xXInkedPhoenixX

Awesome! Gourami babies are so cute! Looking forward to your updates. 🙂

Ummmmm no. no. no. Not allowed. 😤

In my Parent Tank I have somewhere around 14-18 and I rarely see more than 3 at a time. Little brats.

Gosh buddy, I'm so sorry. 😞 I just did the same thing I was only gone 2 nights and a whole day and I lost 1 Tiger (then subsquently 2 more). I think I would have lost them anyway as the water tested great and they have some sort of mystery problem- but it's no way to end what was supposed to be a relaxing time away- so I kind of know how you feel- I'm just sorry to see the volume you lost. What was nice for me was I was concerned about my solo CPD fry as I've been putting fry food in the tank multiple times a day when I'm around and at least 2x when I work. I wasn't sure if the little one was going to make it through my time away, but they did. Kind of made up for it, but boy does it dampen things as it's right back into the fray when you get home.

I am now officially down to 4. 😞

OTOCINCLUS COCAMA (TIGER): The Cocama Hotel Well. I haven't posted because I'm not happy with the situation. None of the medications seem to be working and I keep losing Cocama. I am down to nearly 4 of 10 as I discovered one dead when I got home today and one is on its way out. The 2 doses I was into of Safe Guard aka Fenbendazole have not improved the situation. So as a last ditch since I've already done Kanaplex, Expel P and the Fenbendazole I was on dose 2 of a 5 day treatment of ParaCleanse. I had dosed this morning and returned to the deceased Oto which I'd figured as they were hanging out at the bottom of the tank and listless. I didn't expect to have 2 on their way out. At this point I'm not even really looking for advice. I just did a water change put some Polyfilter in and put a rounded tablespoon of salt in the tank. I expect to lose the remaining Otos. There is nothiing on the deceased Otos that give me a clue as to what is going on. The one I just picked out had a semi-rounded belly, no color loss, no obvious redness, a pink irridescent sheen to it but I've seen that on all my dead Otos so I think that's normal. Eyes are not cloudy no obvious physical signs. Whatever it is that they have is aggressive and relentless. The Otos seemed fine yesterday, all hanging on the glass, this morning 1 on the gravel. The one that's on the way out I scooped up off the gravel it very weakly tried to fight the net, can't really stay up well. I put it in a floating breeder in the tank expecting that it will probably go shortly here and debating on whether I should just euthanize them but not exactly how I'd like to end the day. Defeated, totally. If they all die I'll tear down this tank and nuke it, toss all the filtration, wood, maybe even the plants. If it is the parasite that causes Whirling Disease it's probably too late anyway as they parasite is supposedly released upon death of the fish. Well, then it's in the tank. I feel sick. I won't buy anymore Cocama. Plan is to take the Otos from the Accidental tank and try and add them all to the Parent tank that way if there is more babies they will go into the Accidental Tank and I'll be back down to 4 tanks (with the Accidental unoccupied until babies come). Of course it will take some time to add the Accidental Otos as I'll only add a handful at a time. Sorry guys, I thought this would be a cool thing, turns out it was a bad idea. What a bummer.

The first thing everyone new needs to learn in this hobby is patience. If you do this too quickly, being inexperienced you risk losing all your fish. If you choose to do a fish-in cycle which is what you are doing if you add fish now the .5 of ammonia will cause ammonia burn, stress and likely fish deaths. So in order to try and prevent that you'd have to do water tests and water changes every. single. day until you see Nitrates and zero ammonia and nitrites. I don't recommend this method for new hobbyists. I'd recommend watching this video that simplifies tank cycling.

Hi there @Sharelleshobbies welcome to the hobby. Appearance of ammonia and nitrites are a good thing when doing a fishless cycle. No water changes necessary. We're waiting for that magical moment when your tests are zero ammonia and nitrites and a little bit of Nitrates anywhere between 5 and 20. Don't add fish until your tank is cycled or you risk losing fish and/or upsetting the cycle. 🙂

I run no heaters so my temps flux, Otos in 3 tanks. Temps have varied from 72 up to 80, all is well.

Congrats on your new snail friends!

