Fenriswolf

Nope. That's why I'm confused. New gravel which is 100% fine in another tank, tank has been washed out like 3 times, plants are healthy, filter's been in there a few weeks... Bah, I'll test my water tomorrow

Bah. Trying to be civil, I'm just in a really bad mood :oops: Fair enough, cycling requires some amount of fish doesn't it? I know completely replacing the filter media is a bad thing but I was trying to eliminate possible contaminants as it became clear (or not) what was not causing the smell. It's been running with two plants, five small fish, one Fluval 1 and weekly water changes for about three weeks now. Still reeks.

Ahhh, thank you. That's really specific and helpful. Language Removed... Mod Bill..... . I have three other fishtanks with happy fish hence my surprise at a persistent and unpleasant smell. Funnily enough, people ask questions for help, not to make idiots feel full of themselves! And adoge, thank you. I did wonder about the sandstone but if it was that it should have gone away after many water changes and decent filtration.

OK, can I just say "ahhh!" please? Thanks :-? Not overly cheerful, what with coming home to the 90L hexagon I just bought having leaked after being fine for three days - ruining a beautiful kauri table (temporary home), left the fish gasping and f-ed our nice mattress downstairs leaving us in the guest bed for... a while Anyway, I have the weirdest issue with this coldwater tank I'm setting up for my mum to save her neglected fish. It's a 90L tank I got from a woman at work. She had it for years, beautiful fat healthy fish despite an overstocked tank. I set it up with stones from the garden centre (well rinsed), a couple of plants, a bunch of new (rinsed) decorations, a couple of boiled and well dried sandstone and a new HOB filter with rinsed filter medium (including carbonated foam) and cycled for a week. It smelt weird, kind of sickly. The plants looked really healthy so after a week I put some fish in there anyway. They seemed fine, coloured up nicely. I hoped it would go away. Instead it got worse. I rinsed and boiled the stones, removed the sandstone, and did a big water change. It still smelt, and was getting worse. A week later I changed the stones for an entirely different lot of stones, which are perfectly a-OK in another tank. Changed all the damn water, changed filter media, soaked in StressZyme (I know, a couple of hours ain't gonna do much but it made me feel better) and started again. The plants were still healthy and there were no issues with the fish but the smell keeps coming back and so strong it made me feel ill. The Blackmoore died, no idea why just came home and was floating almost dead, put in quarantine with tonic salt but too late. So I took the HOB off and replaced it with a new internal filter, hoping it was the HOB. But nooo. :evil: Now one of the comets has white spot - I don't know if it's related but he's otherwise happy and none of the others have it yet (treating with tonic). It still smells revolting. Like something off. I'm intending to transplant the fishies (my leaky tank has slowed my plans a little though), throw out the plants (dammit, they're so healthy!), bleach the bloody tank and leave to dry in the sun, then try again at some point with water only and no fish. Anyone have any ideas?

Oo, where do people get theirs? I work for a vet clinic so I'm sure I could get some ordered but I kind of wonder how you're supposed to get antibiotics for fish. It's not like you can buy anything over the counter in NZ

I don't think so. Their bodies look very different to my boy's, though I suppose that could be a breed difference. The girls have fat bodies and short fins. Can males come out looking exactly like females? Because the girls really are identical apart from colour. As for the trouble maker, it was mostly my boy chasing them around and them running away, apart from two occasions where there was definitely a face off (circling with a bit of nipping - it sometimes looked like he was trying to mate with her, and the other two were watching intently from close by) but it was with different females each time. It's hard to know who the aggressor would be also because there wasn't that much nipping when we were looking, but we'd go away and come back to more missing tail!

