DarthRevan
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Posts posted by DarthRevan
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Finally got a day off work and clinicals at the hospital lol. Here’s the result of a couple hours of maintenance! (Not sure why it’s posting upside down lol)
I would still like to get the bits of algae I couldn’t remove by hand with something like API algae fix. I’m also calling around to some local stores to see if they want any free platy’s to ease up on the bio load, they just keep breeding endlessly and none of the babies get eaten 😂 -
On 11/3/2022 at 3:12 AM, Pepere said:
If I had a tank where the plants were choked with Algae, one consideration would be to simply remove them and replace with new if they were terribly choked. If they are highly choked their viability might be reduced anyway.
Alternatively. Plants can be pulled and soaked 12 hours in carbonated water without additives in the dark. This can kill off the remaining Algae on the plants while giving the plants themselves a tonic of co2. I would remove the algae from it that you can first.
Once the plants are out, removing remaining Algae becomes easier.
I would also remove all fixtures such as filters, heaters, airlines etc. scrub them well, and spray them with hydrogen peroxide in a spray bottle after scrubbing, let set for 10 minutes and then rinse before returning to tank.
Hang On Backs I dissassemble and scrub and spray all parts with hydrogen peroxide after putting the media in tank water. I find spraying the technical parts with Hydrogen Peroxide does a better job at slowing regrowth rather than just scrubbing esp with hair algae.
a good water change after cleaning helps to remove fragments broken off after cleaning in addition to reducing nutrient levels.
adding a large box filter with enough gravel in the bottom to weigh it down and the rest with polyfill running strongly with an air stone will go a long way to providing mechanical filtration to help pull fragments floating in the water column.
following up in a day or two with another water change, with deep gravel vaccing will remove fragments that settled, and reduce waste that will cause nitrate production.
going forward, the overstocking makes extra work due to waste production. Either extra water changes or algae fighting… I avoid live bearers as I dont want to deal with excess reproduction and do not find the idea of feeding the offspring to predator fish appealing.
But if you are keeping livebearers the choice becomes do you cull in some sort either giving away, humanely euthanizing, allowing fry to be consumed by larger fish or feeding juveniles to predator fish in a larger tank, or do you allow the entire colony to suffer from excess nitrate levels etc…
floating plants help to reduce nitrates as well better than submerged plants as they get their co2 from the atmosphere. They also reduce light to the tank due to shading… and fish seem delighted to swim among the roots of floating plants and forage for food among them..
This is all great advice! My only issue is time. I currently work 7 days/80 hours a week (I am working full time while doing my clinicals for MRI school, which is also full time but unpaid lol) which is why it got this bad to begin with. I’m mainly at this point looking for something quick to get me by until I finish school in 6 months. As for the overstocking, I had a betta in there but some of the more aggressive male platys beat him up and he didn’t make it. I also can’t find anyone to take them even for free lol, but I don’t want to just outright euthanize them.
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On 10/28/2022 at 1:58 PM, Cory said:
I recommend manual removal. Also what plants do you have, are they getting enough to eat? healthy plants will help fight off the algae by denying them nutrients. The problem with an algaecide, you'll kill the algae, create a bunch of ammonia, which fuels more algae to grow unless you do big water changes. Which if you are doing the big water changes anyway, you wouldn't have as much algae growin.. So there isn't really a product that is just add this and you won't have algae, it's product + work = less algae. But work without product also = less algae.
Thank you for the advice sir!
I have a ton of bacopa, a few pogostemmen octopus, some crypt parva, a big crypt that I don’t remember what it’s called, and a few epiphyte plants (not sure if I spelled some of them correctly). The tank is pretty overgrown even with the regular plants, do you think trimming them and replanting would help them suck up more nitrates?
And my biggest problem with manual removal is that it’s so entwined with the plants I’m not sure I can get it all. Should I remove as much as possible and then use an algaecide for the bits that are left? And then do a couple big water changes once it’s dead?
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I have a huge bloom of green hair algae in my tank (and by huge I mean it’s completely taken over my entire tank). I’ve tried reducing the light and feeding less but my tank is overcrowded with platy’s and I can’t get rid of enough of them to get the nitrates down. They’re not at toxic levels but the algae is outcompeting my other plants for the excess.
I’ve kind of let the tank go lately due to being busy and general laziness, so I’m just looking for a quick fix if possible to keep it under control until I have time to work on the tank. I see API and some others make algaecides, has anyone ever used these and if so did they harm your fish or plants? I’ve seen some horror stories on YouTube so I’m hesitant to try it.
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On 3/1/2022 at 12:56 PM, Wrencher_Scott said:
I know you didn't ask me but...
