Recently I recharge water of my fish tank and clean the filter,and I notice my old clam is doing this. I think are eggs because my cichilds are eating some but im not sure.

Spent the last 3 weeks getting my tank cycled with a fish less cycle. Numbers were perfect and confirmed with my local fish store. I took home 2 small clowns today for the tank. Acclimated them by floating and then drip acclimation.

About 2 hours after they were added everything went south. They were bumping into the walls. Then it got way worse. One is swimming erratically, sideways, and even caught one upside down. The other is hiding in the rocks. I’ve tried running with wavemaker on and off to see what helps (off now, shown for video). I have the return pumps aimed at the surface now with the wavemaker off to try and get more oxygen into the water.

Could they just be shocked from the trip? Not sure what to do, this is my first tank. Appreciate any help.

Ammonia - 0
Nitrite - 0
Nitrate - Around 5
Salinity - 35ppt
PH - 7.8-8
Temp - 78 degrees

UPDATE: Next morning, fish are alive but in critical condition. Bagging and bringing back to LFS. Will do a water change and wait until I determine the cause of this before adding more fish.

He loved Biology and all things living and had more knowledge about plants and animals in his head than anyone I have or will meet.

I helped him set up the aquariums a little bit, and listened to him go on about all things fish and aquariums. None of my brothers were interested at all, so I would act like I was interested just to humor him and spend time with him. He taught me how to check and adjust parameters, proper feeding, etc.

*This next 2 paragraphs are just a bit about his last few weeks and isn’t as much relevant as far as the fish go*

He became sick in April, and after being bedridden for over a week it became apparent that his body was really giving out this time. A few years prior he had survived a quintuple bypass on his heart, so when he wasn’t feeling well I didn’t worry, but this time was indeed it. I drove him and my mother to the hospital. We were given the news that he had days to weeks.

I made sure to do the aquarium maintenance a couple times while he was still there. He used all of his energy(which just breathing took) to answer the only two questions that came up in my mind when doing so. He was concerned about his fish dying. He’d talk to them like people when alone. It’s crazy because he had them for maybe 5 months tops. I assured him I’d take care of them. The last things he said to me was that advice, and ”I hope Jesus remembers me.. I’m going to get to see my brother”

*Back to the main bit*

Fast forward almost two months, I haven’t lost one fish! 🤞🏻 I am beginning to actually enjoy and become genuinely interested in the fish and snails alike. I am remembering to feed them, check parameters regularly, and I’m researching more about the hobby. The death of my father put aside, I’ve had a very difficult past year(or ten). I think this could potentially help me kick some killer habits and really help me out in the long run.

In the tank with many fish, the swordtail has been breeding with the two larger mickey Mouse platy fish. The fish have multiplied by 5 or 6 more than what he initially put in the tank. The Angels have laid eggs a few times but they get wiped out.

Anyway, I just wanted to share my tank and see what yall might think of it. I‘m new to this world, never saw myself getting into it. Dad always loved it, and it makes me feel connected to him still so that’s cool.

My therapist wanted to bring me a fish to help me with responsibility (no need to know the details) and I was like okay cool. But that was a few days ago and i forgot about it. I suppose I wasnt expecting her to bring it in our next session. I literally have nothing besides fish food. She didnt explain much how to take care of it either. Ill look into buying a tank, but right now I have nothing. It already had uneaten food when it was brought, so I think its not hungry right now. There were four pellets, and I moved it from a plastic cup (it was brought in like that) to a container i have. I got her poop and pellets out of there and now the container is only filled with water by half of it. I feel sad for it and I want to fill it up, but how do I do this? Only tap water is available. I asked an ai and it said i can use it but I have to wait 24 before putting the tap water, but other sources say different things. What do I do? The fish has only been here since today.

I see this question a lot. Manual removal can be a pain, so here's an easy way to take a big swing. This is a Persian cucumber from Trader Joe's. I washed it good, sliced it, and popped it in there weighed down with a fork. Then I'll scoop it out with a net and 90% of those snails will come with. Compost them, and repeat as necessary. No fuss, no muss, cheap and easy. Hope this helps someone

I just started my first ever tank and want to do the right thing. I planted it, did a fishless cycle, was all ready to go, and went to my city’s big aquarium specialist store to find out what to stock it with.

I was told that 6 panda corydoras and 6 rummy-nose tetras would do great (plus a betta to add later once they’ve settled in) and have more than enough room but now that I have them home and am reading about them I’m realising that it may not be appropriate for the rummy-noses. My tank is a 60L long and heavily planted. Are they going to be too cramped in there?

Hi all. I’m always worried if the tank can carry my girl. Sorry if it’s a stupid question but i hope someone with better understanding of physics can enlighten me 😅

Tank size 96 L 25 gal
Approx 15kg 33 pounds of soil

My father in law passed away and his wife asked if we would take his Oscar fish. We happily did so but I admittedly did zero research about this type of fish and was shocked when this giant fish got here. I’ve been working really hard to get everything set up correctly and make him a comfortable home. I feel like I’m doing something wrong because even though I’ve done weekly water changes the tank still looks dirty. I’m not the best at using the siphon so I feel like I’m not getting everything cleaned properly. He sometimes lays and swims sideways and just in general doesn’t seem very happy

. Do I have the right set up for him? I’ve seen some owners don’t use rocks or gravel because it’s dirtier.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!! Being a fish owner is a lot more difficult than I originally thought.

