toothgrinder

Bronze Cory cat looks kind of bloated mostly on one side, and cannot stay at the bottom. It’s currently trying to wedge itself on moss and stuff to stay near the sand. Tank is 75 gallons been running for over a year and a half and has a lot of corydora and some dojo loaches. No indications from the water or any other fish, just this one Cory out of like 40. Any thoughts? He’s hiding in moss and I just noticed today after work so I don’t have a picture yet.

Hi, I’m looking for advice before purchasing some new lighting for my tank. I have a 150 gallon tank (4’x2’x30”) that’s almost 3 feet tall, I want to grow sword plants and jungle Val, nothing hard. What is my best option? I’m thinking just buy a fluval 3.0 and put it next to my existing led that is not so great and run both. Would that be enough? Better options? Thanks.

Yeah, I totally understand people gotta get rid of them, but the buyer should be aware in my opinion at least that they are definitely culls. The “good price” was heavily influenced by the convention almost being over, and he knocked off a little more cash when I told him I don’t need any more angels at home. I looked at the fish (beer in hand) for a moment and said why not. This one might need a helmet 😂

I suppose I have higher standards than some, if I was told they were culls that’s one thing, I agree it’s my fault for buying crappy fish, I just didn’t expect them to be sold! Anyways I am not mad, I am just curious about other shady things people might be doing at these shows.

I attended a freshwater convention this past weekend, in Iowa, and ended up paying for culls! I was able to get some gorgeous gold laser cories, 9 of them for the price my LFS charges for one (50$), along with some good pleco caves and plants. So mostly a good experience, but, I also purchased 2 bags of blue angels for a very low price. Fish are hard to see well in bags, and I guess it’s my fault for assuming most people within the hobby would be on the up and up, so I purchased them without scrutinizing too much. I was given no indication they weren’t any good until I put them into a bare 40 breeder at home to check them out. They all have at least one or multiple genetic faults. Short, wide spread ventral fins, uneven fins, ugly top fin, pointy heads, stripes messed up, one even has a dented in looking head. The convention was fun, and I suppose I have learned not to be so trusting of other hobbyists! Has anyone else experienced a scam or anything like that at a show? Side question, would eating angelfish be harmful to an aperensis (sp?) or jelly catfish? 😉 They look even worse out of the bag in the tank. Very pretty young gold lasers my lady picked up.

Fish are all good after two and a half days, happy to see me 👍

How long have ya’ll let your fish go without food? I’m on short trip right now and they’re all going roughly two days with no one watching them. It’s my first time leaving them like this I’m curious if others leave their fish for a couple days or more at a time? Everything I’ve read says it’s fine, in fact some people would rather not feed the fish for a week than trust someone else to feed.

I bet he could do a number on some algae...

Drop it where you can see it, I’m sure they will find it regardless of where it is, but if you can see it you can watch to make sure it disappears.

Well, even though the gunk mostly fell off of him yesterday, he unfortunately was dead when I got home from work today. Thanks for the input everyone. I think I learned a thing or two from this one.

I manually wiped some of his white fuzziness off yesterday, and now today most of the rest of it fell off through the night. I wouldn’t have done it if he didn’t have such a bad case but I think it helped all the treatment penetrate and fight the infection. He’s easy to touch and handle so it didn’t stress him out too bad. So I think he’s over the climax of this and now has to recover, we’ll see how it goes. The fuzziness was way worse than the last photo showed, before mostly being clear in this photo.

Paraguard claims to help fungal lesions too, I’m going to change the water again today with fresh salt and paraguard you think I should add the API fungus cure on top of that?

He looks really bad. In a tank by himself with salt and paraguard for 2 full days now. So fuzzy I almost want to manually scrub him off but that’s probably not good.the fuzz is long too.

The portion in front of his dorsal fin has healed, and now there’s a portion behind the dorsal that looks bad, and a spot near his tail end that was definitely cut physically unless there’s an illness that can mimic that. I’m starting to believe he hurt himself on lava rock which I’ll remove from the tank. Salt would help disinfect the wounds I imagine and clean water+good food to keep him healthy. No other fish shows any signs of distress and there’s like 30 in there. I wish dojo’s didn’t have to move like total freaks sometimes and potentially hurt themselves. There is a bit of fuzziness in spots, but like I said, the spot in front of his dorsal was ‘fuzzy’ for a day and it’s all healed now, I think it was his skin/slime coat falling off and rebuilding not a fungus. Maybe bacterial. Definitely not ich, I have some experience there, I don’t think it’s hole in the head as the spots are anywhere except near his head. Tomorrow I can see him and add some more photos to show how he is progressing.

Jagged rocks can injure fragile fish, some rocks can adjust your ph, couple things to keep in mind. I’m fairly sure my dojo loach hurt himself on a piece of lava rock I have so I’m going to remove them. Total spaz fish, dojo’s are.

