StormyRen

Unfortunately I don't have a microscope. 😞 I'll see if it will fall apart though. So far the last 3 fish (2 rasbora hets and the platy) are still alive. I'm going to be doing a water change then letting them rest for at least 2 weeks before I dose the quarantine meds again. Update: Make that 1 rasbora het and 1 platy. One of my hets just died... I'll never buy from my lfs again other than non live items and frozen foods.

Sorry in advance this is so long. I recently bought 13 fish from my lfs on Wednesday September 30th. I had already set up a 5g quarantine tank for them because I refuse to introduce new fish to my shrimp tanks without quarantining and medicating them to make sure they're okay. I bought 8 rasbora hets (3 jumped out of their acclamation vessel so ended up with 5), the last 4 kubotai rasboras, and a blue platy (for hair algae control). I was already skeptical about purchasing from my lfs because just by looking at their stock over multiple visits I could tell they were not being correctly taken care of. After my purchase I had asked the owner of my lfs if the water systems were shared between tanks because I noticed that some rams had very bad ich. I hadn't even had time to let him know that some guppies and other fish looked out of sorts before he gave me the excuse that he had changed too much water out of the rams tank and that each section of tanks shared their own system. That's when he let the cat out of the bag, "I never medicate unless I HAVE to." .....uuuuhhhhhh, what?! I kept thinking no wonder these poor things look like crap most of the time I come in here. He also gloated about how their tanks had been updated to planted tanks, an "all natural system you've never seen before," were his exact words in conjunction with not medicating unless he had to..... Yeah, I've seen systems like that before, and just because your tanks have plants doesn't mean they magically heal your fish when you get them in. Needless to say I'd rather drive ALL the way to petsmart to get fish than shop there again... so sad. So I got my "rescues" home and set them up with a quarantine med schedule. I used General cure, erythromycin, and ich x. By day 3 everyone was fine so I fed some frozen daphnia and micro pellets. Day 4 one of the rasbora hets disappeared and another began to act very odd. It would swim with little fin movement then suddenly would jerk its head violently for a while. After this it would swim off like nothing happened. The platy and kubotai all seemed fine. They were active and seemed normal. By day 5 I was missing a kubotai and and 2 hets. The remaining fish seemed fine except a kubotai began to swim and jerk erratically like the het that had already passed away. Within a few hours of noticing the kubotai behavior it was dead. This morning, day 6, after I got home all I have left alive are 2 hets and the platy. Viewing their current behavior I'm not sure they will be okay, and I have found very odd looking items on the floor of the tank. They look like fish poo, or maybe large worms (possibly dead ones) that the fish passed. I'm hoping someone may have an idea of what they are from the pictures. Truthfully I have little hope the 3 remaining fish will make it through quarantine.

I've had this setup since it started getting warm in Illinois. It's a 100 gallon stock tank with sponge filter for water surface disturbance. Unfortunately I don't think my lily bulb was any good. I'm super sad about that. I have guppies in this tub with water lettuce and duckweed. I was hoping the water lily would grow, but nothing. For added shade during this hot summer I've added an umbrella in front of the tank just enough to keep it partially shaded. The guppies are loving the shaded areas. Not only do I have guppy fry, but I've also seen tadpoles.

I'm really happy Aquarium Co-op has it's own forum now. Thanks to Cory and his whole team, along with others in the hobby, I've found my love for aquatics again. I use to have tanks when I was younger. We had a mixed variety of aquatic inhabitants: guppies, angelfish, a pea puffer, a newt, ghost shrimp, mollies, and more. After a while we grew out of the enticement to keep tanks as the importance of our 4-H animals grew. Winning classes was how we put ourselves through school, otherwise who knows where we'd be. In the past 4 years my love for aquariums and the want to enjoy God's creations again increased. I started out with two 37 gallon tanks, one each in my room and the living room. After just 3 months my 37g in my room blew out the whole bottom forcing my tank inhabitants temporarily to the living room tank. I had 6 white fin rosy tetras, 2 golden lyre tail mollies, 2 calico butterfly mollies, ghost shrimp, a common pleco named Jaws, a pair of crown tail betas, and two albino rainbow sharks that were my pride and joy. Yeah... what a mix for a 37g. They all got along except for Jaws when he got bigger. I also was enlightened, thanks to Cory and others, that I had quite an amount of fish in that tiny tank both inch wise and odd combination including the two rainbow sharks. I found out later that the brand of tank I had did and does have a tenancy of blowouts, which is sad because I've used the brand before with no problem. Eventually my finned friends had to be rehomed, and to be honest I miss them. However, the 37g in the living room was changed out for a 40g breeder, a 10g was added on the counter top in the dining room, and a 20g long and 5g ended up in my room.... about a year after I changed my floor due to the "flood". All 3 small tanks ended up full of guppies and snails even though they were intended for shrimp and the 40 ended up being an accidental breeding ground for bronze corydoras. Since then the guppies are now summer tubbing and loving it, the bronze are still reproducing faster than we can handle (I think it's kinda funny but mom sure doesn't), and I finally have the shrimp tank I've always wanted. The 20g long has 5 pygmy corydoras (one of which was a baby I raised from when it was a guppy tank), 4 types of snails (the pond snails were accidents), and fantasy blue dreams that I'm super excited to have. 😍 I'm always learning new things about aquatics from the fish fam and I love helping others with their new aquatic pets. I use to work in retail where I had to step in to help in the pet department as guests needed assistance. It's kinda sad when guests admit that someone in a different department seems to know more than the associate responsible for the fish. Thanks to all I've learned I have helped many guests with making smart choices for their aquatic pets both in the tank size they need, school or shoal sizes preferred/ required to feel safe and thrive, and what fish are considered aggressive and or fin nippers. I don't work there anymore. Even though I'm trying to limit the amount of tanks I have and what are in them I will be forever interested in the aquarium hobby, and maybe one day I'll help endangered species regain a foothold in their native habitats. Who knows. 😄

I always wanted to do nature photography including aquatics. I just can't afford a good camera. 😛 My phone is not that great, but, meh. Your photos are beautiful. I look forward to seeing more.