Schwack

I hoard them, like health potions in a video game. One day, I might REALLY need to stick fish stickers but today is not that day.

Right? I can't find anyone on the internet who has had the same experience with their biofilter being wiped out by levamisole hcl. It's a commonly used dewormer, at least for red worms, and I would expect SOMEONE else to have experienced this. I had cut back feedings to once every 3 days or so and am now back to feeding lightly once a day. I'll keep an eye on it, but I'm stumped by the steady rise in ammonia and flat levels of nitrates. Dead fish? Definitely not. I kept a close count on 'em. Dead shrimp was my second guess, after piles of rotting worms, since they've been breeding like little water rabbits. I've torn up every bit of hardscape in the tank in search of a stray body, but no dice. Like I said, I'm at a total loss to explain how an anthelmintic would wipe out bacteria, but in both tanks I dosed the levamisole I have the same issue. It's blowin' my mind.

Yep, my first thought was that I'd released so many dead worms into the tank and the resulting decay was causing the ammonia spikes. Went through and did an extra thorough cleaning. I ended up cleaning out my intake sponge last night because it was full of what appear to be bunches of dead worms. The sponge looked like it had somehow pulled a bunch of dog hair out of the water. I was wracking my brain all day trying to figure out how dog hair had gotten in the tank. It wasn't until I threw one under the microscope that I realized they were all worms. I've got a few pre-packaged carbon bags I can throw in the HOB. It'll probably be cheaper to grab loose media and a bag once I run out, especially if I'm swapping them every couple days. I'll keep up with the 25% daily water changes I've been doing, they seem to keep the ammonia levels down. I guess I'm just gonna be fish-in cycling these tanks for however long that takes. Yuck, I had hoped I was done with this after I had several tanks with established cycles.

Long story short, I ended up with camallanus worms in at least two tanks. Since my fish were no longer eating, I opted to dose twith levamisole. Per the instructions from Select Aquatics, I dosed twice over two days (25% water change + 1 dose, 25% water change + 1 dose.) I used the 15 gallon spoon for my 20 gallon long (it holds ~16.5 gallons of water after substrate, hardscape etc.) so I'm reasonably certain I didn't overdose. No inverts were impacted, and my remaining fish have been passing worms like crazy. Since then all my tank's inhabitants have been acting normally, albeit with reduced appetites. However, since the levamisole treatment I've been able to detect ammonia in my tank. It's been cycled and running for close to a year with no issues and the only change I've made in the last several months is the application of the de-wormer. I've been monitoring it over 4 days now, and I'm consistently seeing detectable and rising ammonia levels in the water. I vacuumed the substrate thoroughly for each water change to help remove any dead worms, and to remove rotting organic matter in general. I would be very surprised if built up organics were the cause of the current ammonia spikes. The tank is very lightly stocked, thanks to the worms, but there's clearly not enough of a working bio filter to keep up. I've tried bringing media and filters from other cycled tanks in to help things catch up, but that's been no help. My concern is that the levamisole has wiped out my bio filter and since it's still in the water, is wiping out any new bacteria I introduce. I'm at a bit of a loss in terms of ways to remove the medication from the water. I had some carbon on hand, and I've added that to my HOB, but I'm not sure if there's more I could be doing. Other than carbon and water changing, is there anything I can do to speed up the process of clearing the levamisole from the tank? It seems like its presence is wiping out any beneficial bacteria I introduce. I'm also not able to find anyone whose experience with levamisole mirrors my own. Most people seem really happy with the treatment and don't experience a cycle crash. Any thoughts on what might've caused my treatment to go haywire? Thanks in advance for any advice! Battling these worms has had me bummed out for weeks now. I felt like I finally had the upper hand once I managed a diagnosis and treatment, but it's gone all pear-shaped on me.

Hopefully this doesn't count as a bump, but I figured I'd document my experience dealing with these stupid worms in case someone ends up searching the forums for them in the future. I haven't lost any fish or inverts since I dosed with levamisol on February 2nd (200mg). Per the instructions from select aquatics I did a 25% water change 24 hours later and followed up with a second dose. There was quite a bit of fish poop after a day or so and I noticed one fish appeared to be showing signs of popeye. Water tests showed .5ppm ammonia 0 no2/5 no3. I was a bit concerned, but I figured the raised ammonia levels were due to rotting organic material/worms the fish had expelled. I did an extra thorough vacuuming of the substrate, got things nice and clean and waited another 24 hours. There were still detectable levels of ammonia and my nitrates were sitting very low. Checking the other tank I dosed with levamisol and it was also showing detectable levels of ammonia. It appears as though the levamisol crashed the nitrogen cycle in both tanks. Super confusing. It left all my inverts alone but looks like it wiped out my bio filter. I've since moved seasoned filters and substrate from a tank I've been keeping ready for fry into each treated tank. Since the stock levels are very low, I'm hoping this will provide enough biofilter until the tanks can recover... unless of course the residual levamisol disrupts the bacteria on the new media. Anyone else who has dosed levamisole run into this problem? If it kills the bacteria on the seasoned media I added, I'm not really sure what to do. I'm planning to treat the fish with popeye with some maracyn in a QT tank, but these cascading problems are killing my motivation to keep these tanks going.

I haven't tried the coop's fry food yet, but I have been raising CPD fry (basically eyes on a tail) on a mix of First Bites and Sera Micron fry food. I only recently picked up the jar of Micron, and wish I'd had it when they were only days old. It is consistently tiny enough for week old fry to eat, the Hikari had enough that were their size, but definitely larger pieces mixed throughout. I've continued feeding both, just to mix things up with them, and was going to throw in a bottle of coop fry food with my next order to increase variety.

I almost ordered my first batch from them, but I saw a review that suggested they would arrive as very small juvenile fish. I believe aquahuna responded saying that their fish are intended for seasoned fish keepers who have experience acclimating and fattening up young fish. They've also updated their info section on cpds to reflect the size and color you'll receive. I wasn't confident I had the knowledge to be successful at the time and ended up waiting. I got mine from my lfs the day they received the shipment. They were small and pale, but colored up with steady feedings of baby brine shrimp. It was a challenge to get them to eat flake from the surface. I ended up crushing it up, mixing with water and squirting it near them. Now days they'll eat whatever, but initially they were very picky.

Celestial Pearl Danios Bettas I like both of these because their personalities are a ton of fun. Bettas obviously have a lot of personality, but I was surprised by how friendly and outgoing my cpds have become. They started out so timid and now they swarm the glass whenever someone comes near. Their color after a few weeks of good food is amazing. I just love the little guys. Chili Rasbora round out my top three but I've never kept them. Harlequin, Pork Chop, and Emerald Dwarf Rasbora are also right up there. I've yet to keep any of these guys but I will one day.

I don't doubt that at all, and maybe this is a topic for a whole new thread, but why do concerns about nitrate toxicity remain so prevalent? I've seen people on other forums criticised for having 20ppm nitrate, which is generally what I try to maintain.

I've used kosher salt in the past, but ended up picking up a pound of sea salt from the bulk section of a local market. They had it for under a dollar a pound. I didn't notice any marked difference in my hatches between the two. The biggest difference has been swapping to coop brine shrimp. The eggs seem smaller/finer, almost powder-like, and I definitely end up with more casings floating at the top after 24 hours.

Of these, the one I'd want the most is a nitrate colorimeter calibrated to the API kit. I can't tell 20 from 40 from 100. I've got reference images and such, but it's all basically just RED. I'd spend $50 to get an accurate nitrate reading without hesitation. Looks like the Hanna Instruments model is only for marine aquaria though.

An egg tumbler isn't necessarily required to breed fish. I've never used one, but I briefly looked into them when I set out to breed danios and rainbowfish. They're only necessary if the eggs you're trying to hatch need constant, gentle motion.

