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Coyne said:
I feel your pain. It's been my experience that it's more difficult to keep plants alive and healthy than it is fish. It seems that even when I do get them established and growing, I suddenly have a breakout of BBA to deal with.
I think the constant learning and improving is what makes this a hobby for some, rather than just a whim.


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Exactly that. Fish are easy. Plants can be challenging


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I Know exactly what you are talking about, lost many plants and am only just managing to keep a few alive...plants that is. All I can say is Good Luck!!


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Coryluv said:
You mentioned algae free tanks. There really is no such thing. There are algae managed tanks. A balanced tank will have some algae. Also most planted tanks employ one or more kind of algae eating fish or invert. I just hate to see you set an unrealistic goal for yourself. Almost no algae is possible. No algae is not.

One more thing, some plants do well for some and not for others. For me my Ludwigia repens does not thrive, while I have other plants that grow like crazy. Ludwigia is supposed to be really easy, too. I'm just now, after a year and some DIY CO2 getting some better results with my Ludwigia. So just understand that we all have challenges and plants that do better or worse.
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Thanks, I guess I was being overly dramatic with the algae free statement. I know completely algae free isn't realistic and anyway when you have otos not even desirable! What I really meant was a tank where it was in control, hopefully without BBA or any of the other nasty stuff.

Re the plants thanks for the insight. Yes even supposedly 'easy' plants are a problem for me too right now. But I will keep going, keep reading and learning and asking for advice here and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it at some point!
 
Coyne said:
I feel your pain. It's been my experience that it's more difficult to keep plants alive and healthy than it is fish. It seems that even when I do get them established and growing, I suddenly have a breakout of BBA to deal with.
I think the constant learning and improving is what makes this a hobby for some, rather than just a whim.


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Yes I would say plants are WAY more difficult!! Once my tank cycled, as long as I do regular maintenance I have no fish problems. Plants.....much more involved. I feel like I need to quit my job and go back to school to learn about chemistry, botany, marine biology and and and .......!!!
 
sallyjano said:
Thanks, I guess I was being overly dramatic with the algae free statement. I know completely algae free isn't realistic and anyway when you have otos not even desirable! What I really meant was a tank where it was in control, hopefully without BBA or any of the other nasty stuff.

Re the plants thanks for the insight. Yes even supposedly 'easy' plants are a problem for me too right now. But I will keep going, keep reading and learning and asking for advice here and I'm sure I'll get the hang of it at some point!
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No you weren't overly dramatic! I just wanted to give some perspective and encouragement. Hang in there.

As to BBA, fortunately so far I've avoided infection with it. I deal with green spot, some fuzz and a few seemingly benign unknown strains of soft green algae. Even the green spot is fish food once it is scraped off the glass. Sometimes it takes the snails a few days to discover a patch of fuzz, but once they do it is chow down time!
 
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Mebbid you need to work on your self esteem if those plants are sad! Just kidding, but really they are fine!


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Fishperson said:
Mebbid you need to work on your self esteem if those plants are sad! Just kidding, but really they are fine!


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sallyjano said:
Actually it does help to know even the experts have problems! That said if you think that's sad check out this....
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I went from this
HVKc5E7.jpg


to this
iGBl7pM.jpg


It's pretty sad in my book :bawl:
 
Ooooh. Ouch. I get it. Hadn't seen the first pic. Oh well, to look on the bright side, when you get it all living and breathing again (which I am sure you will), it'll be doubly satisfying.
 
sallyjano said:
Ooooh. Ouch. I get it. Hadn't seen the first pic. Oh well, to look on the bright side, when you get it all living and breathing again (which I am sure you will), it'll be doubly satisfying.
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That's for sure. We can whip our tanks into shape together :D
 
sallyjano said:
Actually it does help to know even the experts have problems! That said if you think that's sad check out this....
View attachment 241479
View attachment 241480
View attachment 241481
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You have male guppies, two male gourami (baby?), and a male betta all living together and no one is killing each other? You're breaking all the rules!

