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The app looks overly complicated. You should aim for around 7 hours of light in order to reduce algal growth however bits of brown algae are quite common and cannot really be avoided completely.

The aquarium is 300 litres with 6 Discus and 1 Bolivian Ram. 2 Discus are 15cm long, 1 is 10cm and the latest 3x additions are all 5cm long. The Bolivian Ram is 7cm long so quite a large fish. The one 5cm Discus that is separating will often go to the other 5cm Discus and they seem to try and...

The eye of the sick fish seems to be protuding slightly. I would guess that it has consumed something rotten from the substrate and developed a bit of a bacterial infection. If I were you I would take it out the aquarium and put it into a separate new tank with no substrate for 24 hours so it...

Any thoughts?

The white spot I described was actually a piece of food which has since dropped off.

two days ago I added 3x 5cm Discus to my aquarium. 2 of the 3 are squabbling with each other and generally hanging around with the other 3x Discus I have. However, one is separating itself and deliberately making an effort to hide behind filtration components (internal pipe) and bog wood. It is...

I suppose the reasoning behind needing veterinary authorisation comes down to the idea that a registered vet is the most knowledgable person that can preempt how a drug will react when it has been administered so that an animal does not suffer or receive something that is inappropriate for the...

I have recently learned about the conditions and equipment needed to hatch brineshrimp eggs and have successfully raised some baby brineshrimp. What I’m now unsure of is how to grow them into adults. Am I correct in thinking that the adults will grow well in a body of cold aerated saltwater? Can...

Having looked at the photographs I can’t pick out anything that is unusual about its appearance. It perhaps looks slightly under weight relative to the other jet black fish. Is the fish eating?

I used to use the Horiba range of digital meters which were very accurate. I would suggest not trying to micro-manage parameters though; often people buying these digital meters are trying to micro manage nitrates or pH when there is really no need.

I have a 300 litre freshwater aquarium. What LPH flow rate should I be aiming for to ensure a healthy environment for the fish?

It looks like a swimbladder problem which can be caused by a bacterial infection or too low a temperature. My pond koi once had a severe case of swim bladder during the winter; it lost its balance completely. I brought it into the kitchen in a small tank and warmed its water up and treated the...

Judging from the size of the other fish and the fact that the Oscar is not moving towards them, I would say that some bullying as previously caused it to become stressed and injured on the back fin. Make sure the Oscar is in a high flow aquarium, has a pH of around 7.2 and a temperature no...

I see that in that YouTube video that the person placed the brineshrimp in a much larger container. I’m guessing that once brineshrimp have hatched they can survive in very cold salt water, rather than the 26-27 degrees C and light source that is needed for their hatching? Presumably I could...

I’ve bought a 500ml brineshrimp hatchery, brineshrimp eggs, desk lamp that emits enough heat, salt, air pump, spirulina powder and bicarbonate of soda. Is it possible to grow the brineshrimp to an adult size in the small container and sustain them on the spirulina powder there? Any advice on...

Where there is a large bump on the underside of a Neon Tetra this can point to a digestive problem. If you feed them bloodworm for instance, the head of the bloodworm can often get stuck in a fishes intestines. I would recommend cooking some peas and dropping small amounts of the peas internal...

When the fish was in the smaller tank it both hid and didn’t hide behind things as the days went by. Now its back in the main tank the male discus keeps shaking his head and staring at the breeding cones and will often push her towards the cones so I think this is mating behaviour rather than...

The Fluval range of heaters are very reliable and can accommodate large aquariums. There is a small screen on the front of them that turns blue if the water is cooler than the set heater temperature and which turns red if the water is warmer than the set temperature. This effectively removes the...

I’ve never experienced any issues with the API nitrate testing kit. Double check that it is not out of date and double check you are not using any filter media or substrate that is classed as an ammonia and nitrate remover as all these factors could affect accuracy. It sounds like something in...

Thank you for the detailed responses Colin et al. For now I have bought some live brineshrimp from a person who says he cultivates them in RO water and that “hes never had any problems”. If it’s not much trouble ill grow my own just for that extra peace of mind of knowing what they have come...

At the moment I feed frozen bloodworm and I have noticed that fish health can sometimes go down hill after feeding them to small fish like German blue rams and Black neon tetras. It seems to get stuck in their intestines. It's nice to see that someone else has made a link between them and...

