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I have acquired some Catappa leaves to soften my aquarium water. What should I do to prepare them for use in the fish tank beforehand? Are there any risks in using them assuming they are not overdosed?

If the remaining fish have been pecking at the dead fish I think this is most probably a bacterial infection. Are there any symptoms of pop-eye at all?

This thread follows on from an earlier thread in which some “aquarium” bogwood was bought from a LFS which lead to fish gasping. I use the term aquarium loosely as it was tantamount to dropping some kind of poison in the tank. Since creating that thread 3 of my smallest juvenile discus have...

Its ultimately up to you what you choose to do. If there is an identifiable disease like fin rot I would personally treat it with medication on top of water changes.

Fin rot is always preceded by a build of bacteria or direct contact with a dead fish. If you can do several daily water changes for 2-3 days and add in anti-bacterial (Waterlife Myxazin) for the fin rot you should be back on track very quickly.

I think it is illegal to just dump fish in a canal and also very immoral. Hopefully he stops keeping fish if they are disposable items to him.

Im not too sure about whether Ich exists all the time. The most common thing I have experienced with sensitive fish like GBR's, Bolivians and Discus is that fast water movement that transports a toxin within it can cause them to scrape themselves off of surfaces, i.e. incoming water that...

I know the tannins are harmless. The point I was making was that if tannins have leeched out there are probably more dangerous things that have leeched out which are not visible.

I would suggest getting some spare tanks to deal with the situation in the way i mentioned. When you have plants there is always the possibility that they will be carrying some nasty parasites so I think the best thing to do is have temporary holding tank for the snails. You could actually keep...

I have done a large 80% water change and i noticed the Bolivian ram has a slower gill rate and its not opening its mouth (as though gasping) and it is looking for food more actively since the water change. Also as I was filling the tank up I noticed that the Ram went onto its side to rub itself...

I have noticed that some of the smaller fish still have a faster respiratory rate (the smaller Discus and the Bolivian Ram). I am doing another water change now. I have noticed that the water is tinged brown from the removed piece of dogwood so can only presume that there is something else that...

If your KH is at 0-1 your tank will have a very unstable pH and is likely to have a pH crash that will wipe out all of the fish. You should look to add a small amount of calcium carbonate to your aquarium water to boost the KH. I would not recommend doing large water changes unless you know...

Can you source a hospital tank for the fish and treat them in there? You could perhaps get a 3rd tank for the snails too. You could then put a Ich treatment into the main tank like Waterlife Protozin which will not kill the plants.

It seems like certain woods can be sold at pet stores that directly contribute to fish death based on what you are saying. If you are also saying that reputable fish stores have no way of knowing if a piece of wood is toxic it seems to me very careless and almost spiteful to treat a customer...

Yes there is an external filtration unit with pump in use. The aquarium has been in use with this for 6 years and there has been no slowing down of the pump so there is the same amount of water surface agitation bringing oxygen in. It is a solid piece of wood and i know it can lower pH so I...

I bought a large 10kg piece of bogwood recently and placed it into my 300 litre Discus aquarium. Since placing it in there all of the fish have had a faster gill rate and the smaller Discus have been gasping at the surface. I responded by turning the c02 off, doing a 20% water change and turning...

By complete I mean 100% water changes in a separate aquarium. If you cant use another aquarium you could always keep it in the main tank but as it is a deep wound you would need to prioritise larger daily water changes (around 70%) to keep the wound cleaner. The best option is a separate tank...

I have never had any issues with Myxazin not being effective against bacterial issues, and an open wound is going to attract a lot of bacterial. So I recommend using specifically Myxazin in conjunction with the NT Labs Paramedic kit. You said the wound is getting worse so it needs to be cleaned...

There is a lot of evidence out there that Prime actually converts toxic ammonia into a different compound other than ammonium since temperature and pH are determinants of the ratio of toxic NH3 and non-toxic NH4. The effect of this is a stall since the beneficial filter bacteria will have no...

