Fish Lovers 3.0 [new poll]

[Baritoner]

Hello!

I'm a bit new to owning fish, and I was wondering if I could get some advice on how to keep ammonia out of my fish tank. I recently got a Betta over Christmas break and noticed the edges of his fins are turning dark brown or black. My first concern was fin rot which I know can be caused by dirty water with high ammonia levels. I then purchased an ammonia test kit and discovered that my ammonia levels are a bit high. I was confused as to why this would happen since I do weekly 20-30% water changes and have a filter in the tank. After doing some googling I learned that I have an activated carbon filter, which apparently does not remove ammonia. I was wondering if there is any other way to get my ammonia levels down in addition to doing more frequent and larger water changes? Also, is there any point in keeping the filter running if it's not removing ammonia? I already use water conditioner to remove chlorine, and I know Bettas prefer calm water.

Sorry the post is a bit long, I just thought as many details as possible would help. I also filled out this for additional info about my Betta:

How many gallons is your tank?: 2.5 gallons (I know it's a bit small, but I'm living in a college dorm right now and it's the best I can do right now. I want to get a bigger one as soon as I can.)
Number and Type of fish in tank: Just one male butterfly Betta
How long has it been running?: About 2 or 3 weeks
Did you cycle it?: No, I did not know that cycling was a thing when I first got my fish. I now see that that was probably a mistake.
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: The test kit I got doesn't give numbers, it just said ammonia levels are "harmful". I know it's a really bad test kit, I'll try to get a better one as soon as I can.
Does it have a heater? Yes
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? It usually stays between 75-80 degrees
What is the issue or question?: How to keep ammonia out of my tank so I can treat/prevent fin rot
Any other information?: He seems lively and has a healthy appetite despite his fins turning colors.

If you have any photos, please post them. Photos help a lot for diagnosis.
Working on photos, I'm not sure how to upload them

[Hime]

How many gallons is your tank?: 67
Number and Type of fish in tank: 7 sterbai cories, 9 rummynose tetras, 1 bristlenose pleco, 3 mystery snails, 2 juvenile angelfish
How long has it been running?: since August
Did you cycle it?: yes
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: I’m not sure how accurate it is but we have a seachem ammonia detector and it says no ammonia. Tested the nitrates yesterday and they were 10-20, so we did a 30-40% water change today. I doubt there are nitrites because it’s been running for a while.
Does it have a heater? yes
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? 78 degrees Fahrenheit
What is the issue or question?: my smaller angelfish has been acting quite lethargic for the past week or two, he just sits on the gravel all day. Sometimes he’ll come up for food, sometimes he won’t. Looking at some pictures I took a while ago, his colour is much duller.
Any other information?: I don’t think it’s the water because all the other fish are doing fine, he’s the only one acting strange. I turned the heater up to try to get it to 80 but it’s still at 78. Do you think adding Indian almond leaves would help?

Thanks so much for any help, I’m not sure what to do

I’ll try to post photos later

Does the fish in question also look skinny, is the poop somehow odd? If I had to guess I'd go with internal parasite or other internal problem, if there's no external issues to be seem. Unfortunately only some worms can be identified without microscope and medicating without exact cause is not really a good idea.

Hello!

I'm a bit new to owning fish, and I was wondering if I could get some advice on how to keep ammonia out of my fish tank. I recently got a Betta over Christmas break and noticed the edges of his fins are turning dark brown or black. My first concern was fin rot which I know can be caused by dirty water with high ammonia levels. I then purchased an ammonia test kit and discovered that my ammonia levels are a bit high. I was confused as to why this would happen since I do weekly 20-30% water changes and have a filter in the tank. After doing some googling I learned that I have an activated carbon filter, which apparently does not remove ammonia. I was wondering if there is any other way to get my ammonia levels down in addition to doing more frequent and larger water changes? Also, is there any point in keeping the filter running if it's not removing ammonia? I already use water conditioner to remove chlorine, and I know Bettas prefer calm water.

