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Is there any difference between red and black lava rock for biological filtration? All the videos I've seen recommending lava rock show red lava rock. At my local Lowe's a 6-pound bag of red lava rock costs $7.98, while a 16-pound bag of black lava rock costs $8.98--just one dollar more for 10...

If water flows "down through the sponge and back into the pond," does that mean the bucket is above the pond? How do you place it?

Yeah, I don't know how I could get anything off the bottom of these things. If a sick or dead fish was lying on the bottom of the tank, I don't know how I'd get it out. Where do you get nets with long enough handles? I was thinking in terms of building a filter that would be outside the tank...

Thanks for the reply. Where did you put your gravel filter trays?

I'm not sure which section this should go in. If I'm putting it in the wrong place, moderators please move it to where it belongs. I have purchased two used IBC tanks (this kind: https://www.uline.com/BL_173/IBC-Tanks), made of food grade plastic and previously used to house feeder fish and...

The gas company has told me they need to remove the old gas meter from my basement and install a new one. I have an indoor goldfish pond in my basement, as well as several tanks upstairs in the living room. Does gas meter replacement involve any industrial chemicals, tools vibrating at harmful...

The methylene blue bottle didn't have instructions for how long to keep fish in a separate tank, only instructions for how much to use and removing carbon from the filter, warning that it would stain things, etc. In the absence of any responses here until days later, I ended up putting them...

This: The all white one is the one that was mobile but lethargic, and appeared to have ragged fins last night. The white and orange one is the one that was lying on the floor struggling to breathe. Obviously they are doing much, much better now. They are not happy in the hospital tank. It's...

This has been an utterly hellacious week. Multiple nights in a row of sleeping only 1 to 4 hours, on the road hundreds of miles, and on Monday my sweetest, lovingest, cuddliest, most caring and nurturing cat died suddenly. So I've been reeling emotionally from that, and it took about a day and...

I've heard of elephants getting drunk by deliberately eating fermented plant material.

I googled "blind cherry barbs" and found several references, some of them suggesting that there are varieties of cherry barbs that are naturally blind. Here's a thread I found about one that was blind plus seemed to have a number of other issues...

Wow, that must be overwhelming! :-( I wouldn't give up on them yet. Acquired disabilities take time to adjust to, in fish as well as in humans. When I first pulled my mangled goldfish out of the pond where the bigger fish were eating them alive, I was advised to euthanize the one that had lost...

Isn't blindness one of the risks for humans of drinking wood alcohol, assuming the person survives at all? How can you tell the fish is blind in that eye? Is it bumping into things? I have a goldfish that is completely blind. I know this because it doesn't have any eyes. When it was a baby...

Okay, I am working at the polls today. As before, there are plastic spray bottles, one labeled "hand sanitizer" and one labeled "disinfectant." When the person from the Board of Elections came by to check on this station, I asked her what brands of products were in those bottles. She didn't know.

Soap residue would definitely be bad for fish. But so would residue from other things that soap is designed to remove from your hands--like motor oil, insect repellent, any kind of lotion, hand sanitizer even! Soap is very effective at getting all manner of crud off your skin. You should...

Data point: I just stopped by my favorite LFS to buy another air pump. This is not the same LFS that I called for advice on the day when my favorite LFS was closed, and the guy told me he'd had a lot of customers have problems because of using hand sanitizer and then putting hands in fish tanks...

Have you actually read this thread before posting a reply to it? Members of this forum have posted in this thread that they have personally lost fish due to hand sanitizer exposure. Graphic descriptions and pictures have been posted here. Are you saying they made all that up??

And here they are two days later, in crystal clear water with most of the decor out for cleaning: I have no idea which two of these were the ones that appeared to be dead Saturday night. Are they studying their reflections in the glass? It looks that way to me. I haven't seen fish do that before.

I'm not sure if you're referring to my post or not, but if you are, please consider that sharing relevant experience which might hopefully be helpful is not the same as criticizing someone's parenting skills. In another thread...

