Biggest Weakness as a Fish Keeper

[NOLANANO]

My biggest weakness is my ability to diagnose and treat my fish when they get sick. Other than Ich, I have never been able to successfully nurse a fish back to health. Once I notice they don't look right, its just a matter of time. 

Currently I am losing my Apistos 1 by 1. I started out with 6 but am down to 2 (1M, 1F).  I have no idea what is wrong with them as they show no signs of sickness until one day they get lethargic and hide and then they are dead within a day or 2. Can't figure out what is going on and I don't think its the water quality (0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 20 ppm Nitrates, PH 7.5, temp 78) but I also can't seem to diagnose it as anything else. The other argument against water quality is that all my other fish (Panda Cories, Neon tetra, Rummynose Tetra, and bristlenose Pleco) all seem fine. My inverts seem fine too (1 Amano Shrimp, 1 Neocardina shrimp{not sure how he survived with Apistos}, and 2 CPO crayfish).

Anyways, what are some of yalls biggest weaknesses?

[Wadikus]

On 7/29/2024 at 2:22 PM, NOLANANO said:

My biggest weakness is my ability to diagnose and treat my fish when they get sick. Other than Ich, I have never been able to successfully nurse a fish back to health. Once I notice they don't look right, its just a matter of time. 

Currently I am losing my Apistos 1 by 1. I started out with 6 but am down to 2 (1M, 1F).  I have no idea what is wrong with them as they show no signs of sickness until one day they get lethargic and hide and then they are dead within a day or 2. Can't figure out what is going on and I don't think its the water quality (0 Ammonia, 0 Nitrites, 20 ppm Nitrates, PH 7.5, temp 78) but I also can't seem to diagnose it as anything else. The other argument against water quality is that all my other fish (Panda Cories, Neon tetra, Rummynose Tetra, and bristlenose Pleco) all seem fine. My inverts seem fine too (1 Amano Shrimp, 1 Neocardina shrimp{not sure how he survived with Apistos}, and 2 CPO crayfish).

Anyways, what are some of yalls biggest weaknesses?

So i had this same experience with my Apistos as well, I'm not sure what you're keeping but I could not keep Cacatuoides to save my life. Exact same thing as you, healthy and excited until one day i'd find by the filter one hiding out and then slow dead. I eventually swore off Apisto as a result and stuck to my community which was thriving. Eventually I got a pair of Panduro and they've been ROCK solid. We have a pretty similar tank, just swap Neons for Diamonds and Panda for Venezuelans and the stocking is identical.

I eventually stumbled upon info from a few places that bloodworms can cause bloat and death for Apistos as they can't always digest the casings or something? I had no idea I think this may of been the reason they died as I was feeding frozen bloodworms.

Unfortunately as a Canadian fish keeper, fish getting sick is pretty much a death sentence as we do not have access to any medication so I'm stuck with salt and "herbal" remedies. I am still trying to find a way where I can get some snuck over the border to me.. I just want to be able to give my fish the best chance to survive but the government clearly doesn't want that.

oh and to answer your question, my biggest weakness is the fact that I can't just sit back and let my homies live their best life. I always am worried I need to do something for them or the tank.

[TOtrees]

I'd echo this too. I love apistos. I've kept (tried to keep) borelli and triple reds. I've never been able to get them to stay healthy for more than a few months after purchase. It's not a consistent number (of months), it's just a pattern. Also GB rams and (once) bolivians. And the same is true for gouramis; I've kept honeys a few times, and they do fine for a few months, then die off. No obvious cause. Same with pearls the couple times I kept them (as solos). 

I keep other fish for ages just fine. Cories, kuhlis, small tetras, rainbows, rice fish. And guppies and endlers before that. Shrimps too. If I try and fail twice with a fish, knowing that my care is top notch, and being unwilling to "make" water, I don't try again. I love them from afar, and vicariously through others. 

Beyond that my biggest weakness is not being able to start a project until I have a map and timeline to see it done in one go. I can't do a bit now and a bit later. Has to be start to finish, done and dusted, soup to nuts. That makes bigger and more complex projects (like moving/rearranging fish tank racks) really hard to get underway. 

