Well, guys, I'm at a total and complete loss. Last week I spent a pretty hefty chunk of money on 2 more pairs of Apistos. Within 2 days, 1 of the rednecks was dead. Today, I found the other redneck dead and the male blue tefe struggling-he will not be successful. He will die, I'm certain. This after losing 3 cacatuoides... Literally, they were lost. I've yet to find a trace of them.
I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I am seriously considering pulling every fish and just letting the plants grow for a while, then starting from scratch in a couple of months.
My water parameters are fine. 7.4 to 7.6 pH (it's slowly dropping). No ammonia, no nitrite, and nitrates fluctuate from 20 to 40. There's a trace of ammonia right now and nitrates are up to the 40 mark-I suspect courtesy of yet another dead fish. I'm really trying to do this right and am really disappointed and frustrated.
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