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  C. sterbai are much too big for your tank, 6-10 Corys of one of the dwarf species would be much better :)   When I first started keeping Corys, I put them in a graveled tank and then slowly started adding sand to top up the substrate for plants. As you can imagine, the gravel and sand...

Yep, it used to do the same for me when I used to grow it! Trim it down to about half way up the tank and I'll have the cuttings ;)   And yes, you're right that the fish love it! Mine loved it so much that they used to spawn in it on a regular basis.

  I think that might have been a different species… this is why using the scientific names is best. I can recommend http://www.seriouslyfish.com/ as the resource to look up tank and fish size compatibility.     Corys, like tetras, do best in schools of 6-10+ per species. Your tank should be able...

What about a pair (male+female) of Trichogaster lalius? Otherwise, there are many other Anabantoidei that live in pairs. Unfortunately, there's nothing quite like the fancy Betta splendens.

Livestock: Ancistrus triradiatus juveniles (F1 mother, F2 father from wild) Quantity for sale: 30 Sales price: £1.50 each (will consider trades) Postage & Packaging: ask and I'll calculate! Location: Norwich   A. triradiatus must have at least a 90 cm / 3 ft long tank. They grow up to around...

Tank volume is not particularly helpful for compatibility, can you give the dimensions?   They are quite aggressive fish, so you would probably have to get rid of your current stock (assuming your tank is big enough). Keyholes are definitely too shy to be compatible and the loaches are likely to...

  Having kept green terrors before, putting a green terror in a tank that small is an offence to fishkeeping. Please don't do it. The tank is much to small for Acarichthys heckelii as well.   If you want more a more convincing argument: my two green terrors were "free" with the tank which was...

  Parotocinclus jumbo is pretty much the only commonly available pleco that I could recommend for a tank that small as they only grow to 2" SL instead of the 4"+ that most of the others reach. Yes, I do consider a 4" pleco to be too big for your tank because they can be pretty active and, in my...

Yeah… you might have wanted to ask a bit more: zebra and leopard danios are fast and active schooling fish so kinda need a 3-4+ ft tank and to be kept in groups of 6-10+.   It's also too much stock for a tank that was cycled using fish food (you'd have had to be dumping tubs of it in to get high...

What's the width of the tank?

Fluttermoth has a solution for everything!   Yes, yarn or fabric work well, especially nylon stuff as it doesn't rot :) Just to clarify, I did mean in the current tank, not a dedicated tank.

  That should say "6-8 weeks", not "2 weeks"… the alternative is to move all the filter media from the old filter into the new one (at which point the old filter can be removed).   If the filter lets out the water across the surface of the tank, you should not need an airpump.

I found that the best thing for pregnant livebearers is a planted tank and to be left to it.

It doesn't sound like you have cycled the tank, it sounds like you just let it sit for a few weeks (which doesn't do much). Have you been adding household ammonia to the water to feed the filter? If not, then your tank is not cycled.   Guppies seem to fit the bill here. The tank is not big...

She could be about to drop fry. Platies are livebearers and have the ability to store sperm for 3-9 months after mating. They generally drop one lot of fry per month. Give them some piece and quiet while they settle in, but do watch to make sure they're eating (as you have been doing). Most fish...

What filter do you have in there and what have you done with it?   pH of 7.4 if not high at all. In fact, it's pretty average. I've had everything from around 5.0 to 9.0 in my tanks over the years :)   You probably shouldn't pay too much attention to anyone with a "just try more fish, in case...

The bigger one did strike me as a potential male. For future reference, just be aware that old females also get bristles.   Omnivorous feed is not too bad for growing bristlenoses as plecos are opportunistic carnivores (they will eat dead fish).

Tetras are softwater fish, guppies are hardwater fish. Please find out what type of water you have and go for fish which are appropriate for it: it will save you lots of headaches later on.   If you have soft water, a group of 10 ember tetras would be ideal. If you have neutral water, 8 espei...

If they are only an inch long, then they're not sexable, although going by body shape, I'd expect them to be 2 inches long at this point. They generally start being sexable at around 2 inches long.   Their bellies are translucent because use skin is thin there. It's normal for the species.  ...

