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Hello,   Have you tested your water for toxic waste such as ammonia and nitrite? Also, did you dechlorinate your water with a good water de-chlorinator that removes both chlorine and chloramine such as Tetra Aquasafe?    Reddening of the thins, gills or main body can be caused by an ammonia or...

You can add a picture of the fish by clicking the reply button within this thread and when the word processor loads up you would need to scroll down to the 'Attach Files' section. Click on the 'Choose File' button and locate any images you have of the fish (assuming you have already taken a...

    When I used to employ the fishless cycle method it used to take about 2 months for me to have a healthy colony of filter bacteria capable of converting all of the pure ammonia dose back down to 0 ppm in a 12 hour period. When I started incorporating established pond sponges in my new...

    It seems almost like this 'heterotrophic bacteria' that apparently lives in the water column responds to any sort of energy source (i.e. fish urine, filter dirt) by oxidising it heavily. I believe that when something is oxidised heavily, you end up with more carbonic acid as an end result of...

The fish are behaving normally now. Having thought about what may have caused the haze more I think the introduction of overly dirty filter media from the pond may have caused an heterotrophic bacterial explosion even without the presence of ammonia. The ammonia and nitrite readings are...

I will have to contact the aquatics store to ask exactly what I bought. It resembles red-moor more than grape-wood in that grape-wood seems to have dark knots at various points. The piece I have is a light wood with no variations in colour. The piece cost me 75.00 British Pounds so my...

I think the issue here is stress caused by too many different species of Cichlid. Multiple Bolivian Rams can stress each other out so if you add different species of Cichlid into the mix and provide little hiding spaces, this is a recipe for environmental stress.   Try to introduce more hiding...

    The fish seem a lot happier now. Theres virtually no surfacing. They have all situated themselves near the air stone but this could be just coincidence since their respiration rate isn't above what you would expect for a healthy fish.   I realise the absence of substrate is an issue due to...

    If your ammonia and nitrite reading is 0 ppm, you acclimatised your fish slowly from the old aquarium to the new one, and the conditions of the new aquarium are appropriate for your stock in terms of kH, gH and pH you are likely dealing with a heterotrophic bacterial bloom. This type of...

Hi Shifty,   Based on your stocking list I would say that your aquarium is somewhat over stocked. You have to consider that Corydoras can grow to about 6-7 cm each and the Praecox Rainbow can also achieve quite a long length.    The fact that some of your fish are experiencing body rot and fin...

If the white spots are the size of grains of salt you are dealing with white spot, and would concur with the advice above in that you need to higher the water temperature to around 30 degrees C. You would then want to add a malachite green based treatment.

    The aquarium has no gravel (it is intended to be a bare-bottom Discus aquarium). As for decoration, there is red moor in there that was thoroughly washed in tap water before it was added. KH is at 4 dH and GH is at 5 dH for the tank water according to my API KH and GH testing kit; these...

    I tested for total ammonia on top of nitrite, nitrate and pH. You can see the results above.   I did not perform any water tests before today as yesterday was the day I added fresh dechlorinated tap water which has never comprised detectable levels of ammonia or nitrite and has never caused...

I have been watching the Cory's closely and it would seem that they are not surfacing as frequently now. I'm hoping that the haze will clear by itself; will it?

    I've completed a 50% water change and introduced an air stone but the Corydoras are still repeatedly going up to the surface to gulp in oxygen from the air.   I've tested my aquarium water before the above WC using the API Master test kit and these are the results:   Ammonia: 0 ppm Nitrite...

    I've placed an airstone in there (despite there already being a lot of surface movement) and will do a large water change. I've netted the remaining gasping tetras and put them back into a Juwel Lido 120. They now appear fine.   Do you think its a good idea to leave the Corydoras in the new...

3 neon tetras appear to have died from lack of oxygen. 

I started to fill my new aquarium up yesterday with fresh dechlorinated tap water. As this is a new aquarium with no filter bacteria growth I transferred some established filter sponges from my pond filtration system to kick start the nitrogen cycle. As of yesterday the water was very clear but...

I've just adding another 15cm x 8cm black slate onto the base of the aquarium (to help the fish distinguish food from the sand) and its now started eating. When I bought this fish in an extremely emaciated condition it would only eat baby fish pellets off of a slate. Is there a way to train the...

I would put money on the Betta's thin, that you say floated to the bottom, having killed the Corydoras. One of my Black Neon Tetras died and got sucked into the powerhead which caused its eyes and thins to detach. Some of my Corydoras eat these pieces and developed pop-eye and eventually died. I...

