We are ScapeCrunch, the place where planted aquarium hobbyists come to build relationships and support each other. When you're tired of doom scrolling, you've found your home here.
I’m very sorry to hear that. My new routine is QT tank and Maracyn Oxy for 5 days. If they don’t show any issues I pop them in the tank. If I see anything out of the ordinary I will treat with antibiotics as well. But if it’s TB, unfortunately there isn’t much to do. Are they eating at all? Being shy is one thing, but staying in one place, breathing heavy or lethargic is typical signs I’ve seen when rainbows are declining. Gasping at the surface is another bad sign especially when there’s no CO2 being injected. I hope the remaining ones make it
I’m alive and the tank is well. I haven’t kept the journal updated, but caring for my aquariums has been a welcome distraction during a very stressful season. BBA is still an issue on the hardscape and on the old growth of some plants, but otherwise it’s been pretty routine. The crypts are getting established and I’ve removed or cut back the stem plants in some areas to give them some more light.
First, the bad: unfortunately I was not able to save the rainbowfish from suspected mycobacterium. I did not journal that whole episode, but please trust that I did my best. It was very disheartening and it took me a second to get my nerve back and get more new fish.
Stocking the tank has gone much better since then. I have decided to go with underused, neutral parameter South American fish. The first ones to make it through quarantine are Moenkhausia pittieri, diamond tetras. Though this tank has gone through many, many iterations in my mind, diamond tetras have always been on the list of fish I wanted to keep, so it made sense to start with them first. These first guys are still small, so they are just beginning to get their sparkles, but they seem like they have a lot of personality for a tetra. They are learning to associate me with food and are not shy at all. I have two that are definitely males that flare at each other often, showing off neat purpley ombre coloring developing on their fins.
(I am not great at taking pictures of fish, bear with me)
I only have 6 right now in the tank now, but another 6 have arrived and are in quarantine. I have heard these guys can bully other fish if they don’t have enough room or a big enough school, but I’m hoping 12 will be sufficient. The original 6 were already laying eggs in the moss in the QT and it seems quite common for the odd fry to survive in a community aquarium, so it’s possible the school might grow on its own.
The QT is currently filled to the brim; in addition to the additional diamonds, I have a large group of Aphyocharax rathbuni, green fire tetra, and they seem to be doing well. There’s one that arrived with a chunk of tail fin missing, but it seemed normal otherwise and the fin seems to be growing back now. They are pretty tiny and not too much to look at yet, but they are getting meaty foods a few times a week and hopefully will chunk up nicely. Their behavior is interesting; if the diamond tetra struck me as energetic and clever, my first impression of these guys is that they are energetic and rather dim. They just seem kind of bumbling. They aren’t shy, but I don’t think they have a long enough memory to be vigilant about anything.
I’m looking forward to watching both species develop. They all have a long way to go before they reach their peak form, not that I mind watching the process. There have been no personality problems in the QT. If anything, the two species together seem to have made both more outgoing than they were in a single species tank. Maybe too outgoing even - I just did a water change and I had too many fish wanting to check out the vacuum tube.
I have arrangements for one more tetra group, but I’ll keep that one a surprise in case it doesn’t pan out or I change my mind at the last minute. I also have plans for some bottom dwellers, but I want to get all the tetra settled first.
My mom has always said, "Having fish is a lesson in death" and she's not wrong. It is part of the game, unfortunately.
It makes it a lot easier that they were in quarantine. I threw out everything I could, disinfected the rest, and then set up totally different equipment for the QT I'm running now. I just had to buy a filter, and it was totally worth it to not have to worry about cross contamination.
Thanks for the update, was wondering how you were doing. I’m sorry about the fish, your not alone there.
Tank is looking good, some great growth for no Co2. Good luck with the new fish, tetras are very underrated and a nice school is stunning to watch. I always loved my rummy nose I had when I started back up in 2020, they schooled beautifully.
Since @Mr.Shenanagins posted his gunky tank, I thought I should add mine from 3 days ago
(The particulate matter in the water column was transient from a filter rinsing.)
And this was it today after some maintenance.
This is still not completely cleaned up, because I have to do several passes to get to everything. Today I removed the water sprite entirely and replanted the area with stems. It was always going to be a temporary inhabitant to help stabilize things early on and it did a great job. But it looks so much better now that it's gone!
