SpidersWeb

I'm guessing there is something in the water this morning. Instead of schooling together and avoiding the cichlids as normal, they're doing this: http://s83.photobucket.com/albums/j307/DrRabid/Video/?action=view&current=Neons2.flv&refPage=&imgAnch=imgAnch1 I'm guessing they're trying to breed, as they are targeting loose Java moss around the bottom of tank. Strange though, as the water isnt soft (6dH KH), and I dont think its finished cycling yet either, I haven't even done a water change yet :oops: but oh well, whatever they're up to is fun to watch. Just thought I'd share it with you all. Sorry about the poor quality, I had it perfect then PhotoBucket decided to convert it to a Flash document, and I still haven't paid my web hosting bill :oops: so couldn't just upload the raw DivX.

I'd take it easy for the mean time. If the Shark is getting worse, then maybe the Formalin, make sure there is lots of surface movement (for oxygen), and do a large water change if the fish show signs of distress. Furan2 does say it can be used with other medications, and I have used it with Formalin before but kind of hesitant about recommending you do so unless its absolutely necessary as it may cause extra stress your angels. Personally I'd pass on the Wunder Tonic if you're using Formalin. Once you get through this, you'll want to work out what caused the immune systems in your fish to lower. Prevention is easier than the cure etc etc etc Good luck once again!

woohoo With the furan, just follow the instructions. Sounds like everything is going well He could be just a lil tired as his body is recovering? Not sure to be honest.

Malachite Green and Formalin. Some fish are sensitive (e.g. death) to the Green. Not sure about Bala Sharks. Formalin makes it harder to breath, so additional air is helpful. If you dont have a hospital or quaranteene tank, then perhaps lookup the required dosage for a formalin/green bath. Just treat it like any other parasite problem. If you want to learn all you can, here is a good page http://www.fishdoc.co.uk/disease/costia.htm Good luck to ya shark! (NB: this information is based on what I've read, not on actual experience, hence the line in my signature below)

It's a whole new tank. I still have the other 4 footer which is rock based with 2 large angels, and large Firemouths. This planted tank is kind of a 'grow-out' tank for any small fish I pick up. Got two baby koi angels, and four young Firemouths, and 14 neons (was 15 but one got tasted) at the moment. Sweeeeet I actually had heaps of baby snails in the planted tank (accident), but my angels ate them, haven't seen one since!

Will do, have to pay more attention to the Perch now I know what it is. Yeah I should have given it a good beating with a steel brush before hand, it did get a good wash but not really a scrub. Unfortunately its too late now as I have set the tank up already, and its huge, I had to 'borrow' a rock from a retaining wall to weight the bugger down. I think the surface skimmer will work, as normally there isn't much surface disturbance, so all those bits float to the top. I raised the spray bar as the tank is still likely to be going through either its ammonia or nitrite spike and my fish looked like they were breathing a bit harder than normal. Due to the huge light hood I have to wait until Helen is home before I do anything with the tank, and by that time I'm often not in the mood, still hasn't had its first partial water change yet. Surface skimmer would be a permanent solution to both protein build ups (which I notice disappear if I stop feeding bloodworms) and the hairs, but a cheap little internal that I can put anything in is still something I want to grab. Benefit is that if I want to run a special media, or seed other tanks etc, I got a little guy I can move around easily, and put whatever I want in. So skimmer solves that tank, but still keen on recommendations for internals! Picture of the tank if you haven't seen it yet: ugh my camera is HORRIBLE, you can see the wood has tanned the water. Does carbon remove the tannins? It looked so much nicer when it was clear.

!!! If its just the base, layer heaps of silicone in S patterns, then a lip around the outside and cracked areas, then place good glass over top, let cure and viola?? Done it myself once and it worked 100%. The weight of the water held it down and kept it sealed. It looked like absolute ass but thats what gravel is for :lol: If its not the base then oh bugger. There is a glass dude opposite Mitre 10 (the one off Wakatiki St), really nice guy and good prices, he might be able to help get it sorted. You're welcome to the 4ft tank I have here for spare glass sheets. Its got two 1200x300 (or maybe 400) and two 300 x 300 (or maybe 400) sheets left. Actually has more than that because it was strengthened by placing additional glass on top of the original.

hey blue everytime I see you post I end up playing with Gizoogle, just used it to translate the Fluval Surface Skimmer page haha cracks me up :lol: Anywho back on topic How much did it cost? I'm thinking of buying one, as I imagine the wood is going to be err 'malting' for a while yet. Also been thinking of DIY ideas, because I can see how simple the idea is. Thanks for the offer but I can clear it up with what I have here, its just the fact that its beating my existing setup :evil: Really if I just moved my filter intake it'd pick up the hairs as they get splashed down from the bar, I'm just leaving it there so when I put in a solution, I can see if it works. Although if the skimmer is more than $50 I think I'll borrow yours :lol: would hate to buy it and find out it was crap. I'll have to pop around at some stage anywho as I hear you're doing a little tank remodeling, have to have a look-see

haha Yeah HOB certainly looks ideal, buuuuut :lol: I've got pretty glass lids. So need something internal. Guessing I should just buy one of those Cosmo cheapie internals. Has anyone tried those surface skimmers? http://www.eheim.com/skimmer.htm Eheim http://www.hagen.com/usa/aquatic/product.cfm?CAT=1&SUBCAT=107&PROD_ID=01002400020101 Fluval Problem is all that wood I put in the tank, has these 'hairs' growing on it, and once they fall off they float.

Hey guys, I'm after a cheap filter that will do what I need it to. I've got a problem with floaties on top of the tank, when the spray bar knocks them in to the water they float back up before reaching the filter inlet, and they're too small to net etc. So I want a cheap filter that I can jam whatever I need in, and put wherever I need it. None of this 'replacable cartiridge' business. Whether it be cheap wool, coral sand, noodles or carbon, I want to be able to just pile it in there as needed. If I need to run carbon, I dont want 1/3 carbon, 2/3 filter 'foam' I want 100% carbon. If I need to run filter wool, then I dont want the foam either, if I'm seeding a tank I might want all foam or all noodles. I'm thinking kind of like those little air driven box filters, just with a powerhead, and able to stick to the side of an aquarium (allowing it to be easily moved around as needed). Just wondering if anybody knows of a product/price that sounds ideal. I dont like going in to pet stores and opening all their filters to see how it works :oops: I know the Shark's require the 'optional cartridge'. And the AquaOne/Cosmo internals have holes that let carbon etc glide past, and an External is just too much pissing about. Any thoughts welcome including the 'dont be silly' thoughts.

www.dotphoto.com does not support hot linking. If you go to www.dotphoto.com, then come back here and refresh the page, the catfish appears instead of the logo Krissie, I'd recommend using Photobucket.com instead of DotPhoto. Anywho, to save confusion and time, here is your pleco Hosted by photobucket because I didn't pay my hosting bill :oops:

Eggs. Livebearers require the female to be fertalised internally using a gonopodium (modified anal fin) and male loaches dont have those If I have the right cat (Hoplo) then this link will be very helpful. http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/species.php?species_id=14

First thing that came to my mind was teflon tape.

Nice work on the stand! Puts me to shame. :lol: Could be some money in that yano

Best bet is to pass on one or both of the parents. If kept together they will continue to breed. I'd recommend selling both as you tend to get more money for a breeding pair. Dad is just protecting his babies. You can keep the breeding pair, but without the other angels (essentially target fish) the male may start going for other tank mates. Generally breeding cichlids should really have their own tank. Raising baby fish is fun, but it its not ya thing, then I'd sell the pair

Sure do http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/killies-vf15.html :lol: Enjoy Apparently they're hard to get?? I might be wrong on that though. AquaNut is raising a double headed killifish atm, I'm hanging out for an update.

With the angels they will be being territorial, normally this stops once they've defined an order of dominance, if it keeps happening you will want to move one. If breeding is likely to occur you will see two angels pair up against the rest, and never seperate. Inbreeding is not recommend, but nothing to exactly worry about, they will just be identical to the parents but any possible defects may be (and I mean may) be amplified, e.g. recessive gene + recessive gene = oh noes! assuming the gene you are talking about is a big defect, and that doesn't matter because if its bad they'll just die anywho, and I beleive inbreeding is how many breeders line-breed (not saying its good, just yano, I bet it happens). ramble over, have fun! Sorry don't know anything about barbs. Tigers are so cute though, I should get some.

lol Careful with that, its only been a week and my baby Firemouths have learned the fun way to wake up neons in the morning is to suck on their head Hopefully they learn sleeping near the gravel isn't the best idea. I love the Discus Cichlid + Cardinal tetra combo, failing that I'd have to pick community with Cardinal or Neon Tetras, swords/platty, maybe a pair of small angels, maybe collect a few fancy guppies, yano the usual. Piece of driftwood and some bristlenose plecs. As for plants, baby tears looks quite good in my new tank, haven't read up on it, but its growing strong and doesn't flop about. There are others I like but I have no idea what they are called. I used the 7 balls. I didn't use an aquatic mix substrate because I tend to move stuff around a lot, and I wanted to be selective to which plants got the extra fertiliser. Also using a DIY CO2 setup, having no problems with pH but I think this is helped by running the setup with harder water. In the last week most of my plants have grown about ~20% or more, and Java fern looks less like death. At 1m length, probably a dual 3Ft fluro setup would do nicely, with your choice of 2 tubes, then add another set later if you need and as budget allows. Think they're about $150ish from memory. Have fun

It seems only members can. After I joined up the pictures appeared.

