The Amazing Aquarium Thread- Why is Fishy Sleeping Upside Down? - General

I got my Otocinclus! Holy SHIT they cost a lot here. $60 for 4. Had a slight drama with one oto getting stuck in a fishnet thread, but carefully freed the poor guy. Also they had one chain loach on its lonesome so I got him at a discount. The chain loach is happy in my community tank it seems, zipping around all the plants. He has also snacked on heaps of snails already too. But ill nees to get about 4 more so he has friends.

Yeah Otos are expensive, and you have to be careful too because other things like Chinese Algae Eaters are commonly sold as Otos which makes it even worse. Otos stay relatively small but the Chinese/Siamese Algae Eaters get big. https://www.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/large/lg_89620_Chinese_Algae_Eater.jpg https://secure.liveaquaria.com/images/categories/large/lg_89928_Siamese_Algae_Eater.jpg https://www.aquariumcarebasics.com/images/otocinclus-catfish.jpg Without looking at the file names, guess which one is the Oto

right is oto, did my research before buying, i saw some people who got sold the wrong thing. Theyre friggin tiny, i have trouble finding them sometimes, but then i find them sucking on the underside of a leaf somewhere. I love them already

Here they are ! https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/244344/28ac99fe-7bbe-49d7-8637-f332bd49640b/IMAG1313.jpg https://files.facepunch.com/forum/upload/244344/c44603aa-197c-4799-ade1-b9da85ad2eec/IMAG1306.jpg

I finally saw the little catfish out and about, not only that but he was following his father around. Its so damn cute! https://i.imgur.com/AtxbvAL.jpg https://i.imgur.com/l5JFZ79.jpg

What kind of Cory is that?

Both the little boi and his father are coppers.

Also im curious, do you run low tech? Your ambulias look really good. Mine look a bit faded green buy it might just be the shade cause theyre getting huge.

Depends on what you define as 'low tech'. I don't run Co2 but I've got a slightly overkill LED lighting bar on an 8 hour timer and i put in liquid fertiliser (an all in one solution) once a week or so depending on how the plants are looking. Mine tend to look a little faded if I don't fertilise for too long so it might just be yours aren't getting certain nutrients they need? Though if that were the case you'd likely be seeing them melt a bit by now. Im actually finding that they are a little TOO healthy as they are growing out of control right now. Every week I have to trim a serious amount of it back or they grow so long all my other plants are left in the shade. The java fern has actually started growing out towards the front of the tank away from them.

I had to turn my leds down to almost 50% to stop browning and weird growth on thr ambulia. I dose flourish once a week, maybe I should double?

I have black algae growing in my puffer tank, noooo Otos why aren't you eating the algae

They will if you spot syringe excel on it maybe they will eat it. Hydrogen peroxide worked getting rid of my bba in a day.

Just for one week give it a bit more and see what happens, it might just be the overall ecosystem of your tank differs from mine enough to change its color or the plants are different kinds. Theres a ton of variables at play when it comes to plants so experiment away I guess, Ill admit I do have a serious amount of blackbeard algae in my tank which is likely a side effect of dosing the all in one (I figured the java moss would soak up any excess but apparently not) a bit too much.

I don't dose macros other than K, what are you dosing with?

I just use this stuff https://www.petbarn.com.au/pisces-laboratories-enrich-plant-fertilizer-200ml

Can't even see what's in it lmao. Is that even legal? How the hell do you check the MSDS?

So after a bit of research Im going to buy a premix of techden brand Flourish Excel, Glut+chelated iron which is pretty much excel but half the price. Hopefully this will spruce up my plants, I think your pisces stuff contains glut as well hence the plant vibrancy.

I've never really bothered to find out what it contains but it does the job, I dose roughly 5ml a week so the bottles last a while. Honestly I was tempted to go and do individual dosing instead of an all in one solution but if im not going to be using Co2 I don't really see the point. One day im for sure setting up a proper planted tank with carpet plants etc but right now i'd be having to rescape the existing tank which sounds like a massive pain in the ass to do.

Sounds like it works for you, thats pretty awesome. But honestly I dont see the appeal of co2 unless you have a lot of money to burn, fishkeeping is expensive enough with all the ferts, food and additives. Hell, I'll get 5 years out of this $50 carbon source.

The aquarium service company I used to work for merged with another! now that I've been in the industry for 3 years under expert leadership, its great to get more of a full-time career in aquarium service! -if anyone has SW/FW installation or equipment questions, feel free to ask!

The aquarium store I go to here has a swap and go bottle service that isn't super expensive, last time I asked the setup with a decent regulator/solenoid was around $150 or so, bottles are sub $50 but in a tank my size a bottle would last me well over a year.

Good thing I bought metro as well as prazipro, I have a hexamita outbreak. Hopefully it gets here soon, one betta is sitting at the bottom of the tank and not moving much. Visible tiny pinholes in her head. Feeding garlic soaked flakes and pellets. Any other advice? Swordtail has his big white stringy poops back, and some other bettas look like they're getting holes too. Going to pop to my local LFS and grab some garlic guard, melafix and some garlic soaked bloodworms.

Given white stringy poop is one of the symptoms of hexamita if theres other signs chances are you're correct. Never dealt with it myself so good luck.

Got home from work, one tetra dead. Seemingly randomly with no symptoms, good thing meds came in mail today, dosing the tank now Poor tetra tho

Alright so, since in Australia 180 proof alcohol isn't available, is there any other effective ways of soaking fish flakes/pellets in Metro+?

Sorry for the spam, but holy shit, what the fuck is going on. Now two other neons have cottonmouth, I'm going to also try melafix, pimafix and Tri Sulfa. Anyone know which of these I can't mix? This is a headache, fuckkkk.

https://i.imgur.com/H61VkA0.jpg Prepping for the rescape of the cichlid tank. Also holy shit is that blurry I didn't realize it when I took it.

Ill be keen to see the new rescape! Also aparently just the neons have cottonmouth, but its a weird white growth which some people online attributing to neon tetra disease or some sort of cyst that just keeps growing until they cant feed anymore. Guppy died in qt, betta still sick as hell. Used the Triple Sulfa in case, things staying relatively the same. Might just QT all my neons and cull them if its viral and chronic to save their suffering. Maybe replace with Cardinals and some other tetras...

https://i.imgur.com/tZPGEw3.jpg I miss my phone. My old phone has such a shit camera.

Are those real plants? Unsure just because substrate is so thin and I'm not good at picking