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  Temperature is at 78F. It is higher than I wanted because of the weather here is getting really hot these days. My heater is set to 75F but obviously that wouldn't do anything to help cool down the water. I haven't seen the guppies nipping them, at least whenever I watch them, so I don't think...

I have a 20 gallon tank with 2 guppies and 6 panda cories, while 2 pandas were added for a few months with no problems, and 4 were added last week. A few questions I have:   I have noticed 2 pandas have been swimming up and down against the side of the aquarium glass A LOT. Is that abnormal? Are...

I am planning to have panda cories in a 20 gallon. I searched that the highest temperature they would prefer was 75F (23.9C), is that correct?   I am having problem getting the temperature down to 75 -- with the heater set to 75, the actual temperature has been fluctuating between 76 to 78...

Oh, I have only had the platy for 2 months... so she could be already pregnant when I bought her?   So am I still correct that platy and guppy cannot cross breed?     Thanks for the info!

... just had babies. I did not realize at all because of my poor tank lighting until I was doing water change today. There are 3 fry right now (probably a lot of the others died and I did not even know).   I did not intend to breed them. I just thought my only female platy in the tank was lonely...

Hi! I am totally new to aquascaping, so any advice would be great!   Just got a piece of wood for my 20 gallon, which is going to house panda cories, and probably some kind of small gourami and guppies. Still thinking which placement looks better:   (1)  (2)    Basically I want to have the...

The pictures are really helpful!! Thanks Ruskull!!    I hear a lot about Dwarf gourami disease... is that only prone to certain kinds of gouramis? 

Found a nice looking piece of wood in a store, still deciding if I should buy it. So, I am planning to have panda cories in my tank, and I heard they were very delicate, especially the barbels. The wood that I am interested in getting does have some splinters sticking out at some places, which...

Thanks for the replies! Those are some very useful information.   Honestly, I am still confused without pictures to look at (google searching doesn't seem accurate when it comes to these two types of gouramis).   Saw this at a store today, which was labeled as flame dwarf gourami. Is that...

Anyone? Is it abnormal to have a fish swimming crazily up and down at the side of the tank?

Does anybody know the specific differences between sunset thicklip gourami and honey gourami (visuals, living environment, etc)? Is thicklip suppoed to be bigger than honey in adult size, like 3.5 inches vs 2 inches?   I want to get the sunset thicklip, but so far I seem to have only seen honeys...

I am going to upgrade from 10 gallon to 20 gallon but not any time soon, because I am new and only recently got hold of some biological filter media. I still need to cycle the new tank and all that, so I won't be putting fish in the new one until at least a few weeks later.   So, I only have one...

  Yeah, I asked about it earlier on the forum and I was told that probably the plants took those nitrates.   That said, the bio load in the tank is very small right now. There is only one platy -- she looks pretty healthy to me though.

  Oh, no need to replace even for ceramic ones?

Ok, I will look into replacing the carbon cartridge.   For sponges and bio balls, do they need to be replaced once in a while?

The tank has been cycled for a few weeks now, with 0 on all ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. It only has one fish in it now and 2 live plants. I have already gone through the whole nasty fish-in cycle (noob mistake), and that's also partly why I want to start over nicely. I am trying to do all the...

I have seen online about many kinds of biological filter media (like those ceramic balls/rings, etc), but I cannot find any good explanation on how to use these things. Several questions:   I only have a hang-on filter with a carbon cartridge currently. Can I replace the cartridge with just a...

Hi everyone!   Just stumbled upon this forum when I started my first tank with tons of problems (where else could I start? It's gotta be the emergency forum).   Thanks to many of you my tank has finally stabilized, even though only 1 fish left from the starting 7 (returned 2, 4 dead  ). One...

Ah, after reading all your comments I looked it up more and also went to take a look at the different kind of sand (tan, white and black) of CaribSea brand at the local store.   Even though black sand looks great, it does look coarser than the other two, and seems a little less "natural" to me...

