Gill

Thanks for the info. You're right Clown Loaches are a great fish; they have a great personality and are fun to watch, they love 'playing dead' My three larger ones coped with the trip home and are in another tank so the plan is to eventually move the two new ones in with them but not until they are bigger. I will continue using meds and doing the water changes and then i will setup another filter this time I might use the spare external i have kept running rather than taking up space with an internal one i used before the treatment started.

I had a read up and read that you turn up the temp to 30* and treat with salt but that on its own didnt seem to work so i added in the white spot treatment and did the daily water changes of about 40%.I also took out the filter and added in a couple of air stones. Its week two now and today is the first day i have found a reducation in the white spot.So i am keeping my fingers crossed.Thank goodnes i had them in my small (50l)tank all of this time. If i am successful i might get some more and have another go .Large Clown loaches are hard to find.There are some on that other site but there are 11 up of grabs ,its all very tempting .......

I have been trying to get hold of some Clown loaches, I couldn’t find any so although I knew their survival chances were not very high took the plunge and bought 4 babies, they were tiny. Slowly one by one all but two have died, no obvious signs of illness or visible symptoms. One of the remaining two had been sick with white spot. Initially I treated with white spot meds but after a week he was still sick and looked pretty close to drying, one day I thought he as dead and tried to catch him in the net, anyway to cut a long story short and after using a combination of higher temps daily water changes, some salt and white spot meds I think he has turned the corner, the white spot looks much better, he is swimming around much more eating, I will continue the treatment untill he is free from white spot and let you know how things pan out.So I hope after three weeks of TLC I will have another two Clown Loaches to add to the three I already had.

They sure do i was given a huge one about 15 cm long, the plants love it all , but the tank looks like there are worms all over the place in the mornings so i make sure i do regular water changes with gravel vac to keep on top of it all. 8)

There we have it then. Manukau water is quite a cocktail !!!!

I emailed Manukau Water and here is their reply... Water treatment is a very complicated process. A significant part of this process requires the use of certain chemicals, for instance: Coagulation - Alum as Al2(SO4)3, the most common coagulant in NZ (other coagulants used are sulphates and chlorides of aluminium and iron). The purpose of coagulation is to neutralise the charge of particles present in the raw water to allow flocculation. Flocculation - Polyelectrolytes as natural (sodium alginate - derived from seaweed) or synthetic (polyDADMAC - a form of ammonium chloride with a long chain, positively charged with binding function). The purpose of flocculation is the binding of large particles into "flocs" which are subsequently removed in the process of sedimentation / clarification using either hydraulic process (mixing column) or mechanical mixing. Finally the fine particles are removed by the filtration process. Alkalinity and pH adjustment - Lime (Ca(OH)2, caustic soda (NaOH) or soda ash Na2CO3; Chlorination (chlorine gas, calcium or sodium hypochlorite) and fluoridation (Hydrofluosilicic acid, quality control product free of any toxic components). Hope this answers your question Kind regards Snezana Nikolic Water Quality Engineer MANUKAU WATER LIMITED

Thanks for the info.

Cheers, generally speaking windows dont have litres of water behind them and only silcone holding it togther. I get the message that there isn't a problem with glass tanks being outside ,other than water getting hot !!!!

Just wondering if the sun have any negative effect on the glass.

I should have been more specfic , Manuaku water area

Hi i as told by someone how breeds tropical fish that the Auckland water supply isn’t treated with chlorine. They also fill straight from the cold tap.

Would Stone and Water world have any ?

I looked the other day and the ones in the shop are very small. there doesn't see to be much choice in the pet shops at the moment.I might wait till i see some larger ones

My BNs sit in the outlet pipe of the filters .They seem to love the current

Great i will think about getting some smaller ones then,i like the idea of watching them grow

Hi i am thinking about getting some more Clown loaches .Would smaller ones be ok with big clowns ,or would i be better trying to get the same sizes. I have three big loaches ,they are such fun ....

Hi i left the magnetic glass cleaner in my tank with the Clown loaches, they have spent several hours going crazy swimming around and round it. I took it out and they are now resting in their cave. I know Clown loaches are very entertaining but thought i should take out the cleaner before they died of exhaustion. So just wondering if the magnet gives off any kind of force fish are attraced too, or were they just being Clown loaches

Greg has made me two tanks and offered to fix another,hes a great guy very helpful and his tanks are fantastic too. 8)

Oppps that didnt even occur to me .

Mine are all together in my big community tank but i have heaps of plants so most babies make it to adulthood.i just leave them to it, they soon learn to keep a low profile , they can swim pretty fast too.My fighter is too slow to catch a cold .. 8)

Yep they soon get out of hand .I have the same trouble with guppies and platies and swordtails. But i dont want them to go for feedfish .

I have been told that my plants would grow a lot better if i had one of those CO2 diffusers. How do they work and are the ones out there all the same. I saw one at animates other than that i have no idea what i am looking for ..... 8)

Hi i have no idea if this is the right place to put this .But just been to animates and have been told they are having an aqua weekend, heaps of bargins and half pirce stuff.Fish are buy one get one free, tanks i think are half price Gillian

Know the feeling with uni, it takes over your life. I am in my third year, i am what they call a mature student ,with four girls of varing ages . But so far i have been able to give my fish the attention they deserve. They are a great reason to put the study books down and have sonme R & R When it get tough the tanks make are a great tonic .I'm going to have one in my classroom one day . 8)

Ummmm the loaches are between 8 and 13 cm ,so i guess they would be ok .But i think i will let animates know i have changed my plans.Better do some more research 8)