rollergirl

I'm by no means a cichlid expert but I probably wouldn't have gone for the keyholes with potentially aggressive mbuna either...but like they say whatever works for you, you never know what individual fish will end up being like together On a lighter note the tank looks really good, love the rock work, contrasts with the fish nicely.

Sorry to hear that Jasmine, it's awful to lose a fish and I can imagine you would have been really attached to them sucky

Planaria can apparently come in on fish, plants, frozen or live food and some people even reckon they can come from freeze dried food...crazy little things! Dwarf gouramis are meant to enjoy a snack of them so your sis could always get one to replace the fighter

Could be planaria worms which usually appear through overfeeding, just cut back the feeding and keep up with water changes and they should dissapear As for the pH if the tank is acid you want to add pH up to bring the alkalinity up and make it less acidic...personally though unless it's under say 6.5 it might be better to leave it rather than play around with it as often rpaid changes in pH cause more trouble than they are worth. Most freshwater fish are hardy enough to withstand a relatively wide range in pH Good luck! and pm me your number btw so we can organise that coffee and picking up the tank

Very nice!

I found gardneri blues to be very easy to breed via the mop spawning method. And with some java moss in the tank you will probably even get fry hatching naturally within the tank- the parents are pretty laid back too and generally won't eat the fry. Good luck!

OOOh I love triggers- they are one fish that is swaying me to the fish only side rather than coldwater. Such cool personalities. I don't know how well it would ship from Blenheim though? :-?

Eeek yea my tank is doing a mini-cycle at the moment after upgrading and putting new lights on...cyano going for gold and i swear I scrape the glass twice a day! But coralline taking off as well so that can only be a good sign

So my boy is in the process of upgrading his 4-foot bay window reef tank to a huge mother of a 6 foot, and me being a lucky lass gets to inherit the 4 footer Hurrah!!! (well I did get him into the hobby in the first place, which I'm sure his wallet thanks me for... hehe). The question is- what to do with it? I already have a 2-foot cube reef tank (that I just recently upgraded to) so not after another reef...the options that I'm thinking of are either cold water marines, or fish only w live rock and some cool non-reef safe fish (and maybe a few unpalatable corals for decoration). Just interested to see what other people would put in it and get some ideas? Budget isn't really an issue (within reason of course- have 5 other tanks already lol) although I'm not too keen to buy too much more for it...as it is it comes with a reef octopus DNW-150 skimmer (from memory) and I have a T8 lighting unit for it as well that will have marine white and actinic blue tubes put in. If its to be coldwater marine I know I'll have to get a chiller for it closer to summertime. Oooh decisions decisions!!!! Tell me what you think please guys and gals Setting up new tanks is so exciting Yay!

Stoked, really looking forward to setting this tank up now!!

Mmmm...just threw up in my mouth a little bit :-?

I read this not too long ago, was a good read but I never got hold of either of the sequels! So still don't know how the story ends, lol :lol:

Yea, not after melanchromis or zeb's this time, just thinking e.yellows (6?), demasonis, 6 tangs of some kind, and maybe just the one male peacock for colour (I like A.baenschi ), would this work? (Even with 12 demasonis?!)

I've just purchased a 220L tank off Trade Me and want to set it up as an african community. Have kept malawi mbuna before (dems, e-yellows, ice blue zebras and melanchromis auratus from memory) but I'm no expert on africans by any means, and want to know what fish I could have in there that are colourful, not too aggro and relatively easy to look after. The tank will have a Fluval 305 plus an internal filter (can't remember the type now but it's on par with a Fluval 3-plus) to help deal with african messiness. It will have black granite sand, coral rock for caves, a nice bit of driftwood, and hopefully I can get some java fern and val growing in there for a spot of greenery and contrast 8) I really like demasoni and have been offered a breeding group of 4 (1m, 3 females) for cheap- but I've read on here that they must be kept in groups of 12 or more? Which I don't know I could either afford $$ wise, or fit in that size tank! The idea was to have the demasoni and maybe 6 electric yellows, perhaps a few tangyanikans such as brichardi or transcriptus, and a couple of male peacocks for colour. Will this work in a tank this size or am I dreaming here? Any ideas are welcome and appreciated! Cheers, Tash

I just recently finished Scar Tissue as well, was a great read Amazing that the guy is still alive really! Currently reading "Spangle" by Gary Jennings, it's an epic 1300-odd pager about a travelling circus, circa WW1 era, and it's soooooo interesting!!. Highly recommend his books, he wrote one about Marco Polo and his travels called "The Journeyer" that is still one of my faves, he's just a really great storyteller. Others would be anything by Stephen King, Bill Bryson, Nicci French, Jodi Picoult, Bryce Courtenay, Irvine Welsh, or Phillippa Gregory...Have a pretty broad range of literary tastes actually, lol. :lol: Nothing better than being snuggled up in bed with a good book though, especially in winter time!

Btw water change is due tomorrow so that should bring nitrates down even more

Have tested nitrates, >20ppm according to my test (I'm pretty regular with my water changes in all tanks), no detectable ammonia or nitrite either. The cherry barbs are peaceful as can be, they are one of the non-nippy barb species I believe, and don't seem to even take any notice of any of the other inhabitants. I'm totally stumped, as they all seem fine and dandy except for her :-? Going to try adding some garlic to food from tomorrow as an immunity enhancer, just wishing there were some kind of anti-anxiety medication I could add to the tank (fish valium anyone?! )

I have a beautiful female blue gourami who I've had now for about 3 years. Physically she is in perfect condition- fat, well coloured and a very big eater (nickname Miss Piggy!) but she seems to have some sort of a stress issue that has got worse lately, and I'm not sure what is causing it or what to do about it. She's in a 120L planted tank with a male blue gourami (he's a bit smaller but they get on fine, a little bit of chasing here and there but nothing too bad, most of the time they swim around peacefully together), some silver hatchets, cherry barbs, black neons, a pair of apisto's, some golden leopard cories and female killies, all of which are peaceful and pretty much get out of her way when she swims by. She just seems to be getting really worked up and stressed out lately-spending half of her time hiding under the plants taking huge gulping breaths, then she will suddenly dart for the surface to get her air but after taking a gulp at the surface she'll swim manically around the tank, smashing into the glass, heaters, filters, everything! and making huge splashes everywhere and freaking all the other fish out. It's completely random and quite awful to watch as I'm so worried she's hurting herself. She's been one of my favourite fish for a long time now and I don't want to lose her! Anyone have any ideas what could be the cause of this and what I can do to calm her? The tank parameters are pretty standard- pH around 7, temp 26, with fortnightly 30% water changes. It's in my bedroom too so not a busy part of the house and doesn't get bumped around... :-?

Congrats :bounce: Just keep an eye on the guppy fry around the wrigglers/angel fry once they get bigger, if they are small enough to fit in the guppies mouths they might have a go!

Mmm yea I would still say it was ok for breeding with frequent water changes, obviously not with other fish I bred my bolivians in a 2 foot and it was perfect for them. Up to you though!!

You could get away with keeping the adults in a 2 foot (60x30x30) tank, should be able to pick one up secondhand for relatively cheap

Well I put a crowntail in in the end...found a gorgeous one on trade me and couldn't resist!...but thankfully the larger fry is still swimming around after 2 days with the fighter, so fingers x'd, he'll make it to adulthood. Think he's a bit fast for the fighter!

Nice one dude did ya have a good night?

Have always wanted to go...let us know what it's like if you do!

Yay just found another 2 fry in there...must have been a few eggs left over! The new fry make the first one look huge :bounce: