Don H

I have a tank with neocaridina shrimp and fish and the fish have gill flukes. Is there a safe medication to treat them that won’t harm shrimp and snails? Or should I move the fish to another tank to treat them? I can’t move the shrimp, there’s too many and too many babies.

I had some Bacopa Caroliniana that broke free of the roots and wanted to root. I tried floating them with hit or miss luck because there are dark spots it’d get stuck in up top the way the light is. I put a piece in a pot with eco complete and the stem rotted and the plant floated off, so I took a different approach. I used glass marbles (aquarium safe) in a pot and it’s been about 2 months and still doing well. There’s new growth and nothing seems to be rotting.

@Jennifer V thank you. I already have and dose with easy green and easy iron and easy root tabs, though I didn’t give root tabs to the Java ferns. I also got regular Java fern with this order and that one hasn’t melted yet.

Thank you

I just got this Java fern Windelov. Is the black on the leaves natural melting back or is there something wrong with it? I got it from co-op. The other plants seem okay.

What is this and how do I get rid of it? I have platys in the tank, but only 2.

My friend has a skunk corydora. It’s got a white discoloration around its eye. Nitrate 60, Nitrite <1, Hardness 200, Buffer 80, pH 7, Chlorine 0, Amonia 0 Temperature. 78 please help Thank you

I’m currently quarantining 4 platys I got from Petsmart. Sadly, that’s all my area has now. In the 1990s we had about 5 or 6 privately owned fish stores. I got them on Friday April 1st. They had white poop and were flashing. I treated them with internal parasite medicine and medicated food and methylene blue. I did a full treatment for both. The internal parasites were gone, but they were still flashing. One died Tuesday April 5th, so I brought it back and got a new fish (same tank, there was a few leftover from the weekend). Petsmart gives you 14 days. I decided to treat them with salt and let the last dose of meds marinate. 1 of the 4 original fish never showed any signs of illness and seems healthy. The newer fish was flashing when I got it, but has since stopped with the salt. I’ve been adding some and waiting a few days each time. There’s one fish still flashing, but it’s doing it a lot less. I still added some more salt today (Wednesday April 13, as I type this, it’s passed midnight, so technically it’s Thursday). I now have 9 tablespoons of salt in a 10 gallon. Okay, so here’s my big question. Do I keep them in quarantine for a month from the last sign of symptoms or a month from when I got them assuming the symptoms have subsided by that time and no new ones have popped up? I’m hoping the one still flashing will be symptom free by the end of this week. She’s barely flashing now, I had to watch them for an hour to see her do it once. That would give me about 2 weeks until the end of their full month. I’m planning on adding them if they are free of symptoms that last two weeks after I do a few water changes to lower the salt level in the tank. The tank they are going into has no salt and has several plants. Any thoughts or advice are welcome. Thank you.

Thank you. I’m getting mixed answers from Facebook groups. Lol. I think I just have to give it a week or so and see if it’s developing the male fin or a damaged female fin. Time will tell.

Okay, I’ve been keeping fish for my whole life and I’ll admit it’s been a while since I’ve kept live bearers, but this one I’m having some trouble sexing. Is it a young male that isn’t fully formed or a female with fin damage? Or just a malformed fin?

@JoeQ lol. Maybe I should move it to my quarantine tank. It’s in my basement and gets hardly any light. It’s got some platys in it now.

@Tanked I don’t.

I put it on top of the fake rocks so it’s in the middle of the tank and closer to the lights and gave it another root tab. Thank you everyone.

I’ll try that. Thank you.

I did give it a root tab about 2 weeks ago. I have another 29 gallon that doesn’t have other plants in it, maybe I’ll move it to that tank and that way it doesn’t have to share the liquid fertilizer with the other plants.

I bought water sprite and it arrived February 14th, I think. This picture is from Tuesday. I know water sprite doesn’t ship well and is supposed to die back before it gets better. It’s in the front of the tank, left corner. It looked better when I first got it. I’ve given it a root tab, and I dose the tank with easy green and easy iron every Friday. About how long does it take for water sprite to bounce back? Water temperature is 74 (unheated tank). I leave the light on for about 12 hours or more a day. I have ramshorn snails in the tank to take care of algae.

Could be a mineral deficiency or low PH could do that to their shells. Either way, crushed coral will probably help. They look like regular ramshorn snails. Great tank cleaners and the population is limited by the food supply.

I bought Java moss back in the mid 90s. It all died except one little strand. You can not give Java moss too much light. That little strand with no fertilizer other than fish waste from 4 lake Malawi cichlids, turned into pounds of moss I kept giving away. I had put some in an empty food container once for a friend to pick up. He kept putting it off until it had been in the container for 3 months. It was still green and still grew in his tank. You might lose most of it, but once it takes off, it’ll grow like crazy. Give it lots of light.

I have some plants that take root tabs and they’re still in the original rock wool. I plan on putting them in pots with one of the types of aquarium soil (haven’t decided which). Until I get a chance to do that, should/can I put the root tabs in the rock wool? Also, which aquarium soil would you recommend? eco complete, fluval stratum, or Flourite?

