What Did You do With Your Tank Today?

[shellyx]

Thanks Alan and Rodeo one, can't believe i would get attached to a shrimp!

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[sinibotia]

Played God in the shelldweller tank! While the fish were still asleep in their shells, I rearranged everything so I could fit in my sponge filter and also to try and give a chance to one poor little guy who got exiled to the top corner.

All of their hard work to create their territories and shell fortresses, and in one fell swoop I undid all of it and set them back to square one! And I'll do it again and again until they learn to play nice and everyone gets a space

[mikem691]

Originally Posted by sinibotia

Played God in the shelldweller tank! While the fish were still asleep in their shells, I rearranged everything so I could fit in my sponge filter and also to try and give a chance to one poor little guy who got exiled to the top corner.

All of their hard work to create their territories and shell fortresses, and in one fell swoop I undid all of it and set them back to square one! And I'll do it again and again until they learn to play nice and everyone gets a space

I miss my multis. It was amazing how they would move everything.

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[Ayi]

Decided to do a water change a found a terrible surprise. There were two roaches in the filter compartment. Worst day of my life.


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[shellyx]

Originally Posted by Ayi

Decided to do a water change a found a terrible surprise. There were two roaches in the filter compartment. Worst day of my life.


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That's awful nasty things! I would've had to leave my hubby to deal with that! Poor you.

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[Alan79]

I mixed things up a bit this week with my WC schedule. Usually i do WC on 6 tanks on sunday and it feels like a real time killer at the tail end of my weekend when i'm dreading the thought of work on monday. So it's a three day spread now. 35g sunday, 2x20g monday or tuesday and my smaller tanks thursday. Spreading the work over a few days has made it more relaxed but it does feel like i am always changing water. I'm not sure what method i prefer. I may alter it again to doing it on friday before i relax for the weekend. Clean tanks on friday makes for better weekend viewing. I feel guilty watching a tank with waste on the bottom although the fish don't seem bothered much when the plants keep the nitrates down.

So yesterday i fed peas to most of my fish. Today i spoiled them by giving them a variety of their treats. Bloodwroms for my Goldfish, brine shrimp + bloodworms for my community, Kuhlis & Betta. Everyone seemed happy. I got a rare sighting of my two shy BN plecos at once and both look healthy.

I had to do a tank shuffle last week and it prompted a rescape on my then snail filled 5g betta tank. Added black gravel, some black stones with marble tracings 3 crypt varieties, hairgrass and some stems. It looked close to what i imagined and i was happy but she was not. The light i am using is fairly bright for a small tank and she could only hide in shade under the lamp base. She had about a 5x5cm area of good shadow on the floor of the tank. I didn't want to build a cave of rocks because i like the marbled stone in there already.

I looked through my driftwood collection and found the perfect bit for the job. It hides the bubble filter perfectly and looks great in the tank. It has an elevated hollow that will soon have an anubias trimming living in it. She swam through the DW tunnel a few times within a minute of me placing it so she seemed impressed. Hopefully the Crypts in there grow in reasonably quickly so she has shadowy areas through half the tank. The Anubias will also add to her shade when i attach it. I hope to see it grow out of the water along the protruding DW eventually.

[Ayi]

Yesterday I got a nutrafin co2 latter. Hopefully it breaks in quick.


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[fish wrangler]

Added a piece of DW and moved the wisteria around it. Fist planted tank, and I love it!!

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[Kittykat364]

In the last few weeks since I posted, my fish had ich (and three died), dropsy, and mysterious deaths. A bunch of fry died. We found blackworms in the substrate and realized they were the cause for the dirt going above the gravel, not the MTS which we 'rented' three clown loaches to help control. The driftwood also started rotting (it was stinky and mushy does anyone know why that would happen?). We decided to redo the tank.

We took everything out and threw out the substrate (which was stinky and gross not to mention the disgusting worms) and replaced it with natural gravel. We took new terra cotta pots and put dirt and capped it with gravel to put the plants back in the tank. Basically we went (mostly) fake.

