Karen B.

Thank you so much!!

I have green neon tetra that are sick. They have white parasite visible, fuzzy part, etc. I have treated them with maracyn, ich-x, melafix, paracleanse, salt, levamisole… nothing work. I removed my plants in the aquarium to try salt again. But I am wondering if my plants are contaminated or dangerous? Should I let them soak in a container for a bit before I use them in my other tanks or just throw them away for better safety? Same for my chola wood?

Greetings! 20 gallons, planted, cycled community tank. Currently using an aqueon quietflow 20 as a filter but I just bought the Seachem tidal 55 and I also have a sponge filter. Light is a Nicrew Slim Led Aquarium full spectrum light (6500K white LEDs with 460nm blue, and 660nm red LEDs) that is on for 8 hours. As per aquarium coop testing strips, 0/0/10. No kh, 300 gh, no chlorine. As per API testing drops, ph about 6.6-6.8, kh 4, gh 9 Population : 2 honey gourami, 10 chili rasbora, 10 false julii cory (they breed like rabbits!!!), 5 otocinclus, 4 nerita snails and 87 pest snails 🤪 I use Aquarium coop easy green, seachem iron, seachem potassium, seachem excel and seachem fertilizer tab. My soil is flourish black sand. I have been battling hair algae and black beard algae on that tank for a while and I am just fed up. I know the solution is to balance my tank but I seem unable to do so. Meanwhile the 15 gallons right by its side has almost no problem. I tried the trick to remove the plants and soak them in double seachem excel dose but it’s just a temporary solution, the algae come back, and it upset my plants. The bottom leaves on the plants also fall off, gets holes... I admit I am not a plant person. Never had a green thumb - I killed my cactus 😳... So while I know I could buy all the tests kits like @Irene did in one of her videos, they end up quite expensive and I am wondering if I should just go with CO2. I did try it with the fluval base kit but I had so much problems with it (it was leaking, they replace it, the new one the water would fill up the hose when turned off so opening it back would created too much pressure and explode in the tank - Fluval solution was to remove the diffuser from the tank each night... 😳)... So I would prefer a real fool proof kit. I know there is the Ista professional kit with a solenoid but is it good quality (https://www.bigalspets.com/ca/ista-co2-aluminum-cylinder-set.html) Or should I go with co2art? I am clumsy and accident prone so it really has to be easy, safe and secure as well. Or do you have any other tips, comments, suggestions to help me with my problem? Thank you! Here is my aquarium few months ago. It has changed a bit but you can still get the idea

Thank you so much for your answer! Yes, it helped tremendously ☺️

I tried hatching/raising cory fry, sadly those that did hatch ended up passing away. ...but today I was cleaning the tank and here this little guy appeared 🥰🥰🥰 Is the pinkish color on his face normal? His front body pattern is so different from his parents

Yesterday I did a 25% WC on my 20 gallons - community tank, planted, temp about 75, kh 0, gh between 150 and 300, 0/0/10, 0 chlorine. (using aquarium co-op strip) Population : 1 honey gourami, 10 chili rasbora, 8 false julii cory, 4 nerita snails. A lot of plants had black beard algea so I removed them for a double seachem dose bath in a separate container. I also cleaned my HOB filter + my sponge filter (in aquarium water). I did however leave some hides and plants in. My water is a bit milky today so I tought I crashed my cycle. Plus my fish are swimming a bit more toward the surface (but could be of boredom as the tank is more empty then usual). I retested my water and my pH, which is usually 7.4 / 7.6 is now about 6.4/6.6. I admit I don’t test it as often as the result are not working on the aquarium co op strip so the last readings of my pH was couple of weeks ago. However my other tank, which I did not do a WC this week but last week, has its pH at 7/7.2 today (when it’s also usually around 7.4/7.6). so I tested my tap water and it’s about 7 (when it’s usually 7.4 or 7.6). Should I do something about it? I know a lot of people say not to chase parameters but a pH drop of 1 is pretty significant. Will it harm my fish? Should I do another WC? Add baking soda?

Well, beside the 13 little babies 2 days ago, nothing else

I saw the male do it once yesterday

I don’t see fluffy appearance. It does look like a raised scale which could explain why she is flashing?

That’s Mericyn right?

I have 3 mature clown killifish in a 15 gallons cycled planted tank, with 3 nerite snail and 5-7 orange shrimps. Temp is between 75 and 77. ph between 7.4 and 7.6, kh 4, gh 8, 0/0/(between 0 and 20). 30% WC + gravel siphon every week. The group is separated in a mated pair and another female (sometimes chased away either by the male or the other female). I bred my killifish and ended up with 13 babies. They are about 2 months now and 2 days ago I added them in the tank. Some are still small, others are almost adult size. 2 males started getting their color. Today I saw that my casted away female has a white bump on her lower lips. She still swim and eats. But she is flashing a lot of plants. I also noticed the male flashing once yesterday. What could it be? Can/should I treat the whole tank? My hospital tank is already occupied by my sick green neon tetras. As the female seems really bullied, should I Isolate her with 3-4 of the smallest babies (they prefer to be in group I read?) I do have a 5 gallons with the same parameters currently occupied only by 5 adults shrimps and a couple of little 4-5 days old babies. But in that tank too something seems off as i keep losing an adult shrimp every week or 2 weeks... I am starting to feel like a serial fish killer.

