New 50 gallon stocking ideas

[Meg0000]

Let's hope there is none. But the white fungus that appears from inside the wood has many species, and some are safe while others are highly toxic. It seems to be more prevalent with the blond branchy woods like spiderwood, grapewood, though I have no idea how "accurate" these names might be. After I had an issue with a piece of whatever it was, I stopped buying any wood except the dark brown Malaysian Driftwood; I have never had fungus with this (and I have a lot of it) nor heard of fungus with it.

In my case, within a day of adding the wood to the tank the water became a bit hazy, much like a bacterial bloom, so I though t little of it. But then I spotted that all of the cories were respirating very rapidly. And the wood has this sort of slime on parts of it. I did a 75% water change and took out the wood and scrubbed it under the tap. Fish seemed OK, cloudiness was gone, so next day I put the wood back, and by the end of the day, same issues. This time I did the same but took the wood out and let it completely dry for a few months, then put it in another aquarium. It took about a week before I noticed respiration problems, and patches of this fungus on the rear side of the wood where I couldn't see it. Tossed the wood.

I happened to know a microbiologist thrugh another forum at the time, and I mentioned this and also posted about it. Other members reported similar experiences with "grapewood" and the microbiolgist said this was common with some types of wood but it would take analysis by a microbiologist to identify the fungus species. Her advice was to not use the wood or any similar type.

A couple weeks after this, I happened to be in one of my local stores where the owner knew me very well, and I overheard another customer describing similar problems. I caught the owner's eye and she asked me to join the conversation, and it turned out this customer lost all his cories overnight to similar cloudiness and patches of fungus.

I found on a site that the wood I have is sandblasted grapevine, there is no fungus on the wood or other plants today exept there is fungus on all my java fern and I really don't know why. Also the water is still very cloudy and I put my fish in it, is it ok? Also I will make a post on one of my other thread about my fish because I really think it is sick so I would like some help.

 

[Byron]

I found on a site that the wood I have is sandblasted grapevine, there is no fungus on the wood or other plants today exept there is fungus on all my java fern and I really don't know why. Also the water is still very cloudy and I put my fish in it, is it ok? Also I will make a post on one of my other thread about my fish because I really think it is sick so I would like some help.

Cloudy water is a sign of the toxic fungus, though it can also occur from other things. Given this is grapewood, I would not add any fish for the present. Keep a close eye on it for any signs of a white slime, this fungus is not bushy/hairy like common fungus.

 

[Meg0000]

Cloudy water is a sign of the toxic fungus, though it can also occur from other things. Given this is grapewood, I would not add any fish for the present. Keep a close eye on it for any signs of a white slime, this fungus is not busy/hairy like common fungus.

Toxic fungus does not look the same as normal fungus?

 

[Meg0000]

This is how it looks

 

[Fishmanic]

50 gallons is great tank size. Beginning on May 1st, we will start a Tank of the Month contest which will feature tanks sized at 30 US gallons and above. I hope you will consider entering your tank in that contest. We will post a banner around May 1st signalling the start of the entry period.

Meanwhile, late tomorrow, we will start the entry period for April's Tank of the Month contest. If any member owns a tanks sized from 17 US gallons (54 litres) to 29 US gallons (110 litres) , I hope you will consider entering that contest.

 

[Byron]

Toxic fungus does not look the same as normal fungus?

When I had this wood fungus, twice, it was almost a sort of white cyanobacteria. It felt slimy, it coated the wood in varying sized patches or blotches. I think it was slightly hairy in appearance. I've been trying to find photos online, but it was nearly ten years ago now, and at my age I don't recall things as well as I once did. Something else I did come across, a comment on an aquarium site that grapewood is prone to mold and this can be a problem.

Cloudy water of course might just be bacterial bloom, especially in a new tank. I don't know that any one of us could definitely say the cloudiness is or is not the start of a fungus/mold.

 

[Meg0000]

I found another fungus or something on another plant. Sorry picture is not really clear

 

[Byron]

I found another fungus or something on another plant. Sorry picture is not really clear

Can't see it very well but that is more likely algae.

 

[Meg0000]

Can't see it very well but that is more likely algae.

