SpidersWeb

If the Oto's went anywhere near the Jewel eggs, his life expectancy would drop to about 5 seconds. Jewels (in my experience) are very good parents, and will defend a large area of territory, and have no qualms about biting. When removing babies myself, my Jewels would attack my hands.

Thanks heaps for that! Great post, maybe when you've finished the results Caryl could throw it in an Aquarium World issue ? I'll have to order some poly, mine are in an uninsulated garage, and the power cost is rediculous. We have pieces on our fry tanks to provide even temp, but not the big ones

Had a good weekend with the fish, thought I'd brag In my Giant Gourami/Lionhead Cichlid tank I've got my black bristlenose adults. Male hadn't left his cave for a while, so pulled the log out and moved it in to a smaller tank. Sure enough tonnes of young bristlenose crawled out :bounce: :bounce: Feeding them corgette, but they don't seem attracted to it, I've always found it takes a few days before they learn. Obviously for the first few weeks feeding them proper algae is best, but how do I culture normal algae that is good for them to eat?? (serious question, I'd love to grow algae that isnt black). The Gold Severums have settled in well at their new home, so I purchased another breeding pair of angels. Some of you may have seen them locally, male and female, very large, marble/black with a bit of green, and veiltail. They were at hutt pets in the angel/pleco tank. They've joined the large group A+ in the community and after being in the tank only an hour, were starting to lip-lock Got my alpha male angel in his own 3 foot tank with his lady friend. As the new male (from the pair) is larger than him, he took offense so needed to be seperated, but since he's my favourite male to use, that worked out perfectly for me. Did a massive clean and I'm hoping they'll be showing eggs next week (pure white crossed with double black, offspring are gorgeous black). Ran carbon on the tank as well through a Jebo 819, water is crystal clear, like you could drink it. So my white/black and black/black pairs can be swapped from the breeding tank in to the community, provided they're not there at the same time. I also want to divide the 3ft in half with glass, to provide two sections. Also aquired a fantastic looking Zebra angel, female, want to find her a suitable veiltail male, but couldn't see any definates at hutt pets yesterday (all the good ones looked female), so will keep an eye out. Zebra Danios are getting bigger, about two weeks old now? Getting what I think is there first stripe. They're off liquid fry food and on to crushed flake now. Want them to grow up quick, so I can do it again and again. There is a female in my community that's been eating her plankton and is very very very full of eggs. Need to get some Baby Brine Shrimp action going. Is it AMAZONIAN that sells that awesome NZ stuff? Where do I get that? I've only got unhatchable decaps and some random bag of what is likely the cheapest brine shrimp eggs known to man. Have been having trouble feeding my redspot pleco, because the gourami can eat algae tabs in a single bite and he LOVES them. So did the corgette trick, little too tricky for the gourami and don't think he likes the taste that much. At the moment his world revolves around african cichlid pellets (we also feed him flake, occasionally cooked peas, lettuce but haven't done the last two for a few weeks). He'll likely need a new tank in 3 months or less. I'd say he's around the 8-9 inch mark now? We want him to grow big, so he's on an auto-feeder + we feed him manually. So works out at 4-5 meals a day. Touch off the breeding topic there, but was in need of a good fish-vent. Maybe I should just get a blog

A pair would be great, and likely any male/female combo will result in one. If you get two males by accident, if they become a problem later you may need to swap one out for a girl. My ex has two boys in the 38L, they're happy as there is enough plantation/decoration to have seperate territories.

Wide, sticks out the sides rather than a beer gut and yeah I haven't noticed it on females until they're about mmmm *gets fingers out* 8cm??

My ex keeps her Blue Rams (two males) in a 38L Jebo R338, they're happy and fully grown and look gorgeous. The only other fish in hers is a bristlenose and zebra danio. If there is room will depend on how your tank is set up, but my intial impression is that yes 75lt is big enough. Try and get a male and female if you can, as two males will fight, good decoration and plants help prevent too much problems with fighting. Rams, like most cichlids, vary on aggressiveness. In a 100-150 litre tank I'd say your stock is not a problem, but you may end up with a few nipped fins in a 75 litre. Keyword 'may', it should be fine but you never know and I can't say 'yes definately' or 'no not at all'.

PVC tubes work well too, just want to try and block off one end if possible.

