Hello everyone, I'm new to the forums and would like to say this seems like a great resource with a lot of good information, so perhaps someone might be able to lend some insight into a few problems I'm having with my tank.
I have a 55 gallon freshwater system which I initially started as a planted tank with a red shouldered severum, an angelicus synodontis, a breeding pair of T-bar cichlids, a palmas polypterus and an ornate polypterus. Not an ideal mix further down the road (namely the T-bars), but since all of the larger fish were still quite young/small and everyone was getting along great I decided to leave them be until the Polypterus got big enough to possibly start thinking of the T-bars as dinner. Everything went beautifully for a month or so, but the plants were having a little trouble so I upgraded my lighting setup and decided to try a DIY yeast CO2 system, which worked great. Unfortunately, eventually some yeast ended up in the tank, which started what has become my most frustrating fish experience to date (the yeast/fungus will *not* go away), but I'll get back to that later.
Out of frustration I removed the yeast system and purchased a Carbo Plus unit, which worked wonderfully. Just when the plants were all starting to perk back up, I added a gold nugget pleco. Big mistake, because I didn't quarantine it. It was the usual story. Looked perfect at the store, then broke out into a horrible case of ich the very next day after I brought it home. And of course, very shortly after, all of my other fish except for the two polypterus became infested as well. Oh, and did I mention the T-bars had bred and were nursing an adorable school of fry? Needless to say, I tried everything I could think of that would not immediately kill the plants: water changes, temperature adjustments, adding just enough salt... and when the ich only got worse I did finally dose the tank with Maracide, which still didn't help.
Every single fish in the tank died except for the Polypterus, which I then finally moved into a 20 gallon quarantine set-up that my boyfriend eventually let me buy (too late, unfortunately). Then the Palmas died the next day (most likely from stress and too much medication it never needed), leaving me with only the ornate. Sadly, I was forced to toss all of my plants because, although they held up surprisingly well during the ich treatment, that whole debacle caused me to neglect my near-constant yeast/fungus removal (once that stuff got in the tank, it simply refused to die, and especially loved growing on my driftwood) and soon the whitish/yellowish fungus grew onto my plants and began smothering them. Plus, to be honest I was at the point where I realized I would have to simply start fresh, and just didn't want to deal with trying to save the plants anymore.
So I tore the tank down, threw out the plants, boiled all of the driftwood and rocks, disinfected the heater, filter, etc and the tank itself. Then I set everything up new and this time filled it with R/O water (with some R/O right) just to be extra careful. I ran it for a couple of weeks and the fungus did not return. So I put the ornate back in, only to find a day later that the same yeasty fungus had begun to grow in the quarantine tank, which meant it had transfered with the fish (even though I did not dump any of my old aquarium water into the new tank.) As a test, I tried treating the empty (but still running) quarantine tank with various true fungal meds. None helped, except at doses too high to be fish-safe. In fact, nothing ever really helped in either tank other than completely re-doing the set-up. I scrubbed it off the glass and suctioned it off the gravel, and boiling the driftwood would kill it, but it would always come back because I could never get rid of every last speck in the tank. So far, the main tank was still fungus-free, so I brought home a ropefish and added it to the tank (after quarantine.) Everything was going fine again, but then my worst fears came true and the fungus reappeared. It seems I could never get rid of it because it was hitchhiking on the fish (only logical explanation after bleaching/boiling everything), even though the ornate was actually quite healthy, with no fungus visible on its body at all.
Anyway, disheartened, I gave up on completely getting rid of it and am now back to simply cleaning off as much as I can. It never gets out of control, but is always growing on something. Because of this, I have yet to re-introduce plants (or buy new fish.. lets say my enthusiasm has dampened), but the carbo plus unit is still in the tank (unplugged) because I went and bought a new carbon block for it, thinking I was going to re-plant the tank, and now that it's wet, if I let it dry I'll have to buy a new one again (money that seems silly to spend.) The tank has been this way, with only the ornate and the ropefish, for 2 and a half months.
Now, the reason I gave all those details (other than hoping someone, somewhere, might know what I can do to get rid of the fungus) is because lately it is starting to look like both the polypterus and the ropefish are not in great condition. They do seem quite happy and healthy. They are not at all skinny, are brightly colored, and are active and curious. However, both fish have tiny holes which have slowly appeared on their heads. I am concerned about HITH, but have before only seen it appear as large holes which slowly get bigger and bigger. These do not... they stay very small, but you can definately tell they are holes. Like a series of pinpricks. In addition, one of the ornate's front fins has become slightly smaller than the other and a bit mishapen, and now very recently, both of the ropefish's front fins also appear to be, well, shrinking. Not rotting, although that may be possible, but it really doesn't look like fin-rot.
The tank water is very clean (no ammonia or nitrites, only trace amounts of nitrates) and I do regular filter maintenance and weekly water changes (plus it is a pretty large tank for a total of 10 inches of fish, much of that being a very long but thin one). I feed the fish a combination diet of Hikari sinking carnivore pellets and a variety of frozen food, including mysis shrimp, bloodworms and krill (and some small silversides for the ornate... the ropefish is still too small to fit them in her mouth). Do you think this might be an issue of malnutrition? Is it possible they are exposed to too much carbon (between the filter and the carbo plus)? Or is it something else entirely? I honestly have no idea. As for the fungus in the tank, it has never appeared on the fish, but it has been present in the tank for... 4.5 months now.