Sorry the post is a bit long, I just thought as many details as possible would help. I also filled out this for additional info about my Betta:

How many gallons is your tank?: 2.5 gallons (I know it's a bit small, but I'm living in a college dorm right now and it's the best I can do right now. I want to get a bigger one as soon as I can.)
Number and Type of fish in tank: Just one male butterfly Betta
How long has it been running?: About 2 or 3 weeks
Did you cycle it?: No, I did not know that cycling was a thing when I first got my fish. I now see that that was probably a mistake.
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: The test kit I got doesn't give numbers, it just said ammonia levels are "harmful". I know it's a really bad test kit, I'll try to get a better one as soon as I can.
Does it have a heater? Yes
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? It usually stays between 75-80 degrees
What is the issue or question?: How to keep ammonia out of my tank so I can treat/prevent fin rot
Any other information?: He seems lively and has a healthy appetite despite his fins turning colors.

If you have any photos, please post them. Photos help a lot for diagnosis.
Working on photos, I'm not sure how to upload them

Your main problem is that your tank is not cycled, so the ammonia won't turn into nitrite and then into nitrate, which is not harmful to fish in moderate amount, where as ammonia and nitrite are. Cycling means essensially establishing beneficial bacteria activity which takes care of the ammonia and nitrite. Your filter offers living area for those bacterias and also mechanically catches dirt particles from the water (fish poop, food left overs etc.) plus circulates water, which helps oxygen dissolve into the water(fish needs it, but also the cycle bacteria). So keeping the filter running is needed even if the cycle is not working yet. As any amount of ammonia is harmful you really need to keep it in cotrol when doing fish in cycle. The only way to remove ammonia in uncycled tank is daily/every other day water changes depending how much ammonia builds up (so getting a test kit that gives you number values is really good idea, but thumbs up for getting one in the first place even if it wasn't great). You might also need to do 50% changes instead of 20-30%, again depending on how fast the ammonia builds up. With a small tank, and thus smaller water volume, things like ammonia and nitrate build up much faster so even after getting the cycle working 20-30% weekly might not cut it and you need to do twice a week water changes for example. Feeding very minimally when cycling tank with fish in (which is pretty much what you are doing now) helps to minimize the ammonia build up, as less food=less waste=less ammonia. If you want to try help speed up the cycling process (which can take weeks) you can look into bacteria products that are said to bring in the needed benefial bacteria. Some water conditioners are also said to tie dow ammonia/nitrite (Seachem Prime and Easy-Life Fluid Filter Media, come to mind off top of my head), so check your water conditioner bottle if it has that ability and dose accordingly. Active carbon is only good for removing medical residues and also sometimes people use it to remove tannins/color from the water. So really it's quite useless/unnecessary in daily use and it's affect wears down in use so to keep it 'active' it needs to be replaced, if you can remove it separetely I would do that and save it for the time when you might actually need it. Usually when you get the ammonia under control and cycle working, fin rot should clear up fairly fast. Along with ammonia test you'd ideally need nitrite and nitrate test as well, since those are the next two you need to start monitoring after you get 0 ammonia readings.
You next problem is the water temperature. It really should not jump around so much ideally and a heater should be able to keep it stable... Like 1-2 degree difference can be normal between day and night due lights in most cases. But 5 degree jumps are bit too much and 75 in general is bit too low for betta. I mean it's not like horribly low, but I would say closer to 77 would be better. So I really don't know what's going on with your heater, but it seems it's not doing what it should be doing.
__________
I did super mini water change yesterday to get one of my filters cleaned up (got some of those semi-thin round brushes) and I don't know why, but this morning my corries are going absolutely nuts. They are usually pretty mellow and just search the bottom for food. Not they are surfing all over the tank, up the glasses and chasing each other, I think. If they weren't all females, I'd say they were spawing. Though maybe one of them is actually male... I will probably check the water just in case, but considering tetras and otos are acting normal, I'm not overly worried.
I also got a new CO2 difusor, which is great but I got the hose little too short so I either need to change it into longer one or change the bottle's location so I don't have to move it when doing water changes. ^^; It's currently sitting on top of the tank and light, to keep the yeast stuff nice and warm (=more active).

