whetu

Back to the original topic of pushing people into pools: I know a young man who has major congenital problems with his ears, and it would be disasterous if he was pushed into a pool. It could do permanent damage to his hearing. People seem to think that pushing people into pools is harmless fun, but it is not. It can have very serious consequences, especially when combined with alcohol and a lack of judgement. As for the phone, would it be worth claiming it on contents insurance caryl?

Ummm... not meaning disrespect to teachers or anything... but am I correct in assuming the teacher who was meant to do the cleaning was a biology teacher? Does he/she have any clue at all about the kind of environment required to keep fish healthy? Or of water chemistry or other such factors? And is he/she going to be teaching kids, while using the tank in the classroom as an example of a balanced (if tiny) ecosystem? Crikey. I would suggest that it is perfectly reasonable for you to expect your instructions to be carried out, and it's not you who should be embarrassed to admit to the problem - it's the teacher! I hope you gave him/her a very strict talking-to after this unfortunate incident.

Thanks Luke. By "somewhere else" are you suggesting somewhere with less direct sun? I'm interested to know why I might be getting this nasty slime. My main purpose in breeding the cherry barbs is to increase the size of my own school. If I sell any extras that will just be a bonus.

Quite a few types of plants will grow floating on the surface, but remember they will block light from the rest of the tank so might make it difficult for your other plants to grow. What are the dimensions of your tank, and what lighting do you have? Lighting is really the key limiting factor that will decide what plants are hardy and easy to grow in your particular setup. I always find hygro and anubias the easiest to grow. Both are 'stem plants' which will grow tall if planted in the substrate and will also grow along the surface of the water if you let them.

Yep, that's exactly what I mean, Imsmith. I put fresh vegetables in my tank on a regular basis and I notice how fast any remnants can go slimey and nasty in the heat. Aaron11, It's great that you have a regular maintenance/water change system. Keep it up. Also keep an eye on things between water changes, and make sure there are no dried worms or flakes left uneaten in the tank.

Hmmm... Inspired by this thread I filled a large, clean rubbish-bin with water, put in some plants I had trimmed from my tank, and put it in a corner of the deck. I had decided to put some cherry barbs in there and see if they would spawn. Unfortunately within a day (before I put the fish in) a thick layer of bright green oily-looking slime started to form and soon covered the whole surface. A couple of days ago I emptied the bin, scrubbed it out, threw away the plants and started again. Once more it has ended up with a thick layer of green slime on the surface. I'm not going to try putting any fish in there until I've resolved this issue as the whole thing looks pretty nasty and I'm sure there wouldn't be enough oxygen exchange to keep the fish healthy and happy. Any idea what I'm doing wrong? Will I get the same result if I use a paddling pool instead of the bin? :-? In fact, have I now left it too late to start my barb breeding programme this summer?

Me too, Caper. I nibble along one row at a time, making sure I eat every kernel! My partner thinks I'm very odd. Fortunately he's not so thorough so it's actually his corn cob that gets put in the tank!

It's often not the temperature itself that stresses the fish - it's the lack of oxygen. (Warm water contains less dissolved oxygen than cooler water.) So keep an eye out for signs that your fish need more air - for example if they are hanging around the surface more than normal. If so, increase the surface movement of the water and that will help more oxygen get in. It also depends on what kind of fish you have, how long the temps stay high, how good your water quality is, etc. Micro-organisms will reproduce faster in warm water, so if you leave food in there to go nasty, it can all happen pretty fast. I think my clown loaches would like these temperatures all year round. They would just get out their sunnies and a good book and bask in the heat. 8) :lol:

Wow. Lots of great info there! As for noise, you wouldn't want to run one of these things for long periods or at night while you (and your neighbours!) are trying to sleep. But if you can imagine a power cut that goes on for a couple of weeks, it could be a life-saver to have a generator that you could run for even a couple of hours at a time to cool your fridge/freezer, or to run the filters on your tanks (and heaters in winter). We're pretty lucky where we live at the moment because we have gas for cooking and hot water, and a fire for heating the house. But none of that is going to keep the fish alive during a summer power cut! I will definitely be considering a small generator.

The corn cob I used was cooked. Some science-type on here will be able to explain the dynamics of cooking corn - I think it turns the carbohydrates from starch to sugar? Anyway my fish seemed to enjoy the cooked corn, but I would keep an eye on it and not leave it in the tank for more than a few hours. The carbs in the tank are likely to encourage all kinds of greeblies to grow if you leave it too long. But don't let that put you off! My fish seem to love it! :bounce:

Are you referring to bristlenose catfish? There are a lot of people breeding them at the moment, and you can get little ones quite cheap. As for how many is a good number, that depends on the dimensions of your tank, what kind of filter you have and what kind/how many other fish you want to keep in there. Bristlenoses are good fish because they are hardy, stay relatively small and are good as part of a peaceful community. They will need plenty of places to hide (rocks, caves, plants, wood) and they like to chew on wood to help them stay healthy. They also benefit from having fresh vegetables to eat, in addition to dried foods. They can, however, leave your substrate looking quite messy because they like so much fibre in their diet and then of course they poop it out on your gravel!

Are you sure it's only five litres? What are the dimensions? That's not a small tank... it's a large jar! :lol:

I think it's a fruit. (Isn't a berry just a sub-set of fruit anyway?) Courgette is also a fruit, as is tomato, capsicum, pumpkin... Then we start getting into the realm of "folk taxonomy" as contrasted with biological taxonomy. Fascinating stuff, but it could drive you bonkers if you let it! :-?

