Janelle

Sorry to use someone else's thread but I'm having a sick day at home and was staring at my fish and noticed one of my platies that I bought from wilson wasn't as fat anymore and there was a baby something hiding in the plants, so I think it is a platy baby. I scooped the baby into a net breeder and put a java fern in there (I don't have moss) but when if I try to feed it he just ignores it, and then the food just wriggles through the bottom of the net. Can someone offer me any advice on keeping the little thing alive? Do you think I will be expecting more babies soon, and should I do anything about it or just let them become fish food...? I don't have another tank to put babies in at the moment. I'm already in the middle of trying to get rid of some fish! I really know NOTHING about platies. I bought the two females off wilson about 2-3 weeks ago and I do have a male in the tank now but he's only been there less than a week.

I'd love to do the wine barrel but it seems like a lot of expenditure to house my little fish. Same with the drinking trough, although I did consider lining a planter with something but I wouldn't really have a clue how to go about it properly. It's hard to measure him but I think he's about 6-8 centimetres now and growing fast. I only have a crappy phone cam to take pictures with so I can't get a clear shot of him. He has a lot of red and black, some blue (? - it's not white...) and white on his face. His colours sort of bleed into his top fin and there's black going very strongly through most of his tail and edging his side fins. I love shubs but I think the ones with lots of white are ugly, so I like to go for the reds and blacks (Canterbury colours, haha). The situation has changed slightly in the tank...... it seems I still have 29 fish but I am now minus a pearl danio (?? - I'm sure I had five...) and plus a baby.... something.... possibly a platy!

I'd like to get rid of my favourite first, he's a little pig and it would be good to get rid of him now before he gets much bigger. Not really any space for a pond, as much as I want one. I did look around for a couple on Trade Me but until I have somewhere a bit more permanent I don't think it's a good idea. I own two tanks... the other one holds my daphnia culture and snails which I grow and then feed to the clown loaches. My boyfriend has one small (14L) tank which holds his betta, and the other two tropical tanks belong to our flatmate so I'm not sure he'd take to me adding fish (and just personally I think I take better care of my tank than he does his).

OK, so I am now severely overstocked and as some of my fish grow (*ahem* goldfish) their compatibility decreases, so I am left with a couple of options: Get rid of some fish or get a bigger tank or get more tanks. A bigger tank is out of question just at this stage because I don't want to have to set it up just in time to move it again when our lease runs out at the end of January, and we already have five tanks in the lounge and not really any more room or plugs for more, so my best bet is to rethink my setup. My rectangular tank has about 75-80 litres of water (not sure now... got big rocks in there that make up quite a bit of volume). I have a brand new bought-last-week powerhead filter with spraybar (the size recommended for 80-200 litres, so the flow is quite strong) using the filters from my old powerhead (bit of jerry-rigging there but it worked). The temperature varies between 21 and 24, give or take a degree, depending on the time of day. It is somewhat live-planted on one side but I also have a couple of fake decorations back in the tank as much as I hate them, just to give the fish more places to hide. And here's my current stock in order of what I am most fond of: 1x small but rapidly growing shubunkin goldfish (named Edward Elric) 11x white cloud mountain minnows (ex-Wok stock) 3x borneo suckers 6x peppered corydoras 3x platies (1 male, 2 females) 5x (exciting and healthy albeit poor quality) pearl danios A grand total of 29 fish! Unfortunately I am attached to all of them now, and that is where I have to decide which ones must go. At the moment I have been changing about a half bucket of water every couple of days to keep the water quality up and scoop the poop, and so far all the fish have stayed healthy and active and shown no visible signs of stress (wow). Although I am most fond of the goldfish and would be somewhat picky which home he goes to (I think he is absolutely stunningly gorgeous) he is actually the biggest pain in the bum, especially when it comes to eating the food intended for other fish. The rest of the fish are negotiable depending..... Any suggestions for what fish to keep/get rid of or offers of interest from Chchians? Apologies for the long-windedness of this post.

Yes, the filter doesn't stop the algae growing if we forget to throw the towel over the tank in the morning to block sunlight though. He has not been able to build a new bubble nest since we put the filter in but it's an Elite 5 or something like that, very low current. He's a very active fighter anyway and doesn't seem to mind the little current. I checked yesterday and the pinpricks are gone, and his tail is mostly healed. I guess it was just a passing thing.

I was being genuinely grateful and not sarcastic. I'm glad it's nothing serious, and it seems that he has healed up again. In the meantime, we have added a filter to his tank to try and improve the water quality.

Judging from the responses, I'd say this is nothing to worry about. We will wait for his fins to heal. Thanks. =)

I tend to neglect my microworms and whiteworms but somehow they still survive. The microworms survived months of neglect. I think it was a combination of good luck and too much marmite. I used to just throw some old fish flakes into the whiteworms container, lol. They didn't thrive but they did survive. I'm trying them on soaked bread now. I figured I'd better start taking better care of mine after seeing some healthy ones for sale at a pet shop. Hmm, I thought, maybe mine should look bigger and juicier like those ones.

