nabokovfan87

That's the worst!!!! Sneaky little shrimp. LOL. A. Check the highest flow part of the tank, even if it's out of water. B. Check at night, they tend to be way more active after lights out. They are still active during the day, but way moreso at night. Best of luck with the search! Good to see you're keeping spirits high. I hope everyone around you and you are doing well going through all of that 🙂

Very sorry for your losses. I have to say, along with everyone else, algae aside (in this case you want it) how amazing that tank really is. I love the short longer tanks for nano species. It's so nice to have a "big tank that is 4+ feet long or just looks like it. Very cool setup you have going on 🙂 .

Depending what kind is involved I would encourage you to keep fish + shrimp. They do well together. I don't think I'll ever have a tank without some amano shrimp. As for your tank... KH/PH on your tank is pretty low, especially compared to the tap. This isn't great for shrimp. PH swings aren't their favorite, and their least favorite being temperature swings. I would get your tank parameters within 10-15% of your tap before you consider adding shrimp. Something like PH/KH/GH are going to determine what shrimp works best with your current setup. Just meaning, as mentioned above, neocaridina, caridina, Amanos, etc.

Temp in your tank is pretty warm for them. As a general rule I have seen two types of behaviors with corydoras. In my black cory tank.... They have a smaller group size, the tank is very specifically setup so they have places to lay eggs, but not necessarily places to hide. There is a big piece of wood that acts as cover for them. That is where they tend to hang out and feel safe. This is also the smaller of the two groups I have (5 total). In my Panda cory tank.... They have similar setup, but far less plants. It's going to be a mopani / anubias setup long term. Right now it's just lava rock with some pieces of mopani to make paths and archways. They can sit underneath, and they do, and that is their cover. During the day there are about 1/2 the group that is out hunting and the other half stays under cover. They may rotate in and out, but they generally swim around and aren't afraid of anything when it comes to being active in the tank. There is ~25 in this group. In either case, they are more active after lights out. I have kept False Julii Corydoras before and they were generally active. I would make sure your tank has an airstone (or two) if it does not already have one. At that point I would try to lower the temp if you can. Right now it's about 2-4 degrees too warm for them.

Use filter floss / filter pad, the media that you have in there, the bag of stuff, just toss that into the tank itself. All you have to do, every week, replace the floss. All done. The tank will stay cycled because the media is still in the tank. I was removing a HoB in one of my tanks and I just take the media itself and set it on the top of the sponge filter. (large size) That should work well for the situation and you will keep the tank clean, maint. extremely easy and you can do it one handed 🙂 . The skimmer on the Tidal 35 doesn't work or do anything. Think of it as just more intake holes. No big deal. This would be how you do it with the Tidal 35. You'd use aquaclear rectangular shape sponge.

Generally with septic, I wouldn't put any fish stuff down the pipe. Use the garden or bush or something in the front yard. I use the hose out front/back.

Just be careful with that stuff going down the drain. 🙂 I totally have used the kitchen sprayer with a bucket before. 😂

That stand looks toast.

One of the common things that a lot of people overlook is hardscape prep! When I first added rocks to my tank the one I had locally was lava stone. Ridiculously sharp stuff!!! The way you prep lava rock is similar to what Cory does with his cinder block stands and leveling the stones out. You can use something like sandpaper, but the easiest way to do it is to take flat sides of two rocks and rub them together to break those fine edges. You can also do this against cement, something like that, but this may damage the surface of the rock depending on which you use. 80-grit sandpaper is what I used. Dragon stone is one of the other types of hardscape that has a pretty unique prep method. It is, or can be, a very muddy stone. All the scoops and indents in the rock may often contain a ton of mud and it take a lot of work to get that out of the rock. The mud runs really deep into the rock and it's just something you have to take time to remove depending on what piece you have. Rocks with these deep cavities for instance, those pockets are where the mud gets into.

