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Tonight started like any other Thursday night—with a water change on my 125. I drained the tank down using a siphon through the FX4, gravel vacced a bit, scraped the glass, removed the FX4 and proceeded to clean it at the kitchen sink while the tank filled through a hose attached to my laundry room sink with water about 5 degrees cooler than the tank temp. Maybe I let the siphon go a little bit longer than I usually do, but I figured a little extra water couldn't hurt. It wasn't too much more than I usually do, though. I can only drain so far since the intake on the FX4 is so gigantic. By the time I had gotten done cleaning the filter, the tank was almost full. I dosed the proper amount of Seachem Prime (about two capfuls-worth for what I figured was probably a 70-80 gallon water change--again, not terribly unusual for this tank.). I put the FX4 back under the tank, and hooked it up, waiting for the siphon from the outlet tube to fill itself back up before turning it back on. Suddenly, I look up and see about half my fish are acting really weird. About half of my neon tetras are floating around like they're dead, my Boesemani rainbows are spiraling and swimming upside down and my Colombian tetras are looking discolored and sluggish. Some may have been near the surface, but I feel like that's not unusual for this time of day or after a water change. And they didn't really seem to be what I would call "gasping" for air. The platies, bristlenose, rummynose and angelfish seem relatively unphased, however. I test all my parameters using both an API master test kit and ACO test strips on both my tank water and my tap water. Nothing seems too out of the ordinary. I do another dose of Prime to hopefully dechlorinate/detoxify things further if that is indeed the issue. Within 15 minutes, I've lost 9 out of 12 Bosemani rainbows and one neon tetra. The dead-looking neons seem to have recovered, but now a few of the rummynose are kind of spiraling and having trouble swimming and my one big bristlenose seems to be breathing really fast. I added another airstone in case lack of oxygen may have been the issue, but I can't really see how that could have been the case. I can only think of a couple things that could have cause this, but none of them are big enough of a red flag to convince me that's what the problem was: Adding Prime too late on such a large water change? My water does have some ammonia in it (about 0.5ppm out of the tap), but I don't know if that would have made that much of a difference. I had done about a 50% water change earlier in the day on the 75 gallon in my garage (also with Boesemanis in it--about 70 of them) where I didn't put Prime in until later also and didn't have a problem. And I feel like this isn't the first time that I've forgotten to put Prime in until the end. Normally, I add half when I initially start filling and half when I'm finished. Stirring up a gas pocket in gravel while I was vacuuming? I was under the impression that this only happens in tanks with fine sand and it's important to either have some fish that are going to stir up the substrate on their own or you need to do it manually when you clean the tank. It's a moderate to heavily-planted tank, so I don't gavel vac too often (maybe once every two months when things get gross) and even when I do, I really don't go too much below the surface because the gravel underneath my top layer can be a slightly different color and it bugs me when it shows through. Lack of oxygen? There's a sponge filter in the tank that I leave running while the FX4 is draining specifically to keep things oxygenated during water changes. The water level goes go briefly lower than the top, but only at the very end when the water level is low and was probably only that way for 5-10 minutes. They've been without oxygen longer than that when the power goes out and once the tank was filled, a bunch of my plants were pearling. Some kind of contaminate on my hands/arms? I don't use lotion or anything like that one days when I know I'm going to be water changing and regardless, I wash my hands fairly frequently and thoroughly on water change days anyway. And, as I said, I had done water changes in my garage earlier today without any issues and I can't think of any thing that I would have come in contact with in those few hours between. And for it to happen so quickly after I had my hands in the tank? Some kind of contaminate in my water? But, again, big water changes in the garage just a few hours before on multiple tanks, one full of Boesemanis. So...what the heck happened here??? I'd feel both better/worse if I knew what I did wrong, but honestly, I can't pinpoint one thing that would have made that big of a difference. My routine was 95% the same as it is every other time I do a water change on this tank (weekly) and clean the FX4 (monthly). Anybody got any bright ideas here? What went wrong?

I currently own a 75 gallon tank and its stocked with Red Spotted Several, Boesamani Rainbow, Angelfish and a bristle nose pleco. My question is that I would love to provide some freshwater plants but am concern if the fish will pick at it. Is there any hardy aquatic plants I can put in this set-up? I appreciate any assistance and advise available.

So, I've never kept rainbows. Is it normal for a 2 to 2.5 Boesemani to have no color? I know they'll color up as they grow but should good juveniles have any color? Trying to figure out what to look for?

Hi, first time here. Ive had an on going issue with my Boesemani Rainbow fish. I Had 5 males and after 2 years of keeping 1 developed the following?: Sores on the general body, sores particularly behind the pectoral fin, damage to lower portion of the pectoral fins, growth below the mouth and some raised scales with white nodules(flukes? worms?). The white nodules seem to come and go. NOTE: I am in Israel and I Ive looked everywhere but good medications are almost impossible to find. I moved the single fish to a quarantine tank and began treating with salt and went to high levels with no noticeable improvement after 2/3 weeks. I was able to find a malachite green based medication for fungus which i tried for 2 weeks and also methylene blue for 2 weeks after with no improvement. He seemed to have issues eating well and would only eat 1 or 2 granules of tetra color granules every few days and bloodworms occasionally too. He eventually succumbed and passed away. This was 2 months ago.... About a week or 2 after my first fish died one of my 4 remaining rainbowfish developed the exact same symptoms, I decide to move the whole group of rainbows to a quarantine tank. I found an Ant-parasitic/fungus medication with no listed active ingredient but i thought the disease was scale flukes with a secondary bacterial infection. So i treated with this with no results, and even upped the recommended dose but nothing, i tried with methylene blue again just out of desperation... I've moved them back into the main Aquarium as i believe the water is cleaner and theres no evidence of infection to the other rainbows or other fish. As of right now I cannot work out what disease this is, it looks to me like a parasite with a secondary bacterial infection but with restrictions on medications in the country its impossible to find good medications that list active ingredients. I also think the fact one rainbow fish at a time gets it because it's most likely the least dominant and the disease is possibly dormant but may be induced through increased stress (my theory). I watched one of Cory's recent livestreams where he talks about using dog/cat medications to treat aquarium diseases for countries with limited fish keeping medications which I think may be the way to go, but I'm not so sure whats what. Anyway sorry for the long winded post but the more background info i give the more informed help I can get from you. pH - 7.8 Nitrates - 15 Hardness - TDS - 277 Nitrite - 0 Ammonia - 0 KH/Buffer-? Water Temperature 79 F (hot climate so no heater uses so temps tend to fluctuate within 2 degrees) Other Fish in 60 gallon aquarium: 2x Angels, 7x Cories, 1x Bristlenose pleco Pictures aren't great because he wont slow down and there are currently no white nodules visible on the fish. Thanks!!