Sad, but informative update. As expected, she didn't make it. I had been considering humanely euthanizing her, but she beat me to it. I must've found her shortly after she passed, only my jerk of a pleco had found her and was trying to make her into dinner. The upside is that I was able to perform a bit of a fish autopsy. As grim as it was, I feel like it's something I'll be doing any time I run into a mystery death in the future. Had I opened up the first fish I lost, I feel confident I wouldn't have lost 3 more. Long story short, she was full of worms. I'm assuming these are camallanus worms, but hopefully someone can help with an ID. Warning: Worm pictures in the link below. I don't want to attach them directly to this post since some folks get squeamish around parasites (myself included. Extracting these was not a good time.) https://i.imgur.com/SOxi4AY.jpg https://i.imgur.com/domiHpW.jpg https://i.imgur.com/UrWGfZW.jpg They were still drawing blood and moving around when I removed them, and I'm guessing this is just the tip of the wormberg. So, can anyone positively ID these as camallanus worms? I've got an order of levamisole on the way, but it won't arrive until Thursday. I called a bunch of farm and ranch stores nearby, and none of them carry it as a goat/cattle dewormer, it's all fenbendazole. I contacted a fish store in Portland, and over the phone they said they carry one product with levamisole, so if I can get a positive ID I'll be cruising up there tomorrow. I can see my other female forktail is behaving erratically and I'm afraid waiting until Thursday will mean she's gone too. Anyway, I wanted to post an update in case someone down the road runs into a similar bunch of mystery deaths. Even if their bodies look totally normal on the outside, it may be worth your time to glance at their internals when you have the chance.

I've had someone suggest camallanus worms, and that seems to line up with what I'm experiencing. Prior to this, I lost 3 spotted rainbowfish over the course of 4 months. They were all 6-8 months in my care, so I chalked it up to age. Everything looked normal about their bodies and I know they're a short lived fish. Since everyone else was behaving normally age seemed like a reasonable cause of death. Looking back, and through posts by other who've battled camallanus, that seems like a strong possibility. There is a small, red thread hanging from her vent. It was also pointed out that she has a red spot on her abdomen, which shouldn't be there. Based on her behavior this morning, it's far too late to save her, but I'd like to save her tankmates. I ordered some levamisole from select aquatics. I'll dose the tank my rainbows are in, and likely at least one other. I transferred some cory cats out of my rainbowfish tank and they almost certainly carried it to their new tank. I've got a small tank with CPD and fry that has shared tools/equipment, and I'm not sure if I should treat them as well. Anyone who's experience a camallanus outbreak able to weigh in?

I've had these rainbowfish for ~4 months now, and they've been bulletproof until today. I noticed one of my females resting near the bottom of the tank and sort of swimming in place. She looks normal, except her fins are tucked and there's something dangling just in front of her anal fin. https://imgur.com/a/qigpHlv So far, she's done this twice today. The first time lasted ~30 minutes before she swam up and was back to normal for a few hours. As she was swimming up she was flaring her fins a bit. Second time was about an hour ago and she just recently went back to swimming normally. I have a hard time believing this is normal behavior, but nothing in the tank has changed for weeks. Tank parameters are 0/0/20 8.0pH 78F in a 20 gallon long with several other forktail rainbows, none of whom are acting strangely. They're fed a varied diet of frozen worms/daphnia, live baby brine shrimp, BugBites flake and VibraBites. Could this be related to spawning behavior? I've found a few eggs in the sponge filter, so I know they've spawned in the past. I'm guessing parasite, just based on the dangly bit attached to her body, but I figured I would throw it to people with more expertise diagnosing things like this. Thanks for any help with a diagnosis!

Seconding some handfuls of seasoned substrate in a mesh bag. They're $2-3 at big box stores and might help get things moving, but I'd still consider changing up the stocking in the 29 gallon. I'm not enough of an expert to trust my gut, so I use AqAdvisor to get a ballpark idea of what "too many fish" looks like. They put your tank's capacity at 209%. Just means you could be in for a lot of water changes down the road in order to keep your levels of ammonia/nitrite/nitrate under control. I could very well be wrong on this front though!

Alkalinity/Acidity is a measure of your water's pH (presence of hydrogen.) Ammonia strips measure how much NH3 is present in your water. NH3 is produced through decay of organic matter and fish waste.

Would something like Star San (dodecylbenzenesulfonic acid and phosphoric acid) be acceptable for use in an aquarium setting? I use it constantly for home brewing, and don't suffer any ill effects (not from the sanitizer at least.) Would a cleaning and drying with something like that do the trick?

