craig

hi, so long as there is no pieces big enogh for them to scratch on, you will be right. i have frontosa's in a 6-2-2 tank, i run calcite substrate and dolimite rock. the ph sits 8.3 and the hardness,20-21.when i first got them 7yrs back, i didn't run calcite and had nothing but trouble with ph[i was running dolimite chip]. i saved my penny's,stripped tank at a cost of $300 bucks, but it was well worth it. i had been having to buff up,my boss told me that if you use buffers to abtain correct ph [up-down] eventually my tank would crash with toxins as there is a certain metal substance that doesn't break down,just builds up then goes toxic."scared the shit out of me" my front's have been doing great since and i have never had to buff yet. your coral pieces should be keeping your ph around the 8's so will be fine. just remember that high ph has it's prob's "ammonia" just watch how much you feed. i feed every 2 day,although you have littles so 2 sm feeds everyday should be fine,just watch for ammonia. do you have brown algae on your rocks? if so it produces a sm ammount of nitrates,not enough to cause a problem thou,it helps combat ammonia, can't remember exactly how, but it does!!! its a good thing.

put him in another tank[duke] that is. give him some one-on-one time. the silver dollars could be scaring him. and try an earthworm---live, just soak it for a few minutes in clean water they will flush themselves. make sure worm gets eaten,if not remove. just keep trying daily, i reckon he will go for it,never had one that would refuse. shelley

hi guy's, just a quick update on the discus.the two other pairs left in tank have layed eggs today so maybe they weren't praising me ,maybe they were h--ny shelley

a couple of weeks.

let me know how you get on at the vet. i haven't found a vet down here that's any good. probably give you tetracycline,be careful sometimes the remedy is worse than the desease. if it is a desease!!! try using dolimite rock or limestone to buff ph. coral rock is to harsh on fish if they rub on it. shelley

just read my post,nah!!!!!wrong birchardi's are tangi's,still african's. do try the JBL smll pellet it caters for the algae eating african's as well.

hi, only use hot water,cos if your hands still smell like soap,there will be residue.so the boss told me. it could be that it is your flake food.... flake food is high on protein,so to much of and ph goes down quicker. are the fish eating well? you should be feeding your electric yellows the same as the malawi's and your birchardi's as they are all malawi's. try a smll pellet like JBL nova granocolour,it's expensive but it's good,and frozen brineshrimp every now and then. Too much food makes your ph drop off quicker and african's don't like a low ph. maybe heaps of variety might fix-em. hope this is of help. shelley

dude, your geo's are probably getting a hiding from your salvani,maybe after lights out. as for your malawi's,if your water is cool,maybe they are fighting too,that's the reason i switched to tangi's,i got sick of my malawi's killing each other. can you put a pic up of a sunken-bellied fish? sunken-bellies usually mean:"maybe"TB,velvet,worm's,but if worm's fishies poo is whitish,seethrou,stringy. seen as it is spreading throu tanks that even aren't in same room,it must be getting carried from hands,net etc."need more info" shelley

caper, just change half,if your worried about bio load.you should have enough bacteria build-up in your shingle,if tank's been going awhile.in most of my tanks i run at least two filters,so i can alternate cleaning when time occurs.on the tank that crashed i also run a cannister,discus&sm fishies,put,high load on the tank,food wise!!!when crashed i'm awfully thankful to the cannister filter the tank had to be dropped 75%,and if it wasn't for the bacteria load in cannister,"everthing would be dead". you should never do all your filters&gravel etc at the same time along with your waterchange,or you might have a crash of a different kind. "alternate".sound's good coming from someone who's tank "crashed"aye!!!!but as i said you learn from others mistakes,mine was just lazyness :evil:i knew it needed done,but was putting it off,due to the size of the job,when ph won't alter much ie 6.2-6.4 after a 20% waterchange,it means your bio load is maxed,could be your gravel,cannister filter,or as mine was undergravel.so to all you new ones to the hobby,i hope this post has had some good info for you's. you can be in the game for years,but your still learning everyday. :lol: shelley

discus still smiling .considering their rough night. under gravel system's are great.just don't leave untouched for years .it was in a 4.2.2 and had been yrs,i did put hose down once a yr,but oviously not enough. there was signs,just didn't act quick enough,when i lifted the undergravel the smell was very anaromic,i think the middle hadn't been working probably. nevermind it could have been worse,i was going to put my asain aro in there last week, because he is lifting bricks on his lid where he is now,and the tank that "crashed"has remu lid. just as well i didn't. shelley

clown loaches will eat little gup-fry as well. my clown loaches took-on jag parent's to eat jag fry,and succeeded!!!!!

