wino

Just got back to this :-? I did actually drop three little bronze comets into one trough about the beginning of December. They vanished into the murk and I didn't see them. I then wondered if I had killed them when I wormed the horses as I read the instructions later about the wormer being toxic to aquatic life - in future will prevent any animal from drinking out of the trough until I am sure there is no residue stuck to the inside of its mouth. Was peering into the depths today, wondering if the fish were on the bottom somewhere decomposing and reached over to pick a bit of clover out - up to the surface came a considerably larger fish (than last time I saw it) just starting to colour up, followed by a bronze one. Not a mozzie larvae in sight either.

I think I may be obsessed - any body of water needs a fish in it IMO. We have - in various places round our ten acres - some large round concrete watertroughs in use for stock watering. They are 500 litres mostly but one would be 1000 litres at a guess and they are kept full with ballcocks which refill them every time an animal drinks. I've been contemplating them for a while and have come to the conclusion they each need half a dozen goldfish (actually some shubunkins) and some plants. Has anyone done this? One of my concerns is that on hot days they may get a 50% water change which may not be good for them (though as it will come out of the tank it should be the same temperature anyway). Also not that sure how they go on cow saliva... Any thoughts?

Wow! Just shown husband - told him this is what I want for my birthday. (He's run off moaning, not sure why...)

Thanks. I'll leave them to it and see what they do then.

I have a pair of Bolivian rams - at least I hope they are a pair, one has more pointy fins and is a bit brighter coloured than the other one which has a rounder belly... have I got the sexing right? Anyway yesterday and today they seem to think they are a pair, they are in good colour and are seeing all intruders off a corner of the tank, I can't see any eggs as yet. It's a planted tank with lots of bogwood, do they need anything else to do their thing (flowerpot or anything) or will they sort it out themselves? I feel the need to get the second tank out and up and running....

I've got the nutrafin one, and I am happy with it on the whole. It is reasonably expensive to run if you use the refills so I'm using my own yeast now. Have also used the coke bottle type but I like the nutrafin container better, it is really solid and takes up less room.

The only time I bred fighters I couldn't even bring them up together - had to separate the big from the little as they ate each other. Then the biggest ate the bigger and the less small ate the smallest... not sure why I had such a bunch of cannibals - they were well fed, honest! (perhaps should have moved them onto bigger live food....) Ended up with 5 all in separate jars. 1 male and 4 females.

Wow I want one! Imagine doing a 20% water change though! :lol:

Yahoo thank you Caryl, I have just rinsed a whole heap of slime out of the filter foam, and siphoned more out of the tank, the horrible slime is definitely losing it's grip. No sign of any ammonia spike as yet (fingers crossed and I'll keep up the water changes as I remove the gunk)

Wow you guys are awesome. No wonder the stuff won't respond to the usual algae measures. Caryl you have mail... and thank you so much for that generous offer. Thinking about it mine probably came in on a plant too - at least it developed a week or so after I put a couple of new plants in. Reading the references Caryl linked to it appears the standard algae control measures (turn the light down, make sure there's low nitrates and phosphates etc ) don't scare this stuff at all.

Hi, sometime lurker first time poster. My 110 litre tank has been set up (this time) for a year. It's planted, lit with two flouros (both sunglos) on 10 hours a day, has a yeast type CO2 set up and is populated by 18 various small tetras, a pair of bolivian rams, three baby bristlenose and 4 peppered corys. In the last three or four months a blue green slimey algae is creeping all over the tank. I've been running phosphate remover in the filter for 6 weeks, phosphate, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate are all 0 and still it grows, I siphon huge amounts out twice a week with a water change and within three days it's spread everywhere again. I've stopped feeding plant food. I've been keeping tropicals for years and have never had this. Help! there must be something wrong but I don't know what it is.