Emika_B

I guess I should clarify - dwarf neon rainbows, rummy nose tetras and guppies so far.

Aloha all. It’s been rather warm lately, ambient temperature in the low to mid 80s. My main tank (40-ish gallons) has an egg-crate “lid” and a temperature gauge that turns on a set of fans if the water hits 79.0. I’ve noticed the fans are on every day for most of the day and into the night. Sometimes it gets into the 80s. My quarantine tank (10 gallons), though, does not have the advantage of temperature modulation. I generally take the lid off during the day since it’s been so warm. I checked and one day it was 85.something. At the time the fish were still soaking in the med trio so I didn’t want to change out water with cooler water. I ended up using a reusable ice pack (double zip-top bagged). I’ll probably only have one more round of new fish to put through quarantine; clean up crew and either more guppies or some platies (platties?) but that won’t be for at least another 2 weeks. With summer coming on how hot is too hot for the fish? Ambient temperatures are generally mid 80s to 90s with summer and my house isn’t temperature controlled.

I’m sorry you’re having such issues. It sounds like it would be a beautiful bowl. Didn’t know they came so big! I don’t know if it was the culprit or just a factor, but in my experience orchids don’t like wet feet. The roots may have rotted and added to your ammonia issue.

PlaneFishGuy - I’ve done new fish quarantine two times now. Each time I tested the water before because the meds can make water testing unreliable. The first time, I started the meds the next day. It went smoothly but I lost 7 out of 9 guppies over the full course of quarantine. These were dwarf neon rainbows from Shop A and guppies from Shop B. I don’t know why the guppies went south - they looked good at the store and showed no outward signs of disease or distress. The second time, I did the same but one of the two schools of fish was dropping like flies. Not knowing if it was a water issue or a fish issue (I believe it was a fish issue), I did a full water change. Over about four days I lost all but one of the school of rummy nose tetras. These were rummy nose tetras and dwarf neon rainbows from Shop C. The second and a half time (the Shop C rainbows still needed to quarantine), I picked up another school of rummies but from Shop A. This time I waited about a week before starting the meds. They’ve all survived the 10 day soak and are now on the two-week feeding and observing period. Long story short - I really think it will depend on the quality of your fish. If they’re questionable, give them a few days of observation. If you’re getting them from a reputable shop you could probably start right way. I think going forward, for myself, I’ll give them a few days of observation, then start the meds.

DId a water test (all good!) and topped off the water in the big tank. Pulled some green hair algae and what I think is staghorn algae. Fiddling with the lights to see if I can keep it from growing back. Changed out a little under half of the water in the quarantine tank so the fish can start their 14 days between med treatments. It’s been rather hot lately (mid-80s) so the QT has been warmer than I’d like. I think they were happy to get some fresh, cool water. And food. So far, all of the rummies have survived so I think my first round of rummies was just a bad batch. Oh, and topped off the opae ula tank with distilled water. I’ll probably do a salinity test tomorrow just to make sure it’s still in the proper range. With the warm weather the water’s been evaporating more quickly and I don’t want the salinity concentration to go too high.

Either they think they’re salmon (or dolphins) or it’s the latest FishTok challenge.

Wow, that’s cool! Those gammaru are huge - or is it a perspective thing? Either way, very neat and thanks for sharing 🙂

I’m sorry it didn’t work out. From your description you have 20 cherry barbs that haven’t been put in the 90 gallon? It’ll take some time to grow in (or be expensive buying that many) but if you’re open to it - more plants. It’ll give the cherries somewhere to hide and may slow the angels down in their hunting.

You’re all good and I second poking holes in the capsules. I poke a hole on either end before pushing them under the substrate. Before I learned that trick, they’d pop up and the snails would eat the gel cap. The whole thing is critter safe (though I wonder what if it would give a goldfish a tummy ache if one ate it whole), so no worries about the fish eating the capsule material.

Woohoo! I now have shrimp 🙂 I apologize for the blurriness of the linked video - I couldn't find the focal length on my camera. The tank has been set up for 2 - 3 weeks now and I noticed the other day that there were lots of tiny bubbles. Happy algae, pearling! That means the tank has enough food for the shrimp. So I was able to pick up some today. I decided to start small and only got 25. I'll give them a week or two and if all goes well, I'll pick up another 25. They really like the rock wall, which makes me happy. I'll have to find a way to dim the light a bit so they'll spend more time out on the big rock in the center of the tank. But until then, they seem to have found a nice spot to forage and hang out.

Aloha HanaHoo 808! I’m on Oahu myself though if I could move to Hilo I would in a heartbeat. Starting an opae ula tank so I can have a bit of the Big Island here. Is that wax paper that you’re writing your fish notes on? Love it!

Too many illegal critters to list for Hawaii. The ones that are legal, if you have them shipped in, have to go through inspection by the department of agriculture. Yay for protecting our rare, native species; bummer for finding interesting critters.

For the 1.5 I’d say make it a tiny aquascape, no critters. Well, maybe a small snail or two. For the 2, I’d say opae ula, Hawaiian volcano shrimp. I’m doing a 5 gallon, almost ready to add shrimp. They’re tiny, require no filter, air stone or heater. They eat nearly nothing and are just so much fun to watch skitter about.

Cellerbrok - I feel your pain though not on that scale. Within 24 hours I had nearly half of my 15 new rummy nose tetras die. Within 3 days, I had only 1 left. I was seriously bummed! Hoping it was just a fluke, I was able to source more fish at a different fish shop. It’s been about 3 days now and no die off. I second finding another source. I’ll keep my fingers crossed (and the new rummies keep their their fins crossed for you, too).

