Janelle

I was thinking of doing some warm water changes. Is that really safe for the fish? I have this bad feeling I'll do it wrong and shock them with too much change at once.

Well, I'm aware of that, but I have not had the money for it. There was a moment when I did have the money for it and was just about to buy one when my car registration became due. =( My case is worse than some since the tank is bordered on two sides by windows. Not my idea... I got last pick for where I could place my tank.

I'm so sorry to hear, bdspider. I completely sympathise! Mine wasn't upside-down but I knew immediately she wasn't alive. She never sits on the gravel that way.... I still haven't had the heart to dispose of the body. I keep thinking maybe she will suddenly, miraculously spring back to life, but I know that's not possible. I may have to bury her in the garden. There is one other borneo sucker in my tank. I may quickly buy a heater on TradeMe so it will be quickly delivered, maybe in time to save him, but I don't even know if he is alive either since I haven't seen him in days. I can tell they are struggling because the algae is growing on my glass again.

Sadly, one of my borneo suckers has passed away. I suspect the cold. It was my little stripey one. RIP little fish. I'm sorry I could not afford a heater for you. =(

I'm glad it still went well. Kayne and I were in Auckland so sorry we missed it. Maybe next month. =)

Ironic. I will be in Auckland for that weekend. Kayne and I are going to a computer and console gaming event from Friday-Sunday. Maybe in August! Doesn't that sound far away?

Thanks for those links, purplecatfish. I definitely have one "zebrinus" which is the little one I get second. The first one, I can't be sure which of them it is but from what I can remember it is more like the "scitulus" type, with the broken up pattern on the tail. It is almost twice the size of the "zebrinus" that I have, but their maximum size is listed as the same so I suppose I can hope it might grow. Not sure if my tank conditions are good enough for much growth however.

I left the zuchini in only a few hours before pulling it out and feeding it to my flatmate's plecs. They were completely ignoring it, wouldn't even go near it. With algae tabs the little one ignores them and the larger one just pushes it away like it was another Borneo Sucker in his territory, haha. The yellow colouring has gone now. They are both as active as ever and now they have their own rocks in the tank they hide behind the filter much less, usually too busy fighting each other for rock space to bother running away when I approach.

Hmm... a while back I posted about my minnows dropping off slowly with their mouths stuck open the day before they died. I didn't really notice anything fungusy but they were losing colour. Could it be similar? I never did find out what struck mine but it seems to have stopped now, not before all my babies died when a dead fish escaped my notice.

It goes down to about 16C but that's the lowest I've seen it.

I've tried taking pictures but they are too small and all I have is my phone camera which isn't that great, so they're always fuzzy, and they're also always moving, won't really stay still for me, or when they do the light is bad. It's always something! I wouldn't be surprised if maybe it was the coolness. We usually have the fire going in the evening but as they are by a window it's usually quite cold by the morning. I might have to steal my thermometer back from the siamese fighter's tank. They are right next to a tank of daphnia too, so we try to keep the temperature up whenever possible. I've considered a heater but, truth be told... we actually have NO more power plugs available. If I want a heater I will have to put a third multiboard on top of the ones already there... Would rather not have the house burn down. =) If you're anywhere near Hoon Hay you're welcome to come look at my tank. It's nothing special, just the two borneo suckers, a dozen white clouds, and Ed the shubunkin.

I know it's been ages since I last posted in this thread but I wanted to update. My borneo suckers are still alive. I have since tried putting in some large rocks for them, one which was a bit slimy with algae. They fight over it, it's quite funny. The small one will sneak onto it and eat, the larger one will realise it's there and start circling her and trying to push her off. She just keeps eating for a while and then gets sick of the harassment and finds another spot for a while before trying again. I have dropped my water changes from twice a week to once a week because of winter approaching. My powerhead seems to be doing okay at oxygenating the water and I've got lots of plants. They do like to suck on the leaves of the broadleaf plant in the tank. It's not a very natural habitat but they are doing okay so far, and I see them at all parts of the tank so it's not like they are hanging around the filter output like I thought they would for the water flow... I am a bit worried that the larger one has paled in colour. I'm not sure if he's injured himself, or if it's a sign that he's not getting enough food or oxygen, or because the tank sees sunlight some days. Does anyone have any idea? He used to be really dark brown but he's turning a bit of a pale yellow at the top of his body. Oh, they also still ignore any attempts at feeding flake or live foods. The larger one even stopped to look at a daphnia on the glass one day, then left the glass to swim *over* it and left it alone. All other attempts with frozen bloodworm, live white worms, microworms, etc, and even zuchini are ignored. Dunno what to do about that.

That might have a bit to do with it. His colours actually seem to deepen the more attention we give him and the blue shows up more than the green. We've only had him two weeks. His fins are still growing and repairing well and he is showing lots of spunk now he is in a large tank with good food and lots of attention. It's only been in about the last week we've really been able to notice his gorgeous colours, ever since his fins unclamped and really started to flow. =)

My boyfriend is not really a fish person but he adores his new betta. He says that his betta changes colour not just depending on the light but also on his mood! The happier we think he is the deeper his blues become and the less green he looks overall. He has a blue-green body and red fins with blue tips. Is this actually possible or are we just imagining things? PS... We rarely catch him still. He's always zipping around his tank or hunting the gravel for food, then when he spots us he starts bashing himself against the glass to get our attention. What a strange fish! If they're all like this one, I want more!

My two cleaned off all the algae in my tank in less than two weeks. They are looking a little hungry now but still forage for green stuff and still ignore the flakes and tabs (the white clouds eat the tabs first as they dissolve). My tank ranges from 17-23 degrees near a window with a single powerhead filter which does quite well.... they still seem okay but hard to tell how happy they really are.

