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Two days ago, I put ten small (3/4”) Amano shrimp in my 29g tank (lightly planted, barbs and tetras mostly). Two days later, I CAN’T FIND A SINGLE SHRIMP. None of my fish are large enough to eat them whole, I don’t see any “parts” so I don’t think they died or got eaten. Where did they go?

Is it possible? I have a 29 gallon, that is very well cycled. I never have spikes in ammonia or nitrites. However, over several years the tank is just gross. Between algae, embedded fish poop, and God knows what else, it just looks nasty. The substrate is very algae stained and discolored. I...

We have a 29G tank of mostly platies. My son built them a “house” out of legos and put it in the tank, against my wishes. A male platy tried to swim through an opening and got stuck. I got him freed, but during the process, his head and gill area got rubbed pretty raw, and somehow a big chunk...

Currently have a low-light, low tech 29g. For fish I have mostly second and third generation livebearers (platies plus a couple mollies) born and raised in this tank. I have one senior citizen platy left from my original stock as well. I am at near-max capacity with about 20 fish. I am...

I have an plain old Aqueon hood with a single tube T8 fluorescent light with some low light ferns that have done well. The light started flickering, so I replace the tube, and the new tube flickers as well. I’m beginning to think it’s the ballast in the unit that actually went bad. So am I...

Even with the dial down to 76, the heater is maintaining my tank around 83-84 degrees. I have platies, mollies, and serpae tetras. pH 7.5, gH 12, ammonia and nitrites zero. Nitrates run in the 10-40 range because it’s in our tap water from the get-go.

We have an old male platy. Most of our platies are now second and third generation. He is one of two survivors from our original stock, and he wasn’t young when we got him, so he is probably about 4 years old despite his small size. He’s small but is the father of most of the younger fish...

We had a large, presumably old female swordtail. She was large when we bought her a year ago, and was 5” long at the time of her death. She seemed perfectly fine until yesterday morning, when I saw that she was swimming upside down. She was really trying hard to swim down further into the...

I’ve had a mostly livebearer 29G for a bit over a year. I’ve lost four platies in that time, about one every three months or so. No signs of ich, they just start swimming funny (sometimes clamped fins), and are dead the next day. Water parameters are good - no ammonia or nitrites. Nitrates...

Is a water change. We have a cheapo fry box for our live-bearers that is a netted box, which hangs on the side of the tank. Most of them seem to work this way. These little breeder boxes, and isolation nets, are great until you need to do a water change, and the water level is going to fall...

Tank has been cycled since about December 1. I always had a little bit of a brown, algae like substance, but over the last several weeks it has exploded. Diatoms are my guess. In particular, it uglies up the substrate, which is a sandlike substance I bought at PetSmart. It seems like if I...

Like many of us, I have to let my tapwater age for a couple of days before doing water changes, because the pH goes up as the dissolved CO2 works its way out. However, mine goes up about an entire point, from 6.6 to around 7.5 or 7.6. This seems excessive, is it?

Finally got around to testing my KH and GH. My pH seems to stabilize around 7.5 in the tank. My tap water comes out around 6.6 but stabilizes at 7.5 after about 48 hours sitting in a bucket. The tank stays at 7.5 even with a hunk of driftwood in there. That made me assume that I had high-ish GH...

Thought I might try out Purigen. I have an Aqueon QuietFlow HOB filter. If I wanted to use Purigen: Do I use it WITH my charcoal/floss "insert" or instead of? My floss is still OK (I've been rinsing it) but the charcoal is probably spent. If I somehow fasten the bag of Purigen to the backside...

Questions about the online fish stores: 1. Shipping. I realize they know what they're doing, but do I have to be there to sign for them? In other words, should I arrange a day off work? My concern is they would sit on my porch all day and get too hot or too cold and end up dying on me. 2...

I have one of those cheap ($10) Aqueon siphon vacs with the black pump. Works ok, but barely has the power to pick up poop. Today, I changed out about half of the water I was planning to change, and when I emptied the bucket and started up again, I could not get it to pump the water anymore...

Our LFS has this policy where they sell livebearers only in pairs, so you can't select more than one female to any male you buy. The only exception are the "three for $XXX" specials where you can luck out and get two females and a male. I kind of understand why, because otherwise they will have...

I have platies and serape tetra at the moment. PH is 7.5 and stable. I don't use any aquarium salt due to having the tetras and plants that would not fare well with any salt. I liked a couple of large sailfin mollies (they were HUGE - 5" long!) I saw at the LFS, but have read they are far more...

Have a fairly new 29G. Cycled, water parameters staying good. We have 5 platies, 6 ghost shrimp, and 6 Serpae Tetras. One platy is pregnant and may have fry before we leave on Jan 14. We are going on an 8-day vacation and I'm not sure what to do. As far as water changes, I've been doing a 30%...

I have been thinking about adding a secondary light to my setup. Something in the blue/purple spectrum, almost like a black light but w/o the UV (since I read it's harmful). Also, I want a way to be able to see the fish at various times of day, without having to leave the lights on for 15 hrs a...

One of my new platies appeared to be pregnant just a couple days ago, just starting to square off a little...now, NOTHING. She never behaved in any odd way like I hear they do when giving birth, so I don't think she birthed and they were all eaten before I even saw them. What I'm wondering...

I have a low light setup. Got a clump of hornwort a couple weeks ago. My platies love hiding in it, but anytime the water moves, or it floats towards the HOB filter, chunks fall off and needles float all over the tank. Will this stop or is it dying? If it is dying, why, and are there low...

Have to switch out my carbon insert in my Aqueon HOB filter, it's pretty delapitated and starting to 'fall apart'. It's my first time since adding fish that I'll have to change it. I did fishless cycling before adding fish, and so far my numbers have been good. Will I see an ammonia/nitrite...

What technology are the watts per gallon ratings you see For different plants based on? Fluorescent, LED, metal halide, and incandescent all have different outputs per watt. It seems like kind of a useless guide, unless you know which lighting technology was used to develop these guidelines.

Did a fishless cycle. Added fish Sunday the 4th. Twice daily, I'm doing a nitrate and ammonia test, just to check on things. Ammonia is always zero. Nitrite was zero both times Monday and Wednesday. This morning (Thursday) and Tuesday morning, I got barely detectable levels, a slightly darker...