venzi

Hi. I have a female platy that seemed to have a slightly bloated stomach and it was at the top of the water column making bubbles. She was doing this for as long as I observed yesterday for like an hour at least. Today, she's moving around the tank and not doing that anymore. Anyone know what might cause her to do this? I did notice a white spot next to her top fin, but she's had a history of having 2 other white spots appear then disappear. Her appetite is fine. I noticed that in the same tank, two of my female bettas would lightly touch some surface (like the uplift tube for my UGF) and then "flash/dart" away. They did that a few times yesterday and I noticed it again just now. Is there a term for this type of behavior? I was beginning to think that there might be some infection at the skin that would cause pain. All the fish in my tank have a healthy appetite, but something feels off. Ammonia is at zero. The one major change is that I was away on a trip for three days. So I was fasting them and I didn't have the house heated so the heater in the tank prob kept the tank at approx 70F (maybe a bit lower at the coldest parts of the day). Anyways, I started the whole tank on some meds to be sure.

Oh big blue is definitely female. She has the white egg spot. I was always curious what that was.

I haven't noticed any growth. Fish seem fine. I'll give an update if I notice something.

I'm guessing the yogurt was made into a gel? otherwise, it'd just disperse into the water column...

by darken, do you mean turn pink? So at any age they can darken up? The ones I saw at the fish store were stressed or unhealthy?

Do harlequin rasboras turn always turn pinkish as they mature? I've seen some at a fish store that weren't pink at all.

Big blue has completely calmed down in 3 days 🙂

What do you mean by fuzz?

Cool. I wasn't too concerned, but just wanted to run it by the community 🙂 Yea, I have a lid on it. I left it half open today b/c I added some caulk to a portion of the lid where water can creep into a crevice. So I wanted to dry it out. Fun times.

So small update. It's been like 2.5 days and the big blue betta has calmed down now. It's aggression has been reduced to about 50%. It will still chase and try to snip ocassionally, but it's not w/ as much aggression or energy as initially. They all hang out at the top of the tank when I feed and they don't seem aggressive while feeding. I think it'll be OK 🙂 Will keep monitoring.

So my daughter had a yogurt cup and got like maybe half a spoonful into my 20g tank. I'm guessing it's fine for the fish? Perhaps slightly bad for the bio filter b/c of the sugars? I noticed a few white chunks on the gravel so I vac'd that up. Not really sure how much actually went it, but I doubt it's more than spoonful. Any thoughts? 🙂

Hmm. I got that big one from a petco and it was in a community tank with one other female betta and several other smaller fish. I prob need to get a shot of the fish together for better size ratio, but from what I can recall, the male bettas I've seen in cups have much longer fins. But yea, that's something to consider perhaps if they don't settle down in the next few days, which I'm hoping they will 🙂

@TheSwissAquarist sure. The bright blue is the biggest one. The white one is the middle size and the dark blue one is the smallest (I just took that pic as the big one was coming after her - looks like a shark is after it from that shot 🙂

So I had bought two female bettas and placed them in a QT tank together (no other fish) and noticed something interesting. Initially, the smaller betta was flaring and aggressive towards the bigger betta. The smaller one would not eat, while the bigger one would eat and run away from the smaller one. Then, after 2 days or so, the bigger one started flaring at the smaller one and the smaller one would run away. Has anyone noticed a similar reversal of roles? After a few more days, they were settled down and both were eating just fine and seemed healthy enough for me. The aggression I saw did not seem too violent. The fish would chase each other, but it almost looked like they were playing flag football (vs tackle football). What I mean is that the fish would chase each other, but stop short of actually bumping into the other fish. Like no attempt at ramming or nipping that I could tell. Today, I tossed the two female bettas into my main 20g tank which already has a female betta, which is the biggest of the three. So the biggest one starts chasing the smaller ones around, but this time it's an aggression that's on another level. I can see the big one's mouth trying to nip. So I thought that was interesting that there are levels of aggression at play. The most interesting thing for me was that even though the one big betta that's chasing the two small bettas (one at a time, never both at the same time), the big betta does not seem like it's "out of breath" at all. I don't see it's gills moving rapidly, but for the two smaller bettas, I see their gills moving rapidly. I would think the big one would be out of breath b/c it's trying to chase 2 smaller bettas, but it doesn't seem to be the case. I do notice that when the smaller bettas are running away, they do seem to not "efficiently" expend their energy. They are darting around in short bursts, while the bigger betta more casually chases them in a straight line. Anyways, just wanted share my story and check if anyone else has noticed similar aggressive patterns.

