Think Fish Keepers Daily News. [2016-2019]

Awesome pic, and congratulations! I am hoping to get a few GBRs this weekend... I miss having them so much... can decide whether to get Bolivian Rams instead as they are a bit hardier though... what is your water hardness and nitrate levels?

Hi Matt,

Thanks for the kind words. Water hardness in this tank is 8dGH and TDS is approximately 300ppm. I normally keep hardness a tad lower at 6dGH and TDS around the 250ppm mark. Nitrate is 15ppm. It's often thought that pH has to be 'low' for GBRs but the pH in this tank is around 7.70 (measured using a recently-calibrated Extech PH100 meter). Tank temperature is 26.0 - 26.5C. I should add that I use RO water as my starting point to which I add Tropic Marin Re-Mineral Tropic electrolytes.

JPC

9 POSTS AT THIS POINT IN THE THREAD HAVE BEEN MOVED TO https://forums.thinkfish.co.uk/fish-health/fish-health-in-my-tank/ POSTS 52-60, AS THEY SAT MORE APPROPRIATELY THERE.    I HADN'T MERGED TOPICS FOR A WHILE AND, IN MY CONFUSION/PANIC, REALISE I FORGOT TO POST AN OFFICIAL 'RE-DIRECTION' TOPIC - APOLOGIES.   

The only long power outage we've had was 8 hours - but we knew about it a couple of weeks in advance so I was able to prepare. It was planned work on the substation.
A couple of years ago we had another letter saying we'd be without power for a few hours on this date, but things went awry with that one - the planned repair turned into an emergency repair without notice a few days earlier than planned. The power was off for about 3 hours, and everyone survived despite me not being able to arrange things in advance. (At least we were not in the houses that lost their power in the middle of the night and spent the following day on generators while NEDL repaired whatever it was)

Mrs Matt found a cherry shrimp in the office today. The little guy had somehow got out of the tank in the sitting room, across the hall carpet and on into the study... quite impressed though equally sad at the same time. I guess it will have been from the final round of esha ndx I gave the tank to deal with any last camallanus worms. The shrimp went to the surface and out of their normal cover when I dosed it.

I moved the Amano shrimp out before dosing but have only managed to find 2 in the puffer tank to move back in so far... might take me a few days to spot them all...

What's the biggest he won't notice 

I've been cleaning tanks this morning, and it hasn't gone well.

I'm only 4 tanks in and I've already decided to take a break.

So far this morning I've flooded the carpet in front of the forest tank because I didn't close the drain port completely, and I've just syphoned Brianne (largest female dwarf puffer) out of the tank by accident. I mean, completely out of the tank, through the tube, and into the waste bucket. She's back in the tank now, and doesn't seem to have suffered any injuries. She also doesn't seem to be particularly bothered by her brief adventure, and is currently pottering around the roots of the frogbit. I am still shaking and feel sick.

I hope that she continues to be ok.

I've just put some carbon in.
Thanks Sue, that was a great suggestion, and I hadn't even thought about it.
The pic is a bit blurry, but I just wanted to prove that she was still alive.

What is the equivalent to carbon for humans? I feel as if I'm releasing quite a few toxins due to stress myself!

That is quite comforting to know that you have had this issue and that the fish were fine when they were back in the tank.

This is the first time I've completely syphoned something into the waste bucket. Most of my fish are relatively large (compared to the tube), and up until recently I've only had amano shrimp.

The next tank I'd normally clean is the one with the salt & pepper corys, as well as the tiny crystal bee shrimp. I think I might leave that until later, and move on to cleaning a tank with larger fish, just to be on the safe side. 

 

I did something silly today. We went out to my son's this afternoon, and I fed the fish just before we left. The food is in the kitchen next to the betta's tank. I measured out the betta's pellets and put them in his tank, followed by the tiny pinch of crushed algae wafers for the shrimps. Then I measured out the food for the main tank - sinking pellets, flake and crushed algae wafers - into a small pot. And then emptied the pot into the betta's tank 

I scooped as much out as I could with a fine mesh net, but we were already running late so had to leave the rest. I did a water change as soon as we got back, there was a lot of uneaten food in the bucket so at least it didn't have chance to decompose to ammonia.

And the betta didn't get his meal this evening, just in case he'd been stuffing himself while we were out.

I recently read a thread on another forum where someone was asking if it was OK to keep Amazon puffers in this tank with these fish. The thread goes on for a few pages with the original chap coming up with all sorts of different combinations and the two forum experts telling they won't work (tank too small, incompatible water requirements, incompatible fish species etc) There was a comment in the thread from one of the experts about puffer toxins wiping out a whole tank, and that carbon should be used full time in a puffer tank. The chap also commented that puffers should be in species only tanks to reduce stress from other fish, and that even poor water quality can stress puffers enough to produce the toxin. (I know that your puffers have excellent water quality from all the water changes you do  )

I have the sort of brain that remembers all sorts of tiny bits of info but forgets big things like turning the oven on to cook dinner  And your post about the puffer and her fairground ride brought the comments to mind.





Bettas are well known for stuffing themselves till they make themselves ill. I knew he would eat the flake which is why I scooped as much as I could out. If we hadn't been half way out of the door when I fed them I'd have cleaned the tank immediately. We went out just before 2 and I did the water change as soon as we got home at 4.30. The betta is swimming around as usual this morning and the shrimps are all fine, so I got the food out in time.