nabokovfan87

There's a few things at play here and I can't say for certain what is causing stress. An external parasite could cause the extra slime coat as well as some other issues. This is what @Colu was asking about if it appears fuzzy or not because you'd use different meds to treat each case. 78 is right on the edge where I would say the panda is stressed from the temp. PH also is right on the edge but should be fine. Corys like, generally, cooler water (70-74), lots of oxygenation, and general 6.0-7.0 PH water. Tannins are a bonus also 🙂 . That being said I would check a resource like planetcatfish for parameters for most species. Of note, also, is that these are very likely tank raised and might have different parameters that they can thrive in. This is why I can't specifically say this is the cause or the reason, but just something to note for their care going forward. If you can, depending on stocking I would check what temps make sense for this tank. If you don't have an airstone, I would add one just to help them get used to the new tank. Given that this one corydoras is having some issues and not acting normal, I would put that one fish into a QT tank or into a breeding net at the surface. This helps a little bit with spending energy to get air at the top of the tank. Sometimes corydoras will jet to the top of the water, depending how close that is to the lid they might hit it accidentally. If you do put the fish into a breeder net, try to keep it out of the light and in a setting where it can de-stress and relax a bit.

Yeah exactly. Get a 55G trashcan with the wheels, fill it up, run the UV on it and then after a bit of time you can then do the boiling or whatever else. that's probably the safest method. Whenever you have an issue like this... always best to have some way to precondition your water. I have to add a buffer, desperately wish I could do the same thing.

LOL.... he's just protecting his turf!

welcome to the forums @Kim Nancarrow Can you please post test parameters and all the details including temp. It looks like the little dude might've injured his head and then you have something secondarily causing the white stuff you're seeing. Is there anything sharp on the substrate that they could've gotten cut on?

Looking forward to it. The fish will definitely enjoy it! 🙂

Looks awesome. I wish I had the know how / setup to grow some of my plants this way, especially given the whole algae issue. The second photo, that little scrap looks like some susswassertang (in texture and what not) and in my tank I took this random bit I found and glued it to the wood. Good luck little buddy. I have these super tiny micro plants that are trying to grow, but every time the pump comes on for the CO2 it flies all over the place. I have the parts to built the spray bar, but just need to make it and make sure it works.

Can I get an unlimited supply of one plant? Pretty please!

I can't say, honestly. I just don't have enough experience with angels. Emperor Tetras would be my pick! Aquahuna has some cool varieties. @tolstoy21 is also giving some away in the fish trades section 🙂 .

Anubias is generally pretty forgiving. Even floating it will grow all over the place. Mentioned above was "make sure all the plant parts are facing the same way". I've got some that have the rhizome split into 3-4 branches. The main tip / advice is to literally just place it the way you want it to grow. the plant will grow in one direction, making sure that's what you want. The way you have yours, in the photo above it would be growing to the left. If you plan to trim it, to propogate it, this is less of an issue 🙂 .

I don't like putting corydoras that high (julii's are fine) but the highest I would take a corydoras is ~76-78. I understand people go higher. Having warmer water fish that thrive in the 78-80 range just means that the corys might not thrive. Shorter lifespan is mostly what it means. If you want them to be 76+ then I'd lean towards the false julii / trilineatus corydoras. The angel might have been fine because is was still a juvenile? The main thing is to have line of sight breaks, tall plants and/or hardscape so the angel can have it's territory. I had one angelfish, once, and it didn't go well. Hopefully yours is a lot more timid and community friendly!

I definitely can relate. I spend off days editing audio / video for the fun of it, whenever I find a project that actually is interesting. I don't have the setup I used to, but spending the time to calibrate everything has really given my eyes (and ears) the training to see things a specific way. Light, ambient light, colors, it all varies and definitely messes with your eyes and interpretation. The easiest thing for me is to compare two things and then discerne between those two selection. I think we can all relate to how "fine" of a scale some of these tests can be. "Is it more orange or turning red, etc." I always struggle with some tests and often I have to re-test because I just struggle with it. I don't use flash because it messes with the colors too much. I would recommend always having the color test and the chart in the same shot, even on a white piece of paper works and helps also. Use a flashlight instead of a flash if you need more light because that you can keep common. Flash isn't precise and can skew things based on how the phone reads the object. I also tend to mess with the iso / white balance just to make sure it looks like what I'm seeing in person. BUT.... after all this, if you still have issues, I go to a colorblind simulator (usually top result on google with those two words), and then I'll remove blue or red or green based on whatever test I'm looking at. Some tests are also easier to see black and white as well. All useful tools! Hopefully that helps 🙂 PH: Looks like ~8.1 Ammonia: ~5.0 ppm Nitrite: ~2 ppm (more purple than blue, but the clarity (opaqueness) of the purple would indicate higher value, doesn't seem very high, but hard to tell) Nitrate: 5-10 ppm (perfect)

See. now this is exactly why I'm team shrimps. 😂 This is terrifying! Only if I can have 1 snail in a 120G tank, LOL.... then I won't mind. Then they have enough room to decorate. Definitely shows you how hard species fight in the wild to stay thriving.

Snail eggs from nerites. 100%. SEEEEEEE @Chick-In-Of-TheSea and those are so hard to get off sometimes! 😂 For clarity, they won't mature into new snails outside of brackish water. So you're fine there. It's just unsightly and whatnot.