Speaking of removing plants, earlier this month I chopped the aponogeton entirely to the substrate. It just had these long, unhappy, unmanageable leaves that only detracted to the tank, so it's starting back from square one. It's a big ask to make the plant completely regenerate from the roots, but if it can pull it off I think it'll be happier. It's sent up three or four new leaves already that are shorter and totally clean, so I'm optimistic.
In April I added mermaid weed and Taiwan lily and they are doing great! The lily is well established as a very easy plant, but I haven't seen mermaid weed attempted in many non-CO2 tanks. It settled in without much trouble at all and has put on a good 6" or so of new growth. You can see exact when it hit my tank because the leaf morphology changed from a serrated edge to being highly dissected. I'd love to get it nice and orange, but I don't know if that's in the cards. Honestly I'm just happy it's growing well. (There have also been some unhappy introductions, but that may have been due to a delay getting them planted.)
The fish have made it through quarantine and are doing great. The green fire tetra are more comfortable with the diamond tetra than on their own, and the diamonds are boisterous without causing trouble. It's a lovely group. I want to add some more fish, but I can't decide what I want. I go back and forth on Bolivian rams. We'll see.
Love that we're posting our ugly tanks and showing how a little elbow grease gets them back into shape. Beginners really need to see this. I guess, so do the rest of us. Perhaps I'll start an ugly tank thread so we can all feel better?
@*Ci*, I see you mentioned quarantine. Do you quarantine all your fish purchases? I haven't done it in years.
Sometimes I feel like I'm rolling the dice. Other times I feel it isn't needed with freshwater.
@Art, I think as long as the fundamentals of the tank are sensible (lights, nutrients, CO2, and plants all make sense together) and the tank isn't brand new you can go from a neglected state to looking pretty good quite quickly. Remove the worst leaves, scrape the glass, vacuum up debris and it's an instant facelift, and it improves from there. Some individual plants may be toast, but as long as there's some healthy growth in there it should bounce back with some effort. The above picture isn't even that bad - sure, the glass is gross, but the plant mass hadn't gotten out of control yet. Then water flow and shading become problems, so life becomes more difficult for more and more species as the neglect continues. Even still, the stuff that survives should recover well.
Yeah, I quarantine all my fish for about a month unless they are the first group in the tank. For me, it's cheap and easy for the peace of mind. Most groups of fish have been fine, but a few have had issues and it's always so stressful to deal with. I couldn't handle the risk of ending up with something in my display tank. I've also gotten picky about where I source my fish from, though I understand that stuff can still slip through.
I had never quarantined fish in the past, even some expensive koi, and have never had problems with disease. But for my discus, I decided to do things “right”, so I set up a q-t in my basement, arranged an easy water change system and cycled it. However, at the last minute I opted to just put all the fish into the main tank (which had some prior residents living in it), upstairs in my living room.
My reasons were that it would be way easier to observe them, feed them multiple times a day, water change them multiple times a week, plus my previous track record, plus I stocked up on medications I would potentially need, enough to treat the whole tank. And, sure enough, no problems with disease or parasites to date.
Probably just rolling the dice, but there you go ; )
Removing the water sprite was a great call. The tank is much more visually balanced, and it brings everything much more in line with how I pictured it in my head. The fore- and midground are developing more or less to plan. It’s very satisfying to watch the crypts get fuller and begin to create the understory I saw in my mind’s eye. I’m especially fond of the crinum - it’s very tall but slender and makes an interesting vertical element without taking up too much space.
However, the rooted plants I had in mind for the background are kind of a problem right now. There is Cryptocoryne usteriana and C. balansae back there, and though they have grown since I added them, I think it’s going to be a long time until they have enough size to hold their own back there. There’s also a Echinodorus that I bought as E. horemanii Red that I suspect is a mislabeled Echinodorus “Rubin Narrow Leaf.” Apparently this is a common mixup, but the plant I wanted gets very large, while the plant I have is beautiful, but only about 8” and tops out at 12” max - so, it’s never going to be big enough. So I’m back to relying on stem plants for now.
The livestock in the big tank is nearing a holding point. I moved all the espei rasbora and white clouds over from the OG 20-long and I should have done it earlier! They look awesome and with the diamond and green fire tetra and the overall amount of hustle and bustle seems about right for the tank size. There’s a lot of action, but it doesn’t seem crowded. I thought 4 species might be too many, but I find I prefer the variety and they all are getting along well.
