Fishkeepa

No luck tracking down any bbg's in Palmy so far. HFF has some but I don't really want to ship them. Did some rearranging last night to try make the tank look a little more natural and less orchestrated.

I like the look! Well done! 8) Just a bit of random information I stumbled across whilst browsing the AGA competition photos. I found out that WCMM live in heavily planted areas on the White Cloud Mountain, I had always assumed they lived in something that looked exactly like what you have done in your tank! Be sure to show us some pictures when you have the minnows in!

Has that windelov and those crypt affinis grown much? Looking awesome! 8)

I think might give it a go. I did put some aquatic fertilizer under the sand in anticipation of the hairgrass so they should be fine. I think balansae might fill in the left hand side at the back nicely because it grows quite tall.

Really? I might give them a ring and find out which supplier they are getting them from. It's kind of cheeky but that way I can order them in down here through the LFS. I think I might have some daphnia in the tank, not too sure how they got there perhaps on the leaves

A few weeks on and here is the result. Some smaller stones are now scattered around the larger ones to try break it up a bit and there is some leaves scattered throughout. The fern leaf was sitting on an angle but likes to float back up to vertical, hopefully once it is waterlogged it will sit on an angle and look a bit more natural. There is also the Val at the back. Still going to get more java fern to go on the wood and maybe some hairgrass to plant in pockets around the rocks. The hairgrass would be harvested to stay fairly sparse. Bumblee bee gobies are not currently available from any of the suppliers until maybe a month away so I have bit of time to play around with it before any livestock goes in. I am really enjoying this set up so far.

Sadly without its tail (I take it the whole tail is missing) I dont feel that there is much that can be done for it :dunno: , Even if the infection with is cured with a fungicide treatment (the white fluff is fungus) it will never be able to swim properly again. Ultimately it is up to you though Best way to avoid further deaths is to find whatever is biting the tails off and isolate that

Is this a new set up? If so, it may be old algae on the glass from the previous set up which has died and dried.

I'm looking at starting with bumblebee gobies, maybe six or so and once that is all established and settled maybe some orange chromides I have thought about lowering the water level but it's such a small tank that I can't really justify it to myself

i my water changes take on average 35 minutes a week plus the few seconds it takes to feed them daily, the occasional tidy up may take a little longer. I do find that if i don't what the time I can find myself mucking around and an hour has easily slipped past :roll:

Well I have taken the plunge and set up my tank, I bought some clear 16mm hosing from bunnings and attached this to my Fluval 205 and it seems to be doing a good job and doesnt look so obvious behind the tank. The sand came from the local landscaping place and is quite fine, it looks quite murky when you fill the tank but it clears over a week or so. I found some more driftwood and this was soaked over the christmas break. Here is a photo from the intial set up on monday. I think the murky water looks quit good really The java moss came from wet petz $2 for a bag not bad really I also got some narrow leaf java fern from Supasi on Trademe Further plants will be pockets of hair grass, regular java fern and windelov on the wood, vallisneria and I'm think indian fern and Polysperma to complete the background, although I quite like being able to see the back of the tank I might try some smaller rocks around the larger rocks and some leaf litter Here is another photo Here is a picture with the java moss spead out and the piece of narrow leaf java fern on the right where it will hopefully spread over thar peice of wood Its all a bit messy at the moment but it looks like it will be a good little tank

I saw something which sounds like your description labelled as purble harlequin rasboras at wetpets here in Palmy Does it look like this?

I was meaning the black stuff which has leeched out of the wood, it is too dark to be tannins, im thought it might have been some type of impurities the wood picked up while sitting in the stream.

So the wood was in the bath for four weeks while i was on holiday. It is now all water logged now, the water was quite brown with algae on top. Some black stuff has leeched out of the wood and has stained some of the rocks and softer pieces of wood a black colour. Is this stuff dangerous? I assume it wont be too much of a problem I guess it was always going to grow some algae being next to a window Now to scrub the tub!

