michael.qian

apparently that's the only way to sex them. so normally we have to buy two young ones, wait and pray there's at least one male.

agree with above, best to treat the tank, any other fish have it?

http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile95.html you can find a lot of stuff on google.

I find that with my neon tetras, they school when the numbers are low. I had 20 at the start, they never really school that much, just hanging around loosely in my tank. But then I thought it was too many, so I sold 10 of them, and now they always school. Also because I took some tall plants out, so less shade and they probably feel less safe. So they only school when not feeling 100% safe I think.

I have two golden bristlenose in my tank at the moment, still young so not sexable yet, but hoping its a pair. As said above they will breed readily in a cave, I've seen what the babies look like, they are very tiny and when they are just born they all stick together, like a clump of thick chicken soup.

your tanks, as said above, are no where near big enough for goldfish. Fantails can live in tanks comfortably, still need to be a good size though, they are not really fast swimmers so don't need as much room as comets, which are very fast swimmers and need lots of room. I would recommend a big tank for any fish, easier to cycle and maintain, also more pleasing than a small tank.

Got my Fluval 405 on friday and has been running great. Weekly water change is on wednesday, was wondering do I have to stop the filter during the water change? Or can I just keep it running. If I keep it running, the inlet will always be underwater, so no problems there, but the outlet will be about 10cm or less above the water, so the water would just come out and splash down below. Any harm/risks with doing this? Or is it best to stop the filter? It will be about 15 minutes from when the water falls below until the water is topped back up again. cheers

They definitely breed without you trying. I used to have them in a coldwater tank what sits around 14 degrees in winter, then I switched to tropical and the temperature was 28, so I thought I better sell them otherwise they won't like the heat. Lots of plants will do the trick, in a community tank the fry will get eaten very quickly.

$6.99 at Jansens and Hollywoods. On Tradme you can get 5 for $25 I think. They are happy at higher temperatures. Personally I would go for neons, 3 times cheaper and looks almost as good.

This link is quite useful, tells you about different types of algae. http://www.aquaticscape.com/articles/algae.htm

The flow seems to be ok now, after I turned the output direction around. But would much perfer to take it out after sometime, that was actually why I bought a canister plus the fact it'll be better filtration. Just thought there's a possibly of a mini-cycle when I remove the internal.

Now my amazon sword leaves are swaying a little, but it should be fine, since the plant is quite low not high like the cabomba. How long should I leave my internal Eheim 2010 in there for? 3 weeks enough? or too long?

David R you are a genius The solution was so damn obvious, but no... I just had to stare it at and go "OH NO the current is TOOOOOOOOO strong.." As soon as I read your post I realised I could twist the output nozzle. But usually I'm smarter than this.

I would say your tank is too small for kribs anyway. that's what's encouraging them to be more aggressive.

think I definitely need a spray bar. mainly worried about the fish might not like the strong current, and cabombas are kind of swaying in the current which might kill them.

good as a decoration. NOT good for any fish, even microscopic sized ones.

The manual says I can adjust the flow but not with lever more than half way up. It doesn't have a spray bar, just a open end, so it's like a jet of water shooting into my tank. Could I fit a spraybar on it? do fish shops sell them?

got it running now. Flow is definitely very very strong, causing more disturbance than I hoped for. But can I adjust the lever upwards a little to reduce flow rate? It's the Aqua Stop valve, would this do any harm? cheers

just went into fish shop, turns out there isn't too many options to replace it with, the guy in the shop said with a fine filter sponge it clogs easily and affects the water flow, which I thought of as well so decided not to get that. so in the end I decided to give carbon a go, if it turns out good then I'll just use it but otherwise I'll replace it in a few weeks time. anyway just rinsing the carbon mesh bags, the water comes out black, or dark grey because of the black carbon, is this normal? I'm a bit worried it'll turn my water black?

ok just got it. Looks like I'll have to buy some more media if I don't want to use the carbon. There are four baskets, 2 of them is for cabon. I think I'll buy some bio-balls maybe or a polishing sponge. Gotta say build quality I thought was a little disappointing, most of it seems to be common cheap plastic, the Eheim 2224 I got before was definitely better built and feels tougher with stronger materials.

not neccessarily. Keep the internal filter as small as possible to get the largest possible swimming space. also make sure the flow isn't too strong, especially in a small tank.

I probably won't use it then, wasn't really planning to anyway. I'll buy more bio media if it doesn't come with enough to that empty space as well. what sort of media? rings? bioballs?

you could have betta, or add a few tetras at the moment I reckon. and a really small filter, I thought hang-on filter might be a good idea as well, since the majority of the filter is outside.

Picking up the Fluval 405 I won on Trademe tomorrow, it's new and I got it for $142 (lucky lol) from a $1 reserve auction. Anyway it comes with carbon, should I use it or not? I've heard it can absorb nutrients plants need to grow and it needs to be replaced quite often, which might be a hassle. I have a fairly planted tank, with cabomba, E. Osiris, a few Amazon swords, java fern and some val grass. If it's not neccessary to use carbon what should I put instead of carbon instead? Or just leave that space in the filter empty? cheers

sorry to hear the bad news, sucks big time whenn you lose a big fish suddenly like that.