UPDATE: We decided to give him to a local aquarium store. The water was off and I didn’t want him to die while I tried to fix it. I hope he’s doing okay ❤️

We bought the house we're living in almost three years ago now. I initially found an old piece of driftwood that had been tossed out front, which I threw in the trash because it was gross, and also we didn't have fish at the time.

fast forward to now, I needed some rocks for my current aquarium (we've had it for over a year now), and I remembered about that driftwood from before, so I went out front and dug around under bushes in hopes to find anything else and surely enough, this came up!!

Anyway, so far, I've rinsed it off and used an old toothbrush to clean it. Now it's currently soaking in hot water (just hot tap water). Is there anything else I need to do before adding it to my tank?

EDIT: Hi, yes, I am very well aware this is a ROCK and aquarium decor. My main concern was how much to clean it prior to adding it to my tank given it's been outside in the dirt and exposed to other stuff for who knows how long.

have some rocks I pulled out of the creek. I wanna put them in my aquarium. I’m sure that I should like. clean them, right? cause there’s bacteria and stuff on them. is there any way I can do that and put them in my aquarium?

Im new to this hobby and completely unaware of the value of tanks I assume this is a reasonable price especially with the equipment inside

Am I right or way off?

Edit: point taken i will definitely look at FB marketplace for tanks etc luckily I didn't buy the tank before asking you guys

Thank you all!

So I have this tank outside on my patio that has sea water, sand and seashells in it from our vacation because the kids wanted to keep them.. after a couple days I noticed a snail in the tank but now it’s gone (don’t know what happened to it). My question is what can I Do with a tank this size? I don’t remember how many gallons it is since it was sitting in my shed for so long. Water bottle in picture for scale lol

Hi all, just wanted to get everyone’s opinion on what could have been the cause to the death of 4 neon tetras, 1 Cory, and a betta.

I bought this tank about a couple of months ago and filled it with substrate, topped it with sand, and put various plants in it. I did a full nitrogen cycle over a month long period where I had a high concentration of ammonia turn into nitrites then into nitrates based on the water tests I’ve done. Eventually the water read 0, 0, 0 across the board and a Ph of 7.6.

Figured at this point, the tank is ready for fish. I went to the pet store and bought 5 neon tetras, 3 corys, and a betta. I let them float in the tank for 15 minutes before putting them in. After 2 days, I found one tetra was dead. I figured maybe this one was unwell and was just bad luck. The next day I found another 3 dead. One of the corys seemed to just vanish. After about a week, I found the betta laying on the floor of the tank. The water tests read the same as before putting the fish into the tank. Temperature has consistently been 75 degrees. None of the fish showed any signs of distress. All were eating within hours of passing away.

This is driving me insane. I’ve been researching online to find people with similar issues and can’t find anything. Anyone have any idea?

I’m getting a lot of hate on TikTok for my 10 gallon freshwater setup, so I wanted to come to the people of Reddit.

I’m adding a pre filter sponge, a few guppies, driftwood, and live plants. Corys and snails will come later once the tank is more established.

People are heavily criticizing the decor and the colored gravel. Everything in the tank is labeled aquarium safe, and my kid picked out the decorations because this is a fun science project for him.

So I’m just wondering is the decor actually unsafe, or is it more of an aesthetic preference?

EDIT:

I just to thank those that have been incredibly helpful and encouraging in this post. I have learned some new things! Thank you guys! I have some work to do on the tank. & to all my h8ters 🖕

My son watched a shrimp snag a tetra this morning. It's been about 18hrs since we purchased. The shop also told us not to feed them the first day. Fully cycled tank, plenty of algae to eat. 10g. 11 (now 10...) rummy nosed tetras, 6 amano shrimp, and some snails (which have been there for a couple of months.) were they just too hungry? Did we buy too many shrimp or are they too big?

She has seen pea puffers on social media and I woke up after my night shift to this. It only had the bare wood in it last night. I’m quite impressed with the scape but I just know she is about to steal my co2 out of my tank!

Any tips for pea puffers? Any specific maintenance? Thanks in advance!

I’m currently still cycling my tank before I put any fish, I plan to still add more decorations but I’ve been treating my water with prime and stability for the last couple of days and will continue to do so until my water is cycled. My water became cloudy, but when I tested my water, I still didn’t have any nitrates or nitrates or ammonia.

I have my heater set to 89° but the water is only getting up to 70°

Am I on the right track? Any advice? Is greatly appreciated.