I don't think it is algea, I found more on rock,wood and plants. It looks very weird

 

[Meg0000]

Hi, I just remembered that congo tetra exist! I think it might be a good center fish for my tank since I want something very peaceful. In a 50 gallon would 6 congo tetra work with maybe 10 corydoras, 15 other smaller tetra, 5 otocinclus and maybe one bolivian ram ? I am not really good at knowing if something is overstocked/understocked and the bioload of a fish so that is why I am asking

 

[JuiceBox52]

Hi, I just remembered that congo tetra exist! I think it might be a good center fish for my tank since I want something very peaceful. In a 50 gallon would 6 congo tetra work with corydoras, other smaller tetra, otocinclus and maybe one bolivian ram ?

I'm not sure about the ram but everything else would probably work. I would be careful with getting otos as well as cories, not because they are aggressive but because it might get crowded on the bottom

 

[Colin_T]

no idea what your GH and pH are but congo tetras should be kept with similar sized fish otherwise they eat all the food and the smaller tetras suffer.

 

[Meg0000]

no idea what your GH and pH are but congo tetras should be kept with similar sized fish otherwise they eat all the food and the smaller tetras suffer.

It is written at the begining of the thread : PH 6.8-7 and my GH is soft to very soft. What species of tetra would be suitable with them?

 

[Jan Cavalieri]

Looks a little boring to me. I think pearl Gourami are stunning but they are slow moving boring fish to watch. Take a look at some of the loaches - Dojo's are the funniest fish of the lot as are Kubotai Loach. Pleco's are pretty exotic as well but getting them to come out of hiding is difficult - I have two yellow bristslenose plecos All of these are quite gentle.

I like the tetra glo-fish for a lot of color and activity - just get 5-10 or so. Maybe a little childish but the origin of theses fish are not childish. They were used to test certain characteristics of waterways - it the test was positive the fish would turn purple, blue, red etc; So they did serious scientific work. Later one some bright person got the idea that little kids would probably like to make unicorn themes, or have race car colors or the color of their favorite team. I just noticed I had a fairly blah looking tank even with my crazy zooming yellow dojo's and black and white checkered Kubotai Loach but it wasn't enough - so still being a little kid at heart - I bought a pair of every color. Totally brightened the tank up, everybody laughs at them and I tell them about their original purpose as an aid to scientists and get more respect - of course, once I removed the Disney Princess Castle that helped too (just kidding I would never mix tetras with a Disney princess castle!)

With Gourami - most of the dwarf stock is stunning and peaceful, while the larger ones are semi-aggressive (the Pearls are an exception -they are very large). Look at the dwarf neon gourami and the firey dwarf neon - bot supercool. Supposedly some Dwarf Gourami have some virus that kills them but I've never seen an actual case posted here and I've had quite a few and never had a virus. Two "sweet" little gourami species are the honey dwarf gourami and the chocolate gourami

 

[Meg0000]

Looks a little boring to me. I think pearl Gourami are stunning but they are slow moving boring fish to watch. Take a look at some of the loaches - Dojo's are the funniest fish of the lot as are Kubotai Loach. Pleco's are pretty exotic as well but getting them to come out of hiding is difficult - I have two yellow bristslenose plecos All of these are quite gentle.

I like the tetra glo-fish for a lot of color and activity - just get 5-10 or so. Maybe a little childish but the origin of theses fish are not childish. They were used to test certain characteristics of waterways - it the test was positive the fish would turn purple, blue, red etc; So they did serious scientific work. Later one some bright person got the idea that little kids would probably like to make unicorn themes, or have race car colors or the color of their favorite team. I just noticed I had a fairly blah looking tank even with my crazy zooming yellow dojo's and black and white checkered Kubotai Loach but it wasn't enough - so still being a little kid at heart - I bought a pair of every color. Totally brightened the tank up, everybody laughs at them and I tell them about their original purpose as an aid to scientists and get more respect - of course, once I removed the Disney Princess Castle that helped too (just kidding I would never mix tetras with a Disney princess castle!)

With Gourami - most of the dwarf stock is stunning and peaceful, while the larger ones are semi-aggressive (the Pearls are an exception -they are very large). Look at the dwarf neon gourami and the firey dwarf neon - bot supercool. Supposedly some Dwarf Gourami have some virus that kills them but I've never seen an actual case posted here and I've had quite a few and never had a virus. Two "sweet" little gourami species are the honey dwarf gourami and the chocolate gourami

It might look boring to you but not to me. I think whey have some beautiful color and fin. I like bristlenose pleco as you mentionned but they are poop machine and I am not so sure about having them on sand substrate as it would get dirty pretty quick. I still did not choose my stocking and I might also end up getting pearl gourami as center fish but I think they are a bit more agressive than the congo tetra. Also I read that chocolate gourami only eat live or frozen food so that would be quite complicated but they look cool