Gliderzz

Amazing. I usually have some idea with treating sick fish as it has happened a few times before, but this time I was totally lost. Thank you so much!

They didn't seem thin, but also not like their stomach was full. Essentially what came first was lethargy, then rapid breathing, loss of balance & spitting all food out by that point. Occasionally would be able to swim normally for a few mins but would go back to laying down/spinning. No stringy poop & no flashing. Rummies are acting normal. I made the unfortunate decision to humanely euthanize it, as in my experience any fish at that point tends to pass away pretty fast but uncomfortably. Under the microscope I did not find any flukes. I placed the last angel into a planted 5 gal to reduce food competition, and hopefully reduce disease spread (if disease is the issue). He looks and acts very normal. I was thinking that with adequate food & water the issue might go away on its own, and if it does return I could place the angel back into the qt tank. Would this be fine?

Yeah, that's what I typically do. The reason I went with medication is since rummies are warned to be very sensitive to disease when purchased from the store. So I started out with my typical low-level treatment method for 1-2 weeks, then reducing it significantly for the following 1-2 weeks

Thanks! I'll lower the salt concentration then, though I haven't had any issues with it having treated other low ph softwater species. I'm also considering moving the last healthy one into a separate, empty & heavily planted 5.5 gallon tank. Just to make sure that (if it is a disease) it has the lowest chance of spreading & the angel gets lots of food without competition from rummies. If the angel does happen to get sick, then I would move it back into the medicated tank. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? Thanks again

Angels are about 1.75 inches from head to tail and the rummies are doing great. It dawned on me that lack of food might be part of the issue. I've had two different fry species (honey gouramis and bronze cories) act very similar when experiencing malnutrition/lack of food. The rummies are very quick eaters and so I'd watch them whenever feeding. I always made sure to sprinkle in a bit extra food for the angels but haven't really observed them eating. Might have to specifically watch them eat to see if they've been getting much food into their bellies

Bought a trio of angels with 12 rummies last week. Immediately put into a 10g with 3tbsp salt and 1ppm methylene blue. One was always a bit weak and timid, passed away after a wc a few days ago. I assumed it wasn't disease since some fish don't switch tanks well. Raised the salinity to 3.5tbsp. Today the second angel started acting weird. Lethargic, hiding. Now it has started laying on its side, spinning in circles. I'm assuming it will pass soon, but would like to save the last angel. The last one is quite sentimental to me so I'd really love to do something. Any advice?

I attempted to breed honey gouramis a few months back. I placed a conditioned male into a 10 gallon tank (lowered water level to about 4-5 inches, sponge filter, heater, air stone with good aeration, and a java moss clump). Placed the female into a deli cup with water into the tank, acting as a physical barrier (since the male chased the female without a bubble nest in previous attempts). Didn't keep her in there for long, as the male prepared a bubble nest. I then separated the male and female, and left for a few hours. After returning, the male had all his eggs in the bubble nest. He then began eating them and destroying the bubble nest. I removed the male from the tank and salvaged the remaining eggs. I wasn't sure I could raise them up as there was no information I could find online about raising gouramis without the dad. I lowered the water level even more, to about 1-1.5 inches, and increased the aeration. The next day the fry hatched, and the majority survived into the free-swimming stage. I began with feeding paramecia, eventually upgrading to vinegar eels and live bbs. The water level was raised very gradually, water changes were tedious, but I used a deli cup to - very carefully - lower the clean water into the tank, tipping the container very slowly to let the water out. I did not raise any water for the first 2 weeks, and then increased it by maybe 1-2 inches every 1.5ish weeks (depending on their size). I was only able to raise about four fry into the juvenile stage, but I do not think this was due to the lack of a dad. I had very few deaths in the first week. The rest were unfortunately care related, as this was one of my first few times raising fry. Here are a few photos of them. Sorry for the bad quality lol

I've always wanted angelfish, have a 55 gallon tank. Was initially thinking of getting a group but it seems like they can get pretty aggressive. There is so much conflicting information with how many a person should keep, that it seems like getting a solo angel will reduce all of the problems. Would it be fine getting a solo angel or are they a social species?

that's amazing! This seriously helps with understanding the rhythm around breeding & selling

Thanks for all the advice! I'm raising the temperature a bit, and increasing water changes as well as feedings. Something I didn't think about was that the fry are large enough to eat dry food, so I should probably feed them both live and dry to increase the frequency of feedings. I think the lack of water changes played the biggest role, since I didn't know that affected their development (water was changed often, but could probably be changed more often). Thanks again!

For sure! My goal isn't to make consistent money off of breeding, rather not be losing it. It takes about 7-9 months to raise fry to a sellable size, and even then I usually only get 10-15 (with my current batch, only 6). I'd love to know how people are able to get high survival rates and raise the fish in 4-5 months and by the way, those rainbow shiners are insanely beautiful!

Looks great to me! Just make sure you have a lid but that's the only thing

There are so many resources about which fish to breed for profit, but not on how to do it well. I've been able to raise a couple batches of fry (cories, guppies & gouramis) but it usually takes a long time. What are your best breeding practices? Do you have any tips/tricks to raise your fish faster? As a side note, I have three 10 gallon tanks. Should I choose one species and stick with them? How would be the best way to do that? etc.

It's been a good few days since I've been feeding the fry bbs and have some great news: I haven't found any more dead fry! Definitely does seem like starvation/malnutrition was the cause, and I'll continue feeding them until they get big enough to take flakes/pellets. Thanks so much!

Personally, I have run into quite big ammonia/nitrite spikes after siphoning the gravel, moving stuff around, performing a big water change etc. Honestly it might be a 50/50 where some people get these issues and some don't. In my personal experience, water changes are usually enough to fix the issue. But again, performing a deep cleaning may be the right thing to do for your tank.

Deep cleaning can sometimes do the opposite and make things worse. I'd leave it as it is & increase water change frequency. Continue monitoring params and it should eventually stabilize

Nitrites (even a tiny amount) will cause issues in your tank. For a 5 gallon, weekly to bi-weekly water changes are usually recommended. By the way, what's the species of catfish? Plecos poop a lot and can easily overwhelm a 5 gallon tank with waste

Ahh, okay. That makes complete sense! I'll get some bbs hatching asap Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely look into it! though I don't live in the US so getting ahold of some might be a bit tricky I have some java moss in there luckily. I've noticed it adding it definitely helps with fry development & survival too!

thanks for the replies! Now that you mention it, the symptoms do remind me of starvation. I've had a couple cory fry not eat before and unfortunately starve. Symptoms were very similar. And yeah, they've been on vinegar eels for a long time at this point. The only slightly contradictory thing is that their bellies do not look empty. They look pretty big & I saw them eating fine just a couple days ago. As a quick update, both fry have passed, and now a small one is acting the same. Gonna check water params again since the dead fish could've spiked the ammonia I'll start hatching bbs & try to get some good nutrients into them

10 Gallon Tank - Shallow Water (About 3-4" in height). These are honey gourami fry, about 1.5 months old. Still fairly small (0.5-0.8 ish cm). Diet of vinegar eels, paramecia and occasional live bbs

Have some fry dying for no obvious reason. Ammonia: 0ppm Nitrite: 0ppm Nitrate: 20ppm ph = around 8.2 temp = 80-82 f Two of my biggest fry suddenly developed swim bladder issues, sporadic swimming, labored breathing, & turned pale. Have another fry species sick in a different tank, but these symptoms do not match. Have had a couple fry die a week or two ago, though I assumed they were just too weak since these fry were very small, slow growing & fragile. Started with one, then became two. Neither are dead but they're pretty close. They've been like this for a good few hours