nabokovfan87

That aponogeton is the best. Wahoo!!!! Beautiful shots, thanks for sharing. 🙂

Cc @Chick-In-Of-TheSea look at how beautiful. Congratulations on 1 year!

As mentioned, thankfully she is no longer suffering. My condolences.

Yeah I think that's the one. Unfortunately it's just unavailable here. When I did see it, it was around $100

I would definitely hold back everything for minimum 10 days, at most 14. If you don't see any changes or improvement then I don't think it's worth letting the fish suffer further. 😞

Yeah, I forget the source but for mosses and anubias I was recommended to dose in a little iron. Optionally, take a bag of aquasoil in a media bag and hide it in the back of the tank. It will add some nutrients that can slowly release over time and probably the most effective thing you can do for the anubias over time. It's an old aquascaper trick. I would trim off the worst of the leaves and check out the rhizome for any signs of issues as well. You can always cut the rhizome just to have a chance at keeping the plant from killing itself too. (Take the big rhizome and cut it in sections so that each section is it's own plant...)

Netflix. Go check out dark waters. If that's something you're seeing in the tank, consider exposure to yourself and those around you.

Considering your other plants you have in the garage(?) I would wonder how this would look like with the light mounted higher above the jar. I have space next to my tank again and I'm looking around the house at all the jars we have with visions of projects and actually having a method of getting plants to grow. 😂 We moved a rack out to the front, so my houseplants are now outside and I'm trying to get ginger to grow as well as my ZZ plant to reappear. Time will tell. *Insert some expression about trying to grow a fruit tree in the desert or getting water from a stone*

Yep. Both basically do nothing.

Nice and tidy. You do what you gotta do!

Whichever you decide, get a stand for a 75G. I recommend the one that I have, but unfortunately it's not easy to obtain anymore. The reason I say this is that it gives you the "space" for the table to be a table and the tank will always be supported well. 75G stands are made a bit better quality to distribute weight. I would honestly recommend a 40 (3 foot) or 60Breeder tank (4 foot). I've been in the world of the 55G tank and it's just so tall and narrow (from to back) that it's difficult to really utilize fully. The added depth on the tank is very worthwhile. I like the height change from a 75g down to a 60 because it makes life so much easier for you and it's more panoramic in aesthetic. If you take a 55G tank and put it on a 75G stand, the corners are supported properly and you can even skew it towards the back of the stand or front of you don't want it centered. This gives you space for things behind the tank or just a place to set something down. With the 40 on that stand, depending on construction that stand should be made in such a way with supports on the middle of the tank and you can locate it as such to be properly supported. Again, it just gives you a "table" for something like a canister filter or decorations or a place for things to go when you need to. The Petco branded ones are very good and very well made. I have a 55G one that is a bookshelf in its new life and I have the 20Long on one as well. That 40B stand is wonderful and they are reliable. The only real issue is that it's better if you have a wooden top on it and you don't have a stand for storage. Most other metal stands I've seen are made with thin materials and that would just concern me. It's definitely worth a trip to Petco and PetSmart just to see the stands and get hands on them and understand the quality as opposed to something from Amazon and a brand that you really don't know if it's reliable, certified, or properly designed for aquariums. The one I have was branded aqueon and made by sauder. The majority of wood stands from Petco are made by sauder. Awesome! What a great fix and elegant solution. Much better than paying a few hundred for a fancy one in the saltwater world. 😂

Yeah! It was my colder temp tank and I really took time boosting the temp up. I didn't crank it to 80+ just because the fish weren't tolerant of that. It was definitely an enlightening experience. I had added fish, definitely ich, definitely was something where the lifecycle just took a lot of time to progress.

