magenta

Yes, sounds like bloodworms I just scooped a heap out of some stagnant water behind the garage - the fish went totally mental for them - unded up catching a few of my congo tetras in the net I was trying to empty them out of

Yes, ours do this when they are really enjoying their food. Chop some frozen shrimps up and they go for hours

Thats great advice - thanks everyone

Thanks Caryl I might have to shake off a few roses - plenty of aphids for the fish at the moment

Howdy all, Will a 4ft community tank be OK for 3 days over the long weekend, or should I get someone to feed them? How about a tank with a couple of youngish discus? I figured that if I give them a nice feed of bloodworms before i go, they should be fine - am I right? Cheers,

We had Java ferns initially that weren't really Java ferns - they looked a lot like them (well to us as beginners), but they were apparently bog plants and once completely submerged they slowly die. Same thing happens to some plants sold as amazon swords I think... Anyway, we replaced our with some that are definitely Java ferns, and they have really flourished.

If you have the filter lid up - is water coming out that side of the spray bar? We have an AR510, and both sides of the filter get equally dirty...

I'm only one km away from Organism - bit of a deadly combination really. I'd agree that between Organism and Redwood Aquatics they have it fairly well covered here - and both have good water conditions, good fish stock etc. (and great service)

Sorry to hear that Mat692 - they are special little fish - it's very sad to see them go.

I have had this kind of thing happen for two different cockatoos - very sad they are one of my favorite fish. In my case, neither of them survived. (sorry) They both developed it following a water change - because they are so inquisitive, i assumed that they may have gotten in the way of the gravel vac and had a bump - but I am pretty careful to keep away from them all... I make sure my water going in is very similar in temp to the water allready in the tank, and in fact put it through the filter, so it is mixed thoroughly before it enters the tank at all. Also, I do water changes pretty frequently, so there won't have been any dramatic fluctuation in water parameters that could cause it. I'm giving cockatoos a rest at the moment - too sad to lose them.

Hi all, I have 3 Kribs in our community tank - 2 females and a male. I got them as fry, and they have grown up successfully in this tank. He has his breeding colours on now - looking all flash for the ladies. One of the females looks fine, but the other is hanging around in a corner of the tank and loking pretty listless - still feeding though. I havent seen any fighting, but she has a chunk of her dorsal fin missing... Can I assume that the other two have paired up and are giving her some greif? Should I fish her out and find a good home? Any advice anyone? Taking th pair to another tank isnt an option at the moment - I dont have a spare, and there are no new tanks on the horizon... Cheers, Hamish

I didnt know they were a problem - I've found them in the garden lots of times and dropped them in the tank - the Clown loaches love them

I think Sharn is more on my wavelength - just imagine that piece in a really big tank - you could have dozens of Plecs I'd just need to find a bath big enough to soak it in of course...

It'll need to be big - yes that's a full size trailer under it I saw this on TM - just imagine it in a tank... http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Outdoor-garden-conservatory/Landscaping-materials/auction-68310282.htm

i have one in my Ar120 - 285L and one in my AR510 - 80L. They dont grow too huge, so that isnt a problem - I've never heard of them needing a big tank... Ours are both around 8cm long by now, arent aggressive or anything, adn do a pretty goos job on the algae.

If I remember right the best thing for black beard algae is a Siamese Algae Eater - there are a couple of stores here in Chch with them at the moment - our closest LFS is Organism and they always have them.

hey beachy, sorry, a bit off topic, but how did you fit your MH into the 620 hood - are they the same size bulbs? same fitting? (thinking you'd need to fit it into the same plastic hood...)

OK, so I have finally gotten algae under control in my AR120 - Its a planted tank, with a DIY CO2 setup and diffuser - it had been growing algae like mad on the glass, but I have finally got enough plant growth to out-compete it My problem is that I am left with red/brown algae over a lot of the plant leaves - new leaves are lovely and green. Is there any way to get rid of it off the leaves? I have an SAE in there, and he occassionally seems interested, but doesnt really make a dent in it. Any ideas? Cheers, Hamish

He is a *lovely* fish - my wife and I really didn't get the attraction for Arowanas until we saw him - he is beautiful my wife says. Will you keep posting piccies as he grows! I keep looking back at your photo - are they scribble discus? Wondering if I have purchased two of your babies from John and Toby?

Hey Elmo - is that the one from Organism? Lovely Fish!

Nitrate is removed from your tank in two ways - you either add lots of plants, which will use up the nitrates to grow, or you do water changes. Usually some combination of the two works - I've had my main tank go almost 3 months monitoring the nitrates every few days, with almost no build up because of the plants - I only started water changes again because i dont like the build up of crud floating around If it is nitrates, then cycle won't help anyway - they are the end result of the nitrate cycle. Cycle *supposedly* contains the beneficial bacteria that convert ammoinia to nitirites and nitrites to nitrates. IMHO pet stores try and flog this stuff off purely to make money, we were certainly told that we *need* it when we started... All the best and welcome to fishkeeping

Mine gets a vibration into the filter - makes all the lids rattle. The newer versions of these tanks have a rubber arm that the powerhead hangs from, but our's is hard plastic. I was having to nudge the filter arrangement a couple of times a day to stop the vibration building up - it was really annoying. These days I have a 1.5L coke bottle with DIY CO2 production jammed in beside the tube leading to the spray bar - so it stops the vibration completely.

umm, I might get shot down here, but I havent used cycle since my first bottle. If I'm not wrong, your filter, your substrate, your plants, wood and ornaments already have so much beneficial bacteria on them that you simply don't need to add any more... Certainly none of my fish sem to suffer, and i have never had a problem with ammonia/nitrite/nitrate buildup.

I've been using Evilmonki's polystyrene trick for the last month or so - but make sure you check it for the first few days to make sure its not too small - my first one got suctioned down on the outlet and it overflowed...

I added it to the tank to use up a chunk of nutrient quickly - get rid of an algae problem. It has grown enough so that it sort of clumps together - wee floating islands of it. I'm thinking of typing it down in a couple of spots soon - the problem is that now it is starting to block out a little too much light. I understand that you *really* tie it down - wrap tons of nylon around it, all over the surface where you want it to grow, and it will grow through the nylon. I imagine it looks awful for a while...