Well they mostly hid/ran away from him when we were looking but obviously they were having a go back when our backs were turned because I finally pulled him out when his tail was down to two teeny strands after being out for an hour. He also has pop eye, which is the other reason for fishing him out. I wasn't sure if he just had weird eyes (have stuck out since we got him but he's otherwise happy), but they bulge way more now and he's got a couple of scales missing at the back. I'm really worried about him but all the advice I can find online advises using antibiotics and the nurse who orders drugs at work is being an arse at the moment I guess I'll just have to get some cories and see how the girls go if I find a couple more females. Still curious about the killies though! Oh, and thanks adodge

Hi there ya'll, My boy came to our vet because someone was sold two males as a male and a female. Funnily enough they were both pretty shredded. We don't really have the facilities for extra fish so I took my little boy. He's the most fantastic fish ever. *cough* Anyway. So I finally set up my 200L and moved him into it from my 50L. He looooved it, exploring every inch and playing in the bubbles. So I got him three girlies, expecting him to relish being the man (and planning to get a couple more females). He was basically a big jerk, flaring at them and chasing them around. My partner and I observed. A few times, him and one of the girls had a bit of a scuffle, with the other two watching. I was hoping this would be a dominance issue, like a bit of posturing and growling with dogs who don't know each other. Cut to now, when the girls have his 200L and my tail-less wonder is in a tonic treated 50L. *sigh* Now, I'm planning on getting a cube made for him, 50x50x50cm where he can be alone with a pleco or something which hopefully won't be an issue. I'm not quite willing to give him a whole 200L to himself, but I'd like him to have a decent sized tank because he is so awesome and I may as well use it as an opportunity to play with a planted cube. What I'm really asking, is what do people think of getting a horde of female bettas? My girls definitely flare at each other a lot, displaying constant little power struggles. So I want a bunch more but I'm not sure. And what would people personally want to put with them? I want to get a handful of cories (probably leopard & panda, not 100% yet) with them, but was wondering about maybe a school of congo tetras or something. I'm also curious as to whether I could get some killie males to live with them? Killies just look so damn similar to bettas: surely they're anabantoids? And given bettas and gouramis are not advised to live together I thought killies and bettas were probably a bad plan... But they're so pretty... :lol: I have a few plants, a few spiral val, two teeny java ferns, and one random thing which is going for gold. Would like to get more to make my girls more secure. And opinions and advice would be welcomed!

That's kind of my point. I'd always felt frustrated at people pigeonholing me for being young but until I worked here I'd never met people who actually acted as narcissistic as young people are supposed to - it's not just her but a nurse too who's lovely but just sooo self-absorbed

The thing is, I'm the newest staff member. I worked at the SPCA for a year, and did a majority of a vet nursing certificate before dropping out :oops: That's actually how I got the job: I was doing my VN work experience there and the head nurse liked me. I've kept fish throughout my childhood and spent an excessive amount of time researching fish over the last few years. So you've got the boss, the head nurse and retail manager who've been there for years, various nurses and vets who work separately from us, and Amber who's been there are year. I come along: I know a lot about dog and cat behaviour, as well as being a competent animal handler, on top of which I have a personal interest in dog and cat nutrition and of course medicine. I am more comfortable working with people than her and get on better with out mutual boss/co-worker than she does. I can see that she might resent that I also know more about fish keeping than she does. Bear in mind, she's 19 years old, hasn't left home yet. She has typical maturity for a 19 year old, and this includes being very self-absorbed and often frustrating to work with. As for fish, she has a cichlid in one tank with an assortment of tetras, a gourami, and a large bristlenose. Another with a horde of barbs and a gourami. Another with some swordtails, a gourami, and a rainbow shark. Another with danios, a black shark, a couple of loaches (can't remember what kind), a bunch of teeny plecos and a few gouramis. Hell, when I told her that the khuli loach we got dumped with was meant to live in sand with lots of hiding places she shrugged it off. Sure, we don't have the facilities but she pretty much seemed to think it'd be fine. I guess I could talk to the fish "expert" who works at another of our branches, and hopefully she'd listen to her. I wish she'd just leave - I'd happily take her place :lol:

That would be nice... I have told her about it but we aren't exactly bestest buddies unfortunately. She's not stupid, I just wish she'd stop doing stupid things. I'm certainly not preachy or anything - she doesn't listen to anyone. :-?

