Fish Lovers 3.0 [new poll]

[Ad0rem3]

Hey, I turned on my tank light earlier today and have found little white spots on my single Rummynose tetra. I have put in 2 neon tetras last Thursday and they don't seem to have been affected yet, the aquarium is closed today is there anything I can do for the moment till I can go in tomorrow morning? The tank is about 4 weeks old so I will definitely look into cleaning the tank as well. I was told there was a small of ammonia in the tank after the neons were put in. I dont know whether it makes a difference but I gave them some blood worms Sunday. thanks for reading ~

[Lonin]

Hey, I turned on my tank light earlier today and have found little white spots on my single Rummynose tetra. I have put in 2 neon tetras last Thursday and they don't seem to have been affected yet, the aquarium is closed today is there anything I can do for the moment till I can go in tomorrow morning? The tank is about 4 weeks old so I will definitely look into cleaning the tank as well. I was told there was a small of ammonia in the tank after the neons were put in. I dont know whether it makes a difference but I gave them some blood worms Sunday. thanks for reading ~

Does it look like ich, like the fish has been sprinkled in salt?


As we said, not having enough schooling fish leads to stress and stress leads to illness. Ich is a an opportunistic parasite that's probbaly always in your tank but is kept at bay in healthy fish.

Ich lifecycle is in several stages and it can only be killed when it's not attached to the fish. You can read a full explanation and detailed treatment here: http://www.aquahobby.com/articles/e_ich2.php
But the basics are to gradually ( 1°C/2°F an hour while watching the fish) raise the tank temperature to around 30°C/86°F depending on your fish then do daily 25% water changes using a gravel vacuum to remove as many of the free-swimming parasites/eggs as possible for around 10 days. There is less oxygen at higher temperatures so you might need to add an air stone or lower your water level to increase surface agitation from your filter output to increase aeration if your fish are gasping at the surface.
You shouldn't need medication unless you have a particularly resistant strain or your fish are really badly affected.
This should sort it but the problem will keep coming back for as long as the fish are stressed.

[satuurnity]

Hey, I turned on my tank light earlier today and have found little white spots on my single Rummynose tetra. I have put in 2 neon tetras last Thursday and they don't seem to have been affected yet, the aquarium is closed today is there anything I can do for the moment till I can go in tomorrow morning? The tank is about 4 weeks old so I will definitely look into cleaning the tank as well. I was told there was a small of ammonia in the tank after the neons were put in. I dont know whether it makes a difference but I gave them some blood worms Sunday. thanks for reading ~

As Lonin said, you should really get some more fish of the same species so that they can school, which will reduce stress. I'd stick to either neons or rummynose tetras for now, and make sure you have at least 6 (ideally 8) of them.

[Naeco]

For ich, we have always put in a pinch of sea salt as well. It works well for us.

[Hime]

I went on bit of shopping spree crazy after Christmas. ^^; I had forgotten to watch out pre-christmas/calender deals on fish stores, so I was pretty bummed to miss some offers. BUT. One store has all fish -30% and plants take 5 pay 25e deals after christmas. And then in store they had bunch of hardware/chemicals for sale. Soooo, I ended up walking out with new T5 light controller (-50%) and tubes for it (original price 30-something, now 10e), 5 new plants (which should now do well with the added light, though I already forgot/never caught what two of the species were) and 7 new endlers (if I'm counting them right currently). Been now a week and all the plants are still alive (my moody stunted sword has even grown an entire new red leaf ) and there's not algae invasion. My only issue is that if all these plants actually take off, as I ofcourse hope they do, I'm going to be running out of space... But for now I'm pretty happy with my new lights, plants and fish. Though I still need to figure out the light situation, like the new ones need water proof fixture/caseing around them (currently in cardboard one, which works but not exactly safest solution) and my 90-ish liter can't have two separate T8 fixtures on top of it. And if I really want to start setting up the 90-ish liter, it needs to move from below the 128liter one...

