Brandy

Well. lesson learned. they need more food than I seem to be getting into them. The attrition rate has been BRUTAL. 😭 There were so many, but I am down to about 20-30. Admittedly I had no way to raise 100+, but this is still sad.

So, I have been thinking...what about some sundews, butterworts, and venus fly traps? They have tiny root systems, love the damp, need water and humidity constantly, and would not outgrow their containers for a long time. alternatively, a mini phaleonpsis orchid in bark/spaghum mix--you might have to balast the candle holder with a weight on the bottom to keep that upright if it grew a flower spike.

I would get him some frozen food to tide him over. Transition him to dry once he is warm. One stressor at a time, cold+hungry+scared=sick.

Oooh, yeah, what kind of cichlid? Because a pair of rams or apistos would breed in a 15g... Just sayin'.

If your objective is to hide all equipment (and you don't like canisters), I think you should just go with the HOB overflow and do the sump the way you want to. The bulkhead can be siliconed or otherwise sealed. I am most familiar with bulkheads on boats, and I know most of those sealants are not necessarily fish safe, but a bulkhead is a bulkhead, there is no reason for it to seal better on a drilled tank than on the HOB.

I think he is likely not to recover. No matter, he's pretty anyway. Keep that pic handy and post it when people want to use the inch per gallon rule to justify something outlandish. He was less than 10 inches!

I think if you are asking abbout any plants I would say unless they are slime or become slime you are safe to leave them there. This isn't like coming back from disease. As Cory says watch your levels and if the ammonia comes back down and the tank stabilizes there is no reason to do a full tear down. If you don't have plants you may want to do a thorough gravel vac in case of hidden death in the substrate.

I can tell you what is not great, but serviceable. I would not buy again.

I think the ruffly edge looks like tropica.

Those are regular dwarf lilies. Here is a green "red" lotus. Here is a (bad pic of a) red tiger lotus. pardon the holey leaf, still dialing in the ferts on this tank.

I have had a similar experience, both with getting a green "red" tiger lotus, and with aquarium lily being muddy looking under low light without ferts, but it is a nice color for me under higher lights with some extra iron. In my experience the lilies are more vigorous and larger, while the lotus are a little slower and to my eye more beauitful--red or green version. Here is a link to a post with pics of dwarf aquarium lily in 2 kinds of tanks:

I'm so sorry! The bacterial bloom might also be because of the death, not necessarily the cause of it. While the other siphon now sounds suspicious, it is interesting that the snails are ok. I assume you checked that the heater is still holding temp at the right level?

I second @Levi_Aquatics and @HardeepTheLondoner. 4 otos in that tank will need to be fed constantly--which is ok, except they don't always accept algae substitutes. If you are set on 4, wait until your tank is drowning in algae, particularly the slimy diatom algae that they love. That will at least give them a solid boost of their favorite food while they acclimate, and then you can have many options available to offer as they run out. Keep trying anything and everything to get them to eat. You gotta be an Italian fish grandma--"Eat, baby, EAT! You are too skinny!" Also, more tetras, 3 gouramis--or just one. Add them at the very last thing so all the more docile fish are well settled. As the plants fill in you will have more success adding fish due to increased hiding places and increased nitrate uptake.

I recently ordered some fish online. They were in normal bags, may or may not have had pure oxygen in the bag, not sure. They were lost in the mail for 10 DAYS. Given the lack of poop in the bag they had been well fasted before. They arrived and were skinny but otherwise fine, and 5 days later they have fattened up. I do not recommend this plan, but I am offering it as reassurance.

I have shrimp and snails in with my pea puffers. They are a food source for the puffers. Any food that my other fish truly hate I put in that tank to fuel the factory, because shrimp and snails eat anything, and the puffers ignore the dry food no matter what. Interestingly I have found my fish eat better when I am fairly consistent. I feed one kind of flake at a time (usually bug bites). If I switch it up daily, it is like they get picky. I feed one kind of "pellet" to a given tank (vibrabites/cichlid gold/betta bio gold depending on fish size/type) Then I feed a rotation of frozen food and bbs. It seems like they "recognize" a flake, bite it, get the "wrong" flavor and spit it out. Often in a day or two they go nuts for the same thing they rejected before. Sort of like you might do if you thought you were about to eat a bite of melon and ended up with a piece of rare steak. Both are food, but the surprise would be unwelcome. I am probably dramatically anthropomorphizing. The only fish that has a problem with my frozen food rotation is the angel fish--he ONLY likes adult frozen brine shrimp and gets thoroughly miffed if the cube I drop in is anything else.

My 3 are in a heavily planted 29g with a lot of driftwood. I tried upping the lighting and I grew algae, but not the kind they like, so I just created a new problem. Luckily mine like cucmbers and green beans. At some point I will try them on repashy, but for now I just put the ends of every cucmber I eat in the tank and they have stayed fat and healthy. However, I would say greater density than 1/10g is just asking for trouble food wise. I have had the tank up and running for 8 months and have literally never had to clean the glass, which SOUNDS great, but means they do not have enough to eat. I worry about feeding them more than any other fish, even the pea puffers.

I have a large school of Rummy nose tetras. They jump in with the school once in a while and hitch a ride. Otherwise 2 of them are nearly always side by side, while the other is more independent and comes and goes on his own errands.

You don't dose liquid carbon do you? Once I OD'ed a tank accidentally and that was the symptom set I saw. I had almost instant response to a 50% water change.

I dunno, I have 3. I assume they are trying to keep them from flying out of the store while they are having sourcing issues, but it seems like to me the solution to that is to raise the price.

I had it spread between anubias plants, but not between anubias and any other plant.

The first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem. Welcome Bruce... 😏

I have had it stay short and just runner along, good coverage, but no tall growth, in eco complete in medium light. Then I added root tabs and it was like watching a time lapse film, you could almost see them growing taller. I am guessing both light and food play a role. If your substrate is new, like mine was, they keep runnering short stems, looking for an area with more food. once they find it they set up shop so to speak.

When you are ready to try again, take your water to a fish store and ask them to compare it to theirs. Do check GH and KH, particularly relative to theirs. If it is dramatically different fix that first. Then, keep testing for ammonia and nitrite daily, and if you see a spike take steps to lower that--ask how if you are not sure. Finally, consider premptively treating your guppies with API General Cure or Fritz Paraclense. Parasites are a thing, and they can develop slowly before reaching critical mass. Hopefully with a better water change schedule you will be in the clear.

Ammonia in a partially cycled tank could spike quite high on one day, then be a nitrite spike the second or 3rd day, then become nitrate. I have seen guppies handle the initial ammonia spike, show some flashing and distress over the nitrite spike, and continue flashing as the nitrate climbs past 40ppm. Higher pH means lower levels of ammonia are more toxic, my water is low pH so my fish are insulated from ammonia problems slightly. How long did it take them to die "one by one"? Days, weeks, or hours? If it took weeks I would suspect some disease. If it were days or hours, I would say water quality.

That is a zero ammonia test. You have to read the instructions for the API test carefully. They are all different and won't work uless they are carried out exactly. You have never done a water change in 3 months. This is likely your problem.