Recent content by SterlingSilver

I have had an outbreak of velvet! Tiger barbs in a 20 gallon. Between that and a case of internal parasites, more than half my fish did not make it. Until the Methylene Blue comes in the mail, my poor fish are stuck with heat, salt, dark, and kordon ich attack. Peeking in today, I noticed the...

How is he doing now? Have you checked your water levels? Adding a bunch of new fish can sometimes mini cycle a tank. How large is the tank? I have a 20 gallon with 8 tiger barbs and it is almost completely stocked. Ruling out water and space issues, I have had this sort of thing happen before...

I went and bought a few plastic plants and will be putting him in tonight. If he freaks out, the other albino will keep him company :) There is a double sponge filter, so I should be able to make it work. No need to stress him out anymore with ammonia. Thank you for your help!!!

Thanks. The betta was in a separate 5 gallon tank, but some of the otos did go between the two and so did some snails which is why I thought of disease. My tap water has been a bit inconsistent ph wise (and who knows what else)since the summer started, but its stabilized now. I've been keeping...

In the past month or two I have lost 3 tiger barbs, a betta, and 5 oto cats. I'm pretty sure this has been because of internal parasites/gill flukes. Their main symptoms seem to be loss of appetite leading to extreme skinniness, lethargy and then death. I treated the tank with API general cure...

Here are some pictures. And this same thing has actually happened to me in the same tank before, where I lost one of my two original otos. It eventually went away on its own, but I still don't know what's going on.

So good news and bad news. I still have 2 otos!! I was very happy that they both survived the past few days, with daily 3 gallon water changes. And they had been doing fine until tonight. Gah! I think there is some sort of heavy metal in the tank (my barbs were also acting a bit spay), despite...

So i checked on the tank before bed, and the oto that I got in a group with the others (I have one from a different store who seems totally fine, so far...) was just lying on the bottom. He swam aroun erratically when I tapped on the glass, but is just staying in one spot now and breathing...

I know they are sensitive, but I just love them so much! Plus it is so close to one month, like 3 1/2 weeks. Luckily I have one who is going on fish months, and the other one seems strong and active. They seemed to do pretty well in my local pet store, I've seen them eat and there are always a...

First off, water levels are good. No ammonia or nitrite, and nitrate is around 20. Water changes every week. ph is very high out of the tap, 8.2, but all my fish have been acclimated slowly and these otos have been fine for almost a month. Out of 4 otos in the tank, 2 have died in the past few...

I also considered toxins from the new tank. I did wipe it down, but you never know. I think I'm going to go with stress. Everything seems to be settling down now. So with frequent water changes I'm going to hope everything stays well. Thanks for all your input!!!

Theres nothing I can think of. I also have a 5 gallon beta tank next to this one which is fine. No one else goes near the tank, they think I'm crazy :) But I guess anything is possible. Although it is weird that only 1 of each species seems to be affected. And I thought they were my strongest 2!

Yes. I removed the old one. It was pretty old. But I have a sponge filter running, and there is a very small sponge in the outflow of the filter. I kept an eye on the ammonia just in case. I also just noticed that my remaining oto actually ate last night! Is there any type of toxin that would...

Hi, and thanks. I actually noticed the weird behavior after the first water change. I also changed the filter floss and added rinsed carbon media to the filter at that time, but I don't think that could have done anything. I tested for ammonia everyday for a while after and never saw any. My...

So just over a week ago I changed over my tank to a 20 long. For the first few days everything was alright, but then the 2 oto catfish acted lethargic, started hiding under driftwood most of the time, and I noticed one was breathing very heavy while the other was breathing very shallow. I had...