FAQs on Plant Diseases and Pests Their Control

Related Articles: Why Aquarium Plants Fail by Neale Monks,
Plant Diseases,
Algae and Their Control in Aquarium Gardens,

Freshwater Plants 9/2/15
Hi crew,
I apologize if this is not an appropriate topic to ask about, but I'm having trouble finding an answer and thought I'd run it by you.
<Okay>
I have always lacked a green thumb, to say the least.
<A learned trait>
I have a couple of freshwater tanks and considering my lack of skill, I have had a bit of beginners luck with my aquatic plants. However in my 29 gallon community, I have an Amazon sword that appears to be in bad shape. The thing is that in the same tank, i have another Amazon sword that maintains a richer green color and lacks the rotting leaves. The lighting is consistent throughout and there aren't any fish/snails that eat plants in there (not that I know of).
<Could be the plants are of different genetic make-up. Many cultured ones nowayears are tissue cultured... identical; but some are still wild-cultured; variable>
I do have some Malaysian trumpet snails for keeping the sand properly aerated, but I've never seen them on any of my plants. In this tank are cories, kuhli loaches, white and black skirt tetras and GloFish danios. The tank is newly cycled with stable parameters for about 2 weeks. The explanation I've come across is that this can be caused by high nitrates, which doesn't apply(and should theoretically have the same effect on the other Amazon sword anyhow). If you have any suggestions I'd appreciate it.

I would also like to know if I should remove the plant if this continues.
<Only if it entirely disintegrates. Have seen Echinodorus come back from very little)>
Thank you. Danielle
<Welcome. Bob Fenner>

Very sad plants in established tank /RMF 3/19/15
Hi all!
<Regina>
Firstly thank you for this wonderful resource, I have learned so much from browsing your site over the years! My current tank is a lovely 75 gal. I've had this one for a little over two years now, and it has lots of plants and driftwood and rocks as decor and a booming platy population (seriously, they keep popping out babies!) along with a few lonely tetras and a rainbowfish (I know they don't really belong together, I long ago stopped adding any more fish but they continued to survive so here they still are!). For most of the two years in this tank, everything was lovely (see first photo attached). Then a few months ago I had a moderate fish die off and the plants rapidly declined. I couldn't find anything wrong with water parameters at the time (or before, or since), with nitrates/nitrites/chlorine/ammonia registering at or very very near to zero, pH 7.0, dGH a little on the hard side (~100-150 ppm), and dKH rather high (over 200 ppm). Those are the same water chem results I've gotten for the several years I've lived in this area, using only SeaChem Neutral Regulator with water changes (usually 10 gal/2 weeks). (I also dose SeaChem Stability regularly, and have a few times used SeaChem StressGuard and Nutrafin Waste Control. I had used several of SeaChem's Flourish supplements when I first started with the plants.)
<With you so far>
The die-off a few months ago was a steady loss of at least 2 fish every day for a couple of weeks, no signs of illness or distress by any of the fish who died or those who survived, despite increasingly frequent water changes (I started changing more water at a time, and then began changing water every few days and then daily as the loss continued). Water parameters remained steady the whole time, although by the end it was a little bit softer and less alkaline than initially, but not by much. Eventually the rate of fish loss slowed dramatically (although there continues to be a dead fish every couple weeks ever since, but I am not sure if that indicates anything. The fish who have died most recently seemed to be thinner (it also looks a bit like they're clamping their fins, but that could also be perspective because they just look skinnier) before they died, but still ate enthusiastically and were very active until they one morning would be belly-up, no wounds or parasites or Finrot etc).
<Mmmm>
Then the plants started dying. Mostly I have stem plants (Ludwigia broadleaf, Hygrophila difformis, and moneywort), and they all began dying at the stems. This is what has me really scratching my head, because the leaves will be perfectly green and solid and happy and budding out but the stem turns brown and rots from the bottom up, and as it goes the leaves suddenly die or detach. At first I just kept trimming and replanting the live part, but now I have barely any plants left. I started dosing
Flourish again a month ago, no difference. Substrate is Eco-Complete (same age as tank), with a few root tabs scattered about, and DIY CO2 (have never really had a good sense for how much is actually dispersing into the water, I have the CO2 connected to a reactor next to the filter). Filter is an Eheim 2215, which has the usual sponges and biomedia as well as SeaChem's Purigen inside, filter is cleaned out about once every 4-6 weeks (alternating which sponge gets replaced).
<Yes>
The only things I can think to add are that this time period coincides with when I started using Nutrafin Cycle instead of SeaChem Stability,
<This shouldn't make a diff.>
but I switched back after a month. Also, I had decided to take advantage of the sadness of the tank and re-scape things, and removed the rocks and bleached them and drilled new holes (tunnels!), but they sat out and were well dechlorinated for several weeks before being reintroduced to the tank. However, they haven't grown any algae since then, which is weird since the rocks were previously covered in a lovely natural brownish-green biofilm.
Also, very minimal algae growth on the glass over the past few months. I have two light fixtures, each with 2 T5 bulbs, all of which have been changed in the past 6 months (using 6700K bulbs). Biweekly water tests (using both drops and test strips) continue to show the same water parameter results as above, although for a few weeks about a month ago the pH was up a bit to 7.5 but has since dropped back to 7.0.
<This is a good clue>
I can't figure out what's going wrong, PLEASE HELP!!!!
Thanks so much, Regina
<And a timely query it is! Have just finished reading the current issue of Amazonas Magazine's article on planted tank nutrient deficiencies.... I do think you may well have a few items astray here; The driftwood and likely potassium and nitrogen deficiency. I'd remove the driftwood for now.... let it air dry for now. And I'd do a good gravel vacuuming, remove about half the water; in fact; likely a third ever few days for a couple weeks... to dilute whatever has been accumulating in the substrate and water. I'd have you read re PMDD; "Poor Mans Dupla Drops"; on the Krib is likely the best... Perhaps perusing Diana Walstad's works.... Am sending this off to Neale Monks here for his independent (and likely much better) input. Bob Fenner>
Very sad plants in established tank /Neale 3/19/15
Hi all!
<Regina,>
Firstly thank you for this wonderful resource, I have learned so much from browsing your site over the years! My current tank is a lovely 75 gal.
I've had this one for a little over two years now, and it has lots of plants and driftwood and rocks as decor and a booming platy population (seriously, they keep popping out babies!) along with a few lonely tetras and a rainbowfish (I know they don't really belong together, I long ago stopped adding any more fish but they continued to survive so here they
still are!). For most of the two years in this tank, everything was lovely (see first photo attached). Then a few months ago I had a moderate fish die off and the plants rapidly declined. I couldn't find anything wrong with water parameters at the time (or before, or since), with nitrates/nitrites/chlorine/ammonia registering at or very very near to zero, pH 7.0, dGH a little on the hard side (~100-150 ppm), and dKH rather high (over 200 ppm). Those are the same water chem results I've gotten for
the several years I've lived in this area, using only SeaChem Neutral Regulator with water changes (usually 10 gal/2 weeks). (I also dose SeaChem Stability regularly, and have a few times used SeaChem StressGuard and Nutrafin Waste Control. I had used several of SeaChem's Flourish supplements when I first started with the plants.)
<The real job is to maintain a neutral pH in water that has been softened.
Think of it as somewhat like adding a bottle of acid to water with a lot of alkalinity. There's a neutralisation reaction that reduces the pH, but that neutralisation reaction produces salts (in the generic sense, not specifically NaCl) which raises the amount of total dissolved solids. This in turn affects the way fish osmoregulate. There's also the risk that adding potions to reduce pH creates unstable water chemistry. Do understand that if creating acidic conditions for soft water fish (or plants) was as simple as adding bottles of chemicals -- we'd all be doing that! Yet no experienced aquarist does this, and you'll never see it written in tropical fish books. In fact the correct procedure is first lower the hardness (including carbonate hardness) perhaps by using RO or rainwater, and only then using a pH buffer to fix the pH at 7, 6.5 or whatever your chosen pH level. As your parents may well have told you, "if something seems too good to be true, it probably isn't true", and that's 100% good advice when it comes to water chemistry. Getting soft, acidic water from hard, alkaline tap water is difficult. There's no cheap way to do this (unless you collect rainwater, which is what I do). Bottles of chemicals aren't the solution.>
The die-off a few months ago was a steady loss of at least 2 fish every day for a couple of weeks, no signs of illness or distress by any of the fish who died or those who survived, despite increasingly frequent water changes (I started changing more water at a time, and then began changing water every few days and then daily as the loss continued). Water parameters remained steady the whole time, although by the end it was a little bit softer and less alkaline than initially, but not by much.
<Ah, now, I would be seriously thinking about your use of pH regulator. Variations in pH, particularly drops in pH, can indicate overall acidification in the aquarium. Multiple reasons for this. Use/misuse of pH buffers is one. But others include using up the alkaline reserve (i.e., carbonate minerals) in some types of substrate and rocks; excessive accumulation of organic matter in the aquarium and/or filter; and use/misuse of CO2 fertilisation systems.>
Eventually the rate of fish loss slowed dramatically (although there continues to be a dead fish every couple weeks ever since, but I am not sure if that indicates anything. The fish who have died most recently seemed to be thinner (it also looks a bit like they're clamping their fins, but that could also be perspective because they just look skinnier) before they died, but still ate enthusiastically and were very active until they one morning would be belly-up, no wounds or parasites or Finrot etc).
<Curious. Since even small tropical fish (Neons for example) should live 3-4 years in good conditions, if these fish are less than 2 years old it's unlikely they died of old age. I mention that because sometimes an old tank will experience a gradual die-off of livestock, but if those fish have been in that tank for, say, 5 years, it's entirely possibly they're just old and worn out. So: we're down to environmental stress and/or disease. Often the two go together. A poor diet (= stress) can lead to a disease (= weakened immune system). In any case, there's nothing specific that comes to mind from what you describe, but if a number of fish die across a few weeks, without any obvious signs of disease, then environmental stress is the most
likely explanation.>
Then the plants started dying. Mostly I have stem plants (Ludwigia broadleaf, Hygrophila difformis, and moneywort), and they all began dying at the stems. This is what has me really scratching my head, because the leaves will be perfectly green and solid and happy and budding out but the stem turns brown and rots from the bottom up, and as it goes the leaves suddenly die or detach. At first I just kept trimming and replanting the live part, but now I have barely any plants left. I started dosing
Flourish again a month ago, no difference. Substrate is Eco-Complete (same age as tank), with a few root tabs scattered about, and DIY CO2 (have never really had a good sense for how much is actually dispersing into the water, I have the CO2 connected to a reactor next to the filter).
<Try switching this off for now. When tanks go "bad", CO2 is a variable you can safely remove from the equation. Plants will be fine without CO2, even if growth isn't as good as before. CO2 causes some serious problems if used improperly. It lowers the pH, but at the same time, because plants use up CO2 at certain times, the pH can end up very unstable. CO2 at high concentrations can displace oxygen as well, making it difficult for fish to breathe properly. All sorts of reasons to be careful about using CO2, and honestly, unless you like diddling about with gizmos and have all the test kits you need, I strongly recommend using automatic systems that dose CO2 at safe levels (if set up correctly).>
Filter is an Eheim 2215, which has the usual sponges and biomedia as well as SeaChem's Purigen inside, filter is cleaned out about once every 4-6 weeks (alternating which sponge gets replaced).
<Sounds good.>
The only things I can think to add are that this time period coincides with when I started using Nutrafin Cycle instead of SeaChem Stability, but I switched back after a month. Also, I had decided to take advantage of the sadness of the tank and re-scape things, and removed the rocks and bleached them and drilled new holes (tunnels!), but they sat out and were well
dechlorinated for several weeks before being reintroduced to the tank. However, they haven't grown any algae since then, which is weird since the rocks were previously covered in a lovely natural brownish-green biofilm.
Also, very minimal algae growth on the glass over the past few months. I have two light fixtures, each with 2 T5 bulbs, all of which have been changed in the past 6 months (using 6700K bulbs). Biweekly water tests (using both drops and test strips) continue to show the same water parameter results as above, although for a few weeks about a month ago the pH was up a bit to 7.5 but has since dropped back to 7.0.
<Again, I'm thinking water chemistry instability is part of the problem. Switch off the CO2. Stop using the pH buffer. Let the tank steady itself at ambient water chemistry of your tap water. Let the fish get used to that.
If necessary, choose species that enjoy those conditions, but don't buy any more fish for at least a couple of weeks after the last fish death.>
I can't figure out what's going wrong, PLEASE HELP!!!!
Thanks so much, Regina
<Hope this helps, Neale.>

Re: Very sad plants in established tank 3/21/15
Hi guys, thank you so much for your help. A few clarification questions, if I may! Neutral Regulator is a dechlorinator, a powdered version of SeaChem's Prime with some ph regulator.
<That's what I'm afraid of. Anything that promises to create pH neutral conditions, by definition, is a buffer. It changes the pH.>
I know that adding chem.s is not the way to go (I have a small mountain of additives and crap that I bought way back when I first started fish keeping, that now accumulates dust), but since I need to use a dechlorinator anyway I figured it was good enough. I'm in California, and we have a wicked drought, so I can't afford to waste any water and there hasn't been any rainwater in far too long. Is there a better dechlorinator I should use?
<I'm sure many. I'm cheap, and use pond dechlorinator, diluted accordingly. A bottle literally lasts years!>
Also, I have noticed a lot of powdery precipitate accumulating on the top of the tank, clearly lots of dissolved something in the water.
<Indeed. As stated before, acid + alkaline = salt + water... because you're adding a buffer, there's plenty of scope for producing an (insoluble/low solubility) salt of some kind. In any event, hard water tends to leach out minerals where evaporation occurs, often around air stones and filter outlets.>
When I first added the driftwood two years ago, I was worried about the softening acidification and put a piece of cuttlebone in the back of the tank, as I saw suggested somewhere... It's still sitting there.
<Quite. Cuttlebone is aragonite, an unstable (mineralogically speaking) form of calcium carbonate (i.e., the "stuff" of carbonate hardness). It will react with acidity in the aquarium, and will, very slowly, dissolve.
There are better ways to buffer water and raise the carbonate hardness.>
I'm obviously less interested in wrestling for a specific type of water (soft/acidic or hard/alkaline) so much as stable water that I can easily maintain with my tap water. I feed the fish once a day a variety of NLS granules and Hikari wafers, along with a treat of bloodworms or daphnia or Tubifex, etc. I feed enough that about half gets to the bottom where the fry go after it, and then the adults clean up once the floating pieces are gone.
So, given the situation, what else should I be doing?
<Do read re: water chemistry on WWM; start perhaps with my "practical approach to water chemistry" article.>
I will begin doing massive (50%) water changes every couple days for a couple weeks (probably five or six changes total?)
<Less is more with water changes, or rather, frequent small water changes are better than occasional giant water changes. 20% a week for a modestly stocked aquarium is ample.>
I'll remove the driftwood and let it dry in the sun during that time. I will disconnect the CO2. I will vacuum the bejeebers out of the gravel. I will hope that everybody survives these shenanigans. Other than adding a dechlorinator and a biological supplement (Cycle or Stability), is there anything else I should put in the water? Flourish, NPK? Add laterite to the gravel?

What should I do after the next couple weeks? Can I add the driftwood back?
Should I do CO2 again? What can I do to monitor/prevent this in the future?
<Wait and see what happens first. After 6, 8 weeks of normality, then gradually add extra features, maybe the wood first, the CO2 a few weeks later.>
Thanks again guys!
-Regina
<Most welcome. Neale.>

Fish Wasting Away /RMF's try 12/10/14
Hello,
<Samuel, greetings>
I've lost a number of fish to something in my tank and I am at a loss for how to treat it.
<Have scanned this msg. and am going to ask Neale Monks here to respond separately>
The first symptom seems to be spitting out of food rather than eating it. Eventually the fish will become lethargic, start hiding and stop trying to eat at all.
<Good clues. What comes to mind up to this point is either a dire environmental issue or a microbial to Protozoan issue>
I have been removing to treat or euthanize when I notice the spitting behavior but new infections continue. A few fish
have recovered from it and it has only, as far as I've noticed, affected a few species. All of my Celebes rainbowfish have been affected with 66% mortality of the adults and my Endler's have been dying at a higher rate than that. Fry/young fish seem more affected as I lost all but 2 of a batch of ~15 Celebes fry. Species which haven't had any casualties include Pseudomugil paskai, threadfin rainbowfish, Apistogramma borelli and a blue ram.
The tank is a 50g acrylic. Heavily planted, CO2 injected and fertilized (CSM+B, K2HPO4, KNO3 and K2SO4).
<To browsers; always a poss. of issues w/ CO2 use, inorganic fert. use>
NH3/NO2 0ppm and Nitrate varies between 5 and 20ppm. It's been set up for about 6 months and was an upgrade from a
29g.
The trouble started, as far as I can tell, back in early October with the addition of 5 Habrosus cories. I had lost 2 during quarantine but I chalked it up to stress as both were emaciated when I got them and they died the first couple days. About 3 days after adding the cories I noticed one of my female Endler's was spitting food out instead of eating it. I left her in the tank for a few days until I noticed one of my Celebes and another endler showing the same behavior. The Celebes was isolated and treated (still died) and both Endler's were euthanized. On 10/13, when I noticed additional infections
<... what came/comes first... the symptoms or cause/s?>
I treated the tank with Metronidazole (3 treatments of 500mg every other day). At the end I performed a large water change and added active carbon to help remove any remaining medication.
<Good>
After a few days additional fish showed symptoms and the 2 Celebes I treated in quarantine showed little signs of improvement (one died during treatment, the other was still not eating, even when presented live food). On 10/23 I treated with Kanamycin (3 treatments of 1440mg every other day). The remaining Celebes seemed to respond well to this treatment. At this point I introduced a few swordtails from another tank and the infection decimated them. All were infected and only one recovered. I continue to euthanize
Endler's that spit food, don't show interest in food or look thin after a heavy feeding. My best guess was that this is a flagellate but I fear it might be fish TB (since the Kanamycin seemed to help some fish).
Thanks for any help you can provide and for this great resource you have available.
<I suspect something simple yet profound is amiss here... Really, just too little O2, perhaps w/ too much CO2. Do you monitor hardness? Do you have access to dissolved oxygen test gear? Ask your LFS re. We will solve this mystery.
Bob Fenner>
Fish Wasting Away /Neale's go 12/11/14
Hello,
I've lost a number of fish to something in my tank and I am at a loss for how to treat it. The first symptom seems to be spitting out of food rather than eating it.
<Quite often goes along with some environmental stress.>
Eventually the fish will become lethargic, start hiding and stop trying to eat at all. I have been removing to treat or euthanize when I notice the spitting behavior but new infections continue. A few fish have recovered from it and it has only, as far as I've noticed, affected a few species.
All of my Celebes rainbowfish have been affected with 66% mortality of the adults and my Endler's have been dying at a higher rate than that. Fry/young fish seem more affected as I lost all but 2 of a batch of ~15 Celebes fry.
Species which haven't had any casualties include Pseudomugil paskai, threadfin rainbowfish, Apistogramma borelli and a blue ram.
The tank is a 50g acrylic. Heavily planted, CO2 injected and fertilized (CSM+B, K2HPO4, KNO3 and K2SO4). NH3/NO2 0ppm and Nitrate varies between 5 and 20ppm. It's been set up for about 6 months and was an upgrade from a 29g.
<Switch off the CO2 and fertiliser system. The plants will be okay for a few days/weeks thusly. Why? Because sometimes CO2 can be dosed too high, and this will cause serious stress to the fish. It's easy enough to discount this problem by switching the CO2 system off for a few days and watching what happens. As plant growth will slow down, fertiliser will be redundant, so you can switch that off too. Again, they're a variable that we want to discount before moving onto other possible issues.>
The trouble started, as far as I can tell, back in early October with the addition of 5 Habrosus cories. I had lost 2 during quarantine but I chalked it up to stress as both were emaciated when I got them and they died the first couple days. About 3 days after adding the cories I noticed one of my female Endler's was spitting food out instead of eating it. I left her in the tank for a few days until I noticed one of my Celebes and another endler showing the same behavior. The Celebes was isolated and treated (still died) and both Endler's were euthanized. On 10/13, when I noticed additional infections I treated the tank with Metronidazole (3 treatments of 500mg every other day). At the end I performed a large water change and added active carbon to help remove any remaining medication. After a few days additional fish showed symptoms and the 2 Celebes I treated in quarantine showed little signs of improvement (one died during treatment, the other was still not eating, even when presented live food). On 10/23 I treated with Kanamycin (3 treatments of 1440mg every other day). The remaining Celebes seemed to respond well to this treatment. At this point I introduced a few swordtails from another tank and the infection decimated them. All were infected and only one recovered. I continue to euthanize Endler's that spit food, don't show interest in food or look thin after a heavy feeding. My best guess was that this is a flagellate but I fear it might be fish TB (since the Kanamycin seemed to help some fish).
<Fish TB is essentially incurable, so medication won't have any great impact. Wish it did! I'd back off from adding more medications before checking the environment thoroughly. When many fish die, and they all shows signs of stress, then the environment is surely the top possibility to consider. Rapid pH changes (common where CO2 is used inappropriately) cause many/all of the symptoms you describe. Very rapid plant growth without considering their oxygen demand at night is another common factor. What happens is we often minimise water circulation to avoid driving off the CO2, but during the night plants use up more O2 than they produce (they do
the reverse by day) and they can lower the oxygen content of the water substantially. This is especially so if organic decay (dead leaves for example) is present in substantial amounts. So: try minimising CO2 for a few days as outlined above, whilst also boosting O2 as much as you can, e.g., with an airstone at each end of the tank. See if the fish perk up.
Look to see if the fish are skittish, moving their gills rapidly, or staying ostentatiously close to the surface/areas of strong water movement -- all can be signs that the O2/CO2 balance in the tank isn't right.
Malayan Livebearing Snails crawling up the glass by day is another telltale sign -- they're veritable miners' canaries for this! While I'm not ignoring your idea that disease could be to blame, I'd still discount environmental stress before anything else. If you've done antibiotics and anti-Protozoans already to no good effect, then the "usual suspects" -- Velvet, Whitespot, Finrot, etc. -- can be discounted, then what's left -- Fish TB and other Mycobacteriosis-like infections -- are pretty much untreatable. So if that's the situation here, all you can do is allow the disease to run its course until what's left are the fish whose immune systems have defeated
the bacteria. But even here, it has to be stated that Mycobacteriosis is as much environmental as anything else, so it's likely something else is going on as well, even if a bacterium species is to blame.>
Thanks for any help you can provide and for this great resource you have available.
<Good luck, Neale.>
Re: Fish Wasting Away 12/20/14
Hey Crew,
<Samuel,>
I took your suggestions and messed around with my CO2/fertilizer among other things. One good indicator is that my MTS spend all day in the sand/substrate.
<Indeed. See them up the glass with the lights on, and something is amiss.
If they're happy in the sand without showing their little faces, then all is well.>
My Ramshorn also haven't been hanging out around the top of the tank. As a precaution I dialed my CO2 back a little and refilled my drop checker (showing greenish blue before and after). I also had my CO2 off during both medication regimens, which were also sans ferts. Additionally I had my CO2 off for 4 days during thanksgiving when I was out of town. My CO2 shuts off at the same timer my lights do. To improve dissolved oxygen I started running an airstone at night. I neglected to mention I also dose flourish excel at slightly less than the recommended amount.
<So without CO2 did the fish behave differently or better?>
I ceased excel dosing for a week to see if the fish showed any improvements to no effect. I tested and I do have some day/night pH swings but not by much. All I've got is an API kit but the difference looks to be about 0.2 lights off to lights on. The LA tap comes out ~8.2 here and is moderately buffered. I haven't checked the TDS or conductivity but a local planted tank shop told me that he runs all his tanks on tap and dosing moderately shouldn't be a problem. The issue might be related to or exacerbated by organic matter in the tank. I typically do a pretty good job pruning old growth and removing dead plant matter, but there have been times where I get busy and let the tank go a bit. I started pruning old leaves a bit more heavily as a precaution and have been diligent about removing any dead/dying material. I also ceased fertilizing for a while,
but started again when some of my plants started showing pinholes on their leaves. Since restarting I've cut back to 2/3 of what I used to dose.
<Sounds wise.>
I won't rule out any issue with organics in my tank, as I have soil capped with sand and a lot of living biological material, but I decided to check if a sick fish could transmit the condition. I took two obviously sick Endler's and placed then with 3 swordtails my girlfriend was culling (1m/1f older adults and one juvenile). Within a week all 3 were spitting food. The
Endler's were removed and euthanized. Both older fish progressed to the point where they weren't even trying to eat so I euthanized them. The juvenile eventually recovered. I then set up a new tank and tested to see if the recovered juvenile could infect a female Betta and a couple other juveniles. The Betta seemed a bit under the weather and her shape got a little funky but never stopped eating and was added to the original infected tank with the survivor swordtail. Both of the new juveniles were infected and died. My latest suspicion is neon tetra disease, or some microsporidia.
<Perhaps, but both are difficult to diagnose without a microscope. Some fish health vets have stated about half supposed "Neon Tetra Disease" infections are actually Mycobacteriosis. In other words, you can't distinguish Pleistophora from Mycobacteria by eye. Really do need a microscope.>
My girlfriend was initially convinced (or just afraid) it was fish TB but after taking parasitology this quarter she agrees with my initial suspicion of this probably being protozoan.
<A little knowledge can be a dangerous thing! But since you have access to a microscope via your girlfriend, why not take a dead fish into the lab, take smears from the skin, inside the mouth, gill cavity, etc., and see what you can see. Presumably your university library has Ed Noga's "Fish Disease: Diagnosis and Treatment". That's the book you need.>
The fact that some species seem more affected is what really makes me lean that way.
<But isn't conclusive. Trust me. Pleistophora is classically associated with Neons but has been reported from fish as diverse as Goldfish and Angels, while Mycobacteria has been reported from just about every fish
someone's made an effort to examine. Very, very few fish infections can be truly identified to genus level by eye. Whitespot, Velvet, Crypt... maybe Columnaris, possibly Costia... but not much beyond these.>
One symptom I neglected to mention is that in really sick fish the spine starts to bend. I've only noticed this in female Endler's, and perhaps slightly in one Celebes who hung on to life for a long time. The sick female I used to infect the swordtails was severely deformed by the time I killed her. I should have taken a picture, but didn't think to at the time.
Moving forward I fear I'm going to have to euthanize a lot of fish and hope for the best. That or tear the tank down and start over. My endler population is now only juveniles, which gives me little hope for any of them surviving.
<On the contrary, often juveniles survive rather better than the adults if the problem has been exacerbated by long-term stress or dietary shortcomings. Definitely worth leaving them be if they're currently feeding and growing.>
I'm planning on euthanizing all of my Endler's and any currently sick fish prior to me leaving town for a bit during the holidays. I might try adding a couple new Celebes after I get back to see if there is any lingering infection.
<No! If all the fish die, then leave the tank fallow for a few weeks.
That'll break the life cycle of most common parasites. Bacterial infections are latent in most tanks, even Fish TB/Mycobacteriosis, and they only become a problem when the fish are stressed, so while you might run some antibiotics through the tank, there's no real point, and few work on Mycobacteria spp in particular. Keep the filter happy by adding a little fish food now and again (the snails will turn this into ammonia). Then, select fish wisely from the start, adding a few at a time, choosing species suited to your environmental parameters. If you have liquid rock water, avoid tetras and other South American fish, but consider livebearers (particularly the non-fancy varieties with better health, such as Heterandria, Limia, etc.) as well as Ricefish, some of the Rainbows, and the hardier/adaptable cyprinids, such as Cherry Barbs and Danios.>
In a month or so I should know if I've beaten this thing or not.
Thanks again, Samuel
<Cheers, Neale.>

Just a few aquarium questions... <20 some Megs...>; residual NH3, U1 zots, Crypt melt, moving pH 8/7/16
Please re-size and re-send all... Your files are more than an order of magnitude too large.
Re: Just a few aquarium questions... 8/7/16
Yikes...I was wondering why they were taking so long to upload, didn't even notice they were that big.
Resized in PS, hope this is a little better!
<Yes; now just need you to delete the carats (<<<<) in the text below and re-send. BobF>
re: Just a few aquarium questions... 8/7/16
<Oh, found the original text here>
Hello crew! I just started up my old aquarium and I have a fair amount of questions about water quality, some of my old plants, etc.
My tank is a 10 gallon. Started it up a little over 2 months ago, let it cycle through, and added a single Betta after the cycle was finished.
The parameters are
pH: 7.5
nitrates: 0
nitrites: 0
ammonia: .12? (it's not exactly at 0 and not at .25 on the test kit, so I'm
assuming it's right in the middle)
<Toxic; and am wondering wherefore/why the residual ammonia here?>
temp: between 74-78 degrees
My first question is about the ammonia. Both in the past and currently, I cannot keep the ammonia at 0 for the life of me because my tap water has a small amount of it.
<This should cycle through though... And you should eliminate w/ water conditioner use ahead of placing it in the tank>
It's not at a terribly dangerous level but it's enough to be worrying,
<Debilitating.>
I've tried using ammonia-removing products, including prime, on the water I store away for water changes, but the ammonia tests as 0 and then has a huge spike occurs a few days later. Is there any way to get it down and stay down?
<Yes... a few ways. Let's have you review here (as I/we have no way of knowing what you already know):
http://www.wetwebmedia.com/fwsubwebindex/fwammf3.htm
and the linked files above>
My second question is about this strange white and brown stuff growing on my driftwood. I'll attach some pictures, some of them I couldn't get to focus but I hope they're good enough. There are brown chunks of what looks like fish feces or a kind of fungus, mostly on the bottom half of the driftwood. It's kind of tough to remove so I had to scrub it off with a
toothbrush, but it just comes back anyway. Along with that are white specs, mostly on the top of the driftwood.
<This appears to be bits of decomposition... the wood, likely food, feces>
I can't tell you how many pages I've checked trying to find out what these are. The only answers I come back
with are black beard algae/brown string algae and white fungus/Nerite snail eggs, but whatever's on my driftwood doesn't look like any of those. The white specs even look like they're starting to spread to one of my crypts.
My Betta seems to be unaffected by either of them, but I've had a baby Bristlenose in a hospital tank and I wanted to move him in soon. I'm worried that this stuff could make him sick if he eats it. Any ideas what either of them are?
<As stated... you might benefit from more circulation, filtration here>
Third question is about the crypts (also in the pictures) I was growing them in a large bowl for a while and they were doing very well with API leafzone and some natural sunlight. They shot out very nice, healthy green leaves, but when I transferred them to the tank, they started turning a reddish brown and getting ruffles. I read that this happened to a few
other people that changed the way they were fertilizing their tank, though they stated that they were still very healthy. Mine are kind of getting this weird translucent reddish-brown look and a couple of the leaves have completely melted, but the leaves had been bright green and strong before.
<Crypts are susceptible to this sort of decomp. under stressful and varying conditions>
I have an LED light strip but others have been able to keep crypts just fine with them. Is there another reason they're not doing as well?
<Can't tell w/ the data provided. There may well be a nutrient deficiency going on here... N, P, K, Fe....>
My final question (phew) is about the pH. It's always been at 7.5 (or higher, not sure if it even shows up on the test kit..) I want to lower it to around 6.8 or 7,

but just like the ammonia, I've tried two or three pH altering products and they drop the pH rapidly and spike it a few days later.
<... yes... alkaline reserve is buffering it back up. Common >
I was thinking I could try Indian almond leaves or wood, but they would release a lot of tannins and I'm not sure if it would add to the ammonia or not. Have tried adding distilled water as well and there is no affect (but I do have 20 empty gallon jugs laying around) Do you have other suggestions of how to lower it safely?
<Time going by is the very best. Don't fuss w/ pH here, period. 7.5 is fine for what you have livestock wise>
I'm very sorry this is so long, I was debating on whether I should divvy the questions up into different emails but I thought it might be more troublesome to get them each separately. But I thank you very much for your services. I always go to this site first if I'm having any problems and it has been extremely helpful and informative! I greatly appreciate any answers and advice you can offer.
Jenevieve
<Glad to be (hopefully) of assistance. Please DO write back if all is not clear here after reading. Bob Fenner>