Wave 3, 4, or 5 or losses and were back to almost daily losses again. I am on day 3 of feeding medicated food and I'm thankful so much to @Chick-In-Of-TheSeafor helping me get to that point. At this point the disease being treated is that internal infection and we're running through bacterial meds. As @Odd Ducka and @Colu had advised I am using the full recipe, maracyn 2 right now. I have kanaplex and metroplex I can utilize as well if need be. There's two main deaths I want to talk about and I have a third one in tow that we can discuss as well. This disease is a very, very, very difficult puzzle. I had struggled with the fin deterioration and I took a photo showing the fins one on of the fish regrowing. The rot had been so severe that regrowing the fins wasn't viable and there was no way that fish would be able to recover. In a span of about 48 hours the dorsal and tail were gone. Starting from essentially "the floor" of the tank and working it's way upwards. The fish could not swim properly (basically at all) and was shuffling around the tank when stressed. I opted to euthanize this one as I have been forced to do with several of these fish and no longer wanting them to suffer. Following this above description, we have another fish that I was confusing this fish with. This particular large adult fish (about 1.5-2 years old) is laying up at the top of the tank in floating stems with its nose practically at the surface and it's nearly vertical. If you didn't know you would think it was watching oarfish videos all day. The same rot, same deterioration, but it's currently less severe. It is progressing and I'm monitoring it, but based on behavior alone I do not believe this fish will survive. I've lost two other fish this week. The first I thought was a "classic" example of the external slime, fungus, or protozoans that I've been seeing. I think many of us have seen a dead fish in the tank and it's started deteriorating and some external fungus takes hold. It basically looked like that but I would describe it more as Ice crystalizing on the surface and growing fronds like a snowflake or something. It has a defined shape and structure and you can see the progress from day 1 where it's just a small whiteness on the fish to death where it's fully engulfed the body cavity. This fish had ZERO rot and only had the external issues amongst whatever internal issues. The next fish I lost about 24 hours later was not allowed to eat or feed on the body, I am very vigilant about removing them because I assume that's the biggest way this disease is spread (via contact or ingestion). The fish looked perfectly healthy, but could not function or swim in any capacity at all. The fish was actually swimming upside down and couldn't regulate which way was up. It has been 2 days of this before I euthanized that fish in particular. It was going to die within hours and breathing had slowed dramatically over that 48 hour period. All of the issues seemed to be internal, similar to our buddy that hanging out in the floating plants. Which again, makes me question everything. It doesn't make sense to do the rundown of all of the meds used and all of the issues that I am seeing, but I hope that sharing those descriptions gives a good idea of what I'm going through and trying to work against. My question..... I am feeding this medicated food for at least 2-3 weeks. This is going in the 75G as well as the holding tank for the sicker fish, my 20Long. They have been eating the food.... THANKFULLY. Odd_Duck, Colu, if we get through this treatment what is the proper procedure for using the next medication. Should I even try kanaplex in food or MetroPlex at this point considering that the tanks have been treated. Right now, nothing seems to be helping.... Or reinfection is constantly happening when one of the sicker fish passes on. My gut tells me to finish the treatment with Maracyn 2, give them 1-2 weeks off and then proceed with kanaplex to purely try and stop this fin rot. I replaced the felts in my air stone so that the diffusion is improved and I have the air and everything working very well in both tanks. Beyond that I'm not sure there are any further steps I can take to fight this.

I love the actual feint blue lines on some of these hillstream species. There is a book out there you can order and if you're interested in all in these specific species I would highly recommend checking it out. I found out about it by using a site designed for loaches based on the same sort of concepts as planet catfish. I can get the link and find it if you're interested, but I'm here for the journey! Beautiful photos. Looking forward to seeing more. FYI @Epiphanaea please make sure you censor your OP. Rachel O'Leary has Wonder videos about her loaches, breeding, and interviews with other loach breeders. Something to check out as well if you're simply unsure what behavior you're seeing. Mine used to use the top of a pleco cave or flat surface and play "King of the hill" trying to have that spot. It's not necessarily breeding behavior, but just about food, social hierarchy, and who might be the one that gets things first.

I'm hoping for rapid improvement for you and the fish. Hopefully the AC is working amongst other things! I had the little surface temp things I use on the lid of the tank one day when I was cleaning the side and it read 80+ and I just instantly sank inside a bit. "shoot, has this been the issue all along!? Oh wait, it's on the lid and it's just the light." You're doing a lot, trying to do the best things you can. Ich for me was about 30-45 days and a lot of bottles of ich-x and salt. I ended up losing a lot of fish, but thankfully Grace and most of her friends were ok. It's a really tough thing to experience and you've been there before. I feel like having that unfortunate experience is a great mentor for the next occurrence. Almost reminds me of a very upset fish doing the "I'm not happy" dance. The quick bolt at the end reminds me of flashing. The shape is weird though. Get better soon fish. You're in good hands.

Dry time is normally 3-4 days. Yep! You can throw it in the base of the tank and just run an air stone as well.

This is what I was referring to as far as PC cutting parts. Seems like a great kit, comes with a guide for bending angles as well as the deburr tool on inside and outside ends. Corsair Hydro X Series, XT, Hardline Bending Toolkit, (12mm &14mm), Universal https://a.co/d/0MlCCyV

They make parts for cutting acrylic tubing for computer water cooling. I would start there... Especially with the deburr tools. You can absolutely cut them. Band saw is the easiest way.

I’m not sure if Amanos would clean glass? I think they mainly clean objects. We can ask @nabokovfan87. They can graze off the glass just like other shrimp, but that's only going to really happen when all of the other algae is gone. They might peck at longer string algae on the glass, but they definitely won't "clean" the glass. The best glass cleaner I had was a rubberlip pleco. (Also called a bulldog pleco)

Great job as always @WhitecloudDynasty

Check out my tidal thread and simple follow "phase 1" modifications. That's about the bare minimum and goes a long way towards reducing issues.

I could be wrong, but I would add a secondary dose and let it "soak" to help keep infections from popping up. The major one would be fin rot. So your water change as mentioned, then just redose the med and let it sit for 48-72 hours.

You can't really remove the basket because it has a chute that directs the water to the bottom of the housing. People have cut it and glued it into the housing, but ultimately you're stuck with the basket for that reason. 100%. There is no perfect filter. They all have some pretty ridiculous flaws.

On some level... It's basically just moving water. The mechanical filtration is doing 15% of the work it should be and the majority of the flow is just hitting the media bag and tossing dirt into it. This means your media gets dirty and you literally aren't doing much beyond moving water. You have very simple adjustments that can improve things. Using fine foam to block the path from one cutout and use the bottom sponge is one of the easiest. I would encourage you to go check out the tidal thread, see the pictures and videos showing the issues.

This is the one that's been struggling. It was out front and I was able to get a photo. Dorsal is practically gone, tail is also severely damaged, and barbels are near gone.