I'm not sure what kind of bioload 50 neon tetras produce, but I'm guessing it's fairly high in a 29G which is already heavily stocked. If you only used water from your 55, you probably didn't bring much bacteria over, the nitrifying bacteria you need doesn't spend much time floating about the water column. Is there any hardscape/filters/plants you can swap from the 55 to the 29? That might help speed up this tank's cycle. If not, you're likely going to end up going through what sounds like a very bumpy fish-in cycle. Even with some hardscape from the 55, it's likely going to take time for the tank to catch up to your stock level. How are ammonia levels in the tank so far? Nitrite is rough enough, but I wouldn't be surprised to see ammonia running at detectable levels too. Since you have the 55, have you gone through a fish-in cycle previously? edit: I missed the part about the other test strips. Assuming ammonia reads 0, that'd be a good thing. Any chance you have a liquid test kit that might give a clearer picture of your water quality?

That's probably good news, any movement on the nitrates front? A week might be too soon to expect results, but at least you'd know things were happening! As far as ammonia toxicity goes, it looks like you'd need to hit ~1.5ppm before seeing lots of fish death. I'm not an expert when it comes to fish ailments, but it wouldn't surprise me if stress is taking a toll on your guppy. Hopefully others have some ideas for how to help your guppy, if possible. My only suggestion would be using aquarium salt at 1tsp/gallon in some kind of quarantine space, but that's really just a general cure-all, not targeted to any specific symptoms.

Do you know your temperature and pH? There's a relationship between those two that can be used to determine NH3 toxicity. Have you tested the water's nitrite levels? If you've been loading up with Fritzyme and fish waste, you may be hitting a nitrite spike as the tank cycles and bacteria grows. Water quality could be OK and your guppy may be stressed from all the changes taking place. Could also be some residual damage from ammonia exposure if the levels got high enough to damage its gills. It's not super surprising that your ammonia is super light. You've got lots of water volume for what you have stocked in the tank, done recent water changes and been adding bacterial boosters. My opinion would be to stick with the course you're on. Fish in cycles for new aquarists are tough, but lots of people end up doing it this way out of necessity (myself included.) It's hard, but remember that patience is key here. I know it's really hard to resist the temptation to DO ALL THE THINGS, especially when fish are dying, but sometimes less is more. Letting things settle can do wonders for you tank, especially if water quality is looking OK.

Just noticed some hydra in my hang-on breeder box full of CPD fry. I'm sure it's from all the first bites they've been getting, but I'm not sure how to cut back on their food without also killing all the fry. Obviously, putting a larger fish in there isn't much of an option. Any suggestions for handling them in a breeder box/grow-out tank? I saw 3 this evening and managed to pretty easily suck them out with a dropper. I know that's not a permanent solution, but I felt like leaving them in there overnight was tempting fate.

My tank gets some direct sunlight for ~2 hours a day and only during certain parts of the year. So far, the only issue it's caused is some blue green algae growing between the glass and lower substrate. Not a huge deal, but something I wouldn't otherwise have to deal with it I could keep the tank in solely artificial light.

I picked up a bag of this for my latest tank and I've been very happy with the 1630 grit. I rinsed it lightly and then have just gravel vacced the super fine particulate that didn't get rinsed off whenever it settles on the surface. My corys dig so far, even the betta that's in there seems cool exploring the tank bottom. It feels quite soft to the touch once it's submerged. It's sort of tough to tell what you're getting since all their various sizes of blasting material end up on one pallet at the store. My wife ended up at a TSC by chance and I asked her to grab a bag. It was a bit of a cluster between her not knowing what she was really looking for and the employees being a bit clueless. I attached a picture of the bag showing where they mark the coarseness, knowing that it's clearly marked on the top of the bag would've saved some headache.

If I were you, I'd stick to doing the small daily water changes. Adding plants isn't going to hurt your cycling process, so if it's convenient go nuts with the plants, haha. You probably won't see a huge change as a result, but more plants will be beneficial for the tank's long-term health.