Karen B.

Greetings I wanted to move my pair of apistogramma cacatuoides from a 20 high tank to a 20 long. New substrate (Carib Sea Peace River gravel that I rinced)/driftwood and plants (with root tabs). After planting/filling with water, there was few clumps of little bubbles floating around so I ran activated carbon for about 12 hours. I also dosed Prime and Stability. Bubbles were still there. But only a few, no big clump/soap like. The next day I removed some of the water, filled with water my apistogramma were in (aquarium established for about 6 months). Brought their filter to the new aquarium (I squeezed and cleaned the media inside the new tank) clouding the water with yuckiness. Waited for it to clear, added a cup of fritzyme 7, waited an hour, added their sponge filter to the tank. Waited for temperature to somewhat match (I found out one of my thermometer was completely off. I tought I was keeping them at 79, in truth they were at 84. I transfered the fish when the aquariums were about 1 degree of difference (81 to 80). During the night, temp dropped to 77.5. I am aiming for 79. Parameters from one tank to the other are about the same. 0/0/0, new tank had slightly softer water (used to be more around 40, now closer to 80), hard water about 150, pH is a bit higher (from 6.6 to 7ish) I transfered them without acclimating. My male hid, my female swam around, ate a bit. During the night, I saw them both swim/chase each other.This morning, my male was in his cave, my female was plunged head first behind her cave. Took me a few nudges to get her moving - I tought she was dead.She doesn’t look too well. Stay on gravel, doesn’t move much, rapid breathing, stay close to things so she can hide.. she used to be on sand…Could she have choked on a small gravel piece? The male is sometimes coming out of the cave and come close to the female. Usually he chases her but right now they just stay close. His mouth is slightly opened. I dropped bloodworm but none of them ate anything. I added another cup of fritzyme and Prime, just in case. Was the tank not seeded enough/did I transfer them too quickly?Anything else I should do or will they die?? I have another established tank (1+ year), should I move them there for now? Gosh I am worried. https://youtube.com/shorts/pEaLulb6riA?feature=share https://youtu.be/YH8JLqQiNf4 https://youtu.be/IH5Qh7J-SG8 https://youtu.be/VgFfR7OtG3w

Bonjour! I bought a 20 gallons long tank and I am in love. So much better than my 20 high. I finished scaping it today and my apistogramma cacatuoides will be transferred there. So it’s currently at its best stage - no algae, plants haven’t melted yet, the red are still popping bright. So before it all goes down, I will brag about it a little 🤪 I may decide to add 10 black neon tetras to occupy the upper top of the aquarium. Show off your new aquascape or apistogramma tank or well… anything really!

Thank you for your reply. What would be your advice about the old tank that will be redecorated to house 6 pea puffers? The substrate/plants/driftwood and rocks are all new. I would however leave the old sponge filter in (so not transferring it with the apistogramma as they will have their old HOB filter seeded already. I will use a new sponge filter for them). I have a new HOB filter for the pea puffers, but will be placing some seeded media from my other aquariums. And they will not be fed for a couple of day while they go through quarantine.

Hey guys! I bought a 20 gallons long to transfer my 2 apistogramma cacatuoides in. They were in a 20 high and as my male Dior is grumpy and chase my female Chanel a lot, I figured a little more space wouldn’t hurt. I will be using the 20 high for 6 pea puffers. Both will have new substrate. I plan to plant the 20 long (new plants), use the old rocks from their aquarium and 1 little piece of driftwood. I will also fill half the tank with their old water, use their HOB that I will first squeeze/clean in the aquarium, let it run/clear the water for a day then I would think it to be safe to transfer the 2 fish? Or should I wait longer for the new cycle to establish itself? As for the 20 high, new rock/driftwood and plants. But would let the sponge filter in. I also have the new HOB media seeded in another aquarium (been there for a week). For good measure, will also clean/squeeze the media of another aquarium in. Will let it run empty (with snails) for 2 days before adding the pea puffers. what do you think of my plan? Am I too quick to add my fish? I have prime and will of course monitor closely for ammonia. The pea won’t be fed as I will quarantine them using the trio-med straight in their new aquarium.

