NOLANANO

Day 14 update: the ick is looking much better. Still a few spots left but definitely much improved. None of the 4 ever lost their energy or apatite. I treated with Ich x on Monday and Tuesday and then skipped Wednesday. Today I used a dose of Paraguard because I ran out of ich x and won’t get more until tomorrow. I’ll dose with the ich x daily until I don’t see anymore white spots and then I’ll dose for a day after that. Today I fed the Repashy grub pie mixed with oyster shells and it went better than expected. Only only one of the puffers ate it but that puffer completely gorged itself to the point where I thought it might pop (see pick below lol). The other 3 puffers seemed interested but none of them pushed their way in the crowd to get the Repashy. All the other fish in the tank also liked the Repashy. I put it in a glass bowl so that I could remove the oyster shells after they were finished and it worked well but there was definitely a learning curve. The one puffer that did eat, took a minute to figure out that he couldnt eat the food through the side of the bowl and had to go in from the top. Hopefully the other 3 puffers will be a little more daring tomorrow.

Looks like Hydra. I have no idea how to treat it but others on this board will come to your rescue.

You could try it. In my set up, they picked at the Oscar for like 6 weeks before it died so there would be plenty of time to intervene if it doesn't seem to be going well.

When I was in HS, Petco sold me a Tiger Oscar and 2 convict cichlids for my 29G and the convicts shredded the Oscar apart. Maybe you will have more luck with a much larger tank but it didn't go well for me. I was also below a Novice as far as knowledge goes so it also could have been user error. Aquariums source has OScars listed as a suitable tank mate for convicts so maybe it was more to do with the completely unsuitable setup I had them in than the fish themselves. Convict Cichlid 101: Care, Tank Mates, Size & Breeding (aquariumsource.com)

German Blue Rams are always great in a group with 2 males and 3-4 females. I currently just got Amazon Puffers and they are full of personality but they are a bit more involved when it comes to feeding than your typical tropical fish. @Guppysnail once suggested Laetacara dorsigera for their wonderful personality. I still have plans to add them at some point in the future.

You can use whatever you like in a cannister filter. If you plan on using live plants, I'd shy away from charcoal because it will pull nutrients out of the water that your plants can use. Otherwise, use whatever combo suits your needs. I have Bio ball and Bio rings in mine and I have sponge pads that go from coarsest at the bottom all the way to filter floss at the top. IDK why but when I read the list it made me immediately think of Joe Dirt lol.

@Colu is it normal to see the ich parasites jumping on the surface of the water/ crawling on the walls as I do a water change? Below is a video of the pests. I’m wondering if might be something other than ich because I don’t see anything like this when I google ich.

Here is a video of the puffers eating a meal worm and some frozen bloodworms. It was during this feeding that I realized they had Ich spots on them. But as you can see, they are still energetic and have an apatite.

I get what you are saying and I partly agree. I think that in an tank using "disposable" cartridges you are correct. BUT I think in tanks using more/better sponges and bio balls, bio rings, etc. there is definitely a large colony of bacteria in the filter. I'd argue this because when I used disposable cartridges, you are correct that I didn't see a spike when I changed them but that was also due to the fact that I DID in fact change them regularly which didn't give the bacteria a chance to really gain much of a foothold on the cartridges. Also the cartridges have a very thin sponge which doesn't give bacteria much surface area to live on. On the flip side, I souped up my HOB filter when I still used one with a reusable sponge and when I changed sponges after 6 months (sponge was too fine and kept getting clogged), I did see a crash. Given that experience, I would only change out a portion of the media in my cannister filter if I felt the need to because I would bet that changing it all at once would lead to a crash.

They look like they are poised for world (tank?) domination. Getting in formation, preparing for a well thought out and executed attack.

Off topic but are HOB media cartridges the biggest scam in the fish industry? To a beginner they make it seem like you need their cartridge and that it needs to be completely replaced every month.

I remember Fred and Sally. Good times. Fred probably passed because he just couldn't live anymore without his darling Sally.

I was always skeptical of the "Used" filters. IDK why but it just seemed gross to me lol BUT It was offered some of the time.

