Adrienne

could be magdalensis chain. That has next to no root structure to begin with as you have described.

That's the way most local marine keepers do it. The ones with the bigger tanks and serious set ups seem to order or gather from Tauranga or down South. I gather there are two 'preferred' places for this.

You are most likely going to need a chiller as chch gets damn hot with the North Westers. Close your garage up for 48 hrs and then test the temperature of the water.

Where do you live - that has a bearing on what the temperature might get up to and remember that pumps etc generate heat as well.

Only one thing I can add to the article that LA linked to - I consider a chiller is essential for those hot days and steamy nights.

less food and more/larger water changes. you will never stop algae, the best you can do it try to limit the amount you get

nitrate less than 20 phosphate 0 if possible Algae feeds off nitrate and phosphate.

What are your nitrate and phosphate readings?

How much external light is it getting?

photo bucket is what I use

It's algae on the glass. Does your tank face a window? My 450 litre is across the room from our floor-ceiling windows and suffers badly from algae on the glass caused by the bright, but indirect light. If no one is home I keep the drapes drawn. I have reduced my lights down to 7 hours a day - come on at mid-day and go off at 7pm. This has reduced the amount of algae I remove at water changes considerably. You could also try increasing the amount you water change to between 30-50% if that is an option as it will keep the nitrates and phosphates down which may also help.

Good effort

Trilobite sold up all her fighters and moved to Australia at the beginning of the year.

Probably very uncomfortable for them in tropical! Actually its downright cruel to keep cold water fish/natives in tropical conditions. If people can't take the time to do it properly and buy a chiller or provide a reliable constant cooling source for their tanks then they deserve to be reported to the SPCA, who I can say are becoming a lot more active as far as fish are concerned. Unfortunately up here the climate is becoming more subtropical and many more fish could survive in the wild than previously. MPI might not be great at some things but I am sure they realise that much.

Alex is very right. Why would new freshwater fish/inverts be allowed into NZ when we as fish keepers ignore regulations and do as we please with what is here already. Rules like not releasing fish into waterways, well I am sure the goldfish at my dog park didn't walk there! I'm sure the catfish etc at the local parks didn't either. Rules with natives like once caught, not releasing them. Yeah right! We have to prove that we are responsible and unfortunately I commonly see (often in these forums) a lack of research and the she'll be right attitude. The $40,000 is not all that needs to be done, a huge amount of documentation is required. PROOF that should they escape they will not breed, eat our natives etc etc. All the $40,000 (or whatever figure is put on the charge) does is accompany the application.

I've had mine about three weeks too with no obvious weight loss. I squirt the mysid and brine into the rock work and he seems to pick in that area. He cleaned out my apistasia on day 3 - it was there and ten mins later all was gone. He's also cleaned out all my fans He was eating mysid and brine in the shop before I got him. Where do you get the clams from, my paknsave only has mussels and how long do you leave it in the tank for? I haven't tried garlic guard but was contemplating it this morning. I think I will try tomorrow.

Looking good What's the Copperband eating?

I wouldn't like to guess if it's the same thing or not. If it's internal and a bacteria I would expect furan to help. Same thing with the fighter, if its bacterial I would expect the furan to help. Yours is about the third post I have seen on the net in nz in the last week about fish showing black. Only conclusive one was a marine which died and an autopsy was done.

Ember tetra I would think is going black from internal bleeding which could be bacterial. I'm surprised your fighter is alive with that amount of damage done to its beard.

4, down a lot from the 20 odd I had when I was supplying most of NZ with Siamese Fighters. 1 x 450 litre planted discus tank (lounge) 1 x 215 litre planted angelfish tank (dining room) 1 x 250 litre tropical marine tank (lounge) 1 x 40 litre fry grow out tank (study) 1 more will be going up once I get some space in the garage - a marine QT tank My husband doesn't mind how many tanks I have as long as I maintain a discus tank and a marine tank nor where they are placed.

I went for nearly nine months last year with the most awful bubble algae I had ever encountered. Thick bubbles all over the top of the tank, stopped all the water movement - was awful. Finally discovered it could be caused by no nitrates in the tank. The massive sword I had in there along with all my other plants were sucking the nitrate out and this caused the algae. Ended up ripping out the sword and now no algae Plants do great things to reduce nitrates. Don't ever let anyone say it is impossible to have 0 nitrate in an established tank

I know (have heard) of many overseas people using it but what are you after? You are unable to purchase any livestock or plants off it if you live in NZ as your profile shows. Even medications not licensed for NZ can not be purchased.

Males may eat the eggs for the following reasons: The fry are deformed or weak The male has not been conditioned well enough prior to breeding and is hungry The male is what is called an 'egg eater' and will always be The owner keeps 'checking' on the nest/fry/male and is spooking the male fighter - more often happens with young new breeders. Are you sure he ate them and isn't just holding them? Many times I have thought newly hatched fry have been eaten only to see them in the tank two - three weeks later.

Okay, a few of questions first. When you purchased the established tank how did you transport it home? Did you take everything out of it and put it back? Did you rinse the filter out? Did you bring any of the water that was already in the tank home with you? Do you have ammonia, nitrite and nitrate test kits? I see you mention nitrate and pH but what is spot on? Is this your first time fish keeping? How long have you had the tank for? Where in the country are you?

99.9% certain you are talking BBA (black beard algae), the bane of a fish keepers life along with other persistent algaes. Google Black Beard Algae to confirm. A few ways of getting rid of it - 1. Manual removal - pick it all off making sure nothing gets into the water column as every loose tuft attaches and grows. It will continue to grow back and you will need to keep at it. 2. Bleach the plants - fine for some plants, others won't tolerate it. If you want to go down this route I can give you a link. The bleach does not go into the tank, the plants must be removed for this. 3. Purchase some small young Siamese Algae Eaters (SAE) aka Blackline flying foxes. They will eat the young new BBA but not once it becomes established. These are not to be confused with Flying Foxes which have been coming into the shops recently as Blackline Flying foxes. 4. Dose your tank with flourish excel - once again this depends on your plants and also fish as some do not tolerate it well or at double strength. This is a form of carbon. Double dosing the recommended dose on the first day followed by daily maintenance for a week - ten days will see it begin to die off. Then regular 2-3x a week dosing will keep it at bay. Flourish excel can also be syringed directly onto problem areas.