Ember

I’ve been using seachem prime for water conditioner for a while now. I switched over from tetra aquasafe a while back, it’s been at least four months if not more.

I have constant surface agitation in this tank (sponge filter + airstone). None of my other fish have been displaying any odd symptoms, it was only him.

Temp is fine, hanging at around 78F. Nitrite and ammonia both read zero. Nitrate was between 20 and 40 so I did a 1/3 water change, and now as this point I’m questioning if that’s what did him in. The only other thing I was messing around with in the tank was planting a few things. I can’t figure out why he went downhill so fast. Started with heavy breathing, moved to laying on the bottom, then to hanging vertically, then spasmed before dying.

edit: he died suddenly after sudden spasms I’ve had this guy for over six months at this point, and he’s acting odd today. I have him in a breeder box at the moment to keep an eye on him. Last night, he was acting perfectly fine. Swimming around and being his usual aloof self. However, today he was staying in the floating plants and showed no interest in food this morning. He’s breathing very heavily and I see some raised scales (about two rows) right behind his gills. Edit: He’s now floating vertically and frantically swimming. My corys spawned last night, and I’m wondering if he maybe ate waaayyy too many of the eggs and the issue is that he’s bloated. However, I’m afraid to be wrong and it be that he’s actually sick. The otos, corys, and tetras in my tank all appear to be okay. Water parameters are 0/0/between 20 and 40. Did a 1/3 water change just now, so hopefully that helps. This tank usually gets a 50% water change once a week. Temperature is usually around 78F. video: https://imgur.com/a/eLJzUPj Picture from above here (https://imgur.com/a/50JV9LT) Noticed this in the tank just as I had to leave the house this morning: https://imgur.com/a/egP535f Horus normally: https://imgur.com/a/gJiVcfM

One of my bettas has had a large stomach for a while, which I’ve been trying to reduce. However, I looked today and it appears that he is pineconing. Is there anything that I can do at this point? He still swims around, but spends a lot of his time just resting on top of stuff at the surface. This is my first time dealing with this, so I’m a little lost. Ammonia and Nitrites are at zero, my nitrates are hanging around twenty. (It’s water change day today anyways) Pictures: https://imgur.com/gallery/iLaB5lX

Update: He’s back in with everyone else at this point since his scratches seemed to heal pretty fast. Seems to be doing alright.

@xXInkedPhoenixX Looked like he was doing okay this morning from what I could see. Definitely looked like his underside is healing up a bit! I’m optimistic for his recover at the moment.

I’ll pick up another tank if needed, my only worry would be water quality since I don’t have extra seeded material atm for kickstarting a tank. Caught him and stuck him in the breeder box that I have lying around for the moment.

Unfortunately my quarantine tank is occupied by panda Corys and snails. They have three weeks left of the seven week quarantine I have them in. I may do a couple small water changes this week to help keep debris low + test the water every couple of days.

Sorry if this isn’t the right section. Right now I’m kind of freaking out. I couldn’t find one of my ottos this morning after a late night water change, but didn’t have much time to look because I had to go to work. I figured that he might just be hiding, but the behavior still seemed off since I usually see the three of them hanging out together. Cue me coming home eight hours later, and I still can’t find the wayward Otto. Starting to freak out and feeling like a bad fish mom, which was only intensified by the worry I had all day. I looked all over the place (floor,tank, water change bucket) and couldn’t find him. Eventually I looked around the side of the tank and saw him wedged against a rock and the glass with my phone light, which is someplace I had already looked a ton but he blended in. He couldn’t move at all, completely wedged in. I have a feeling he did this during my water change yesterday since it was later than usual and I had to turn the light back on and everyone in the tank had a minor freak out. I loosened the rock and he wiggled out and attached to the glass at the front of the tank. It looks like his tail fin got torn up, along with his belly since it was against the rock. Really hoping he can recover and there isn’t any organ damage. What are other’s opinions on how he looks? Link goes to video. He’s currently breathing pretty heavily. link: https://imgur.com/gallery/v3mcTLH

No semi-fast output for my filter on this tank at all, I’ve got a sponge set up due to my betta. Do Vals need gravel or something similar to grow? I’ve got sand as a substrate in this tank. Vals are definitely a gorgeous plant though!

Hello! I’ve had a 20 gallon high tank set up for a couple of months at this point and am still trying to figure out exactly how to finish planting it. I’m going for a slow moving, calm river vibe. I’m also planning on adding some leaf litter and making the water a little bit darker. I’ve already got java ferns, anubius, and hornwort in the tank. I’m planning on adding some moss to the piece of wood in the future. However, it still doesn’t really look river like enough to me yet, and I’m thinking it’s probably due to the lack of plants. I’m running a fluval planted light on the tank, no CO2 injections. What do you guys think would help this scape look more complete plant-wise? Edit: Any opinions on the Tiger Lotus bulb for this setup? I love the plant, but worry that it wouldn’t work too well with this scape.

Thanks for the warm welcome everyone! And also wanted to say thanks for the tank compliments! I know they’re not the fanciest, but they’ve got their own sort of charm. He’s a very cool dude, I honestly don’t think I could’ve picked out a chiller one for my community tank. He’s definitely not a coloration from a chain pet store that you could really find, I’m very glad that I waited until Aquashella to pick out a betta for the 20. Lol, if I could expand into the living room I’d probably have another tank set up tbh. Glad to see some love for my 10! I really do feel it’s the more chill of the two. Possibly because the only residents is a betta and habrosus corydoras that like to hide beneath my carpeting plants or chill on the sponge filter. I think you might be onto something with the slope there... Since everything grew in it’s given me a peaceful clearing vibe with a cave system entrance in it. Don’t know if I explained that very well, it’s getting late here.

So glad to find this thread! I’ve been messing around with my new fluval light for a bit here, and was wondering what others think of the light schedule I have set up. Here’s the tank now vs the light I had in it before. I know that it’s a lot dimmer, but I have some green spot algae forming on my anubius and java ferns so I’m hoping that the lower light helps get rid of that. There’s also hair and black beard ages hanging out on the plants, but I’m less hopeful for less powerful lighting to fix that. Anything off the bat that I might want to change? My only worry is that the hornwort towards the edge of the tank won’t get enough light.

Hello! I started seriously taking up fish keeping again at the beginning of 2020, and now have MTS. Unfortunately, I’m limited to bedroom space so have a size limitation. I started with a 2.5, upgraded to a five, then set up a secondary 10 gallon tank. At this point, I’ve taken down both my ten and five and replaced them with a different ten and a twenty gallon tank. I do have another five set up, but don’t really have anything cool going on with it. Here’s my 20! I just put a fluval planted light on today due to my previous one being too high of intensity and non-adjustable, it looks a lot less green in person. Stocking in here is one betta, three ottos, eight ember tetras, and three panda corydoras. I’ve got a couple of nerite snails and panda cories in quarantine at the moment that should be joining them in five or so weeks. In my opinion it’s a really fun tank to watch, and I’m excited to add more plants once I get rid of my multi-algae issue. Here’s my other main tank, the ten gallon! I’ve had it running since probably about March, and I’m pretty happy with how it looks. The inhabitants are a million and one pest snails, six habrosus corydoras, and one betta. These two guys are my absolute favourites, despite how much I like the corys and ottos. Top one is Mercury, he had the energy of being old and tired half the time. Bottom guy is still unnamed despite having had him since Chicago’s aquashella event, but I absolutely love him to bits even though he’s a bit of an idiot some of the time. I’m looks forward to participating on the forum and having some interesting discussion with others!