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

Got myself some cory's, they came in groups of six, two albino two bronze and two speckled. They are extremely active since being put into the tank and none of them show signs of any issues so here hoping they last a long time!

I got my UV filter, I have no idea if the light is actually on though...

So the cory's have mostly settled in but the albino's are acting very differently to the others. Instead of digging around for food and hanging around the plants and rocks they have taken to swimming around against the filters outflow(as in the current it produces) and alot of the time, up against the glass. They arent panicking or anything they just seem to want to be -really- active all the time [editline]2nd June 2017[/editline] Did some reading and apparently albino cory's are a bit nuts in general. I just hope they dont hurt themselfes from constantly bumping into eachother

My albinos will swim around all day, then lay under one of my plants and I think they're dead but my false julii is always at the top of the tank. Don't think they got the memo that they're bottom feeders.

My grumpy pleco died and I don't know what killed him :frown: all the other fish are fine, params are fine, algae is clearing up because of that light, he was just dead.

[QUOTE=FinalHunter;52321055]I read through this entire thread because it was really interesting and now fish sound fucking impossible. You have to get the right size tank and then make sure the fish get along and get the right plants and then some other fuckers to clean up the algae and then filters etc etc. Y'all were throwing around talk about ammonia and different chemicals to fix the balance and dear lord, it sounds like more work than a cat.[/QUOTE] Harder than you'd think, but not impossible. It's actually easy most of the time, but if something goes wrong it can be like a bazillion different things.

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;52218549] So I thought my tank was just cloudy, opened the blinds and uh... Looks like algae is taking over. [t]http://i.imgur.com/wVms3PL.png[/t][/QUOTE] Some carbon media/carbon pads(Accurel makes a really good carbon pad)/etc. and ROWAphos might help with the green in your water column. you'll just have to find a means of forcing water through the media. I'm not sure what your filtration setup is, but if you have a canister filter your in luck, otherwise you could find an old-school style reactor and run it in your tank for a few days. Sometimes even just leaving ROWAphos in front of an area with flow helps too. But carbon by far will help the best... what's your chemistry reading? it could just be in a sun-heavy area

[QUOTE=cheesecurls;52321694]Some carbon media/carbon pads(Accurel makes a really good carbon pad)/etc. and ROWAphos might help with the green in your water column. you'll just have to find a means of forcing water through the media. I'm not sure what your filtration setup is, but if you have a canister filter your in luck, otherwise you could find an old-school style reactor and run it in your tank for a few days. Sometimes even just leaving ROWAphos in front of an area with flow helps too. But carbon by far will help the best... what's your chemistry reading? it could just be in a sun-heavy area[/QUOTE] It's long since been fixed. Still have no idea what caused it.

So that insane albino Cory of mine has finally calmed down. Forever. :c Other fish are all fine and ammonia isn't high (Still hasn't cycled even with store bought chems, shouldn't have put plants in till it was done, lesson learned) + 0 nitrite so I get the feeling there was legitimately something wrong with him when I got him.

I still need to get around to typing a good and bad beginner fish list. Maybe if I take the train to my parents I will do that then. Just been so damn busy. Also yeah you can grow basil aquaponically quite easy.

Three fish deaths in three days, first a rubberlip pleco, second a balloon belly molly, third a lyretail guppy today. [t]http://i.imgur.com/Ud3vIpC.jpg[/t] (ran out of tubes, ph is 7.6-7.8) The Nitrates one is deceptive in these pictures, it's actually in the 20-40 range [t]http://i.imgur.com/CtpLHOO.jpg[/t] I have no idea what's happening now, water is great, clear, no ammonia, it's finally back to normal, and yet three different species of fish have died.

[URL="http://www.cracked.com/blog/stop.-put-down-fish.-you-want-different-pet./"]Oh hey look, Cracked wrote an article about fish[/URL] "All the test kits (KH, pH, demon saturation): $15. Bubble-shitter, plus hose: $15."

