Jump to content
Watch our video on the rules of this forum.

KaitieG

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    552

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Feedback

    0%

 Content Type 

Posts posted by KaitieG

    Cotton mouth and ????

    in Diseases

    Posted

    This is my very first visible disease issue ever (I've only been in the hobby about 2 1/2 years).  I moved my 20 gallon tank last week, which involved draining almost all of the water.  I essentially ended up with about an 80% water change.  I'm not sure if that's at the root of the issue or not, but I'm thinking that the stress of the moving/water temp possibly swinging/large water change may have upset something.  Anyway...

    Temp: 78

    Ph: 8.2 

    Ammonia: 0

    Nitrite: was 0 before meds, now .5

    Nitrate: 20 

    Gh: about 300

    Kh: about 200

     

    I have 11 neon tetras in the tank, 1 betta, 5 cory habrosus, and 1 lone WCMM who's the last of his small school.  2 of the neons are showing signs of something being wrong.  Neon #1 has a white bump near his mouth, like this:

    spacer.png

    Neon #2 has a dull whitish patch on one side and it looks like the scales are slightly raised.  It takes up about 1/3 of his side.  I cannot get a picture of him with the cloudiness of the meds in the water, and I can't find anything really similar online.  

    The other fish look good.  Everyone, including the affected neons are swimming and schooling normally.  They are still in their normal community planted tank because I have fish in both my QT tub and 10 gallon QT tank that I've been getting ready to put in the 95 gallon community tank. 

    I've treated with Maracyn and Ich-X for 3 days so far with no improvement and also no worsening of the disease per this article: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/fish-fungus

    I'm not sure what to do at this point.  Should I remove the affected fish?  Do salt baths in a 5 gallon tub?  Keep going with the meds and hope they start working?  Different meds?

     

    Favorite Angelfish Colors for a Planted Tank

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    13 hours ago, Jollypop4321 said:

    Check out Angelmania.    There are many beautiful angels there including high coverage red koi. 

    I've actually been looking there and find several of theirs intriguing.  We have quite hard water, which isn't ideal for angels, though the LFS said that they get locally bred ones in that are well adapted to it, so I'm leaning towards looking there first. I am not a Koi angel fan personally, but it's been interesting to see how many people have that preference 🙂 

    Help me buy plants for my new tank?

    in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers

    Posted

    28 minutes ago, Jennifer V said:

    If you want to expand your sword collection and add some color, the red flame sword is really beautiful. I loved the first one I got so much that I ordered a few more for my background and all seem to be doing really well. 

    Agreed--I LOVE the red flame sword, and I got a really big nice Brazilian Pennywort in my order this last week that helps to fill in some of the background on my 95 gallon.  If it helps at all, here's what I put in the new 95 gallon setup--it's been going since mid-January, so still waiting to fill in.  Some plants from the coop, others from the local club auctions, and some from etsy (that froze on the way here but have recovered decently well)

    -12 Anubias (Frazeri, nana, nana petit, gold coin, etc)

    -6 Amazon swords (a mix of "regular" and red flame)

    -Dwarf sag (got a small bag full at a club auction--about 30 teeny tiny plants or so)

    -4 Jungle or Italian Val (not sure which survived...came in rough shape with TONS of snail eggs from the club auction...I'd get it from the coop if I were doing it again!)

    -Java moss (cereal-bowl sized portion from club auction)

    -about a dozen crypts of different varieties from a variety of sources

    -1 brand new Brazilian Pennywort

    -1 tiger lotus (also brand new and very tiny for now)

    -1 dwarf aquarium lily (hasn't done much and is tiny so far, so you can't even see it in the picture.

    -A variety of floaters (which I'm FINALLY not killing!!!!  First time ever!!!)

    Here's what it looks like (please excuse the algae, etc...it's due for a wipe down and my algae-lovers are still in QT)

    The footprint is 48"x18"x25", so yours will be deeper and on inch shorter I think.

    It took A LOT of plants, and I'm still waiting for it to grow in.  Don't tell my husband the budget but I think I'm between $200 and $250 for plants.

