MDBuckeye

I know what I am about to say is a cardinal sin as an aquarium co-op member and a fan, but live bearers shouldn’t be advertised as a beginner fish. This is a story about how an accidental guppy was included in a purchase of cherry barbs that now has turned into my nightmare. This post is not meant for advice but to vent. Hoping that after venting, I might get re-motivated back to the hobby. I am not a total beginner but recently got back into the hobby after a hiatus from when I was a kid. The best part of this hobby is actually going to the store and buying the fish. I chose a 75 gallon to give me room to add serval different schools of nano without worrying about space or increased maintenance. The aquarium is heavily planted to make it look as natural as possible. Everything was humming along until I decided to add a school of cherry barbs. Going to the store, unfortunately a big box store due to the lack of a local store, I bought 8 cherry barbs (5 males, 3 females). Unfortunately, female guppies were also housed in the same tank, and instead of a female cherry barb, I received a Snow White guppy. I didn’t notice the error until the fish were home and in my quarantine tank. I know I could’ve taken the guppy back but I decided to take pity. I thought even if it was pregnant, the babies would be eaten. The main aquarium had a betta and 2 honey gourami. Therefore, No harm no foul. Boy was I wrong. The guppy gave birth within a month to 12 babies. ALL 12 live. I am like ok, there is lots of room so the population will remain stable. Except again I was wrong, she gave birth 3 more times. Now I had over 40 guppies I didn’t even want. That 40 quickly turned into 60. My aquarium was quickly becoming over-stalked with no room to add fish I actually want. My aquarium was the poster child of an invasive species. Water quality started to dip, and I went from changing water every 2-3 weeks to every week. Started to take plants out to reduce hiding spaces. My aquarium was quickly becoming a choir rather than a relaxing hobby. Then they started to over compete the other fish for food. I would overfeed to ensure that everyone got food but it was adding to the water quality issues. When I started to lose fish because of the guppies the frustration only great. I lost 1 Rummy nose, then 3 green rasboras, 4 neons, 5 cardinals, and then after a week vacation the betta finally couldn’t compete. The betta was the final straw. Unloading these guppies wasn’t a possibility. I am a father of 2 young kids (3 and 7 months)so joining the nearest club (2 hours away) is out of the question. Just don’t have the time. Local store isn’t an option. Nearest one is dirty and fish always look sick. Doubt they would even take the fish. Cory and Dean make breading fish look so fun. I watch every video. But it only works if you have an exit plan. With the guppies starting to develop crooked spines and tumors, I didn't know what else to do, so I resorted to clove oil. I hate death and never wanted to hurt a fish, but without any other options, I euthanized 40 fish but the tank was still over crowded. The population quickly rebounded, and I was back to square one. I feel like I just have to collect the remaining guppies and but an end to this. It’s made me not want to work on my aquarium and possibly leave the hobby again. Decided I am going to get the aquarium back under control and start rebuilding my schools back up again. I decided that live bearers are not my thing because I want to control how many fish are in the aquarium. If you made it to the end, thanks for listening to me rant. Hopefully I can spark the joy again.

I need help keeping the guppy population in check. A little background, I went to a Petco to buy a few cherry barbs. I requested 4 males and 2 females. The cherry barbs were being housed in the same tank as female guppies. I didn't realize it until I got home that one of the "female" cherry barbs was actually a platinum white female guppy. I was already home and thought one guppy couldn't be a problem and wasn't going to take it back to the store. I thought, I have a betta in the tank, and if by any chance it was pregnant. They betta and the rest of my community fish will most likely eat the babies. Boy was I wrong. I have a 75 gallon community tank with 1 betta, 5 cherry barbs, 1 honey gurami, 4 sunset platies (1 male 3 females), 3 purple tetras, 10 cardinal tetras, 5 rummy nose tetras, and 12 panda and 8 orange Venezuelans Cory catfish. It is heavily planted. Knowing that most female guppies at the store have a high likelihood of being pregnant, I was expecting at least one birth, but hoping only a few, if any would survive. The first birth, only 4 survived. I was like ok not so bad. But she has now given birth 3 times. Each time more survive. I knew she could stay pregnant more than once but not was expecting three batches. I now have over 16 guppies that I did not want in the first place. I don't have friends in the hobby or a local fish store to at least take some. (Why I was shopping at Petco) I have slowed the feedings to see if I can make the fish hungry enough that they may trim the numbers down. So far no luck. The betta just swims next to the little fry. I have also trimmed the plants back a lot to reduce the cover. The platies seem to be in check but not the guppies. If they were colorful guppies, I may not be so concerned but they are platinum and muted mutt guppies. Ask: Is there a fish that I can add that would be compatible to help reduce the potential of more guppies or anything else I can do? I know that I have the possibility of removing the guppies to cull, but I really don't like killing live animals. But if the population grows more, I might have to consider it. The water quality is already changing, and went from a every two week water change, to a once a week. I was enjoying the low maintained understocked but trying to find balance. Lesson learned about how one fish can soon become an invasive species.