Ich, plants & surviving fish 7/16/09
Hey there,
<Hello,>
I have a 65 gallon freshwater planted tank currently with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 20 nitrate as well as my first case of ich. I'm a little heartbroken because it's already claimed 5 loaches (2 chain, 3 yo-yo) and I'd had the 3 yo-yos since I started the hobby 3.5 years ago.
<I see. The thing with Ick medications is that they're more immediately dangerous to certain fish, including loaches, than the Ick itself! This is why for Loaches we recommend the older heat plus salt technique rather than Ick medication. Aquarisol contains copper sulphate, and that's certainly one of the things believed to be more toxic to loaches than we'd like. Next time, raise the temperature to 82 degrees, and add 2 to 3 teaspoons of plain aquarium salt per gallon of water in the tank. I like to mix the salt with some warm water in a jug first, and then dribble the brine into the tank in front of the filter outlet; this helps it mix quickly around the aquarium. Run thus for a week or two, and you should be Ick free. The salt concentration is too low to harm fish or plants, but usually kills the free-living Ick parasite stages very quickly.>
I'd treated tank by increasing water temp to 84 degrees and added Aquarisol. I removed carbon, added an air filter and did 25% water changes every other day for 6 days. The loaches went fast, but one had managed to survive and seemed fine until I lowered the water temp back to 78. Within 24 hours the final loach passed with spots and a thick slime coat covering it. The other inhabitants of the tank: 8 Congo tetras, 1 blue emperor tetra and 2 Siamese Algae Easters have all appeared normal (no spots, no flashing, no change in eating habits) throughout this process. After I lost the 5th loach I've kept the water tamp @ 84. After reviewing the articles here I decided the next course of action is to add salt, a step I'd been reluctant to do with loaches in the tank.
<Ironically, I think it was the copper that killed the Loaches, not the Ick, and salt/heat would have been a better option.>
My questions are should I put the carbon back in the filter to remove the Aquarisol, is the Aquarisol the reason why my jungle Val and java fern have died and should I remove the wood and moss decorations while I'm treating the tank?
<Curious; actually, plants usually tolerate medications quite well, so I'm surprised by this. But it's possible I guess. In any even, both Java Fern and Vallisneria are tolerant of salt, so again, salt/heat would have worked well.>
It seems like no matter how often I siphon the tank the moss holds in a lot of particulates.
<Yep! One reason Java Moss is suited to clean tanks with small fish, rather than tanks with robust or burrowing fish.>
Thanks, Christine
<Cheers, Neale.>

Plants, hlth. 9/21/08
Hello, it's been awhile since I've needed to contact your site. This question is about my twenty gallon planted tank. This is my first planted tank and it has been up for about a month and a half. The livestock consists of two angelfish, three Otos, and ten Columbian tetras.
<These latter, Hyphessobrycon colombianus, may be problematic. They are semi-aggressive, though keeping ten specimens will go a long way to fixing that. They have been reported to be fin nippers, so watch the Angels, and also reported to eat certain soft-leaved plants. Amazon Swords and Vallisneria should be fine, but your Rotala spp. might not be. Do also be aware Otocinclus are extremely difficult (schooling) catfish to maintain in immature tanks, and the vast majority of specimens die within months of import. Have written about this many times on WWM, so please do review this and act accordingly.>
The plants consist of Amazon swords, rootle, crypt, water sprite, and corkscrew val. I was just wondering if it is common for plants to have a kind of initial "die off" before they take root and begin to grow.
<Yes, some plants will "die off" above ground while being settled in. The problem is that when uprooted their fine roots are damaged, and it takes a while for them to put that right. Cryptocoryne spp. are famous for this (it's called Crypt Rot) but most any rooted plant species will do the same thing.
Some of my plants, mostly the rootle and the vales lost some of their lower leaves before starting to seem as if they were growing fine.
<Sounds normal. Vallisneria are prone to losing leaves if their leaves are damaged -- they don't heal breaks, but instead shed broken leaves completely. When planting Vallisneria there's a real art to it: you should never push the "crown" into the substrate, and it's always better to go "shallow" with Vallisneria rather than trying to push it right the way in.>
Like I said its my first planted rank so I'm not completely sure if this is normal.
<I shouldn't worry about the leaves. What I would focus on are the following: substrate type and light intensity. If you're using plain gravel rather than something optimised for plant growth, it's essential to regularly place fertiliser tables in the gravel close to each clump of plants. While aquatic plants get nitrate and phosphate from the water, mineral ions such as iron and copper have to come from the substrate, and plain gravel contains none of that. Secondly, lighting is make-or-break with most plants. While Cryptocoryne and to some extent Vallisneria and certain Amazon Swordplant species can adapt to varying light intensities, Rotala won't, and you're likely to get leggy, weak growth until the plant dies. Rotala needs upwards of 2.5-3 watts per gallon to even begin to show good growth. Cheers, Neale.>
Re: Plants 9/21/08
Thanks very much.
<Not a problem.>
As for the Otos, I was surprised that they made it even the first day but they have become nice and plump, I believe from the Mopani bogwood and cucumber slices and algae wafers I give them.
<Fingers crossed! It's not that Otocinclus can't be kept in aquaria -- they can. It's just most people fail with them, for multiple reasons including lack of food, insufficient numbers, and keeping them too warm (less than 25 C/77 F). This species is also a confirmed "mucous sucker", and (perhaps when hungry?) attacks slow moving fish like cichlids, in the process making the victim prone to secondary infections. Hence, I simply don't recommend them for non-expert hobbyists.>
They are doing great. The Columbian tetras haven't been an issue, as the fins on the angelfish are in fact continuing to grow, while the tetras are content to swim around as a group, ever so happily.
<Cool.>
The crypt are actually the plants that suffered the least amount of damage and are doing nicely.
<Ah, this is often the case with domesticated Cryptocoryne wendtii and Cryptocoryne hybrids. Very robust plants: among my favourites! My specimens seem happy even in tanks with fairly poor lighting. They don't grow fast, but they do at least grow. It's with the more delicate Crypts where "Rot" it is the biggest deal. In any case, it sounds as if all is well. To some degree, aquarium planting made simple goes like this: get a bunch of plants. See which ones do well. Throw out the ones that don't, and keep buying the ones that thrive.>
As far as fertilizer goes instead of tablets, I saw an iron supplement that can be added right into the water. Is this ok?
<Not really. The problem with waterborne fertilisers is that plants accept the "reduced" rather than "oxidised" metal ions (you'll have to remember back to your High School chemistry). When the metal ions are added to the water, they soon get oxidised, and effective become inaccessible to the plants. This is why plants like deep, relatively anoxic substrates; it's much easier for plants to get the minerals they need from anoxic substrates (such as sand/soil mixtures) compared with well oxygenated ones like gravel. Putting fertiliser tabs in the roots gives the plants immediate access to the minerals in a form they can use; adding fertiliser to the water has no such guarantee. It's better than nothing, but only marginally. Do please read around the topic of planting aquaria: done properly, it's easy; don't the wrong way and it's often very frustrating. It doesn't have to be expensive though, and while some people use specific aquarium substrates, you can get 90% of the results at 10% of the cost using pond soil mixed with silica sand, and topped with pea gravel. Cheers, Neale.>

QT procedures for plants 3/17/08 Hi Crew, I bought some java fern and Anubias from a store that keeps "display only" fish in its plant tank. After reading your archives and other online sources, I am going to QT these plants for 4 weeks before putting them in my main tank. Right now they are all in a 10 gallon tank with a grow light. I have one remaining question that I haven't been able to answer from my online research: are there any prophylactic procedures/treatments/medications I should be using for the plants during the QT period? I should add that I'm not concerned about snails in this case (I have some fish who'd be happy to eat them) but I'm very paranoid about parasites like ich, and I was mostly wondering if I should treat the plants with ich meds, or if the 4 weeks will be long enough to let any such parasites die off. Thanks! <Hi Leah. Simply isolating plants for a period of a week at tropical temperatures should ensure that any motile Ick or Velvet parasites will die (because they can't find a host). You can also treat with a standard Ick or Velvet medication: ALL medications kill the motile parasite (and none, as far as I know, kill the parasite on the fish itself). So expose the plant to a full course of Ick or Velvet remedy and you should be fine. For snails and snail eggs, 10 mg/l potassium permanganate for 10 minutes will do the trick. Rinse off thoroughly before putting in the aquarium. Cheers, Neale.> <<RMF is still a giant fan of Alum soaks/baths... old-timey, but work to eliminate most all snails, their eggs, and Protozoans...>>

More Light, More Plant Die-off? 2/3/08 I have been reading your site for several years now, and it has been invaluable to my effort at keeping fishes not just alive, but healthy and thriving. <Very good!> I have searched your site and Google and can't find an answer to my question. I have a 55 gallon with a 30 gallon Wet/Dry filter, and HOB dual bio-wheel ( more for mechanical filtration as it has no wheels. The tank has been running for 8 months. Substrate is 2:1 crushed coral and pea gravel mix. The water perimeters are: Nitrite, Ammonia :0 Nitrate: 15 ppm PH: 8.4 Current stock is: 4 brichardi, 2 calvus, 1 peacock ( Aulonocara sp. ), 1 Chinese algae eater, 3 feeder goldfish. <Quite a curious mix, but if it works for you, great. I have to say I am NOT a fan of Chinese Algae Eaters, Gyrinocheilus aymonieri. (Apart from the fact they eat little algae and don't come from China, a very suitable name!) As they mature these fish become increasing disruptive. The only time I've seen them work well is as target fish in big (150+ gallon) Central American and similar cichlid communities.> I added some plants about 2 months after initial set-up. At the time I was running a 36" regular output light strip with one AquaSun bulb. It couldn't have been more than 54 watts or so. <Here's one problem: not enough light for good plant growth, or even any plant growth at all if the plants aren't shade tolerant.> I don't know the names of the plants aside from the Amazon swords and onion plant. <Both need a lot of light, around 2 watts per gallon, at least.> All but the swords and onion plants died. <No surprise.> For the last 6 months these plants survived, though they certainly did not thrive. <What they were doing was consuming their starch reserves. Plants will live in complete darkness for a while. But eventually they have no more starch reserves, and their attempts at photosynthesis aren't enough to match their consumption of energy, so they effectively starve.> After much research I purchased a Nova Extreme ballast with two 54 watt HO bulbs. <Much better.> 1 week later the plants are browning and withering. <They would have been dying anyway, and the sudden change in light intensity would require some period of adaptation, which they might get through, but there's no guarantee. I'd cut the Crinum back to the tuber; it'll go into a period of shock but should recover. As for the Amazon sword, a bit of a gamble, but if the roots are healthy (i.e., white rather than brown) I'd break off all the browning leaves right at the base with a sharp knife, and then let whatever is left re-grow.> I called the LFS and was told that the new lighting is so much brighter the plants have been " shocked ". <Pretty much. It isn't quite the same as an animal being in shock, but rather than plants fine tune their physiology to the environment, and cannot easily change to radically different conditions.> I was told to decrease the duration of the lighting, which I have cut back from 12 hours to 7 hours. Is this advice correct? <Not what I'd do. I'd stick with 12 hours, cut back the existing plants as indicated, and also install some fast growing plants to deal with algae. Vallisneria and Hygrophila would be ideal. Neither Crinum nor Echinodorus will grow fast enough under 2 WPG to deal with algae. Cheers, Neale.>