And as for the mystery plants. Any website recommendations where I could maybe try to identify them?
The problem currently is that both are supposed to change pretty drastically in looks as they convert to under water growth and one of them is tiny, but should grow out nice and big. Bigger one I'm pretty sure is Myriophyllum mattogrossense, but the tiny one is problematic. It's supposed to grow up to have a similar leaf structure as the Myriophyllum (the shop keeper showed me some pictures of the species all grown up) so that's my only lead currently... If anyone here has good knowledge of plants I can try take a picture of the two mystery plants, though currently they don't look like what they should look like in future.

[Kat]

How common are bettas who appear to be crowntail and doubletail cross plakats? There is one at Petco that appears to be that mix and I've never seen that before? Is he a rarity?

[Violently Violet]

Hello! I've got a 10 gallon with over-populated guppies. I'm hoping to move them to my 40 gallon soon, but I'm not entirely sure it holds water yet.

Anyway, if I do move them, I'd want to get some bottom-dwellers to help with algae. I'm deciding between ghost shrimp and Cory catfish. Anyone have any recommendation for either?

We have hard water as well which my fish are adjusted to, but I don't know whether shrimp or corys are more hardy and tolerate of water conditions?

The shrimp are very cheap, like 50 cents each, but I've heard that can die easily if you aren't careful?

Corys are like $3-4 each and you need to get multiple though.

What do you think is best?

[Hime]

Hello! I've got a 10 gallon with over-populated guppies. I'm hoping to move them to my 40 gallon soon, but I'm not entirely sure it holds water yet.

Anyway, if I do move them, I'd want to get some bottom-dwellers to help with algae. I'm deciding between ghost shrimp and Cory catfish. Anyone have any recommendation for either?

We have hard water as well which my fish are adjusted to, but I don't know whether shrimp or corys are more hardy and tolerate of water conditions?

The shrimp are very cheap, like 50 cents each, but I've heard that can die easily if you aren't careful?

Corys are like $3-4 each and you need to get multiple though.

What do you think is best?

What sort of algae do you have?
Cories don't eat algae. And btw if you can get corries for just 3-4$, consider that cheap as we have to pay at very least 8-9€ per cory and usually they are over 10€. Hardness is not always the biggest issue, with cories you need to watch the temperature as many of the species appreciate cooler water.
Shrimp are sensitive to un-stable/not cycled tanks, so basically ammonia/nitrite. They don't do well in very soft water as their shells require minerals to stay healthy. So hard water likely is not a bad thing for them.
So shrimp are likely more suited for your tank, but again it really depends on what algae you have. Also if you have lot of alage, getting something to eat it is more like a bandaid than actually fixing the cause for the algae.

[Violently Violet]

Hello! I've got a 10 gallon with over-populated guppies. I'm hoping to move them to my 40 gallon soon, but I'm not entirely sure it holds water yet.

Anyway, if I do move them, I'd want to get some bottom-dwellers to help with algae. I'm deciding between ghost shrimp and Cory catfish. Anyone have any recommendation for either?

We have hard water as well which my fish are adjusted to, but I don't know whether shrimp or corys are more hardy and tolerate of water conditions?

The shrimp are very cheap, like 50 cents each, but I've heard that can die easily if you aren't careful?

Corys are like $3-4 each and you need to get multiple though.

What do you think is best?

What sort of algae do you have?
Cories don't eat algae. And btw if you can get corries for just 3-4$, consider that cheap as we have to pay at very least 8-9€ per cory and usually they are over 10€. Hardness is not always the biggest issue, with cories you need to watch the temperature as many of the species appreciate cooler water.
Shrimp are sensitive to un-stable/not cycled tanks, so basically ammonia/nitrite. They don't do well in very soft water as their shells require minerals to stay healthy. So hard water likely is not a bad thing for them.
So shrimp are likely more suited for your tank, but again it really depends on what algae you have. Also if you have lot of alage, getting something to eat it is more like a bandaid than actually fixing the cause for the algae.

