SpidersWeb

Use common sense. When you first pop your head in, see if he's calm , then you enter near the tank and he flips out, then its obviously just fear. If he has nothing to be scared of, he'll stop doing it in time. If he's just going up and down the glass and ignoring people etc then he probably just wants out, which he'll grow out of. Perhaps he was raised in a pond and isnt used to the glass. If you're concerned about tank conditions, then do a 50% water change, and see if he calms down afterwards. Although personally I beleive if there was a problem with the water he'd be more likely to slow down and stay near the surface than swim 'madly' as he wouldn't have the energy.

Fish is likely to be literally freaking out. If he is new, he's probably not used to living in an 8 litre vase :-? If he's been there a while and just started doing it, its likely something has scared him on a regular basis. See if he does it all the time, or just when somebody is in the room etc Larger living space and a little oxygen weed would stop this behaviour. Sounds like he's just frightened.

Yes, and while I dont count it as important, I was always taught to have the heater at a 45-60 degree angle for that reason. Honestly though some of my heaters are vertical, some at 45deg, some at 60deg, even on occasions horizontal, and in fry tanks with low water circulation, no noticable difference. Also remember the thermostat is inside the glass, not in the water, its actually measuring the ambient temperature inside the glass tube by theory. ..and if your $19 Masterpet heater gets water in it from being 'submersed' dont try to dismantle it at 1AM :oops: :oops: :oops:

Platy dont grow very big, maybe around 7-8cm. Lots of colour varieties, and breeding is inevitable.

Oscars aren't really picky, as long as things are stable. Our specs are 27C temp, pH 7.4, and KH at 5dH (I have a small bag of coral sand in the filter) but whatever comes out of the tap will likely be fine. Most important is regular water changes, and keeping your nitrates at 0 (which requires water changes because they wont let you have plants). Filters I'd want turnover of at least 4x an hour on externals. So 450L x 4 = 1800Lhr, so a Fluval FX5, or a pair of Jebo 819's. Personally I'd go with three Jebo 819's, but thats just a personal preference. The biggest problem with oscars is their eating habits. I'm assuming you're talking adults. If you're getting those 2 inch babies that were imported, then a single external filter will keep you going for a while yet.

lol I actually prefer the square "butt join" look, paticularly with a squared hardwood hood and base. All up to personal taste though, 439 for a 1m tank, filter, lights, base, and alloy hood is a very good deal.

lol well if he gets overexcited and eats too quick a lot of it comes out the gills, and the Red Devil is there to consume, its basically how he gets fed. But if Jimmy is really hungry, he'll hold it, and very slowly chew (?) and he can keep it almost all in. Sweet. Yeah he chews them and sometimes gives you back the shreaded shell, such a charmer. ooo garden snails, didn't think of that

Our 200L tank with 9 inch oscar is 6mm glass. Planning on replacing it with a 300L tank with 10mm glass, but only because that size tank comes in 10mm glass, not intentially buying it to prevent the oscar from breaking it. If you're looking at getting an oscar, now is the time, as one of the importers has just bought in a batch of young ones, and I don't think this is a regular occurance. I bought these bubbies for $25ea for Helen as a present on Monday: And oh boy can they eat They're as cute as puppies though. They explore the aquarium all day until they see me or Helen then its beg time, and they get sooo excited.

Speaking of which, what are you opinions on bloodworms and adult ramshorn snails? (in regards to oscars) We've been feeding the oscarspot recipie at night, but normally during the day I drop one or two frozen bloodworms blocks in. I've also got ramshorn snails in the same tank as my young GBAs, so lots of green food + higher temp = lots of snails, and rather than waste them I've been dropping them in the oscar/reddevil tank as a treat (he really likes them). We got a pair of baby albino tiger oscars on Monday too. Using the same feeding method for all 3, except no snails for the young pair.

The pressure inside the bottle when full is a lot stronger than the tiny amount of pressure you'd need to hold it in place with a vice. The vice is just more convinent than squeezing it with your legs, or having someone try to hold it (which doesn't work because arms move, vices dont). I can see it being a mission trying to do it by hand, but $20 vice, $5 spanner, quick twist, no problem. Also getting replacements from your local supermarket is crazy convinence, get some Tim Tams and a Coke while ya there :lol: 8) Our local New World sells fish tanks too :-?

pfft, sneak over and borrow Helen's oscar Seriously though, I love these guys, just wish they weren't so vicious when paired up. They pair up easier than guppies, and they're monogomous(ish), they establish a territory which is normally a cave and defend it at all costs. Only thing I'd add to what Mystic has put there, is that if you need a plant have a look at amazon swords, they're big enough and normally convicts will leave it alone (unless they feel the need to dig by the roots). They do certainly dig, I forgot to add a cave once, and the convicts dug their own cave under a slate rock Bristlenose should be ok, assuming they're adults, but you'd need to keep an eye out to make sure their fins aren't getting btiten. If a convict does try to suck on their head/tail they'll discover the spikes 8) They're well armoured, but for an aggressive cichlid tank I prefer the common pleco as it sticks up for itself and is larger. Our 18cm red devil cichlid and 35cm common plec were fighting over a cave this morning Dont want a red devil to go with your convicts do you? lol

I bought some from Animates. Always wondered what its problem was died after about two months.

