laritheloud

Is there a lesion on the side of his body? His feelers look quite short, too. I think it looks like a bacterial infection. I'd try @Colu's advice and use Fin and Body Cure or Kanaplex. I hope the poor guy starts feeling better soon.

No, but they're related! Irene's fish were Furcata Rainbowfish, and they have yellow pompoms. These guys have black antennae fins instead of the yellow pompoms. The males are like this photo:

Congrats to the folks that trashed their eco-complete. I'm not brave enough to swap out my substrate, so it'll stay where it is. At least I know not to pick it up again for future tanks!

@Mmiller2001 I find Eco Complete extremely difficult to plant in, and it's really sharp and not very fun to dig around. Sand has been a godsend for me in the 55. I used a ton of root tabs (I know it's optional but I used them anyway) to add nutrients, and it's just been so easy to plant exactly where I want -- even all of my stems that were impossible to keep in place in eco-complete.

It's such a rabbit hole. I'm fortunate that my LFS has a huge variety of rainbowfish in stock right now. We looked at the rasboras and kept going back to the rainbowfish, so we ended up with these little guys. We were between the Kamakas, the Dwarf Praecox, and these; the kamakas had a bit of lip irritation going on (I know that's common in rainbows) and were already pretty large. The Praecox were beautiful and shimmering, we almost took them... but I'm glad we picked up the pseudomugil signifers. So unique and different from a lot of schooling fish. They're going to make a gorgeous display when I up their numbers some more.

https://streamable.com/2d68gg Best video I can get so far! Those are bubbles in the tank you’re seeing.

Purchased my first fish for the tank, and it's something unexpected: the start of a school of Pacific Blue-Eyed Rainbowfish (Pseudomugil Signifer). They are the absolute coolest, and so, so pretty. They're really skittish right now and school very tightly whenever I walk by, but I've caught them flashing their gorgeous colors when they don't notice I'm watching. I plan to build them up to a school of about 12. They are way too quick and active to take proper photos, but I find them to be lovely fish so far!

I use Caribsea Super Naturals Crystal River. I rinsed it for my 10 gallon, didn't rinse when I started up my 55 gallon. It was cloudy for a few days (because of bacterial bloom and a bit of the sand being stirred up) but it cleared up pretty fast. I love it.

Yep, pH out of the tap is 7.6 to 7.8, pH in my eco-complete tank is 8.0 to 8.2 (without CO2). pH in my 55 gallon with sand substrate is 7.8.

Hi there! I'm not seeing algae growth on the corners of the glass. It looks like biofilm/fungus, which is a normal part of cycling your tank and getting it ready for fish. It will go away and never come back as the tank matures. I would see it as a good sign that things are moving along, but keep monitoring those parameters and wait until both ammonia and nitrite cycle to 0 and nitrates become a measure amount. I usually add straight ammonia (to 2 to 4 ppm) as needed until both ammonia and nitrite levels clear to nitrate in 24 hours or less. If you have another tank, you can always take some filter media from the established tank to hurry the cycle along, or squeeze bacteria-laden sponges into the new tank's water to get some seeding going. If not, then it's all about patience, and it can take up to a month or so to finish a cycle completely. Regarding water changes, I leave everything alone until it's finished cycling, and only top off as necessary. The scuzz will grow back anyway. Just save it until the tank is ready for fish.

We're running a Curse of Strahd campaign right now! Van Richten's Guide to Ravenloft. Just started. We were in the mood for horror.

I'm more of a D&D sort of girl. 5e. 🙂

Oh, wow! I didn't know you were planning on bringing events to the East Coast! I'll have to keep my eye open for that news. I hope the first in-person event in October goes well. It sounds like it'll be a fun time!

@HobbitThat's a fantastic unboxing video and you look absolutely adorable! I got the same thing in my box. I'm so excited to try out the powerhead on my 55 gallon tank! Thank you again @Zenzo and team for the lovely Labor Day weekend surprise!

Yep, this is my experience, as well. I run both low and high tech tanks, fish do equally well in both. RE: fluctuating pH, it's not exactly a 'problem' (in planted tanks specifically) in isolation, but the cause of pH fluctuation can be a really big issue for fish -- like fluctuating parameters (gH/kH/ammonia/nitrite). If the latter changes too rapidly, that will have an obvious effect on pH. Take changing pH as a sign of some chemical process happening in your tank. If you don't inject your tanks with CO2, then it might be worth further investigation as to why it's happening and how you can stabilize it. I don't micromanage my gh/kh in my tanks, but I do track parameters regularly and change the around 30-50% of the water in my tanks every week. I use regular ol' tap water which runs around 7.8 pH or so out of the tap (8 to 8.2 in my 29 gallon, around 8 in my 10 gallon, 7.8 in my 55 gallon), stable kh/gh both at around 10 to 12 degrees via titration test kits. I've had no obvious issues keeping my tetras, gouramis, cories, etc. in this water. I've heard some arguments that fish may live shorter lives if kept in water that doesn't match their evolutionary home (internal crystals/deposits if fish from acidic water is kept in alkaline water), but I can't say I know whether this is noticeable in the home aquarium with most safe sources of water within a reasonable range (6 to 8 ph), or whether it has a real effect on a fish's quality of life. If you want to play it safe just choose fish that you know will do well in your water, because every species has different needs. I choose to stay away from sensitive fish that need to live in an acidic environment to thrive, such as German Blue Rams, Samurai Gourami, Chocolate Gouramis. But aside from that? It still leaves you with a ton of wonderful fish to keep, and most common tropical fish won't have problems.

