Okesa

The tank does have a heater. I unplugged it after I noticed the dead fish, but (assuming the thermometer is accurate) the temperature hasn't really changed, which makes me think that it wasn't malfunctioning. When I get the chance I'll pull it out and test it in a bucket or something to make sure it is definitely working correctly. I *think* my shrimp are looking clear/black, but I will check on them again this afternoon when the students have gone home. As far as I know, there weren't any power outages over the weekend, but because there wasn't anyone at the school I don't have a way to verify.

@nabokovfan87 - the shrimp are all still alive. Only the fish died. That is why I'm so confused about what exactly happened.

I am not sure how hot it got inside over the weekend, but there are tanks in other rooms of the school that theoretically would have reached the same temperature and didn't have any issues. The outside temperature was definitely over 30 C. The fish survived all of last summer with no problems, but this year we are having an early heat wave, so heat was one of the first possibilities that came to mind. I'm planning to get some ammonia test strips since that seems to be the only major thing not included on the tetra strips I already have. I also found a product called Seachem Ammonia Alert. If anyone has used it and knows if it works well, I'd appreciate the feedback. After I did the test strip on the aquarium I removed all the dead fish and did a 50% water change, so the NO2 should hopefully have gone down, but I need to do another test to confirm. (On a completely different note, @Patrick_G your planted tank looks amazing!)

Would the amano shrimp and nerite snails be less susceptible to an ammonia spike? They are all still happy as can be.

NO3 - between 10 and 25 NO2 - around 1 GH - between 4 and 8 KH - between 3 and 6 PH - between 6.8 and 7 CL2 - 0 NH3 isn't tested on these strips Aquarium size is 10 gallons. No one was at the school to add anything to the tank over the weekend, and the shrimp were added with clean hands and a net. As far as I know, there weren't any electrical outages over the weekend. The tank has a sponge filter. I don't *think* there is any stray current in the aquarium. How would I be able to check that? The aquarium has an automatic feeder. The food is this one for small and medium sized fish by Hikari.

The school I work at has a planted community tank. There had been 4 albino corydoras, 4 cardinal tetras, some amano shrimp, and 2 nerite snails living in the tank for just over a year with no problems. Last Wednesday we added a few more amano shrimp to help with algae control. Last Friday when I left for the weekend, everything was fine. On Monday, all the fish were dead, but the shrimp and snails are all fine. I checked the water parameters immediately upon discovering the dead fish, and nothing seemed obviously wrong. The water temp was 28 C. Before we get any new fish, I want to make sure that the tank is ok. Right now my only theory is that the water got too hot over the weekend. However, the fish survived last summer without any issues. Does anyone have any ideas as to potential causes?

One of my coworkers said she saw Jimmy ”throwing" stones at the nerite snails the other day. 😂 Harassing them is one of his favorite things to do.

@Streetwise Jimmy had been living in a plastic storage box with two plastic rock hides, no heating or UV of any kind, and only a few inches of water that didn't even completely cover his shell. The school had a massive aquarium (around 120 gallons) that had a bunch of overgrown water plants and a single fish that one of the teachers caught in the local river. The fish got relocated to a new tank and I got the school to buy a filter, UV light, heat lamp, water heater (the school has no central heat, so in winter the water temp would get down to under 15°c without it), and an automatic feeder so that he would get fed consistently. I also made him a basking platform with stuff from the hardware store.

The elementary school where I work has a red eared slider named Jimmy that I take care of. He had been kind of neglected, so I gave him a life upgrade. He loves snacks and harassing the nerite snails.

Got to work this morning, and our sick tetra was still alive! Checked the parameters and nitrate and nitrite were both 0, GH was around 8, KH was around 10, pH was around 6.8 (it is always low - I have added cuttlebone to try to help), and Cl was 0. I was able to get some aquarium salt and some antibacterial medication (Sodium nifurstyrenate) over the weekend. I set up a quarantine tank for the fish that is obviously sick and dosed it with both aquarium salt and the antibacterial, and added some salt to the main aquarium. I'll be watching the other fish to see if they look like they are developing any infections and hopefully we will get everyone healthy. Thanks for your help!