I was looking at my bf's betta last night and noticed he was looking a little more raggedy than usual in the fins. When he splayed out it looked like he had two large rips into his tail and two tiny pinholes in his lower fin. His last water change was last weekend and it was a fairly large one but he still got 2 litres of his old water back (out of about 10-14?). Temperature is around 27C, unfiltered tank, nothing sharp in there really, just a few plants and one of those pot pipe decorations you can get. One sharper edge from the decoration was sanded down before we added it last week. Betta seems to be just as active as usual and eating fine. What could be eating his fins? Thanks in advance.

I don't mind Critter Kingdom in Blenheim Road, but I guess we sort of got to know the people there after buying a siamese fighter + set-up. It was a little interesting (from my personal viewpoint) that we were able to take home the tank and fish on the same day, and they originally tried to sell us the small betta keepers which I think are awful. I also like looking at the fish in the Critter Kingdom in Stanmore Road, but I don't ask questions of the staff. Animates is just useless, unfortunately they are the only place I can get to after work before they close so I still shop there quite a lot. After visiting Organism I don't think I'll ever buy plants or fish from Animates ever again, but if I'm in dire need of a product I'll still go there. I used to love Pet World when I was a kid but the last couple of times I've been there the animals all looked so depressed/uncared for at the time I haven't been bothered going back since... I love Organism now I've been introduced to it. Too bad I can only get there on the weekend.

Ohhh, okay. Should I start posting in "Freshwater" about my tank then? =)

I have a tank which is not tropical with a mixture of coldwater and subtropical fish: goldfish, white cloud mountain minnows, pearl danios, peppered corys, and platies. It has a heater in it to keep it at about 20-22 degrees (this was installed after two borneo suckers found it too cold and died). So, with the heater keeping the temperature stable for me, and the temperature being above 20 degrees most of the time but not exactly *tropical*, does this still count as a coldwater tank? Just curious. =)

Some additions... Never assume you can stop at one tank. If you have a school of fish (white clouds) and you notice one is sick, remove it *before* it dies in an obscure corner of the tank, decomposes, and kills all the fry in the same tank. In addition to that, if you don't remove a sick fish then come back and can't find it again, it's wiser to assume it has died and do a THOROUGH search of the tank just to be sure instead of tricking yourself into believing that it's one of the happy-perky ones still swimming around in your tank.

Don't give fish to my mum. If keeping subtropical fish just fine in an unheated tank in summer, invest in a heater BEFORE winter. Don't give fish to my mum. Wait... sorry, already mentioned that one. I can't really think of anything else right now... I guess I've been lucky so far.

Yay, it was a good meeting. With all the fish I brought home my tank has become very busy all of a sudden. Even though the heater doesn't seem to be keeping up and the tank is still at about 20C, the platys and pearl danios are still very active and so far they are doing okay. Also, my new floating fern has taken to one of my other plants and keeps grabbing onto it every time I re-float it. Very exciting stuff, but I think I may be done for now or I'll be overstocked. Thanks everyone. =)

Regarding microworms, I have a culture I got from TM four months ago. I've split the culture three times already, but the last time I did I couldn't be bothered mixing up a new culture and left them sitting in a 1L yoghurt container in my lounge. I thought they would eventually die and stink! But I opened it up just last night after two months of neglect and they are still alive and wriggling, even though they were quickly trying to crawl out the sides after I tilted the container for a couple of hours which indicates the culture is more than sour, and it didn't smell biohazardous like I expected it would. Maybe it's the insane amount of marmite I added to the instant mashed potato mix?

That would be great, thanks. If the danios do very badly I will ask my flatmate if I can put them in one of his tropical tanks temporarily until I find a new owner. I'm starting to think seriously about selling Edward Elric, my shubunkin. He is getting fat gutsing down the tablets and pellets I feed the corys as soon as they get small enough for him to swallow, as well as getting to all the flakes faster than some of the white clouds. He was my first fish in that tank so I don't *really* want him to go anywhere, but at this rate he will explode soon!

... over a giant vat of steaming, boiling water ...

carznkats, I started a discussion in the Beginner's Forum about whether or not Pearl Danios would do okay in cool water and there was some discrepancy in the responses. What temp do you keep yours in? =)

From what I've seen of my flatmate's BN, they're not at all effective at controlling algae. Maybe because they are large now and are used to being fed so don't even bother with yucky algae. However, my two borneo suckers go all over the tank scraping away at whatever it is they eat that grows where the algae does, and in the process the algae also disappears (in cute little circular footprints). I think they're actually pretty good at controlling algae on the glass, but you have to have good water quality and oxygen content to keep them.

My tank is usually at 20-21 on the far side of the tank from the heater. It only goes down to 19 when I do a water change. I suspect it will get warmer naturally as summer approaches and the weather gets warmer. If nobody else picks up the platies, I would be happy to take them off your hands. I'll bring money just in case. Just want a little bit of colour other than my greedy gutsy goldfish. ... Anyone in the market for a small(ish) shubunkin?

Hey Wilson... Are any fish you're selling good for temps 19-22? I may bring along some cash just in case....

I wish I could afford something like that.

Thanks for the reminder, Wilson. Maybe I can combine it with a visit to some friends I have on that side of town.

I really hope I can make it this month, I'm really excited actually. So far the only thing booked in on Saturday is the landlady coming to do a property inspection in the morning. :evil: I might be in the market for some things... Possibly danios, but I'm still severely undecided at this stage. I suppose I really should get something more colourful than white clouds for a point of interest.... My single little goldfish just ain't cutting it for colour, lol.