riioKen

Honestly, your experience is very helpful, I bought 12 of them and I never "restock" them, in fact, since I have them I never bought any other fish, cause I'm afraid that the new addition will be infected (in the tank, as I said, there are ember tetra, pygmy, otos, none of them has these symptoms, well in fact none of them died in these months except ember tetra, but only 2 or 3 in the first month, I have all my stock since May). It makes sense, after bending, swim bladder issue appears as last "symptom", this happened to you too?

Just for reference, last death was mid January, but I've noticed a new "infected" 2 days ago, 0 symptoms meanwhile. I live in Europe, I literally can't find ANY antibiotics, the "kanaplex" i got it on ebay (around 45$ for the little ones) I searched for minocycline, ofc nothing for aquarium use, but instead I found it for human use, ofc I need a prescription from a med. Could work it? https://www.my-personaltrainer.it/Foglietti-illustrativi/Minocin.html?google-amp=1

Hi guys I have a problem with CPD since May 2023. I start from the very beginning. My initial tank was a 20g, with an Oase Biomaster thermo 600 with 4 liters of seachem matrix and tropica aquasoil as substrate. Fully cycled for 2 months before adding any livestock. Water params: Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5ppm Gh: 10 KH: 4 Ca: 80ppm Mg: 9ppm TDS between 280 - 330ppm Temperature 25-27 c° (it was summer) and 23-25° from Sep to Nov 50% wc weekly The initial livestock was: CPD: 12 Ember tetra 11 Pygmy cory: 5 Otocinclus: 6 Amano shrimp: 2 When I first set up this tank, everything went smoothly for about 3 months. But in summer the CPDs started to die (and repeat, only CPD), it isn't an immediately death but more like a "process" that end in that way, during this process the fish act normally, eating, chasing each other and other behaviors cpd's typical. How it starts? Discoloration, the CPD firstly start to "wash out" its color, it become pale, then it start to curve its shape (like bending, not always sometimes the bend happen to the end of the "infection") and in the last few days, it's as if the scales are lifting, when this symptom appears, it just a matter of time and swim bladder issue appear, usually 2-3 days and it dies. The process between first symptom and the death takes about 30-40 days. ----- Above is the past, this is today ----- 3 month ago i set up a new tank, 90g, 2 oase biomaster thermo 600 and around 7L of seachem matrix, tropica aquasoil. I moved all the livestock in this new tank. livestock in the new tank is: CPD: 6 - 1 (every fish death is always the same), the -1 beacause i have a cpd in the old 20g (im using it as QT tank) with the same symptoms. Ember tetra: 10 (during the transfer, phisycal was perfect, just like any other ember tetra) Pygmy cory: 5 Otocinclus: 6 (proudly 100% survival rate, from the shop to my home, and going strong since may) Amano shrimp: 2 + 8 (bought for the new tank) In this new tank, i've added only shrimp as extra livestock, all the others are from the original stock from May. I've started using RO water too. Water params (RO recontituted with MgSO4 and CaSO4) Ammonia/Nitrite: 0 Nitrate: 5 to 15ppm (after wc i do double dose of ferts, i use EI index, the tank is a dutch style) Ca: 23ppm Mg: 9ppm GH: 5-6 KH: 0 Tds: 170 - 240ppm Temperature: 22° 50-60% WC change weekly (now im doing 2x weekly due some to algae) What i did trying to deal with this "infection"? i've used Kanaplex. Everytime i had an infected fish, i mixed kanaplex in food and feed the fish for 1 week, then stop. The infected fish would not change its shape, but usually start to color up a bit. Then what happen is, someday after the kanaplex treatment, starts swim bladder issue, i remove it from the main tank and put it in the 20g with the 20 litres of water, an heater, an airstone and a scoop of kanaplex (as suggested by seachem). I can't use Kanaplex on the main tank due to Shrimp and plants (its stated that kanaplex kills both). I love cpd, i would like to have a tank with a school of 50cpd but i can't risks other casualties with newly added fish, i need to fix this problem first. Any suggestion? Photo as reference, it's not the one in my tank, but the symptoms are the same, I heard It could be columnaris but I heard it is very deadly and in a short time, so idk if we should exclude it, never experienced white mouth. Only on the sides.

