Search results

Sodium chloride has just as much osmotic effect as magnesium chloride. That’s why when you get IV saline in a hospital it is a 0.9% solution—because this is the concentration that does not pull or push fluid in or out of the bloodstream. Epsom salt does have the added benefit of producing a...

Yep Byron’s right. Nothing you can do except intervene quickly once the eggs have been laid. So if it happens when you’re not paying attention they’ll likely all get eaten.

I can’t tell for sure but it looks like your pic shows the nitrate is high for cories. It’s generally recommended to keep it at 20 or below. In the postmortem pic it looks like her belly has a red tint to it which could indicate internal infection. If that’s the case the high nitrate could’ve...

You can argue a topic without it being a hostile exchange btw 🙂

That’s precisely why I said the arguing (or “discussion”) was pointless. You missed the point again. I’m just saying when you call a new tank it’s own quarantine tank it leads people to misunderstand and think there is no risk involved. Plus it’s just an inaccurate statement. So the only thing...

If you wait until the fish in the separate quarantine tank have graduated and been moved to the main tank to add in a new batch the same could not be said for that situation. But the arguing back and forth here is pointless anyway because it's so impractical to do it that way. My only point is...

The lesions don't look like the ones you would see in hole-in the-head disease.

In that case you’ll probably have better results if you ask directly for the missing pieces of info you need. Or you’ll probably get the same vague answer.

There are going to be multiple responses to this question I’m sure. Many people here would just say test water daily and do large volume water change if you get any reading for nitrite. Some people might recommend trying aquarium salt on top of that. Some would go further and recommend...

I’ve had a few rescue birds myself. One was a baby turtle dove that fell from a coco palm. It was so young its eyes were still closed when I found it. I couldn’t believe how tame it became. I was its mama as far as it knew. Sadly it passed away without explanation when I left it in another bird...

Yep I’m always tempted to try to rescue some of the bettas when I see them in the pet store in those tiny tubs. Could get out of control real quick if I’m not careful 😅

Just wanted to share this with the TFF community because it gave me warm fuzzies:

It could've been the dreaded Iridovirus that Dwarf Gouramies tend to get. The lesions do look like they could be viral lesions. How long have you had him? Is he the only Dwarf Gourami in the tank?

Did this happen all of a sudden or gradually?

That question was asked and answered already

I see your point. In this situation there would be no population of fish in the tank that has finished quarantine to be deemed disease free yet. But it still wouldn’t be a true quarantine process where the fish you are newly acquiring are physically separated from fish you already have to...

How about in the case of starting up a new tank though where you would want to add only a few fish at a time? Each time you add a new round of fish there's the risk of adding in disease. So it would cease to act as a quarantine tank after that first group is added.

I vote for the theory that the new fish introduced a disease and started the situation and the loss of beneficial bacteria in the filter media caused a mini cycle and worsened things. Lessons learned: 1. It’s a good idea to quarantine new fish before adding them to your established tank 2...

This is the funniest thread I’ve read in a long time. There’s some hilarious stuff on here :rofl:

I agree the lack of feedback on whether recommended treatment works or not is frustrating. I would assume that if the treatment had been successful the poster would want to inform those who helped him of the success, so a lack of follow up would likely indicate failure. One thing to keep in...

Ok, in my own experience.....and as a fellow healthcare worker who understands how it works. You can't become or stay knowledgeable about something you never practice. And the "average" vet would see one fish for every hundred cats or dogs they treat. Or less. Don't get me wrong--there's...

The average vet doesn’t. The vast majority of their patients are cats and dogs. Most vets wouldn’t see enough fish to become and stay competent in treating them. I’m sure there are vets out there that specialize in treating fish but they would be hard to come by. You would definitely want to...

Most vets have very little knowledge on treating aquarium fish. One I consulted didn’t even know about the nitrogen cycle.

I miss the good ol’ days when printed instructions were included for everything you bought. But I guess they realized half of the population are men and they usually would just throw them away anyway 😉

An extension of that argument is that is why autoimmune diseases are so prevalent now is that our immune system isn’t challenged enough by infections so it starts attacking our own body….e.g. asthma, allergies, eczema, psoriasis, multiple sclerosis, type I diabetes, ulcerative colitis, lupus...

Thoughts are just another form of energy that can be detected (and reacted to) if that sense is developed. I’ve gotta say I’m glad that most people haven’t developed that sense though 😅

How can the cure be worse than the disease if it’s something like the OP is describing that kills so quickly and is obviously contagious. Without treatment all of the fish would almost certainly die. With treatment at least there’s a chance they will survive. In an ideal world we would be able...

Just to be clear if a medication is in suspension it is pretty much the same as if it were precipitated in that it is in an insoluble form. (You couldn't meaningfully say it was "precipitated" because that is what would happen if the medication were already dissolved in the tank water and you...

Thanks for the information. Yes I've heard Columnaris can be very virulent, treatment is often ineffective, and a whole tank can be wiped out once it is introduced to an aquarium. Thankfully I haven't had to deal with it myself. Something like DMSO that increases the amount of medication...

Good to hear! Check ammonia and nitrite daily for at least several days so you will catch it early if they do start to show up. If so you would want to do a large water change to get levels as close to 0 as possible and add in the ammonia/nitrite detoxifier every couple of days until readings...

After doing a little research I found that DMSO not only makes drugs more soluble in water but also increases the absorption of substances through the skin—in humans….I’m assuming it would do the same for fish. So using DMSO should definitely increase the blood and tissue concentration of...

Welcome to the forum! There are a number of members on this site that would be able to provide good advice on this topic. If you don't get the response you're looking for maybe specify in the thread's title advice for starting up fish and reptile store in the title of the thread so it's sure to...

I wouldn’t add any additional fish until the tank is cycled but after that your Cory could really use some company, preferably the same species

You’re definitely not alone in not knowing about cycling a tank. It happens to a lot of people when they start out. It’s good that you care enough about the fish’s well being to try to save the situation 🙂

Ok so the tank has not actually been cycled then. So with a brand new filter it will likely take weeks for enough beneficial bacteria to develop to process the toxic ammonia that all fish produce. It will take some work to keep the fish healthy at this point. Read the subheading of fish-in...

Just to make sure, when you said you cycled the tank do you mean you went through the weeks to months long process of adding an ammonia source into the tank and building up the good bacteria in that new filter? Because if not then the fish are in danger.

I like to keep them too, but I have my collection outside the aquarium

Interesting question. I don’t have any experience with it to say yes or no but would like to hear if anyone else does. Do you have a really large tank you are treating so you’re trying to figure out ways to use less medication for cost reasons? Cuz otherwise seems like it would just be safer to...

I agree that temperature and salt are useful but don’t forget that they are limited in what they can be used to treat though. Temperature elevation only serves to worsen most bacterial infections and salt will do nothing to help an internal infection and only puts additional stress on some fish.

They look adorable to me. But then I also think eels are adorable 😁