Miranda Marie

What kind of wafers are you using? Mine never "dissolve". On the rare occasion they haven't finished it by the next day, there's still a clump of brownish goop hanging out where the wafer was, even with snails, hillstream loaches, and shrimp in the tank all taking turns eating on it. So if they weren't eating, you should be able to see the wafer still where you dropped it up to a day later.

Unlikely. Mulm is pretty harmless, and those symptoms seem pretty progressed for right afterwards. It's more likely they were already sick or stressed prior to that. I have drudged up tons of mulm before while cleaning with no averse side effects.

Happy Thanksgiving!! 🦃🍴🍂 What is everyone doing to celebrate this year? We're having family over for a big meal, though a lot of people are out of town this year (it's the other side's year to have them for Thanksgiving and our year for Christmas) so it'll be more laid back than some years.

My present average is every 6 months to a year. Mainly because I have 2 tanks and tend to buy smaller, shorter lived fish on a timeline stagger. (That way they all don't start dropping dead of old age all at once LOL. My heart couldn't take that.) I just bought a new fish (a betta) for the first time since this time last year. So the pattern of six months to a year continues.

I have 2 in my 20 gallon long and they honestly aren't picky at all. Every other day I feed an Xtreme bottom wafer (algae + high protein, remember these guys need protein, not just algae!) and they love that. It did take them a week or so to get familiar with it, though. Then on the other days, I feed extra to the other fish so a decent amount of the micro pellets fall onto their favorite log, and they devour the extras very quickly. The only thing they haven't seemed very interested in is, oddly enough, rapashy in gel form. But I've only fed it once so far so maybe they just didn't realize it was food or something.

I was wondering the same thing. I can't recall any kind of black Friday sale last year but I'm also not sure if I was paying attention at the time LOL

How strange! Glad you found out how to fix it though.

I've heard a single dwarf pea puffer can do well in 5 gallons. Definitely only 1, though. Other ideas: Clown killifish Chili rasboras Scarlet Badis (also only recommended to keep 1) White Cloud Mountain Minnows

I wish I could help, but the only plants I don't struggle to keep alive myself are rooted plants, and even then, my own swords took 3 and a half *years* to get any bigger after the initial die back and regrowth appeared. They were tiny for so long, I honestly stopped expecting them to do anything. Then all of a sudden they took off and are now huge and I still am not sure why LOL. I've tried so many plants that ultimately never grew, including "bullet proof" plants like Vallisneria and pogostemon stellatus octopus. TL;DR: I feel your pain and also struggle with plants/fertilizer. You have my sympathy. 💙

You're welcome! They're the ones I always share to people who are new to planted aquariums, because they were so helpful to me starting out. I hope they can be useful to you, too!

These are the youtube videos that were absolute life savers for me when I got into planted aquariums! I find watching concise, easy to follow videos simpler for taking in all the information rather than reading text walls, so hopefully they'll be useful to you! How to Set Up A Planted Tank: https://youtu.be/29aKqiu0b7w Why Aquarium Plants "Melt": https://youtu.be/OFvIyc2j13E Five Things To Know About Planted Aquariums Before Getting Started (playlist): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlBBJ7xBuqub-rl6z7cnGfSp_rUoyGN0U Guide To Planted Aquariums (Playlist): https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLlBBJ7xBuquZWUAQTV_qV-4RT526rh1sy Maybe they can help you the way they helped me!

I left my crypts in their pots for a couple weeks to acclimate them. In fact, for more sensitive plant species, Cory from Aquarium Co-Op encourages that you do that in order not to shock the plant's roots while it is getting used to your water perimeters. It worked well for me - I had almost no die back from the crypts, which are notoriously finnicky!

I had a feeling someone would suggest this. I'll ask my sister (it's our joint tank) but I have a feeling based on her usual preferences that these would look too out there for her. LOL. She prefers "pretty" types of fish usually.

https://youtu.be/CyevfeqkRAM?si=ewchnEt10yE7DgDr Perhaps this video will be of some help? 🙂

I've kept them and never had any try to jump. In fact, my endlers live bearers jumped way more than my clown killis LOL. One endler was constantly leaping into the hang on back filter and I had to rescue him almost daily for a while.

Still trying to decide what to stock in my 5 gallon tank, so I thought I'd ask you all for ideas. What are your favorite fish to keep in a 5 gallon? Bonus points if it is a single fish with personality. (I'm still open minded to another betta but having a hard time committing after my last one passed away.)

I have 2 hillstream loaches in a 20 gallon long. They spend most of the time in their "cave" under a piece of driftwood or between 2 rocks with their tails peeking out, until feeding time. Then they take turns coming out to nom the algae wafer. I'd heard they might bully one another, and while they do chase each other around occasionally, they spend 95% of their time together in the cave or swirling circles around the driftwood. I've got a sponge filter coming from aquarium co-op to add to the other side of the tank to up oxygenation, but as far as I can tell, the two of them are fat and happy. They're also my nieces' and nephews' favorite fish I own. They love that they can peer into the "cave" under the driftwood at the front of the tank and see their tails. They always say the fish are "playing hide and seek". So maybe your fish are playing hide and seek, too. 😉

I've ordered on a Sunday afternoon and had it packed and already shipped by first thing Monday morning. I'm shocked every time it happens!

