vapo

Hi Rachel. Are they the only fish in the tank? It may help to get a couple more females. A tip we were given was to have 3 males and twice as many females. This way any bullying is spread around. Problem is these fish grow to around 6 inches in length and I'm not sure a 90l tank would be adequate for this amount of fish, though 2 more females might be OK. We (Shannon and I) had a problem with our golds - we had two. One would bully the other relentlessly 'til we had to take her back to the LFS. The submissive one left in the tank would just hide behind the filter all day and was very skittish. We introduced 2 more females and a pearl male (he'll only get to around 4inches). We also put a big stump ornament in that reaches to about 3/4 of the way up the tank. Our gold loved this and became the bully/boss of the females. There is also a 'hill' ornament in there which reaches the surface and quite a few plants now and the gourami seem to love it, so pehaps a couple more hiding places too? Here's a pic of our tank - note it's very hard to see but we actually have 20 fish in there! Also, our plants have grown a lot since that pic was taken. Good Luck, Vapo.

Thanks a lot everyone. Probably some sort of anubias, but I'm still not sure which. Yes, I agree Jude. I've looked at a lot of them now and it doesn't seem to quite fit any that I've seen yet, but I'll keep lookin'! Cheers, Vapo.

It seems to have slightly broader leaves than that, but it looks a lot like it. It's probably some sort of bog plant though, cos it hasn't grown at all since we got it. Other plants growing fine, just not this one. Cheers, Vapo.

Got a plant from Animates and they told me it was a sword, but I don't think they really knew what it was, cos they said it was an Amazon and it's not. Anyone know what it is?

Here I go, digging up posts again. Where's the best place to get female bettas in Wellington? Anyone have an idea? Cheers, Vapo.

I thought they were just a variety of three-spot? We have a female gold, actually, we had two, but they were vicious so we took one back. Got two other three spot variants and a pearl and they get along famously - as long as everyone knows that 'Goldy' is the boss! Cheers, Vapo.

No sweat Bill. Shoulda put my username in there somewhere. I'm a bit vacant sometimes. Cheers, Vapo.

Nice tank misnoma, we have a R2-120. Oh, yeah, I'm RKL. Cheers, Vapo.

Sorry to hear about your fish loss. They're some crazy looking fish. I'm just gonna say a bit about whitespot treatment, as there seems to be a few different opinions out there. Our LFS told us, they had no whitespot, but all of our fish had come from the one shop, and everything else in there had been sitting for 3 days before we put in the first fishy. A staff member at Animates claimed to have told our LFS owner that there was whitespot in their(LFS) tanks, and that's why they had no gravel in most of their(LFS) tanks. I'm inclined to agree as they use the same nets for all their tanks and put them all in the same box together anyway. You may not have gotten rid of the parasite on the first treatment. this can result in a parasite that is more immune to the treatment.We dosed our tank for three times the recommended length of time and did 10%-20% water changes everyday using our syphon to vacuum the gravel. It finally got rid of the whitespot and I'm of the opinion that these parasites are introduced, as they are parasites and need a host to live off. Without a host, they will (supposedly) die off within 48hrs. We also dosed our tank at full strength instead of half, as we were advised, due to the fact that the melachite green in the treatment was supposedly bad for our clownies. They are all fine, although perhaps it didn't agree with your elephant nose? My partner was a vet nurse and part of her training covered parasites and their life cycles. Apparently, the spots drop off, form cysts in the gravel, on plants and on ornaments, then burst open after 48hrs and "swimmers" come out looking for a host. Clown loaches and other scaleless fish are very susceptible. The "swimmer" stage is when they can be killed by treatment, so the water needs to be treated for the duration as well as at least two - three to be safe - days after all signs of whitespot have dissappeared. To speed up this process the water temp can be upped to around 28deg C (OK for clownies, don't know about most other fish), although we left ours at 27deg. BTW we have gouramis, a plec, and neons in there too. The loaches seemed to be the least phased by all the treatment and infestation. Does your whitespot treatment have Quinine in it? This is very good for preventing secondary infections. Our treatment also had acriflavine in it, not sure what that's for. Oops, I seem to have written a novel. Anyway, cheers, Vapo.

Why is a U.S. gallon(3.8l) different to an imperial gallon(4.5l)? There's always a metric way, an imperial way and a U.S. way. Why is that? Everybody!!! Metric is EASIEST!! 1 ml water = 1 cubic cm = 1 gram 1000 ml water = 1 litre = 1000g = 1 kg 1000000 ml = 1000 litres = 1000kg = 1 tonne 0 deg C = freezing point of water 100 deg C = boiling point of water Simple! Everything is based on water! Tell the U.S. and the U.K. to get with the program. Well, that's my spiel for the day, How's everyone else? Vapo.

^^Yep. Cheers, Vapo.

Hi Peanuts. Just wondering, how is your gourami now? We had a stressed out female gold gourami and she reacted well to the addition of a male pearl and two more female three spot gourami - a blue and an opaline. Our pearl then becam quite stressed but settled after we put a big stump with caves/ holes in it and heaps of plastic plants attached. This made for more mid-height hiding places. He now comes to say hello instead of swimming manically up and down in the corner of the tank. She may need others to interact with, as ours are constantly touching each other with their 'feeler' ventral fins and/or she may need more places to hide. Cheers, Vapo.

