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nitrites go away with time. They are removed/eaten by a different genus of bacteria than ammonia is, so it's typical for a tank to undergo an ammonia spike, followed by a nitrite spike, followed by a slow increase in nitrates which get managed by water changes. I'm a little surprised that you're...

Nitrites should be ZERO, not 1. I think you're not giving it time to cycle. That and a bacterial colony will adjust over time when the fish load goes up or down (as more or less food dictates how many bacteria there can be). Declaring a tank "cycled" and then tossing in the maximum number of...

easiest thing to do to get rid of nitrAtes is to do water changes - plants will help, but water changes are it. When you think school/shoal - be honest, do you think 2-4 fish?.............:lol: 6 is a good start, it all depends on tank size. Much better to get many of one schooling species...

There's not a hard and fast rule for nitrates in freshwater, but the less the better. Partial water changes will take care of that. In most cases I find 50% a week to be good for a lot of cichlids and fish in general, some more messy fish or fish more sensitive to dissolved metabolites require...

Looks all JD to me - there are many geographical variants, but it could be a hybrid I suppose. Nice looking fish in any event. That fish oozes nasty right through the monitor though - looks like a killer.

Nice - you can get some awesome "he got too big" fish. Often you can search local classifieds and get them free or for 5 bucks if you go pick them up. (Just quarantine them and see how it goes). I've rescued many a fish from idiots that way - I've even gone so far as to be at someone's house...

Looks a bit female to me only due to the lack of filaments on the dorsal/anal at this size. IIRC, all terrors have a bit of a hump, males just have it get larger. If you get a second terror I'd make a divider out of egg crate before you introduce the new one and give them a few days (a week?)...

Yep - fish sleep. Some sleep closer to the top, some sleep on the bottom. Many a time I've turned on a light in the fish room in the middle of the night and see all these washed out fish sink to the bottom - some lying on their sides. (they don't do that normally, they're just freaked out and...

heh - let them get picked off or feed them to the re-housed girl in her own tank. just because convict fry are not all that sell-able is no reason not to watch the best part of being a cichlid owner IMO. They can always be used as food for fish in other tanks, or in a large community tank they...

It's odd that she quit eating after not being fed for a few days (you didn't have someone feed her while gone did you? - fish, particularly bigger fish, don't need to eat every day, and I've often left mine for a week). I would raise the temp a couple of degrees and not feed for a few days -...

hmm - go look up the guide to fishless cycling on this site - looks like you'll need it before you start considering fish (unless you can get a good chunk of active filter media from someone).

rock as in gravel or little pieces of rock or big chunks of rock?

oh - well open the box! These days they have a white foam block which goes on the bottom, and then a white mesh bag you put the contents of a clear plastic bag in which are labeled as biomax. these are really porous "rocks" and are in fact great for biological filtration. Then you can buy...

IME jack dempseys are a lot more aggressive than oscars. I've found oscars to be kind of big bully/wimps. They can dish it out, but can't take it quite as well as a lot of the larger central americans that people house them with. Sometimes you get lucky, often you don't. I've had reasonably good...

Convicts aren't generally harem polygamists and form a semi-stable pair bond, so in 99% of the cases he will pair off and spawn with one, and the pair will harass the other one.

There's 3 types of filtration - biological, mechanical & chemical. Of these biological is the most important as these good bacteria in a cycled tank remove the ammonia and nitrites which are lethal to fish. Mechanical filtration is cool as it removes all kinds of "crap" which make the tank look...

hey - if you don't mind the expense of a 20H for the angels and a fry tank, often you can sell angels and offset your tank expenses. Some fish wholesalers even take them at times. Not as profitable as a breeding pair of discus or oscars, but not so bad either. :brows:

Usually you can cut something to fit over the small openings - I've even used tin foil in a pinch. You kind of have to judge what to use based upon the size of the fish - I used cardboard cut out from a cereal box for a long time with smaller fish. All fish jump to a degree (go watch a pond...

Aye, the shark might cause issues come breeding time. The second female might do ok as a target if there is LOTS of cover, but she might also get wasted in a 40. Most of my convict breeding in "community" tanks took place in a 125, which has twice the room in terms of floor space - and a...

yeah Giant danios would be perfect. Others on the list would be Buenos Aries tetras or possibly even rosy barbs. In any event, I'd stick to one species and get 6-12 of them with a convict pair. People (newbies especially) often feel limited by just getting a couple of species for a tank when...

In a 40 breeder I'd probably just stick with a pair of convicts - maybe a school of 6 or so really fast fish (that can get out of the way of the convicts when breeding and cut down the fry numbers by picking some off). I used to like having the plain cheap Australian rainbowfish with convicts...

Java fern isn't happy in the substrate IME - it really wants to attach to something. You can float it in the tank for a couple of weeks, but try to weigh your driftwood down so you can attach the plants to it - some driftwood can take months to become waterlogged.

good filter. Don't use the carbon (it's not bad as such, but it's really for sticking in when you need to remove medications and such). No rush, but grab an extra replacement foam insert for it and put it where the carbon would go - gives you more room for bacteria to grow. Also - don't replace...

I've seen fish make it out of gaps where the HOB filter goes, gaps near heater/powerhead cords & airlines, and of course, being big enough to pop the light plastic feeding lid of a full hood.

20 high or 20 long? - oh never mind, you have a 20 high, which when stocking cichlids is pretty much equal to a 15. Curviceps are very docile (usually) However, a 20 high is a wee bit small for most dwarf cichlids - a 20 long is better (it's all about the footprint). Bolivian rams can also be...