[Young Bristlenose Plecos]

1 hour ago, gardenman said:

Mine love freeze-dried tubifex worms pressed against the front glass. Every afternoon around four o'clock I'll plop three or four cubes there and they swarm to them. They swim right around my hand as I'm pressing the cubes in place. Suffice to say they get so distracted by the worms that you can very easily catch them. You can also make a simple fish trap by putting something like an empty water bottle with some green beans or other food they love in the tank. They'll find their way into the bottle and the you can simply remove the bottle and fish together. You can condition them to eating in the bottle without removing them first, then remove them as you need to.

My husband tried something similar, just to let some of the younger live bearers eat so we'll target the plecos next time. TY!!!

[Young Bristlenose Plecos]

28 minutes ago, Struggle said:

Lots of patience or tear the tank apart😀. You can try putting zucchini or some other type of food in that they like and leave a net positioned to where you just scoop them and the food up at the same time. I wish you luck!

Thank you! I didn't know they would eat zucchini but I will sure try that. 

[Young Bristlenose Plecos]

Thanks! I did buy a telescoping net so we don't have to drain the tank down too much. It's not 'heavily' planted on the bottom but there is a lot of water sprite growing on the top for all the other fry to hide in.

8 minutes ago, lefty o said:

a very slow steady hand with the net. you have to sort of guide them to the glass with the net. also much easier to catch the smaller ones under 2", after that they seem to really get wary of the net.

 

[Young Bristlenose Plecos]

We had no idea last February that our two Bristlenose were male and female. We've had around 20 babies survive, ranging in age from 5-6 months to 8 weeks old now, housed in our 75G community tank. Our LFS said they'd take some of the older ones in exchange for store credit. I tried to net them but they are soooo fast!! What is the best way to catch them? 

[Pea Puffers. The grumpy old men of the fish tank.]

My husband and I are fascinated by Pea Puffers but don't own any yet. We're new to fish keeping since February this year and wondering if a pea puffer can be kept in a community tank with Gourami, cory's, bristlenose pleco, guppies, and platy's? If so, would you recommend just one or more? It's a planted 75 G with a sump.

[Betta with Dropsy?]

10 hours ago, FriendlyLoach said:

I don't think it is dropsy. He looks stressed though. I would just keep an eye on him, and keep everything stable. I would not treat with any meds, unless there are signs of disease, because it can stress him out. I would try to buff up his immune system, maybe feed him some live food, or frozen food. 

Thanks! He ate a small piece of a Hikari freeze-dried bloodworm this morning. I've never bought live or frozen. Do you have a recommendation? Our local stores are Pet Smart, Petco and Pet World (which seems to be the best of the three).

[Betta with Dropsy?]

11 hours ago, James Black said:

It doesn't look like dropsy, could you send of a closer shot of his eye?

His eyes have always looked like this. His lids are blue. I couldn't get a clear picture of them. TY for the response.

[Betta with Dropsy?]

This is my first post here. I've had my beautiful boy Monet for almost 8 months but I've always thought he looked kind of old. The pet store I bought him from didn't have any idea about how old he actually was. A recent heater malfunction caused the temperature in his tank (it's a 5.5 gallon) to drop from 80 to 75. Then the new heater caused the water temperature to spike up to almost 84. It took several days before it stabilized, and even though I kept cooling it down some, I think the stress was too much. Monet now seems to have dropsy. He's lethargic, his belly is rounded, scales are protruding, and he's refusing to eat. I tried finding info on what to treat him with but it was all quite discouraging. The first thing suggested was salt, so I did a teaspoon per gallon as recommended, just in case by some miracle he can recover. There were a few live plants in there but I took them out before adding the salt. I didn't want to risk stressing him more by moving him to the quarantine tank. I don't have any way to test for hardness but the other water parameters are Ph 7 ; Ammonia 0, Nitrite 0, Nitrate 40. Does it actually sound/look like dropsy to anyone else? Any other ideas for treating?