The one plus of FB Marke place is that you can often times get a lot of the equipment you need along with the tank. I have not purchased anything from FB Market for my tank but I was looking fairly hard when I wanted a larger tank. I ended up getting a 75G from Petco when it went on sale though.

Facebook market is a good place to look

I don't currently have any carbon (don't use it in my planted tank). How important is that aspect? I do have a UV light in my filter that is currently turned off. Would a water change and the UV sterilizer be enough to breakdown the meds between dosing? If so, how long should I run the UV before turning it back off and dosing again? Also how important is it to get the dosing exactly right? I dosed for a 75G but now that I am thinking about it, the sand and decor probably take up some space so there may not be exactly 75G in the tank. Edit: I just got my shipment notice from ACO and it looks like the Ich X will get to me by Friday. I have enough Ich X for a dose tonight (Tuesday) and I have enough ParaGuard to dose tomorrow night (Wednesday). How big of a deal is it if I miss a dose on Thursday? Should I go find a med at the LFS with malachite green for that day or would it be fine to miss one day? @Colu

1) it looks like you are doing Exodons then lol. One other idea that maybe he would like is Jewel cichlids. They are very pretty and stay smallish. I saw MD fishtanks put some in a community planted tank but it was an 8 foot tank so I am not sure if it would work in a 75G. Just thought I'd give the suggestion in case you wanted to try to find an alternative to the Exodons. 2) I recently got some Amazon puffers and started a journal about them (linked below) because it didn't seem like anyone els eon this board had any experience with them. I figured I journal my experience so anyone else who wants them could have something to read through to get some first hand trials and errors. I would love if you'd drop in and give any tips or opinions that you have.

I feel like 75% of being an adult is managing expectations. This is no different in the fish hobby. After reading this thread, if I ever have to cycle a tank again I will change my ways and do a fishless cycle. BUT that's coming from a person that has been in the hobby for several years and has a high enough base knowledge to fall back on. When dealing with beginners (which I pretty much was when I cycled my tank), you have to have some leeway and realize that they won't be perfect and sometimes good is good enough. Like I said, when I researched it several years ago, I didn't see anything about liquid ammonia. Maybe that was my fault for not asking google the right questions but I only found the fish in cycle and the ghost feeding method. Based on what I knew, the ghost feeding method seemed vague and daunting. I had also used the fish in method when I had fish in college a decade earlier so I knew how to do it and that it would work. I dislike when people try this hobby and bail quickly because either its harder than they expected or their fish die quickly (both are usually due to making a bunch of avoidable mistakes). I also don't like when someone starts looking into it and just feels an information overload and bails before they start because they can't figure out where step 1 is. (FYI, I think ACO's Youtube does a great job of breaking things down into digestible pieces.) I have had friends try the hobby and it not be for them which is totally fine but whenever I have a friend get a tank, I do my very best to guide them in a manner that is easiest for them and teach them along the way. If people are constantly told that everything they are doing is wrong then they will just quit. You have to help them avoid the big issues like buying an Oscar for their 20 gallon and let things like a fish in cycle go despite knowing there is a better way. instead of saying DONT DO THAT! show them how to test their water and explain why they need daily water changes until the cycle completes. Thats also why I love this board. Everyone here helps in a positive manner. No one tells anyone else they are dumb, we all just try to fix the issue and educate along the way. Other fish forums aren't like this at all and I think they chase a lot of potential fish hobbyists away by gatekeeping a bit. Just my 2 cents.

I think I figured out what may have killed the one puffer (maybe not since I didn’t see any signs or symptoms) but all 4 of my remaining puffers have ich. Its hard to get a pic of it because they are so active and it seems to be fairly mild (just a few spots on each) but you can see one spot on one puffers back and 2 spots on another puffers tail in the pics below. i dosed Ich X tonight and cranked my heat up from about 79-80 to 83-85 (hard to tell exactly on the heater). my issue is that I only have enough ich x for one more full dose and I think I’ll take a few days before I can get more from ACO. I don’t think any of the local stores carry ich x so I have to get it shipped. I do have one dose of Paraguard from a prior incident and could probably get my hands on more of that from a LFS. Is going back and forth between ich x and paraguard a bad idea? @mountaintoppufferkeeper @Lennie @Guppysnail