Seriously though, how does every one get along? I've heard guppies will fin nip but I've only noticed that behavior amongst each other. Do your gourami get along? I have two with my two male guppies and they mostly avoid each other most of the time but some times the dominant one will chase the less dominant one around, you know, just to keep him on his...errr....fins.

I don't think I have one of those community bettas because he can some times see his reflection in the side of his tank and when he does he gets PISSED! Pretty sure he would start a fight in my community 30g or god forbid with all the angels in the 180. Those angels can be brutal.

I'm so glad you started this thread.
 
emilygupps said:
You have male guppies, two male gourami (baby?), and a male betta all living together and no one is killing each other? You're breaking all the rules!

Seriously though, how does every one get along? I've heard guppies will fin nip but I've only noticed that behavior amongst each other. Do your gourami get along? I have two with my two male guppies and they mostly avoid each other most of the time but some times the dominant one will chase the less dominant one around, you know, just to keep him on his...errr....fins.

I don't think I have one of those community bettas because he can some times see his reflection in the side of his tank and when he does he gets PISSED! Pretty sure he would start a fight in my community 30g or god forbid with all the angels in the 180. Those angels can be brutal.

I'm so glad you started this thread.
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The vast majority of the time bettas are only aggressive towards each other and are perfectly fine with other fish. Guppies generally don't fin nip but just chae each other around, it looks like fin nipping though. The gourami will probably end up killing each other though.
 
Good thing my bf just "rescued" a new tank. Maybe the less dominant gourami can go live there once it's all settled. They'll kill each other even with no females around? I never see them fight just a little chasing now and then. The dominant one owns the top of the tank and the submissive one hangs out at the bottom to eat. I suppose he MUST go to the top to breathe sometime because they do need to breath actual air right?
 
emilygupps said:
You have male guppies, two male gourami (baby?), and a male betta all living together and no one is killing each other? You're breaking all the rules!

Seriously though, how does every one get along? I've heard guppies will fin nip but I've only noticed that behavior amongst each other. Do your gourami get along? I have two with my two male guppies and they mostly avoid each other most of the time but some times the dominant one will chase the less dominant one around, you know, just to keep him on his...errr....fins.

I don't think I have one of those community bettas because he can some times see his reflection in the side of his tank and when he does he gets PISSED! Pretty sure he would start a fight in my community 30g or god forbid with all the angels in the 180. Those angels can be brutal.

I'm so glad you started this thread.
Click to expand...

No I don't have a betta! I was thinking of getting one though and read that just like humans they have different temperaments and as long as you get a mellow one they should be fine as long as there are no other bettas.

I do have five or six male guppies yes and have not had problems so far. When a new one is added there is usually a bit of chasing as they establish the new hierarchy but after the first day or so they are all fine.

The gouramis are fine so far. When they were in their QT they ignored each other completely. Now that they are in the display there is the odd bit of chasing but not a whole lot. The flame gourami is the dominant one and sometimes chases away the powder blue but most of the time they are fine. I hope Mebbid is wrong that they will kill each other as they are my favorite fish!! If I could have a whole tank of them I would. If they start to get more aggressive I will move one of them to my other tank.
 
I heard a great tip on a YouTube video ... Focus most on the new leaves! I quit being so frustrated over the melted crypt leaves when I noticed each plant had a new leaf that was happy and healthy. Also made it easier to cut off everything unhealthy.
 
trennamw said:
I heard a great tip on a YouTube video ... Focus most on the new leaves! I quit being so frustrated over the melted crypt leaves when I noticed each plant had a new leaf that was happy and healthy. Also made it easier to cut off everything unhealthy.
Click to expand...

That doesn't work for me because even the new growth is covered in algae and many of the plants (melted by excel) don't have any new growth!!!!

My way of focusing on the positive is to stand back and look at the tank from a few feet away as then you can't see the hair algae and the melted leaves so it looks much more pleasing to the eyes so I do that. On the bright side my java moss now seems to be doing well so I focus on that also.
 
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