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Derek

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Everything posted by Derek

  1. Hi Ira, Haven't got any bristlenoses for sale but if you want to pop around sometime, you are welcome to 2 or 3 sub-adults / adults.
  2. Hi Goldie, The talk seemed to go OK. Usuall story with a room full of students, some were interested, some were not. The Vet that takes the course must have thought it went OK as she has asked if I will do it again next year. I ended up running out of time, so I didn't cover all the topics that I planned. The time taken to answer questions was longer than I thought it would be. Anyway the topics I did get to cover were: Setting up an aquarium covering things like location, type of gravel, rocks, driftwood, water chemistry, equipment such as lighting, filters, heaters, aeration, etc A big emphasis on cycling the aquarium, how the nitrification cycle works along with signs of ammonia, nitrite poisoning, etc. How to infer conditions suitable for a particular species from its appearance. Catching, handling and transportation of fish Feeding Enviromental factors causing stress Signs of stress Signs of both normal and abnormal health Basic medications and treatments. As you can see I missed alot of possible topics. About three weeks prior to the talk they had a two hour visit to my fishroom, so I was able to cover some other points like routine tank maintanance, different conditions for different species, live foods, etc during that visit
  3. Thanks Andrew They have other people talking to them on "herps" and goldfish. Hopefully the students will get a bit of overlap on some of the topics. Many Vets are now opening "pet shops" in association with their surgeries. So their assistants may well be called upon to handle not only problems traditionally associated with Vets but also the handling and care of fish as well as queries from customers that are usually associated with pet shops. Your point about extra sources of information is a good one and I will definitely follow that up.
  4. Thanks for all your ideas, they are pretty much in line with what I was planning. The subjects I was planning to go over include: Identification of different classes of fish How to infer conditions suitable for a particular species from its appearance Catching, handling and transportation of fish Food requirements for different species Signs of both normal and abnormal health Quarantine procedures. Disease identification and cures for some of the more common diseases. Euthanasia Nitrification cycle. General tank maintenance. Ideal aquaria for different species (Size, water quality, aeration, filtration, lighting and environmental enrichment (rocks, plants, gravel, driftwood, caves, etc)) What information should be obtained from a client to help in a diagnosis. Especially when they come in with a question like “My fish are dying – what is wrong?†If anyone has anything else they think I should add, let me know.
  5. Derek

    Epiplatys dageti

    Thanks Andrew, I'll try pulling the adults out and see what happens?
  6. I have been asked to give two 2hour talks on tropical fish to students studying for a NZQA course for vet nurses(assistants).Holders of this qualification may find employment in veterenary surgeries, pet shops or the aquaculture industry. Are there any topics that you feel they should definately know about? When dealing with such people in the past, is there anything that you felt they should know but didn't?
  7. Derek

    Epiplatys dageti

    Anyone know if there are confirmed enviromental factors such as temperature which affects the sex ratio in this species? I have them in a well planted tank (mainly Java moss & riccia) but all the fry are males. I only have one female E. dageti so would definately like to remedy that situation. If not enviromental, is it likely to be due to some behaviour difference in the female fry. Such as they tend to hide less and as such are more likely eaten by the adults in the tank. If so should I harvest the eggs and raise the fry separately.
  8. Derek

    black algae

    OK Caryl I'll disagree with you. Siamese algae eaters will eat black algae. Benny I see you are in Wellington so I would get down to Animates, they usually have them. The small ones they sell under the name "black line flying fox". Sometimes they also have them at a larger size, these they sell as a "Torpedo flying fox". There is a good article at http://www.thekrib.com/Fish/Algae-Eaters/ which describes this fish and the ways to tell it apart from other similar species. Don't feed too much food or they will eat that in preference to the algae.
  9. Derek

    co2.

