Fish Lovers 3.0 [new poll]

[PeachFuzz]

I bought an Amazon Sword plant for my aquarium a few weeks ago and some of its leaves are turning/are brown. I did some research online and found out that it was normal for some of its leaves to turn brown and then die after being planted. The gravel I bought is for plants and already has nutrients and stuff in it for the plant. My aquarium light is on for a little over 12 hours a day. There aren't any snails in the aquarium. Is there anything else I should be doing? I just want to make sure it survives and grows new leaves because the brown leaves are kind of worrying me a little.

What spectrum and watts of lighting? What's the GH of the water?

[satuurnity]

I now have eight tetras and they're all doing good. Their colours have come back and they seem happier now I have more plats iand an air stone in the tank. The plants are: one java fern, one Anubias, some hair grass, three hygrophila and ten vallisneria spiralis. Two of the larger tetra do seem to be chasing each other quite a bit - is that normal?

Unfortunately yesterday when I measured the parameters ammonia has spiked to 1.2 mg/l, which is bad :c The nitrates are still in the 0 mg/l of the test zone and nitrites are 0.1 mg/l. I'm going to carry on with regular water changes, however, I'm running out osf fresh start which I use to condition the water. Will I be okay to just condition the volume of the bucket and then pour it in the tank, or should I continue to dose for the whole tank?

I'll buy some ammonia remover tomorrow, which hopefully will help the problem.

Could be the tetras are just doing a little mating dance.

Why are you conditioning the whole tank? When using water conditioner you should only be adding enough for the amount of new water you add. The chlorine and chloramines have already been removed from the old water - they don't come back.

Ammonia remover is a temporary fix. It's like shoving a pile of dirty clothes under your bed - the mess is still there, you've just gotten out of dealing with it for the time being. You need to find out WHY the ammonia is spiking between water changes. Either you're not doing enough water changes or your tank isn't cycled.

Could be I guess, but I'm no expert so I'd have no idea if it was or not c:

Oh, when I was doing my research a lot of places said they conditioned the whole tank. I'll just do the volume of the bucket from now on.

Ok. I think it's probably not cycled then - the kit I bought may not have worked. I'll keep doing partial water changes every other day and adding my aquarium salt and beneficial bacteria. Hopefully that helps.

[PeachFuzz]

Here's a tetra mating video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl0CoR_nopY (Not mine)
Does that look like the chasing you've seen?

[satuurnity]

Here's a tetra mating video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl0CoR_nopY (Not mine)
Does that look like the chasing you've seen?

Oh yeah kind of. Chances are the eggs won't get to hatch though, right? Don't they eat the eggs?

[Polly44]

Picked up Obsidian from the shop today and he has been in his new home for a few hours now. I hope he likes it. Really worried he doesn't, heh. xD
He is a Betta and just wondering if anyone has some tips on how to care for one? As we've never had one before. Also we have to leave for a few days next week for a funeral and i am wondering what i need to do for him, before we go, as i know i am going to completely freak out about him dying while we are gone.

Edit:
This fish is going to be the death of me. Can see half the tank from where i am sat and i just looked over and he was sort of floating in the middle of one of the plants not moving. I completely freaked out, legged it over and it kinda looked like he had got stuck between the leaves of the plant and the glass of the tank, but then he moved and backed out. Nearly gave me and my mum a frickin heart attack. xD Should i move the plant?

Any help please?

[rose;]

My betta will just rest in the plants or behind the filter or heater all the time without moving. I think it's fairly normal?

[PeachFuzz]

Here's a tetra mating video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fl0CoR_nopY (Not mine)
Does that look like the chasing you've seen?

Oh yeah kind of. Chances are the eggs won't get to hatch though, right? Don't they eat the eggs?

Yeah, you need a pretty specialized set-up for hatching tetra eggs.

[NopesaurusRexx]

Picked up Obsidian from the shop today and he has been in his new home for a few hours now. I hope he likes it. Really worried he doesn't, heh. xD
He is a Betta and just wondering if anyone has some tips on how to care for one? As we've never had one before. Also we have to leave for a few days next week for a funeral and i am wondering what i need to do for him, before we go, as i know i am going to completely freak out about him dying while we are gone.

Edit:
This fish is going to be the death of me. Can see half the tank from where i am sat and i just looked over and he was sort of floating in the middle of one of the plants not moving. I completely freaked out, legged it over and it kinda looked like he had got stuck between the leaves of the plant and the glass of the tank, but then he moved and backed out. Nearly gave me and my mum a frickin heart attack. xD Should i move the plant?

Any help please?

For going away, just feed him a little before you go, they can survive for about a week with not being fed. Make sure you have specialized betta food. I recommend the little pellets, but if your betta is on the small side, flakes are better. They will sit on/in plants for long periods of time. I had a plant in my tank that had long roots and my fish would rest in it for hours. The plant should be fine where it is.

[Polly44]

Picked up Obsidian from the shop today and he has been in his new home for a few hours now. I hope he likes it. Really worried he doesn't, heh. xD
He is a Betta and just wondering if anyone has some tips on how to care for one? As we've never had one before. Also we have to leave for a few days next week for a funeral and i am wondering what i need to do for him, before we go, as i know i am going to completely freak out about him dying while we are gone.

Edit:
This fish is going to be the death of me. Can see half the tank from where i am sat and i just looked over and he was sort of floating in the middle of one of the plants not moving. I completely freaked out, legged it over and it kinda looked like he had got stuck between the leaves of the plant and the glass of the tank, but then he moved and backed out. Nearly gave me and my mum a frickin heart attack. xD Should i move the plant?

Any help please?

For going away, just feed him a little before you go, they can survive for about a week with not being fed. Make sure you have specialized betta food. I recommend the little pellets, but if your betta is on the small side, flakes are better. They will sit on/in plants for long periods of time. I had a plant in my tank that had long roots and my fish would rest in it for hours. The plant should be fine where it is.

Ah, right, thanks. We have the flakes, as that was what he was being fed on in the shop we got him from, so we stuck with that. Not sure if he is big or small for a Betta, heh. Need to get some nice pics of him. Oh thank god. He did it again today and i panicked again, so that makes me feel loads better. Thank you.

[Hime]

The feeling when you come home after 2 weeks of being away and count up the corries, but always end up one or two missing. Try not to panic, do a water change, throw in some food(yay, they've learned to beat the tetras in the fight for food) and finally count up all 13 of them. Let out huge sigh of relief... That's about my day in a nutshell. XD

Also trumpet snails, they are amazing! Before I got them I'd always have some fish poop on the sand little less than week after water change, but now there's barely any mess at the bottom.