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A series of good and bad news. Bad: The fin has not gotten better or grown back much at all Good: The fin has not gotten worse, and appears to have stopped deteriorating, although it was relatively slow progression to begin with, so I'm not 100% sure if this is the case Bad: the fish definitely...

I almost exclusively use my laptop for accessing forums in general. I find that most mobile versions of forum websites have layouts that are difficult to navigate or frustrating in some way to me. I also like being able to see the whole text box on the desktop version without an on-screen keypad...

If it was near room temperature, I'd have doubts. But if it still felt properly cold to the touch, even if melted, then it should be okay. I had some frozen food melt on the way back from a long drive. It definitely wasn't frozen anymore, but still quite cold. I re-froze it and have been feeding...

I would not start out with Kanaplex, and especially not a double dose of putting it in the water and in food. Sores and other open wounds can be easily treated with non-antibiotic medications. It sounds like the sores are largely healed on this fish. Otherwise, we have no solid indications of a...

I would be surprised if there were anaerobic pockets around an undergravel filter. In fact, a filter within the substrate is probably the best way to avoid anaerobic bacterial growth since it constantly brings in new, oxygenated water, as you pointed out. It's possible there were small pockets...

I can't say for sure whether this is columnaris, or if it's even bacterial. In order to do that, you would need to swab the affected areas and culture the sample on an agar plate and then look to see what (if any) particular bacteria have grown. However, I will warn you that if you do decide to...

I have learned that floating plants are more difficult to keep alive and healthy than they're made out to be. My amazon frogbit started out happy and healthy and has slowly dwindled and withered over time. I'm not sure of the cause, but my suspicion is a lack of nutrients. They really do use a...

Although I still enjoy fish, I'm finding my interest moving away from them over time and my focus shifting more towards vivaria. Even though this is an aquarium forum, I figure some members here might take interest in vivarium construction and assembly. I'm using the term "biotope" here rather...

The biggest "upgrade" for a goldfish in general is to do frequent, large water changes and staying on top of managing waste. Goldfish are messy, and produce a lot of ammonia. In this specific scenario, I'd recommend live, fast-growing plants. Their benefits will be twofold. One: they will help...

Wow, who knew Patches would turn out to be French!

I would honestly recommend getting enough tetras to make a comfortable group all at once instead of adding fish incrementally. Tetras are schooling fish and need to be in large groups. It's very difficult, if not impossible, to truly replicate a school in a small tank. However, your fish will...

Went ahead and added a fourth dose of kanamycin. The manufacturers (Seachem) have stated that treatment beyond the 6 days is acceptable as long as the fish are showing no signs of stress, and I also found a document published by Florida International University that states kanamycin bath...

No, I knew you weren't sharing the video to make me feel guilty, don't worry! And, well, I'm at least now able to report back and say with certainty that Cory's technique works amazingly. I was able to isolate and guide the ailing fellow fairly easily. Even I wasn't very stressed during the...

That's fair. I'll make some time to grab the betadine today. It is a tough situation precisely because this fish is still so active and vibrant. If it were acting poorly, not eating, etc. without improvement, I'd feel much better about calling it quits and humanely euthanizing. He clearly wants...

I that case, do you still recommend betadine if there are no further signs of improvement, or is this a lost cause at this point?

Yes! I wish I had found this video before I had to move everyone because the stress of moving and trying to net this guy was what caused his tail injury in the first place. I won't lie, there is some guilt there, knowing that I caused this by not netting him more carefully. But it is a good...

After you suggested it, I did look into its use for fin rot and found a couple promising anecdotes. I think I'll give it a shot after a week or so of daily water changes once the antibiotic treatment is done. I'll try it without a fin snip at first, since I'm not confident in my ability to get a...

Yeah, this is why I've been so concerned. It looks mostly like fin rot, but fin rot is typically rather straightforward and simple to treat, and I'm sort of at wit's end trying to find something that works. I hear your F. columnare concerns. That's another reason I chose the...

Yes, which is why I suspect rot instead of something simply growing on the fins. This photo is from May 8, two months ago These photos are from today — you can see the lower lobe of the caudal fin is noticeably smaller It seems like it's been fairly slow to progress, but it has definitely...

You might not have cleaned it thoroughly enough. Those things can get pretty nasty and a simple rinse probably isn't gonna be enough. I was stuck using a cartridge filter for a while and had to massage the thing thoroughly in the tank wastewater to get it clean. If you really want to switch to...

Yes, this is my rescue girl! She's still doing well today, although I did notice another big stool from her. She's acting and eating normally though, so I'm not too concerned. It's interesting, I haven't noticed any abnormal stools from anyone else, so it seems it's just her that's affected...

Okay, well, it all just fell off and she's still acting completely normally, so I can only assume she feels a heck of a lot better now 😂 There might be something to this, yeah. I couldn't find any solid list of kanamycin side effects on fish, but at least one person on a different forum...

What it says on the tin. Noticed this neon starting to poop earlier. Maybe 30-45 min ago. Just looked again, and now this monstrosity is hanging from her rear end. She's acting completely normally, swimming around just fine. She ate just fine earlier too. I guess I've noticed her hogging the...

Well, maybe we'll refrain from that one for Aspidoras... The way you've shortened it is an unfortunately rather derogatory term for those with Asperger's. I propose "spidies". Let's confuse everyone into thinking we've all just started keeping aquatic arachnids.

I think a lot of it has to do with the indiscriminate "tropical" branding. People hear that word and simply assume hot. I see something somewhat similar in the reptile/amphibian hobby too, on occasion. I now have two Litoria caerulea (dumpy tree frogs). They are technically tropical...

I like Gary's styrofoam suggestion too. You can always get a slightly fancier foam that looks nicer than the normal stuff and either buy it in black or paint it black. Dual purpose as a tank background! Another thing you could do is stick a couple thermometers in the tank and monitor them. Put...

Epistylis is not as common as it's made out to be by certain people online. It is an opportunistic parasite, unlike ich. Epistylis lives freely in the environment, with no host. It only attaches to other animals if that animal is weakened by a primary bacterial or fungal infection, especially if...

Not only does this fish have a serious case of ich, his "torn fins" are likely fin rot. If they were really just simple tears, they would have healed in the month you've had him. The telltale sign of fin rot in bettas is that it looks like the fins are melting, which they definitely do here...

FYI, most of these pictures are simple columnaris. The white patches are telltale. Columnaris is often called "false NTD" because it is commonly mistaken for true NTD, which is caused by the microsporidian parasite Pleistophora hyphessobryconis. I suspect the confusion is due to the fact that...

Oh, yes, I see what you mean... I'm not sure what that is, honestly. I still wouldn't suspect NTD (it's honestly a rather uncommon disease, despite what the fearmongering about it would lead you to believe). I know this answer is generally unsatisfactory, and I hate hearing it myself, but my...