It sounds like fin rot and fungus. IME, Melafix never worked (although I haven't used it in years). eSHa 2000 has always been the most reliable antibacterial that I have tried. The ammonia is unlikely to be helping, so keep up keeping it down.

You will need to provide some more information about your setup (dimensions, volume, plants, equipment, water parameters) and symptoms before someone can help you.

I assembled a DIY set of T5 (normal output) tubes with electronic starters, which I consider to be one of the cheapest and more efficient options. I used Arcadia cables as I wasn't able to find water resistant tube sockets cheaply, but your husband may have better luck.   The other popular...

Given what you say above, the most important bit of advice that I can give you is calm down! Things are not anywhere near as bad as you made them sound :)   Your nitrates are not a problem if they're only 10 ppm. Take a water sample into one of your LFS for them to verify the reading. Anywhere...

Snails are not a sign of a dirty tank, they are only a sign of snails.   Can you post a photo of your plants? They could be dying off or they could be covered in diatoms. Are your lights on a timer? How long are they on for? What species are the plants?   The wood is unlikely to be causing any...

You don't need an air pump, and it would make a lot of sense to go for a filter which is rated for a bigger tank, for example for a 300 litre tank because it will have a higher media capacity and higher turnover, which is important with messy fish such as goldfish.   Oxygen gets into the water...

For calculation purposes, you should probably assume that you have around 180 litres after some decor and stuff.   I recommend that you go for an external filter, preferably a good quality one such as an Eheim, which is rated for at least a 300 litre tank. Goldfish are messy fish and if you wish...

Colour is a poor indicator of the sex, you probably shouldn't rely on it. Behaviour wise, not much difference unless they pair up or start shredding each other (the latter is not necessarily an indication of sex).   Older females can have dorsal fins which are as long as those that males have...

Your ammonia is probably not helping with the algae in that it is essentially free fertiliser, so getting more plants in and the ammonia down will help with that.   The bad news is that ammonia is more harmful in hard water than in soft water, so glad to hear that you're going with the water...

Mikrogeophagus altispinosus, as mentioned above. The first photo could be either, while the second is a male.

Look at the Asian species at http://natureaquarium.co.uk/?page_id=278#asia   I keep thinking that you will plant the tank, and every time that I remember that you're not going for plants, I have trouble deciding on which species to recommend as most need plants to feel "safe" and not be...

Test your nitrate, just in case. What's your pH and water hardness? Cycles don't happen as well in soft water as they do in hard water.   1. Why would you want to add activated carbon? I would probably recommend that you remove all of it as it adsorbs ammonia, but only if you are willing to do...

Well, nitrate in itself is pretty much directly related to feeding amounts and rotting plants. It is true than an imbalance of nutrients causes algae, so unless you want to slightly reduce feeding or increase water changes, I wouldn't worry about it.   Is your "algae" actually a cyanobacteria?

How odd, I thought that I had it set, but can't see a field for it any more! I'm in Norwich, but I expect to be getting the fish by post as there's not a whole lot of breeders in the area.

That depends whether you will be using hard or soft water in your tank. As a general note, you are pretty limited in your potential stock because of the length of the aquarium to small fish.

  Glutaraldehyde, the active ingredient in liquid carbon, is toxic. EasyCarbo has a lower concentration of this than something like Excel. Of course, very few of the liquid carbon products list in what concentrations the glutaraldehyde is present, so telling how the recommended dosages compare...

I'm looking for Micropoecilia, ideally M. branneri, but am interested in any as I've had trouble finding M. branneri!

The correct scientific name is Trichogaster lalius, not Colisa lalia :) The species was renamed in 2009 and the Colisa genus no longer has any species listed in it.

Check the ammonia, that is not far off from what ammonia burns can look like.   Did you drip acclimatise the fish?   (On an unrelated side note, take all the dead leaves off the Vallis: they will only rot and produce even more ammonia.)

Guppies can be quite agressive. The reason that it is recommended that at least two females are kept per male is that otherwise, the females can be over harrassed as the males have a pretty one-track mind. What you're seeing is exactly that.   FWIW, 20°C is really lower end of tropical when it...

Did you clean the sand and crud off the leaves once the plants were in? If not, the "dust" is probably covering the leaves and cutting off most of the light for the plants.   Was the old gravel filthy? If it was, then the new substrate is probably less fertile.