GhostLincoln

Hi all, the TLDR - I have 1 Electric Blue Acara that grew much faster than I anticipated and I might be having some aggression issues. Looking for some advice. After a move and some other issues I slowly lost most of my 20 gallon community tank a few months ago. Down to 3 Red Beckford’s Pencilfish, 1 Pygmy Cory, and 2 ottos. Afterward one of my LFS had some juvenile Electric Blue Acaras in stock and I got one. My plan is to upgrade to a 40 gallon breeder and do a South American Biotope tank. The salesperson told me that they were relatively slow growing and a 40g would be fine for 2-3 of them. Well now my Acara is nearly 3.5-4 inches, and I’m down to 1 pencilfish. I haven’t directly seen aggression but haven’t found another issue. The male ECB seems to be leaving the Cory and ottos alone. My original plan was to have the ECB and some larger South American tetras, in a heavily planted 40g breeder but now I’m wondering if I’m setting myself up for more issues. Would getting 1-2 other ECBs help? I could always sell / trade him at a fish swap and go for some smaller SA Cichlids but I do really like the ECBs. Any thoughts or experiences would be helpful.

Hi all, I currently have a 20g tall and would like to upgrade to a 40g breeder in the next few months. Unfortunately I don’t really have the space to have both tanks set up simultaneously. Ideally I’d like to run the 40g for a few weeks with live plants to get it cycled. My plan is to reuse as much of the filter media, substrate, and plants as possible in the new setup. What else can I do to minimize the risk of ammonia spikes and other non-seasoned tank issues? Thanks!

Ok, well lets say it is due to exposure to high levels of ammonia at my LFS, is there anything I can do to address that now? Or is it a just hope the rest pull through? If it is a bacterial infection is there any way to confirm that? I'd prefer to not dose my tank since the rest of them seem to be perfectly fine. Unfortunately I do not currently have the space for a completely separate hospital tank.

Hi there, I picked up a few assorted platies a few weeks ago. Seemed fine (I even had a fry - that promptly got eaten I think), however, two died within the last couple of days and the remaining seem to have red gills. My other stock - some pygmy corys, beckford pencilfish, and amano shrimp all seem to be fine. Ammonia seems like its the main cause of red gills on the internet, however, I have 0 ppm ammonia according to my API test kit (see below). So I am wondering if this is a disease? Apologies for the quality of the images I will try to get clearer ones. Any help is greatly appreciated. Water Parameters: pH - 7.3-7.5 Nitrates - 40 ppm (moderately planted) Hardness - ~8 degrees Nitrite - 0 ppm Ammonia - 0 ppm KH/Buffer - ~5 degrees Water Temperature - ~79 degrees