sharn

at the base or the actual fin? i assume you are meaning the pectoral (the flappy one lol)?

as ronnie said the beefheart will get them going as its packed with protein but it is extremely messy and will need a w/c after every feeding of it- part of the reason why mine only get it a few times a week now. my mysis shrimp are frozen, ive never had much luck with feeding any fish freezedried stuff because it floats and seems to be full of air. i dont let my nitrates get above 10ppm at present (50% w/c's every second day) because mine are still growing. im not sure what the 'rule' is for that though, i would say definatly below 20ppm. if you are keeping yours at 5ppm with ease then i would keep on doing what your doing, they will definatly appreciate it

ya could but what a pain in the behind :lol: and you would most likely upset your bacteria colonies with such frequent dismantaling.

agreed, those ph up and down products are often only temporary. the kh of your water will most likely be contributing to the high ph and those lowering products wont fix the kh which means it will soon rise back up. most fish are able to adapt to that ph but species like apistos etc will prefer lower if you really need to lower it using peat as caryl suggested will lower both ph and kh but it may give you a slight tea coloured tint to the water (some people dont like it). it will need replacing every now and again but im not sure how often, perhaps monthly? the problem that comes with altering your water is you may have to alter the water your putting in each w/c if there is quite a difference from your tank and your tap

increased temps mean increased metabolism (faster growing, more eating, more pooping and a slightly shorter life span) which would be why youve seen the increased activity. as alan said, try keep it at a 'natural' temp for them if you can (ie dont turn your heater up just cause it makes them super active if its not a natural temp for them), the temp increasing and then dropping back to normal over the course day shouldnt be a problem if it happens slowly.

:lol: alan, awesome way to put it!

are the snails in question in the tank with the discus/rams? if they are then i dont see the problem other than possibly digesting the shells. normally i just squish any i see on the glass and my fish go and pick at them by themselves. i personally wouldnt provide them as part of their main diet but i dont know the nutritional value of snails.

awesome! congrats :bounce: if i was you i wouldnt do the red spot unless you are willing to rehome him later down the track, they get too big and theyre pretty messy. they also like to flatten most plants they come into contact with :lol: you could probably get away with a school of tetras or extra rosies if you wish.

nope. however super high turnover from your filtration can cause too much current though which isnt always good. if the fish are being blown around the tank when they are resting or struggling to stay in one place then you have too much movement (you can adjust your outlets to diffuse the flow)

sounds like your pair is sort of like mine. mine will get distracted by nearly anything, if i walk near their tank they are both at the front waiting for food, never mind about all their eggs at the back :lol: best of luck with spawning them, hopefully they catch on about what they are supposed to do soon

have ya tested the nitrate readings? once you know what theyre at that can tell you how much of a w/c you want to do to get it down to acceptable levels for the fish. if its reading like 10ppm then only do a small one to remove any crud thats built up during the cycle, if its reading 30ppm+ then i would do a larger one, you can do 50% (cause then your nitrates would be at 15ppm which is acceptable) or you can do a larger one, its really up to you. i would not advise doing such a large water change (90%) unless you are used to doing them or have been keeping fish for a while. if you mess it up your bacteria will die off and put you thru at least a mini cycle. if you feel comfortable doing a 90% go for it but IMO you dont NEED to do a 90% unless the nitrates are very high (60ppm+ or so). there is really no benefit to doing a 90% if the nitrates are not reading high and there is very little waste in the tank i dont think.

he was such a pretty fellow too, i was looking into buying him at one stage. he would have probably been the only one in NZ too (phil is selling plain L090 but this was an L090c from what i have been told by catfish nuts) which doesnt help for breeding but at least we would have one here. perhaps if we stopped ruining their natural habitats and over fishing we wouldnt have to kick up our breeding programmes to keep the species alive but thats the way humans are

everything i have read from large scale breeders say they try to avoid doing a w/c when their fish have eggs but do one asap after they get wrigglers. the smallest change in params can nail the eggs apparently (this is why i do my w/c's when they have eggs cause i dont want babies). im not sure what dosage luke is talking about for formalin but it will kill your bio filter and it can be quite harsh on the fish if its used at the medicating dosage (the 3% stuff you buy doesnt do much so would probably be safer)

i saw that one, it was a beast alright! he was in with the L090c i beleive who was also very nice, i hope he made it

really? mine drops after its been aged, perhaps its something else causing it to drop?

good to hear good things about them, i may be purchasing one if i upgrade my Oscar and his friends into my 460L

as SW said its possible it is degassing and then the wood in the tank is lowering it further. the ph will drop slightly once the chlorine has dissapated. once youve tested the tap water after 24 hours it will tell you how much your driftwood has dropped the ph. i beleive fish waste and a few other factors can cause the ph to drop slightly also but im unsure how significant they would be

i think big als, petco and petsmart all have online stores. they may be worth checking out.

if its under 300L then i wouldnt try adding anything else to the tank. 200L is considered bare minimum for one oscar alone and IMO thats still too small when you have a 12" fish swimming around. make sure you have your filtration sussed too, aim for at least 10x per hour when using HOB's/internals and at least 5x when using canisters. they are very messy fish! if you do have a large enough tank severums, silver dollars, jack dempsies, blue acaras, smaller plecos, convicts and so on can work well. its a 50/50 chance your O will allow tankmates, it doesnt take long (a few days) for an oscar to claim its territory and once thats happened you may be hard pressed to get your hands in the tank let alone other fish :lol: you can always try a tankmate/s out but make sure you have an immediate backup plan incase he goes in for the kill. i consider myself very lucky with my O, he will let me add any fish i like as long as its not another oscar and he cant eat it.

the higher priced one will probably be because they are cutting off their sheets (im not up on glass terms), not using cutoffs. i had a $40 price difference in getting lids because one company quoted me using proper sheets and the other just used cutoffs.

my goldies get shelled peas which they love. they would probably enjoy spinach and other soft vegies too but i havent tried anything else out personally.

imagine shortland street in a tank and thats what my discus tank is like :lol: everyones trying to steal everyone elses partner, trying to look tough and be the boss or having little squabbles at dinner time (which in turn makes them get less food because theyre so engaged in their little tail slapping fights all the other fish gobble it up :lol: )

sorry to hear you're having troubles. fungus is an oppertunistic pathogen so its very likely it took hold while she wasnt feeling 100%

i had that same problem with my large tank, i ended up getting a fluval because their hoses are bendy (the dont have solid plastic U bends that hang over the bracing, its just one hose from the taps into the tank) which means you can adjust the width as you need to. you can DIY it to make most canisters inlet/outlet bends fit but i wasnt too keen on that.

FM's are pretty placid generally unless they are breeding or wanting to breed. im unsure if they would try to eat smaller fish (like neons etc) once they got larger or not. they get about 15-17cm tops i think so a 215L would be fine for a couple depending what other fish you had in there. i think you could go 4 or so in a 215L