Adrienne

Hi, did you get the pm I sent this morning.

I originally thought snails - thats why I asked what was in there.

Up to the individual user. Its not necessary but some people like to use it. Some freshwater fish won't tolerate it so if you do decide to make sure yours won't react.

Is it a new tank - could have been already there but the warm water has encourgaed it to grow. I'd wipe it off and see if it returns.

Nice photos and really nice fish. Can you give me some really good sites to look up about caring/keeping these fish and also are there any that can be kept in 2ft tanks or do they need to be 4ft at least. Thanks

Could be some sort of mould from left over particles attaching to glass. Whats in the tank?

Nice fish, nice colours. I know I keep saying this but I need to get some. Have to make some space...buy another tank!!

Hi, the weird bubble things you are talking about, are they the bubbles showing in the photo on your other post. I think they are just air bubbles, possibly from small holes in your anchor.

Thats what I use, works really well and not expensive. My plants grow happily with no other fertiliser added to the water.

Really sorry to hear what happened.

I don't know the tank but often people run an external as well as the built in filter on a tank if its biggish in size as sometimes the built in filter isn't as good as it could be. The external should be fine to use even as long as you give it a good wash out and perhaps just replace the media if its been used on a turtle tank. If you decide you look at new externals it would be worth contacting some of the newer shops up here for prices as its fairly competitive at the moment and even with the cost of shipping may be cheaper.

The advantage of using a sponge filter is that fry can feed off the nutrients on the sponge as well.

Feeding a selection, a different variety twice a day but only small quantities which I have to crush a bit so they fit in the fishes mouths as the fish are still fairly small and not many in the tank - TetraMin Tropical Granules - The Rich Mix JBL Novo GranoColor Sera Flake Menu & Live BBS I feed it in all of my 4 4ft tanks plus the 7 2fts I have. Occasionally before this I have seen small amounts of film on my tanks which just seems to disappear by itself until now.

Thanks again, also for the tip on how to remove the stuff. I didn't really have any surface movement until I moved the filter outlet earlier this evening to higher up in the tank as this is the tank for my smaller fighters. Each subsequent tank I have has more filter power and a bigger powerhead than the previous one.

Sharn, you posted at the same time as me. What is protein film caused by please?

Thanks for that - I moved the outlet this evening just before I posted this and it looks a bit better, where the water is breaking the surface its now clear and the muck has moved down towards each end of the tank. Do you think I should clean out my filter or leave it a bit. My other option is also to get a power head for the tank, was trying to avoid it as this tank is the one I am going to use for my pretty young fighters. I was worried that it might be a form of algae. Also noticed it in one of my planted tanks tonight, just at one edge.

Afrikan - what was she holding?

Should also have added, the bigger the fish, the longer the fins, probably the older he would have been too. Not always but in most cases.

I don't know if this will help or not. 1. Sometimes fish are sick when you buy them but it takes a while to show up - up to 4 weeks. 2. The other fish may have been picking on him. 3. He may have died due to stress - this also can cause white spot. Sometimes just shifting tanks can do it. Do the fish still have white spots on them and if so more or less? The only thing I can really say is that guppies are pretty tough. If only one has died its probably nothing to worry about, but if anymore get sick/die, stop eating, swim funny/look strange, let us know.

Not that I've seen, they're the non scratch ones from the supermarket. Mind you I suppose it depends on how hard you rub but they do the job on my tanks. I just cut one up into pieces and have a different piece for each tank.

In one of my 4ft tanks I have this problem. Can anyone tell me what it is and what its being caused by? Theres about 80 litres of water in the tank at the moment and the external filter flowrate is 390 lph. The tank has a small amount of floating weed and about 20 fighters 15mm long. I have tried leaving the filter to settle for about 3 weeks and no visible difference. Previously this filter was running in another tank the same size with no problems. Surface of tank looking down Surface of tank when I stir the water Inside the tank when I stir the water The tank looks fine looking in through the glass unless I have given it a mix around.

Looks like it to me but I bow to Caryl in experience and its certainly worth trying what she suggests. I'd be interested to know if it works.

I use those scour pads too and they work great.

Wouldn't think they would be hard to get. Pet Planet in Onehunga, Auckland sells piping in rolls - you just order the length you need. Pm them and see what they can do. They will probably know the diameter from the filter model. Other places most likely have it, I just noticed it when I was in there getting my two latest external filters and I thought it seem really cheap.

I feed flakes and bits, live bbs, frozen daphnia and brine shrimp and they also nibble on the plec tabs I drop into the tank. I still feed blood worms but never more than once a week and try not to let the fish have more than 4 at one time. As Alanmin says you can't repair internal organ damage, we don't donor lists for fish yet! :-?