Janelle

Wow, Milet. I'm on the Wyn end of Dalkeith! I didn't realise how many of you were my neighbours. I'm determined to come along and meet you all but I might not be able to stay very long. I just heard from my boyfriend that his brother's birthday celebrations might be that night, but I should be able to swing by for half an hour at least before heading anywhere else. I'm getting excited now. =)

Yikes, almost didn't see this until it was too late! Barring my cold getting worse instead of better I'll definitely be there! I'd love to see other people's babies to see if I'm doing the right thing. ^^ Would it be rude to bring fish to eat? =P I'm kind of in the mood for smoked salmon.... I'm the one that lives right down the road so if I miss it this week there's really no excuse! Oh, and just to jump on the bandwagon... I'm 23. =)

I have sent you a PM.

I gave in and got a second one which has stripes instead of spots. I got mine for $16.78 each and I'm hoping I can get another one (or three) next week too. I'll see what I can do about getting pics. Whenever I see them and they're not going mental all over the tank I don't seem to have my phone handy or the lighting just isn't good enough. People at the pet store I went to didn't seem to know much about them. Had to play a bit of a waiting game to get a person who seemed to know anything about fish at all.

I bought my microworms from the same person. I have since had four cultures off the small amount, two cultures at a time (all I have room for) and now have more microworms than I need. I now grow them in instant mashed potato with a little marmite/vegemite mixed in. It seems to work just as well and not smell so badly after a couple of weeks.

Thanks guys. She has settled down now and happily grazes the sides of my glass and has taken to settling on the filter as a sort of "home base" Probably makes sense since the filter is black, has a nook to hide in at the back, and has never been cleaned of algae since I set it up in Feb. =) She also leaves these cute circular "footprints" all over the place, so I can tell she travels around the tank while I'm not looking.

My one seems to have gotten a little less energetic the last couple of days, but he does seem to be finding food on the glass. I never cleaned the algae off the back or corners of my tank since I set it up in February. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to encourage him to eat anything else. He doesn't leave the glass or look interested in any falling flakes or microworms, just keeps browsing the green stuff. I hope he's okay.

I spend so long looking at my fish. He's a very cool addition to a tank full of WCMM. I do have another question to throw into the mix though. I have two tanks... the one with white clouds as described in the first post, and a small aqua one tank (22 L) with the goldfish in it. In your opinion would my lone sucker do better in the larger tank with 15 WCMM and low-medium current, or the small tank with a single small goldfish and fairly strong water flow? The small tank also does not have any gravel, just a few small rocks holding down a couple of plants in the corner. I still intend to increase the water flow in my big tank at some stage but for now I just want to make sure he stays alive and as happy as possible with what I have.

I was wondering about that. It looked to me like part of his breathing apparatus, but if it's a heart, it's a pretty cute one!

Thanks for the info. I'll get rid of the sharp plastic plant in my tank. I gave in and bought one to see how well it would do and he seems to be okay swimming in my tank now after half an hour - very energetic! Should I get more or are they okay on their own? What food would you recommend for them?

I saw some cute little fish in a tank with the white clouds at the pet shop. They were labeled Borneo Suckers. I've never seen anything like them before but I would love to have some. Does anyone else know anything about these? The internet seems to hold a plethora of contradictory information. I'd like to hear what people have experienced keeping these fish, and do you think they'd be suited to my 75L coldwater tank with my white cloud mountain minnows? Do you think they would they eat my minnow fry? My tank is long and tall and has one underwater power filter. I've been thinking of getting a heater for it but it doesn't drop lower than 17.5 degrees now it's winter (in summer it was a problem keeping the temperature lower than 24...). I'd like to be able to keep my fish happy and healthy and if I can't do that I might just try and forget I ever saw the cute little suckers...

Thanks. I bought some more plants and floated them in the tank for the babies to hide in just in case it will help. Are net breeders a bad idea? I put one of the little ones in a net breeder when I first got some of the fish, but he seemed quite depressed in there. Maybe the water quality wasn't so good, but he perked right up as soon as I let him into the main tank.