    Hi John, You are not doing anything wrong it is just that your formula relies on the alkalinity in your tank water be composed entirely of CO3/HCO3 and it appears that this is not the case in your tank water. I know nothing about Betta KH Powder, I suspect it is probably just very expensive baking soda. Another formula you could try is log(CO2) = pH(a) - pH(t) - 0.3. Where: pH(a) is the pH of your tank water after it has been aerated ( i.e. shake the sample vigorously until the pH climbs and remains CONSTANT. The CO2 content should be in equilibrium with the air at this point) and, PH(t) is the pH of your tank water For example the pH of your tank water is 6.8 = pH(t) If after aerating this water the pH rose to 8.0 = pH(a) Then log(CO2) = 8.0-6.8-0.3 = 0.9 Therfore CO2 in ppm = is 10^(0.9), or about 8 ppm. This formula attempts to get around the interference that buffers other than CO3/HCO3 contribute to the formula that you are presently using. A fuller explanation can be found at http://www.thekrib.com/Plants/CO2/kh-ph-co2-chart.html Hope this helps.
  10. Derek

    co2.

    Hi John, Yes, the formula is correct but there is one uderlying principle that it relies upon. That is that all the of the alkalinity in your tank water is provided by CO3 / HCO3 ions. Does your test kit specifically measure CO3 / HCO3 or does it measure total alkalinity in the form of carbonate equivalents. If you have additional buffering system(s) present in your tank water ( in addition to CO3 / HCO3 ) that do not affect dKH but do contribute to alkalinity and also affects pH such as a phosphate buffer then the tables you refer to and the formula that they are derived from will no longer apply. Another way of putting it: dKH measures total akalinity not just CO3 / HCO3 ions while the formula is based on the concentration of CO3 / HCO3 ions only. So when you put the total alkalinity of the water (in CO3 eqivalents) into the equation at a known pH you will calculate an inaccurate and higher CO2 concentration.
  11. Derek

    Darkness

    The length of Light - Dark cycles can be important for bringing fish into breeding condition and many catfish along with other species are nocturnal so they need a decent period of darkness to provide them with an opportunity to get out and forage for food etc. Room lights are probably no different than a period of dawn or dusk. That aside, as Ira has already said, I wouldn't worry about your particular setup.
  12. The simple answer is YES and NO. As a general rule though, I would never put cories in a breeding tank when eggs or very young fry are present. Some cory species such as Corydoras aeneus the Bronze catfish will eat their own eggs and fry and some species such as Corydoras pygmaeus the Pygmy cory tend to leave them alone. So the first consideration is which cory you are talking about. Even within a species some individuals are worse egg/fry eaters than others. If you are talking about cories in with the fry of other species you really have to apply a bit of common sense. Are the fry at a size that the cories could eat them? The situation I mentioned above of mixing WCMM and Corydoras aeneus was at a stage when the WCMM fry had gotten to a reasonable size and I was feeding them alot to try and get good growth rates. Other things to consider are the behaviour of the fry, for example, do they sleep on the bottom or stay near the surface? I think Cees once told me that if young cory fry are raised with Guppy fry they do not associate them with food and these cories can continue to be kept in a tank with young fry. I've never tried it out so I'm not sure how accurate that is. Perhaps Cees can say if this BS or not.
  13. Looking back at my records I purchased the original P.spilosoma on 4/9/99, they were labelled as bulldog plecos. Although I didn't know what they were (at the time) I knew they weren't bulldog plecos. At least one of those original fish, the female is still alive so that makes her at least 3years old. I was lucky enough (as Rob puts it) to fluke the right conditions to encourage their breeding immediately and I had my first spawn two months later on 17/11/99. The last time I sold any of them to Animates was on 6/12/00. So the odds are that your fish are about 1.5-2.5 years old. To keep on thread, the first egglayer I had breed, were White Cloud Mountain Minnows. I was told these would be a good first egglayer as the parent fish tend to leave the eggs and young fry alone. Once I had fry I started feeding more but alot of the food fell to the bottom and was ignored by the fry. So I added some Bronze cories to the tank to clean it up. They certainly did that and shortly after they were spawning as well. The funny thing with those original bronze cories was that the 3 females would spawn on different days after a water change. I always use a cold water change to triggger spawning in cories and often you will get a group spawning together on the same day but not these ones. After a weekly cold water change I would find eggs 1, 2 and 6 days after the water change. Each female had her own day.
  14. Derek