I finally decided on a pair of Apistogramma macmasteri “Red Shoulder” as bottom dwellers. I had deeply considered Bolivian rams because they can be kept in a group, but their color seems variable and ultimately I opted for less bioload. They are in quarantine and the male is about as good looking as could have hoped. I am still learning their behavior and have my fingers crossed that they will have a smooth adjustment to the community.
Once I add those, I may be done adding livestock for a while. There's probably room for another group, but I'm not sure what they should be. Blueberry tetra? Some species of neon tetra? (Don't laugh - I've never kept them!) I feel like it could use something with blue or graphic black.
Next I turn my attention to my 22 long (above). I've had it set up with sand for a while, but it doesn't look like much right because it's very, very low energy and as usual I'm planning for it to peak in a couple of years. But I'm super excited about the Habrosus corys that will get here at the end of the month. I've wanted to keep them for forever, and I basically made this set up for them. I can't wait! I'm still deciding on the upper level fish, but it needs to be something that's happy in the lower 70s.
I see their appeal when viewed from the top in a pond, but the ones I've seen in person were very plain. I have seen pictures of very neat blue speckled ones in Japan, but I've not seen them for sale in the US at all, much less in person. I want something with more color since the corys are muted. I have entertained chili rasbora, rainbow emperor tetra (Nematobrycon lacortei), long fin white clouds, and red neon blue-eyes... but who knows where I'll land when the time comes.
So, I have been doing my weekly water changes all summer, but in the past week I've had a bit of an algae outbreak. Lots of stuff just suddenly looks scuzzy. I'm not totally sure what's up. Historically when this kind of thing happens it's during a period where I'm slacking, so I just blame myself and move on, but that is not the case now. I think it may be a combination of overfeeding the fish and having lots of recently disturbed plants. The overfeeding is an amateur mistake for sure, but I've never had to feed such a large and diverse group of fish before, so I'm still dialing it in.
That said, there may be something else going on, so I'm keeping a close eye on things. (I don't think any fish have died, though I can never get a confident count on the green fire tetra because they refuse to all get together.)
I’m with ya. My troubles lately have been maintenance related but I’m getting back on track. Cyano and filamentous diatoms currently for me. I definitely had at least one fish loss too at some point and that didn’t help, along with bottoming out on ferts for weeks on end. Good luck going forward
Ok, new and better theory: my totally clogged prefilters were to blame. That explanation makes more sense to me.
Anyway, I moved the apistos over to the big tank. They are exploring and getting hassled a bit by the dominant diamonds. It's nothing aggressive - they always prod anyone new for a day or two. I hope the apistos can be more assertive once they settle in. The lower level of the tank is all theirs.
So, good news and bad news. The good news is the apistos seem to be doing great in the community. Their colors look good, they are eating, and they are spending all their time bopping around and chewing sand. The first few days I got them they had some minor relationship problems (male did some chasing and she seemed stressed by it) but they worked that out and hang out together frequently. I haven't seen a single aggressive move between them in weeks. (I understand everything could change if they breed and I'll cross that bridge if it comes.)
The bad news is my habrosus corys apparently "died unexpectedly" when they were being prepped for shipping. Ugh. I'm vaguely glad I didn't get a box of dead fish in the mail, but it's still a bummer. They are very difficult to source right now and I've been tempted to try some untested sources, but they are primarily wild caught and have a reputation for being sensitive after import. They probably aren't good species to roll the dice on.
So I've got an empty 22 gallon tank with no fish on the horizon. I think I need to commit to an upper level school now and pick up the corys whenever they come around again. I was very unclear before that I've got two open spots for fish left, one school for the big tank (maybe blue or graphic black, low priority), and an upper level school for the 22 gal. that in wrestling with now. I gave a list above of possibilities, but at the moment I've turned my attention to Vietnamese white clouds. I'll probably have something picked out in the next week or two.
They were from Dan's. I was refunded immediately and they apologized, so I don't have a problem with how it was handled on their end at all. I do wonder what happened exactly to the fish, but sometimes stuff happens. I've ordered from them before and I will again.
This site uses cookies to help personalise content, tailor your experience and to keep you logged in if you register.
By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our use of cookies.
