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Alec2cool

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Everything posted by Alec2cool

  1. It's been awhile since I posted! I apologize. Lots of things have changed in my fishroom. I ended up reaching 10 tanks and that proved to be just too much to handle. I've since shrank the number down to 4 and honestly, that's still too much. At the beginning of this year, Misty Mountains got some weird fungus infection that I could not beat. I lost my 3 favorite fish, the Dwarf Gouramis. I've since shut down that tank as well as many others. Umbar, 55g Cherry Shrimp - 50+ Mystery Snails - 2 Otocinclus - 17 I've pretty much allowed the plant life to go wild in here and the inhabitants seem to like it. In fact, a month or so before this picture, most of the tank was a water wisteria forest. I've taken out 2/3rds of it to make room for the vallisneria to spread. I got the Cherry Shrimp about a month and a half ago, 10 of them. Since, they've exploded into over 50 little shrimp crawling over every surface. The Otos and Shrimp will scramble for the algae wafers and it seems like they fight over it! The otos will push and shove the shrimp away and the shrimp will climb onto the Otos and it seems like they are clawing at their heads. Otos don't seem to mind and don't budge at all though. However, both parties scatter when one of the big Mystery snails shows up Moria, 20g long Tiger Barb - 12 Golden Wonder Killifish - 1 My Tiger Barbs produced fry last year and just this week, the fry were large enough to be housed with the parents without being eaten. The Killifish certainly can eat them but she's since proven to me that she has no interest in eating other fish since I've tried to get her to eat platy fry on multiple occasions and she just doesn't. I'm a bit concerned that this 20g isn't large enough for this Tiger Barbs. I'm not worried about water quality but more on the available space sort of thing. When they've been housed in larger tanks, it's an experience watching these guys play their intense game of tag but they don't seem to play in this smaller tank at all. I'll have to figure something out. Unnamed - 10g I just set this tank up after shutting down a 20g long that sat in it's place. The two 20gs were right next to eachother and the board they were sitting on had started to bow slightly, causing the top rims of the tanks to start pressing together. That made me very uncomfortable. There are no inhabitants in here aside from snails. I'm not sure what I'm doing with it yet, I may even shut it down. Fangorn, 20g long Dwarf Gourami - 5 Honey Gourami - 1 Electric Blue Mickey Mouse Platy - 5 Red Lizard Whiptail -1 This is my current favorite tank. I originally hated black sand when I first got it but over a year, I've grown to quite like it. This tank is just over a month of being set up and the plants are growing like crazy. The grassy plants were sold to me as Willow Hygro but I'm not sure exactly what it is. However, it grows just like Water Wisteria, very fast. If you clip it, both sections will continue growing. I hope to absolutely stuff this tank with that Hygro plant. After my original 3 dwarf gouramis passed away, I was pretty heartbroken about it. Eventually I decided to get more! They are truly my favorite fish. Curious, moody and feisty. They have spats with eachother all day long and just like my previous 3, they are all huddled together in the same spot in the tank while the lights are off. However, this group of 5 are far less aggressive than my original group of 3. The original group were very picky on the fish they would tolerate and as the months passed by, this pickiness would get worse. Before they had passed away, they only tolerated fish significantly larger than themselves such as angelfish and even then, sometimes they had spats. These 5 however are quite friendly with other fish, even other species of gourami such as the Honey Gourami in here. Once I get a large population of cherry shrimp, I'm hoping I can get the gouramis and shrimp to coexist though many have warned against it. Apologies for my long break of updating this. I'll try to keep posting in here. Thanks for reading!
  2. I kept a pair for a few months. They don't seem to like eachother at all and they'll absolutely eat my bladder, ramshorn and malaysian trumpet snails. However, they left my baby mystery snails as well as platy/swordtail fry alone. They also didn't bother any adult fish (They were also quite terrified of them) They suddenly passed away on me, a month away from eachother. I have no clue why but I plan on trying them again at some point, very cool animal, interesting to watch! *EDIT* They would also damage plants. They obliterated much of my dwarf hairgrass as well as eating the leaves of several other plants.
  3. In my last "Dreams of" post in this category, I was asking how to make Vallisneria thrive and I was finally successful!I'm still have browning issues here and there but despite that, it's still on a determined journey to envelop that entire tank! Before, I had it in a sand substrate (in a 55g) and used plenty of root tabs but it never really thrived. It seems to do phenomenally better in a smaller tank (20g Long) with river pebbles and NO root tabs, I'm using liquid fertilizer instead. It has gone from 6 plants to 17 in 4 months. I took advice on clipping the leaves for faster carpeting but it didn't seem to like that. A few are still sending runners but most of them have stopped and some leaves are turning a brownish tinge. Now my next project is Dwarf Hairgrass. I kept it before last year and it never really thrived. I started with 3 very large bunches that I had spread out across a tank only for fish and snails to constantly be disturbing them. In a desperate effort to save what remained, I put the scrappy looking survivors in another tank only for one of my dwarf gouramis to decide he wants that particular plant for his bubble nest. He tore it up and carefully placed the pieces at the water's surface. Well, I recently bought another bunch and I'm gonna try again! I have it waiting in another tank while I set up it's permenant tank. I plan on using a soft substrate, pool filter sand and I have a big stock of root tabs ready to go. I won't be using a Co2 setup. While the Hairgrass settles in, I plan to have no inhabitants in that tank during that time. After I see it start to spread and carpet itself throughout the tank, I plan on getting a school of zebra danios. (The tank is a 10gallon) What tips do YOU have that made your Dwarf Hairgrass thrive?
