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@Samala Thanks for the input, I did see your amazing borellii set up in your thread so it means a lot, I'd hate to harm these little fish.
Unfortunately I think I'm going to have to convince the misses to set up another aquarium or re-home these great little fishes.
Thank you @MacZ
My tapwater is so soft 5gh/<1 kh, and < 7ph, pretty far of their natural habitat but not hard as rock, I'm definitely keeping an eye on them for the minute but I'm thinking they should do ok. They are definitely looking much healthier already and quickly loose their shy...
Thanks @Mike Wise
I found 3 battered liquorice gourami in the corner of a LFS who are now sharing the aquarium with the borellii. It's bit of an unusual combo but spotting these was a dream come true and it only cost me £11 for 3, in my gourami days I was looking at £30-50 a pair. I'm guessing...
I'm currently keeping them at 24c and was wondering if they would prefer a little cooler or if there's a recommended temperature to get a good ration of male & female offspring?
The problem is these fish are very sensitive to nitrates.
If you're going to slack on water changes make sure your aquarium is set up to handle it, keep the filter clean, vac up poop, understock, nitrate removing media, ect.
Macmasteri do fairly well in hot water, ich does not so it's probably worth cranking that temperature.
"At 86F (30C) there is some indication that ich either a.) cannot reproduce or b.) cannot attach itself. Either way, if your fish can tolerate those temperatures (up to 89F or 31C) temperature...
Ista Premium Black Water Extract currently because it was the cheapest I could find at the time, I can't imagine there's much difference between brands.
Peat will release a lot of tannins, unless your going for black water I don't recommend it. If you're worried about lowering your pH too fast stick to IALs, ect but in my experience you have to add a lot of tannins (very dark water) to do anything drastic to the ph. When I use blackwater extract...
Yeah definitely go easy on the black water extract if you buy any, a small dose will do the same as IALs but quicker, it's my No. 1 go to if I notice any scuffs or grazes on a fish then it slowly dilutes back to normal during water changes over the next few weeks.
True, 0 nitrate isn't ideal...
Was it actually internal parasites that killed your female or was it just a weak fish? If all your other fish are healthy and you can't see parasites in the poop it was probably just bad luck.
API melafix (and the other API one which I forgot its name) is the worst, seriously just avoid it...
I live in the UK where you can't find any of the meds people suggest and the meds you can get barely work, seachem paraguard is the best out of a bad bunch imo.
Is your fish eating? (You said he's eating fry) If so firstly drop your nitrate levels as close 0PPM as you can (ultra clean water)...
This is true words of wisdom and a good perspective, not all is lost either as I still have £30 worth of fish.
Beckford’s aparantly but @Jon Webb seems to of had good luck. My red coral pencils don't really go for fry and generally avoid the apistos but they fight with each other hard and seem...
Oh wow sucks to hear N. eques are like this as well, I thought these were the most peaceful of the lot.. I definitely had 2 males 4 females, at first the 2 males battled to death then he picked his favourite female and killed the rest.. Now there's only 2 left they're super peaceful/playful but...
I decided to not add any other dwarf cichlids/apistos, I'm sure it can be done but my gut is telling me borellii are just too small, I did however order some more inverts so my tank stock is now;
-4 A. Borellii
-2 Coral Red Pencil fish (I spent £90 on 6 and a pair chased the rest to death...
They are both great little snails but my experience with MTS is I brought some beautiful jet black ones once and my god do they breed relentlessly, never again lol.
Ramshorns don't breed that rapidly in my water or I get a boom at first then numbers just seem to dwindle down (your experience...