Mitch_ScruffyCityAquatics

Ok, so I bought some Gold Dust Mollies this past weekend and after watching them for a day I was disappointed by what I was seeing. Two of them were thin and looking thinner. After a couple more days observation I could see white stringy poop and they didn’t look any better. I had Paracleanse on hand and I dosed the QT tank Tuesday. Yesterday the two fish were stressed to the max. They spent most of the day resting at the surface on water sprite foliage, and when they were swimming they were shimmying. They look much better today.Today is the day that I should treat them with the second dose of Paracleanse, but I’m concerned with how they did with the first round. So I am wondering if I should give them a break for a few days (2 maybe 3), and then start the treatment all over. I don’t know, maybe that would be worse. I thought I would source some opinions here and see what you all think.

I usually keep up with this forum by just viewing the most recent posts. So I’ve never even realized this takes place here! This community never ceases to impress me. Thank you to everyone involved in making it a great place to learn and share, and congratulations to those of you who have received packages. You all deserve it with how you engage and interact with the community.

I watched the new Mollies for a couple of days. Everyone is eating and I kept finding white and stringy poop. So I did a water change yesterday and dosed Paracleanse. This morning everyone looks ok, but a couple are shimmying. They are the thinnest two (with the most beautiful color!), and the two I suspect to have been the most infected. I’ll fast them a couple of days and then do a light feeding before the second dose of Paracleanse. I’ll wait two weeks before dosing the treatment a second time. I had wanted to try salt only because I have a family favorite female who had been in QT because the males in the display wouldn’t leave her alone. I didn’t really have a choice because she was being terrorized in the display tank. At this point she has likely been exposed to the parasite as well, so she gets to go through a cleanse as well.

I think I would. Under high light I had a lot of algae on it. So I think it would do well with low light. And I’m not really sure if that light is a lowlight. Based on your original description I would 100% try the light on the tank. Especially with how the light mounts. If you haven’t had Val long, it can take a while to settle in. Meaning you might not see much growth for several months, and then it takes off. If you search on this forum you will find a lot of people asking why their Val doesn’t grow. It will, eventually.

I’ve considered this tank to put next to my desk at home, and I’m pretty sure the light is strong enough for low light plants. I would try the light you have before buying something else.

Tank is looking good!

How many of you quarantine with only salt? How much salt do you use in your quarantine? I’ve considered only quarantining with salt and maybe Paracleanse. I would prefer not to run Maracyn or Ich-X if salt is likely to knock out unknowns. I think I’ve heard Cory say he would Salt everything....? I bought some new female Gold Dust Mollies (and a Charcoal colored one) to offset my male population, and a couple of them look thin. I’ve also noticed what may be some white poop in the tank (I got them Saturday). I want to watch them before I treat with the Paracleanse to make sure, but I would really prefer to just salt them if they aren’t having parasite problems.

I don’t believe I’ve had a swim bladder issue with cories, but I have treated them with salt before. The highest I’ve ever gone was Level 2 from this page: https://www.aquariumcoop.com/blogs/aquarium/aquarium-salt-for-sick-fish

I’ve definitely read it’s slow growing. My foreground could probably be filled by five or six pots. I have a sand area that I wouldn’t bother planting in.

Thanks @Koi. Yeah, I do think I am having some issues there, but I am losing a lot of leaves all over the stems. Old growth is turning yellow and brown and falling off. I'll try to get some pics tomorrow. It might be that I lose the stems before I get the tank balanced, but right now I am pulling out a handful of ludwigia leaves with every water change.

I've heard this plant mentioned hundreds of times online and in videos, but I just googled it for the first time and I was floored with images of lush crypt parka carpets... and it's said to be a low light plants!? I know that I cannot trust everything that I see online, but I can trust you all. So can you show off your crypt parva? If you can, could you tell me how much you started with and how long it's been growing? In my 25 gallon I had a nice little carpet of dwarf chain swords, but they are not growing well in the 75 g.... I might order some little crypts!

I'm still seeing progress. The low light plants appear to do be doing amazing. The anubias and anubias nana petite seem to be happy. I cut so many leaves off my large anubias over the past year fighting this algae that I made the decision to cut the four inch rhizome in half.... and I see new leaves on one of the new ends! I'm excited because I was afraid that middle would never grow in. The new leaves look great and now algae along the edges. I'm still trimming a little black beard off of some java fern and crypts. It's not a lot, but I'm pretty sure it has been new and not something that I've missed in the past. I am seeing less black beard algae on my pogostemon stellatus octopus. Before dialing back the lights from 80% to 60% and now 35% I was seeing black beard in the middle growth of this plant, but not anymore. I did notice a couple of amazon sword leaves with black beard algae near the surface of the water. I hate cutting off these large leaves so I am going to try spot treatment with excel tomorrow evening. The patches aren't very large and I hope I can get rid of it that way instead of losing the 20" leaves. Overall, I feel like I am seeing improvement. I am still trying to balance my fertilizer now. Most of my stem plants are beginning to melt at the base of the stems, and I am still losing a lot of leaves. The past couple of weeks I have been dosing 4 pumps of Easy Green, but one week (maybe two weeks ago?) I accidentally did 8 without thinking. That week my nitrates went from below 10 ppm to 20 ppm. I meant to test my water before the water change today and forgot (I was in a hurry), but I plan on testing tomorrow evening to see if I need to hold back the ferts... what is strange is I have nitrates and I have phospates (2 ppm) and that is the kind of deficiency I am seeing...