I'd be more inclined to think it was just the fish not having what it takes to survive if I hadn't had her for 6 months before symptoms appeared. She was beautiful, active, healthy, and extremely responsive for the first 6 months, and then we had a sharp, sudden, and painful downward trend. The most confusing part of the whole thing is how *many* seemingly unrelated symptoms she had. Loss of scales in patches, dulling of colors, strange grey spots, white fungus, reddened gills, *extreme* weightloss, loss of control over swim bladder, and eventually, paralysis. I tried every meditation Aquarium Co-op sells over a 2 month period before she eventually became paralyzed and I euthanized her. It wasn't a sudden or unexpected death, and it didn't seem to be a condition she came to me in, but no amount of meditation helped. She declined regardless of treatment. I've been in the hobby for around 6 years now, and I've lost plenty of fish, most of them without warning. They were just random one-off deaths that happened randomly overnight. Those are easier to handle or let go of, for me at least. I can chalk it up to age or genetics or just a poor immune system. It just feels wildly different to be able to *see* a fish is sick for months, to try everything available to me, and then still have to euthanize. I do have a quarantine. Because it was just her in the tank, though, I medicated her in the 5 gallon. The shrimp and the snail didn't care about the meds in the least and are all healthy and happy since her passing. I do have crypts in there (a lot of them) but I didn't want to move her and cause more stress, so I risked the melt back and treated her in her home. The crypts are bouncing back fine. The tank did experience a die back of beneficial bacteria, which is another reason I have been waiting the last month or so to even really think of what to add next. It's still re-cycling somewhat, so I'll be waiting to make a final decision until that's finished. All new fish do spend the first 2 weeks in quarantine (a clear tote I have) when they arrive.

Hey, guys. I'm looking for outside opinions because I have run this problem through my head too much and now every option seems equally bad. So I'd like some other perspectives. As a lot of you know, my betta Romi passed away last month, and I never figured out the cause. Fish tuberculosis? A parasite I didn't catch until the damage was too far gone? A mystery infection none of my meds even touched? At this point, I have no idea what killed her, and I'm still really sad and confused when I think about the two months we spent trying every medication under the sun with no success. And now her tank is empty, aside from 1 nerite snail and 2 dream blue neocardinia shrimp. Winter is coming up fast for those of us in my area (temps drop fast and snow begins in October most years) so if I want to order any fish for that tank, it's gotta be soon. But do I, when I don't even know what killed her? Leaving the tank essentially empty is just going to make me keep thinking about her all winter, and I already have seasonal depression. The thought of it sitting vacant for months is really depressing. But ordering another betta and planning to proactively treat her and hope for the best also leaves me feeling really concerned that I'll be dooming her to the same fate in 6 months. So my options are: 1) Leave the tank until spring and hope whatever pathogen killed her is gone by then. 2) Order another betta and proactively treat the tank in case it was a parasite we missed for too long. 3) Order a different kind of fish for a 5 gallon, treat proactively, and wait to see what happens. Or: 4) Tear the tank down and start completely over, which would also involve waiting for spring for fish due to how long cycling tanks. Also, the other tank was definitely cross-contaminated with whatever she had. After thinking about it, I think the clown killis were patient 0 over there... and they shared a water change bucket for a couple months. So far, everyone currently in that tank is fine, though. But if I do tear down the 5 gallon, there would have to be no sharing of filter media, etc, to it'd be starting from scratch and hoping there was no accidental cross contamination after that point. I just need other opinions. My head hurts from going over the options and I don't know what to try. I'm leaning towards option #3 just because getting another betta right now feels too painful, but should I even do that? What do you guys do when you have disease kill a fish and no treatments work?

That's kind of what I figured LOL. Mixing terrestrial fertilizer with aquariums seems unwise in general... 🤔

What are your guys' favorite DIY root tab methods / brands for the fertilizer you fill them with? Buying pre-made root tabs is so expensive I've been debating making my own but I'm not sure what the consensus is on what to fill the capsules with, or even if there is a particular kind of capsule that is best. I'd love any and all advice!

Right now, it's my two hillstream loaches. They don't act like a puppy in that they come to greet me (in fact, they have a favorite hole under the driftwood at the front of the tank where they "hide" but I can still see their tails sticking out LOL) but their movements are so cute and they're the unanimous favorite of all my nieces and nephews. When they sit to watch my tank, I get a steady stream of dialogue about their activities, such as: Child: They're climbing! Oh, they're hidin'. Oh! It's swimming! They're playing hide and seek again. *pause to watch for them to come back out* *gasp* It's between the rocks! I see it's tail! By contrast, they couldn't care less about the schooling fish. They're too boring and only do one thing. 😆 They're much prefer the fish with unique and interesting behaviors, and I have to agree. It's fun seeing what they're up to at any given moment.

I'm so sorry for your loss. 💔

Marine salt is a different kind of salt altogether and should not be confused with aquarium salt. Marine salt contains buffers that will kill or harm freshwater fish and should only be used to salinate the water in salt water tanks. You should look up "aquarium salt" and use that. It's for freshwater fish and should help if she is fighting something. Just know it can have an averse effect on live plants sometimes.