Rob2718

I guess the Gertrudae would be a better bet than the Black Emperor, as they are the same order as Melanotaenia Trifasciata, but still very rare per Odd Duck's comment above. I just bred more Gertrudae fry so we'll see how those turn out. I only have one female which increases the chances of a repeat if that is what happened. I do have Boesmani and Australian rainbowfish in another tank in another room. The Boesmani are all males though. That tank is very aggressive about consuming eggs, but if some were attached to red root floaters that may have have been how they made it to this breeding tank. Sorry, Emerald Rasbora, not tetra. Not the clearest picture, but enough for Google lens to identify. From what I can tell looking directly at the fish, that identification is spot on. When we buy plants they get rinsed and inspected, and soaked in water with alum before before being put into their new home, which is in a different room from the breeding tank. I'm having a hard time figuring out how three eggs accidentally hitchhiked their way in on some plants, and then got transferred from those plants to a different tank. They do take 7-12 days to hatch though, which gives a wider window of entry from plant purchase to breeding tank.

We have started breeding several of our egg laying fish. Each type of fish has its own tank and I either siphon out the eggs to an egg tray until they hatch, or remove the adults and see what hatches in the next few days. Once the fry are big enough they all go together into a small fry grow out tank, and then when they get big enough to eat the newcomers, they go into a big fry grow out tank. I now have three Melanotaenia trifasciata (at least they look very much like it) that I raised from eggs, now about 1+ inches long and starting to get some nice colors. Funny thing is, we don't have any and have never had any adults of this species. We have been breeding Black Emporer tetras, Blue Eye Gertrudae rainbowfish, White Cloud mountain minnows, Emerald tetras, CPDs, and Cory cats. So the parents are one of these types of fish. I thought they were baby Black Emporer tetras at first, as I thought those were the parents, but it could be any of them. Is this even possible? The only thing I can think of is some fish (Black Emporer perhaps) were interbred with Melanotaenia trifasciata and some of the offspring looked like black emporers but were half Melanotaenia trifasciata, and so when I bred them, some of the offspring were fully Melanotaenia trifasciata. Have you ever heard of this happening before?

I am thinking you are probably right. We thought we had overkill on the amount of media (also had a huge "125 gallon" cycled sponge filter in there I forgot to mention in addition to the canister filter), but the combination of high bioload plus meds reducing beneficials probably combined to cause the crash. Even though more meds are needed in a bigger tank, I think next time we will not skimp on tank size or media (which I still think we had excess) for QT purposes. More water also gives more time to react or notice the disaster happening. Half dead fish are easier to revive than already dead fish.

@nabokovfan87Filter setup: vertical portion has sponge, then from bottom to top two trays with biomedia (ceramic cylinders), one with partial crushed coral and biomedia, and one more with sponge. Discus won't need the crushed coral, this was setup for another tank. Next time I get into the filter will move the sponge underneath the biomedia to keep the biomedia clean from pore clogging debris. No chemical filtration. Output is a horizontal spray bar pointed toward the tank edge (under the water surface). This seems to provide almost as much surface agitation as pointing away, but does not create a huge horizontal tank sized vortex. The other fluval has a more gentle output that produces less surface agitation. The aim was to reduce current in the tank but I think I will move to a spray bar type setup for that one as well to get more oxygen. I am sure that temperature is playing a role on low oxygen levels. This is our first "hot" tank, so we are still learning.

@jwcarlson I'd love to read about your discus QT protocol. Throwing in the two cycled sponge filters would help both with ammonia and oxygen. We did have oxygen issues later when trying to wean them off the sponge filters, eventually substituting an air stone. But the big crash behaved like ammonia in my opinion, with cloudiness and even strings of bacteria starting to appear if I remember correctly. We didn't take a water sample as we were too focused on quickly changing out the water and throwing the two sponge filters in there. It went from "fine" to "chaos" is such a short time. The first batch were from Discus Hans. Beautiful, healthy fish, we loved all the colors. But expensive shipping. The second, replacement batch were from Golden State Discus, 20 minute drive from our home, so saved on shipping. Also very beautiful, healthy fish. But it was heartbreaking to lose so many from that first batch.

We had a cycling disaster after using the trio meds on our newly purchased discus. When the discus arrived, we slowly acclimated them to the tank water and temperature. The 30 gallon tank was filtered with a Fluval 407 that was full of fully cycled media. The next day, we added a single dose meds (Fritz Paracleanse, Fritz Maracyn, and IchX) at the recommended dosages. A half day later, the tank crashed hard, the water was cloudy and all the fish were lying on the bottom dead or dying. We changed most of the water, and added two 80 gallon sponge filters (also fully cycled) and the tank and surviving fish recovered (but many were already gone). Now the fish (plus some replacements) are thriving, in a 75 gallon tank filtered by two fluval 407's plus an air stone for extra oxygen (without it they are gasping). Tank temperature is 85 degrees, and water changes are done daily due to the high amount of food they are eating. Now the question. Most of these fish have not been treated with any medications since we purchased them. We would like to start them out parasite free, but do not want another cycling disaster. Is there something about the setup (high temperature, bare tank, canister only biofiltration) that makes one or more of the above medicines ill advised? Would you recommend skipping preventative medications entirely, or modify the treatment somehow? What could have gone wrong the first time and what should we do differently this time? Thanks, Robin