Chad

Here's the best pic I could take. I know it's not great. But you can see the bumps on his side, top of body and two lower near the tail.

I'm sorry, I don't. I just can't get a good pic of it. He's still moving around full speed and eating great.

I quarantined the sick CPD prior to this one, it became lethargic and died a day later but showed no signs of white poop or swim bladder issues. I did notice it would hang out on the other side of the tank, with the green neons. I did feed the tank med flakes (flubendazol?) for several days after that to hedge my bets.

I started with 10 Celestial Pearl Danios over 6 months ago and am now down to 4, with it likely being 3 soon. Of the remaining 4, 3 are in superb health but 1 has a bent spine and I noticed a couple lumps on one side this morning. A few weeks ago, I lost the 5th one with a similar downslide. Sadly, I didn't notice the others missing until then. The CPD's play in the back of my busy community aquarium and it took me while to notice the thinning numbers. My conundrum is my tank's extremely healthy (seemingly). The parameters are perfect (0 ammonia and nitrite, 20pmm nitrate for happy plants). Water changes every other week. The water is crystal clear and all the other fish are doing great. The rummy noses are all nice and red-faced, the neons are fat, the cory's are playful and the cherry shrimp are numerous. The tank's over a year old and has been flawless. I'm at a loss. One CPD slowly goes downhill after the other. There is aggression between the cpd's with one hounding the others but the tank's busy enough with lots of hideouts if needed. I've seen columnaris before, this doesn't look or seem like it. I mean it might be, but the last two guppies in there are kicking around no issues. Again, everything is perfect and the model of healthy EXCEPT the CPD's. I know @Guppysnail has kept them for a long time (you're the reason I tried them out, and they're amazing!) and I always appreciate your insights, what do you think? Any thoughts are appreciated from better fish minds than mine, thanks!

That's it @face! The micro pellets I've been feeding them. Thanks for calling those little weird things. Okay, I'll keep an eye on the rest of the green-blue gang and see how it all goes. Thanks again!

I’ve had a dozen newly purchased green neons in quarantine for 2 weeks. 2 have died this week, about 5 days apart. No external issues, no behavior issues, they eat great and the water parameters are golden thanks to a very seeded sponge filter. In both cases, I’ve noticed these white spots with fuzzy or fungal surroundings on the bottom of the tank. Does anybody know what these could be? I’ve never seen anything like these before and I’m curious if the greats on these forums have? Any help is greatly appreciated.

Ah, good move. Enjoy and good luck, they're harder work than my tetras but I'm glad we have one.

All good advice, generally speaking. That post really helped me understand what I was getting into. I'd add two things that are particular to me and my pea puffer. Your experience will be different but I think it's good to know at least. 1. She's very docile for a pea puffer. I've added 5 ember tetras with no trouble at all. Cherry shrimp too, but the puffer takes out the shrimplets. Full sized, she won't pester them at all. I added Platy's for a week but they stressed her out so they went bye bye. 2. She's a finicky eater. It's live or nothing. Snails and baby brine shrimp are all I can get her to munch on. Frozen blood worms or brine shrimp were a frustrating no go. It's taken much more work to keep live food at the ready for her than I anticipated. I'm tired of my snail tank but my kid still loves her puffer and dang they are engaging and adorable little buggers. I'd say make sure you know what a thin puffer looks like to ensure yours aren't malnourished. I was worried about mine early on, turns out she's doing great but I couldn't tell since they look so different from other fish I've kept.

I worried about the same thing when I first got my tetras. They were so scared they wouldn’t eat, they would always hide when I came around. In my case, after some time (a few days to eat, a few weeks to swim in the open) they settled in and have thrived. They will eat when they are hungry enough, they will swim around when they are confident enough.

Have you checked to see how much nitrate is in your water before you put it into your tank? I got false readings because of this. Thought it was cycled, it wasn't, just had nitrates in my tap water. Sorry, I see @Torrey mentioned this already and I glossed over it, my bad.

To the best of my understanding, it's a slightly watered down version of Melafix so I think you're fine. Oh, and love the tank! I think that look is a perfect jungle and those glow-light tetras will really pop. Nice job.

That's not true! They laid epoxy eggs onto everything I held dear in my tank. 😉

Thanks @Griznatch, it will make my feeding routine easy and I do like easy when it comes to keeping fish.

My pleco and shrimp like canned green beans. This will work for snails too, right? Seems like it would, and I can easily fish them out after a day and replace.

I'll check em out, thanks @Colu. In the meantime, would Northfin Kelp Wafers work? I have those on hand as well as Cobalt Shrimp pellets.

I have bladder snails that I wish to grow out to feed a new pea puffer we added to our gang last week. In her own room/tank, of course.

I have added java moss and a tiny bit of duckweed. But I haven't been changing the water out. Worried I might mess with their mucky habitat and throw them off. I have a history of killing aquatics with kindness. Good to know, thanks again @BETTA999!

Thanks @BETTA999. Yeah, I suspected as much about the egg shells. They did hoover onto them right away when I dropped them in so they do work but the olfactory cost is a bit too steep for me. I'm trying to keep the jar on our main floor and not buried outside in a back corner of the yard 😉

It's not a shocker, I know, but after adding greens and egg shells to water with a small bubbler, a week later my 2 gallon snail grow out jar is starting to smell. Any tips to tone the smell down? Would nano food blocks do the same job as egg shells?

Mine has been trying to figure out why half my runny nose tetras are pale and the other half are bright and red faced. All parameters are fine. Still scratching my head

That’s very nice of you @Torrey, I recently illustrated my current avatar.

You’re not weird at all for that @xXInkedPhoenixX. Quite the contrary, you’re easy nature is admirable. Me, not so much. Bit too much a control freak to just let someone else pick my fish. I will say though, if I had, that I think there would’ve been several instances where the outcome would’ve been much better. “Yes, could you net that colorful guppy that’s just slowly hanging out in back corner of your tank? Thanks, he’s so peaceful!” Yeah that didn’t end well but it did end quickly.

They tackle that really hard spot green algae brilliantly. No scratches

As @Guppysnail mentioned those plastic razor blades, they’re awesome.

That’s super kind of you @Jennifer V! And by the way, Canva can get you quite ways. But I tend to let clients know I can do a lot better for them;)