Nina

I have my first mild/moderate black beard algae outbreak. I've cut off a lot of infected leaves and removed and cleaned the rocks, but I can't get everything and want to keep defeating it (slowly over months is fine). I've heard H2O2 works well, but I have snails. What is the correct dose of H202 and in it safe for snails?

I'm not sure what is wrong, but I've never been able to keep pet store guppies alive. I've had tons of success with tetras and rasboras living years and years, but the two times I bought guppies they were dead within hours or days. Guppies can be very weak. I've found other types of fish, like tetras and rasboras, very hardy. I also have very soft water, and I think that didn't help. Anyway, you may just be choosing the wrong type of fish. If they were raised in water that is different from yours at all, they may not make it. Try a hardier type of fish!

I have lot of tetras--mostly neon and black neons. And I have a lot of rasboras, which seem to tolerate similar parameters. I've found that my tetras can live in very low or very high GH. Mine are pretty hardy.

I have four albino cores in a planted, established 20 gallon with some tetras and rasboras. I've had them about 1.5 years. They use to lay a TON on eggs -- if I fed them a lot I'd see eggs on the glass at least once a week, sometimes several times a week. Over the past 3-4 months they've stopped and I haven't seen ANY eggs. What could be going on? The only thing I can think of that has changed is the season -- they stopped in late fall. I have a light, but they do get some ambient light from a window. Could there be something I'm missing? My parameters have been pretty stable but I haven't been monitoring PH a ton in that tank because it has crushed coral and usually seems to be in the 7-8 range. What makes corys unhappy?

I love the co-op green idea! I would definitely buy one of those.

Also, to clarify, these devices work well, it's only the user-error part of the design that doesn't seem optimized. If I still had both, I would probably put some bright nail polish on the air pump to distinguish it (obviously not on the heater, since that's going in the water). I often have a neighbor or family member take care of my tanks when traveling and I'm way too scared of them getting these devices mixed up to use both.

Cool experiment! Thanks for sharing.

I absolutely love most aquarium co-op products. However, I recently bought the heater and air pump and they look SO similar. I fried my air pump the first day by sticking it in the tank thinking it was the heater. I know ... stupid mistake ... but in my opinion the similar shape/size/color of the two made this user error WAY too easy to make. (I know the air pump has settings on the front, but I actually assumed those were for adjusting the temperature when I glanced at it.) This mistake is especially likely during low light / power outage scenarios which I experienced last week. I think the co-op could fix the problem by changing the color of the airpump or adding optional plastic "wings" that could be attached to give the pump that curved shape like the Tetra pumps. It might also help to make a heater in the traditional shape. I love how much work aquarium co-op puts into design, but design also needs to minimize the chance of user error. Since they've deviated from the traditional shape of both devices, while making both products super-similar, I think they have created a situation where user error is more likely than it needs to be. I decided to stick with Tetra for my air pumps and other brands for my heaters. I still love the small USB pump and the co-op is still my go-to retailer for everything else fish related. I wish I could love the heater and air pump as much as the other products.

I don't have an easy answer, but I get detritus worms in my 10 gallon planted tank. It could be that in the small tank more food, etc. is getting into the bottom. I have detritus worms in the tank I feed fry food in because it's much harder to get it out versus pellets and large flakes. I hope you figure it out!

Hmm, maybe fin rot? I have a very similar issue in one of my albino Cory's -- three are perfectly healthy, but one has almost no top in and is missing part of his back fin. It' been that way for months, so I don't think it's anything aggressive, but I'm thinking about putting him a hospital tank. He seems so happy with his buddies that I hate to, but I'm also worried he could spread it. I may use API fin and body cure. Not sure yet.

Nerites are amazing! I first got one for my 10 gallon and it did so much good work getting rid of green spot algae that I ordered 4 more for my new 20 gallon with tons of different types of algae. It took a few weeks, but they got the algae under control. It saves me time and it helps me balance my tank -- prior to the nerite I never really got it to balance. I've never had one escape, but they do sit above the water line sometimes. I have a rimmed tank and they've never gone over it, even when the lid is off. They do leave little white eggs on the glass and hardscape. It's easy to scrape them off the glass, but harder on the wood (then again, I haven't really tried but may next time I clean)

OMG -- beautiful. Also, I LOVE Irene's videos for beginners. My niece just got a betta and I'm sending her some of Irene's content to watch. It seems really kid friendly (and helpful to adults too).

Good luck! I'm in a similar boat -- just got my niece a betta tank. She's 10 years old and lives in a different city, so I can't be there day-to-day to monitor things but I've sent her test strips, a heater (currently the betta is a room temp), and other supplies. I've talked to her parents about the nitrogen cycle but they (and she) might not understand it. I think I'll send her a link so some of Irene's videos -- she's has a really good way of explaining things to beginners and I think her videos are awesome for kids (and adults).

Do you know what the water parameters of the store were compared to your tank? I've sometimes found they a wildly different and it makes the transition extra difficult unless I adjust them. Hopefully the bullying was the issue and he'll recover soon. Is he swimming right or is he missing food because of his vertical position? I've created hospital tanks out of an empty plastic container if you want to move him and have an extra air stone / air pump. I just change the water really frequently.

Thanks @Colu

I love river stone. A few big ones look good, surrounded by smaller ones (I can sometimes find smooth stones at the pet store sold as "turtle stones".