Don't get too smug now Mr alanmin! You know pride goes before a fall!

Yeah at this time of the year keeping the tanks warm shouldn't be a problem. But yesterday's blip made me think about what I would do if the power went out long term (like it did in Auckland in the late '90s... I think it was off for a couple of weeks in some places). Aeration would definitely be the big issue. I would probably sit by the tank stirring it with a paddle in the hottest part of the day! :lol:

LOL it's quite funny that here we are trying to grow mozzies... in most of the rest of the world you would be arrested for deliberately leaving standing water out for mozzies! We're so lucky we don't have malaria, dengue fever, that nasty nile virus etc. When I was in Malaysia a few years ago there were patrols that would come and do spot-checks on people's back yards. If they found any standing water (in old tyres, pot plant saucers, etc.) you could be arrested and face some pretty heavy penalties. Makes me a bit nervous about global warming though... how long before we get our first case of malaria?!

The power was off for a few hours yesterday in East Auckland and apparently the sub-station is pretty vulnerable so it might happen again. I was just wondering a) If people have advice for fish-keepers in the affected areas (especially in case of a longer outage) and b) If those of us in the north and west can make offers of help in case of emergency. For example, I have two filters on my tank so in an emergency I would be prepared to offer some media to help re-seed someone's 'dead' filter (for example if the power had been off for a few days and the filter had to be completely cleaned out). Also if someone wanted to bring their fish to me in buckets or other containers, I would be happy to plug it all into my power and/or run one of my filters on their container. What else can we do to help if needed?

Oh dear, what a shocking thing to wake up to on a Sunday morning! Sorry for your losses, and good luck saving the rest of the fish. What is the temperature in the tank? (It's not a seriously malfunctioning heater is it?) And can we assume you did the water change using all your usual equipment and water supply - nobody had used your water-change bucket to scrub the floor? You don't have any kids who might have tried 'feeding' the fish with something toxic? (I'm just grasping at straws here.)

Thanks for the tips everyone (and for the kind offer, Farmchick). The 80% water change did the trick, and the water did eventually clear. It seemed to only be the tetras who really suffered - three confirmed losses and a fourth one missing, presumed dead. If the other fish had continued to show signs of distress I would have transferred everyone into buckets and scrubbed the tank & both filters out, but the barbs and loaches seemed to settle after the first water change. I actually wonder if all the tetras had already died before I discovered the problem, but in a heavily planted tank I just didn't find their bodies until later. The missing Siamese Algae Eater turned up by the way, so it really is the tetras that were the only losses. Whew! I will be keeping a close eye on everything though, looking for delayed reactions. And I promise never to do something this stupid again! :roll: I wonder if fish like ginger crunch...

I tried the flourish Excel method and it didn't work for me. When I moved house I even threw out all my old plants, boiled the gravel, scrubbed the tank walls, boiled the filter media and ran hot, salty water through everything overnight. And it STILL CAME BACK! :evil: Eventually I did get rid of it - three Siamese Algae Eaters in my 4 foot planted tank work wonders. Little spots of BBA still grow, but the fish hunt it down and eat it before it gets established. Brilliant little workers. That's the method I recommend!

Uh-oh. Fishie number three just bit the dust. Another cardinal tetra. Another tetra still MIA and I can only see two of three siamese algae eaters. I just did an 80% water change. Would have done that in the first place if I had realised how toxic this stuff obviously is to the tetras. Funny thing is the water still looks quite milky, even after three water changes today: 50%, 50%, 80%. I think this has to be right up there with one of the stupidest things I've heard any fish-keeper doing! Sure beats the old "forgot to turn the heater back on" or "forgot to put the lid back on the tank." :roll:

LOL thanks! I've actually been phasing out the neons and replacing them with cardinals. The first little guy who died was the last remaining neon in my tank. I have to admit a school of 19 would look pretty nice though...

http://www.adzuki.com/ According to that website, to prepare them you first "Soak 1/2 cup of beans overnight in ample water." Do you think 200 litres is enough water? :-? I first came across them when some Somali friends served them hot with butter and sugar as a special dessert. Needless to say, it's an aquired taste! They are also used as a paste in sweet buns. An excellent New Year treat. Of course mine are now all in the compost bin. And the people at the bulk store will be getting a few words from me about weevils in their beans next time I see them.

Yeah, plants seem to be fine. Fish body count has doubled though - I just found a dead cardinal tetra. Number of casualties may rise as I only saw four of the eight tetras that should be in there - that leaves two still unaccounted for. (Everyone is hiding in the plants so that makes it hard to judge.) *sigh* :roll:

Vinegar, being acidic, will fizz when it comes into contact with something alkaline. If vinegar fizzes on the rock, it indicates the rock would raise the pH of your water. Rocks from a local river should be fine in your tank, on condition the water in the river is reasonably free of pollution, invasive algae, etc. If in doubt you can boil the rocks to sterilise them before putting them in your tank. Officially it is illegal to remove rocks from a river without a permit. This is designed to stop river resources being plundered (imagine if everyone in town collected a truckload of rocks for their home landscaping!) In your case, collecting a few rocks shouldn't be a problem, but please respect the environment and only take what you need. You can also buy sacks of river rocks from garden centres, landscape suppliers, etc. That way you can choose the colour and type of rocks to suit your planned aquascape. Have fun!