Aquanut

Thank you so much for asking. Sad news i am afraid, she passed away. After weeks in the little breeder net where she was just propped against the side, she started looking curved due to the position so I decided to just put her back in the tank & let mother nature run it’s course. Seemed so unfair to keep her couped up so long. I got three little angels to put in with her mate so he is ok, he is the boss 😄 it is such a fine line with sick fish, such hard choices, toughest part of the hobby for us all.

GH is 19 degrees. I take it adding crushed coral will increase GH as well? where as adding potash will not increase GH but will increase potassium?

Dear community, I have a fluval flex 123 litre tank which has been running for around 18 months now. It is fully planted with a fairly large piece of mopani. All the fish are happy in a soft acidic environment so i was not too concerned with PH of 6.4 a few weeks back. This tank is beautifully over filtered as standard & i have a seperate internal UV filter with venturi running as well The tank gets a 25% water change fortnightly, the gravel is vacuumed as best as possible. all the fish are healthy & happy. I was running 50/50 RO/Tap but on noticing low KH started leaving the RO out & just using tap. Here in Norfolk UK the tap water is liquid rock, super hard. I thought that maybe the trumpet snails were stripping carbonates out? I am having real problems with KH & PH. The KH is 0 & the PH is around 6.0. I have tried adding seachem equilibrium to get the KH up but i think i could add tubs full & get nowhere. I did a tap only 50% water chage which brought the KH & PH up to nicer levels but within a few days both were back to low levels with KH at 0. I am concerned with no KH the PH can swing wildly but thankfully all fish are healthy & not stressed. At this point i am considering the only solution being to strip the tank down, throw away the substrate which is 2.5 inches of aquasoil topped with a half inch of gravel. Thus getting rid of the snails. I can’t think of another way but am reluctant due to the beautiful mature swords & lotus. So here i am reaching out to you guys for help, all suggestions will be gratefully received. I’m sure i have left out some technical details that may be required for a reasoned response so please ask anything. I would rather avoid having to add vast quantities of chemical. Many thanks for reading this post.

She is back in the main tank in a breeding net box as she is still not swimming properly. She has improved & her mate sits with her. She is eating. Still sits on her side a fair bit though. I wonder about quality of life but at the same time she hasn’t given up so I won’t either. Thanks for your encouragement.

That is great news, i hope she continues to improve & gets back to full health. My girl is still sideways a lot but i won’t give up on her.

Great idea, thank you! I have added some more salt i have about 1.5g/L and will increase over the next few days up to 3g/L. I forgot to say the QT tank has a cycled filter (low output) and an airstone.

I have a beautiful female angel on her side at the bottom of the tank. I have had her in QT for more than 2 weeks now with little improvement. She has had a course of kanaplex and i have added salt. She will get upright but it takes a lot of effort, she then bobs for a minute or two before sinking back onto her side, it is heartbreaking to watch. Not sure what else to do for her. The pectoral fin on the side she is laying is getting mangled from her efforts to get up which result in her spinning on her side. Water parameters are all good & i change 5L every 3 days in a 20L QT i leave the light on very low daytime & off at night. PH 7.6, Nitrite 0, Ammonia 0, Nitrate 0. Temperature 27, Hard water area so 50/50 RO/Tap i put a small catappa leaf in the water & a couple of bunches of limnophila. I have been putting food in daily, not sure if she is eating, doesn’t look skinny. I use a turkey baster to remove uneaten food twice a day. At what point do i give up & help her off to the big fish tank in the sky? I don’t feel ready to give up on her, she and her mate were laying eggs every 2 weeks for 4 cycles up until she fell ill. On the last attempt it looked like they got to wiggler stage before she moved them, after moving they disappeared. I wonder if she was stressed from this. I didn’t add a picture as apart from being on her side on the bottom she looks perfectly healthy, the fin is under her so you wouldn’t see it & that has happened since the illness. Please help! On a happy note my Apisto cacatuoides have had babies, every cloud has a silver lining!

Hi, Any update on progress? I have a beautiful female angel on her side at the bottom. I have had her in QT for 2 weeks with little improvement. She has had a course of kanaplex and i have added salt. She will get upright but it takes a lot if effort, she then bobs for a minute or two before sinking back onto her side, it is heartbreaking to watch. Not sure what else to do for her. Water parameters are all good & i change 5L every 3 days in a 20L QT i leave the light on very low daytime & off at night. At what point do i give up & help her off to the big fish tank in the sky?

Hey, i am really pleased to see this information here for UK members. It took me a while to figure out the UK trio equivalent but i have been using exactly what you posted for a few months now. Esha products are gentle enough to use with betta fish which is an added bonus. If you come across stubborn ick & Esha Exit doesn’t resolve it try waterlife protozin. I am so lucky to have a daughter in the US who can send me fish meds as well. She sends me kanaplex, maracyn & maracyn 2. All a lot cheaper than a chat with a wet vet.

Thanks for the help. Good to know 2 folks have been successful with salt with the Ancistrus. Neither of those products are available here in the UK, lucky for me my daughter is in Kansas & ships them over 😄 i have treated the same successfully before with esher 2000 but salt is better rather than using meds to start off with. Just waiting & hoping for Cory to ship to the UK, there are so may co op products i would love to buy! Hint hint Cory! Lol.

Dear fellow forum members, I have a dilemma, i want to use treatment level 1 salt in my tank as one of the guppies has a tiny bit of fungus but have an ancistrus in there. I have read conflicting information about using salt with ancistrus so thought i’d reach out to you all for help. I do have a hospital tank i could use for the guppy but would rather treat the tank in case any of the others are affected. Can i use salt at treatment level 1 with my ancistrus or will it harm him? Thanks in advance for your help x

I had a betta who had the same kind of problem a while back. He would swim in a straight line for food but flip onto side when still, he also ended up floating on top & struggling to get down in the water. I gave him a course of esha 2000 changed his food from hikari pellets to a less dense food (or presoak the pellet) with patience the problem resolved but it took around a month & was hard to see him struggle i hope your lillte guy gets better soon x

I have a feeling he may have eaten it & somehow went out through the gill. Had to happen when my other half (an avid angler who handles fish way more than me) @BCAquarium had gone fishing...

Ouch! Those magnets are no joke. Interesting to see that keeping fish can actuallybe a dangerous hobby. Thanks for the replies folks, i’m glad it’s not just me but sorry for your injuries/allergies

One of my yellow snakeskin guppies managed to get himself tangled up in umbrella grass, looked like it was in his gills. Tried to gently get him off but to no avail. Plan formed in my mind, get a tub, cut the grass with guppy tangled, put in tub & figure out how to free the poor little guy. Good plan right? Well cut the grass, guppy shoots off happy to be free at the start of the cut, the end of my cut with the curved scissors went through the skin on my finger! Ouch! Bandaid required. Guppy completely free & much happier after some daphnia & bloodworm for dinner. That’s my first fishkeeping injury, thought i’d share as i’m sure we have all got a story to tell. Please share your incidents, injuries or other disasters.