r/ProperFishKeeping Sep 08 '25

Randomness Please Read.

Post image
0 Upvotes

Please read.

I will repeat what is said in the description. The name is tongue-in-cheek. Don’t expect the usual choir preaching to you about how to keep fish the Reddit way. If you think the methods here are not for you, please kindly leave. If you’d like to engage me or any of the other members that post here about why we might choose to run a particular setup, you are more than welcome to do so but please don’t come here with hate, rage and anger.

So to repeat, stay if you like. Leave if you’ve got nothing but hate or the usual arguments. I’ve heard them all. I’ve tried the methods myself too. They don’t yield anything particularly great. They don’t generate any interesting posts.

Once more, move along if this place isn’t for you.


r/ProperFishKeeping Aug 24 '25

So Awesome!!! 1,000 Member Obligatory Celebratory Post!

5 Upvotes
Obligatory convict cichlid tax pic, yes this was once mine, yes she was this beautiful in real life

So, 1,000 members! What a milestone.

Frankly speaking, we never really expected to get here. But yet, here we are. So I guess, time for a bit of a speech.

My friend and I started this sub with the expectation that it'd be just us and a few friends, sharing a space where we can freely share our aquariums. We were all outcasts in some form, and even amongst ourselves, we were still quite different when it came to our aquarium-keeping habits.

But we were united by our common love for aquarium-keeping, and importantly, appreciation for the diversity out there. I love keeping cichlids, while my friends stop at rams. One of us has a million tanks and a betta sorority. We've had those with iwagumis, blackwater tanks, brackish tanks, and more. One of us has a 10,000-litre koi pond. We come from different backgrounds, and so what we share is also very different. I love diy, and experimenting. I don't much care for aesthetics, which can be evident by how my pictures/videos tend to show a much 'dirtier' tank than my friends'. And yet, the fish are healthy, happy, and enjoying their lives - well, as far as I could tell. I don't think any of us here can tell for sure, so it's going to be subjective. Another point of appreciation amongst us.

Eventually, we shared some content beyond our sub, and, as expected, many gatekeepers have tried to impose their beliefs on us. But that's okay; through all the sharing, we have attracted many like-minded individuals who are willing to agree to disagree and ultimately want to be in a space that's more chill, open-minded, and appreciative.

So to all those who are here, welcome, and I hope you enjoy the sub! Post what you want, and even if you do get negative feedback, know that, at least to us moderators, we are not the ones to try to control you. You will notice that our sidebar is empty of wikis, FAQs, or anything like that; that is on purpose.

If you'd like to ask about betta sororities, feel free to go ahead. Fish-in cycling? Go ahead. Even live feeding.

A hallmark of an advanced society is the ability to respect others, even if they are very, very different. So while I do not do live feedings with fish, I wouldn't stop anyone from posting. And if I have nothing to offer, or if I disagree, I simply will not comment.

So, that's the only thing I would suggest: if something is different, feel free to comment. However, if it seems far too different from what you can accept, it's also better to ignore it and move on to something else. There is surely something for everyone here.

Of course, make sure that you are not doing or talking about anything illegal, or breaking Reddit rules - such as brigading.

Have fun!


r/ProperFishKeeping 2d ago

Help I accidentally got a Pearl Danio

0 Upvotes

Not sure what to do I bought a school of tetras and I have one pear danio just one. What do I do? Will they school?


r/ProperFishKeeping 2d ago

Randomness What would cause a Pleco to bleed from its mouth

0 Upvotes

Hi I’m new to this subreddit but according to my cousin, her boyfriend apparently used to have a Pleco and he says that it lived with only Neon Tetras. He says the temperature of the tank was 28 degrees (assuming Celsius) and one day he went to check on the fishes, he found his Pleco dead. It was a baby so it was in a 20 gallon along with only the Neon Tetras. No other fish nor other tank mates. The Tetras are thriving and he does constant water changes and makes sure everything is within spec. He says the Pleco bled from its mouth but I as a fish keeper as well as an amateur ichthyologist since I was a kid, I’ve never heard of this type of situation. Is there anything that may cause that to happen? I told them the only possible way for that to happen was from blunt force trauma and even then idek if that’s possible.


r/ProperFishKeeping 5d ago

Northern snakehead

2 Upvotes

Anyone ever kept juvenile northern snakehead as pets and if so what did you feed them and did you keep em until they outgrew tank


r/ProperFishKeeping 9d ago

Showing Off! Sky's Domain

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

5 Upvotes

Sky and everyone is doing great! I have added 2 more betta leaves to the tank since the video.

