Adrienne

No, not a jewel, this is it viewtopic.php?f=4&t=61015&p=688714&hilit=updated#p688714

My tank is 450 - so 1500L x 500D x 600H (gives you some idea of the surface area). I have 8 parkinsons, 3 red, 2 lake kutubu (blues), 4 boesmani, 2 possibly splendida females, 3 herbertaxelrodi, 4 either australis or nigrans (they don't seem to fit either picture). The parkinsons and nigrans/australis are around 7 - 8cm, the rest slightly smaller except the herbertaxelrodi who are new and about 4cm. I also have in there 5 dwarf chain loaches who are forever nipping scales off the rainbows if they get down low in the tank, 1 black red tail shark and 1 SAE (both full size), 12 pristella tetra and 6 different types of bristle nose. I would like to get some more blues as my tank is too red/orange

Any farmers nearby? If you only want to live there at weekends you could lease the grazing land to a farmer.

Are you getting rid of your red tiger lotus? Adrienne

Tiger barbs are the more nippy of the three types you have. If you are going to combine them I would recommend you also get another couple of tiger barbs so they annoy each other and leave the other barbs alone.

oops http://www.aquaticcommunity.com/rainbowfish/ I have two which I assumed to be female, species unknown that look like the chequered pictured here but if the ones you have seen have the coloured fins and tail as in your image I would be keen as well. As I said none of my 'herbertaxelrodi' look like they should atm but they are still smallish and colouring up.

What are checkered rainbows? Heres a really good link that I use I googled, it would be interesting to see what they turned out like. My axelrodi (3) are three different rainbow types, yet to be decided what any of them are

So did I Alan with no issues.

Feeding bloodworms more than on the odd occasion will increase the number of them developing dropsy. The other thing is that you sell quite a few of your - it would be far kinder to the purchasers to have them eating a variety of dried foods as well. People aren't going to purchase a pack of bloodworms and chop off a few each day for a single fish.

They should eat bloodworms but you might have to hold each worm in tweezers and wiggle it so it appears alive.

Could be either reason but I tend to think the clamped top fin combined with heavier breathing is possibly external parasites. Do you have a strong magnifying glass?

One of the most stunning rainbow you can get - imo - is the Parkinsonii or Parkinsons. New to the country early this year - don't look much in shops but when they colour up they are fluorescent orange. Only males in this country to my knowledge.

Are you doing an all males tank? I don't know how correct this is but I read that to get the best colours out of male rainbows there needs to be a female in the mix.

my pH is 6. they are fast swimming fish who get big so if you want a big group you will need to make sure you leave a big space free for them. I have about 20 of them in my 450litre.

While people do do it, with limited success, it is not a good idea to mix gourami in a tank. You would be more likely to get away with it if you were introducing two types at the same time but I would think there will only be tears if you try and add two or even more to a tank with an established pair of gourami in there (by established pair I do not mean a breeding pair but two existing gourami). Both of these types of gourami get large - 12cm - 14cm per fish and need a big surface area for their own territory. With that stocking you could add a few more mid level fish in a tank that size. If you increased your neon school to 20 they will be more active as well.

They will live in 18 degrees but originating from the tropics I would doubt they will survive in much colder water. At 18 degrees their metabolism will slow right down

beautiful

They have been in the country but not commonly available to my knowledge. Last time the shops had them we fishkeepers complained about the price we had to pay so not many sold therefore the shops are less likely to stock them again. I know a few cory breeders but not any with schwartzi.

You could try bleach. I don't know if it will work but it should cut through the worst. Bleach everything including the sponges and then rinse, rinse and rinse again.

Its illegal to release any creature in to the waterways, even if you return them to where you got them from. The reason being that you do not know what potential diseases etc they may have picked up from your tanks or ponds, what plants they may have ingested. The below is one point taken from this thread - viewtopic.php?f=41&t=49106 ' You may not transfer live aquatic animals from one natural waterway to another without permission. If the species does not exist in the recipient waterway DOC permission is required. If it does already exist there, approval is required from the Ministry of Fisheries. It is also illegal to release fish back into a natural waterway without prior approval, even if you are returning them to where they came from. The only exception would be where a fish has been caught and then returned immediately to the same waterway (eg. if you are recreationally fishing). If a fish that has been in captivity is transferred back into a natural stream it could have contracted some type of disease or fungi which that fish could then spread to a natural population.'

I don't know if its illegal to take them (eels) but now you have it is very illegal to release or return them. I hope you have a suitable home for it for the rest of its life.

Its worth giving it a shot if you like the look. The plants are not that expensive and even one pot carefully broken up and replanted will give you a decent spread. My tank is 5ft and I put in 3 pots down one end and its happy travelled the 150cm tank length.

I grow it submersed in my 60cm deep tank and was told it would be unlikely to work unless I went to MH lights because of the tank depth - I use 4xT5HO and 2xT8. My T5HO are acadia plant pro bulbs. It has covered well to the surprise of many even growing under the big swords although grow is much slowed there. I do not know whether the ferts in the substrate are helping as well. I also dose ferts every second day using the Tom Barr method. I was growing magdelensis chain sword until the glosso established and that went absolutely mad, now I only have a few plants of that and the rest is glosso. I looked at your question last night and wasn't certain. At a depth of 30cm the T8 lights will possibly work, I would put the highest quality (which means more expensive) bulbs into your fittings and get them down as close to the surface of the tank as you can. Do the 18watt cover the entire surface of your tank - length and width? Or are they the 18" lights. The idea will be to get as many lights on the top as you can - the light needs to penetrate right down to the substrate and as glosso does need high light. If you want to come and pick up a small amount of glosso from me you can see if it does take. It should start to move within a week if the lighting is sufficient.

No experience with the Army but when my son interviewed for a Helicopter Pilot position in the Airforce they were as much interested in questioning him about life experience as they were about anything else. Make sure you remind yourself of everything you have seen and done and the places you have been before you go. If this is your first interview I suspect you will find you are in for more in depth questioning later and rigorous physical and written testing to find out your academic abilities, your natural responses when things don't go your own way, your leadership abilities etc etc. Good luck

Right, found some muscle , borrowed a car with a tow bar and Central Landscaping has trailers Not organised enough to have it delivered and it was hubbys request to make a strawberry plot today for Fathers Day