jn

If you go to the home page here and look to the far right you'll see a list that has things like articles and stuff in it.. there's a plant survey which is quiate a good starting point. It has drawings rather than pictures though but it's extremely informative and gives you temp and pH ranges etc. (Although when I tried the link in the wee hours yesterday it wasn't working) There are a couple of really good links that were posted here recently too: www.plantgeek.net http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... antfinder/

Sorry.. this was a double post due to a server hangup!

The water won't get any ammonia, nitrite, or nitrate until a fish is added. I'd add a fish straight away but only 1. Without any waste to feed on the good bacteria will start to die off. The best bet would then be to start testing the water a day or 2 after one goes in and watch for ammonia. This can take a week to show up. I don't bother testing for nitrites until after I see an ammonia reading. If you can wait till that all settles before adding another fish and so on that would be ideal. Otherwise as long as you keep testing and changing the water when the test show the levels are high or the fish look bothered you should be fine.

I'm sorry to hear you couldn't find any. I'd offer you some but I'm out myself and have been too flat out to get back to the farm store yet. If I can get there next week I'll buy up as much as I can and let you know. I know I said it before but have you tried sending a pm to chazza for some adtape? It's worth asking I reckon. Nothing to lose. Maybe if nothign else though the malachite formalin will keep the number down a little until you sore something else out?

Don't do it I added a couple little pond fish to my tank and I'm still recovering from it! Adding the water would be just as bad. The other thread going where pond water is being used is to house fish that are in the pond already. I would also suggest to that person that they not try to add any other fish without doing some sort of parasite treatment. Cycling is alot easier (and cheaper) than treating a disease once you have it. (Same for river water by the way!)

Don't worry too much about the air. it isn't essential. The water get airated pretty well in the trickle filter. The plant will help a lot. One you buy the fish in there watch them very cloely.. watch their gills which tells you how they are breathing and watch them for swimming erratically which could me discomfort from the buildup of ammionia etc. If this happens change 50% of the water.. keep watching them. you may need to do it fairly often for several weeks. that subunkin I mentioned, I put into a tank that has had 7 small fish in it and had been running for 9 months. I took all the fish out and replaced them with the shubunkin and 3 tiny wee baby shunkins (which are basically just a different type of goldfish) and my tank has JUST finished cycling 3 weeks later.. I had about 10 days where I was having to water change every other day.. and this was in a tank that already had some bacteria present.

is there a sponge on your pond pump? That's where alot of bacteria will be. If you could put that in your tank that would help Tie it down with some stones or something In the tank, the bacteria will eventually live in the gravel but mainly in the filter media, in the case of your tank, those noodle things (which is why its important you never rinse them in anything other than tank water)

Cycling is the conversion of fish wastes (which are kind of toxic in the water) to harmless by products. In a pond it's not too much of a worry because there's usually alot of water relative to the amount of fish (I had ponds before tanks and found out about cycling the hard way ie: dead fish!) Fish produce ammonia (goldfish even more than most). This ammonia eventually gets broken down into nitrite (also toxic) by a certain type of bacteria. The nitrite depends on a different bacteria to get broken down into nitrate. Nitrate is reasonably harmless and plants feed off it or water changes keep it under control. But the bacteria needed to convert the harmful stuff to good stuff take quite a while to grow (like weeks!) Ideally, you start off the tank with 1 goldfish. Then add others as the bacteria grows. If you can't do this there are things you can buy I think to help detoxify stuff as its cycling. Frequent (like daily) water changes can help the fish cope, a test kit might also be useful. If you have any plants in nthe pond that you can put into the tank and/or any gravel that's in the pond or in baskets or whatever this might help heaps as they will already have some of the good bacteria on them

Hey there. I hope those comets are very small If this is your first tank do you know about cycling? I would start with only 1 fish in the tank if it's going to be a comet. You tank is going to cycle and cylcling with 3 is going to mean alot of water changes. Personally I'm 'fishsitting' a shubunkin that's about 6cm long in a 40L tank the aqua one version of what you have so virtually identical) and I can't wait till the pond warms up so I can put him out. Comets are 'zippy' fish... they seem too cramped in a small tank and all they can do is swim in circles. I've also got 3 babies in there, they're fine but as soon as they start to grow the need to go to a pond or a LONG tank I feel.

You tank water should be fine really. Didn't mean to alarm you If it's too soft that can easily be fixed and would be alot less trouble than having to go get water elsewhere. Fish do get parasites and stuff and I'd be worried about using river water I think cause you don't know what's in there.

green slime sounds alot more like blue-green algae to me (cyanobacteria) Use the search for lots of info on it. Basically it seems to like low nitrates (ie: plenty of plants and not alot of fish) and high phosphates (a bit much feeding or dying plants). Black beard algae is fuzzy and I don't think it tends to grow on the glass and gravel.

Maybe start with raising the temp and adding some more airation. I'd wait until you were able to closely supervise the fish if you're worried about meds affecting them. Before you dose the treatment (given that you're concerned) take out a bucket of tank water and leave it right by your tank with a net ready. (Try to keep it at a good temp somehow I guess). Then dose the meds very slowly over several hours if you need to and don't take your eyes off them. If anyone starts to really freak (they will get a little uncomfortable I'm sure but freaking out is different!!) take them out pronto. I dosed with some wunder cure a while back. I stopped at a quarter of the dose the first time cause they showed some discomfort but then I came back and added a little more, slowly after they had adjusted and relaxed. Start by adding a few drops at a time, but premix with a bit of tank water and then pour it into a high flow area. Try not to pour directly onto any of the fish. I added small amount every 20 mins or so over several hours (assuming effects might not be immediate). I kept adding drops the next day and got fairly close to full recommended concentration (I didn't have any sensitive fish though). The key is not to dump stuff in there and then act surprised if they don't cope. Go slow, watch carefully, be prepared to deal with any adverse reactions.

I believe the reason you don't want to stir up too much gunk is that, unavoidably, there are pockets of bacteria from waste and any excess food decomposing in there which can be bad for the fish. Cloudy water is often a sign of a bacteria bloom. This isn't always harmful but it has the potential to be.

I agree.. you must have a decent farm store in palmy! that's where I'm getting mine. Call them up and ask for some droncit. Or how about calling a vet that does farm animals and beging for adtape? or pm Chaat from that other thread and ask if he'll do you a deal and buy you some (of course he'll need some money for his trouble!) How big is your tank for the record? The flukes left behind in your tank would eventually die if you took out all the fish (I think they need to find a host within about 24 hours) but the eggs may take 4-5 days to hatch (from what I've read) so I reckon you'd have the leave the tank without fish for at least 10 days at a reasonably high temp to be 100% sure. If you go to the trouble I wouldn't reintroduce any of the old fish back without giving them a full course of treatment anyway. The only think is that if yuor tankis big.. maybe you could borrow a smaller one for treatment to save some money!

I emailed brooklands a couple weeks back asking if they still imported fluketabs (they don't) and they said I should talk to my vet to get me some praziquantel! So they're sending us in circles..

Shadowfax.. you were going to ask someone about getting prazi in fish sized amount.. any news? Sounds like you need some. Anyway this was the thread: http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/next-v ... c&start=15 See the post by Chaat who know where to get some adtape. There's a post around that explain how to dose with adtape. But mayb you've got a vet there who can get you some? (I've never tried mu own vet.. I should cause it may work out cheaper than droncit)

http://www.aquariumfish.net/information ... e_fish.htm have a poke in here. It gives some ideas for fish groupings as a starting point.

Hey there kiwiplymouth.... My water is also stored in a concrete tank (and old one granted so probably well and truly leached out of anything that was going to leach!) I'm on bore water though not rainwater. My pH sits fairly neutral (about 7.2 I think). I think the concrete might help raise the pH if the rainwater was acidic but the best thing to do is get it tested to know where you stand. I don't do anything special. I think rainwater tends to lack buffering capability which means the pH might be less stable under certain conditions. The concrete might help this? Someone else can probably elaborate but I'm prety sure this is something I think you can test for (hardness test I think)? I've never tested the hardness here since I don't keep anything that has specific requirements and chc tap water is basically bore water anyway I think if you use the search from the menu at the top and look for 'rainwater' you'll probably come up with all sorts of good information I spent weeks going through search results for various things when I started up my first tank (only January this year!!) and found it extremely helpful. Have fun Good on you getting all the info first.. saves a lot of frustration and worry later on!

So have you taken the eggs out then?

Just saw your gravel vac post.. have you changed your cleaning routine or stirred up gravel in a way you hadn't before?

Not mysteriously missing any fish are you? Or maybe one of your filter pipes has got something in it? Added fish? Changed your food?

Is your pH good too?

Seriously Caper.. since no one has asked I will.. why is this a disaster for you? You said recently that there was only 1 place to buy fish in town...and that yo weren't always sure they were healthy. Don't you think you might be able to sell these if they hatch?

Casper, I have very little experience but have done a bundle of reading (not that that's worth a heck of alot but seeing as I don't see alot of experts coming out of the woodwork I'll sum up what I've read!!) There are some parasites that are virtually invisible or very hard to spot. I think velvet (oodinium), chilodonella and costia would fall into that category as opposed to white spot which is visible to the naked eye (please someone correct me if I'm wrong). I have NO idea if these parasites are common or not. (This link isn't a fantastic website but will give you an idea) http://www.angelfire.com/blues/fish_problems/main.html I'm not sure about the blackout they talk as a 'cure' but again.. maybe someone with some real-life experiene can tell us !! Flukes realy annoy fish and they would be flashing. It can cause gill damage and laboured breathing but it would have to be pretty extreme before they died from it I think. The fish get red looking gills and they look inflamed (like they don't sit flat against the fish anymore). Prazi is good for treating flukes and tapeworm but useless on any other type of parasite - not to mention expensive so exhaust your other options first I'd say! Metronidazole is mainly used for treating hexamita. If your fish aren't flashing at ALL then maybe this is your problem? If they are.. personally I'd start with something like Wunder Cure that you can buy pretty cheaply from a pet store. I'm pretty sure that most external parasites cause the fish to swim erratically and they will most likely rub on stuff in the tank (plants, substrate etc). They may only do this sometimes. I found with mine they most often flashed after they had eaten (ie: after I turned the pump back on). They might not do this constantly so sit and watch them for a while. I don't think they stop eating until it gets very severe (ie: I'm not sure they'd show the 'wasting away' like you're seeing? How big is your tank and what's your fitration? Also has anything else changed since just before you started noticing problems? (Like increased your temps, added new fish or new plants or anything?) Also: Some fish are adversly affected by certain meds. I coulndn't tell you which fish or which meds unfortunately so try to get some more advice from some experts before your start any treatment! Although I think metro and prazi are usually pretty safe but unsure about the other stuff.

Are the eggs necessarily fertile? Maybe they won't hatch