PotatoFish

Good luck with the new tank! What do you have in the tank so far in terms of plants and/or hardscape? Also, to echo what has already been said, sometimes even with all the precautions we take, fish do die on us, especially if they're new, and we don't know what happened before they came to us.

I had tried hydrogen peroxide before, and it has its uses. It can kill the current BBA and allow time for more permanent countermeasures to take effect, like growing enough aquarium plant life to outcompete it. Hydrogen peroxide works quite well if used properly, but I would caution new users against dosing their aquarium with it. Take care not to add too much while doing spot treatments in your tank during a water change also...such horror stories I have read. I also just used to take a toothbrush to the hardscape 😄 But this time around I let it all stay so I could watch the full effects of competing plantlife and "BBA predators."

Indeed! Though Loppy's and Jojo Dojo's deaths were my fault. I had a blackbeard algae problem with the tank and tried to resolve it by adding in some frogbit and water lettuce (regular variety, not dwarf) as well as some livebearers that would pick at it, guppies at first. The goldfish nommed the frogbit right up, one whole leaf at a time, and then proceeded to nom all the roots of the water lettuce. While I never saw it first-hand, I think the dojo loach ate the guppies - observation: one fat belly between feeding times and a disappearance of guppies. I tried larger variatus platies since they were larger...nope, goldfish nommed them. Then came a single, male rosy barb. I had one in the tank before that got along perfectly with the goldfish. The new guy mowed down the BBA. Then, after a few weeks, I go to feed the tank in the morning and noticed the goldfish's fins were torn all to hell - easily 1 cm tatters on the pectoral, pelvic fins, and anal fins with double that for the tail. Out goes the rosy barb, and the next day, the goldfish has, what I can only guess is "stress ich" everywhere. In goes the ich medication, but the next day, more ich followed by a dead goldfish. Dojo loach seemed fine. Left for an overnight outing, and we came back to see the dojo loach dead. So...we started up again with the new set-up in the post. The scientist in me says, "Live, fail, learn, fail better next time."

Wider tank shots can be a bit trickier. For fishy close-ups I just use my iPhone to take a video. Then, I pause the video, scroll through it and screenshot pictures.

Indeed! Ask away, and don't be afraid. This is a very positive forum. The search feature can help you find posts, and don't forget to add tags to your own posts so they'll be easier to find.

I've been lurking around a while and have become a bit more active in the forum lately. I currently reside here in South Korea, and here's a picture of the tank (17gal) in our living room. It is in the process of "conversion" from a goldfish tank. After failing to save our goldfish (Loppy) and dojo loach (Jojo Dojo) from ich (long story), I had to break the news to my kid. Little Man (4yo) was really, REALLY saddened by the loss. He was trying so hard to swallow his tears, but he got so happy when I showed him old videos of Loppy and company. People that say, "It's just a fish" can...(keeping it G-rated) go kick rocks. We had a burial and everything. "Bye fishies! I'll see you again, someday!" I decided to change things up to a nice community tank of smaller fish. I've dubbed it "The Boys" tank since all the livebearers are male. Not all have names yet. The Boys kicked BBA butt (shared that story here), and I'm REALLY enjoying being able to keep a wider variety of plants. The fish and inverts all get along peacefully, and the corydoras get targeted feeding if I see their bellies aren't filling up after a feeding. Currently inside: 1 gold dust molly (tentative: B.B.Asaurus-Rex) 1 variatus platy (Blimpy Major) 1 teacup platy (Blimpy Minor) 1 yellow cobra guppy 1 green fancy guppy with a giant black tale 1 otocinclus (Otto Von Bismarck II) 1 mystery snail 3 cherry shrimp 3 Amano shrimp 4 bronze corydoras (Cory Corporation) 6 zebra danios ("The Jets") -Big Bertha (largest, striped with a giant spot) -2 with striped patterns -2 with spot patterns -The Grey (semi-albino/lighter striped) 1 Army of mini-ramshorn snails Plants: Crushed Coral Substrate Water Sprite (in substrate) Water Sprite (floating) Dwarf Water lettuce (floating forest) Cabomba (planted) Anubias petite (on rock) Anubias barteri (on rock) Java fern (on rock) Pennywort (in substrate) Pests: Black Beard Algae (dying a slow death) A bit of a long intro...but being verbose is my modus operandi. If you're curious about anything, I'm happy to share what worked and didn't work for me, but I'm no expert...just an enthusiast on the journey.