I’ve been doing water changes and hand feeding him. I think I’ll do a salt bath on him for a few hours if he is alive when I get home from my trip today. Hard to tell if he is healing or getting worse past couple of days.

I recently watched a co op video and noticed there was a fully grown dojo loach in @Cory 800 gallon clown loach tank. Everything I’ve read suggests this isn’t ok, but every fiber of my being wants it to be ok, because I currently have clowns in a hot tank, and dojo’s in a nearly room temperature (colder, 73) tank. It would open up opportunities for me if I can keep them together, as that was my plan before reading dojo’s are supposed to be colder, like goldfish. Whereas clowns thrive above 80 (mine stay 82 minimum) degrees. So, according to the internet, keeping clowns and dojo’s in the same tank is the same as keeping discus and goldfish together. Is it bad? I am not one to be over sensitive when it comes to fish keeping ethics, people drive me insane crying about overstocking (just because maintenance is required doesn’t make a tank over stocked) but according to information on the internet these fish can’t be together. Dojo’s lifespan is cut in half in warm water is what I read. How can an average joe like me know what’s accurate, or if this is true? Have others here kept fish at “not ok” temperatures?

Looks like there may be 1-2 larger looking bumps on him too.

pH 7.6 Nitrates 20 Hardness 2 Nitrite 0 Ammonia 0 KH/Buffer 7 Water Temperature 73 My dojo is clearly sick, I’m not too sure what it is. Noticed it yesterday, he’s slightly more lethargic than usual and has these weird spots. The one area on his back looks almost slightly yellowish but there’s also white on him, looks like his slime coat coming off sort of. Any input is appreciated, I’m going to do a water change and maybe up the temp a few degrees. Nothing new has been added to the tank and no other fish is sick. Tank is always stable.

Built a stand for the 55. Got the 30 tall tank setup running. Not sure what to do with the 55 yet.

The tank is healthy again it seems there are no more signs of any ich or other illness. I just continued using paraguard and doing some water changes and it’s all cleared up. Some of the clowns made it thankfully, but more than that died. Not planning to build the school back up until I move them from this tank. Heres my two plecos in here, the common sailfin will stay in this tank but the sabaji will come out, I don’t think he’s going to get too much bigger. The sailfin is the biggest in the tank but still is chased off at times by the sabaji. The sabaji is only aggressive towards other plecos/cats and doesn’t mind the clowns or other fish.

I have khuli loaches that do double time by keeping the bottom clean, and, most of the time they are swimming around the tank like crazy, ‘dithering’. It’s very funny when two angels are testing eachother and a khuli interrupts by slapping into ones face. The confusion from the angel is palpable when it happens.

This happened while I was gone for 2 weeks there are no new fish. It is stress ich

Another tank, is what he wants.

So, while I was away for work in Orlando for nearly two weeks, my clown loaches all got the ICH. I was home for a few days, removed them all and placed them in a 55g quarantine tank. I treated with ICH-x and I am completely convinced it is not good for loaches at all. After dosing I lost 4 within 24 hours, and that is not even a full dose. There’s all sorts of contrasting information about it all over the internet, aquarium coop says they’ve never had an issue but what I just experienced seals it for me, it is BAD for clown loaches. Only one teeny tiny guy had died in the tank before I dosed. After the quarantine failure I just put them back into this 150 with everyone else, and switched to using paraguard, which is not nearly as potent. A couple more have slowly passed over a couple days, but I think the remaining guys are going to make it. First sign the clown loach isn’t going to live long is when he stops schooling with the others. Now, these same fish (some of them, my school was smaller in this instance) had the ICH a few months ago in their 75g home. That set up had UV sterilization built into the filter. I turned it on and raised the temp 2 degrees (keep them at 84 to begin with) and they all recovered over the course of a week with no loss. I think the importance of UV is under appreciated. Anyways, back to the tank. Dealing with small fish in a tank this height with rock work, and trying to plant it nicely, is just too much work. It feels impossible to maintenance well. I am three steps up on a ladder and I can just barely push plants down into the substrate. The next step is wearing goggles so I can get in there deeper. I’m a 6 foot tall guy, too. So, I am changing directions on the stocking. The clown loaches specifically are going to go into a 125 (the 6ft long one) that I intend to purchase shortly and put in my living room where I can keep a better eye on them. It will be equipped with UV for sure since they love getting the ICH so easily it seems. They are my favorite fish at the moment and I am not giving up on keeping them, I won’t replenish my school until after I have this PROPER set up for them. For the 150, I am going to plant a bunch of jungle Val, add a few log caves, and that’s it for deco. I intend to have like, 3 large fish in here now. I am definitely going to put a large catfish in here, undecided on what else. Maybe an Oscar or two. On a more positive note check out the roots on this Amazon sword I pulled out of this tank! It is thicc and matted.