Thank you for your insight! I do not have any live worm cultures nor do I think I would have the dedication to actually commit to it. That’s something I didn’t consider. My cory are on sands, and I do have another type of gravel but the one I will be using in this tank seem a bit small and sharp. I would have my doubts. I have always wanted Pea puffers. Never had the place (until now) to seriously consider them. Now with a 20 high, I think it would be acceptable for 5-6? What do you feed them? As I have Apistogramma Cacatuoides already on frozen live food like blood worms, Daphnia and Brine Shrimps, it wouldn’t be a big change to my feeding routine. And I do have pest snails so no problems there either! I do like gathering information but I am so anxious and afraid to not do the right thing that I can’t say I really enjoy the process of choosing my next fish. Add to that that I am a libra, decisions in general are hard to take. And I am not super lucky so far - even fish that are supposed to be really peaceful were such a nightmare and agressive I had to give them away.

I looked at your SB page. They are so cute and adorable!!! I love how they swim, and how they interact with each other & the panda cory. But I admit the live food might be a problem for me. I have yet to find any place with live culture (I live in Québec) Thank you so much for all the information. I have corydoras on sand and would feel ok on some sort of gravel but the one I will be using seem a bit sharp for them. Food for tought I guess!

Greetings Nerms! I am moving my apistogramma cacatuoides to a 20 gallons long tank, so I have a 20 gallons high to fill now! 😁 It’s heated, planted, cycled, around 0-0-20. pH around 7, kh low to middle and gh high. I was wondering if I can keep Scarlet Badis and spotted blue-eye rainbowfish together? If yes, how many of each species? Can I add anothing else? Any centerfish? I love corydoras but I will be using gravel (CarinSea peace river gravel) so I think it’s not exactly recommended. Any other bottom dweller could do? So there, shoot away your suggestions. I do not want any livebearer. Instead of the 2, I have also been thinking about pea puffer as I could finally give them the space (6 in a 20 gallons high), but I don’t do well when fish are agressive so that scares me a little

Thanks! I hope they will stay that way. My fear is that since leaves are touching, it may damage them?

Greetings Plants hate me and I am not blessed with a green thumbs, sadly. I tried many ways to sterilize or quarantining plants and quite often everything die on me before I can put them in the aquarium. Plants are not cheap and I am about to become the first homeless person with 9 aquariums… 🤪 I found an online site in Quebec and bought (way too) many plants (because of shipping). I let the plants soak for a night, rinced them, had them rest in dechlorinated water. I put gravel, root tabs, dechlorinator, excel and fertilizer in the tote. Added air, a light and the heater is on its way. However many of the plants/leaves are touching so I am wondering if it will cause damage to the leaf and plants? Should I buy a 2nd tote to space out the plants? Any other advice to help the plant acclimate to being submerged? I will leave them in the tote for a week or 2 before transferring them in my aquariums Thank you!

Greetings I bought a lot of plants from a local plant growing company. They grow all their plant emerged, and when you order them, they put them in a some fresh water for a few hours then mail them. seeing as they are never in contact with any fish/snails, can I skip the quarantining process? I tend to kill my plants when I quarantine them so if I can avoid it…

Thank you for your answer! I am way too paranoid to use bleach, sadly, even if I know it’s the best way. Is 2 hours too long? Not long enough? There is sooooo many different information out there…

Greetings! I bought 2 mopani woods from my lfs. But the thing is - they were INSIDE one of their aquarium with fishes. If I boil them for 2 hours, am I safe to then use them in my aquarium? They are too big to fit in as a whole but I will boil them by section. Thank you!