Thanks! So maracyn every day as quote in the instructions ans paracleanse on the 3rd day. Poor fish. They are troopers because they went through so much.

@Cory @Odd Duck @Colu I started them earlier today with maracyn/ick-x (before I posted) Cory said to use paracleanse so I just added that. Is it too much for the fish if I follow the maracyn, ick-x and paracleanse protocol all at once? Or should I just keep going with paracleanse and in 5 days use Levamisole? Or can those be done at the same time?

But I was told green neon tetra didn’t get it?

My green neon tetras an not doing any better. Really hoping for some insight @Cory I have a community tank. Population : 1 honey gourami, 10 green neon tetra, 10 chili rasbora, 7 false julii cory, 4 nerita snails. Cycled, planted, temp about 75, ph 7.6, kh 4, gh 11, 0/0/(between 0 and 30). WC + gravel siphon every week or 2 weeks depending. On the first week of june, I noticed 3 of my green neon tetra had white patches on their tail. Just some kind of discoloration but no fuzziness. Then a kind of blister appeared on the top of the head of one of them, as well as a white fuzzy patch behind it’s dorsal fin. They all still swim and eat. And none of the other fishes caught it. I treated the whole community tank with Maracyn + Ick-X, nothing happened. I then moved then 10 hreen neon tetra to a 2 gallons hospital tank. I treated them with salt (1 tbs/gallon) and supratect (some natural meds based on garlic) + 50% wc every 2 days (and redosing salt) for 2 weeks. No improvement but it didn’t get worst either. I was suggested kanaplex which I ordered but won’t get for 3-4 more days still. Meanwhile I tried Melafix and the symptoms on my fish got much more worst. More fuzzy patch appeared. The anal region of the fish with a blister on its head is red, the blister is red and white. One fish that only had mild symptoms now is covered with fungus and seems deformed. I am starting to wonder if it can be curable at all or if I should put them out of their misery. I moved them in a quarantine 10 gallons. Some of the other fish are starting to get cotton mouth so I am treating again with Maracyn + Ich-X until I get the kanaplex. At this point, should I sort the sick fish vs the healthy one or just keep treating them all? And just to top the cake, one of my otocinclus in my 20 gallons community tank is having fungus on one of its pectoral fins... So I moved him with the green neon tetra. It’s upsetting because the main cause of these diseases seem to be water quality but I do 30% wc + gravel siphon at least once a week. I may overfeed but my corydoras eat the remains and there is never rotten food or anything at the bottom of the tank. Starting to think I am a bad fish keeper and should just quit the hobby if I cause them more harm then good no matter how well intentioned I am.

Oooh! You have so many! I got mine to spawn. Sadly the fry only live one day. I wonder if it’s because I retrieve them with a pipette… maybe it damages the yolk sac or something? I will try to find another way.

Pretty sure they are cory eggs. Nerita’s are smaller

Sorry for the late reply! it depends of your settings. Is it densily planted? I heard parents can eat their eggs and fry.

They don’t miss us when we are not there! 😅😅😅

That’s so cool, I already own that breeder box. I would just need the power head. How long do you keep them in there? How often do you clean the bottom?

Greetings! Apparently my false julii corydoras have been having a lot of fun. Each morning I wake up to 5-15 eggs. I am however having trouble hatching them. I watched a lot of video, especially @Irene - I put my eggs in a small container with a few drop of mythilene blue and an air stone. I let it float in the main tank, I remove the bad eggs, I do WC but only 1 hatched so far. A lot of them are actually turning darker... I had the idea to transfer them in my 10 gallons where I raise clown killifish fry but the substrate is gravel, not sand. Any advice on what I should do differently? Thank you!

I did buy one of the automatic food dispenser that has 14 slots so I can prepare the exact amount. I will use that one for my biggest tank with different species with different needs.

Yeah, it’s partly because I first started with crayfish - so you buy 3-4 different food for them. Then I got guppy - 3-4 different food for them and it built up like that. But I sure will narrow it down now with my fish preferences, etc!

Thank you very very much! Took me about a year to reach that result. It used to be 100% fake with plastic plants! I currently have a Nicrew Slim led light (8 hours a day) and for a couple of weeks I used the fluval CO2 kit but the first one leaked, the other one wasn’t functioning properly so I gave up on the CO2. Aqueon quietflow 20 filter and aquarium coop sponge filter. I use the aquarium coop easy green, seachem excel, seachem flourish tabs, iron and potassium but I am currently fighting a bad case of black beard algea. The background I got at my local fish store but I think you can find similar one on amazon.

Greetings Wow, thank you so much! ☺️ I feed them twice. Once in the morning and once in the evening