laritheloud

Activated Carbon filters are only active for a month, but I'm not understanding how that would have any relationship to your KH falling to rock bottom. I would invest in some crushed coral for your filters to prevent massive pH swings.

Apistogramma Borelli is a little bit of a smaller species and may be a better fit than a pair of cacatuoides. I've never kept a pair of apistogramma myself, but I'm reading that you have to ensure a pretty happy pair and plenty of cover due to their territorial nature. Borelli might be your best bet as their tank requirements appear to be a little smaller than the cacatuoides. Definitely refer to others on the forum that have more extensive experience with apistogramma, though!

Easy mistake to make. Seachem likes to place fancy names on all of their filtration and tools!

Seachem Matrix is biological filtration, you shouldn't have to do anything with it but rinse it out in tank water occasionally.

Colu knows his stuff! I hope the rest of your fish pull through. Also, bear in mind that if you are dealing with two different infections, this is a one-two punch and it's hard. The higher temps suitable for treating Ich could, at the same time, favor bacterial growth for a bacterial infection. You're doing great with this course of treatment so far. Have Kanaplex, Focus, and Garlic-Guard on standby and keep an eye on them.

https://www.aquariumcoop.com/collections/water-care/products/crushed-coral-1-pound-bag

Thirding this. I'm a little frightened to try Bettas because I get attached to my fish, and I will fret a lot about those beautiful fins. For what it's worth, @Just a Pygmy Corydora, if you do try a Betta again some day, you might want to look at plakat bettas. They have shorter finnage and don't get weighted down by their long extensions, and they are less prone to problems like fin rot. You may be able to enjoy their company for longer. And remember, you gave Aurora a wonderful life and you did everything you could to help him through. I'm so sorry you lost him.

You could also try something different like a sparkling gourami. Related to betta fish and still breathes surface air, but smaller and slightly different personalities.

With a KH that low, I'd look into getting some crushed coral for your substrate and filters.

Someone else correct me if I'm wrong, but the quarantine trio, I think, is designed to treat prophylactically and bring out signs of a latent infection (or stop the start of one). It will not treat/cure fish that are sick with a greater bacterial load because it's not the therapeutic dosage, but it will make it easier for the fishkeeper to see if there is something that needs more intensive treatment. Good luck, hopefully the treatment will do the trick!

I would treat them all. The others may not be showing any symptoms, but they could carry infection to your display if you introduce them without treating.

They are SOOOOO adorable! But I worry they'll be a bit too small for what I'm looking for in the 55. Also, we'd love to try some different catfish. Cories are sweet as heck but we don't discriminate, all catfishes are wonderful. I'm 95% sure we're getting a smallish pleco for the tank, too.

He's a BEAUTY

Every day I look back at Pooka and admire that beauty ❤️

So I'm shopping around for catfish options for my 55 gallon tank. It will house platies and pearl (or moonlight) gouramis, primarily. Possibly keyhole cichlids. I want a catfish species that's a bit off the beaten track and with some interesting personality. I think my corydoras elegans are super adorable but I'm ready to try something else! I've heard striped and/or spotted raphaels are really reclusive, but they look really neat (and might eat some Platy fry, I'm aware). Upside-Down cats are really adorable to me. If I get a shoal of them, am I likely to see them out often? Can't wait to hear your favorites!

Frozen blood worms, frozen daphnia, live baby brine shrimp!

Do you have any floating plants? I place a bunch of water lettuce over my anubias and they take care of any extra nutrients in the water and shade the anubias enough to prevent new algae growth (while also leaving plenty of light for my higher-light plants). I have a little bit of staghorn left that my nerites and amanos are finally eating, but the green spot isn't growing on my anubias at the moment.

Oh, yeah, they're speedy little guys. Wait til you see them surf upside-down along the surface of the water!

Floating plants tend to grow and bounce back very quickly. Whatever the snail will eat will not make up for the amount it'll grow. I take out huge fistfuls of water lettuce (usually taking out 3/4s of it from my tank surface) every week, and it just comes back stronger the next. The frogbit will likely survive and multiply so long as it's happy in your tank.

This is how my water lettuce grows in my tank. I want to try Frogbit in my upcoming 55 gallon.

I'd leave it alone. The frogbit will be fine, and the snail will not be able to kill it. In my experience, bladder snails do not harm plants at all, and just nom the diatoms, dying plant matter, and other detritus off of it.

It looks like a fry to me. Baby fish. Something in your tank bred successfully. EDIT: My guess is baby ranchu fry

78 degrees should be fine for these fish in the long run, especially corys, that tend to dislike elevated temps for the long term. Higher temps speed fish metabolism, and I am not totally sure that raising it that high year round is the best plan. BUT raising it while dealing with Ich is the right call. Like discussed earlier in the thread, it could be opportunistic epistylis that attacked after your first round of ich was handled and your fish were still recovering. I am DEFINITELY not an expert, but maybe that's a possibility if the ich is unresponsive to meds now. Good luck, and I really hope your treatment works.

I understand the worry. I am a stay-at-home-mom, so when I'm not watching my kids I like to watch my tanks and make sure everyone's doing all right. The problem with watching my tanks so much is I see all the little eccentricities and over-analyze. My fish are flash every so often, too, and they've all gone through a few rounds of parasite meds (different kinds, too). Likely they're fine. Just keep an eye on it, and if it increases in severity or you see other symptoms pop up, then it's an issue that needs addressing. Is it a lot of fish, and is it constant or severe? I run CO2 in my display and I've noticed that if I do catch a fish flashing, they will do it while it's running, but never while it's off.

I had a diamond tetra with a fuzzy upper lip when I was just starting out my (newly-cycled) tank. I treated the tank with Maracyn along with 1 dose of ich-x in the water, just in case, to try and cover the fungus. The fish did recover, but in retrospect, I'm not totally sure it was the medicine that helped. Maybe it did? Or he could have just settled and healed on his own in a nice clean tank. I don't actually have any way to prove what helped him. His face is still scarred, so if it is mouth rot, I'd expect it to look a little funny for the rest of the fish's life. Shouldn't affect behavior or quality of life. It's worth a shot, and I hope the maracyn works for you!