alanmin4304

Like I said originally, if you have ammonia the nitrifying bacteria are not doing their job properly. Cycling is about getting the system going properly to complete the nitrogen cycle. I do it the old fashioned way like granddad use to do. Set up the tank to grow plant, including silt to feed the plant (which will contain some nitrifying bacteria. This makes a user of the nitrate end of the equation,then add fish very slowly to produce the urea for the ammonia and then nitrite. Any of the natural suggestions will work if you give the cycle time to reach a balance. You have a small tank so things can get out of balance easily as you have little of the "buffering" you have in a large tank.

The aim is to cultivate microorganisms that push the nitrogen through ammonia - nitrite - nitrate. Since they can double in number every 20 minutes you are either short on bugs or food for the bugs, I suspect the latter. What do you have in the tank?

Have a look at the thread antibacterial remedies for cyanobacteria under aquatic plants. I have just caused a bacterial bloom by adding too much too soon so be careful how much you use. I also had added copper to get rid of snails so I am not sure if there was a reaction there. I used pure ethanol. I will try it carefully again once I bring the tank back to some normality. The salties use it and may be able to give better advice. It is a form of free carbon like CO2 but is also a food for nitrifying (and other) bacteria, but is a lot cheaper than Flourish Excel. I used 2.5 mls ehanol (6-7 mls vodka) in 300 litres water with no change, then 5mls ethanol (12 mls vodka) and the tank went very cloudy very soon afterwards. I did a 40% water change and it is still a bit cloudy today so I will do some more then see what happens.

the comboda (cabomba) is actually ambulia (Limnophila sessiliflora)

I breed red eared turtles. The male is smaller, has longer front claws and a tail about twice the size of the female. As someone suggested in an earlier post, the female lays the eggs. I would suggest you try to get a small booklette called keeping red eared turtles in New Zealand by TJ Thornton. They have an interesting mating ritual but when they are mature they are definately not the cute little things they are when they first hatch. Males and females can both be agressive.

I use greywacke river sand and leave the silt in there to help feed the plants. Cheap from the local nursary, and rounded by wear in the river. Add micronutrients when setting up.

Males are smaller, have longer front claws and a tail longer than the female, The female needs about a minimum of 300mm of damp sand to lay the eggs in. They can both be agressive.

It is not the length but the height that can make a problem. Not many fish tanks would be within the design criteria of a domestic design floor load, so it comes down to how high it is and how well you distribute the load.

When the flow on my eheim drops off it is often that the pipes are full of crud and a good flush through restores the flow.

At that size I would say they are breeding.

It will have more life in it than tapwater ( one would hope)

Goldfish usually carry lots of parasites which they can live with but a baby betta might have a struggle. I would stay away from water from a goldfish pond.

Egg yolk is good food value but it is very easy to overfeed and cause a bacterial bloom which can deplete the oxygen. That is one advantage of green water. As Amazonian says, water left in the sun will go green. Try leaving some of the water from water changes out it will have more nutrient to encourage microorganism growth.

I don't have any, there was some yellows on Trademe and I was wondering if there was any way to be sure they were true yellows. Sounds like the NZKA is the best bet.

What I am wondering is if yellow is recessive like albino? If you breed yellows, will you only get yellows or is it not possible to tell if the female is actually a red or split? Can you breed the red out of the yellow srain?

I would take the male out now as they sometimes get sick of carrying them back up and start eating them. Don't feed too much or you can start a bacterial bloom. Some people feed a little green water or liguifry now but don't overdo it. The fry will not eat until they are free swimming but it can help to have food available when they do.

It must be something in the air as my martii has put up a runner also.

Does anyone know the story with these as there were some for sale on Trademe? Will yellows bred from reds remain yellow or is it not possible to tell which genes the female is carrying? Is red dominant over yellow?

As Amazonian explained you can sex them at this stage so I would be seperating the males out. Put them so they can see each other and this will make them show. This helps with better fin development. It also allows any smaller ones to catch up a bit. Time to think about making the container I described in an earlier thread if you don't like changing water on 127 jars. Nice looking fish.

It would not come as a surprise that the more expensive fish are the most difficult to breed, and there are some very good breeders out there trying very hard.

I am the one suggesting to leave the lights on. I had a 12 volt pilot light system over all tanks that I left on at night with all fry when I was breeding. This is not strong light, more like moonlight, and indead I have 2 X 15 watt bulbs going continuously on my community tank so the fish (that have no eyelids) don't get so much of a fright when the main lights come on with the timer. This also gives them the chance to eat round the clock and grow faster. I found it worked well with betta fry because I was able to raise embarassingly large spawnings (hundreds). My reasoning was that they are so small that they can only eat small amounts of food at a time and therefore need to eat frequently. With all advice, there is more than one right way to do things, and the correct way is the one that works best for you.

The Ausies have a problem also with Queensland lace which has been given a hard time in the wild. A. fenestralis was around about 30 years ago because I have seen it. I had Queensland lace and got seeds but couldn't get them past the sprouting stage.

I think sometimes people forget that you cannot breed fish, you can only give them conditions which will encourage them to.

The emersed leaf is different also so good luck

I think it is a banned import because it has been stripped from its native habitat. Very Very difficult to grow I believe.