Caryl

It depends on what is causing the film as to whether it is harmful. Anything on the surface will cut back the oxygen exchange so can do damage to lesser or greater degrees. Some fish foods are high in protein and these can cause a film to develop.

Type of fish, number of plants, water temperature, and fish stock levels all make a difference. Sorry for the losses.

Don't forget not everyone checks here (or their emails) every day! I have a message in my outbox that has been there several weeks. :roll:

Will do Jim. Perhaps I should say no more magazines for you until you send an article! :lol: Mel are you interested in killies? They are a postal only club. We have a number of members who do not live locally although this makes it very difficult to have quorums at meetings! Have a look at the club section and work out the nearest to you. You may join a club, even if it is too far away for you to be able to participate in meetings.

It's a sticky under Freshwater

Looking good! Would you like to update your profile to include your location? Click on the user control panel top right to do this. It often helps to know a poster's location when they ask questions, as geography can have an effect on the answers sometimes.

I can't recommend a particular test kit as I don't know many and haven't used one for years :-? They are good when you are cycling a tank though and/or having problems as the results will help determine what the problem is and the way to fix it. 99.9% of problems are caused by poor, or incorrect, water conditions. Watch the meth blue as it stains easily and I think it also says on the bottle (get out the magnifying glass) it is carcinogenic :roll: Handle carefully.

So why are they called leopards? I have never seen leopards with those markings. Very cute.

Most pet shops will sell you bags. Sports and camping shops have heat pads. I get my boxes free from the surgery. Try your doctor, chemist or blood lab. Plus I have a garage full of them! 8) I have never seen indecent rubber bands Our freebie papers and Property Press come with good thick rubber bands around them.

I wonder if it was a reaction between the Flourish and the Furan? I have never used either product but do know you should never mix meds or chemicals. Your last question lost me :-? (not difficult)

I enjoy proper English too What size is the pond? Snails, on the whole, will have a beneficial effect in there.

No need for the salt. You ran the tank for 4 weeks then did a partial water change. There was no need as nothing would have happened in a tank with nothing in it up to that point. The cycle doesn't start until you add fish or ammonia of some sort. You then added 14 fish which was way too many at once in a new tank (the 4 weeks empty don't count). The ammonia levels etc would have gone skyhigh, resulting in the deaths you experienced. They are obviously still stressed, probably from the ammonia, which is why they have whitespot. I suspect the tetras had ammonia burns, not fin rot. Keep up with the water changes daily until you get a 0 reading for ammonia. Make sure you siphon the substrate well when you do this as you will be sucking up whitespot cysts too. Increase the temperature, as suggested, and use the whitespot treatment as per instructions on the bottle. It takes a while for all the signs of whitespot to disappear so don't disheartened. (Don't panic at the water colour when you add the treatment either!)

Back on topic please people! :roll:

Let's recap from the beginning. They were surface breathing. This indicates a lack of oxygen or something in the water from which the fish are trying to escape. You did a water test and ammonia, nitrite and nitrate were all 0. This doesn't sound right to me as there will always be some nitrates in a tank. Are your tests past their use-by date? You mentioned you had been dosing with Flourish. I seem to remember someone saying you had to increase the oxygen when doing this. You then stated they seemed to get worse after water changes but improved when removed from tank into water from another tank? Seems to me that indicates a water problem. Have the council flushed the pipes in your area with something recently? They sometimes do this. Some fish will be affected before others as some are more sensitive. I don't think anything will be transferred on the ornaments. Boiling always helps clean them. The gravel can be boiled too. Plants should be fine.

If it is eggs you will often notice she is fatter on one side than the other when seen from above. Sometimes they can get very fat with eggs and look like they are about to burst. The can be 'milked' and many breeders do this. Never tried it myself so will leave details to someone who has done it :-? More likely eggs than dropsy.

In pic 1 you could replace that tank with a bigger one In pic 2 you could get rid of that useless looking bookshelf (just throw out the rubbish on it :lol: ), replace it with a higher wall mounted one if you must then put a tank where it was In pic 3 you could move the tank along to fit another beside it or move the chair forward a little. A tank could fit behind it on eith of those 2 walls In pic 4 (and 3) you could get rid of that silly little table. There no need for a useless item like that when the space it takes up could be used by another tank You could also get rid of that large entertainment cabinet. Who needs TV or whatever when you have several aquariums? :bounce:

There is one more pic that refuses to load! I get that stupid sql error :evil:

Here are Caper's pics showing where she thinks there is no room for more tanks :roll:

Some fish don't start attacking others until they reach a certain age

Fish murderer!!! :lol: Yes it is possible they walloped their heads on the lid or crashed into the glass. Some species are more prone to doing this than others. It was more likely the flash than the noise. How noisy can you be just taking a photo? :-?

Are you sure it is fin rot and not damage done by other fish? I have never used Furan so can't comment.

Unless your new heater is set at too high a temperature, there is no point in turning it off. It will only turn on to heat the water up when required. If the tank temperaure is erally high and constant, try freezing some 2 or 3L bottles of water and floating them in the tank. Slikka pads work well too. Cloudy eyes is often a sign of parasitic or bacterial infections. Not sure if the flourish has done it though as I don't know enough about the stuff. If a fish has whitespot it looks like it has been sprinkled with salt. If the fins are edged in white and getting shorter it is a bacterial infection called fin rot. All the symptoms could just be a sign of stress in the hot weather.