Faran

Interesting. So the brichardi that u had on TradeMe? I thought there was 3 of them. Congrats, too bad you're not gonna get to keep them. Will only take a few months for them to get to a breeding size. Have you heard that they're community breeders with the larger fry taking care of the smaller fry? Hope our brichardi do that someday, though I think they'll have to have a tank alone for all that jazz.

As the wand is under the gravel the air is collecting into larger bubbles before getting enough floatation to break through the gravel. Try putting it above the gravel and you should get a wall of smaller bubbles.

Some bubblers are designed to go at gravel surface level (flat with lower edges wider to provide anchorage) or it could be designed to go on the substrate or even attached to the glass. Hard to tell unless we know more, but generally recommend not having it below or at substrate surface level as it causes a bit of stirring up of the waste and such that should be settling down. As Caryl says above, if you can find someplace to put it where it's above gravel level and still unseen, do that. Otherwise, try different things and see what you like. It's a preference thing, overall.

Bleach them, yeah.... :evil: Bleach them all!!!! :evil:

Nah, I thought she was a goner and was planning on returning her to the shop once she went belly up. But yeah, between the little bubbles coming out of her back end and the abdominal swelling going down gradually it made sense. Keep in mind that these fish literally jump out of the water to take food from my fingers, so it's my own fault.

Outstanding picture, good luck with them!

Once initial territories were sussed and the pecking order of fish in the tank was sussed the brichardi settled in nicely. They definitely don't like getting pushed around though!

Funnily enough, I ran into a problem this weekend concerning just this. One of my new Congo Tetras arrived from the LFS with a very big belly. I was pleased that she was so nice and fat (will be going in a spawning tank in a few weeks) but soon noticed she was having trouble swimming. A few hours later she was at a 45 degree angle head-down tail-up working very hard to keep from going to the surface. I grabbed her and tossed her in the hospital tank to keep a closer eye on her and give her a break from the fast flowing current of the tank she was in. Within a few hours I started seeing the expected bubbles coming from the back end and by the next morning the indigestion/gas was over and she was able to return to the main tank.

Agreed with everything said before. Here's my version of the answer, though you've heard it all before. 1. 5000K to 6500K for proper light spectrum for plants. I have a 10000K for all my tanks for summertime lighting, the plants seem to do fine with that spectrum as well. 2. As tropical tanks aren't that light-hungry flouros are fine unless you have a deep tank which will require MH or something stronger for proper light penetration. With deep tanks flouros can be perfect if you have fish that prefer low light levels. Flouros are generally much cheaper, so a majority of tropical setups have them and they've proven to be perfectly fine. 3&4. I've seen a sump setup a few times with tropicals and they work perfectly. Not necessary though, as you can have a simple hang-on filter and it works fine. If you have a tank with a sump sitting around unused give it a shot! I have a 3ft tank with an external canister, a 2ft with an internal canister, a 45cm (fry tank) with a simple sponge filter and a 4ft with a filter built into the hood (don't recommend these highly as they're quite loud). 5. Feeding fish twice a day and fasting one day a week will be plenty. Any food left over after a few minutes is overfeeding. Good luck with tropicals, enjoy the discus!

Hi Angus, Where did you read not to keep BNs with Discus? I once had a horrible experience with a pleco trying to "clean" my discus and left it with a nasty scar, but when I asked about this in the past (on these forums) I was told BNs are perfectly fine with discii and wouldn't do that. Blue

Water with a little bit of bleach sterilizes plants. Of course, give them a good rinse straight away to wash off the bleach and what-have-you before putting them in the tank. May lose a few leaves afterwards, but the new growth will be healthy and happy - and snail free.

They're just run-of-the-mill spotted silver dollars, right? Nothing rare or hazardous about them. If you can't home them throw them back on TradeMe. At least you know what they are now. Jody always has a home for orphan fishies if you can't home them

His growth may have been stunted (happened to a baby discus of mine once) or may just be the runt of the litter. "Runts" happen for any number of reasons, namely inbreeding, which cause conditions such as scoliosis which prevent them from growing as they should. You can always try selling him on TradeMe as a "dwarf discus" :lol: roflmao :lol:

This type of tank? What kind of new tank? By the way, Cichlids aren't really the best community fish, so you better do your homework before throwing in some new fish and getting half of those tetras eaten. I recommend any of the dwarf cichlids though.

Yeah; of course, it's not grounded. But if a possum accidentally touches two of those same 24000volt lines at the same time... well, I'm sure you've seen a line-BBQed possum at least once in your life. Not a pretty sight.

