jn

Oh yeah.. I have shrimp pellets too.. but they break apart easily and they seemed unfamilair to them so I've only twice given them a half so it doesn't pollute the tank. Ok.. spotted on loaches.com that they do put stones outside in sunny tanks.. so will set that up tonight. They have flat stones big enough to sit on all around the tank.. and one cheeky fellow has dug himself a big pit underneath one of them and defends his spot relentlessly!! Comes racing out when anyone else get on top.. chases them off.. and goes back into his hidey-hole! What's the probablilty of stuff growing on the surfaces without visible algae?? (Oh.. and if any mods this this would be better off in the freshwater section I'm happy for it to be moved :-? )

Yup.. I know aufwuchs or something like that.. micro-organisms that live in the algae....I was told to feed them pleco tabs when I bought the fish at Organism (I specifically asked). They eat them, they loved the peas. I know they need algae and have been letting the tank get a bit of natural sunlight to help encourage this. But in the meantime.. they've got to eat something right? I can't imagine them chasing live food? (I wasn't sure if they were technically lumped wth catfish or not so I posted in here. ... but I figured poeple who knew about sucker typed fish might be reading under this section) I can try to speed up some algae by putting some stones and some driftwood out in a sunny spot in some water...but will that work or will it just go stagnant and rancid? Does anyone know how I can culture myself some algae?? I have plenty in my other tank but these guys were expensive and they're in quarantine for at least 3 weeks no ifs, ands, or buts!! (and until I'm 100% comfortable that my other tank is safe for them.. bug wise!!) I don't want to take the plants out of the tank their in cause they're using them for cover although I know this would free up extra nutrients for algae growth I think the fish and the tank would be worse off for it while its cycling) What other helpful hints can you give me?

I've got 3 little borneo suckers I mentioned in another post. The tank is newly set up and planted so no algae growth yet. It's also not technically cycled yet so I'm testing ammonia/nitrite daily. There was a small 'blip' on day one and none since so perhaps that was it (3 itty bitty fish in 40L), they've been in there since Thursday so will carry on testing for about 10 days to be sure. One of them is really thin so I want to make sure it starts to gain a bit of weight, but I don't want to overfeed. They are getting JBL Novoplec and I'm sort of putting in 1 per day - and an extra every other day so far. It looks like its all getting eaten apart from small bits which need vacuuming from between the pebbles. I gave a couple cooked half peas too for some 'fresher' greens. Does that sound reasonable? Should I decrease the amount once I start seeing some algae? Packet says as much as they can eat in 20 mins but 1 tab last them almost a whole day!

Excellent advice.. I'm all for going with the cheaper one if they're both just as good. They're about the same price for the size I need from petplanet so I thought I'd just check if one was better than the other

HI all, I want to buy another gravel cleaner. I have a Marina one, the mini size, which suited my small tank. But I'm finding the very narrow tube sometimes chokes up with gravel. It also has this gravl guard thing... which sometimes gets stuff stuck in it (but the flow continues anyway which I guess is better then stuff getting stuck right at the tube inlet?!) The bigger marina ones have oval shaped tubes, the aqua ones have those wide mouths on them... have any of you tried both?

Sorry to hijack.. but actually I have a container critter question now that I think of it. I happen to have a container with only plants in it and its got some bugs growing in it that I don't recognise. I see the mozzie larvae, long with a head and kind of hairy looking .. move by wriggle in a sort of sideways motion... but there is a bug that was very small and kind of round that propelled itself by what I can only describe as 'somersaulting' .. spins away Is that daphnia? (this has some plants from a pond I splt up but no fish.. I'm not feeding any live foods but maybe I should?)

