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Looks like a leech. Stick your finger near it and see if it bites you. If it does it's a leech.

If a fish dies I like to do the following to reduce the number of disease organisms in the water and the chance of other fish picking up the issue (assuming there's a contagious disease). Wipe the inside of the glass down with a clean fish sponge. This removes the biofilm on the glass and the...

Normally 2-3 inches. Tape a ruler on the glass at the same level as the gravel and see how big the fish are when they swim past it.

You should be able to run the canister filter on the tote to keep the bacteria alive and the fish alive. You can also put the lid on the tote to help stop it bowing. It might need tape to hold it in place. If you have a canister filter with hoses, you can cut a hole in the middle of the lid to...

The fluffy stuff on top looks dead. The white stuff on the side looks like a fungus not algae. Normally you just take it outside and hose it off. If it comes back you can stick it in hot water for a few seconds to kill it.

There's no need to boil driftwood and it doesn't get rid of tannins much faster than just leaving it to soak in a bucket of water or in the aquarium. What's wrong with the handles on the coverglass?

Cyanobacteria grows rapidly and in a few days large areas can be covered in a blue, black, green, red, pink, brown or purple slime that smells musty/ mouldy. It tends to lift on in sheets and there can be large air bubbles develop under the sheets. If you post a picture of the substrate we can...

Give it 10 years and someone will reclassify them and you will have kept Cories again. That's what happens with cichlids so it will probably happen to catfish too.

Why do you want to add potassium to an aquarium? What type of potassium are the tablets (chloride, sulphate, something else)?

The red streaks in the fish are veins with blood in. When the body and skin is stretched like that it becomes thinner and you can see things you wouldn't normally see. I doubt light is the issue if you have blue green algae on the substrate, that's more from excess nutrients. Most algae isn't a...

How long have you had the fish for? How long did it take to get fat like that? It is either a tumour or a cyst and there's no cure for either. Tumours grow slowly over several months while cysts can cause a fish to bloat up like that in a few days. If the fish has trouble eating or swimming...

swarms of what? If you have mozzie larvae or midges or flies and can catch them, put them in bags in the freezer and use them as food later on.

She will be producing sterile eggs if there's no male present. You could get her a boyfriend and try breeding them properly or just leave her to lay sterile eggs because she wants to become a mummy.

We have temperatures like that and higher during summer. We just use an air-conditioner in the house and cool the house to 30C. The fish age quicker in warm water but there is no other major issues apart from low oxygen level. An airstone bubbling away helps keep oxygen levels high. You need...

Put a heap of smooth rocks in there and hope she lays on them. Do you have a male because I'm pretty sure they are separate sexes.

You could set up a brackish algae tank/ container and move rocks with eggs into it to hatch and grow up. Just get a 40-100 litre container and fill with brackish water (about 1/2 strength seawater) and add some plant fertiliser and an airline to blow bubbles in the water. Put it in a well lit...

correct. yes. Don't rely on plants to remove ammonia. It does a lot of damage to the fish and the longer they have ammonia in the water, the more damage it does to them. Do big daily water changes to remove the ammonia. Make sure any new water is free of chlorine/ chloramine before it's added...

Add some floating plants to the tank to help reduce the nitrates. They will also help your fish feel more secure and spend more time out in the open instead of being worried about being attacked from above. It's not going to happen in an aquarium but fish don't know that. Water Sprite is a good...

If you have filter pads that remove ammonia, they should be removed and replaced with normal sponges because they adsorb ammonia for a short time and then become full. When they are full they need to be recharged or replaced. It's preferable not to have ammonia adsorbing substances in the filter...

Broad spectrum medication is anything that treats bacteria, fungus and protozoan infections. Generally any medication with formaldehyde/ formalin and malachite green will treat most things. They usually have other chemicals in with them too but not always.

Usually caused by internal parasite like worms and or gill flukes. Deworm the fish and see if it improves. Section 3 of the following link tells you about treating intestinal worms in fish. Roundworms are the most common and you can use Levamisole to treat them or if you can find Flubendazole...

What do you want to do with the rescape? If you just want to move rocks, wood and plants around, just move them. Do a gravel clean the day before to reduce the gunk that will be disturbed and end up in the water column. If you want to change the substrate then you can either move the fish into...

The tank shouldn't leak being new so don't worry too much about that. If the power filter is being difficult due to the glass cross member, you could return the tank and get one without that cross member. I don't know why they have 3 cross members on a 3 foot tank, it doesn't need them. The...

Curiosity killed the cat… I've met a few cats that died because of their curiosity. They were ever so tasty :werewolf:

Maybe the fish are captive bred and have never encountered sand before

Congrats on being a high school graduate, well done :) Maybe your dad just didn't want to buy and set up the tank and plant it all on the same day. I used to tell customers to take their new tank home and set it up, then come back in a day or two and grab plants. It was easier for them because...

You can use any salt (sodium chloride) as long as it doesn't have anti-caking agents in it. And sodium chloride is sodium chloride. I doubt that "Hawaiin salt" is any different to normal salt you buy in the supermarket. I would guess it's more a buy our brand because it's more expensive type of...

If you want to add something to the tank, add a broad spectrum medication that treats bacteria, fungus and protozoa. Then monitor for a week and see what happens.

Post a couple more pictures showing the fish from different angles. I want to see if there is a bubble or it's just a white patch. The creamy white film and white patch is excess mucous that is produced by the fish to protect itself from something that has injured it. It only appears to have...

Any idea how big the cut was and how deep it was? How much salt are you adding? You want 2 heaped tablespoons of salt for every 20 litres (5 gallons) of water). You would need the salt in there for a couple of weeks. Salt on its own won't treat this. I don't know if that's part of its brain or...

1 baby discus (under 2 inches long) per 10 gallons is fine but adult discus can reach 10-12 inches in diameter (most only get to 7-8 inches) and a full grown pr need 100 gallons (tank size 4 foot long x 2 foot wide x 2 foot high) minimum.

It happens with lots of fish, not just discus. Birds and plants are another couple of hobbies where you get some and see new ones and want them too. You either need to get more tanks or try to control the urge to get more fish. Good luck with that. :)

No more fish for that tank. It's overstocked as is and the discus are only half grown. As soon as they reach maturity and start breeding, there's going to be big problems.

We had a much ruder version of the man from Nantucket going round back in the 70s. I can't remember it properly but the only line that would be allowed on the forum is the first one.

Still looks deformed and white in the body to me. Your bronze Corydoras appears to have excess mucous on its tail and dorsal fin.

Euthanise the fish because it won't recover. This problem is normally an infection in the brain, a stroke, or a head injury (infection being the most common). If it's caused by a protozoan, bacterial or viral infection in the brain it can spread, and it's usually caused by a dirty tank and...

Your tank isn't too heavily planted and the fish should be fine like that. You do have a lot of Malaysian livebearer (trumpet) snails. Dropsy is not related to the plants in any way. The fish has an internal problem and will probably die.

We used Tubifex worm feeders and put a tablespoon of worms in each one. Any worms that didn't get eaten set up home in the gravel. You would probably only need half that amount for your fish. Can you culture Daphnia, mozzie larvae, white or grindal worms or rotifers? The worms can be cultured...

Can you put that spray on polystyrene foam around the outside of your containers to insulate them. A 4 inch thick layer would insulate them well and cut your heating bill down and prevent the cold air cooling them overnight.

I can't remember when I last saw frost around here. I think I was about 6 or 7 and dad was hiding coloured Easter eggs in the backyard and there was a bit of frost on the lawn when I went out to the loo (outside toilet). No indoor toilets back then.