Vickie

The siamese fighter has been returned to the home i rescued him from and he is still alive. He stays on the drift wood close to the surface of the water.

I have had a bit of misfortune with my aquarium set up in the past month or so, firstly I had the heater (3 months old) burn out however due to me checking the finer details of my setup i noticed a drop in the temp of 1 degree at a time when the temp should have been constant, noticing that the thermastat light was not working. fortunatly i had a spare on hand and noticed this as quick as i did....... the next drama happened about a week after that when my house flooded from the washing machine malfuncitoning, i woke in the morning to find myself ankle deep in water. consequently my MDF stand that held me fish tank was swallen with water, thankfully the tank did not collapse the stand under the weight (approx 200kg). I had to move all of my fish (which was some challenge) into a smaller tank i use for quarentine. The fish are all alive and still in this small quarentine tank being filtered by my fluval canister filter (the big one). Fortunatley my insurence covered the tank stand and the loss adjuster suggested i replace it with a wooden one , so this week some time i am expecting a delivery of a really nice wooden stand with cupboards and shelves and a hood, I am so wrapped, what started as a month from hell turned out in my favour. :bounce:

Thank you all for your advice. Would the low pH cause my bristle noses to have split fins, the female is worse, this has happened over a period of about 3 weeks now, the lemon tetras, and whiptails are fine. there is no sign of nitrates, nitrites or ammonia. Would raising the kH and pH of my tank stop my tetras from breeding?

I put a male in with my female for company and a couple of weeks later I didnt see my male for quite some time, then I saw 2 baby BN about 10-15mm long. I dont know what happened to the rest of the fry or where the 2 fry are now. I have a number of spaces for hidding in and under driftwood not sure which space was used as I couldnt find the male for some time.

thanks for the advice, I am already doing sort of what you are saying with the water changes, I dont add anything to the fish water except chlorine remover, I use a rubbish bin on top of my ironing board at the same temp as the tank water and siphone it back to the fish tank. the heater I use is 250watt but I am going to have to buy anopther one to keep the temp constant. The fish in there at the moment seem to be thriving on what I am doing but i am concerned about adding discus... i'll just have to do it I think, just buy some discus and put them in the tank see what happens. I have in the tank at the moment are: Lemon tetras 30+, whiptail catfish x2, bristlenose catfish x2 and a sinking siamese fighter who I have rescued (doesnt match the fish or Biotope I'm trying to acheive but he has no where to go) The pH in my tank seems to fluctuate between 5.9 and 6.1 the hardenss in the tank doesnt change, it stays very soft, and the water change i do is once a week 30%, this is working for the fish in the tank and they are breeding like mad just not sure whether discus would like it but the fish in there are all from the amazon region so i'm thinking that discus would be fine. what is a good size to buy in discus that I can put straight into the tank.

I have just (over 4 weeks) got a tank full of 30 + baby lemon tetras (see topic unexpected breeding lemon tetras), I have done nothing bar the weekly 30% water change, in a planted aquarium. my tank is suited for the acidic soft conditions apparently liked by these fish, but otherwise i have left them alone and watched and wahlah, babies. they fend for themselves hiding in the driftwood and eating flake like the rest of the adults... maybe somehing you could try. Just a thought, P.S I am newly back in the fish hobbie so not an expert or anything.

I feel a tad silly being excited over my few baby tetras, I now have over 30 fry from about 5 batches all swimming in the open in one giant school of fish with the 4 original adults. i just noticed 4 more new fry. all this in 4 weeks... I am very concerned as to what to do with them all, can i turn off the breeding switch, this is rediculus. I have done nothing speical, i have no idea where they lay there eggs, and I even have 2 (that I have seen) baby bristle nose catfish about 10mm-15mm long. They look impresive in the tank and are very active I just dont know if I have the room in my 2'x2'x2' tank. I am very keen to include some discus in my tank but water chemistry (temp and pH )is fluctuating and i was told that the water chemistry has to be constant to keep discus, so I am still practising to get that right. my main fluctuation occurs during water changes and cold nights (I need another heater in the tank i think) but i'm getting it better. does anyone here keep there tank perfectly constant and how is that done.

well on last count there was 1 bigger baby and 2 little ones, now i have seen two biger ones out in the open and 5 little ones and 2 tiny ones hovering very close to the drift wood. they are all in the lower quarter of my tank. if I stayed looking I'm sure I would find more. what should I do about gravel cleaning? the tank was due its weekly change yesturday, that when I noticed them.

fighter is still alive and is now a bottom feeder, he is a lot stronger and will swim to the top of the tank easily, he does sink back down to the bottom, he will sit on the top of the drift wood close to the surface of the water.

my plants are still alive, I have lost some of the small amazon swards but they are re growing and the vallisneria is growing very well. There is now some really strange looking bright green blobby like algae growing on the top of the drift wood close to the surface of the water. The water chemistry is great. I even have baby lemon tetras, three of them so far that I have spotted, they came from out of nowhere however one of the babies is actually a lot bigger (perhaps older) than the other two babies. i did see eggs around but they went white and had fungus on them so i did nt think that there would be babies around, that was about a month ago.

well I have not done anything special or out of usual however when starting my water change i noticed a baby lemon tetra and upon further looking a slightly bigger baby and upon further inspection another smaller baby. this is so exciting for me. I will leave them; they are hiding around the drift wood and in one particular section of the tank. They are very fast.

I have a spare tank that I can set up to see what happens, the water in the tank they are in at the moment is well lit, the water is definately very soft and on the acidic side. I will turn off the lite for a few days which I need to do for the whiptails that are in there ( they dont appear to be eating, they look great though so are probbably eating when I dont notice) and see how I go from there. I like the quality of the water in the tank.

my whiptail's appear not to be eating (flakes/granuals) , any sugestions. otherwise i think they are fine, staying on the bottom moving around.

I have lemon tetras in my aquarium and have found eggs over the driftwood and plants but they have gone white and have fungus on them. is this just a case of infertile eggs or a water problem?

I was just curious as to what water they naturally came from, I'm trying to aim for something that would replicate the environment that the discus naturally came from, for my own personal challenge. including fish that would naturally occur with them.