Then a fish got really bloated, I think it had a swim bladder infection because it floated at the top all day and had a hard time getting to the bottom. Another fish died too of some tail disease I think it ended up looking like finrot. His tail disappeared in parts, but before that his tail got bumpy and puffy. We had some fry born but I couldn't catch them and now I don't see them anymore.

How do you guys deal with extreme losses and mess-ups? I'm honestly thinking of getting rid of the tank because it's become a lot of work and stress.


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[Autumnsky]

Originally Posted by Kittykat364

In the last few weeks since I posted, my fish had ich (and three died), dropsy, and mysterious deaths. A bunch of fry died. We found blackworms in the substrate and realized they were the cause for the dirt going above the gravel, not the MTS which we 'rented' three clown loaches to help control. The driftwood also started rotting (it was stinky and mushy does anyone know why that would happen?). We decided to redo the tank.

We took everything out and threw out the substrate (which was stinky and gross not to mention the disgusting worms) and replaced it with natural gravel. We took new terra cotta pots and put dirt and capped it with gravel to put the plants back in the tank. Basically we went (mostly) fake.

Then a fish got really bloated, I think it had a swim bladder infection because it floated at the top all day and had a hard time getting to the bottom. Another fish died too of some tail disease I think it ended up looking like finrot. His tail disappeared in parts, but before that his tail got bumpy and puffy. We had some fry born but I couldn't catch them and now I don't see them anymore.

How do you guys deal with extreme losses and mess-ups? I'm honestly thinking of getting rid of the tank because it's become a lot of work and stress.


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Sorry to hear of so many problems for you Kitty.

I think you just have to consider all the things you are doing with the tank. How much joy it has or could bring to your life and how much time or stress it is using/creating. After you get the hang of it and get the right stride going for the tank. They can pretty much run themselves, lol (with you doing the feeding and water changes, etc.) and be a huge joy.

They are a fair amount of time and effort. Research and learning. I think worth it. Though I am still trying to downsize my projects/tanks to simplify. Then I started the SW Maybe I still need to learn about what the word simplify means!!!

For you, consider what had worked and what hasn't and what you should change so that it would work better. Maybe take things more slowly, build the tank around the fish you enjoy most.

My friends Dumbo Betta passed away a few days ago, I had given it to her about a year ago. It was already full grown, so I am not too sure what happened to it but that was kinda sad. She now still has the 2 dwarf frogs and a couple snails.

My daughter who was bringing over my SW and RODI water could't make it because one of her foster kittens got sick.

I am starting pwc on the smaller tanks today, shrimp tanks first then the others. Moving my fish from the QT over to the 72G. 2 Cories, 2 Albino BN Plecos and a lone Diamond Tetra. (its tank mates died in the pH crash and I haven't found them again yet)

I am hoping to be able to catch the 2 Albino BN Plecos in my 12G Edge tank at some point and get them moved to the 72G as well, then the shrimp might end up with a higher population, with them not slurping up misc. babies. Boy do I regret putting those little babies in the shrimp tanks.

The little shrimp babies have a few more babies to keep them company in the 6.6G Edge. I am hoping to get that full tank clean out done soon but the newer babies are still too darn small to sort through everything/worth the extra time it would take. I was given a nice bag of fish supplies from my mom who didn't keep her tank. A new bottle of Prime, Flourish Filter pad/bags, some Shrimp food, Hikari foods, and filter, heaters. Nice bonus.

That brings me to the topic of money saved from the above to the probable expenditure for a new light for the 72G. We will likely be going for a nice computer controlled one, LED. My present bulb, and last planted tank one is old and causing a bit too much algae, I had thought there was one more but after plugging it in, it is dead. SO... new light fixture. The money it would take to get a new bulb will go towards a new light fixture YAY!!! Only been waiting 2 years!

Going to put a dozen Neon Tetras into the QT tank when my daughter buys them, they will be for her tank.

Whewww! I think that's it! Now to get busy.