CJ's tanks

Oh, I see. I'm not knowledgeable at all with diseases and I see you've been getting some advice already. I'd wait for their opinions on how you should proceed. I really hope it doesn't spread though.

Me too! And I don't even know what it is! They are currently in a bucket with a bubble filter and all of the old filter media.

 

Well, you can't keep them in the bucket for long. If it were me, I would transfer them over to the new tank and start treating with med(s) that were suggested.

 

Well, you can't keep them in the bucket for long. If it were me, I would transfer them over to the new tank and start treating with med(s) that were suggested.

I've treated them for about a month now. Obviously what I'm using isn't doing the trick.

I just changed about 50% of their water. They've only been in the bucket about 14 hours. Their bubble filter is intact too, so there is actual filtration.
CindiL do you have any input?

 

Hi, I'll have to go read the thread but its not the water that's infected, its the fish. I agree I would just move them over assuming temperature and PH are the same. There is bacteria in every tank of course but its not a disease until it over takes a fishes immune system and turns into a bacterial disease itself.

I'll post on the thread you already started after I skI'm it.

 

These guys finally figured out that broccolI is food!

 

And on a happier note, I haven't had any Cory losses from the big batch I moved to the Breeder before this last small batch, of which there are 2-3 left I believe. The bigger batch is doing well and growing fast!
Here are a few ... looks like they've just eaten!

 

These guys finally figured out that broccolI is food!

how do you get your water so cleanclear

 

how do you get your water so clean

I don't have anything in there leaching tannins for one ... I also run at least 10x filtration on all tanks, if not more. I do a vac and 50% water change at least once weekly but will do more often if needed.

This tank houses lots of shrimp, snails and cories too, which are all scavengers and help to keep extra food cleaned up.

 

So ... what are these?! I just did a partial water change and vac on my shrimp tank and while checking the bucket for any shrimplets, I saw the surface covered in these wiggly things! Ick! Inhabitants are cherry and Malawa shrimp, pond snails and a nerite. No fish have been in it since I set it up. It has live plants and fluorite sand substrate.

Are these harmful to fish? Part of a healthy tank?

Is it safe to move my baby cories over to grow out? I don't want to infect them with some sort of parasite!

 

Looks like detritus worms maybe.

 

Looks like detritus worms maybe.

Your first link didn't work but by the second one they may be tubifex. They are reddish and some are definitely longer than an inch.

I'm wondering if I should just dump them or try to feed them to my fish.

 

I'd dump them so they don't end up in another tank if your fish won't eat them

 

I'd dump them so they don't end up in another tank if your fish won't eat them

I tried to feed a couple ... the guppies liked them but I dumped the rest because it made me nervous!

I got my new 10 gallon set up today. Now I have more space on my kitchen counter and it will be easier to quarantine now!

I also goofed when changing water earlier ... I "remembered" that you said "1 tablespoon salt per gallon" but later second guessed myself. I went back and looked and it was teaspoon! Ack! Got it all figured out now! Ugh these fish! They are fast little suckers too!

So I should get the maracyn tomorrow ... I also moved my 2 female platies over from my 38 for this round of Furan.

 

Oh good. Everyone still alive then?

Ha, 1 tablespoon is for treating ich but you have to work up to that amount adding in 1tsp per gallon every 12 hours until you're at that total.

 

Oh good. Everyone still alive then?

Ha, 1 tablespoon is for treating ich but you have to work up to that amount adding in 1tsp per gallon every 12 hours until you're at that total.

Yeah ... I did find one more dead baby when I moved everyone over ... I don't think it was recent though. It was pretty decayed. I think it was trapped under the filter media and I didn't see it to remove it.

I just did a 50% water change and redose of Furan. I think it's probably real close to where it needs to be now!

Question about using the salt. I can monitor GH but have nothing else for monitoring. First, do I need to continue to use Replenish with salt? Second, what instrument/test do I need to monitor salt?

I really think I'd like to eventually house all of the platies together, but I'm worried about the larger ones eating the fry. I guess I can try to net them and keep them separate until they are bigger..

 

Personally I would just use Replenish! You just really limit the fish you can keep with salt in the tank all the time. But if you really want to keep using salt, I'd cut it to half a teaspoon a gallon and make the difference up with Replenish. I think the calcium, magnesium and potassium are just as important as the salt, if not more plus other fish are fine with calcium and magnesium and potassium chlorides just not so much with sodium chloride. Pretty sure salt will show up on your GH test like you saw, it will show up also as part of TDS if you have a TDS meter or you can buy a salinity meter which just measures salt. For instance my GH of 10 comes out to about 300-325 on the TDS meter. Its a nice quick measure but does include all dissolved solids including fertilizer etc.

 

So I forgot I ordered some Equilibrium the other day ... does that work just the same as Replenish or does it add anything different? Is one better than the other.

The only thing in this tank is guppies and platies. It's a grow out tank.

So I don't know if she was sicker than I thought, super sensitive to the meds, or picked on to death, but I lost my sunset platy today. She was in the Breeder net with the Dalmatian platy in the grow out tank. I had several small fish and didn't want them getting eaten since they aren't used to being around babies.

