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Jawjagrrl

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  1. Thanks for all your advice. The only thing I wonder now is if I had started meds right away, but perhaps the damage was done. Just glad the female has accepted another male in his absence. They are guarding a bunch of eggs as I post.
  2. Sadly, this angel did not improve and had to be euthanized - I never did get him to keep any food down and the additional maracyn didn't improve anything. Raised from dime size and a tough loss. There was a silver lining however. The female did benefit from the course of meds with early stage fin rot healing quickly. She was returned to the 75 but was pretty mopey. Also full of eggs as this pair bred every couple weeks like clockwork, but never successfully. I had acquired a small number of these guys as dimes with an extra male that is the lonely guy in a other tank with 3 pairs that have never spawned. As it happened, also the nicest male of the bunch. So I decided to give him a chance with her. As devoted as she was to the op male, I had my doubts but hoped her biological imperative would kick in. They were excited from the moment I set the specimen container in to temp match, frantically trying to reach one another. Within an hour they were closing sword leaves to clean. Another day and they have begun spawning, doing a good job of keeping the congo tetras at bay while working row by row. They've covered 2/3rds of a sword leaf! This is his first time so not expecting much, but glad she isn't alone and the remaining pairs no longer have a 3rd wheel. Sorry for the messy glass, but this was unexpected today.
  3. Here's where we are today. Still vertical, occasionally swimming around before resting and doing his tail stand. He is not able to swim normally and would not eve attempt to take food with tweezers in this position. I did try alternately to carefully hold him upright and feed from a small cosmetic tweezer vs an aquascaping one. Krill flake got spit out, so tried vibra bites. Some of that got spit out as well, but during one attempt I felt his body "flex" and I did not see any food reappear, so I think he did manage to get a bit down. This leaves me more hopeful that a second dose of the M2 might help as I was starting to seriously consider euthanasia now. Will be heading to the not-so-LFS today if there is anything else you'd reccommend picking up. As posted previously we have basic meds on hand only - paraclense, maracyn and ichX.
  4. I did the water change (25%). So for a second round would I be able to start with a single packet since there are still meds in the water? I have not tried tweezers yet, but will now that he is reacting more when I approach. So do you think since there is *some* improvement he may recover? Looking to do what's best for the fish and manage our expectations. Thanks!
  5. ANGELFISH UPDATE: Setup up hospital tank last Saturday, moved the pair in on Sunday morning and began a course of Maracyn2. She was beginning to show signs of fin rot and glad I have been treating her as well - deterioration of fins stopped quickly with both fish after beginning treatment as per Fritz instructions. How he/they looked on 1/21: tired and resting a lot on the sand or against the side with occasional bursts or energy and swimming (upside down or nose up). Breathing not overly labored, but less motivated to swim in a 10gal. Today (1/26) is the water change day, no more meds this round. How he looks now: He has been off the sand 100% of the time for several days, still balancing a bit on his tail fin but often in the water column in this same orientation. She is eating krill flake, he isn't eating - but he does become more active when I feed her. Advice on next steps? Another round of Maracyn2 or a different gram negative treatment like kanaplex? Something else? While not a big change, it does feel like he has improved and he does try to react whenever anyone enters the room. TIA
  6. I finally decided to "upgrade" one of my 75s to a canister - I have two large coop sponge filters running it now and my water values are generally good with nitrates around 20ppm or less (it "spiked" to 60ppm recently after a heater died, but it was also holidays and didn't get water changes as often as usual). But there's always debris floating around and I find the whole process of getting those coarse sponges out without losing half the debris in them... problematic in a heavily scaped/planted setup. We had made the long trek to the closest LFS to us and saw they had the 407 at an even lower price than Amazon was offering. I knew Cory had run Ladybird's whole tank for ages on a single f6, so in the middle of a crowded store on a Saturday (the college students were just back last week too), made the impulse buy. Was hoping to run this on a 75 and perhaps remove the 2 sponges as the tank is so heavily planted and my cichlids are getting closer to adult size and could use the room). Now I'm wondering if I've underbought? I've got a 55 that needs an intervention as well (stacked pair of medium sponges plus a small internal filter for additional mechanical filtration/flow). I know I should have done more research, but when hubby called me saying they had fluvals and how much, I jumped at the chance (especially since I have nerm spending guilt and he was enabling!). I'm sure they would let me exchange if need be, especially after they found out I'm successfully breeding pencilfish they are having a hard time stocking!). FOR THE OP: As far as the clean sand goes, I went with the darkest large grain sand I could find - it's Cumberland river (TN) and It's fantastic (wanna say it's caribsea brand). Mulm will sit on top making it easier to remove and it doesn't get sucked up as easily as fine sand does. I tracked down two larger sizes of the same stuff - lentil size and jelly bean size - for scaping a more natural look. My geophagus redesign it constantly, but at least it looks good while they do it!
