Odd Duck

There are at least 6 species called “Kuhli” loaches. Let me see if I can find the good article. Found it. This article has some very good information and info about the individual species of “eel loaches” as they recommend they be called since only one has the species name P. kuhlii and as @doktor zhivago mentioned, is now thought to have ever been imported to the US and possibly never exported from its home range. Funny the tidbits my creaky old brain has collected! 😆 https://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/features/keeping-kuhli-and-other-eel-loaches-in-the-aquarium

Came here to say this. I’ve used some old tanks many, many times before, but I wouldn’t use that one, sad to say. 😢

Unfortunately without knowing more about what all your levels do, how many and what kind of fish, how heavy you feed, how much water you change every single time, how many plants, what kind of plants, etc, etc, etc, along with a dozen other questions we could ask, it’s pretty impossible to give you a hard and fast answer. There are just too many variables. Most recommend weekly 25% water changes as the safest way to go but I know aquarists that do daily 90% water changes for the species they have in that particular tank and some that do monthly 10% water changes or even less. Most are somewhere in between those extremes. It’s extremely hard to be sure exactly what bioload your tank has and how well your biofiltration is handling that load. That’s why testing is recommended and why most recommend keeping the nitrates around 20 or below most of the time as we know that’s likely to be safe long term. The experts can’t even completely agree on how high is too high long term on nitrates because it varies by species of fish. We know lower is better for fish but it gets tough to keep plants if you go too low. Some red plants don’t show their best color until you keep the nitrates steadily well below 20. i wish there was a set answer. That would make it easier for all of us. There are just too many variables to do that. We can give what are widely accepted recommendations but you will have to develop an understanding of YOUR tank and YOUR fish and YOUR plants in order to figure out what works best in YOUR hands. Quite honestly, that’s part of the fun (and the frustration) of aquarium keeping is figuring that out. 🤷🏻‍♀️

I need to get pictures off my quite old camera (phone pics aren’t that exciting). Will post up once done if they’re any good. It’s not a fancy camera so don’t expect too much! It was very different at totality than even seconds before or seconds after. There was barely any difference than what would happen with light cloud cover immediately before and after. I did have intermittent light to moderate cloud cover throughout partial and some light but very transient cover during totality. Here’s my best shots of totality along with a shot with a crescent shaped sun dog during partial. My phone couldn’t even show a partial since it was so bright it overwhelmed the light sensor and camera. My only good partials with the camera were with light cloud cover to help the camera light sensor to cope.

Long term elevations in nitrates are not your fish’s friend as that can cause issues for many species. It should not be your goal to wait that long before water changes. There are also many chemicals and compounds in the water that we do not measure but that can still impact fish health. We don’t ever measure sex hormones, for instance, but dominant male fish of some species can definitely produce hormones that inhibit development of other males in a tank. I’m not sure if it’s been proven in females but it wouldn’t surprise me if that happens in species that have territorial females. That’s only the first example that comes to mind and its the most obvious to observe. There are likely far more subtle things that would be harder to prove that can result from water changes not being done often enough.

I would consider it great good luck getting an L276 instead of a rubbernose. L276 plecos are collected from a few different rivers and where they were collected makes a difference on their temperature ranges listed. Most resources are listing their ideal as 76-82. Rio Xingu runs warmer but they’re supposedly not as common in Rio Xingu as they are in some of the other rivers where they’re found. If you plop a heater in the 20 with the hillstreams and set it at 76 to keep it from going lower, you should be pretty OK for both species. Make sure you have plenty of narrow hiding spots too small for the pleco so the hillstreams are encouraged to hide someplace besides the pleco cave. The pleco cave truly is not to be messed with when a male is getting territorial. Mostly plecos are otherwise very peaceful towards other species as long as they don’t look too similar to themselves.