I have used about 4-5 different ones and had my fair share of issues using them. The biggest consideration I would advise is: A. How big is the container in relation to the fish inside B. How much room does this take up in your tank! A lot of times they sell these for breeding, but even a swordtail or other livebearer can get pretty big, often too big, for the small size of these boxes. If you have a sick fish, wounded fish that you want to observe, the smaller containers also either doesn't have good flow or they don't stay attached. Keep in mind that your Hang on back output is likely going to be felt a lot more depending on how the tank is setup. If you're using sponges, this is less of an issue. Floating style boxes didn't work because they were so small. The boxes with the mesh under the fish for the fry didn't work for this same reason. This are common in the big box store. I do still have it, but I would almost never use it. I have replaced that one with a net style one. Almost no structure and it often falls off releasing the fish. Sometimes these are also only meant for rimless tanks, so verify that before you decide. It's great for some types of fish, but for catfish you'd want to avoid this material. Which leads you down to two recommendations. First, internally, the ziss breeder box works well, is well built, is a good size / shape, and will reliably stay attached to the glass. Ziss has good suction cups. TOO GOOD in most cases, which means they almost always work. Second, as mentioned above, being the Marina hang on breeder box, which is now branded as the fluval breeder box. It's the exact same thing, and you'll often see the older brand higher priced. It's the exact same product and design. This style hangs outside of your tank and this just means you might need to have the lid slightly open. I took a piece of airline tubing and cut it down the middle to keep the edge of the glass from cutting into the plastic on the intake tube. I WOULD HIGHLY recommend adding to this a metal gang valve on your input. The biggest complaint on these is the noise, and yeah... it's a lout one, but once I added the gang valve and tuned it, very minimal noise. I am often a fan of the noise of pumps, equipment, water movement, as it's something I use to block out other noises when trying to sleep. I find myself worried something isn't working when I don't hear the filters! When I first hooked up the marina/fluval box, it was definitely annoying and very loud. The cadence and rate of the noise is also very annoying. I would also comment that for the hang on style boxes, you can use this as a filter for a QT tank. I recommend having those on hand for plants, moss, fish, filtration, etc. VERY useful. This is why they are often sold out and why the hobby really craves an updated, modern version of this style of product!

The angel might pick on the gourami is my only concern.

LOL, definitely would've fooled me.

Hard to see much in the photo. The little one is hiding back there because it's trying to get shade / darkness during the day. You'll likely see the fish out more once the lights start to darken or once they go out. Usually ~30 minutes after lights go out. The reason I mention this is to make sure you have some places with cover where the fish can hide in your hardscape 🙂 If not, maybe a pleco cave will help the fish relax when the lights are on.

I keep a variety of plecos and I have not specifically had issues with salt and their care. Clowns, bristlenose, and rubberlip I have all kept and given the level 2 dose of salt (from the aquarium co-op blog article on salt). If you're in QT, adding the salt is beneficial. Fish need to spend energy for osmosis and adding the salt gives them some minerals in the water as well as it gives them less of an imbalance. They can conserve their energy to fight disease and salt is used to kill some external parasites as well. Salt also helps with the oxygenation and the added struggle for aeration when you dose meds. Hopefully that helps. Welcome to the forum!

Yeah that's exactly what I thought reading the OP, it wasn't primed and that's the noise. It's really bad. Most canisters have the priming arm to manually pump the air out. Definitely need to try to get as much air out as possible. "better" canisters include features to easily get those bubbles out, while others kind of trap them pretty easily.

Definitely. I'm working on a 15G moss tank for something like that. We'll see what happens. you just move the hardscape on the tank to force them to claim new territories. That's one of the ways to reset the aggression.

best of luck. Steenfott aquatics has a video on it, he had a pretty bad outbreak in one of his tanks. Manual removal, siphon, treatment, etc.

Looks like cyanobacteria honestly.

In terms of feeding, rams can be particular. Something like this video below is a good place to start to get an idea of what they want. I see the photos of your tank and there is some "hides" so to speak, but if your ram has something with more cover, that would help to have a place to call their own. Mine literally spent it's time in a wall of jungle val that has a 2" dia opening and he claimed it as his cave. Vertical cover on 3 sides is what you're looking for so they can defend one opening. Providing 2-3 of these hides is going to give you a few places to drop food. That would help with any actual feeding issues and then you can isolate behaviors and illness at that point. Dean uses a pot with the bottom broken out and then essentially tucks it into a corner. I've also seen pots on their side buried into the substrate partially.

I didn't know or realize how warm rams had to be. I kept looking up temps on google and what not and completely screwed up putting mine too low. I miss him. Coolest little fish. I moved him from a bowfront to a 75G and he had the world to swim in, but didn't make it 😞 . I feel so bad. I am thankful yours is doing well. In my 75, I ended up having to run 2x 250-300W heaters, but it all depends on ambient (air / room) temp vs. what you need. In my case ambient dips ridiculously low to the point of snow on the other side of the wall at times and the insulation in the walls isn't really working all that well. One thing to note with heaters, totally just saying this for clarity, is that flow helps to distribute that heat as well. Something to keep in mind with longer / larger tanks. I hope things improve for your ram, catching up on the thread and checking things out with what's going on to see if there's any advice I can give.

That is an awesome setup! For whatever reason I remember my grandma telling me this! It totally could just be me miss-remembering but my grandma is literally one of the most influential people in my life and I miss her so much! MBA is a ridiculously cool place. I am not a fan of aquariums in general (not the ones in my room, but the big ones) because they can take species that really don't belong there "for science". Something like Monteray Bay and their work on sharks for instance is something where I just don't know how to feel. As a thing, a place to go to, it's one of the better ones and one that I can find a lot of appreciation for. It's a beautiful setup and something where I hope to see it in person one day. Totally jealous and excited you finally got to go see it again!