Ahhahaha, just this morning I read about the Aga, but I didn't know that "unexpected" was you Fingers crossed for you

Really? I've always wanted to show you the updates to this new aquarium, also because you recommended the light I have. I'm using lots of your suggestion, very glad to you and @nabokovfan87 I didn't noticed your nick on ScapeCrunch, is it the same?

New update. Almost all melting ended, there is still some here and there but I'm sure that plants stocking won't change. I'm thinking to get a Ro unit (arka myaqua 1900) what do you think? @Mmiller2001 if I'm not wrong I talked to you some months ago about my old 20g, you helped me a lot. I'm thinking to swap position of rotala h'ra and AR Kleines-Papageienblatt, the first is growing horizontally but short, the second straight up

As Italian I have same problems with medical products. I solved with eBay and stocking all the meds that could be needed in future. Bought kanaplex, metroplex, prazipro, another for anchor worms and both api (something)Fix. Except kanaplex, never used the others. Almost 1 month for delivery

Probably the best thing is to plant stems directly without splitting them. After I see new and constant growth on top, I'll cut and replant the top, seems the safest thing to do. About photoperiod, I have the light on for 5h (with 30m for sunrise and 30m sunset) at 50% When is the right time to increase intensity and/or duration of photoperiod? For now, I think is better to remain as it is, because I'm having melting ongoing

If I receive a single stem of around 15-20cm from a local seller, should I split it in more pieces or plant it as it is and then after established I'll cut it?

Well TC plants are more delicate, some melt some not, idk what to think honestly... I'm buying new plants but this time I'm searching for potted version or some local grower where I can buy them from.

@nabokovfan87 based on your infos, aren't difficult plants. In fact myriophyllum Roraima grows like a weed (it almost doubled its size in a week, then started melting from the bottom).

I have just cleaned all the mess, I uprooted all the plants affected and all of them had roots like mush. Plants affected: - Ludwigia polycarpa and brevipens (those two only few stems, the other seems healthy) - rotala indica (all of them melted and removed from the tank) - myriophyllum Roraima (same) - ludwigia super red (same) - proserpinaca palustris Cuba (same) To all the plants that I've "removed from the tank", I cut the tops still alive and I'm floating them in a net, maybe stronger light and unlimited CO2 can let grow in some way.

Sure, kh 3 gh 6.5 Yeah, it's leaning a bit to yellow but it was at the end of photoperiod and I'm sure that for plants is only a positive thing. Kh3 pH 6.5 so around 33mg of co2

New update guys, after 1 week since planting, 3-4 vitro plants are melting. Honestly I was expecting some melts, but not this much. The plants are melting from the bottom, seems that roots die (likely due to fresh aqua soil) and then the tops follow after 1-2 days. If I see the bottom melting but the top is somewhat healthy, if I cut the top e discard the bottom can I recover something? The plants that melt are: Rotala indica, almost disappeared Ludwigia polycarpa, brevipens and super red mini Proserpinaca palustris Cuba Myriophyllum Roraima

Yep, I already added fish in this tank because 1 of the 2 Biomaster 600 was already cycled with the same livestock in a 20g (7month old tank). The new Biomaster Is running since early September with some media from the other cycled Biomaster. When I measured the water of this tank after 2 weeks, the ammonia and nitrites were already 0, then I waited 4 weeks more before adding livestock and plants. Before adding more livestock I want to obtain some more growth from the plants and check if melting happen. Ember are always stunning, I bought them as dither for cpd but I'm enjoying way more them than the others. Bit the true eye catcher are otos and pygmy with their swim behaviours