Nikki

The ants attacked the plumbers. Fire ants really hurt. Plumbers broke out a torch and went after the ants around the well so they could work. Then a few days later we sprinled food grade diatomaceous earth around the well. Had dead ants in the in house filter for a week or 2 but all ants were gone pretty fast.

Yes it was really horrible. The plumbers used a powered packaged product. They told us to run all the water but that it was safe and similar to city treatment. I still refused to drink it for a month. Our well water has always tasted good and my fish grow and breed. It took about a month for all the normal parameters to return. I waited as long as I could to change water in all tanks. But eventually I had to do it.

The remaining 2 gf are Ryukins and about 4 yrs old and have no signs of sickness. None of the fish had weight loss, red finns or signs of parasites. They were all between 1and 2 yrs old except for 1 Ryukin at 4 yrs. I sit very close to the tank at work and I would notice small signs of a couple of scales not laying flat on their chest between pectoral fins. Then the typical progression of water retention until the fish became week over a period of 2 to 4 weeks. No antibiotics helped, salt or methylene blue treatments. When they became too week I euthanized with overdose of Syncain powder. The tank is 150 g, 2 Oase 800 filters, external thermostat set at 76.5 F. 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite, 0 chlorine, less than 10 nitrates. Ph comes out of the tap at about 6.7 and rises to around 7.6 after 2 days. Water is a little soft here in NC and I add baking soda at weekly water change. The well was shocked by the plumbers using a packaged powered treatment. It threw all water parameters off. It took around a month before I was comfortable with the water again and for a return to normal water parameters again. The fire ants attacked the plumbers and plumbers fired up a torch and burned them. A few days later we sprinkled food grade diatomaceous earth near the well and no more ants. Some dead ants were picked up in the home filter for about a week or so. I treat for parasites once or twice per year. I have used prazipro, paracleanse in the past, and this year will probably use paracleanse then expel. Can't remember if I've used expel on the gf tank before. What I have started doIng differently since these fish deaths- only changing 25% instead of 50% water, always adding declorinator even though the well is normal again, breeder said to use Aqueon declorinator instead stead of Prime (i can't remember the reason), set up a tank to always use aerated and age water for every water change. Also I have changed their diets to reduce protein- live floating plants once per day, frozen brine shrimp or blood worms in morning and wheat-germ pellet soaked in vitachem for dinner. I am starting to restock now and will see if things stay good over months, but I can't think of anything else to do better and am open to all suggestions. There are pictures and video of the tank and gf @flamingfanny on Instagram from prior to the well issue which occurred in February.

I had fire ants get into my well. We caught it quickly. Installed new well pump (it was 20 yrs old), replaced water heater (because it was 15 yrs old), and we needed to shock the well to ensure the ants didn't bring disease into our drinking water. All normal water parameters - tested by me and the guys fixing the issue prior to shocking. We ran water for days afterward to flush everything out. I eventually had to change water in the 90g Angelfish tank and the 150 g goldfish tank. I overdosed prime even though my test kit said the water was free of chlorine. Ph was off, alkalinity was off so i buffered with baking soda and aged + aerated the water for 2 days befor using it. Did this for the next few water changes and all parameter returned to normal in a few weeks. All Angelfish good. The goldfish however...over the next 10 weeks of the 7 fancies I had I lost 1 4yr old Ryukin, and one by one lost all 4 of my Orandas. All 5 developed dropsy symptoms. The remaining 2 Ryukin seem fine. The 10 Hillstream Loaches in that 150g goldfish tank had no problem at all. What could I have done better?

You bet! Thank you. I treated yesterday and everyone is fine. 😁 I actually called the manufacturer of that product to see how many days I should treat and they called me back to say 3 days.

Thanks you! This is very helpful.

150g goldfish tank with jumbo Oranda and Ryukin and a colony of Hillstream Loaches. Tank has been stable for a couple of years. Was planning to just treat some fungus or bacterial issue that popped up on an Oranda with some Microbe-lift Broad Spectrum. Not a big deal and I just wanted to try this treatment and see how it worked. If it did great and if it didn't then I can do the dip (but it would be great if I didn't have to mess with dipping). Then in a few weeks was just going to do an annual de-worm with Prazi. But I forgot that Hillstream Loaches can be sensitive. I have really enjoyed watching the loaches grow and breed and they have done so well with the goldfish. But I never thought about what if I wanted to just treat the goldfish in the tank. SOOOOO....my question is - just how sensitive are the Hillstream Loaches to various meds?

This is so great. Can you tell me what you fed in the beginning and if you had to change water frequently? I have an accidental spawn (i typically remove the eggs) and I have frozen brine and frozen daphnia on hand. I also have flake in the freezer. I would rather not hatch baby brine if I can avoid it.

