Oscar Sheila

For the past 3 or 4 months I have been cleaning a tank for a guy that can no longer do it himself. The tank is in a shop front, and it has had its fair share of problems before I got my claws into it. eg it had a major algae bloom last year. The tank is 23" x 38" x 29", and 111g. Filtered by a Fluval 404, and an overflow. The tank has previously had approximately 3 6" Oscars, a couple of Juraparis, a couple of decent sized angelfish in it as well as 2 Plecos (1 would be 16" I'd say). Anyway, one day he asked me if I could clean it for him (he knew I kept fish because I had expressed my concern with the algae bloom). I accepted, looking forward to moulding the tank to my will. By this time the number of fish had been reduced to a 13" Oscar, 2 6" Juraparis, the huge pleco and another half its size. (I assume the rest died) The guy who owned them said he gravel cleaned it, but when I did it the evidence would suggest otherwise. The gravel was so packed full of poo that when I cleaned a chunk of gravel it sucked the gravel up in a big clump. I had to tap it on the glass to break it up, and when I did this the water that I siphoned off was black. I'm not kidding it was so black I couldn't see through it. So since then it has been doing fine, and people have been noticing that it looks much cleaner. I have been working on the guy to reduce the numbers of fish he has even further, but whenever I tell him that if it was my tank I would not add any more fish, and that I would actually reduce the numbers, he changes the subject and completely disreguards what I say. GRRRRRRR. :evil: When he talks about adding more fish, his only consideration is how they will get on together. Not what the potential Bio-load is going to be, or whether there is going to be enough room for them all. The last time he talked about getting more fish he wanted to get a couple more Oscars to keep the other one company. So. The reason why I an so pi**ed off? He is baby sitting so fish for a friend. (At least thats the story, and it better just be that he is baby sitting, or he is going to have to find someone else to clean his tank). Guess what hes baby sitting. A pacu, another pleco and 5 convicts. So a rundown: 111g tank - One 23" Pacu - One 16" Pleco and Two 9" Plecos - One 13" Tiger Oscar - Two 7" G. Juraparis - Five Convicts (ranging from 1" - 2") So. I'm feeling a tinge of , , , and

This one is 4", 210L. A 8'3", 700L is on the way.

Glue

Thanks.

Here is my gorgeous Oscar B*tch Face And here are the rest of em

Le Floor is Le concrete

I certainly hope so, it will have to hold upwards of 800kg.

For those of you who know about my tank stand dilemma, here are some photos of the actual tank stand. They should make the plans a bit easier to get your head around. This is the underneath of the tank stand. This is the 2 right hand cupboards. (right way up) This is the 2 left hand cupboards (again, right way up)

Brians a good guy isn't he?

On my new 700L tank I am going to do a fishless cycle, with a seeded Fluval 404. The thing about fishless cycling, using the method that I linked to above, is that you can fully stock your new tank straight away. In cycling with fish, you have to add your fish gradually, until it is fully stocked, as there is not enough bacteria to support your full tank load of fish. With fishless cycling you create a LOT of bacteria, and if that is more than is needed to support your full compliment of fish, so be it, a few bacteria will die.

Well, thats just your opinion isn't it.

Tutt tutt. :evil: http://www.aaquaria.com/aquasource/cycling.shtml

And it will get the pipes flowing if it is blocked up.

Could just be a bit blocked up. Have you put any epsom salts in the tank?

Yeah I know, and I did too, although they stuffed up my account somehow in the first semester (last year) and I got like 5 months free to do anything.

Is the Massey PC lab too full again?

I got it down to a juvenile male Aulonocara mamelela, see the thread here.

I am trying to find out what it is for another person on another forum.

No idea as to what it is exactely?

Oh crap, well, just put the link in a new page and it should work. http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/blk_g20/109-0992_IMG.JPG

Yeah I should think so too!

Yeah, I realise that you could probably catch your own, but they wuldn't be anywhere near as specacular as the ones shown above.

On the whole algae does not harm your fish, however I would imagine that if it got sucked up into the filter, the algae would probably start to decompose because it no longer has a supply of light. This would of course foul your tank. You can reduce algae by decreasing feedings (because the algae thrive on the wastes produced by your fish), and keeping the tank out of direct sunlight.

It must be strong enough, beacause the 4 foot tank I bought from Pet City has only 2 t shaped supports under it (and its made of weetbix). This one is twice the length with 3 times the number of supports.