matthewY

I'm planning on setting up a similar setup but without all the fancy fishies. 350L tank, 5 discus (they are small, ones 6cm and 4 are 5 cm), 5 GBA's and a pile of cardinals (30 or so???). Quite interested to see how yours goes as my external filter is only 1200LH and if i need to get a 2nd one I will but I too want to avoid spending unless its needed. Been looking at getting an additional UV internal filter (the ones that use UV Leds rather then bulbs) but wonder what people thought of these (maybe the uv isnt powerful enough and just a selling point with no benefits?). At the moment the discus is in their own growing out tank and I plan to add them in slowly in about 2 months (maybe less depending on how they grow). let me know how ur setup goes... :->

wasnt sure where I read this (maybe the cited artical) but I thought theres a chance to get it in a form that looks like a dried up moss (for hiding the eggs from parents). maybe teh stuff I'm looking for isnt around but I know of the ones you are talking about, just it wouldnt quite achieve the same effect. Might resort to using moss for the job since thats what most people use but ideally Peat along the floor of the samll tank :-)

anyone in wellington know where I can pick up "strings" of Peat for fish tank use? Looking at trying to breed some cardinals using the information on this site (http://www.fnzas.org.nz/articles/fish_a ... g_the_fry/). The only ones I can find at the fish shops are the powder ones. cheers

K, after taking 20 or so pictures, all turned out crap except this one so hopfully someone can help identify it. i'm sure its common and could be a tumor but I dont have a clue what they look like and the google images I think only show the worst cases of tumors... heres a pic: http://homepages.ihug.co.nz/~syscon_/100_2388.JPG (higher res then the forum displays) Its the white dot behind the gills. Its almost identical on both sides and i think it sticks out more then the picture shows (the fish in real live looks a bit more bumpy in texture) Thanks heaps, really appreciate it. the fish seems fine for now but if there is something I can do to help it along and stop it from getting worst....

yeah, kind of wondering if they are tumours but never actually seen one before (maybe google would help me in identifying tunmors on gold fishies). I cant imagine what removal of tumours would do to the fishies, did they actually remove the whole lump or just the surface of it? I will do some digging to see if it looks like images of tumours on the internet, hoping its not, they looked normal before I put them out into the cold (about a year ago now). I'll try and get some good pictures once the rain stops.

I'll try and get a better picture over the next few days. I kind of looks like a but of fungus or somethign growing off the skin but not too sure.

man, that rages me how people would lie... I think I'm going to pop down and get it down on paper.... if not, I wont renew with them :->

Yeah I didnt too but when i talked to state about the risk of my tank breaking in earthquakes etc... I asked if the fishies inside would also be covered, They said that if it died cos of the tank breaking then they should be.... maybe its their ploy to get me to sign up with them, who knows, but i would still bring it up should my tank fall apart :->

Hi guys, I was looking at my 2 goldfishies in my outdoor pond and have gradually noticed that one of them has some white lumps on it. I think its been gradually getting worst (noticed maybe 3 months ago but dismissed it as sbeing something normal). I've thrown some salt into the pond incase it helps though I have no idea what it is. The fish itself doers not seem bothered by it and the 2nd fish looks perfect. maybe its a tumour or something??? anyoen recommend a fix? thanks

Guess one good thing is content insurance (atleast according to the guy who sold me my package) covers the tank and the fishies inside should they die.... (something positive to ballance out all the problems that could go wrong)

found that the parents would spot them from a distance as food but when they get close enough they would turn. I have a feeling that the ones they do eat are by mistake and I've seen one parent eat and spit back out :->

Ha, I remember when I first found my baby bunch... I had actually sucked them into a bucket without noticing, then when I was just about to lift bucket to tip the water down the drain I saw a little guy looking back up at me.... :->

I like the use of the thick layer of plants and driftwood. giving me ideas for my tank :->

I ended up getting a Jebao 304 for my tank. Was a bit on teh high end for a cheap knock off but it was a good looking knock off (lookes just like teh ehiem ones). it also managed to steal some of teh features like push to prime. Theres a few guys selling it for $140 new, if you can get 2nd hand then that prob works well. I think next time I open it up, I'm going to look at teh trays and see how well they fit. If i remembr right, they had a rubber "seal" around one of the trays to make it a close fit but maybe that just emans that it wasnt a good fit to begin with :-( dotn have any otehr filters so cant compare but def push to prime is a useful thing to have.

I ended up getting a Jebao 304 for my tank. Was a bit on teh high end for a cheap knock off but it was a good looking knock off (lookes just like teh ehiem ones). it also managed to steal some of teh features like push to prime. Theres a few guys selling it for $140 new, if you can get 2nd hand then that prob works well. I think next time I open it up, I'm going to look at teh trays and see how well they fit. If i remembr right, they had a rubber "seal" around one of the trays to make it a close fit but maybe that just emans that it wasnt a good fit to begin with :-( dotn have any otehr filters so cant compare but def push to prime is a useful thing to have.

Did they have babies in that tank???

Hi Caryl, so assuming money isnt such a big issue (the pond is tiny but I think the $100 - 200 mark for liner would be quite ok for my bank), would the same thickness PVC or polythene be better? I did some googling but the obvious results seemed somewhat biased (the same company offering recommendation is also selling it... but in general, I get the opion that the polythene stuff doesnt wether as well as the PVC stuff??? thanks for your advice Matt

I'm looking at getting rid of my existing preformed pond and replacing it with a liner to fit the entire area. currently the pond stores about 100L adn 2 mid sized gold fish. I'm looking at getting possibly 600L - 1000L in that area and looking for a good liner to suilt. Aftew things that have come up on trademe are PVC liners and polythene liners. I'm def looking for something that would last a while and would not puncture easily (esp if a cat falls in or a hedghog which was once a asad case which actually happened to me. I'm thinking the .5 thickness but if theres something better, I would be very keen to know. What do people use out there and how long should I expect the liner to last for befoe having to replace it. The area is about 3M * 1.5M so quite small still, nothing to fancy so I can afford abit on a thick good liner, so long as I know what I'm looking for. I remmeber someone taling about the sludge covers for farming... How do these compare to the .5 PVC liners? do the sludge covers come in different thickness too? finally, what about underlay, most pond kits dont include undrlays, I wonder if that means u dont need them... what do people use? Cheers Matt

the ones I had were the ones sold under the naem "golden algae eaters". I'm sure they are the same as the normal algae eaters with the exception of the colours (I've seen ones that are like 50% gold etc, quite strange to see). The info under the tank says they only grow to 12cm and with normnal coloured ones it says 24 cm, i wonder if this is incorrect... I havent had these guys pick on anything else in the tank (I only have neons and cardians but would add discus when I get a chance and $$$ to get enough of them) so if the last remaining algae eater picks on the discus when i add them, he would find himself in a new home with mountain minnows and a much smaller tank :-) ah, circle of life... mountain minnows are having babies :-) I found 1 fry about 2 weeks ago and its now about 1cm long (thought just 1 fry was strange enough, I used to get like 50 or so). last night I found another baby fry... I think they are drip feeding me the babies :-)

hey snookie, just wondering, how many have you had in the same tank and what size tank? The petshop must have had atleast 20 or so and they seemed less agressive in those numbers.... but I wouldnt want that many... Also, are they happy? :->

Came home yesterday after work to find that one of the 2 golden algae eaters had died. When I first purchased them, I thought they should be ok together being a 350L tank and having lots of plants, rocks and a driftwood the size of my whole arm in it. Over the last 2 months, one has gotten very fat and has been picking on the other, who has in return gotten very skinny. I think the fat one believes that the whole tank is his and whenever he sees the skinny one he starts to play tag for a min or so. The little one has not been alowed on teh huge driftwood and i has added afew rocks just for him which is away from the driftwood, however, slowly them too started to belong to the fatter one :-( About a week ago I started to give the small guy special treatment, I picked up some special algae type food in hope that he would get a chance to eat (he was always hidingi n one corner of the tank hoping the other guy woudlnt find him). He was eating abit and I thought he might get abit larger and not be suck easy pickings for the other. sadly he didnt make it through teh week :-( In hind sight, I should not have gotten 2 of them (though the fish shop did say they would be ok and also indicated they are not really agressive etc, it was only when I got them home and did soem searching that i read otherwise... My partner who never really likes my fishies fell inlove with them as soon as she saw then at teh pet shop so i had to grab them...kind of...). Also in hind sight, I should have seperated the bigger one and try reintroducing him at some later stage.... I wonder how these guys ever have a chance to bread considering their nature... maybe they were both males or something... Anyway, thought i'll share this incase anyone else in future has similar issues... would appear 350L tank isn not big enough for 2 agressive golden algae eaters....

Ngaio, could be the same pump as broadmeadows? :-)

Thanks Kelsta, just sent off an email.

what do you need to do to get that report? what email addres and is there any special subject heading etc? I've always wanted to know what comes out of my tap... I have tap water drip feeding my pond (ponds small, like 150L or so) and the fishies dont seem to mind but still, always good to know...

Dont know if this is correct but i keep hearing that UVC filters would take care of alot of algea issues.... aswell as the bonus of killing any other bad stuff in your water... Though in saying this... I never used any and came close to buying a filter with UV-C built in until I noticed it was only UV-C LEDs, not a tube.