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;52330886]Three fish deaths in three days, first a rubberlip pleco, second a balloon belly molly, third a lyretail guppy today. [t]http://i.imgur.com/Ud3vIpC.jpg[/t] (ran out of tubes, ph is 7.6-7.8) The Nitrates one is deceptive in these pictures, it's actually in the 20-40 range [t]http://i.imgur.com/CtpLHOO.jpg[/t] I have no idea what's happening now, water is great, clear, no ammonia, it's finally back to normal, and yet three different species of fish have died.[/QUOTE] I'll still try to help if you answer my questions: [QUOTE=OvB;52244057]What kind of filter do you have(the make/model)? How often do you clean your filter? What kind of media? How often do you do water changes? How do you normally do water changes? How long do you leave the light on? Does the tank get direct sunlight? Also, how many gallons? Also also, how old is the tank, how did you cycle it, and how long did you let it cycle? We'll figure this out. It's not coming out of nowhere. [editline]18th May 2017[/editline] Actually, reading through the thread again we've figured the high ammonia in your tap water isn't doing you any favors. As GamerChick said, you might want to sent up a thing in a bucket to pre-treat your water before adding it in. I was going to make one for my saltwater tank to mix the saltwater way back when but I never got around to it. That gives us a good lead, but let's start from square one with those questions first.[/QUOTE] [editline]9th June 2017[/editline] [QUOTE=FinalHunter;52321055]I read through this entire thread because it was really interesting and now fish sound fucking impossible. You have to get the right size tank and then make sure the fish get along and get the right plants and then some other fuckers to clean up the algae and then filters etc etc. Y'all were throwing around talk about ammonia and different chemicals to fix the balance and dear lord, it sounds like more work than a cat.[/QUOTE] Does the idea of being a literal God to a handful of creatures that can barely comprehend your existence excite you? Does the prospect of being in ultimate control over a living things entire existence appeal to you? Do you enjoy hoisting bucket loads of water past your neck and getting your arms wet while you suck up feces with a hose? Do you mind throwing your money away on an endless list of products, most of which are out of your price range? Do you have a working knowledge of basic chemistry, biology, and medicine? Do you have a knack for basic plumbing and hardware maintenance? If so, aquariums might be for you!

[QUOTE=OvB;52334782]I'll still try to help if you answer my questions: [QUOTE=OvB;52244057]What kind of filter do you have(the make/model)? How often do you clean your filter? What kind of media? How often do you do water changes? How do you normally do water changes? How long do you leave the light on? Does the tank get direct sunlight? Also, how many gallons? Also also, how old is the tank, how did you cycle it, and how long did you let it cycle? We'll figure this out. It's not coming out of nowhere. [editline]18th May 2017[/editline] Actually, reading through the thread again we've figured the high ammonia in your tap water isn't doing you any favors. As GamerChick said, you might want to sent up a thing in a bucket to pre-treat your water before adding it in. I was going to make one for my saltwater tank to mix the saltwater way back when but I never got around to it. That gives us a good lead, but let's start from square one with those questions first.[/QUOTE] [/QUOTE] 70 gallon Aqua Clear Fluval filter (300 gph), clean the gunk out every two weeks (cold water to preserve the existing beneficial bacteria in there), got the foam, carbon, and bio media in there. Once a week, 15-20% Tank gets direct sunlight only if someone leaves the curtains open, not very often. 60 gallons, got it in December and cycled it without fish & some media from an established tank for two or three weeks. Random deaths are a new thing though, prior to this everything had an indicator of what killed the fish.

How many fish do you have in the tank? Seems strange indeed. Back when you had the ammonia problem I was going to recommend ammonia removing media. Need to be mindful of that though as it will get saturated and start seeping ammonia back into your tank if you don't remove it.

[QUOTE=OvB;52334912]How many fish do you have in the tank? Seems strange indeed. Back when you had the ammonia problem I was going to recommend ammonia removing media. Need to be mindful of that though as it will get saturated and start seeping ammonia back into your tank if you don't remove it.[/QUOTE] Prior to the deaths, there were 14 of them, according to the aquastock calculator thing, ~80% stock level

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;52334934]Prior to the deaths, there were 14 of them, according to the aquastock calculator thing, ~80% stock level[/QUOTE] Any external signs of disease or distress? Clamped fins? Weird behaviors? Do you have a high range pH test kit to check against as well? The pH indicators used in most test kits are really not ideal. You could be sitting at 7.6 or considerably higher. Balloon bellies are not the most hearty and are prone to early deaths. Rubber plecos are pretty much always wild caught so he could have been harboring something internally. This could just be a case of bad luck. You might consider picking up another HOB and run both. If your filter cleaning is causing mini cycles alternate cleanings running two HOBs should help. The extra flow should increase your O2 content, and you'll also have some redundancy should one of the units fail. If everyone else seems to be doing OK your best bet is probably to keep doing what you're doing.

