Long-time lurker, new member, nervous contributor!

[daphnep]

My name is Daphne. I am a 44 year-old computer forensics student.

I have a few aquariums, all live-planted, with Asian or South American rain forest river species. The species that have come to capture my heart have been the gentle kuhli loaches and the armor-plated cats -- hoplos, portholes, callys, and corys. The pets I have that might be of interest to this forum are the following:
- one nine year-old striped Raphael cat who looks like he swallowed a lime (no, he's really that fat);
- a nine year-old spotted Raphael cat;
- a nine year-old hoplo (litterale most likely);
- a few otto cats;
- a nine year-old, "basic" pleco (?);
- two newly-acquired porthole catfish; and
- around 40 basic, bronze corydoras, most of whom I, at one time or another, picked up as eggs and placed into an open-mesh, four by four, basic breeding net that hung inside my 75-gallon Amazon tank.

All of the tanks are live-plant filled and populated with Asian and South American rainforest fish solely.

Why am I joining now? Realistically, I doubt I have anything to donate to the forums, geek-wise; however, I have had great success with breeding corys, and the armor-plated cats in our tank thrive.

My possible contributions? This forum is so packed with information; I do not know if I could contribute anything! If I could, however, I would cite these things: I have had some success in fighting some crazy bacterial infections that most likely originated from the horrors of living in a community that suffers power outages and a private water source that is routinely treated for "coliform" (poop water). The nine year-old hoplo in the big Amazon tank, Monica Lewinksi, has survived two horrific infections that I suspect were flextbacterium. One ate her entire mouth, barbels, and caudal fin. I hand-fed her garlic-soaked red worms and other types of foods and treated her with negative and positive stain antibiotics, all while she lived in a five-gallon tank on our kitchen counter. She and I have been through a great deal together; maybe we could donate something to those who might find themselves facing such an infection in the future. I also have had eight years of experience of "ghetto" (amateur) cory breeding. For what it's worth, I would gladly share what works.here.

My deficits? With living in an area that has a private water source that seems to be routinely infested with "coliform" (poop), and with not having an RO system, I would love to learn from others who could help me protect my catfish (and tanks, in general) from future changes in their environment. More specifically, I would like to learn about medication and treatment for different cats, those who cannot handle salt (corys), or those who do not have scales. I would also like to learn more about this wonderful hobby (love!) in general.

Thank you so much for reading this introduction. I love my cats, and I'd love to be a better guardian for them. I hope I will fit in somewhere and be able to contribute to these forums.

Daph

[unblinded]

Welcome to the forum and thanks for the wonderful introduction. Planet Catfish is a great community site and your contributions will be appreciated, I'm sure. There are both experts & novices on this site & we all go towards making a strong online catfish-loving community. Thanks for sharing your tanks with the rest of us.

[MatsP]

We can always do with some more people adding data to the Cat-eLog (perhaps more in the area of our sister site www.aquaticrepublic.com (AR for short) than here on PC). But I guess you have to stick around a bit before you are "ready" for that. And of course, Jools who is running these sites can always do with $ contributions, to help with the running costs of the servers that the site "lives" on.

As to your problems with coliform bacteria, I'm not sure that the right approach is to treat the tank where the fish is in, but to deal with the original problem before the water gets to the fish. I'm not 100% sure what technologies are most suitable, but this is far from a new problem (when it comes to humans, who are at least as sensitive to these things as fish are) - so any existing solution for humans should be able to work for fish as well. A quick google suggests that you can get Ozone, UV or Chlorine treatment units that kill unwanted [and wanted] bacteria in well-water.

Also not convinced that your statement on corys/catfish not tolerating salt. They are not really any more sensitive to salt than other freshwater fish - sure, they are less tolerant than some livebearers, as these often live in areas that fluctuate between brackish and marine or near marine salinitis (35 ppt salt). Medicinal usage of salt for freshwater fish is typically around 1g / liter = 1 ppt, and will kill for example whitespot, and will work fine with corys (at least just as fine as formaldehyde and malachite green, which are far from free of healthrisks for the fish and the fishkeeper).

--
Mats

[Richard B]

Welcome to PC

[Jools]

Welcome along Daph! Hope we can diminish your nervousness ASAP. Dive in - I hope the site proves useful.

Cheers,

Jools

[daphnep]

Thank you all so much!

MatsP, your comment is greatly received over here. It seems that every time I attempted to use a sodium-inclusive treatment, even at half strength, I have lost corys. There is so much to learn!

I do want an RO system. It does make sense to prevent the problem before it begins. Right now, I have a nice-sized UV sterilizer, but the bulb has gone out, and I am still looking for a replacement. Maybe it is time to search harder.

It is just very nice to have finally joined this forum. I feel better already.

[Valb68]

HI Daph I see you are located in the Pacific Northwest, I am located in the Inland Northwest along the Idaho Washington border. Sorry to hear you are struggling with water quality...yuck. Gosh I would think even a holding tank with chlorine would be helpful, also I would seriously take up rain collection as rain is most available here in the Pacific Northwest. I'm betting you could store some serious rain water Welcome to the forum, I'm relatively new myself, think I joined in April or May of this year