BluePenguin

Do a search on "ick" in the board - I had the same problem a few months ago and received amazing help from other members. You can probably look it up by searching my member name too.

Hi guys, What's the latest word? Will it be open this weekend?

Hi guys! Sorry for not posting sooner! YAY!!! Its like a miracle, the aquarium was covered for 4 days, with the UV sterilizer running - and it all cleared up. I'm quite wary with the hours of lighting now - but so far it hasn't come back :) I can see my fish!!! Thanks for being there for me again guys

Oh yes, its going for 3 days all right I will do a water change tonight. It doesn't bother me too much its covered - I'm not home all day during the week anyway!

Update: The tank's been covered for about 24 hours. The UV sterilizer is running, and the Clear Fast chemical added. What a difference. There is so much less of it now (as i peek underneath) but its still not clear - (green stuff is still suspended). I might let it sit until tomorrow, do another water change, clean the filter with the tank water, and give it another go.

Fingers and entire body crossed.

Thanks guys, this is what I did this evening: 1) 80% water change 2) vaccumed the gravel (By now it barely made a difference) 3) added another dose of Clear Fast 4) Have the UV sterilizer going 5) Covered the tank in black garbage bags, not a speck of light inside Will leave it like that for 3 days... If this doesn't work I don't know what I will do.

Thanks guys I keep on hearing about this diatom filter - where can you rent one in Calgary? I actually asked for it at Golds, but they recommended against it?

Hmm I haven't done this, I guess it wouldn't hurt to try.

Hi everyone, Its been a while since I last posted. A bit has changed since then. I have horrible green water in my 33G cichlid tank and I'm just about ready to give up. Its been this way for about a month now and NOTHING works. 1) I tried "Clear Fast" from Golds - put in recommended amount, waited a day, did 50% change, dosed it again, did 50% change, nothing - it cleared a bit but came back 2) I tried it again, but this time dumped out 80-90% of the water each time and cleaned the filter carefully. Almost worked. But it came back again. 3) Now, I have a UV sterilizer, its been running for 24 hours and not the slighest change. I will attempt to put in Clear Fast, run the sterilizer and dump out water at 80%. I am a bit reluctant because I'm afraid that won't work either. This all started when one night we had a brilliant idea of removing some algae from rocks. We used the tank water and scrubbed it off with a clear scrubbie. That must have upset the balance. The tank is not in direct sunglight and we don't overfeed. My fish are now dying and I am so dishearted. Please help me otherwise I think I'll just give up......:( I don't know what else to do.

Thanks, I read somewhere that its fine to offer protein (cooked ham, chicken) to cichlids every now and then as long as its not greasy (will form film) - what do you guys think? If I got it wrong, let me know that's why I'm here. EDIT: I found where I read this: The book is called "The Cichlid" by Mary E.Sweeney It says: "Home Cookin' You cichlids are almost always ready for a meal, and often your own refrigerator is a good place to find supper. Mot cichlids eat just about any kind of lean meat. Strips of lean beef, liver and chicken, cut to correct size will be quickly snapped from your fingers (...) These meats are perfectly healthy foods for carnivorous cichlids, as long as you trim off all the fat" Then they go on an on about other things for omnivores and hebrivores... Is the lady who wrote this full of it?? LMK... I stick to cichlid granules, that was a sliver for a treat, no worries I don't load the tank with ham!!!! Yup, the plants slowly died... wow no idea that they were not even aquatic... I guess they died because of that and the cichlids just ate the rest and sped it up. LOL yeah you bet... I'm eyeing up a 90g Just thinking which wall to knock out. Maybe the closet by the backyard door. My hub is not too keen on the idea.

I didn't know that the loaches were supposed to do that... the other fish didn't seem to mind, and was completely tilting to the side at times...Fun to watch for sure! I think the red empress was itchy from the ich... I hate the ich....

Thanks guys, will keep you posted... The ich is definitely there, although I don't see too many of the white cysts.. The big red empress seems stressed, and has strangle "jittery" moves every now and then.... you can check out the pics of the tank under the general aquaria discussion "we have worms"

Hi, The tank is 33g, I don't think its overstocked...I'm pretty good about water changes, 25% every 4 days or so. I used to have lots of plants, its possible that this is how these worms got there, I don't see any now - they only came out when I was vacumming the gravel, they were not stuck to the glass, yup the fish snacked on them I changed the water yesterday, 50% as per the ich remedy suggestion, and started with the salt gradually... They didn't seem stressed by the new water, I think they're pretty used to it.... My red jewels are growing like crazy (the male doubled in size since we got him 2 months ago) and I have to watch my hands, they give a good nip here is some imagery I took the red jewel and tank picture this morning. The piece of ham was meant for the red empress, but guess what.... the pair photo is from a couple of weeks ago when we still had plants...

