whetu

hmm... I just happen to have a slightly over-ripe gold kiwifruit in the fruit bowl... I'm off to play with the fish!

Hey Cam, how are the fish tricks going?

Sorted! My goodness those are pretty fish!

A picture is worth a thousand words! Thanks for that. Just looking at the pic, the tank seems quite deep for its height, so you may have trouble getting enough light to the bottom of the tank. Your plants may end up a bit stringy looking - lush on top but spindly lower down. There are some low-light plants that will be happy in this situation and with stem plants you can always pull them up, replant the tops and throw away the spindly bottoms. So invest in as much light as you can fit on the top of your tank! Personally I would change your top layer of substrate to something finer than the pebbles you have in there. So a layer of Dalton's then a layer of fine-ish pebbles. Also for the substrate, invest in some slow-release root fertilising tabs. You can put one under each of your main plants to encourage good root growth.

You would hope it would be common sense. I have been given some very wrong information about aquatic plants by a staff member at one of the chain stores. Virtually any question I asked her about plants, she pretty much made up a random answer. Another staff member at the same store would often say, "hmm... I think the answer is this but I'm not 100% sure. Let me look it up." And he would look in one of the plant books and we would both learn some new stuff. Needless to say, the one who said "I don't know" got a lot more respect from me and made a lot more sales to me!

yarimochi, I think you're missing the point that many of the people commenting on the poor service either work or have worked in retail themselves. They/we have been at the receiving end of grumpy customers and they/we know what is acceptable behaviour and what is not. Personally, I worked in retail for many years. I worked up from being a part-time shop assistant to branch manager. If I go into a retail store and I am not even acknowledged by the staff, I consider them to be quite rude. It's not about being waited on. It is about common courtesy. If I am waiting at the counter to ask a question or buy an item, even if the staff member is busy I expect them to acknowledge me with a nod and a smile and maybe even a statement like "I will be with you shortly." In this case I am prepared to wait for a considerable amount of time because I feel at least I have been acknowledged. If I am ignored, I will only wait a short time before leaving the store. If I am ignored because the staff are apparently chatting amongst themselves or making personal phone calls or too busy filing their nails, then I consider that to be very rude. I will leave after a very short time and if it happens repeatedly I will not return to that shop again. I know it is possible to be polite and courteous and friendly to customers because I did it every day for years. Even when I was working part time and earning poor wages. That is no excuse.

I've tried the rock technique and it has never really worked for me. Perhaps I need to take some lessons in dry stone wall building. Somehow the plants always end up floating again. Also with fine carpet plants it would be hard to use the rocks without squashing the plants, wouldn't it? As for the eyesore, hopefully the jar wouldn't have to be in there for long. Especially if I put a fertiliser tab under the plant when I planted it. The things that worry me are: a) Light. My tank has good light but the extra layer of glass might be enough to cause trouble. b) CO2. Perhaps I could squirt a little flourish excel into the jar each day? Or even feed a DIY CO2 line into the cloche! (Ok now this is getting complicated)

Ha ha you guys sound like you have a lot of fun with your fish! In my tank, the barbs are very bold and anything new I put in there they will investigate it immediately to see if it's edible (including my arm). The loaches are a bit more shy, and it takes them a while to come out of their hidey-hole and check out anything new. So all I really have to do is move a single rock from one side of the tank to the other, and the loaches scuttle away and hide. Then they sit for a while with just their noses sticking out of their tunnels. Eventually one will dash out in the direction of the moved rock, get halfway to it, have a minor panic attack and dash back to the safety of its tunnel. Eventually (usually when the tank lights are off) they will all venture out and by the next day they're all relaxed again. Last week I put a red glass marble in the tank. The loaches were scared of it, the barbs tried to eat it and the bristlenose tried to fight with it. This week I put a sandpit in the tank. Actually it was a shallow dish full of peat. I buried a couple of food pellets in the peat just for fun. The barbs were right into it, kicking up peat all over the show. The loaches waited until the barbs had lifted the food out, then dashed out and stole the pellets and took them away to eat. Today when I got home the bristlenose was quietly sitting in the empty dish.

As much as I love my little loaches, they make it very difficult to keep new plants planted long enough to get established. They dig around in the substrate and lift the plants to look under them in case someone has hidden a treat under there or something. :roll: Established plants seem to be ok though - once the roots are fairly well anchored, the loaches can dig around a bit and the plants stay planted. So I've been thinking: why not use cloches like you would in a terrestrial garden? Check out this link for an illustration of what I'm thinking of: http://www.englishcreekgardens.com/Cloche1.htm So I plant my plant, then get a glass jar and invert it over the plant, and leave it there until the roots get established. Then I remove the jar and the loaches can't dig it up. I would call it a loach cloche. Whaddayareckon then?

First of all, hooray! And congratulations! :bounce: A new planted tank is my idea of excellent fun! What are the dimensions of your tank? Is it long and low or tall and skinny?

:lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Agreed. I have kept gold, cherry and rosy barbs and they are undoubtedly very hardy fish. Presumably the black spot barbs will be equally robust. Just talked to my Sis and she's happy to assist. NC, PM on its way to you now.

ok I know this might sound daft to some people, but I'm always looking for ways to keep my fish amused, entertained and mentally stimulated :lol: In the olden days a lot of people had this idea that fish were stupid, had a memory of only a few seconds, and it was ok to keep them in a small bowl with maybe a plastic plant if they were lucky. At the same time, zoo animals were kept in small concrete enclosures with nothing to do but pace up & down all day. These days our attitude to keeping captive animals has changed. Zoo keepers put a lot of time, money and energy into dreaming up new ways to keep the animals busy and happy. So do you think fish need something to keep them amused, or are they in a whole different category to other animals? If you do think it's necessary, what do you do to keep your fish busy and stop them getting bored? What different toys, activities or entertainment works for different types of fish?

I have a big (clean) bucket with a lid that could be used for transportation. I could wrap it in a blanket to insulate it for the journey. This is all assuming Sis is willing to do the transport. I will get in touch with her now and ask.

My Sis is coming down from near Houhora to Auckland this weekend, then heading back on Monday. I could ask her if she's willing to do a delivery to Mangonui on the way? I will need to check if she's taking SH10, and if she's willing. She's actually driving all the way to Hamilton so it's already a long drive for her - so no guarantees.

Oh yeah! I'm loving it!

:lol: Well VM, maybe I do live in a freezer! I live in an old house with no insulation and a wooden floor, so maybe my situation is different to most people's but I know I can't walk around the house in bare feet or I'd get frostbite on my toes! As for a heater in a plastic bucket, I think that is a good idea as long as the heater is kept well away from the sides. Remember the heater-metre rule!

Good thinking, WEKA. I'm in favour of flexible options whenever possible and it sounds like you have the ideal opportunity! You may want to change the tank in future and go for a planted tank, or a different type of fish, or (maybe when selling the house) try for a different, more lush look. I would suggest asking the sparky to install as many light fittings as can practically fit in the space, and ask for a separate switch for each light. Is there any way you can have timers installed too? That way you can choose to only use the lights you want at that moment, and perhaps have a range of different lights for different times - a moonlight look for early morning and evening, brighter lights in the middle of the day, or turn them all on for task lighting if you're doing tank maintenance. ooooh I want a built-in tank! :bounce:

As much as I love my clown loaches, my goodness I wish they would leave the plants alone! :evil: They really are little pigs, constantly rooting around in the substrate looking for a bit of left-over breakfast they might have missed. Straight through the new plants as if they weren't there! grrrr!

I agree with a couple of weeks - you can usually tell if you're going to have any problems by then. But do observe the new fish carefully for any signs of ill-health and if so, delay transferring them into your main tank until they are completely well. Time in the quarantine tank is also an opportunity for you to observe your fish, work out what behaviour is normal and what is not for them, and make sure everyone is eating etc. Also, always make sure you have a good lid fitted to your Q-tank. Those stressed little fish you just brought home may be keen to jump out! :roll:

I agree. And also to not have too many fish in a single bag, especially if they are a delicate type. For example if you're buying maybe 10 rummy nose tetras, you should ask the shop to put five in each bag rather than putting them all in together. This will slow the build-up of toxins in the bag. In my opinion a reputable LFS would do this anyway.

Q-tank is definitely the way to go. Then you can set it up as close as possible to the shop's tanks (you can call and ask them their pH, temp, etc in advance) and make any changes very slowly. I wouldn't personally use the drip-line method in winter - one of the reasons I float the bag (in the Q-tank) is to make sure any temp changes are done slowly. An unheated bucket sitting on the floor is going to be much colder than the tank, so when you move the fish they will still suffer a thermal shock. When floating the bags, I undo the knot and roll down the edge of the bag, then use a clothes peg or two, to peg the rolled edge of the bag onto the side of the tank. This makes sure the bag can't accidentally discharge the shop water into my tank. I then scoop water into the bag at intervals, gradually increasing the proportion of tank water to shop water. After a while (depending on how delicate the fish is, and how patient I am) I net the fish out of the bag and put the bag water down the drain. After an appropriate time in quarantine, I then net the fish out again and put them in my main tank. As for toxins in the shop bags - complete and utter nonsense! And why on earth would having both sides of the bags touching the water make even the tiniest bit of difference?! Sounds like the person who said this is not particularly bright and thinks everyone else is just as dim as them. What a ridiculous thing to say.

Apparently the beardie ate a bit of parsley and a tiny taste of apple, then left the rest so I needn't have worried about her turning purple! :oops:

I've found my loaches to be extremely robust and not susceptible to disease at all. I've had three of mine for about 7 years and two others for about 4 years (and just got a new little baby recently - couldn't resist him he's so cute!) 7 year olds: HatuPatu, Lupi, Coco 4 year olds: Gary, Roland Baby: Trigger Their tank mates have come & gone (barbs, danios, ottos, platies...) but the loaches just keep on keeping on. I would be devastated if I lost my little loaches! In the seven years I've been keeping them, there has only been one ich outbreak (directly caused by Gary & Roland's previous owner neglecting them - including letting their water get very dirty and stone cold in mid winter). I've had no other disease or injury. The issue about scale-less (or small scaled) fish is that you need to be careful with medications and things like salt in the water as they can get overdosed and dehydrated very easily. With a varied diet and good basic tank maintenance, they shouldn't be hard to keep at all. By the way, I've lived in at least five different flats since I've had the loaches, so they're always getting chucked in buckets and moved across town! Not exactly a stress-free lifestyle!

An open fire? I'm saving the world by spending longer in bed - that way I don't need to heat the house! :lol: