r/fishtank

I feel super lucky to have a great local pet store with tons of knowledgeable employees- I go to them for all my fishkeeping (and other pet) needs and have always been so pleased.

I wanted to toot their horn for them by sharing their betta wall setup - not sure how many gallons each tank is, but each tank seems so well set up with live plants, hiding spots, filters etc and all their bettas look so happy 🥹

makes my fish mama heart proud! 🐟

I am about a month into keeping 2 freshwater tanks. I have a 5 gallon nano cube which I’m currently keeping plants in and a couple shrimp (not shown), and this 20 gallon hexagonal tank with 2 ottos, 3 tetras and 4 ghost shrimp in. I have a heater in both tanks keeping the temperatures at 72 degrees and both have hang on back filters and aerators. My mom had a 90 gallon reef tank that she took amazing care of for 30 years, and a brother who had a 70 gallon reef tank. I have recently gotten into the hobby and want to be the BEST fish keeper I can be. I know that fake plants and decor aren’t great options for keeping fish but my husband really wanted to get the colosseum decor when we were picking up supplies. Eventually I want to replace it with natural hardscape but I don’t have any yet besides what’s shown. I’ve been watching my water levels, and have used r.o. water instead of tap as I have hard water. My goal is a planted community tank and eventually a salt water tank. What are some things I should know and do as a beginner?

this is NOT OKAY. why so MANY???😢 i have gotten bettas from big chain stores, one of mine is. but never again. you’re not saving, your enabling.

Hello! I am a noobie to fish keeping and would like to know what’s going on? I upgraded from a 10 gallon to a 29 gallon. I put all the water and substrate from the 10 gallon into the 29 gallon and added the already cycled sponge filter in there. How long is it gonna take to be stable and or normal again? Also will my nitrates appear again? the pic it looks kinda dark but I would say it looks yellow irl. Any help or advice will be much appreciated! :)

Hey! I got this tank a while ago and am very grateful for it and the setup. However so far I have been feeling like my tank is missing something and am not sure what, some guidance or recommendations on things to improve my tank would be greatly appreciated!

Fish i currently have:

- 1 rainbow fish (only surviving one of 3)

- 1 rainbow shark

- 5 female guppies

- 1 cherry shrimp

plants i currently have:

- Amazon sword?

- Crypts

- long ribbon plant

- long succelent thing

- some floating weed stuff

- Duckweed but big

Thanks! xx

Thought I’d go to a more broad subreddit to show off my first fish keeping setup!

I planted them last week

Good evening everyone. I'm reaching out because I have some sick fishies that seem to not improve after medication.

First picture (Dorito) was the first goldfish to show symptoms. He was laying on the rocks and wasn't swimming much. I need to admit that because of life happening i wasn't attending to my fishies like I should have in water changes (WC). When he started to show symptoms, I tested the water and my nitrates were through the roof, at 80 or above while ammonia and nitrite was at 0. I did a 60% WC.

I was allowing AI to help me (horrible idea in retrospect) because I was stressed and it told me to do another large WC the same day, because my nitrates were still at 40 after the first WC. After the second WC it went down to 20 but I noticed that Dorito was struggling to stay upright afterwards and hasn't been able to recover since then. He would sit on the floor and swim up to gulp air at the surface very excessively. He would bolt up at least every 5 seconds for the first 2ish days. I have enough oxygenation, one HOB filter for approx 50 gal and 2 air stones being run by 100 gal air pump. At first I believed Dorito was shocked by the excessive WC that day so I kept monitored him every day for about a week and doing WC's everyday, as per AI.

He became really uncoordinated and struggled to get food and maybe 3-4 days into him gulping and bottom sitting, he developed red streak in his tail, that have since disappeared. Eventually however, he stopped begging for food and I knew there was something really wrong. At first I thought it was because he was just stressed out and his appetite would come back but it hasn't and it's been a week.

Eventually my other 2 goldfish began to bottom sit and only one other one began to gulp at the surface rarely, beginning last night. (At this point none of my fishies beg for food however, when I drop food they will still eat but Dorito is very uncoordinated to catch any, and he has been too skittish to get hand fed from me)I went to a mom and pop store to get my water tested and get more advice about the situation. They said my water was perfect so they don't think it's a water issue but possibly an infection/sickness. I was really hesitant in beginning meds because I was afraid but I didn't see any improvements. So Saturday April 4th,2026 at 7pm I began poly guard by seachem per the pet store's employee recommendation because we didn't know what the sickness could be.

