Tom Greiner

Two soldiers are in a tank. One turns to the other and says, "glub glue glub."

Update, The three Mollys are still alive. I went the paracleanse route, and five day treatment period is now up. I don't seem the shimmy anymore, or rather not as much, but I still don't know what was, or is, wrong with them. I don't know if the paracleanse helped, or if they would have gotten better anyway. They've got a least another week to go in my normal quarantine procedure.

As stated above, prime added daily. Ammonia is 0.

KH is 240+. No flashing that I have noticed.

They are wiggling in place. Undulating like they are trying to swim, but are staying in one place. Pectoral fins by their sides. Tank temp is 78 degrees, so I am pretty sure they are not cold.

I just got three new sailfin mollys. I did not notice anything strange about them in the store. I drip acclimated them and I put them in a 4 gallon quarantine tank (a clear plastic tote) when I got home. As I unusually do with new fish, I dosed the tank with paraguard, and ich medication. First day, everything seemed fine. Second day, two of the three adopted the in place shimmy. This concerns me. My water is well water, and typically off the charts hard, and so I did not test it again. Ph is about 7.8. Ammonia and nitrite are zero. Nonetheless I added some Prime and Stability. I also added some aquarium salt. Day three, this morning, I was pleased to see that they were still alive. At least one of them is eating. But, now all three have adopted the shimmy. I suppose all three could feel a little crowded in the 4 gallon tank, but I've never seen problems with other fish being temporarily crowded in a quarantine tank. I have one other sailfin molly (in a 75 gallon tank that is also the intended home of these new three) and 3 balloon mollys in a 20 gallon tank. I never saw this shimmy behavior in any of them. So, does anyone have any idea what is going on here? Am I right to be concerned? Is there something else I can, or should, be doing? Thanks for reading.

I tried to make my own cannister filter. Basically the 5 gallon bucket with a gamma seal lid as demonstrated the King of DIY. My attempt failed miserably. While I could get it to work, without leaks, when I tested it with the power off (simulating a power failure) the siphon would have enough pressure to create a leak around the gamma seal lid. No amount of fiddling, Vaseline, new/extra O-rings, or silicone sealant could fix this. What I realized is that King Joey's bucket cannister was at the same level as the aquarium (hence no automatic siphon when power is off). My cannister bucket was positioned below the aquarium in stand. So, 5 gallon bucket cannister was a bust. What I finally did was to create a cannister out of 6 inch PVC pipe, with a sealed end cap on one end and a screw-off access cap on the other. Since this is real pipe, and originally intended for sewage, there was no leakage on the PVC end. The inflow and outflow pipes required a little fiddling. A uniseal worked for prevent leaks at the inflow connection, but a regular pipe bulkhead was needed for the outflow pipe. I went with an external pump, so there was no need to seal a hole for the electric cord. Flow goes from one end of the pipe cannister to the other. The pipe is mostly filled with lava rock and bio balls, but there are some sponges and a little bit of floss on the screw-cap inflow end. I now have a working DIY cannister filter. It's main headache is priming it when I need to restart the system. I learned that adding a small air hose valve on what is the high end of the cannister helps a lot. But, put a small ring of large open pipe around the valve to guard against knocking it off an breaking it (I think I did that three times before I learned to protect the valve). While I learned several things in the DIY process, my biggest lesson is that DIY is not necessarily the least expensive alternative. I think I ended up spending close to $500 on this project. I could have gotten myself a damn good Fluval cannister filter, and a couple of cases of beer, for that price.

I am trying to create a cannister filter from a 3 gallon bucket with a gamma lid -- basically following the method of Joey from the King of DIY youtube videos. Right now I have a problem. When I set it up it seems to run fine, but when I unplug the pump (simulating a power loss) the syphon from the tank continues to flow in the bucket and leaks through the seal of the screw on gamma lid. I am wondering if anyone has a definitive solution for this problem. I am thinking about installing a check valve on the inflow (and perhaps on the outflow as well). Do you think that would work? Thanks for advice/comments. Tom

Hi, I'm Tom, from near La Crosse, Wisconsin. I just got infected by MTS and am starting to set up a 75 gallon tank. My current tanks have Bettas, CPO crayfish, Honey Gouramis, Khuli Loaches, Butterfly Loaches, and some glowfish Tetras. I am looking to add discus and possibly angle fish when I get the 75 established. I am also intrigued by dragon goby, although I don't know if they will go together.