Greetings all. I've become a bit of a lurker for the last few months, but I just have to complain about this! I work at a vet/pet store and the person who runs our aquaria drives me mad. She's very enthusiastic about fish, and knows some really eclectic stuff from the NMIT course she did on aquarium fish. BUT she's never kept tropical fish and pretty much knows jack sh!t about them. Basically she has all the enthusiasm of someone new to fishkeeping with none of the responsibility of spending her own time and money on them. She's constantly looking for new fish and disrupting the communities we already have. She will not listen to me (I suspect she resents that I know more than her); for example I told her bala sharks are schooling fish that grow really big so aren't really for our customers who generally have tanks UP TO 40 litres. So she buys two and puts them in with our swordtails. O... kay. She recently bought two black sharks, which according to the great internets can grow up to 12 or even 24 inches! In our 80 litre tanks... She thinks cories are retiring and delicate, just because we had a bad bunch. Which I blame on the dodgy water conditions in the tank in question. But what drives me INSANE is that she keeps urging to people to keep african cichlids in peaceful communities. WTF?? The fishkeeper before her had a display tank of eletric yellows and gosh-darn-it I can't remember what they're called but basically look the same in blue. :lol: This person has now split them up and put one in each of our tanks (tanks with danios, or barbs, or neons), and keeps talking about how much nicer they look individually! Someone brought one back for killing all her fish and I had to explain that they're actually very aggressive and not for peaceful communities. Ahh! I don't know what to do

This is sort of two questions in one. I have a male betta with fins shorter than a female from being housed with another male. When I first got him I had him on melafix for a week then did a 40% water change and left it at that. He was healing really well It seems to basically have stalled - recommendations? Also, I think he's got bloat. He went from being all happy and interactive to just wanting to sit on the ground in his tunnel, and appears to have a slightly distended belly. I had (boiled and rinsed and boiled and rinsed!) driftwood in there that had turned the water tea-coloured but it was clear and fishy seemed happy. All of a sudden (in a matter of hours) the water went murky and brown, and he started acting sick. I pulled out the driftwood, which appears to have been sneakily growing some scummy brown algae, did an 80% water change and added stresszyme, stresscoat, and melafix. Got some epsom salts today to put in too. Am I doing anything wrong?? Obviously the water change was pretty major but the water was bad Thanks all!

Oh well, I'll be sensible and leave him alone. He's a cool wee fish, I'd rather he was the king of the roost if that's what does it for him

Well, I am shocked that you interpreted "smartarse" in this context as meaning someone who is passive-aggressive. That's fine, I can't force you to see things as I do, but don't assume vice-versa You may also note that my previous post is well on-topic

OK. Another question. The general consensus is 50L is too small for my betta to have girlfriends? Really, would he be happiest alone? I just think it would be cool to have some girls, but I'm getting the impression they are happiest with 3-5 girls and that they may fight in such a confined space?

No disrespect meant to you Pegasus, but quotation marks are not used for emphasis (In case you can't tell, I want to make it clear that I'm not shitty at you BTW... Couldn't resist being a smartarse though )

Three points. (1) I don't mind thread hijacks, so long as my questions get answered too (2) I find it difficult to believe that people actually buy fish based on "flashy" names? (3) Oh come on, those who got up in arms! You knew what I meant, why does it matter that I used the common name in this case? (4) As a pit bull owner and fan I find it highly irritating that the only association is with being "tough" and "macho". Not everyone who owns pit bulls are dumbasses - just the ones that make the news

Stink! Oh well, I'll have to wait until I'm willing to set up my 180L. I vaguely recall they get big now that I think about it... Apparently pit bull plecos don't get too big? They're very cute, I could probably cope with just one bottom feeder. Does anyone know where I could get one in NZ? Sounds like I don't have enough room for my boy to have a harem :lol: When he was in with the neons and cardinals at work they harassed him though? What about gouramis? Thanks!

