Meowtroid

Of all the fish stores I've been to, this one looks by far the cleanest and most organized, wow! I really wish we had something like this near me.

Thank you!! He's already received it and has sent me at least one thank you per day via text message haha. His girlfriend is also a big Aquarium Co-Op fan and has also been ecstatic about it. ❤️

I've recently started painting fish as a combination of my hobbies, and earlier this year my coworker asked me if I could paint his pufferfish (Congo Spotted Puffer and Pea Puffer). After a few months of working on it on and off, I got it done just in time to give it to him for Christmas. Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays! Let me know what I ought to paint next. 🎨

Update! I have a coworker who keeps koi and goldfish and actually said he recognized the disease. He asked what temperature I keep the tank at (between 68 and 70 Farenheit) and I showed him the pictures and he pinned it as Aeromonus - a bacterial infection common in goldfish and koi that causes red ulcers and fluid accumulation. It explains the red ulcers, the dropsy-like behavior, and the swelling in my loach. His usual go to treatment he recommended was: A) put in a heater and gradually raise the tanks temperature for a week or two because the bacteria can't thrive in warmer waters B) three day course of Micro-Lift Broad Spectrum Treatment - a pond medication with the same active ingredients as Ich-X but in stronger concentrations and different percentages; Ich-X is <5% Formaldehyde, <2% Methanol, and <0.1% Malachite Green Chloride and dosed ~5ml/10gal Broad Spectrum Treatment is <22% Formaldehyde, and <0.2% Malachite Green Chloride and dosed 1ml/10gal The treatment I've been doing has been raising the tank's temperature by about two degrees each day until I hit about 80F where I'll keep the tank for about a week. I know these fish don't like temperatures that high, but for a short term I know from experience that they will tolerate it. The medication, I am dosing 1ml per 10gallons of water, with 30% water changes in between, for three days. So the med schedule looks like: Day 1: dose med Day 2: 30% water change, dose med Day 3: 30% water change, dose med Day 4: 30% water change I just finished dose #3 and here's the night and day improvement I have seen on my goldfish already: Before: After: The ulcers on his top fin and tail are all but gone, and the ulcers on his side are healing too. As you can see, he's a lot more active right now too, and won't sit still for a photo. His appetite has also shown improvement and he isn't floating tailside up anymore, and generally has returned to much more typical behavior. YAY! The swelling in Omi the loach hasn't gone down too much yet, but Omi's appetite has at least also improved, and I'm hoping to see more improvement going forward. I'll keep folks posted on the recovery process but hopefully this was the answer!

Nitrates usually sit around 0-20 depending on when the last water change was done. They're currently sitting around there I think from a) the water changes and filter clean up I did with the fungus issues and b) cause I have pothos growing out of the top. I have also been feeding lightly in general, didn't feed them at all during the med trio, and haven't been fertilizing the tank because of all of the issues with fungus. The tank has been running for a little over a year now.

Hello all, I really wish I could have cleared this up on my own but at this point it's getting worse, not better, and I'm getting pretty worried. Right off the bat, water parameters: 0ppm Ammonia, Nitrite, and Nitrate pH about 7.4 GH about 200ppm KH about 120 Temp at about 69-70 Farenheit depending on the time of day My Shubunkin goldfish, Pebbles, has had some regular issues with developing ulcers that usually have gone away on their own and recently I hadn't had much problems with them. However over the past two weeks they've developed worse than I have ever seen them, and his top fin is started to look really quite bad, plus it has spread to his tail. If on the off chance someone knows just by looking what I can do about this, I'm going to post the initial photo here before getting into details: Before the ulcers developed I also noticed this behavior that concerned me that seemed like swim bladder problems where Pebbles would be nose to the bottom, tail to the top, which hasn't improved, even after feeding shelled peas: Pebbles is in a 75 gallon acrylic aquarium with only two other inhabitants: two golden dojo loaches named Omi and Bambam. The tank had something like a fungus outbreak two weeks ago that I had cleared up with a water change and thorough gravel vacuuming. Then it came back a week after that (so one week ago) with a vengeance so I did an even more thorough gravel vacuuming, scrubbed all the hard scape, cleaned the sponge filter and the canister filter which had gotten really gunky with a slime, and started the whole tank on the med trio. The fungus is now 100% gone and even the remnants I hadn't gotten with scrubbing are gone now after the med trio, but that's when Pebbles developed these lesions. To make matters weirder, Omi, the larger of the dojo loaches whom I think may be a female, has developed this bloating around the anus that I cannot tell if it's constipation or if Omi is egg bound or what is happening here, but shelled peas and meds didn't help with it either. The smaller loach, Bambam, seems perfectly fine. As I said I did the full med trio and today is day 7 where I did a 30% water change and I am not seeing any improvement. I have some minimal amount of plants in here I struggled to get to grow because the fish like to tear them up, but at this point I am considering just taking out the sad looking anubias's, doing a salt treatment, and letting the crypts die cause I'm a bit desperate. Any tips on my next steps?

