My 40L nano

[plankton]

The guppies should be ok in the water.
Are the swords harassing them?

[jammedfool]

I meant that the guppies reproductive success may have contributed to the corys demise

I dont think the swords are harassing the guppies, but they constantly display to eachother and given there's some small, slow moving bottom dwellers who may look similar, I wondered if they were going for the Corys...
Not sure what to do about the 3(presumably not less) I have left now

[Gingerlove05]

Sorry for your losses
As Ian said the guppies and swords should be fine in hard water, its the corys i would watch, and unfortunately in hard alkaline water ammonia is more toxic than in soft water and any ammonia (judging by the nitrite spike there may have been an ammonia one before) would get to the corys sooner than the others as they really dont like any traces of it

[jammedfool]

Well I did another water change and fished out the deceased guppy and Cory... Prepare for some photos

Here are the 3 cories left in the tank... None look particularly well on a close up. One could be due to the fact he either got sucked up the tube without me noticing for 15mins (into a bucket which I didn't empty thankfully), or he executed a perfect 6.0 dive from tank into the bucket. Given one seems to have a cut on its ...cheek? I think that's the one

Another looks thin and the last one has some weird colouring

Would it be worth moving them to the bigger tank which should have less chance of ammonia spikes?






Here also are the deceased fish

[plankton]

Red gills often means there's probably been an ammonia spike.
Sorry for your losses.

[jammedfool]

It looked more like a cut to me from being sucked through the valve in the vacuum but either way...

This morning I have just 1 Cory left
Feel a bit disheartened and failish that I'm possibly getting ammonia spikes some months in just after a water change - im using prime and stability... I did add a little melafix due to the one that looked like it had a cut... the other day I added ferts for the first time in a while... And I cleaned the spray bar, added a homemade coconut cave with attached java moss and java fern. Could there have been a reaction with the conditioner? Something I've done or time in hard water? Guppies and swords seem unaffected other than the split rail, but could he have had some endler in him?

[plankton]

I think a lot of the guppies have been raised from stock that has been crossed with endlers to get the markings.

You can spikes from overfeeding, it doesn't have to be around for long. The hard, alkaline water means it's more toxic than if soft, acidic.

[jammedfool]

The one cory is hanging in there, though it seems a little lonely

Meanwhile, along with my other delivery, I had some cherry shrimp to replace the amano which moved across. Here they are floating down (they're in the tank now, happily munching away)



Should be 7 but I can only count 6 :/ ah well I'm sure I'll end up with more soon!

[jammedfool]

Lost my last pygmy Cory this morning, stuck behind the filter when I checked on the tank

Noticed it was looking a little less chirpy yesterday and the water was 0/0...
One thing I may have not considered is the added EI ferts a couple of days back. I only half dosed but then in my water if it affects TDS, perhaps the pygmy cories can't deal with that extra... the timing of the previous deaths would correlate too...

Something Stephen mentioned the other day in a post somewhere about hard water/soft water got to me, that the way their little bodies work must mean their organs are working hard to get the nutrients to the same level in water/out of water.

A lesson learned but sadly at the cost of these little guys - I'll really do my research better in future

[Gingerlove05]

Sorry for your loss
I think everyone has made these sort mistakes when starting. I know I did, as we’ve had gourami and rams which dont like our water. If you learn from the mistake thats the important thing