nabokovfan87

autocorrected me. MULM in the tank. They will graze on mostly rock and plant surfaces, even sponge surfaces at this age. The biggest obstacle is flow, beyond that it's just about a bit of food and time for them to grow. Once you see fins, then they can better handle flow.

I use a flashlight. You can also use the blue light on most tanks and see them. Fry are generally active when the tank is sleeping. That's all.

With the fry, you'd basically do that once a day. If you don't have a lot of fry, then obviously a very very small amount. They are mostly going to graze off the substrate and hardscape anyways. Yeah. So the shrimp should be fine at 70-72. Just go slow. Be cautious with it because they are new.

Nope it won't bother them. You're feeding that to the fry, so you'd want to see them, then that would be the food to use. The shrimp will graze on it too. Ultimately. The parents shouldn't bother the fry, but you can move them if you really feel like you need to. If it was me, I'd just sort of let the tank do its thing. In terms of how much it's a very very very small amount. I've seen people use paint brushes to dip it into the powder and then tap that into the tank. One degree a day is generally safe. If you raise it, wait a few hours, raise it again, you should be fine. It takes time for the tank to acclimate to having a heater. I do cool water changes. Drop the tanks by 5+ degrees, let it sit for an hour or so, then turn the heaters back on. The big thing is the sensitivity of those involved. Have your shrimp always been cold and kept cold for a really long time or is it something where they are warmer in the summer? Is the second situation is the case, I wouldn't be afraid of it nearly as much. Let's say 1 degree a day is the safest way. Universally I think that is generally accepted.

What are all of your parameters? As the group size gets bigger you'll see them act a bit more normal. Corydoras sitting isn't a good or bad thing. If it's out of the norm, it's one thing, they might just be more sensitive to light or something because of the clouding. Tough to say. Let's check parameters and go from there. Try to get both tanks to 72 if you can. 70 is fine, but if you can 72 gives you margin for when the nights get cold.

You can see in those top two eggs the actual fry inside the egg. Also looks like the eggs below those two that are tan also have some details to them. Cory fry can take anywhere from 48 hours to a week to hatch in sole cases. You should see those hatch, the others that are that tan color without detail already may have. As long as you don't see fungus, you don't need to do anything. Let the shrimp do their thing, let the fry do their thing. Add some repashy powder and just make sure there is mulm in the tank for the fry to eat. I know it's difficult, but just check things out at night and you'll get an idea of what specifically to look for. (Meaning just how the fry look after hatching, very very small) and you'll check on them every night.

Time will tell, but I would say yeah, generally anything used in the hobby apart from Cholla wood is probably robust enough.

Trying to decide which food to feed out today.... Just one pinch of flake... Maybe two. Maybe some pellets for the corydoras....

Yeah I can't give you L numbers. One of mine looks like a Rio Negro, the other looks like a flash pleco.

Mine were under $10. I think one of them I paid $7 for.

Half of me wants to make a fan club post for this fish, but let's just have a fun little chat about the question above and see if what I have in mind fits the bill. PH Range: 6.8-7.8 (I've kept mine lower, for sure, without issues) Temp Range: 72-82 degrees F (Definitely had mine lower and they are content to low 70's in my experience) Max Length: 3-4 inches Group Size: single specimen is perfectly fine and very common Special Requirements: Just needs a chunk of wood Any ideas? Alright I'll give it up. Let me start by showing a few, wonderful patterns: While I won't say "go get this L number" I will say that if you ever see one you like, I do recommend checking out a species of Panaqolus plecos or "clown plecos" that are usually pretty easy to find. https://www.planetcatfish.com/common/genus.php?genus_id=762#126 They are easy to care for and the only real downside is the amount of time you might see them. If you have a blackwater tank, definitely add one! If you have a tank with a lot of wood, you can probably add a few! If you like the way they look, add one! What is really cool about these species is that they can fit a wide range of situations. They just do their thing and they build up mulm much less so than a BNP or other species. Generally they do stay small and they are like these little tigers you get to see rarely, but it's always fun when you do! Can't say it enough. Time to go stare at my tanks and go find mine. 🙂

I was checking out mine yesterday, cleaned the glass and proceeded to spook her back into hiding. she has a hole in this stump of malaysian wood she likes. I would add a cave, but then the giant RTBS will think she can fit in there. 😂 If you ever get a decent shot of the pattern on yours feel free to share!