OK, I'm now in the market for a few tropical plants if there are any coming down, or just at the meeting. Just got a new little tank and a siamese fighter. Will probably be two in the next couple of weeks as it's my boyfriend's purchase and can't convince him to stick with just one! He's already ordered a divider to be made. YAY! Tank number 3 for me, 5 for the house, hehe. This is the first tropical tank we've ever owned though.

That sounds about right, Milet. Thanks for the info!

As far as I can tell the pH in my aquarium is higher than the tapwater (which measured at 7.2 last night), but I tested my tankwater the end of the day so maybe that was just my plants? I don't know how plants affect the water. Anyway, since it's not a mass die-off by any means I might just continue as I have been and hope it doesn't happen again soon. I'm still wondering if this is unique to my tank or if anyone else has ever seen a WCMM with it's mouth "stuck" open the way mine were. Thanks everyone.

Haven't used stress-coat before and haven't tested my tapwater. I'd have to wait until I got home again to test the tapwater (I'm still at work for a couple of hours). Ummm.... I don't have any stress-coat. I thought it was just for removing chlorine from tapwater and I've only ever had goldfish before which were fine with straight tapwater from wherever. I'll have a look and get back to you again. Thanks for your help so far, everyone.

I live not far from Loopy. You're welcome to come see my drab tank if you want but it's not that interesting. =) I would also be quite interested in buying plants which will work in my coldwater tank, even if it's slow-growing. I like plants.

I checked pH and ammonia. pH is "7.6 or higher" Ammonia is 0-0.5ppm... I think it's actually 0 because the test tube was a little yellowed from previous use already. The liquid remained clear. Should I be lowering the pH?

OK... I will try and measure the pH and ammonia tonight although I find pH really hard to measure. It's high, I think, but the test kit says the colour is 7.2 or higher, so I can't be sure exactly. It's straight Christchurch tapwater anyway. I can't imagine ammonia levels being high but I will ask my flatmate if I can borrow his test kit tonight and let you know. However, I change one third of the tankwater faithfully every week using a gravel siphon, sometimes in two small changes but failing that I do a large change to equal one third, and once a week I add Stress-Zyme after one of the changes. The fish were dying in the same manner before they had babies, but when the babies were born I slacked off a little because I didn't want to accidentally suck them up, so it was just a bit off the top instead. My filter is a Shark ADV powerhead? Quite powerful... My stock level is a dozen WCMM and two Borneo Suckers. There are also various plants in the tank, all rooting in all directions - a few bunch plants and a big, broad-leafed plant... The plants were all added at different times to replace plastic decorations but I've had three of the plants since before there were even fish in the tank. I also added a log decoration about six weeks ago. The fish that have died so far were all quite well-grown adults. I have one small one growing in there (still glows bright blue under the blacklight, so still a youngling) who has been happy ever since I released him from the breeder net some weeks ago. At first I suspected that it was old age, but there are some which are not dying which are bigger. Anyway, I'll work on getting a new pH and ammonia tested tonight but might not be until late as we're stacking firewood tonight, bah. There is also no algae left in the tank (thanks, Borneo Suckers) and I have a cat but he ignores my fish in favour of the tropical ones, so I don't think it's stress from him. But like I said.... the fish have been dying since I got the first lot from *gasp* Animates, but only slowly, one at a time.

I was watching my fish last week and noticed that for the first time in a long time one of my White Cloud Mountain Minnows was acting unwell. She was breathing quickly, gills looked a little inflamed and very red, and it looked like her mouth was stuck open. This has happened to some of my minnows before but not for a long time. They are always dead by the next day. Next day I couldn't see her so I thought maybe this time she'd actually gotten well and was one of the ones swimming in the school. I checked the gravel and the plants for her body just in case and it's impossible to count my fish, so I just hoped for the best. Two days later, I looked for my baby minnows and there were none. =( I checked again the next day... still no babies. So I decided I'd better do a proper water change. I found the dead minnow. She was so pale I barely saw her on the gravel. I netted the body out and put it in a clear plastic bag I had lying around, and she was so decomposed that by the time she was out of the net the only thing I could recognise was the red of the tail. The rest of her just disintegrated. I'm guessing that's what killed my babies. So I'm wondering what it is that might be killing them, and can I prevent it happening again? Does anyone have any ideas? It has so far killed two males and three females, and they always have the same symptoms one day before death: distressed, unable to close their mouth, isolating themselves in one corner... I do a proper water change after every death and this is the first one in at least a month. Ideas?

It was great to come along and meet so many other fish enthusiasts, even if I'm a little outnumbered being a fan of the coldwater. ^^ It was great to see babies and lots of fish I'd never seen before up close, and a couple I'd never even heard of before. It's also good to know that there's someone(s) close by if I ever need help or general advice. I wish I hadn't been so down recovering from my cold or I would've eaten a lot more of what I saw on the table (I hate to see food go to waste) and probably been a lot more social too. Still, there's always next time. =) Thanks again, Loopy!

My second borneo sucker (the smaller, stripey one) is a lot more shy than the spotty one. She shoots off and hides behind the filter whenever I come too close to the tank. Both of them seem happy enough to just graze green stuff though, and have so far ignored my attempts at pleco tabs (the wcm minnows eat those instead) and zuchini slices (hmm... minnows try to eat that too, lol). I'm thinking maybe I should have more filtration/aeration in my tank before I get more. In regards to accommodating more borneo suckers, will an airstone help at all, or just be a pretty yet useless addition to my tank?