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.

could someone please let me know what type of water that discus naturally some from. blackwater,white water, or clear water in the amazon river?

yes it is a breeding net, it is working well, I am thinking he may have swimbladder disease and may never be cured.

Thanks for that, i will also try the plant shops we have a around, the hydroponic places, see what they say.

He is still alive and eating more, at first he was only eating 1 granual of food three times a day (would do it more often but I work), now he is eating about 4 granuals a feed and he actually seems more lively. He still sinks though, I am seeing an improvement so its encouraging. He is looking more fuller too which is great he is also still in the net at the top of the top of the tank, I move the net around a bit as to give him some swimming excersise before he loses energy.

where do you get that type of lighting from and is it a type of bulb that you are talking about or is it a whole lighting unit? how much money are we thinking of here?

do you think I should just leave this fish to sink to the bottom of the tank and make his way to the top on his own accord or keep it in the net up the top of the aquarium? Fins on the fish are pretty good, not perfect but still long. His colouring is loooking good and bright. He is not eating but if I put food right in front of his mouth he will go for it, 1 granual at a time though.

I have taken on my neighbours siamese fighting fish. The fish was assumed dead (eaten by the angel fish) as it hadnt been seen for 5 weeks, however upon cleaning the tank i lifted up a rock and up swam this siamese fighter. I took it into my quarinteen tank (and it keeps sinking to the bottom, I put it into a special net so that it wouldnt have so far to swim to the top to get air (i realise that fish breathe using water but this fish does go up to the surface :lol: ) as it does'nt seem to have enough strength to swim up to the top from the bottom of the tank to take a gasp of air. the fish is still alive as we speak and I'm just wanting suggestions of what I can use to get it off the ground. If you try to catch it the fish does swim away. :-?

Thanks all for your reply's, as soon as I get hold of a camera I will get some pics. i'm thinking of a relatively slow moving pool, with the filter I have there will be some movement but because of the depth of the tank in relation to the lengeth (being a cube) I think this would look and serve the fish the best, but I'm always open to suggestions.

I'm new to this site, I have had a browse and a few posts and thought I had better introduce myself. I got my first tropical fish aquarium when I was 12 and have been mad on fish ever since. I have had no tropical fish for the past 5 years as family commitments and work have kept me from commiting the time I like to put into my fish keeping hobbie. I have recently aquired a 2'x2'x2' aquarium and am now setting up for the fish of the amazon (previously I kept malawis with a lake malawi type set up), I am right into biotype setups as much as I and NZ/financial limitations allow me to. My Aquarium has gravel base and 2 large driftwood pieces, with fluval 404 filtration using sponges, prefilter, carbon, filterwool, and ceramic biomax on the top. I have live plants consisting of amazon sword varities and vallisneria to add height to the look of the tank. I have 1 x2' light towards rear of tank. I think I will need a better light amongst other things I need to get. Thanks for taking the time to read a little about me

Thanks for your reply, Well i'm off to the pet shop to get water tested now and will find out what the pH/nitrite/nitrate/amonia is, that way i'll no which way to go, My water may already be slightly acidic so i wouldnt want to add baking soda if that was the case but if it could do with being more acidic then baking soda sounds like it would be the go (making water slightly harder for the plants and water more acid for the fish). If you are wondering why I dont have my own testers(I have kh/gh tester). I havent kept tropical fish for 5 years and before that I had a community aquarium. So really just getting back into it. I will need to buy a pH tester but in the mean time pet shop down the road tests for pH,nitite and nitate and amonia for free. I bypass petshop daily on the way to work so I will pop in with my water sample every day to see whats happening to it.