Adrienne

Reading this thread for the first time. Its all good Zev cos it means he can come visit me I mean, what harm can he do to himself. Get in the car, drive one block and onto the motorway, drive for about 20mins in virtually a straight line, get off the motorway, drive one more block and he's at my house. Might even be able to go to fish club meetings

From what I understand a lot of fighters don't make it through the quarantine process either. Overseas solid single coloured quality fighters are popular. Here in NZ, less so, and the market is pretty small and very changeable, so it is hard to predict what people want.

Hmmmm I started an article for aquarium world last year and I still haven't finished it :oops:

are you talking solid colours? cos if so, they are imported

I'll be interested to see your results

Yes I heard that the talking was incredibly educational (Wok). Did anyone video it?

Yes, there are some up here atm and I had a good look to check it was the colouring and nothing else. Well done on rescuing him and with some tlc hopefully his tail will recover.

The tanks starting to look good - Have put my tiger plec back in as the tank he was in is a bit overcrowded. Started pressurised CO2 this afternoon. Instead of a diffuser atm I am using the intake of the fx5 to suck it up shoot it through the filter and then back out the outlet. Currently at 1 drop per second.

Hi Joe, I can't help with what you need sorry because I don't have them. I thought you might like to know though, that Caryl isn't the only one who wonders why you are not at school when you post during the day :lol:

twig fish?

funny haha - its the plant section. If a fish turned up in here I'd be worried and P44 - they are growing really well. I've broken off and replanted a couple already. It just looks like there are not many plants because I pulled out some of the tank busters and moved these into the gaps.

Do you mean release the CO2 so it travels into and through the filter and back into the tank? I had been running the air stone because its a planted discus tank and the temps get pretty high in the summer - up to 32 degrees some days. I also have fancy plecs etc in there and I hate to see them coming up for air.

Just thought I'd share a couple of pics taken tonight after I turned off the T5HO lighting and just left the T8 light on. I'm so pleased with the way these plants are looking. There is a lot more pink on the leaves than the photo shows.

Right - well I have a cylinder sorted. Its 6.8kg and I'm getting my regulator tomorrow. It will have the needle valve. At this stage I am not getting a solenoid (well I don't think I am unless it comes with the regulator) but understand that I won't need one if I turn off the CO2 when I turn out the lights. Is this correct? So I gather that I need to get a bubble counter and a diffuser. I have an fx5 filter on the tank so there is no spray bar. It is set up so that the water returning from the filter back into the tank comes back in about 3/5ths of the way up the height of the tank. Therefore for maximum effect the best place to put the diffuser would be below this? I also run an airline into the tank and this agitates the surface of the water considerably. It is sited near the other end of the tank but moves the water over 1/2 the tank surface with its bubbling. I gather that I will need to turn this down. Please let me know if I am wrong with the above and any suggestions will be welcomed.

IMO 12cm is a good size for a discus. I have seen them up to 15cm.

Sorry to hear this Josh. All I can do is offer you one of his fry when they grow - probably 10 -11 weeks.

Congratulations. I just googled it and it looks a nice tank. I hope you don't mind a bit of advice about putting a male siamese fighter in the tank. From experience I have found that the male siamese fighters do not do well in tanks that run a powerhead sending water up to the top of the tank and back in through the overhead trickle filter which the picture seems to show this aquarium does. This is because the fighters natural habitat are shallow holes or the mud of rice fields. They have long fins and a long tail which means that when there is a lot of water flow they can not swim straight and often end up sucked against the power head. You may be able to adapt the tank to give areas of less current by putting in rocks and/or plants which would then give the fish a place to rest or the other option would be to use a different type of filter in the tank. When I had a smaller but similar style tank I used a sponge filter which was run from an air pump. Other fish will be fine in the current as will female fighters or short finned (plakat) fighters.

I also agree. The discus are not likely to compete for food but instead will probably withdraw and refuse to eat. IME once they decide they are not going to eat its very rare for them to start again. Is it worth it?

Sorry - no. I do have some young fry from him though. Will let you know when they get a bit bigger. The fry will all be plakats

My pink one (the sibling of yours) sure is.

Excellent pics - keep going Caryl and ... when do we find out what happened?

Your cory may have had a stroke. Can you put him in a container within your tank so he doesn't have to make such an effort to move around and come up for oxygen if need be. If he's gasping he is struggling and probably needs to be nearer the surface. Mine come up for air at times especially when they are playing in the evenings.

Good luck FYI - if you want to make contact with more of the fighter enthusiasts post under the anabantoid section further down the topics page. While they will most likely eventually read the 'breeding' section the anabantoids is a more likely place for them to look first. It also provides heaps of questions and answers although you can pretty much ask anywhere on here and get a civilised response :lol:

Hi Josh You can feed a few 3-4 bloodworms each day but do careful waterchanges daily as well as they will foul the tank. Even if the male blows bubblenest you can still change somewater without destroying it. If the water is clean you won't need methylene blue (I never use it with the fighters). When the male tends to the nest he picks up and mouths (cleans) the eggs regularly during the day and then blows them back up into the nest. The only ones that will fungus will not be fertile and he instinctively will know this and most likely eat these ones or leave them on the bottom of the tank.

Sam, behave yourself. Welcome Josh, hope the fighters do okay. Adrienne