[Killietalk] nothos and velvet and greenwater oh my

[Kate Breimayer <kate at munat_com>]

Thank you all for the help with my nothos! I have been keeping them in a 
variety of different sized containers and population densities, some in 
bare tanks, some planted, some with lots of gravel and crushed coral... 
all with salt but at the rate of 1/2 tsp per gallon. The common grounds 
are the low salt level, low hardness, and low temperature. All the tanks 
are around 72, hardness of 3... I had most of them with peat in them, 
probably had ph crash happening too. All the fish are being treated with 
flubendazole and a variety of foods is being offered in an attempt to 
get them to eat a more balanced diet. Found they love springtails... I 
am going to try the blacking out of the tank method next, and have added 
crushed coral to raise the hardness and a more appropriate salt level.

The other reason I am trying to get the fish off bbs is I am having 
surgery and someone else will be caring for them, and I have had trouble 
convincing helpful people not to overfeed and that the fish don't need 
the brown shells :) thought I would get them on something that won't 
make such a mess. There are snails in all the tanks but I think they are 
overwhelmed, and some of my fish attack the snails. It's interesting 
that I have all these other fish that don't have velvet (knocking on 
wood) in the same fishroom. Another great lesson in quarantine 
learned-if I hadn't been careful it would be rampant in all my tanks. 
Even in my own fishroom I am learning to be as cautious as with a fish 
bought at the LFS.

There was a thread on greenwater on this list, a person in Portland 
takes a bin made for wrapping paper and fills it with water, puts 
fertilizer and a greenwater start in and sets a shop light directly over 
the water. Says it works like you wouldn't believe.

Thanks everyone for your help,
Kate B
Oly WA