Glofish is a trademarked brand, there are strong opinions in the industry and hobby about them but this is why we do our own independent research and come up with our own opinions. Because they are trademarked they do say you are not to breed them for profit (not sure how that works out, nature finds a way). Anyway, not promoting it myself but they do have their own website and have a pretty comprehensive FAQ section, I'd read it before as I briefly kept a Glofish female Betta sadly like pretty much ALL Betta she didn't live long- I don't in any way blame her Glofish background- she seemed normal and delightful in every other way. Sadly she'll be my very last Betta. Anyway there are others on here that keep Glofish brand fish and seem happy with them. https://shop.glofish.com/pages/glofish-faq

Yeah it was stressful, just give him time it takes a bit to recover. You know, like when a bird hits a window. Like that. Looks bad but most of the time they will shake it off eventually.

Poor thing has facial hair now, it'll go away hopefully.

Bettafix, Pimafix, Melafix all junk so good decision Tell us about the tank? How big, filtration, how old, what's the temp and the numbers on your recent water test. (your pic didn't come through on this post by the way)

Woo hoo!

Oh crap. Soooo, their little mouthy barbs get caught on stuff like that. The only things you can do is try to use a finger or tweezers or something gentle that he won't get caught on (maybe a popsicle stick?) and try and very gently figure out which barb is caught and work with whatever tool you choose to release them. Had this happened recently to me with a shrimp net. Try to make more contact with the cloth than the fish itself if possible. Their fins can get caught too, they have pretty good griping action as well.

@freemoney Mystery snail apparently didn't know it was super deluxe cleaning day at the snail wash

Been meaning to post this but have been preoccupied. My little friend returned March 9th. Brought to my attention while I sat in my chair watching tv, as you do I didn't want to move for a clearer picture and scare them off so the video and pics below taken through a screen door. Video link through google for those who can view it. Stuck around for a whopping 2 mins and some seconds: https://photos.app.goo.gl/AsiCrnnS53yakxNq5

I'm still jealous of their magical abilities.... A perfect spiral!! 🙃

So we might have to rename this contest to Some Sort of Snail Scape. Muahahaha I have alllllll the snails!!!!

Welcome to the forum. I think you need more Otos 🙃 😁 They are like potato chips...

Good lawd. I'm just very glad I don't have 69 tanks. 😬 *face palm*

Oh good, doesn't sound like it- I wouldn't treat the tank if it's not necessary. Don't overclean, @PineSong's advice to leave some about is a good thing. I have had Mystery, Bladder and Nerite snails. I love them all for different reasons but Nerites are by far my personal favorite. They are the best at keeping most algaes at bay (Mystery Snails aren't great algae eaters, but they clean up extra food- and they need supplemental feeding) and they don't reproduce (like bladder snails do). They come in a whole bunch of colors and patterns. I have Horned, Zebra, Racers, Olive- there are lots. For a 10 gallon I'd say you could potentially get 2. The only downside for some aquarists is the Nerite eggs. If you happen to get a female she'll lay eggs and they are small, white and random. People don't like them because they lay on anything and they can be hard to remove. It's never bothered me at all- the only ones I scrape off are on the viewing glass. Otherwise they fade with time. For the work they do for me it's a very small price to pay. And no, you don't know if you have a girl, until you know.

Goldfish are the only fish I've ever seen recover from Dropsy. They are truly little tanks. So glad this one made it!

Hi @wolfohawk welcome back to the hobby and this forum. To me algae is a friend especially when you have algae eaters like Otos and Snails. I did have a bit of a concern when you said something in your post. You said that the algae was slimy....does it also smell bad and/or come up in sheets if you stir it or vacuum it up? I'm hoping you don't have blue green algae, which is not actually algae it's bacteria and no, it isn't stuff you want in your tank- it also photosynthesizes so the light from the window would only help it. If it is you may need to treat the tank, Maracyn is what I'm told works better than most of the other methods mentioned online. I'm hoping for your sake it's not (because I hear it's a real pain to get rid of sometimes). Otherwise, I agree with below: You don't mention how big this tank is but I'd consider getting at least 1 Nerite snail- they are incredible members of any clean up crew.