Can anyone tell me, will tannins in driftwood stain? I wanted to soak some in the bath tub...

Wow, I had never seen any in my tank, if it is from my tank it will be a dwarf neon rainbow fish most probably. I assumed the chain loaches would have cleaned them all up

I think if that peice had some nice bends or kinks in it it would look more natural. I will definitely have a look out for some more driftwood. Good to know about the filtration, I think vallis will grow ok , I've read it likes harder alkaline conditions. Still not too sure about how crypts would do. Something in between roughly 1.005 and 1.010 SG will suit these fish I think, not very salty really.

Hi all I have currently broken down my tank, but I'm keen to get planning on my next tank. I wanted something interesting and different, but being a student wanted it to be reasonably cheap and low maintanence. I have chosen an general Asian brackish biotope after reading this on PFK's website: Brakish Goby Aquarium I think the general aquascape with wood and rocks is nice but it could be enhanced with a few plants. My tank is only small, 100 litres (90*30*38cm) With a single light tube in it. I have been reading as much as I can on Brakish aquariums, but there doesnt seem to be as much in depth information about them available. So I have a few questions: In terms of filtration will my Fluval 205 do fine or because it is partly marine will this require/benefit from some live rock? What plants would do well in this tank, so far I am thinking lots of java fern on the wood; some polysperma, indian fern and vallis for the background and hairgrass and possibly crypts in the foreground . Are there any others that would do well? Will crypts survive in brackish conditions? I have heard Cialata does but can we get that one here? In terms of fish I have settled on Bumble bee gobies and Orange chromide cichlids. I wanted Malaysian Halfbeaks but I don't think you can get them in NZ. I will probably have to slowly acclimatize these as they wont come as brakish fish. Here are a few Pictures of me playing around with what I have from the old tank. I think it looks quite centralised as a composition, Ill continue to play around with it I collected some of the wood from Himitangi Beach, my main concern is that the large piece is a softer wood. It kinda smells a bit. Will these be safe once soaked and had poured boiling water over to use in the tank? I guess if they leach a little salt it cant harm a brakish tank, other concerns would be them having possibly floated down a stream with farm run off. Suggestions, tips are welcome and appreciated

From the same site, this has dwarf croaking gouramis/pygmy gouramis in it. I think i have seen some of these around before, or perhaps I am confusing them with the chocolate gourami You could use it for any asian biotope really, kuhli loaches hiding in the leaf litter would look cool http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=66

I quite like this tank, but I think it could be improved with a few plants. As the articles says, strictly speaking it is not a biotope. I think the fish would be quite interesting though. Bumblebee gobies are supposed to have a lot of personality for a small fish. http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/content.php?sid=3087 Quite probably would work out more expensive than the 'Avon Biotope' though.

I have always been around reading, but havent had too much to say really Would be the smallest loach I can think of, but they arent exactly tiny and like most loaches they like to be in groups

Smaller fish help will to make the tank look bigger. Ember tetras are nice and I have seen Dwarf Lemon Barbs earlier this year which were very pretty. Those two dont get very big and you could have a nice group of them. I also believe that smaller fish have less of a bioload and that would make it easier to maintain the tank. Pygmy corydoras would make a good bottom feeder.

This may be fine for now/short term From what i understand, keeping a fish at a higher temperature than it is biologically made for increases its metabolism and in the long term shortens its life span. This is theory and I dont know what length of times its life span is reduced by. I would assume the higher the temp, the more the lifespan is shortened. I guess you have to weigh up whether the tank will be set up long term to justify the cost of cardinals or short term where neons may be better. If you search the forums you should find some more similar topics which could be of help, I recall this topic being discussed some time ago.

From what ive heard the cardinals come from warmer waters, and so cope would cope better in a discus tank at 30 degrees. Cardinals are more expensive though.

They get fed to my african butterfly fish, otherwise i chase them out the door and then shut it. You can work up a bit of a sweat though, and sometimes the fly has won :-? Slightly off topic can you feed daddy long legs spiders to fish?