whetu

I agree on both points, Wok. When I first saw the tank this morning I actually laughed out loud. :lol: Then I saw the poor little stressed fishies (and the poor little dead neon) and it didn't seem so funny any more. Time to do another water change. :roll:

Stupid admission time. :oops: The other day I bought some adzuki beans from my local bulk store. When I went to sprout them last night I found they were full of weevils! Trying to look on the bright side, I thought weevils = live food for fishies. The weevils were inside the beans, so I decided I would put the beans in the fish tank, and as the weevils came out of the beans the fish could eat them. So I put the beans (about a cupful) into a mesh bag, and popped the bag into the tank. Sure enough, the weevils gradually started to emerge, and the fish ate them as they came out. The fish seemed very interested in the bag of beans and were actively exploring it, so I left them to it. Then I left the room and got distracted. An hour or so later the tank lights turned off (on a timer). I went to bed. This morning OH MY GOODNESS what a mess! The tank looked like it had milk in it instead of water. The fish were showing various signs of stress (bristlenoses shooting to the surface for gulps of air, barbs 'flashing' against the gravel, loaches out surfing the current in one corner when usually they are hidden away at that time of the morning). Unfortunately one little neon tetra was dead. I have done a 50% water change and cleaned out one of the two eheim cannister filters. The water looks much less milky, and the fish seem to be behaving fairly normally again. In a couple of hours I will do a second 50% water change to clear the water a bit more. Just as well today is my 'working from home' day! If I'm going to do really stupid things, I must make sure I do them on a Thursday night. :roll: Moral of the story: If you're going to experiment on your fish, make sure you don't get distracted!

Hooray Caper! If your LFS is selling fluvals, then go get yourself a fluval! I have to admit I have only used eheims so I can't make an informed comment (on a scale of 1 - 10 I rate them 11) BUT any cannister filter will transform your life, so go get it! Oooh and then set up your nice big tank! I don't know how you can bear having a tank there without setting it up. Sell the rest of your furniture if you have to! :lol:

I'm lucky I've never smoked - it's quite heartbreaking seeing people who are struggling to give up, or whose health is suffering as a result of smoking. My problem is that I grind my teeth! I've been doing it my whole life, but it's got to the point now that my teeth are literally being ground to bits while I'm asleep at night. I've tried all sorts of things to no avail, and just recently it ocurred to me that hypnosis might help. So if anyone knows a good clinical/medical hypnotist in the Auckland area (or Hamilton or Whangarei for that matter) please let me know! Just as long as I don't stop grinding my teeth and start smoking...

A platter of seasonal fruit and vegetables! :bounce: From now until the end of summer try tomatoes, corn, water melon, grapes, berries, courgette, peas... Whatever you can find fresh in the garden or supermarket. After you've eaten your corn off the cob, float the cob in the water so your pacu can clean off any bits you've missed. nutritious and entertaining for you both! :lol:

Silverwolf, if you have clown loaches, surely you can't have snails?! My loaches will hunt doiwn the snails wherever they are hiding and gobble them up. At one stage I had another tank just for breeding snails to feed to my loaches. If the snails are in a different tank to the loaches, perhaps you could put a loach in there for a short holiday? He will come home fat and happy! :lol:

Hello dreamer, welcome to the site! Unfortunately I can't help you or your husband on the job front, but I just wanted to say hello and welcome, and good on you for having a dream and taking steps to make it come true! :bounce:

Let us know how your new little loaches get on, Gill. I got a new loach a few months ago to go in the tank with my big ones and he didn't live long. No obvious signs of illness, just seemed to gradually lose weight and fade away. I think your experience here is also a very good demonstration of why a quarantine tank is so useful. The fact that you had your new fish in quarantine meant you could observe them closely and medicate easily, without the danger of messing with your main tank. Well done.

Yeah I wish I had too. Actually it was so funny I think it was video-worthy! The SAE was chasing away the barbs, but paying particular attention to the other SAEs. He must have used waaaay more energy chasing other fish than he ever gained from eating the corn. Also the corn cob got caught in an eddy and was spinning around quite fast with the SAE chasing it. Then he had to dodge out of the way when it hit the glass. Funny little fellow. Unfortunately I have never managed to take a decent photo of my tanks or fish. I blame the technology but it's probably more about technique.

Yes, clown loaches are definitely prone to white spot. They can also tolerate quite high temperatures, so I think that is a good way to go as part of a treatment regime. Unfortunately loaches are also quite sensitive to both salt and meds, so you need to be very careful when dosing. Most people recommend half-strength meds for loaches. You're obviously doing the right thing with the water changes. As far as I know, the higher temps don't actually kill off the parasite that causes white spot. It just speeds up the life cycle so they come out of the fish and into the water - that's when the meds can do their job. I'm not sure of my facts here, so someone else might be able to clarify. Anyway, good luck to the little fellow and his companion. I hope they grow up to be big, strong loaches!