So put them in the tank with the eggs? They wouldn't harm them, would they? Sorry, just figure the parents should still be given a chance to care for them. Otherwise, make sure the bubbler is close enough to the eggs to provide good circulation. Good luck either way! Kim and I saw these two at the KMAC meet and they're awesome. Will be keen to get some from either of you

When putting together our first tank last month (now up to 4) I ran across one of these at Hutt Pets for $30 pretty much full grown. I'd just seen juveniles at Animates for $55 so I jumped on it. He's my favourite fish at the moment. A bit shy (doesn't like eating when he's being watched) and he gets stressed out easily when doing a lot of changes in the tank. Though he has a massive mouth he doesn't eat any of the smaller fish. Cool thing is, he yawns like Leaf fish so you get to see the way it extends out like an accordion. I'm sure you've googled tham and know as much as I know. What to say from an owners experience. He likes having a spot to hang out in and prefers low light. I have a blanket of Riccia over quarter of the tank (floating) so he has a shaded place to hang out at. He can swallow half a freeze dried jumbo shrimp (love that idiosyncronym) though he prefers chomping down half a frozen blood worm cube - in one go. I've never seen him eat flakes though he tries just about anything that looks like food. He can change his body colour between almost white - spots come out with more contrast - to a dark chocolate brown. He definitely eye-balls you and isn't afraid of your hand in the tank. He does stress out though and he even did a repetitive swimming pattern for a couple days when I kept messing around with the tank. My bad, it was new and I was over-eager. He's good now though and I plan on making a proper cave for him in time. Here's a question to anyone that might know. Do both makes and females have the combs on the gills or just males? I'd love to take a picture to describe what I mean, but he's a low light fish and it's just cruel to use a flash on him with those massive eyes. They look like they're made of glass though. Feel free to ask anything. There's someone else here that has a few.... RnB?

Ey Paul, yer missin the last ] on the /quote above. Great pix, cute kidz.

Makes sense to me! Never had goldfish, so I never knew that before. Plan on having a hexagonal corner tank with some Ryukins and red cap orandas someday, so this will be filed in memory for that day Oh, about food getting to the bottom... just get a catfish. Cory cats are perfect for just about any tank and are excellent about picking up leftovers. Plecos (or Bristlenose) and the rest of the cats do the same.

I think that was just general info about how to make flake food sink - soak it. I've never heard of flake food causing problems with swim bladders. Anyone?

Oh.... yeah, some small clown loaches would be oscar snax. Nuffink left to do but medicate! I advise moving the oscars to another tank while medicating their snail-infested home (no point losing your oscars over the filthy snails). As for the filters, no clue. Have you cleaned your hoses? Could be clogged up with snails, eggs or what have you.

The problem is the water won't cycle properly (or as fast) without an initial bacterial introduction from an existing tank. Really recommend using cycle for a fresh tank set up. Skips a lot of problems and you really do get a quality product. If there's no "cycle" available, there's plenty of other products with the bacteria you need. Leaving dechlorinated water for 2 weeks will start some bacteria, but it's really best if you add even a goldfish (rather than cycle-like product). Nuff said? I feel like I'm being repetitive here.

Hi PJ, it's been YEARS since I had any sailfins, but I can highly recommend them for a community tank. As livebearers, they instinctively try not to eat smaller fish, they are a great addition to any tank with great personalities and a showy way of things with that big sailfin. They are livebearers, so be ready for babies if you have males and females together. As with all livebearers, they're easy to sex and VERY easy to breed. Lyretails should be bred young as the extensions on the gonopodium (fish penis - you know what I mean) make it useless for mating when it gets too long. Aside from that, here's a few useful sites I came up with when I Googled "Sailfin Molly". http://www.flmnh.ufl.edu/fish/Gallery/D ... Molly.html http://www.thetropicaltank.co.uk/Fishindx/molly1.htm There's also a couple entire books on Mollies: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... 67-3737664 Hope that helps, and enjoy them - they're awesome fishies! For current personal experience, ask Billaney. He has a few in his comm tank.

Wicked severums, very nice. Good site, as well, treehugga. Axelrod's help you with any of that?

Two of them are 4-5cms each with a larger one perhaps 5-6cm. Why keep them in a comm tank? Because 90% of the sites out there on Brichardi say that they're fine in comm tanks with decent size fish. Keep in mind that this is an African Comm tank and Congos are not small, slow or weak like most tetras. It's mostly the GBAs and baby Kribs that are getting nipped.