Hey Marita, it was so great to meet you!! I've had such a blast literally every time I've gone to the club and every time I feel like I meet new great folks there. I'll shoot you an email sometime about getting some rice fish from you sometime soon! That fry tray is awesome by the way, I can't wait to actually set it up sometime and make Dean proud by raising up my first batch of fry in it.

It is!

I thought I had recognized him but I couldn't for the life of me tell where - until he mentioned going to Peru and then I realized! Thanks for what you've done for the hobby, Cory, I feel like it's had a real tangible impact in my area - the old folks are seeing a lot of new people for the first time in a long while and it's been a really good feeling to connect with people in my lifetime home community over our shared interests

Thought I'd share a fun story about my local aquarium club! I'm a relatively new member of my club, I have now been to four meetings and want to go even more often, but it is always a matter of my work schedule conflicting. I was lucky enough to attend yesterday though, where I got to see Dean who flew in all the way from Seattle to do a workshop! It was great seeing Dean but I think my favorite part was getting dinner afterwards - and discovering that Michael, who runs Project Amazonas with MT Amazon Expeditions to Peru, is a long time member of my club and a local to me! And our club President has gone on trips to Peru catching fish with Michael as well - her cupidos are wild caught from the Amazon. There were so many amazing stories about their trips down there. I think my favorite was about how they visited a village where a young teen girl had been born with underdeveloped limbs and their medical team had been able to bring her prosthetics - something they didn't even think was an option for her. That and the story about how Michael ended up with the Peruvian flag painted on one toenail. I would really like to go myself sometime in the near future when I can afford to go. It was a treat talking to other new club members as well and realizing that three of the four of us at the table discovered our club thanks to Aquarium Co-Op's Local Aquarium Clubs map! To anyone who wants to try finding a club near them I highly recommend it - my club has been a blast every time I've gone and I learn so much. The in person experience of meeting locals who share in your hobby just can't be replicated online. Here's a link to the map: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/apps/store-locator And to anyone I met who may be lurking in these forums and is in my club, hello, I'm Kato! It was nice to meet you and I can't wait to see you again!

Actually @Fish Folk you reminded me with your inverted planted pots, Tanner Serpa did something just like that for his indoor guppy pond which also has no filter. I considered doing something like this at one point but with apartment living I don't have any space really for using power tools like diamond tipped drills, unfortunately.

That handbook looks amazing!! I'll have to order it! I'm always looking for more literature in the hobby - gotta clear my bookshelves of stuff I don't need/read so I can make room for good stuff like this.

Oh that doesn't seem like a bad idea! I didn't bother if only because Dean didn't bother with his, and I'm willing to copy just about anything Dean does if it's worked for him hahaha

Wish I could help! My balcony has two outlets for exterior power. An extension cord would likely be your best bet, but I'm not sure how you'd run it outside without having an open door or window.

