Adrienne

I always used to use feeding blocks and my fish - mostly guppies and swords were okay.

Hi, one of my Cambodians and my Crowntail don't blow nests until they are actually spawning. If you have any bubbles from another males nest transfer some to the spawning area - sometimes this encourages them to start or they can use these. If he's green (novice) it might take some time.

thanks - I'll chuck it.

I picked up some tanks yesterday and there were some bits of coral in them. Do those of you with saltwater fish have any use for this type of thing. Let me know and if any use I'll put them up for grabs in the buy/sell section.

Nice pics, its always really interesting to see what colours the camera brings out.

I would tend to wash it out with water really well and just use a decent sort of cloth or even a non scratch scourer to rub down the glass. Then rinse and leave out in the sun (if we have any) to dry. You will soon see if you've got rid of it all.

What exactly are you wanting to change about the tank or are you just talking about cleaning up the tank to get rid of the salt water residue etc? Does it have sump holes that you want plugged?

Are you able to post a pic of them?

Andrew, yes they do fight and often will kill particularly if one can't get away and hide. I know of one peson lately who lost both their males when they managed to get in together. At the least they will end up very very badly beaten. I myself have had quite young males attack and kill another young male. Once again it probably depends on the personality and genes of the fish but its not worth risking it.

You may find in about a week that you do have some fry still alive in the tank - they are very good at hiding. Heres hoping!

Differing opinions on the fish flaring a lot. My males do it most of the time at each other, some say it stresses them, others that it is good as it increases and strengthens their fins. I haven't noticed any ill effects from it. Some people suggest that if you have a male fighter alone it is good to show the fish a mirror every so often.

99.9% certain they are for marine tanks.

Can't help a lot but IMO 2 years old is quite old for a betta in captivity. I have had an older female do this, sort of looked like she's had a stroke and was twisted so one side sort of stuck out. Lay around on her side a lot and only moved to get food every couple of days. Went on for several months and then she got really skinny. I euthanaised her in the end as she could no longer get to food. None of the others ever caught it.

Possibly pregnant, but unlikely even if you have males as not typical behaviour for a health fish. Check - can you see the scales sticking out at an angle, you may need to look down from above to see this. Is it eating? If it looks like a pinecone i.e. scales protruding it has dropsy, pretty much fatal and the best thing to do is euthanaise the fish. A pic would be good if you can post one.

Excuse my ignorance, but what is it?

I've had red fin sharks in a community tank before with a fighter, neons, guppies and swords and apart from the occasional - get out of my way, I'm coming though!!, no problems at all.

Help please, I purchased one of these off TM a while back but for the life of me can not work out how to put the filter together. I have the power head part as one piece and then the spray bar and the piping part that attaches to it. How on earth do I join them or am I missing a bit. Also I am going to need to put a heater in as well. Has anyone done this and if so how?. I know Wok has one of these, was going to pm but decided I might not be the only one unable to assemble it.

Should be fine, great as community fish, I have a tank of females in with platies, swords and catfish.

Wish I'd taken a photo - was a gold something, as were the other labels. $185 if my memory serves me right but I thought it was a really nice looking catfish, then again I've only got bristlenose young.

Yes, good idea to have lots of floating plants, the more dense the better. Lots of ground cover plants, in fact plants everywhere. Fry will hide under leaves, stones, behind filters, anywhere. Gives the fry somewhere to hide. Breeding traps sort of work but only if you put mother guppy in right when shes due to give birth and even then she sometimes eats them.

For those of you in Auckland, there is a large catfish in at Jansens, Lincoln Rd. Has gold on its fins and spots over it. I was in there today and really liked it but the people there didn't know which one it was and there were three labels on the glass. Can anyone ID it for me so I can do a search on it. Thanks

Probably too late with this but try a water change, about 30%, check your temperature in your tank, try adding an air stone or oxygen to the water, check your nitrates and ammonia if you have a test kit. Have you added anything - fish, plants in the last few days or have you sprayed something in the house?

Hi, barbs and male fighters are not compatable as the barbs will nip and shred the male fighters fins and tail.

I have a 120cm tank with about 35 1 1/2 litre bottles in it for male fighters, running a cf1200. Not enough current to pick up all the muck so think I probably need a powerhead now I know what they are for instead of going for a bigger cannister filter. Thanks everyone.

Don't hink so - she relisted it again yesterday.