@Odd Duckto be clear, my friend said you can drink it 🤣🤣 I don’t recommend doing that. It is nontoxic though. I use them in these Rubbermaid swiffer type mops I got that have a built in sprayer. I do 50/50 with water in the sprayer. I hope these links are allowed. For wood floors. https://www.target.com/p/method-cleaning-products-squirt-mop-wood-floor-cleaner-almond-25-fl-oz/-/A-13532562?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tmnv&DFA=71700000080814343&CPNG=PLA_DVM%2B0060H00000uKAWLQA4-SCJ_2021_method_Search_Flight-AO&adgroup=PLA_Method&LID=700000001393753pgs&network=g&device=t&location=9004857&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgP6PBhDmARIsAPWMq6lVtEeNKxw7Pf8Hm30ozmmmtCzjDgdPT6Xa5sNs7BbflNZpT2nD7wcaAhrcEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds I use this on the tiles. https://www.target.com/p/method-squirt-mop-hard-floor-cleaner-spearmint-sage-25-fl-oz/-/A-50918995?ref=tgt_adv_XS000000&AFID=google_pla_df&fndsrc=tgtao&DFA=71700000049437459&CPNG=PLA_Household%2BEssentials%2BShopping|Household%2BEssentials_Ecomm_Essentials&adgroup=SC_Household&LID=700000001170770pgs&LNM=PRODUCT_GROUP&network=g&device=t&location=9004857&targetid=pla-616194086873&ds_rl=1246978&gclid=Cj0KCQiAgP6PBhDmARIsAPWMq6kcbNCTQLPT3rw2zdNPy9VaRs9k0G58WeL3ofPAQmAOJnvPRDlV1vEaAq19EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds Original flavor listerine was originally a floor cleaner. Tastes like it too. 🤣

@Odd Duckgood advice with the pots. I actually bought the house from a friend I grew up with. Most of the pots were his mother’s. She sold him the house and he sold it to me. They both moved to Texas. He was never big on chemicals. He did everything organic and so did his mother. They’ve always had dogs and other pets and were always worried about their animals getting sick from chemicals. Even their floor cleaner is safe to drink and he used to buy special pet safe de-icer for the driveway in the winter. I actually use the floor cleaner they use now. It works well and smells nice. 😉 Last summer I put my turtles outside in 2 kiddy pools about 4 feet in diameter. One of my turtles has since died, so the one will go back out this summer and the other will be my first attempt at a patio pond. I might try mosquito fish in one of the pots. I want to try a few small ponds. I’ve been watching a lot of Rachel O’Leary’s patio pond videos on YouTube. I like how everything colors up outside. I also watched some by aquarium co-op. My MTS is in overdrive and I’m trying to pace myself so I don’t burn out. 🤣

@Odd Duckthe cabomba lasted a few months or so. Lol. I do not consider my time with it successful. I’ll be sticking with the easy plants for now. I also don’t want to mess with CO2 or expensive lights. I’m trying to stay simple these days. I want my tanks to relieve more stress than they cause. Lol. Thank you for the information it is a big help. I was thinking of trying scarlet temple in the future, which is listed as a medium skill level plant. Baby steps though. I have some dwarf water lettuce I got with the ramshorn snails I bought. That’s actually in a small tote with an air stone and a few snails. I got mixed colors on the snails and wanted to see the variation on one clutch of eggs, so I moved a small rock with one batch of eggs on it into the tote. The water lettuce kept getting stuck away from the light in the tank and was dying off. The tote is next to the tank by a window that gets a good amount of light. I attached a picture of the tote. They seem to be getting smaller over the winter. I’m hoping to put them outside in a patio pond this summer to get them to take off. @GuppysnailI love your tanks. Thank you for sharing the pictures. I have a lot of similar clay pots from when I had jack dempseys. Also the previous owner of my house left a lot of pots in the shed. A few are bigger and I thought about using them for patio ponds in the summer.

@xXInkedPhoenixXyou just gave me an idea with the pots in your bare bottom tank. I have a bunch of small clay pots I can put the plants in with ecocomplete or fluval stratum without changing the whole tank. @Greg Stewartthe Cabomba did last for a bit. I used to leave my lights on a lot back then. I also had a lot of air being pumped into the tanks and a HOB that was meant for a tank twice the size. I had a tendency to overstock back then. The pearl weed and bacopa were much smaller when I got them. Less than half the size they are now. I try to give them about 12 hours of light a day. I know that’ll cause algae, I want algae for the ramshorn snails. I also dose once a week with some aquarium fertilizer I had gotten years ago (like 25) at a pet shop in Woodstock, NY called the Birdcage. Lol. When I was there was about the time the movie came out. My friend and I had drove up there for the day so he could get some birds. I found the bottle in my parents garage where I have most of my fish stuff. I’m still moving everything over to my house. I plan to eventually have all 10 of my tanks running again. I have 3 running right now.

What kind of substrate is that? Have you tried easy iron fertilizer? I saw a video where they said the iron is what brings out the reds in the plants.

Thank you. Pearl weed is also listed as easy. I stick to easy too. Lol