MarkLB

Hi Angela. Details can be found here http://www.fnzas.org.nz/index.php?PG=photocomp HTH

Hi from dull but warm Christchurch.

It refers to the Nitrogen Cycle and it's the process of building up a population of beneficial bacteria to take care of the toxic ammonia that fish produce. When you set up a new tank everything is nice and clean and there's no bacteria. As the tank ages the bacteria begin to populate the system, in the gravel, on ornaments but mainly in the filter media. That's what the black balls are for, to give the bacteria a home, although there are better medias IMO, porous ceramics mostly. The bacteria consume ammonia, which is extremely toxic to fish, and convert it to nitrite, which is less toxic but still toxic. Another bacteria starts to populate the system next which converts the nitrite to nitrate. Nitrate is tolerable to fish in small amounts and we control it with waterchanges, preferably 30-50% weekly. The whole cycle can take 6-8 weeks and at the start waterchanges can sometimes be necessary on a daily or two daily basis, depending on whether there is any detectable ammonia or nitrite. A test kit is needed to confirm their presence. There's heaps of info about it on the 'net. Here's just one, http://www.worldcichlids.com/faqs/cycling.html but Google will give you tons of sites to look at and a search of the forum will help you too HTH

Hi and welcome to the forum :bounce: You've certainly come to the right place Ditto to all the above questions and one of my own....Did you cycle the tank?

Check the spirulina content of your fish food. Spirulina gave my Red Zebras dark spots. Very much a treat food and then only sparingly. It's too high in protein for their digestive system and can cause bloat. I've heard horror stories of people losing tanks full of fish. I stopped giving it to mine years ago.

Mine get a mix of Viking Cichlid X-Factor and Viking Cichlid Total.

In the first pic? Discus scales as guessed by Carlos & Siran

Hi and welcome to the forums :bounce:

:bounce: Yes, a fly :bounce: I was surprised at how clean it looks.

Nope

Getting hotter now.....it's definately a flying insect

Yes Not quite there but red hot

Try this one, not fish related....

:bounce: Damn....that was too easy. I'll have to troll the 'net for something more obscure :lol:

I'll give you that......but from what fish?

Don't cheat by going to the website.....have a guess Hint...it's fish related.

Happy New Year people. I hope 2010 is a beauty for us all

Nice close up What kind of camera did you get and what lens did you use Ira?

Do you have a cat? Maybe the fish jumped out and was nabbed from the floor.

Hi. My experience has been that the eggs hatch 5-6 days after being layed and the fry are free swimming 4-5 days after that.

Sorry to hear about Luca TTK. You'll be joking about this with Luca in the future....'Remember your first Christmas Luca? We certainly do'

This may not be your problem but I've had dark spots appear on my Red Zebras in the past and it was due to a high spirulina content in the food I was using. It went away fairly soon after I changed foods.

Right back atcha Lynnie

you help a mate move house and you're happy to score that cool piece of wood in the garden as a thank you. This happened to me today

You mean a ratty couch, a bean bag and 2 office chairs aren't enough? Sheesh!! :lol: