Theresa_M

Thanks for your reply! I actually don’t ever clean the surfaces. I only change water when I clean the tank and rarely vacuum the substrate.

Hello, I have a 75g with 6 panda corydoras, three Hillstream loaches and two nerite snails (and many other community fish). I would love to add my false zebra pleco to the mix. He will get to about 3” but is a baby right now (probably half the size). I have never seen the loaches dining on anything other than the glass, so I have no idea if they’re getting any of the community food, but they’re alive after several months now. I’ve also never seen my pleco eat anything other than surfaces. I put algae wafers in both tanks and the cories are the ones that eat them. Do you think the environment/community can handle all of these algae eaters and bottom dwellers or am I at max already do you think? Would love to hear others’ experiences.

This is an impossible task, especially when my two favorites share a tank 😍 Meet my sweet Colombian zebra pleco and his Dumbo betta friend!

Thanks for the reassurances everyone! They definitely move kind of like inch worms and don’t slide along like earthworms. I read a planarian moves more like an earthworm. These don’t have any shape to them, just tiny straight lines. So I’m ruling out Hydra. And the other little thing I think I saw darting around is cyclops. I’ve got a betta and a false zebra pleco in this tank. I’m just so worried they’re going to harm my pleco because they only seem to be on the glass and not in the substrate. I read that planaria just moves along the glass?? There’s so much conflicting information, it’s hard to know. Not so worried about Mr. Betta. I did see him bite at the glass a few times last night. The reason I’m so worried it’s planaria is because I saw a real worm in my shrimp tank on Monday. It looked like a black worm that had kinda bleached out - it was brownish. It startled me so much that I went crazy gravel vacuuming and cleaning. I sucked out multiple worms. Those also did not look like pictures of planaria I’ve seen. They were long but round and skinny - no pointed head. The tank used to house African Dwarf frogs and we feed those live black worms. The black worms were always falling into the substrate and getting lost. I wasn’t worried though because I knew the animals would find them eventually. well, I also found a random dead cherry shrimp that day. A large seemingly healthy one. Since doing my research last night, that has me worried about planaria. Anyway, back to Monday. Since I had already cleaned one tank, I have two more 10g stocked tanks, so I cleaned them all using the same siphon. I didn’t think anything of it because I truly felt like they were the black worms. One of the tanks I cleaned was betta and pleco tank. It wasn’t til the next morning that I started seeing clusters of white spots on the glass. But I thought they were just from the pleco - they’re kinda shaped like his mouth. He’s just a baby 1.5” - maybe less. But now, I think they’re egg clusters for these worms and I’m thinking I picked up something from the shrimp tank and transferred it to the betta tank. Uuuugggghhh! This is so maddening. Anyway, it’s only this tank that has cyclops and worms on the glass. I’ve never seen anything like anywhere else. I also have a 75 community tank and about every kind of worm eater you can imagine in there, lol. That could be why I’ve never seen anything. this betta tank is the only one that I have driftwood in, so wondering if maybe it’s got something to do with that. I added the driftwood about two weeks ago.

UPDATE - ok guys. I’m ok. After burying myself in all thing aquarium worms online - these do appear to be detritus. Would really really love a second opinion though! Hopefully you can access my video link to see them in action. What are these? Please help! I’ve got some very expensive fish in this tank. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MrMcvpB_QSKzd-cIs3CT7JKGF3J2pbA-/view?usp=drivesdk These are stringy little white worms. They move fast and kind of inch around. There are all kinds of critters suddenly crawling all over my glass. OMG, and now I’ve just seen something white dart across my eyes inside the water. Like something swimming and not a worm 😭

Actually, I called it a sponge because it looked like the course material on the sponge filters at Aquarium Co-Op, but I think this is what it was.

I was at a fish store today and noted that they used a sponge as a divider. I thought it was clever 🙂

I had a fungus that looked similar to this shortly after one of my tanks was done cycling (did have two fish in cycle). I watched a ton of youtube videos on aquarium fungus and prayed that this was the beneficial kind I was looking at. This tank was meant to be my shrimp species only tank. Removed those two fish and added shrimp a few days after that fungus showed up and the shrimp ate it within 24 hrs. The tank has been pristine since 🙂 I am by no means an expert - especially when it comes to fungus and plants. But I did have something similar and it is now gone due to my new crustacean friends!

Others may have a different opinion and that's ok. We all learn from the mistakes we've made and successes we've had through our own experiences. It sounds like time isn't on your side. I think at this point, just keep a good eye on things - your water parameters and symptoms of disease - and in the meantime get yourself some quarantine meds. At the first sign of disease, I'd treat the whole tank. Depending on what it is you're dealing with, it could be highly contagious to your other fish and you should just assume that everyone has it. Like I said, others will have different opinions and I'm just telling you what has worked for me.

I've had panda cories in two types of substrate without any issues or injuries: smooth, small riverbed gravel and black aquarium "sand" which actually looks like really small, fine gravel (doesn't look like sand - it's a bigger granule). They're doing awesome! The "sand" is easy for them to move around and work through. I really like it. They can't move the bigger gravel, but they are injury free!

Check out Irene's video for Aquarium Co-op. I think it's really smart, and I now have this setup. I bought 2x5g tanks and 2x10g tanks and set them up for quarantine, but unfortunately I have aquascaped and stocked them! Now, I've got an extra sponge filter in my main display tank just for this purpose and use a storage bin. Not really interested in stocking a storage bin 🙂 use

Hello, I had a bit of an issue this week that I believe was caused by nitrates being too high. I did my typical water change on Sunday and immediately added the Easy Green fertilizer. I have watched several product videos that say as long you know your starting point is 20ppm or less naturally, it’s ok to add the recommended dose. The photo is my normal level without Easy Green. I have a 75g tank. Ammonia and nitrites are 0 and pH is typically around 8. I have several slow growers - two types of Java fern and Anubias - a couple of Christmas moss things and some water lettuce and water sprite (and a banana plant that really just isn’t going much of anywhere yet). I dose 1x/wk and I have root tabs in the substrate around each rooted plant. After the water change, I saw that my Bettas specifically became affected by something. Fins clamping and a couple were just really suffering. For example, one white betta looked like her scales had burns. I did a second 30% water change on Sunday and did not add the Easy Green. Clearly, after just dosing, nitrates were at least 40ppm I did one more 30% water change yesterday just for peace of mind. (And I do add conditioner upon every water change.) I am scared to add the fertilizer again. What’s your experience with this? Should I wait until levels come down farther before adding? Or do I half dose it 🤷🏽‍♀️ Thanks for any advice you can offer!

Thank you! Do you use one leaf per gallon? I have 5 leaves in a 75. Was afraid to do more. planning water change tomorrow. So I’ll continue changes and monitor. Appreciate your response!

Ended my first round of quarantine meds a week ago. I noticed that I had one betta that was starting to show some fin rot before meds. Completed full course of trio, but in the week since, the fin rot has gotten significantly worse and I see signs of fin rot on another betta in my sorority. I was going to dose another round of paracleanse one week from now per Co-op recommendation, but it’s really looking like I need to do Maracyn NOW. Anyone with experience on this? Is it too soon to dose Maracyn - there’s only been one full week of break since last round.

This is helpful! Thank you!

I have no idea how much to feed but they clearly love it. My community tank of 40 fish think it’s amazing, but I think I’m also over feeding. I give them about a tablespoon of the set up gel. Is that enough? Do they need more? I have three mollies and they are by far the biggest fish in the tank.

Good luck to you! Hopefully it’ll turn up at the next feeding 🙂

I cannot believe I’m writing this ... just fed the tank and panda #6 turned up!! I don’t know where he’s been, lol. I guess he came back through the portal! He’s was absent for both Saturday and Sunday meal times. My heart is bursting right now, lol.

Thanks Maggie! I too set this up thinking it would be therapeutic, but at the end of the day, it has just caused a ton of stress and a lot of sleepless nights, lol. This was mostly due to me researching after I’d already picked up a new tank in December and immediately filled it with fish!! We are now fully cycled in multiple tanks with relatively few losses. Last week, I went through the quarantine trio and had 5 of my 8 neon tetras die in one day and one seemingly healthy panda that mysteriously went missing over the weekend. I’m feeling a lot better about where we’re at now and how we’ll do this morning forward but I think I’m traumatized by my losses. Your advice is great, though! I need to stop of thinking of them as cats and dogs and just do the best that I can for them while they’re here.

My pandas are my absolute favorite too. I’ll need to grab another 2-3 when I go back to my lfs. (I’ve been waiting for him to reappear all day, but alas, he is for sure gone. Just not finding remains yet...maybe not ever) Thanks for sharing your story!

Trying to figure out what food this is that sticks to the glass? Thinking this might just be the best way to feed my hillstream loaches in my community tank. I can hide them behind the filter.

I have a 75g community tank and find that I am accounting for all 40 of my fish several times a day. I’m devastated whenever one goes missing (I think I crushed one of my corydoras yesterday moving my hard scape 😩 can’t find #6 anywhere). Please tell me that more experienced I am, the less I will be counting and obsessing over my fish!

Hello, I’m getting two mail order nerite snails from Aqua Huna. Would you quarantine those or just add them to your tank? 🤔

Yep. That’s what I did! Dangit.

Hello, wondering about your experiences adding salt to aquariums to promote healing, etc. for community tanks that include panda corydoras. I feel like I nearly killed mine by adding one tablespoon of salt per 5 gallons (they were acting so poorly after one day and seemed to be having skin issues that I moved them out immediately). Now I’m afraid to try again, but think my main display tank could benefit from it (perhaps at a lower dose?). I cannot find anything specifically speaking to pandas and I know that optimal water parameters can vary greatly between types of cories. I have seen other types called out specifically for how well they handle salt but never pandas. What’s been your experience? Thanks!