dangerflower

Thank you! They are such cool little fish. I'm pretty smitten with them. They were so shy and nervous in quarantine, so I thought I'd never see them in the tank because there are so many hiding places, but they spend a lot of time out and about. Unfortunately they're also quite mean to each other. I've gotta give hatching brine shrimp a try! The sparklers loved hunting down all the little micro critters in the tank but of course they decimated them all in a couple of days.

Whoops sorry for the delayed response! Thanks for following along 😊 I decided that I probably won't be adding cories to this tank because I'm worried the water temp will be wrong for them. I've got the sparkling gouramis in there now and I'll probably get some green neon tetras eventually, and both those species like to be much warmer than cories. Although it seems like lots of folks keep them at higher temps without issue so maybe I'm being paranoid. I am going to be setting up a 10 gallon pygmy cory tank in the near future though 😁 I think pygmies would fit just fine in your tank as long as you don't have a lot of other mid / upper level swimming fish in there! Pygmies swim all over the place more than other cory species do.

Oh cool! Nets have definitely damaged my poor betta's fins before. This looks like it would be helpful for catching fry too. I usually scoop them in a cup or jar but this would probably be easier.

Welcome! And hello from a fellow trans fishkeeper 👋🏳️‍⚧️ That's a hilarious story! What a bizarre project to find yourself a part of. What are you keeping in your 5 gallon tank?

Blues are definitely my favorite. I'm a complete failure at shrimp keeping, but if I ever give it another try I think I want to get blues again.

I like to have a probe thermometer (like the kind used in kitchens) on hand for verifying water temps. You can check the calibration in ice water to make sure you're getting an accurate read.

Good morning! The tank is looking nice today. Forgot to update that I got a group of six amano shrimp for the tank a few weeks ago. They are having a great time snacking on all that biofilm. I was able to sort out the quarantine tank issues I was having (turns out the ammonia was coming from my tap water 🙃). The sparklers have completed their quarentine and I moved them into their new home on Thursday! Acclimating. Exploring their new surroundings. Their shiny scales don't pop in the tank as much as I had hoped - might just be too dim in the tank, or maybe it's because of the light substrate color. They are very subtle and sneaky but they're so fun to watch. They seem really comfortable in their new environment. I do think I'll eventually try to get a few more of them, ideally some females because I'm pretty sure at least three of these four are males and that's not an ideal dynamic. They are squabbling a lot right now, probably trying to establish territories in the new space. Also, sparkling gouramis really do make a noise and they are LOUD! It's so cool. It's like a rapid clicking sound and I can hear it across the room! Now it's time to get the next round of fishes and begin quarantining them! I'm still debating my stocking plans but right now I'm thinking of getting some chili rasboras next.

Yayyy congrats! They are so cute and tiny!

Per the instructions from the store I get most of my botanicals from, I boil them for at least 20 minutes to sanitize them, toss out that water, rinse, and then do a second soak in dechlorinated water. I think the secondary soak is optional but it helps make sure everything is waterlogged, and I usually add the tannin infused water to the tank along with the botanicals themselves.

That video has me wondering about how best to deal with foods also. I only have small tanks and I go through food so slowly. I wish it was available in smaller containers.

I've also noticed this with mine but my water actually has very low kh. It's weird 🤨

I had no idea kanaplex wasn't effective when given orally...whoops.

@Chick-In-Of-TheSea already spoke to this really eloquently but I would just like to reiterate that the discussion here is not about using prime as a substitute for water changes, but rather whether or not it is effective at mitigating small ammonia spikes in situations where a water change would interfere with the medication of fish. I don't think anyone is trying to be lazy here. In case anyone is curious, the quarentine tank tested zero for ammonia today! So the bacteria appear to be rebounding, which is a huge relief. My tap water is still testing at .5ppm. I bought a few jugs of water to have on hand in case I need to do more emergency water changes. Also added some aquarium salt to hopefully stave off any infections on those torn fins. I put a bunch more fake plants into the tank and the extra cover seems to have calmed them down a lot! Still seeing some scuffles, but overall they seem less stressed.