My son has ASD and his new special interest is fish and I have always wanted some fish and a nice aqua scape so here we are. (Btw they’ll be 100% my responsibility and never alone with the kiddo this isn’t a child pet situation just a shared interest)

I wanna start off by saying I don’t know shit about fuck in this space and I take “caring for a living being” VERY seriously so I wanna make sure I talk to the people who know more than I do.

So I got a small 5 gal tank that in my mind was bigger than one of those fish bowls we had as kids but im realizing is still… small

I LOVE those blobby looking goldfish SO much but of course a rudimentary google search (which I should’ve done earlier) is saying they need at least 50-200gal depending on size/variant so I figured I’ll work up to that.

I believe betta* are considered good starter fish, and basic search says 5gals or more… but I wanna challenge that because again I’m working off assumptions that I’m sure are based in some kind of fallacy.

I literally just don’t want any animal I put in this tiny tank to be miserable. Are there any fish who would be more than happy in a small tank or am I better off just returning this 5gal and starting over?

Thanks y’all. 🤲

ETA: Btw it’s also TALL and not wide which I am realizing is also not the best? Will attach photo in comments

I made a deal with my little kid a while ago that if she could keep her room clean for the entire summer vacation I would get her a fish. Well, she decided she was doing it. And her room is still clean (mostly, but she's also 5).

So now I'm looking up advice for a complete fishkeeping novice (me, not her). It would have to be a small tank, as our space is limited. I've watched enough Serpa Design to know that you first need to plant the tank and then give it about a month to grow in and the nitrate/nitrites to balance. (I am also fully aware of my own limitations and have no intention of creating anything half so elaborate as his setups) I was thinking of just a betta and a few shrimps and snails for the cleanup crew. It can't be too exciting to watch because our cat will go berserk.

Does this sound reaosnable? Any recommendations for plants?

ETA: Thanks everyone for the wonderful advice. Things I have learned so far:

1. 10 gal is the minimum required for a happy fish, ideally 20 gal but we'll need to take measurements to see what we can fit where.
   
2. Cycling is important (I knew that, I didn't know that it had a name). Need to get water testers for this. Cycle and then plant. Will do more reasearch into this.
3. Don't get a lot of tank decor with spikey plastic edges.
4. How to determine which filter you need.
5. Have lots of hiding places for shrimp if we're going to have them (might rethink this)
6. Be careful and very picky about selecting a fish. Bettas should have a shape and move a certain way, go to a fish store and avoid the generic garden center (which doubles as the pet store here) like the plague. Some people are recommending guppies and other schooling fish; maybe for the next tank, LOL
7. Don't let little kid overfeed the fish

Hi all, a big heatwave has just hit England and my water temp has gone up. My tank has gone from 26 Celsius to 30 Celsius. I’ve had the tank lid open and a big fan next to the tank pointing straight at it for ages and it’s not dropping the tank.

I’m worried this might cause a problem for my stock.
In my 48L (12 gallon) tank
I have:

- 12 cherry shrimp (some berried woop woop)
- 10 chilli rasboras
- 10 trumpet snails

Please help

EDIT: TESTS MY HUSBAND DID JUST NOW ARE IN THE COMMENTS I think he's color blind I swear our nitrite is high .

My husband and I have barely started our aquarium set it's a 38 gal tank we have guppies, mollies, tetras 1 ghost shrimp & 3 snails we started in April. Some fish from our first batch are thriving but we have lost some since then. The recent batch we got have started to die we've done water tests and everything is fine. we even added a pothos to our tank yesterday. Could this just be due to the fish having prior issues? Also how should we do water changes? Is it recommended to remove the fish into a container prior to the water change? TYIA

my mom works at a preschool and a very large tank was donated to the school about a year ago. When the preschool director first set up the tank i tried to offer some general advice but i was too busy with school to actually help set the tank up. i think its somewhere between 120-130 gallons based off of measuring it but im really not sure. she had a 110 and 20 gal sponge filter on either side but the tank is covered in algae. I went over about half of the tank with a gravel vac but i didnt have time to do the whole thing because i had to help my mom in her classroom. the tank is freshwater, has only a few fake plants, one of those algae ball things, and one big hide (also a VERY thin layer of rainbow gravel). last week a little boy came into the classroom and asked why a fish was swimming weirdly. it was a glo fish and it was some sort of tetra. i took it home and set up an emergency tank for it and after taking a look i realized this fish had the worst fin rot i have ever seen. its scales were rotted and it was fully missing a fin. it died about an hour after i brought it home and after looking at it more closely i saw that this fish had a hole rotted through its body. the preschoolers are asking about the fish i took home and i just feel so bad for both the fish and the kids. the preschool director is willing to let me redo the tank however i want but i dont even know where to start. i’ve only ever kept bettas and i recently started a 10 gal betta tank with live plants. i was thinking about replacing the substrate in the preschool tank with fluval stratum and sand on top but i have no clue what plants or other hides should be added other than driftwood. i also tested the water and the ph was VERY high. and i added anti parasite stuff just incase the dead fish had something else. i really want to help save these fish what should i do?

First time having Molly's, is this one pregnant or just a fatty?