AndrewK

Thank you for the help, much appreciated.

Hello, I am looking for some help with identifying what type of algae this is. The algae has been present for quite awhile but I recently removed over half the plants to since I'm turning the tank brackish. The algae seems to have taken off more or maybe I'm just noticing it more with the lack of other plants. Thank you for the help.

I recently (2 weeks) purchased a 20g, added a HOB that was in use on a 10g, a heater, and a sponge filter that was also in the 10g. I have 1 killifish, 3 guppies, and 3 dwarf gouramis. In my 75g that I've had for years but recently planted, my pleco decided he didn't like real plants and uproots them every chance he gets. I have since moved most of my plants to the 20g. I took the fluval 2.0 off of the 10g and put it on 20g. Chemicals: seachem prime, flourish, and API quick start. Question : using the flourish, am I adding a bunch of nitrites? Follow up question: using the API quick start, am I negating the flourish? And finally: are these brown spots algae or a deficiency? Nitrate : 50 Nitrite : 1 hardness : 300 KH : 120 PH : 7.4 Chlorine : 0 amonia : 0 This is after a water change of 25%, with prime and quick start.

Soo many snails, hahaha. I've just never seen snail eggs before.

I saw these on the underside of an anubias leaf and I'm pretty sure they are snail eggs. Can't say I've seen them before.

Thank you xXInkedPhoenixX Calmedbyfish, and Big Green. xXInkedPhoenixX: I really appreciate your response and willingness to help. Water Parameters: my nitrates got really high (200) and I've been doing water changes every 4 days to get it lowered. From what I gather it has been in the 50-100 range the past few checks. Nitrites are hard for me to tell but my kids have said that they have been at 0. KH is typically between 80 and 120. It doesn't vary much. PH has been pretty steady between 7.2 - 7.6. GH has been hard (300?) Since I started testing. This morning I have tested my tap water and the tank and have added a picture. The tap water is on top with the mark. Changes: I've added some frogbit, seachem flourish, root tabs, and 3 red skirt tetras, a dwarf gourami, and 3 kuhli loaches. I've recently removed a canister filter and added a co-op sponge filter. I still have my hob. I have an air stone in the foam filter, and two other air stones for oxygen. I've added the best pic of the pearl gourami I could get. So far I think the culprit is one of the following: Tap water changed due to recent heavy rains. New fish were a shock to the nitrogen cycle causing the perimeters to change. New fish/plant had unseen things with it (illness, bacteria). Possibly the gravel as that is something I didn't know before. Since the fish jumping and bichir dieing happened within 12 hours of the water change, I feel a combination of the first two is likely the culprit. Thank you again for helping me work through this.

*Please move or delete if this is the wrong place for this post. I woke up this morning to my Senegal bichir floating. She was about two months old and had grown to about 6". There were no signs of distress, no lesions, no lumps or apparent blockages. I took the photo of her yesterday. Food: I was feeding her sinking cichlid pellets and blood worms. I also think she had started eating small fish in the tank. The tank temperature has been fluctuating between 78° in the day to 75° at night. I'm a little colorblind so I have provided photos of the test strips. I saw my nitrates were getting a little high and did a 30% water change yesterday. I watch my fish as much as I can. When I noticed a spot on one of my pearl gourami fins yesterday morning, I pulled it out and put it in my quarantine tank. I will be treating it with ich-x once it arrives. A few minutes after pulling the pearl out one of my neon tetras jumped out of the tank so it's in quarantine as well. The rest of the fish (angelfish, pearl gourami, dwarf sunset gourami, red skirt tetra, red eye tetras, neon tetras, guppies, pictus catfish, kuhli loaches, pleco) all seem to be doing okay. I really enjoyed watching the bichir and want to learn from this experience. If/when I get another I want to be able to keep alive and healthy much longer.

I've been watching my pleco and I think his eye is okay, it just looked a little different. I also think that the spot on his nose is an injury. Not sure what he injured in it on but I don't think it's ick or anything.

I've had this common Pleco for 8+ years. This is the first issue it's ever had. He has a white spot on his nose and his right eye seems to be bulging out. Water Parameters: pH - 7.2-7.6 Nitrates - 100 (it's been high for a while, I've been doing water changes every 4 days and finally figured out my canister filter was hurting more than helping) Hardness - 150 (I don't know what it's been, I just started checking with co-op strips) Nitrite - 0 Ammonia - 0 KH/Buffer - 80-120 Water Temperature - 70 There have been recent changes, I've added live plants for the first time, I just added a sponge filter to replace the canister but I still also have my hob. I changed my heater because the old one wouldn't go below 80°. Tank mates: angelfish, pearl gourami, senegal bichir, red eye tetras, neon tetras, pictus catfish, and a couple guppies. All the fish are adolescents and I've had them 1-2 months. I don't see any signs of illness on any of the other fish. What am I missing? Thank you for your help.

Thank you. It's certainly my favorite tank mix so far. I love watching it all the time, my kids and wife love watching feeding time.

Thank you for the info and feeding tips and your tank looks awesome! I've read about the possible issue between the bichir and pleco and if that does happen, it will be my excuse to get a 2nd tank. The soap caddy idea is pretty clever. So far my bichir spends most of his day hiding in a barrel or behind the fake plants. He used to be inside the boat but I don't think he fits anymore. I wonder if I put a soap caddy mine if mine would sit on it.

Everyone in our family is a huge fan of the dinosaur! It has doubled in size since getting him a couple weeks ago. Is there anything specific to the bichir that I should know about? Or any tips or advise? Thank you!

I had a 55 gallon for years that I managed to keep fish alive (angelfish, tetras, had a clown loach). I considered myself a low level fish keeper because I was able to keep fish alive but maybe not thrive. Now I want to have my fish thrive. 2 things brought this on, the first was my last pair of angelfish were my first breeding fish ever. Granted the pleco would eat all the eggs everytime it was still cool to have. Once that group of fish got old I decided to get 2 tiger oscars and the 75 gallon. It wasn't a great experience, I quickly realized I had a lot to learn and want thriving fish. The tigers lasted awhile but they were constantly sick and I don't want that experience again. To me that means I need to up my fish keeping game.

My tank Hello everyone! I have been a low level fish keeper for 10+ years but I am focused on being a better fish keeper. I currently have a 75 gallon tank with a new group of fish (except one). My current set up includes: Marineland 350 and Cascade 1000 with a foam filter on the intake. Angelfish (x2) Pearl Gourami (x2) Fancy guppy (x2...which is now 5) Neon tetra (x8) Red eye tetra (x8) Pictus catfish Molly (bought 4 but one has survived) Common pleco (had it for 6+ years and is 12-15" long) Senegal bichir Live plants/moss balls (I am just getting started with live plants and would like to get rid of the fake plants.) I bought the guppies knowing the fry would be eaten by the angelfish. I bought the neons before the Senegal and know that they will/could also end up as food. My "to do" list: The background worked great when I had Tiger Oscars but really takes away from the fish I have now. Getting a better light. More plants. Getting a 2nd tank to keep my larger fish, leaving the 75 as a nano tank. I've been learning a lot from Cory's live Q&As, which I am incredibly grateful for, and look forward to learning and hopefully contributing to the community here. I don't have any kid photos of the tank so I uploaded the most recent video of it and linked it above.