Well, it has been a month since the last casualty to the disease without any new infections. I have made a number of changes to try to keep the fish form being stressed. We purchased an infrared thermometer (in this pandemic it's also nice to have for quick temperature checks). It has a surface temp setting and I was able to dial my temperature in a little bit. It wasn't off much from my tank thermometer, but I thought I would note it. I have dialed my lights back to 35% intensity, and the duration is now only 8 hours total. 2 hours ramp up, 4 hours on, and 2 hours ramp down. This was more to find balance with algae, but I know the lighting could cause stress. The crypts are so thick I doubt it, but I thought I would note it. My cories already received a varied diet, but I have also added Vitachem to their diet. This was recommended by @Candi during a livestream. I occasionally treat their food, but I am weekly adding it to the tank. And of course I treated the tank back in December for bacterial and fungal infections. I did lose a couple of Mollies in that process (including my absolute favorite Black Molly that was born and raised in my tank). Everyone else in the tank made it through the treatment without any hiccups. This marks a month since I last lost cory. I saw my four remaining Paleatus today going after some food. I paid close attention to their bodies and everyone looked normal. Im hopeful things remain balanced for my Cories and I can confidently begin adding some more. I really want that school of Sterbai.

It only boosts growth in that it inhibits algae growth which allows the plants to utilize more fertilizer and light.

Loved the latest video of the fish room! Seeing this group of FishTubers just hanging out and building was fun. More content like this would be great. Although... Jimmy needs to take some time to watch Spider-Man: Homecoming and Far From Home. Those movies are too much fun to miss. 🤣

I heard on a livestream once these can cure ich, but I’m not sure if they are shrimp safe....

I like them. They are what I buy when I am out of the Co-ops and need them before another order. But in my experience I have had to replace them more often than the Co-op’s for my Amazon swords. Those things are monsters though.

@H.K.Lutermanthose are gorgeous. If I saw those at a local store I don’t think I could keep from buying them.

That’s what I am thinking, but I’m not sure what is causing it. All parameters are low (0 ammonia, 0 nitrites, less than 10 nitrates, pH stays around 😎 and temp is just below 76.

All of my cories seem to be doing well currently, but I am seeing something strange in some of my Mollies now. I have a young Molly that has been resting on the bottom of the tank for a few days. I’ve been watching the Molly to see what is going on. He/she will swim up to get food, but you can tell it is having issues, and it quickly sinks to the bottom. Yesterday I noticed another young Molly doing the same thing! I’ve started researching what is going on... Any thoughts?

I haven’t seen any testing, but I wouldn’t treat those at the same time. When I use Paracleanse for issues I do a round, rest two weeks, and do another. I would do that, and then rest two weeks before any other meds if you think you should. The trio has been tested to be used together, but I haven’t heard of success including anything else with them. The trio was designed to knock out most common diseases. I know the Co-op has been testing levamisole, but they haven’t determined anything that they are willing to share yet.

Ive kept Mollies for years and the only time I’ve seen aggression was when the Molly was the only one. Being a livebearer if you have more than one you will need two of the same sex or a two female/ one male ratio. If you do males and females you will end up with fry. As for salt, sometimes Mollies are raised n brackish water and it is bad for them to go from some salt to freshwater. However, if you find Mollies raised in freshwater they will be easier to keep. Mollies raised in brackish can be weaned off the salt in a qt tank.

Welcome to the group Alaya. Sounds like you are bringing a lot of experience to the group. Glad to meet you.

Thank you to everyone for the kind words. I’ve had a lot of tanks that I haven’t been happy with, and many set backs. It can be frustrating some times when your favorite fish dies or algae begins to take over your oldest Anubias. But that’s part of the hobby. My wife asked me if I would ever get the tank to the point that I wouldn’t be tinkering to get rid of a problem... I said if I did it would probably become boring and I would need a new tank. Haha. There are things I am ready to change with this setup, but not until I defeat the BBA and GSA. THANK YOU ALL for your encouragement and help. I love this forum and the community surrounding Aquarium Co-op.

During this week’s water change I found a lot of Ludwigia leaves in my water sprite. The Ludwigia is getting thin and needs nutrients. For some reason I thought they were root feeders, but after a quick search I found that they prefer to feed from the water column. My algae has continued to receded, but now it looks like I need to start dosing easy green again. I did 7 pumps on Monday and BAM! my nitrates went from 5ppm before water change to 10ppm. I’m sure it didn’t increase my nitrates by five. The API test kit goes from 5 to 10 to 20. So I was probably a little higher than 5 before. I want to starve off the algae so I am going to try to keep the nitrates around 10 ppm rather than 20 ppm, but I love the Ludwigia and really want it thick and gorgeous. Oh! I also turned down my light intensity to 75% since I am also dosing Easy Green again. Hopefully we are closing in on balance.