Nitrate tends to be between 20 and 40, ammonia and nitrite are 0 (of course). temperature is 79-81. Ph is 7.4 - 7.6 . I dont test for hardness but i live in a hard water area- we get lots of limescale in the kettle and around taps. They are in a 180 g tank with lots of tank mates (too many in fact- when they all get bigger some will have to go). I feed maggots on mon and tues, prawns weds, pond fish pellets thurs and sat, hikari pellets on fri and peas on sun

sorry ive been missing in action for the last 3months but ive been building my 2meter tank,cabinet,hood,plumbing & sump so i hvnt had much time for ofl.com.

anyway my two SD's r going through the same thing black spots appear the red on the tail goes completely black and the kinda slap and shiver their anal areas together this is really intersting to watch but id like to find out what this is too and the web is full of conflicting stories.

will post sum pics soon of my new tank with the odd mixture of fish in it.