Adrienne

I don't know which tank is best but I do know that my young fighters have been killing off my baby bn's.

thanks for the advice and the positive comments peoples. The plants have finally started to grow - probably something to do with the fact that I finally realised after reading through this site that flourish excel alone will not make plants grow and added some fertiliser balls!

Not sure - around the 10cm mark I think, from behind the eye to the base of the tail.

Depends on the individual fish but it is not totally abnormal. I posted some pics on here a while back called 'females at war' and it was my 5 best breeding females in an all out fishfight. They shredded each other - then there was a mighty thunderstorm. Far better than the met office.

I add water conditioner - aqua plus - to this tank and use warm water for the changes. Discusguru (Ron) already knows this. Its the only tank out of the 17 tanks I have that I do this with though. All my other fish get water straight out of the hose. This tank is my pride and joy and Ron has guided me through since I purchased my first fish.

I don't care if this is the right place or not - thanks heaps for sharing this with us

would you like to elaborate on this?

As David says. Females are more inclined to fight when the weather is changeable and when a cold front is coming!

Having just changed from a sump to a cannister in my big tank (I did transfer heaps of media over) I am having the usual issues with nitrate, nitrite, ammonia, pH etc. Now I've got myself confused. Where should my levels be and which is the most dangerous. Yesterday pH 6 today 7.8 Yesterday nitrate 0 today 5 Yesterday ammonia .75 today .75 Yesterday nitrite .5 today 0 The two days before that there were also swings. Doing 30 - 50% waterchanges each day. Trouble with this is the pH is rising. Advice much appreciated.

The Backline Flying Fox and the Siamese Algae Eater are the one and same fish. This may be what you purchased.

Take care

i don't know about ram fry but with fighters you should keep enough current running i.e. bubbles to keep surface movement so that they don't want to come up. This is so the labrynth develops properly. Maybe you could try that - just a little bit of surface movement.

I'm with DavidR on this one. When I go to the Mt Roskill branch they know me, usually know why I am there and also know that if I do want something I will come and ask. It suits me fine. By the way - normally when I am there the shop is packed out and all the staff are doing their best to help those asking a multitude of questions. I for one think the service and advice has improved heaps over the last twelve or so months. I am sorry you got bad service from them Broms2 and wasted your petrol (and no I do not work in a lfs), but things are better than what they were. I can see your point but if you don't go to them or the A chain where are you going to go? Theres not that many other shops up here despite the huge population.

theres still quite a few short fin males being sold as females. My advice - put the fighter in a container within the other males tank and wait a few days. I imagine a bubble nest will be built.

This shop person was saying that plastic bags are only toxin free when theres water on the inside and that the moment water contacts both sides they leak toxins - utter cr-p in my opinion or we all would have fish dropping off each time we get them. However the shop keeper did offer a replacement fish which was politely declined. I don't think any of us would ever let other tanks water touch ours.

I have to keep a straight face a lot where I work (at a school). Its easy - you bite the insides of your cheeks!! :lol:

My 3 week olds (the bigger ones about 1cm) have colour on their fins and tail. Males will colour up from this age. Females take quite a bit longer.

As the title says .... what do you think? The reason so many fish die soon after they are purchased is because plastic bags, when left floating in the tank as most of us do, release toxins when the water touches both sides of the bag. The toxins kill the fish. This is the story given to a friend when she went back to her lfs to say her fish had died within 24hrs of purchase. By the way the shop is not in Auckland. Comments welcome.

Nice colours. How many do you have?

Would be if I had the time to look at it

I don't think it is dropsy, possibly she is egg bound but unfortunately she is unlikely to survive if she's that big. Looks more to me like a huge swelling of some sort containing fluid. I would isolate her if you haven't already because if she explodes theres going to be one awful mess. You could try adding some salt to her water to see if that will release the pressure.

Here they are - the jury is still out on whether or not I will add them to my big tank. Not sure at all.

oh - and I forgot to add - plenty of bba still!!!

a couple of updated close up pics of my tank. 6 discus, 35 cardinals, 30? rummynoses, 20? neons, a few harlequins, 11 hatchets, 9 sterbai, 4 bristlenose and one SAE (the others developed dropsy). I also have 6 clown loaches which I am still undecided on whether or not to add them to the peaceful tank. Excuse the algae on the glass.

Was running a pump (2500 lph), 3 x 4ft lights, 1x 200 watt and 1x 300 watt heater on the double wall plug. On the circuit that blew theres also the stereo, tv, 2x computers, printer, telephone, and wastemaster. Apparently its rated 20 amps? It was the fuse that tripped not the whole power board. Suphew - I have left the other 300 watt heater in inside the sump.