Thanks for the advice everyone. Well... I did try to help her out with some of the advice, but for now I don't think it will make a difference. She "rescued" the fish from a jar in a pet store and gave it a good tank, but now she tells me that's enough for now and she will research about them later when she's less stressed about job/studies. Anyway, my boyfriend wants a siamese fighter so it's good for me to learn more about them anyway. =)

Hi everyone, I'm asking this on behalf of a friend overseas who just bought a new tank (about 10 litres) and popped a new male siamese fighter in there pretty much straight away. She has no filter, and yesterday she accidentally overfed (she was tipping the bottle and a whole lot of food fell into the tank). Now the tank is murky, although she's only had it three days, and she was telling me she was going to wait a couple of days and then do a full water change. I firmly told her NO but I would like to know what others think I should be telling her? She likes siamese fighters because they usually survive her mistakes. What advice can I give her, if she won't get a filter, regarding water changes? I've always had filters for my fish and never owned a siamese fighter myself although I'm looking into it, so I really don't know the safe margins. Thanks for any help.

The only other fish I have is my goldfish, whom I have safely tucked away in the tank in my bedroom. Only WCMM in the tank, varying sizes.

Hello everyone, just an update! I have a tendency to feed my fish and then watch them for hours (not kidding - my flatmates think I'm weird). Since I last posted in this thread, I moved all the (around 15) WCMM into the big tank and put my goldfish in the small tank with the powerful filter, since he can handle it. Today I fed my fish microworms and I pulled the curtain behind the tank so i could better see the microworms wriggle around (yes... I guess I am a bit strange) and instead I saw some other kind of movement - BABY WCMM! They are so tiny, but from what I've heard about how small newborn fry are I'd say they've been in the tank for a while. They're just sticking to the back of the tank all over the place, about three amongst the oxygen weed I put floating in one corner, and another three visible by the top of the filter in the other corner. I really hope they don't get eaten but I'm afraid to try moving them. So now, do I just leave them be? I've been changing the water twice a week as usual but now do I still keep doing the water changes? I can't tell if I'm sucking up baby fish with the dirty water! I have a net breeder but is it best to leave them in the main tank since they seem to be surviving okay? Opinions would be appreciated, thanks! I'm really excited. =)

Awww.... I can't believe I spent so much time looking forward to this and then I forgot all about it! I'm soooo close too, just around the corner from The Corner Bar. Hopefully I will be able to make it next time, but I'm sad that I missed meeting you all

Isn't it too bad you can't hire certified fish-sitters, same as you can for cats and dogs? Maybe someone here can start up a business, hehe.

I read in one internet article that the product "Liquifry" is good for feeding small amounts of daphnia. Has anyone else tried this? If it is, sounds like a way to feed both fry and daphnia in one go, albeit a tad more expensive than rotting leftover vegetation.

I've just started my first microworm cultures which I bought from trademe. I don't have lids for the containers I'm using so I just put cling wrap over them with a few fork holes. Now when we get home from work it's kind of like walking into a bakery...

Oh dear... we already put the net around the filter so I guess that was a waste of a good net. I'll have a look for another way to cover the filter.

Wow, now I'm almost afraid to go there, just in case I can't help myself!

Wok - I have sent you a PM. SpidersWeb - Thanks for the tips. Just last week I splurged $2.95 on a small Marina net, it was the smallest one I could find in the store. I may just buy a second one since it's so cheap, cut it, and use a rubber band to tie it around the filter. It's actually a bulgy type so maybe that would work best for me. I hope the netting really is small enough to keep the fry out.

Hello, I'm also new to the forums and in Christchurch. I'm hoping to meet you and many others at the meeting of Totally Tanked. =) I don't just look at aquariums on TV, I also watch TV in my tank. Hehe, reflection.

Hummingbird - I guess I'll have a bit of a problem with the ratio since I only have one obvious female out of my six. Yes, Stress Zyme apparently contains beneficial bacteria but I'm under the impression it just kick-starts the cycling rather than skipping the entire process. Alan - Christchurch water (in my opinion) is the same if not better quality than bottled water as long as you don't have old, rusty pipes (which I don't). There is no chlorine or flouride in it since it is groundwater sourced from underground aquifers (to my knowledge). The tank is a little Aqua One AR-126 with a filter and light attached to the lid, so I would prefer to figure something to cover the intake rather than have to buy a new filter. I'm not familiar with how to plant the plants I get in the shop in pots suitable for the aquarium. If this doesn't work for me that's not a problem. The tank was originally bought to house a betta for my boyfriend.