Ianab

The snails are a living animal, so they will contribute some bioload to the tank, but if they are small it wont be much. The simplist way to reduce nitrate is to increase the water changes. Also measure the nitrate level of the tap water you are using, thats basically as low as you can go. If your tap water has a nitrate of 10 or 15 that limits how low you can get it. Cheers Ian

Pretty sure it is a common, but the driftwood has stained the water a bit brown so it's colour is a bit off in the picture. It is much grayer in real life. I have a redspot as well, and it's not the same 8) Cheers Ian

What the guys are saying is that most off the shelf tanks are taller than they are wide. Main reason, because the tank looks bigger when you are sitting in front of it. OK, some fish need a fairly deep tank, angels and discus for example. Other fish aren't worried about the water depth, Arros for example swim in the top 30cm of the tank. Plecos swim in the bottom 30cm. So for either of those fish a shallower but wider tank is better, it appears bigger to THEM. As for getting a tank custom built, no big problem. In fact a shallower/wider tank can use thinner glass (as long as it's braced properly), so may cost less than what you are looking at anyway. Cheers Ian

Shot 2 is about 5" long, shot 4 is pushing about 7" and is the boss in the 200l tank Ian

The size that they generally are in the pet shops (2-3cm) they are usually too small to sex or be interested in pairing up. Buy about 6 little ones, maybe even at different times so they aren't all from the same spawning and let them grow. After about 6 months they will be sexable and interested in forming pairs. Then sell off the spare young adults 8) Cheers Ian

None of my Plecs are fancy ones.. but I dont mind playing the game Cheers Ian

The males generally start to colour when they begin to change shape. 6-8 weeks seems about right. You will see the shape of the males ventral fin change as well, they should start to colour and grow a long tail around that time. Cheers Ian

Umm.. dunno My little zebra loaches do a similar dance up the side of the tank though. Cheers Ian

They get on fine. This common is only BN size, they seem to be able to work out their living arrangements without much fighting. And a plecos idea of an ideal cave doesn't allways match ours. But as long as there is plenty of cover they seem happy. Cheers Ian

It's often used to carry the tap water to your tap, so yes.. it's 'food' safe 8) You can use aquarium silicone to stick pieces of pipe to a flat rock or piece of slate to hold them down. Cheers Ian

25 is the ideal for guppies, but they can handle 20-29. At higher temps they will grow faster, but die sooner. The reverse at lower temps. Not sure about Leopard fish, but if 22 is OK for them the guppies can handle that fine. Cheers Ian

OK.. Angels as a starter. Thats OK. If you want more cichlids, you could go with the more peacefull ones like Rams and Kribensis. Some bottom dwellers, plecos, corys, loaches etc. Plenty of other fish are OK with Angels, just make sure they cant fit in the angels mouth, now or in the future, or have long fins that might be too tempting. Sometimes angels are peacefull, other times they can be fin nippers and neon swallowers. If the temptation isn't there it's safer. Having a decent size tank opens up a whole lot of options Cheers Ian

Nope.. let it run overnight and things will settle out. It looks like a lot of 'gunk', but it's probably about 2 drops floating in the water. It will get sucked back into the filter or the gravel where it belongs. Ian

Yes, it wont hurt the filter, and better not to have old rotten food in there. Ian

Because we dont know exactly what the problem is I would wash everything out. Put the gravel in a bucket and swirl it around under the tap untill it run clear. The gravel is basically the media of the filter. The plastic pieces are just the pipes to collect the water and return it to the tank after it's passed through the gravel. Hose out the tank and filter etc. As the problem seems to be ammonia buildup, not some disease, I dont think it needs to be sterilised or anything, just clean. Fill up with water and leave a couple of days. There should still be no ammonia (no fish). If thats all clear then add a few fish and just keep an eye on them. Cheers Ian

