Robert K

Thanks, I might do that. No stress in the meantime, I'm all right with having it here. 👍

Ok, thanks! Yeah, diet is still being mentioned quite often, as are activated carbon and stray current (which I am particularly sceptical about). But overall, there doesn't seem to have been a whole lot of development. It's still pretty much a mystery.

Hitting the tank hard with flukes and Hexamita meds. I'm really crossing my fingers now, because I don't know what to do if this doesn't work. This thread seems to have evolved more towards diseases/meds than plants and fertilizers. Anyone know how to move a thread to another category?

Thanks! Yeah, I think I've seen these charts before and they're busy to say the least. 😅 But absolutely, it's a complex system where no single component is independent from the rest.

I may have been too optimistic. The good: Plants are doing great and showing a lot of new growth, nitrates are under control (around 20 ppm before the weekly water changes), I keep dosing phosphate and it works great. The bad: The geo isn't doing better, in fact he's worse. It's so frustrating and stressful seeing him like this. The other day he started breathing quite rapidly and intensely, which got me thinking. Could this be flukes? I mean, based on google searches to me this totally looks like HTIH. And when it comes to HITH most of the time it's treated like this mysterious affliction without exactly known causes or cures. It's not often I've seen it connected to flukes, while to me it makes a lot of sense. Flukes feed on the skin/gills of the fish. Hexamita parasites are mentioned as possible causes. But how reasonable is that? Hexamita is an internal parasite, these are external wounds. But OK, maybe there is a connection. I have therefore treated my tank with Hexamita meds a couple of weeks ago, didn't help. Meanwhile, could it be just flukes? I really hope so. I've got some fluke meds in the mail which should arrive by middle of the week. At the same time, if it is just flukes, I will be kicking myself for not picking it up earlier. Man, i hate to see the geo like this. Well, we'll see. Hopefully, I'll learn something from this.

Hey @Juancho what did you treat your fish with? I have a geophagus with what looks like hith and that refuses to get better.

Consider a blood parrot. It's my kids' favorite, both looks and personality wise. I'm sure your daughter would love it. Or a T-bar cichlid. Mine gets along great with everyone else in the tank. Looks like a miniature flowerhorn. 😅

Three if I remember correctly,

I used black acrylic paint with a roller.

@Jeremy Shives Now that's a thicc substrate! 😀 Do you notice any denitrification going on?

Both would be very fun tanks I think. Like @Tony s says, the skirt tetras might take down a shrimp or two but I would definitely try this. Considering that the tank is heavily planted you should be able to get a shrimp colony going even with the occasional shrimp ending up as a snack. The one thing I'd probably do is put in the skirt tetras last, thereby giving the shrimp a bit of a head start.

It can take weeks for plants to get used to your water and start showing new growth. I'd cut off what looks like rotting and keep it floating.

Don't feed them for a couple of days before the move and don't feed them in the bucket and I think you should be fine. Throw in a plant or a piece of decor from the established tank and you're good to go. Fish spend days in small plastic bags when being shipped. You'll be fine.

The easy way out would be getting a silver flying fox imo.

Today I set up these mesh strips (?) rolls (?) on my lights. I think I have way more light than I need on my tank. A new light with RGBs, that's dimable is on my wishlist but I pretty much have to go with this brand and their lights ain't cheap. So in the meantime I thought I'd try this, and I think I like it quite a bit. This is a mesh that is originally intended for trees as protection against deer and other animals that like eating the bark. It comes in rolls.