Do live brineshrimp carry any diseases? Is it possible to get a disease-free guarantee on them if they do carry diseases?

Update: So luckily the live brineshrimp turned up quickly in the post. I placed them in the tank and she was chasing and eating them. She eat about 12. This occurred in the hospital tank where the temperature was 35 degrees C with 4 tablespoons of aquarium salt in 20 litres of water. Water was...

Not sure who the question is directed at but I would personally use Myxazin as a general cure based on me experiencing it to be very effective against things like body/fin rot and cloudy eye. It does carry a carcinogen warning on the bottle so I'd say be mindful of the cost vs benefit. From...

I haven't tried salt for treating it or the other medication. I have tried Flubendazole and that was absolutely useless. I know Sterazin P to be 100% effective against gill flukes. If I suspect gill flukes I'll always use Sterazin, or anything that is proven to be 100% effective immediately to...

The positive ammonia reading will be causing all of your issues. You should do a 100% water change every time that you see the presence of ammonia as a matter of priority. It could be that bits of the deceased fish are rotting within the filter system which may explain the consistent positive...

I don't think you can control everything with just those things. If you took that approach with gill flukes for instance you'd be looking at a total wipe out of your stock over a short space of time.

There are no pet stores that sell live food near me though I have ordered some live brine shrimp online. It looks like the order will only arrive in January due to covid-related courier delays. I offered some prawn pieces and the female didn't eat them though the others kept eating and then...

The betta seems to have a cloudy eye which suggests a dirty environment, i cannot see the other symptoms you mention that well. Given that you have water testing strips I would not trust that they are giving you correct readings; strip tests are notorious for being inaccurate. If you can get an...

I think the approach to disease definitely should be water changes but in some cases chemicals are needed such as where gill or body flukes are clearly evident in the context of having non-toxic water or where positive identification can be achieved from an inspection, i.e. fins rotting away...

She and the rest of the fish don’t seem to recognise frozen brineshrimp as food. When you say feed cooked prawn presumably you mean to take small pellet-sized chunks from the centre and put those in?

Sorry for your loss. Do a 100% water change to bring your nitrite level to 0. Go easy on the feeding, perhaps feed them every 2 days as opposed to each day until you can get persistent readings of 0ppm for ammonia and nitrite.

UPDATE: I have removed the Bolivian ram from the tank and have closely watched the female discus over the last few days. She is swimming slower than all the other discus and despite formulated food raining down from the surface she is not showing any interest. She eat 50% of the bloodworms...

She has gone back to just eating bloodworm but she has remained colourful and the poo is jet black so I’m not sure what to glean from that. A male Bolivian Ram is lunging at her quite often as its territorial so I suspect this is now causing her to be selective with eating. I’m going to either...

Fish-in cycles should never be performed unless the fish tank has an abundance of plants, constant daily water testing for the presence of ammonia and nitrite and an observance of the fishes behaviour for food spitting, rubbing against objects, reddened gills and fin rot which all are symptoms...

Flashing off of objects just means the fish is approaching an ornament and scraping itself against it to relieve irritation. They wont necessarily all be doing it. If there is any ammonia some may go sluggish, not eat, have inflamed gills while some may scrape themselves.

The parameters would be stable without fish excretions and food in the water column during the month you mention. I think you might be dealing with a slightly elevated ammonia and nitrite issue in response to the sudden higher stocking level of the aquarium. Do you see the corydoras flashing...

How did you prepare the aquarium for the Corydoras? Is this a new aquarium? The reason I ask is because it can take about 5-8 days for ammonia to become detectable in water at the kind of temperature you have and i take note that you say problems occurred 8+ days after they were introduced. I...

40 ppm of nitrate is absolutely fine. It’s not a toxic chemical like ammonia or nitrite. It is a fertiliser for plants. I’ve kept Koi, goldfish, tench, orfe and all manner of tropical fish in 30-40 ppm of nitrates without issue. As for the OP, the flowerhorn needs a larger aquarium, perhaps...

You have two viable options for cycling a tank: Fishless cycle Ensure the tank has no fish in it and acquire some pure liquid ammonia (with no added chemicals). Add 5 drops per 10 gallons daily. Your ammonia level will rise to over 5 ppm/L. Once the ammonia level starts to go down, possibly...