Dude, you have 17 fish in 22-25 litres of water. That sounds like overstocking to me. You could be in for a whole lotta fishie death. Personally I wouldn't keep 17 neons in that small a tank. We have 18 fish(9 neons, 4 gourami, 4 clown loaches and a pleco), with nothing over 11cm in length, in 285 litres of water and our ammonia got up to 0.5ppm at one stage, even with three water changes per week. Granted we've only just got it cycling, but we don't have a lot of fish for all that water. Anyway, sounds like your fish may be a bit cramped in there - could make them quite frustrated. Hope you get your 620 soon. Cheers, Vapo.

Set up another tank man! Or find an enthusiast. Apparently they are a shoaling fish. He might like to be with some mates. Here's a site with a tiny bit of info: http://thatfishshop.com/findex/fish/myleus_schomburgkii.htm Apparently they like peaches!! Good Luck. Vapo.

I think the fake corals are a cool idea. Saves taking them from their natural habitat and harming the coral beds. Our fish loved the one we were given - even though we took it out as it looked weird in our tank - they swam through it and rubbed over it for the couple of weeks it was in there. Of course they aren't going to be able to filter the water in a marine tank, but let's hope they keep making them more and more realistic. Nice colouful tank Debs. Great for kids! As for the photos, does your camera have a macro setting? If you can figure out how to use it, you can usually get good pics from about a foot from the fish. Even closer if you have a camera capable of it. It took me ages to figure out ours as I've 'misplaced' the destructions (oops, instructions). I put it on A/S/M and pushed buttons til it came up with a wee ruler that went from 3cm to infinity. If yours does that, you'll probably be able to get good pics. Just play til you get it! Good Luck! Vapo.

I was just asking as garden snails are averse to salt. It dries them out almost immediately, so I was wondering if a salt bath (then rinse) for plants before putting them into the tank would be appropriate to get rid of any unwelcome hangers-on. Perhaps I'll just give it a try. Yes our clown loaches will love the snails if it doesn't work anyway. Cheers, Vapo.

How about a saline solution? Would that work to get rid of snails? If so, does anyone have an idea as to the concentration? I must say, I wish I found this thread a month ago, when we were starting out. Very informative. Thanks Bill. Cheers, Vapo.

Name: Ron Age: 32 Occupation: Aspiring World Domination Candidate Sex: When I can get it Marital status: Chained Books: Last one was "Retribution" by Jilliane Hoffman, am currently reading "Maximum Ride - The Angel Experiment" by James Patterson. All books passed on by the mother-in-law. Hobbies: Fish, mountain biking, indoor cricket, watching sports or comedies, drinking, eating. Tribe: Wife, 1yr and 2yr old girls who live with me, 10yr old boy and 9yr old twin girls who don't. Other pets: Had a dog, but now he "sleeps with the fishes". Location: Lower Hutt Car: Nissan Largo 7seater as per kids (above) Favourite foods: Chocolate, Chicken Lasagne, Cheesecake, Ice cream and more chocolate. Tui.

Fading colour and/or changing behaviour are often signs of stress. How many other gourami are in there? Our gold female was very shy and hid behind the filter til we put three more in the tank, 1 male pearl, 1 blue female and 1 opaline female. Most opinions I've heard or read, say keep 2 females per male as a general rule. Also, we put another mid-water obect in there - a big stump - so they had something to hide behind. It may just be trying to hide. Do you have many mid-height plants/ornaments? It's been 3 weeks since we did all of that and now she's as happy as Larry. She stayed a bit shy for a while and still hid a lot, but after a few days she was chasing the others around. A couple of days after that, they'd sorted their heirarchy, she's the boss of the women and everyone was pretty chilled. Now she's coming up to the glass to say hello whenever we come in the room and touching the glass with her feelers, they all do it. Anyway, I hope your fish cheers up. Good luck, Vapo.

Three spot Gourami are cool. Ours are really friendly and they like to breathe a bit of air.

Those wee white specks are not necessarily bubbles. They could be something MUCH WORSE!!! Quick!! Throw the tank out the window!!! It's gonna explode in 5 seconds!!! Just kidding. We also get those bubbles at random times. Sometimes it's just bits of stuff stirred up by our clown loaches, but usually they're just air. Don't stress. I'm sure it's all OK. Cheers, Vapo.

Some fish will have a problem with taking in air with their food, but most will be fine. I've even read you should sink food for neons and other tetras, but I don't think many people do it and mostly their fish are fine. So, perhaps you could read up on your individual types of fish and find out what their feeding preferences are. Just do a google search or something. Cheers, Vapo.

Live and Learn. :oops: What about Clowns? BlueandKim - LMAO :lol: Cheers, Vapo.

Sounds like too many fish brutha. Check the ammonia. Cheers, Vapo.

I know plecos and clown loaches don't tolerate salt well, so I'd assume similar would apply to the kuhlis and catfish. If everything's ok at the moment, why change it? Personally I wouldn't risk my other fish as guppies seem to do fine in freshwater. Cheers, Vapo.