J. Holmes

So our sweet betta has gotten worse. Been treating with the API anti-fungal and Maracyn 2 for 5 days. Fungal has spread. I do believe he had fin rot for a LONG time and we didn’t know it. Sorry the water is cloudy. It had the meds in it.

I noticed my bettas dorsal fin appeared torn a week ago. Behavior was all fine. Watching him it seemed his fin was twisted. Strange injury. I’ve been monitoring him and noticed this fuzz on the top of the injured fin. Any idea what could be going on? water levels are measured 0.

We use easy green about every 1.5 weeks. Is another way to add it?

We’ve had our tanks set up for about 7 months. Java ferns in place about 6 months. Water parameters are all 0. We backed lights down to about 6 hours (it was 12) about two weeks ago. our java ferns have never been happy. I’m not sure if it’s the lighting or the water. All our other plants have thrived, but the javas are angry. We use easy green about every two weeks. The javas in spider wood are shoved into a hole (not glued). The other on drift wood have a tiny dot of glue to hold them on. what can we do to help these guys out?

I don’t have a way to test those. It isn’t in my test kit :(. Sorry!

Sorry, I’m seeing the same #s and cottonmouth in both. The bloat issues I’m sure was overfeeding. I have the API freshwater test kit. I tested my water before dosing my 20 gallon a few days ago. Both tanks have a PH of 7.5. Ammonia, nitrite, and Nitrates are all 0. 30 gallon is at 78. 20 gallon is at 77.6. 30 gallon: 2 medium Coop sponge filters. 1 male betta, 3 mystery snails, 4 Ottos, 7 cardinal tetra, 4 Endlers, 8 pearl danios. 1 hillstream loach. All live plants. 20 gallon: 1 co-op sponge filter. 1 male betta, 3 mystery snails, 3 Ottos, 5 cardinal tetras, 3 Endlers, 1 hillstream loach. All live plants

Ok… I thought I was on the right track. So, besides my overfeeding and algae, what’s causing them all to crash? Any idea? I just found another Endler doing this: sorry if this shows poor quality. I would agree; however, I’m seeing the issue in both tanks. Only one tank has been treated and only with 1 dose.

Thanks… I very well may. I meant to say root tabs every 2 months. Oops 😬. I’ve moved all sick fish out except my constipated betta. My 20 gallon and quarantine tank are my only treated tanks. I looked up a lot on cycled tanks, so I thought I was good. No one shares what the numbers should be to know it’s cycled. What should I be looking for? I thought that having zero for everything (except PH) meant my water was good 🤷🏻‍♀️.

Yes, I had one die from a bloated belly (probably constipated) and another die of cottonmouth in my 20 gallon. I then just found a tetra with cottonmouth in my 30 gallon today and moved him out. So far no one else is showing signs, but this all happened this week.

Ok … ugh! I thought I cycled it correctly. I left it without fish and just plants till everything was zero. So, I want to have Nitrates? What would a cycled tank parameters be? Sorry, so much to learn! Currently treating with Maracyn (just finished the treatment cycle). Just ordered Maracyn 2 to try.

Gotcha. So, what is fish-in-cycling/how do I fix it? Here are my sick fish (sorry for cloudy medicated water!)

We use easy green fertilizer and root tabs from Co-op every 2 weeks.

We’ve been using the API master test kit and have only rarely had a mild elevation in nitrates from the very beginning. We’ve never had ammonia or nitrites and pH has remained stable around 7.4-7.6. We’ve been fighting a lot of algae (red algae at first then hair algae primarily after increasing the green and blue spectrum to counter the red algae). algae was likely a battle due to overfeeding but in the past two weeks we’ve been doing ~30-40% water changes ~2x per week in the larger tank because it also has significant green dust algae. The smaller tank has only had a hair algae issue and hasn’t been changed as often. The lack of water parameter shifts has made us curious about the algae and now illness issues. Thanks for all the help!

Sorry, long post! I have two tanks that keep getting sick. One is 30 Gallons and the other is 20. Both are set between 76-78. I did a water check. It’s all zero and PH is 7.5. I do weekly water changes and checks. I’ve been battling a major algae issue and discovered that I have been WAY over feeding. Tanks were cycled for 2 months with live plants before adding fish. Fish were slowly added over 2 months. Fish were quarantined and medicated for a month before adding them. I’ve had all the fish for a month before getting sick. Tanks are 5 months old. I learned I was over feeding because I noticed some of my fish were getting a little fat, so I started to starve my 30 gallon. I checked my 20 gallon and noticed that an endler and my betta had swollen bellies as well. So I’ve starved that tank as well. I’m on day 4 of that. Since doing this, I’ve started getting sick fish. These fish were all moved to a desperate quarantine tank. I do not cross contaminate tools. Quarantine tank and 20 gallon have been treated with Maracyn. From my 20 gallon: My swollen belly Endler died (I’m assuming constipation from over feeding). I’m going to try and treat my swollen belly betta with a salt dip (assuming constipation again). I got an Endler with cottonmouth, but he died. From my 40 gallon tank: One tetra with a swollen belly is still alive. Another tetra got cottonmouth (moved today and being treated). An Endler that was being bullied and not eating was moved to quarantine. He’s still isn’t eating and now has a swollen eye. So, is over feeding the culprit to all these issues? I’m new to all this, so I’m trying to understand what I’ve done wrong and how I can fix it. Am I going to lose all my fish? Do I need to nuke my tanks and try again? Thanks for all the help and advice!

Temp is around 76.8 diet is Northfin beta bits most often with Ocean Nutrition Betta pellets on occasion. He will eat some of the other fishes Xtreme Nano pellets

I thought my betta was just over fed. I’ve starved him for about 4 days now and he’s still swollen. Any idea what causes this/how I can treat him? It’s hard to capture him well in a photo. It also seems like his head is upturned bc of the the swelling as well.

Anyone know what this is? I haven’t been able to find anything on it.

Thank you all for the suggestions. Jennifer V, my lights are on from 7AM to 8PM and are on a lower light setting. Does this hurt your fish? I have mystery snails, a betta, and tetras. Would I need to do a water change shortly after?

I’ve been attacking hair algae in my tank for a few weeks. It’s all wrapped in my Java moss. My tank is fairly new, only had them for 3 months. I checked my water levels and they are all where they should be, so I’m not thinking there’s an obvious imbalance. My tank is shorter (20 long) and the algae is right at the lights on my driftwood. Is there any way I can get rid of this mess? Thanks so much!

I’ve just bumped up my lights and have noticed the algae pick up in my tank. While doing a water change and cleaning the glass, I noticed this algae on my spider wood. The snails and Ottos will not clean it. It’s not slimy and doesn’t smell. I’m worried it might be blue green algae. Any suggestions? Thanks so much!

Thanks for YouTube idea! I hope I did it correctly. We are about to add fish into the tank (we’ve just had mystery snails). We will add the tetras first and then a male betta when he finishes his quarantine. Would those get rid of this bug?

Thanks so much! I wish I could make the video work. I haven’t seen it swim yet, but it crawls like a spider. It’s like a spider with a round body… strange little guy. They kinda look like Ostracods to me (from what I’ve Googled so far). If that’s it, how do I get rid of those?

We recently planted this anubias petite and saw this bug today. Any idea what it is? Should we try and get rid of it? How do we do that? I tried to add a video from my phone but it wouldn’t let me. Thanks for the help!

We recently planted this anubias petite and saw this bug today. Any idea what it is? Should we try and get rid of it? How do we do that? I tried to add a video from my phone but it wouldn’t let me. Thanks for the help!

Thank you all so much!