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Emily Z

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Everything posted by Emily Z

  1. @ColuThank you so much! I have already begun medication yesterday, though there are no signs of change yet. My fish's behavior remains normal and the lump on his lip has swelled up and turned slightly red underneath- I'm not sure what this means. I have one more question: How effective is aquarium salt and what could I use it for? I have a whole box of it my father bought for me to use for my sick betta, and I am not sure if it is safe to use with the medication or if it will not do anything for my betta's condition. Thank you once more! Your advice has really helped me!
  2. Hello, I've never tried medicated food before, so how do I do this? Would I take my pellets in a glass, and pour the correct amount of garlic guard, seachem focus, and mardel maracyn in there at once? How long would I need to soak that combination for? I've been doing research and I'm also considering using API Fin and Body Cure and API Pimafix, but I don't know how well these medications work. I read on API's website that it's safe to use their products together at once, and that it is also safe to use Pimafix with Maracyn, but I don't know if it's safe to also include Fin and Body Cure in that mixture. Also, would any of this affect the bio-cycle of my tank? I'm guessing at most that my fish has a gram-negative bacteria, since the bacteria seems to be under his skin around his dorsal fin or it could be lymphocytes, but I could be wrong because I don't have much experience with disease and illnesses. And thanks for the suggestion, I'll definitely be trying the medicated food out, but my concern here is on what antibiotics to use, how, the amount I should use, etc.
  3. Hey, it's been a while since I've posted here, but I'm back. So for the past two months, my Betta, Ciel, has had this white growth on his dorsal fin. The white spot on his lip was there for 6 months, but yesterday it started to look fleshy and pulposus. I wasn't sure how to identify it, because at first it resembled a fungus or columnaris, but the pictures I saw online didn't match with it. Apparently bacteria forms on the lip, but the white stuff on his lip didn't bother him nor did it grow til yesterday. Unsure, I treated with Maracyn and Ich X, but it made no difference. If it's not a bacteria or a fungus, it could be a virus or cancer, which I read to have no cure. Otherwise, Ciel has acted completely normal. His swimming is normal, he's eager to eat, and he naps a lot, but he's an old fish- I've had him since February 2020. The white stuff doesn't seem to bother him, because I don't see him rubbing his back on the rocks or anything like that. The stuff is now eating away at his dorsal fin and there's raised lumps under his scales around his dorsal fin, plus his lip is starting to turn flesh colored and bulge as well. Still, it doesn't seem to affect his behavior or health at all. At this point, I'm completely clueless to what this is. I'm thinking it might be benign tumors, and I'm worried on what to do now. Can anyone identify what this is and give me any tips? Is he at a point where I can't help him? Thanks for the help. Edit: His water parameters are normal, his water temperature is 77°, he eats a variety of food from Omega One Buffet Pellets, Hikari Bio Gold, API flakes, and bloodworms, KH is 3 and GH is 8. I've been having trouble cleaning the algae (I don't have shrimp or snails because there's no moss or enough hiding spots), but I don't think that's affecting him much.
  4. @xXInkedPhoenixXLast time I checked (about a week ago, I'm gonna check it again now) my gH was around 13. I want to try and lower it to 11 so it could be suitable for cherry shrimp and my betta (because bettas like soft water, but even though the gH has been so high he seems to be fine). After gH Test: Okay, nevermind, the gH has lowered to 8 with the test I just took. So, I'm pretty sure that's actually perfectly fine for cherry shrimp and other types of shrimp. I heard that nerites prefer a higher gH, kH, and a more alkaline pH. Would a 7.5 pH with an a gH of 8dkh and kH of 5dkh be fine for a nerite snail?
  5. Hey! So for those who know, about 2 weeks ago I got a bunch of plants to fill up the empty space in my tank. The problem is that algae blossomed EVERYWHERE in my tank. Green and brown algae on the glass along with green spot algae, and blue-green algae coating the substrate and covering the tips of my plants. I'm able to clean the algae off the glass, but I have no idea how to clean the algae off the substrate. I do have a sand vacuum, but it's quite big for a ten gallon and doesn't fit well between gaps in the rocks and plants. I don't have anything stocked in the tank except for a betta fish, but I don't think the quality of my tank is good enough to introduce shrimp or other cleaning fish/inverts. For example, the GH is way too high and I've been struggling to get it down, and there aren't enough hiding places for tiny animals like shrimp in case my betta gets aggressive. Any tips to how I can effectively clean the algae and muck without a cleaning crew or ripping up my scape?
  6. God, when my mystery snail was alive my greedy betta would do this SO MUCH
  7. Ah yes, an attempt at an aquarium meme made with google images and the Paint app.
  8. Unfortunately, I am in northern Jersey- right on the border of the Hudson River. Luckily, I can go across it into NYC to the LFS there. So far, I've already learned a lot on this forum, and I am eager to know more!
  9. Thank you for the advice! I already took that up, earlier today my plants from Aquarium Co-op arrived and I put them in my tank. I have pictures here. I plan to get more plants soon, accompanied with driftwood and aquascaping stones!
