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I have a similar sized tank.   At the moment, I have a shoal of each of cardinal tetra, cherry barbs and pentazona barbs, along with copious amounts of cherry shrimp. It makes for a very busy tank, always lots going on.   If I were starting again, and had soft water, I would lose one of the...

Excellent news!

  No, ammonia is NH3, NO3 is nitrate.   Without an ammonia figure, it's difficult to be sure, but with a nitrate figure that high, it would appear that the nitrogen cycle is established. But that all depends on the accuracy of the strips.     What he said.     Seriously? I'd be looking to go to...

  AIUI, if the reagents are not shaken correctly, the test would show less than the correct amount, rather than more.     Sadly, yes it is this slow. Keep going with it, when we start to see the nitrite falling, we're nearly there. I think Byron said it a while back, once the nitrite gets down...

There's a few possibilities for the problem that I can see:-   1) Chlorine burn 2) Ammonia burn - if you've not been dechlorinating your water, it may well be that your filter has not had a chance to grow the beneficial bacteria it needs. 3) The betta - some bettas can't tell the difference...

  Hey, I like any excuse to eat Mexican. OK, so 5th May for Mexican, 4th July for a burger, 14th July for moules mariniere. When's my excuse for Chinese? And Thai? And Indian? Ooh, and Italian?

AIUI, the shrimplets require brackish water, and as they mature into subadults, they need to come back into fresh.   The problem with doing it is that, in the wild, the shrimplets are born in fresh, and are washed downstream into brackish, and then move themselves back upstream when they are big...

I wouldn't want to recommend any medication at this stage, as I don't know what's causing the issue.   If you're off to the LFS anyway, I would suggest you buy a liquid-drop test kit - I'm assuming that since you didn't post up the water stats that I asked for, it's because you don't have the...

That was a joke.  The original image posted showed (still does for me) a warning about 'stealing' images, probably due to the linking method used.     Interesting that you still don't see the image - must be something within your browser, I assume, as the rest of us see the photo.

We have a few issues with people talking about specific companies. If done incorrectly, it can land the forum in legal trouble (libel, specifically). Therefore, we have developed a specific format for reviews, which can be found in our Review section. I have just checked, and there doesn't...

Is there any way you can take a photo of it, please?   Also, can you do a water test, and post current stats for ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH. Thanks.

  FWIW, we've had quite a few anecdotal posts of similar behaviour between cories on the forum over the years.

Mollies with a single swollen eye seems to be very common, when I dabbled with mollies when I was first starting out, I think every single one that I had suffered from it and one time or another - keep the water clean and it goes away pretty quickly.

  Indeed, originally classified as a rasbora when first discovered, but then it, along with some other species, were reclassified as danios. Some shops do indeed still label them as Galaxy Rasbora   Not to be confused with the Pearl Danio (Danio Albolineatus) and others which prefer cooler...

Yeah, not good to do that. It gets really confusing with who said what, when and why. Just as a precaution, I'm locking this.

  You've gone for Star Wars day, then. I personally wouldn't argue with the venerable Mr Venter. He has tons of historical data to go on.   What's the big deal with May 5th?

Hi there, almost certainly the red gills is due to ammonia poisoning.   The fact that you are doing a daily water change is good. Given that it's a large fish in a small tank, I would suggest that you test water twice a day, and see what it's like 12 hours after the last water change. Follow the...

      See what I mean! :D

I'm moving this topic to the Emergency section.

That's fine.   However, since all your fish are "on holiday", you need to get some bottled ammonia (I got mine from Homebase, in the Household Cleaning" section, and follow the instructions in the FIshless Cycle thread that was referenced earlier in the thread. If you have already got the gunk...

  D'oh!!!! I should have realised that.

Sorry, Mr V., I'm totally not on your wavelength at all - 21 to go of what?

Don't rely on the gravid spot to indicate impending fry - is the fish still very fat?

Livebearers are horrendously bad parents, even the females will drop a fry, then turn round straight away and eat it. That's why they have so many.   I personally wouldn't put your females in a breeding net, they will be stressed, and this could lead to problems with the fry, and possibly even...

south/east wales i know there's a sea life place in Birmingham but not sure how good it is      It's quite good, as I understand it.    There's one in Bristol, at the harbour, which won't be that far from you.

  Not really, because you can seed a filter when doing a fishless or fish-in cycle. Seeding drops you into the process part of the way through, rather than at square one, so it's really a case of following the same process as per the fishless or fish-in stickies that we've got.

Right, OK, so the small tank no longer has fish in it, sorry, I obviously got confused.   There's no point putting the water from the small tank in there, any bacteria that formed would be on hard surfaces, not in the water.   Since there are fish in the big tank, don't put bottled ammonia in at...

The small tank has fish in it, so that's the ammonia source.   If you don't yet have fish in the larger tank, then there's another thread at the top, about fishless cycling, which uses bottled ammonia, which you can get at Homebase.   With regard to the test kit, the one most people use is...

  Where do you live?

First off, Mike, don't cry. You aren't the first person to have this happen, and you won't be the last. The good news is that you are in the right place.   Second off, let's tell you what the nitrogen cycle is.   Fish produce ammonia, as part of their respiration, and in other bodily waste. In...

  It could be a lot of things - it could be a gravid female, it could be bloated, it could be an internal parasitic infection, it could be a tumour, etc, etc.     Without seeing a photo of the fish, I think it's impossible to say which of the various possible causes is any more likely than any...

I've never used APS kit, as I've seen mixed reviews - some say it's really good, others have had issues with seals leaking.   FWIW, I use Aquamanta from Maidenheads, nice and quiet, been running it two years and more and had no issues. (And thanks for reminding me, I haven't cleaned it months!)

  What you haven't given us is an ammonia reading, which makes me suspect that you have got the paper test strips. These are OK as a general guide for when your tank is fully cycled, but in a fish-in cycling situation (which I reckon you are), they aren't really accurate enough.   What you are...

I personally don't have carbon in my filter at all.   As you are aware, carbon needs changing every few weeks, else it loses its efficacy. Its primary use is to remove heavy metal pollutants. However, a decent dechlorinator (and a lot of rubbish ones ;) ) will remove low concentrations of those...

I always steal a couple of peas from the microwave before dinner, de-shell, and mash under the back of a fork. Never lasts long.

Is that more commission for you, TTA? ;)

Your only other realistic option is to increase your water change frequency, to keep it closer to the 25-30ppm. You don't need it at 0ppm.

  No, he's way off on that one.

I agree with what Goat said. Guppies are a little active for a 10gal tank too.   What temperature have you got the water at? The reason I ask is that goldfish are coldwater while guppies are tropical. I would strongly suggest that you take the goldfish back to the shop, which will reduce the...

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