    20210313_185117 (1).jpg

    • Like 3

    Colorful beginner fish

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I'd also recommend a tank of livebearers--pick your type! Swordtails, platies, mollies, guppies. You can get pretty much any color you can possibly imagine and they can basically all hang out together.  And then you can mix different colors together and get even more surprises!  They'll eat anything and are pretty low maintenance in general.

    • Like 1

    Feedback on beginner 20 gal high stocking plan

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I agree that this seems reasonable and with @MDoc's advice of adding fish slowly.  I'd pick one schooling fish to add after you cycle your tank.  Then maybe the corys, and then continue with a species at a time giving at least a couple weeks for your tank to "catch up" to each new addition, though you could probably do the shrimp/snails at the same time.  I'd personally probably add the gourami last--I know honey gouramis are supposed to be quite mellow, but it would help with any territorial aggression towards newcomers IF that existed.  

    I know neons aren't rare or "fancy" fish, but I REALLY like mine in my 20 high with a betta, shrimp, and habrosus corys.  Since you're planning for a 6 year old--one of my 7 year old's very favorite things about our 20 high is that I got a glass lid and cheap NICREW aquarium light off amazon to replace the kit lid/lights and it has a blue night time mode.  The neons sort of fluoresce under it and look super cool when it gets dark! 

    • Like 2

    Feeding Hillstream Loaches

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    10 hours ago, Brandy said:

    Yeah long term would be no...but if your QT was recently set up it might not have much biofilm or algae.

    It's been setup for almost 2 years, but it doesn't have much algae, and I pulled most of the live plants out before making it a QT tank b/c I wasn't sure about "ruining" them in there.

    Feeding Hillstream Loaches

    in General Discussion

    Posted

     

    7 hours ago, Lifeisgood said:

    I agree with what has been suggested.  Mine will eat sinking pellets and granules of many kinds.  They do love eating biofilm off Anubias plants.  I try to sprinkle granules on the anubias plants.  So if you have one of those you could put in your QT tank,  they will enjoy that and might make it their favorite hangout.  I do put the wafers and granules in when I turn my lights off because the barbs are greedy.  

    Thanks for that suggestion!  I have plenty of anubias, but that would lead to another question...can I put plants from a qt tank back into a display tank when I'm done or will they be contaminated...and for how long?

    Feeding Hillstream Loaches

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    9 minutes ago, Brandy said:

    I haven't seen them eat either when I have kept them in the past. I wonder if you could paste thin repashy on some smooth rocks? or smear on the glass...?

    I've been wondering about somehow getting it onto the glass.  They're just never flat on the substrate.  They don't look particularly skinny, actually, but smearing Repashy on the glass sounds interesting...not sure it's something I want to do long term, but I could try it in the ugly qt tank.

    Feeding Hillstream Loaches

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Hello,

    I received a shipment of loaches on Monday that had been in the mail several days.  I've been trying to offer very high-quality foods--live bbs, frozen bbs, frozen daphnia, Repashy Community Plus and Soilent Green.  These are the first loaches I've had and the dwarf chains are pretty high-energy and just move in a mass around the tank.  I've seen them eat. 

    I have not yet seen any of the 4 hillstream loaches eat.  They're pretty much always suctioned to the glass--they zoom around now and then and like hanging behind the filter (it's a qt tank so has some fake plants, rocks but not as many hides as my regular tanks).  Anyone have tips on getting them to eat and/or knowing if they're eating?  I can't really picture them catching BBS while they're suctioned to the wall, but I don't know.  I thought they'd go for Repashy, but I haven't SEEN them take an interest in it (I've spent a few hours watching).  

    I appreciate any suggestions/advice!

    Anybody keep killifish?

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    There are other people who are MUCH more experienced than I am!  My LFS recently got some in, and we decided to try a pair of Gardneri Killies.  We've only had them about 2 weeks, and so far they've done very well. 

    The female will eat anything.  The male is pickier and prefers live foods.  They'll both eat vibrabites, but they don't eat anything that makes it to the bottom.  They're fun to see "hunting" down the vibrabites as they sink.  That's the sum total of my experience--looking forward to hearing more from others.