I would say water quality most likely. This is the #1 reason fish get sick. Make sure to have large amounts of biofiltration and change water when the nitrate goes up to 50ppm or so, sooner if you like. If your water doesn't look super clear you probably don't have good enough biofiltration. What happens is they get infections from bacteria in the water. If caught soon the dropsy treatment is antibiotics in the food or having a vet give it injections. But like this video shows he says the fish is too far gone. Eggbound of course is very different, I found a good video on that too.
😞I appreciate the help! The only reason I thought water quality wasn’t the issue was because she’s never returned to normal in the 6 months I’ve had her. She came to me pregnant but has had a pregnant belly ever since, and I know there’s supposed to be a period after they have babies where they “deflate” and go back to normal, then usually 30 days later they can get pregnant again. She’s been pregnant for 6 months straight and she’s released like 50-60 fry in that time frame. I did a water test today and the nitrates are pretty high around 40-50 so it’s time for a water change, but none of my other fish seem affected.
As far as filtration, it’s a 40g breeder, heavily planted with stem plants and Java moss, and I have a Seachem 55 filter on there packed with sponges and a pre filter sponge from the Co-op which I clean once a month. The tank is getting very crowded though so that might also be an issue, I’ve gotten rid of some of her fry but at the moment there’s like 7 adult platies and about 50 fry plus some snails and 2 Otos.
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@Coluquick question, my platy also had dropsy and died today. She was pregnant when I got her 6 months ago but she just kept releasing babies over the course of that 6 months and she never went back down from being swollen and pregnant looking. I didn’t notice her scales had started pineconing until I removed her today (they were definitely not like that last week). Could she have had a pregnancy complication that would’ve caused that or do you think it was more a water quality issue.
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On 12/17/2021 at 7:48 PM, xXInkedPhoenixX said:
@DarthRevan honestly it could be great stuff, but I have that as a rule for myself AND my animals. 🙂 It's just a preference.
I’m not super hopeful since it doesn’t seem to do much lol, I’m hoping if it is just bottled catappa tea it’ll help my lil guy’s fins grow back easier
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Well it seems like everyone else is thinking what I was lol. After looking it up online, it’s still pretty vague to what it actually is. But @dasaltemelosguyif you’ve used it and didn’t have any problems, and it was recommended by an ichthyologist, I might as well use it all up since I can’t return it now 😂 Definitely not buying this again though.
Thanks for your help everyone!!
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So my betta has pretty serious fin rot, after being beat up by platies. He’s in his own fluval flex now, but he still is losing his fins.
I made another post and it was recommended with how severe it is that I use Kanaplex. When I was at my LFS to get it, I also explained the situation, he initially had recommended this product called “The Fishkeeper,” I’ve never heard of it and to me it seems like it’s just bottled botanical water. Is this person selling me a useless product or is this helpful in the healing process after I’ve treated Kanaplex? I still got the Kanaplex too so I can make sure I treat any bacterial infections.
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On 12/2/2021 at 8:53 AM, Colu said:
Maracyn treats gram positive bacterial while kanaplex treat's gram negative and some gram positive bacterial it a more broad spectrum antibiotic treatment if your worried about your snails you can add it to his food @DarthRevan
Thank you!! I will try this ASAP
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On 12/2/2021 at 5:46 AM, Colu said:
Fin rot doesn't always affect all your fish fins it can just affect some of the fish's fin that what your seeing that I would treat with the meds I recommend
Definitely worth a shot! I was just hesitant to medicate him again if he didn’t need it. Also will Maracyn work or should it be Kanaplex? I used Maracyn before because it was snail and bio filter safe.
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On 12/1/2021 at 7:57 PM, Colu said:
As his dorsal fin has nearly recede to his body that can turn into body rot What I.would do is treat with kanaplex as most case of fin rot are caused by gram negative bacterial if you see no improvement after the Frist course of kanaplex I would do another course of kanaplex and also feed aquatics foods premium flake containing nitrofurazone
He did initially have fin rot after the first two chunks had been taken out of his dorsal fins, that was treated and went away. The platies in his tank at the time kept taking chunks out of it though and that’s why his dorsal fins are gone now. They are actually looking ok now, they’re still gone but getting better. The issue right now is his tail fin and parts of his bottom fins, they’re deteriorating and I can’t see why. It doesn’t seem like fin rot, as it’s only affecting those specific areas.
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So my betta used to be in a 40 gallon community tank with a bunch of platies. He started losing his fins after about 2 months in there, and I assumed it was platies since it seemed like perfect half circle bites had been taken out of the fins. Unfortunately I didn’t have money to set up another tank at the time, so he ended up losing his dorsal fin. During that time he did get fin rot with the classic cottony growths, so I treated that with Maracyn packets as directed and it seemed to stop (the fin rot at least). Then he started having bites taken out of his tail fin (it didn’t seem like fin rot anymore cause whole sections would disappear overnight), but I finally had the money for another tank and set him up on his own in a 9 gal Fluval Flex.
