andieb

No it’s ok, I understood what you meant because at my local fish stores in my region, Corydoras habrosus is usually called a Salt and Pepper Cory.

Hi there, Thanks for the advice! I'm going to do a bit of research into what the parasite could be and I'll pick out a medication. And yes, one of the corys is bigger than the others and I thought it was a salt and pepper, even though I technically purchased "pygmy corydoras" but it was curb side pick up so I didn't see what I had got until I got home. I thought the smaller ones could be pygmys but now that you mention it their fins are stripy and look more like salt and peppers... interesting.

Ok thank you for the help, I will get some ammonia test strips and a treatment for parasites.

Hi guys, so unfortunately, the cory died. Now I'm noticing that my other corys in the main tank are doing an odd behaviour, I think it might be "flashing". I'm wondering if it could be linked to what killed the first first. I uploaded a video on youtube, I promise I'm not promoting anything, here's a link to a video of the behaviour. The behaviour starts at around 2:50. Is this what they mean by "flashing"? My KH is low, around 20 ppm, could be it linked to that or could it be a parasite? Thanks again for all your help!

Ok, quick update. I got really worried about him infecting the others cause they kept swimming close to him. So I did everything I said in my first post - put the intake sponge from my established tank into my new tank right beside the sponge filter, made a hiding place for him, and added seachem stability and seachem prime (to detoxify nitrites). I picked him up really gently with my hand and put him in the new tank. I also added some food in case he comes around a little. But honestly I think he's practically dead. Is this common? Do you think my other first might need preemptive treatment? Edit: once he was in the quarantine tank, I could look at him carefully and I saw he has a lesion on his head that looks like hole-in-the-head disease or head and lateral line erosion (HLLE). Should I treat all the fish, the sick and the ones in the main tank with meds containing metronidazole? Any advice is appreciated!

Hi everyone, Last night I added 8 pygmy corydoras to my 20 gal long tank, which already had 3 apple snails and 5 ghost shrimp. I tested the water parameters before adding the fish and also just now and they haven't changed: pH: 6.5-7.0 Nitrates: 10 Hardness: 140 Nitrite: 0 Ammonia: <0.02 KH/Buffer: 20 Water Temperature: 78 I acclimated the corys for 50 min before adding them by pouring out some water and adding a bit of tank water in small bits. Anyways, even before I added the fish to the tank I noticed that one wasn't moving much and wasn't responding to his surroundings consistently. He swam around when I first added him but then he quickly went back to being lethargic, sitting on the bottom motionless but breathing quickly. This morning I couldn't find him. Tonight I still only counted 7 fish but then all of a sudden he swam out from a hiding place, but he seemed really uncoordinated and almost immediately swam back down and hasn't moved since. He's almost lying on his side now but he's still breathing. Everyone else is acting and looking healthy. I'm not sure what to do. Any ideas for what might be wrong with him? Any suggestions for what to do are really appreciated! I have a second tank that I only just set up, but it just has sand and nothing else in it, except a brand new sponge filter and a heater. I haven't cycled it yet but I have seachem stability and I could put the intake sponge from my established tank in the new tank. I can also take a plant or two to give him a hiding place. I honestly think he's not long for this world. I really don't want the sickness to spread to the others though. Should I move him to the other tank? I also stupidly just realized I don't even have a fish net. AHH Thank you so much for your help!

Wow thank you! I've saved a copy of the chart and the diagram from the link you sent (https://www.aquariumcoop.com/pages/plant-nutrition) on my desktop. Based the info you shared and a water test, I'm thinking that I have a couple things going on: 1. Potassium deficiency -> I'm going to dose a bit more of the macro, like a squirt and a half 2. Calcium deficiency -> Even though the GH is 180, the KH is low ~ 20-30 ppm. That's actually an improvement cause it used to be 0. After you guys noticed this in my first post, I had added in a cuttlebone that's mostly dissolved now. I'll add some more cuttlebone. 3. I had dosed the micro lightly because it contains copper, and I was nervous about it hurting my shrimp and snails. They seem fine though, so I'll try a normal dose this time. Hope I can turn it around for my plants!

Hi there, I'm thinking I might have a calcium deficiency, the new leaves growing on my mini buce plants are small, yellow and twisted. But I think there might be some other deficiencies going on that I'm trying to identify... I was hoping you could help me figure out what nutrients might be deficient. On my anubias barteri, there are yellow patches forming on the old leaves (the first pic). On the same plant, a new leaf is unfurling and it looks lighter green than the rest of the plant (2nd pic). Is it normal for new growth to start smaller and lighter, or does this leaf look stunted? On by anubias nana petite (I think that's what it is, the store just called it assorted anubias) I see pit marks (3rd pic). Does this look like potassium deficiency? On my other anubias afzelii (i think, honestly I mixed up the alfezii and barteri and I don't know which is which now) there is slight yellowing between the veins, is that magnesium (4th pic)? I planted all the anubias only 5 days ago, so could it just be the plants responding to the change? I fertilized the tank right after planting with macros, micros and iron, so I wouldn't have thought there'd be deficiencies. Last pic is a mystery plant (maybe micranthemum umbrosum) that showed up with my first plant order a couple weeks ago, its new leaves are also light green and smaller. Thanks for you help!