  7. Thankfully we found a good lfs in the nearest college town to us that actually carried kanaplex and maracyn2. My husband happened to be wearing his Murphy hat, which got the nerm ball rolling at the store - just wish they weren't an almost 3 hour round trip away. They suggested kanaplex and neoplex used together - I went with the maracyn2 because I already have maracyn to use with it or a follow up. He's still about the same, but has lost about half his dorsal fin now, which was why I was anxious to start an external treatment. Seeing some stringy debris that I thought was just organics he picked up crashing into plants, but now less sure of that. Fritz has instructions on how to use the two together and the LFS owner was proposing the same, just with the kanaplex/neoplex. Is this really that much of a risk given how he is presenting now? I've got a hospital tank set up and ready to start medicating it and moving him in... I do appreciate all the help and hope my questions aren't coming across as argumentative - just trying to more fully understand in a situation where I've gotten conflicting information. Really stressed as I deal with injuries and illness so rarely in my tanks and this pair is very special to me. Her devotion to her sick mate is unlike anything I've ever seen in my setups, even my Mbunas that I bred for a long time back in the 90s.
  8. I found an LFS about an hour away that has the kanaplex and suggested neoplex (sp?) as a companion - sounds like they work together the way maracyn and maracyn 2 can. I'm suspecting a secondary bacterial infection externally now based on how the angel's dorsal and anal fins look. They likely got banged up as he tried to navigate the tank - and I saw a congo tetra grab his dorsal hard enough to pull him by it, so I'm ready to get him out of there today for treatment.
  9. I can (only found 1 seller on Amazon), but both will take a week or more to arrive.
  10. Logged on to place an order from some with the Coop, but they aren't selling it. Maybe it's the continuing supply chain, but I'm having real trouble finding any unless I can wait over a week from a distant LFS or take my chances with a nebulous online reseller on Ebay. The big box pet stores don't carry - not even any of the 1000s of vendors that sell online thru walmart. The Fritz site was no help. I thought having the med trio on hand would be reasonable to stave off a fish med emergency. A week likely means a euthanasia case for me this time - where are folks finding this? Kanaplex proving almost as hard to find.
  11. That's good to know. Looks like at least Monday to get ahold of maracyn2 or kanaplex from anywhere, and from what I'm reading the Maracyn I have on hand as a gram positive med isn't likely to be of much help. EDIT: Having a hard time finding the Maracyn anywhere that looks like a trusted source - the Coop doesn't carry it for some reason. Fritz has no info on their site, Petsmart, Chewy and Walmart don't either. Where are people finding this? Found 1 seller on Amazon that will take a week, a few on Ebay that are similar. Any substitutes that might be suitable? Kanaplex is looking almost as hard to get.
  12. Will go with the maracyn2 then. I have quite a colony of ramshorn snails too - I'm seeing conflicting reports on safety for them. I hate to stress the angels more with a hospital tank move, but wondering if that's better at this point?
  13. Thank you @Colu I didnt observe an injury situation, but the tetras can be pretty rowdy - everyone gives the angels space though. nitrates are usually low given tbe high amount of plants - I have to harvest red root floaters regularly. I only have maracyn on hand, so will have to order thr kanaplex or maracyn2 - is one better than the other in this situation? There are inverts in the tank, btw. I am concerned about his fin damages not getting infected. Should I continue the epsom salt baths? Hospital tank with his mate?
  14. Update: into day 3 of epsom salt baths in a coop specimen container hanging inside the tank to keep temps the same - 4x a day. Minimal if any improvement - perhaps 30 minutes of awkward swimming upside down or head up before becoming fatigued and landing in plants or in the other container so he doesn't sustain further fin/scale injuries from the bottom or scraping wood/rocks in tank. Still hasn't eaten - a good week now but was in good body condition before and isn't looking thin yet. Temp now at a full 78 degrees. Anything else I can be doing for him? He still shows a lot of fight and his mate has been at his side - often in the container - throughout. Heartbreaking to think of losing him for her sake. Still concerned that it was that temp dip in temp into the high 60s that triggered this. He is the largest fish in the setup, tank boss. No one else showing any issues or signs of disease and nothing has been changed/added to the setup for a full year.
  15. Thank you, will try this. Do you think the temp issue was a factor as well, or just nitrates? I usually keep around 20ppm but didn't think 60 was too bad outside of more delicate species. Running 2 large sponges ATM but have considered going to a canister for this setup given the larger fish - geos not full size yet.
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