My new 10g tank

[charlie]

Impressive indeed, just think this is the result of you doing your home work & it`s your first planted tank - the possibilities are endless.
I remember the first day we meet & chatted.
Great work.
Regards

[silentdan]

Thank you.  The advice I have received has been a great help.

[silentdan]

I think the assassin snails may have exposed my tank to ich.  On the weekend, one of the neons was jammed in the corner between the glass and the plants.  I thought it was dead, so I tried to pull it out with my planting tweezers.  It wiggled away, but looked to have some sore spots on it.  I thought it had just gotten into a fight with something.  Now, today I see that it has two little white spots on it.  None of the other fish seem to have spots on them.  I'm going to try pick up some medication at the store.

Other than that, the tank seems to be doing well.  I trimmed the plants down again and replanted the tops of the ludwigia.

[silentdan]

Well, I had my first casualty.  Last night I picked up some API ich medication.  I gave them a half dose, as per the bottle.  This morning I did a quick head count and came up short.  The sick neon was on the bottom.  It was still alive, but the big shrimp wasn't being that choosy and eating it from the tail.  It took a bit to convince the shrimp to let go of it's treat.  I put it in a glass for observation, but it was too far gone, missing it's tail and numerous chunks out of it's body.  I'm continuing with the dosage as per the bottle.  It calls for a second dose in 48 hours, and a water change 48 hours after that.  The other fish do not appear to have any sores on them, but I'm considering doing a second treatment after the water change.

I've yet to see any dramatic snail liquidations, but the piles of empty shells on the ground is increasing.  The assassin snails seem to spend a lot of time on each other, so I imagine they are trying to breed.

[fischkopp]

Sorry to hear. It's never fun to loose fish. I don't think it's an ick outbreak though. Usually with ick you will have quickly more than one fish affected. It also appears as smaller white spots, only if there are many they clump up to bigger sized ones - at which point you will see the whole body being covered. To me it looks like a fungal infection; maybe the fish got some scratches when he was jammed, which got infected ?

[silentdan]

It is certainly looking like it was just an isolated incident.  None of the other fish have shown any possible symptoms.  I gave the tank a second half dose to complete the treatment just to be safe.

[silentdan]

My tank is still going strong.  I've gotten to the point where I've had to start removing plants so they don't take over.  I've ran out of places to put the ludwigia, and the vals are sending runners everywhere.  The baby tears are going along nicely.  I'm not sure if they are getting pulled out, or if they are trying to spread, but I seem to get a lot of them floating on the top of the tank.  I just collect them and jam them back down into the dirt.

I'm pretty sure I have lost another 2 fish.  I had one really bad looking neon that I can't see any more.  It had gone grey and patchy, lost most of it's colors, and had a kink in it's spine.  None of the other neons look like that, so hopefully it isn't the plague.  I also think I lost an oto.  They have taken to hiding in the very thick vals, and I've only been able to see two at a time.  I'm guessing with the shrimp and assassin snails, bodies won't last very long.  Still, everyone else seems to be happy.

[silentdan]

Today was another machete job with the plants to bring them back under control.  The undulata looks a little small, most likely all of the ludwigia and vals were blocking the light.  The patch of baby tears also seemed to be getting insufficient light and the shaded parts were lifting off of the substrate.  My red mystery plant still causes me headaches.  It just doesn't grow as fast as the ludwigia and has a tendency to melt.  I have one good stem of it, and a few more smaller stems.

There may have been a bit of friendly fire between my assassin snails, as one looks like it has parts of its shell dissolved away.  I can only see one oto, so I may have had another loss.  My shrimp are being optimistic though.  Either nobody has told them they can't breed in fresh water, or they have decided that life will find a way, but two of them are carrying around some eggs.