swedishxfish
Aquarium Advice Newbie
Hey guys, figured I would finally post on this site after years of referring to it...
I have a black phantom tetra with an unusually red coloration. No, not as in she's a female, which she is, but her face looks unusually redder than normal. I'm worried she's sick or has a parasite or her blood vessels are messed up or something. She also seems fuller and more bloated than usual. I've never had my tetras breed so I'm not sure if she's just pregnant... She seems to be acting normal though. I've never had this problem before. Advice would be appreciated cos I hate when my fish get sick or die.
Info on the tank:
-Tank is a 20g fw, has been established for a couple years but I did recently convert it to a planted tank with the floramax substrate about 3-4 months ago. I've kept fish for like 15 years but this is my first endeavor with live plants so any advice on that is also appreciated...
-Had my water tested about a week ago at the fish store and everything was normal. Temp is at about 78. I do have slightly hard city water though.
-filter is the top fin 20 power filter with activated carbon
-fish in the tank are: 8 black phantom tetra, 1 black neon tetra (he is like 5 years old and still alive...I also noticed like 1 white spot on his caudal fin this morning so I'm not sure if he is getting Ich or is just old...no white spots on anyone else), 4 panda cories, 1 julii Cory (he's older and I switched over to the pandas), 2 nerite snails
-I do about a 20-30% water change and vacuum the gravel every 1-2 weeks
-the redder fish in question I have had for about 1.5 years
-NEW THINGS: I got new fish from my lfs about 3 weeks ago, 2 small black phantom tetra and the 4 panda cories. I kept them in my separate qt tank for 15 days to watch for signs of sickness. 1 of the black phantoms died in qt. The other black phantom and 4 pandas were fine the whole time so I transferred them over to my 20g about 4-5 days ago. Acclimated them by floating them in bags for the temp and then slowly adding the tank water into the bags a few times. The 5 new fish seem to have acclimated just fine, and they are the only recent additions to the tank.
-I feed them bottom feeder pellets, tropical flakes, and occasionally the New Life Spectrum Thera-A pellets.
-I also occasionally add in the bottled API CO2 Booster and API Leaf Zone fertilizer for the plants. I do not overdose as I always put in a bit less than it says to.
Sorry the pictures are so horrible...I tried.
I have a black phantom tetra with an unusually red coloration. No, not as in she's a female, which she is, but her face looks unusually redder than normal. I'm worried she's sick or has a parasite or her blood vessels are messed up or something. She also seems fuller and more bloated than usual. I've never had my tetras breed so I'm not sure if she's just pregnant... She seems to be acting normal though. I've never had this problem before. Advice would be appreciated cos I hate when my fish get sick or die.
Info on the tank:
-Tank is a 20g fw, has been established for a couple years but I did recently convert it to a planted tank with the floramax substrate about 3-4 months ago. I've kept fish for like 15 years but this is my first endeavor with live plants so any advice on that is also appreciated...
-Had my water tested about a week ago at the fish store and everything was normal. Temp is at about 78. I do have slightly hard city water though.
-filter is the top fin 20 power filter with activated carbon
-fish in the tank are: 8 black phantom tetra, 1 black neon tetra (he is like 5 years old and still alive...I also noticed like 1 white spot on his caudal fin this morning so I'm not sure if he is getting Ich or is just old...no white spots on anyone else), 4 panda cories, 1 julii Cory (he's older and I switched over to the pandas), 2 nerite snails
-I do about a 20-30% water change and vacuum the gravel every 1-2 weeks
-the redder fish in question I have had for about 1.5 years
-NEW THINGS: I got new fish from my lfs about 3 weeks ago, 2 small black phantom tetra and the 4 panda cories. I kept them in my separate qt tank for 15 days to watch for signs of sickness. 1 of the black phantoms died in qt. The other black phantom and 4 pandas were fine the whole time so I transferred them over to my 20g about 4-5 days ago. Acclimated them by floating them in bags for the temp and then slowly adding the tank water into the bags a few times. The 5 new fish seem to have acclimated just fine, and they are the only recent additions to the tank.
-I feed them bottom feeder pellets, tropical flakes, and occasionally the New Life Spectrum Thera-A pellets.
-I also occasionally add in the bottled API CO2 Booster and API Leaf Zone fertilizer for the plants. I do not overdose as I always put in a bit less than it says to.
Sorry the pictures are so horrible...I tried.