i have three XL choco-cat's in aquarium with lot's of platy's and babes and have never seen them eat-em.not to say they haven't. but they do love snails & their cool-fat-lazy!!!!! :lol:

i found out the hard way last night. your undergravel filters only last 2-3yrs,was having trouble with ph,it wouldn't go up much, after waterchange. end result: lost a beautiful pair of discus,so far!!!! was up till 3 in morning stripping out tank.undergravel gone now. no wonder tank crashed,"pure mud"2-3yrs of crap. anyway this morning was greeted by the rest of the discus all at the front of tank,"i swear they were all smiling" and me. so hopefully drama all over :roll: anyway the reason for posting this is:so other peoples can learn from my mistakes. so if you are running undergravel filters: beware they don't last forever & don't leave it for as long as i did. put a hose over your uplift's ever now and then and suck out access crap. "one man's failure, is another man's gain" :lol: shelley

chocolate talking catfish love snails.

what was the first fish,that died?

haha!!! okay i forgot about that. :roll: but they are still breeding oversea's.

hi, there is only a few cory's that don't mind a low ph 6.6-6.8.etc cory ornayus being one of them, panda cory's seem to like being slightly under 7.i am only going by what and how we would keep them in quarinteen, and i found that if cory's kept at 6.8-7 where still there at the end of 6 wks. if i overfed or missed a waterchange, and ph dropped 6.5-6 we would have losses.some species more than others ie. as for cyclops just make sure socket is clean"no fuzz",but if other cory is looking sad ,i don't know if i'd put him back just yet. shelley

hi, next time zebra's on the export list,they will get some,seem to be seasonal. how much do you guy's pay for polypterus sp.? shelley

i don't exactly know what the corect ph is for platy's,but have found they do really well in acid water,i have never let water get below 6. and when i was working in importing fishies we kept them around 6.5,because of stock levels,30-40 in a small tanks,eat heaps, so if water was at 7-7+ we would start loosing fish due to ammonia build up,don't seem to get ammonia when water is acid. 6.4 not to bad. shelley

limegirl is quite right, your platy should have no problem with ph getting low ie. 6. how low did it go? my platy's are in a tank with discus ph sit's 6.5-6 and they are continually breeding,becoming a problem. alway's remember "acid water safe,alkaline dangerous. shelley

sorry about that dude,didn't read your post properly :lol: my partner works at redwoods,i used to,too.probably served you a few times. as far as zebra's go, i didn't relise they were so expensive up north.if you can get them cheap ie.200 each then the price of your babies would oviously be much lower than up north aye!!! so the demand would be good.i think they still have a little aro in the shop,not to sure of price.price has never been an issue for me neither,but to alot of people it is.and getting a good buy always makes you smile. i actually enjoy the hobby more by being able to make others smile when i sell any of my fishie babies.doesn't always fill my wallet but that's not really what it's all about. for me anyways. yes i do keep discus.let me know if you do decide to get some zebra's,they usually only bring them in if the demand is there. cheers shelley

dude where do you shop!!! last year at work we had 6 come throu quarinteen, they sat in the shop for ages at $220.each,the last 4 ended up going out the door for $180 each. a mate bought some from another shop here,he paid $1200 for 6 that was the yr before that,so unless they have become endangered damn $600.00 each your looking in the wrong place. you will have to do some research into these guy's as far as breeding,it's not that easy.HEAPS of flow needed,as these guy's virtually breed in rapids. i'll see what i can do shelley

hi, beautiful little dude, haven't seen one of those here,is it a gobie or a darter? almost looks like a killie, what is it?,it's cool. shelley

hi ya!! a really nice apisto is trifasciatum and borelli-yellow-blue.the trifasciatum's colour when breeding is extremely beautiful. apisto cacatuoides "red" also. macmasteri is another beautiful one but extremely expensive,$80.00 a pr down here anyways.when i bought my trifasciatum here they were$52.00 pr. trifasciatum would have to be the niciest of seen the male has extended top fin like cacatuoides,beautiful little guy's. the female is quite aggressive i had to take him out once littles hatched,Mrs was gonna kill Mr. good luck and have fun. shelley

hi, sorry for your loss.sounds like he had aproblem before you got him.as for the other "cyclops" i'd leave him where he is till eye socket looks good, making sure no fungi takes hold.when all looks good put him back. bronze cory's like their ph 7. if it gets to low eg:ph6.their bar-bells disappear and they generally fall over. hope i have been of some help, shelley.