FaintingGoats

Thank you for these. I just got done with it and it went as well as it could. I wish we could figure out what it was though. thank you for your help! I appreciate it!

Got some better pictures of it. he no longer appears to be eating and only swims to go to the surface for air(?) before sinking quickly back down. He also appears to be breathing quickly. If no one has any ideas in the next little while, I will probably euthanize him with clove oil.

My Sunset Gourami has a large bump the size of a pea under the pectoral fin on one of its sides. The bump doesn’t extend through to the other side but he isn’t acting super great. He does swim around and eat when I put food in but unless otherwise bothered he kind of just drifts into a plant to sit. He has been doing a lot of sitting in his plant recently but this is the first I noticed of the bump. He is in a tank that has all good parameters (a little high in nitrates) with other community fish nothing has been added or changed in 6 months I tried to get a better video but he keeps hiding in his plant and I don’t want to stress him too much Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thank you all so much for your feedback and help!! I have 2 neterite snails in there currently. They are doing a fantastic job at keeping the glass and some of the rocks and sticks clear of algae. But I think some of the other stuff is just too long for them. Do you think I should get more for my tank? It is a 29 galleon. My parameters are mostly good. My nitrates are a little high (I measured right before a water change), Nitrites and Ammonia and Chlorine are 0. My water is considered hard and the Ph is in the 7.4 range. I put 3 squirts of Aquarium Co Ops fert in once a week usually but have been cutting back on it since the hair algae has taken over. I do have surface agitation from two bubblers and a decent current from an external cannister filter. The bubblers run 24/7 and I don't have any CO2. Temperature stays between 74 and 75.3 F. Thank you all again for your help!

Hi All! I have a case of pretty severe hair algae. It grows really, really quick (like inches a day in some places). I have tried manually removing it from all the places I can but it has started growing on every leaf and surface available. I have also tried increasing the amount of fertilizer I put in the tank and turning down the lights but that didn't seem to do anything after several weeks. I also tried not adding any fertilizer but that didn't stop it either. Does anyone have any advice for dealing with hair algae? I am almost to the point where I am thinking about ripping out all my octopus plants cause that is where it seems the thickest. Thank you so much in advance for any help. My fish and I really appreciate it!!

I just got my first Mystery Snail last weekend! I am in love with them! So happy to hear about this surprise for you!!

@AndreaW - I think your solution would work for me! I already have one of those but just haven't installed it. I would just need to cut it to fit around my air stone tubes, heater cord and external filter canister intake and outtake pipes.....I think it could work! Thank you everyone for the multitude of ideas! Long live the snails!!

Thank you for the advice! Definitely will be keeping them out of the people desert! I will check out the plastic needle point sheets! That seems better than the burlap mesh!! Thank you @xXInkedPhoenixX! Good luck with your new snails @Katie B.!!! I love mine!!

Hello! I just got my first Mystery Snail and some Neterite Snails. I was wondering if anyone has any troubles with the snails getting out of the tank? I have a lid but because of the external filter canister's intake and outake tubes, it can't be fully on the tank. So there is a 2-3 inch gap where the snails could escape. I have put some burlap mesh that I had laying around the house over it for now but was wondering if anyone had any more permanent ideas 🙂 Thank you in advance!

Hi again! I have a follow up question! After the first initial two died (from what I am thinking was stress from acclimation), I had one more pass away as well a couple days later. I know that rummy’s are hard to quarantine so I think his death might have been from acclimation as well. Should I extend my quarantine length? Today has been a week that they have been QT-ing. thank you for your help!

Sorry it took so long for an update but I wanted to have all the news. One of the Rummies that was sick died the next morning but the other one looked like it was getting better over the past couple of days. However, it passed tonight as well. The rest of the school is looking good though. I don’t see any other fish having issues. I am going to leave them in QT for a couple extra days (they were suppose to be released on Friday) just in case it’s a disease issue and not an acclimation problem. Thank you again for your suggestion to add more air! I do think it helped.

I do have another sponge filter but I don’t think two sponge filters will fit in my QT tank. I will just take the air stone out of it and use it that way! Thank you for the advice!!!

Hi All, I got 10 Rummy Nose Tetras last night and placed them in my quarantine tank (6 galleon tub) with the Med Trio, some fake plants, a heater and a sponge filter with air stone. This morning when I took a look at them, I had one that was upside down in a plant breathing hard and another that was hanging out at the surface breathing hard. I removed the one from the plant and he alternates between just drifting around looking mostly dead or swimming in kind of a twisting fashion. I know that acclimation can be hard on Rummy Noses and people often loose several in the process. Is there anything I can do for these to help them? Water parameters look fine as well as water temperature . PH does look a little bit low at 6.5 (my main tank is more around 7.5).

