Naz_Nomad

The Jewel filters are fine unless you want to put BIG fish in their biggest tank, then you need to run a secondary filter to suppliment it. They don't produce huge water flow, but I have a couple of Jewel tanks with crystal clear clean water. My only complaint has been the brown scum I got behind the filter on one tank which I couldn't remove as the filter is siliconed in with too little space to get a scraper down there. I happily recommend the Jewel aquarium, they are great tanks.

I keep the gold version of the chinese algae eaters with mine. No problems and they fit the colour scheme a bit better.

Tiger barbs are fine in a community tank so long as you have a group of them. They generally only start their fin nipping when they are bored and the group is too small. Rams should be able to hold their own, even if the barbs start pestering them. They are able to defend themselves and in a planted tank there shouldn't be too much contact between the two groups of fish as the rams will stay in the bottom third and the barbs should stay quite high. The only problems you may have is if the rams start breeding, then the barbs will find an angry cichlid if they come pestering. They can get quite territorial anyway, but if they breed, they will defend their territory aggresively.

Nice photos, thanks for sharing.

Be very very careful with the Algae-Fix stuff. It can easily kill fish if overdosed. Personally, I never put chemical other than Flourish Excel in my tanks. My answer to algae problems has always been to add more Otto's or Bristlenose. Except that wouldn't work for green water. Keep the sunlight away and run a UV filter.

It was in a tank I bought and was just a "killer cichlid". I have suspitions that it may be a hybrid of some sort.

Thanks for that. If any of the guys get beaten up, there will be plenty of space to rehouse them in another month or two. As they are all happy at the moment, they can stay together. Especially as I don't have space to rehouse at the moment.

And the chances of the little guys staying still now I actually need to take a picture are slim. Here's my best effort so far... Of course, he has now decided to take a dump... typical!

The tank is a 3 foot tank and will be upgraded eventually to either a four/five or eight foot tank once I move house and gain more space and sell my car to afford bigger tanks. These will probably be going into the main tank, which is currently planned as an eight foot. The Oscars will go in the four or five foot tank in the study. The wife seems to think that selling the car will pay for blinds for the new place. I say we can afford both! Especially with my back pay and pay rise due in a couple of months!! Woo Hoo! MTS!

Thank you very much Johannes... Out of interest, why not? I realise the mix isn't well planned or anything, but I would welcome advice on why these are not ideally suited?

It would be nice to have the space to seperate them into different tanks. Maybe when I move house and get a whole room just for fishy stuff... 8) Pics 3 & 4 are gorgeous fish, they will be awesome when they grow up some. Got three of the pic 4 and just the one pic 3 fishies.

Well, I now have a Rifts tank and would love to know the name and origins of the remaining "unnamed" cichlids I have in there... Answer correctly and you *could* win a cruise (or not), but any help from the experts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance. Oh, and I know they're not the best pictures, just do your best eh?

Keyholes should not be kept with other cichlids if the others are going to be aggressive. Keyholes are peaceful and shy and will just die a horrible death in with Africans. Get another tank and put the keyholes in with some Tetras and/or Discus. Then everyone will be happy.

Option A More Cichlids = better More fish in general = better More Clown Loaches = better Who needs an Ornate thingy? Buy an ornate cichlid instead!

Bristlenoses in an African tank? Now correct me if I am wrong, but bristlenose prefer a slightly acidic and softish water and need a bit of wood in there to rasp away at to suppliment their diet? An African tank will have hard water and a alkaline pH. I know bristlenose are tough as old boots a lot of the time, but how do they thrive as people seem to be reporting here? I would love to drop a pair into my african tank to keep the place clean and tidy for me, but have been reluctant due to the percieved differences between the environment in the tank and what I *thought* a bristlenose preferred.

My bad. It's actually a bacteriostatic. Different action. It can also adversely affect filter bacteria is used for a prolonged period. I have found it is a useful short-term treatment though, even if the aerator hose on my UV filter is slightly blue now.

You already have tetras and guppies that will look bright and colourful near the top and middle of the tank. My choice for additional fish would be something middle and bottom like a South American cichlid, Keyholes or Bolivians are both peaceful and interesting fish. Gouramis are very pretty fish but will be middle and top fish same as your smaller tetras and guppies. Another excellent, interesting fish type is a killie fish. Though females are fairly bland, the males are colourful and these fish are relatively easy to breed, especially if you get some mop spawners and are able to remove the eggs before the other fish find them. You could also add a small numer of female guppies - the fry appear every few weeks and even if you can't rescue them, they will make excellent fresh food for the adult fish in the tank. I agree with Zabman above, turf the shark. So there you go. My choice would be South American cichlids. Go look at some Bolivian Rams, Blue Rams or Keyhole Cichlids.

The mould and the illness are probably unrelated, though it does sound like there is something wrong with your fish - keep on researching, and possibly post in the disease section and the cold water section for advice. Have a bash with some methelene blue. Some people don't like it but it is a good all-round antibiotic type treatment. It's main drawback is that it dyes stuff blue. The mould sounds like simple brown algae. It can be scraped off and is more of an annoyance than anything and often appears in a newish tank. Keep up the water changes, clean in the tank regularly - particularly siphoning the gravel to remove waste. It is always worth testing your water to make sure the parameters are all good, a test kit is always a great thing to have around as most problems can be lessened by sustaining good water quality. The brown stuff should disappear over time as the plants start to out-compete the algae for nutrients. Especially if you keep on top of it with regular cleaning. HTH

My experience is that fish tanks don't get classed as pets. Pets generally means anything furry that may possibly make a mess and/or smell. I agree with the posters above though, that it is always best to ask if there is a doubt. HTH

Or just do what I did... Leave the BN to breed in the community tank. My experience so far is that if you have a breeding set-up, babies appear in the community tank and the fish in the breeding tank sit and look at each other and don't seem to feel in the least bit randy. My BN bred with surviving babies with no special caves.

Mine produce babies in a heavily stocked community tank with survivors that grow to adulthood. My mummy swordtail is pregnant again.

American-Flag fish are about as hardy as bricks and can handle cooler water. They're also active and colourful and eat algae. Best of all, they are Killies!! Bronze Cories can also take cooler water but prefer warmer. White cloud Mountain Minnows, of course. Danio's are pretty good and hardy. Swordtails are hardy, can handle cooler temps and are colourful and active and breed like rabbits. Rosy Barbs are semi-cold fish and again are nice looking and active. Apart from WCMM, none of the above are strictly cold water fish but all should survive an unplugging or power cuts and are capable of surviving unheated for a while in an indoor aquarium. I don't think you'd have many casualties from a tank of American-Flags, Swordtails and bronze cories should your mysterious unplugging faries visit again. It'll also be a colourful and active tank, can be planted up, which the fish will appreciate, and should produce some babies occasionally, even as a community set-up. Good luck with your new tank!

I would also suggest trying otocinclus and amaerican-Flag fish which are also excellent algae eaters. But for beard algae, it has to be the Self Addressed Envelope every time!

Got to be Harlequin Rasboras. Great little active, colourful fish that are tough as old boots when it comes to conditions. You know you want to... http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile25.html The pictures in that link don't do these great fish justice, especially when schooling, but the comments at the bottom are all about right in my experience.

Virtually nothing. The green neon has a slightly green sheen to the blue part of the colouring but not exactly what you'd call a neon green, so to speak.