SpidersWeb

Sorry, just went searching for 'Lipstick Barb' and thats what I came up with, can't find anymore info and don't have any personal experience with barbs.

lipstick tiger barb Puntius anchisporus http://fishbase.sinica.edu.tw/summary/SpeciesSummary.php?id=17461 Hope that is of help?

The trick is to keep the bacteria in control, bacteria need stuff to eat, be it fish food, feces,or rotting/dead fish. AFAIK blooms occur when there is a lot of food for the bacteria to eat. Might want to try feeding smaller amounts, and ensuring the tank bottom is clean of any rotting debris.

Ok with all my deaths over the first few weeks, I learned some things. So I think the fungus and rot are secondary infections. I'd say the fish got stressed, and bacteria has taken hold. This could be because he was chased, or maybe even as simple as he didn't like the new water. Also your hostpital tank needs to be warmer, raise it to about 27 deg C (80-82F), this will speed up his immune system. Do the change slowly as not to further stress him. Make sure the water is clean and dechlorinated (eg water ager/conditioner). Add Furan 2, and follow the instructions. You could also possibly use a little Melafix to assist with his slime coat. Furan 2 is expensive, but it actually works for bacterial infections and I'd say thats what you have. It is a broad-spectrum anti-biotic. Sooner you get going, the sooner he'll be feeling better. Make sure you dont overfeed, esp. in the hospital tank. If he's not eating, dont put food in until he looks hungry, otherwise it'll just feed bacteria. Black things are probably parasites, wouldn't worry about those at the moment, when he's better he'll rub them off.

Somebody breed some gold severums already I dont like the green ones. They're similar to angels in habits, I've seen them with firemouths to oscars, and in gold I think they look fabtastic. As for guppies, if I had access to quality fancy guppies, I'd set up a guppy tank. Only reason I dont is because there isnt much range when I look in LFS, so definately a market there if you were going to import some.

The water isn't noticably discouloured at all yet. Nobody in the tank seems to have a problem with the sap as yet :-? but makes me a bit nervous as its an 'unknown' in the tank.

Cheers Yeah they're only babies. Once they're at a decent size they'll get moved to the other tank anywho. Two of them are new, and two were just getting beaten up by the larger guys in the other thank. At the moment they're schooling all four at once, that'll change in good time though I know

hmm well if anybody else out there has any idea? Guess I'll just need to wait and see, as there is no way I'm pulling the wood out now. Oh well, here is a picture, I think it looks pretty sweet: 15 x Neon Tetra 2 x Koi angels 4 x baby Firemouth (3M, 1F) Filter is a Jebo 819 with the charcoal replaced with coral sand. Heated with 3 AquaClear 200W heaters. CO2 is done by DIY yeast + JBL diffuser and CO2 pipe Java Moss and Java Ferns are currently held to the wood with cotton. Also the planted plants have JBL 7 Fertiliser balls by their roots, except for a few plants I didn't want to have too much success. Gravel came from Mitre 10, 30L of it which cost around $65. Looking at adding a bunch of butterfly plecos, and maybe leaving it as it is.

Ok now I've finally got the tank setup. Recharging my camera batteries at the moment but will take a picture soon. Anyway, one problem, after soaking a few days in the heated water, the tree sap started coming out. Its like a slow motion waterfall. Is this going to cause me any water chemistry problems?

As for filter, Jebo 819 at Hutt Pets, price is about $150 from memory. I also have an 810 which cost about $130. Damn cheap and they are really good. Haven't had a single problem with mine. The 819 is huge and has 5 big trays and pumps a LOT of water. You don't get the special features like 'self-start' or the ability to remove trays individually, but when you're on a budget those are unessecary luxuries. I have a Jebo 810 + 900l/hr powerhead on one of my 225L tanks, and a 819 on the other. I use the powerhead in the first tank for additional circulation rather than actual filtering though. Although I've been told not to touch Jebo heaters. Heard there has been lots of reports of them leaking and for one person it caught fire inside the tube. That kind of sucks though because they were easily adjustable and had the gauge (albeit not calibrated).

Congtratulations on the save! I'm still working on my 'sick fish procedure' and know it can be a bit of a stress, so I'm sure you're releaved!

What you do is cut the poly to the shape you like, then use hobby cement + dyes to get a nice hard and coloured texture on top. The poly likes to float so it needs to be secured down, how you do that is up to you, but personally I'd go with silicone myself You can also use the silicone to attach more bits, to make cliffs etc, could hang some Java moss off it, that'd look pretty sweet. And yeah it goes in side the tank. Want to let it sit for a bit before putting fish in, as the cement needs time to fully cure and while curing it pollutes the water a bit. Everyone has extra ideas, or favoured ways of doing it, but the above is the 'common' way that I've read about the most One idea is to use fibreglass instead of hobby cement, then using acetone to remove the poly, I doubt I'd have the patience for that tho :lol: You can also make little cavities in the back for housing things like filter inlets etc discretely, and caves, and anything that takes your fancy really. Links: http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_background.php http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/diy_aquarium_background.php http://www.sydneycichlid.com/content/?page_id=86 http://www.duboisi.com/diy/BNdiygrotto/bndiygrotto.htm (using rocks) http://www.max-discus-dream.de/mddnew/3D-back.htm (using resin) Also lots of discussion in the past on this forum too

haha sweet as. Actually have no idea what a ball valve is, I just saw 'switch thing' haha. Oh well all good. I'll give you a bell some time next week about ordering some bits

or could use something like this http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farming-industry/Farming/Irrigation-drainage/auction-61043288.htm to shut it off at night Think I might have a plan there. Make the CO2 last 50% longer for $18 Oh blue do you have a soda stream bottle I could buy for like $10? Its $75 for the reg, or $140 with the bottle from that guy. Supermarket swaps a new one for $9.

When you run your system, what is the pressure level gauge on the regulator showing (output, not bottle pressure)? If its feeding only 1psi etc that solenoid might be sweet. If its like 20psi it'll rip it up. I was planning on putting it between the regulator and the needle valve, although you could also put it immediately after the needle valve, just get a little burst when it turns on again.

Well regulator + soda stream bottle, $140, then a bubble counter and needle valve, bit of pipe, a diffuser and viola controlled CO2! Is that right? I'm liking the sound of this. Would make getting CO2 a lot easier to, just get it at groceries!

Yeah I'd say thats them. They disappeared over night after I put two small Firemouths and a redspot in the tank, so I imagine somebody had a nice dinner Totally gone this morning, couldn't find a single one.

err feed them I think the time is '7 days' but varies. With ammonia it is better to do a partial water change to lower it, than to not feed the fish for a week but thats just my opinion, reducing feeding is ok. Your tank is looking awesome though! Congrats

ah nuts

blue, I'll just get my tanks plumbed to your house :lol:

Thats pretty sweet actually. Local supermarket swaps the bottles for $9. Any idea on how long a soda stream bottle would last though? Also wanted a solenoid to switch the CO2 off. hmm guess I'm out of luck with the "<$200" idea Cheers for the replies!

Females have an anal fin, males have their 'manhood' (sorry dont know the proper word off hand). Also common in tanks where food has rested on the bottom are white worms, which wriggle a bit, but dont really swim. Reason I am posting is because in my BB hospital tank I found some little white guys darting around, they are definately not fish, and definately not worms, so tiny I can't get a good look, they're basically little white dots that flick around. Thought there *might* be a possibility these are what you are seeing. I have no idea what they are though. Baby platties look like tiny wee fish. If you put your eye close to the tank you should be able to make out some fish like features like a spine or fins. If its just a white dot you might have what I found yesterday.

Hey all, Getting excited as I have about $500 to spend this weekend, and already have the tank and lights! Woohoo! Want to do a semi-planted tank, and due to my horrible impatience, would love a C02 system. Now I'm aware all I need is probably a DIY system, but I want more accurate control, and preferrably a system that needs filling up only once a month or so. So I'm figuring pressurised CO2 is the answer. It'd be running at a low rate as I dont want to go crazy plant growth, but would like a little booster a reliable booster that wont fluctuate my pH unreliably as thats caused me enough problems as it is! Where do I go for this? I haven't seen the gear on the shelf at any LFS, I figured BOC gas'n gear would have the bits, but not too sure whats good, what I need etc. Can somebody pretty please recommend a solution to me, I don't really want to spend more than $200 on the C02. Whats good? Where do I get it from? Can I even do this on my budget? Also was thinking of one of those coil diffusers or maybe a pressured one as I have a spare powerhead, I imagine thats a LFS bit? Tank will be running a pair of 48" Fluro tubes (~14-16hrs a day). Any thoughts welcomed Thanks again, Jono (PS if anyone has bits for sale personally, feel free to mention them here or in PM)

Yeah, I agree, I've got it in there to help remove left-overs from the worm tablets etc when I tried treating the tank. Top tray has carbon and coral sand (to stabilise and raise pH/GH/KH). I heard carbon removes stuff like urine, I do kind of like that idea, I'd hate to swim in my own personally but yeah I will remove it in a few weeks and replace with some ceramic noodles.

Sorry for spamming up the Catfish section, but thought I'd put yesterday's update in just cause Ok, so I worked all night on Sunday, and Monday morning, then slept in the afternoon, which meant I didn't put in as many algae tabs. Anyway this made the big guy a bit more territorial I guess, as he rather injured my other poor redspot who has a large white scar mark with a hole in the middle now. The smaller redspot doesn't seem bothered by his wound, and is eating and happy as, but I've moved him in to my 30L tank temporarily. Had a couple of young female Firemouths who weren't doing to well with the big guys and had stopped eating, so put them in the 30L as well. Will move the three of them in to the new 200L tank in the weekend when I set it up. Honestly I had no idea pleco's were so grumpy. In the past I only ever had one in a tank, but I had friends who had more than one, so I just thought they were 'community' types. This big guy chases anything that goes near his cave, and would get very agro if he saw the other redspot with an algae tab, and would stroll the tank to make sure nobody ate any of them (even if I put 4 tablets in there). Kind of annoying as I want to plant the new tank, and dont want a redspot in there. So guess I'll be offering the little guy up for adoption to a good home in the near future. Get some GBAs perhaps. Also did a big tank clean and re-arranged my main 200L last night, looks great, but Captain Fat over here thought'd be absolutely fantastic if he pulled up all my Java moss, and Java ferns out of the driftwood :-? Besides the marble queen which has rooted itself like a tree, think I'll keep that tank plant-free. Fun fun, hope all is well with everyone's tanks blue - I'll have to pop around and check out those new tanks also need to do a little plant shopping