PlantedAri

20 gallons, there's another clump of red root floaters and then quite a bit of water lettuce and frogbit hanging down too. Here's a photo of the whole tank: Hmm very good to know about the Amanos. Honestly I'd thought the algae, plant matter, and leftover fish food would do it for them, so maybe I need to be more intentional about feeding them. How did the less serious aggression issues resolve?

Probably excessive backstory: I got 12 pseudomugil luminatus 2 months ago. My tank is heavily planted and I also have 6 amanos. I didn't quarantine the pseudomugils because they were the first fish in my tank, but they settled in well and seemed fine until a month and a half later when I noticed one of my amanos munching on a dead fish. I hoped it was a fluke since they all seemed fine otherwise, but then a few days later I was down to 9 fish. I never found the carcasses because of aforementioned dense planting and my shockingly efficient amanos and snails. I also noticed a few fish trying to peck at the eggs one of the amanos was carrying - even just an hour after being fed. This led me to my first theory: that the amanos were somehow culpable. Work got busy and I noticed that one of the amanos had laid her eggs, so I hoped that would be the end of it, but a couple days ago I once again noticed an amano 'disposing' of a fish carcass. I'd even counted 9 fish that same morning, so one of them had died during the 8ish hours I was at work. I've been watching the tank more closely and I noticed the largest male has been chasing everyone around. (I've attached a video of said chasing.) Throughout all this I've been testing the water and I'm at 0ppm ammonia/nitrite/nitrate, and my water hardness and buffer hasn't changed from what I can tell via testing strips. I haven't spotted any strange scale, appetite, or swimming issues otherwise. Basically, should I assume this male is to blame for my other pseudomugils gradually disappearing? Any other ideas/things I should look for or check?

I'm a fan of pouring water onto some folded up aluminum foil; I tried a colander at first and the aluminum foil is even gentler for me.

Hi there, I'm 25 and coming to you live from Philly in an apartment too small for all the tanks I'd like to have! Like some others, I'm newly returning to the hobby after some childhood fishkeeping. I was inspired by a friend's planted tank and the gorgeous planted tanks I saw on YouTube, read Diana Walstad's book, did a lot of dirted tank-specific forum reading, and my 20 gallon tank (pictured below) will have been up for exactly 4 months in a week 🙂 I joined the forum to ask for some fish-related help, and figured it was only polite to introduce myself first!