I think I saw a mention of ADHD in this thread. I don't know if your kid actually has that diagnosis, or if he's just a typical 5-year-old with a typical 5-year-old immature brain. 5-year-olds aren't generally known for having great impulse control. I don't have kids of my own, but have taught...

I'm not sure if employees would know, below corporate management level. Some local supermarkets here have Purell-labeled hand sanitizer dispensers at the doors and throughout the stores, but papers taped onto them saying that for cost-saving purposes they are not using Purell brand but an...

Yes, I am so glad I happened to be passing through the room at just that moment when the first limp fish was floating toward the top, on the side of the tank I was passing! If my peripheral vision hadn't caught sight of what looked like a dead fish moving upward through the water, I probably...

Last night I came into the room and discovered that both filters in my largest tank had malfunctioned at the same time. (The cause in both cases turned out to be leaf detritus from the leafy greens my fish love but are messy with.) Water was brown, fish were at the top of the tank gasping for...

Last month a guy at a nearby LFS told me he was getting a lot of frantic calls from people whose fish were sick and dying due to hand sanitizer contamination. I was certain that wasn't the cause of the problem I was consulting him about (I only use hand sanitizer when away from home, then wash...

I bought an aquarium and a bunch of paraphernalia that was inside it at a thrift shop. The filter has a tag on the power cord saying Tetra Whisper Micro Filter. The media inside it consisted of a kind of bag that the plastic frame was inserted in. The bag was filthily encrusted so I threw it...

How do you delete a post here? The snail is no longer available. At this moment it is being floated in a nice warm tropical tank and hopefully will recover well from this misadventure.

Probably your small snails are hiding in the plant matter. My goldfish population control strategy is not to have anything that eggs can be hidden in. Fish spawn, then immediately eat all the eggs, and so nothing hatches. A couple of years ago I made a mistake and used a filter bag with too...

It's a living being, and I took responsibility for it, and caused it distress by not doing my own research before bringing it home. The best I can do for it now is the least that I owe it. I used to have pond snails. They apparently stowed away on some plants I bought, before I gave up buying...

Age and condition: Unknown. It's about one inch long. Quantity for sale: One. Free to good home, but I will do a screening and check references to ensure it's a good home. Reason for Sale: LFS sold me this snail for my goldfish pond, not telling me that it's a tropical snail. The snail is...

Well, the snail didn't like my pond. And the pond does NOT get salt. But apparently it was too cold in the basement. The snail didn't move for about two days and I thought it was dead. I put it into a jar of water from the pond and put it outside on the front porch on a warm sunny day. A...

It isn't poop I want eaten, it's leaf debris.

I quit throwing away money on live plants years ago. The goldfish either devoured or repeatedly uprooted everything I tried planting. Now they get leafy greens and broccoli in leaf clips, nothing growing. It's detritus from the greens that I'm hoping the mystery snail will eat. So, what do you...

Thanks. So it isn't dangerous to my goldfish or to my bigger snail? What does it eat?

Okay, when I took the mystery snail out of the bag and put it into the pond, the piggyback rider remained in the bag. So here it is. It's tiny--about the size of a comma in newspaper font. The lines on that note paper are about half an inch apart. What should I do with it?? For tonight I am...

So that really is a second snail hitching a ride on the first snail? And it's not even the same kind of snail?? I can't tell what color the thing is. I can barely even see it. In fact right now I can't see it at all. Apparently it moved. So just what kind of mystery snail is my mystery snail...

Also, is that a tiny second snail on the "rim" of its shell, visible in the first video? If so, how should I care for that little one until it's big enough to be safe from being eaten by my fish??

I read the sticky note at the top of this forum, and I think it listed two different kinds of snails that are commonly called mystery snails. I can't tell if either one of them looks like my new snail. (Apologies if these pictures are duplicated. My phone is doing strange things.) What...