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The Nymph's Spring (EA900)

Big thank you for all the birthday wishes 🥰🥰🥰

Sorry not to respond to people much this week, one of my cats - Rama - has been ill for a week and the day after my birthday we found out we need to put him down very soon so all very grim over here. Can't seem to do hardly anything the past few days, our cats are so lovely and are so much part of the family it is so sad to have to let them go. I did manage some mindless duckweed removal from one of my tanks today which was overrun, I quite like some of the obsessive mindless tasks I do while aquascaping. they are almost meditative. Life seems endlessly bloody dramatic and exhausting and I am so glad to have my little ponds of calm to help counter that (except when they're stressing me out lmao)

Here are a few photos of Rama that my boyfriend took a few years ago when he was the regal king of the neighbourhood and none of the other cats could f*ck with him, but also he loves cuddles.

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Aquarium pics tomorrow, I took and edited quite a few tonight. The new rocks work so much better.
 
GREEEEENNNN - from when I was dosing Esha Exit to get rid of the Ich. So far it seems to have worked and not come back 🙂

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FTS featuring my boyfriend's screen annoyingly lol. Plus half these pics are blurry af but oh well you'll get the picture. The tank looks better irl but I'm not sure how to capture it properly rn.

I think you can see how the new rocks really fit in with the scape, the colours are much nicer and in general it's a better habitat for the fish. I've stacked them on top of eachother purposefully creating gaps and caves for the fish to enjoy. At first I tried putting plants in all the gaps, but I realised it looked better without them. I love that they look pre-aged with the green crystal, at some point I will buy a bit more and add it more to the back, but this small amount works well for now.

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Because of moving the rocks around I realised I had extra (somewhat dodgy looking) buce to place, so I decided to do up the middle part of the wood too. This area has been annoying for me as some of the plants I glued here refused to be glued and float annoyingly, and almost everything has a bit of clado algae growing in it. So at the same time I took all the plants aready there out and meticulously removed all the clado. Once all the plants were prepared, I got out some riverwood shavings I had (a few weeks ago I wanted to reshape some wood and used a chisel to whittel it down, quite wide but thin slices came off and I realised these little bits would be useful), and used thread to wrap all my buce, cameroon moss and other bits to the shavings. Then I used glue to attach the bottom of the wood shavings to the main wood, and this worked really well! The wood shavings are invisible once they've been darkened by the water, and they provide a much better surface for the glue to attach to.

I am very lucky in that there is one buce that has been growing well for me - this tiny mini buce I got last year, which has been doing great. This area looks soooo much better now and much more like how I originally envisioned it, and I'm glad to see a lot less clado algae. I'll be great when it grows in more in the new few months hopefully. It does look better irl but is weirdly hard to photograph.

At the same time I realised that at the top right of the wood (see second pic), under the hydrocotyle that has dominated was loads of fully brown dead fissidens, so I also pulled all of that out. It was a casuality of my determination to kill the clado. I think in a few months once I've fully eradicated the clado then I'll replace the fissidens. Very lucky that the cameroon moss survived and is thriving though! I'm really happy that the trident fern and cameroon moss here is doing well now, because for a few months it was all dying and covered in BBA and looked terrible, happy to see it really recovering.

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Ah.. 😍
Even when you write about issues, I see the most gorgeous tank 🥰

Im sorry to hear about your cat, its always heartbreaking to let them go 💔 I bet he had a really great time together with you guys though
Aw thank you Hufsa! 🥰 It is becoming a very nice tank now, it's finally starting to look like what I imagined in my head. Still can fit in some more plants now in the "problem" areas hooray (getting 2 lovely echinodorus on next week, 1 cordifolius red which I have one already and it's thriving so will replace the disappointing echinodorus rose & red diamond in the other back corner, and an echinodorus macrophyllus also for back replacing a waterlily which is growing well but I can't appreciate as it keeps trying to grow the surface behind the wood).

And the problems are all not so bad any more, "just more opportunities for me to learn" is what I tell myself! I am hoping that this new ferts mix will help all the buces grow well now, and eventually for the lusciousness where everything grows together thickly.

It is very horrible letting Rama go, but you are right he has had a very good life! We got him as a kitten when I was 14, he's my first cat that I had from tiny baby to old man cat, and we spoilt him the whole time, I suppose it's knowing him that long that makes it so hard. Right now he is huffing up catnip, he is having a nice final few days. 🙂
 
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So sorry to hear about your puss. I’ve lost two that got to 18yrs so feeling your pain. It’s so hard when they go 🙁 but wouldn’t be without all the joy they add to our lives whilst they are with us, and he sure is a lovely looking lad. 🥰

The tank is looking wonderful, a real little world of discovery and those new rocks are just perfect. 👍
 
Thank you all for the well wishes and sorry I haven't been around much, just felt a complete drain of energy after we put Rama down last Saturday. He was a real king of cats and we all miss him so much, our pets really are part of our families, my whole family is in a depression together at it. On Sunday I did a really fun thing though which was a good distraction, I went to Scaped Nature with @Courtneybst and @Siddy and we scaped a tank together. It was really interesting to do it together, I would love to do more tanks like this since I can't fit more tanks in the house to do it for myself!! There are lots of more photos on the guy's Instagrams too 🙂 Honestly too drained to share pics of things atm tbh.



On the downside, I am suspicious that there is something nefarious going on in the tank, like some fish Tb or something. I've had to put down several pencilfish and cardinal tetras (adult ones) over the past few weeks, each with different symptoms. They are big adult fish, but it is still hmmmmmm. I also think that my populations of tetra and pygmy cories have gone down a lot, although it's hard to tell exactly as the tank is lush enough for them to hide easily. Since I have a huge pile of leaves in the back I suspect that fish are hiding in there when sick and dying so I don't see it. And now 3 of the dicrossus have something that looks a little like hole in the head. Yesterday I set up a quarantine tank for the dicrossus, but found one dead this morning anyway. I'm feeling.... very suspicious. Fish are otherwise active and feeding and even breeding, but it definitely seems odd. Apistos seem in good health so far, so do the otos.
3 Pencilfish with different symptoms: one extremely bloated and then dropsy, one with a "graze" of white/pale discolouration (not at 3D wound) on it's side for a few days found dying upside down on the soil, one that was really weirdly skinny and a bit bent that I'd never noticed before until I saw it suffering and put it down.
2 Cardinal symptoms: slightly bent, white white grazes and staying at the top of the water or in one spot all day breathing heavy.

So far I've done an extra big waterchange, cleaned the filters and pipes (which is good I think I have more surface disruption for oxygen), lowered the CO2. Today will get some Esha 2000 and try that too. TBH not sure what to do other than wait and see if everything drops dead or not. I guess at the weekend will do another waterchange and take out all the leaves and mulm out of the back and vac it all heavily in case that helps. IDK I already feel drained and this is quite upsetting but I haven't recovered the emotional energy to worry about it, just trying to be objective and do what I can. This tank and me are so dramatic ffs there's always something going on.

Incidentally in my 45L, I had 12 chili rasboras added in Autumn and now I have about 5, they seemed to last a few months all together and then over the past 2 months disappear quite quickly. My betta seems totally fine though (he is in the only other fish in that tank). Originally in the 45L tank I had 15 pygmy cories, and after a few months there was only 6, I'm not sure if it's a comment on me and my care of the fish or if this is normal or a disease. The pygmies in my big tank are much more outgoing than the ones in the 45L were though. I always do my waterchanges, feed a variety of good food including live, etc but idk. In the big tank I am guilty of overstocking due to the kuhli loaches, maybe it is all because of that, but with the numbers of fish I have now I'm pretty sure it's not overstocked at all any more, I think tetras & pygmies are down by at least 1/3. I should have 16 kuhlis, but I've only seen a max of 4 in the middle of the night, honestly not sure how many I have and I wouldn't be surprised that when I one day rescape to find all of them thriving in the lava stone caves I made for them.

I read online with fish tb basically you're f***ed and have to let the fish die, and 100% rescape chucking everything in the tank which is the grimmest thing I've ever heard, but I'm heavily rambling now so will stop. Or maybe it is my rainwater???? No idea tbh.
 
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Sorry to hear you of your woes Rosie. 🙁

If you suspect Fish TB, it might be worth a call to your local Vets, to see if you can take a recently deceased fish to them for a firm diagnosis - though they may not be able to do anything on such small fish. Hopefully its not fish TB, but be careful yourself just in case, as I believe fish TB is transmittable to humans.
 