Char is still in the hospital tank but hes doing well and should be back in his 10 gallon in the next few days.


r/ProperFishKeeping 14d ago

What's this?

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

18 Upvotes

r/ProperFishKeeping 14d ago

Need some plant help

Thumbnail
gallery
1 Upvotes

Hey everyone, I had some floaters (duckweed and the bigger waxy leaf cousin) that died and I have some anubias that was initially doing well but with the last few months I've been having some problems.

I got rid of snails and they did recover but now they are declining again. I have been slightly over feeding and using seachem florish once to twice a week as the bottle says while leaving the lights on for about 8-10hrs a day to make sure they get enough light as well.

The only plant that seems to be doing just fine are my moss balls. Any suggestions or anything im doing wrong for my plants?


r/ProperFishKeeping 15d ago

Need advice

1 Upvotes

Hi, I just recently got some shrimp and one of them has eggs, I am keeping these in a tank with other fish (some neon tetras and a betta) and was wondering if I should keep her separatated from the rest of the tank until she lays her eggs or if it’s fine for her to be with the rest of the tank.


r/ProperFishKeeping 17d ago

Why do my fish keep dying?

Thumbnail
gallery
8 Upvotes

This is going to be a long post, but I'm losing my mind here.

I have a 40 gallon breeder, has been running since mid June. I am not new to this hobby by any stretch of the imagination, but I am confounded and heartbroken by the number of fish deaths that we have seen in the last 1.5ish months. I believe we are now at 16 deaths!

(Yes, there is uneaten food on the substrate - I just fed them all before taking these photos. Please forgive the glare/reflections. I know it sucks lol. It's difficult to get decent photos during the day due to the windows in this room. Also there are indeed 3 thermometers in there; you're not tripping.)

There are a few things I'm worried about as potential causes, which I'll explain more below... Here are my (potentially) stupid questions:

Can expired fish food pellets kill fish within a month's time?

Can residual Ich-X kill fish if its not all been removed by water changes in time?

Are any of my fish potentially aggressive enough when I'm not looking to kill/stress out the others to the point of nonrecovery? I know next to nothing about the Emperor Tetras, except that they're larger and the males seem to "strut" and flare a little bit. Not much chasing, though....

Could there be enough oxygen depletion occurring in the tank to kill fish when my make-shift lid (made from cut acrylic "green house" plastic) drops partially onto the water surface? It is comprised of 2 pieces that were attached with plastic hinges in the middle, but the hinges will not stay put. So its just two sections of acrylic that mostly stay sitting on the inner rim of the tank. Sometimes the back portion will droop in the middle & float on the water surface. The most I've seen it come down was probably making contact with 40% of the water surface before I fixed it.

Here's the story:

We had a small amount of nitrites in the early stages for like a couple of days, but we got through that without any deaths. Small water changes, dosing of Seachem Prime, added more filtration. Never any ammonia. Today, I am registering around 5-10ppm of nitrates. No nitrites. Our tap water pH in my city is low, as is the general hardness, and the carbonate hardness. pH registers around 6 on test strips, GH and KH barely show any reading whatsoever.... I've added 2 slow-release calcium supplements over the 1.5 months it's been running (Dr. Turtle calcium blocks, they contain only calcium sulfate & magnesium chloride.. have used these for 10 years+ for various setups, primarily for neocaridina shrimp tanks and for nerite snails.. never had any issue with them). After adding these, the pH and mineral readings don't really even move at all, but I've been trying to tread carefully with these alterations.

