Justin Campbell

I’ve seen new fish do this too, which I assumed was due to a heart attack or other stress.

I moved it to a 10 gallon, and added 5 tbsp of salt (1tbsp/2g). We’ll see how it goes.

Hi friends! We have a 20g community tank that started with 5 GloFish Danios back in February. We've lost 2 so far, and a 3rd one (the orange one in the photos) is exhibiting the same symptoms. They seem to get thinner and thinner, and their back almost seems like it's arching more too (is this hollow belly? wasting disease?). They get reclusive and stop eating, and a few days later they die. The orange one is currently attempting to eat but is not swimming with the others. I can't tell if it's spitting the food out or not. It seems like it's also getting bullied a bit by the larger Danios now, but not really during feeding time. We're feeding Tetra Color flake food but occasionally mix it up with Repashy, Bug Bites, or blood worms. The first time this happened we did nothing, the 2nd time I dosed the Maracyn and Paracleanse according to directions. Water parameters: Temp: 78F Ammonia: 0 Nitrites: 0 Nitrates: 30 ph: 7.4 KH: 5 GH: 9 Other tankmates: Guppies, Endlers, Panda Cories, Otos, Neon Tetras, Assassin Snails, and a teeny tiny Albino Longfin Bristlenose Pleco (we're planning to upsize this tank in the near future before it gets big). Currently doing weekly 25% water changes, and gravel vac every 4 weeks. I have 10g tanks I can move it to for treatment, but I'm wondering what the best thing to do is? I have not treated with salt before, but since I've tried the antibiotic and anti-parasitic before, I don't think it's worth trying them again. Just wanted to get the forum's thoughts on next steps. I've also heard GloFish Danios might be a little weaker due to them being bred from an albino Danio morph. Has that been anyone else's experience, or is that just nonsense? Thanks in advance! -Justin

I've tried a bunch over the last few months, and my favorite has been Salvinia. It seems to do well in our water, and readily "carpets", and then it's easy to propagate by pulling them off. Red root floaters died pretty quickly for me (maybe due to a lack of light at the surface?). Water lettuce is neat but a little too chunky for my tank aesthetic. A lot of our fish also seem to like floating Pogostemon for surface cover. I've been keeping one stem floating for a Betta in a community tank. I have a pH of 7.4 and moderately hard water.

My Scarlett Temple looked great for months while I had my Fluval Nano 3.0 at 100% on an 25g cube. Then I realized I had too much light for the tank, dialed it back eventually to 35%, and got the algae under control, but that one plant looks just like yours now. Meanwhile, the 20g community tank with a Marina kit light in my 6yo's room has the most beautiful Scarlett Temple in the house, and zero algae 🤣.

How about Fish Boy? https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpJpBddbpb--c_A7Rgxsvlg He has one of the cleanest fish rooms, sells online, and is working on opening up a retail store.

Nice! I'm planning to repurpose our baby bottle drying rack when we're done with it: Drying Racks & Accessories | TOMY US.TOMY.COM

I’ve had mixed results with smaller tanks, unless you have an auto water change, they can foul up 2.5g fairly quickly. I’m having pretty good success in a hang-on breeder box attached to a 10g fry system tank. My goal has been to over-feed so they reproduce a ton, so maybe 2.5g would be ok with lighter feeding/algae grazing.

@HalJ You may already know this, but: When I first started using the API liquid test kits, I didn’t thoroughly read the instructions on the nitrate tests. I wasn’t shaking the 2nd bottle before using, and was getting near-zero readings. Once I realized what I was doing wrong, I discovered my nitrates were way too high. But if your plants are dying slowly and you don’t have algae problems, this probably isn’t the case.

My females drop every ~34 days, so I think if you went 6 weeks with no babies and she doesn’t look super rounded, you’re good to go. This might take several months though as noted above.

Who knew 2x4s could look so good when stained! Nice job.

Bentley Pascoe also has a good video about just the fry system

I love the lilies in this tank.

Yup! A lot of our switches are Zwave, which we bridge with SmartThings and schedule with Alexa routines. I’ll use the same for the lights, but not sure yet how I’ll schedule water changes. Is that what you meant by automation?

@Sleepyno scales were popping out/pineconing but I suppose it could still be dropsy. I've been reading through these trying to get a clear picture of symptoms and treatments: 11. Fish Disease Symptoms AQUARIUMSCIENCE.ORG I have noticed stringy poop in the past in the community tank these came from, but I don't see it right now on this Gourami. I think I'll end up trying a medicated flake food from Angels Plus, but I'm still trying to decide what to target. I have a female guppy in another tank with stringy poop, but I'm not sure if that's related. That was a long way of saying I'm just observing everything right now and trying to narrow it down. 😃

Nice! I'm hoping to get some to grow out in a 30 breeder soon.

