sharn

ya sure hes dead and hasnt just wedged himself in some silly hard to see place and is happy as larry? perhaps hes been sucked up in the filter, jumped ship or his corpse is really wedged in somewhere (remove all decorations and have a real good look i inside), make sure you check around and under larger rocks and plants too.

as with all aquarium brands they usually get way over priced here. people in the states are getting FX5's for 199 USD. i have heard good and bad things about FX5's, i hear many aussie stores refuse to stock them now because people are having lots of problems with them? i also hear that their replacable parts are extremely expensive but not too sure, they do however have a massive media capacity and some awesome turn over. personally i think the whole 'gas release', 'back wash' and 'water change' features are a bit over the top for a filter. i have been reading good things about those atman canisters with the built in UV steriliser, cant remember how many LPH they turn over though, i think theres one on TM at the moment. they are much cheaper too because those fancy extra features.

i dont bother about ph much personally, if your kh is stable (dont bother buying a kit unless your kh is low, your LFS will do a base test for ya, above 3 degrees is fine) then your ph isnt going to change much, the only reason i use mine is to see how my shell grit is affecting my kh and ph because i very unstable water. it is best to get a base reading done of your tap and tank water to see what your working with but as you get more confident with your fish keeping you will eventually use it less and less especially if your water isnt super soft. i like having kits on hand though, sometimes you will want to test at 11pm and shops arent open then and as caryl said you check your water first if something doesnt look right so if you have those kits you will be able to potentially rule out any water problems quickly.

adding the filter shouldnt have increased your ph, what media is in the filter? but as long as your ph isnt too high (7.6 is totally ok) then dont bother about it, fish are very adaptable and prefer a higher than natural ph than a swinging one

you didnt put melafix in did ya? cause they always makes bubbles :lol:

you can get 40L or so poly boxs from Woolworths, their meat comes in those.

heres a pic of my slate i got from the LFS (very expensive that way). you dont NEED to have it for breeding as fish that often like to use slate will use the heater, inlet/outlets of filters, the glass, terracotta pots and generally any other flat surface. i know some angel fish breeders hang it mid water. its up to you whether you want to use it though

i highly reccomend stainless heaters, they are so much easier to adjust and seem to be a bit more accurate than my glass ones. i think SOG stocks the Aqua One brand (i thought i saw them on their ad on tv) which is for aquariums anyway, those are the ones i have and they seem to do the job properly. they are much cheaper than pet stores too i think

i have 20mm under my 460L which holds just a little less than your average six footer i think? im not sure there is a reccomended thickness either

seems frozen shrimp are a fav among aros from what ive read. im sure theres a home made recipe tailor made for aros too if your into messing up the kitchen :lol: i agree with the feeder thing, aros are notorious for getting stuck on them and ive been reading up on the nutritonal benefits of them lately (just cause i had to help a girl recently whos O got sick from feeders). this is one part i found most interesting- ive heard about those aro pellets and theyd make a good staple if you could find them (are they hikari ones?). hes a good excuse for a massive tank too aye (wink wink, nudge nudge). you guys could put him in your foyer (sp), im sure he would make a neat 'welcome fish' :lol:

i agree with caryl, i would suspect something is not right in the tank as clowns are quite sensitive and will be the first to show signs if somethings amiss. heavy breathing can be due to alot of things so you want to rule out your water quality first

:lol: they look quite cute!

a pair of discus doesnt normally work out unless theyre a breeding pair, if you have two 'unbonded' fish one will be the boss and the other will get picked on a bit. i personally prefer barebottom tanks for all sized discus, its much easier to keep them clean which = happy fish. if you want them in a planted tank i would suggest buying the largest you can afford (over 7cm or so) as planted tanks are often harder to maintain water quality in and plants dont like the ultra clean, nutrient free tanks discus prefer. some say discus can grow quite happily in tanks with substrate etc but its not the norm. Luke* has a thin layer of brightwater gravel in his adult tank which looks very nice and he is still able to maintain the water quality even though they arent as demanding as young fish. fish that can handle higher temps are most plecos, cories (like sterbai, julii etc), rummy nose tetras, cardinals etc etc. you want to avoid CAE (or SAE, cant remember) and common plecos as they are notorious for attatching onto discus' sides. breeding and selling discus is hard work, if you dont buy an already matched pair you need to buy around 6+ (theyre happier in larger groups) and hope you get a pair, preferably all the same strain as cross breeding will just produce cross breeds. tanks with all the same strain look equally as nice as a mixed bunch too. when it comes to raising the babies thats where the hard work comes in, its ALOT of water changes, 100% daily if you can manage it. growing out babies is easier in harder water too. i admire the dedication some discus breeders have (one in particular, he knows who he is lol), the time they put into growing out the babies is insane. if you dont have clean water your babies will end up stunted and wont look as nice. if you dont buy an already matched pair get the best shaped fish possible, look for a nice round forehead, not an 'arrow' shaped head, good even round fins, no defects in the body, nice round eye with even colour and nice even colour on the body, nice fish often = nice babies which equals more buyers. i age my discus water in bins with a powerhead and heater for at least 24 hours before use. this cuts down on dechlorinators cause i do a fair amount of them. i have a breeding pair (with a third wheel that wants to get in on the action :lol:) that produce fertile eggs at least once a week but i wont allow them keep their fry (theyre in a tank with other discus) as they are different strains and one fish isnt 'perfect'. the way i see it is breed awesome fish cause youll get awesome babies, if you breed 'poor quality' fish then youll get poor quality babies. good luck and im sure the more knowledgeable (like people that have raised babies) will chime in soon enough

