CJs Aquatics

Hello all, might be a poor question but I’m just hearing there is a mark as best answer feature on the forum? What does it look like and where might I find it, I’m not the most tech savvy… thanks

@Gannon @AllFishNoBrakes @AnimalNerd98 @Mayberry Dan @TOtrees @Wild Fish Tanks @Schuyler Tag 🙃

I’ll preface this by saying I’m not an expert but I keep running across this post and I feel like it at least deserves an attempt at an answer because that is a beautiful fish. I’ve never owned a flowerhorn, so take this advice with a grain of salt however I took a few things from this: 1. The med trio healed it and it came back 2. the med trio healed it and it came back again. this suggests to me that this is probably not an injury but an ailment of some kind. The med trio had some success but it wasn’t sustainable so here would be my next course of action: 1. Monitor and document behavior: Is the fish otherwise healthy? Interactive? Eating? Swimming properly etc? 2. I would reprepare the quarantine tank, sanitize it, drain it, refill it, add filter, heater etc after everything is sterilized except perhaps the filter media. 3. I don’t think they do but I would find out if flower horns are one of the few fish that react poorly to aquarium salt, if not, I would add him to the qt tank with the correct amount of salt first, and monitor him for a few days to a week. 4. I would feed live foods like live baby or live adult brine if possible as it is sort of like a natural laxative and will help clear his intestinal tract along with the salt, or fast him (I don’t like fasting them personally but I have heard it to be effective) 5. After a few days to a week if he took it well I would add in just one of the meds from the med trio at the appropriate dosage. 6. Monitor for signs of stress or anything else out of the ordinary but more over monitor that ailment that keeps coming back, I would leave him quarantined for 7-14 days or so maybe more depending on how he is handling it, meds can be hard on fish. 7. If it were me I would use carbon to remove the meds from the water, or water change them out, and give him a short break from medication. 8. I would repeat this process with the 2nd medication in the trio and then the 3rd until you find out specifically which med is clearing up the illness which would give you more clear of an idea of what you are dealing with. If the first one clears it up there’s no need for the others. 9. I would assume whatever it is it is eighter resilient to the meds and going to come back, or the meds weren’t applied long enough to treat the source and adjust that accordingly. 10. Once you know what your dealing with ie a bacteria, fungus, parasite, or other, I would research alternative ways to treat that specific ailment as in a different form of medication, or my personal favorite which most people disagree with a medicated food for that ailment. I’ve had success with Dr. Bassleers in the past… In summary process of elimination to figure out what your dealing with then a specific treatment for that unless someone can identify it. Small Water changes are magical in my experience as well As a preventative measure. I’m not sure any of this will help but I’ve tried to at least address based on what you wrote how if I were in your shoes I would handle things step by step. I truly hope everything works out, sorry this was so long winded…

Never done the scratch pad ones and 2 days ago I just made my first yarn ones but I’m curious as to the results of this discussion as I may also make scratch pad ones as well depending on what people are saying…

@gardenman thank you so much

I will try to find it, it’s not of them eating the algae it’s of someone setting up a culture and harvesting a tablespoon a week or so of fresh spirulina, and how to sustain it, I’ve seen a few like that

@AnimalNerd98 my hypothesis is to fill the hatchery with clean water possibly bottled and add a starter culture, the airstone the culture comes with will run enough to distribute the food for the culture and to circulate the water. When the culture takes off, the water will be drained to be reused and part of the algae collected in a mass via the strainer or from the top of the hatchery (clump of algae). Then the water will be reused with the remainder of the culture and the cycle will continue. The spirulina clump will be immediately rinsed and fed in bulk to the fish. This is just a rough draft, I’ve seen it done on YouTube but I thought that hatchery might be the perfect way to do a culture like that as well and offer another premium food option. *airstone the hatchery comes with not culture… it’s late here lol

I vote build your own

Perhaps what was said like a smaller snail or something however you could also possibly try introducing whatever you wanted in the tank such as the algae eater using a similar method to how bettas are bred and place him in in a clear glass of some kind so he is protected from the betta and the betta gets used to him before you remove the container, this will show you how the betta reacts to company. Another strategy might be to remove all inhabitants, change the tank around, then reintroduce them at the same time to make sure it’s not territorial

