Caryl

My Africans happily lived and bred in 7 - 7.2pH

I have always held the test tube against the white background.

I have 3 books here that state, for leopardfish... 16 - 20C 18 - 24C and 25C :roll:

Snail eggs. Got live plants in there? They will have come in on them. Not apple snail eggs.

Hi and welcome.

Easy to test if it is the gravel. Put some in water and test daily.

It also depends on what fish (and size) you keep

I know some people get the black polythene (from farm supply stores) that farmers use for their dams.

I agree with Ian and wonder if there is something decomposing under the filter plate.

I have bred fish over the years but never tried breeding nets :lol:

She is using fish - goldfish.

Nice driftwood. If I may make a suggestion, I would move the left (as you look at it) end of the driftwood back a bit (if you can) and/or swing the right end a little more to the front so it is on a bit of an angle. Make the tank look a little deeper.

When you buy a test kit you use a sample of half the little test tubes provided so you only need a small amount to take to the lfs. Got any old film canisters? Half fill one of them and it will be plenty. What sort of gravel do you have? When we first started fish keeping we chose a lovely deep reddish aquarium gravel from the garden centre (don't have any lfs here). Our pH kept going up to 8.0 and we couldn't work out why. Turned out the gravel was meant for Afrikan set-ups and was designed to raise the pH! The shop assistants had no idea :roll: A high pH is better than one that is going up and down like yours is as a result of all the water changes.

Is it eating and pooing? Otherwise, since it is just the belly area, I would first suggest constipation.

Hmm, yes I didn't leave my Africans more than 3 days without food.

Nice fish (if you like that sort :lol: ) Good pics too.

Is that what they call blanketweed? The bane of ponds?

How long will you be away for each trip? If you have a well established, well planted, well filtered, not overstocked tank you can leave them (depending on species) for up to 10 days without food. I do this to mine (gouramis, barbs, tetras, hoplos, BNs, loaches, rasboras) with no problem at all.

They are a gorgeous fish. Do they come in a wide range of colours and/or do they change colour depending on surroundings?

Look at it this way - you will be able to get wet and wild on your anniversary

A lot more plant will help the angel feel more secure and hopefully perk up a bit.

Sometimes one or more of mine is patchy and other times not :roll: Doesn't seem to be related to anything as far as I can see

How well planted is it? Provide a lot of plant cover and see if that helps

We're supposed to clean the shower? :lol:

Is it possible it is being harrassed by the other angel?