I think I answered my own question by just Googling it... Parasitic worms are the roundworm, tapeworm, thorny headed worms, and flukes. One rule applies, to calm the nerves of the hobbyist; most worms seen outside the fish are usually not internal parasites and not considered as harmful to the fish. Parasitic or harmful worms will not be visible on the gravel or the glass of the aquarium. Noticing small white worms the size of a few millimeters crawling along the glass are either flat or roundworms. Flat appearances are planaria (flatworms) and the more thin and wiggly ones are nematodes (roundworms). Both of them do not exceed 4-5 millimeters. Both types are harmless to fish and thrive on excessive nutrients in the water column often resulting from overstocked aquariums. http://www.algone.com/worms.htm

Ok... This just baffles me... In 2 months of being in the aquarium hobby we had: 2 rounds of fry, we have ich...(I am fixing that now as per Hideo's awesome instructions).... And now to top it off, we have these weird worm beings. They're white, thin as a hair, wiggly, maybe half an inch long, some are smaller. They are quite popular with the fish who just snag them up. I think they live in the gravel, because I only saw them when i stirred it... Are these parasites??! Or is it normal to have these things in the tank... We don't feed live food and I have no clue where they came from.. ?

Thank you thank you... I wasn't too comfortable with the medicine, I don't like the idea of making a med soup from the tank... Will do the salt as soon as I get home, thanks Hideo, I'm much calmer now... I do have 2 clown loaches and a pleco in the tank Other than that the residents are: jewel cichlids salvini cichlids blue acaras red empress geophagus electric yellows protop...saulosi? its a light blue, longish mbuna cichlid (i'm horrible I know) So far only the electric yellows, red empress and geophagus have spots. Are these guys going to be ok with the salt? LOL, no plants, they ate/destroyed them a long time ago. Its just rocks. ONE more IMPORTANT question: I have a small specimen tank with a few fry, and new red jewel eggs. This hangs inside the aquarium, and would likely be affected, since its the same water... Plus.. My red empress is holding... How does the salt jive with this... And I guess its ok to put the carbon filter back in?

Hi guys... Wow, I didn't see this coming, I watch my tank very carefully and I noticed that two of my fish have several white spots. I ran to Gold's, but it was Thursday, so I had to settle for Petcetera instead... I bought a store-branded ICH cure - it doesn't list what ingredient is inside, its not green, its blue and stains horribly. I poured in the right dosage right away, and removed the carbon filter. I read up on the parasite life cycle... But the instructions on this bottle are quite vague... I think I need to change the water (25-50%) every day upon medicating again - but this is not in the text. Suggestions??? To be honest, I am quite freaked out, and a noob. if its caught this early, is there a good chance of curing it? I literally had nightmares all night. My beautiful fish.. And my empress cichlid is holding...

Thanks Hideo, will try to do that....

Hi guys I have a 33 g tank and I'm using an Aquaclear filter rated for 70g. The BioMax media produces plenty of residue (Basically tiny chips of the ceramic) - now, this is fine when the filter is unstirred, but when it was turn to do maintenance, to my horror, it released a huge amounts of ceramic particles into the tank. I went to rinse the BioMax pouch (Sadly, in tap water, didn't realize that wasn't a good idea), put it back, and the same thing happened. I read that its fine to leave these for years and years, so is this normal???

Here they are I didn't separate them for the fear that I might do more harm than good. The parents do a great job in "herding" the fry, and "tuck" them away at night between gravel. I feed them crushed cichlid granules (i crush them into a powder) and they seem to like it Oh yes - and the question is - what do you guys do with your fry once its time to find them a home??? Would Gold's take them for a credit, or something like that? (Haven't called the poor guys always run around like chickens with heads chopped off)

I think that i will just screen off that portion of the tank, it just happens to be right in the corner! Here is the tank in its full glory. I don't think the plants will last much longer, they are eaten/uprooted on a regular basis. Both red empress come from Big Al's closing sale.. I feel pretty lucky to have them, hope they don't outgrow the tank.

Crushed flakes? Sounds good. I was afraid I'd have to come up with hatching my own shirmp or something like that :) Here are pictures where you can actually see them! They're so tiny!!

I will get a screen tomorrow... And find out what to feed them after the yolks run out...

Here they are, you can only see the ones in the smallest circle!!! They wiggle around like crazy!!! So you figure its ok not to screen off a part of the tank?