I hope to become a more active member of this forum again as I have been in the past, but I can't promise anything as I'm a little overextended at present! I've ended up with a damaged male betta from someone keeping two males together (sold as a male and female). My boy is deep red with almost no fins. He's a fighter (pun intended ), as I was sure he would die as soon as he was brought into the vet I work at He was kept with tetras who would harass him when the light was on, but he's a hardy wee thing and survived. I've had him at home alone in my 50L by himself and he's growing his fins back at a marvellous rate! Two questions: I've heard conflicting stories on whether or not I should get him girlfriends. I was thinking I'd keep him and a couple of girls as the only mid-strata fish, but then I read they may fight too? Thoughts? Also, I'd really like a get a red tailed shark, but will he want to eat my betta? I would like a couple of leopard corys, a red tailed shark, and a pit bull pleco, but that's probably waaaay too much for 50L? Do corys need to be in bigger groups? Do any or all of these bottom feeders need fine gravel (I have big stones)? Maybe just the shark and the pleco Thanks for your time, I feel guilty because I come back periodically to ask questions and haven't really contributed recently. I just over-planned, didn't get anywhere, and then felt like I didn't really have anything to say on a fish forum when I had no fish!! Thanks all :bounce:

Wow, impressive. I think it's very cute

Well, I'm back for the 3rd time in a couple of years, and still fishless :roll: I've decided to go simple with my 2': I want to set up a (coldwater) planted tank first, get it cycling, then add some WCMM (will their populations self-regulate if they decide to breed?) A couple of questions: what substrate should I use? Would peat with pebbles on top be good? I've also got some bigger stones from my aborted axolotl attempt, which I think look nice: is that OK for plants? What bulbs SPECIFICALLY would people recommend? There's lots of vague advice and I'm confused What kind of (cheap!) filter would people recommend? I've got a nice Eheim external filter that I'm going to use for my 200l, but an external for a 50l seems prohibitorily expensive. Is hang on back bad for plants? And are there any cold water catfish/loaches you can get? I like having bottom-strata fish to clean up and add a bit of depth to the tank. I found weather loaches online, which seem pretty cool, but I don't know if we have them in NZ? Thank you all! No, I haven't actually planned specifically what plants I want. I've found my problem to be over-planning so I might just peruse TradeMe when the time comes to actually buy some, with my vague memory of what looks nice and would suit my needs

Yeah, I heard that :roll: I may have 2, since one I haven't seen was apparently looked bigger and whiter (they were meant to all be black but as I discovered it's pretty hard to tell when they're teeny). And while I don't want to only have one left, I find it kind of amusing. Or ironic perhaps? Oh well, at least they're not all dead :lol:

Weird story for ya'll... And probably long and rambling by the time I'm done :lol: I've got 2 fishtanks; a wee 2' and a random-sized 200L. I got all excited and motivated to get fish and do it right (I will never get over the guilt of manslaughtering -hmmmm- my goldfish when I was little), but then kinda burnt out because I was trying to be perfect and just couldn't decide on anything! Anyway, I went and got some baby axolotls, which will get my big tank when they're big enough, and leaning towards maybe just a planted tank with a horde of WCMM for my 2'. So I get these tiny, tiny wee things. I've got my Daphnia (thanks, Dimsum!), nice big rocks and hiding places, along with an excessively fancy filter. Got a heater too, since it gets pretty cold here and I don't want their metabolism slowing down too much. :-? I put them in the tank and they disappear! I'm like, OK, they're tiny and the rocks are a good 10x their size. Give it a while and I'll see some. 6 weeks later and no movement. I pretty much give up on my axolotls, figuring I'll have a good search for tiny bodies, assuming their dead. They're not!!! I have at least one axolotl, perhaps double the size of when I got... it?... complete with front feet! So yeah, just as rambling as I suspected. Too lazy to edit. But my axolotls live! At least one! Excitement! And I'm spent :bounce:

Oo! Thanks