SilverBlade86

Yeah, I'll try feeding the adults once every 2 days and see what happens. Now, since my male died without ever breeding, I'm going to try to set up a proper BN breeding tank, but I got some questions: Should I put some kind of substrate in or is bare bottom enough? I'm gonna silicon some PVC pipes together in a row and let them use it as a cave. Eg it would be a row consisting of 7 5 inch long pipes. The end of the pipes will be set against the glass, with a piece of wood covering the outside of the tank. That way I am able to keep watch on their progress if they ever breed. Will the BNs be happy with that? Are plants needed? I know BNs need some kind of driftwood, but what about plants? Assuming the BNs do not need the plants, should I get some kind of light installed?

It's really annoying, I had 2 girls brought down just so that he might have a chance with them. Looks like I've got to find a new male now ... although its weird, I have 2 males in there but only seen 1. Dunno where the other has disappeared too.

Well, I was actually just giving the filter and the media a slight rise, and had just put it back on the tank when I saw Mr BN sick. Yeah, I reckon I'll just put him in the rubbish. I have driftwood in the tank, and leave a piece of cucumber/courgette in the tank every night. I also sometimes alternate between veggies and BN pellets. The weird thing is, the females in the tank are fine, as well as the few youngsters. It was just him.

There's not really many sharp things in the tank, there seems to be no external injuries. I've had him for around 7 months now, I bought him when he was 1 inch long. He was pretty much in his prime. :-? There's construction work going in the yard, so there's no space for him. It's quite sad really, I was changing the filters when he actually swam up to the top of the tank, sat on the driftwood and stared at me. I knew something was not right as he usually was very shy (especially when it came to female BNs ... never really saw him out with the girls eating much). Things got more serious when he kinda toppled and I noticed his stomach was red and bloated. I put him in a quarantine box thingie and just hoped he would make it.

Confirmed, he has passed away. RIP Mr BN. Now how do I get rid of him? I can't really bury him and I don't really want to flush him down the toilet ....

That's it, I think he's dead. He's not moving at all.

Put him into a quarantine box now. The redness looks like he's bleeding internally. I wouldn't know if he's still alive if his fins aren't twitching still. What can I do?!

**** hes stomach is huge and red. What can i do?!

Well the length of my light is around 2 feet long? As I said, I have absolutely no idea.

I'm just using a normal fluro, I think it was 200W? I have absolutely no idea.

Looking for some plants that don't grow too tall, and are hardy. The bottom of my tank looks pretty bare. Any suggestions?

Millions! Not really, maybe around 20 ish? I went to the one on Blenheim Road. Some of them have faded colors though. Might want to be picky when choosing.

Went to Animates today to take advantage of the 2 for 1 deal they have on at the moment. This is how my conversation went: Me: Hi there, do you have any clown loaches? Lady: ...? Me: They are orange and black. Lady: *Leads me to some swordtails that have black spots* Me: Not those, the clowns have stripes. Lady: *Brings me to some tiger barbs* Luckily at this stage I saw the clowns next to the tank with the tiger barbs in it. I watched them for a minute and choose the 2 most active and colorful. I think I made a good choice, the lady took at least 5 minutes to catch both, they were too fast for her. Good deal though, I did advise anyone that has the time to rush to Animates.

I want to use plastic Coke bottles to make caves for my BNs. If I were to cut them up, and silicon pebbles to the outlines, would it be aquarium safe?

Whoa, $120 for a weir? For that price I might as well just buy a new tank and drill a hole in it. Is it possible to actually make your own? Should make an interesting side project for the holidays.

Yes, I was about to post that I read through it and found it extremely useful! However, does one have to make the weir himself or can he buy it?

Dropped an initial courgette piece in yesterday, and when I took it out today it had holes in it! Guess they love it.

Well, for one, the tank is already set up so I don't really want to drill anything in. Anyways, I have a choice between using a canister or a sump and I would much prefer the sump as it comes up to be cheaper than the canister, because I have some of the required parts to make the sump (spare tank, pipes etc). I was thinking of using a pipe as a vacuum and allowing gravity to do all the work while the pump pulls up water to the tank. The only downside I see is that if the power goes off I'll need to reset the pipe. Suggestions?

Is it possible to have a sump that does not need a pipe drilled into the side of the tank? I dont really want to mess around with drilling.

To make a sump, what kind of pump would I need? Would water feature pumps work? Also, what are the advantages of using a sump instead of a canister filter?

I certainly hope so. Also, does any one know if courgette can be nuked in a microwave with some water? To sink it for the BNs I mean.

I didn't want to make a new thread, so I'll just use my old one. Ever since I've tossed in 2 females into the tank, my males refuse to come out! It seems like they are afraid that if they leave their caves the females will take over! On the other hand, the females are much more active than the males. I regularly see them swimming around the tank and sucking on the glass. Any reason why they are like that? :evil: It's been over a week now.

No bars as far as I can see, but her colors have faded and her tail is clumped up. Perhaps this is caused by the stress of the move? I can see a big patch of bubbles which I assume is the male doing his thing. Both fighters have stopped flaring at each other and seem content to do their own thing. What next? Should I wait for a more definite sign before releasing the female into the tank?

An update, my friend bought a male fighter recently so I saw it as a good opportunity to test to see if it is a female. I've been feeding both fighters blood worms for the past week, and have now put the female in a container in the male's tank. When they took notice of each other, they both started to flare. Do females flare at all?

Kk, seems to me that Clown Loaches can be quite happy in pairs. Will probably get a couple then. On a side note, how does one anchor cucumber in their tank? I use a toothpick but whenever the BN starts eating on it it floats up and they run and hide. :-?