[.Animal.]

Hello!

Since my 20gal tank is finally cycled, I went to the pet store to get some fish. Originally I was only going to get 2 female Platies but there was a buy 3, get one free so I got four..... I meant to only get FEMALES but one of the ones was in an up high tank so I couldn’t really see so now I have 3 females and a male.

I’m planning on getting a centerpiece fish in a few weeks but I’m having trouble deciding. I want either a Betta (m or f) or a Dwarf or Honey Gourami. Does anyone have experience with these combinations?


I used to have a male Crowntail Betta names Newton with a few Mollies and they got along great. Newton would even swim around with them in sort of a School. Here’s a few pictures of him
Whose the cutest boy? Newton(I just notice Nova—the black blob—photobombing him)
Beautiful fins<3 and Nova in the background again...

[Hime]

Rehomed all my fish yesterday, and now the tank is kinda sad looking without any fish in it. Also re-planted most of my hygrophilas (weird I used to have ton of polysperma, now I have 2 small branches left) and noticed there were bunch of corry eggs on one leaf. So I guess they were spawning the other day for real... The eggs luckily don't look fertilized, so I don't have to worry about having corry babies.

Is there a snail or shrimp (something that would like to eat green spot algae) that could tolerate 0 water changes (just topping up the water level if it gets too low) for 4 months? There shouldn't be much of organic waste build up (just what ever the creature poops out, assuming it's going to also eat dead plant matter) and all the nitrates would be from plant fertilizers during that time. I have quite densily planted 128 liter tank that could maybe use a small algae cleaner for the 4 month period I'm gone and my mom tries to run it very low maintance planted tank for me.

[valiant.]

Rehomed all my fish yesterday, and now the tank is kinda sad looking without any fish in it. Also re-planted most of my hygrophilas (weird I used to have ton of polysperma, now I have 2 small branches left) and noticed there were bunch of corry eggs on one leaf. :shock: So I guess they were spawning the other day for real... :? The eggs luckily don't look fertilized, so I don't have to worry about having corry babies.

Is there a snail or shrimp (something that would like to eat green spot algae) that could tolerate 0 water changes (just topping up the water level if it gets too low) for 4 months? There shouldn't be much of organic waste build up (just what ever the creature poops out, assuming it's going to also eat dead plant matter) and all the nitrates would be from plant fertilizers during that time. I have quite densily planted 128 liter tank that could maybe use a small algae cleaner for the 4 month period I'm gone and my mom tries to run it very low maintance planted tank for me.

Nerite snails? I have a few in my 20 gallon and they all cruise around cleaning the glass, plants, wood, etc. never had to feed them or have had to provide food!

[Checkinder]

Heyo, fish people!
I've got a Red Wag Platy who...I can't tell if he's getting crooked too or if it's just my imagination. Something IS wrong with him for sure, cause he keeps his fins clamped more often than not.
I've tried quarantining him and dosing him with whatever I could find suggested and I'm not really sure what to do for the little guy.
Pictures: xxx
Apologies for the quality, my camera doesn't like the tank!

[Trphlthdl]

Hello!

Since my 20gal tank is finally cycled, I went to the pet store to get some fish. Originally I was only going to get 2 female Platies but there was a buy 3, get one free so I got four..... I meant to only get FEMALES but one of the ones was in an up high tank so I couldn’t really see so now I have 3 females and a male.

I’m planning on getting a centerpiece fish in a few weeks but I’m having trouble deciding. I want either a Betta (m or f) or a Dwarf or Honey Gourami. Does anyone have experience with these combinations?


I used to have a male Crowntail Betta names Newton with a few Mollies and they got along great. Newton would even swim around with them in sort of a School. Here’s a few pictures of him
Whose the cutest boy? Newton(I just notice Nova—the black blob—photobombing him)
Beautiful fins<3 and Nova in the background again...