that's a beautiful aquarium you have going there. I love that look. Any tips or insight into pruning hornwort? Like do you like to cut the longest stem in half or do you like to cut away the outer layers?

Hi. So a common concern people have with hornwort is the needles falling off. I'm assuming this is in response to the nutrients in the water column no longer being at a level to sustain growth and/or not enough lighting due to the growth of the plant. So in my mind, if I were to say cut/remove half of the hornwort every 2 or 3 weeks, then the chances of the needles falling off would be very low? I have 2 pumps at the top/rear corners of my 20g tank pointing at each other to cancel the water flow out. Would floating plants such as hornwort be OK w/ this kind of setup? Note that I have a female betta fish that has no problems swimming around in my tank. It obviously doesn't stay within the path of the strongest current (like the platies I have like to surf that current), but just stating this to illustrate roughly how strong the current is and how localized it is. In general, what is the reasoning behind plants not liking "high flow"? do the nutrients move too fast that the plants can't absorb it?

@AnotherHumanPerson i wouldn't stress about it too much. If it makes you happy to gear up (buying a big tank and equipment), then do it. Otherwise, see if the goldfish can stay disease free for a month or so in your current setup. My daughter started preschool and I saw a comet goldfish in a 5 or 10 gallon tank at her school. The fish was won in a fair. It somehow grew to 8inches over several years and it seems healthy. Don't stress, just view it as an opportunity to learn. That's my 2 cents.

Hi, my understanding is that bacterial bloom is cloudy/milky/murky water that is not clear and dissolved organic compounds (DOCs) are more like particles of food or waste or other organic material that are suspended in the water column (kind of like specks of dust). Is this correct? My water column looks clear enough but I can see specks of dust like particles when the aquarium lights are on. So I'm guessing it's just DOCs floating around.

sweet. i'm looking to find some variatus hopefully at my LFS as well. they look great

It might take a long while before your tank is "cycled" due to the plants competing for the ammonia/nitrites that the beneficial bacteria also needs plenty of. Ideally, you'd cycle the tank w/o plants, but if you want/need the plants in the tank while cycling, then you might need to experiment w/ a very light stocking of fish (just enough bioload that the plants take care of it). Also, there are challenges in measuring ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels b/c the plants consume those chemicals while the lights are on I believe. So you'll want to measure them at a consistent time of day and ensuring the lights are on a constant amount of time. Otherwise, I'd imagine there can be discpreancies in the readings.

I tried the nicrew mini air pump and that was pretty much silent. it's a square shape looking one. definitely far quieter than the tetra whisper air pump. There can be still be some vibrational noise from the nicrew pump so you'll want it on something soft if that bothers you.

WOW! What do you mean by "schedules"? Do you know of any links/resources or the exact term to google search to find out more details?

Right. I wonder if that has to do w/ the claim of higher bioload for goldfish. Goldfish are considered beginner fish and new comers to fish keeping hobby will overfeed b/c goldfish will eat as much as they are given. But I don't think this trait is unique to goldfish. I think betta fishes do the same thing.

Oh I think I've read that somewhere as well about food going in and just coming out. I think it might be more applicable to fancy goldfish b/c of their compacted body size. Comet and common goldfish I doubt would have the same issue. Interesting.

Why do people claim that goldfish have high bioload (when compared to other freshwater fish)? Isn't it basically if you feed the same sized fish the same amount of food, then the same amount of waste will result (roughly speaking)? Does the goldfish have some kind of special metabolism or digestion process that produces more waste per unit of food consumed?