Sunny

I love the picture of your cat enjoying the fish tank!

Welcome! I love that Dawg the Fish has his own name plate.

Thank you! I was shocked especially after a month of not realizing they were there!

I love seeing all the pets! I have a dog and two cats, other than my fish. Dixie is some sort of border collie mix we got from a rescue, but the laziest snuggle bug collie ever. She’s developed seizures, which apparently collies are prone to, and takes medicine in American cheese twice a day. She has very strong opinions about our daily routine, and will try to herd us to the couch when it’s couch time, or to bed if we’re up late. The tortie is Suwanee, named after the street we lived on when we found her. She wouldn’t come up to me until one day, turns out she had been attacked by another cat and had an abscess, and developed FIV. I guess she knew she needed help and came to us! She’s become a snuggle bug over the years and is very sweet, yet definitely has that tortitude. She also takes medicine twice a day for hypothyroidism. Allie is a black cat we got from a coworker, whose barn cat had kittens. She is a funny mix of bold and skittish. She wants to investigate everything but will dart at the first sound. She loves to roll on her back and talk to us, but the belly is definitely a trap. She looooves watching the fish.

I accidentally made panda cory babies! I also accidentally grew them up, too. I had my four panda corys in my quarantine tank while treating them for their barbels rotting. When that was done I moved them and a week or so later I put two new guppies into quarantine. Those guppies stayed in there at least a month. Then a few days after moving them, I saw two little cory babies! They’d been living this whole time in that tank somehow! They were so tiny, but I started feeding them and now I’ve added them to the main tank. They’re following the adults around now 😍

Been a while since I updated, the hair algae battle was wearing me down. But I’m happy to report I’ve had success! It’s been a month without any significant hair algae growth and new growth on plants is free! Here’s what I’ve done over the last 5 months: 1. the neo CO2 thing was mostly a fail. Maybe in a 5 gallon it’d work, but 29 was too large. It just ended up growing the hair algae on the airline tubing really well. 2. Got a real light. I upgraded from the kit lid light to a Fluval planted light. It didn’t fix the hair algae immediately but I was able to play with it to figure out the balance. 3. I slowly stepped down the amount of light intensity and timing and then left it at my current setting to see if the algae would respond. 4. I tried squirting hydrogen peroxide into the tank with a Turkey baster. I have no idea if this did anything but the hair algae on the gravel didn’t go anywhere or turn brown, so I gave up on that. 5. I kept planting plants. Just trying to get something that would grow and use nutrients, hopefully that would outpace the algae. I did go through quite a few plants and had to toss a lot that just ended up too matted with hair algae. Things finally started turning around: 6. One of the things I think made a difference was sticking a dracaena in the tank to suck up some excess nutrients. It’s not a looker but I hide the roots behind the heater and the leaves itself behind a peace lily. I don’t think it’ll ever look decent, but it’s doing a job. 7. Coop Easy Carbon. I finally bit the bullet just to try it out. I was dosing every day for a month. It seemed to keep the algae at bay, long enough for the new plants to start getting established. 8. Finally, the last bane of my existence, was the short hair algae that grew on the glass. I could not for the life of me get this to stop growing, even as I noticed the tank balance. I wiped it every other day with a paper towel, I let it sit there and then cleaned it, I used a melamine sponge. To be honest I’m not really sure what caused it to finally clear up, I guess some combination of the above. 9. I won’t know for sure if this all did anything until next winter. Currently the sun has moved so that it doesn’t shine directly on the tank anymore (though it is plenty bright). So, who knows! For now I’m enjoying my hair algae free tank!!

Thanks all! Here’s a picture from a few months ago. I’ll go pick up some bloodworms today, it’s been a while since I’ve fed him some.

Hi all! I got my first betta fish about a year ago from a big-box. He’s always been happy and healthy. Now I’ve noticed his fins changing- I didn’t think anything of them growing out clear, thinking it’s maybe just him growing gray. But now I’m not sure? He still swims up vigorously to greet me, eats well, tank has been set up for a year and not much has changed, plants grow well, and the rasboras in there seem good. Is this just the aging process, or are there some warning signs I should consider here? At first glance I though fin rot, but if it is, it’s not presenting in a way I’ve seen in my other fish (and his other fins are normal).

Update: I fed some frozen brine shrimp to see if that would help him pass it, which worked, and whatever it was flopped around for a bit, he flashed some and then it passed. Ugh/ ew, hopefully it’s a dead worm or just poop 😫 (there was a slight pink cast to it, I feed the orange extreme flakes if that matters).

