bettaballistic

I will definitely try Epsom salt baths I'll pick some up this afternoon. He eats very well and doesn't seem to have any unusual breathing. Since it's been going on for so long I really don't think that it's an infection. What's your thought on moving him to my 55 gallon?

Okay so my goldfish Mr Wiggles has been showing minor swim bladder issues since I moved in March. He's in a 20 gallon tall by himself with some plants. I test his water consistently and it's always no ammonia or nitrites less than 10 nitrates. I do his water changes at least twice a month. We had a small ammonia Spike this month where it got up to .25. I've gotten that down but his problem has definitely gotten worse. He just floats at the surface slightly on his side a good 50% of the time. He gets up and swims fairly normally as soon as he sees me. But I can definitely tell he struggles a bit to keep his butt from floating up when he's relaxed. He's got a really good appetite. I feed him, repashy gold, Hikari fancy goldfish, and other miscellaneous Foods like fresh Frozen and Omega one. I haven't really tried much except for fasting and peas intermittently for the last few months. All of that's not working and I'm kind of worried it's a more serious issue. I did a couple days of kanaplex in repashy just to see and that didn't do anything either. I haven't tried salt just because he's positively buoyant and I don't know if that's really going to be beneficial to him. I'm open to suggestions I'm also trying to consolidate my tanks and I'm considering moving him to my 55 gallon. He would be with a lot of plants, snails, a bristlenose pleco and a whole bunch of kuhli loaches. The water parameters are very consistent in there and he would have a lot of space to himself so I'm wondering if that might help. I really love this guy and I'll do pretty much anything to make sure that he's safe and healthy. Here's a picture of how he sits relaxed in the water. And a blurry one of him floating. I'm also going to post a picture of the 55 I'm considering moving him too. The angel fish will obviously not be in there with him

I've definitely been thinking a lot about that substrate. I'm planning to have the tank set up for a couple months before I put any shrimp in. So I'm definitely planning on dealing with the parameter changes from an active substrate. Although I haven't made any real decisions yet, my goal is to have to supplement this tank as little as possible. But I do think this was my push to only get one kind. And as far as the low-grade shrimp go I use that word too lightly, I mean ones without pattern. I haven't had a whole lot of success shrimp wise, so I was planning on starting out with one or two solid red shrimp before going to ones with patterns. I figure even if the fancy ones breed they're probably not all going to look like that. I can always take out the less interesting shrimp to uses as feeders. And I'm definitely excited to have a red root floater only tank because yes in all of my other tanks they get out competed pretty quickly. I'm hoping that I can get it to bloom

An example of kind of what I'm going for, although I have no idea how to get there 🙃. But I shall learn! And my low tech 55 that's as close to this as I have been able to get so far

Hey guys I've been planning a shrimp tank for quite some time and I finally purchased the tank! I got an edgeless 3 gallon Cube. My plan is to fill it with high grade patterned cherry shrimp, going to start out with some low grade first just to be safe. But anyway I want to make this tank look perfect, so give me inspiration! Show me your Nano shrimp tanks! High or low Tech I'm open for whatever, going heavily planted wanting more of a natural aesthetic. But I want to see everything, this is an Aquascape tank above everything else. I want to get the chance to practice all the complicated plant techniques, on a smaller scale with less risk. Planning on doing an active plant substrate with a sand cap no lid and red root floaters. But everything else is totally up in the air I want to see what you guys have created

How do you use it for that? I've seen a lot about it online but I haven't been able to find any specific instructions. Do I dilute it in water? How long do I let it sit? Or do I just wipe it down with 3% peroxide? I usually wipe my metal tools off with rubbing alcohol and then I use vinegar for my buckets and my big siphon.

TLDR: when I let my fish fight their diseases themselves and they are symptom free how long should I wait to share equipment between tanks. And do I need to sanitize equipment after the symptoms are gone I've got some cross-contamination questions relating to treating diseases without medication. I've been very medication heavy most of the time that I've been keeping fish because it works. And and after having an entire tank wiped out by bacterial infection I wasn't going to take any chances ever again. But it's been a few years now and I started to experiment with letting fish fight off the disease themselves and also using garlic. This has been just as if not more successful than anything else I've tried. Recently my goldfish beat a fungal infection with garlic, and all the fish in my 55 gallon be a pretty nasty case of ich with no casualties. So my question is basically if the fish fought off the disease themselves how long should I wait before sharing equipment between tanks? And do you still need to sanitize equipment after the disease symptoms are gone? It's really easy to say that I should just get separate equipment for every tank but that just isn't practical for a lot of reasons. And I like to be able to scrape algae out of my goldfish tank to feed to my ottos.