He seemed to be doing better for about a week, but now it’s progressing even worse. His tail fin is almost halfway gone, and his bottom fins are starting to go too. I don’t think there’s anything sharp enough for him to tear them on in there. He does sleep right on the sand and it is a courser grain (imagitarium black sand from Petco) but in my opinion it doesn’t seem rough enough to be causing the damage (also his tail fin doesn’t touch the sand, in his bottom fins.) Also today he tried to jump and smacked his head on the lid, which he has never done before (I work from home for 10 hours a day and both my tanks are in my office so I have a pretty good idea of normal behavior). I’m pretty sure he doesn’t bite his own tail either because he’s a dumbo plakat so his tail isn’t super long and flowy. I’ve posted water parameters and photos below. I’m not sure what to do at this point.
Side note: he is much less active in this tank, I think cause it’s smaller and he’s alone. I’m getting 5 Pygmy Cory’s as soon as I can, but he does eat normally and interact with me when I come up to it.
Water:
- pH 7.6
- Nitrates 5ppm
- Hardness ~250 on an Aquarium Coop test strip
- Nitrite 0
- Ammonia 0
- KH/Buffer 161 ppm (API master kit reading)
- Water Temperature 79-79.5
Also here’s what he looked like about 1 week after I had him.
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Never mind I ended up finding a post on here lol! I didn’t see a way to delete topics so if a mod can do that it’d be appreciated.
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So I got a 9 gallon Fluval Flex for my betta since he was getting torn up by platies.
I had no idea the flow was so ridiculously strong on the pumps they give you. I have them pointed up and at the walls but my betta is still getting blown around in some spots. I saw someone recommend one of those flow bars and then putting a coarse sponge over it, but I can’t find a brand or model mentioned. Does anyone here know a brand or model that would fit the outflow tube on the Fluval pump?
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Only slightly brutal though 😂
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On 10/23/2021 at 4:20 PM, Hobbit said:
I have fairly aggressive platys as well—I’m surprised, since I’d never heard anyone warn about that. I had two summer tubs of platys and I ended up with only one adult male in each. That could be just coincidence… but now that I have them inside and the two males have their own section, I actually had to put up a mini divider so the smaller male could get away from the larger one. I think he would have chased the smaller male to death.
On the female side of the tank, there’s definitely one dominant mama who tries to chase everyone away from the food. There are seven of them total, so the aggression is very spread out, but it’s certainly there. She’ll push everyone around a bit even between meals.
Since I’m breeding these platys, I’m planning to rotate the aggressive male out as soon as I get a juvenile with colors/genetics I like. I do wonder if it’s like roosters—aggressive males produce aggressive sons, but you can get docile roosters if you selectively breed for it.
Haha well I’m glad to know it’s not just me 😂 I was like why does no one warn this can happen?! I guess it’s not very common though.
Hopefully the ones you breed don’t become aggressive too! Good luck 🍀
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On 10/23/2021 at 6:23 AM, anewbie said:
Also never mix swordtails and platy as they can cross breed.
I thought about removing her but my roommate really likes her 😂 Also, she never pays attention to the other fish. She just swims up and down the glass all day, I assume due to the reflection. Except when her and the pregnant platy get in a nipping match. And the males don’t even acknowledge her. The alpha chases around the same female all day, and the other one hides most of the day.
It sounds like Kribs may be my best bet. I like them as well as apistos so I think that’ll work out. I’m planning on rearranging some of the hardscape to make room for a cave structure so they’ll have somewhere to try to spawn if they want to. Thanks everyone!
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On 10/22/2021 at 9:33 PM, Beardedbillygoat1975 said:
Those are platys! I think you never know when you’ll get an aggressive fish so it’s definitely possible.
I don’t think smaller Apistos (trifasciata, borelli, hongsloi) would hold their own against aggressive livebearers - maybe if you get an adult pair of Apisto cacatoides or Bolivian rams but they’ll not be happy and breed in a tank where they’re trying to defend themselves constantly against a group of platys. With cichlids that could mean finding alot Of dead platys one day when they go over the edge.
For me one question to ask is which fish are you passionate about? Maybe kribs would work or Nannacara they tend to be slightly bigger then apistogramma. I think the other issue is the dwarfs from South America tend to like soft water to breed well while livebearers like hard water - you can get them both to live in same conditions not sure they’ll thrive. African dwarf pairs are not afraid to let other fish know what’s what.
A single Angelfish could work in there and they’ll not take any 💩 from platys. I love festivum as well and a singleton could work.
Instead of cichlids we could look at other livebearers like swords or mollies as the centerpiece fish. Other option would be gouramis - honeys or female dwarf gourami.I was looking at the cacatoides because I like the reds! I’m not too worried about breeding them, I wouldn’t have anywhere to put the fry. But if they will just be miserable all the time I don’t want to do that to them.
I did look at Kribs too, I would definitely like them I just didn’t know if they’d stand their ground or not.
Yeah I live in Phoenix so I have pretty hard water, about a 7.6 pH. I think we have local breeders that raise kribs and apistos in our water. I know for sure we have a lot of Ram breeders.
I’ve never heard of Nannacara I’ll have to look them up! And I did think about African cichlids too but I don’t know which ones I’d be able to keep. They’d definitely have to not be plant eaters or dig up the substrate lol, I have a lot of plants.
I’m also not sure about an Angelfish, I’ll have to do more research. But thank you, you’ve given me some great ideas, I’ve got some YouTube videos to watch! 😂
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On 10/22/2021 at 9:24 PM, PineSong said:
I think we need a moderator or someone to rotate that photo.
I'm not familiar with platies ever being aggressive to each other or to other species whether they are pregnant or not--I've kept all male tanks, all female tanks and mixed sex tanks and not had any fins nipped ever.
Yeah I’m not sure why it uploaded upside down lol. Probably an Apple thing. But yeah I got the platies because I was originally going for mollies but I heard they can fin nip. But these platies have been very aggressive. I originally had another male that harassed the current male in here, when I took him out then the other one started being the bully instead. The one that gets bullied now seems to nip anyone he can when he gets free, then immediately gets chased back into the plants. The pregnant one wasn’t aggressive before, but it’s been about a week since she had her fry and she’s been chasing the Molly off a lot, and chasing others away from food. Even some of the juveniles are starting to chase each other off when I feed. And I feed twice a day, I actually think I overfeed. I’m not sure what their deal is.
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I’m 99% sure they are lol. I do have a black swordtail Molly in there as well, just happened to get caught in the net at the store. Here’s a picture, it’s kinda hard to see so you might have to zoom in.
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So I’ve had my 40 breeder set up a while now. I have a betta, 4 adult platies, 5 juveniles, and one of the females just had about 20 fry. The adults are 2 males and 2 females. One male constantly harasses and chases the other, and I know it’s because the M/F ratio is off. None of my LFS could give me females, every time I got home it would end up being a male and I’d have to take it back. I found a local breeder who assured me I have 5 female juveniles now, however that didn’t lower the aggression at all.
My betta is super, super peaceful and he’s been getting beat up pretty bad. It always happens at night, first he had some chunks taken out of his fins, now his dorsal fins are completely gone and someone’s taking chunks out of his tail. I’m not sure which one is doing it. It could be the aggressive one, although he never pays attention to the betta during the day. The one that gets chased doesn’t always get to eat, so it could be him. Or it could be the female that was pregnant because she’s been super aggressive lately too. I can’t find anyone to rehome the platies, no one wants them apparently haha.
So I just got a separate tank today and I’m setting it up to have the betta by himself with maybe some Pygmy Cory’s. My question is, I still want a centerpiece fish for my main tank. Would a pair of Apistos hold their ground against the bullies, or should I just give up and let the platies run the tank?
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On 9/21/2021 at 1:22 PM, Cory said:
I use and recommend maracyn for fin rot. This is the problem, theres a million different products with a million different results. Use a different product, get a different result. Listen to someone else, get different advice. Our company advice is maracyn, Other things may work, but we don't have the testing of years with thousands of fish and wide varieties of scenarios.
I've tested a lot of meds, especially from brands we carry, if we don't carry it, it's because we couldn't get it to do what it says properly.Wow, the man himself! Thank you for taking the time to respond to my post! I will do a 50% water change today and another one in a couple of days to remove everything out of the water, and I’ll try dosing regular Maracyn instead of this Maracyn Oxy stuff I got.
Hopefully that in combo with the bacteria catching up to the new bio load will stop the issue 😁
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Will Maracyn 2 crash my beneficial bacteria?
I just tested the water today and there’s .50ppm ammonia and .25ppm Nitrite, I did just add 4 baby platies on Thursday last week so I think that’s why, but if I use an antibiotic I want to make sure it won’t kill the biofilter.
First thing I’m going to do before treating anything else is do a 50% water change though to deal with the ammonia/nitrite spike.
Algacide Recommendations?
in Plants, Algae, and Fertilizers
Posted
Oh yeah I’m fine with some algae for my fish to graze on, but it had completely taken over my tank (see the before photo above). So I’m looking to keep that down as much as possible. I think the main issue was overstocking + not trimming my plants which allowed the algae to take over.
The left side of the tank was supposed to be like a “bonsai garden” theme but all the Monte Carlo died and then the algae killed off the Java moss I had in the tree lol. I’m going to eventually take this all down, get rid of the livebearers, and redo the whole thing with less reproductive fish lol.