It started a week ago. First was one of seven pencilfish (4 coral reds, 2 elegant and a purple) rescued from Petco between 1/26 and 1/29. I think the next to die was one of the elegants. Didn't think too much of it until some of my established fishing started dying. Over the course of the first few days of this week I lost one of 3 albino bristlenose, 1 of ~10 CPD, all 5 of or 6 cardinal tetras (one I found on the floor (very limited spot to jump out), some others had been all or partially eaten by shrimp), also found one shrimp dried out on top of the glass lid, 1 of 4 peacock gudgeons, and more pencilfish. Tuesday I medicated with the API general cure and yesterday I did the second dose. This morning I found a black neon tetra dead, though this one had a bloated-looking stomach for several weeks but acted fine. I wasn't surprised to see it dead though I thought it had already died and been eaten by shrimp because I hadn't seen it for a few days. Everything else was fine around 10am. This evening I found the last pencilfish in that tank dead at the surface and attached to a powerhead that I only started using once I medicated (also added an airstone at the other end of the aquarium). At the bottom of the same corner was a dead neon. All the fish looked perfectly fine except for the CPD that seem to have some bare spots on it's side and was struggling. I put it in a seperate smaller tank by itself and it was dead the next morning. Initially I though maybe the pencilfish were getting really aggressive at night or something. One female coral red and the purple have been in a seperate 10 gallon with guppies since early this week and they're still alive. I pretty much ruled that out aggressive fish. I've considered bad bloodworm which I fed a little bit of a couple days before deaths started. All the water parameters are perfectly fine. So I figured maybe something internal, thus medicating the way I did. I have a lot more fish in this tank, a 125, that I need to keep alive. Fish from tonight. The neon's left eye looked like it might be bulging a bit.

I went to my dad's in Winchester over the weekend for a Christmas celebration. Since it's just down the street I went to check out the aquarium shop again. I've never seen so many dead fish in a shop. Petcos and PetSmarts have always had better cared for tanks than what I saw. In one tank with puffers, the dead fish in there had been there so long they were entirely encased in fungus. Other fish just weren't looking healthy at all. Corys were noticeably very pale and generally unhealthy looking. After seeing what I saw, I can't ever imagine buying any fish there. Prices not so great on some fish I'm familiar with compared to the pricing at other shops. It seems to me like some shops would be much better off charging less and moving inventory quickly so they actually have something to sell.

I found this plant growing on the surface of a nearby creek. I haven't found a match in any aquatic plant references I've checked. Does anyone know what this is?

