Merlin

Hi Again Everyone, You know those peppered cats I was telling you about, well.......I kept them alive ok, but when it all turns out they were tiger barbs and long finned zebras, they were so small that I couldn't work out what they were till they got bigger, when I was setting up the tank, I siphoned some water out of the two tanks with the zebras and barbs in and forgot that I had done it, :oops: so I got a real shock to find them in there (the babies), and couldn't work it out for a while till I thought back and realised where the water came from, so I must have siphoned out the eggs with the water. Anyway I was still real pleased, and I am pleased again too as I have just had a spawning of pearl gouramis, there seems to be hundreds of babies in the tank, and my royal blue dwarf gouramis have just had a spawning and I look forward to them hatching maybe tomorrow, just waiting on the indian banded gouramis and my cobalt dwarf gouramis now, yippee!!! So it looks like I will have to set up tank #9 now. Well I haven't been into tropical fish for very long, but it is so awsome to watch them, even just watching the livebearers have their young is fascinating. I think I need a bigger room to put all the tanks in, they are all currently in my 2nd lounge, and am rapidly running out of room with 2x 3fts and 6x 2ft tanks in there as well as a couch and dresser....need that double garage quick I think! Well enough rambling from me, Catch you all next time. Mandy

Hi Again Everyone, Yippee!!!!!! On the 21 January I had a spawning of peppered catfish, I was so pleased, and the people who help me with my questions were soooo shocked, as I am a learner. Anyway I am not sure how many I have left in the tank as they are pretty hard to see, but even if I only end up with a few I will be stoked!! Wow I still can't believe it even now, when I asked about breeding them I was told that I probably wouldn't be able to as they are hard to breed, but I thought I would give it a go anyway, nothing ventured nothing gained eh?? So I will try to breed my others now as soon as I find them a suitable match. Catch you all another time Thanks Mandy

Hi Again Well I took the heater back, the pet shop owner wasn't very happy about it at all. He wasn't going to even refund me until his wife came out and said he should...as I was getting a little shirty by this time...she must have thought it would be easier than a big fuss on their hands from me. Anyway I am glad to have that sorted. My platys have had more babies too...I am really pleased, I am up to 269 babies now. Well thanks to everyone who has helped me, it has been very helpful. Happy New Year to all!!! Mandy

Hi to you all again....sorry for the late posting but I don't come on the net very often, I have 3 boys and they don't give me much chance. Anyway, thanks to you all for your replys once again... As it happens it was a Via Aqua heater, and I havent taken it back yet, although I bought another one for another tank I set up the other day and it was fine...I did stress to the pet shop guy that if this one did what my other one did then I would come and give the rep of his a swift kick where it hurts...anyway that was a different shop and the only reason I bought another of the same heater was because I saw all his tanks with the same heaters in them and he had no trouble. I now have my 7th tank in and 146 platy babys growing well...I am so chuffed with it all and can't seem to get enough tanks, but my zebras are all healthy again (thank goodness) Oh and I havent returned the bad slimy heater yet as I got it in Auckland and wont be going there till tuesday.. but I will let you know what happens. Oh I did test the water it read 8.2 really high I didnt over feed either, the danios are really greedy and eat every last scrap, besides even when I emptied the tank and cleaned it all, it still slimed up on the second day and was really thick (5mm or so) on the third day with no fish in it. Hopefully I have answered all your questions....sorry if I have missed any of them. Ummm yes I do have 2 very capable people helping me with my fishy habit, my mum and dad. They give me advise alot and help me with any problems I have. Thanks again and Merry Christmas to you all

Hi Again, Well thanks for your replys, I had the tank set up with about 60 or 70% of the water from my other tanks (in which my fish are fine) and then I topped it up with tap water. So I assumed that this was fine as this is what I did with my other fish and they are happy. Then when it got to temp I put the fish in, yes all 8 at once. The slime on the new heater happened the day after I put it in, then I took it out and washed it on the second day, and again it happened, so I washed it on the fourth day in sea salt, replaced it, only to find it happening again....AHHHH!!! :evil: Talk about annoying Anyway during this I put in some stress coat and it seemed to be doing them some good, until the slimy thing took over again. I even did a partial water change, thinking that the ammonia was too high. So now I have emptied the tank, scrubbed it with sea salt, cleaned the filter, thermometer, etc and put in another heater (one from one of my other good tanks) and added stress coat again.....now the fish are starting to get their colour back, they are swimming too! Hopefully this is the fixing of it. Still don't know what it was though...but I am taking the heater back COMPLETE WITH SLIME!!! Thanks to you all for your suggestions...still puzzles me though, although I thought that the slimy thing was the cause of it. Thanks again Mandy

Um well I am just new to the fish thing, I have only been doing it since the beginning of November this year. I have got 5 tanks, and the fish I have are platies, long finned zebra danios, plecostamus's, featherfin synodontis, peppered catfish, some sort of corydoras's, and tiger barbs. Also my son has guppies. I don't know alot about fish, and was never interested in them before, but I like to breed them and have just had some of my platies have babies (fry to you guys, but to me still babies till I get the knack of all the lingo). I was so pleased when they had them, I had my tallier out and was counting them, 102 so far, so I am really pleased. I get alot of help too as my dad and mum know heaps about fish, and any problems I get I am asking ten thousand questions. Well I suppose I have rattled on enough...although I have a question for anyone who could enlighten me..... I have just set up another tank, new tank, new heater, new filter...everything is new. I have 8 long finned zebra danios that were in my community tank, happy as larry, then when the new tank was up and running I put the danios in it, and within 2 days they were kind of lifeless. They sit on the bottom all day and have started to get a bit pinkish all around the gills and in some of them they have an all over pink tinge. BUT the heater (new) has a clear whitish fungus type of slimy stuff on all the rubber parts, which increases daily. I have taken it out and washed it, then done it again in salt water but it keeps coming back....anyone know what it is??? I think it is the slimy fungus on the rubber parts of the heater which is making my danios sick... Any suggestions??? Thanks Mandy

Hello I am new to tropical fish and I am reading your items on here which is helpful, catch you all later Merlin