Shannon

*cough cough* seems that a friend has offered a 6 foot by 2 foot by 2 1/2 foot tank so ummm yeah I guess Im going to have a trial an error run if they dont like the 4 foot they can get thrown into the 6 foot. so much for not getting any more tanks hubbys going to go mental lol.

yep Im planning on keeping this long term, I only wanted one giraffe and perhaps a couple of others like a kadango or peacock. Ive read mixed opinions on giraffes and Im getting the idea that its completely up to the fish itself. Definitely not going for a group of giraffes though as tank is way to small for that. What sort of smaller Mbuna fish can I put in there as well it seems all the blue fish are really aggressive is that true?

so what do you recommend? I want to add some fish I like kadangos would they be ok with the giraffe?

oh man dont talk me into up grading I have enough tanks no more I say!!!! I dont think hes swimming behaviour is normal of a open swimmer though, hes starting to get tank rub spot on his chin now. I had a pearl gourami that behaved like this untill I put more gourami in for him to hang with and chase. Would the giraffe settle down if I put other large fish in? I obviously dont want to overstock my tank but it does need more fish what fish do you recommend?

any ideas guys????

Ok after saying I wouldnt do cichlids I have succumbed to them lol, wanting to try something a little more difficult. So I have changed my 220ltr (or maybe bigger I forget) to a cichlid tank. I have added 3 E.yellows all getting on like a box of birds I will add more if there seems to be aggression issues but none so far. I have a young giraffe in there and here lies the problem I have researched them and realise they do get big and are aggressive but so far he/she is not harassing the yellows at all but all it seems to do is swim up and down the front of the tank driving me mental. I think hes neurotic lol, maybe he needs more fish to chase to keep him occupied I dont know. All the parameters are fine looking good and theres plenty of hiding places lots of rocks and plants (which hes not even interested in destroying) mid water hiding places etc. The fish itself looks fine no parasites etc hes just behaving like a nut case. So my question is what could I put in there with him thats colourful and will hold its own against a giraffe, I dont want a tank full of giraffes either as I dont think my tank will be big enough for that but I obviously want more fish in there but what so any help info what ever would be greatly appreciated. Cheers Shannon.

Some of the drivel I've heard spouted from some pet shop assistants makes me cringe. Not only about fish but with cats and dogs, I heard one girl tell a lady that parvo was a bacteria and would be killed with anti-biotics. Anyone with animal experience knows that parvo is a deadly virus that will kill your puppy in a matter of days. So I figured if they don't know the basics about main stream animals what else don't they know about the more specialised animals? Though I have been given pretty good advice by some of the older staff it is always best to get info from a lot of different sources then you can draw you own conclusions.

A nice big piece of drift wood looks fantastic as a centre piece for your tank. You can grow some java fern and moss on it and your fish will love you! I like real plants personally as they are safer on the fishs fins and it makes the tank more of a ecosystem. There are so many beautiful fish to choose from it is hard to say which one would suit you but Im quite partial to 3 spot gouramis. They do grow quite large though, around 6 inches. shannon.

No its fine for gouramis, I haven't salt bathed ours so Im not sure on the dosage. There should be some threads on here I think on salt bath dosages.

You could take all the fish out put them in Q tanks and that would leave no hosts for the parasites to live off in you community tank and so they die. Once fish get better slowley introduce them back into the main tank. Hopefully you sort it out, Im no expert and someone on here might have better advice. Good luck

Yeah they are very delicate fish due to bad breeding, stress, bad water conditions can set of a case of fungal out break. I've found with ours it is best to keep twice as many females to males, a heap of floating plants and hiding places and be very vigilant with water parameters. Im not sure what you can do with your guys now but maybe a salt bath would help. Go to your LFS and see if they can help or maybe someone on here might have better advice.

There really should be some sort of law regulating the well being of fish in pet shops and stuff. If it were kittens kept in a tiny box they would be all up in arms but because it is a fish people seem to think they don't feel or think!!! We all know that our fish have feelings of some sort, I mean ours act like we are the ones on display, they recognise us maybe only as the food supply but they know us and don't swim over to the visitors. There is a lot of different ideas out there on wiether fish have actual thoughts or feel pain but I say I wouldn't like living in a glass prison with absolutly no privacy so I don't see why another living being would.

What sort of gourami? Dwarf/threespot ect. If they are Dwarf then apparantly they are very susceptible to fungal infections, not too much you can do about it.

I felt myself gain 5 kgs just reading that recipe caryl!!!! I think I may just have to make it anyway :lol:

Big props to radu, that is one awesome fish!!! Incidently I know a breeder, he sure does get a lot for those orandas.

The male is a powder blue and god knows what the female is! she's plain silver/brown with yellowish fins. If anyone knows how to tell what the females are let us know!!!! Shannon

Thats mine and Vapos tank caper, we also have three other tanks(shared) as well. We are using one for breeding, one just has Tetras and a Pleco and we havent set the other one up yet. That gourami is a young girl blue gourami, shes very friendly and tries to nibble your hand when you put in the water. I love my gourami! They even try to talk! (they make little clicky sounds).

Thanks, we also have a new lot of babies. Soon to be free swimming god Knows where all these fish are gonna go! It was all unplaned so wasn't very equiped but it seems to be working well with some good 'ol kiwi can do.

I thought I would up date on the gourami, the fry are now free swimming I think we have about 20 of the little fellas. Its nearly impossible to count as they are so tiny. Everything is going well, they are in a 10l tank by themselves at the moment with a lid to keep the air above them nice and warm. They seem to be eating so hopefully I can get a pic of them when they are bigger. Shannon

We have 4 clown loaches, they seriously go insane for snails. We have absolutly no snails in our community tank. But they are rough on the plants and sometimes dig them up. They are prone to white spot, but other than that I think they are great little guys (although they grow to 10 inches) and are very amusing to watch.

The gold gourami is one of the 3 three spot females I mentioned. Sorry if I didn't explain properly. Looks like she's full of eggs at the moment as well. Could be why she's so grumpy and yes Casserole, she is the dominant female. The pearl male is the overall boss, but he's almost full grown and two of the girls (including Goldy) are already bigger than him, so he'd better watch out!!

Hi, I'm Vapo's partner and the plant has just decided to grow a bit taller. Perhaps because we've changed the lighting patterns. We keep the 10,000K on longer and the 18,000K on for shorter periods of time. Perhaps this is the reason? We'll see how it goes. Keep ya posted!

We also have four gourami, our gold gourami is the stroppy one. What sex are your gourami? We keep One pearl male and 3 three spot females. More hiding places and floating plants worked for us, the fish aren't stressed at all now. Everything is fine as long as all the other females in the tank know she is the boss.

Sorry to hear about your neon Capper, I had to put down my little neon (as vapo is a big wimp and couldn't do it) It went pale too, then it kinda looked bent and munted so I took her out and put it in a Q tank for a week, she improved then suddenly went down hill so I froze her. None of the other neons are sick it has been about 3 weeks since her strange illness. So I put it down to old age, your neon just could have been old. Or she was stressed. Keep an eye on the others (I know you will lol) and hopefully it was a one off. Good luck!

Thanks for that Allan, the info is fantastic. That is basically everything we needed to know. Will do that now. Shannon