Q: Nerite snail, otocinclus, or amano? A: Yes 😄 To echo what was said above, the critters are great and help, but more focus could be put towards the causes of the algae. You could limit the light by doing things like cutting down how long you leave the light on or by painting the back (and maybe the sides also) black (or using black background). You could also try my favorite algae solution...build an army of hungry plants to starve out the algae. Floating plants are excellent at pulling stuff from the water and just taking in all the nutrients from the air. And maybe consider tossing in fast-growing plants like water sprite.

How high up is the shelf? Depending on how high it is, you may want to decide based on how easily you can view the inhabitants. Is it so high that you would not be able to see bottom dwellers easily? Because then, maybe you could get some that are both bottom dwellers AND midwater swimmers. Or fish that swim at all levels. If the bottom of the tank is at eye level, maybe get some awesome bottom dwellers and some fish that look good from below (I have no idea what those fish would be though). If the main viewing point is from across the room or some distance away, I suggest going with some bigger fish. Good luck, and I hope you keep us posted on your choices!

Planaria or detritus worms, my guppies nommed them just the same as hydras. I'm sure yours will as well. Admittedly, a part of me is a little irked watching detritus worms wriggle around the water. I just have to remind myself they're fish food, not fish parasites.

I would disagree and say that bladder snails eat live plants. They will eat dead or dying plant leaves though. If eating live plants were the case, the snail army would be a far bigger problem on the forum. As for snail eaters...I like dojo loaches (read: "voracious snail wood chippers"), but they disturb a lot of substrate and can get pretty messy. I second the notion of pea puffers; those little guys are awesome helicopters of snaily death.

I once had a nightmare that the fish tank (17gal) broke and flooded the livingroom. Now, with hundreds of gallons of water in the livingroom, I had to figure a way to get enough food to the fish because they might not be able to find the food I dropped...and oh. my. God...what the heck would I do about filtration and algae management?!?! First thing I did when I woke up was check EVERYTHING in, on, and around the tank.

Ah, I understand now... If overfeeding is your concern, maybe you could try portioning it all out beforehand. Like put the whole meal serving in medicine containers (those things that have multiple compartments for each day of the week). I do that when on vacation for people who come to feed fish. It might help with the impulse to feed more. Or...you could just get an autofeeder. Then again, if the feeding is causing the stress, maybe rehome the filterfeeders so you can focus on feeding the fishies. It would be one less food type to think about and keep track of. The pleco, maybe drop some wafers to target feed it. They'd be way too big for the others. Also...is that a corydoras I see in the upper right of your picture?

Do YOU like the tank? Are you happy with the tank? Do they all get along? If yes to all three, I say keep it as is. Awesome tank, by the way!

I miss my nerite. I called him Snowpatch because of the white bit of shell that got flaked off before I took him home to my crushed coral goldfish tank. Best mawn lower of green spot algae I ever had...you are missed, my snaily friend. May you glide over the endless fields of gastropod heaven and nom your name in all the rocks.

Algae Eaters The otocinclus is fine to put as a single fish of its kind in the tank. I only have one in my community tank. I think it's better to have 1 well-fed oto rather than a small group almost always on the brink because it is a smaller tank. However, if you DO go that route, you could take a rock, drop it in water and keep it in the sun to gather algae. Then, switch it in with one of the rocks in your tank, and take the tank rock to put in the sun...rock on, fish nerm, rock on... Additional Anti-algae Suggestions Utilize some fast-growing plants to suck up extra nutrients. Maybe try some floating plants like dwarf water lettuce or frogbit. I'm not sure what your filter set-up looks like, but if it's exposed and out of the tank, "pimp it out" by dropping a pothos leaf/cutting in there. Test Strips I saw that you use the whole strip. Cory dropped a great tip in a video that you might like. Cut the strip in half...boom...double the amount of strips, mate. Good luck! Keep us posted!

I'm glad you took the leap! It can be scary at first, but conquering that fear leads to a wonderful aspect of aquariums!

Amano shrimp may also have a tint of color in them. Mine started becoming faintly pink after eating a number of red pellets of fish food. One became faintly orange.

With the water sprite, did you make sure not to bury the "crown?" The crown is like the central section from which a lot of roots grow and all the stems grow. If you bury the crown, the plant may not be too happy about that and start converting it's leaves into new plants that grow right from the leaves. The plant can be difficult to keep rooted, and you might want to try it as a floating plant. Just try and trim down some stems and leaves so that it does foat upside down.

I do not know the specific effects of mold on the product. I will leave that to others to explain. I would say that if it is indeed mold, straining it isn't going to get rid of the mold. Some parts will remain and grow back again. Imagine mold on bread. The tiny fluffy circle you see is just the fruiting body of the mold that grows and releases spores. The mycelium (think "fungus roots") is probably far more extensive. Pinch off that tiny bit of mold, and there's probably more you're missing. When you strain, you may get large pieces and leave a slew of tiny bits in the bottle.

I had considered a Rosy Barbasaurus tank for shrimp culls and algae servicing. However, I wanted to deal with the algae issue "in-tank" instead of "out-of-tank" with a toothbrush/hydrogen peroxide/Barbasaurus. I felt it would help me learn more about how to handle such a problem.

What kind of algae are you having trouble with? I posted my "BBA Success Story" last night. But it's rather long... I should also ask what plants you are growing and would be willing to grow to achieve your goal for the aquarium? Have you tried utilizing floating plants? They will suck up nutrients like mad crazy. Also, you could try growing some fast-growing plants like water sprite. As for clean-up crew, rosy barbs are excellent algae eaters and beautiful fish, but they tend to nip fins. Mollies are excellent algae eaters for BBA and hair algae. But like amano shrimp, if you want them to do more than casually nip at it, starve them a bit.

Here are two pictures showing before and after for the dreaded Black Beard Algae! Before After The long story is below...TL;DR provided at the end. The BBA probably developed as a result of a major amount of aquarium light and sunlight. My goldfish and dojo coach also added their own particulates to the water. However, I must add the observation that the BBA did not start to take hold until after the addition of the dojo coach. Due to some unfortunate circumstances involving a rosy barb, the goldfish and dojo loach passed away. A story for another time, perhaps... Tank Set Up A 17 gallon tank (rather odd number, right?) when I mathed it out...it has this large built-in, hang-on-back filter. I have a sizeable coarse sponge on the intake, and 110 cubic inches of space for filter material which I filled up with more coarse sponge sheet that was cut to size. The substrate is crushed coral, pH 7.7ish, hard(er) water, and low nitrate (gotta be up on those water changes). The Fight Begins Now, I was stuck with a fishless tank and lots of BBA. Channeling Barney Stinson, “Challenge, accepted!” I began with decontamination of the “ichy” tank and the addition of 3 amano shrimp and 3 cherry shrimp (my kid was really bummed about the goldfish, Loppy, and dojo loach, Jojo Dojo), and watching shrimp scurry everywhere made him happy. I had read that shrimp are unaffected by ich, and the meds were shrimp-safe. They did a little bit of BBA nomming, but I didn’t expect such a small number to make a noticeable dent. Plant Reinforcements!!! The live plants in the aquarium were annubias petite (not nana petite), and some java fern. For those who are unfamiliar with them, these plants don’t grow fast. However, they did quite well with the goldfish. Irene (Girl Talks Fish) had once mentioned in a video that one of the best defenses against algae was a massive amount of healthy live plants in the aquarium. So, I brought in some cuttings of cabomba, some penny wort, and miniature water lettuce from my tanks at work. Without the loach and goldfish, I could now experiment in this tank with a wider variety of plants that wouldn’t get uprooted and/or eaten. I also bought some water sprite. All but one would NOT stay rooted, so now they just float and grow like the happy weeds they are...you do you, plants. Enter the Fish Mawn Lowers Before I continue, I should echo some great advice I once got, “Don’t get fish JUST to do your job of tank maintenance for you. Get fish that you genuinely want to keep.” I started by rewatching old Aquarium Co Op videos and decided on a bunch of colorful livebearers - a trio of male guppies, a male teacup platy, a male variatus platy, and male gold dust molly. A tank full of baby fish kind of freaks out my wife, so we went with “The Boys” tank. There is also a lone, but VERY well-fed otocinclus named Otto von Bismarck II. A quartet of bronze corydoras later joined the mix. The Turning of the Tide The fish were introduced after quarantining and treatment (reminder: ALWAYS quarantine and treat). And I figured the filtration and plants (just the anubias and java fern) were enough for a fully-grown fancy goldfish (5.5" from nose to peduncle) and a dojo loach (relatively small, like a board marker size). The new fish should be perfectly fine with the added plants. The new little fish even eat less. The new plants flourished once they got settled. The two cabomba, like hydras, grew an extra stem each. The water sprite shot out new growth almost within a day or two. The water lettuce grew from occupying ~15% of the surface area to ~35%. All of this within less than a month. There would be no extra nutrients for the BBA army. Assault on Fortress BBA The BBA growth had been halted. Now, now was the time to attack! And the long-oppressed citizens of the tank, the mini-ramshorn snails could finally grow to full-sized adults without becoming goldfish or dojo-loach food. Small green clearings appeared on the annubias leaves each with a snail shell 1-2mm in diameter slowly moving about. It was not until the third week when the molly had had enough of the yellow cobra guppy's constant displays that the inner dragon was unleashed. It began to rip and tear the BBA off of the anubias leaves, the pots, and the lava rocks. It removed around 85% of the BBA in the "before" picture at this time...I'm not sure who ate it (my guess is the variatus platy, he has grown easily 25-30% bigger in the last month while the others progress normally). The cobra guppy stopped displaying...for like 2 days, and then it was business as usual. The grand BBA army is routed, and the remnants are used to make more snails or get the cobra guppy to back off for an hour or two. The Current State The fish and plants are currently all doing well. One of the bronze corydoras I was worried about due to barbel erosion has since grown faint barbels back and is on its way to becoming a chunky monkey. The amano shrimp have also increased an uncanny amount. I was genuinely worried because of all the molts I saw and thought it might have been my adding fertilizer or doing a water change. But they just keep getting bigger. Three zebra danios were added and succeeded as the right dither fish for the shy corydoras. The BBA exists in small patches and on the edges of leaves. But on the hardscape, it is almost completely eradicated. TL;DR. My goldfish and dojo died, the tank was covered in BBA, fast-growing plants were added to halt growth, livebearers were introduced to nom, and only the molly and mini-ramshorn snails really ripped it apart FTW. Pardon the long story. I wish you all the best in your BBA wars.

I still recall an amazing barb tank (tigers and rosy barbs...maybe cherry, with a dinosaur of a bristlenose pleco) I saw as a university student in a Japanese restaurant. It was about 75gal and heavily planted. Someone there REALLY loved fish and knew their stuff.

I think Cory had mentioned in a video once that getting a group of them would help to disperse the aggression. I rehomed the group I had before I could really watch them interact with each other much. I would like to try keeping them in a group again sometime in the future. Keep me posted on how it works out! I can see a tank boss working out quite nicely, especially if it's an actively swimming one. I think that's a pretty good idea to have a "predatoryesque" fish keeping them on their fintips. If the tank boss chills out, I can see the other fishies going, "No one's looking...no one's looking...PLAY TIME!"

1: I haven't tried too many...does pothos count? 2: Cabomba. I always found them to be a very pleasing shape and an excellent addition to help with ammonia and fry. 3: Duckweed: Might be an oddball, but I really like the way a carpet of duckweed looks on the surface of the water as well as all the dangly roots underneath. 4. Dwarf Water Lettuce: I really like the look of the plant roots below the surface, but admittedly, it's annoying to clean up after them if they suddenly shed a bunch of roots. 5. Pond Plant: I haven't tried ponds...yet 6. Rhizome: All varieties of anubias. I think my favorite is the anubias nana mini. I like the clustering, spacing and size of the leaves.