File :-(, x, )
Anonymous
So /an/ons i have a 15 gallon tropical fish tank (fully cycled before you start bitching).

In it is 3 fancy tale male guppies, 2 Cory's and a golden nouget plecco.

I had one plant in the tank and NO2/NO3 levels where fine, however ive added a another plant to the tank and the NO2/NO3 levels have sky-rocketed to:

NO2: 10 ppm
NO3: 160 ppm

This isnt a new tank so why the huge spike in NO2/NO3 its been in there for about a week now and still no drop in NO2/NO3 levels... Is the tank ever going to adjust to this new plant or would it be easier to just remove the fucking thing.

Also would adding 2 male dwarf gourami and 2 female dwarf gourami be a good idea at this point or should i let NO2/NO3 levels drop before i do this.

inb4 You cant keep guppies with gourami.
>> Anonymous
what kind of plant is it, first of all...

idk. i can more specifically say about the gourami thing - dwarfs are adorable and i love them dearly, but they can be fastidious little fuckers and if you like how your fancytail guppies look now, i would advise against it.

not to mention one inch of fish per one gal of water, dwarfs are about 1.5in each so four of them = 6in, guppies are what, 1in each including tail, so 3 - cory cats i am unfamiliar with but they can grow big... ah god, tl;dr don't overstock your tank.

imho id take the guppies and put them in another tank if you want to put gouramis in that one. they will get along with the cory cats and plecos better than with guppies.

Let the levels drop back to normal before you decide to add any new fish. their addition is likely to cause a spike anyways.
>> Anonymous
your stocking is fine op

the plant did not spike your nitrites/trates, if anything it should reduce them slightly, though parts of it may have died off, resulting in the spike.

Likely cuases:
1) time has past since you last checked and your tank has went to shit a little bit.

2) when planting the new plant you stirred up god knows what nasty shit out of the sediment and into the water coloumn, where it is decomposing and fouling the water.

Very likely a little bit of everything actually.
>> Anonymous
also do a damn water change, nitrates will not go down by themselves without a ton of plants, a 50% water change will take them to 80, two more and you'll be at 20 and can rest a little easier.

Your nitrites are very likely not at 10 or your guppies likely would not have tails and your gold nugget and cories would have died a long time ago. Cheap dip strip test kit that is difficult to read and not very accurate? Anyway, water change.

Good luck finding female powder blue, neon blue, and flame dwarf gouramis, they very rarely make it into the trade. 4 would be a lot and would probably look/be crowded.
>> Anonymous
Try doing a water change, about 25% of the volume of the tank. If that doesn't help, do another 25% and it should clear up. 316707 is prolly right, planting in an established aquarium can kick up alot of fish crap from the substrate.
>> Anonymous
OP here:

I did a 25% water change just after I posted this, and have now just removed the plant and put it into an old unsued tank of its own with water siphoned from the tank.

I do a 20% water change weekly and have done a 25% water change daily for the past 2 days.

I also cleaned out the filter with old tank water just remove any large peices of plant it had sucked up.

Ive kept guppies and dwarf gourami in the same tank similar to this one and there still alive and fine in the tank today (had to leave old tank when i moved out).

What im guessing is the new plant i put in flaked a load of shit off of it which decomposed in the filter because when i cleaned it out it was full of plant leaves etc.

But tbh was thinking of getting another cory 2 dwarf gourami females and 1 male, once the tank NO2/NO3 levels have reached normal level's again.
>> Anonymous
A few people I've talked to at my local aquarium shops have told me that Dwarfs can carry a disease that only affects them. They have seen alot of their stock die because of it and recommend the Blue or Pearl Gourami for larger systems and Honey Gourami for smaller ones. I haven't done any research to verify this, just going off what I've heard. I love dwarfs myself and I'm hoping to get a good male and female specimen for my tank soon. They recommend being very picky with your choices and if you see any fish in the tank that look ill don't purchase from it.

tl;dr Dwarfs might be ill, ask your dealer first.
>> Anonymous
the problem with dwarfs is they are inbred allot which doesn't help them.

There popularity is there only downfall.
>> Anonymous
>>316715

I see those kind of gourami's at my LFS all the time o.O HELL even petsmart.
>> Anonymous
>>316746

>>Good luck finding female powder blue, neon blue, and flame dwarf gouramis
>>female

I can say with almost 99% certainty that you never saw or will see a female of any type of Colisa lalia at Petco or Petsmart, they order all males by default, and are shipped all males. Any females would be an accident.
Many wholesellers only sell all males even.

LFSs are much more likely to have females yes, becuase they cater to a more hobbiest crowd that wish to purchase pairs of fish even if the female is not as pretty