6 days into having them. They're very active and seem to be settling in nicely. They all have a good appetite I see a few of them during the day and all of them at night. And they love their tunnels they have plenty of room in there and they can access the sand. Their skin doesn't seem irritated and they're whiskers don't seem damaged by my substrate

My final decision I ordered the loaches I'm keeping my current substrate and ordering the undergravel tunnels. I'm going to keep my lights dimmer and feed them at night. I tend to be up pretty late looking at my fish tank so then being nocturnal is something that I was going for. I think I'll be able to tell if they're unhappy and I can make changes at that point.

@Lennie my lights are dimmable, they get fairly low. That's an older picture of the tank so there is more overgrowth and hiding spots now. But what do you think of this idea: you can get 3D printed under gravel tunnels. I have a pretty good layer of sand under my current substrate, I can install one of those under the gravel in the sand and then they would be able to access those at different points in the aquarium? The one here is the biggest one I would probably go with several small ones

So I have a 55 gallon heavily planted tank with just four juvenile angelfish and a mystery snail, that I want to add kuhli loaches to. I've got lots of places for them to hide, but my substrate is Eco complete which is pretty rough. I know that they do best in sand or smooth gravel, but I've seen several posts on here where people say that they do just fine on eco complete. My plan was to cap my current substrate with softer gravel. But if I don't have to uproot all my plants, cap the gravel, and then plant them all again that would be my preferred method. I apologize for not responding to and finishing the last couple posts that I started, things got a little crazy for a while. But I could really use some people's opinions on this, I have to start being okay with not providing 100% perfect care for 100% of my animals all the time. I just don't want them to be unhappy, not necessarily in the best possible environment they could ever have. Thanks in advance!

I got a new red cap oranda goldfish about a week ago, He's in a tank with my other oranda. 2 days ago I noticed that he was having a little bit of a buoyancy issue but was still able to right himself and swim normal. Today he was having a little bit more trouble and when I was looking at him more closely I noticed that he was pineconing. My plan is to move him to a quarantine tank and medicate him with salt and maracyn. The issue is though I only have a 5 gallon quarantine tank. I have a 10 gallon but it doesn't have a heater and I used low splash bleach in it so it still has bleach residue. Should I put him in the 5 and keep a really close eye on him or should I medicate him in his tank with the other fish in it?

I have completely redone my 55 gallon, it used to be a sorority tank with all artificial plants. Now it is a fully planted tank with essentially just 9 black skirt tetras. I'm planning on adding a large piece of driftwood with some moss and more plants. But this is essentially what I'm working with. My plan is to add cory cats and 6 juvenile angel fish. Is that realistic? How long am I really going to get out of that group before they become aggressive and I have to separate them? I'm also wondering about my fish choice to have with them are those fish too small? Maybe angel fish do really well with a different kind of fish that I haven't found yet. I'm still in my planning stage, so I'm very open to ideas and suggestions for this tank. My big goal right now is to grow these plants up and get my algae figured out. In the mean time I get to decide what fish to put in I'm really leaning towards angel fish but it seems like kind of a crap shoot.

That's a great suggestion! I haven't thought about temperature at all, With the heater that I'm using right now I can't get the water any colder than 73. But I'm moving them to a bigger tank Soon so I bet it won't be as hot. If that doesn't work I can get them a heater that will actually keep the water at 68. They would be fine without one during the day, but my house gets really cold at night.

I have two baby fancy goldfish in a 20 gallon. And I have been treating them for flukes for the last 2 weeks, they were piping, flashing, and generally moving very jerkly. I'm doing 5ml prazipro every 7 days with a water change on day 7. I'm leaning towards doing the 3rd week but I'm not sure how much of this behavior is normal. They are now moving normally and not flashing. One of them occasionally goes up to the surface, but only in the spot that I feed them so I think hes begging. But both of them are very frequently glass surfing, and CONSTANTLY opening and closing their mouths. There’s no ammonia, nitrite and nitrates is very little. I was using an air stone, but it really stresses them out so I only turn it on for short periods during the day. Everything I find online says that moving their mouth frequently is a sign of low oxygen. Is that always true? Could this be damage from the flukes? Maybe the glass surfing is a stress response to the medication? I'm not sure what to do, any advice appreciated!

