ArtemisCai

I'm a noob but I have 5 Hillstream loaches. I have a HoB and also a sponge filter. I keep the tank between 70-72 degree F. I have sand substrate with lots of rocks and plants. I have 3 fans, 1 small one that runs almost continuously. I just purchased a lot more rocks that I will be setting outside in the sun in water so they grow algae. I will then be doing a continuous rock swap with the ones in the tank so they have a nice supply of algae to graze on.

I do not have anywhere to get cycled media from. I do not know anyone who had fish. My Fritzyme is not expired. I will try putting it in the filter. I will order some Seachem Safe and continue with water changes if the nitrite and ammonia are still present. Thank you!

Thank you, I do have Co-op coarse sponge in my HoB. I put it in for the first time the day I replaced the poly pad. I also bought the ammonia filter pad from Co-op. I added that yesterday when I did my water change. I'm hoping it scrubs out the ammonia. I have hard water here. My pH, GH, KH and TDS are on the high range.

Hello Fish Friends, I made a noob mistake. So my new 37 gal. planted tank cycled in about just over 3.5 weeks. I did a fishless, planted cycle. My parameters were good, plants had new growth, I had algae, everything was great! I added fish snails and shrimp, everything was still great. A few days later added some Hillstream loaches and everything was going along swimmingly. I took some filter media out of my HoB to hurriedly jump-start a quarantine tank because I had a fish arriving through the mail that I was not expecting ( long story, my previous post tells the tale. https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/15305-frustrating-experience-ordering-fish-online/?tab=comments#comment-126385 ). Still everything is going good, my water parameters are stable, everything was as good as I could hope it would be. This is when I made a noob mistake. My water was cloudy and I had never changed the filter media in my HoB and it was looking pretty nasty. I figured that putting clean media in it might clear up the water. I thought it would be fine since I still have the sponge filter sponge and a large intake sponge with good bacteria on it in my tank. I did not clean the HoB at all, just replaced the media, but that was enough to get something off. A couple of days after that I started getting small spikes of ammonia and nitrites. So far I have not had ammonia over 0.25 or nitrites over 0.50 and my nitrates have been between 10-20. I have done water changes everyday since the ammonia and nitrite presented. I added Fritzyme 7 during 2 of the water changes. Still everyday, I have ammonia and nitrites. Am I doing the right thing by doing water changes everyday? I didn't add Fritzyme 7 when I did today's 50% water change because after the last two times I added it, it didn't really seem to help. Am I doing the right thing doing water changes everyday? Am I making it worse? I'm not sure what to do.

https://www.loaches.com/species-index/gastromyzon-scitulus

I'm probably just going to have to wait until he is bigger like @Colu said.

I was making my assumption off of the information on loaches.com https://www.loaches.com/species-index/gastromyzon-ctenocephalus I do see what you are saying. Especially about his dorsal fin. I was just thinking that maybe because he is still so young, the color has not shown up on his dorsal fin yet. Is that possible? I'm a noob, what do I know. lol It was particularly this section where it mentions the tail markings: "The dorsal fin has bold pale blue markings, and the caudal fin has bold horizontal pale blue stripes with black lines between them. The caudal pattern in G. scitulus has vertical breaks in the horizontal pattern, and the dorsal is normally lacking any blue spotting." Roomba's tail looks a lot like the picture and the description of Gastromyzon ctenocephalus. His tail has solid lines, without breaks. Also, you can't really tell from the photos, but in the tank they look pale blue. Is it possible he could be a half breed? Does that even happen?

Welcome to the forum!

I'm also new to the forum. Welcome!

We have Hoover, Kirby, Dyson, Eureka, Shark and now Roomba. My granddaughters have named all of my Shimp, "Shrimpy" and all of the snails "Snaily". 😄

We have named him Roomba to go along with our vacuum theme.

I'm pretty sure after getting a better picture of him this evening that he is Gastromyzon ctenocephalus. He fits the description to a T.

I got a better look at my new mystery loach in the quarantine tank and I think it is possibly Gastromyzon ctenocephalus. It matches the description and photos on this site https://www.loaches.com/species-index/gastromyzon-ctenocephalus I may be way off because I'm a Noob Nerm, but all signs seem to be pointing to this being the one. Any thoughts? Story of how I got him/her is in my other post : https://forum.aquariumcoop.com/topic/15305-frustrating-experience-ordering-fish-online/page/2/?tab=comments#comment-126781 He is really small slightly over an inch, so I am guessing he is young.

Yeah, I was just discussing this with my Husband and daughter-in-law today. I told them them I will probably wait until cooler months before ordering any more livestock online. It is just too hot here. I'm not willing to take that risk again.

This actually made me laugh out loud. 🤣

I am reading everyone's comments but I am out of likes/reactions for the day. 😢 Thank you, everyone for your comments, advice and commiserations. Your experience and advice is invaluable to me, as is your stories of similar experiences. I feel less bad about myself knowing others have made a similar mistake. I usually am more careful when making decisions, I think the excitement of finally getting to put animals in my aquarium made me lose my senses a bit. I was able to get a picture of the surviving fish in the quarantine tank. It is not a very good one though. Does anyone recognize what kind of loach it might be? Maybe Gastromyzon scitulus or one like that?

