All The Small Things!

[andieb]

Happy Friday night!

I've just started the first treatment of API General Cure for a suspected case of internal parasites affecting my Cory Habrosus and possibly my honey gouramis. I've lost 3 fish so far (two of them were today).

I also have a bad case of planaria. Some sources say that API General Cure might kill planaria but other sources say it doesn't. So since I'm dosing API General Cure anyways, I've decided to test this out! 

Day 1 - I dosed two packages of API General Cure for my 20 gal long tank. And I counted 9 white and 2 black planaria on the front of the tank.

I'll count again at the end of the first round of dosing in 4 days, then I'll count again in 2 weeks before I start the second round of dosing, once more after that round, and then one final count a week after the second round of dosing. 

Have a great weekend!! 

[Guppysnail]

Good luck. The praziquantel in general cure should paralyze and kill off the planarian if used in high enough dose. 

I’m sorry for your losses. 

[andieb]

Update - after the first round of dosing I still counted 8 white planaria and 0 black.

Today, just before the second round of dosing, I've counted 1 black and 12 white... 

So does API General Cure kill planaria? Gunna say that's a resounding NO at least at the recommended dose. However, I was feeding a lot the past 2 weeks to help my fish bounce back from the first round of dosing so that might have helped out the planaria population. 

On a good note, I haven't lost any more corydoras! Don't want to jinx it but I think the API General Cure might have zapped what ever was killing them 🙂 all's well! 

[WillC]

Sounds like progress! One problem down.... 

[andieb]

I didn't want to "bump up" an old conversation especially in the disease/illness section so I'm posting here just to say, now that you mentioned it @laritheloud, I'm noticing so many obvious signs that the brown one is male! Thank you so much for spotting that. Of course if someone suggests I get more fish I won't say no... sooo... yesterday I got a bigger tank!

I may think about rehoming one of the males, unless the new tank is big enough for them to all coexist peacefully. It's a 35 gallon, 15" x 38" base dimensions. 

My female gold honey gourami (Cleo) is doing a bit better! She's still separated from the others with a tank divider and her fins still look a bit rough, but she is very active and eating well. I think now that she's not getting chased around, her immune system is fighting off what ever is affecting her. Meanwhile I'm still waiting for the kanaplex to arrive... oh Canada... 

Now I'm deciding on substrate for the new tank... my brain hurts. I'm leaning towards sand because I also have habrosus corys (only 5 left 😢) and 2 hillstream loaches who sometimes sit on the sand (I notice they come down when I feed Spirulina Bug Bite flakes). I have CaribSea Super Naturals Moonlight sand (0.25 – 0.75mm grain size) in the old 20 gal and I find it really hard to keep clean because the grains are so small. The grains weigh the same as fish poop so they don't separate out in the gravel vac tube so I'm forced to either suck up and waste a bunch of sand or settle for semi-clean. I wonder if the "semi-clean" sand is causing the barbel erosion I see in some of my corys, maybe this is part of why they aren't thriving. I find gravel that's ~2-5mm way easier to keep super clean but it's too big for the corys to sift and some claim that coarse gravel causes more barbel erosion. All this to say, I'm searching for sand that cory habrosus can sift that isn't so small that it can't be thoroughly gravel vac'ed. 

I did half fluval stratum-half sand in the 20 gal, NEVER AGAIN... those pesky little balls always end up on the sand 😠

[laritheloud]

I'm so excited for you, and I'm glad my guess was in the right direction! I hope your sweet honey female continues to improve. Bigger tanks are always better, right??

As for substrate, I'm really, really enjoying the Pisces aquarium gravel I have in 2 of my tanks. Midnight Pearl and Silver Pearl are both really small-grain smooth gravel. It's inert, super easy to plant in, and though there won't be sand sifting, it won't hurt any sifting species to dig through it. Also: it hides waste AND it's extremely easy to clean. If you can use a gravel with a grain that size, I am personally enjoying it very much.

[Lester]

Thanks for sharing this, it is hard when you are going through something like this and by you sharing I have learned, Thanks

[andieb]

Wow that Pisces Silver Pearl gravel is beautiful. I love the way it looks in a tank. I decided to go for something similar, just a smaller grain size, so I settled on CaribSea SuperNaturals Crystal River. 

Unfortunately, I got covid so the new tank is still empty cause I took so long to pick a substrate and now I can't leave the house. I did get this video of *possibly* my mini puff doing a mini puff? Or maybe just a bit of indigestion? Either way here's a video of my dwarf pea puffer named Viva! Viva la Puff!!   

 

[andieb]

I decided that I'm going to take down my 20 gallon long and replace it with a 12 gallon long! I just finished setting it up! The plants are a bit small right now because I reused what ever I had in my other tanks. 

In a few weeks when the plants are a bit bigger and the parameters are stable, I'm hoping to move my pea puffer, Viva into this tank. This will be his new home.  

I'm thinking of adding some longer grass to the background... not sure what else to add! Suggestions would be much appreciated!