They are super cute! Very exciting! Just watch closely for ammonia in the newly cycled tank. 🥰

Well I'm always excited to show pics of my goldies! Ryukins and Orandas in 150 gallon. 1st pic of my Calico at a show in Florida.

Awe! Thank you. I'm so glad they made you smile too. They are like a basket of puppies- hard not to love them.

That's exactly what my husband said. 🤣

My office is in the fish room in our house. I find myself watching the goldfish while I'm on calls. The activity of so many colors and "fluffy" tails busily sifting thru the substrate or demanding lunch just makes me smile every day. Thought I would share a pic or 4.

Hi there. I can say it's that time of year and one of my female Orandas has spawned 3 times already since early March. There will be chasing by the males and they dive into my ferns and the eggs start flying out. This helps the female get the eggs out. Mine start before dawn and generally are over it by noon. Then they spend the day finding the eggs and eating them. If the female is too stressed you can remove her after into another tank and let her recover but mine have been fine after and are just looking for lunch. Hope this helps.

Thanks you guys! Honestly I had no idea I would enjoy these guys this much.

I wanted to post a fun update to my topic from January. I added 4 of my Reticulated Hillstream Loaches to the goldfish tank about 2 weeks after my original post. I noticed they grew more quickly in the 150 gallon goldie tank than the ones I left in the 40 gallon. They look really great and they are spawning! BTW baby RHLs are super cute. Just totally made my day. You have to look closely at the pics to see them. I had trouble getting the camera to focus on them. The one under the rock has an adult right behind him. I also added a pic of another adult.

Thanks everyone. I have very large rocks I originally set in there so the hillstream's can hideout. That being said I dropped a couple of frozen brine shrimp cubes in the tank this afternoon and watched one goldfish suck one whole cube into his mouth and swim around for a couple of minutes chomping on it until it was gone- like a brine shrimp popsicle. Maybe I'll give it another month and then look at them again. I can't believe he ate the whole thing in one bite.

My goldfish are quite large (up to 8.5 inches). I ordered several Reticulated Hillstream Loaches last September to go in the 150 gallon tank with the goldfish. The loaches arrived and were about .25 inches. I put them in a separate tank to grow up a bit. They are now close to an inch. Assuming I can catch them will they be ok with the goldfish now? I know that they would fit in the mouth of the goldfish, but I don't know the behavior. Will they stay out of site in the rocks and plants or will goldfish pull them off the aquarium glass and swallow them??

Wanted to share my experience using Expel-P to treat for Camallanus. This is only my experience and it is very limited to this one time use with very few fish exposed to the product, but I thought some people might be interested to know the outcome. I recently bought an adult male long-fin BN Pleco from a large on-line retailer. He arrived ok, but with fin-rot and a lot of ammonia in the shipping bag. I quarantined in a tub (quarantine tank temporarily in use to grow out a group of Angelfish) with a cycled filter and heater. I used ParaCleanse & Maracyn during quarantine. Pleco did well in quarantine. I moved him to my 90 gallon planted low-tech aquascape containing 3 Corydoras, 1 half-dollar sized Angelfish and a small handful of pond snails. Two hours after I turned him loose in the tank I stopped to look at him on the glass. That's when I saw something red protruding from his vent. I picked up my reading glasses and identified what appeared to me to be Camallanus. I ordered Excel-P and kept confirming the presence of the parasite in the vent over the few days it took for the de-wormer to arrive. I left him in the tank and treated the entire 90 gallons. I followed the instructions on the box for the 1 dose and the parasite was gone from the Pleco's vent when I observed him on the glass the next day after treatment and I performed the water change per instructions. Other tank mates were normal and active. Unfortunately, all the pond snails lived (drats). I don't keep shrimp. Instructions say to treat an additional time a week later. I did not do this because I wanted to see if they will show up again. I'm 2 weeks out from treatment and I've not observed any Camallanus so far on the Pleco or the Angelfish (I can't see the vents on the Corydoras to say one way or the other), but all fish and snails continue to appear well.

Thank you for posting your very informative video. I really enjoyed seeing your lovely Discus.

Is water hardness that important for fish? My water hardness is about 1 KH and 4 D GH. But my Ph comes out of the well at 6.8 and then stays between 7.0 - 7.2. Do I need to worry about increasing the water hardness? I don't keep shrimp or snails (intentionally).

Nope. I'm a bit surprised that there doesn't appear to be something already commercially available.

Hi everyone! I'm having some trouble finding a holder for my steel lily pipes that will fit on my 90 gallon rimmed tank. Any suggestions?

Hi everyone! I'm having some trouble finding a holder for my steel lily pipes that will fit on my 90 gallon rimmed tank. Any suggestions?