    Red Chin Panchax

    Hi Ira, The fish you have are Epiplatys dageti other common names are Dageti or Black-lipped Panchax. You got them from Stuart Lord. They will eat flake but it may take them awhile to become accustomed to it as Stuart feeds alot of live food to his fish especially the Killies.
  15. From what you have described nothing comes to mind as to what the problem actually is. I take it that other plants are growing OK in this tank and it is only hydroponic plants that you have problems with. Although obviously Vallisineria would not be grown hydoponically. You mentioned that the "root ball looks fantastic" is this when you first get the plant or after the plants leaves go clear?
  16. If you mean Chinease algae eaters, NO! If you mean fish that eat algae, Yes.
  17. Are you talking about a specific plant Bruce, or just hydroponically grown plants in general? I haven't noticed any problems with plants that can be specifically attributed to them being grown hydroponically. There are short term "problems" with plants that are grown emersed. Such as the plants need to switch to a submersed form of growth. The original leaves may drop off and new growth will continue in the submersed form. This is especially evident with many of the Hygrophila species. Are these clear leaves the original leaves the plant had when you purchased it or are they the new leaves that are being produced?
  18. Like most things to do with fishkeeping there are no absolutes. That is there are usually more right ways that there are wrong ways of doing things. With respect to UG filters. Some plants naturally grow in areas where there is an anaerobic substrate so it is felt that flowing oxygenated water past their roots (via a UG filter) is not a good thing. Other plants such as many rosette plants primarily gain most of their macro and micro nutrients via their roots, as such it is felt by some that a highly oxygenated substrate may oxidise some of these nutrients (especially iron) to a form that the plants cannot use. Whereas many stem plants acheive the same result via their leaves. The size of gravel to allow a UG filter to work at its optimum is larger than what is commonly described as optimum for plant roots. I think factors such as these are often taken out of context and then extrapolated to the point where someone says UG filters are no good for planted aquaria. Like most generalisations, it is not always correct. If you want to use an UG filter try it. Just consider the requirements of the particular plant species that you plan to grow just as you would for the different fish spieces. No tank will grow all speces of plants so if some die or do not grow then just forget that species and grow those that do. If you really want to grow a particular species you may have to fiddle with conditions until you get it to grow. One of those conditions may be the presence of the UG filter itself or it could be the flow rate of the water through the substrate. However, fiddling with the light levels, CO2 and supplemental fertilization are more likely to result in success than the mere abscence or presence of an UG filter.
  19. Sorry Ira, you are correct. I obviously have the same "blind spot" as Cees. Been working with wet/dry filters and a sump for too long.
  20. Sounds good in theory Ira but unfortunately you have forgotten at least one major part of the equation. That part, is the weight of the water in the outlet tubing. The higher the pump has to pump water in a given diameter tube the more weight of water there will be. A pump can only lift a certain weight of water before the force of that weight of water pushing down (under gravity) equals the force the pump pushing up. Increase the height of your cannister filter relative to your tank and I bet your flow rate increases.
  21. You must have been New Zealands first test tube baby Caryl. :lol:
  22. I guess they haven't come from the white worm culture then. Mites don't usually "jump" so they are probably springtails. Springtails tend to eat dead or decaying vegetation and algae rather than liveplants so I wouldn't worry about them to much. Guppies, betta's, smaller Gourami's and killifish may eat them. Most planted tanks tend to get them from time to time. It's just that in small numbers the are usually overlooked. I wouldn't worry about them too much. As far as I am aware they do no harm to aquatic plants.
  23. Definately not Daphnia Probably a mite or a springtail. Check your whiteworm culture and see if this is where they are coming from.
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