Marie

Hi thank you for you replies. @TOtrees thankyou, I have never tried methylene blue yet, I might do some research on it before using it, but thank you. It’s difficult (near impossible) to catch these fish so I need to treat the whole tank (that’s also why I’m reluctant to use salt as I have many snails in there). For now I dosed seachem stress guard, I monitor the water parameters and I increased water flow. The fishes seem to be better but I will see tomorrow if things continue to improve. Truly grateful for all of the answers and ideas ! @Lennie now that you say this I wonder if I am not too liberal with prime after my water changes. Perhaps by trying to alleviate the pain of the ammonia poisoning I dosed more than I should and it hurt the fish. I will certainly be careful in the future ! @Lennie @mynameisnobody I don’t add bacteria after water changes, only after « big » filter cleaning. For this tank it means every few months. @NOLANANO I will do some research if this happened here in Atlanta, that may be the case. I have increased water agitation in the meantime. I think fish are ok now… but I want to check over several days. @Galabar when I talk about the UV light affecting the bacteria I am referring at the bacteria I added to the water column not the ones on the media. I have clearly done something wrong to the existing bacteria population on the media when changing the filter (as @Lennie mentionned perhaps I didn’t leave the media in enough water during the process) and they had no reinforcement since the UV killed the ones I added to the water after filter change.

Thanks, I haven’t thought of ammonia burn actually… that’s a very pertinent idea Regarding the UV, I think it just killed the bacteria I had added to the water after the cleaning of the filter. I probably killed way too many bacteria when I did the change and the one I added where killed by the UV before settling in. It worked wonders until now, and I will continue to use it

Thanks, I haven’t thought of ammonia burn actually… that’s a very pertinent idea Regarding the UV, I think it just killed the bacteria I had added to the water after the cleaning of the filter. I probably killed way too many bacteria when I did the change and the one I added where killed by the UV before settling in. It worked wonders until now, and I will continue to use it

Hello everyone ! it’s been a while since I have been here but I had entered in some kind of routine with my fish tanks… everything was fine, fish were super healthy, I became a mom to some guppies. There was that one time where my cat managed to fish one of my bettas by putting its paw in the opening of the filter but Scar (the betta) survived and he is well… he is a survivor now ! Anyway I did a big mistake 3 days ago and I have managed through the crisis but now I’m reaching a point where my knowledge is not enough and I would like some help. On my 35 gallons heavily planted tank (red eye tetras, serpae tetras, Pygmy corys, otocinclus) I have a canister filter with UV light that I didn’t clean since mid December. So 3 days ago I decided to clean it. So I do as I do usually, I use tank water i rinse the sponge and the different media. I don’t remove or add anything, just a squeeze/rinse, in my hope to not disturb too much the bacteria. I put everything back together, everything works great and I add some nitrifying bacteria to help if some got killed in the process. Next morning all the fishes and snails are at the top of the aquarium trying to breathe. I take out my kit, and the ammonia test turns green. Quick action: I add some prime while I prepare to do a big water change. I change about 70% and then I go to reboot the filter and I see I had forgotten the day before to remove the UV filter so probably all the bacteria I added died. What a mistake ! So I turn it off and add new bacteria. (I still don’t understand how I killed so many bacteria with my filter cleaning). Next morning … same thing ! All the fish are up and breathing fast. I text the water, no ammonia but some nitrites and some nitrate (low amount). So I do another water change and again treat the water with prime and add some bacteria. This morning, no one at the top but fishes are breathing really fast. The tank is stable again (no ammonia, no nitrite and a little bit of nitrate). I got afraid it was a ph issue but the ph is stable. Then perhaps oxygenation of the water so I adjusted the filter flow to make more water agitation and cut some plants because they were starting to invade everything. They are still breathing quite fast, any idea what it can be ? Could it be stress after the last couple of days ? thanks for the help.

