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Mystery solved. Apparently it's been my pH the whole time--I'm a little concerned that LFS didn't call me on that the first time I brought in a water sample . . . Anyways. Huge water change and "pH down," and I'm on my way to being able to keep LIVE fish!

It's just the last little guy left. But he's not showing any symptoms yet. I--er--really shouldn't do anything drastic to him unless he starts going red and bobbing around like an unbalanced balloon, right?

Fourth one on his way out. Interesting though, this time the redness seems to be concentrated on his head (at the top), but of course I can only see the redness where he's got the "salt" patches in his "salt and pepper" design. Also, his back fin is partially torn and individual fibers are...

Thanks for the replies, guys. I've got the API test kits. And as much as it's possible that I'm not shaking the bottles hard enough or whatnot beforehand, I took the first dead fish into the LFS along with a cup of my tank water, and THEY also tested it all for me and found it clean. I wish it...

Size of tank: 10 gallons Fish: down to two peppered cories, originally five Ammonia-0 ppm Nitrite- 0 ppm Nitrate- 30 ppm pH- 8.5 I cycled my tank for two months fishlessly. The stats were excellent and stayed constant for a week, so I went ahead and got 5 peppered cories. Three days later, the...

Thanks, Harlequins--but I DID ask in the emergency section and NOBODY has answered. :( I just wish I knew what was causing this . . .

Red fish was dead this morning. Once they turn red and stop being able to swim, it looks like they tend to go downhill pretty fast. :( I think the other fish are okay. Although I can't find my smaller guy this morning, so I hope he's not lurking in the back of the tank somewhere, feeling poorly...

I have a new cory problem. I'm starting to be worried that whatever's wrong with this cory, it might be contagious, since he was a replacement for the last fish that the LFS guy said sounded like had a swim bladder problem. I have four Peppered cories, three of which I bought six days ago...

Huh. I think I'd better repost this.

Thank you all, everyone. The LFS I patronize had C. paleatus, which is supposed to be on the smaller side of cories. However, now I have a new cory problem. I'm starting to be worried that whatever's wrong with this cory, it might be contagious. I now have four Peppered cories which I bought...

Request Help Tank size: 10 gallon pH: 8.5 ammonia: 0 nitrite: 0 nitrate: 30 tank temp: 76 F Fish Symptoms (include full description including lesion, color, location, fish behavior): I have four Peppered cories which I bought six days ago. One of them, when I got him, wasn't behaving quite...

Thanks, all. I don't think my LFS has pygmies . . . but they've got peppered cories, and I like those. So I think I'll get four of those guys and see how it goes. :D

Hi! I'm about to stock my newly cycled 10 gallon tank, and I was wondering 1) The minimum number of cories needed for the cories to be happy in a tank (have heard ranges from 1-6) 2) If mixed shoals are discouraged (I like the idea of lots of different colors of cories) 3) The smallest kinds...

Guppies. And a dwarf gourami. :) I like the look of emerald cories, but they get big too, huh? Any thoughts on a mixed cory shoal? Or would that just be mean?

So I'm *finally* getting my fish after cycling, and I just wanted to clarify the social-ness of cory cats. I've got a 10 gallon tank, so I don't have a whole lotta space for loads of fish, and I don't want to overstock. On the other hand, I don't want my cory cats to be lonely. I've read that...

Yeah, those neons sound like trouble in a new tank. They're so pretty, though, so I'm willing to wait 'til it's safe to add 'em. I've heard that cardinals are a little more hardy, but I haven't had this confirmed. What do ya'll think?

Fabulous. You guys are terrific; I especially appreciate the steps from Curiosity101. I *hope* I would have remembered to turn everything off beforehand, but . . . it's good to be sure. I'm planning on getting my first few fish this week. Do ya'll think guppies will be alright in a newly cycled...

So I got my new nitrite testing kit; been testing for a week with consistent 12 hour drops to 0 ppm in nitrite. Ammonia's good. Nitrite's good. So now I'm cycled, right? And I can have fish? Before I add them, I guess I'm supposed to do a water change. Is that right? I kinda feel like there are...

Thank you, all. I'll just keep on dosing 'til my test turns up. Thanks lots!