That does look great. May be a day trip with the little one once COVID calms down.

KGTropicals is going to release a video on House of Topicals this week. I look forward to watching it before I make the trip to Baltimore, but Tropical Lagoon is only 10 mins away from me. I am going to try them this weekend. Thank you so much for the suggestions. I also found that the Petco in Beltsville, MD to have a good selection for more of the common fish.

I live just outside DC in the MD suburbs and just got back in the hobby. I was wondering if anyone in the forum is from the DMV, and has any recommendations for a good local fish store? I know of one in the Rockville, MD area and not really a fan of the store. In the times I visited (knowing this is my experience and may be different for others) but too many tanks had sick/dying fish and the prices always seems high for everything. I know COVID has driven prices up but they appear to have a magic number of 11.99 for fish that are common such as a Panda Cory. I have goggled fish stores but they appear to be at least an hour or more away, and just have not had a chance to take a weekend to drive to check them out. Willing to make the effort if they are highly recommended. I have relied on aqua Huna and other online sites, but I would rather buy locally. Plus Aqua Huna makes you buy large quantities of certain fish and my aquarium cannot support adding large volumes at the moment. Thanks

Thank you everyone.

I have never heard of Epistylis. Being that it has lasted so long, I am wondering if it is not ick at all. Is epistylis treated with maracyn or an Anti-bacterial medications?

A little background, I recently got back in the hobby a little over a year ago after watching nearly ever single one of Cory's videos. One tank turned into two, and then eventually merged those 2 into one big one. When I as a kid and in the hobby I just do not remember ick being such a problem, but ever since I introduced neons and cardinal tetra's into the aquarium, ick has been a continuous headache, even after I quarantined the fish for 3 weeks. For the last month and a half, my 75 gallon heavily planted community tank has been fighting a horrible ick outbreak. I have followed the directions to Ick-X of 5ml per 10 gallons, do a 1/3 water change every five days, and repeat. I also raised the temp to speed up the process. Even after this, I can't seem to get the ick to stop. I thought I may be under dosing, but when I tried a little more than the recommended amount, and I experienced a massive die off losing12 fish. After the die off, I almost wanted to get out of the hobby. The only thing that kept me going was the fact the panda cory fry lived which gave me hope that I could restore balance to the aquarium. A couple things to note: When I do water changes it is hard to gravel vac everywhere due to all the plants. I do NOT use carbon in the filter. It appears that the cardinal tetras are the fish that are most effected by the out break. The spots do appear on some of my other fish making it hard to separate the infected fish in a quarantine tank being that it is most likely the whole tank is infected. No new fish were added to the tank in over three months. I am afraid to use salt due to the plants, but truly don't know what to do anymore. I am also afraid that prolonged use of Ick-X is going to cause more fish to die. Any recommendations? Is my only option to stay the course with Ick-X until it finally clears up? Should I just use salt and replace the plants that die? I know I am still new to the hobby, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

These steps help a lot. Thank you so much!

I have 2 established planted 20G High tanks community tanks, and I am thinking combining both in a new 55G. The larger aquarium would give the fish more room to swim, and I would only have to maintain one aquarium instead of two. Both aquariums are stocked with similar peaceful community fish. I plan on transferring the substrate, plants, and décor from the 20 gallons into the 55. This would at least transfer beneficial bacteria from the cycled tanks to the new sterile one. Would anyone have any advise on how to do this safely without harming the fish, or point me to the direction of some websites or YouTube videos? Particularly, is it safer to transfer one, let the 55 cycle, and then transfer the second, or could I do both safely at the sometime.

I am thinking about moving my male half-moon betta to a 20 gallon H community tank. The tank is planted with hiding spaces, objects to break-up the line of sight, and I have a betta log. It currently have 6 panda corydoras, 8 rummy nose tetras, 1 male honey gourami, and a nerite snail. In my limited experience with honey gouramis, they have been peaceful with all my other fish, but I have never kept them with a betta. The long fins of the betta makes him relatively slow. I want your thoughts or to if anyone has ever tried this combination before I tried it. My back-up plan is to put the betta back in the 5-gallon. Trying to avoid a mess the moment the betta goes in the aquarium. Thanks