sharn

i would do a 50% plus water change and it probably wouldnt hurt to give the filter media a rinse out, no doubt its clogged with food now the longest i would leave most of my fish without a feed would be up to two weeks absolute max but i have no problems leaving them a week. i personally wont use the feeding blocks, i dont normally go away for longer than a week at a time but if i do want the fish fed i leave made out amounts for the next door neighbour (who keeps fish anyway so thats a plus). what has your flatmate got to say about all your fish dying?

i think a trio would do fine, two females and a male. not all 'plecos' grow big, some will max out around 10-20cm while others like the royal panaque and gold nugget will reach lengths of 40cm or so (over many years). there are a few plecs in the trade (not in nz though) that will reach over 1m long

something in the tank is making your ph rise- take that out and your tank should be fine for apistos. it could be the gravel- what sort is it? are you sure you used the test properly? what brand is it? normally a lower ph water goes in hand with a low gh/kh (not always though!). a kh of more than 6 degrees is reccomended when using co2 but a kh above 3 is fine for general keeping, some breeders will let it drop down when breeding but a low kh means you are risking ph swings or crashes which can stress the fish badly if they are large.

LOL- you dont want to be me trust me :lol: although i was moshing to dawn of azazel and skinless on sunday... :lol: sorry to hear of your loss Timtam hope everyone else is ok though

commons/gibbies have the potential to reach around 24" i beleive, most arent able to grow to their full potential though due to a range of things and seem to max out around 40-50cm. they are big eaters and big poopers :lol: BN are great little guys, the boys are really cute and they are easily sexed unlike the 'commons', BN can also be bred easier than 'commons'. they also do their fare share of pooping but theyre smaller so its not as bad :lol: i have both and like both but i wouldnt reccomend a 'common' for a tank under 4 feet long and 45cm wide.

carbonate hardness is 'KH' and general hardness is 'GH' on the test kits. aquarium pharm makes a test kit which has both in one kit- i find it quite handy because my water is very soft. it was about $20 from memory

http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynop ... alis.shtml http://www.caudata.org/cc/species/Cynop ... ster.shtml dunno if theyre any help or not

is coral sand sharp? i would think so but if the fish are sifting it perhaps it isnt?? BN are fine on normal sand (i have em in my planted on sand) but they do dig in it sometimes. that might be a problem if you have stacks of rocks- wouldnt want them to topple a heap over and come home to a dry tank and a wet floor

if your tap water is 6.7 then you will definatly want something to up your ph, your sand should do the trick nicely

good point alan/rogan

healthy discus can last weeks without food so dont worry too much i think the reason she is not eating is because the other discus wont let her. discus are cichlids and will bully one another quite badly if they arent in big enough groups to disperse aggression. there isnt much you can do to stop the livebearers eating their food- discus can be slow eaters (comapred to live bearers which want your whole arm too lol) and they will struggle with faster fish in the tank if they are not feeling 100% comfortable. try dispersing the food throughout the whole tank. maybe chop up some live garden worms (from a chemical free source) and see if they will go for that, make sure they are small enough for the discus but too big for the other fish if possible. they were what i used to get mine eating when i was having problems with aggression so it might be worth a shot. you could also feed the fish at the front then while theyre busy drop some down where the discus is hiding. if her colour is good, breathing normal etc then i would look at losing the discus, losing the live bearers/other fast feeding fish or getting a new tank for discus only and have a group of 5+.

i was told stem plants do take more nutrients out of the water itself so i would think liquid ferts would be worth a shot

i have been to his house and seen his tanks and they are lovely and so is he, i wouldnt have dreamed he would be getting parcels from overseas containing illegal plants it sucks all his fish were killed- i dont see what killing them has to do with plants!?

burgo- some cichlids prefer a ph of 5 while others prefer a ph of 8.5 :lol: you dont need coral sand unless you are keeping africans (and even then you dont NEED it, it just helps if your water is soft). a few of the other large groups of cichlids are central americans and south americans and they prefer slightly acidic to neutral waters

if your register at www.photobucket.com you can upload them from your computer to there (also a resize thing there too which is handy). then underneath the thumbnails on your album page there is a link with and then type around it

you are definatly right chin- one of the biggest problems is most NZers wont pay the price for the good quality fish which means little demand its sort of a vicious cycle

i cant remember who was telling me but apparently when they go into hunting mode they stay really really still and poke their tounges out like worms and wriggle them? no idea if its true or not (never seen it myself) but that would be SO cool to see!

goldfish are up there with some of the messiest fish (large cichlids etc), they arent too great at digesting their food (or so im told) which means they produce more waste and need more room than your average small tropical fish. your gravel isnt that coloured stuff is it? ive read that the paint can come off sometimes. i would get the water tested (ammonia, nitrite, nitrate and ph) and perhaps look for a tincy wincy internal, i have a tiny internal which is about 10x4cm that does 200lph, im sure there are ones smaller out there. i have seen tiny HOB's over in the states which are used on betta tanks (mini filters are cute lol) but im not sure if theyre available here. a filter isnt just gonna airate the tank it will give the bacteria a good place to grow and help keep things more stable. it doesnt sound over stocked or over fed but i wonder if it is spiking for some reason?

lol, i learnt that with swords decided 1cm babies should be big enough to stand up for themselves, yeah right! half an hour later im scrambling to rescue the two remaining and have a very impressed angel :lol: sadly us Tga fish people have learnt that the advice from our LFS's isnt always the best advice i commend 2fishy- she has made an effort to learn more about the fish she has in to help her customers im not saying they know nothing its just some of them know very little :lol:

i agree luke, while colour, size and pattern are stunning the head is its downfall. its quite amazing that he won because of his forehead i think the forehead to dorsal transition would be fine if it wasnt for the bump right in front. i wonder if he was upset in that photo which caused his eye to lighten. can you tell we go thru the simplydiscus university and watch how they grade fish? :lol: some of the fish in the international competitions blow my mind, i saw some pics of ones for sale at the ACA- they were so cheap! $40 for something we would pay well over 100 for (darn americans get all the luck! :lol: )

khulis are pretty secretive until night time but if another fish did spot them (during the day or night) they probably would go after them- id imagine the way they swim makes them look very tasty :lol: if theres heaps of spots the other fish cant get into they probably would be ok, theyre quick little fish when they wana be!

epsom salts help with fluid problems (often used with popeye) aswell as constipation so it might be worth a shot? im not sure if bettas are sensitve to it or not though :-?

most of those inbuilt filters arent really that great ive read so i would think its a good idea to get a canister on there. if you like you can put a sponge on the inlet of the canister that will catch alot of the particles going into the filter, just take the sponges off and rinse them each water change and that helps reduce gunk in your filter and then you dont need to clean it as often

perhaps they are not young but stunted? i know some cichlids are able to start breeding at less than a 1/4 of their adult size, not sure how young discus can be though before they start. its possible they are practising but not able to produce viable spawns because of their age?

i wonder if they reacted badly because of a change in water params ie ph, hardness etc? most of the time ph shock etc wont do too much damage (unless its a big change) but it can make fish act funny until their bodies catch up