onlywei

At first glance I think it's hair algae, but whenever I look up "hair algae" on the internet, I see pictures of algae that is more solid than this. This algae is very fluffy and light. It is pretty easy to siphon out with a tube. I cannot take a toothbrush and twirl it like spaghetti, it's too light and not solid enough. Is it really hair algae or is it something else?

Even if I drip-acclimate for three hours?

I need help/advice on keeping otocinclus alive. They completely fall apart in my water. I’ve gotten 16 in the past two weeks from various stores around the area. They all died within 48 hours of adding to the quarantine tank. I drip acclimated them for 2-3 hours. I made sure algae, wood, and plants were in the quarantine tank. I of course had a pre-established filter running in the tank as well — two in fact! What is it about my water that causes them to die? I have a water softener using potassium instead of salt. This results in 0dGh, 5dKh water with 8.2-8.5 PH. I know the PH is not ideal for otocinclus, but I figured drip acclimation would resolve that issue. The quarantine tank is at 78 degrees Fahrenheit. I can’t believe I’m having a 100% death rate on otos. Other fish do fine in my water. Even German Blue Rams are breeding in my water. How is it that otos are more sensitive than rams?

Time to dose maracyn and salt

Is this bacterial? Parasite? Anyone seen this before?

Like the topic states, has anyone used Seachem Stress guard with the med trio during quarantine?

So far so good. No deaths since I made this post.

alright, just added two packets to my 20g long

ParaCleanse says it does on the back of the box though. See picture.

I live in Florida and I keep them in my garage. The room is above 80 degrees at all times, sometimes much higher. Let me try this. Hopefully it doesn't impact my beneficial bacteria too much, because they are still young and I still need to feed them daily.

Thanks for the reply, Zenzo! I really enjoyed meeting you at Aquashella Orlando in February. Which meds would you suggest? I have the aquarium co-op med trio, but I don't want to just give it to them randomly. I have increased their feeding since I've started noticing deaths, but the results are inconclusive - I can't tell if it's helping or not helping.

I have a 20 gallon long that I am using to grow out a spawn of German Rams. They have been fine for about two months, but starting last week they have begun dying. Every day I would find 3-5 dead rams at the bottom of the tank that I would remove. Today I saw one who died very recently so I picked it up only to find that it was still alive! I put it in a specimen container with an airstone and snapped the photo for this forum. I'm sure my tank is cycled with zero ammonia and nitrite, and I do a 30%-50% water change weekly. The tank has a ton of Java Moss as well as some Pothos and Monstera Adonsonii hanging in the tank. I have another spawn of Rams that are 10 days older in another 20 gallon long that are doing totally fine. Can anyone see any sort of disease in my picture? I want to know what meds to try.

I am flabbergasted! My amano shrimp looks like it’s been cooked! The temperature of my water is less than 80F, how can my amano shrimp get cooked? The other amano shrimp and neon tetras in the tank are just fine. I am so mystified.

I understand that "saving" by buying is not as good as it seems on the surface. I ask the question primarily out of curiosity because this seems like an interesting challenge to try and nurse PetSmart tetras back to health. Is med trio better than salt?

I watched Cory's video on the truth about Neon tetra disease where he recommends getting larger neon tetras to begin with. I didn't want to do that because I thought maybe I could try and challenge myself to bring the ones that PetSmart were selling back to health. So I bought 12 and I drip acclimated them for 3 hours into a quarantine tank with a pre-cycled sponge filter. I also pre-dissolved a level 1 salt treatment into the quarantine tank. After I put them in, I fed baby brine shrimp. Even then, every morning I would wake up to find 1-2 dead tetras. The last one died today (9 days later). Has anyone been successful in getting neon tetras from PetSmart survive past quarantine?

Really? The color of the water test indicates below 8.0 to me. It's mostly orange, not purple.

Seems to be a pretty big difference between each testing method in my pH. that’s an aquarium co-op test strip to the left.

Should I put some liquid fertilizer in there?

Here’s what I did to the plants:

Thanks. What about for the plants?

What ratio of Hydrogen Peroxide vs Water should I use?

I’m not worried about keeping the cycle since I can just stick the filters in one of my healthy tanks for a day or two and they should re-populate with bacteria. Thanks for the info about bleach. That helps a lot!

How would I sterilize a hang on back filter? Boil it? Soak it in vinegar?

Thanks @Greg Stewart. What about the filters? Same thing?

Hello, I have a 40g breeder that had 8 corydoras in it. They were the only fish in the tank. Unfortunately they started dying one by one so that I only have three remaining. I moved the last three into a bare 20g long with a sponge filter and dosed it with salt. The sponge filter was cycled in a different tank. I am going to take down this 40g breeder tank entirely. However, it also has a bunch of plants, a sponge filter and a HOB filter. I quite like some of these plants and equipment and I want to keep using them. How can I be sure that whatever disease was killing my corydoras is gone from these plants and filters before I use them in another tank?