Thanks for the help!

Huh, I'd thought I read that cories can eat algae, but I maybe got confused with them being called a "cleanup crew" type fish sometimes.

I might still consider them because I want a bottom dweller and I like how they look.

I'm not sure when kind of algae I have. It's usually green/brown. I really should identify it. Yeah any algae eater won't fix the problem, but they'll help. I think I get so much algae because my tank is close to a window, so more light, and maybe my guppies overpopulating? I don't know. Right now it's in a spot that's hard to reach for maintenance like scrubbing the decor and tank etc but I'm planning on moving it to an easier spot (and if I can move to the 40 gallon that'd be even better).


Just wondering, I'm planning on going hood-less if I can use the 40g. I've heard cories tend to jump out of the water when coming up for air?

Also, can either cories or shrimp live on flake food as a staple food or will any bottom-dweller need pellets or blood worms etc?

[Hime]

Hello! I've got a 10 gallon with over-populated guppies. I'm hoping to move them to my 40 gallon soon, but I'm not entirely sure it holds water yet.

Anyway, if I do move them, I'd want to get some bottom-dwellers to help with algae. I'm deciding between ghost shrimp and Cory catfish. Anyone have any recommendation for either?

We have hard water as well which my fish are adjusted to, but I don't know whether shrimp or corys are more hardy and tolerate of water conditions?

The shrimp are very cheap, like 50 cents each, but I've heard that can die easily if you aren't careful?

Corys are like $3-4 each and you need to get multiple though.

What do you think is best?

What sort of algae do you have?
Cories don't eat algae. And btw if you can get corries for just 3-4$, consider that cheap as we have to pay at very least 8-9€ per cory and usually they are over 10€. Hardness is not always the biggest issue, with cories you need to watch the temperature as many of the species appreciate cooler water.
Shrimp are sensitive to un-stable/not cycled tanks, so basically ammonia/nitrite. They don't do well in very soft water as their shells require minerals to stay healthy. So hard water likely is not a bad thing for them.
So shrimp are likely more suited for your tank, but again it really depends on what algae you have. Also if you have lot of alage, getting something to eat it is more like a bandaid than actually fixing the cause for the algae.

Thanks for the help!

Huh, I'd thought I read that cories can eat algae, but I maybe got confused with them being called a "cleanup crew" type fish sometimes.

I might still consider them because I want a bottom dweller and I like how they look.

I'm not sure when kind of algae I have. It's usually green/brown. I really should identify it. Yeah any algae eater won't fix the problem, but they'll help. I think I get so much algae because my tank is close to a window, so more light, and maybe my guppies overpopulating? I don't know. Right now it's in a spot that's hard to reach for maintenance like scrubbing the decor and tank etc but I'm planning on moving it to an easier spot (and if I can move to the 40 gallon that'd be even better).


Just wondering, I'm planning on going hood-less if I can use the 40g. I've heard cories tend to jump out of the water when coming up for air?

Also, can either cories or shrimp live on flake food as a staple food or will any bottom-dweller need pellets or blood worms etc?

If the algae is thin layer on surfaces then sucker mouthed species would be better choice.
Cories get called the clean up grew as they eat up food that may get pass the top/mid layer eaters. But their mouth structure is not made for algae grazing. They basically shift through the sand with their noses and whiskers in search for food. They do prefer wafers or tabs, but sinking pellets work as well (even the bigger than mouthful ones). Flakes they would eat probably if they made it to the bottom, but if you have lot of guppies I doubt enough flakes get pass them. As for the jumping, they don't really jump imo. It's more like touch the surface for air and then head back down.
Cories are super cute and fun to have, especially in decent size group. I personally would love to keep them, but there's something in my tank that doesn't mix well with cories unfortunately.