Southerrrngirrl

You added ALL of those fish in one go!?

Why do you so desperately want one? Whats so great about these fish? Everyones always going on about them.. I don't know why.

My iRiver is less, not exactly sure, think it might only be 1gb, but its enough for me. And about a year or two ago, it cost under $200.00 It also featured on Target, and was compared to iPods and various other brands and was found to be the best, pricewise, and for ease of use amongst other things.

I know that price isn't always an indication of quality, but this particular pump was brand new from LFS and it cost about $18.50, it was the cheapest I could find. Plus it looks cheap n nasty. Maybe I got a dud, or I need to review my definition of silent. :-?

This would be my recommendation of what NOT to buy. I got i think it was Hailea or something?? OMG is it loud. I actually turn it off when I'm in the room (lounge). And it says super quiet on the box. Yeah? I'd hate to hear what loud is then! Guess thats what I get for buying cheap chinese crap. Oh well I was desperate and had little $$ at the time. Might have to investigate these hi-tech ones.

I've got an iriver too, not in to buying expensive things just for the brand. Like dimebag, I've got nothing to say but good things about the iriver, its small, SO easy to use, and the sound quality just just fine. it takes 1 AAA battery, I use rechargables, and they seem to last for quite a while. What I like best is I can plug it into my computer and drag and drop whatever I want to and from it.

I have no idea about angels either, but is it normal for the gill area to be red like that??

Ohh great. That would explain the LACK of car parks in town today. Man, weren't they just on holidays, I swear they get so many more holidays now than I did when I was at school.

Does it appear distressed? Is it being harrassed by any of its tankmates? How long have you had it?

I've never had any luck with cabomba either. And my tanks are never any more than 25-26 degrees...

Damnit! I just spent the best part of $100 on new bulbs.. although I have an AR850, do they require special lights made to fit them??

You could do that I suppose, but its an awful lot of work. I just waited it out.. took a few weeks but it cleared eventually. You'll probably be doing lots of water changes trying to get the cycle established anyway, right?

I don't recall doing this before so... Name: Anna Age: 28 Marital Status: Married Family: My pets are my family! Occupation: CSO at Insurance assessing company Books: No authors in particular, but prefer supernatural themed books, vampires, ghosts, witches etc. currently reading The Nightwatch by Sergei Lukyanenko Hobbies: Fish, music, Pets: 4 cats, 1 dog, numerous fish Location: Southland

I noticed last night that one of my Zebra Loaches was flashing quite a bit on the gravel, and this morning it is still doing it. I'm really concerned. I've seen fish flash before but never like this, its pretty constant. He otherwise seems fine, looks normal. I can't see any obvious signs of disease or injury. He's the only one doing it in the tank. Tested water - nil ammonia, less than 5ppm nitrate, nil nitrite, pH is high, probably around 7.2-6, which is fairly normal for my tank though. It's not high enough to register on the High pH test. I did a water change and gravel vac on wednesday night. The only changes I've made to the tank is that I added new plants and an airstone yesterday along with 3 small albino corys. What should I do? Edit: Just noticed my other loach, when he's resting on the gravel he's got his top fin clamped, when he's swimming its not clamped. He's not flashing though. Oh man, I really do not want to lose these little guys..

I agree Kelsta. I've never euthanised a fish myself. Can't bear even the thought of it. Thats why I get hubby to do it, he hates doing it though, but he's less of a wuss than me. At least he's not crying over the poor sick fishy!

heheh that would explain why I couldn't find a loach with that description

Hmm, I did a quick search for loaches you described but couldn't come up with anything. Have a look at http://www.loaches.com/species-index/pi ... e-pictures see if you can find your loaches there (thats if you haven't already!) I love loaches, would be interested to know what kind you have as I've never seen anything like what you described before.

I have removed all ornaments apart from the driftwood, it really is the feature piece in the tank, and I suspect I would have 1 grumpy rainbow shark and two sad loaches if I was to remove it (they all hide in/under it). And it would be impossible to remove without removing loaches in it. Hence my reluctance. In my time of keeping fish I've never had a positive nitrite test. Ammonia yes, but never nitrite. What does that mean? Yes I'm doing the tests myself. Its one of those box set kits, has high ph, normal ph, nitrate, nitrite and ammonia tests. You put the test water in the tube then depending on what test add so many drops from bottle 1 and so many drops from bottle 2, shake then wait 5 mins, compare the colour of the test water to the result chart. I've had it for maybe 2 years? time for a new one perhaps? Do the chemicals become ineffective or expire over time?? No don't have an airstone. Should I get one?