Hi everyone! Going to try out this journal thing. I currently have a Home Depot rack with 11 tanks on it. I drilled the tanks and ran a drain to a sump pump in another room, and I have a linear piston air pump powering them. I fill a 32g trash can with tap water and Prime for water changes. Here's what it looks like: The things I'd like to improve upon by building a fish room: I'm powering the entire rack (4 lights, 9 tank heaters, 1 AquaClear) with a single 15A non-GFCI outlet, and there isn't another outlet nearby. So I'm going to carefully plan outlet locations/breakers/GFCI/etc. In addition to the tank heaters, I have an electric oil heater warming the room to 75, but the room is pretty large, and includes a stairwell to the first floor. Ideally I'll be able to heat a smaller room to a consistent temp, and do away with most of the in-tank heaters. I'm going to plan an automatic water change system, so this is a good opportunity to incorporate that. I'd like to add a sink, so that I can do things like rinse test tubes or make brine shrimp without running up and down the steps. I have an idea to do 2 separate lighting circuits, so that I can have much lower brightness lights on for longer during the day without growing a lot of algae. I'd also like to make the room a lot brighter overall. More tanks! I'm already running out of room, so I'd like to plan for at least 40-50 tanks, but will likely start closer to 20-25. And probably wishful thinking, but I think I can keep the room more organized if I plan storage/etc better. This part of our basement is naturally split by a support column, I-beam, and soffit for HVAC ducts. These make the ceiling pretty low, but I think I can make it up with thin shelving and spreading out a bit more. Here are the dimensions I'm planning on: The bottom wall will be new, and that door will be the entry door. The right door goes to storage and our HVAC system. The top door is a thin room with our electrical panel, water heater, and oil tank. I'm hoping I can fit a ~75-100g water tote in there. Here's the space after draping some plastic: And the other side where the fish rack currently is: I spent last weekend framing it out and installing a door. Here's what it looks like now: This was my first time using steel studs. They're really great! You can carry 10 through a house under one arm, they cut easily with metal shears, and the room wasn't covered in sawdust when I was done. They were also about the same price as wood 2x4s. I chose them because the other basement walls were already steel studs, and some suggested that basements use metal instead of wood framing due to moisture. I had to get creative with keeping the existing drain and air PVC functional: Next up is electrical! Hoping to find some time this weekend to wire outlets and install new breakers.

Thanks @Irene! I haven't put these fish through the med trio as they predated my knowledge of it 😄. I'll try that next if no other symptoms pop up.

Here are some pics of the female (at least I think it’s a female). She’s been acting normal, but seems bloated. I thought originally she was full of eggs, but then I read that egg-layers don’t appear much larger. I just moved her to a bare-bottom tank so I can monitor her poop. Do you think she’s egg-y, bloated, or just we’ll-fed? Should I do anything or just observe her for a few weeks? I’d like to move her to a community tank eventually.

Here’s a video of him with coloration, but before the odd behavior: https://share.icloud.com/photos/0VHnz-Vzlr612naljQN8ynqdA#East_Bradford_Township Also the water temperature is 78F.

I had a pair of Honey Gourami in a 10 gallon tank that I was attempting to breed. Both fish seemed happy and healthy since we got them in February. They had been in this tank for 3 months. I got the male to make a bubble nest a few times, mostly whenever I fed blood worms. About a month ago the male developed a dark orange color, which I assumed were breeding colors. I noticed maybe 5 days ago that the male was just staring off, no personality. His tail was making a wave motion. It wouldn’t eat anything I put in the tank. Yesterday I didn’t know what to do, so I moved the female and dosed Maracyn, assuming it might be a bacteria issue. Today I did a 50% water change because he still looked bad, and a few hours later I found him at the bottom of the tank. I tested the water after he died and nitrates were around 40, which seems high after a 50% water change. I try to keep tanks around 20. With nothing else to go on I’m assuming water quality got too bad. I also found planaria in the tank. I should have tested the water when I first noticed him acting weird. Ammonia 0 Nitrite 0 pH 7.4 which my tap water stays pretty solid at. I’d like to know what happened, but more importantly I’m wondering what I should do to the female. Should I give her the med trio? Should I deworm her? I haven’t dewormed a fish yet. Her belly is big but I assumed that was from eggs. Otherwise she seems totally normal. She’s also in a tank with 7 Panda Corys now. I’m assuming whatever I treat her with I should also treat them now. Apologies for the rotated picture, I’m not sure my my iPhone did that.

@Kyrra thanks for the suggestion. I don’t believe there are any typical water quality issues. The tank has been cycled for a few months, ammonia and nitrite are 0, nitrates are usually 20 and never more than 40 ppm and I do weekly 25% water changes. I have Ember Tetras, Otos, and Amano Shrimp in the tank all doing great. Unfortunately I found the snail dead earlier this week. The only thing I can think of: I did do a full dose of Seachem Excel a few days before this. I was doing smaller doses for a while and realized I should be doing more for my tank size according to the label. I’ve since stopped using it after researching how that product actually works. Is it possible I poisoned the snail and it was on its way out from that point forward? I hope to try another Mystery Snail soon. It added a nice contrast of color to the tank and it was fun to see where it ended up each day. I might try a different store.

I learned a lot watching this too. He uses that chart for the entire video.

We have a Mystery Snail that I keep finding upside-down. I’ve left it for 3-4 days before and it doesn’t move. If I move it and place it upright, I’ll find it upside-down somewhere else in the tank a few hours later. One time it spent a few days climbing some stem plants we have, but then I found it upside again where it stayed for a few days until I moved it. Should I just leave it? Can it flip itself back over?