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The thing is you only ever have just enough bacteria. If you remove some, then you don’t have enough and you do get ammonia.

That sounds very big for a 10g tank.

Tetras have sharp teeth. He’ll rasp away at it till it’s gone, which gets easier once it has softened.

This could be your problem. You should never change filter cartridges, because you’re throwing away your bacteria every time, which is probably causing an ammonia spike.

Many Angels don’t get colour, but many do. These days most don’t get big enough to eat a full grown neon... or at least most will see them as too big to try. A tall tank (so they’re not so close to be an easy lunge) will help. Angels like being near the top and Neons like being near the bottom...

Did you do this? I like it a lot. They don’t have blue fins but it really works for the picture. I also like how you’ve got the red not going onto the belly.

Do what Essjay says. I suspect the mineral block. How big is it and how big is the tank? Don’t think about fish till you get this sorted. :)

Some of the older domestic strains, including silvers, are hybrids between P. scalare and P. leopoldi, from a long time ago when leopoldi were thought to be scalare and not recognised as a different species.

The third fish is an adult and the other two are juveniles. You won’t know exactly what yours will look like until it grows up. Good maintenance, appropriate water parameters, lack of stress, good quality foods, and of course genetics, will all play a part.

It’s very easy to make mistakes in this hobby. In fact these days, when everyone looks to the internet for information instead of books, it’s almost impossible not to make mistakes. It’s a huge learning curve that never stops. Even us ‘oldies’ that have kept fish for decades are still learning.

I’m not saying get 50... just that the tank could hold a lot more than 20. :)

You could fit a lot more than 20 in there. Lets call a cardinal 1.5” and do some maths. A 2” cube is the equivalent of eight 1” cubes. If you double the length and keep the same shape, it becomes 8x the volume. So in theory a 3” cardinal is the equivalent of eight 1.5” cardinals. So twenty 1.5”...

Is the tank fully cycled? Is there any ammonia or nitrite?

The sarcasm aside, I have no problem with you favouring the work of a qualified person over me, but bear in mind that even qualified peer-reviewed persons can disagree with, and obtain results that contradict, other equally qualified peer-reviewed persons.

To add to the already great advice given, cichlids are like humans. You can’t just put a male and female together and expect them to mate. They need to choose their own partners.

We need to be careful what we believe. I very much doubt that quoted paper was peer reviewed. Written by an aquarist who calls the family Callichthyidae the Callichthys family, and states that the albino Bronze Cory is a different species to the Bronze Cory. It’s mainly lineage 9 Corys (eg C...

Sounds like they’re not hungry, in general. If they were hungry they would be actively looking for food. If they’re full, or if there’s no food to be had, there’s no reason for them to be active. Corys naturally dig for their food. You could try stirring some up with the top mm or two of sand so...

No idea, but when herbivores have lost their gut bacteria they eat the poop of other herbivores to replenish them. A few come out in the poop. If you feed them greens and they poop brown, they’re ok. If they’ve lost them their plant-based poop will be green.

As a member of the Plec Appreciation Society, I’m sayin nothin.

Are you getting rid of all those silly marine tanks and replacing them with proper fish?

Im so glad I live in the UK where we have access to many medications that are much milder than antibiotics. When I quarantine fish I just observe, and don’t treat with anything unless I need to. A bit of finrot is easily treated with a bactericide. Are you sure it’s finrot? A lot of swords have...

Some more things to consider... a tank without a background can stress fish out, or not having anywhere to get out of sight. Even keeping eye contact as you approach them. And a lack of dithers. As emeraldking has said, one batch might be used to whatever the cause is, and the other batch not...

I like Aphyocharax. Can be nippy though, and I don’t think I’d risk them with Angels. Btw... tubifex, not “tubiflex”. :)

I assume you mean hyperactive. Hypochondria is a human psychological condition. It could be because the tank is too small (in their opinion), or because of where the tank is situated. Sometimes, albeit rarely, a tank can cause stress because of its location (maybe something to do with the...

They can actually get to 12” in a big enough tank, but most will get to about 6-8”.

Dropsy is simply bloating that causes the scales to stick out... in other words, severe bloating. Several conditions can cause it, including bacterial or viral infection, and osmoregulatory problems (eg hard water fish kept in soft water).

Is it the same in all of the tanks?

Dropsy isn’t a disease, it’s a symptom, with several possible causes, some of which are not contagious.

All of these tetras encounter a GH of more than 15 in at least parts of their natural range, according to FishBase. Nematobrycon palmeri and N. lacortei, Hyphessobrycon heterorhabdus, H. sweglesi (Red Phantom), H. columbianus (Columbian Tetra), H. bentosi, Black Widow (Black Skirt), Glass...

Definitely a deformed one.

It’s quite common not to see nitrites in a cycle, especially if you’ve added bacteria. It just means there were nitrite-eating bacteria there at the start, waiting for nitrite, and converting it straight to nitrate as soon as it appeared, so it didn’t have a chance to build up to detectable...

Fair enough. :) Yeah don’t get them from that first shop. Unfortunately Otos are usually very starved by the time they get to a shop, and many lose their gut bacteria, making it impossible for them to digest any plant material including algae. I would suggest keeping at least 10-12. If they’re...

This happens a lot with shoaling fish that aren’t kept in a shoal. Their need for security-in-numbers isn’t being met by the others, so they’re stressed and they take it out on each other. So you’re ok keeping a fish that’s getting bullied?

Otos really need to be in a much larger group.

Reminds me of a limpet. Does it move?

Hard water or soft? What’s the GH?

(Amphipods / scuds are not gammarus, but related to them). Amphipods, Copepods, Decapods... why would you want to get rid of them? They’re a very useful clean-up crew, especially in a shrimp tank where there’s relatively little to clean up (compared to a fish tank), so they’ll do a good job...

Yeah I guess. I’m in the UK so we have lots of lovely off-the-shelf medications to choose from. I’ve never used pot. permanganate. Salt should do the trick.

If it’s a guppies-only tank they won’t overpopulate. They’ll reach the maximum sustainable bioload, then the population will stabilise.

Those videos make it hard to tell. Can you get some pictures? If it is finrot, all you need is a bactericide. There’s no need for an antibiotic overkill.