Hole in the side disease is a fancy word for an ulcer which I outlined in my original reply. I'm sorry you feel annoyed. I suggest you grab a NT Labs paramedic kit to clean the wound with an ulcer swab and seal the wound. The fish will need a temporary holding tank which is kept clean with...

Im of the opinion that it is an internal bacterial infection so advised accordingly. It is not going to be possible to know if this is the case 100% without the OP sending the fish to a vet. The OP has indicated 0 readings for ammoni, nitrite and nitrate so it is not a nitrogen cycle issue. My...

Seachem prime will halt the natural nitrogen cycle so dont use that; just rely on water changes to remove ammonia. Seeded filter media needs time to adapt to the new water conditions; I once started a fish less cycle in a tank with long established pond filtration media and what I observed was a...

The mark on the body looks like some sort of ulcer that is healing. Is it spreading or getting smaller? Generally red marks indicate irritation from ammonia, nitrite, pH and rarely nitrate. What are your ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and pH readings? Are the fish eating?

If you normally do a daily water change but now don’t I would guess that extra detritus and rotten food has built up in the filter which the fish are not accustomed to. From experience, if fish are not eating while the ammonia and nitrite is 0 ppm, they usually have an internal bacterial...

It could be that the rearrangement kicked up some trapped toxic gas. Have you considered doing 40-50% water change to see if that helps? Most commonly a fish will scrape itself off of objects if anything toxic was released so perhaps look out for this.

It’s a bit too big to be ich as that is literally like a grain of salt. The picture shows a spot that is slightly bigger and not as circular as it ought to be if it was ich.

I dont think you have to worry about old tank syndrome because your nitrate rose 10 ppm in a week. This build up of nitrates is quite normal. I would attribute old tank syndrome to a tank that has been neglected in terms of its water changes which has caused the KH to become depleted over time...

I think chemicals like formaldehyde, malachite green and copper sulphate have their uses for severe infections, like the illness that caused the Corydoras to die or a positive detection for gill flukes. When dosed correctly it is poisonous to the disease organism, not the fish. I do not think...

The water movement at the surface is probably killing it. Mine grows to the surface then continues growing horizontally across the length of the tank. It is safe to let it do this but be mindful of food getting trapped and rotting amongst it.

Around 30-40% of the water is exchanged weekly.

I may be wrong but I didn’t think Corydoras tolerated salt very well?

You could put them in a tank at any point providing it has healthy, growing plants since the plants will remove any ammonia or nitrates before they become a problem. If you have ammonia and very high nitrate already present then you wouldn’t want to put GBR’s in there. They take a lot of...

My tank has no substrate so my vallisneria is plonked on top of bogwood or ceramic pots and has grown up to 120cm in these conditions. When I used to do a water change with a bucket I would have to put the fresh dechlorinated water in the opposite side of the tank of where the Vallis was...

Ok that is great to know. I have a breeding pair of Discus and I am just thinking of ways to induce them to spawn again. I figured I would try the addition of cattapa leaves but didn’t want to turn the vallisneria to mush!

German Blue Ram. It has been my solid favourite since I first came across them in 2008.

I have some Vallisneria in my aquarium and I’m aware that certain conditions can cause this plant to die, including temperatures over 29 degrees C and the addition of things like ”liquid” co2 products. Does anybody know if the addition of Catappa leaves would kill the plant?

It looks like staghorn algae. If you get some liquid c02 and spot-dose the affected area with a syringe it will die back. The long-term prevention for algae is to plant densely, provide dissolved co2 or liquid co2 and make sure your macro-nutrients (potassium nitrate and monopotassium...

If the fish is still eating I would just discontinue using the pH balancer and up the water changes to something like 40% weekly in order to remove toxins and the pH balancer that might be causing a reaction. Fish do lose scales on occasion so just make sure the area where the scales have...

Has the white dot got any bigger or is it healing? This could just be damage to the scales that has occurred due to flashing. I recommend you treat the tank for body flukes with Waterlife Sterazin or a similar treatment as this stops flashing. My tank had flukes 3-4 days ago and having dosed...

Hard to say without a picture. First thing that comes to mind is black beard algae that has then died.