That is really smart. I wish I would have done that. Hind sight is 20/20. I plan not to make this mistake again. I'm such a trusting Noob. I will not be so trusting from here on out. I will do more research before ordering online again. I thought I was doing the right thing by ordering from a company in my own state. I figured that way, the animals would not be traveling very long. I was wrong. It took two days for the package to arrive from a place that is only about 2 hours from me.

Right? It is shocking that they are able to.

Thank you. The little one seems okay, at least as much as I can tell. It was very stressed. So after acclimating for 20 minutes, I put him in the tank and turned off the light. I have peeked in every so often without turning the light on. It is too dark to get a really good look though. He is alive and seems to be doing okay so far. I will try to take some photos once I know it is doing better.

I won't let this place ruin it for me, it sounds like I just choose a bad apple. TBH, I'm a little hesitant, but I will try to go with places that I know people have had good experience with from now on. Thank you!

I'm not on Facebook but I should still be able to see enough without a login to find a local group. Great suggestion! Thank you!

I filled out another loss form. I'll see what transpires. That's a good suggestion. If I don't hear from them. I may do just that.

Thank you. I agree. Although I am sad about the fish and wish that the packaging was better, I am mostly upset and surprised about the lack of communication.

Sorry Long Post. I'm a total Noob . I live in Arizona and we don't have much in LFS in my area. I found an Aquatic farm in Tucson that states it is "one of the leading suppliers in the U.S.A. of farm-raised freshwater tropical fish, saltwater & marine fish, aquatic plants for ponds & aquariums, as well as high quality Koi & Gamefish, including Tilapia for Aquaponics & Ponds." Once my tank cycled, I ordered 3 Reticulated Hillstream Loaches, some Nerite snails and a few shrimp. This place charges $39.00 for their fastest shipping ( which is required for the "Live Arrival Guarantee" ), $9.00 for what they called an "Insulated Styrofoam box" and $1.00 for a ice pack. All of which I was more than happy to pay for to aid in the safe arrival of my new little friends. About a week and a half later my shipment arrived. I was surprised that the "Insulated Styrofoam box" was just a regular cardboard box with a few very thin pieces of Styrofoam in it. The ice pack was quite a small one that had long since lost its cool. Everything in the box was very hot. Now I'm an Arizona native, I know ordering stuff in the summer here is a risk. it is very hot here. With that said, they are a Native Arizonian Company since 1987, so they too are aware of how hot it gets here. I expected these poor animals to be packaged in an actual Styrofoam box which would have held the temp better. One shrimp and several of the olive Nerites lost their life on the trip. Along with that, the box did not contain my 3 Reticulated Hillstream Loaches ( which I paid $15.99 each, a total of $47.97 + tax for ) nor was there an invoice included. Per the instructions on this place's website, I filled out the loss form for the dearly departed animals. If items are missing from your order, the website states to check your invoice to see if the item is on backorder. I could not do that. I did not get an invoice. I tried calling the company repeatedly and also emailed them several times through the website and also through my personal email over a week and a half. I never got any kind of response. Upon calling, no one ever answered any of the phone numbers and the mailbox is always full so I could not leave a message. I never got any feedback from the "Loss Form" I filled out on their website. I finally sent my last email stating that I understand in the business of live animals things happen, but what I could not understand is the lack of response to my inquiries about my order. I informed them that as a first time customer, I was not happy with the lack of response from them and would not be recommending them or purchasing from them in the future. Two days later, still with no phone or email response from them, I get an email from their shipping carrier that a shipment is on its way. ?? Not sure what was being shipped to me. Tried calling them and emailing them again to find out what I was being sent. Still no response. Today arrived a very hot, poorly package box containing 2 very, very dead loaches of indeterminate species and a very tiny, what I think may be a Hillstream Loach of some type. 😕? It does not at all look like a Reticulated Hillstream Loach. It is a chocolate brown color with what might be light yellowish spots. It looks nothing like my other Hillstream Loaches that are about the same size. This time the box had an invoice for 3 Reticulated Hillstream Loaches. Is this pretty much what I can expect when ordering fish? Am I just spoiled by how nicely and well-package my live plants come from Aquarium Co-Op? I expected that kind of packaging from this place since they are shipping live animals. That is not what I got however. I did end up going to a LFS ( not really local, about 45-50 minutes away from where I live) to buy my fish. I don't know where I'm going to buy my Black Moor when the time comes. The LFS doesn't carry Moors. This has really put me off ordering live animals through the mail. I feel so bad for those poor little babies that died because I ordered them. I have the lone survivor in a quarantine tank. We'll see how he does.

I have always wanted a Black Moor. I decided to start doing research in preparation a few months ago. One day I stumbled upon one of Cory's videos on You Tube and have been watching them obsessively ever since.