Growing water plants... - 05/01/07 hello, I recently bought Betta plants for my little Betta. However when putting in the spuds, <? Spuds?> I let them sink and now a few days later there looks like a white film around the spuds. Is this normal? <Maybe... are these Aponogeton bulbs?> I've looked all over the place yet no one has an answer for the white film slime stuff that's on the spuds. are they bad spuds? will they hurt my Betta? what's going on? I need help! PLEASE!!! Paul <Do take a look on the Net re the above genus... likely whatever these plant parts are, they need to be planted... Perhaps a bit of decomposer populations are taking advantage... Plant them. Bob Fenner>

Taking the pond smell out of pond-raised plants 3/5/07 Greetings! Thanks so much for taking the time to read my question. <Welcome> I am wondering if there is anything I can do mitigate the pond smell in my 15 gallon planted tank. The plants are, in fact, from a local pond, so it's understandable that they would smell this way...I was just under the impression that the smell would dissipate in time. <Mmm, no... as with other sources of odor... this really depends on the nature of the source. In this case the offense is likely due to a complement of algae growing on, with the plants themselves... You need to address the algae itself...> It's already been a couple of weeks since the plants were introduced. I've tried pelletized carbon, increasing biological filtration, vacuuming the substrate, the rocks, and the wood - all to no avail, except that the water quality itself is optimal, with nitrates testing 0 ppm consistently. I am changing a gallon of water daily, I haven't tried performing a large water change in one sitting yet...perhaps that is all that is called for? <Might help...> I was also wondering your thoughts on using Purigen. Might it be more effective than carbon? <Might be as well... in limiting nutrient... in effect "starving" the algae...> I know it is considered more of a polisher, so I was hesitant to use it in this case. Honestly, I wouldn't even mind the smell much, except that the 3 Glowlight tetras (that I've relocated from another tank, to keep things interesting) can't seem to find their food, and have gone without eating for a few days now. Their behavior seems lively and nitrogenous waste doesn't appear to be an issue, so I have been attributing it to the "richness" of the water overwhelming their sense of smell and consequently, their awareness of the food. Does that sound plausible? <The algae are likely involved here as well... toxifying the water...> Incidentally, these are the only livestock in the tank for now. For the record, the plants I have in there are: water lettuce, <Pistia? Not a tropical species> hornwort, two kinds of floating plants I cannot positively ID (but I strongly suspect they are Duckweed and Salvinia auriculata) <These two... were grown in cold water?> and an Echinodorus tenellus which started as one, and became numerous pygmy chain swords. <Ah, very nice> I have used Hagen's Nutrafin Plant Gro fertilizer once, and was going to dose again now that it's been 2 weeks, but have held off on fertilizing just in case it is related to the issue. <You are wise here> For filtration, I have a Whisper in-tank filter with its foam, and a mesh bag of cultured Ehfisubstrat. <Great> I opted not to use the carbon it came with, since I didn't notice any difference, and worried that it would only serve to negate the fertilizer. <This might well be so> Please say so if I am missing something obvious and/or essential! A test I need to perform - phosphate, perhaps? The plants seem happy and the fish do too, they must be nibbling at something in there. Maybe it's nothing to worry about after all. Thank you again for any observations or advice, Nicole <Mmm... if it were me, mine, I'd continue with the routine you detail... AND add something in the way of purposeful algae eaters... Not Gyrinocheilus/Chinese Algae Eater... but something that will nibble away at the pest algae... This, coupled with the chemical filtration, time going by... should ultimately favor the vascular plants... BobF>
Re: Taking the pond smell out of pond plants 3/5/07 Hi there, Bob, <Nicole> Yes, these plants were all taken from the same source - the Silver River here in Central FL, one of the tributaries of the Ocklawaha River. Your reply made me stop and think...you are right, the hornwort was indeed covered in filamentous algae. I figured manual extraction would suffice in removing the algae, but now I can see that I should have left out this specimen in the planting scheme, or at least picked from a different source. I will be smarter next time. I can only sincerely hope that the Ocklawaha River Restoration Project is completed in my lifetime, and the ecological balance restored to this troubled area. <A worthy wish> I am sorry to say I haven't done much reading about these plants, except what I could gather from Peter Hiscock's Encyclopedia which states the temperature requirements are as follows: water lettuce (72-77Â°F) Salvinia (68-75Â°F) duckweed (50-86Â°F) hornwort (64-82Â°F). The tank is kept at 76 degrees. Is it unusual for these four plants to be co-existing in the wild? <Mmm... the "new" wild... no...> Hmm...I can see that some reading is in order for me! <For all of us> On a side note, I know that many of these plants are invasive and am absolutely taking precautions to ensure that no part of them ends up in a waterway! <Thank you for this... and the reminder> The water I change out feeds the container garden on the porch, and any pruning or pinching off of plants that I do, the piece of plant gets wrapped in a shopping bag and thrown in the household trash. <Good practice> Thank you for clarifying the situation for me, it didn't occur to me that "algae is everywhere" even when it is out of sight. <Ah yes... thallophytic spores make their way via the air over the entire planet> I will take the necessary steps to remedy the situation. I was hoping to add a small school of harlequin Rasboras when the tank achieves a balance, we'll see how long until then. We appreciate all that you do! (The royal we for sure, but also, undoubtedly, everyone who may read this.) Nicole <Thank you my/our friend. Bob Fenner>

Unlucky Loricariids, and Why To Quarantine Plants - 02/20/2007 Hi Crew, <Hi, Carmel! Sabrina with you today.> I have an unusual situation which I have been dealing with since December. Several tanks all containing assorted catfish. Just prior to onset of illness (about 3-4 weeks prior) I added a new Longfin B/N and an Amazon sword plant to one tank. <Quarantine, even of plants, is essential.... I have always recommended quarantining or dipping plants, and the one time that I chose not to, I introduced ich into a well-established tank.... Sigh! These things do happen. I hope at least the new fish was quarantined, yes?> In a nutshell, peppermint b/n were the first to develop lesions on head and back areas, resulting in death. 4 weeks later the common b/n's displayed the same lesions. Have worked closely with LFS & vets, during the last 2 months and in desperation sent specimens and water to our Dept of Agriculture (who also work for our Fisheries Dept). They have identified a protozoan, similar to Chilodonella, but which they cannot positively identify. <Often protozoan parasites are present even on quite healthy fish; this is usually not a big deal. It's when the Protozoans opportunistically "take over" (fish is sick, weak....) and multiply to virulent quantities that you've got a problem that can then easily spread to your other healthy fish. Sounds like this is what happened.> This report came to me today and I am about to commence treatment of formalin/malachite green in one tank & Octozin (Waterlife) in another. This still leaves me with more tanks & I was wondering if you may have any ideas on a treatment (result of cross-contamination) as we are all as unsure of the treatment as we are of the outcome. I think I will treat at the full dose, but gradually add the meds over a few hours. <Formalin and Malachite Green are toxic, especially to these scaleless animals.... There is a strong likelihood that even your healthiest Loricariids will not survive a treatment at "full dose". I would re-thing this. The Octozin, provided that it is Metronidazole as I suspect, is fine to use at the full recommended dose. Try to find out if it is in fact Metronidazole. Another option might be a salt treatment, though Loricariids don't "like" salt, it would be much less dangerous than a full dose of the Formalin/Malachite Green cocktail. The method I would try, if I did this option, is detailed here: http://www.aquariumadvice.com/article_view.php?faq=2&fldAuto=32 .> It would seem these fish are doomed otherwise anyway. Also, any ideas on a positive ID of the invader would be gratefully received. <If you have any means of providing us with a microscope photograph of the protozoan, I would gladly try to identify; I have a fish pathologist friend that would probably be glad to take a look and tell us what he thinks.> Regards, -Carmel <Best of luck to you and your Plecs, -Sabrina>