Edited July 29 by TOtrees

[Wadikus]

On 7/29/2024 at 3:28 PM, TOtrees said:

I'd echo this too. I love apistos. I've kept (tried to keep) borelli and triple reds. I've never been able to get them to stay healthy for more than a few months after purchase. It's not a consistent number (of months), it's just a pattern. Also GB rams and (once) bolivians. And the same is true for gouramis; I've kept honeys a few times, and they do fine for a few months, then die off. No obvious cause. Same with pearls the couple times I kept them (as solos). 

I keep other fish for ages just fine. Cories, kuhlis, small tetras, rainbows, rice fish. And guppies and endlers before that. Shrimps too. If I try and fail twice with a fish, knowing that my care is top notch, and being unwilling to "make" water, I don't try again. I love them from afar, and vicariously through others. 

Beyond that my biggest weakness is not being able to start a project until I have a map and timeline to see it done in one go. I can't do a bit now and a bit later. Has to be start to finish, done and dusted, soup to nuts. That makes bigger and more complex projects (like moving/rearranging fish tank racks) really hard to get underway. 

I was watching a recap of one of Corys streams a few months back and someone asked about Apisto's and he said "dont feed blood worms and keep them HOT". He said he always struggled until he started keeping them around 83ish.. which admittedly is much hotter than I keep my tanks.. So it could've been that or the bloodworms or both in my case.

Panduro are actually breeding right now in my community and the girl has turned into an asshole around her hut. Hoping this time i've got it right, one of the reasons I picked Panduro is Jason from Primetime aquatics said that he found Panduro to be a little more hardy vs other Apisto he had kept, especially in his harder water of the Chicago area. I have pretty hard water here in Montreal so I thought it might be a good idea.

I'm a focus on keeping the water stable type of person vs trying to fix my water.

Edited July 29 by Wadikus

[mynameisnobody]

@Wadikus well at least you know that the attitude is coming from a protective place, and as long as she has something to protect, you’ll be a happy keeper.
Congrats, pandoras are beautiful. 

My biggest weakness has got to be that I can be an idiot more often than I’d like to admit. For example, I have 3 prominent fish clubs around me and I haven’t been to 1 meeting in the 4 years we’ve lived here. Different conventions or expo’s and nope, not those either. I work full time and raise a 2 year old so my time is limited, especially factoring in aquarium maintenance. Eventually just maybe, I might crumble and attend something and realize I’ve been correct this whole time, I’m an idiot. 😎

[NOLANANO]

On 7/29/2024 at 2:53 PM, mynameisnobody said:

Different conventions or expo’s and nope, not those either.

I went to my first Expo in the spring and went to my second a few weeks ago. I also was kind of nervous about going. I didn't want to feel like an outsider but I highly suggest going. There are vendors with fish you might not otherwise get a chance to buy at the LFS.  

The Apistos I am speaking of are Borelli. They were doing wonderful and then in the last 2 weeks have been dying off. I do feed bloodworms as part of the diet and I think I will stop doing that.  I used to keep GBR and I had the same issue as these Apistos where they would do fine for a few months and then die off all of sudden and I read that it might be the bloodworms. I stopped for a while and then I got Amazon Puffers and they needed frozen foods so I went back to bloodworms.  Not anymore.

Idk what I want to do next but if I choose to stay with the planted community then I might try Panduro.  My other choices that I am thinking about is maybe keeping the tank planted and getting some Neocardina and maybe some Endlers or something like that and have a breeding tank going on.  My last idea would be to scrap the planted tank other than my Anubias and get African Cichlids. But African Cichlids would require me to completely rescape.  A Betta Sorority is also an idea but I have read mixed reviews about them actually working long term. 

[mynameisnobody]

Im sure I’ll eventually get out. The problem is that when it comes to purchases, I’ve narrowed it down to only buying rainbow fish. I prefer 75 gallon species only. As you can imagine, I don’t set up a new tank often so I don’t even attend the LFS. Everything I need is online, which is really convenient, yet unfortunate because I’ve stripped the interactions out of my hobby. Thanks for the pep talk, it’s appreciated. 

[Wadikus]

@NOLANANO Im really jealous there are fun fish expos for you guys.. as far as I know i'd have to travel to Toronto. Theres nothing really big locally here in Montreal for me to attend.. But i'd love to go to one .. one day. 

Here's a picture of my panduro's.. when I got them I actually had no idea if they were M/F or not as they were just grey juveniles. Sorry it's a screencap of a video but catching them still in a photo is near impossible! They are my favorite apisto.. save for maybe that blue flame agassizii that i've seen on Dans fish