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I couldn't get Interpret Anti-bac from the nearest shop, but can get to 2 different shops later today so hope one of them has it. If I can't get Interpret, is there another brand you would recommend? The 2 sick adult fish are still alive! and no better or worse. One spends its time pretending...

Oh dear, that sounds like the symptoms. I'm not sure though... the sick fish started showing symptoms on Saturday and it's Tuesday now, and I've only lost one fish (so far) - seems like this Aeromonas would have caused greater devastation by now? The juvenile I was worried about earlier seems a...

Thanks for replying - I really appreciate your support. No flicking or rubbing, so sign of mucus, not darting. The adults' breathing looks laboured - if they were mammals I'd say they were panting. One sick fish is under a log, lying slightly on one side, and I keep thinking it's dead, but...

The two adult platys are still poorly. One is eating, but spending the rest of its time under a log. The other isn't eating but hangs at the back near the surface. The poorly juvenile isn't as bad - it's eating but hiding the rest of the time. The other fish all seem fine. There are no visible...

We have around 50 cherry shrimp of different ages, which seem very happy. They breed regularly, and are active and look healthy. However, very few of them are red. Even most of the fully-grown obvious females with a visible yellow saddle have only a faint tinge of red. 3 or 4 of the largest...

Day before yesterday I noticed one of the adult platys wasn't its normal self, but was hiding at the bottom of the tank. I fed them some squished peas, in case it was constipated, and it didn't get better or worse. Yesterday evening, I found a juvenile platy dead. This morning, the original sick...

Our cherry shrimp live very happily with trumpet snails. We have sand in the tank rather than gravel, and lots of plants and a few stones, which the shrimp like. The cherry shrimp are very easy to keep. I don't do gravel vacs, as the shrimp have been breeding since we got them, and there are...

Came back from holiday to find that the Java moss in the shrimp tank has mostly gone brown. The other plants in the tank had grown madly and flopped over sideways while we were away, and there was not much light getting to the moss, so I'm wondering if that may have been the problem; also the...

It's hard to tell from the pics - platys won't stop moving when you want them to - they are so hard to photograph! The platys born in my tank have changed colour as they grow, so it's definitely possible. I don't have any with red fins, but I found this pic on google...

Didn't replace the lid properly on the nearly-full flake pot and stupidly left it on top of the cupboard. Came down in the morning, innocent-looking cats (always a bad sign), empty pot on the floor, bits of flake stuck all over the carpet where it had been licked (yeuch!) Of course, now we're...

Sorry for not replying sooner - I was hoping someone more knowledgeable could answer! I'm afraid I don't know much about assassin snails - but they're not the same as Malaysian Trumpet snails. And I've no idea about the black things - sorry! If your assassin snail eats other snails, then this...

Agreed - I bought a box of filter floss for 99p from my LFS which has lasted me nearly a year. It's cheaper than cotton wool! and you know it hasn't got anything in it which will harm your fish.

Update: I added 5 Malaysian trumpet snails to the tank 2 months ago. They had babies almost immediately but as suggested, I don't see much of them. Within a few days, the white wiggly things had almost disappeared, and it's now several weeks since I've seen any at all. Result! Also the green...

'Wormy things' - OK, I guess that's as good an ID as I can hope for!!! :D As long as they don't sound like anything harmful. My daughter will like knowing that the tiny things are copepods. They have to talk about their pets in French lessons, and I can just imagine the French teacher's face...

My daughter's tank contains cherry shrimp including some baby shrimp, and a 'black oto'. And lots of Java moss and plants. Although I've been doing small regular water changes, I haven't cleaned the sand recently for fear of vacuuming up the shrimplets, so there's quite a lot of muck on the...

Agreed, platys and guppies do well in hard water and your pH, panda corys will normally tolerate it, don't know about the other catfish. Where are you based? If you're in the UK (don't know about elsewhere) you can find out about your tapwater from the water supplier's website. Most have a...

Thanks for the reassurance! We've now seen 4 at once - they're so TINY!!! We'd lost 3 adults, on separate occasions, for no apparent reason (possibly our tap water, possibly the platy fry who used to share the tank with them), so I guess I'm a bit anxious... My daughter is really excited and...

Just spotted our first baby shrimp! :D (Thanks drewry!!!) There's loads of Java moss in the tank, so could be lots of others hiding. Any advice on how best to care for them would be gratefully received. They're in a 28 litre tank, about 15-20 adult shrimp, and a single 'black oto'. I've been...

As with other food, give them what they'll eat in a couple of minutes. If your platies are anything like mine, they're real pigs and will over-eat given the chance. I'd guess 2 peas, but start with 1 and see how quickly they eat it. I try to give mine peas once or twice a week, and to vary their...

Your platies will enjoy peas - cook them (microwave is easiest), then remove the skin and squish the soft insides between your fingers. This will help stop them getting constipated, and they really like them too. Our platies also like tablet food that sinks to the bottom of the tank, and even...

Argos play sand was fine for us. Did need to wash it though, more than I expected - it looked clean, but clouded up when you add water. After lots of rinsing in a bucket, the cloudiness disappeared. After adding to the tank, a blob of filter wool in the filter took care of the last traces. I'm...

Thanks for the kind offer - unfortunately I'm not often over your way - think I'm going to have to get some by post. Appreciate the offer and thanks for the advice. :)

Thanks for the useful info and link. I usually go to Wyevale at Woburn Sands but they've not had any cherry shrimp the last few times I've been in, nor has Frosts over the road. Might have to get some by post - unless there's anyone local who has some spare they'd like to sell? I can collect...

Thanks for the tip - it's the other side of MK for me, but if I can't find them anywhere else, it might be worth a visit (well, a new fish shop is always worth a visit!)

Looking for 4-6 cherry shrimp to go with the 2 already in my daughter's tank. Can collect from Milton Keynes, Leighton Buzzard, Woburn area. Or please let me know if you've spotted any in a decent local shop - I've been looking for ages and nobody seems to have any at the moment.

Many people have small amounts of ammonia in the tapwater (we've got nitrite here) - it makes things a bit more complicated, especially when you're starting off, but you should be fine in the long term. Your filter bacteria will process this small amount of ammonia very quickly. Once your tank...

We've had 3 cherry shrimp for nearly 6 weeks, and they seemed happy and healthy. One of them started becoming brighter red, which I assumed was him getting his adult colours, but then one day I found him dead. The other 2 seem fine, though I've noticed their antennae aren't as long as they used...

Agreed that platys are a good choice for hard alkaline water. They come in lots of colourful variations, including red, orange, yellow, pink, blue, which might appeal to the little one too - you can even get them with a mickey mouse shape on their tails.

Many people have traces of ammonia in their tapwater - once your filter is mature, it will process it very quickly and it shouldn't be a problem. It's good that you know it's there, as you'll be able to understand what's going on when you get trace ammonia readings in future. As your tank is...

That's an interesting reference - I was surprised that these fish were so tolerant of chloramine. The following page also makes interesting reading (although some of the links are broken) and supports your reference above, that chloramine is far from the 'deadly' chemical implied by water...

NitrAte levels of 5ppm are not too high for platys - nitrIte would be a problem. NitrAte levels of 20-40ppm are very common in UK tapwater; 5ppm is relatively low. Good luck with the treatment - hope you start to see some improvement soon.

I think perhaps you might be misinterpreting this document. The paper does not describe a study to test the toxicity of chlorine (which would of course require a differently structured controlled study of the sort you describe - I've not found one available on the internet yet but would be...

I agree that there is no real data in the paper quoted by fishyfeet, and while I'm used to treating Merck data with respect, it's open to question without seeing the source. However, the rainbow trout incident contains real data, and cites references to multiple sources. The document you...

The figure of 1.0 mg/L (and accompanying text) posted above by fishyfeet is also quoted on: http://www.h2ou.com/h2wtrqual.htm#Chlorine which is an educational resource by a water analysis company called Hach. This resource is aimed at children so the information is simple and high level...

I also got this film when fishless cycling my small tank with ammonia. I did have plants and substrate, so blamed them, but it could be the water or something from the algae etc. I don't get it in the big tank but there's a lot more surface agitation; also the lighting in the small tank makes...

The Ammo Lock you get in the UK is supposed to lock up the ammonia in a non-toxic form which is still available to the filter bacteria. Apparently there is another product with the same name available in the US (and possibly elsewhere) which works as LauraFrog describes, removing the ammonia so...

I'd definitely agree that adjusting the pH with chemicals is not a good idea - IME the pH reverted overnight. If you do use RO water in a tank containing fish, I think you are right to keep the water changes fairly small initially - your RO/tapwater mix may have a different hardness and...

Thanks all - that makes sense - there was algae on the wisteria leaves, and it's quite possible the leaves were damaged before the shrimp got to them. There is Java moss in the tank - I hadn't realised they would nibble that! but as long as they're happy, the moss can take its chances. I gave...

I have 3 cherry shrimp which spend a lot of their time on one of the plants, water wisteria (hygrophila difformis). The leaves of this plant are covered with holes, like lace, mainly affecting the leaves where the shrimp hang out. Are the shrimp actually eating the leaves, or have the leaves...

You could well have a small amount of ammonia in your tap water - it's permitted to contain up to 0.5 mg/l. A few people posting on this forum have similar problems. Long term, it's not a problem as your filter will deal with it, but it can make it very difficult to tell what's going on when...