  4. Yes, that was one of the diseases I suspected it was and also Tetrahymena. All of the fish had varying differences so I really couldn't settle on a single disease
  5. What medication does work on fish infected with Columnaris? The good news is, I've already treated the tank with Hydrogen Peroxide to remove the excess algae after water changing the tank. Would Hydrogen Peroxide treatments work on fish as well?
  6. Last month, I bought a Kissing Gourami and a Blue Gourami to add to my Gourami collection. I kept them quarantined for about a week with meds before moving them both to my 55g with 3 Dwarf Gouramis, aHoney Gourami, Red Lizard Whiptail, Zebra Angelfish and several Mystery Snails. They all got along great which is what I was worried about. However, 2 weeks after I bought him, the Kissing Gourami developed white spots across his body. I assumed this was Ich as that was one of the only two diseases I've ever had experience with, the other being Popeye. I wasn't worried as I had always easily beat Ich when I kept fish 10 years ago. I treated with Ich-X every day with water changes. Unfortunately, the Kissing Gourami didn't seem to get any better. The 3 Dwarf Gourami's and the Zebra Angel also developed these spots after about a week. I set about researching what else it could be and I really couldn't find a definite answer on what it was. I decided to settle on Culminaris and began treating with Melafix. I only had two treatments left of Maracyn and the local petsmart doesn't sell it. None of the infected Gourami's got any better but the Angel completely lost her white spots so I moved her out to an empty tank along with the Honey Gourami, Blue Gourami and Red Lizard Whiptail. After nearly 2 weeks of treating Melafix and finally the rest of the Maracyn when the Melafix ran out, all 3 Dwarf Gouramis and the Kissing Gourami passed I've since completely drained the tank and filled it with new water. I let the decorations dry out and kept them dry for 24 hours, this includes the sponge filters. I wasn't really sure how to clean the plants so they are as is. I also installed a HOB filter with floss to filter out any crud in there. Any mulm has been completely removed. My question is, how do I ensure this disease is gone? More medicine? Just wait a few weeks? Thanks for your help EDIT: The Angel has completely recovered. None of the other fish in the tank developed any signs of a disease since removing them.
  7. Oh wow, they look identical to what I have. I now believe all 7 of my fry are Tiger Barbs. Thank you!
  8. I had 8 Tiger Barbs in a temporary 10g while I figure out where I want to put them, as they are quite the troublemakers. They were in there for about 2-3 weeks until I made an impulse purchase of 13 Otocinclus Catfish. I moved the Tiger Barbs out and the Otos in and the very next day, I seen wittle fry swimming around! I assumed either they were from eggs laid the night before or they had somehow been caught with their parents in the petstore tank. I was excited! After a week or so, I was pleased with how well the Otos were doing and I moved them (and the fry) into my 20g long which is just rife with algae. I also moved my 7 original Otocinclus from a larger tank to this one. The fry were exciting to watch! I hadn't experienced fry that isn't afraid of larger fish, they swim right with the Otos! Now last night, I noticed some of the fry have 3 vertical stripes. There are 3 larger fry with these patterns and the remaining 4 are thinner, longer and have a horizontal stripe. The ones with vertical stripes are spastic, brimming with energy and this reminded me of another fish I own... I wonder if they may be Tiger Barb fry? They don't sit still enough to get a decent picture but I do have a picture of the longer, thinner ones with horizontal stripes below. What do you think? Am I raising two separate species of fry?
  9. Stick bugs are quite massive for a bug, at least in Indiana (About the size of a nickel). I had a stink bug that managed to drown in my tank and remain hidden among my floating plants for I don't know how long. My fish weren't affected. I wouldn't worry about it
  10. Crinum Calimistratum. Ever since I first found Cory in Dec 2019 and saw that massive Crinum in his 800g, I fell in love. I got one as soon as I could! I had all kinds of struggles with it. I first put it in my 55g with pool filter sand, made sure it had plenty of root tabs. It started dying back! I assumed the issue was not enough light since 55gs are quite tall and I read somewhere that Finnex Stingrays are considered "low-light" lights for tall tanks. I put it in a 10g with play sand and again, PLENTY of root tabs. It strangely started growing despite continuing to look terrible but it did develop a nasty case of staghorn algae I fought that staghorn algae for months, trying all kinds of things. I'd manage to kill it only for it to come right back within a week. Finally, I took it out of the 10g and put it in my 20g with pea gravel. I didn't give it root tabs and honestly, I expected it to die. Well, my 4 swordtail females picked that entire plant CLEAN! and since then, it's been growing incredibly fast. I now have it in a 55g with that same pea gravel and it continues to thrive. I haven't fed it a root tab in nearly 6 months now What an weird, confusing journey with this plant but I think I did figure out my many mistakes. 1. Root feeders don't like sand 2. Too many root tabs contributed to algae 3. Trust in your Swordtails Despite my troubles, I still absolutely adore this plant
  11. My buddy managed to get a great size comparison pic between the gouramis and the angel. A few weeks ago, both my angels started breeding on me. They were being vicious to other tankmates BUT, those dwarf gouramis would hold their ground. Eventually, I decided to take the Angels out because Pastrami (The striped one) started getting downright vicious right back on them. The gouramis are a quarter the size of those angels but man they are sturdy little spitfires. It was their first time spawning, they ate the eggs. I decided to keep the two angels seperated after that. The tanks they are in are right next to eachother and they can see one another. They'll greet eachother every afternoon when the lights flip on but I just don't want to deal with their naughty behaviors during breeding.
  12. Blu was completely white with a few black markings when I first got her, I was confused to why they named her a Blue Zebra. After a few months, that blue started popping out and boy it's stunning!
  13. Thanks! I let a friend of mine name them, she's notorious for giving pets food names but these names fit very nicely! Rhymes!
  14. That was exactly what Blu was doing! My buddy had to give her attention for awhile before he could finally get a decent pic of Tsunami
  15. I'm terrible at taking pics and I was discussing that with my friend today. He bet me he could get amazing pics if I let him, so I did. He wasn't wrong! I'd like to introduce you to Pastrami, Salami and Tsunami the Dwarf Gouramis! They were the first three fish I obtained since getting back into the hobby, in the order I've listed them. Blu the Angelfish was feeling like showing off so my friend got a pic of her too! Pastrami Salami Tsunami Blu Here's a pic of them investigating the snail-pile I put in there for the assassin snails. Thanks for reading! I've never had crisp pictures such as these.
  16. Found a decent pic of Tsunami, his scales reflect so much light, most pics are terrible. He's the family fan-favorite! He's always up to something michevious and can be an absolute goofball as well.
  17. My Dwarf Gouramis, Pastrami, Salami and Tsunami (Tsunami not pictured). They are always having spats
  18. Whenever I put Hornwort in my 55g with the 3 Dwarf Gouramis, they will have spats on who the Hornwort belongs to. Today, Pastrami and Salami were on overdrive on stealing eachother's Hornwort stems, no idea what caused this increased level of aggression and activity. Well, this caught the attention of my Angelfish who was probably thinking this had to do with food. She grabbed one of the stems in her mouth while the Gouramis were sparring and boy was that a no no. Both of them stopped what they were doing and chased her off. Cracked me up!
  19. I have 6 tiger barbs and 2 green tiger barbs, they all school together. I haven't seen them seperate based on color at all
  20. So I have a breeding pair of angels but I did not realize they were a breeding pair until just 2 hours ago when the female started laying eggs and the male was fertilizing them. They were in a 55g community tank and I let them finish their process before moving them and the eggs to a 29g (Didn't want them murdering all my other fish) Well, shortly after moving them, the male decided he didn't like the female anymore and started viciously attacking her. I have since removed her but I'm wondering why this happened? Was it from me moving them? I really had no choice there but it would be good to know Does this mean she can never be a part of the fry rearing? Thanks! Here's some videos before the aggression https://youtu.be/unmyDVzXUSk https://youtu.be/pV5wRJ3wT7w
  21. I bought 3 Honey Gouramis and a month or so later, all 3 somehow got sucked into my filter intake (It was a filter rated for 10gallons in a 20g long) NO IDEA how they got sucked in. One managed to survive, despite being badly battered. I put him in with my dwarf gouramis and he was perfectly fine. Currently, I have him alone in a tank with my breeding mystery snails, he's happy as can be and doesn't hide at all. I think it depends on the personality of your fish, if they are ok with being alone or not
  22. Indeed, a bladder snail like Colu said. I have dozens upon dozens of them. I haven't found them to be as effective as Ramshorns or Mysteries in consuming algae and dead plant matter but they are certainly entertaining to watch. They are known to "wag" their shells and mine seem to do this to eachother, I'm almost convinced they are intentionally having some kind of spat. They'll circling eachother, swinging their shells like some kind of showdown.
  23. Looking over the Fritz Paracleanse box, I cannot see where it says general cure. Is that another name for it? If the medicine I am using won't work on leeches, what do you recommend?
  24. I have already started treatment with paracleanse. Been keeping an eye out for more of these leech/worm/things. The "thing" is currently sitting in a covered mason jar with a few inches of water. The particular substrate I have in that tank (Pea Gravel from Lowe's that is an odd orange color with bits of white as well) has produced some interesting organisms. I had scuds several months ago in that same tank. Not only that, but any fish I have in there for extended periods of time, I have to start feeding less because they get so dang fat. Can't wait to see what else comes out of that odd-looking substrate. (This is a several month old pic, my more recent pictures just look terrible.)
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