XXInkedPhoenixX - Just goes to show, don’t judge a book by its cover. I’ve been checking on the new kids and though they’re a bit skittish they look hale and hearty. Keeping the fingers crossed for another day, then it’s on to the med trio. With fish from two different shops in the same quarantine tank, I’m not going to take chances.

GardenStateGolfish - I started out on this journey hoping to keep goldfish. However it gets very warm here. I have a temperature control that turns on a heater or fans as needed for the tank. The fans are set to turn on if the water gets to 79 degrees. A few weeks ago that happened every day for a week by about 10 AM. And it was only March. I know there are local breeders so goldies raised here are used to warmer water. It just didn’t seem fair to the fish so I nixed the goldfish idea. Someone here recommended dwarf neon rainbows. I picked up 5 (I couldn’t get the male/female ratio I wanted so I kept it to a small group) and found them to be quite attractive. Honestly, I don’t really like the other rainbows, just these guys. A friend of mine has bosemani (?) and though he thinks they are the loveliest fish ever, I just don’t see it.

XXInkedPhoenixX - It’s funny but I used to consider this shop as just kind of ‘meh.’ Not pretty at all, cramped and somewhat dusty. But, from the three shops I bought fish from, it was the only one that didn’t have any fish die in quarantine. So, when it turned out that they had rummies I decided to press my luck.

Update - I ended up getting more rummies but from a different shop. I was going to go with the rainbows but they were out. Oddly enough, they did have rummies. Yeah, I’m a glutton for punishment. Fingers crossed!

Marionmaymay - While I don’t think it was the meds themselves the fish may have been too weak to handle it. Mikrogeophagus - It’s a 10 gallon plastic tub, a la Irene. I have no idea why I lost so many of the guppies - no obvious external causes of death, fins and scales all in good condition. I’ll probably add 2 or 3 more when the latest round of quarantine dwellers are in the big tank.

A while back I’d purchased 15 rummy nose tetras from local fish shop A. In quarantine, all but 1 died. I don’t think they were doing well to begin with and I shouldn’t have picked them up. Oh well, lesson learned - don’t buy rummies from that shop. Today I was thinking I’d add a few more fish to the quarantine tank before starting the med trio. I have the 1 rummy nose and 5 dwarf neon rainbows that were purchased at store A. There’s also a ‘bully’ dwarf neon rainbow and a ‘bully’ male guppy. I tested the water a did a small water change then ventured off to another fish store, we’ll call it B. Store B didn’t have any more dwarf neon rainbows (bummer) but they did have rummies. Did I dare try again? Yes, yes I did. Brought home 15 rummies and a small batch of anacharis. So, fingers crossed I’ll have at least 10 rummies at the end of quarantine. I’ll give the new kids a couple of days to settle in, eat a bit then start on the med trio. Send my new finned friends good vibes!

1. Buy at least twice as many plants as you think you’ll need. 2. Don’t chase parameters. If your water chemistry is stable, you’re good. 3. Check out your local fish sources to see who carries what at what prices, both hardware and livestock. 4. Have a quarantine tank set up before purchasing fish. Have it cycle while the main tank is cycling, or even before. 5. Do your research but don’t take just one source as gospel. You’ll see so many differing opinions/rules that you may want to just split the difference and see how things go. 6. Document! Take notes, take photos. Having a record of what worked and what didn’t will be useful down the line. 7. Take your time. Biology does what it wants, when it wants and there’s no rushing it. Let your tank cycle, let your plants grow in, take the time to quarantine fish. 8. Don’t be afraid to fail. Yes, it hurts to lose fish, even if they’re ‘just guppies,’ but what you learn from each failure will lead to future success. 9. Acknowledge that this can be an expensive hobby. Set a budget and plan within that budget. You may need to scale back or get creative. 10. Turn off the lights in the room, just leave the tank light on, and stare at your fish. With each swish of a tail, feel your stress drift off. Enjoy the slice of nature in your room.

Marionmaymay and Biotope Biologist - The fish all died in quarantine, not the big tank, though I do generally use water from the big tank for quarantine since I know it’s ‘quality’ water. The quarantine tank is cycled, though, and I generally test water before starting on the meds. I’m not too worried about the water quality in quarantine, but one never can tell once meds are added since it makes test readings unreliable. The guppies were from a major national chain and tanks looked clean, the fish were in good condition (no obvious scale or fin issues). I was rather bummed that so many didn’t make it. The rummies, I really shouldn’t have purchased them from that shop. There were sickly looking fish and I don’t think they were quality stock. Fortunately, the rainbows I bought from that shop are doing just fine. I’ve had problems with this shop before but they’re the only ones I’ve found so far that carry the rummies. The hunt continues.

Aloha all! My 40-ish gallon tank is coming along well. The plants are really filling in and the parameters are stable. I’m rather happy with it. The quarantine process has been a bit rough, though. The first round was 5 dwarf neon rainbows and 9 male guppies. All of the rainbows survived but only 2 of the guppies made it through. Next round was 5 dwarf neon rainbows and 15 rummy nose tetras. Again, the rainbows are doing fine but only 1 rummy nose is still alive. In hindsight I think the rummies weren’t healthy to start with, so I’m glad to have any survive. So, now I’m wondering if I should just re-home the 2 guppies and 1 rummy nose and go forward with a huge school of dwarf neon rainbows? Or on the next round of quarantine should I fill in the schools of the other two?

Kirsten - Thanks for the confirmation. I was debating on getting the algae but I think I will after all.

Kirsten - that’s a beautiful tank! May I ask if you got your algae plant from a site run by a person whose name sounds like Mufasa?