-Ariel
I have a 55 gallon freshwater system which I initially started as a planted tank with a red shouldered severum, an angelicus synodontis, a breeding pair of T-bar cichlids, a palmas polypterus and an ornate polypterus. Not an ideal mix further down the road (namely the T-bars), but since all of the larger fish were still quite young/small and everyone was getting along great I decided to leave them be until the Polypterus got big enough to possibly start thinking of the T-bars as dinner. Everything went beautifully for a month or so, but the plants were having a little trouble so I upgraded my lighting setup and decided to try a DIY yeast CO2 system, which worked great. Unfortunately, eventually some yeast ended up in the tank, which started what has become my most frustrating fish experience to date (the yeast/fungus will *not* go away), but I'll get back to that later.
Out of frustration I removed the yeast system and purchased a Carbo Plus unit, which worked wonderfully. Just when the plants were all starting to perk back up, I added a gold nugget pleco. Big mistake, because I didn't quarantine it. It was the usual story. Looked perfect at the store, then broke out into a horrible case of ich the very next day after I brought it home. And of course, very shortly after, all of my other fish except for the two polypterus became infested as well. Oh, and did I mention the T-bars had bred and were nursing an adorable school of fry? Needless to say, I tried everything I could think of that would not immediately kill the plants: water changes, temperature adjustments, adding just enough salt... and when the ich only got worse I did finally dose the tank with Maracide, which still didn't help.
Every single fish in the tank died except for the Polypterus, which I then finally moved into a 20 gallon quarantine set-up that my boyfriend eventually let me buy (too late, unfortunately). Then the Palmas died the next day (most likely from stress and too much medication it never needed), leaving me with only the ornate. Sadly, I was forced to toss all of my plants because, although they held up surprisingly well during the ich treatment, that whole debacle caused me to neglect my near-constant yeast/fungus removal (once that stuff got in the tank, it simply refused to die, and especially loved growing on my driftwood) and soon the whitish/yellowish fungus grew onto my plants and began smothering them. Plus, to be honest I was at the point where I realized I would have to simply start fresh, and just didn't want to deal with trying to save the plants anymore.
So I tore the tank down, threw out the plants, boiled all of the driftwood and rocks, disinfected the heater, filter, etc and the tank itself. Then I set everything up new and this time filled it with R/O water (with some R/O right) just to be extra careful. I ran it for a couple of weeks and the fungus did not return. So I put the ornate back in, only to find a day later that the same yeasty fungus had begun to grow in the quarantine tank, which meant it had transfered with the fish (even though I did not dump any of my old aquarium water into the new tank.) As a test, I tried treating the empty (but still running) quarantine tank with various true fungal meds. None helped, except at doses too high to be fish-safe. In fact, nothing ever really helped in either tank other than completely re-doing the set-up. I scrubbed it off the glass and suctioned it off the gravel, and boiling the driftwood would kill it, but it would always come back because I could never get rid of every last speck in the tank. So far, the main tank was still fungus-free, so I brought home a ropefish and added it to the tank (after quarantine.) Everything was going fine again, but then my worst fears came true and the fungus reappeared. It seems I could never get rid of it because it was hitchhiking on the fish (only logical explanation after bleaching/boiling everything), even though the ornate was actually quite healthy, with no fungus visible on its body at all.
Anyway, disheartened, I gave up on completely getting rid of it and am now back to simply cleaning off as much as I can. It never gets out of control, but is always growing on something. Because of this, I have yet to re-introduce plants (or buy new fish.. lets say my enthusiasm has dampened), but the carbo plus unit is still in the tank (unplugged) because I went and bought a new carbon block for it, thinking I was going to re-plant the tank, and now that it's wet, if I let it dry I'll have to buy a new one again (money that seems silly to spend.) The tank has been this way, with only the ornate and the ropefish, for 2 and a half months.
Now, the reason I gave all those details (other than hoping someone, somewhere, might know what I can do to get rid of the fungus) is because lately it is starting to look like both the polypterus and the ropefish are not in great condition. They do seem quite happy and healthy. They are not at all skinny, are brightly colored, and are active and curious. However, both fish have tiny holes which have slowly appeared on their heads. I am concerned about HITH, but have before only seen it appear as large holes which slowly get bigger and bigger. These do not... they stay very small, but you can definately tell they are holes. Like a series of pinpricks. In addition, one of the ornate's front fins has become slightly smaller than the other and a bit mishapen, and now very recently, both of the ropefish's front fins also appear to be, well, shrinking. Not rotting, although that may be possible, but it really doesn't look like fin-rot.
The tank water is very clean (no ammonia or nitrites, only trace amounts of nitrates) and I do regular filter maintenance and weekly water changes (plus it is a pretty large tank for a total of 10 inches of fish, much of that being a very long but thin one). I feed the fish a combination diet of Hikari sinking carnivore pellets and a variety of frozen food, including mysis shrimp, bloodworms and krill (and some small silversides for the ornate... the ropefish is still too small to fit them in her mouth). Do you think this might be an issue of malnutrition? Is it possible they are exposed to too much carbon (between the filter and the carbo plus)? Or is it something else entirely? I honestly have no idea. As for the fungus in the tank, it has never appeared on the fish, but it has been present in the tank for... 4.5 months now.
-Ariel