Yep. I have some pretty specific techniques. I am working on a wrap up of my years of testing these things at various models in various setups. If you look at the link in my description, I use a pair of pliers and cut the basket base in a specific way. Start with that. I know you have the right tools for the job and will make it look a lot better, but the outline of where / what to do is there. Without modding the skimmer, without doing much work, you're talking 15 minutes of work and a world of difference in terms of usability. The designer in me is really annoyed at Seachem for not coming out with a v2.0 of this thing by now. I actually dig the uplift tubes. Reminds me of being a kid, especially those little black carbon blocks on the top. It's just a tube, easy to glue moss and junk to it!

In terms of the equipment. Clean the air stone and stuff as well. Replace the airline tubing that was used. It's very likely some water made it into the tank, but for now just monitor things. As mentioned, clean water. Low nitrates is a good way to fight fin issues.

I would need more photos, honestly. Especially seeing the spines on the dorsal and the lower fin geometry is really helpful. Clown pleco looks like it's right below the ram. You can see it's tail out in the open.

I definitely have some goals, but I feel like if I say anything the tanks will hear me and revolt for the entire year! (Especially that algae) Seriously though, I do have some things I want to try. Right now I just want to get some successful Hygro Pinnatifida to be able to actually see it when I look at the tank. Moss is great and it looks great, so does the S. Reopens, but I really do want to get some more stems and the Hygro to propagate.

Definitely mod it. 😞 Such a frustrating issue that one is.

Yes.... 😂

Get some aquarium salt to have on hand as well as kanaplex and paracleanse would be recommended. We're still trying to understand the situation and so it's difficult to answer. Was the panda in the floating container getting water from the tank? Was water from it's container put into the tank? Then yes, it's a risk what was on one fish went to the others. That panda was struggling and it doesn't mean the others will show any issues. Monitor things right now. Especially fins for fin rot. Bloating, sunken belly, listlessness is the others id watch for.

I do this far more often then I'd ever admit because I tend to get irritated with substrate issues! Kidding aside, I have done the following more than half a dozen times and it's usually fine even with fish in the tank without any stress. In all it's resolves to a big water changes and the monthly deep clean of the tank. Modify the terminology as you need to but this is my setup: 1. Setup 3 buckets, fill them 1/2-2/3 full with tank water. 2. Move all the hardscape and wood to a tub (or a plastic bag on the floor). Any hardscape with plants goes to it's own wet bucket. 3. Move all the plants to a bucket 4. Move all the fish to the final empty bucket and set it aside, preferably with a lid. You'd want this fish bucket to be in a place where the fish don't feel a lot of vibrations, won't get startled, and where things wont get tripped on or bumped. A towel on the top works too. I usually add in the ceramic media to the bottom of this bucket with an airstone until the tank is ready. 5. Remove as much was as possible (bucket #4) 6. Remove the substrate into a bucket to rinse / clean (bucket #5-6) 7. Scrub the glass, get a hose and add any water to rinse what you want to if you need to. Usually for me this includes cleaning the lid / rim and filtration. (I clean the housing, pump, impeller, sponges) 8. Add in your new substrate that was previously rinsed, add in your hardscape, then plants. Run the filter for a little bit and take a short break! (almost done). Add in dechlorinator and buffers of course 9. Add in your fish and let them get used to the new digs. To minimize stress you can turn the lights off and let them settle for the night. because you don't have to mess with a lot of the above steps and added buckets, you can basically just drain the tank, then scoop out the substrate and replace what you want. 🙂 To your other question, for shrimp I would have wood in that tank, and I would opt to have it up for at least 1 month, preferably 45 days with some sort of bioload in the tank prior to adding the shrimp. You want to build up some aufwuchs, mulm, and so on. A clown pleco is probably a good choice for that! You can always move them prior to adding in the shrimp, but that will keep the tank going while you're waiting for things to settle in.

