Your current Fish tank Setups!

b0rn2sk8 said:
Separate if you can but dwarf gourami are aggressive to their own kind, especially if you have two of the same sex.
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No way to separate apart from getting rid of one. I did say to the bloke on the aquarium should we just get one and he said you need two or they get lonely.

Would you say it's too late for the little fella?
 
Possibly, did you get a male and female or two of one sex? They are fairly easy to identify if you google search a couple of pictures.

Dwarf gourami can have very different temperaments and they can be territorial. They are normally fine in a community but on occasion they can also be murder machines.

You should also check there isn’t anything else going on (ammonia etc) if a fish is struggling in general it’s not unheard of for others to go after them.
 
Nasher said:
Always preferred pellets to flakes, flakes make a big mess and end up going in to the filter :/

How often are you cleaning the filter and how are you doing it? (and what kind of filter is it?)
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sorry i missed that question it's a fluval u3 internal filter i wash the sponges out weekly in old tank water when doing the water changes, have done a big water change daily since Tuesday i'm 90% back too normal slight haze if i look lengthways down the tank bogwood stains the water a little too i've noticed, massively improved though thanks all for tips i'll feed a bit more sparingly in future!
 
Probably change the filter tbh. The "matten" type filters are better than most of the sealed internal ones. They just need an air pump to run.

I've had one like this https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Hamburg-...hash=item5b50bab4b9:m:mIKVzQwRaolU_4NW1abvUfA running in a shrimp tank and it's never been touched once. It even has some moss growing out of it. The shrimp clean the sponge and the plants feed on the shrimp waste. Theres no detectable nitrates etc in the water at all.
 
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Those are fine if you have a fish room and don’t really care about aesthetics.

While they are cheap, effective and very low maintenance they have their downsides.

For a display tank they are ugly as sin, massive, loud from all the air moving around, not that good at creating circulation and not that good at picking up fine particles unless you get one with a really fine sponge (which reduces circulation). When you do need to clean it, which does need doing semi regularly it makes a right mess.

PS those sponge filters do not remove nitrates. You need anaerobic conditions (very low/no oxygen) for that which will absolutely not exist in a sponge filter.
 
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b0rn2sk8 said:
Possibly, did you get a male and female or two of one sex? They are fairly easy to identify if you google search a couple of pictures.

Dwarf gourami can have very different temperaments and they can be territorial. They are normally fine in a community but on occasion they can also be murder machines.

You should also check there isn’t anything else going on (ammonia etc) if a fish is struggling in general it’s not unheard of for others to go after them.
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It's still the same today. The bloke said it was one male and other female but looking at comparable pictures online I'd say there both male. I've got the other sectioned off at the moment but can't keep it on the net for too long.
Did a water change last night also.
 
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So just done a 90% water change and did a bit of a rescape and not a single sign of shrimp or that they've ever been in the tank. It's bizarre! No bits, no corpses, no shredded skins. Nothing.

I love shrimp, think they add something to a tank but I really don't seem to have any luck in keeping them. I wouldn't mind but can't understand what would cause such a massive and sudden die off of all my shrimp when only the day before I'd spotted a few new babies. Water levels were fine for me and there's nothing aggressive in the tank
 
sprite1275 said:
It's still the same today. The bloke said it was one male and other female but looking at comparable pictures online I'd say there both male. I've got the other sectioned off at the moment but can't keep it on the net for too long.
Did a water change last night also.
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If they are both male, that would explain what’s happening.
 
Thought I would try here before I resort to Ebay. I have a lovely fish to rehome before I move to thailand in April. A bit of money is nice but I would like to know that he goes to a proper home where he would be appreciated and cared for.

It's a wild type Betta that I imported from Franks Betta's in Thailand. It's a guitar tailed smaragdina to be specific and is basically every colour under the rainbow depending on the lighting. Would prefer some 1 who can collect. A few pics if anyone is interested.

Z3d8UMp.jpg
https://imgur.com/gallery/ZaAJzVJ
 
Are Siaemese Fighters considered communal fish or better off alone? I know like the Dwarfs they are aggressive towards the same sex. What are the ideal conditions for taking care of them? If kept good how long should they last?

I had one a while back in the communal tank but sadly didn't last long. Due to the conditions in the tank, (not from other fish) I guess and my bad experience in maintaining the proper environment.
 
Usually better of alone. It can depend on the fish and their personality. That betta (Buab) really doesn't get along with others, there was 3 endlers in the tank at first but he started to fin nip a couple months after i added him. Same situation with dwarf corys and he has eaten Amano shrimp and nerite snails as well. he's only in a 35L tank and has decided its his space, might allow others in a larger tank but who knows.
 
Could use a bit of help, been posting this around the place.

I have a 55l planted tank. An AquaOne Aqua Nano 40 with all the stock equiptment.

Pk8IcFk.jpg

The current stock:

10 Green Neon Tetras
3 Amano Shrimp
An army of Cherry Red Shrimp
2 Nerite snails

The tanks been setup for just 6 months, fish have been in there for 4.

My problem is that the tetras seem to spend all of their time hiding, I don't have a big tank, but because of the wood and the plants, I can't even tell how many are alive in there.

There's 1 or 2 big boys who appear from time to time and hang around the front of the wood, but they seem to chase off anyone else who comes forward.

The same thing happens at feeding time, there will be a mad dash for food, but the head honcho chases anyone who comes out.

Its been like this for the last month, before they were all out in front, but very skitterish when anyone came near the tank.

I do 20l water changes everyweek. RO water which I reminerlise with Salty Shrimp GH/KH.

I tested my water today before my water change.

Ammonia = 0
Nitrite = 0
Nitrate = 10
PH = 6.4

Nitrate is normally lower, but due to illness, I wasn't able to do a water change last week.

Are there any ideas on what I can do to bring my tetras out?
 
Unfortunately I've had to give up on the tank.

Had an ammonia spike on Tuesday, did multiple water changes, but nothing seemed to work.
Threw in the towel today, saved who ever I could and took them to the local fish shop.

Tanks been cleaned out and sitting empty.

I just wish I knew what caused it, tanks 6 months old, nothings been added in 4 months.
Only thing that's changed is that I started using a new RO supplier, but I tested the water and it came back as 0 ammonia.

May have been a build up of crap in the gravel, where I wasn't able to properly gravel vac because of the plants and wood.

A friends going to take the tank off me in a month of so, which was the original plan, he was also supposed to take all the stock.
I wanted to upgrade my tank and switch to marine, but I'm not so sure anymore, confidence has taken 1 hell of a knock.
 
Sorry to hear that. I can’t really comment on what caused it to happen but it’s unlikely to be a build up of detritus in the gravel and plants.

Gravel vacuuming a planted tank is sub optimal, you want it down in the roots to feed the plants. I never do mine, it would make a right mess if a pulled a plant up now.

Was there any reason why you used RO water? It generally isn’t needed for tropical tanks.
 
b0rn2sk8 said:
Sorry to hear that. I can’t really comment on what caused it to happen but it’s unlikely to be a build up of detritus in the gravel and plants.

Gravel vacuuming a planted tank is sub optimal, you want it down in the roots to feed the plants. I never do mine, it would make a right mess if a pulled a plant up now.

Was there any reason why you used RO water? It generally isn’t needed for tropical tanks.
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He might be in a very hard water area. My shrimps have suffered from it but as you say deep cleaning gravel etc is a bit of a no no. I killed off so many shrimps when i used to do it. Now i just take water out and put fresh in but leave the mess and the colony is doing much better. No fish in the tank though so the mess isn't massive.

My sand also probably had gas pockets which kills stuff when you disturb it. Think the same can happen with gravel.
 
Maybe the bacteria in the filter got wiped out. Did you put anything anti-bacterial in the water or clean the filter with it?

You shouldn't really need to touch a substrate much. On sand you can clean the surface of it but not really with soil.
 
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TBH just stick with tap water, or tap water mixed with RO for freshwater. Trying to re-mix things might be doing more damage.

My water is very hard too and I never lose any shrimp to water problems (a few get eaten :p). My cherry shrimp are big and bright red, which means they are healthy.
 
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