Loaches Online Forum

So, after doing over 150% water changes over ~10 days, including as a massive gravel vac, the nitrates never budged. At all. AND I know my test kit is accurate. So before you read on, want to take a guess what the problem was? How would this 7g tank continue to read very high nitrates--around 60ppm-...

OK--this links back to my post about tail rot. So it turned out I had two (2) kits that were reading nitrates incorrectly. After buying a new kit and borrowing a friend's kit, turns out my nitrates are around 60-80 (I'm not so good with colors). Fortunately, nitrite and ammonia remain at zero. Also,...

Diana, Thanks for your helpful words. After my last post, a thought entered my head--what if my API test kit is reading incorrectly. So I tried two other test kits--and sure enough, found the longer-term culprit--my nitrates were around 60. Fortunately, ammonia and nitrite (new kits) are zero, but c...

OK--so to back up a bit--there are the fish I noted with obvious tail rot--plus a few more that may or may not have it--probably not, but I'm not sure--fins are a small bit tattered, but no rotted. So around 2 weeks ago, I decided to simply treat the whole 75 gallon show tank to knock it out in all ...

I keep saltwater tanks and am in Arizona, so this issue comes up a LOT because the lights for reef tanks really heat up tanks. Barring a LONG power outage at your condo where temps would rise over a sustained period, I suspect a fan would suffice for evaporative cooling. As noted in prior post, the ...

Loachfan, I hope your clown is continuing to improve. A half gallon quarantine sounds quite too small for a clown loach. Since you are in the US, you can pick up a 5 or 10 gallon tank (I'd suggest 10 gallon) to use for hospital tank. There are other posts here that discuss treatment of ick, but ulti...

Yaa'l, I have a loach/catfish tank with several fish that have developed tail rot. I've noted it in one clown loach, two glass (ghost) catfish, and very significant in my gold nugget pleco. I have my 20g hospital tank up and ready. Question: What antibiotic (or specific brand/type of antibiotic) do ...

Interesting--just to make sure I understand--it is okay with the vac or a rake to stir up the sand? The reason I ask is--in my sw tanks, this is a giant no no and crashes the tank. Tin, I have to admit I'm a lttle slow today, so not sure what to make of your thoughts--specifically, do they apply to ...

Hi yaa'l, So my loaches are enjoying their new 3M colorquartz sand. I just want to make sure I'm doing my vacuum cleaning correctly. My understanding (which could be off) is that after turning off all filters and powerheads, basically vacuum the sand by keeping the head of the vacuum just above the ...

I have one of these, can't recall who makes it--it was the most expensive available at petsmart, and I had heard they are often unreliable, so I bought it. I've been impressed, and have plans soon to put these on my big tanks for morning feedings (I'm crazy in the morning). It's battery, it holds a ...

Keith, I certainly don't want to shock him, and don't think I have. You may well be right on about a glandular problem. However, for the longest time he had the goosebumps but seemed fine. However, I'd say in the last 4 or so weeks, maybe more, he's shown some behavioral indicators that something is...

quick shrimp feeding question--off topic a bit, sorry. Safety issue. If I buy a 2 pound bag of pre-cooked frozen shrimp at Safeway, the type that still has tail but has been peeled. The bag from vietnam says ingredients are the shrimp and salt. If I soak the shrimp to get the salt out, are these saf...

One thing I don't see mentioned, though Keith implies it, is not absolute level of salt in your tank, but *change.* The way you wrote it, it sounds like you decided to get salt out, you did it immediately, and fish died the next day. Perhaps I misread, but if that was the case, I think an interpreta...

With my travels, haven't quite been able to give goose the treatment attention I wanted. I did a first 5 days of maracyn I/II--absolutely no improvements. Day before I left, qt water was showing slight increase in nitrite and I was worried about the risk of leaving him in QT for 5 days while I was g...

My s.o. lives in Salt Lake and I've been a travelling fool, just trying to keep everything healthy while I'm away for weekends (that is what roommate is for!).

Pix soon, hopefully next week. I DID take the before pix of the old tank with gravel, so I'll be able to show comparison.