Personally I wouldn't put avocado in the water. It is very oily and I suspect it might cause problems with an oily slick on the surface of the water. Now I would like to point out that I'm talking about what I would do - obviously you can do what you like! And then let us know what happens! Recently my fish have been eating sweetcorn off the cob. Actually it was a cob of corn that I had already eaten, but there were bits of corn still attached, so I just floated it in the tank. To my surprise one of the Siamese algae eaters took "possession" of it and chased everyone else away. He kept nibbling at it for the whole time it was in the tank (about 24 hours). To sink courgette or cucumber I either use the spoon method or plant weights (the flexible metallic weights that come with some bunch plants). Do let us know what you decide about the avocado!

It sounds like (in theory) your tank should be fine with this kind of stocking level. What kind of pleco do you have? That sounds like the only fish that may grow up to be too big for your tank. The 'assorted tetras' will probably all stay small, and the angels should be fine in there as they grow bigger. Also, what kind of filter do you have? Is the tank planted? Do you do regular water changes?

Firstly, hi and welcome to the forum This is a very common question amongst new fishkeepers, but unfortunately the issue is much more complicated than just fish per litre. You would need to take into account things such as: type of fish size of fish (size now, and size in a few years if they're going to keep growing) dimensions of tank (not just total volume) type of filter tank maintenance 9water changes etc) whether the tank is planted or not generally how well the artificial environment you have created is suited to the natural needs of the inmates. It is much more of an art than a science, and by asking lots of questions and learning as you go, you will soon get a feel for what you are capable of maintaining in your particular set-up. Hope that helps.

Re: the acid thing... I was advised many years ago to put a cuttlefish bone in a snail tank. (The kind you put in a budgie's cage - available at supermarkets.) This supplies all the minerals the snails need to build up their shells. I don't know if the cuttlefish bone is any better than oyster shells or any of the other calcium sources, but I just remembered this rather interesting piece of advice and thought I would pass it on!

Just as well I didn't see it or I may be tempted over to the Dark Side as well!

This is exactly my experience. My big clowns seem to be very resilient (especially with high temps - I'm pretty sure they would swim around happily in a spa pool if I let them). But a few months ago I got a new baby to join the clan and he never thrived despite all conditions being *theoretically* ideal. My oldest clowns have been with me since 2001. During that time they have survived all kinds of algae outbreaks, many house-moves, the tank being medicated for a variety of diseases... and they are still going strong. The youngest two (I've had them since June 2004) were purchased off Trade Me. The seller didn't mention that her heater had broken down during the course of the auction, and by the time I got them they had spent several days in unheated water in the middle of winter. She had also lost interest in the tank several months before that and I suspect she hadn't done any water changes for a loooong time. Both loaches survived, although they had an outbreak of white spot a few days after I brought them home. They soon grew to a similar size as the ones I already had, and everyone seems to be thriving.

My mother seems to think Coro Street is more real than real life. She often starts off by telling me something someone's been doing - "Did you know X is having an affair with Y but he doesn't know that she's actually his daughter by Z who died in a tragic accident with a faulty sewing machine?" And it takes a while for me to realize that this is something that's happened on the TV and it's not actually real people. But they are real to my Mum. :roll: Meanwhile something genuinely interesting is happening with my real family and Mum knows about it but doesn't think it's important enough to mention!

:lol: I had no idea this was going to be such a funny thread when I clicked on it! With all this talk of swords the blokes have gone all knightly. Is there such a thing as a dagger plant?

I've just posted a link to the Tropica website where it shows you how to use a hair net to attach glosso to a stone. I would suggest doing that first, then put the stone on the substrate where you want the glosso to spread. Hopefully once it's well established on the stone, it will spread from there to the rest of the substrate.

I just noticed that Tropica.com has put out a video on how to plant your aquatic plants. The captions are hard to read, but the demo is very useful. It includes all sorts of different planting techniques, including using a hair-net to attach riccia. It also shows how to remove rock wool, and how much you should prune your new plants when first planting them (clue: prune them LOTS!) http://www.tropica.com/go.asp?article=883

LOL this was even funnier after mod intervention! I made the mistake of setting up my tent under a plum tree one summer. The wood pigeons had a feast... and the tent was never the same again.

Is the water greenish cloudy or just cloudy? I got a major greenish cloudy algae bloom when I put a kiwifruit in the tank for my fish to eat. It didn't go away with time & water changes. Blacking out the tank for a couple of days (lights off & a blanket over it) helped clear it up. Green clody water can be caused by too much nutrient in the water from over-feeding and/or not enough water changes, and of course if the water is warmer than usual it speeds up the process. So my advice... Keep up with regular water changes Take care not to over-feed Monitor light levels (eg if tank is near a bright window, close curtains for part of the day) Monitor water temperature Black out tank if necessary As a last resort, use a chemical solution like algae-rid from your lfs

Post deleted because I was getting annoyed and shouldn't have said it.

That's a beautiful piece of art work Stella. I can see how it would encourage quiet contemplation to have this on your wall. I hope he goes to a good home.

Oh Poor fish. Poor Sis. Sorry about my earlier suggestion that she may have contributed to the carnage. :oops: