amb44

thanks, i didn't realise it would take that long to confirm the sex. i've had to postpone anyway which may end up being a good thing.

hi, i will be looking to get two female leopard geckos over the summer and want to make sure that they will be available - i'm assuming they're coming out of brumation and breeding now? i only ask as a few months ago there were babies regularly available on trademe and now there are only 5 listings and i think only 3 are actual geckos... thanks, amy

no, the remaining fish doesn't look skinny and i can't remember the other two looking that way either. i don't know if this means anything, but killer had an abrasion on his tail fin after the fight with the other fish. now it is a hole right through the tail! i will be picking up some clove oil shortly as i don't want to prolong his suffering.

Well, ignore what i just said. i just found the red one dead, and Killer isn't looking too hot either. Ammonia 0, nitrites 0. any idea what may have happened? the red one looked fine - not like he had been in fight. killer looks beat up but that makes sense.

hmmm...don't want to overload my tank so may just stick to the dwarves! they seemed to have settled down now, so I think I will stick with getting more plants and hopefully things work out between them. those pearls are stunning though!

They seem quite a bit bigger than the dwarves, so it would probably look good with just the one too.

Thanks everyone, I caught Killer chasing around the remaining gourami so I will likely take either Killer or them both back to the shop. I heard that Pearl Gourami are a lot more social - is that correct? Maybe I will exchange them for Pearl Gourami instead. It's such a shame; Killer is a pretty fish, but apparently leans towards the territorial side! I seem to attract the killer fish, my betta slaughtered half my neons when they were together too :-?

Hi Sheepsnana, Unfortunately my camera broke last week so can't get any photos. I will be going to the shop this weekend to get more plants, as I think my version of heavily planted is not actually heavily planted.

The poor little guy died overnight so at least I don't have to choose who to return. I guess I am just not used to this, and since there is so much conflicting information I got a bit overwhelmed. I wonder if my version of 'heavily planted' is not actually heavily planted so will get some more plants and at least one surface covering one this weekend. Thanks for your help and reality check!

Hello everyone, I think I have fallen victim to dodgy fish shop advice again and now I'm not sure what to believe/do. I have a 54l tank which I was searching for a feature fish for. Fi5shguy mentioned dwarf gourami, so I did a bit of research (apparently not enough!) and went down to my local fish shop. This fish shop has a good reputation, and I ask a lot of questions to make sure I will be doing right by my fish, especially as I am a beginner. I mentioned several times that I have a 54l tank and mentioned the other fish. I said that I wanted a male and a female dwarf gourami as I had read that this was the best combination. The person serving me said that they don't have any females, so I asked whether two males would be alright. This person said they might be alright but may fight, so an option would be to get three males and hope that the disputes were divided out between the three rather than one being picked on. I asked whether they were sure this would be alright in a 54l tank and they seemed confident enough. I've had them nearly two weeks and have seen one tiny squabble which resolved within seconds. Tonight I came home and did a water change and find one breathing heavily at the top of the tank and not eating, even when I put food right above him. His mouth is torn up a bit and he has a small hole in his tail fin. I thought he was on death's door as he then just lay in the corner on the bottom of the tank on his side, but in the past 5 minutes he has seemed to perk up again and is swimming around. I am doing a water change every 2 days at present to help deal with the added fish so I am hoping that water quality issues do not lead to any kind of infection. I am just not sure what to do - return them all? Return two? Ideally I would like at least two, just because they are so small for a feature fish. In my mind they have areas that they could all claim as I have driftwood and plants breaking up the tank, but like I said I am a beginner so I could easily be deluding myself. I am getting very frustrated with this hobby - there is a lot of conflicting information so I am not sure who to believe. It is horrible to go to a fish shop that is highly spoken of, ask A LOT of questions, and get crappy advice. If this fish dies I have paid nearly $20 for the privilege of watching an animal suffer and die slowly. Sorry for the rant, but advice appreciated. Thanks very much. You are all very helpful, I should probably just ask here! Amy

That's so cool, thanks Sophia! I didn't even click that I wasn't doing a water change as such, duh! Hopefully the finer bits will get taken up with regular water changes, if not I have some thick tights that are falling apart so might use those.

That is such a great idea Sophia. I either need to upgrade my filter or do a major clean which I don't want to do for obvious reasons, like dead fish! If I used a stocking, how big of a water change could I safely do? Would 50% every couple of days be ok until the majority of the gunk is gone from the bottom? It seems like a lot I know but everytime I do a water change there is so much poop floating around afterwards that I just want to empty everything and start again as it looks so gross. Oh I should add that I am talking about a 38l tank, so I think it falls under nano too? Thanks very much, Amy

Ah...I think I have found the problem...I have for whatever reason started shaking the tubes vigorously when testing for ammonia and nitrites. I went and retested and turned the tubes up and down a few times; lo and behold I have an ammonia reading of 0.25ppm...guess I have seriously kickstarted the cycle again *sigh* Thanks again everyone. Amy

Thanks everybody, you've all reassured me! Now to add more fish (slowly of course!). I will keep an eye out but stop testing/changing water every couple of days. When I do test, I will make sure I shake the bottles a lot as currently I only give a quick shake before doing the long shake of the test tube. Amy

No, neither of the tanks are planted.