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A few weeks ago, my mother in law inherited a 55 gallon tank from my SIL plus an 8 inch common pleco who we believe was stunted from living in a 20 gallon for 7 years. He's been in the 55 for a year with no growth. MIL has always wanted goldfish. I said OK, 2 fancies should be fine. She got 3...

I'm helping my MIL set up a new 55 gal and she specifically wants white driftwood to contrast against black sand. It's going to be set up as sort of a peninsula style, viewable from both sides so I thought manzanita that clusters mostly at the end next to the wall, then twists and reaches toward...

I've heard conflicting information on how possible it is to cycle a small tank. Can I get some consensus (doubtful ;)) once and for all? I work in a chain pet store and people often ask me for advice about their tiny tanks. I can't sell all of them a 10+ gallon for their betta. Aside from...

I've never had to dose for a bacterial infection before but I'm pretty sure I have to now. I have a fully stocked (a bit overstocked actually) 56 gallon tank that has been running for over a year now and I'm terrified of killing all of the beneficial bacteria. If I keep the filter media in a...

Question without backstory: Would 5% daily water changes be adequate in giving them fresh water when nitrates aren't an issue? What if I did a big change every two weeks or so in addition to that? I have to admit, I've been lazy with my water changes. I always mean to do them once a week but...

I picked this little one up the other week. He was the dominant one in the tank at the store, but paled after I brought him home to my community tank. I have a female GBR that's been in the tank for months and she chased him away whenever he went near her. Recently I got an ich outbreak...so up...

I have successfully cured ich with just heat at 86 before, but this round doesn't seem to be going away. I don't have a severe outbreak this time, right now only two fish have maybe one spot on them, but it's been slowly spreading around for the past week and a half and won't die. I bought a...

It's not exactly clamped...he just never puts it up. For the first few days he would display it about half the time and keep it down the other half, but for the past 2+ months it never goes up. It has such a pretty shape, too. He's a lyretail dalmatian. Here's a picture of how he always looks...

Anyone know what this is on my new pearl gourami? I saw it when I got home today. It was not there yesterday. Sorry for the blurry-ish picture, he won't stop moving. Could he have gotten injured or is it a disease? Other tankmates are mollies, platys, guppies, skirt tetras, neon tetras, flame...

I would say that at any given time when I looked over at my tank, I could see at least 6 snails. Of course there were more hiding behind/on plants, on the substrate, etc, but there were definitely a lot of visible ones. It's a fairly large tank, 56 gallons, so to me this wasn't an out of control...

Would it be realistic to put a female betta in a rather heavily stocked and planted community tank? It's 56 gallons which means less length and more height (30 x 18 x 24). Tankmates will be various tetras, livebearers, gouramis, corys, 1-2 rams, kuhlis, possibly some danios (stock is not...

I work at Petsmart, and almost 3 weeks ago one of my coworkers did a deep clean of our filter reservoirs in back of all the tanks, only to find several fish living back there. They were all livebearers and probably got either syphoned up or just sucked into the tubes as fry, and then grew up in...

So, before I wasn't sure if I had ich (I didn't) but now I'm quite positive that my lack of a quarantine tank has gotten me into trouble! Brought home a molly on Friday 10/11, saw white spots on my flame tetras the following Monday, 10/14. By Tuesday afternoon I had the temp up to 86 and it's...

So, my new platy has apparently singled out a skirt tetra as his mate and will NOT stop chasing him/her around the tank! I have no female platys in there as I want to avoid breeding. Any way to discourage this behavior? Or is it aggressive, based on the blurry picture I've provided? That's his...

I'm relatively new to the hobby, but as far as I know...dead fish=ammonia=bad. A LFS near my house that specializes in saltwater does have a very small freshwater section, and he leaves the dead fish in every time it seems! The other fish will be eating them, or there are just straight up...

I set up my first tank, a 56 gallon, last week and added my first fish on Tuesday 10/1. Fish are 6 skirt tetras, 3 black and 3 "gold"/white. Tank was not cycled first, it will be a gradual fish-in cycle. I haven't bought a testing kit yet so I am not sure of my exact parameters but I will be...

I just (FINALLY!) set up my tank, a 56 gallon, and have two Marineland Penguin 200s on it for now. During set-up, I saw a note that says adding a second cartridge behind the first one would give you "superior filtration" or something like that. The filters only come with one cartridge each so...

Hi all, I'm planning on starting a community tank sometime soon. I'd really like to quarantine all fish before I put them in, but I'd like it to be a steady adding of fish without a big huge gap in between. So if I quarantine new fish for 2 weeks, and add them to my big tank, and then go out and...

I'm planning on getting a Marineland 56 gallon "column" aquarium soon and would like for it to be relatively planted. The dimensions are 30L x 18W x 24H and I've heard that the height could make things difficult, but I have no real experience maintaining aquarium plants. Could someone suggest...

I've been trying to search for the answer and can't find it anywhere online! Does anyone have both black and white or gold skirt tetras, and do they form a big school or their own individual schools?

I've worked at Petsmart for only about a month, so I don't know too much about issues like this. I found 3 baby mollies in one of our tanks 5 days ago and took them home to raise them. One of them died that night, one has been a little piggy and has been swimming around looking happy and...

I've picked out my aquarium (Marineland 56 gallon column) and have more or less planned out everyone that's eventually going to be in it. I'm probably not going to let it cycle fully before I add fish. Impatient? Yes. Irresponsible? Maybe. But I'll try my best to not let anything get out of...

Has anyone ever housed a female betta with a tank of assorted live-bearers? I don't even have a tank set up yet, I'm just planning ahead for colors and such. I know this combo has the potential to work out alright, it just depends on the fish. Does anyone here have any experiences? Is there any...

Hi there! My name's Allyson and I recently started a job in the pet department at Petsmart. Before that I had NO interest in fish, and now I'm excited to start my own freshwater tank. I think it'll be fun and also help me assist customers with potential problems they may have with either the...