My cherry barb has this white thing sticking out… is this a parasite?? I’ve treated the tank recently with expel P, because I’d dewormed the barbs in quarantine a few times but they were still showing signs of parasites. He seems to be eating normal (unlike the other barbs which were spitting out food). It’s just hanging there, he doesn’t seem to be passing it, at least not quickly. In the photo, you can see the white spot by his pelvic and anal fins.

@HelanWoohoo! Okay… I’ll be hoping for those babies then. Maybe stepping up the repashy will help.

Congrats on the first post! Do you have any plants in the tank? I think this would be a good time to put some plants in and let them keep the water good while you’re away. It won’t keep it “cycled” I think, but it seems a lot of people who fishless cycle have problems keeping it cycled when adding fish anyway. But, the plants’ growth will mean you can add fish when you get back. Especially if you’re getting fish from a big box store, they can go downhill fast even when you think you’re in the clear, and then you’ve got your poor fish sitter having to flush it…

Welcome! It looks like he’s coming to inspect what you’re doing. It’s a pretty tank and I’m sure you’ll learn a lot from the great folks on the forum. I have!

This hair algae is incredibly stubborn. My plants are finally outgrowing it, thanks I think to the small amounts I of CO2, but I definitely think that the CO2 is helping the algae, too… Did another algae extraction and cleaning rocks and plants. I bought some easy carbon and have been dosing it daily for about four days.

Hmm, I tried, I think there’s at least one female? There are 4 corys total. @Helan

I’ve tried that, water change in a storm, repashy… I wonder if I somehow ended up with only males lol

Oooh I didn’t know they had that much personality! I do like to run my tank a little cool. That’s a great idea. I have some panda corys, but I have no idea if they’ve ever bred. I have a friend who just randomly finds baby panda corys in her tank and I’m jealous 😆

Well I just spent a few hours reading your journal. You have a really joyful writing style. I don’t encounter many people on YouTube or internet talking about white skirt tetras, which is kind of strange to me because they’re sooo common in the big box stores here. I mean, they’re the most boring-looking fish in the store, but my husband really liked them. And I’ve really enjoyed their spawning antics. (They’re also the genetic base for Glo Fish skirt tetras.)

Hi all! My white skirt tetras seem to spawn weekly, and even though no eggs survive I love seeing the activity in the tank. Are there other schooling fish that behave like this that I should check out?

Cleaned out a lot of the hair algae, and had to remove some of the plants that were suffering from lack of photosynthesis. New growth is occurring so that’s good, but I don’t know if it’s faster. Maybe the carpeting stuff being successful will be a good measure. I also moved a dwarf lily that just would not produce more than one scrawny leaf in my other tank no matter how many root tabs I shoved under there, so maybe a little CO2 boost will help.

That’s so cool! I think it’s beautiful and I don’t see any algae.

So far the hair algae is really enjoying the co2, hah. Your tank is set into a fireplace? That’s really cool! Do you have a photo of it?

Starting this thread/ journal to track my algae battle with the Aquario Neo CO2 kit. My 29 gallon tank just cranks out hair algae, whereas it’s never been a problem in my 10 gallon in the hallway. I’ve got two limiting factors that made me decide to try a co2 kit for this tank: 1. This tank gets direct sunlight in winter, spring, and fall. Usually not more than 30 mins, but that’s still a lot (at least I’ve balanced it to where the green water hasn’t come back…) 2. My husband likes to stay up late and watch the fish with the lights on, which I’ve complained about before, but I also want him to keep enjoying the tank! I’ve been able to reduce the hair algae production to a steady, sort of manageable amount, but my plants are starting to suffer and they need a boost to compete. I’m using the Aquario CO2 kit, with the large diffuser from the coop instead of the small one in the kit. I put the diffuser in last night, so let’s see how this goes! ETA: this tank was de-algaed one week ago, but the really small hairs don’t come of the plant leaves easily, even with a toothbrush.

I too got a tank for my husband and I to work on together…. it’s definitely my hobby now. He was telling his parents (lovingly!) that his plan was some fake plants easy fish and let it ride but I’m over here trying to balance this planted tank and adding tanks and watching “that fish guy” on YouTube lol.

I just crossed referenced websites that talked about plants (flowers) that can grow hydroponically. I also learned the word “aquaponics” which is specific to growing plants in aquariums. Just cause the internet doesn’t say it, doesn’t mean it’s not true- maybe no one’s tried!