Ramplo

Just found an otto cat that had eaten a piece of gravel and passed (I could see the gravel inside 😖). I've had them for about a year and this is the first I've seen that. Does this happen often? Should I not have gravel in my tank? I've read they're natively in an area with gravel so I'm hoping this was just a horrible fluke...? Appreciate any thoughts on this!

I wasn't able to find information about 'next steps'. Apologies for any bad spelling etc. I took far too long writing this and just needed to give up looking for spellings of medications/diseases just because they had the red squiggle... Background: I believe I have a tank pretty heavily infected with Neon Tetra Disease. I had been treating as if some had cotton mouth, but it has clearly spread and gotten worse. Thanks to a previous post on here with pictures I finally realized it's more systemic and that is why medications didn't help. (maracyn, paracleanse, salt, methylene blue dips, kanaplex, pima fix...might have missed one or two) This is a 20 long. I've had it set up with these fish for about a year. I lost a couple guppies along the way but figured that was just from inbreeding/random illness. I've never had ammonia issues and honestly I barely had the tank "cycled" about a month ago for the first time, it is heavily planted enough and has a light enough load that it honestly may have just been from the easy green the week before. (20 gallon, canister, air stone, variety of foods. Stocked with 2 male endlers, 2 male guppies, 11 neon tetras, ~6 ottos...they're great at hiding so I may have lost one but I don't THINK so.) I am now treating this as a hospice tank. I am going to let the fish in there live out their lives until they look ill enough (and slow down enough) for me to catch and euthanize. Several tetras appear to have cotton mouth that can't be treated so I'm guessing it isn't from columnaris. One started flopping on his side. One has the full body fungus/shedding/rot look but they are all still fast as lightning and I don't want to over stress all of them if they're all likely to pass regardless. (Corey's video says it's caused by bacteria, Aquarium Nexus says protozoan parasite*...I've tried to put both terms in below because either way I just need to know how to not spread it) Questions: How long can the parasite/bacteria live without a host? Once all the fish have passed, can the tank be run to keep the plants alive and have the parasite/bacteria die off with hosts then be restocked? (I remove fish as soon as I find them, I've never noticed one that looked like it had been eaten so it is spreading in the water somehow) Can the parasite/bacteria spread by gravel vac? Would rinsing it between tanks help? Does bleach help? What about other supplies like nets? If I need to move plants/decor/etc to another tank would treating with hydrogen peroxide help? Bleach? Letting it thoroughly dry out? Steaming? Nothing is worth the risk? (I have to assume that like ich it will eventually die on its own, I just don't know what it would take to get to that point). Anything else I didn't think of or any other advice? Thank you for being such an amazing community that I'm not really knowledgeable enough to contribute information to. Hopefully I can help someone with similar questions down the road by posting this for them to find! *Pleistophora hyphessobryconis is a species of microsporidian, a group of single-celled parasites closely related to fungi. This species is commonly known to cause a disease in freshwater fish called “Neon Tetra Disease” (NTD). https://www.aquariumnexus.com/neon-tetra-disease/?unapproved=21617&moderation-hash=187643f3e498e0788e6093b393e64b94#comment-21617

Well in the middle of family drama I couldn’t get my tank to do a fishless cycle and truly couldn’t find ammonia which kind of blew my mind. Just added my only two little fish (endler and tetra) for a fish-in cycle and I’ll get a proper school of tetra when my tank is cycled. In the meantime, the aquascaping has gotten very beat up while I chased snails with tongs and I got sick of trying to make it perfect. Also, might have gotten too much stuff. I’ll play with it once I’m sure I can keep something other than snails alive 😅 If you look REAL close near the arrow you might see a bit of my assassin snail…

I did end up getting an assassin snail if for no other reason than I was trying to do a fish less cycle. I’ve also been manually plucking them and putting them in a small water “pond” pot I have to prevent my mower from clipping my septic tank cover. They’ll live their best life in algae heaven until winter then oops, nature. And I can’t wait to try the reverse respiration trick, if nothing else then when I give away my cuttings!! That is incredibly interesting! I thought I checked all my plants pretty well…and turns out my quarantine must have been way too short. Life lessons! Yup I took everyone’s advice and it has at least kept the population down. Should probably get another one…

Ok hadn’t found pea puffers before and they look pretty awesome…I can see how people get out of control with tanks 😂 For the plants it’s hard to tell because I’ve had some melting but I’m not seeing any holes…you may be right (at least if there is plenty of dead matter around) may also explain their love for my “moss”…it’s 98% but a few surviving stems so I’m trying to keep some alive! ”helicopters of snaily death” is easily the best thing I heard today, thanks lol.

@Friller looks like they need a full school…I’ll look around and see if I can find some. @anitstukI’ll check with some of the local stores to see who will take it back…I’ll have wait a while though to be sure all the snails are gone/that my plants live because if I replace them this game might start all over again. Although I suppose there’s always Facebook/Craigslist… @CinnebunsThanks for the idea about posting a picture. I thought about it then didn’t bother because I just assumed it wouldn’t be helpful. But I can absolutely see different solutions being useful for different types!

These are the two bigger ones I’ve found and stuck into a jug of rain water with algae (quite a few babies too, but they’re a lot harder to see)

Hey everyone, looking for some advice! I’m finding mixed info online so I’m hoping someone here has some experience to help. (TL;DR at bottom) Back story: I was given a 2.5 gallon established tank a bit over a year ago. It had one endler and two tetras. One tetra died recently,I’m assuming partially from stress because it couldn’t school. I’m very interested in plants/aquascaping. My plan is to have a tank for my plants and the fish are just an added bonus. The largest tank I can comfortably fit in my tiny rental house is a 20 long and I have already purchased and set up the tank and I’m trying to cycle it (“trying” being key, story for another day) In with all the lovely plants I got, I seem to have gotten a snail. And it/they have had many babies. I’d like them taken care of before they get out of control. I have been trying to collect and remove them, but I checked everything I bought before it went in the tank so I think this is a losing battle. I’ve read betta fish will eat snails, I’ve also read they’ll only reliably eat them if you squish them 🤢 I read Cory catfish will eat them, then I read they’ll mostly just eat their eggs. I hate snails so I am hoping I won’t need an assassin snail… Also don’t know how well it will live once all the snails are eaten. Suggestions? TLDR: 20g long planted with neon tetras and at least one endler. What can I get that will get along with these fish and eat snails?