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Hi Guys, I'll try to get a photo of the little guy today, I have to do some tank maintenance too... So as for the questions to tank mates etc. I pretty much run the PH at neutral, even though I know it should be higher, haven't had any problems with it though... I do not do tank maintenance as regularly as I should, it tends to upset the tank dynamics too much - and believe me my fish spawn like there's no tomorrow.... I tend to get rid of the breeders as I don't have time to deal with the fry... The cuckoos share the tank with 3 bristle noses, 2 synodontis njassae, 3 Frontosa, 3 Leleupi, 4 Lionheads, tropheus duboisi and a few fish of questionable backgrounds (don't ask I wont explain since everybody is an expert here and will voice an opinion I don't want to deal with - this might be the key to the cuckoos breeding though...). For those asking about the fish for sale, PM me with an offer - I'm not going to list them yet as I believe most people would not buy right now due to xmas being only a few days gone...

Not quite, I still have to sell them...

There's always one, in this case two. Spell checking does not catch muscle memory typos when the words are spelt correctly, congratulations, you're a forum smart arse!

So I was in the process of selling all my fish and selling my tank, the fish didn't get any interest so I couldn't sell the tank. I was moving house (which is the reason for selling). It was one huge job moving a 6 foot tank, but all my fish survived. While moving I discovered a Synodontis multipunctatus fry!!!!! I'm quite exciting as this is apparently not an easy feat... Not that I did anything the fish did it! Just wondering if there are any other people out there who managed to get these to breed and how long they take to grow to a decent size! This also means I've now got a confirmed breeding pair so I may end up selling them in a few months time... I'll post pictures once my dsl is connected... I'm doing this by tethering my iPhone... don't get me started on telecom and ISP's....

I think I may have mitigated the problem. I noticed that the Male will only get aggressive when the lights are off - They'd be on from 2 hours in the morning and 4 hours in the evening. After making this observation I just left the lights on all day turning them off at night. The fish are looking a lot healthier now. For now it seems like there's a bit more peace in the tank, I'm not sure if this would be a long term solution as the algae seems to be growing a little more than before - maybe the bristle noses will have to work a bit harder. I'll keep you posted on how this works out! Thanks for all the advice, if this doesn't work I'll have to re-home them

Not sure if any of you will remember but about 2 years ago I got a bunch of Frontosa and I lost all of them bar 3. I've almost convinced myself that it's the alpha male that's been killing off the so called competition from an early age. During this last week the Alpha male has started chasing what I believe to be the dominant female since this fish and another tank mate were the only surviving Frontosa out of the bunch I got. These guys share the tank with a bunch of synodontis and smaller Malawi's and Tanganyikans there's around 25 or so fish in the tank it's 540 L in size. I've not changed the tank layout in 2 years either. It's been suggested that he might be ready to breed and the others may not... I'm a bit at a loss for what I should do about it, any suggestions out there? I'll try to take a picture of him and post it later for those who'd like to see him. Pictures as promised: The Alpha male below And another of him: The victim: and another of the victim:

Just a quick update... Tested all levels again and they are definitely all 0. Another things I've noticed when I do clean the substrate is the release of a large amount of "air" bubbles. I used to think this was air trapped from the air stones in the tank, but I've removed those more than 8 months ago... (since it's not good for the Frontosa in the tank). Could anybody explain what these are?

I did another test last night and today, all levels are zero again, I think it stems from the fact that I may have rinsed one of the sponge filters in tap water by accident. I top the tank up when the water evaporates but I'm not sure thats enough water to constitute a "water change". I've been doing a lot of research into Marine filtration systems and I'm wondering if the amount of substrate in my tank may cause a deep sand bed effect (can anyone confirm or deny this?)... thus converting the nitrate into nitrogen gas... I'll be sure to do an ammonia test before I do any filter or tank cleaning next time to further this investigation...

I've had up to 45 Malawis in the tank at one point and the filter coped just fine with them... When I clean the tank more often things go wrong in the tank, so the less I do the better my fish do, they are actually breeding... The tank is actually pretty clean regardless my bristle noses keeps it clean.... Everybody is saying more filtration, this is not really an option I'd like to go with as I'm considering selling this tank off in about 6 - 8 months to down grade or upgrade to a red sea max 250... I don't actually have any problems with the tank, my fish are very healthy (like I said they are breeding). My plan is to just keep an eye on the ammonia over the next week (daily). If it does not decrease I'll have to do something about it then, all Nitrate and Nitrite levels 0.

it's the standard filter on the 6 foot aqua one, but I think you're onto something with the water flow as I had to clean the filter since it almost overflowed.... then again shouldn't it clear up once the filter is clean, since the bacteria in the filter and substrate should be able to break it down? or does that take a little longer than I think?

That is the next level up from 0... if it was any less I wouldn't know that it's there....

Well not spike as such, but it's detectable, basically my Ammonia levels do not appear to be 0. This tank is well established and I've not had any problems with any fish in quite some time - mostly it's just due to fighting but even that is under control now. my Nitrite and Nitrate levels are 0. I've done a major clean yesterday and tested the Ammonia again after it and it's still 0.25 ppm. I added 9 fish to the tank about 2 months ago but the tank has been up and running for around 2 years now (I'd expect to see the other levels rise too if this was causing it). Does anybody have any ideas as to what might be causing this? I do water changes every 2 months or so (540 L tank with 24 fish in it, 3 frontosa some smaller africans and 7 catfish). It gets water top ups as required.

Hi guys, This guy did not make it unfortunately...

This fish is nothing but trouble This morning I couldn't find him in the tank. I found him on the floor seemingly dead. I'm lucky that one of my three cats didn't get to him. Once I put him back in the tank he started to breathe again. He's not moving though. Does anybody know if the fish will survive this ordeal? Thanks!

Thank you very much! I've placed this guy in a 40 liter tank with some Melafix. I'll let you know how he goes! Thanks again