Buzz

Thanks for the info and the video. I was going to record their antics tonight, but apparently these fish are like you car. You take it to the mechanic and say "it's making this noise, when I do this thing". Three hours later the mechanic calls and says he cannot find anything wrong. Well that is what is happening now with these guys. They must have known they were going to be on camera so they have been on their best behavior, LOL. They seem to have cslmed down and are not going after each other all the time, let's hope they continue down this path.

Since you are using the API nitrate test, solution bottle 2 needs to be shaken vigorously for about 30sec. If this is not done you can get unreliable results. Have you been doing this? If not, I would try this and retest.

So this is a fish I have been wanting to put in one of my tanks for a while now. I thought I knew what I was getting, but wow I am surprised with how big these are and their behavior. The males appear to be very territorial and hit and nip any other fish that comes near. One of the smaller males believes he owns half the tank. My tank is a 20Gal (high) with back wall full of pogostemon stellatus octopus, and a swod. They love being in the Pogo. I have 10 of these Flame Tetras, 10 cardinal tetras and 6 panda corys for tank mates. I am going to put some more plants in there to see if I can create some line of sight blocks and additional areas for the fish to hide out. One thing that is odd to me, is there is no aggression during feeding time. They all come out together and feed, and after that they tend to do their own thing, not much schooling or even just grouping together. Looking to find out if this is normal behavior.

Something to keep in mind as you are dosing Prime. Some test kits will not have accurate results for the nitrogens and ammonia. I use API liquid, and have have seen nitrite/nitrate tests show much lower results for up to 48hrs (0ppm for the first 24). Not sure if others have seen this??

For what it is worth....I had a similar issue, where I would dose using Easy Green and then check nitrates (low or non-existent). It took a day of wondering what the heck was wrong, and then I did some measuring. I found that the pump was the problem, it was not dispensing enough liquid. I removed the plunger from one of my many syringes i use for dosing other things, and squirted the Easy Green in there. Found it was maybe 1/4 to 1/2 ml for each pump (1 pump should yield 1ml). Might be worth checking, as you should be seeing nitrates after dosing, unless there is an issue with the test kit.