@TheSwissAquarist maybe I will also dig deeper with the research and find out if the hormone they inject is made naturally in freshwater fish and what processes are responsible for its occurrence as well as how is it measured

@TheSwissAquarist personally I don’t know that it’s true but I suppose I can see probability in both sides… from the limited knowledge I have about hormones I do know they can alter a lot of things, and as @WhitecloudDynasty said I also have heard of people using them on fish for breeding, so it wouldn’t surprise me if it were the case, but I haven’t heard anyone prove it scientifically so I personally lean towards it’s probably less then likely, in any case, if concentrated forms of hormones have been used before perhaps if they do release any it may not be enough or perhaps it is, perhaps it is removed by other things we use in the tanks like filtrations or substrates or perhaps absorbed, maybe it takes a certain amount to trigger or maybe it’s not a thing at all, it’s all still up in the air honestly

Not gonna lie that’s pretty awesome…I’m wondering if there would be a way to measure hormones in the water column like we are able to test for everything else… that would potentially put this mystery to rest

Hey everyone, random thought… I typically use 2 of ziss brine shrimp hatcheries so I have daily brine however I’ve been slacking lately so one is usually empty. I had this strange idea that it could potentially be a decent set up for culturing your own spirulina as well. I haven’t started this experiment because I wanted some thoughts but that would offer another great food source for fish as well as an easy way to harvest as you could drain and reuse water and potential strain the fresh spirulina just like you do live baby brine…Idk much about it I just know it’s decent food source for a lot of things… thoughts?

what type of species if I may ask?

@WhitecloudDynasty I’m honestly not sure at all eighter it’s just what I’ve heard, I’ve heard of so many different spawning triggers I figured I would reach out to everyone and see if anyone knew or had any experience

@WhitecloudDynasty it’s not so much adding them, I’ve heard that livebearers produce a hormone when they are prepping to as well as in the act of spawning which signals other fish to breed. It would be released into the water column naturally, and I’ve heard of people using this to trigger other harder to spawn species to spawn but I’ve never seen anything scientific on the subject…

I’ve owned guppies for years and never seen that, could be a number of things but it strangely resembles an issue an Apisto of mine had. I treated it for hole in the head (without ever knowing if that was the case) and she got better however idk if this is the same. I would probably treat her in a seperate container with meds for infection, fungus and parasites, monitor her for a week or so, and feed live foods. I used a pellet food called lapacho to help treat the Apisto however again this might be a different scenario it just looks identical. Could be a minor abrasion from flashing or fighting, judging by her size she’s probably going to be giving birth soon so alternative course is to wait but if it were me I would probably just monitor and minor treat her to be sure, hope something in this helps…

Hardest lesson I’ve learned when it comes to breeding fish is probably similar to this and it’s be prepared. We all want to see our fish breed, to grow them up, etc. but I started with guppies like I would imagine a lot of people do, and was not prepared. For illnesses, equipment failures, tank space, I was not prepared to handle the load breeding added. I wanted every strain, and bought a lot of them, now I have a nice mutt tank and a few strains because unless you are fully prepared for everything that comes with breeding, it can be too much… if I could do it over again I would pick one fish and dedicate my time to that rather then want them all…what’s that material your angels laid eggs on if I may ask?

Agreed

I agree with you 100% I just like to hear and read about what others may have experienced as well

That’s very insightful actually, it makes perfect sense, I can’t say I believe one way or another which is part of the reason I’m trying to get some answers on it. Like you personally it’s something I’ve never seen or tried, just heard of, I keep livebearers and have never noticed them spawning making other things want to spawn but I have heard it so I’ve been wondering

What’s up everybody, so I’ve heard before livebearers add a hormone to the water column that encourages other fish as well as other livebearers to breed. Does anyone know anything about this? Is it true? Has it worked for you? Any scientific articles, or journals published you could refer me to I’m just interested in this topic, thanks

I followed the instructions 1 TBSP to 2 TBSP water it wasn’t enough so I did it a bunch more times, can a fish overdose on repashy? Lol

Hey all, making “artificial snails” for my puffer with oyster shells and repashy powder caused me to wonder if you can use too much powder at once?

Thank you for all your advice I will definitely monitor things closely going forward