Greetings! I bought many new plants but, sadly, they all seem to be dying on me/rotting and I was wondering if there was anything I could do to prevent any further damage or at least save some of them. I bought two types of vallisneria (spiralis and americana), Egeria Densea, some sort of cryptocoryne, some sort of bacopa (caroliniana?) and 2 others we didn’t know the name. My substrate is Seachem flourite black sand, with a lot of seachem root tabs and I use a liquid fertilizer (sorry, I live in Canada and can’t always get coop products). I think my first fatal mistake was to bathe the plant in peroxide to sterilize them. I read somewhere to do it for 20 minutes in a 3:1 ratio. I then let them rest still in their original ring and mossy thingie in a bucket with a light. Everything seemed fine until I wanted to transfer them in my 10 gallons quarantine tank (with light and sponge filter). The cryptocoryne disintegrated basically in my hand, the Egeria doesn’t look healthy, and the vallisneria are getting worst by the day… 😞 the tall plant leaf are all turning yellow/brown. Is there anything I can do to save my plants? First day in the bucket after peroxide bath 2-3 days later when I transferred them in the quarantine aquarium vallisneria 2 days after

Greetings I have a 20 gallons high aquarium, planted, with a pair of apistogramma cacatuoides triple red. The substrate I currently have is the black Estes Stoney River Premium Aquarium Sand. My plants are not thriving at all and they have a hard time growing. I use excel, thrive all in one liquid fertilizer and seachem flourish tabs (sorry, no aquarium coop product, I live in Canada) I read Apistogramma sift through sand… does this mean I can’t go the gravel route at all? I was thinking either the Carib Sea Peace River gravel or the ESTES Nature Blends Gravel - Shallow Creek. Thank you!

@Jessvinegar eels are so tiny, I don’t think adult fish would bother with them. My betta don’t even like BBS because they are small… But I have never tried giving vinegar eels to any of my adult fish so can’t say for sure. And mine are so picky - they don’t like artemia, mysis shrimps, etc… I even have to grind some of their dried food otherwise they just spit it out.

Thank you for your answer. The larva were not in the vinegar, but inside the bubble just on top of the liquid. The flies are dead in the vinegar. But what you say makes sense - I forgot a lot of va people have that kind of aquarium outside and fish do feed on things that grow or fall in there! I love your idea of feeding flies in a closed aquariums. I know they are now producing fruit fly without wings to give to fish but it’s not quite the same thing. You would love my female betta - whenever she get fed, she is more focussed on jumping out of the water and attack my hand then the food. It’s almost a daily occurrence. 😅

Hiya fish friends! Not my proudest moment but I forgot to cover my 4 containers (different kind of bottles like soda, water, etc…) that contain my vinegar eels culture. I’ve had this culture for over a year, there is tons of eels. But I noticed today that there was fruit flies around (and inside), as well as crawling larvae and/or worms. Can I still use my culture or is it considered contaminated and I should get rid of it all? I was thinking about using a fine sift (like the one for BBS) and that way the vinegar eels will get through but (hopefully) not the other stuff…?

Greetings! I have a 30 gallons planted Community tank. One of my honey gourami has been flashing a bit lately (I have 2) Some of the corydoras do the odd flashing here and there. And I haven’t noticed any of my 15 chili Rasboras do it. Today I cleaned the filter and it released some gunk and I noticed one honey gourami flashing again. I don’t know if it’s the gunk that bothered her? None of my other fish are flashing in my 7 other aquariums. Can she be flashing because she misses her male? I had 3 honey gourami, my male was older and he passed away few weeks ago so now it’s only the 2 females. The tank isn’t overcrowded, nothing new was added lately but I might treat it as a preventive measure anyway. I am always confused which med to use when a fish is flashing? I have paracleanse, Maracyn, Ich-X, Expel-P, Levimasol and few others I forgot.

Greetings I would like to add 3 crayfish (CPO - orange dwarf mexicain crayfish) in my aquarium that contains only fish (clown killifish). I was wondering if I should quarantine them? Is there any disease a crayfish can transfer to a fish? Same with some nerita snails. Do you quarantine them? 🤔 Thank you!

