Mongo_like_fish

First of all thanks to @Gator, @Colu, @laritheloud, and @Odd Duck for your help. Looks like the general consensus is that I'm dealing with Epistylus. I went ahead and dropped the temp down to about 75.5 -76 F to help slow progression and dosed ich-x again. As for feeding, I've not been able to get him accept any foods I've offered so far (Hikari algae wafers, bottom feeder wafers, Fluval pleco sticks, fresh cucumber) I place the food in the back corner, leave the lights off and leave the food in for about 8 hrs. That's not to say he hasn't been eating tho, as I believe he's just eating on the drift wood. He's not lost any weight in the 3 weeks I've had him and there is no shortage of feces when I vacuum during water changes (he's the only fish in the tank). Any suggestions on a specific food to try with the Kanaplex? If not, would Maracyn in the water column be sufficient to treat secondary bacterial infection until I can figure out what he'll readily accept? Also, how long in your opinion would it be safe to continue daily ich-x treatments?

Thanks @Gator. I knew raising the temp up would help excellerate the life cycle of the ich, or high enough would kill it outright. But I wasn't sure if the pleco could handle that high of temp, and I wasn't sure if it was actually ich that I was dealing with since the Ich-x didn't seem to put a dent in it. I'll get the Jungles and give it a try. How long do you think the rubberlip can tolerate that high of temp? They're normal temp range is usually listed as topping out around 78.

Ok, so I picked up this Rubberlip from the local big box store about 3 weeks ago. Currently have it in 20g quarantine. As of about 10 min ago parameters are, according to API Liquid; Ammo =0. No² =0. No³ =0. PH =7.8 (typical for my region). GH =6 degrees. KH =4 degrees. Temp according to my digital thermometer is 77.7 F. I've run it through a 4 day treatment of Ich-x doing dosing and water changes per instructions on the bottle and didn't see any improvement. Gave it a couple days off and now on day 4 of treatment with ParaCleanse thinking it might be Velvet instead of Ich, but still not seeing improvement. Was thinking about salt, but have heard/read that they can be salt sensitive. Thoughts, tips, suggestions? Thanks!

Hey @Manny, so I looked at the bag and there is no mention of it being a specific color or grain size, so maybe its the only size and color of gravel they sell, although I can't swear to that. Here's pics of the bag and compared to pool filter sand. Hope this helps.

Anytime, I hope it helps and your boy gets all cleaned up, and don't be too hard on yourself, we've all been there.

Research but don't obsess, plan but be flexible, and last but not least have patience and have fun. 😀

As far as immediate problem with them out competing your shrimp, you'll just have to manually remove as many as you can. They'll last through trying to starve them out way longer than your shrimp will, and anything you could put in the tank to get rid of them would almost certainly kill the shrimp as well. If you put a piece of cucumber or veg of some sort on a fork and set it at the bottom of the tank, the snails should flock to it. Then you can just pull it out and remove them and then reset the "trap" Also don't forget to rinse whatever veg you put in there before hand. If it gas any pesticide residue on it, that would be bad.

I haven't ever noticed it having an effect on my "cycle" when I've used I, but that doesn't mean it won't. My best advice would be use it (you've gotta get your fish fixed up) and suffer through daily test to see if your ammonia starts coming up. If it does, you can add a little Prime to help lock it up, or some Fritz 7 or Turbo Start to bump the bacteria back up. Just don't let ammonia get over .5 ppm. If it does then you'll have to do waterchange, even tho it might make the meds less effective. That's my 2 cents worth at any rate.

I agree with @Atitagain. Also, snails imop are very beneficial to an aquarium and I look it them in much the same way as algae, in that if you've got a bunch, you need a bunch because somethings out of balance and they're helping to keep it in check. In this case it could be algae, excess fish food, dead plant matter, etc. You know...all the stuff snails love to eat.

I'm at work right now but when I get home tonight I can get the exact info and post it. I've got another bag of it. It's about as small a grain of gravel as I've seen.

If you can't get your hands on the stuff Cory uses, I use Supernaturals, which I think looks very similar to the picture you posted.

It's a pretty good match for a Jardini Arowana 😁

Great looking pair of fish!

Sign me up for a mini arowana😃

Yeah I had not heard that either, but I guess it really wouldn't surprise me, given they like to redecorate. I'll probably change that part of the plan with a couple of large HOBs. The tank isn't drilled for a sump, better at mechanical than sponges, and the HOBs will be easier and quicker to maintain than canister, I'll just have to do it more often, which isn't a big deal.

Appreciate the compliment. I've been in and out of the hobby for about 20 years, depending on available time, money, space, etc. Now I'm finally settled down and can make it stick. This is the first time I've been able to have a tank big enough for even 1 oscar and I want to make sure to do it right. I'm really excited about it so I definitely will be sharing the experience here.

No worries on being bad news. I'd rather know what people think instead of hearing what they think I want to hear. I know the questions are all really speculative. I'm just trying to get a feel of probability based on yays vs nays. I've seen plenty of videos with similar scenarios that seemed like it would be OK, but videos are just a quick snap shot in time and don't represent long term. For all I know, half those tanks turned into war zones the day after they were shot.

Bonus queation: Does having multiple oscarshave an effect on their " dog like" quality as far as owner/ fish interaction is is it like having a pack of dogs instead of just one dog?

Alright, this one is for all the oscar pros. I recently got a 220g (6x2x2.5) and I decided to go with oscar/oscars. I've had other South/Central American cichlids before but no Oscars. The plan is to try and get away with a few plants with some large rocks around them to discourage them being dug up, nice big ball of hornwort and some duckweed. These will mainly be to help with water quality. I'll probably be filtering with 2 or 3 large sponge filters. Also plan on a pleco of some sort (whatever I can find that's already to big for a full grown oscar to bother trying to eat). Originally I was going to only get a single oscar, but my girlfriend and I can't agree on color morph so I'm thinking about multiple. My goal is to keep water changes to once a week and not more than 25%. So first question is, given the info above is the WC schedule doable with 2-3 oscars and with no plants if they end up getting destroyed? I know feeding also plays into this, but let's assume I'm feeding enough to keep them healthy, as opposed to power feeding them, or starving them. Next question would be, as far as aggression (I know this is speculative with cichlids of any kind) do oscars "typically" get along together, and would I be better off with 2 or with 3? Lastly, how easy do these guys pair up? I Do Not want to make more oscars. There's already enough out there and that would definitely complicate the aggression issue. Sorry for the long post, and thanks in advance for your advice.

Hey everyone, Phil here, a.k.a. Mongo. Love pretty much everything the CoOp does as well as the ethics behind it, so I thought I'd give the forum a go. Looking forward to having some great conversations and debates, and learning new stuff as well as hopefully helping others. Talk to ya real soon!