tukituki

sorry to hear about your danios scuba sam, thats a shame

my loaches stopped doing their little "dance" a few days after my last post, i think for them it was maybe something to do with the water change and change in set up. some of the other fish do it from time to time too but its ok they're not causing any harm! maybe it is something do with seeing their reflection!

thanks for the advice spink, we've been letting the guppies "freestyle" it in the big tank and breed with whom they please but just set up a separate tank so we can be more selective! hopefully it works!

About a year ago i bought a trio of australe gold and a trio of nigerianus gold. initially they were put in my community tank but didn't do so well so put them in their own small tank with lots of java moss. one female died but i never knew which breed she was. over xmas my male australe gold died, we found him when we got back from holiday but there was a young killifish who turned out to be a male nigerianus gold. these 5 killifish have been living fine together, or so i thought. i haven't been paying too much attention to the killifish tank over the past few weeks as i've been very busy. they've been getting their regular flake food every other day and blood worms 1-2 times per week. you'd see the fish at feeding times but i found they tended to hide a bit so haven't thought much about them. we decided to do a big clean up of the tank yesterday as there was algae growing on the sides, only 2 of my killfish remained - the young male nigerianus gold and a female (not sure what type). i have moved these two to the community tank and they are swimming around happily. there were no bodies of the 3 missing fish. there is no way they could have jumped out as it is a tight fitting aqua one tank and the lid never gets left open as i know they are good jumpers. there were no fish remains of any kind. do you think the remaining 2 ate the others? it could only have been over the last 2-3 weeks at the most, probably less as i used to count and i'd compare my little killi to his dad (who i swear i've seen recently but most of my attention went to the baby killi).

maybe it is just the change in environment rather than dancing to their own reflections! we've been changing the rocks around and put in a few more as well so maybe thats why they are continuing to do it, although they are not doing it at this very moment in time! they're not doing any harm, i just wanted to understand why! its light inside my house right now, dark outside, if i look out the window i see my reflection. it would be a reasonably similar situation for my fish as the light into the tank is very bright and there wouldn't be a lot of light outside the tank in the corner they dance in, its possible they can see their reflection i guess! they just seem "enchanted" like a cobra and a snake charmer! i don't think they're trying to breed, that would be very cool though! since the big cleanup (they all had to come out as the undergravel filter had stopped working) also my port hoplo catfish haven't been themselves, they are usually first in at dinner time eating everything they can find. the last 2 feeds they've stayed asleep and more or less missed it, so unlike them. they are out and about at the moment as if hunting for food, next feed isn't until tomorrow though

I have 2 bengal loaches & 2 golden zebra loaches that after the last tank clean a good few days ago have been swimming up and down the side of the tank (where I think they'd see their own reflection) virtually non stop ever since! They do not move from this spot at feeding time (although I'm sure they do once lights are out). It is like a courtship dance in a way and sometimes the corydoras join in too, and on a few occasions the clown loaches! Does anyone know why they are doing this? Cheers.

the trait looks slightly more desireable on the danio than the guppies. i've had no luck breeding the danio's so maybe he will get to stay!

thanks zev, sounds good and i see that you are a 5min drive from me! maybe its best to organise through a pm!

thanks amazonian. i think i need some new female guppies!

well they all seem healthy, just a few with "banana syndrome" that seem in good health despite their spine issue. hopefully my tank does not have a tb epidemic going on!

definately only 5 with the funky spine or banana syndrome so no tb then, great . i think culling is best but i feel mean playing god! a tank full of banana fish is not desireable!

i've just read this: http://www.torrens.org.uk/NatHist/Aqua/disease/tb.html on tb, sounds horrible! i don't think my fish are suffering from this as they are healthy apart from the spine being a bit crooked (and this is only 5 out of 50 or so), well i hope i don't have a tank full of tb infected fish - seriously nasty!!! i'm still half tempted to cull the crooked spine fish but that is so mean eh? what would you do?

the danio i think was probably like that when we got him a year or so ago and it has got a bit worse with time. we have culled a couple of female guppies with this a few months ago that could hardly swim. the latest female guppies that are showing the curved spine are a mixture of youngsters that we have bred & are now fully grown & a few that were bought as adults. they swim around fine, my partner is fond of a couple of them, i think its not their fault if they are disabled etc but don't want more of the same being bred if this can be passed on. strange how its only the female guppies. can someone tell me a bit more about fish tb please? sounds scary!

i have a few fish in my tank that have a curved spine (that has appeared over a few months). there are a few female guppies with this and one zebra danio. would this be due to a genetic trait (no doubt from inbreeding) or could there be another reason? all of the other fish in the tank are fine and this curved spine has not been seen on any of the male guppies.

thanks starfish. do you think she'd take the same disliking to my killifish? they are about the same length as her (apart from my youngster that appeared at random after we got back from xmas holidays, he's still a little short) but only about 0.5cms wide!

hopefully they will settle down, they seem a bit calmer today. my gouramis are far from shy! the glowlight ones are very confident, dwarfs pretty social and its the pearl ones that can be a bit shy from time to time but usually no problem. the tank has lots of plants and caves so hopefully the bettas and the dwarfs can decide upon separate areas to hang out in!

interesting! she must be one jealous girl as she just chased one of the dwarfs across the tank then went back to hanging out amongst the plants, then chased her sister away too! now she just seems to be a bit possessive about her "spot in the plants" and doesn't want anyone near her. very strange. lucky that often when she chases them they go behind the silver dollars which makes her turn away.

ooops i read the post wrong, i don't have the smaller ones do i?!

so i have the smaller ones? they are very small at the moment but i'm expecting them to grow and grow and grow! i'll have to work on my picture uploading technique! thanks for the advice!

this is my attempt at putting a picture of 2 of the silver dollars (very tricky to get the 3 of them in one photo!). i'm hoping this will work! http://i307.photobucket.com/albums/nn28 ... 1207199346

i could do either of those as have a breeding net or else she could go in with my killies for a few days, i don't think its a size thing as she's certainly not picking on the guppies or blue tetras in the tank, or the tiny gobi so i don't think she'd pick on the killies. i'd probably move her and her sister then put them back in after a couple of days, but will leave it for a day or two and see if they become more accepting.

if she's being territorial do you think she'll accept the dwarfs with time? its only been a few hours so far so still very early days.

both of the fighters will chase the dwarf gouramis if they bump into them. it could be a size thing as these 2 dwarf's are about the same size as the fighters, if not a bit smaller. they are a similar shade of red too! they are not attacking just chasing, at this stage anyway. having said that i do have a very small pearl gouramis that the fighters are not interested in, nor do they go for the large pearl gouramis or 2 glowlight gouramis (i was sold this pair as dwarf glowlights, they are my largest fish by far - definitely not dwarfs! still lovely looking fish that love to chase each other around the tank but seems just playful). are the fighters resentful of the arrival of the new dwarf and invasion of their territory?

my 2 fighters have been in with 6 other gouramis though since i got them without any problems at all. the 2 new dwarf gouramis are new additions after a couple of gouramis died over the last few months. she's stopped chasing him now, or maybe he's managed to loose her!

i have 2 female fighters in my community tank with gouramis, lots of bottom dwellers, silver dollars etc. today i introduced a few new fish (a few clown loaches and 2 dwarf honey gouramis), the bag was floating in the tank and one of the female fighters instantly came over, her fins and some of her body became a deep red colour (my fighters are very pale pink coloured usually with light red fins) and she kept staring at these new gouramis. when i released the new fish into the tank she has since been stalking one of the new gouramis and is still the same colour. she is just following him around not doing anything else. the other fighter showed a bit of interest but is the same colour as normal and has since just acted normally. i have had these 2 girls for 6 months at least and never seen them behave like this before. do you think she thinks this new gouramis is a male fighter perhaps?