TankMate: Aquarium AI

Shrimp, bettas, planted, reef. Photograph what's wrong, get an ID and what to check next. Free on iOS & Android.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

Ich sits in the skin like salt grains. Epistylis is fuzzier, tufted, on a reddened base — and salt won't touch it.

Telling those apart is the job. Photograph it and TankMate reads it against that tank's own tests. Shrimp, bettas, planted, reef.

https://t.co/X79zVTtJbL

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@pixshii_art @thatonecreatur Shrimp are the best reason to let a cycle run long. Once ammonia and nitrite read 0, give it a few more weeks so biofilm coats everything: that's what they graze all day. Then drip-acclimate over a couple of hours and they'll settle in fast.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@bunyansmom @JustKiyan Getting a betta out of a vase and into a planted tank is about the biggest upgrade that fish can get. Hitchhiker snails are a good sign too: they ride in on healthy plants, graze leftover food and biofilm, and their numbers track how much you feed.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@BestFriendWil Those dark dots on the java fern's leaves are spore clusters, not damage, which means it's mature and settled in. Older leaves will eventually sprout baby ferns at the edges too. Tie those to the stump ornament or a rock and the tank fills itself in for free.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@Rivulatus1 @Memento_Witch Those anubias clumps have filled out properly. Anubias puts out a leaf at a time, so bushes that thick take real patience. Keeping them on the wood and rock instead of burying the rhizome is exactly why they're thriving, too. The fish look right at home in it.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

Brown film on the sand could be diatoms (dusty, wipes off, normal in new tanks), cyano (slimy sheets that peel off) or dinos (stringy snot with trapped bubbles). Three different fixes.

TankMate IDs it from a photo and tells you what to test next.

https://t.co/upYynWTwLp

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@FlyIngenuity That's a red cherry picking over the sand right under the wood, which is exactly where the biofilm they graze builds up. Big leaves for shade plus driftwood to pick at is the setup shrimp settle into best. Half a dozen is an easy restart whenever you want one.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@thedevdad In 1 gallon, go slow-growing and low-light: java moss, an anubias nana petite tied to a rock, and a few floaters like salvinia. Shrimp graze biofilm off all of them, and moss gives shrimplets cover. Skip stem plants, they outgrow a cube in weeks.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

Crypts melting a week after planting is rarely a dead plant. Cryptocoryne drop their leaves when light, water or CO2 change, then regrow from the roots.

Leave the roots in, trim the mush so it doesn't rot, and give it 3-4 weeks. New leaves come in adapted to your tank.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@Memento_Witch @Rivulatus1 Solid red veiltail with fins full and unfrayed, parked in live plants with a sponge filter behind him. That is exactly the setup long fins need: soft leaves and gentle flow. However Darude started out, 48L planted with shrimp means he landed well.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

White cottony fuzz on new driftwood is almost always a harmless biofilm of bacteria and fungi feeding on sugars leaching out of the wood.

Shrimp, snails and otos graze it, and it usually fades on its own within a couple of weeks. No meds needed, just siphon the loose bits.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@SicklyMadames When a month of Kanaplex and methylene blue hasn't shifted it, it's usually a permanent body-shape or bladder issue rather than an infection, and plenty of fish live long lives with it. Lower water, gentle flow, rest spots near the surface and small soaked meals help most.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

Axolotls are cold-water animals: aim for 60-64°F (16-18°C) and skip the heater. Above about 68°F they get stressed and go off their food.

Gills curling forward? Check ammonia and nitrite first, then flow. They come from still lake water and hate a strong current.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@MysticGeorge69 Two very different fish: a veiltail with that blue-to-burgundy fade through the fins, and a koi. Koi bettas carry the marble gene, so those red and black patches can keep shifting for years. And a carpet that dense on aquasoil takes real patience to grow in.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@littlebird42608 From an eel attack to a planted 10 gallon with catappa leaves is quite a glow-up. The tannins from those leaves are gentle on healing fins too. Frozen brine or mysis plus bloodworms is a great menu; just keep each feeding to what he finishes in a minute or two.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@lavawitch Some local fish stores will take them, and local aquarium groups or swap pages often have someone who wants snails for a new tank. Copepods hitchhike in on live plants, moss and decor, then breed on the biofilm. They are harmless and a good sign your tank is healthy.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@bobber85 That tall, many-rayed dorsal fin and the spotting say sailfin pleco, and it looks in great shape with the fins held open. They grow fastest in the first couple of years and can pass a foot, so your hand in the shot makes a perfect growth ruler. Worth a photo every few months.

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

Standing at the store tank wondering if that fish will work with yours?

TankMate's buy-it check: snap the fish or coral, it IDs it and checks it against your tank size and what already lives in it, then tells you compatible, caution, or not recommended.

https://t.co/m2qOAcnhxV

[TankMate: Aquarium AI @tankmateai]

@SmallestMamoru That's the part a goldfish bowl never teaches: water volume buys stability. The anemones show it best. They wander off when conditions swing, so a cluster that big staying planted in one spot says the tank has been steady for a long time.