Seshia

That could be possible. We had a bunch of them playing in the flow from the new filter and some of them were being tossed by it on occasion. He could have hit the driftwood in the tank.

There is no redening that I can see, but that is difficult to tell on a cherry barb. They look more pitted than anything, like he's missing some scales.

@Colu Unfortunately he really likes to swim clockwise around the tank (looking down from above) so it's hard to get a good picture of this side of him. My fish also tend to dislike being in front of a camera. Because of this, I couldn't get anything better than this after half an hour of trying.

Hi, I got home from work today and found these white marks on one of my cherry barbs. I can't imagine it's a good sign and would like advice. PH is 6.8 Ammonia is <.25 and being bound by prime (we just changed filters) Nitrite is 0 Nitrate is ~30 GH is 5 KH is 6 The white marks are only on one side of his face. There has been some mild flashing in my tank, with maybe 1 fish getting itchy every 2 days or so.

Today I noticed that one of my cherry barbs was spiraling very badly while swimming, was getting stuck on hardscaping, and was visibly barely able to breathe. Two days ago I noticed he was swimming a little oddly, but seemed to be fine a few minutes later. Due to how quickly things were progressing and how distressed he was I chose to euthanize him with clove oil so that he wouldn't suffer as much before dying. It's the first time I've had to put a pet down and I'm pretty shaken up, and scared that it might spread to my other fish. I took him to a local disease expert but she said that she doesn't have any clear idea to the cause. I could use some comfort/advice/encouragement. Thanks for being a welcoming and caring community.

I'm commenting here to answer my own question in case someone else has this question because I stumbled across someone who has actually kept and sold Bengal Danio before, and they had some answers. Apparently they are more expensive, typically between $10-15, because they require more time on infusora than other danio species. Additionally, they take a long time and a lot of care to color up, so people see a pale green/silver fish with nothing notable in a pet store for 5X the cost of a gold colored leopard and understandably ignore it.

Thank you! I'm currently struggling with a little BBA but hopefully I can get it better balanced soon!

While hill trout are gorgeous, they are unfortunately too big for our 29 gallon tank. Plus we have cherry barbs and do not want to mix in anything that big and semi-aggressive. We are very much looking for that specific species, and are willing to wait and pay a premium to get some. Thank you for the suggestion though! Are there any issues with the species that has caused them to be uncommon? Or is it just kind of a loop of no-one knows about it so no-one breeds them so no-one is exposed to them?

Unfortunately no. I had checked Aquabid but had not hear of getgills. Thank you for that resource even if it didn't have what I was looking for!

I think you're on the right track with using magnets or velcro to hold curtains on the sides to hide storage for food, testing equipment, cleaning tools, etc... underneath. I personally would put a piece of plywood on the bracing to keep it off the floor, but that's a matter of taste. If you don't have anywhere better to put it you could put an air pump down there too, but make sure to put a check valve at the top of the air line (in elevation above the water line) to avoid backflow.

Unfortunately you really can't get more than 1 species of fish in a 5 gallon tank. There just isn't room for them to do their own things. You might be able to get away with a shrimp or snail in addition to some fish, but even that might be pushing it. I know it's not what you want to her, but unfortunately that's just the limit of the tank's size. I'm in a situation where there are fish I'd love to keep that need more room than the maximum size of tank I can have in my apartment so I get the frustration, but it's better to get fish that can live happily where you can have them, and move to bigger fancier tanks later when your situation allows. Welcome to the hobby and I hope you fall in love with whatever fish you choose! Edited for clarity

I am looking to get a small school of Bengal Danio to finish stocking my first tank. I've seen websites say that they are very common in the hobby and that they are easy to breed, but I don't see any stores selling tank raised and the only local store to me that even lists them as something the will stock is the Wet Spot. Is there some sort of problem with them I am not aware of? Online resources that list them say that they are very peaceful and fairly hardy.

I've only been in the hobby a few months but am absolutely in love with fish. This is my first and only tank so far, with 16 cherry barbs and 5 zebra loach.