    • Like 1

    Delayed Fish Shipment--What to Expect

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Also, after reviewing the order, now I'm feeling super bad for even contacting them about the dead fish.  I originally ordered 3 packs of 4.  If I can count right (I do struggle to count fish sometimes!  They're so squirmy) there are 11 that are alive.  2 are super skinny, but I have very nearly the number I ordered, so they must have included extras in the shipment.  I wasn't trying to cause issues--I honestly didn't remember if I'd ordered 12 or 16 to start with until I just went back and checked now.  

    Anyway, AquaHuna was AWESOME...5 stars!  I would definitely order from them again.

    • Like 2

    Delayed Fish Shipment--What to Expect

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    21 hours ago, Ben_RF said:

    Did you reach out to AquaHuna? How did that go?  I am really glad things turned out mostly on the positive side 

    Sorry it took me so long to respond--I wanted to be able to give you a complete answer!  I did reach out to AquaHuna with pictures of the dead fish (2 full fish, 1 piece of a head).  They refunded me for 1 order of 4 loaches, so apparently there were 4 in the bag and 1 turned to gunk.  It took them less than 12 hours to respond with the refund.

    • Like 1

    How You Know Your Family Supports Your Hobby

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Yesterday, my husband went and picked up a new (used) desk/bookshelf for our living room, the computer, and the kids' school area.  To fit it where it needed to go , the 20 gallon aquarium had to be relocated.  Did I have to move it to my office?  The basement? This was HIS idea of where to put it!  

    So, what are your examples of family "buy in" to your hobby?  Funny...or not 🙂 

    20210310_070307.jpg

    • Like 6

    Delayed Fish Shipment--What to Expect

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Yeah--I started another thread sort of.  They came yesterday after almost 9 days in mail.  All but 1 bag (3 dwarf chain loaches) was alive!  The bag that was dead was REEAAAALLLLLYYYYY dead.  

    I posted on here in a different thread about acclimating--the ammonia in the bags was very high and ph very low.  My ph is high, and normally I would acclimate more slowly, but I went ahead and netted them and put them in the QT tank.  So far everyone's alive and squirming all over. 

    I had a scare this morning.  I came down and there were NO dwarf chain loaches!  NOT 1!  After I turned on the lights, 5 of them popped out from under a rock.  I watched for over an hour for the rest (there were about 7 missing).  No one showed up.  Apparently, they CAN burrow in gravel because they weren't hiding in any of the sparse decorations in the QT tank (I moved them all to look).  And they're all there now this afternoon after I got home from work.

    Now it's just waiting to see if they can stand the stress of moving from 6.4 ph water to 8.2 ph water and making sure they all eat (I haven't seen the hillstream loaches eat yet--I've done Repashy, frozen daphnia, and live BBS).

    • Like 1

    Quick Acclimation Question--Help!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    I did consider temp shock, but a couple of the bags were pretty badly collapsed and with fish stuck in the little wrinkles and not moving (they are alive in the tank), and they'd been indoors in the heated post office for at least an hour by the time I picked them up and then had the drive home with the car at 74, and by feel the bag water seemed close to the 74 degrees I'd dropped the tank to since I figured they'd be pretty cold when they arrived.  So I guessed. 

    Usually I acclimate by mixing tank and bag water, but I do have high ph and high kh (about 250) so I didn't really think that super high ammonia water mixed 75/25 or 50/50 with my high ph water would be a great idea even with prime.  Fish who just made the hour long ride from the LFS?  Sure. 

    I hope I haven't killed them all after they made that horrible journey in the mail.  Not sure there was a "right" way to do this, and if there is I probably didn't do it...I'll keep you updated on results.

    My current plan assuming they don't all die is to feed them up for a week or two and then run them through the med trio.  How does that part sound?

    • Like 2

    Quick Acclimation Question--Help!

    in General Discussion

    Posted

    Well...we'll just have to see what happens I guess.  Thanks for the quick responses!  We'll just have to see how they handle the Ph Swing I guess.  I'm very so many actually made it!  I wasn't hopeful when I opened the box and smelled it.  The one bag that died was extremely nasty.  But everyone else looks quite good.  If I can get them to eat and they don't all decide to die at my ph, I'll be thrilled!

     

×
×
  • Create New...