Any particular reason you chose Exodons? I don't know much about them but I do have a 7 year old and he is interested in the fish the first month they are in my tank and then he doesn't care anymore until we get a new fish. Sure he wants to feed the fish still but he doesn't care all that much outside of that unless they are new and even feeding is hit or miss depending on if he has anything "better" to do. My point being that choosing a single fish that seems to severely limit the tankmates doesn't seem like the best idea for a 7 year old long term. Maybe I am wrong and your nephew has a better attention span than my son but if I were you I would take him to the fish store and get a feel for which fish he likes and then plan the tank around a centerpiece fish of his choice. Pick a dither fish or 2 to get a 10-15 fish school for each, Pick a type of cory or other bottom dweller, maybe a type of hatchet fish or something like that for the top portion, and then get the centerpiece fish last. Make the stocking take a good 6 months until all the fish you plan are in the tank to maximaize his interest. After you get the fish in and its fairly established, you can try things like neocardina shrimp or dwarf cpo crawfish or bamboo shrimp or maybe some snails. The more you can mix it up and allow him to add things to the tank, the more you can peak his interest imo. Trips to the fish store are fun if he can buy stuff. I have learned that window shopping isn't as fun for my 7 year old as it is for me. Edit: idk if you are using plants and hardscape you already own which would make sense from a cost standpoint but if you are going to buy this stuff, maybe give him a couple of rock options, maybe take him to pick out the wood, maybe give him some options for plants. Like I said, my son likes everything other than caring for the fish long term lol. I did all the tank decorating and made the decisions myself without his input and part of me wishes I would have included him with some of it. If he ever shows any real interest in my tank, I plan on suggesting a 20 gallon or something like that for his room but I will take his lead on that and not for ce anything.

i don't have any suggestion as far as brand but I think you want more of a matte black than a glossy black. Post pics of your finished product!

I have a buddy trying to get into the hobby and I am struggling a bit with finding the sweet spot of being helpful and encouraging while not taking over or making it seem daunting. He is willing to take the help if I offer it and he will ask questions but I want to make sure its his fish journey and not mine. At the moment he has a 5 gallon tank that he bought because his kids won 2 goldfish at a school fair. The goldfish died quickly but his kids were interested so he decided to give it a go with more appropriate sized fish. He did a fishless cycle with much more patience than I ever had but I do see little mistakes here and there. I'll maybe give a hint or 2 when we are talking about his tank or mine but I am trying my hardest not to just fix all his issues for him. My big push right now is to try to convince him to take my empty 29G so he can keep some fish in appropriate numbers and space. The big issue we are going to have to cross at some point if he takes the 29G is that he sees my Amazon puffers and wants some. Depending on the source, it seems like he COULD do a single Amazon puffer in a 29G and still keep a small school of dither fish plus the CPO Dwarf crawfish the he currently has in the 5 gallon but I will have to get him to fully read up on these fish as they aren't as easy to feed and take more effort than the standard fish.

Oh no, you can tell when a petsmart or petco has someone in charge that has actual knowledge. They will usually have a wider variety of fish to offer than the usual suspects and typically have a better selection of foods and other accessories.

Father Fish irks me a bit. He obviously has a ton of success doing things his way and definitely has more experience and knowledge than I do. But the idea that there is one way to do things and he does it correctly while everyone else is wrong doesn't sit well with me. Now I admittedly have only watched what is occasionally posted on this board so it is possible that I am completely misrepresenting the man and his opinions. But from what I gather it seems like he's got it figured out and everyone else is doing it wrong in his opinion.

I also think petsmart and petco tend to hire people and "educate" them about aquariums rather than hiring people with a background in fish keeping. This means that the employee has no knowledge base to fall back on other than what they have been told by their superiors. While they mean well, they just don't know much more than the novices buying the fish. When I was in High school, the local petco let me buy an oscar and 2 convict cichlids and put them all in a 29 gallon. needless to say, it didn't go well. The convicts nipped at the oscar until it was dead and then they killed each other. I knew nothing about cycling the tank and am shocked the fish lasted the month or 2 they did.