A newbie here myself, but just went through fish in cycling with tetra safestart successfully so I thought maybe I could give some insights here. (Thanks to the forum folks here I have learned a lot throughout the process)   For tetra safestart, it is very important to NOT use detoxifying...

Cool! I guess I will get black sand!   After some searching, it seems to come down to Ninouzata's suggestion of black diamond sand vs tahitan moon sand... Which would work better for the cories?   Also, how many pounds should I get for a 20 gallon tall?

Newbie here, planning for a 20 gallon tank. I am definitely going to get a school of panda cories. I have not decided on the other fish in the tank yet, but I am pretty sure it will be something colorful (along the lines of guppies, gourami, or betta). Planning to have live plants and wood as...

More questions :D   Will blue or gold gourami fit in a 20 gallon or is the tank too small?   My husband and I would love to have a fish that could grow over time, which would be very satisfying. 

I just ordered a 20 gallon    Now let's say I get 6 panda cories, what else can I put in it?   Ideally I would want a centerpiece fish + some other fish. What would be good for the tank size?   By the way, thanks for all the advice !

I just ordered it, since it seems to be a bad idea to put them in 12 gallon I think I will return the 12 and get a 20.   If I were to switch to a 20 gallon tank, can I put 6 panda cories then?

Is there really no way to fit the panda cories in there? I'd really really love to have them 

With my bad start on my first aquarium, I am going to start over again with a 12 gallon tank.   I am thinking between these two combinations:   1 x betta 6 x neon/cardinal tetras 4 x panda corydoras   or   1 x honey dwarf gourami (or if you can suggest any colorful centerpiece fish) 3 x male...

Started with fish-in cycle, test results showed that it was cycled about 2 weeks ago, with 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite and 5 nitrate.   However, started a few days back the nitrate has dropped and now the test result seems to show 0 ammonia, 0 nitrite AND 0 nitrate (either 0, or really really close to...

Hello,   I have a 10 gallon tank with   1 assorted platy 2 live plants 1 driftwood   ...and 1 black ghost knife, which I am going to return to the fish store as I won't be able upgrade to a tank size anywhere close one that is big enough to house him (I really really like him since I have...

Thanks guys (or girls)! So if I don't like the look, you mentioned carbon and water change would help. What exactly would adding carbon mean (Sorry I am a newbie here)? Would my aqueon filter cartridge provide it? Also, how often and how much should I do water change?   I heard boiling the wood...

  Yes, I do have one piece of drift wood.

So many problems in my one month old tank :(   Ok, so this time my tank's water has turned really brown, even the filter cartridge itself is now solid brown color.   The levels in my tank are size: 10 gallon pH: 7.6 ammonia: 0 nitrite: 0 nitrate: 5.0 temperature: 80F   Because of the high...

Thanks for all the explanations here. Unfortunately the platy died the 2nd night after he stopped eating. R.I.P :(   I just have to hope that the rest of the fish will be able to recover.   At least now that I have got the experience and it will never happen again!

Fish-in cycle lasted about 3 weeks since I started the tank.   Today the red patch on its gill looks bigger than yesterday, spread to almost cover his whole right gill flap. He is not just floating around the surface now, but he is still very inactive. It seems a lot like ammonia poisoning to me...

It's a little hard to take a picture (tried last time, didn't quite work). He is not sideways, just very slightly tilted with his head closer to the surface (like 10 degrees). The discoloration is right outside his gill on the skin, like at his "cheek".

Posted here about 2 weeks ago when I noticed a white patch on one side of my platy's gill. Back then my tank was not cycled yet and ammonia was very high and I have lost 2 fish. Two days ago, it is finally cycled and now the levels are ammonia 0, nitrite 0 and nitrate 5.0.   Recently that white...

I use the API master freshwater test kit to test the water. I thought fish could tolerate up to 0.25ppm ammonia? I have been doing water changes to bring it down to somewhere below 0.25, so usually I do about 50-60%.       When you say carbon cartridge, that's the cartridge that I put in the...