Redspot and Common Plecos wont really eat plants unless really hungry, but they will move a plant if its in the way and are very clumsy. GBAs and BN are less naughty, generally smaller etc. I put some nice java moss covering a piece of driftwood in my tank, took the redspot pleco all of about 5 minutes to pull all the moss off to have a nibble at the wood, even though there was another much larger piece right next to it :-? The severums though, being cichlids they have a tendancy to dig and move things about, and because of their size their nibbles will be more damaging. Maybe try some plants with a broader leaf, my marble queen sword is donig well with cichlids and fat pleco. To keep smaller/thinner plants weighted down I just use small rocks where floating becomes a problem. I hear fish generally wont touch Java Fern due to its taste. Although that needs to be tied to something rather than planting in the gravel. Good luck

I got a large bag of coral sand (think its about 25Kg worth) from Hutt Pets for $45. Not sure about phosphates etc, I just put a handful in my filters to help buffer the water a bit in my freshwater tanks. Not sure if thats of any help, but thought I'd mention it anyway.

You use an overflow. An example would be to drill a hole in the back of the tank at the level you want the water to sit, the more water that goes in the tank, the more falls out the back. So pump pulls water up from the sump, which causes the tank to overflow back in to the sump again If the pump stops, no extra water is going in, therefore nothing to overflow. I dont think there is much benefit for freshwater, except the ability to move the heaters out of the display tank. The saltwater guys setup a refugium which houses special algae etc that would normally get eaten in the main display but is needed to balance things out.

I'm not sure about Furan2 and the wormers at once. I haven't heard anything bad, just haven't tried it or read about it, so I have no idea sorry! Personally I'd stick with Furan2 + Melafix. IF the flukes problem gets out of hand and the fish have serious trouble breathing, then perhaps try both at once, but I wouldn't recommend risking it if you dont need to. Yeah if you can find something smooth for them to flash against, that'll help keep them more comfortable. Rub the skin flukes off. Good luck! Let us know what happens, I'm really hanging out for a happy ending. (on a more positive note, my school of 15 neons just learned I'm the new food guy)

Once a fish gets sick from one thing its weakend, and flukes parasites fungus etc all take advantage. Perhaps a Furan2 + Melafix cycle will help them recover. If the flukes are really taking hold and the fish are having serious trouble breathing, then you can use dog wormer. You need the 'All Wormer' that contains 50mg of Praziquental. I used VitaPet Super All Wormer and I dose it at one tablet per 20-30L. You need to dissolve it with hot water and munch it up in to a paste before adding it to the tank, absolutely abliterates the flukes. I had the same problem as you, fish get sick with one thing then flukes etc get in. My fish showed releif within 1 day. It makes the water pink and leaves a huge mess so hospital tank only. Was basically a waste of time however, as the bacterial infection (that let the flukes get in) still killed the fish fairly promptly. Furan2 - can't say enough 8) flukes, parasites, fungus etc are minor problems compared. When we get sick, we get anti-biotics and just deal with the snot coming out of our nose haha. Nobody has called me an idiot yet, so I'm confident with my suggestion. Since reducing feeding, and buffering my water, I've had no more sick guys but the last two were saved with the help of Furan2

As a way of distracting myself from the reality that I should be doing work, I did some more digging. Found a few posts on a few forums about angels, and seems the most likely cause for the red streaks in the plectoral fins is a bacterial infection. So once again, I recommend using Furan2. If you do not see improvements after 5 days, then try something else. If the holes get larger and deeper over time, you may have hole in the head, but hopefully these go away once the fish is back on track. Formalin does make it harder for fish to breath, but if they're not gasping at the surface, shouldn't create a problem. I should also mention that I dont have 20 years of experience under my belt or anything like that. What I have had is the exact same experience with angels and spent a lot of time researching, my advice is basically a summary of what I've found. I beleive a swinging pH and overfeeding were the problems in my tank, but Furan2 was the only medication that worked on the unwell individuals. Saved two young firemouths who are now happy as larry adventuring my new planted tank.