I can give it a try. However, it was bought from a fish store that had it in an aquarium with 15-20 other Discus and yet it was very emaciated (almost dead in fact) even then. If I get it a friend and the friend also doesn't eat then I'm effectively doubling up on the amount of stress that I...

My Discus is eating next to nothing at the moment. The water stats show no ammonia, nitrite or excess nitrates. The temperature of the water is 31 degrees C and the pH is 6.5.   Fish is sitting 2cm above the substrate, sometimes with it's head pointing up while moving its eyes around. Other than...

This fish is now spitting its food out intermittently. I manage to feed it about 3 crisps and 3 blood worms per day. It does not appear to be losing weight and the faeces are dark brown. Not sure whether I'm up against a problem or not based on this behaviour.   It will be placed into a 400...

    I would stick to using zeolite and doing 100% water changes as a temporary measure for removing ammonia. I personally use Tetra Aquasafe for my water changes due to the beneficial effects that the added vitamins and the collagen on the fishes skin and thins.    I think Seachem prime is...

    You should try viewing the ammonia level result by going out in natural sunlight with the vial and the ammonia gradient card and it should be distinctively yellow. The water in the vial can sometimes look green when viewed in bad lighting conditions or under strong LED lighting from my own...

    What you are saying here is that nitrate certainly has the effect of reducing life expectancy. I'm sorry but where is the scientific evidence conducted by proper empirical research to support that opinion?   While I think you are correct in saying "substances" can have an effect on a fish...

    My advice would be to keep the nitrates at around 40 - 50 ppm and leave the phosphate level were it currently is. Thereafter, it would be useful to either dim or exchange the lighting to stop the algae growing so quickly OR do not adapt the lighting level and add some Egeria densa plants...

    I'm very glad its eating. I'm finding that I'm constantly needing to adapt my own behaviour to get it to eat though; even down to nuances such as giving it crisps that are 1mm less in diameter.   It could be the aforementioned water change that brought about the above change of course and so...

Update: I have now noticed that the Discus freezes when I or another person enters the room. As such, I dropped some crisps in and left the room and then observed it through a small crack in the door to the room the tank is in. It eats everything that I leave for it providing I'm not in the room....

The fish is by no means acting normally. As said above, 80%+ of the food I put in I am having to remove as it stares it out or spits it out. 

You should be looking at removing 100% of the water and all the fish to get the ammonia down to 0 ppm. If black pieces are coming out of the gravel I would recommend taking the gravel out and washing it in aquarium water since you don't want to be using chlorine tap water since the chlorine will...

  It stopped eating 2 days ago; the day I did a 50% water change.   Just this second, however, I managed to get it to eat some Tetra crisps. I had to put my arm right in and point to it and only then would it eat it. I don't quite understand why it wants me to do this...

It could be that the act of vacuuming the gravel has released a lot of ammonia into the water column. The water usually has a milky/cloudy appearance if there is a mix of high light and ammonia in the water as a result of algae spores utilising the ammonia to grow and, later, produce green...

  I have already tried frozen blood worms and he is spitting them out. I've bought in some frozen beef heart to try later but I don't have much optimism.   I guess the 50% water change induced it to starve itself? Who'd thought? Should I contact a vet and have it put down if it becomes emaciated?

  The above symptoms are now back. It will not eat much.   1. It looks healthy but could be more plump. 2. Its belly may be slightly sunken. 3. The fish waste is dark brown and isn't stringy. 4. Yes, I wormed the tank with Kusuri Wormer Plus about 2 weeks ago.   The lack of eating, shimmies...

My Pigeon Blood Discus has decided to refuse to eat most of its food. 80% of what I put in, including freeze-dried blood worm, is being spat out. This behaviour began after I did a 50% water change on the aquarium. Having started up the filter after the water change I did notice that the water...

The fish has now decided to eat so I guess it is just playing games?

In addition to not eating the Discus is twitching and shaking its head, making a yawning motion with its mouth and the pectoral finds are clamped shut more often.   The water parameters show 0 ppm of ammonia and nitrite, a pH of 6.0 and the temperature is 31.5 degrees C.   I'm not too sure what...

  I utilize a nitrate meter by Horiba which is a scientific instrument that provides very accurate readings. I think this does give some light onto what is happening in terms of my nitrate levels.

My nitrate reading, at its highest, has been up to 80 ppm and my fish stock have had no adverse reactions. I'm a member of another online fish/plant community named UKAPS and a lot there seem to think that a nitrate level of 200 ppm is normal and acceptable. I personally think that a nitrate...