I'm betting Caryl's container idea would be better. With no fish in the containers its less likely (I think) that there would be parasites that would affect your fish (since there are no fish as hosts in the containers!!) Whereas your stream may have fish in it somehwere.. whcih may have parasites and could possibly infect your fish? (someone please correct me if I'm wrong :oops: )

Thanks purplecatfish... I had been surfing that site I probably remembered it from a post of yours a while back I can't remember they name right now but I'm pretty sure that 2 are the same..the ones with the unbroken blue rays in the tails. Here we go.. these guys...so sexing them is only possible by body shape? Do the males get more barbels? http://www.loaches.com/species-index/ga ... nocephalus They're quite pretty. Very elegant looking creatures. The other didn't look anything like the ones pictured. He definitely had a pattern. Its not spots and actually I had said it was stripes but it isn't stripes either. I'm pretty sure its repeating pattern one his sides that liike like an '0' with a vertical bar in the middle of the '0'. (This is the skinny chap) I can't see colour in his tail but he is smaller and obviously not in the best condition so who knows. He's been keeping it shut too so that doesn't help. Is there a good way to tell if its not a gastrmyzon but one of the other similar species? I'll try to post a pic once they settle in a bit better... They're hiding behind a little dense'ish clump of plants in the back corner when I walk in.. but I've already seen them sitting on the smooth flat stones I put in at the point where I figured there was the most current. (There's 3 of them so they don't have to figh .. unless they feel like it!) Thankfully for me this is right at the front middle of the tank (AR380 - 40L with a very high turnover from the pump it comes with, going through through the trickle filter so should be plenty of oxygen) and pretty good flow, although obviously not as good as a river tank setup. Maybe someday

Sounds like a safety hazard! But cool nonetheless... so someone tell me.. is it legal to keep native fish and if so where can you procure them from

The skinny one is a lot smaller too? Are they maybe just skinny when they're young??

Finally treated myself to some new fish, I bought a trio of Borneo suckers today They're now officially the most expensive fish I own (I'm sure thats gonna make some of you guys laugh!!!) In another window I'm surfing loaches.com to identify which type they are. I'm pretty sure they're just gastromyzon but not sure which type. One has has red nostrils. They haven't done alot of fin flaring yet but I'm pretty sure 2 have blue in their tail fins but not in their dorsal fins (to be confirmed!) The blue finned ones are spotted. The other has more of a lined pattern but not 'striped' one per se. (like not sewellia lineolata.. could be just a different pattern of the same variety though I guess...but I don't think it has the blue so maybe not) One chappie though is BONE THIN! I've only ever seen borneo suckers once or twice before but it's pretty clear this one is emaciated. He must have been at the bottom of the pecking order. He is well sunken in behind his head and I'm pretty sure the rest of him is just his bone shape! The good news is that I dropped some food in there (I was going to wait till tomorrow before feeding them until I spotted Mr. Skinny) and he hasn't stopped eating since I don't know what their normal behavior is but his colour seems good (nice and dark, good contrast with the spots) and he seems to be breathing at the same rate as everyone else so I don't think he unwell.. just HUNGRY! How fast should he start to put on some weight? They are in a sterilized tank that has been running with plants in it for about 10 days. I know it will cycle but I worry still that my other fish may have something as I lost one fish just the other week. So no media going into the clean tank.. I'll just have to keep an eye on it. 3 small suckers in about 30L with plants shouldn't be a problem I hope. :bounce: Just felt like sharing my news!! !

I remember reading somewhere that for snail eggs you may need to leave plants as long as 24 hours. I believe most plants can handle it. But if you can find eggs on the plants maybe you can remove some manually.

Goldfish don't eat older larvae? Or older goldfish dont' eat larvae?

What are you picking up?

doubt you'd need heat packs this time of year?

Danilada, its not about the water that goes in the tank.. its about what the fish wastes do to the water... they make ammonia (toxic), which eventually gets turned to nitrite (more toxic) which eventually gets turned to nitrate (toxic only at higher levels but feeds algae problems if left unchecked). So the tests are to see how badly your fish is polluting his tank. This is the 'cycle' you often hear people talking about.. the cycle happens due to the presence (eventually) of certain types of bacteria that feed on these compounds and break them down into the next stage. This takes several weeks for teh bacteria to establish, but once it does the conversion happens so quickly than none of the harmful components hang around long enough to harm your fish. One your tank is 'cycled' water changes are mainly to dilute nitrate, but in the early stages when a tank is 'new' the water changes must be frequent enough to dilute the toxic ammonia and nitrite. Also the wunder cure.. I don't think it explains very well on the bottle that to treat whitespot.. you have to continue treating until at least a full week after the spots are gone. It also helps to do gravel vacs becuase when the spots 'drop off' the fish they will hatch into heaps more parasites!! So you have to do like.. 1 treatment.. every day for what does it say no more than 3 treatments in a row? or 4? then leave it for a a few days... do a big water change (gravel vac!) then do it again.. 3 days...then wait.. and a whole cycle probably one more time to be sure!!! The meds dont' actually work on the 'spots'. That's the cyst stage....and imagine it's like a little wax bubble where the meds can't get in. When the spot 'hatches' they're at the free swimming stage.. this is when the meds work and is the reason you have to keep the meds up in the water for a long time.. until every thing has hatched and caught a dose of it.

