Brandy

Aww... maybe puffers aren't the grumpy old men, but also the grumpy old women of the fish world? Not just "get off my lawn" but lots of put-upon sniffing over the eggregious treatment by the young whippersnappers....

@Stephen Zawacki, I am going to add this to the other thread where you adressed this question about 6 minutes later today. I would like to not make this confusing for everyone else--Please just keep one thread going per question, it helps keep us organized. If you need help understanding how to use the forum, finding your questions, etc, please reach out to me and I will happily try to answer any questions about how the forum works that you have. You can either reply to this, or message me personally by clicking my face icon to the left of this post.

Congrats! good luck with the fry...keep us posted!

Normally I would say yes, mystery deaths would be good to treat, but in this case I suspect she had some internal complication due to pregnacy. I expect it would be uncommon in guppies, but just as internal defects can happen in other species presumably they can happen in guppies. I would watch the tank closely, keep up on water changes, and wait to treat until (if) I see some further symptoms.

I sometimes deliberately do this at work, it cracks me up to see someone get called out for it. I am dealing with students so getting them to engage is hard. Sometimes the options I offer are "yes, of course I will" and "no way, what, are you on crack?" followed by "I don't care, please just leave me alone"

When the tank actually does cycle, you can put in 6-8 tetras OR corys, and just feed not at all for the first few days. Right now, as you are feeding the empty tank, feed the amount you expect to feed those first fish, to build the bacteria up to prepare for that load. Go light here--you don't want to end up with a disgusting mess, but just a constant trickle of food can help. Then you get the fish, dont feed for a few days, then start slowly feeding a little, and slowly ramp up. That will let your bacteria adjust.

Best case, you find someone with an established tank, and get some filter media or gravel from them to sort of give your bacteria a boost. I actually like the half a raw shrimp idea, I have never heard that one, but it should work very well as an ammonia source in a fishless cycle.

Step one. if you have ammonia and don't have fish, STOP CLEANING. You do not have a cycled tank. You need to let the tank grow bacteria that will eat the ammonia. You need to leave them alone to do that. You don't really want "spotless" gravel. You don't want to be doing massive water changes. You want to see ammonia go down, and eventually nitrates to go UP. Then you can think about fish.

I would not dry it out or bleach it...you have done all the hard work of soaking it!! I would drain the bucket, and pour boiling water into the bucket if you think there is major contamination, or larger hitchhikers you want to be rid of, but otherwise I would just rinse well and use it. If you had it in your tank it would grow biofilm and potentially micro organisms would colonize it, and we would call it a good thing. As someone on the forum said recently, an aquarium is just a bucket without a handle.

Yeah we used to have stock tanks when I was a kid and one year kestrels nested in a tree by the barn, and I was excited, watching them all summer One day I found a drowned fledgling, and it was heartbreaking. He miscalculated and then couldn't get up the sheer side.

Actually the escape route method will save birds and pets also--a friend used to have a special floating dog ramp so his dog could get back up on the dock if he jumped in.

So, yeah, having friends who had pools, and having raised my kids while living on a boat, fencing is a good idea with toddlers. I am the parent of several genuinely gifted climbers, so raising the side actually almost scares me more. Teaching them to swim asap is the BEST, and then having step out ladders or rock piles so that they can escape is important. Kid-sized ones. Also telling them to yell like mad if someone falls in. We used to do drills into the ocean off the back of the boat to practice climbing out over and over. We even did it in cold weather so that they were prepared for the shock. No one ever did fall in. The adults were the irresponsible ones. But until you get to the point they can swim, I would stick to a shallow pond they can wade in and out of--like a kiddie pool.

I have a razor blade on a long handle. it is mostly awesome, except where you have a lot of hardscape right against the glass, and really that is my own fault anyway, and will always be a pain. It isn't available from the original seller, but I see others on amazon for about $15

@Demobanana Mine are really attracted. Like DETERMINED.

so, the main reason this happens (with any capsule) is that there is air trapped in the capsule. You can solve this by setting a rock on top of the sand where you bury the root tab, or by stabbing each end of the capsule with a push pin to release the air. Despite doing both of these things I have had albino corys and cichlids excavate a 1-2 inch hole in the sand to get to the gelatin (which is waht the capsule is made of), which they can aparently smell under the sand. tTey want to eat the gelatin, which doesn't harm them directly, but this is a good reason to stick to things designed for aquarium use.

Wait let me get this straight-- @Daniel, you have 8 unhappy discus confined in a mere 250gallons? While the other pair control 250 gallons by themselves? Well there you go. Each discus clearly needs 125gallons to itself or it wont be happy! 😉 In all seriousness, I broke out my google skilz to get a definitive answer. According to a major aquarium manufacturer (which I will not name as it is against forum rules): Housing Requirements for Discus Discus grow to be quite large and require an aquarium of 75 gallons or larger when full grown. Tall aquariums are best to accommodate their body shape. Water movement should be gentle, and décor should include large broadleaf plants and driftwood that is arranged vertically to simulate downed branches and trees. A few floating plants can also be added to provide shaded areas and cover. Substrate should be sand or fine to medium grade, smooth-surfaced gravel as discus like to forage along the bottom for food. Hopefully this clarifies the situation for @Stephen Zawacki. Based on this assessment of discus requirements (by an aquarium manufacturer), a 65 gallon is not ideal for discus joy. However, since I don't trust manufacturers, I used my mad google skilz to find out what Cory thinks...tank size is covered at 4:21.

I would just let them naturally decrease. I had an explosion of hydra and just cleaned off what was visible with a siphon, and stopped over feeding so much. Now I can't even find any. I definitely would not disrupt a healthy tank trying to get rid of them if they are not something that morally offends or terrifies you for some reason. If you think about it, they are just helping you clean up your tank.

the internet says they will, but I have not had trouble with them, and I seem to recall cory saying he didn't either. It is hard for me to picture, as fast as they are, a shrimp is much faster. I feel like it is more likely they will eat a dead shrimp, and someone saw that.

Yes, joking aside they are planaria. I think if you have normal sized fish and are not trying to breed anything then they are harmless. They are sort of icky looking but not dangerous. They are usually a sign of over feeding.

They may have been trapped in some extra fine hair algae or something.

So far I think so, they turn white and opaque when they die.

This is largely what I do. I sell culls that are "acceptable" quality. I maintain a breeding nucleus of my very best shrimp, that I do not sell from. Then I stock my other tanks with "culls" from that tank, and sell from the "other" tanks. Over time my "other" tanks also breed. Eventually I start to get "unacceptable" shrimp in those tanks, that are just feeders. Eventually I suspect I will get quite a nice line going. Currently I have red. I plant to get blue also as soon as the baby acaras clear one of my tanks of all shrimp life.

I like them!

Hi @Stephen Zawacki. So let me get this totally clear...you want to know if discus can be kept in a 40 breeder or if a 60 gallon tank is better...is that right? The answer is simple. YES. YES, they can be kept in a 40 breeder. YES, 60 gallons is better. No, the 40 breeder is not overstocked. But yes, bigger is always better. As @Daniel says, the fish need high quality water and food more than they need space, but if you want to buy a 60 gallon, please do. Given your level of experience and confidence, I highly reccomend that you DO buy a 60 gallon. It will be easier to maintain good water quality in a larger volume, and it will be more likely that the fish will not fall ill when you are out of state.

looks kinda like Java moss? see extreme closeup below?