tetra

The Ph in my tank is 7.4 and the temp is roughly 22C. So the percentage of un-ionized ammonia (free ammonia) would be around 1.14%

This post is related to the other post I made about the Corydoras flashing. But this time, I got Seachem Ammonia Alert to test for free ammonia. Because I learned that the API test kit test for total ammonia, which is a combination of ammonium and free ammonia. I wanted to test strictly for free ammonia, cause that was significantly more toxic compared to ammonium. So After an hour or so of letting the test sit in the water, the test showed “0.02 < Safe” which meant that my water is nontoxic to fish. But according to the API test kit, it shows I have about 0.25ppm of ammonia or less. (I said or less because it’s almost yellow, but not quite there.) But the Corydoras still flash, but not significantly. Maybe the API test is detecting ammonium? If so, is ammonium toxic at those levels? Nobody in the tank is acting out of the ordinary, except the dojo loaches but they’re naturally weirdos. The substrate could be a possibility, maybe it’s causing irritation to their gills or something?

It’s been a month now and I just moved them to their new home a couple days ago. So far, everyone is doing great. Even Corydoras’ fry are still in there thriving, though I believe competition for food is going to be really hard on one of the smallest little fry in there. The dojos are doing pretty good right now, but I noticed this morning that the smaller dojo of the two kept following and chasing the larger one. I did see the barometric pressure changed, so that could have been why, since they were also really active. Something bizarre that happened was that the smaller dojo wrapped itself around the larger one, is this mating behavior or are they just playing? Or is this aggression? I only saw this once, so I couldn’t get a photo. The following and chasing is not crazy anymore but still happens. The larger one is also not being attacked, just chased around. I also can’t tell 100% if one of them is a female and the other is a male.

If you’re ever treating/quarantining neons, in my experience, they don’t take medications very well, specifically paracleanse. But in my experience, they didn’t get harmed using the preventative treatment (including maracyn and ich-x.) But if you’re going to use paracleanse according to the box’s instructions, just be cautious to not over-dose as it could easily kill them within a day or two in my experience. @Setiawan

I’ve been setting up my 75g for nearly 2 years since July 2022. I’m almost done, but I’m still filling it up with more plants, and more fish are going in soon. July 2022: The tank was eventually filled up with water back in December 2022 after getting the essentials. Soon, I was attempting to cycle it by ghost feeding the tank, it took a while for it to cycle but after a few months it finally did. During that time, I added some rocks from our front yard in there, I eventually removed them as they were too sharp. But that banana plant on the left is still with me after getting it back in February last year, it went through a massive algae issue in the tank where everything was completely covered in algae for nearly a year. And the water had so much algae in it, that I couldn’t even see 6 inches into the tank before it was green, and the banana plant thrived. Even though the tubers and the stems were covered in algae, it survived cause it shot shoots up to the surface and had access to light. Eventually, those shoots all died off and the plant grew back to normal and is now not covered in algae, but the tubers rotted away though sadly. I still really wish I had put a black background but it’s too late now. This is how it looks now

I’ve have and almost always have been cleaning my media inside tank water, I never wash it off, as I actually find putting a ziplock bag in the tank and filling it up with water far less messy/easier compared to walking to the sink and getting poop water all over the floor and having to clean it up afterwards. I saw the spots on the female cory increasing but she has not showed any symptoms yet. After, most of the spots disappeared except for 2. But the scariest thing I noticed was that one of those spots turned red. It’s not flat, it’s like a small pimple. I think this could be an injury, because I have a lot of driftwood in the tank with some sharp points (not ridiculously sharp though,) But I don’t know if that’s the case or if it’s a sign of ammonia poisoning. The lights are already out so I’ll have to take a photo tomorrow.

Unfortunately, I don’t. I just mentioned them as a possibility, I never got them and currently have no sources to find them.

I recently got a 5.5 gallon tank. The dimensions are 16L” X 8D” X 10H”. I have never kept any shrimp before, ever. I’m pretty new to inverts right now, as a couple months ago I got some 2 free snails from my LFS. They never said what kind they were, but I thought they were Malaysian trumpet snails as they had the same color shell and length. What’s weird is they haven’t bred yet crazy or at all yet, even after being in their new home for nearly 4 weeks. But back to the shrimp. I’m not sure which kind I want to keep, but I only want to keep one species of shrimp only. I thought about Cherry shrimp, but I’m not sure yet. I see a lot of members on here keep/breed shrimp so I would like some advice on how to keep them as healthy as possible. Diet, water parameters, etc. My water is soft so I’ll have to add minerals. Also, the tank is not decorated yet, just empty. I thought about doing a dirted tank for them, but I’m entirely not sure where to start with that. The tank is for the neon tetras that had nowhere else to go. So the only tank mates with the shrimp will just be 4 neon tetras. And where are some good sources to find them?