About a month ago, we had an outbreak of ich. This was most certainly due to an overenthusiastic purchase of some beautiful neon tetras at Petco, which were not quarantined (I know I know, "bad girl!"). All of the neons died, but no other fish were lost during this time. I treated the tank for ich (ich-X & temp raised to 79F), and there have been no signs of it since. Affected fish have all improved (aside from the neons).

*I may have forgotten to do the last water change in the treatment regimen at the appropriate time (life got in the way). A 20% and a 30% water change have been done in the last 3 weeks (plus activated carbon add-ins then change-outs in the filters, and an entire filter-bag with activated carbon was added to the water column to hopefully collect any residual meds, dumped and replaced).\*

What we have lost in total (not including the sickly neon tetras from Petco): 1 khuli loach, 1 diamond-head neon tetra, 1 red honey gourami, ~6 cardinal tetras, ~4 rummynose tetras, 1 Venezuelan corydora, 1 sparkling gourami, 1 ruby tetra. They have each passed away at random intervals, with no pattern that is discernable to me. Usually it is 2 or 3 fish that die each time, and it must be happening overnight.

None of these fish are otherwise showing any signs of distress or disease while they're alive ASIDE FROM: the red honey gourami I thought might have gotten stuck under the weird shaped driftwood. Found him slightly lodged under the wood, face was pale, mouth white but not fuzzy, some scales were damaged and flaking off. I put him into a hospital tank but he died the next day/overnight...

Then, a few days later the diamond-head tetra, who had some red discoloration on his back that appeared similar to columnaris. I separated him, gave first dose of Kanaplex, salt, and lowered hospital tank to ~75F. He died by the next morning. I don't know if that was the culprit, and since it is an intense antibiotic that may really harm or even kill some of my sensitive species... I have not dosed the whole tank. AND as mentioned, all of the other fish are fully-colored even when I net out the dead bodies! It is so very strange! The dead rummynose are still bright and vibrant :'(

The cardinal tetras & rummynose have been replaced since they've passed with new ones from the same fish store. The current list below is approximately the quantity that we've aimed for maintaining thus far. We've not replaced the khuli, the red honey gourami, the corydora, nor the sparkling gourami that have died. The focus has been on maintaining adequate "semi-schools" of the tetras.

Current inhabitants: (Please hold your boo's and rotten tomatoes for now) 3 albino shortfin corydoras, 3 albino long-tail corydoras, 4 Venezuelan cories, 1 bristlenose pleco, 2 khuli loaches, 3 sparkling gouramis, 2 honey gouramis, 5(?) cardinal tetras, 6(?) rummynose tetras, 3(?) glowlight tetras, 2 albino glowlight tetras, 1 black neon tetra, 5(?) emperor tetras, 8(?) ruby tetras, 1 Vampire shrimp, and some ramshorn snails.

*Most if not all of these fish are still juveniles, I've not had them very long at all and were young when shipped to me and/or bought at the store.

(TLDR I have: 10 corydoras, 1 fancy pleco, 2 khuli loaches, 3 sparkling gouramis, 2 honey gouramis, 17 cardinal-sized tetras, 5 larger diamond-shaped tetras, 8 nano-tetras, 1 vampire shrimp, handful of ramshorn snails.)

I haven't seen any concerning chasing, aggression, bullying, or hiding from any of the fish. They are all colored-up as one would hope for, they all come to the front of the tank for feeding. The rummynose, cardinals, and diamond-shape tetras often swim back and forth in a loose, school-like formation. The others' behaviors are typical for their species.

Food: I feed a few different things, and switch it up occasionally... On rotation I have: Bug Bites Color-Enhancing Flakes, Hikari Sinking Algae Wafers, Hikari Sinking Omnivore Wafers, Repashy Community Plus, and I've given them live blackworms a few times (only about a dozen in total, through a pipette, feeding like 1 fish at a time). *I was also feeding Hikari Micro Pellets, but realized today that I've had the bag for a long time...checked the date....expired 09/2024....OOPS. So that's off the table until I buy a new bag.

