cmo1922

When you say horrible, do you mean like dead fish? That is what mine smells like after I do the regeneration process for whatever reason, doesn't matter what dechlorinator I use after. I haven't had an issue when I put them back in my filter when they smell like that.

Not too much to share. In the 10 gallon, a few emerald dwarf rasbora babies here and there but nothing I can see surviving. In the 20 gal, the 3 platy and 2 corydoras kids are all still doing well and growing. Is it possible to overfeed babies? Sometimes the platy baby bellies look like they are going to explode! They are swimming at lower depths of the tank now, foraging for food. I'm also surprised how brave they are. I saw one win a fight with an ember tetra twice his size for some flake! And sometimes the gouramis will chase them from food and they just come right back for more! In the 29 gal, just some weird stuff going on with my adult platies which I've been posting about in diseases. Also someone dropped some babies this week which Chubs promptly ate. I've still got one more treatment of praziquantal next week. The treatment must have helped with something going on, as I'm not noticing any flashing now at least. But I'm still seeing some weird behaviors, with some fish hanging around the surface. Finally, a good pic of my daughter's mystery snail Anna showing her teeth! She is huge now, about the size of a ping pong ball. Thanks for reading!

Double checked parameters as well, pH 7.8 temp 76 F, ammonia/nutrients 0, nitrate looks 10-20 ppm. @Coluthoughts? Thank you!

Hello, treated with 2 courses of praziquantal so far. I haven't noticed much/any flashing for about 2 weeks. However, the original platy with the whitish lesions that prompted this post still has them. They seem to come and go and pop up in different places. This platy seems completely normal otherwise, and no other platies have developed this appearance. Here is what she looks like today. You can see she has dull scales (perhaps excessive mucous?) compared to the other platies and when she is in a certain light you can still see the greyish slightly raised lesions. There is a prominent one on her nose today. As for the other fish, the 2 males in particular spend most of the day after breakfast time at the top of the tank. Their fins are sort of clamped (not fully) and one of them has started going nose up. When I come up to the tank and tap on the glass he snaps out of it and starts swimming around like the other platies. And finally one of the females has been more inactive lately. Hangs out mostly at the bottom. She doesn't appear pregnant. I have 7 total platies in all. All fish eat like pigs even the ones I just mentioned. Nothing has died in this tank. My clown pleco and apistogramma cac are unaffected. I just don't know what is going on with these platies! I have one more praziquantal treatment to give next weekend. Any ideas of what else to try, if anything?

Hi @FLFishChik! It depends on your stocking and the ambient temp of your house but you may not need a heater. My house ranges between 68-78F depending on the season, and I keep all 3 of my tanks unheated. The seasonality brings out some different behaviors in your fish depending on time of year. For example, at 78F you may not see much spawning behavior in your peppered cories, but if you let the tank get to 68-70F you may start to get a lot of spawns! Many tetras and catfish will also do fine at these temps. I see from your journal you have kuhli loaches, I have not kept them so I cannot provide recommendations there. I know some fish are traditionally not supposed to be kept at these lower ranges, but I keep fish like honey gourami and platies in water temps as low as 68F in winter and they seem to do fine. My single cockatoo apistogramma is fine too. I do suggest keeping a heater around for emergencies or if u need to treat ich. Treating ich in a tank kept at 68F is not fun... Just a thought if you decide you don't like heaters! Personally they scare me and it is just one more thing to plug in!

Yes mine can vary from around 12 gH in summer to 16 gH in winter! I wish I had more insight otherwise on why your parameters shift over time! Like AndreaW said I would try a bag of crushed coral in the tank. Something that can release calcium and buffer slowly over time from water change to water change so things stay more consistent for your snails.

Hello! I don't know much about the Co Op heater, but do you use another thermometer (not associated with a heater) in the tank to verify temperature? I like electronic meat thermometers to double check my tank temps.