The rock method is the easiest and less hassle. If you want to work out weights, the easiest way is to push the driftwood to the bottom of the tank, the weights will need to weigh more than the effort you are using to push down. If that makes sense? Anyway I did a little driftwood 'modelling', this is how I'd sink a small bit: Also creates caves in most cases. For larger pieces I do the same or similar things but with larger rocks and lots of patience. I always do it with the tank full though, so I know if its going to work straight away. Hope that helps!

hehe I dont tie it, I just place the rock on top, or lean it against it, basically just so the wood can't move. I live near a river, so have lots of rocks to choose from. Not sure what you have easily available. I'm not good at tieing things, and nobody should leave me alone with glue, so its my only option really :lol:

Use a rock to hold the driftwood down. After a month or so you can remove it. Thats what I have always done.

I'll try that! Thanks

All tanks (except oscar) get a large flake, at the moment its Nutrafin Tropcial flake. Oscar/Red Devil tank gets a special mix that Helen makes up, its an Ox-heart/spinach/shrimp mix (see oscarspot.com for recipie) (he absolutely LOVES this food). All tanks get frozen bloodworms, some more than others. Raising some platty fry on a combo of crushed flake and Fry Staple Diet powder. Oscar loves snails and fish. He had a danio with a bad back for dessert on Saturday, and about 20 neons a few weeks ago. Golden Bristlenose, Redspot and Common plecs get fed algae tabs (various brands, Nutrafin is my favourite but I'm using Wardley at the mo) and Courgette slices (much better than Cucumber which goes slimy too quick).

The shells will raise the water hardness and pH. Thats not necessarily a bad thing, however if you dont have the test kit handy and dont know much about ph/kh/gh then I'd suggest leaving them out. If you kept african cichlids it would be perfect, but I beleive you're getting goldfish, and I dunno if they like a high ph.

I've never kept tiger barbs. I've seen them used as african dithers, as in I've visited african cichlid tanks and seen they had tiger barbs used as dithers. A tiger barb wont flinch at a 7.6 pH, maybe if you were up at around 8.2 then you'd worry. Most of my tanks are in the 7.2-7.6 range anyway. They're not expensive or rare so can't hurt to give it a go.

Those baby oscars are sooo cute. Good buy! They will grow very fast at that size. With the combo you suggested 300L+ would be about right, 250 could be a little on the slim side. Absolutely great fish to own, congrats. Our guy is 9 inches now and eats a LOT of food (we make our own for him), he also had a Danio for dessert last night, but its handy as I have somewhere to put my ugly fish and excess snails now 8) Firemouths are great but they can be absolutle poofters if they dont settle in right. Convicts are cool unless there is a male/female pair. Common plecs are good for oscar tanks, not only are they covered in small spikes but they stick up for themselves and dont have huge tasty fins. Another fish idea (for the future) are severums (Gold or Green),

I've seen tiger barbs used as african dithers before, and it worked really well. All my cichlids are american, but I've found the use of dither fish to be very beneficial, especially in my Firemouth tank, those guys are wussies :-?

~$200 including a diffuser, bottle, reg, pipe at a guess and your local supermarket will give you a replacement Sodastream bottle for $10. Also remember you dont need CO2, so if you can't afford it one fortnight for some reason, you dont have to worry about it, so there is no commitment. Seems like the perfect half-way point between yeast in a bottle and the big compressed systems.

It doesn't have to be, but it works a little better with it. I had a bucket set up with a 25w heater and water in it, and sat two 2.25 coke bottles in there. The most important thing is to keep your spare yeast frozen. Otherwise after openning it goes off, which means you need more yeast, so you start increasing the dosage, 2 teaspoons, 1 tablespoon, 2 tablespoons... then you buy a new fresh container of yeast and use 2 tablespoons and then later find your aquarium has flooded with your DIY mix which has basically errupted *shakes fist* Its no miracle cure though. Increasing lighting (to a point) is the best way to improve plant growth.

eck thats not good

Spent heaps of time making hatchery, spent $18 on a few teaspoonfulls of eggs :roll: then waited 36 hours, then the eggs didnt float properly, so when I moved them to the tank some of the eggs went as well and made a mess, and then the baby fish didn't even get excited!!!! They ate them, but they get a lot more excited over bloodworms (which they have to fight with to get even a bite). Also got some of that special fry food, and that created a near-bloodworm-like reaction with the fry as well. I'm going to try a Daphnia culture next.