FishRBeautiful

My kitten was playing under my fish tank (where all the cords are). I just noticed the HOB filter is off. She had unplugged the extension cord from the wall so I fixed that. It doesn’t appear to be chewed though I can’t see the whole extension cord. I filled the water back up in the filter. I unplugged and replugged it back in. Did a water change a week or two ago (and cleaned the HOB pretty good also), a filter change 3 or 4 days later. Haven’t stirred up the sand or anything since the water change. Any ideas on how to get it working again? Thankfully my sponge filter is still running in there. It’s just an extra filter I run for times like this when the HOB shuts down. Never mind. I lifted the intake piece and put it back down and now it’s running. No idea how a kitten could have messed that up!😬

Thank you! I made it through the cleaning but I do have back spasms so may ask for help next time but I’m ok. I have an expensive but amazing chiropractor helping me out. Interesting . That’s so weird to me.

No way! I only have one mystery snail. Can they make their own babies? What if I don’t want the babies? And clearly I cleaned a ton of algae. This is AFTER my scraping followed by a water change.

I’ve been unable to do a thorough cleaning of my tank in 4 months due to a torn and another herniated disk in my back. I’ve had help with two or three water changes but not much cleaning. I have company tomorrow so forced to clean well, hoping my back can make it, and found these. What are they? Surely not eggs from my male and female honey gouramis? Should I be concerned?

I thought of one pearl gourami but I wasn’t sure if it would be too big for a 20 gallon tank. Or if it was too big to live with honeys.

That’s what worries me about the sparklings; I’m a light sleeper. I thought of doing them for the 5 gallon also. Not sure. I keep the tank 78-80. My lid has a hole for the HOB filter but it keeps malfunctioning so I bought a sponge filter as backup in case it goes out. The HOB also wakes me up because the water pours all the time. Sponge filters are quiet. My concern with killifish is I leave the lid off when I do tank changes and clean outs and stuff. And aren’t they aggressive? I don’t know much about them but they’re cool. Or could they go in my 5 gallon?

That’s another good idea. They won’t fight? I have probably a male/female pair. If I can find them. Hard to get here.

Maybe I’ll do Kuhli loaches then. I wouldn’t have to worry about them bugging/picking on my other fish. How many do you need for them to not be shy? I was thinking to get 2 or 3 but I could get more later if it helps with shyness. Would that work? My lfs has black but not always yellow/black striped. If I get yellow/black ones and go back for more and they only have black, can you mix them? (The yellow/black ones match my other yellow fish. Sad that matter to me. 😂)

I’m super undecided on my last fish for my tank(20 gallons). I have 2 honey gouramis, an albino bristlenose pleco, and a yellow mystery snail (if it grows much bigger, I’m not sure what I’ll do). So all yellow fish/crustaceans. Would like either yellow or blue fish. I’m considering a couple black/yellow Kuhli loaches, some sort of Molly (wish they had blue), cobra guppy, or sparkling gouramis (if they wouldn’t keep me up at night because it’s in my bedroom). So 4 options and I only want one. I also have a 5 gallon with 3 ember tetras so could move them to my 20 gallon and do guppy tank or nano tank in 5 gallon. Not sure. Looking for a cheap solution to complete it all. Big question. I had Kuhli loaches for a short time once and they were CRAZY! Do they calm down after a while or do they always do that at night? My goal in my tank is slower peaceful fish so I really love what I have and want minimal agression. I know all my choices aren’t exactly that. Looking forward to your ideas.

Interesting. Good to know. I thought all gouramis were the same rules for gender identification. Still hoping one is a female. It had a mild horizontal black stripe yesterday so maybe that’s a gender thing and not stress. I don’t know.

Thanks! I’m hoping I didn’t get two males but one is definitely more yellow than the other. We’ll see.

