whetu

I will post a pic one day... when I work out how to photograph fish! :roll: I have tried many times. If I use the flash I just get a photo of a big reflection on the glass. If I don't use the flash I get a photo of a fuzzy tank (because I don''t have a tripod and haven't learned to hold the camera still) and/or blurs instead of fish. My partner thinks he may have managed to video them on his new phone, but now he has to work out how to download the footage! We're quite a pair, aren't we?! :lol: :oops:

You'd better watch out, Ira. Rocks can be very patient. They will lull you into a false sense of security then... ... ... ... POUNCE! When you are least expecting it! :bounce:

Yes, I have been attacked by wild rocks before today. They can move pretty fast when provoked (and with gravity on their side).

Apart from the cherry barbs I also have: 7 gold barbs 5 clown loaches 4 cardinal tetras 3 siamese algae eaters 2 bristlenoses In a planted 4-foot tank. When the plants get out of control they go absolutely wild - I cut back the hygro and ambulia every week or two just so I can see the fish. :lol: I might set up a temporary smaller tank, let the plants go wild in there and use it as a breeding tank for the cherry barbs. A cheap way to boost the numbers.

Oooohhh... that sounds tempting. I might just leave my plants to grow into a jungle and see what happens. I have never had any fry survive in my community tank, though. I think the adults are too good at hunting them down.

Funny thing is it was the final rounds of the nationals at Pukekohe on the same day - so a lot of the serious big-bike enthusiasts were there instead of on the Westpac ride. There must be a lot of big bikes in Auckland! I don't think I've ever seen a Cagiva in the flesh. I will keep an eye out and if I see a red one I will wave madly and yell "here fishy fishy" so you know it's me. :lol:

And we like photos! :bounce:

I asked Animates in Mt Eden if they could order some in for me and they said no. Sorry that doesn't help where to get it - but it helps to know where not to get it! :lol:

My fish don't seem to eat adult ants but I have never tried ant eggs... must add them to my list. (clarification for caper: I mean I will try them on my fish. Not try eating them myself.)

I just attemted (unsuccessfully) to breed cherry barbs outside in a large plastic container without a filter. The adult fish didn't seem to suffer any ill effects, but I only had a few fish in a lot of water, and also had plenty of plants. I would suggest you would need to keep the number and size of fish pretty low compared to what we're used to seeing in a filtered tank if you want to maintain good water quality. If I were to try an experiment like this, I would start off with just a few small fish and build up the bioload gradually. Personally I would also have the tank heavily planted, because the plants help to keep everything in equilibrium. I wouldn't (personally) attempt it in a tank that sounds quite fully stocked and has no live plants. Just my opinion. Rather than doing away with the filter completely, how about trying a different kind of filter? Even a small, cheap hang-on-back type would be better than nothing at all, and I would think that some filtering would be better than none. I'm also interested in what kind of filter you currently have. Surely you could convert it into something that just moves the water around the tank rather than getting rid of it? Moving water is likely to stay good much longer than still water, and the movement will help keep the temperature even throughout the tank, and grow beneficial microorganisms in the gravel.

Oh that's a shame Billaney. I was very relieved to find I hadn't lost my adults at least, so at least I'm no worse off than when I started. Being the eternal optimist, I have put all the plants and water back in my outdoor container, so if there are any secret little invisible fry hiding in there they will have another chance! :lol: Now all we need is an Indian summer and I will collect my abundant, fat fry out of the barrel next month! :bounce:

I wondered the same thing. Our bedroom is at the front of the house, maybe only 5 or 6 metres away from where the car was parked. On both nights when the window got broken we were sleeping with the bedroom window open! You would think we would have heard it! I didn't have the money for either breakage. I paid both times on my credit card. I have now sold my car to my next door neighbour for $200 (that's all it was worth). So I didn't even cover the cost of the broken windows. And now I will be paying interest on the balance :roll:

