[Forktail Rainbowfish with Swim Bladder Issue?]

@colu - the condition has been progressing over a number of months. I test waters weekly and get around 10 nitrate, 0 nitrite, and typically do not test for ammonia. TDS is through the roof, and I add liquid carbonate to manage low KH. The tank is probably 3 or 4 years old now.

[Forktail Rainbowfish with Swim Bladder Issue?]

Has anyone experienced swim bladder issues with adult male Forktail Rainbowfish (Pseudomugil furcatus)? This guy has trouble swimming straight and it is progressing. I assume this is a swim bladder issue. He is over 1 year old.  I just fed, so that is the source of the "grains" in the water column in the photos.

I mainly feed easy fry food, but also feed freeze dried daphnia, occasional flake, and usually fresh bbs 1x/week.

29 gallon planted tank - I use easy green, extra potassium, and liquid carbonate ever week.

[Dying Mystery & Nerite Snails?]

I have Los Angeles water, so GH is through the roof. I supplement liquid carbonate and sometimes add Wonder Shell since KH can get low with so many shelled critters and I find coral exhausts quickly.

Perhaps, as @Guppysnail suggested, I need to ramp-up feeding. 

[Dying Mystery & Nerite Snails?]

Ideas please!

I am having trouble keeping Mystery and Nerite snails alive lately. I also had a die-off of Malaysian Trumpet snails too, but Ramshorn and Bladder snails are thriving. I tried a few limpets that did not make it either. I have seen Ramshorns on the body of the Mystery snails, and assumed an attack, but am not sure. My orange neocardaina disapeared after thriving for about a year, but I was thinking the Forktail ranibow fish ate them?

I was thinking I needed to test for copper, but Ramshorns and Bladder snails are fine. I have one Amano shrimp left - I think most died after a year or more.

29 gallon planted aquarium set-up in Feb 2021.

Water:
0 ammonia
0 nitrites
10-40 nitrates

I dose:
weekly easy green and monthly Seachem and/or easy root tabs
liquid potassium
Sometimes liquid carbonate
Occasional wonder shell

I feed:
Easy fry
Hikari shrimp food a few times a week
Algae wafers a few times a week
Brine shrimp 1x per week
Sometimes various flake foods or freeze dried foods

Stocking:
Forktail rainbowfish
Chili Rasbora
Pseudomugil Gertrudae
Dwarf corydoras
Ottocynclus
Ramshorn snails
Bladder Snails
Maybe an Amano shrimp

Substrate is fairly deep - around 3" - pool filter sand bottom covered by a mix of crushed coral and aqua soil.

 

[Mysterious white jelly on tank bottom 😱]

I just had this too and freaked out. Ha! Makes sense.

[Repair of USD Nano Air Pump?]

I always use check valves and use these to run the smallest CoOp sponge filter with ziss air stone.
Two on my 29g died (I do use a air valve to dial back the flow a bit to slow down splashing on the lid), and one that I used 1x/week on the ziss brine shrimp hatchery that died.

[Repair of USD Nano Air Pump?]

Has anyone successfully repaired a USB nano air pump? If so, how? Would 🧡 to see a how-to video.   I love using them, but I have had at least three die on me in the last year and a half. ☹️

[Parks for Potluck Gatherings]

@Zenzo Here are a few other unique & somewhat large picnic shelters and decent free parking - also w/LACO Parks:

• Oak tree picnic area (built in the 1930s) at Arcadia Community Regional Park in Arcadia
• Concrete hyperbolic paraboloid picnic shelter (mid-century modern) at City Terrace in NE Los Angeles
• Picnic shelter with an amazing view of San Pedro harbor (where shipping containers dock for unloading) and the LA Basin at Deane Dana Friendship Natural Area Park on the east side of the Palos Verdes Peninsula.

 

[Cyanobacteria in Deep Substrate?]

On 11/20/2021 at 10:29 PM, Torrey said:

 

There was maybe 15 mins of morning light for a few weeks when the sun was much lower angle and reached across the room through sliding glass doors, otherwise there is no direct window light. The room is not dark though.

[Parks for Potluck Gatherings]

@Zenzo

Los Angeles County Parks & Recreation has a lot of great facilities to host get-together potlucks.

Whittier Narrows Recreation Area has large fenced-off picnic shelters that you could rent on the side of a lake. I believe these are for rental only though. Alondra Park & Castaic Lake also have a large picnic shelters near lakes too. Castaic is somewhat away from town though.

picnic shelters:
https://parks.lacounty.gov/picnicking/?row=2#groupPicnickingSheltersColumn

Lakes:
https://parks.lacounty.gov/park-search-2/?tagName=Picnic Shelters&tagType=1

 

[Cyanobacteria in Deep Substrate?]

