pantherspawn
Aquarium Advice FINatic
OK so I'm completely new to this fish keeping thing. Started out with my 5 ye old son wanting a frog. About 1000 dollars later I'm in knee deep. Here's my situations. I started a 40gal freshwater last week with a few small live plants such as corcskcrew, a cpl bamboo stalks and a few mondo grass.. I added six platys, a Bristlenose Pleco and of course the African Dwarf Frog. Yes I know the pleco was too soon, been feeding him pellets. In trying to get my tank to cycle I have been testing the water daily and to date have done 2 15% water changes. With the AP master kit my levels after 7 days have stayed pretty much the same with ammonia at 2.0 Ph at 8.2 nitrites at 0 and nitrates just today barely coming in at under 5. My main concern is the fish. 1 of the platys had a few fry pop up today which we got one and moved to a breeder tank, but her health is suddenly very poor. She was laying on the bottom of the tank so we moved her to a seperate side tank transfer container. Her side is red and chewed up looking and she went from perfect yesterday to looking like there might be a hole in her side today. Can't tell if its an actual hole but her side is red and her fin mangled looking. What gives? Any ideas? She does have a few "white spots" on her tail fin and back on one side maybe four? But she's the only one so I'm not sure about it being ich?
Part 2; today we noticed a bunch of white specs on the inside glass on the back and on one side of the tank. Fairly hard feeling and almost spiral looking but in varied sizes. Not worm looking or anything with tenticles. Don't seem to move either. Any ideas what it could be?
Part 3; bought another 20gal today to set up and use as either qt tank or just a seperate breeding tank. Going to try fishless cycling. As of right now I have a section of pantyhose with a few cubes of frozen brine shrimp to try to use for the ammonia. Water is at 86° and left it a little room for surface agitation. Any other suggestions to get this going? I've got some gravel and a peice of filter media from PETCO but I'm not sure how reliable it can be for a boost for the bacteria. Any and all suggestions would be helpful to get me moving in the right direction on these. Sorry about the long post.
Part 2; today we noticed a bunch of white specs on the inside glass on the back and on one side of the tank. Fairly hard feeling and almost spiral looking but in varied sizes. Not worm looking or anything with tenticles. Don't seem to move either. Any ideas what it could be?
Part 3; bought another 20gal today to set up and use as either qt tank or just a seperate breeding tank. Going to try fishless cycling. As of right now I have a section of pantyhose with a few cubes of frozen brine shrimp to try to use for the ammonia. Water is at 86° and left it a little room for surface agitation. Any other suggestions to get this going? I've got some gravel and a peice of filter media from PETCO but I'm not sure how reliable it can be for a boost for the bacteria. Any and all suggestions would be helpful to get me moving in the right direction on these. Sorry about the long post.