I got mine from Oderings ...try your nearest garden store. Or ask at the chemist Mine was bottled in a small plastic jar that I almost didn't see so ask if you can't find it. It was near the stump rotter which is potassium nitrate Use gloves and you only need the tiniest pinch.. just a few grains at a time.

Do you have a nitrate test kit? Excess nitrate would be feeding algae. Also excess phosphates... As everyoen else said....water changes but also do some really thorough gravel vacuuming and cut dfown your feedign ALOT. Who was feedign your fish while you were awy? They may have been overfed which could be why your problem started.. of and give your filter media a REALLY good rinse. Replace the filter wool if its very mucky.

Sorry to hear about Puff Caper. Look, he wason the downhill slide and sometimes its just too hard to bring them back.You tried your best. When was your last water change? The water could have been murky because you dind't have anything filtering out the finer particles ('polishing' I think they call it!). Usually that would be a layer of filter wool (or plain untread dacron!). But I don't imagine it would have been the cause of Puff getting worse. You shouldn't need the carbon either. Sorry that you lost him though..

Sounds promising Danz I found when lowering the temp in my tank I had to turn the dial back past where I wanted it (lower) and then back to the right temp like the dial was more accurate turning it up than turning it down.

This would have been happening with the goldfish too.. but goldfish are very hardy so you probably didn't notice. You're not missing any fish are you? (ie: maybe there's a dead one decomposing somewhere in the tank?) That could explain the smell and high ammonia level. I have a cold tank and a 'warm' tank and my heated one always smells a bit more than the cool one. Tanks sounds pretty hot.. platties like it cooler I believe....25 would be more than enough....if you have your heater set very high you can turn it down 1 degree per day until you get to a good temp.

I'm not so sure. I think the bacteria need ammonia to feed on. The water you change out will have nitrates but not ammonia. It sounds great for the plants in the shed though..but I'm not sure the filter in there would have bacteria. You can try adding a heap of those plants to your 40L though... they might be able to use some ammonia directly

ok. with no fish in the tank in the shed, it means that you adding the filter from there to you 40L tank won't have done anything to help your cycle along. The bacteria need fish. They don't exist without it. It takes time for the bacteria to build up, more filtration doesn't help the bacteria grow any faster. If you took noodles from your goldfish tank for your 40L, but didn't put fish in the tank until later, then those bacteria died. Basically it sounds to me like your tank is cycling from scratch. Not a big deal since it sounds like you've only got a few fish in there.. but you still need to help it along. If you haven't been doing much in the way of water changes in a week and a half, that will explain why your water smells like ammonia. If you don't want more fish to die you need to do water changes until everything comes right...start with big ones since it's so bad you can smell it. Suggest you get a test kit so you know what's really going on. Also reduce your feeding to very minimal levels until its sorted. more food = more ammonia. I have a 40L tank and taking out 2 buckets worth is no big deal. Just make sure the water is a similar temp for refilling.

whats in the tank in your shed? What other fish are in the tank that's smelly? I'd be taking 2 buckets a day out if the smell is that bad.. till it settles. Did the noodles from the other tank run on a fishless tank for 1.5 weeks? If so the bacteria will have died of starvation.

It's not me!!! I had some in a pond at a rental, brought them home when we shut the pond down. Mentioned them here thinking I might sell some and was advised they were a weed/pes (Thank Caryl) So I have killed 2/3rds of them.. keeping a few, but will be deadheading them so they don't set seed and will not pass any on! The 'killed' ones are getting baked in the sun before being added to my compost heap and don't have any flowers so shouldn't contain any viable seed.