michael.qian

really? I remember seeing ones in Hollywood, in Auckland, are something around 15 dollars. Few weeks ago I bought 2X GBA from Trademe, at $5 each, youngs are though about 4cm.

Not sure about albino ones, but for golden blackeyed ancistrus I think it's about $15 for a fairly young one.

you don't have any at the moment?

in that case just add in one or two fish and watch the ammonia levels, if it's constantly 0ppm then your tank is already cycled. also test for nitrite and nitrate.

won't feed tomorrow, have already fed today, might do a water change tomorrow as well, but first I'll see how cloudy/clear the water is tomorrow morning. cheers

I wash the bloodworms in a a little bottle of tank water, expell the water, then put the bloodworms in. I think I maybe feeding a little too much as well, but the clown loaches don't seem to eat much of anything else, so I would like to get them to eat everyday. Also as many of you know I lost a small clown loach due to the skinny disease a while back, now there's two remaining, one is FAT and healthy, the other is also very skinny but is doing fine, it's constantly being bullied by the big fat one which is frustrating.

Just want to make sure I'm not overfeeding, here is what I feed everyday. 1 cube of bloodworm (intended for clown loaches & rams) 1 small pinch of flake food (tetras & Swordtails) 4-5 Hakari dried sinking pellets (mainly cories, other fish eat it as well) 1 slice of courgette (bristlenose, also eaten clown loach and siamese algae eater) and occasionaly 1 or 2 algaes spirulina tablet, about twice a week. 25-30% water change every wednesday.

the pH test can wait, but definitely get ammonia and nitrite first.

get test kits, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate. also a pH test kit is a good idea as well.

what's a bateria bloom? is it anything to do with an algae bloom? There shouldn't be any excess nutrients in there.

Tested the water ammonia 0ppm and nitrate 20ppm.

Comets will need a much much larger tank, ideally a pond. 5 comets at that size will make cycling quite difficult, you need very frequent water changes especially in a tank that size. Or as suggested above you could get some filter media from the pond and put it in the tank, that will have some bacteria on it and help speed up or kick start your cycling.

Hi all This is a surprise really, I came home at about 4.30pm today and noticed water has gone quite cloudy. Two weeks ago today, in fact at this exact time, I added a Fluval 405 filter (inside with 2X sponge, 2X carbon trays, 2X Biomax Ring trays). So tank has been running with both my Internal Eheim 2010 and this Fluval 405, though I plan to remove the Eheim in 2-3 weeks time. Before with only the Eheim Internal, my water never really goes cloudy, it may go very slightly cloudy after feeding but disappears after 2-3 hours. After I added the Fluval the water NEVER EVER goes cloudy, always crystal clear. Now what could have caused this sudden cloudiness? Cheers

Just to make sure everything is fine best to buy a set up new test kits and test the water.

The 1 inch per galleon is only a general guideline, but fails miserably in most cases though. Depends on what level your fish swim at, the capacity of your filter and of course the size of your tank. It's only overstocked when nitrates climbs too high between water changes, or if ammonia or nitrite is detectable, then it's definitely overstocked, or you need to upgrade your filter. I have the following fish in my tank and it seems overstocked (definitely is by the 1in/galleon rule), but weekly nitrate don't get over 25ppm, so it's not really overstocked, plus the fish is evenly decided at different levels.

quite different from the black widow spider.

you cycled the tank right? checked your ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels? just making sure you did cycle it first.

is it on the bottom? How close does the end of the chip get to the joint? I'll be concerned if the chip of on the bottom, on the top it won't be so bad.

replacing the sponge means you lose all the bacteria that absorbs ammonia. which can be bad for your fish as ammonia will spike initially after a sponge has been completely replaced.

is it a type of new food? if so he might have some trouble accepting it at first. I've seen my fish do that before, it could be a sign of something wrong though.

Can we get a picture of the chip? If it won't affect the reliability of the tank I wouldn't bother returning it, unless the chip is very very large.

Do you water changes as usual. When I feed my fish the water becomes slight cloudy sometimes but disappears very quickly afterwards, within 2 hours. So it might be due to overfeeding, some pellet type foods guarantees it won't cloud the water but I find it totally bullshut.

When I had the three normal black bristlenoses, but they all died , anyway when they were alive, the male was definitely the dominant one, like you said once it finds the food it covers it with its body and scares everything else away.

arn't they just regular bioballs? they look like it anyway. which makes them no different than a sponge/ring/noodle and other biological media.

I've noticed the male definitely grows faster, and from my experience the male usually finds the food first when I feed.