Greetings! For about 2 years now, I have aquariums with live plants. I have never been good with normal plants, but the curse didn’t seem to apply to aquatic plants until recently. I have 8 aquariums - some are practically algae free, others have a few spot here and there of BBA, others are just completely invaded by hair algea. This is my betta tank. He is alone with 3 nerite snails. 10 gallons, heated, 1 HOB filter and 1 sponge filter. 3-4 days ago I removed everything, scrubbed the glass, plants, changed my sponge filter as it was full of algae, removed all the plants, bathed them for a little while in water with double dose of excel and put back the aquarium. I made sure not to disturb the media in the HoB filter too much as to not lose my cycle. Some plants were thriving but are now dying (like the Egeria densa on the left) since I replanted them. Yet it’s considered an easy plant, basically unkillable. Same happen with my 1-2-3 grow tropica plants. I put them in an aquarium, no fish, with root tabs (flourish), excel, thrive as fertilizer and a sponge filter but most end up brown, soften and just rot away. It’s getting to the point I am no longer enjoying the hobby seeing either plants dying or algae growing. I know the answer is balance but HOW do I achieve it. I am willing to buy test kit, anything. But I am not a good »go with your feelings » kind of person regarding plants. I have Hyger lights, on for about 6-8 hours. Plus, I am wondering what is the white stuff on the ground? Is it not enough flow? How come some people ONLY use sponge filter and do not have this problem and I do with 2 filters? My substrate is sand.

I have a male and female apistogramma cacatuoides in my 20 high. They are absolutely stunning and my female is a sweetheart - she comes and interact with me all the time. But I am not enjoying them as much as I’d hoped. My male is a jerk, territorial and possessive, and send her back to her corner each time. In a near future, I hope I can upgrade to minimally a 20 long to give them more floor space. As far as my 30g community tank, what would you do? My females are less then a year… should I get another male? A male and a female? Or leave them both like that?

I am so so sorry to read you had to go through the same thing I did. I know for some they are just fish, but I really consider them wet pet with their personality and behavior. I am sure yours too had an amazing life! Will you be getting any more? My 2 female keep looking around for the male and I am not sure if I should get another one (he would be so small and young, would the female bully him?) or get a male and female so at least they will be together when I add them in the main aquarium after quarantine. Or just let my 2 female as the centerpiece. Less colorful but they have established their pecking order, they get along rather well too (finally) so I am afraid adding more could throw off the current balance.

Not right when I got back. Everything seemed fine, no distress in any fish. Now I regret not doing it. But if it was ammonia, wouldn’t more fish be affected?

Greetings I left for a week. All my aquarium had automatic feeders (no amount of food accumulation in any of them when I came back). A friend of mine still came to check every 2-3 days (and to feed my apisto). I came back everything was fine, except my crypto melted in my community tank (I planted then too deep? Or maybe I didn’t set the timer right and there was no light for a week?). I immediately took away the melted leaf and tidied the aquarium. 2 days later, I find my male honey gourami dead at the bottom of the community tank. I examined his body and it was perfectly fine - no discoloration, red patch, scales were fine. He was about 2 years old, from a pet shop, so one of my hypothesis is he died of old age? S.I.P. My beautiful Prince, my Pikachu. My first ever centerpiece fish. Later that day, I came back to see 1 chili rasboras gasping for air at the surface. He seemed to have dropsy and he was really in a bad shape so I euthanized him with clover oil. I examined every other fish : My 2 female honey gourami are fine (except they are looking around for the male) My 14 other Chili rasboras are fine too, sometimes schooling, other time playing in the sponge filter bubble. None are staying apart or looking sick. My corydoras are breeding like crazy and laying eggs everywhere as usual. The young babies (1-2 months) are thriving, swiming around and being cute. It’s a 30 gallons, planted, 1 HOB filter and 1 sponge filter, temps around 75-77, pH a bit low at 6.6, 0/0/25, no chlorine/chloramine, gh between 150 and 300ppm and kh about 60 ppm. Question 1 : Should I proactively treat my aquarium or just watch it? I plan on a 35% wc and vc tomorrow. Question 2 : I am now left with only 2 female honey gourami. Should I leave it like that? They get along rather well. Or should I buy 1 male and 1 more female (so he doesn’t feel too lonely or small when added to the 30 gallons after his 3 weeks quarantine)

Still, your experience has me reconsider a lot. CPO are another choice. Or Scarlet Badis! But how many in a 5 gallons is yet another question nobody seem to agree upon.