I don't know if there are any eggs. From Colin Dunlop's description and photo in the Practical Fish Keeping article, if there were any they would be very tiny and hard to see. It's a fairly well-planted community tank and the loaches' cruising took them through plants and in and out of their rock caves and driftwood so there could easily be eggs that I can't see. One thing I did watch for was whether the other fish in the tank (mostly barbs) were following the loaches and feeding in their wake. I thought that might be a clue about whether there were any eggs around. I didn't notice it particularly. By the way, the cherry barbs and gold barbs in the same tank have been in spawning condition for several weeks now, and show very vigorous spawning behavour as soon as I open the curtains every morning. Now I just have to convince my partner that we need a 1300 litre tank* in our living room, exclusively for clown loaches. He doesn't seem very keen so far but I'm sure I can wear him down. * the size of Colin Dunlop's loach tank

There have been a few times when my partner has looked into a pot on the stove to see what's for dinner... and discovered "stone soup again!" :lol: Personally I like to boil rocks and gravel before putting them in my tank. I would much rather do it before they go in, rather than trying to remedy any problems afterwards. Not that I've ever had any problems... or heard of anyone having problems from wild-caught rocks. So maybe I'm just paranoid. :roll: :lol:

Hmmm.... Today I emptied a large tub of water from out on the deck, and collected lots of mosquito larvae which I put into my community tank for their dinner. I also did a 20% water change and topped up the tank with rain water from other containers on the deck (I usually use tap water). Later in the evening my partner called me to come and look. Our five clown loaches were swimming rapidly around the tank, with the largest one in the lead and the others all following closely behind. They kept this up for about 30 minutes. We have never seen behaviour like this from the loaches before. My partner took a video on his phone which he will upload to his computer at work tomorrow. I've had my oldest three loaches since 2001, so they are at least eight years old. The other two are about five years old (I got them in mid 2004 from someone who had had them for several months). The largest one (named Hatu Patu) is only about 10cm long, so nowhere near the size of Colin Dunlop's. I will post the video on Youtube when I get it. Interesting.

Hmmm... 16 in a 4' tank... sounds lovely! *starts planning a whole tank full of cherry barbs*

Thanks Caryl and VM. After having read more widely, it seems that they are certainly happier in groups so I will either keep my group as it is, or add a few more. I was a little concerned that some of the males' posing behaviour may turn to aggression, or just stress them too much. Now I think the way mine behave is well within the normal boundaries and since they haven't done each other any harm yet I will just not worry about them. My males are a very bright cherry red so I will take that as an indication they are fairly happy in their current setup. (I also have plenty of plants and places for them to hide, so I will make sure I maintain that in my future tank rearrangements.) I brought some adults back inside today after they had spent their summer holidays outside. I had hoped I would have at least a few fry to boost the numbers in the tank but it was not to be. Never mind, I understand they are a fairly long-lived fish so I will try again next summer! :bounce:

Oh Caryl, I hate to rain on your parade but I'm really glad to hear that! :lol: :lol: I also emptied my big bin from outside today and retrieved my original adult cherry barbs, but not a single baby. I was so disappointed. So actually it's a relief to hear that I'm not the only one. The weather has certainly been strange this year. I had hoped the extra rainfall would have at least meant nice, fresh, aerated water for my barbs, but I also suspected that the cooler temperatures may have suppressed the breeding success. Oh well, let's hope we both have better luck next year! :bounce:

Ooooh you may have just provided your loaches with the best meal of their lives! I have heard mixed opinions - some people say they won't eat trumpet snails because the shells are too hard... but nobody told my clown loaches that! They eat anything! Perhaps you had better send the memo to your dwarf chains that trumpet snails are off limits. On the other hand if they don't eat other snails, maybe they just never developed a taste for escargot. On the other other hand, my clown loaches are most active looking for food just after lights out. I don't know the habits of DCs so you might be ok... or you may be preparing the perfect midnight snack! Do let us know how it all goes.