So I've been cycling for five weeks. I hit the ammonia spike, passed it, hit the nitrite spike, and now I'm nearly at the end. I'm consistently processing my nitrite levels to 0.75 ppm in 12 hours. But it's lingering now, and I just used up my last bit of nitrite test this morning. I've been...

Cool. Well those plants can eat all the nitrate they want. Just as long as they leave the nitrite for my bacteria. :D

Ha, I guess you're right; I sort of expected things to move about in a semi-linear fashion. But all this dropping-to-zero nonsense is still confusing to me, since from the fishless cycle logs I've been watching get posted, this doesn't seem to happen much. A timer to play with the lights sounds...

Always appreciate your input, WD. I may have written the wattage wrong up there--they're two 10w bulbs for a total of 20w. I've had a bit of algae, but it's not insane. Of course, I also have snails and planeria that are enjoying it/the things that live in it, so that might be keeping it down a...

Kat, that's a very wise suggestion. And I don't think the levels are off the chart for either of them . . . I've had off-the-chart Nitrite; it just looks real pink. It's white when it's zero. And now, 12 hours later, the numbers are higher than zero again! I guess I'll see what happens at the...

Heh. I'm using API for ammonia, but it's :blush: a test trip Nitrate/nitrite test. However, it seems to be pretty precise--at least, when the values were definitely zero (like at the beginning), I saw zero. This morning at the 12-hour mark, nitrIte is up to 8 ppm and nitrAte is 40 ppm.

I know the chart's a little hard to read; I can't seem to get it to let me fix it. Today, my nitrIte was at 1 ppm and my nitrAte was at 0 ppm! It's the plants, right? But NOW how am I supposed to tell who's getting my nitrite? Or do I just keep on measuring and when nitrite goes to 0 in 12...

Okay! Twenty days of cycling. I just wanna make sure I'm on track; I'll keep updating so I can get help when I get flummoxed, which seems to happen a lot as I cycle. I'm a little confused right now because my nitrAtes are dropping along with the nitrites. I do have a couple of plants--they eat...

I read in a Tips and Tricks for quick cycling that the bacteria may need micronutrients in order to divide at their fastest. As a biochem major, I could see this. It may simply take them longer to up the colony numbers if they can't grow as quickly. The site recommended adding a tiny crushed...

Oh. :blush: Why would it drop so nice and quickly to begin with and then just stop? Did my bacteria get overwhelmed? :D

I started fishless cycling my tank 12 days ago. From 5 ppm, the ammonia level dropped to 2 ppm in a week--where it's been lingering since then. For the past 5 days, the ammonia has been stuck firmly at 2 ppm. Shouldn't it be following the earlier curve? What would make it stop? Tank setup: 10...

So 10 days ago I added 5 ppm of ammonia to the tank and the levels were dropping nicely--but now it's been stuck between 1-2 ppm for the past5 days. Nitrates and Nitrites at zero. pH is at 8.5--is that too high? I've got a few plants in there, as mentioned earlier. But they shouldn't have...

Greyscale, is this what your planeria looked like? Because, actually, these might be them. That'd be alright; they're not parasitic, right?

Thanks for that link, AstonN24vantage. Unfortunately, I didn't see anything in there that quite resembled these wormy guys. Not a hydra, thankfully. Too mobile and not enough appendages. And I've seen planaria before and I thought they were a bit thicker than these stringy guys. Here's a...

It is official. I have the creepiest tank ever. It's a fishless cycling 10 gallon aquarium set at 82 degrees F with several live plants that must have transferred the snail eggs and creepy worms. Substrate is half gravel, half sand. My piece of driftwood is covered in white fungus and long...

:D All the fish that eat snails would have to be added after my tank stops cycling; it's knee-deep in ammonia right now. I don't suppose pet stores let you "borrow" fish for snail problems and then return them, do they?

Okay. I guess I don't technically mind HAVING them. But they mustn't eat my plants. Will they eat my algae? I've just recently noticed white flecks on the sides of the glass--please tell me that's just more algae and not billions of snail eggs . . .

So I'm just a week into my first fishless cycle ever. I bought a few plants and stuck them in the tank--checked 'em for snails but obviously not carefully enough. I also have creepy white algae/fungus/gross stuff growing on my driftwood. I don't want the snails to eat my plants. But should I...