Thank you 😊 And no worries for missing the post 🙂 i did ask the question on the live stream of Prime Time Aquatics, their recommendation would also be to place the fish in its own tank if not eating because of the group. Right now he is ok, so I will continue to keep Illidan with the rest of the herd 😎

Thank you for your reply 🙂 I think it’s an issue with the light and how the picture is taken because he is not different than the others. He was more active today and ate some pellets. I contacted the breeder who also said if necessary, a possibility would be to put blind fish in their own tank so they have access to food while they acclimate.

Hello everyone ! I received today a school of gold neon tetra. While I was acclimating them I noticed one of the little guys was completely blind. Both his eye are “empty”. After a few hours in the dark in the quarantine tank, I try to test feed them with some brine shrimp to see if they are eating. All of them are eating super well but the blind one just swim in the middle of brine without managing to catch a single one. Later I try with some micro pellets directly with a pipette and targeting this blind guy. Again a failure. I tried marinating the micro pellet in some garlic guard and still target feed him. This time I saw him eat two small pieces when I managed to eject the micro pellets right in front of him at like 1cm from his head. 😩😩😩 So there is hope but wanted to ask if anyone had some advice on how to approach this ? Good thing is that now he is special to me so he deserves a name! He will be now knows as Illidan 😝 #warcraft

Thanks @nabokovfan87 I cheat a little bit with the light 🤪 but yeah ! They are mean and healthy ! 😇 red like little devils

Thank you @Kaiju for the advice. Honey gourami was also on my mind for that 20 gallon tank. For the scape i wanted to change a little bit and try to recreate some natural river look with some big and small pebbles and some driftwood as if it would have fell in the river. For the fish I had in mind the CPD too or the ember tetra. I think they would go well with a yellow gourami. for the cherry shrimp right now I am too traumatized 😢 it’s too fresh I don’t want to kill anymore of these guys. I will wait, I think the Kh wasn’t right, but I didn’t anticipate it would cause a genocide. Anyway, I will wait to have more established and stable tanks and perhaps try again… thanks for the suggestion though ! 🙂

Oh thank you that’s a great idea… and also since I am new in the country it might be a great way to meet people. I will definitely check it. i have thought to give them away… I might reconsider if I find people who want them 🙂 thanks for the tips 😉

Hi everyone ! Super nice to be part of this community! I am looking forward having contact with other fish keepers. I only know one guy (a colleague) who keeps fish, but I would like to meet more people out there. But to tell you the truth, I am new to the hobby ! I have always wanted to have aquariums but I never had, before I moved last summer to the US from Europe. I did a lot of research, watched a lot of videos, read a lot of articles and when I thought I was ready I bought a 36 gallons bowfront aquarium. And I did what beginners do: mistakes ! Tank was cycled for a few weeks (kickstart with used media) and I was ready to add fish. I wanted some tetras to school in the tank, some hardy fishes…. in spite of everything I heard, I don’t know what happened but … I asked advice in one of the big chain pet stores. I ended up with serpae and red eye tetras and created a tank of monsters that don’t stop nipping at each other 😩 I was sad because I wanted to add later Angels or other fishes but no way they could live in there. Anyway, life is made of decisions, and I had to take responsibility. These guys are thriving in there. Tank is planted, some Kuhli loaches, otocinclus and pigmy corys came to join them and this little world is really well balanced. Some nerite snails and ghost shrimp help taking take of it too. But I had this feeling of these fishes not being the ones I wanted, I wanted to make something else … thats how I got multi tank syndrome. I got a 10 gallons and a 5 gallons on second hand. In the 10 gallon I put males endlers + ghost shrimps + mystery snail, then in the 5 gallon just a betta, named Kirby (pink guy) Then I got another 10 gallons, originally for cherry shrimp but that was a complete disaster I spent months trying but I gave up. Now it hosts a school of chili rasboras Latest acquisition is a 20 gallon, still cycling, where I want to put ember tetras and honey gouramis. And this is where I am ! In a condensed (yes 😇) version because there were many adventures (and money spent) within these last months.