  10. Hello everyone! Today I got my package of plants and tools I ordered from Aquarium Co-op three days ago! (Wow, I'm amazed that they got the package from Washington state to NJ in three days. Aquarium Co-op really gets their stuff done!) I was able to scrape together a decent looking tank with only plants and no driftwood or stones, which I plan to get eventually. The plants I got were an Amazon Sword, a Water Sprite, a Red Flame Sword, and a Vallisneria (though two vallisneria plants were encased in the pot. Neat!) I know I should probably quarantine these plants before putting them in the tank, but unfortunately I don't have a spare filter or the space to set up a quarantine tank (But I do have a 2.5 gallon tank in storage). Anyway, I'll just attach the pictures now. Before Picture: After Picture(s): The Things I Ordered: And oof, the after pictures show a lot of debris floating around from when I messed around with the substrate. I did a 15% water change and vacuumed the sand afterward. I needed to change the water anyway. Even though it looks quite simple, the tank is pretty pleasing for me to look at. I eventually plan to get driftwood and stones to put in the back corners and attach anubias plants to! Ciel was very confused (and possibly even scared) of the new additions to his tank. After staring at the Amazon Sword for 15 minutes (as shown in the after picture), he went back into his rock to sleep like he usually did. I thought the new plants would stimulate him to be more active so he doesn't sleep in his rock or on his leaf all day, but I guess not. For the next few days, I will closely monitor the plants to see how they are adapting to the water conditions. Most of the plants I received are root feeders, so I made sure to add plenty of root tabs spaced apart from each other in the planted area. I originally planned to get all hardy, beginner-friendly plants, but I had to change some of my choices as my original ones were sold out online. If there are any comments or tips you guys have, feel free to reply them!
  11. About a few months ago, I owned a mystery snail. This was my first ever mystery snail. He was a magenta snail named Goomy, and I got him from a breeder in Maryland off Ebay. He was the size of a pea, and I loved him. My whole family loved him, watching him climb on top of my betta's little cave and jumping off. Unfortunately, Goomy died a premature death from malnutrition and a severely irritated foot only a few months later because of my lack of research. For one, my tank wasn't ready for a mystery snail. This tank was desolate (it still is, but earlier today I ordered more plants from Aquarium Co-op to fill up those bare areas) and it was not suitable for a community tank. Secondly, my "research" was 2 hours of reading articles off the first page of Google that claimed mystery snails could thrive living off only algae from the glass and algae wafers. I didn't know mystery snails actually needed a diverse diet of blanched vegetables up until after Goomy's death. At the same time, Goomy had also developed his irritated foot as he "tip-toed" across the sand often and his foot was curled up, so inevitably after a whole month of him having an irritated foot and stunted growth with me not noticing, he died. I ended up burying him in an indoor pot which has now grown into beautiful purple flowers. I want to own another mystery snail. It was really... relaxing. For my whole family, not only me. Seeing Goomy crawl up the glass and rocks, it was fun and entertaining for my family to see this cute little snail explore. However, I do not want to make the same mistakes as last time. I want to give my next snail a long, fruitful life. I don't want any future mystery snails of mine to reach the same fate as Goomy. Therefore, for all those on this forum that have experience with mystery snails, please tell me everything I need to know about caring for them. What to do when they get sick, how to recognize when they are sick, what and how to feed them, what's right and what's wrong, things I should avoid, and the like. It would be really helpful, so that I would be more prepared for next time. I appreciate all your effort and advice, thank you so much. -Emily
  12. Hey! My name's Emily, and I'm a beginner aquarist who began keeping fish in February 2020! Even though it's been about 2 years, my knowledge in this hobby is still very little because I have had no access to experience- which means I haven't been able to get my hands on many plants, animals, or aqua scaping tools besides the very basic necessities (as you can see in the thumbnail, my 10 gallon tank is bare of plants except for a dwarf hairgrass and crypt bought from this website. I didn't even have enough sand to cover the top layer of my substrate! Luckily, that dilemma is solved now). The thumbnail picture is old, I replaced that barely-functioning filter I used to keep in a 2.5 gallon with an Aquarium Co-op filter and I removed that horrible dragon decoration. I've been able to get by for getting fertilizer, medicine, water testing kits, a gravel vacuum, a filter, and all those other tools by begging my parents to allow me to use my allowance to buy these supplies off Amazon or Aquarium Co-op, haha. While I do have an LFS, it's a really crappy one where the animals there are neglected, there's a really limited selection for the aquarium supplies, and everything is overpriced. I try my best to give my male betta, Ciel, the best life I can; considering that his diet consists of only hard pellets and bloodworms (also flakes he refuses to eat) and that his tank is located in the kitchen (not a good choice because of the fumes from the sink chemicals or the smoke from cooking), I feel like I haven't been able to live up to that. I still have a lot to learn, and after 2 years I am still stuck with knowing only the basics. Ciel is my first fish, and he hasn't gotten sick yet in these past two years I've owned him- but I have no experience with treating sick animals (every other day I get paranoid that Ciel might be sick and I am unable to recognize the signs) or with taking care of plants (my dwarf hairgrass and crypt have nearly died off on several occasions). I want to have more experience by getting some tankmates for Ciel, like cherry shrimp or tetras, but first I need to fill up all that empty space with plants, maybe even driftwood or aquascaping rocks if I can somehow get my hands on them. I already learned the hard way when I got myself a mystery snail before conducting proper research, and he died a premature death from an irritated foot and malnutrition. You can see him in the attached image. Anyway, sorry for literally writing an essay, haha, but that summarizes the experience I've had so far into this hobby. It's tough, but Aquarium Co-op's blogs/youtube videos and being able to order supplies like plants and filters from them really helps me out to enjoy this hobby. Aquarium co-op team, if you're reading this, thanks a whole lot! You guys are awesome!
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