Recent content by KittyKat

In that case, you might want to look around for media donors: some forums have lists of people who will give you filter media that is full of good bacteria. For example, I am listed as a donor for anyone in Germany on a few and there are usually 2-3 donors per county in UK on most good lists.

It depends on your method of water changing (if you do 100% water change, you always have to dechlorinate 100% of the water): * If you do a 25% water change and pre-mix the dechlorinator and new water in a bucket, you need to use enough dechlorinator for only the new water. * If you do a 25%...

Chlorine does dissipate within 24 hours in a well ventilated environment, but chloramine takes a week and heavy metals do not. I recommend that you always use dechlorinator to treat new tap water as I have found that a 5-10% top up with chloraminated water is enough to stall a filter for 2-3...

Yes, can't have too much filtration, but can have too much flow ;)

On the one hand $20 for $4 worth of fish, on the other hand $20 for 4 lives. The tank should be fine for fish 2 weeks after running animal-free (not even snails) because most diseases cannot survive without a host. Just remember to feed the filter with household ammonia and keep the lights off...

Dimensions, dimensions? Lighting: watts, hours? Did you re-add the tabs after 4-6 weeks, or however long the instructions say? But you just said that your parameters are not good! Water parameters are good only if they are stable, which means, no pH changes before or after water changes. What...

The above advice is good, I'd also empty the cupboard, cover the bucket (most fish jump) and if the tank+stand are not too heavy, I'd move both at the same time. Fishkeeper26, I have four freshwater tanks right now and every single one has different water hardness, which is different from my...

Trigonostigma hengeli (hengeli rasbora - back left), T. heteramorpha (harlequin rasbora - centre) and potentially a T. espei (espei rasbora - back right, not too sure if this isn't another harlequin)

Firstly, you have at least two species of rasbora in that photo, if not three. Secondly, I recommend that you treat all 5 fish with a generic antimicrobial medication and do a 6 week quarantine or even take them back and re-buy from a shop that knows how to tell different species apart, getting...

Currently, for me, the most likely cause is damage from fighting followed by an infection. One of the reasons that shoaling fish need to be kept in mixed sex shoals is that in small groups, they will pick on individiuals quite a lot. I consider an absolute minimum shoal (or school) size to be 6...

The vast majority of the beneficial bacteria live on the filter media. You need to use your old filter media either in the old filter on the new tank or in the new filter on the new tank if you are doing an upgrade. The water, plants and substrate do not contain very much bacteria at all. I...

How far are you moving? Across the living room or across the country? Keep the fish warm, keep as much of the water as possible, acclimatise properly, keep filter moist…

Here you go: Google image search results for "show quality guppy"

How many of your rainbows are male and how many female? How large are the mollies? What species are the rasboras and how many are there?

What is the species of the rainbow and what are the dimensions of the tank? Age? How long have you had it? What are the tank mates? Did you do a large water change? Do you dechlorinate new water? Do you temperature match new water? What is the temperature? What are the pH and hardness? When...