@Flumpweeselsorry! I was using the YouTube app and it must not have copied the correct link. Should be fixed now!

Update: We just did a walkthrough to see the progress of the renovations on the building we are moving into at the end of March. I found a spot in the entranceway that is long enough for both the turtle tank and an upgraded tank for the eel, and close to a big sink for cleaning/water changes. The vice principal is having the construction workers add an electrical outlet on that wall (there weren't any). Haven't received official budget approval yet, but hopefully I will be putting together a new home for Una-chan in the next few months!

As I was leaving work this evening I noticed that one of the Tetra has several fairly large lumps on its torso. I changed the filter in the tank last Friday and didn't notice anything strange at the time. Water temperature is 25° C. I didn't have any test strips on hand to check the other parameters, but the tank has been fairly stable for months. The fish (6 cardinal tetras, 4 albino corys, a dwarf gourami, and 4 amano shrimp) were added back at the beginning of September, and the tank cycled for over a month with just plants before that. I plan to check the water parameters first thing on Monday, but in the meantime, if anyone has suggestions for what course of treatment I should use, and what supplies I should purchase over the weekend, I would really appreciate it. Video - slightly more clear than the picture

I have taken charge of the tanks at the school where I work. They were being kind of neglected. Tamo-chan used to live in a 65 gal with an army of Semisulcospira libertina, no filtration/heating/lighting, and so much Brazilian waterweed that unless he happened to be at the front of the tank you wouldn't have known he was there. The school's red eared slider needed the space more than Tamo-chan did, so he got moved to this 10gal. I figured since he hadn't had heat for the previous 3~5 years and had originally been from the local river, that he would probably be fine with just a sponge filter and some friends to help keep the tank clean. I didn't know anything at all about aquariums when I started trying to help out the school pets, so this forum and the co-op's videos have been godsends. I don't actually have a recent picture of this tank, but I'll try to get one tomorrow.

@xXInkedPhoenixX I'll have to check the water parameters when I'm at work again tomorrow, but the last time I checked the nitrate and nitrite were fine. I just did a partial water change last Friday. It's an approx. 10 gallon unheated tank with Tamo-chan, 6 amano shrimp, 2 zebra nerite snails, and an undetermined number of Semisulcospira libertina. There are some Brazilian waterweed and Vallisneria growing in the tank as well. Tamo-chan seems to be their normal self, but I'll definitely be keeping an eye on them.

I just noticed that the school tamoroko (Gnathopogon elongatus) has some white patches on the top of their back. I'm not sure if they have been there for a while or not. When I googled Ich, it looks smaller than this. Any ideas on if Tamo-chan is sick, or if they just have weird scales?

Congratulations! Your videos were super helpful when figuring out what plants and fish would work best in the 10 gallon I set up for the elementary school I work at.

Blue Boy makes me think of the nursery rhyme.

They definitely were. 😂

Here is a short walk-through of the store. I had to stick close to the tanks to make sure I didn't get any customers in the frame, and they were playing loud Disney music, so I had to remove the audio. I tried to caption things as best as I could, but there could be some mistakes trying to translate from the Japanese into English.

I took a video of the food shelf because it wouldn't all fit in one frame. Here is the frozen section.

This is a particularly nice store. The small one inside the hardware store close to my house doesn't have any cool tanks - just fish and maybe some elodea.

I need to edit the video clips I took to make sure there aren't any customers in them and remove the audio so they don't get flagged by Disney, but until I get the chance to do that, here are some pictures I took at the LFS this weekend. Tank setups: Plants for sale:

I was so excited to watch Castro grow, so I'm really disappointed that he is dead, but I also can't help but appreciate the irony that it was bananas that killed him. 😞

I need turtle food and 4 nerite snails, so I've got the buying things part covered. 😅