i have some of those little clear ones from streams, got them about 3 months ago and theyre still alive and happy in my axolotl tank (a few got eaten i think ). ive read how hard they are to care for but IMO they are very hardy and tolerant. my axie tank has little current and gets your average 30% w/c per week.

be real careful with feeders, not only can they introduce nasty parasites and bugs to your fish and tank there is also a nutritonal downside to using feeders- neons are often not in the best health when you receive them so id at least quarentine them. to give my O a bit of 'excercise' i will tie a piece of his beefheart recipie onto a string real loose and drag it round the tank for a bit so he has to chase it, it normally drops off by itself after a bit so theres no risk of him eating the string. oscars eat very little fish in the wild and lean more towards the bug sides of things so if youve got any praying mantis or worms etc that are from a clean source they are a good live treat. babble over :lol:

my tank (as many know) is boring as, plain dark gravel, some fake plants and a piece of driftwood with a blue background. my O is a bit different from most and i have to kiddy proof his tank more than normal cause at night time he will often have 'night terrors' (not too sure what it would be called) and will just go nuts, its really scary to hear (never seen it cause he only does it in the dark) and hes managed to stun himself a few times but now he has a special night light which has stopped that. maybe make some terraces out of smooth rocks siliconed together with your regular gravel as the filler, youd wana silicone them cause youll most likely find them redecorated or smashed over if ya dont :lol: perhaps if your O's are 'plant friendly' try for some anubis or jave fern in some hard to reach places for a more natural look?

oh no rogan, not you at all :lol:

im a bit of an oscar nut myself :oops: (more than a bit most would say) quack- be wary of adding new oscars or making up to uneven numbers, often oscars over 6" or so wont allow new fish into their established territories and odd numbers will create 'third wheel syndrome' sexing is pretty unreliable unless you vent them or see them laying, oscars dont display differences in looks when it comes to sexing sadly. there is a theory about the size of their vent, i think the female is Oo and the male looks like oo but it would be a 50/50 chance youd get it right like that :-? general rule for keeping O's is 55gal per O and then an additional 25gal but i always like to aim for at least 250L for one O and 360L (90gal) for two. when they hit puberty they often need all the room you can provide and most people get young O's. O's are deffiantly my fav fish, my Frank lost a tooth two nights ago from digging and i managed to get it out and keep it! heres a post i made on an O site- http://www.theoscarspot.com/smf/index.p ... 725.0.html

they are neat little things that prefer the cooler temps (like 20-24 i think) and prefer fast moving water but dont need it. very good at algae eating too i found, my one cleaned my beautiful fluffy algae i had tried so long to grow off my decoration :lol:

i have no idea how large it is, just saw the pic on another site and thought it was neat (that person thought it was neat so posted those pics). judging by the size of that common? pleco, he looks around 1.5-2 foot so the tank would be over 10 foot i would think

alans right :lol: if you got them when they didnt even have legs or leg buds its no wonder they got lost :lol: they sort of just sit there until they grow and make little jerky motions as they gulp for their foods. good to hear ya still got at least one, theyre awesome creatures (got five myself)

didnt notice this last night but look at the first pic, down the middle under the driftwood, looks like a naughty royal having a snack of pleco slime coat :-? i wonder how those cories get on too, it would just take a slip of a big plecos mouth and bye bye cory

wow, whats going into the 3m tank?

seems a bit pleco over kill to me :lol: wonder how long those discus would last if that monster in the right hand corner decided to latch on? does anyone know how all these plecos would be together in a tank territorialness wise, everything ive read says most of those plecos pictured are quite agro to other plecos?

i have read alot on the net about dwarfs being infested with parasites and nasties alot and that is why many people have trouble keeping them. NZ ones would be worse i would imagine as we often get sent the lower quality fish from the wholesalers over seas (best go to states and europe and then so on). read a few accounts on here where people had trouble keeping them but im sure many keep them quite successfully, if you like them why not try them out?