I just got a fluval 207 for my 29 gallon and it is quieter than the air generator for my sponge filters! Its nearly silent and I bet the 407 (or whatever size you would need for your larger tank) would be the same!

Thank you all for the advice!! I feel so much more confident in my filter change!! I think I will go for the 207 filter and get some of the 30ppi filter media that GuppySnail mentioned!! Thank you again for all the advice!!!!

Hey All! I am thinking about getting a Fluval 207 external canister filter for my 29 gallon planted tank (currently 2 dwarf loaches and 5 panda corys with plans to add more fish 🙂). I currently have 2 sponge filters in the tank and they can't keep up with the murk that my 7 panda corydoras are mixing into the water column. Would the 207 be powerful enough or should I go a 307? I know over filtration is never a bad thing but it seems that the 207 should fit my tank. But I don't want to just blow my fish around the tank with the power 🙂 When I get the external filter, I know I should leave my current filters in the tank to keep the biological filter. However, should I leave a bubbler from the sponge filter in the tank after it is all said and done to help disrupt the surface and provide oxygen and carbon exchange? Basically will the external filter be enough to put enough oxygen in the water? Would you recommend doing a surface skimmer part of the filter or should the normal filter be fine? And finally 🙂 what media would you use for the filtration or would you use what comes with the filter? Thank you SO MUCH for your help! I love this forum!

Thank you! That is kind of what I was thinking as well. Thank you for your help!

I have a 29 gallon planted tank that I recently added fish to (2 dwarf chain loaches and 5 panda Cory's). Since then my water has gotten really murky. At first I thought it was because the Cory's were mixing up stuff from the bottom but it hasn't gotten better. I attached 2 pictures, one from the frond of the tank and one from the side. Is this a green algae? I did have a bout of green algae earlier but this looks more brown and the water was really clear after I got rid of the algae. Do I need different filters? I have 2 sponge filters in there right now. Thank you so much for your help in advance!

Thank you both! I think I will skip the blood worms for a couple of days and see if they start eating the wafer. I also have some frozen brine shrimp cubes I can try out to give them more variety!

Hi All, I have 5 panda corydoras and 2 Dwarf Chain Loaches in my 29 gallon planted tank. I got them about a week and a half ago and have a question about feeding them. I have been altering between feeding them half of a frozen blood worm cube a day and a Xtreme sinking algae wafer. When I feed them the blood worms they seem to LOVE them. But when I drop in a wafer, no one seems to care and I usually end up taking it out of the tank after a couple of hours so it doesn't dissolve. The corys will kinda play with the flake and move it around but the loaches don't seem to care for it. When I take it out after hours, I don't see any nibbles or bites taken out of it. So my questions are: 1. Should I leave the wafer in until they eat it? Is a couple hours not enough? I take it out to avoid it dissolving after a couple hours and don't want ammonia from it. 2. I know I should alternate their food so they don't just get bloodworms. Is the bottom wafer the best thing to feed them? Is there something better for the loaches? the corys? Should I feed them only the wafer for a week so they get a taste for it? Are they spoiled with the blood worms? Thank you so much in advance!!

UPDATE: the loach looks way better today. He is nearly back down to his skinny self. I must have definitely fed him to much. Definitely learned a lesson there. Thank you again to everyone. You all rock!

Ok! Thank you both so much! I will fast him and then less bloodworm!! thank you again! These are my first fish so definitely a learning experience and this forum is awesome!

I don’t believe I have seen him pass anything. I also have the Xtreme Algae Wafers that sink to the bottom. Should I feed that for a couple days? Would that help? I heard that frozen food was good when QT’ing because it doesn’t release as much ammonia if it sits in the tank.

Hi all, I purchased 2 Dwarf Chain Loaches and 5 Panda Corydoras from Aquarium Coop on Saturday. Everything was going good and I have them set up in their quarantine tank with the Med Trio since Saturday and have been feeding them half a cube of frozen bloodworms each day. Today, I tried to give them a whole cube just to see if they would eat it all (they didn't). However, this evening I noticed that one of the Dwarf Loaches has a swollen belly. Could this be because he ate too much? Could it be something else? He seems to be acting pretty normal except he could be swimming around at the side of the tank a bit more then normal maybe? All the other fish look fine and I didn't notice this on him this afternoon. There is no ammonia, nitrites or nitrates in the tank and all the pH, buffer and hardness look great. Thank you in advance for your help! P.S. these are the first fish I have ever had so definitely thank you.

I agree! it makes sense that that middle layer would be more "interactive" and go around a lot more area in the tank. Congrats on you Pandas!!! That is really awesome!