Not sure, I'm going there tomorrow morning though. Hard thing with getting a female from a pet store, is unless they're adult size (which they rarely are) you may end up with an immature male rather than a female. Good luck, and try and get yourself a fat one

They like caves with only one entrance, and ones that feel cosy rather than big are preferred. I use hollow pieces of wood etc. Big bits of bamboo cut up is great for this. They will use pots etc, and once settled in they'll happily lay eggs in there, but I've found if they're made of wood, its harder to get them out than it is to get them in Mine usually go straight to their cave or a cave and settle in quickly. They still come out to eat, and bother other males (mine do that). You know it's near breeding time when the female is fat and round, and starts hanging out by his cave entrance (but she wont be allowed in until he's ready hehe)

I did a double initial dose today. All fish fine except a few platy, who are healthy, but starting to gasp at surface. I'll do a water change tomorrow, and maybe go back to standard dose.

Test it, sand you want to use + water in bucket Test pH a few days later.

It's common with loaches. Compare the colouration of a baby clown loach you buy in stores, to a 20 year old monster, and you'll see there is a massive change in colouration (loss) as they age.

Double the intiial Then double the daily each day or Double the initial each day I'm guessing you mean the first one. I'll start doing that. God I hate that stuff. I'll test nitrate levels while I'm there.

Double the intial dose or double the regular daily dose?

Moved to Freshwater by me I'm interested in quality Blue Rams as well. So if anyone has quality fry (old enough to transport), let me know Naturally I'll pay.

Either get T5 or T5HO (expensive or DIY), or the PL stuff. PL may be a pain in the ass because of the bulbs, BUT it is equivilent to T5 (so I'm told). T8 lighting is just bleh and not intense enough. I use T8 in most my tanks, and plant growth is average to say the least. For a bright white, you can try using PowerGlo tubes, I find a pair of these (T5 or T8 ) makes tanks look really good, and the spikes in the spectrum allow for even better plant growth. Other options are the regular cheap 6500K Daylight tubes, they are a bright white. Most light fittings come with 6500-7000 kelvin lights standard. If you want something even more white (almost blue), try a 10,000 kelvin bulb as used on marine setups More people are starting to use the higher kelvin bulbs, and love the way it makes their fish colours look so vibrant. Some things to think about there anyway. Oh and T5 are the really thin tubes, T8 are normal tubes, T12 are huge really thick ones you might find in an old garage somewhere. PL are T5 lights twisted in half and have a single connector.

1L per cm is a bit off. You can't measure capacity by one dimension alone. Do length in cm x height in cm x width in cm then divide by 1000. Thats the literage. 1 litre = 1 cubic metre. A 200L tank would be ideal for growing out Firemouths. They do grow slowly however lots of food (especially high protein stuff, I like using Plankton), space and not letting the water get nasty will encourage much better growth. It doesn't just accelerate growth but allows for a total larger fish when it's an adult. I've based my opinion on witnessing baby fish I've raised in what most would call a suitable size tank, versus those that got lucky in one of my 4 foot tanks. Not Firemouths, but Convicts, Angelfish, and to a lesser degree platy and bristlenose (although not by a big margin with the last two). Think they take around 2 years to reach full adulthood?? I've had 2 year old Firemouths that did not look like they'd grow anymore! I know that much.

Sounds like a manufacturing fault. If you've released any internal pressure by opening the taps, read the manual, undone the clips, and pulled hard enough to make the taps fly across the room, then I'd say its faulty! Maybe as mentioned above, some glue or bad castings. Personally I'd just pull harder and harder and harder until something gives (first thing to break will usually be the factory mistake), but I'm a boy, we do that. Really the best option is to do what you intend to, take it back to the store.

Yeah they're lethal at laser tag.

Well that is a good result. I find driftwood gets stained quite badly in paticular, my tanks have lots of stuff in them.

Without a doubt I'd say no I would've thought black sand was fine, but guess not.

I think (by the sound of it) he's wanting to make home made sponge filters. If this is the case, you can buy the sponge foam in sheets from any decent pet store (Animates etc). Sorry I don't know of a cheap place.

Yeah a small amount of meth blue is good, but don't make the tank go deep blue with it. It stains everything and you need carbon to get it back out! I refuse to use it at all anymore because of its dye nature. Personally I wouldn't put a single drop of meth blue in until you're sure its effecting multiple fish and spreading in the tank . Sounds like what you've already done is best. I'd leave it at that unless you see the problem getting worse. Tonic salt is great for that type of stuff, especially for livebearers.

I had angelfish as fry, by the time they were at the 50c piece stage they were already fighting. As a result I've got one thats missing it's plectorial (spelling) pointy things. They'll attack each other long before attacking any other fish though.

Fine when small, well mine where. It's when they get large or want to breed that they get vicious. They're a pain though, because if they don't feel like they're king of the castle they often sulk and refuse to eat. Severums do this too but to a much lesser degree than my jags did.