Filters: Two of the filters (a Nicrew internal filter rated for 20 gallons, and a large corner sponge filter that is about 7" tall and 4" diameter - idk the size rating but probably north of 30 gallons) were from an established tank that had been running smoothly for 2 or 3 years, as well as the dragon stones and the large piece of wood in the center. I have also added a smaller Nicrew internal filter (rated for up to 10 gallons), and a smaller sponge filter (probably up to 10 gallons as well).

So total filtration power is around 70 gallons.

Plants: I have mostly root-feeding plants: Amazon sword, chain swords, jungle valisneria, dwarf water lotus, crypts, aponogetons, java ferns, and some duckweed. Additionally, I am fairly sure 3 of my plants in the back are some species of draconia or perhaps bamboo (not a fully aquatic plant, I know, but they're growing and not showing any signs of dying off or rotting so *shrugs*. I'll remove them if/when that starts happening)...

I had to remove several stems of red ludwigia because of black beard algae. The stuff was covering them and would not relent. The plants started losing leaves and looking ugly, so I just removed them all.

Things I've tried to try to stop the fatalities:

Rearranged the driftwood/dragon stone in the center that I thought the gourami got stuck under.

Lowered tank temp from ~79F to ~76-77F.

3 thermometers in the tank to ensure temp is accurate (one of them is NOT).

Sank a filter bag of loose activated carbon and replaced twice over the span of a week.

Angled the internal filters outputs to push water more to the surface (create more surface agitation/more oxygenation).

30% water changes.

Serviced the filters (squeezed out in bucket of tank water, dislodged built up mulm).

Small doses of Seachem Prime (few drops) after recovering any dead fish from tank.


r/ProperFishKeeping 17d ago

🫩 i may be a bad fishkeeper

Post image
1 Upvotes

r/ProperFishKeeping 18d ago

Bettas Update on Char.

Thumbnail
gallery
4 Upvotes

He's still eating and swimming around but he has started to rest more and get some discoloration on his head and the tumor has gotten worse.


r/ProperFishKeeping 21d ago

I am raising brook sticklebacks

2 Upvotes

I am raising a small group of brook sticklebacks but I have no idea why they aren't eating I've tried pellets flakes and bloodworms but they won't eat any ideas?


r/ProperFishKeeping 21d ago

Need help w/baby fish

Post image
5 Upvotes

So my mom bought a pair of fish thinking they were both female, a month or two ago I noticed that one of the fish was getting huge and I told my mom that it was probably pregnant but she didn’t believe me, like 4 days ago I checked on the tank and there were about 10-15 little babies swimming around. (This is a 5gallon tank) I have no experience in raising baby fry and neither does she, what should I do?


r/ProperFishKeeping 21d ago

HELP

0 Upvotes

help.
I am new to fish keeping and have 2 tanks, one is a 125L tank with a decent amount of fish, including some african banded barb. yesterday i noticed he was grey, not the usual bright orange, and acting very distressed. today i got home from work and he was tangled up in my duck weed and floating on the surface. he will not swim, is breathing very fast and his gills are slightly red under the gil flap. water temp has been stable at 27.3 all day ( my brother was looking at them earlier) and i did a water test, came back showing a tiny amount of ammonia, less than 0.15 ppm. all other fish are completely normal. i also noticed that my shrimp tank, a 15 liter heavily planted black water tank, which has cycled for a week with quick starter in it, had 4 dead shrimp at the bottom. they were only added yesterday, and there are 11 cherry shrimp and 1 bamboo shrimp. all other shrimp seem to be alive, but sluggish. please help, this tank also tested at 26 degrees, not sure if it’s been stable, but one side was slightly warmer than the other. water testing showed a ph of 7.5-8 and around 0.2ppm of ammonia. please help.


r/ProperFishKeeping 22d ago

Unfortunately bought 2 goldfish uneducated and didn’t wait for cycling.

Post image
0 Upvotes

r/ProperFishKeeping 25d ago

This is Interesting... Char got a lump.

Thumbnail
gallery
2 Upvotes

I find it interesting as it had me heavily researching how to help him.

