, siphoning well, and dose the Prazipro or Paracleanse (I have some Paracleanse on hand, but can get Prazipro if that's better for this regimen?). I let things sit with the meds for the remainder of the week - so the Expel P is there for 7 days, the Prazipro for 6? - before starting again and doing that for 3 weeks. And I am definitely going to do this proactively in the future, oof. Much less of a pain to do it in a fairly bare ten gallon, I'm sure. I'm already not looking forward to navigating hardscape and plants with the siphon in a 20 high.
  21. @nabokovfan87Yeah, I was looking at it more this morning and was coming to a similar conclusion after reviewing the various medications and what they treat. I'll see if my LFS has Expel-P tomorrow and get it ordered if not. Thank you both.
  22. @nabokovfan87got a decent pic that shows the skinniness. One of the plump boys to the left, skinny boy to the right.
  23. Sorry for the snails. 😅 I forget sometimes just how many are in there and then something like that happens. I really ought to pull some. There are enough people locally with loaches and puffers, someone will take 'em. Yeah, I didn't do any medications at all, just relying on observation, but some meds might have been a good option in retrospect. I'll do what I can for now, might end up doing a round of medications at some point. The honeys in the tank haven't given me any problems at all so far (unless a surprise spawn counts as a problem lmao) but it can't hurt. Thank you so much for your help with this.
  24. I was seeing mixed feedback on it, but yeah, haven't really seen much damage that I can attribute directly to the flourite, so I'm not terribly concerned in that aspect, at least. Definitely not as fat as the others. Actual sunken belly is difficult to determine, since I don't get to see their bellies as much, but what I'm seeing is more from the top down: where the others' sides are gently curved from tip to tail, this one gets skinnier past the main head/gills area. I'll see if I can manage a decent pic that shows it. Activity-wise, he doesn't seem to be too much less active than the others, just different when he's at rest, since he's got more clamped fins and such, but he does tend to be one of the ones tucking himself into the protected areas more. He does have the smaller/damaged pelvic and anal fins along with the ragged dorsal, yes. At least two of the others have the same pelvic/anal fin issue, but are otherwise looking plump, being active, no barbel issues. That's the one, yep. I'll try adjusting the feeding to give him more chances at it, though he hasn't seemed too shy about at least going to the food. Maybe he's getting pushed out by either the others or the snails when he does go for it. A single wafer seemed to be enough in the quarantine tank, but in the 20gal, I might need to feed more to ensure everyone's getting enough. The snails in there are bigger and more numerous than they were in the quarantine and between that and the general dynamics, it can't hurt. At the very least, feeding in different spots is a good idea, thank you. I do have an airstone in the sponge filter, but I can add a second to the tank easily enough. You did say that the parameters looked good, but they are currently different from what is normally in there and what they got used to in the quarantine tank, so I wonder if he just had a bad reaction to the change, as well. Temp should be about the same, since both tanks were/are unheated. I did have a bit of an ammonia issue in the quarantine tank when I initially brought them home and while that's been fixed for a while, it may be a contributing factor, too, even if the others don't show any lingering issues. I'll work on the food and water first, with maybe a second airstone, then try meds if I'm not seeing any improvement. I have some Maracyn on hand, but I'll pick up another pack of it, since what I have won't do a full course on a 20gal tank. I don't have another spare tank at the moment to dose him separately, unless I pop him back into the quarantine tank and the betta that's in there gets a med bath along with the cory (not the worst idea, tbh). I've never had to do salt baths, but the concept seems simple enough. Getting a single cory out of a 20 high would probably be the hardest part of that, lol. Internal parasite is my current worst case cause, even though it seems like it should be unlikely, given that I've only seen the lethargy and skinniness since the move to the 20gal and they were in the quarantine tank for a month and a half before that. And when I say the snails may be part of the issue if it's food related... There is a wafer under this pile. Somewhere.
  25. The wafers I'm feeding are the Bug Bites algae crisps, which are at least decently high in protein content and seem to be marketed towards cories and such. I have Repashy Grub Pie and Soilent Green on hand, as well. I do have Maracyn on hand and can dose that. Aquarium salt I'm a bit unsure of, since the tank is pretty well planted. If a mild dosage might be alright for the plants, I can give that a try, as well. There isn't much that would constitute a sharp edge in the tank, just a couple of tight squeeze spots that they seem perfectly willing to wedge themselves into, which I thought might be the cause except that it wouldn't explain the skinniness. I am planning to adjust those spots the next time I get my hands in there. But they are currently on mostly Seachem flourite black, which I know is a bit debated on whether it's good for cories or not. I hadn't been noticing any barbel damage so far, but looking at them again, the one I'm concerned about does have some - he seems to be missing a set. Going back through pics, it looks likes he may have been missing them the whole time, or at least for longer than he's been in the 20gal, though. I have a pic of them in the quarantine tank and there is one with minimal barbels and the pic in my original post from Oct 1 shows the lack of full barbels, as well, just days after moving them over. At least four of the other five have good looking barbels, though, so he's either unlucky or something may have happened with him specifically. Bellies seem to be clear on the ones I could see. I did see that of the five I was seeing just now (number 6 was tucked into one of the favored hiding spots) that three of them, including the one I'm worried about, seem to have smaller/stunted/damaged? pelvic and anal fins. Two of them have fins that are much larger. I actually had to go back to the day I got them to find a picture that gave me a decent idea whether they came like that or if it's something that's happened since I've had them and, at the very least, some of it's happened since I got them. From today's member guest speaker, I have to wonder if it may be because the quarantine tank was a bare bottom tank or if it's something that's only happened since they went on the flourite. I'm not looking to breed them, at least, but it's not great thinking I may have been the cause of at least some of the damage. Not sure if those fins can regrow at all, either. 😕 Today: The day I got them (I suspect the one in the upper middle of the pic is the one I'm currently worried about, the barbels don't seem as full):
×
×
  • Create New...