FishRBeautiful

Great! Thanks! I always dissolve the salt in hot water and add enough cold water to be close to the temperature of my tank before adding it. I had used salt to cure ich before I got catfish. But at a higher concentration.

Ok, thank you! Is that concentration of salt safe for catfish? It is still active.

Not sure if this counts as disease but my Otocinclus has a chunk missing from its nose. Should I put it down or will it heal? I hate to see fish suffer.

Wow! Thanks! Beautiful ram! Mine’s still young so not that colored yet. Yours does have extra blue spots too. Glad to know it’s normal.

Now that my ram is starting to grow, she is getting blue spots everywhere, not just the back half. Is this normal or could they have injected some sort of dye when she was young?

This week, I just bought and used Petco’s black aquatic substrate (20 pounds for 20 gallons). It’s way smaller than gravel, a bit bigger than sand. Haven’t done a water change yet but when I rinsed it, I noticed how much lighter it is than sand. Cory’s and ram seem fine but they don’t sift their noses into it like they did the sand. And they don’t spit it out their gills like they did the sand. I’d say they’re fine but they maybe like sand better…but I like the black color. My fish show their colors better on black.

My 4 year old daughter would love it! She has “pink” minnows (the feeders). If she still wants a betta at Christmas, I’m going to look for that color. So I’d say it’s “pink”… LOL unless they change colors like some said…

That’s a good point. I haven’t decided what to do yet.

Good idea! Thanks for the thread and video links. So far, watched a video. So helpful!

Interesting. I’ll check into the filter idea. I noticed the sand doesn’t hold the good bacteria as well as the gravel did. You’re right. Poor design. I got the rock before I even set up my tank and knew nothing. It was a gift and expensive. I actually tilt it slowly and let a little air out at a time until it’s all out so the fish don’t get overwhelmed and my tank stirred up by the bubbles. The good thing about it is that algae grows on it to feed the algae eaters.

My filter is set up such that you replace the filter every month and there is carbon in the filter. Your picture looks exactly like mine. I never replace the blue piece, just the filter piece. There are not the slightest tiniest holes in the rock anywhere. It literally just rots water inside. I dig it in the substrate pretty deep so it doesn’t fall down. The filter turns black. I’ve rinsed it in dirty tank water. It doesn’t get clean. I make sure I’ve had substrate long enough for the bacteria to grow on that before changing filters. I had 3 snails and hadn’t seen the 3rd for a while. I have 2 healthy egg laying nerites left.

I know. I told him sorry when it happened but he didn’t hear me. 😊 Tested ammonia twice since. It’s 0.

Here’s under the rock. Also, dead snail under rock? Couldn’t find it anywhere but rock landed on a snail the day it fell and my tank smelled. Could that smell be a dead snail? Sorry he’s dirty. He’s covered in BDBS because I’m cleaning

Without tearing the tank apart at the moment, this big rock is hollow inside. The water sits in it and rots and grows bad stuff. The opening is at the base so all water is blocked from getting inside

Yes, it’s a carbon filter. For some reason, the fish always do better with the carbon filter than the filter floss.

Ok, thanks! I’ll take pictures later and send them. No problem. I only replaced the filter media because it had been like 5 or 6 weeks, maybe 4 weeks, since last time, waaaay overdue. I was asking because I wasn’t sure if hydrogen sulfide can live on it. I have an HOB. I read lots of random forums online to come to the conclusion that the decor caused this mixed with fine substrate. Water flow issues in decor happened to other people. Some recommend an air pump inside the decor but I’m going to try laying it down instead. There’s probably 1/2-1 gallon of water inside the decor with no movement until I do water changes. Will send pics later when I clean. I don’t want to disturb it until clean because it spreads stale water when I do

Going to try to lay it down horizontally so water can flow through it. It’s just because no air flow exhausts underneath. Once I started cleaning under it for water changes, no issues until this switch from gravel to super super fine sand.

Great idea! I can put fish in buckets. I have more than one extra air pump. And a large bin I use for substrate changes. Catfish would be ok in that since it’s not smaller than 20 gallons. My experience says catfish hate less than 20 gallons, even for a short time. Are there any fish that would be best for the small tank as far as tank mates? Think betta. Going to remove as much substrate as I have time until I can remove it all. Just replaced filter media like 2 or 3 days ago. Sounds like I may need to again after cleaning? If it’s contaminated. What is ceramic media? Not milky. But it all released into my room. I opened the door and ran the ceiling fan. Will open the window if I need to when cleaning (even though it’s been like 95 or 100 outside lately LOL). I’ve smelled it before so I knew it was some sort of gas. Googled hydrogen sulfide without the word aquarium in my search. It’s like sewer gas. Makes sense because it’s exactly how our house smelled when our septic tank was backing up gas into our house and a plumber fixed it. The cause is a mix of too fine substrate and a super large hollow decor item with no air flow underneath. Had problems with this decor item before that almost killed my tank.

I have a 5 gallon with a female Betta (who was fine in community but better off not in my 20 g) and 4 ember tetras in a 5 gallon. Can I move 3 Corys and possibly the hilstream loach into the 5 gallon for a day or two until I have a chance to clean my 20 gallon of possible hydrogen sulfide exposure? What about the scarlet badis? Trying to save as many fish as possible just in case. 3 Platys are in 2 large jars until the clean out. Pet store said 0 ammonia. My bedroom smell said hydrogen sulfide for 15 minutes so no longer in water column I hope. Oh, and will moving too many fish at once kill my water chemistry?

I tried ghost shrimp once and decided I don’t like shrimp. They remind me too much of big bugs. So trumpet snails? Is some of it possibly also Platy or Nerite or catfish poop or is it mostly pleco? I switched to BDBS yesterday (very fine because it’s what’s available). I was siphoning it on white sand every few days and it still looked like this.

Yikes! Poor guy! That’s good it might take a while to grow. Since writing this post, my 4 year old keeps not being gentle around my tank and the water and tank goes back and forth a little. It’s a sturdy stand but still…it would be good to wait another year before getting a tank where she will be walking by so much. Going to try different substrates this summer to help the poop not show. No more pool filter sand. Yuck! Probably do ottos some day. Surely that’s better…or more live plants and CO2 booster is another option I read for algae…some day…

It’s just a regular BN. It’s brown now. Was blue/black when younger. It’s probably not full grown as I’ve had it probably a couple months now but so far, no “nose spikes” so maybe female.

Thanks! That was 3 days after I siphoned it out. That’s not counting the other side under the fake plants. Wow! 123 babies!

I’m new but what I did was add 2 Platys to my 20 gallon and then another like 2-3 weeks later and then slowly add more fish and plants over a couple months or so. That of course was my first tank. I think I stole some of the gravel to throw in my 5 gallon with my betta to jump start it. 5 gallon is harder to cycle I think. Took way longer.

So back to original question. Is all the poop from the pleco? I did see a Platy with black poop tonight and a quick Google search says they can be “poop machines” too? And maybe the nerites also? Thinking to rethink my future stocking. My new GBR never poops. LOL