I second goofy garra and JoeQ. I know you don't want to float it. In one of my tanks I have it wrapped loosely around some driftwood that reaches towards the top of my tank, so it can do its thing and get some leaves at the surface of the water but I still can see some of it in the water. Compromise!

Hello! I'm sorry about your snails! Regarding your tap vs tank parameters, did you test parameters right out of your tap and from your tank around the same period of time? I ask because if you are using city water, depending on where you live and what time of year it is, you can have fairly different gH/kH levels depending on season and/or source. For example, some cities can utilize different water sources depending on needs, and depending on if you are in the rainy or dry season, you can have harder (dry season) or softer (wet season) water. Always good to know these things so you can periodically test and add a product like equilibrium if needed! In my experience having fairly hard water with a pH around 7.8, driftwood, leaf litter, active soils etc do very little to alter my water chemistry or pH. I use them to make biofilms for my shrimp, snails and sucker mouth catfish tho!

Congrats on making more swords! Yes you can do that, but I suggest waiting till the baby swords have bigger leaves before planting. I leave mine till leaves with the stem are about 2 inches.

Hello! I am digging your tank! I grow some bacopa caroliniana in one of my tanks and in my experience it is a slow grower, but I do not do CO2 injection. But looking at your pics, you have been much more successful than me growing this in the past☺️ so take what I say as general advice from a fellow low tech aquarium keeper (which it looka like you are). I have similar things happen to me when fast growers like floaters, hornwort, wisteria, anarchis etc get out of hand. The slower growing stems like bacopa and mermaid weed just don't do as well, either due to shading, or out competition for nutrients/CO2. Now that you have removed the likely culprit (floating plants), I would pull them up, cut off most of the bottom stem that lost the leaves, and replant the healthier tops. Make sure you plant in an unshaded area. And keep up with the ferts. Then see what happens! So your plan sounds good to me!

I live in central FL and also have fairly hard water, similar parameters to you. I have one Apistogramma cacatoides which was bred by a local FL fish farm, and it has done very well. I had more but I had to rehome them due to aggression. I would say buy them from a farm or breeder who raises them in our water and they will do fine! Message me if you would like my recommendation of the farm.

Thank you so much! I feel fortunate to be in a place in my life where I have the space and time to keep a few aquariums going!

Sadly, Kristoff the bristlenose only made it a few days... A few days after bringing him home, I found him swimming erratically and laying on his back. In hindsight, he was pretty thin, didn't eat anything, and was pretty inactive. It is unfortunate as I thought bristlenose were pretty hardy! I would love to find another small pleco for the 29 gallon... probably a second clown would be most appropriate, and for what ever reason those are really common at my PetSmart. So maybe I'll pick up one of those eventually. Just need to let the quarantine tank sit for awhile in case that pleco had something infectious going on. My clown pleco doesn't seem as shy as what I was expecting so I wouldn't mind another! Chubs the apisto is looking fancy this morning after some worms. And the baby platies are filling their little tummies and growing well! Thanks for reading ☺️

The platy with the lesions looks pretty much the same still, but acts completely normal. Thoughts? The platies def flashed more during the ich x treatment, and though it decreased after treatment was over, I still catch one flashing here and there. Doesn't seem to be one specific fish that I can tell. There are a couple of platies that continue to hang out at top of tank for a couple hours mid day with their dorsal and ventral fins held closer to their bodies. Their pectoral and caudal fins are held normally (not clamped). In the morning and towards the end of light cycle they are super active and eat like pigs. Parameters are same as before. So I'm wondering if this is just normal activity for them and I'm overanalyzing? I'm hesitant to do another course of abx just because I really don't see any other fish with lesions, everyone seems to be doing ok other than occasional flashing, and the fish with lesions hasn't gotten worse/didn't seem to have any change with the previous course of treatment. My praziquantal came in last week, and since there was still some flashing, I put a dose in after my water change. Recommended dose frequency @Colu? Thank you!