michael.qian

I got some JBL fertiliser balls under the gravel, that should provide the iron. What is strong water movement? I cant see them swaying around in the current caused by the filter, but possibly movement that doesn't cause them to sway around? But then again that wouldn't be called movement right?

Tank details is listed below. Ammonia and nitrite 0ppm, nitrite 20ppm. Tank with 1 piece of driftwood, 4X amazon sword plants (growing ok), some val grass, 1X E. Osiris Plant (growing fast) and java fern on driftwood. Tank is 50cm tall, with 2X 18W Arcadia freshwater bulbs. Dont have a phosphate test kit. Water change every thursday, 30%, from tap, dechlorinated. Eheim 2010 Internal (taking out in 2 weeks time), Fluval 405 canister.

For most things I buy, I usually try to get the best brands, even if I do have to stretch my budget. When I was buying a canister filter not long ago, I thought I didn't have a choice but to settle with a AquaOne CF1200 for $130, because of limited budget. Then this new Fluval 405 appeared as a $1 reserve auction, got it for $140. Cheaper brands won't be as well built, compare the build quality of an Eheim and a AquaOne, the difference is very obvious.

strange thing is they all start growing really well. Now the top part will just go to a pink colour, then pale and then start to melt and break off.

Hi all Had some cabomba long time ago but they all died off eventually after a few months, they would melt at near the roots and float to the top. I decided to try them again about a month ago, but now they seem to be dying off again, this time melt at the tip where the growing bits are. They have all grown well to start off with. Any ideas why this would happen? cheers

went into Hollywood fish farm today and got 3 more. Was going to get 2, but they were absolutely tiny so I thought I'll be better off getting 3. BTW they have some crazy saltwater fish there I've never seen before.

yes it will disappear, is your tank near a window? I wouldn't worry too much, when I first set up my tank I had quite a bit of brown algae, I used to wipe it off the glass occasionally but eventually it went away by itself. Or try some ramshorn snails, I found they are quite good at eating brown algae.

might be the knife then.

I've kept them for a few months before selling them all. I had 4 die off due to a fungal infection, where they had the white stuff growing on their bodies, but treated quickly and no more deaths. Otherwise they've been great. I would say look at them carefully in the shop before buying them, all mine were bright coloured from the shop.

I don't think that's a very good combination of fish. Above is right, don't blame anything or blame them all. Tiger barbs will most likely to be fin/tail nippers when they kept in small numbers. Black ghost knife sees the guppies as snacks.

really? I thought all tap water contained chlorine which must be removed before adding the water to the tank. How would I know if my tap water contains chlorine? I've been using chlorine remover everytime for a long time now.

Was just doing my water change, usually I change 37L of my 135L. anyway I realised I forgot to add chlorine neutralizer to the new water after already putting about 15L of it in the tank. Would the fish be alright? I added the neutralizer to the remaining of the new water and will add it in the tank shortly.

some goldfish are known to change their colours, if it acts healthy I wouldn't worry too much.

was just thinking, if I get a 2 or 3 more, is there a chance they'll get internal parasites as well? I think it might not happen since all my other fish are perfectly healthy, what do you reckon though? This skinny one right now used to be the biggest and leader of the pack, but now always getting bullied by the other one.

should be fine, they won't be big enough to fish in the ghost or clown knife's mouth yet.

They are indeed awesome fish, very smart as well, I've seen many times, the fat one picking up a piece of gravel and throwing it aside, until he gets the snail under the gravel, great to watch. I put a few drops of garlic each time on the bloodworms, but if I soak the bloodworms in garlic for a long time they won't eat it.

it's basically a internal parasite that makes them lose a lot of weight so they are really skinny, medicine for it isn't easy to come by. It's suppose to be contagious but no other fish, including the other clown loach, is affected, I've also seen very skinny clown loaches, otherwise healthy, in a tank with other normal weight clown loaches and they all all unaffected.

Ok, time to make a difficult decision. I've lost a clown loach due to the skinny disease a few weeks ago, now one of the two remaining is FAT and healthy, the other is also affected by the skinny disease but is doing fine, acting healthy, apart from being very skinny. The fat one always bullies the skinny one, everytime they see each other it'll chase the other away. So I figured I have two options here. 1. To sell them, replace them with several Pakistani loaches (Yoyo), which don't grow very big and is suitable for my size tank. 2. To keep with, in which case I'll buy 2 more, so bullying will be spread out and they'll be happier in a group. But main worry here is my tank isn't big enough, not in the long run anyway. So which one should it be? Any advice? Cheers

if they are still very small loaches will probably help, their shell will be soft and easy to break.

1.0ppm is a bit too high. keep up the water changes, don't clean filter sponge because as said above that's where the bacterias are. what's the size of the tank? if its a fairly small tank more frequent water changes are required.

are they trumpet snails? loaches don't usually eat certain trumpet snails because of the shape of the shell, not sure of the details but the shell prevents the actual meaty snail from being sucked out.

neon tetras, cardinal tetras. basically fish that don't resemble them or nip their fins. I keep mine with the following listed below and they all get along fine.

crystal clear water again... so not really sure what happened yesterday.

I don't think so either, the clown loach should be big enough so it won't fit in the jardinii's mouth.

you won't know if its safe to put fish in before testing for ammonia, nitrite and nitrate first.