Nope, everyone was swimming around normally, nothing visibly wrong, even after they died. AFAIK I haven't had any issues with mini cycles lately either, only thing is the mysterious algae bloom that nothing fixed until I got the UV filter, and then once that was gone my water was perfectly normal again.

[QUOTE=FlakTheMighty;52339575]Nope, everyone was swimming around normally, nothing visibly wrong, even after they died. AFAIK I haven't had any issues with mini cycles lately either, only thing is the mysterious algae bloom that nothing fixed until I got the UV filter, and then once that was gone my water was perfectly normal again.[/QUOTE] I'm thinking that you've just been struck with bad luck then.

I am too, a perfectly normal platy got stuck to the filter this morning, caught him before he died and now he's swimming along, obviously injured but looks normal otherwise.

So last night (and the day before) the heater I have began making the sort of noise you hear from a boiling kettle which got progressively louder and higher pitched the longer it was on, googled it just to be sure I wasn't freaking over nothing but sure enough other people say that's the sort of sound that you hear when there's a crack or water inside the heater so take it out ASAP. After taking it out im noticing the inside of the heater is extremely burnt around the coils (has a heap of tiny ones running down the sides with splitters between them) and on one side it seems something has melted to the outside of the glass. Cleaned up the outside but I cannot find any evidence of a crack or water having gotten inside. Im wondering it the noise could have come from water trapped in the stuff that was burnt on to the outside, I have it in a sink of water on a high temp and it isn't making any noise now. Curious if this has happened to anyone else? [editline]12th June 2017[/editline] aaaand i've just spotted a serious amount of condensation forming on the inside, brilliant. Things only a month old too... [editline]12th June 2017[/editline] So I had it in a sink full of water just to see how it would condensate, had it still at 25c and left it on when I went to do some shopping, came back and heard a very loud cracking sound coming from said sink. Water in the sink was sitting on 35c and it was still on, that would've gg'd my tank if it was in there overnight :scream:

I've never had any heater trouble and I've owned dozens of them. Seems like they can be prone to problems, though. That's unfortunate.

See I purposely got one advertised as having a blast proof casing so it would have a decent second layer of glass to stop it from doing something terrible if it internally cracked but the condensation was actually inside the coil layer which is why I was so surprised at it. Guess I just got unlucky

Probably wise to use in line heating elements when possible. Having an aquarium explode and do thousands of dollars of water damage is the stuff of nightmares.

One of my fish took a bite out of Stumpy's dorsal fin and I don't know who did it, but my best guess is a gourami. [t]https://i.imgur.com/UOlIhrE.jpg[/t] I know it will heal, but it's still annoying.

What's a good sand to get that requires minimal washing? I'm going to swap over to sand once I get paid and the easier to wash the better. I have some albino fish and a redtailed shark so somewhere in the middle for color would be great.

Hmm... my guppies have slowly been disappearing (there's no males now... what?) and for some odd reason my sun cat that I'm growing out looks much plumper.... Hmm........ :v: Oh and I got carib sea peace river. It's larger than normal sand and smaller and smoother than typical gravel.

Aw man, a guppy had his anal fin like, torn out from his body but is still alive an not swimming, just laying on the bottom flailing around in pain every once in a while. I can't euthanize another fish. :cry:

If there's a health store get 100% clove oil. Works, you just have to like shake it in a jar to get it to mix enough which is a pain. You can OD them on pimafix too if you have that, it's got clove oil. But eya putting down fish sucks. Last week I had to put a danio and a tetra out of their miseries. Danio had some nasty infection from a wound I guess then a tetra got attacked by my baby convict, not sure how that happened since the convict was smaller than it. Hmm. Also I removed my huge driftwood to prepare for my move last week and the tannins are still there even with a bunch of water changes haha.

i'm thinking of doing a planted tank, I miss my personal jungle.. too bad there isn't any good LFS around me for FW anymore... should I do Thai micro crabs this time?