I’ve had bristlenose plecos in with cories and never had a cory show any fin damage. It likely is something else entirely. Bristlenose plecos (the usual species) are very large for that size tank, by the way. There are species of pleco that have bristles on their noses that are smaller but the hybrids we usually call bristlenoses can get 6-7” long for males. I have 2 that are about 6.5” in my 100 gallon, mostly nanofish tank. That tank also has about 20 cories of 2 species and I’ve not seen any of them show any fin damage so far. The plecos have been in there close to 3 years now (I’d have to check pics to give you a date). The oldest cories have been in there longer and the youngest is only a few months old - hatched in the tank. My big boys are territorial to each other and occasionally scuffle a bit (shoving match only) but they don’t even bother to do anything to the cories except occasionally push them off the bit of food they want. Do you have any other fish in the tank? Of any sharp edges on any decor? Whoops! Just looked back at your pic and saw the goldfish. They are kind of notorious for randomly nibbling at whatever catches their eye. I once had to remove a dead cory out of a fantail’s mouth to save the fantail. Those goldfish are far more likely to be the culprits for fin damage on cories.

He doesn’t look too bad and does seem less stressed than when he was in the breeder box. I would add the lowest dose of aquarium salt and just monitor for now.

Floaters are more problematic as most don’t like water on their surface. I’ve found salvinias to be particularly sensitive to it which is why I don’t have them anymore. I haven’t tried reverse respiration on them at all but they might survive a short treatment of 30 minutes or so. You would have to enclose them in a mesh bag and weight it down to sink them for the treatment. That would eliminate *most* if not all animal pests like snails, hydra, Planaria, etc. It would not clear algae but they typically grow fast enough if they’re happy to outgrow algae as long as you remove dead and dying leaves promptly.

I think @Fish Folk must have missed the first tag as he’s usually quick to answer. I would consider him our resident expert in shiners. Tagging him again to see if he has further thoughts if he’s available.

I think @nabokovfan87 is on to something. He does look like his spine may be a bit bent. And the idea of a bonk is very valid. Could have gotten startled and run into a side or the lid, etc. I would add very low dose salt which is safe enough for nearly all plants and snails. The aim is just to get some electrolytes into the water. I use 1 tablespoon per 10 gallons for this dose. Most can also go up to 1 tablespoon per 5 gallons. If you can do the Epsom salt soaks once or twice daily with minimal stress it might help a bit. But mostly for these guys I do supportive care which means leaving them in an internal breeder box to help keep the temp steadier but an external one is fine if it recirculates quick enough or if your fish room is warm enough. It will also help to make sure they’re eating OK and not outcompeted by other fish. It also helps by keeping them closer to the surface for better oxygenation and I often add an air stone, too. It may takes weeks or months but some do recover, some don’t. Only time will tell on that one. I had one badly bent pea puffer (was fine at the store then was bent in the bag from a 10 minute drive 🤦🏻‍♀️) recover well enough I couldn’t tell him apart from the others until he got much older and his bend started to show again.

I don’t typically like to use multi-drug meds because any bacteria that survive it are going to be resistant to multiple meds and much harder to kill or control. I lean much more towards using individual, more targeted meds. The antibiotics in Polyguard are not necessarily considered very strong or broad spectrum (which is why there are so many in there). I would much rather use Kanamycin (Kanaplex) for external or superficial infections or one of the Maracyns for internal infections. Levamisole (Expel-P) works better against the more common internal parasites but praziquantal (PraziPro and Paracleanse - which also has Metronidazole) has its uses, too, and hits a different class of parasite. There may come a day when I would use or recommend Polyguard but it hasn’t happened so far because it has more potential to cause big problems with resistant bacteria.

Chilis are very tiny and if you haven’t seen both in person you might not realize how different they are in size if you’re only looking at their length comparisons. They are great in a good sized group with appropriate tank mates but most gouramis have a large enough mouth to eat a chili easily. Harlequin rasboras are both longer, thicker, and deeper bodied and should be safer with a honey gourami if the harlequins are not too small when put together. Adult chilis are probably just a bit less than 1/4 the body mass of an adult harlequin to give you a better idea of size. You might get crazy lucky and raise a honey gourami with chilis but chances are your chilis would gradually disappear at some point. The risk to harlequins would be minimal even if you got the slightly smaller species.

Both julii and trilineatus have notable black spots in the dorsal fin. I’m not sure what species this one is but I don’t think it’s either of those. Try posting it on the Planetcatfish forum and see what they say.