Unfortunately livebearers like mollies and platies prefer hard water, while most betta and gourami prefer soft water. They can tolerate hoarder water, but they do prefer soft water over hard water.

You could do Betta mahachaiensis or, apparently, a three spot gourami is found in hard water as well. Of course, like any fish, you must do more research than a cursory similar params. I'm not sure how these fish would get along with platies, and even with betta splendens it depends on which betta you get.

[Reefknot]

Rehomed all my fish yesterday, and now the tank is kinda sad looking without any fish in it. Also re-planted most of my hygrophilas (weird I used to have ton of polysperma, now I have 2 small branches left) and noticed there were bunch of corry eggs on one leaf. So I guess they were spawning the other day for real... The eggs luckily don't look fertilized, so I don't have to worry about having corry babies.

Is there a snail or shrimp (something that would like to eat green spot algae) that could tolerate 0 water changes (just topping up the water level if it gets too low) for 4 months? There shouldn't be much of organic waste build up (just what ever the creature poops out, assuming it's going to also eat dead plant matter) and all the nitrates would be from plant fertilizers during that time. I have quite densily planted 128 liter tank that could maybe use a small algae cleaner for the 4 month period I'm gone and my mom tries to run it very low maintance planted tank for me.

As someone said, Nerite snails are perfect for cleaning up algae! I have one in my 8 gal with my betta. I can't say anything about not water changing it though

[fluffycat6]

How many gallons is your tank?: 67
Number and Type of fish in tank: 7 sterbai cories, 9 rummynose tetras, 1 bristlenose pleco, 3 mystery snails, 2 juvenile angelfish
How long has it been running?: since August
Did you cycle it?: yes
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: I’m not sure how accurate it is but we have a seachem ammonia detector and it says no ammonia. Tested the nitrates yesterday and they were 10-20, so we did a 30-40% water change today. I doubt there are nitrites because it’s been running for a while.
Does it have a heater? yes
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? 78 degrees Fahrenheit
What is the issue or question?: my smaller angelfish has been acting quite lethargic for the past week or two, he just sits on the gravel all day. Sometimes he’ll come up for food, sometimes he won’t. Looking at some pictures I took a while ago, his colour is much duller.
Any other information?: I don’t think it’s the water because all the other fish are doing fine, he’s the only one acting strange. I turned the heater up to try to get it to 80 but it’s still at 78. Do you think adding Indian almond leaves would help?

Thanks so much for any help, I’m not sure what to do

I’ll try to post photos later

Does the fish in question also look skinny, is the poop somehow odd? If I had to guess I'd go with internal parasite or other internal problem, if there's no external issues to be seem. Unfortunately only some worms can be identified without microscope and medicating without exact cause is not really a good idea.

I think you’re right, his poop is white and kinda stringy. He doesn’t look skinny to me but it’s hard to tell, and he hasn’t grown at all since I got him. Do you think it’s contagious to my other fish? Is there any medication I could safely try?

[

[Naeco]

How many gallons is your tank?: 20
Number and Type of fish in tank: Red Serpae: 3 (had six), Red Serpae Variation: 2 (schools with Red Serpae), Black Tetra: 5, Guppies: 10? (mix of feeder from brothers tank and fancy tail), Glowlight Tetras: 3 (had six), Some variation of Glowlight Tetras: 2 (had five, schools with Glowlights)
How long has it been running?: For two years
Did you cycle it?: Yes
If possible what are the ammonia nitrite and nitrate levels?: N/A
Does it have a heater? Yes
If it has a thermometer, what is the water temperature? Stays between 76 and 78 F
What is the issue or question?: I have these snails that just recently popped up. When I got my new fish, there were no snails or any eggs in the bags so these guys must have just recently hatched. I have had the new fish for three weeks now. Below are pictures of snails. The smallest one is about a quarter of a cm and the biggest is almost a full cm. I have counted eight. Side note, I have not had snails in this tank since it was last set up and that was over 4 years ago.
Any other information?: Has filter, recently got new fish.


My main question is what are they?