FLFishChik

Congratulations on your surprise babies! I never get that lucky! It’ll be fun to follow this to see what they turn out to be!!

Yuzu has eaten himself into quarantine! This fish has taken to eating everyone’s food (the Tetra’s, the Corydoras, the Shrimp and his own!) and stuffed himself to the point that he has a swim bladder issue. I came home yesterday to find him hanging face down in the tank! He swims fine, but at rest, he can’t keep himself upright.. so he earned himself a trip to the hospital tank and a 3 day fast. Hopefully it’s just constipation. He’s not acting lethargic or like he’s ill, but this crazy fish is keeping me on my toes! He might end up in his own tank after this so I can control his food!

Don’t be hating on the fruity pebbles…. 😂

I wanted them for Chili Rasbora and CPD tanks… are you in Florida? $2.50 is too good to pass up, but the husband does not share my fish tank enthusiasm.. though a plant grow out tank would be nice, lol

@Cinnebuns do you separate a breeding pair out or are they just breeding in the home tank?

$5 for two 10g tanks. Wanted to buy more ($2.50 each was an awesome price) but I had to control my impulse or hubby would probably put me in fish tank jail

I’m not very experienced with plants as I’ve just gotten into them recently myself…BUT, I have a very low light set up (crappy light that came in a Top Fin kit). What has grown incredibly well for me is Water Sprite (it gets jungle-y very quickly… like in a week. Can grow planted or floating and I’m constantly pruning) and Pogostemon Stellatus Octopus ( also grows like a weed. Clip off the tops when the reach the surface, shove it in the substrate, literally will grow within a week or 2).

Actually, it is newer. It’s been in the tank about 6-7 weeks. So I’m hoping it’s just melting? Some of the younger, newer leaves are getting holes as well so I’m hoping that any new growth won’t.

This is awesome info! Thank you for sharing! I am most definitely interested!!!!

So even though I’m giving this root tabs and easy green liquid fertilizer, this Argentine Sword has holes in the leaves. They start out as “see through” spots in the leaves, then become full holes. Is it some sort of deficiency?

it might be that the plants have grown so large that they are consuming the nitrates at an accelerated rate and may require more fertilizer than the current dose. As plants get bigger, they consume more... it could just be a matter of increasing your dosing or dosing more frequently.

looks kind of like that. but grows in small clumps on the wood. it isn't anywhere else.

It isn’t anywhere else in the tank and I just cleaned the HOB filter Saturday… and it wasn’t in there. Maybe it just “wood gunk” 😂

This started popping up on my Spider wood (just as I am getting the diatom algae under control). Is this BBA? How should I handle it?

It looks like fin rot. As @laritheloudmentioned, base dose of aquarium salt and pristine water parameters are a good place to start. If he’s active and eating, that’s a good sign.

He seems happy. He ate as normal (always begging me to feed him when I walk past the tank) and the parameters this afternoon were 0ppm ammonia, 0ppm nitrites, 10 nitrates

What is the difference? Is it a bad difference? A big one or small? Should I remove some of the tannins?

Mainly because you want them to marinate in the medicated water without disturbing the med ratio. If you feed them, then you have to clean the water/ do a water change and that will disrupt the med concentration in the water and make it less effective.

I will tell you about my experience with my Betta and Fin Rot. Though his didn't reach his body, his fins looked pretty shredded. At that point, I decided to remove him from the tak and put him in a 3g quarantine tab (I couldn't treat his tank because of Nerite Snail and Ghost Shrimp).. I treated him with Aquarium Salt. Since his fins were pretty bad, I started with the 2nd step of aquarium salt dosing (1TBS per 2 gallons of water. since he was in a 3 gallon = 1 1/2 TBS) for 7 days. When I didn't see improvement, I then did a water change and then began 1TBS per gallon treatment for 7 days. His fin rot stopped progressing. I did a 30% water change every day and replaced it with clean dechlorinated water (no salt) for a 4 days, to make sure there was no salt and kept an eye to make sure there was no more progression. After 5 days, I placed him back into his (freshly cleaned and extremely vacuumed ) tank. I also decided to add tannins to his water, as I had learned that it was beneficial. I kept an eye out and was diligent in keeping his water parameters pristine. He finally recovered and 'most' of his fins have grown back. the edges are a little tattered, but ... he is an old Betta. Sometimes, they don't fully get their fins back, sometimes they do.

Since it’s a new set up, it hasn’t cycled yet. Beneficial bacteria need to establish and then start converting the ammonia into nitrites. Then, another bacteria will establish to consume the nitrites and turn them into niTRATES. When your ammonia and nitrites start to decrease and your niTRAtes start to increase, your tank is starting to cycle. Once ammonia and niTRItes are a 0ppm and niTRAtes are climbing, your tank is cycled. This can take 4-8 weeks depending. In my opinion ( and this is just my opinion) a Betta and a few shrimp are about all you can safely stock in a 5g tank. Tetra need to be in groups of at least 5-6 and would be too much to keep in a 5g with a Betta and Shrimp. you can read about the nitrogen cycle here. in the ACO blogs: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/nitrogen-cycle

I have a 5g Betta tank that I make “Tannin Tea” for and add a little at every water change. Today when I did tank maintenance, I added more than usual, making the tank appear very dark ( you can’t tell by the photo because my phone compensates for the lack of light. You’ll have to trust me here). But, it got me wondering if there’s such a thing at “too much” tannin?

Sounds like it would be ok- just depends on the disposition of the Betta. I added my Betta to the tank last so everything else was already established. Just keep an eye on her to make sure she isn’t harassing the Gourami. Adding another dwarf Gourami would present the same issues. Either way, you want to keep a close eye that the Honey Gourami isn’t being picked on.

New little guys have torn through the brown algae in my tank! I want to keep a visual record of how they progress (I’m so anxious that I do a good job), but… look at that belly!!!!

You could do just small daily water changes (like a pitcher full) and cut back on feeding, that way your nitrates wont climb as quickly and your filters won’t buildup as quickly?

One of my tanks has black poster board taped to the back, the other I used cheap black acrylic craft paint ($0.97 at Walmart). From the front, there’s no difference in how they look. The acrylic paint scrapes off easily so I’m not worried if I ever need to remove it from the glass.