Meh. Tannins are good for the fish. They’ll water change out . . . eventually. 😆 Tell her it’s a blackwater tank! It’s supposed to look that way! You might change your mind at some point just for her. Then when it water changes out she’ll know you did it for her.

I just noticed you’re in Texas, Howdy and welcome to the forum. You’re only 6.5 hours away from me. 😆 I also see both gold and ivory ramshorns in your pics. What would be the chances of you shipping some of each color to me? Or maybe you’re planning a trip to DFW for the eclipse? 😉

Same, @jwcarlson, same.

Some of the plastic ones are OK but if you do much adjusting, they wear out quickly. Plus the metal ones tend to be a bit more precise.

Yes, ramshorns. And yes, blue leopard and pinks. I’ll attach a basic chart of colors.

Looks like more ramshorn snails. A couple (or maybe a trio?) of larger ones (much smaller than the biggest one in the pic) plus a couple more tiny ones hanging off the “medium” ones. Ramshorns look quite flat and proportionately wider when they are smaller than pea sized. They get a bit less “square” looking as they grow and you can start to see that one side of the whorl is indented further as they grow.

I see that you said pandas, you posted pictures of pandas, and my silly old brain still was thinking pygmies. 🤦🏻‍♀️ 🤷🏻‍♀️ Sometimes I wonder where it’s wandered off! 😝 Most pandas are sold large enough to be OK with all but adult angels and they grow faster than angels so usually if juveniles are put together you would be OK with pandas and angels. I would guess that particularly cantankerous angels might pick on very young juvie pandas so I can’t completely rule it out although it's certainly much less likely an issue than pygmy cories would be. They are so tiny and adorable! Pandas are adorable, too, and I would have a shoal of pandas if I had a tank right for them. I’m hoping that once you get everything in the tank sorted and everybody dewormed that your fish will show you nice, robust health!

I could be wrong, but I believe orange is usually a pigment, not a structural color. It can be seen differently depending on muscle control of chromatophores, but it’s usually an actual pigment. Blue is nearly always a structural color with how the light reflects off microscopic structures in the skin or on the surface like on a blue butterflies wings or bird wings. Google tells me less than 1% of animals have blue pigment but there is one species of butterfly that produces a blue pigment - the obrina olivewing butterfly (who knew), and the blue poison dart frog also produces blue pigment. I’m sure if I dig deep enough into google there I could fine more, but it’s exceedingly rare. That is why we need some light on the animal to see the blue clearly and why blue is sometime metallic looking in some animals. More nerdy info that will bore most people. 🤷🏻‍♀️

Albinism is specifically lack of melanin, which is why leucistic is sometimes considered a form of albinism despite sometimes still having other pigments present. Leucism is also defined somewhat differently in different species of animals. Generally it’s defined as reduced pigments (including melanin, yellow, orange, etc) but leucistic animals usually still have a dark eye. Lucy snakes species are usually all white with dark eyes. Axolotls the same - white with dark eyes. Leopard geckos usually still have a bit or a lot of yellow. Leucistic cockatiels (usually called lutinos) also have both yellow and orange still present and usually (nearly always) have dark eyes. Many lucies will develop pigment spots as they get older and they can be born with pigment spots. “Dirty” and “calico” super red bristlenose plecos and blue-eyed lemons whether they have spots or not, are all likely some form of leucism. Snow white plecos are also probably lucies since they are white with dark eyes. I’m definitely not an expert but it’s been an interest of mine and I’ve occasionally taken a dip in that genetic knowledge pool over the years. 😝 I don’t think the chocolates qualify as albino even with lack of melanin in the eyes. It may be an unusual manifestation of albinism but I don’t think the fish would qualify as a true albino with that much melanin in the skin. It might fit into a long stretch of the leucistic definition but I’m not sure. I’m not sure how much that clears anything up or if it confuses things further. I have not watched the linked video to see what they say. All this is just definitions to start, then my personal experience on what people generally call lucies.

It will grow reasonably well for most, but might not have as much color as some get without CO2.

Second one looks like Hygrophila pinnatifida. Agree on the first, too, Temple Plant, Hygrophila corymbosa like @EricksonAquatics and @JE47 said.