Thanks so much, everyone! This is all really helpful! My reasoning behind quarantining and medicating these guys even though they are the first fish for the tank was to have a clean slate for the new tank. Cost wise I'm not worried about having to treat the larger volume of water with meds, I'm mostly just concerned about potentially disrupting the newly established cycle. I'm glad it's not just me! I was feeling like I had failed. It's the not being able to change the water during medication that worries me the most, but you've found that prime keeps things safe? I don't currently have space to set up a permanent QT tank with live plants and such, so this is a bare bottom plastic tote with fake plants situation. I do have three silk plants in there, as well as a few catappa leaves that the fish do seem to like hiding under, but adding more seems like a good idea. I think one issue is that they are spending more time at the bottom of the tank than I thought they would, so the fake plants aren't providing cover where the fish are. I think I'll try to look for some hides or shorter silk plants to give them more cover at the bottom and see if that helps them chill out. It had not even occurred to me to check on my tap water oh no! I've tested it in the past and not seen ammonia but it's been a while. So, I tested the water in the QT tank and my tap water this morning and... yep, there is ammonia in my tap water. I actually got a slightly higher reading in the tap water (looks greener, closer to .5ppm) than in the QT tank (more yellow-green, .25ppm). It's been a day since I did a water change in the QT tank. I also tested the water in my betta's tank as a control to make sure my test hadn't just gone funky, and got a zero reading there. I think the plan for now is to get more hides / plants for the QT tank and monitor behavior and water quality for a few more days. If things get worse I'll move them to the home tank.

I haven't intentionally kept and bred scuds but I do have a ton of them living in my outdoor patio ponds, and sponge filters seem to be an especially favorite hang out / hiding place for them.

Oh they're so cute and tiny! What an exciting discovery.

I've never kept ghost shrimp so I can't speak to that, but amanos are incredible algae eaters in my experience, and I've had great success with them for keeping hair algae in check specifically!

I mentioned this in my tank journal, but I wanted to make a separate post because I could use some guidance with this situation. I have four sparkling gouramis currently in quarantine in a 5 gallon tub. I got them on October 25th, so they still have a few weeks to go (I was planning on at least a 4 week quarantine). They have already been through a round of the med trio and are currently waiting until it's time to do a second dose of paracleanse. I used a seeded sponge filter in the tank. Water parameters were fine during med trio week but now I'm starting to see ammonia in the water. It's staying at .25ppm so far. I've been doing 30% water changes pretty much every day but the ammonia isn't going away. I've barely been feeding these poor fish at all because I'm so worried about spiking the ammonia more. I'm assuming my sponge just didn't have a ton of bacteria on it and the bacteria got knocked out by the meds. I'm also starting to see some aggression between these guys. I'm hoping it won't be an issue once they're in their real home with way more space and hiding places, but they are just constantly squabbling. I'm seeing some evidence of fin damage on at least one of them - probably from nipping. I haven't seen any signs of illness on these guys so far. Other than being cranky and just kind of uncomfortable in the quarantine tank, they look healthy. The tank they will be going into is cycled and ready at this point, and there are no other fish in it yet. Should I consider moving them into it now, given these issues? I'd hate for their health to actually decline in quarantine due to these stressors. But I know it can take a while for illness to show up, and that's why we quarantine for at least 4 weeks. I'd also really like to get them that second paracleanse dose. I'd hate to have to treat my whole 20 gallon later.

Having some trouble with my sparkling gouramis in quarantine. I'm seeing ammonia in the water now. I think the med trio may have disrupted the beneficial bacteria a bit (I used a seeded sponge filter, but my tanks are all heavily planted with low bioload so I'm guessing the filter didn't have tons of bb in it?). I'm now having to do water changes in the quarentine tank daily and I can barely feed the fish at all. I'm also seeing aggression amongst them. My hope is that they will be able to get along better when they have more space, but they are definitely over being cooped up together in a 5 gallon tub. They seem healthy over all so far, and my tank is ready for them now, so I'm considering breaking quarantine to get them out of this less than ideal situation. But they still need to have a second dose of paracleanse in about a week. I'd hate to have to treat the whole 20 gallon with meds later if it turns out these guys were sick.

After I did a water change the other day I learned that there are tons more detritus worms hiding in all that mulm than I thought - like a pretty gross amount 😅 hopefully once I stop ghost feeding and there are fish in there to snack on them, the population will dwindle. I added some fresh botanicals, which did cause a new bacteria / biofilm bloom, although so far it's not nearly as serious as the initial one. I think once there are fish in the tank, I'll be more careful about not adding so many botanicals all at once. Creepy biofilm mist. I may regret letting these pink ramshorns do their thing because there are a BUNCH of them already but they're so cute!

He's beautiful! The way their colors change sometimes is so interesting.

@Anjumthanks! They're such sweet little fish. I really hope they do well. I think they'll absolutely love picking through all the leaf litter for snacks.

This used to happen to my betta too! I had forgotten all about it until I saw this. I remember doing so much googling and finding so little information, but I do recall reading something about cysts from minor fin injuries. They always went away within a day or two. He did end up developing some fin issues eventually though. Maybe double check the tank for anything that could be hurting your betta's fins, just to be safe?

@Minanorathank you! 😊 I'm pretty proud of how it's coming together so far.

I decided to make a proper journal for this tank, so future updates will be posted there if anyone wants to follow along 😁