Freshwater aquarium advice..

[sarah0403]

I thought i would post this for all the aquarium lovers..such as myself.
I am not an expert and fairly new..but do my best for beloved Parrotfish, Pumpkin who lives with two pacus , Thelma, and Louise.
A few months ago Pumpkin got real sick..I couldn't understand why. i did all the home treatments..melafix ect. I bought the ph kit, and stupid me noticed the PH was very low in the tank. the pacus were fine, but pumpkin has a lot of white cottony "stuff" on her. I thought it was cotton disease, ick, ect..she also had signs of swim bladder disease. she was swimming sideways and was upside down with nose touching rocks constantly. I spent hours on the web looking for answers.googling "cotton like" ect. then one person out of two hundred searches said it was PH burn..the Ph was sooo low, it was actually burning the scales off my fish..it was like burnt skin!! i was, and am so embarrassed..my husband was like.."it's a stupid fish..stop it!!" let it die. no way jose...the advice given was to actually put a tablespoon of baking soda in the tank to raise the PH. ok.. I maybe did this twice in the past three months. the PH is great..and Pumpkin is one freaking happy fish. just thought i would maybe help the next guy..I almost lost pumpkin due to my lack of knowledge. i always do water changes now, no matter what,,and check my water once a week!!!
(pic of pumpkin)

[oceanbreeze]

I'm glad you care enough to research answers and to take great care of your fish. You can also call an exotic veterinarian and they might be able to help you.

Glad pumpkin is back to normal again :)

My father always kept aquariums, still does. I find it so relaxing to just sit and watch the lil fish swimming around all happy as can be, its soothing!!

[arose304]

I know what you mean. We love our fish. I can just sit and watch them for hours. We had a problem after we moved and it took us 2 weeks to get the answer, after changing the water twice in our 75 gallon tank. What we do for our pets, after all they are part of the family:)

[beckymik]

Pumpkin is fighter and is lucky to have you. Thanks for sharing that. We have fish and they have had the fuzz before.