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Sorry to hear you of your woes Rosie. 🙁

If you suspect Fish TB, it might be worth a call to your local Vets, to see if you can take a recently deceased fish to them for a firm diagnosis - though they may not be able to do anything on such small fish. Hopefully its not fish TB, but be careful yourself just in case, as I believe fish TB is transmittable to humans.
Luckily I'm very scrupulous about washing my hands immediately with the tank and never putting hands in with any cuts/scratches, will be even more so from now on and keep hand sanitiser right by it 😱 Will look into finding a vet too, maybe a good idea. I wonder how expensive something like that is to check. Going to thoroughly sanitise all my equipment and make sure I have sets for different tanks now too, luckily in my nano with ricefish they seem totally fine.

It's not definitely the TB, but from reading the description of how healthy fish disappear and have all sorts of symptoms it looks like a possibility. IDK I won't lose hope yet but it is rather grim. My feeling is that rn the sensitive fish are being picked off. Maybe once they are gone then I will have some hardy fish who will live for a while and do well? Who knows, I guess we'll find out!

I wish you good luck. It's terrible watching all your fish die one by one.
Thank you, fingers crossed I'm wrong and things will settle down. I am much less sensitive to a fish dying occasionally now, but all of them is quite a different thing.
 
Does anyone here have experience with fish TB? Looking online I feel that the symptoms do match. Also looking online it looks like if it is it's pretty catastrophic and the tank can't be treated and everything has to be destroyed 😱

I emailed a fish vet so will investigate that too.
 
So sorry Rosie. Ur having a tough time of it, it seems. ☹️

Seeing if you can get a firm diagnosis from the vet seems like a good plan, if it’s not painfully expensive, at least that way you’ll know what you’re dealing with.

I do so hope it works out for you.🤞
 
I think so too, hearing what the vet has to say first. Hopefully its not TB, the symptoms are so broad so they often seem to fit, but maybe that means there can also be other reasons for it. I would try pretty much everything else first if it was my tank, before taking the whole thing down. Sorry I cant be of any more help, im lousy with this stuff myself as you know. Sometimes it is enough to make you want to swear off fish and only keep plants.

Sending a big viking hug 💓💓
 
So sorry Rosie. Ur having a tough time of it, it seems. ☹️

Seeing if you can get a firm diagnosis from the vet seems like a good plan, if it’s not painfully expensive, at least that way you’ll know what you’re dealing with.

I do so hope it works out for you.🤞
Thank you ♥️ When it rains, it pours!!

I think so too, hearing what the vet has to say first. Hopefully its not TB, the symptoms are so broad so they often seem to fit, but maybe that means there can also be other reasons for it. I would try pretty much everything else first if it was my tank, before taking the whole thing down. Sorry I cant be of any more help, im lousy with this stuff myself as you know. Sometimes it is enough to make you want to swear off fish and only keep plants.

Sending a big viking hug 💓💓
♥️♥️♥️ I was panicking about that earlier tbh, the idea of destroying it all is like .... Unbelievably awful 😭

Like I started my aquarium hobby to escape the dreadfulness of the pandemic and "live in" a nicer world... And now my beautiful little Eden has it's own epidemic!!! 🙃 I love the tank and often it helps with the anxiety but times like these make it wayyyyy worse instead. My facade of control is slipping again and I don't like it!

BUT they're not all dead yet. My friend sent me this, which had given me some hope - <an article about fish TB written by Diana Walstad!>. She's says what worked for her is a UV light filter, so I think I will try this! Seems like a good thing to try, maybe some of my fish will recover and future fish won't be effected from what she says about it. It also seems really common from the statistics.
 
Another useful post about fish TB and UV sterilisers. UV Sterilizers/Fish Diseases

So will try this asap and record it all for you. I did take some pictures of some of the other fish before they died which I will post later this week as a record too. I think it's good to show the bad times and my treatments in case any of them work!
 
So sorry to hear about your beautiful cat 😢
Mine will be 21 soon,doing very well for her age but I know that day will come and I dread it.

As others have said see if you can get a definitive diagnosis but if not then I would treat the tank as if it is that and carry on pretty much as you have been in regards to your own safety.
Regarding the fish I think keeping stress to a minimum,good food,regular water changes and where possible euthanising any as soon as they show symptoms is the best thing.
It's important not to let fish die in the tank and then be picked at by the other inhabitants.
Edit...forgot to say make sure each of your tanks has separate maintenance equipment if you don't already to minimise cross contamination.
 
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