I’ve tried everything I could think of that this point, but that ammonia still won’t go to zero. The tank is barely stocked at the moment, cleaned most of the filter (not the left completely but I’m gonna go over it this weekend), did 25% water changes every week for the past 4 weeks, kept testing every few days, and removed as much mulm and detritus in the tank I could find. I’m out of ideas. But what’s confusing me is, why isn’t the denitrifying bacteria eating this ammonia over the course of a few days after the water changes? I even have plants in there and it’s still not helping. Dosed prime every few days nearly double the tank volume. Am I missing something? As well, for the past couple of days, I’ve noticed some white spots on the Cories that were flashing, it doesn’t really look like epistylis or ich. But looking at a large spot on a female cory, I did see it is outwards, not flat like ich, but doesn’t look like epistylis. It almost looks like a fungus since it’s sort of fuzzy but not really, but I’m not a 100% sure. The photo below is a little grainy, so you can’t really tell if the spot is fuzzy. The photos taken below were before the lights turned to blue. The circled areas are where I noticed them mostly. Also, that large spot is the only spot so far that looks fuzzy. Every other spot looks like grains of sand or something like that. Most of the adult Cories have these spots but only one or two. Some on the tail as well. I suspected that it could be the BN pleco I added a few weeks back, but that wouldn’t make sense cause the Cories would have caught something a few days after being introduced. Also, the pleco’s back looks sort of weird, it changes color in the morning or during the day. I don’t know if it’s camouflage or if it’s an injury. Photo below. None of these fish are gasping at all at the surface, but the pleco occasionally opens its gills widely for a second, then closes them. For now, I’m monitoring them to see if it’s gets worse or if it’s sand stuck to them. They are all acting normally, no strange behaviors.

So far the breathing has slowed down a bit. But now they are starting to play dead now. I saw one this morning lying on its side in the corner, breathing’s normal. After poking it, it got back up, as I spooked it. They both do it often now. It even got to the point where one of them had one-half of its body inside the cholla wood (there is a hole at the side of it big enough for it to fit in) and the other half drooping down to the bottom of the tank. Eventually they both got up again and did what loaches usually do. So now their “normal behavior” is kicking in now. I also added just one table spoon of salt since the quarantine is 10 gallons, with paracleanse and maracyn also as a preventative. Didn’t add an air stone as I don’t have a spare at the moment, but the breathing is improving, they’re probably just getting used to their new surroundings.

After a long, long time, I finally got dojo loaches. I only got 2 since they can get a foot long. I put them in quarantine yesterday night and I saw some heavy breathing (it’s still happening right now with both of them) but maybe they are just getting used to the new environment. They looked healthy at the Petco I got them at. Except there was a fish in there with a con-caved belly, couldn’t tell if it was parasites as I only got a close look really quick. But the dojos otherwise looked healthy, no sunken belly or any bad signs. They were active, too. Even so, I’m still gonna use a dose of maracyn and paracleanse to be sure nothing bad occurs since I saw they are more prone to illness. I did see shortly after putting them in, one dojo started to just lean on a piece of cholla wood. It had some heavy breathing, but it’s been like that since I got them yesterday. It wasn’t lying on its side or anything. The other one was just sitting there as well on the bottom, not leaning on stuff though. Is the leaning part normal? I did see they act weird and sometimes act dead. But I just want to be sure, as this is my first time keeping them, as well as my first ever time keeping a loach. And also, they are active now, but not crazy like most loaches. They take maybe a few minute breaks before acting like a loach again.

There seems to be a lot of conflicting information on the internet, stating that dojo loaches can happily live in water as warm as 77F (this is according to Seriously Fish) but as low as 55F. Though the warmest recommended for long term according to Seriously Fish is 74F. Other sources say no higher than 70F, then others say the warmest you can keep them long term is 68F. Then some say as low as 64F or lower. In your experience, what temperature would be okay for them? My tank is 75F right now, but I’m willing to go to 73F if it’s okay for dojos. Any lower, and it’s kind of pushing it for my tank at least.

Fortunately, the rainbows seem to have stopped their obnoxious pecking at the neons, for now.

I got more neons because when I first got the rainbows and the danios around 3 years ago, I also had neon tetras with them. I get that they were smaller but even then a couple years later, the rainbows weren’t interested in the old neons that were in there, despite being nearly full grown. I thought it would work because the rainbows were never interested, I guess they changed their minds. But, Lately, the larger Australian rainbowfish have matured and are now more aggressive and colorful, acting almost like cichlids in the breeding season as well. Not crazy like killing other fish, but just chasing. The males are probably 4 inches with the alpha male being 4.5 inches or so.

Back in July last year, I got some neon tetras from Aquahuna and unfortunately had to keep them in quarantine for a long period of time because of some Cories I got from there also contracted epistylis and I didn’t want the disease to spread. So finally after it was over, I was gonna put the neons in a 29g with 5 Australian rainbowfish and 4 zebra danios. And after acclimating them for over an hour, I finally dropped the first tetra in. And barely after a couple seconds, a female rainbowfish chased after it and attempted to eat it. I tried to get it out of there ASAP cause it was pretty much helpless. After getting it out though, it very fortunately recovered, and got put back in the quarantine tank. I was pretty upset because now I can’t put them anywhere else. Next, a couple days ago I got some Cherry barbs and Praecox rainbowfish. The rainbowfish were about the size of the neons, maybe a little longer. And the same night after putting them in, I saw the rainbows nipping at the neons caudal fins. And the weakest neon was pecked at until I found it dead this morning. I thought that maybe they’re establishing a pecking order or something, but they wouldn’t just kill the neon like that. I get that rainbowfish are very active compared to the slower-moving neons. But I wasn’t expecting rainbows that small to harm them. They aren’t attacking them and trying to eat them, but nipping at them maybe every minute or so. The Cherry barbs get slightly picked at, but not like the neons though, even though the cherries are smaller than the neons. The quarantine tank is 10 gallons, and for now, I think it’s enough space for a couple weeks until I can move the rainbows to a 75 gallon. I only have a 29g and a 75g, so those neons are stuck with those rainbows until they get moved over, should I bring them to my LFS? Cause they both have rainbows that are willing to mess with them constantly.