Update: The fish are doing okay (swimming and eating just fine). They are still discolored with some muted red and yellowish patches but they haven't gotten worse since yesterday afternoon (I put in the API fin and body cure last night). I also lowered the temp below 75 (which is supposed to slow columnaris) and added a moderate dose of salt (yes, it's a planted tank, but I'd rather lose the plants than the chili rasboras). I also stopped the filter to reduce stress and added a second air stone. I'm keeping a close eye on the water parameters and changing water as needed. Pics attached. The API fin and body cure really seems to be helping and the Kanaplex and other meds arrive today. They aren't out of the woods, but the illness has stopped progressing as aggressively as it was yesterday. Yay! Pic from this morning attached. You can still see the discoloration, but it's stayed about the same since last night. #update

They made it through the night and are looking a little better. After a lot of research I learned that two things can really help (in addition to the meds described above): 1) lowering the temp below 75 and 2) salt. Even though it's a planted tank I went ahead and added a few tablespoons of salt (it's a 10 gallon) and lowered the temp down to 72. The fish are already looking better. Kanaplex is coming today, so hopefully that will really help me beat it. I know I'll end up hurting the plants with the salt, but I also know I can regrow those. The chilis took me about a year to find in stock so I will be really happy if they survive.

The little guys are hanging on and things haven't gotten much worse in the last few hours. I've done some water changes and cleaning, and I was able to get some API fin and body cure before the store closed tonight (kanaplex and other meds coming via amazon sometime tomorrow). I think I'll do one more water change to make sure I've gotten out the ich x and general cure before putting in some of the API fin and body cure later tonight. So far these have been some of the hardiest juveniles I've ever had, so I'm optimistic they might make it through this with all the great guidance I'm getting on this forum. Thanks! I'll keep you all updated.

Thank You! I may be able to get the fin and body cure tonight, and have kanaplex coming tomorrow. Hoping that the little guys can hold on. They are tiny but really hardy up until now.

Here are some post water change pictures (not great, but I'll get some more when it clears up). The redish one still looks okay, but as you can tell the others are almost yellow. This is a huge change from this morning. Whatever is at work is moving fast. These guys were so hardy through their grow-out and quarantine. I hate that something in this 10 gallon must have sickened them. Not sure what type of illness this is.

Okay, so I ordered kanaPlex and it will arrive tomorrow but the fish are going downhill quickly. I first noticed the discoloration yesterday, took some photos this morning and now, a few hours later, the discoloration is much worse and has spread. The chilis look almost yellow. I don't know if they'll make it until tomorrow. I just did a 20% water change, added a low dose of salt, some ich x, and a half dose of general cure (what I had on hand). I'm not sure how much these little ones can take since they are still juveniles. If it's bacterial, should I dose erythromycin (I have some)? Or wait on the Kanaplex + focus (arriving sometime tomorrow). I may be able to go to petco or petsmart and it looks like they may have API fin and body cure (not sure what those ingredients are, but maybe they would help). This seems to be progressing really fast. I will post new photos in an hour or so once the water clears up from the water change.

Thank You. I will give this a try!

I received some juvenile chili rasboras about two months ago and, after letting them grow out in a 5 gallon tub, moved them into a 10 gallon planted tank with three green rasboras last week. The chilis are still tiny, but they seemed hardy during the grow-out and had colored up nicely. It's been a week in the 10 gallon and I've noticed discoloration on them. On the first half of their bodies they have a yellowish color and some subdued patches. They are still moving and eating well, but I'm not sure what's happening or what I should use to treat them. It seems to be affecting almost all of them. Ammonia - 0; nitrite - 0; nitrate - 10 ppm; GH - 40 (low, but similar to their grow out tank); PH - 6.4 (low but similar to the grow out tank); Chlorine - 0. water temp is around 78 degrees Fahrenheit. I've seen a similar disease in one neon tetra months ago -- it started with discolored patches, didn't respond to meds, and eventually wasted away. It only affected the one tetra and I eventually euthanized that fish when he became very emaciated over the course of a few months. It didn't spread to the others and that school was moved to a larger tank last week before adding the chilis to the 10 gallon. This seems to be affecting most of the school at this point. Is this bacterial? Fungal? Stress? The three green rasboras are a little larger and faster, (there are 8 chilis) but everyone is getting plenty of food (baby brine and some crushed up flake food). There is more flow in the 10 gallon than the grow-out tank, so I may turn off the filter for a bit. Any ideas how to save them? It took me a really long time to acquire these fish and I just LOVE them.

Well, the PH has been pretty stable - 6.4 raised to maybe 6.6 after running lots of coral the last few weeks (most coral is still in the substrate, I removed the little bag in the filter after the PH started going down again). I will try to get a picture but I already freaked out and resorted to raising the PH by .2 or so ever 2 hours with baking soda, gravel-vaccing the substrate, and capping with black sand, because a friend brought over 3 guppies he thought I'd be ready for (so tank looks entirely different than it did a few hours ago). So far, the guppies have been in there 3 hours and are still alive and I'm getting close to 7.0 PH. Tested some more and only the aquarium co-op strips have me testing at a GH of around 300. Every other test now says I have low/moderate GH. Buffer is increasing but still low. I am being VERY careful with the baking soda because I know it's not a good long-term solution.