Today I noticed that my biggest ghost shrimp, named Josh aka Ghost Leviathan, actually has eggs and is a female! Happy International Women's Day!

Tiger barbs! Almost endlessly entertaining to watch. At any given time, at least one in the group will be doing something interesting. They're objectively eye catching, and on closer inspection the black stripes are iridescent and sparkly. Alas tho.. so cute and tiny at the store.. the clerk wont tell you they get 3 inches long... and they'll also sell you a cute pleco that grows a foot long to go with them "to keep the tank clean"... all for your 10 gal tank that you're also buying that day. It took me 10 years to come back to this hobby after a bad start. (I don't have a pic, so I took this pic from https://be.chewy.com/keeping-and-breeding-tiger-barbs/, not sure but hope that's ok)

Yea I hear you, that sounds like a lot of deal with all at once and extremely discouraging. This is somewhat unrelated but I've always REALLY looked forward to getting my own dog, I used to research breeds for literally countless hours and talk about dogs with my boyfriend all the time. But earlier in the pandemic my family/childhood dog who was 15 took a turn for the worst and we had to put her down unexpectedly. I got in a big fight with my parents over it because I didn't think it was time yet and I thought it was cruel. It completely turned me off of getting my own dog. But it's been about 6 months and I've come around since. The "ugly" bit was just one part of an experience that otherwise was incredibly rewarding. All is forgiven with my family. Over time you forget the ugly, and remember more of the good.

Welcome! I'm also from Canada, GO CANADA!

Hi guys, The micro fertilizer that I plan to use is CSM-B Compound [0.134g/ml], which apparently consists of 0.1% chelated copper... I plan to add ~2 mL a week, that means I'm adding about 26.8 mg of chelated copper into the tank. I have a 20 gal (75 L) tank so that's 0.357 mg/L or ppm of chelated copper in the tank. Plus according to my city's water quality report, my tap water has 1 ppm of copper already. Based on what I've read online about the toxicity of copper to shrimps.. the tap water alone should have already killed them... They seem fine so far. But I've only had them for a couple weeks. Is this micro fertilizer safe to use with my ghost shrimp and apple snails? Could my tap water pose a problem? Thanks for you help!

oooo thank you all for your suggestions! I have my research cut out for me 🙂 🙂

Hi guys, So eventually I'm planning on adding fish to my 20 gal long, and I was wondering if you guys had any ideas. I like the idea of my fish having company of the same species but I also don't want to get a lot of fish cause I like being able to tell the individuals apart. I was thinking about keeping a male and a female together. Of course keeping a male and female together for "company" only works if the two fish actually like having each other's company... Initially I was thinking of a male and female honey gourami (Trichogaster chuna). I like how gouramis explore things and interact with each other. Any other ideas? Maybe a male and female from a species that's actually monogamous? Here's some things I was hoping for: 1) Small (~ 1 or 2 inch) cause I want the tank to be a big-ish place for them to explore. 2) Compatible with apple snails and ghost shrimp 3) Cool behaviours are a plus Can't wait to hear your ideas! Thank you!!!

Kk fewf. If your snails were ok then I think mine will be too. My tank is new so that makes sense.

Ooo I hope you're right. I googled pictures of biofilm though and it appears more wispy, whereas the the thing in my tank is more like lichen... like crusty and flakey. Here's a better pic... Just want to make absolutely sure it's harmless. If it is biofilm or something else harmless, I'll definitely leave it.

Hi guys, Hope you're all having a good week so far! Since setting up my aquarium there's been an odd white moldy patch on one of my rocks. It looks a bit like a cross between lichen and white mold. I didn't really pay it any mind, until I noticed one of my snails eating it today and got worried about the effects it might have on my snail's health. Any idea what this is? Will it make my snails, shrimp or future fish sick? Thanks!

lol I think I might have been a nerm this whole time, and I'm glad to have found the other nerms out here in the world

Wow, this is awesome! Thank you so much for all your replies! 1. The nitrites That makes perfect sense how detoxifying and taking out all the nitrite will actually slow the cycle. I didn't do a water change today and stopped adding in Seachem Prime to the tank. I tested this morning, and the nitrites were solidly under 1 ppm, but not 0. 2. The KH situation That is really interesting and something I was completely unaware of, so thank you so much for catching that. I watched a bunch of videos about KH and pH to understand this better. I noticed that the pH (7.0), KH (80 ppm ) and GH (180 pom) of my tap water are pretty ideal but after a water change, progressively over the course of hours, the pH would drop to 6.5, KH to 0 ppm, and GH to 60 ppm. Unfortunately my local pet store only sold crushed coral by the LOAD and they didn't have any alkalinity buffers, so instead I got 2 cuttlebones which I crushed up and put in a bag in the filter. Some chunks of cuttlebone came out and the water was a tiny bit cloudy for about a minute. I noticed my shrimps were actually eating the chunks! About an hour after I put it in, I tested pH and it's at 6.0 😞 Do you think the cuttlebone will work eventually? Does it not work as well as crushed coral? I'm wondering what could have contributed to the pH, KH and GH dropping so much. The only potential causes I can think of are: my small piece of drift wood (which I didn't boil before putting in the tank), the fluval stratum, or plant matter breaking down... Also, forgot to mention: since I may have set back the cycle and I was scared that when I added in the crushed cuttlebone it might cause an ammonia spike, I decided to get Seachem Stability, which I added to the tank. Tested nitrites a couple hours later and they are practically at 0, ammonia remains <0.02 ppm. Thanks again!

Hi guys! Full disclosure, I posted a version of this in my local forum but that forum is a whole lot smaller and isn't really a "long-form" discussion type place. I'm really excited to be getting into this hobby and I LOVE discussing it. BUT, I made a big mistake and I'm slightly embarrassed to reveal my carelessness, especially cause I really wanted to do this right. I set up a tank a little over two weeks ago and I added plants a little over one week ago. I bought an ammonia sensor, which read <0.02 ppm and after adding the plants I noticed that there were a lot of tiny pond snails and ramshorn snails in the tank. Over the past week, the snails were looking healthy and seemed to be growing, and the ammonia remained low so I figured the tank was probably cycled. Don't kill me.. I see the error of my ways now. IGNORANTLY thinking my tank was cycled, I went out and bought 3 apple snails and 5 ghost shrimps. I was doing a lot of reading about invertibrates beforehand, and read that low pH can dissolve their shells. I wasn't too worried about this since my water here is moderately hard and tends to be above 7.00. But I also used fluval stratum substrate, which can lower pH. So I decided to go out and get a test kit, mostly to make sure the pH wasn't too low.BUT these are the results I got:GH: 60-120 ppmKH (Ca2+, Mg2+): 0 ppmpH: 6.5Nitrite: 1 ppmNitrate: 20 ppmAmmonia: <0.02 ppmI was horrified to see that my tank that I thought was cycled, actually has nitrite in it! I really wish I would have tested this before putting anything living into the tank. Live and learn... except my snails and shrimps may not live...Anyways, I've been testing the water multiple times a day and doing daily 30% water changes using a 1 x dose of Seachem Prime to dechlorinate the water. I don't have access to filter media from an established tank to speed up the cycling. My nitrite is still at 1ppm unfortunately. This morning, I saw a really interesting video where the youtuber reached out to Seachem Prime to ask the exact dose needed to detoxify ammonia and nitrite.Here's a summary:A 1x dose will detoxify 1 ppm of ammonia and 2 ppm of nitrite, a 5x dose will detoxify 5 ppm of ammonia and 10 ppm of nitrite. A 1x dose is 1 ml per 10 US gal. Here's a link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wqio4O3dwKQ&feature=emb_title&ab_channel=TrafishAquatics I realized a problem - I've been adding a 1x dose of Seachem prime based on the volume of the bucket of new water (0.6 mL Seachem Prime for 6 gal bucket, to do a 30% water change of my 20 gal tank). But, to detoxify the nitrite in the tank, I should be calculating the amount of Seachem based off the volume of the tank, not the bucket of new water. So today, I added 0.6 ml of Seachem Prime to dechlorinate the new water in the bucket, then I did the water change, and now I'm about to add another 1.4 ml of Prime directly to the tank. That gives me a total of 2 ml of Seachem prime, which is a 1x dose for my 20 gal tank. I probably could have just added 2 ml of Seachem Prime to the bucket to dechlorinate the water and hope that it detoxifies the nitrite in the tank when I do the water change, but I don't know if that makes it less effective - probably doesn't matter - but I feel that adding the Seachem directly to the tank can't hurt in terms of detoxifying the nitrite. What do you guys think? Also today I didn't feed the snails and shrimps. Does this seem like an ok plan to bring down the nitrite until the cycle is finished? Thank you for your help! I attached a pic of the tank and a pic of two of my snails, which are named Rex and Devin..