Additionally, I started to add aquarium salt that same day, Saturday, at 3pm and added 1 tbsp every hr until I reached roughly 1tbsp per 5 gals. I know l might be too early and wanting to see an improvement right away but I want to be sure if I'm doing things correctly. I will be medicating the next dose today at 7pm. And then changing the water Friday April 10th. I'm just not too sure what to do also after April 10th? If there is no improvements, I was recommended to start kanaplex by seachem?

But I don't know if I should start it right away or medicate polyguard for another week?

I want to know if maybe anyone knows the symptoms that my fishes could be experiencing and what they could be sick with?

If I'm doing anything wrong or if there's something different that I need to do?

Is it normal for them to seem to not improve and get worse?

The second pic I have is my other 2 fishies that began to show symptoms later, they were bottom sitting but about 20 mins after medicating, they began to swim up and respond to me instead of swimming away. Is this normal? Does it mean that maybe it was working?

Pictures 3-6 is a picture of them today, looking very stressed, hiding from me, and just laying on the gravel.

Today's water parameters:

Ammonia 0

Nitrite 0

Nitrate about 30

It's 3 goldfishes in a 20 gal tank, they are about 4.5 years old. I have a 75 gal waiting for them but I was told that I should wait until they get healthy again to move them to try to reduce stress.

Please if anyone can help and let me know what I can do to bring my fishies back to normal, I would greatly appreciate it!!

I do weekly water changes but recently my nitrate went up, and im getting concerned. My two ranchus seem fine but i noticed one of my ranchus wen is kind of injured and im not sure what to do (ill provide images below) should i quarantine my fish? and how can i get my nitrate levels to 0. Please no judgement here just someone who is trying to keep their fish healthy and safe

PS. brown algae has been growing inside my tank for about two weeks and ive been scrubbing it but it keeps re growing

I am new to the hobby and looking for recommendations. My tank has finished cycling and I am starting to stock. I currently have 10 Neocaridina Shrimp, 2 nerite snails, and 4 black kuhli loaches. What else could I add that would get along with what I currently have? I have seen so much conflicting info regarding bioload and overstocking and want to do right by them. Considering CPDs and Male Endlers. Or maybe a Gourami instead of the CPDs. Feel free to call me out if you see anything I could improve, other than the misplaced plants floating around lol

Also accepting plant recommendations, planning on adding more background plants

Can anyone tell me what might help this tetra, the scales aren’t pineconing, doesn’t seem to be a swim bladder issue, and it hasn’t spread to any of the other fish

Been running this aquarium since late September 2025. Started out with 8 Neon Teras, now 7, and just recently added in 10 Cherry Shrimp. Been trying to grow dwarf hairgrass but its been very stubborn lol. Lately been battling hair algae growing and constantly having to pull it out. Ive had tanks off and on growing up since I was a kid. At the time not knowing better of course I had the colored gravel and fake plants decor. I always had betta fish but always wanted schooling fish. This is my first attempt at a real tank set up and obviously I know im not as good as many others are but ive enjoyed learning and trying things out

Started a new tank 10days ago, waiting for the cycle to be done to add fish.

Today I found the driftwood full of these ring shaped stuff. They look like poop but there is no fish in the tank.

Anyone has any idea what are these?

So this is a very well established tank that is FLOURISHING with plants growing rapidly, shrimp happy and healthy and breeding, and 2 old mystery snail ladies. Oh and 2 otos. All real plants. Fluval stratum.

A few months ago my water turned cloudy! Almost milky?? I thought it was a bacterial bloom or whatever. So I left it alone.

It never got better. I’ve done water changes, I’ve vacuumed the gravel. Nothing seems to help and I’m so confused why it’s so cloudy!

Any intel or advice??

The first pic is the cloudy tank and I included a second picture of another tank just as old that’s crystal clear for reference.

Hello! I am a noobie to fish keeping and would like to know what’s going on? I upgraded from a 10 gallon to a 29 gallon. I put all the water and substrate from the 10 gallon into the 29 gallon and added the already cycled sponge filter in there. How long is it gonna take to be stable and or normal again? Also will my nitrates appear again? the pic it looks kinda dark but I would say it looks yellow irl. Any help or advice will be much appreciated! :)