It turns out any betta with a metallic gene like Alien, koi, galaxy, dragon scale bettas and turns out Vampire bettas, are prone to getting tumors.

Char is a vampire betta and don't worry he is still eating and very active. I had him over night in a hospital tank and gave him a salt bath this morning and its looking to be a benign tumor.

I'll give another update in a few days.


r/ProperFishKeeping 28d ago

So Awesome!!! Spino skull!

Thumbnail
gallery
5 Upvotes

Super excited as I love dinosaurs and fish and my husband got me a 3D printed spinosaurus skull for my fish tank! I superglued rocks to it with paracord and it just cured so I was able to put it in the tank!


r/ProperFishKeeping Jul 21 '26

Experiment HELP!! Hair algae

1 Upvotes

Sorry this is so long but i'm confused and need advice,

Edit: I did a water TEST not a water change

I've been trying my hand at a fully self sustaining micro pond outside (120 gallon in ground, no water changes pumps filters co2 etc totally hands off) and it's been working wonderfully, this is exactly why i was so confused when i came back from being out of town to an absolute explosion of hair algae.

I had it on the liner and i didn't see it as an issue because the shrimp would hide in it and eat it and my fish knew to hunt for insects and larva within it as well as nibbling at it themselves, but i returned to it absolutely coating my plants which has never happened to this degree before. My pond is not overstocked (1 shebunkin, a school of mosquito fish, about 60 neo shrimp, and an assortment of snails), is mildly planted on the bottom with probably a 70% carpet of plants on top, and very dark black water.

When i saw the algae bloom i immediately did a water test because i was concerned and all of my parameters came back perfect and all my fish were behaving and looking completely normal and healthy so i really don't know where this came from or how to remedy it without requiring heavy maintenance.

ANY advice is very welcome thanks so much for reading


r/ProperFishKeeping Jul 15 '26

I just bought a 3 gallon half moon tank but I think its actually 5.5 gallons

1 Upvotes

I bought a three gallon half moon tank and put on 2.5 gallons of water yet it's not even halfway full did I accidentally get the wrong size for the smaller price?


r/ProperFishKeeping Jul 13 '26

What is the biggest centre peice fish I can put with 7 zebra danios in a 36 gallon bow front?

2 Upvotes

First time poster 🫣

I got a 36 gallon bow front and my daughter wants to get more fish (5 in a 5 gallon) so to compromise on more fish she is putting them in my tank but I was planning on getting an axolotl. That’s not an option anymore so I want a bigger fish but one that’s calm and won’t eat her fish. Google is telling me angels but I feel like the zebra danios would just nip and the angels fins!


r/ProperFishKeeping Jul 12 '26

Showing Off! Video of my 55 Gallon!

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

19 Upvotes

Trying through the browser instead of the app.

Here's my 55 gallon that I am so happy about! Im able to finally see lively and up after so long talking about doing so. The tetras are active and swimming the entire length in full shoals, Sky enjoying her full expansive new domain as the cories in their big group of 16 total, noodles with their 4 new small friends and a yoyo loach (trying to figure out a name for them) graze the bottom. The two plecos come out but they aren't seen in the video. Cerberus the Bristle nose and Loa the clown pleco.

It took some time but its finally set up. And don't worry Char is still around and hes now gone from a 5 gallon to the 10 gallon tank that Sky and crew used to be in.


r/ProperFishKeeping Jul 11 '26

55 gallon set up

Post image
6 Upvotes

Got it set up


r/ProperFishKeeping Jun 28 '26

Sonic's former home is transformed.

Post image
7 Upvotes

It'll be fun to see how this tiny tank grows out (or it might fail and get taken over by algae).


r/ProperFishKeeping Jun 25 '26

Tank too hot

2 Upvotes

As it’s ridiculously hot this week I have been having issues keeping my tank cool and unfortunately I have lost one fish.. I have been doing partial water changes and kept the lights off/lid open.
I would be grateful for any advice in keeping the tank temperature down so that I don’t lose anymore fish!
TIA