Yes, it is the MacCourt 20gallon preformed pond liner! I got mine at Lowe's, they're about $25 so not bad at all. As for the barrel, I did a search for whiskey barrels in the same dimensions and Home Depot had some available so I went about five miles down the road to look. The /only/ thing that I was able to test fit perfectly was a repurposed genuine Jack Daniel's whiskey barrel planter. It looks amazing but I should warn you - it was very heavy and carrying it to a third floor apartment was hell, and because it was repurposed from actual materials used to make whiskey, the barrel rings are rusty and don't hold as tight. For decoration purposes, though, it is perfect. The one I got from Home Depot was about $40, but honestly I should have asked them to knock the price down a bit since it was in kinda poor shape. If I'd been a little more patient, I probably could've found a cheaper one on Craigslist as Dean suggested in his video 🤣 A warning on feeder goldfish - if they're comets, they get to be pretty massive! I have a Shubunkin I adopted that needed a bigger home and right now I've got her in a 75gallon tank and even that isn't big enough for her. If I can ever swing it, I want to upgrade her to a 300gallon. Comets get about the same size! Here's the mini pond as of this past Sunday. There's a large Aquarium Co-Op sponge filter in here with black airline tubing. In this picture I had it running with the only spare air pump I had on hand which was a Tetra air pump that was way too heavy duty, I've since replaced it with another nano usb air pump - the tupperware container is to protect it from the elements and will be hidden by some potted plants. There's a very thin amount of gravel inside just for beneficial bacteria and to make it look a little less plain, there's a piece of drift wood with some extra anubias nana petite and a sprig of a mini bolbitis I had laying around, with a little bit of extra Subwassertang just chucked in at the bottom. The salvinia minima on top is from my chili rasbora tank, while I purchased the water hyacinth, broad leaf watersprite, and some frog bit from a local fish store. There's also some anacharis in there I got from the local fish store for good measure. It's dosed very heavily with Easy Green right now, nitrites and nitrates off the charts. I'm trying to get algae to grow but the one downside to my little balcony is that it's north-facing means it gets very little sunlight!! Here's hoping by around July it'll be growing like crazy and ready for fish. Maybe by then I'll even manage to actually /find/ some rice fish, hah!

That would be awesome! I personally haven't had much interest in keeping live-bearers, if only because I grew up with them so I'm a little bored of them, but swordtails and endlers have always been exceptions that I've considered. What sort of weather do you hope for when it comes to swordtails outside?

Wow!! I think because we have a lot of light in our courtyard outside and the way our balconies are built the odds of them getting to a third story balcony are small, but that's nuts. Were there trees they were able to scale?

Cory mentioned in an old livestream that outdoor mini ponds are perfect for renters like myself, and I realized one of the mini ponds Dean has set up is the perfect size for my little balcony. Not entirely sure what's going to go in it yet, though I really would like to try rice fish, but PHEW getting this hefty old whiskey barrel planter up three floors was a workout! Anyone else ever do mini ponds on an apartment balcony before? I'm going to be happy not to have to worry about raccoons. 🦝 Old Mini Pond livestream: One of many Dean videos showcasing his mini ponds:

Right, I agree that it's a very bad sign and don't want to put them back in the main tank. I'm mostly wondering if I should attempt euthanizing them - and if so, what the most humane way to do that would be. I can't bear the idea of squishing or boiling them - I do see suggestions on clove oil or freezing. Have you had to euthanize sick shrimp before?

Thank you for the useful link! I can certainly get Pimafix which this article recommends. What should I do with the females I have that are showing intense infection? Both of them seem to flop on their backs like they can't stand properly it seems 😞 I hate the idea of euthanasia but I'd rather these two not continue to suffer