Posting this unofficial report just of the sake of sharing about my first ever attempt to breed some egg layers. I didn't know about PVAS at the time and wasn't keeping any notes. I tried my own way of doing things that would replicate warm and stagnant conditions followed by a cool rain. I've never believed a water change is necessary, only a temperature and flow change. I personally think the triggers and water parameters are over-thought, at least for captive-bred fish that don't know any different. I've never had the opportunity to experiment with wild-caught fish. Name:Travis Scientific Name of Fish: Corydoras aeneus Hobby Name of Fish: Bronze cory Method of Reproduction: Egg layer Number and Gender Distribution of Parents: 1 pair Origin of Parents: Mother from a PetCo probably five years ago, maybe even older than that. Father from a PetCo early 2023. Approximate number of eggs: 150+ probably Date of Hatch: Mid-August 2023 Date of Free Swimming If Hatched: Noticed them about a week after the eggs were laid. Approx. Number of Fry at 30 Days: More than 100 Approx. Number of Fry at 60 Days: More than 100 Aquarium Conditions: Primary tank: 55 gallon community tank, plastic plants, black and green gravel, some wood , granite and quart rocks Spawning tank: 30? gallon bow front. Black and white pea gravel, piece of unknown type wood, some Smartweed from my yard that survives in water for quite a while-some had degraded. The tank also had 4 or 5 blue neocaridina shrimp in it and a few local stream caught ramshorn type snails. pH - 7.2-7.4 General Hardness (ppm) - 90 maybe? Average Temperature (F) - 75 degrees Average Nitrate (ppm) - 0 Water Source: Loudoun tap + rain water Water Changes: Pretty much never. 55 probably gets about a 25% change once a year with the substrate completely stirred up. Filtration System: Whisper Power Filter only in the 55. Sponge and Whisper Power Filter in the breeding tank. Additives: none Lighting Type and Timing: Basic aquarium hoods with fluoroescent tubes. 55 is lit for about 10 hours. Food Fed to Parents and How Often: Normally flakes, started feeding frozen blood worms once moved to breeding tank. Food Fed to Fry and How Often: Initially fed on stuff accumulated in the gravel or on the wood + crushed flakes a few times per day Spawning process: Moved pair to spawning tank. Turned off power filter, kept sponge on. Increased temperature to 80F for a few days. Fed them bloodworms for those few days. Left the light off. After those few days I turned off the heater and turned on the power filter. Within a couple days there were probably at least 15 eggs laid on the glass on the front left side. By that time it had cooled to 72F. The power filter is on the back left side and the sponge is at the bottom of the back left. I returned the parents to the 55. I turned on the heater again to get it back up to about 80. Both filter remained on to maintain flow over the eggs. After a few days nothing had hatched so I wasn't sure if they had fertilized. One had started to get fungus. I didn't pay any attention to them for a few more days. The next time I checked they were all gone. I thought maybe snails got to them but then I noticed loads of fry at the bottom in the gravel. At that point I turned off the power filter so they wouldn't getting sucked up. It seemed like some fry may have had issues getting stuck in the gravel. After about a week I removed 20-30 and put them in a small plastic tub just in case. But I didn't maintain that very well and they all died. After about a month and a half most had been growing really well. I moved all the runts to a new 10 gallon hoping they would get more food. Occasionally one would die. The ones dying seemed to maybe have not properly developed properly from the get-go. Besides not growing at the same rate, the tails have a paddle type shape or pinched appearance rather than fanned out. In mid October I moved all into the 55 which had now been changed with all the previous occupants moved to the 125. It had a few pairs of guppies which had been popping out a few fry every few weeks until recently when more than 40 new ones appeared. Since moving them I still occasionally find one of the runts dead. But the others continue to develop really well and are very active. The 55 full of baby corys and guppies Comparison of runt to an average one about 1" long. Some runts, notice the tails

I'm Travis. I found out about PVAS while picking up some albino bristlenoses locally. I've been keeping fish for more than 30 years since I was a kid. I got a bit more active with my fish this year and started restocking my 55 then decided a 125 would be nice. After a few months delay I got my 'new' 125 set up. I found it locally for including the stands, hood, lights and three canister filters. I first got it mostly filled in June and got a couple filters running. Everything seemed ok. Since I was sleeping on my couch that night I shut off the filters after running them for several hours without issue. Well woke up the next morning to squishy carpet and what looked like about 20 less gallons in the tank. I didn't have time to mess with it, had to get to work. So I put down some towels and disconnected the hoses from the canisters which includes closing some ball valves, well they're supposed to right? Got home from work to find about 20 gallons remaining in the tank. Water had soaked through the floor, then the garage ceiling down to the garage floor and out the front. Apparently the ball valves don't seal tightly so the hoses actually siphoned out all that water. I finished draining it and moving the tank and everything on that side of the room so I could peel back the carpet and tear out the pad so I could get everything dried. Thankfully we had several days of dry air and it dried quickly. I decided now was a good time to just remove all the carpet and install something else. I finally found some luxury vinyl tiles at a good price and got enough of that installed to get the tank established again. I added a couple fish from my 55 to make sure all was well eventually added the rest. No issues now. I'm not using the canisters, I got a pair of Whispers like I've used on the other tanks. I've got small schools of neons, cardinals, black neons, green fire tetras, ember tetras, emperor tetras; four peacock gudgeons, some CPDs, 8 cory cats of four species, a farlowella cat and some neocaridina shrimp that are rarely seen. My 55 currently has four adult guppies and probably a dozen small ones now; the three albino bristlenoses until they get a bit bigger and about 100 baby bronze corys.