That's gorgeous! What are the floating plants that you have? I love their roots

@AllFishNoBrakes All great advice, I don't know why I never thought of just using both filters at the same time! I think I'm going to cap my sand with a pretty thick layer of gravel. That way it'll take them a long time to get down to it, and gravel is a lot cheaper than plant substrate. I'd love to see a picture of your tank, if you don't mind

Our exhale is still 16% oxygen and only 4% co2 it's enough to resuscitate someone. Not ideal but it still works

It depends on the situation how practical this is but worst case scenario you can just blow in there with a straw or air tubing every now and then. I've been there before 😂

I've had this 55 gallon set up as a sorority tank for quite a while now. But after this most recent one not working out and getting more educated on why those tanks aren't a good idea in the 1st place. I'm going in different direction with things. I have a ton of fake plants because I needed ground cover. I want to take them all out and slowly replace them with live. I only have a Java fern on an arch and a little bit of water sprite. I have a ton of floating plants though. I need deeper substrate to accommodate for for the new plants and I'm wondering if removing all the fake plants and putting new substrate on top will crash my cycle. I also want to replace my HOB filter with 2 spong filters. But I'm thinking I should do those 2 changes at different times. Currently my girls are still in there, but I'll be rehoming them 1 by 1. Ideally I won't have any left a month from now. I also have 4 blue danios, 3 xray tetras, and 9 black skirt tetras. I really like my black skirts but I'm not set on keeping the danios or x-rays. I for sure want Cory cats I love those little guys, And I'm thinking angel Fish. But I need to do more research on them. Any recommendations appreciated Also I'm going to be getting into plants! What should I know? What kind of substrate do I need? Is plant substrate really necessary currently I have sand but only 2" to a 1/2 inch. Are CO2 and root tabs really necessary? What kind of plants should I get? I can look into it but I'd love to hear recommendations. TLDR how can I add new substrate and get a new filter without crashing cycle. As well as new plant and stocking advice

Maracyn can help, some people say it kills BB but I've never personally had it happen and it is plant safe. Remove as much of it as you can manually first. Treating according to the box works but there may be cyanobacteria specific instructions out there

That looks to be healing really well! As far as stopping him from biting if thats happening, you have to address the root cause. But that can be kind of tricky, some people say they do it because they're bored and lack enrichment. That doesn't seem to be the case here. Other people say it's a nutrition deficiency I'm not sure what kind. It seems like some bettas just do it for fun and there's not much you can do about it. I'd look more into it, aquarium Co-Op might have some blogs about it. Searching this and other forums can be helpful as well

My mom recently got rid of all of her fish and I want to take her tank for my goldfish. It's a gorgeous 26 gallon bow front with a nice lid. The thing is she has had 2 blue green algae outbreaks. And there is currently some in the tank. Her nitrates were usually pretty high, and there wasn't much maintenance done. So I think that that's why it kept happening. But how hard do I have to work to get this tank clean before I can use it? I'm using my own filter and heater I'm taking everything out of the tank. Will just drying it out be good enough? Should I use peroxide or vinegar as well? Also she still has her snail will he be a carrier for this bacteria? If I kept the snail I would wipe him off really well and rise him in tank water, but he has other places to go. I really don't want to have to deal with this stuff in my own tank. Any advice is appreciated

It's kind of hard to tell if this is present in this picture, but fin rot usually has a visible ring or thinner bluish tissue that is about to rot off. This is different from the transparent skin that will appear as it heals. Fin rot in my experience is also pretty uniform where that is just one piece missing. To me it looks like a tear, possibly from the wood or something else in your tank. That doesn't necessarily mean you need to remove things from the tank unless this happens often. Tail biting usually has a "C" shape at the back of the tail where they can reach. It's possible he could be doing that, but if this missing piece appeared all at once it was most likely a tear. As far as medication. Keep an eye on him, it should start to visibly heal a little in a few days. If it doesn't look like it's healing a little bit of aquarium salt might help. Or if it gets bigger or starts showing other signs of rot other medications might be needed. Some people say fin rot is a fungus so maracyn might not work on its own. I've only had it as a secondary infection and was using multiple medications already. Good luck, if he seems happy and alert I wouldn't worry

You summed up this hobby so well! I was just saying the other day I wish I had a normal hobby like tennis. There are very clear rules, and even if you play with a different partner or on a different court there are the same rules and you don't have to learn how to play the game all over. But like you said with aquariums there's a million different ways to do the same thing. And if you switch to a different species, you have to learn how to take care of fish all over again. But at the end of the day it's worth it because you get to see this amazing creature right in your house. They provide amazing entertainment and even companionship. It's still taking care of a living thing and it's very stressful