Planted tank or is it? Collapse of plant life... nutrient limitation? Chemical (alkaline earth) imbalance? 02/17/07 Hi Bob and crew Hope you can help me with the problem I have with my planted tank. I recently moved and as soon as I set up the tank in a new place all the problems started. In the old place I had 125 gallon (4'x2'x2') planted tank with 440W of fluorescent light (3.5W per gallon 6500K ). PH at 6.7 via pressured CO2 injection and SMS 122 controller. <Nice> Well water was good so I added it straight into the tank at a rate of 5% a day ( I hooked up tap water line for fresh water and overflow box for the drain). I kept some angels, clown loaches, tetras... The tank was nicely balanced since I never did water changes manually and tank stayed nice and clean and almost (98%) free of algae. Tap water and fish waste supplied the plants with enough nutrients, I just added iron twice a week. This set up worked flawlessly for 5 years. I moved about 6 month ago. I am on a well water here as well so I duplicated exactly the same set up as I had in the old place but right away I noticed that the plants stopped growing. <Mmm> Originally I thought it was just a moving shock (note that I never pulled the plants out of the substrate during the move) but later I dismissed that theory because in the matter of weeks Black Beard algae and hair algae took over the whole tank so I knew something else was wrong. I tested my well water and found it to be very high in iron, more than 1.0 mg/l. <Yikes> It made since for BBA to thrive in these conditions but why hair algae? <Opportunistic...> I had to treat the tap water for household use anyway so I just picked up some magnesium based water softener which changed ph from original 7.6 to 6.2. I also didn't get any iron readings anymore so I had to use iron additives. That barely changed anything. I replaced light bulbs for new ones, tried different fertilizers but nothing seemed to work. After about 5 month I decided to setup a completely new planted tank as too many uncertainties surrounded my old setup. So I got new 125 gallon (6'x18"x2'), 384W of light (12000K), 100% Fluorite substrate, <Good stuff... is what I use> pressurized CO2 injection, ph 6.8, KH 4, ammonia, nitrate, nitrite all at zero, Seachem Iron & Flourish Seachem. <No soil?> I used the plants from the old 125 gallon but they had so much BBA on them so I decided to give them 1:20 bleach bath. Web site where I got this information suggested 3-4 min. dip but since I am not familiar with this technique I just decided to do 1 min dip. That worked ok, BBA turned white and plants stayed green as nothing happened at all so I moved the into the new tank. After a few days some kind of slime/hair algae started appearing and the plants did not show any sings of photosynthesis and on top of that some of the plants, especially sword and crypts, started becoming transparent or more like melting. A few days ago I replaced 12000K bulbs to 65000K ones with no effect. On top of all these problems now I have to figure out what's making the plants to melt. Is it the bleach dip? <Mmm, not likely, though this could be a minor sub-factor> Is it the lights? Maybe both? <Doubtful> But that does not answer the problem with my old 125 tank where I have new lights and no bleach treated plants. I pulled out Amazon Sword from the old tank and the roots are 3 times longer than the plant itself. That tells me that most likely there is no substrate problem. Than what is it? <This is my best guess as well... "something" missing or had "run out"... I would suggest (a big job) taking the tank down, re-setting it up using a soil additive blended into the lower half of your Fluorite...> Maybe it is magnesium based water softener that I use to treat the tap water? <Might be... there is a possibility that this might have caused an imbalance with calcium... even in freshwater (as compared with marine systems) there needs to be a "natural" ration of calcium here... these alkaline earth elements in a good one to two or three relationship (Ca:Mg)> Maybe it combines with some of the trace elements needed for photosynthesis making it unavailable for plants? <In some ways, yes, may be> I have a feeling that the solution for this problem is a simple one but I have a hard time figuring it out. Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks a lot Vol 
Re: Planted tank or is it? 2/20/07 Hi Bob & I am back First of all want to say that this is the best aqua site out there I found out about the site not so long ago even though I have been in the hobby for many years Your suggestion about Mg/Ca misbalance turned out to be the correct one. <Ahhh!> I had a feeling there was something wrong with the water and you figured that right away. <An easy guess, admittedly> I did 50% water change straight from the tap and the plants started their thing right away (noticed oxygen baubles within minutes) even though with outrageously high iron levels. <Mmm, might want to filter this out... a bit. Is free ferrous ion more than 1-2 ppm.?> There is a long way to go before the tanks get back to its original stage "the happy one" but I am sure that I am on the right path. Interesting that I didn't get that result when I had the tank filled up 100% with tap water, but again maybe there was just too much iron. Maybe Mg water softener & excess iron created that balance needed for photosynthesis. <Mmmmm> Is there such thing as too much iron in the planted tank. <Yes... is a possibility...> Does excess iron make plants stop photosynthesis? <Can, yes> Is there an effective way to chelate the iron that I already have in the tank? <Yes... for the Net, posting... I would/do encourage you to try just storing the new water for a few days, a week... likely more than half will insolubilize/precipitate... Otherwise, simple activated carbon or Polyfilter use will rid most of it/this... there are other means, but would rather not post or "plug" them> I have read that peat moss might do the job but I don't know how effective it is, if at all. Thanks a lot <Peat is a variable product, though very useful at times, places... worth trying here if you have other issues... perhaps would like to try to lower pH, soften your water a mite... Bob Fenner>

Planted Tank Poisoned - 10/22/06 Hello Crew, <<Good morning. Tom here.>> I had a 10 gallon very plainly planted tank that was doing well for quite some time. It contained a Bolivian ram and 8 neon tetras. Then, the plants started to brown and the stems became thinner and thinner, so I went out and I got some new plants. So, I took my fish out and put them in a bucket with a heater and air stone because I had to take everything apart and I re-planted everything. I kept about 3 plants from my old setup and the rest went to the garbage. My question is, can you over-fertilize a tank? <<The simple answer would be, 'Yes.' Let's continue, though, because I don't think this was the problem.>> I put fertilizer tablets in that were made mostly for pond and outside use because my mom said those would be fine so I used them. I put about a 1/2 a cube per bunch and then a few bits and pieces for other lonely stems in my tank. I probably put about 5-5.5 tablets in total, before I read the instructions. I came back to show my parents what I had done with my once beautiful and fulfilling tank, and every single one of my Neons was upside-down on the bottom of the tank dead! <<Extremely sorry to hear this!>> One snail was upside-down and was barely moving at all, not trying to get right side up or anything, and my ram was all black and lying in a ditch in the gravel, breathing heavily. I then read the directions on the fertilizer package because my mom suggested that I poisoned my fish by over-fertilizing my tank! The directions say that you should use 1 tablet for every gallon of potting soil. I don't use any soil but I use gravel and I used almost 6 tablets of fertilizer. Could this have killed my fish??? <<I don't believe so in the sense that too much fertilizer poisoned them. Actually, what you've provided on your Ram is more telling. What you've described in the Ram is consistent with ammonia poisoning. You don't say how long your fish were left in the bucket during the tank 'renovation' but with only a heater and air stone, it's possible that there was a severe ammonia spike during this time. Is it possible that the bucket you used may have contained remnants of cleaning products such as ammonia? Might also account for what happened. By way of explanation, over-fertilizing almost always results in algae blooms/growth. Too many nutrients for the plants alone to utilize and the algae takes off running. If all else had been fine, I'd suggest that you'd have observed something on this order before such a catastrophic die-off of your pets.>> I am in the process of saving my ram and getting him acclimated to one of my other tanks. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!!! <<I wish you the best of luck with your Ram. As you've, no doubt, concluded, it's best to stick with products that are specifically designed for aquatic plants where planted tanks are involved. Terrestrial plants derive nutrients from fertilizers in a different fashion than do aquatic plants and the formulations can vary.>> Thanks for your wonderful site! <<And, thank you for the kind words. Good luck in the future. Tom>>

Platy and Plant problems 9/17/06 Hello WetWebMedia crew! <John> After several months of a well-established tank, I have developed quite a frustrating and persistent problem. It began with a stubborn case of fin rot on a guppy that would not resolve. Consequently I treated with erythromycin for 5 days and this cleared up the problem with his tail and he is now on the mend! Nitrites have fallen back to zero from peaking at about 0.3 ppm and the tank is doing fine in terms of water quality. Parameters are: Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrites: 0 ppm Nitrates: 12 ppm pH: 7.5 Temp: 25C The tank is approximately 24 gallons and 40 cm deep with 18W fluorescent lighting (single tube) from Sylvania that claims to have 10,000K spectrum and the company says is ideal for growing plants. As the medication damaged some of my plants, I have removed the dying ones and replaced with some new ones (soaked for 10-15 min.s in potassium permanganate to remove unwanted visitors) - similar to Amazon swords, but I only have the Italian name and not the scientific name. <Both likely Echinodorus species> The problem with the plants is that they are turning yellow and developing some brown holes on the established leaves (veins seem green) even after I purchased them a healthy green colour from the LFS. I have fertilized with solid pellets and have also used a pellet that encourages rooting. There is also some liquid fertilizer in the tank that I add approximately every three weeks as indicated on the product. Still, I am not sure what would be causing this. <Mmm... could likely be just the KMnO3 treatment... permanganate is a powerful oxidizer... dangerous. But could also easily be a bit of "moving shock" syndrome... All that can be done is be patient at this point> The second problem is with a female sailfin platy. I noticed her with some laboured and rapid breathing. She does not swim as much and seems lethargic. On closer inspection I could see fine white filaments (diameter is sub-millimetre, very fine) extruding from her mouth and also extruding from her gills. Looks like very fine silk thread. Currently I can see about 4 or 5 of these maybe 3-4 mm long. Could this be gill worms? <Mmm, not likely, no> I had thought mouth fungus, but it does not look "cottony". If worms, then I am not sure where they came from as the plants I added are not from a tank containing fish and I even did the potassium permanganate soak, so it seems improbable that this would be the source. There have been no new additions and it is even possible that I was seeing these prior to the addition of the plants. Clearly it is a gill problem, but I cannot seem to identify it. Would this possibly result from the erythromycin treatment?? <Likely this is some bit of mucus from the trials of being present in a non-cycled system... and will clear on its own> I hope you can offer some advice as I am not sure what is going on with my tank! Best regards. <Well... better by far never to actually treat (most fish medicines are generally bio-cidal in action) in ones main/display tank (but do elsewhere)... And a need to understand that aquatic time-frames are different (much more delayed) than our terrestrial impressions... Some/many things "take time"... Best to learn/practice patience here. Bob Fenner>

Aquatic caterpillar 12/14/05 Hello I recently bought some aquatic plants and have found what looks like a white woolly bear caterpillar. Any help would be appreciated thank you CJ <Good observation... likely a crustacean, but could be an aquatic insect... even an intermediate stage (metamorphosis) of a terrestrial insect with an aquatic juvenile phase. Do keep your eye on this/these... if it gets large, it may become predaceous... and should be removed. Bob Fenner>

Planty Problems - Imbalance of Nutrients - 08/23/2005 Hello. <Hi.> This is a loaded question. <Uh-oh.> Hope the answer is here. <Might be a loaded answer.... <grin>> You've been reliable in the past. I have a 108 gallon tank up and running for the past 2 months. I put in several species of plants from the start and the tank is broken in nicely. pH from my tap is about 6.8 but the water in the tank was about 7.6 which is now about 7.2 and I am trying to get it down below 7. I attributed the increase in pH to the new gravel (geo systems brown river) and thought it would decrease and stabilize over time. I removed all questionable rock and added Fluvals peat chips to an AquaClear 300. That's all that's in the filter. <This should help immensely.> I also have two 500 AquaClears with the ceramic rings and sponges. I removed the carbon as I am using plant Gro. I also have just added a huge piece of driftwood. <Also will help.> I have used blackwater extract but am almost out of it and don't plan on buying anymore (no need I feel.) <Agreed; the wood and peat will do this for you.> Here's the problem- My Amazon swords and Anubias nana are gathering a dark green fuzzy algae around the rims of their leaves. I have 3 Chinese algae eaters and just added 10 Otos and 6 flying fox to keep algae in check. However nothing is touching this particular algae. <If possible, you might try "algae-eating" shrimp, Caridina japonica. Very efficient munchers of algae.> I do 1/3 water changes every week or so and as I say the water is crystal. The lights on the tank are two 36" flora Glos and two 36" SunGlo that go the length of the tank. The spectrum is ideal to look at but are the lights the right spectrum? The plants are growing nicely. I feel the tank is planted heavily enough, but wouldn't consider it "heavily planted". Don't really want to add more plants because of the algae. <More plants will help outcompete the algae....> As I say the pH seems to be dropping - am I on the right track regards to pH? <Yes.> Does a high pH contribute to this particular algae growth? <Unlikely.> Should I discontinue the plant Gro and put the carbon back in? Will CO2 help? <Quite possibly.> Do I need more light? - the fixtures are the Hagen 72" that takes two 36" tubes. <Yes, very, very likely. Those "normal output" bulbs don't do much for light output. Unless you stick with strictly low light plants (I don't think the swords will last long in this!), do NOT add CO2, and cut off all ferts for now, you're going to continue with algae problems - and difficulties with your plants. Please look for Peter Hiscock's book "Encyclopedia of Aquarium Plants", and also the book by Diana Walstad on low-light, low-tech planted aquaria.... the name of her book escapes me at the moment.> So I have two fixtures on the tank. Don't really want the expense of changing that over. As you can see I have many questions regarding this. Temperature in the tank is 78-82 degrees depending on humidity. What should I do? <Just as above.> Is there a fish that would eat this? <Those that you have may, but you really need to get to the root of this.... there is probably too much fertilizer in the tank, vs. not enough light or CO2, so the plants can't use enough of the fertilizer to inhibit algal growth.> Please tell me the problem can be solved? <Likely! But it might be a bumpy road! You'll get there, no worries.> Thanks again for any and all help!!! Regards, Craig P. <Wishing you well, -Sabrina>