Hello, welcome to the forums. I do think pecktec might have a video on it. I haven't heard about that technique from anyone else.

Given the sheer number of deaths, I am going to guess that the issue was some chemical residue on the cucumber. Sometimes even with rinsing thoroughly some veggies might introduce something we really don't want. I think OD was onto it when mentioning the gut bacterial issue. You mentioned it was an organic one, all I can think is to point to that as one possibility even if it seems extremely unlikely. Soap on the hands, lotion on skin, something in the room that somehow got in the tank, and it's just a fluke coincidence. If it were me, I would start by removing everything from the tank you can. If all the fish are in a specimen container then I would try to move that to a bucket or tub for an hour while doing a scrub and clean of the tank. Usually when I suspect a major contamination issue I follow this method: 1. Remove the lid, set it aside to be cleaned at the sink. 2. Remove all the hardscape to be rinsed thoroughly and cleaned (plants in your case fit this) 3. Try to remove the fish if need be, but generally this isn't feasible. 4. siphon out the substrate heavily until the tank is at 50% water volume. This gives you "room to work" so to speak. 5. Using paper towels, fish only sponge, or something that you feel you can use on the tank, I go ahead and scrub the sides and front glass. I go ahead and clean near the rim, this is usually where things linger and a lot of junk hides. 6. Clean the filter housing, sponges, pump, rinse it well in the sink. I would tend to opt towards rinsing the ceramic media (or biological) in the tap water as long as it's cold as well in this instance) 7. Siphon out the water as low as you can, ensuring the fish themselves have enough water in the tank so that their dorsal fins are submerged and they aren't going to get trapped somewhere and hurt themselves trying to scatter around on the tank. This is usually at 80% water volume for most people. 8. Gently reverse everything. Fill up the tank with temperature accurate water, dose in 2-3x the normal dose of dechlorinator and add carbon to the filter for the next 10-14 days. As a sidenote, if you haven't I would add an airstone (or two) and then I would clean the lid / rim area daily just to make sure whatever the air splashes onto the bottom of the lid you can remove. Running carbon right now (once you're done with meds) I would also highly recommend to filter out whatever is going on. I know it seems drastic, but hopefully that is useful and helpful. I feel such sympathy for your struggles and wish I could do more to help.

What is your KH? Potentially you had a KH crash from the food, resulting in a PH dive. My otos have been and constantly stay at 6.2 and up to 7.4. They've been in this tank for quite a while. At the old house, out water was much more stable, pegged at 6.8-7.0 without much issue. Whether there was a contaminant from cleaning something, a swing in some parameter (temp and oxygenation is usually what I look at for loaches, otos, and corydoras), or if there was just a random fluke accident that happened in timing with your vacation... difficult to pin anything down. I'll keep reading..... Alright yeah, that's "good" and adding that KH to slightly buffer up to 70 range is perfect. Just making sure it doesn't drop below 60 is about what I shoot for. It's so hard to keep it that high and have large volume water changes in my current location. I think you're setup for the right recipe moving forward to remove / ignore PH+KH as a stress point. Yes, the pump is located in the water itself.

How many treatments would you normally do for this case and how far apart? Generally I think the "go to" is 3 treatments minimum, with a break of 7-14 days between each round of treatment. I would say 4 is the minimum when you see the fish actively expelling them like yours. I've seen recommendations from very qualified professionals stating minimum is 6. What is your ritual with internal parasites?

That's exciting!