No I quit feeding the shrimp pellets, they only get them once a blue moon now. I never removed the phoszorb or carbon, what should that have done? There's no nitrites, less than 10ppm nitrate (i think) I know it was a low reading anyway. I can't recall if I ever tested the tap water for phosphate, might give that ago tonight. Seriously, they are not over fed. I feed them like a tiny pinch of flake food maybe every 3 days. I do often see them (especially the gourami's) picking at the BBA, I do wonder if they are in fact eating it. I also wonder if the BBA that was growing on the filter sock was seriously restricting the water flow and making the filter inefficient? Probably a contributing factor anyway. Unfortunately all the changes have come too late for my blue ram, found him when I got home on Friday dead, sucked up to the filter. So after removing him and the dead cory I changed the light bulbs, I now have 2 blue ones and a pink one. I think 2 x 20000K and 1 x 10000. I removed plastic ornaments that were covered with the BBA, and scraped everything I could to remove as much of the algae as possible off the glass and other things Did a big water change, and stuck in new plants. Checked in the morning, all seems ok. Did an ammonia test on Saturday evening, nil ammonia. From what I can see, there doesn't seem to be nearly as much poo collecting on the gravel. But we'll see. Could also be a trick of the new lights, its a bit harder to see in with that blue light. I am a bit concerned about the gourami's now. Although they are feeding, they are hanging out at the top of the tank, they do move towards me when I come over to the tank as if they think they're getting fed but then retreat back to the hiding after I'm gone. There's no sign of redness or anything else.. fingers crossed they'll be ok.

Fantastic looking Zebra Loach Ianab! I have 2 of these little fellas and they did an awesome job cleaing up my snail infestation.

Oh I know, I've read plenty of posts and articles relating to blackbeard, so I know what a pain in the a$$ it can be. Never though it would get this bad though! Anyways, visited my local LFS during my lunch hour... $74.00 later I have new light bulbs to put in the tank. And after a lengthly discussion with a staff member there on the gravel and ammonia and excess poo etc.. I also walked away with some stress zyme. Yes I know, its generally unnecessary but I can't do what I need to naturally, so now I have to try chemically! So my plan is, to remove fish and put them into my ar620 temporarily, remove the ornaments and scrub scrub scrub! At this stage I'm not going to change the gravel back.. will see how I go with the new lights, new plants and stress zyme. Wish me luck!

Thanks for your reply xmamx. I use err... I forget the name of the test kit, but it the test water will change colour depending on the level of ammonia, nitrate etc. For the ammonia, if there is none present, the water will turn yellow, if theres any ammonia present, depending on what levels, it will turn green. (low ppm would be light green, high ppm would be dark green etc) We're on town water supply, but do have problems with high phosphate. Thats why I put a phos-zorb bag in, but it seems to have done bugger all. I don't know if I can get another filter, the tank I have is an AR850 which is an all in one package kinda deal. But I don't know why I would get a new one anyway as i don't believe there is anything wrong with the current one. I've had this tank for over nearly 2 years now, and had it running successfully with out the problems I have now. I really think it all stems from the gravel change. I am leaning towards a complete strip down. I have another smaller tank AR620 which I can transfer the fish into, although the filter has packed up in that one, I also have 2 small AR350s lying around. I guess as a temporary measure I could put one of those in the AR620 just to keep the water flowing for the period that i'm doing the change.

2 months late since my last post on this and, yep I have even less fish now. from a school of 6 cardinals I now only have 2, had 3 corys, 1 died, now got another on the way out, saved a silvertip who was sucked up to the filter the other he was still alive (what a way to die). I caught him and kept him in the net for a few days so he wouldn't get sucked back to the filter, but he doesn't look good.. redness around the gills and a below his dorsal fin. Something is not right here. And I don't know what, its very frustrating. I checked the ammonia level this morning, and it was barely detectable, the test water was barely green, more yellow than anything which is a pretty low reading right?! I'm at the point where I'm not going to buy anymore fish. And once the last fish dies, thats it I'm packing it all up and ditching the hobby. Probably in favour of one that doesn't involve death! I'm desperate! I really don't want to give it up. I now have massive amounts of blackbeard algae in the tank, I blacked the tank out for a week, didn't seem to do anything. I've tried planting heaps of plants, they just end up dying or being taken over by the algae. I think the problems really started when I changed gravel from the large to the small fine stuff. Should I change back to bigger gravel? And what about the blackbeard? That stuff is growing everywhere, on the filter outlet on the filter sock, on all decorations and has completely covered the driftwood. Oh and ALL over the glass at the back of the tank. Should I just strip it down completely, scrape it all off and start over?

Rainbow sharks are awesome, I have one, have had him since he was a small fella, nearly 2 years maybe? He does get bossy, pays most attention to the blue gourami thats in the tank at the moment. he also shares with 2 corys, 2 zebra loaches and a bunch of tetras, really only chases the silvertip tetras, doesn't bother with the others UNLESS they're hanging out in his hidey hole which is under the driftwood. I have him in an AR850, which is about 150 litres, and I think thats about the recommended minimum size. What size tank do you have?

He's gone :-( I did a water change, tested water next day it was 0, did another water change last night. I'm keeping a careful eye on his tankmates, everyone still seems happy.. so far. I think I really need to lift up that drift wood to see how much crap is under there, I'm scared to do it though cos whenever I do tank maintenance, the loaches go hide in it and I worry that if I move it around I could end up squishing a loach.