As you can see the wood shifted a bit, it grew biofilm/fungus, and I started adding plants. Cycling is pretty much finished and I’m gonna clean the glass and do a water change soon. Current residents are rams horn snails, Malaysian trumpet snails, and bladder snails.

If the hospital tank is running okay, then would that still indicate a problem with the water? Was the same source water used for the hospital tank vs. the main tank? It also sounds like you're using test strips judging by the numbers provided. With the tank collapsing like this, I'd get your hands on a master test kit if you can and see what values it turns up. I wish I had answers about the white/clear slime, but it looks like one of those things where we'd have to stand around and take a closer look at the stuff to figure it out. It's likely related in some way if it showed up at the same time as the fish started to die, but whether it's an overgrowth of something due to an imbalance or something else, I have no idea. EDIT to add: I'm so sorry for your losses, by the way. It's heartbreaking and frustrating, and I hope you're able to get to the bottom of what happened.

I think @CalmedByFish is right on the money with the three-month settling period. My tank really started to look 'good' and like the plants were growing and thriving at around that point. Before that, my husband would ask me why the plants looked so scraggly and if they'll ever look good 😅 He says the opposite now!

Absolutely all of this. Plants take awhile to settle in a tank. It's a game of patience. If you start changing something, change one thing at a time and wait two weeks before changing something else. It'll give you enough time to start observing the effects of your one change. If you think you need a reduced photoperiod, change the lights and don't change anything else. See what happens. It's all trial and error until you find that sweet spot where you and the plants are happy, and then you adjust and give them more as they grow bigger and their nutrient demands increase. Also, when your tank stabilizes to 0 amm 0 nitrite the plants will do better. They'll survive just fine (and even grow) through a cycling tank but they won't get 'happy' and really thrive until the tank is stable.

This is so incredible! Congratulations, and it's a shame the puffers were already returned to the LFS. I would have been like @Guppysnail and high-tailed it all the way back to the store flapping my arms about the puffers I handed over to them. Hope you raise these little guys into cute little murder beans!

It’s mucus mixed with regular normal stool! Thanks for the reassurance, colu. She’s a great fish she just loves to worry me 🤪

Hello! My thicklip gourami loves to give me anxiety. She's behaving fine but passing some stringier poos. The tank has been through parasite treatments in the past, and no other fish has stringy poop problems. It's also not a constant thing. I'm guessing constipation and she keeps eating way too much (I always catch her stealing the corydoras' food, the snail food, everyone's food, and she barrels through huge groups of fish to get more food). I already fast the fish up to twice a week. Should I be concerned about the stringyness? Should I add peas to the diet or focus on feeding different foods to prevent bowel troubles? There's a part of me that wants to dump antiparasitic meds in the water so I can be sure, but I also treated for parasites in the past with Praziquantel and Levamisole (separate occasions). I'm not entirely sure why she seems to be the only one with problems other than she seems to gorge herself on food more than the other fish. I can try to feed even less per day, but I'm nervous all the fish won't get their share! Advice? Thoughts? Should I just try not to worry about it and let them be? EDIT to add parameters: Ph. 8.0 Amm 0 Nitrite 0 Nitrate 5-10ppm Kh/Gh both around 10 77 degrees

@anewbie Aquaclears will not restart on their own if the basket drains of water (which it usually does juuuuuust enough when the power goes out; you have to manually refill the basket for it to start pumping again). The impeller has a tendency to get clogged easily and not work at all. So that, in combination with filling up the basket with tank water manually, multiple plug ins/unplugging make it unintuitive to prime and restart after a power outage, because it can fool you into thinking it shorted out.

I was about to post this. I'm in South Jersey and a tornado devastated a neighborhood 7 miles from my home. We're definitely not used to this here. A few houses were completely leveled. Thank god no one was hurt, but... EDIT to add link: https://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/catastrophic-tornado-rips-apart-homes-in-mullica-hill-nj/2945837/

I have a Tidal 55 as well! I use it on my 29 gallon, but I'm still too much of a coward to remove my Aquaclear 50 from the tank (it's been like this for two months.... side-by-side filters set on low flow). I absolutely adore it. The basket is really deep, the self-priming mechanism sells it for me. Pre-filter sponges are a very snug fit but they work. Sometimes the 'clog' knob will rise up and signal a clog even if there isn't one (like, the day after a cleaning). Just push and fiddle with the media a bit and that usually works for me. As far as the surface skimmer goes, I cut a piece of filter media bag/fine mesh and just tuck it into the slots. I don't glue it down so I can clean it and replace it occasionally. Works great!