Very concerning infection on berried female! I have a ten gallon heavily planted tank dedicated entirely to a colony of blue neocaridina shrimp that's been up and running since September 2021. There's approximately between 100 to 200 shrimp in the colony at any given time. This morning I went to check on them and discovered two of the berried females had some fungus like growths covering their swimmerets. I very promptly did a water test - nitrites at zero, nitrates between 10-25 - and about a 20% water change, with the intention of medicating the tank as soon as I figure out what I might be dealing with. Some preliminary research indicates it might be vorticella parasites which is common in freshwater shrimp. I was able to catch two females with extensive infection in a specimen container and got the best photo I could to illustrate, though without a macro lens the picture doesn't really do justice to how extensive the infection seems to be. It is on their noses and pincers and back as well, though most extensive on the swimmerets, which seem to be locked up and giving them trouble swimming. Most immediate advice I need would be what to do with these female, first? I could try treating them separately with aquarium salt since they are out of the display tank, though I imagine the more practical course of action would be euthanizing them (would need advice on how to humanely do that, too). I definitely don't want to add them back in. Secondly, would love to know what I ought to do for the rest of the tank. I read that PraziPro is probably the most effective at dealing with parasites, but I'd also want to make sure it is parasitic and not fungal. Tank parameters (included in pictures is after water change): Nitrates: 10-25ppm (before water change); 10-15ppm (after water change) Nitrites: 0ppm Hardness: 150-300ppm Buffer: 40ppm pH: 7.2 Edit 1: It looks to be a fungal infection. I'm currently using this resource for treatment: https://aquariumbreeder.com/understanding-dwarf-shrimp-diseases-and-parasites/ Dosing with API's Pimafix that I was able to pick up at a local pet store - 5ml per 10 gallons of water. I had a spare 1.5 gallon tote I use for plant dips I was able to modify into a little makeshift hospital tank with an airstone (my other hospital tank is currently being used for quarantine for a new set of fish I just got the other day, go figure) so I'm going to attempt to treat the most heavily infected females I fished out separately, while also treating the entire main tank. My main theory as to why the berried females were affected so heavily, by the way, is because their immune systems were weakened by the recent molt that precedes mating and egg laying - and then their eggs are very susceptible to fungus as well. I'll try to keep updating as things go so that there's a reliable resource out there on what it looks like when shrimp get fungal infections like this! Edit 2: Hey I have some great news! I have been treating both the main tank and my little quarantine tub with the two badly infected females for three days so far with Pimafix. Last night, one of the badly infected females actually molted her infected exoskeleton- dropping her fungus covered shell and eggs - and is doing great now! She is no longer having issues with staying upright or swimming sideways now that her swimmerets aren't locked up with fungus anymore. She'll be drip acclimated and added back to the display tank shortly. I'll continue to treat the entire tank and keep the other female in quarantine for at least the full treatment period, but what the article linked says is true - superficial mycoses or outer shell fungal infections can be shed with a molt. Even berried females who had molted quite recently can drop their exoskeletons and their nonviable eggs in a molt. For anyone dealing with fungus problems with shrimp in the future, so far my recommendation is to quarantine the most obviously infected shrimp if you can, treat both the display tank and the quarantine tank with Pimafix, and take out any fungus covered molts you find! I'll continue with more updates if others don't recover or if for whatever reason the infection continues to spread even with treatment. Here's some pictures of the most and the freshly molted female.

Hi there! I'm about to finally get in a group of 10 chili rasboras that I've been trying to order for the past month or so and I'm working on preparing to set them up for quarantine before moving them into their nano tank. I know that due to their size, they can be quite fragile fish, so I was wondering if it would be worth putting them through the quarantine med trio, or if I should simply keep an eye on them and feed them as normal, and treat them reactively instead of proactively if I notice any illness? If it's worth mentioning, they have been ordered from Aquahuna, which the Co-Op specifically recommends as their go-to online retailer for live fish.

Hi there, I'm Kato! I'm a lot newer to the aquarium hobby, I only really started getting into it and doing a massive amount of research four months ago - when I decided with determination I was going to adopt my mom's Shubunkin goldfish and her two dojo loaches who did not have enough room in their old tank. Fast forward four months later and I am now a giant fish lover with a 75 gallon for them, a 5.5 I've been setting up for about a month now with a ton of live plants (for chili rasboras! hopefully!! if I can find them!!), and a little 1 gallon fishless iwagumi scape I've been propogating cupfuls of salvinia minima in. I'm a huge fan of Aquarium Co-Op, among like three or four other fishy youtubers, and I really want to share in this hobby with others!