Something's eating my plants 7/21/05 I have a 70 gallon planted tank with what seem to be chew holes and scrapes on my broadleaf Hygros, Anubias nana, misc. crypts, Amazon swords, and even the java fern. <Mmm, some tough, and not tasty plants...> My dwarf lily is left alone as well as the Sagittaria and Vallisneria. <Good clues, information> This is what I have in my tank: cardinal tetras, Rummynose tetras, turquoise rainbowfish, ocats, SAE's, Botia striatas, a zebra Danio, a roseline shark and a Chaetostoma. My system is pressurized co2, 3.7 watts per gallon, around 78 degrees, pH typically 7.0, KH 7, ammonia- 0, nitrites- 0, nitrates between 5 and 10 ppm. Weekly water changes of 50%, four drops Dupla plant 24 started this week (previously Flourish once a week). <This will greatly help in time> Trying to correct this, I started feeding more veggie matter a few weeks ago (spinach, cucumber on a clip, veggie flakes) but everything continues to look terrible, with new holes daily. I'm about to lose plants over this. The tank has been up about 9 months but it is my first tank. I've searched extensively on the internet and this site. What is eating my plants (none of my livestock is supposed to) and what else can I do? Love the site! Thanks, Stephanie I forgot to mention in the email I sent a few minutes ago that I give one algae pellet (Omega One product) per day after light's out and there are two pieces of driftwood in my tank. Thanks. Stephanie <Sounds like a very nice system. Bob Fenner>

Brown/orange coating on leaves, literacy Hi guys. <Lewis> I've just set up a new 100 litre freshwater tropical aquarium there are currently two fish in the tank and it has been running for two weeks. just recently i have noticed a brown/orange coating on the leaves of my plants, and there have been several pesky little snails annoying me, is the discolouration caused by the snails or is it something else (maybe the filter, biological filter in tank hood)? thanks Lewis <Mmm, hard to tell w/o more information, perhaps a microscopic examination... perhaps just an algal growth, maybe evidence of some sort of deterioration of your plants themselves... from lack of nutrient, lighting...? Bob Fenner>

Plant help Help ! I have a white mold like substance growing on the bottom of the tank and around the sucker holding the heater (its slimy and slippery to touch), some fibers also white are growing on the plants and killing them, it's not doing anything to the fish but the plant are doing very badly, including some small Java Ferns. how do I control this and/or eliminate it Thanks, Mark <Please read here re plant/ed tank algae control: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/algcontags.htm and the linked Related FAQs above. Bob Fenner>

Amazon Sword plants with Black Fungus Hi, folks. <Hello Dave> My first real question. I went through the plant disease FAQs but did not see anything that looked like it is related to my question, so, here goes. <Okay... I do wish we had spiffy pics here... as there are in good home gardening books... someday> I have what has been so far a successful 46 gallon freshwater aquarium that I started around September or so of last year (I'm prepping for a 90 gallon marine tank and decided to set up the freshwater tank first to get back into the swing of things)). Anyway, I introduced an Apple and a Ramshorn snail last year, only to have them devour my three Amazon Sword plants (live and learn). <Tasty> So, I deleted the snails and re-planted. Since then, I have been dealing with disposing of hundreds of small snails by feeding them to the fish as I snare them. I recently added a pair of clown loaches to help. <Ah, good> The small snails seem to be less prevalent than they were, and I think I have them under control. Although there are small snails still present, the replacement Amazon Swords were doing great until about a month or two ago, when I noticed that (again) the Amazon leaves were getting thin and lacy. <Mmm, a nutrient deficiency... likely nitrogen based> But, in addition, there has developed a solid-black fungus-looking coating on the edges of the leaves, as well as a more diffuse covering of the same stuff on the leaves and stems. It looks like very short algae, but it is jet black, and is destroying the plants. <Ah, yes... a blue green... sometimes called "beard algae"... trouble> I have never seen this before. I had lots of green algae, but a pair of Chinese Algae Eaters and some freshwater shrimp were doing a great job of controlling that. It does not look like any of the algae-eating critters that I now have are touching the black stuff, <Nope> and I am pretty sure that it is not algae. So, first, do you have any idea of what this black stuff might be? <Yes...> I have heard that a 19:1 solution of 5% sodium hypochlorite (e.g., household bleach) and water can be used as a dip to remove unwanted "stuff" from plants, but I don't know if that is the right thing to try here or not, and in any case I don't know how long to dip the plants in this sort of solution. Any help in identifying and eradicating this stuff would be much appreciated. <Can be attempted... but I would try a few other means of control first... Do go, read at "the Krib" (.com) re beard algae... and on our site: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/algcontags.htm and the Related FAQs: http://www.wetwebmedia.com/PlantedTksSubWebIndex/algcontagfaqs.htm and consider means to limit nutrient... from the get-go with cleaner water, and through better filtration...> Thanks (again!) for the excellent website and for your generous contribution of time to the questions that come your way. Cheers, Dave Danile <Read on my brother. Bob Fenner>

Plant decay Hi everyone, Are brown roots dead and therefore should be cut off? < Brown roots are indeed dead and should be discarded.> What if the whole root base is like that? < Then none of the existing roots are good.> Is the plant dead so just throw away? What does it mean when the leaves get slimy sort of then when touched disintegrate in the water? < The plant is no longer alive and is breaking down.> All new setup, 55g with GE 40W Daylight Ultra, Seachem flourish < Is this Fluorite?> fertilizer topped w gravel, Natural Plant System Co2, pond plant fertilizer tabs, no carbon media sponge filter. Plants are/were as follows: Moneywort Bacopa monnieri <A stem plant that requires good light and benefits from CO2> Nana Anubias < You mean Anubias Nana? This is a slow growing plant that does well in hard water under low light conditions. Roots should be ties to driftwood and rocks and will rot if buried in the sand.> Green foxtail < This plant prefers cooler water and I use as a floating plant under the bright light that it needs.> Wisteria Hygrophila Java fern < A slow growing plant that does well in hard water and low light levels. Tie this one on to rocks and driftwood too. > Amazon sword < A plant tank staple. Slow to medium growth depending on the conditions. Bid plants are always showy.> Ludwigia natans < Same as Bacopa> Sagittaria < Does well in all kinds of water but prefers bright light. > Several So what do you think is the cause? <Hopefully you have at least 2 inches of Seachem Fluorite as a substrate. If you have hard water the co2 is binding with the calcium in the water and turning into calcium carbonate with no co2 free for the plants. Is your water soft? Hard water sometimes interferes with the plants ability to uptake nutrients. How long do you leave your lights on for? One 40w bulb in a deep 55 gallon tank is barely going to cut it. They should be on at least 12 hours a day.> I took them out and they are just sitting in a container w water right now. < I would let them float in the aquarium right now under the light. See after a few days which ones are developing new roots. The Anubias and fern should be tied to something in the corner away from the light. Plant the ones that look like they are growing and toss the ones that look like they are dying.> Since roots are brown so I should just get rid of them? < If the plant is soft and mushy then it is time to get rid of them before they clog your filter.> Maybe I should just quit trying to grow plants. Please help me get to the bottom of this. What is happening? Why does everything smell funky and dying? < Try some of the easier plants like Cryptocoryne. They require low light levels and do well in Fluorite. Stay away from the stem plants unless you soften the water and add additional light.-Chuck> Please help. Wonderful website and you that reply to these questions are wonderful people. Thanks for your reply.

White mold on plant Hello, I'm a novice aquarium enthusiast and have maintained a fresh water aquarium for about 2 1/2 to 3 years. I have had live plants in my tank and never had any problem with them. <3 years with a planted tank with no problems... Sounds to me you should upgrade you "novice" title.> Recently (about 7 weeks ago), I went from a 10-gallon tank to a 35-gallon tank. (Fresh water.) Since the change, one of my older, more reliable plants has what looks like an enormous amount of white mold around it. There was some of this on the other newer plants (after about 3 weeks), but siphoning seemed to take care of the mold on the newer plants. <This is actually a Fungus that is regularly seen in freshwater aquariums.> My problem is, my old plant keeps getting the mold, no matter how much siphoning I do. And now, what's worse, it seems to be spreading out. It is white and flat, sort of like cotton. <That description really sums up what Fungus looks like, If it was a large fuzzy look it would be a true fungus. The fungus you have I tend to find is easier to treat then the true fungus. I have never had a bad case in any of my planted tanks, the only problems I had were resolved by me adding some more current to the water and increasing the aeration (with an airstone and air pump) This seemed to cut down on the fungus problem. For your case it sounds like it might be a bit sever and medication should be considered. I would look at products by Jungle, like their "Fungus Eliminator". Read the package and make sure that this product won't harm any of the plants you have in your tank. I was also told that Aquatronics makes a product that helps with Fungus in the tanks. It's name is "Fungus Plus", and I haven't personally used it, but was told by multiple people that it works. I would do a bit more research online and see what you can find before jumping into it.> I've had food that rotted on the plants before, and that mold seems to have a "fuzzy" texture like the question asked in your Q & A section, but this is NOT the same. <Make sure you don't have extra food in the water, the extra nutrients can help feed growths like that. And be sure to keep up with the water changes to ensure the plants and fish stay healthy. I suggest you look for a rather nice book that was suggested to me for my planted tank. It's called "Ecology of the Planted Aquarium: A Practical Manual and Scientific Treatise for the Home Aquarist" by Diana L. Walstad. I'm sure you can find it at a local book store or library. If not then there are some rather impressive online forums specifically dealing with Planted aquariums, such as www.AquaPlant.com. Do a search online and I'm sure you will find a forum that you will enjoy. Many of the online forums can also give you suggestions for books to look up.> Do you know what this is and whether or not I can correct this, or do I have to trash the plant? And more importantly, is this mold harmful to my fish (guppies; tetras; white clouds & an algae eater) ???? <Fish can become infected with Fungus, and other problems like Columnaris, which is the white slime on their body. If the conditions are right for this fungus to grow on plants than it can be able to effect the fish. If you add the medicines to the water it should help remove the problem.> Thank you so much, Max Lenc <Good luck. -Magnus>