Hiya adodge - sorry I missed this post until now! Yes, I was on the ride today with about a thousand of my closest friends! :lol: It was an excellent turnout. I was scared after last year's small turnout that the earlier start time may have permanently affected the numbers, but this time it was back to its old spectacle! My bike is a black Suzuki Volty (TU250). I just got a private message from someone on the KB forum telling me I should polish my chrome. I have never met this person but apparently he saw a black Volty amongst the throng and assumed it was me - and he was right. Not many around, apparently. I'll have to start behaving myself if I'm so easy to identify! I like the Raptor. My partner rides an SV1000 and he really wanted me to upgrade to the SV650 when I out-grew my Volty but that hasn't happened so far. I still love my Volty.

I currently have four male and two female cherry barbs in my community tank (I had more originally but this is my remaining stock). I had thought of them as schooling fish, and assumed they would be happier in larger groups, but I read recently that they prefer to be kept just as a male/female pair. The tank is about 200 litres (1200mm long) and reasonably heavily planted (this varies depending on how much pruning I have been doing recently! :lol: ) I have a group of seven gold barbs which all seem to hang around together, in the same general area. The cherry barbs are more active and seem to chase each other around more than swimming together. I have never seen any injuries on any of them, so I don't think it's actually aggression - although the four males do seem to do a lot of 'posing' towards each other. (Which is actually quite pretty because they are a really intense red colour and kind of flare their fins at each other.) Should I: a) Reduce the stock to just one male/female pair b) Boost the numbers, trying to balance out the m/f ratio c) Do nothing Experiences and opinions please. :-?

When you moved the fish to the larger tank did you use mostly fresh water in the tank (as opposed to salvaged water from your old tanks)? If so, I wouldn't bother doing a water change yet. Just leave things to settle - but do keep an eye on the ammonia levels. What fish did you end up moving into the new tank? It would be really useful if you could post a list here with: type of fish number of each type size of each (especially the clown loaches and other fish that can potentially be very big) That way if you start to have any issues with the tank, we can already see the complete list of fish and it may help us to help resolve the issues. Also - we neeeeed photos! :bounce: (But that's just for fun :lol: )

I have vaguely thought about combining a DIY CO2 system with a home brew kit! I mean, when you're making home brew, CO2 is the waste product so you have to set up a system to release it out of your brewing container. When you're doing DIY CO2, it's the yeast/sugar mix that's the waste byproduct. If you could set up a system that made use of both ends of the process, there would be no waste! :bounce: And everyone would be happy! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: :lol: :lol: :lol:

I'm surprised! My clown loaches eat any snail that comes within a metre of the tank. (Ok I may be exaggerating a little.) But I have no hesitation introducing snails on plants, or even breeding snails and putting them in the tank, because I know they will be gone in no time. The clowns actively seek them out. RochelleMay, you might like to try squishing a few snails against a rock or the tank glass and see if your loaches eat them. Then they may just get a taste for escargot and go hunting for more!

I think it's GREAT when assistants admit that they don't know something (of course they can't be an expert on everything) then they go and LOOK IT UP! So next time they will know the answer. I went into a shop here in Auckland and noticed some swords I hadn't seen before. I asked the assistant approximately how big this variety grows and she said "probably about 10 - 15 cm tall." I wasn't convinced. I then asked her if they would maintain their unusual colour and markings if I kept them under good light. She said "I think so." At that point I asked if there was anyone else in the shop who could give me more definite answers. :roll: She brought along one of her colleagues and I asked the same questions. The second woman said "I'll find out" and went and got SOME PLANT BOOKS from behind the counter. I have no idea why the first woman couldn't have done that! :-? Anyway, it turns out the plants in question would grow to 50 or 60 cm tall and their current leaves were an emersed form so they would end up looking completely different in my tank. So why did the first woman just invent the information instead of looking it up?! :evil: