whetu

Ooh that is exciting! :bounce: I'm keeping some cherry barbs in a barrel outside on the deck at the moment, in the hope that they will breed so I can boost the numbers in my tank. I'm excited to hear your little guys are so tough! It gives me hope that when I empty the barrel I may find some babies too! :bounce: *starts counting chickens before the eggs have even been laid*

Phillip Thomson (and co?) even if you don't agree with some of the analysis here (for example you don't agree with the idea that your tank may be overstocked), the basic remedy is likely to be the same: 1) Increase aeration - either lower the water level or redirect the spray bar on your filter to increase the level of surface agitation 2) Do frequent water changes 3) Keep your filter well maintained but take care not to over-clean 4) Be careful not to over-feed It sounds from your description that your fish are not suffering from any specific disease, so there will be no advantage in medicating them. By far the most likely problem is a water quality issue. The guidelines above will help to dilute any toxins and promote good water quality. Without knowing the specific test results, any other diagnosis would only be speculation.

I have seen the most amazing fake (silk) plants for sale in the US. Nothing like the awful-looking plastic ones we get here! But I still prefer live plants, for the same reason I prefer live plants inside my house. Personal preference I suppose.

Did anyone see the poor Duc and R1 on fire?! I didn't make it to Paeroa after all, but apparently there was a rather spectacular crash. http://www.kiwirider.co.nz/09bots/inferno.jpg Nobody was injured, but I did see pics of one of the riders running away with his leathers on fire. He rolled in the grass and put out the flames - and was completely unscathed! Hooray for good leathers!

Thanks for that link, Luke - I had missed it. Very interesting! Gives new hope to all of us who have been keeping loaches for many years. Now all I have to do is lower the pH of my tank and watch them start breeding! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Move the bio media from your filter at the same time as you move your fish - the greeblies in the media won't survive indefinitely without food, and they get the food from the fish. You shouldn't have to do a cycle at all, but do keep an eye on your water parameters (especially ammonia) and be ready to do large water changes if something does get out of whack. As for the BBA, remove as much of it as you can before moving your plants. Can you trim off the most badly affected leaves? I threw away all my plants in a desperate attempt to get rid of the stuff but it just came back. So it was really a waste of some nice plants! I also tried the double dose Flourish Excel method but it didn't work for me (although some people swear by it). I found Siamese Algae eaters the best solution by far. They seem to keep on top of the problem and nibble the BBA wherever it pops up. As far as new fish stock, I would suggest only moving the fish you're sure you want to keep. Much easier than trying to catch them again if you decide you want a different type of fish in your tank. Have fun with the change-over. A bigger tank is always better! :bounce:

It would really help if you could identify the type of pleco you have. Even a description would help. Also what size is it, and what size tank is it in? In general, a fish will be more active if it feels comfortable in its environment. It doesn't need to cost a lot to give it places to hide. Wood, stacked slate, bunches of plants, etc. can be cheap or free. Also, you might be able to tempt it out of hiding by putting some food in there for it - like cucumber as has been suggested. Good luck seeing more of your pleco.

It depends on what you mean by "best." To me, live plants are the best because they look natural, help keep the water chemistry nice for the fish, and are part of the pleasure of the whole hobby. IMO, thetre is nothing more beautiful than a tank full of healthy, thriving fish and plants. Ira's comments would indicate that he thinks fake plants are best for ease of maintenance, and because they aren't demanding about what kind of conditions you keep them in (lighting, substrate, etc). So really it comes down to what you think is "best" and what is the most important to you.

Some people like plecos for their own sake, rather than the sole purpose of eating algae. I would suggest that you look at the underlying causes of your algae problems before choosing a fish to get rid of it. Also different fish will prefer differet kinds of algae. What kind of algae do you have?

Clown loaches are not algae eaters.

Whatever fresh seasonal vegetables are around gets tried on my fish! At the moment it's corn on the cob (after I've eaten most of the corn) and watermellon rinds (after I've eaten most of the melon).

All those people who had pond fish swimming on their lawns last week better get their gumboots ready! There will be more fish rescue required tomorrow!

I'm just surprised how little info there is on that website - which is why it's so open to speculation. If I was running that website i would at least list a few of the functions, and their benefits to the aquarium and/or the aquarium keeper. Come on Eheim, don't just leave us guessing!

Yep, ring the council. They will probably tell you that they try to keep the water at the slightly alkaline side of neutral, but depending on exactly where you live on the water supply network, there are likely to be variations. They may even tell you that the pipes in your area are all cement, and your water is likely to be more alkaline first thing in the morning after it has been sitting in the pipes overnight! If you want to check the accuracy of your test kit, I would suggest you take a water sample to your local fish shop and ask them to test it, at the same time as you test the sample with your own kit. Then compare the results then and there in the shop.

From all my reading about clown loaches for the last 7 or 8 years, I have never found any reliable way of telling the difference between the sexes. There was even one woman who did very careful post mortems on her large clown loaches (after she tragically lost several in an incident with a filter ). She found out which were male and which were female by dissecting them, and then tried to see if there was any outward physical sign of their differences. I believe she concluded that there was no reliable external indicator of their sex. I would humbly suggest that anyone selling clown loaches as male or female is just taking a wild guess. And as others have said, there is no reliable account of clown loaches ever breeding in a domestic aquarium, nor any evidence of differences in behaviour between the sexes, so as far as i know there is no advantage to knowing if they are male or female.

Ooooh that's more evil faces than I have ever posted on here before! :oops: If this keeps up I'm going to need therapy! :lol:

Yes you're right, Caper. I mean, I would have been even more annoyed if they had stolen $1000 (I wish my car was worth that much! ) but this pointless destruction is really unpleasant. I simply don't have anywhere else to park my car, so it has to stay out on the road. When I reported the incident to the police (second time in 10 days) the policewoman said "I think it might be time for you to move!" :evil: :evil: I'm not going to be chased out of the neighbourhood by some brainless vandals! :evil: :evil:

Well whaddaya know... I went out this morning to find another window broken on my car! This time they just broke the window and didn't even try to get in (it wouldn't have done them any good - there was nothing left to steal). They also broke the window on my neighbour's car next door. There's another $160 down the drain. :roll: Now I'm getting really annoyed. :evil:

This really is a can of worms! Even inside my own head! :lol: On the one hand, our health system seems to be struggling to cope with the people we already have - so why would we want to add more burden to it? On the other hand, my brother is in a wheelchair following a car accident several years ago. He is likely to have on-going health problems as he gets older as a result of complications from his injury. However, Canada admitted him as an immigrant, he married a Canadian girl and they now have two beautiful children who rere born there. I really admire the fact that the Canadian authorities could see past his disability and allowed him to live in the country of his choice, and I hope New Zealand would do something similar. As others have said, it really needs to be considered on a case-by-case basis - balancing the person's contribution to the country against the likelihood of being a drain on the system.

I got so frustrated with my BBA last year that I did break down the tank and start again (I was moving house anyway so it had to be done - but I did a much more drastic job than I would have if I was jsut doing it for the move). Here's what I discovered: 1) The BBA came back, even though I thought I had bean really thorough in my scrubbing, and had even thrown away all my plants and started again. 2) However, it did make it easier for me to manage the algae as it returned - the new growth was smaller and softer, and I was looking for it so I was ready! 3) Psychologically it did make a difference. I was beginning to really resent the way my tank looked, so was not putting as much effort into it as I usually would (so a vicious cycle...) After re-starting it, it lloked nicer so I was committed to keeping it that way. 4) After setting up the tank again, I had all the problems associated with setting up a new tank - including all those algae issues! (brown algae on the glass, green water...) but they were easier to deal with than the BBA and I knew they would go away once I re-established the plants and regained a balanced system. In conclusion, if you are really at the end of your tether, I would advise you to take the tank to bits and start again. But don't expect it to be a miracle cure! You will still need to work through all the stages systematically and make sure you keep on top of things as each type of algae becomes re-established.

I used to keep danios with my goldfish many years ago. Pays to watch out for them getting a bit nippy though - some of them will get a bad habit of nipping the flowing fins of other fish. (But usually if there are enough danios they keep each other occupied and don't bother anyone else.) Good luck with them!

... and did the interviewer hold his/her nose and say "smells like something died in here"? If so, that might not be such a good sign. :lol:

I would suggest collecting a smallish amount first, then bring it home and play with it before committing to put it in your tank. Treat it however you intend to treat it before you add it to your tank - rinse it or whatever. Then put it in a bucket (or spare tank) with some water. Measure the pH of the water after a few days and see how much it has changed (different sands will have different amounts of crushed shell). Stir the water with your hand and see how murky it gets. Can you live with that in your tank if the fish stir it up? Observe how it looks under your tank lights. It's much easier to change your mind during an experimental phase than it will be after you're set up your whole tank with it!

Alan, according to the reading I've been doing, these pools have been popular in Europe for about 20 years and there are even some public pools using the system. Surely if they used similar good water-keeping practises like we do in our tanks they should be ok? Regarding swimming in the sea or river systems, I would actually prefer to swim in a waterway that I had a bit more control over. Around Auckland there are a lot of beaches that are closed after rain because of all the raw sewerage that gets washed into the water. And most lowland rivers (something like 90% of them) have elevated levels of faecal badness due to farming runoff. As for mozzies etc, it would only be the same as having a pond. If you have fish and/or frogs in there they will help eat up the bugs. Yes, I think they are just reinventing the pond. They just made some parts of it a bit deeper for swimming. I think I would like to have one of these reinvented ponds one day.

Oh my goodness, mistymu! That's all way worse than my problems! Glad to hear you're (reasonably) ok after an impact that size. Was the other car speeding? It sounds like a huge amount of force.