 

I'm sorry about your platy

Equilibrium is the same thing minus the sodium chloride and in a powdered form. Its supposed to be better for planted tanks but my tanks are planted and have never had an issue with that low salt amount. It made a mess of my tank so I threw it out ha ha. Maybe I used too much at once though.

I have never used the Finnex so I am not much help there. Maybe start a new thread in the lighting section? I also have the Current Satellite Plus and I LOVE it. I just keep it on a timer so it shuts off at night and I manually switch it to blue at night. I switched to that cloud setting you mentioned about 4-6 weeks ago and I am SO happy to say that something about the blue/red that go in and out all day long has stopped the black brush algae growth. So Thank You! I was getting a lot of lovely green algae but I'll take that any day over the black gross stuff. I put in a 90 minute siesta on my timer to help with the green growth a couple weeks ago though.

 

I tried to start a thread and either fishlore or my app were messing up!

 

So ... I've got the guppies and platies moved over to their new home. Unfortunately before I moved them I lost about 7 of them for seemingly no reason! I'm just wondering if all the meds had just taken a toll on them. I've had no losses since moving them to the 29.

My next plan is to move my tetras and remaining platies/swordtails over to the 10 and do a massive tank cleaning on the 38. I MAY treat them with some sort of prophylactic med while in the 10 since some have shown signs of illness but I'm just not sure. I might just keep them over there and do daily water changes on them until I get the 38 cleaned and rescaped. I've got lots of plants growing everywhere and it all needs to be trimmed back and rearranged.

I'm also going to eventually house all of the platies and guppies together and get the 38 prepped for a couple angels from bizaliz3 and my tetras.

The 20 long got a good cleaning this evening and I'm a bit worried! Since I got a new vac with a longer straight part, I decided to dig down into the sand a bit and when I did, I noticed bubbles going up the tube in several places throughout the tank! Once I saw this I tried to dig down in as many places as I could to make sure I got all the trapped gas. I'm hoping since I did about an 80% change, then another bucket after adding a couple buckets of clean water, that I got out anything that may adversely affect the fish. Unfortunately I don't really like this new hose as it seems to have a hard time even sucking up poop. I guess I'll have to use the small one with a super sucker to get poop off the top then the big one to dig down in the sand. I also added my new MTS to all my tanks the other day so hopefully they will keep everything stirred and has pocket free!

My 12 gallon shrimp tank seems to be doing well too. I added some more Malawa shrimp with the MTS and I've also seen lots of shrimplets and older baby shrimp out and about lately! I also moved my baby cories over and they seem to be growing well! I only moved about half of hem at first because I wanted to make sure they'd be ok and when I added the remaining ones about a week later I realized that they were doing very well because they were quite a bit bigger than the ones still in the Breeder! The fun part will be fishing them out when they get big enough to start eating my shrimplets! Once they are big enough to not be eaten I'll be moving them back to the 20 or over with the guppies to grow out.

 

What signs are the platies and swordtails showing? Based on all that has gone on with disease I wouldn't hesitate to treat at least a round with Maracyn 2. You don't want it starting all over.

Also, the fact that you lost 7 more guppies/platies in the other tank makes me think its not gone from there either. I know you haven't lost more since losing them but based on what's still "kinda" going on in these two tanks I would treat again. It can take several rounds of meds to kick it. I think I may have mentioned before I treated with Kanaplex, then Maracyn 2 and Furan 2 and even some kanamycin flake food from Peabody's. Then it was finally gone.....so just saying......if you are still seeing questionable signs.

Hey, speaking of shrimp. I don't know if you remember but I had separated out the WT shrimplets and put them into my 33g tank so they wouldn't ruin the yellow color of the yellow shrimp tank. Last night when I turned the lights down on my 33g I saw a few of the now adult shrimp come out in the 33g and they've turned into this amazing chocolate color. Really pretty!

 

Um I had a male platy that was extremely oddly shaped the other night. I epsom salt dipped him and fed peas and he pooped after the dip and looked much better. I'm hoping it was just constipation and not a sign of bloat from something else! Also, my green tetra still isn't as thin as she used to be ... she was rather bloated looking for a while but I was treating that tank with maracyn and kanaplex.

Seems like there was another platy with a couple whitish spots/lines on its tail but I haven't rechecked them in a while.

I have no idea what caused those little platies to die. It was right at the end of all the meds and I honestly just think they'd been through too much. I was doing daily vac/water changes so I don't feel it was a water quality issue.

I treated 2-3 rounds of kanaplex, like 3-4 weeks of metroplex, a round of Furan and maracyn! I haven't gotten the pots for the plants yet but I did get some fishing line weights that were lead free so I'll be weighing them down instead of everything floating. I also have quite a bit of moss along the bottom on a rock, cholla and steel mesh. Most of the plants are water wisteria so big and bushy for them!

That's cool about your shrimp! So far my cherries are all red. I bought them as cherries but I'd almost say a few were almost painted fire red! They are super red and opaque with red legs. Some are dark red like that but with clear red legs. Then some of the smaller ones are more clear/red. I'm hoping I get some more super red ones! I'll probably move wilds over to another tank too, but I have Malawas, which are different colors ... red, blue, brown and maybe greenish too? So they will have to grow pretty big before I'll be able to differentiate them!

 

Hey Cindi, look at this shrimp! It's one of the darkest ones. I bought it as a regular cherry but would you say it's a painted? It's opaque and look at those red legs!



Here's a pic of one of the others for comparison.

 

Hard to say the exact type but definitely a RED cherry vs a regular cherry like the second one.

 

Hey I found this lineage chart ... I wonder if your reds are from chocolates and that is why you are getting chocolates.

Also, according to this chart, and a couple others I saw too, they appear to be either fire red or painted fire red. Which is crazy! I think I want to see if she has any more this red!!

 

I don't know. Is it this chart? Based on their color I'd call them the Shoho.

 

I don't know. Is it this chart? Based on their color I'd call them the Shoho.

No it wasn't that detailed. I added the pic in.

 

So I still haven't gotten the plant pots for my 29 so I got some fishing lure weights and added them in today! I didn't weigh down all of the plants but enough for them to have some nice hiding spots and for the plants to continue to grow correctly. Most of what is left floating are wisteria clippings. I ordered some pots that have multiple holes so I can plant in groupings. Initially I ordered 2. One with 2 holes and one with 3. Hoping this will help to arrange it in a less chaotic way. That will still allow me to just move things around a bit and vac up all of the leftover food and waste. I plan to keep it bare bottom for now! It definitely makes cleaning easier!

 

The fishing lure weights are a good idea. Are they cheaper than the plant anchors?

I'd say based on that simpler chart mine look like the var brown. They have the cool goldenback stripe still that they inherited from the yellows. Its a brownish stripe, pretty neat looking.

 

No idea about plant weights!! lol didn't even think to search for that!

Got a question about one of my cories ... so I was watching my 20L and noticed some Cory eggs!! As I was prepping a bowl to move them into I looked down into the tank and saw a couple cories possibly spawning. I noticed one of hem has a crook in his tail. It's right before the fin starts. The only things I've heard of are fish TB or birth defects. As far as I know it's been fine until now. Not sure how long it's been his way as I watch this tank often and just now noticed it. I'll try to get a pic or video.

 

Got a slow mo video!

And they were definitely spawning! So cool! I've never caught them in the act before!

 

I don't know but I bet Coradee can help you out with identifying anything wrong with the tail.

 

I can't see the video, I've been having problems viewing videos lately
I'd guess the tail if it's always been like that is a birth defect, if the fish is otherwise behaving normally I wouldn't be too worried about it

 

I can't see the video, I've been having problems viewing videos lately
I'd guess the tail if it's always been like that is a birth defect, if the fish is otherwise behaving normally I wouldn't be too worried about it

It seems to be behaving as usual and it's just a crook right at the base by the rear fin. Seems to swim fine and actually I didn't notice it until I was looking down on the tank from the top.

I do have another question for you though ... one of my 6 adults only has 2 barbels of the 6 everyone else has ... its 2 of the long ones. They are housed in a 20 long with beach sand substrate and live plants. Other tank mates are cpd, Amano shrimp and various snails. No other signs of illness. What do you think could have happened to the barbels? Do you think it's a problem just having the 2?

 

So now I want a dwarf puffer! I have a ton of snails I can add to its tank for food ... I also have a ton of plants I can add and swap out for fun. I'm just not sure I can get away with another tank!

 

Ha ha. How many will that put you at? What prompted the dwarf puffer?

 

Ha ha. How many will that put you at? What prompted the dwarf puffer?

I just updated the first post with all tanks and inhabitants ... 4 tanks, a bowl with a shrimp and a couple small snails and another container, about a gallon, that I just added a betta to last night! I did have shrimp in it for a while but then added them in with the cherries. It has a bubble filter with Matrix and a small heater. I plan to move him to something bigger in the future. But for now he is better off than on the shelf in the store! Ran into Petco last night and he all but jumped off the shelf into my arms! Lol I'll try to get a pic of him later. He's real pretty. Whitish, teal and pink. Double tail male.

Not sure what brought on the puffer. I've been researching them. I have plenty of snails for food ... they just seem interesting. And apparently live a really long time too! So that will be cool to have a fish my son can grow up with!

 

New betta. Haven't named him yet.

 

He's gorgeous!

 

He's gorgeous!

Thanks. He was literally the one that came up to the side all wiggling at me ... I actually looked at every betta they had and no one else spoke to me like this guy! I think he's happy in his new tank, even though it's small ... its better than leaving him at the store to live in a cup the rest of his life. He hangs out at the glass a lot watching what's going on in the room.

Speaking of larger tanks ... do you think he could cohabitate with cpd, cories, Amano shrimp (that are huge) and various snails? If so, I could move my fancy guppy to my 38 and move betta to my 20 long.