I have cyanobacteria that I treated by Maracyn a few months ago, but that distinct smell keeps coming back. I can see it in the sides of my deep substrate and it keeps creeping up through the substrate every so often. I stir with a stick and the smell is gone for a bit, but it persists. I don't think the treatment was not able to penetrate the substrate.

Would It help if I treated again and permanently blacked-out the sides of my substrate?

I have a 29g planted community with about 3.5 - 4" of substrate (pool filter sand covered by crushed coral and aquasoil).

Filtration: HOB turned down for low flow on one side, and tiny sponge filter in opposite corner turned down to minimize splashing onto the lid.

Stocking: MTS, ramshorns, mini ramshorns, a few bladder snails, 4 nerites, 12 chili raspboras, 6 dwarf corydoras, many neocaradina, 6 amano, two pseudomugil gertrudae.

Water perameters: GH is through the roof, but keeping up with KH is tricky. I think the MTS are carbonate hogs with their super thick shells. 🙂

 

 

[Container Pond Heater?]

Thank you!

[Container Pond Heater?]

I am looking for a heater for my 300 gallon Rubbermaid container pond. Any recommendations? I recently threw my 100W aquarium heater in there for now, but know it will not likely do enough.

I am in Los Angeles, but the temp is getting to 50 over night - too cold for all the platies that are in there. I won't be able to bring them in for the winter.

[Guppies]

I have had guppies with ghost, amano, and pumpkin neocaradina shrimp with no obvious issue.

[How much hydrogen peroxide is safe to add to a tank?]

I meant to say that I had the staghorn algae appear after I had been adding liquid iron plus semi-weekly Easy Green. I had not added H2O2 and iron on the same day, but there was probably still some liquid iron in the water column. There was massive bubbling when I added the H2O2, but I probably added over half a larger sized bottle (kicking myself).

I believe I crashed my whole cycle. The water is cloudy today so I ran to the store and bought a bottle of starter nitrifying bacteria. Hopefully this will help and is not just "snake oil." I only have 4 fish left and shrimp are dying now. Ugh.

On the bright side, (not that there really is one) all the staghorn algae is definitely dead.

[Nano Fish with Shrimp]

I have had luck keeping chili rasbora, pseudomugil gertrudae, and guppies (the guppies are probably hit and miss) with amano, ghost and neocaridina pumpkin shrimp. I want to try pygmy sunfish (elassoma gilberti).

I agree with hides for the shrimp. I have loose java moss around the bottom and that creates a pretty good shelter.

[How much hydrogen peroxide is safe to add to a tank?]

Thanks everyone. I had been adding liquid iron when I probably did not need to. That is when the staghorn showed up. I will be critically aware of quantities if I ever use this method in the future.

[Anyone know what type of algae this is?]

Agree with staghorn. I am having this problem right now too. It showed up after I started adding liquid iron.

[How much hydrogen peroxide is safe to add to a tank?]

How much hydrogen peroxide is safe to add to a tank to battle algae?

I added hydrogen peroxide to my tank today (in a localized spot) to try to get rid of staghorn algae. It looks like I added way too much. Most of my boras brigittae and a few of my pseudomugil gertrudae have died. 😭

I changed 1/2 the water, added more, and then changed 3/4 right away when I noticed the problem about 10 min after the H2O2 treatment. Hopefully I removed enough of it, but I expect to loose a few more fish. Shrimp seem to be fine. One nerite is upside down, so I am taking it out for now.

29 gallon tank

[Fish ID?]

Thanks for all the guesses. I got this little one a few months ago and it lives out in the pond. I will try to net it again and take more pictures. It is larger now - maybe just over 2".

@MACDanio albolineatus may be right. I think PetSmart carries these. The color variation might be due to being outside in the container pond. 

[Substrate question???]

That photo from Manny looks like the tumbled gravel they have at PetSmart. You can sometimes find in at landscaping supply rock yards labeled as Sunset Mix agates. It comes in various graded sizes. Lighting and type of tank (type of glass vs acrylic) will affect the color of what your gravel looks like at home.

[Fish ID?]

Do you know what this little one is? Juvenile white cloud mountain minnow? Note the barbells. It came home as an accidental surprise in a bag of platys from a big box store. That is a piece of duckweed and it is in a 1/4 measuring cup for size reference. 

Thanks for your ideas! 🙂

[Is this BBA on my Crinum Calamistratum?]

Thanks everyone. After some reading, I believe the issue was created because I have been adding liquid iron.

 

[Is this BBA on my Crinum Calamistratum?]

This algae is growing on my water sprite too.

Lights are a double strip of bright white LEDs that came with the 29gal Petsmart branded tank.
Lights are on for about 7:45 hrs a day - on a timer.

Water:
GH - very hard (Los Angeles water)
KH - moderate
PH - around 7
nitrate - 20 or 30 ppm
no ammonia or nitrites

Tank was started in January.

[Guppy with Blisters on Dorsal Fin]