yh88

No I don't have snails. There were a few which were inadvertently brought in as a result of my my planting the elodea (water plants) sourced from my above-ground 'pond' into my aquarium. But I have since got rid of them. They are pretty small - too small and few to account for the poo

Thanks for the reply. My bristlenose is only about 5 cm long. It certainly is growing very fast though. When I bought it from the lfs it was about 2 cm long - that s about 3 mths ago. I can see the poo that this fish 'carries' along with it - it is thin and sometimes thecolour is yellowish-white, but it doesnt look like the poo that I mentioned. What type of poo do the other fish give out - still havent seen any from those fish that I mentioned. Not even the 2 octocinclus which are about 3 cm. Btw forgot to mention that my tank is bare bottomed.

Hi all, I have yet to find the source of a the particular type of excreta which is small (about 2-3mm long and 1 mm diameter) and looks cylindrical in shape and when sucked out into a pail looks black although in the aquarium lights they look brown-red. My fish population are :- 1 bristlenose (this fish s excreta is long and thin), 1 Cory (1 died), 2 otocinclus (?? common name slippery little suckers - common catfish- the energetic type), 10 rummy nose, 7 cardinal tetras, 2 neon tetras, 6 glolites. Except for the bristlenose I have yet to see the other fish giving out the excreta mentioned - the output appears greater than the input - food that I feed them with. Appreciate ur comments.

Hi, I put in 6 rummy nose tetras (each are about an inch long) and 6 cardinal tetras which are much smaller ( 1/2 in long). Overnight 2 of them disappeared - couldn't find any carcasses in the morning - before 8 am i.e. There were 2 koi fish (about 5 inch ) 1 cichlid (tilapia type i think 4 inch) and 1 big silver dollar (6 inches?). In addition I had 1 male red swordtail + 1 bristle nose catfish (1 in). A week before I had 9 mountain cloud fish which didn't get eaten up with those 4 big fishes around (definitely it wasn't the silver dollar!!). When I put the dozen tetras in and took out the mountain clouds to be put into my above-ground pond, overnight 2 of the rummy nose tetras disappeared. I know that I don't have enough shelter for these fish - (2 plastic plants, 1 small glazed porcelain pot, 1 imitation sunken treasure, tank size - 50-60 litres). I bought them with the idea of putting them into a bigger tank later. I have now put the 2 koi fish back into the above-ground pond. Why aren't the cardinals eaten as they are smaller and also the mountain clouds - not that I have a preference for any one type! Btw, how heavy is a 240 litre glass tank with plastic hood? I am tossing up between a 300 litre and a 240 litre. A 300 litre tank may be too heavy for me to move about should (when empty of course) I decide to move it somewhere, or I might not be able to help the delivery guy, in which case I was told to pay for the services of another guy to help out. Your comments would be most appreciated. :oops:

Outside temperature between 5 deg Celcius and 14 deg C

Is it true that koi fish do not eat too much or not at all when the water is cold or it is winter time. My koi fish are kept in a above ground pond. Appreciate ur comments.

Fish population: One 3 inch silver dollar, 6 red-sword tails (2 males) largest about 2 cm, 8 mountain cloud fish, 1 neon tetra, 1 head and tail light fish, 1 3cm sucker fish which died at about the same time as one of the male red-sword tail. Now could this population of fish have eaten up the sucker fish 'cos I couldn't find it's corpse, whereas I could locate the male red-sword tail that died. Where has the corpse of the dead catfish have gone. I couldn't find it. My aquarium is about 45 litres and I don't have too many hiding places for the fish that I can't locate the corpse. I had been looking for the dead catfish for 2 days after the dead red-sword tail.

Can the sucker fish 'see' the wafers in the dark? I suppose they rely on smell and talking about smell, the silver dollar go 'crazy' when I drop wafers into the tank. They can smell it from a mile! so to speak. In fact one of 2 that I had might have eventually died from the stress of being trapped inside a hideout when both of these fish went into the 'hole' to retrieve a wafer lodged inside. Eventually one of the now surviving silver dollar managed to extricate itself, the other had to be physically aided to get out of it! I find that if you have a pair of whatever fish, they tend to fight each other all the time ( I dont think it s mating behavior). My 2 catfish are always at each other. That s why they lose the wafer to the silver dollar or other fish. :lol:

I wonder whether the 2 common (brownish, patterned white belly - looks like garra pingi pingi) catfish (now 1.5 in, 3 inches maximum adult size??) I have can survive just on the leftovers (will there be leftovers with 8 mountain clouds, 8 small red swordtails, 1 silver dollar -3.5in, 1 cherry barb, 1 head and tail lights + 1 other if I feed them 2/3 times a day) of flake/pellets/bit food? Or do I have to feed it wafers meant for catfish? The trouble with feeding these catfish with wafers is that the silver dollar will finish them off before the catfish can get to them. I don't want too many pieces on the bottom if left uneaten. :roll:

Does it hurt the fish in the tank if the lights are on 24/7?

My count of frys that were hatched in batches by the mother-of-all red sword-tail seem to be going down, though I have yet to see any dead bodies except for a silver dollar which died 2 days ago Of the latest batch of red sword-tail frys only 1 maybe 2 survived out of the 4. The others were larger 3-5mm. I feed the fish 3 times a day and yet they seem to disappear. These are the fish in my tank. 2 Silver dollars, of which 1 died about 6-7 cm long 2 head and tail lights, one 2.5 cm, female - used to be the assassin, one < 2 cm and rather timid often bullied by the other one. :oops: 3 neon tetras 1 degenerate (with bent spine) platy - gave the others away - they breed like mad like the sword-tails 1 common catfish 4 cm - algae eater 1 Cherry barb The rest are all red swordtails Mother-of-all - 4 cm First batch survivor - 2.5cm 2 second batch survivors 2cm 3 third batch survivors <2cm 40 or so fourth batch disappearing fast 2 fifth batch survivors 3-4mm I wonder where some of the smaller fourth batch fish have gone. THe mother of all seem to know its own kind when they reach a certain size. The head-and-tail fish used to relish the newly born frys and again it seems to know they are fish when they reach a certain size or know it's too big to put in its mouth. The silver dollars get pecked at quite often by the bigger red sword-tails. Which one's are the likely Assassins? :hail Sorry.. Link had to be removed Far too long.. Disrupting page width. Mod. Bill.

Have I been taken for a ride when a pet food shop selling fish flake food and marked 'Gold Fish Flake' said that they are for general use and can be used to feed other fish?

Now I have about 50 red sword tail in my 10 gallon tank after I caught the rest of them from the above-ground pond. But the big surprise is the mother of them all is still giving birth to frys. I think I saw at least 3 of these today. Of course there are definitely more, not to mention those that might have been eaten up by the bigger ones and its mother. But I have yet to identify a male fish that could impregnate this mother of all fish!!

Can a fresh water tank be used as a saltwater tank with few adjustments? :roll:

To me it is inconceivable that a large big bodied female that I have (about 5-6cm) could turn into male. The male red sword tail that I had was thin and smaller in size (maybe 4 cm). It had a black tail and could swim backwards and forwards very fast. It was a very energetic fish before it succumbed to a disease which I hadnt noticed. Before it succumbed, it hid itself somewhere lying still. But then it did that once before and recovered.

I had in my 10 gallon tank, 2 silver dollar (about 6 cm length), a male and a female red sword-tail fish, 2 head and tail- lights, an algae eater, some neon tetras, a cherry barb. I have some live plants and java moss in the tank and also some plastic plants and hiding places for the fish. I would like to know when a fry bred from 2 a male red sword-tail fish and a female fish can be identified as male by its longish tail as in the adult male? The female adult gave birth 4 or more(?) batches in my tank. Of the first batch, only 1 survived of the 2nd 2, of the 3rd 7 or so. Now all these fish appeared to be female - no distinguishing tail yet. The female and the sole survivor of the 1st batch ( which seems to inherit the longish dorsal fin of the by now dead adult parent) started packing at the 2 silver dollar so I put them out into my outdoor above-ground pound in the summer together with the dozen or so of mountain cloud fish. To my surprise, after a few weeks I caught and counted (still counting?) 31 frys. Now the female fish must have been impregnated by the by now dead (which died from some disease??) male sword-tail and carried the eggs with it when I transferred it to the pond outside (about 40-50 gallons i think). Now, what I would like to know is why all these frys (smaller ones about 4-5mm) appear to be female - no evidence of a sword yet. Or are they too small yet to be identified by sex? :bounce: