Naz_Nomad

This is used for gluing skin edges together in plastic surgery. It isn't the same as the superglue you buy off the shelf in the Warehouse.

I have a couple of neons exactly the same. I have put it down to old age and inbreeding too. Mine are about two or two and a half years old, lost a couple recently and have another couple from the original batch who look like yours. So long as they don't act stressed or diseased (mine don't), it's probably just age and as MarkLB said, weak genes.

Stick a UV filter in there, that'll clear it up. Green water is just free floating micro-algae. You can get rid of it by blacking out the tank for a few days and not feeding the fish in it or by the use of UV. I have tried the black-out method but it didn't work for me, but have a UV filter inside my main tank and have never had problems with green water.

You'll need more like 2 males and 5 females otherwise, as was said by dimebag, one male will get beaten up, especially when they get randy. Give them caves and hiding places, loads of females and more than one male will live in a larger tank, unless the dominant male is particularly pernicious.

Welcome to the forums. I am still a newb myself, but they are a friendly and helpful lot here, I've found

Your plants should get light from the light unit in the tank rather than from direct sunlight. Too much sunlight may cause algae to outgrow your plants and cause blooms.

Here's what my little book says about fishy smells... "Smell and Taste Responding to chemicals diffusing through the water is a highly specialised sense in fish, since it is vital for communication and discovering food. The distinction between smell and taste is difficult to make; both senses are best described simply as 'chemoreception'. There are specialised chemoreceptor sites concentrated in the nasal openings, scattered in the mouth, around the head and, in some species, even over the body. " It goes on, of course, but that little extract says that fish have an excellent sense of smell, which in water is more or less the same as taste.

Nope. Rams are fairly peaceful with anything in my experience.

I hate to say it, but breeding for shape/colour etc has been going on for centuries. The Chinese or Japanese royal courts gave us fancy goldfish and ever since we have domesticated them, dogs and cats have been bred for colour, shape, size, traits etc to produce some of the mutant breeds we have these days that are shown proudly at Crufts etc. I can't say I approve but it has been part of human animal domestication for too many millenniums to count.

Aren't Planaria non-parasitic? So fry would be safe with them, they scavenge as far as I remember, feeding off organic detritus. If they get onto the fish, they can cause infection of the gills and mucus membrane if untreated. They also regenerate into a full worm from a handful of cells, so anything eating them had better be pretty sure it's getting the whole creature in its mouth and better not be biting down! Planaria will eat fish eggs if they find them, so best to rid your breeding tank of them if you find them there. Anything not protected and lying around is fair game. They are difficult to get rid of and normally transfer on plants. I don't think just getting rid of your gravel will rid you of the planaria unless you're very lucky. Emptying the tank and sterilising it is the only way to be sure, replacing the plants and gravel and also sterilising your rock. I'm not even 100% sure that there are chemicals readily available to treat them with. Good luck with your problem, let us know what works well and how you get on.

I don't suppose anyone can recommend a good agricultural shop that sells that there stuff farmers use for dams that I can use as a cheaper-than-the-garden-shop pond-liner. In Auckland or mail order? And what's the stuff called properly so I can continue my goolging? Cheers guys.

Here's another silly suggestion... Have you added fertiliser to the substrate at all? I used the JBL balls things for a while in my small tank and they stain the water like buggery, so I guess that other fertilsers will too if they are able to leech into the water. Carbon won't help - all this does is remove medications/chemicals from your water and is of dubious value at other times. Please don't go adding chemicals to your tank unless you know the precise reason for any problem. Adding the wrong dose, the wrong chemical or useless chemicals will just add to pollution in the tank and could cause your fish and plants to suffer.

Woops - double post. Blame the slow as hell work computer! :evil:

Ignore everyone else, get Keyhole Cichlids and Harlequin Rasboras. I am always right, so trust me

Keyholes... Which are my current favourite fish. So full of character and even quite intelligent for fish. Always seemingly up to something. Their favourite food is shrimp pellet. drop one in the tank and they go crazy. Eventually, one Keyhole will set himself up as owner of the pellet and stand guard, chasing off the other fish. He'll be concentrating on the other fish so hard, he loses out on the pellet as the others swim round behind him and sneak in for a nibble as he chases away someone else. Often another keyhole will decide to take ownership of the pellet while his colleague is busy chasing off the nibblers. The new owner sneaks in, grabs the pellet and swims off with it in his mouth - with a convoy of new nibblers in his wake. The chase goes on until he drops it and tries to stand guard as his predecessor did... with the same results.

Hardness? Phosphate?

Don't bother with test strips, they're inaccurate. Get the bottled test kits. Your readings should be... pH - 7.0 ish - this can vary and levels from 6.5 to 7.5 are generally ok for most community tanks. Specialist tanks for lake cichlids etc will need different pH levels. Ammonia - 0 Nitrite - 0 Nitrate - <10

Wow, it seems a lot of people on this forum keep fish. I wonder if that's a coincidence? *ducks and hides*

Add a filter with a UV. UV light goes a long way towards helping clear green water, which is just free floating algae. You can try the blackout method mentioned earlier, but you have to be really strict and make sure you keep all light out of the tank. It didn't work for me when I tried it. Also, keep your nitrate levels nice and low, adding plants helps this problem. Nitrate is food for plants but also food for algae, which is just a simple form of plant life anyway.

I have never had any trouble with BN, although they don't like being bullied and will often fight back. Out of interest, what temperature range do you keep your bristlenose in? Won't being too cold cause a little stress and hence the aggression?

I have always felt that you get what you pay for a lot of the time. Eheims have always given me faultless service, are easy to work with and maintain and spares are readily available if needed.

My preference is for Eheim Cannister Filters. Your tank capacity is 385 litres, so the 2217 should suit you fine. http://www.hollywoodfishfarm.co.nz/prod ... php?id=224

Done, cheers.

Lucky you, I can't get an email reply from my local branch!

I spoke with my LFS bloke about something similar. He suggested Kribs which are popular and he said there were often not enough to meet the demand being imported/bred. They are also fairly easy to breed. My advice would be to speak to your LFS and see what they suggest. Obviously a beginner breeder will make less money than someone with the time and facilities for more exotic and sellable fish. You might find that initially you get shop credit rather than cash for your efforts. Have a look at this too... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/breeding_scheme/