Fresh Water Plants Hi guys, Is there any other solutions to be used instead of using aluminium sulfate to eradicate the undesirable hitchers on the plants. How about dipping into Methylene blue solution for a few minutes? Thanks. <A few other chemicals have been advanced for the job... not Methylene Blue. Alum (aluminum sulfate) is the best, safest yet (as far as I know of course). Bob Fenner>

Medicating a Large Plant Tank Hi, <Howdy> I have a 100 G community setup that is moderately planted and becomes more so every day. It is also fairly well stocked with various small tetras (Amber, Cardinal, Rummynose, Costello, Green Fire, Dwarf Pencils etc), Corys (sterbai, panda, habrosus), a pair of whiptail cats, a large Farlowella, a gold nugget Pleco, and a few freshwater shrimp. It is currently filtered by a Eheim 2217, a Magnum 350, and two Penguin 550 powerheads with sponge filters. <Sounds Nice, I love the Corydoras sterbai, great choice> I also do 10-20% water changes every 7-10 days. My problem is a few of the fish have a what appears to be a case of mild ich. It affects mainly the Rummynose and the rainbow and emperor tetra pair. <Rummy Nose Tetras are a great indicator of developing problems. Sounds like you have a good water change regime, keep an eye on the test kits, make sure nothing is out of whack.> A few of the cardinals have it and if you look you can spot a dot here and there on a few other sp. The fish seem unaffected and are quite active, feeding, and no one has died. I have tried QuickCure with minimal results. I've used copper before with good results but never in a planted tank. Realizing that the shrimp will unfortunately die, I am also worried about the plants as I know some are copper sensitive, such as some sword plants. Below is a list of what I currently have in this tank. Can you tell me which ones are or are not copper sensitive? Thanks <I am really not sure which species are less sensitive to copper, I would not recommend using copper in the main tank at all. Keep an eye on the fish with the spots, if they start to get worse start thinking about a small quarantine tank and brushing up on your fish catching skills. Meds in the main tank can destroy your biological filtration, kill your plants and shrimp, it will cost a lot more to medicate 100 gallons as apposed to 10-20gallons. You can use our Google search to search for more specific information on the plants below, AquaBotanic is also a nice plant site. Best Regards, Gage> Anubias gigantea Aponogeton rigidifolius Barclaya longifolia Bolbitis heteroclita Crinum thaianum Cryptocoryne usteriana Egeria najas Hydrocotyle leucocephala Limnophila aquatica Marsilea crenata Nuphar japonicum Nymphaea maculata Nymphaea stellata Vallisneria gigantea Vallisneria spiralis

Re: please help i think i have mites !!!!!!!!!!!?????????? hello I just wondered if you would know I got a 10 gall. freshwater tank w/ live plants I just noticed tiny red bug i think they are spider mites but not sure they stay on top where the water where some of the plants come out .I also had some house plants around the tank so they might have came off them or the new plants i put in my tank i cant get rid of them so please if you know anything or anyway to get them outta there please let me know w/b Dawn & Louie <Possibly are mites or even aphids. Try "wicking them out" by dipping clean, non-printed (white) non-odorized paper towels over the surface. Dunk the emersed plants... and the "bugs" ought to stick to the wetted toweling. If this doesn't work we can talk about other ways to remove them. Bob Fenner>

Oh no! Odonata! Hi Bob sorry the pics didn't come through, they are regular .jpg files. <See them now.> Anyways will try again using this email. You may not be able to reply since we just made some changes to our email server last night. If possible reply to the other address if this one does not work. One of the pics is of my gravel, I want your opinion on it for plant growing, I am thinking of mixing some peat and sand for a 1" layer then a 2" layer above it using this existing gravel (UG plate under it atm). 2 Maxi Jet 1000 power heads in the tank along with a magnum 350. I am looking forward to ditching the UG plates and power heads and adding an Eheim canister to go with the magnum. <A good idea. At least what I would do. What you have is an Odonatan larva... a dragonfly early life stage... a ravenous feeder on fishes, tadpoles, other organisms... I would trap, otherwise catch it out and remove it. Bob Fenner>

Tiny Creatures on Glass Hello Bob, <Scott F. at your service!> I have kept fish tanks for along time (20+ years) and am still amazed at how amazing they are to watch. <agreed!> I just started a first time project. I wanted to setup a live plant tank. I did a lot of research on the subject and have this setup. A 90 gallon tank with 4" of Fluorite for substrate. Compact Fluorescent lights(4-96W bulbs 2-5500k and 2 6500k) CO2 injection w/controller to keep pH at 6.8 for the discus I want to keep. A Fluval canister filter for filtration. <Sounds nice!> The tank is medium to heavily planted for about 2 weeks now. I did have some snails that were introduced with the plants. I will be purchasing a couple of clown loaches in a week or two to help with that problem. No fish yet. My question is this I came home this evening and did my usual of looking over the tank checking some test readings....Amonia-0...Nitrite-0....PH 6.78...1pp/L iron....Gh-3....KH-5. <water parameters sound okay> I was looking in the tank when I noticed what looked like these whitish spots on the front glass of the tank. Upon getting out a magnifying glass I noticed that they are moving on the glass. I also saw a larger about 1/8 inch long creature on the glass, kinda reminded me of a parasite I saw but that required a microscope. What are these? Do they present a problem? Will they hurt the plants or eventual fish I will be getting and if so how do I eradicate them? <Hard to say from here. Many possibilities. They could be anything from baby snails to Planaria, or even hydra. Planaria could present problems for your fish should they spawn, as they can devour fish eggs. Hydra can ingest fry. These pests can usually be eradicated through natural measures, such as predators, like loaches, etc. New plants should be disinfected before planting and thoroughly inspected for snails. Do some research on wetwebmedia.com for more information on what these creatures might be and how to control them. Good luck!> Sorry for being so long winded but any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Philip
Tiny creatures Hello Bob, <Hi Philip> I have kept fish tanks for along time (20+ years) and am still amazed at how amazing they are to watch. <Me too> I just started a first time project. I wanted to setup a live plant tank. I did a lot of research on the subject and have this setup. A 90 gallon tank with 4" of Fluorite for substrate. Compact Fluorescent lights(4-96W bulbs 2-5500k and 2 6500k) CO2 injection w/controller to keep pH at 6.8 for the discus I want to keep. A Fluval canister filter for filtration. <Sounds very nice> The tank is medium to heavily planted for about 2 weeks now. I did have some snails that were introduced with the plants. I will be purchasing a couple of clown loaches in a week or two to help with that problem. <Good choice> No fish yet. My question is this I came home this evening and did my usual of looking over the tank checking some test readings....Amonia-0...Nitrite-0....PH 6.78...1pp/L iron....Gh-3....KH-5. I was looking in the tank when I noticed what looked like these whitish spots on the front glass of the tank. Upon getting out a magnifying glass I noticed that they are moving on the glass. I also saw a larger about 1/8 inch long creature on the glass, kinda reminded me of a parasite I saw but that required a microscope. What are these? <Likely some sort of worm... an annelid...> Do they present a problem? Will they hurt the plants or eventual fish I will be getting and if so how do I eradicate them? Sorry for being so long winded but any and all help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you Philip <Enjoy the evolution/unfolding of your system. Bob Fenner>
Re: Tiny creatures Dear Bob: Thank you for your quick response, I just want to make sure I understand completely. I don't have to worry this is completely natural and don't do a thing? <Correct. I would "do" nothing> They will not hurt the fish? I like the idea that I have successfully created a natural, evolving biosphere. The plants are growing nicely. I do have very little green hair algae that is growing but not a problem. I read your article on algae eaters and will be getting some Otocinclus to help with that. I wont be getting any fish for at least one more week to allow the plants to thoroughly root themselves and get established. Thank you again, Philip <You are well... on your way. Bob F>

The FW bane... Hi guys, <Whassup P-F, Antoine here> The little desktop tank at work is going fairly well, but I wound up with that most common of hitchhikers on FW plants, rams horn snails. I want the buggers gone. Here's the problem though, I know Skunk and Clown loaches will eat them right up, but will they also eat the Malaysian Trumpet snails I want in there? <indeed all bets are off on the small/young at least> Would the little MT's be safe, or am I looking at letting the Loach cleanup, having the tank sit fallow of snails for a while, and finding the Loach a new home when I restock the MT's? <bingo!> Thanks again! P-F

What is this Stuff Growing on my Plants? Hi. <<Hello, JasonC here filling in for Bob while he is away diving.>> Great web site. <<Bob will be happy to hear you like it...>> I have what looks like mold growing and spreading on the live plants in my 20 gal freshwater aquarium. It looks like tiny little blackish-blue hairs - almost like a light covering of fur - growing on the leaves and stems. I've tried algae remover, but no improvement. I've also tested the water in my tank and it's within specs. These are the effected plants: - Genus Bacopa - Hornworts - Ceratopteris Any help would be greatly appreciated as the part-time teenagers at my local PetSmart and Petco are clueless and I've not seen any product other than algae remover for aquarium plants. <<Sounds like Blue/Green Algae, which is a pretty common affliction. Best removed by hand/gravel vacuum, and perhaps a rinse in fresh water.>> Jeff Johnson <<Cheers, J -- >>

Melting Plants Hi! I have two aquariums, and have older plats in one, and newer plants in another. Four days ago, I bought an Arrowhead, (again) and it has started doing what I term as a "meltdown". The plant is turning to mush more and more everyday. This is in a species tank where I keep the water at a 6.4 PH, and very soft hardness. I have Leaf fish. This is my second attempt at this beautiful plant, but they both just seem to melt. I also seem to be getting a little meltdown on my Green Wendth. Do you know causes this, and what do i do about it? I love my aquariums, and have been a plant lover for them for a while. I just can't get some species through this mushy meltdown stuff. please help! Stumped <Could be a few things at play here... by an Arrowhead, I take it you mean some species of Sagittaria? One aspect that may be awry here is just the specimen... it may have been cultured before shipping in emersed condition... and subsequently just "drowned" by your placing it immediately underwater (surprised!? it happens). The other notable fact you mention is the water's pH... at 6.4 it may be low, but also is likely indicative of a lack of alkaline reserve (among other potentially lacking materials...) do you have test kits for alkalinity? Do you utilize soil, other purposeful additives to your system? You might want to (re)read the sections on the WWM site re setting up and maintaining planted aquarium systems here. The "Wendth" you mention, is this a Cryptocoryne sp? They're "melt down" syndromes are typically due to maintenance issues... and being kept too long underwater (best to cycle above and below...)... Do get back to me with responses to the above questions if I may be of service. Bob Fenner, just back from travel...

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