You should be able to reheat it, pan or microwave or add some hot water + powder and get it to set. Just add some powder to it to get it to set a little thicker. Very very very hot water has been. The key for me and way more stirring than you think. Because the repashy didn't set, it's likely the meds and stuff affected consistency, you'll likely want to soak clams or something in meds for the puffer too. Once you see spots disappear, then we can talk about how to move forward with the other bacterial meds, but one step at a time. Ich-X+salt for now. Food+kanaplex. Yeah, salt will too! With the puffer in there I think level 2 might be the right amount (co-op salt blog article). I do 1/2 cup per 10G, but that is with corydoras and not a puffer. Level 2 is ever so slightly less salt than that dosing. I wish you the best. Hopefully things settle out and everything is ok. Considering it's the most sensitive, I would set temp based on what the puffer can tolerate. Everything in the one tank, then just treat that tank. Amazing fish you have!!!! Feel better fish! @Coluhhave you had any issues or a specific ratio that works well with repashy and kanaplex? I assume the heat of the hot water would remove the meds viability? Just meaning, add the meds right when it starts to set and the food is fully incorporated, not when you add the hot water at max temp at first? I'm not sure the specific method here, but that's what makes sense to me.

Sounds good. Either dose the tank with erythromycin or feed the food (not both). You can also feed, run the ich-x+salt, and then follow up with the feedings for the time being and see how things improve. The reason being is you don't want to double dose and have an issue where the fish is over medicated and suffers as a result. It will take 1-3 weeks to get through this so it's just a matter of time regarding how things progress. With Ich you will see the spots on the fish, those hatch, then you have the cysts on the substrate. You'll see more on the fish, but less so than before. This continues until it's gone. Just meaning, you'll have time to dose erythromycin after feeding without issue. The wounds from the spots open up, that's when the bacterial meds protect the fish from secondary infection issues.

Great idea. Even a piece of it. 🙂

Rubberlip / Bulldog Pleco. It's basically designed for getting plate algae / diatoms off of surfaces. Big algae lips! For comparison, pleco mouth: Oto Mouth: (very similar to BNPs Awesome idea. Will do. For the remaining stuff on the wood I was going to try some 80 grit sandpaper. I do have some seltzer left to do one more treatment on the rocks if I need to or some plants that still have lingering issues.

I would feed the sprirula brine srimp 2+ times a week if you can. Long term, I can't say what the correct ratio is, but you'd want to offset some of the high protein foods with more omnivore options or things with spirulina / pea protein to try to stop blockages.

@GisheryGoodnessI'm very sorry for your loss. What is you feeding regime?

That looks like Ich to me. Treatment typically being as follows: Either one. I would typically use Erythromycin just because it's more common and easily available (if you need more) and it's typically going to work for this situation. I would dose all three. Salt, Ich-X, and Erythromycin. If you want to use Salt+Ich-X and use the repashy, that works also. There are plants in the tank, so that is a risk, but I have always done that with my tanks because treating the tank is pretty critical to rid it of the ich cysts. Sidenote, your plecos are absolutely beautiful. I wish you and them the best of luck through this. I believe pretty much ever med by seachem is plant safe. Given the temp. I wonder if the temperature is what caused it. The plecos might be sensitive to that temp. Keeping it near 80 will help fight the ich though. Temporarily it might be something to consider while treating this.

With a python you're generally going to waste water. Water is the pump so to speak. When trying to fill stuff back up I would use my hand, check the tank, then go and match it on the python, turn off the water (with that setting in mind) double check everything, then turn it on. Unfortunately you're going to likely be doing taps on the faucet handle to adjust things by one or two degrees. It's fickle, but using my hand has been the most reliable method to match temp. Once you have the water running, check the opposite side of the tank (that water is still original temp) and compare to the temp running out of the python directly into the tank. Then, you adjust it that way. For a lot of thermometers, unless it's a laser, you have to let it run for a little while to get a true reading of the temp. Thermometers usually take a little bit to respond to temp changes.

How long did it take to carpet for you?

@mountaintoppufferkeeper Any ideas that you've tried with similar species?

Yes, but you have better substrate to do what those do 🙂

You'll have to break down what you did! Have you been using it for a few weeks or is this a new mod?

Considering all the struggles I've been having! I am thinking my main issue is root tabs. NICE work. Very well done.

Mine tend to eat most as dusk (lights on) and after lights out. During the day they stick to the glass and mostly just hang out in the flow. They do eat off plants, stuff like S. Repens, anubias, etc. with a little bit bigger leaves they can eat on easily. You have wood in the tank, that's a great thing for then to be able to hide on and eat off. Rocks as well. I feed them a rotation of spirulina flake, repashy soilent green, vibrabites (yes, they do eat it occasionally), and mostly use that along with the tank algae and aufwuchs.

Yeah. I am trying to think... bottom scratcher (has insects) or community blend might be the one to try it with. Hard to say.

Pea puffers might eat bloodworms, so that might be your best bet to try to soak them in the meds and then feed.