Thank you! I think the garlic is what killed them because only 2 of the fish had visible ich and it hadn’t spread in a couple days prior to garlic and the fish all died shortly after adding garlic. I Googled it and garlic can be toxic to fish and there are methods out there using very specific measurements which I assume is much safer. I’m not going to risk the method again based on my experience. Hopefully I’ll be more confident next time it creeps up. (Because ich happens to everyone sometimes so it probably will happen again.) My first time I had a terrible case of ich, the salt and raising the temperature cured all fish, which was probably like 10 fish at the time. I’ll try that next time and pull out the snails and hope the catfish make it.

Ok, that’s what I was thinking based on your response also. Thanks! They swim with their fins clamped so often but they don’t act stressed at all. I just don’t capture great pictures of them. It will probably be easier to tell when they’re older.

Oh they did mention one had more orange fins so that makes sense. Also, one follows the other around sometimes which makes me think of a male. And my pic is two fish, not a reflection. And looks like you have beautiful landscaping.

Wish I had seen this sooner. I had success a while back with this treatment (when no catfish). I’ll keep this info for future reference. Unfortunately I was dead set on a natural treatment (without seeing this message) and wanting to at least try it first. So I went ahead and tried the garlic. Killed 13 fish (only 2 or 3 possibly had ich). It was a little devastating. So I proceeded with medication at that point. Fish that survived were two gouramis, 1 pleco, and mystery snail. I’m actually in love with what’s left but still sad at the great loss. No fault of anyone. I made a choice to take a risk and I learned. I think if I hadn’t tried it, I’d always wonder. But cost some fish for sure.

Having a hard time getting a good pic of my new gouramis because they keep their fins clamped every time I take pics. Pet store tried to pick out a make and female. Any idea if that’s what I got?

Thank you, Chick-in-of-the-Sea. (Didn’t want to quote the whole long message). That’s great advice. Do you think I should remove the carbon filter when adding the garlic? I absolutely try EVERYTHING before medication, both on myself and my fish. My hope is catching it early make natural methods more effective. I always have fresh garlic in my fridge.

I think my black neons might have ich (classic white spots starting to show). I have Cory’s, a mystery snail, otos, and a pleco. Is there a way to treat in naturally with salt and high temps? I did so one other time but didn’t have catfish or crustaceans. I don’t want to kill my nitrogen cycle. I’m not a fan of medication. If not salt, maybe an essential oil or something? I think I read that once somewhere.

Cool! I never know what fish feel. I didn’t know if 70 or even 65 felt like 30 or 40 with no coat on to a human. I wondered if it was not so much a comfort but a medical issue because for humans at 30 with no coat on at some point would be medical. From what you’re saying, it’s more of a comfort than safety issue, right?

Great! I didn’t know if fish freeze in temperatures for short times. I know air stones seem to be a bigger deal than temperature when power goes out and I never know why temperature isn’t mentioned. It’s my ram I worry about with the temperature.

Perfect! That’s easy enough! Thank you!

Thanks for the suggestions. I did about 5 substrate changes this summer trying to figure out what I like until I landed on this one. Emptied the whole tank completely but it was SO MUCH WORK. Seems like a similar process to moving a tank then but leave the substrate and water the siphon doesn’t drain out. My house is 75 so don’t worry about temperature of the water for the couple hours it takes to move, right? What if it’s a month from now and my house is 70 degrees? And I put my fish in a bin I have for substrate changes that is larger than my tank. Just fill it up about 1/3 full because it’s plastic.

Maybe tiny fish like galaxy rasboras or scarlet badis. I have one and he is AWESOME! Debated over a female also but that could go good or bad I assume. Not sure if you can have more than 2 badises together to fill a small tank.

My house is 70 years old so floors are not level in any room. Had my 20 gallon on an “unlevel” surface since January. It doesn’t appear to have moved at all. The worst part is the water level at the top shows that it’s not level. But it appears to be a cosmetic, not functional issue. They say old houses are more sturdy because the wood is better…or something like that.

Any suggestions on moving a tank? 20 gallon on top, 5 gallons on bottom. Looking to rearrange room for functionality. Just need to move it about 12 feet away, in same room.