Undergravel filter should work fine in that size tank. I'm wondering if there is old food and crud trapped in the gravel, hence my suggestion of stripping and cleaning everything. Cheers Ian

By all means breed them with your fancy ones. Hard to predict what the results will be, genetics gets pretty complicated like that. But I imagine you will get a pretty mixed bunch off offspring. Chances are there will be some that inherit the nice colours of the fancy parent, and the toughness of the wild ones. Those are the ones to keep Some might get the colour of the wild ones, and the wimpy constitution of the fancy ones - those are the culls. You may get some interesting colour combinations, but thats more of a luck thing, who knows. The challange is then to get the offspring to breed true to their form and not revert back to the original look. Good luck Cheers Ian

Not good luck... good planning Decent sized tank, start with just a few small fish and gradually build up the numbers, no problems. Choice of fish sounds good, now the Red Tail sharks are gone anyway. They aren't really that bad, but should be kept with more boisterous tank mates. I am still thinking about getting one for my big tank, but it will be in with a gang of tiger barbs, Kribensis and bigger plecos. Shouldn't cause much of a problem in there. Discus require better water conditions than many other fish, but as long as you can keep the water quality up they will be fine with the other fish you have. Also the higher temp rules out some species, but again the ones you have can handle 28 deg. Oh, and I 2nd getting a couple more kuhli loaches, they are really cool and are much more sociable when in a bigger group. Cheers Ian

Umm.. no fish, a cycled filter, and the ammonia is going up? What else is in the tank? The ammonia has to be coming from somewhere. Whats the gravel / substrate like? Is there something in it thats breaking down and releasing ammonia. I think it might be time to strip the tank and wash everything, apart from the good filter. Start again with everything fresh and clean. If you aren't sure about your gravel, just get a bag of new stuff, you wont need much for a small tank. Plants are good, but optional in a tank. While they look good and do help with the water quality, it's completely OK to keep a tank without them, or use plastic ones if you like the look. You should be able to set up the tank, fill with clean tap water, turn on the filter, add 3 or 4 WCMM and just give them a pinch of food every day. Partial water change each week. It SHOULD be that simple. Cheers Ian

Silver sharks do get BIG.. I wouldn't go that way. Clown loaches also grow big, but they take a while (years). Plenty of other loaches will stay small, Zebras will only reach about 10cm, Yoyos about 15cm, so they are much better for a community tank. Your advert in the buy / sell section. "Wanted to trade - small bucket full of Bristlenose plecos for 4 zebra loaches or near offer" Problem solved Cheers Ian

Yes.. sometimes they are fine.. and others will eat anything they can catch :-? Depends on the individual fish I think. Cheers Ian

You may find that the long tails of the male guppies are just too tempting for some Angels :roll: Not all of them are fin nippers, but some are, and male guppies aren't fast enough to get out of the way like neons and female guppies. Fast short finned fish you can generally use the 'fit in mouth' rule. Cheers Ian

White Cloud 8) Nice fish for small coldwater tank, put in plenty of weeds and they will breed happily in a tank that size. Not so good with goldfish, goldfish get too big and start looking at them as a snack. Cheers Ian

Bloating in plecos is usually a diet problem. Have you tried feeding them some fresh veges as well as commercial pleco tablets. If they are just eating regular fish food it can cause digestive problems. Too much protien and not enough roughage. Cheers Ian

Closing the border is different to banning the fish. The recent thing with the GE fish is because they are banned, you aren't allowed to have any. There are already other fish that are quite legal to keep, but not legal to import. You can still get them, because they are bred locally, but you cant import any more of them. I believe White Cloud Minnows are in that class. What Alan is talking about is that if some new 'fish flu' broke out in Asia, MAF might stop all imports of live fish indefinately. (to protect NZ native species and fish farms) Then we would have to rely on the fish that are already here and the expertise of the people that are breeding them. On another note, it's just really cool to see the little baby fry hatch out, get them eating and growing and watch them grow up. Cheers Ian