ikekrull

I recently visited the Melbourne aquarium and my wife was very interested in the barred and ornate cowfish they had on display there. Are these little cuties found in NZ waters, and are they legal to keep here?

I bought my 4 foot setup second hand and it came with a Fluval 304. The impeller shaft was broken on arrival however, so it made a heck of a noise at first. This part seems to be relatively fragile, so if you go for fluval be a bit careful removing the impeller cover when cleaning. On the plus side, i was able to replace the fancy ceramic impeller shaft with a bit of bamboo skewer from the kitchen while i await the replacement part to arrive from the pet shop, so +1 for simplicity on the fluval. A broken shaft will also not stop its operation, so +1 for reliability too. I also found it was absolutely essential to grease up the main seal on the canister (i used vaseline) - Previously, i couldn't get the thing to hold together properly, and as another poster mentioned, the clips almost seemed to stretch to breaking point - after a bit of a lube, it fits together easy as pie, no leaks, no fuss. It is a bit fiddly to get apart and clean, and some people claim difficulty priming it, so -1 for fiddliness I found it is essential to fill the canister and a good deal of the tubes completely - i fill through the intake and output tubes (i just pour water down them with a jug), then it will start straight up, every time, no need to touch the prime plunger. Most people looking at this class of filter swear by Eheim, but i think for the price differential, the Fluval 304 is quite functional and quiet (even with the bamboo skewer hack).

the 4 that survived have been happy and healthy since. I have since put them in a much bigger tank, so will be getting some more to bring the numbers up, would like to maintain a school of 15-20. I also have some leopard danios in there which seem to keep the neons on the move and schooling rather than hanging around nipping at each other.

So, evilkineivel, it is indeed your position that a single 1 inch goldfish in a 100L tank is overstocking? That anybody with 5 goldfish in a tank less than about 2000 litres is doing something wrong? Because it seems to me thats absolutely absurd. Obviously when the fish grows larger its going to need a bigger tank, but why does that make the decision to house the fish in a smaller tank while it does not require the space wrong? You accuse me of not knowing what i'm talking about, but i've quite successfully kept fish for years, goldfish and tropical - its only because i'm returning to the hobby after a long break that i'm posting in the beginners section. If your tank is of sufficient size to maintain water quality, and have plenty of space for the fishes' dimensions and behaviour, whats the problem?

With all this talk of overstocking with goldfish, how many of you actually have foot-long goldfish in your tanks? I've never seen one grow that big in a tank, and would say that even a 100L tank is plenty of space for a few small goldies - obviously you cross the new tank bridge when you come to it. Do you all really make tank size decisions based on the adult size of your fish when adulthood is 5-20 years away? Is it really realistic to devote > 400L to a single inch-long comet from the petshop on the assumption that it will reach 30cm in length over the next 20 years?

When i was younger living at my parents farm i could go to the stream across the road with my mate and net out large quantities of these fish - I had them in with some goldfish for a while, and he kept them in a tropical community tank - i think theres still a population in a trough on my parents farm along with some bronze goldfish. Of course we had no idea at that time they were noxious, or illegal to keep. They breed readily, and would make pretty good feeder fish, if they werent illegal to keep.

I lost 4 of my 8 neons in about 3 days - some the others in the school seemed to turn on and bite their tails off/strip their scales, and one just died - looked like his gills were all swollen up. I didnt find the corpse of that one for a couple of days, and i think my cory munched on the body which was sprouting huge amounts of fungus and died overnight, no outward sign of disease or damage. The 4 i have left seem robust and healthy, though they seem quite territorial and aggressive for supposedly peaceful fish, but i kind of wish i never bought them because of the loss of my cory. So don't worry - neons are bred in a way that practically guarantees huge losses - i can only imagine how many the petshops must lose in a week while they await sale.

I have the same size tank as you, and also have beach driftwood and rocks in it. Mine wood floated when i got it from the beach so i soaked it in a bucket outside for a couple of weeks until it sunk. I just gave everything a scrub after the soaking, didn't boil it and it seems to be fine. Its completely normal to have some brown algae with a new tank, my glass ended up with a fairly uniform coating of it, but as the tank settles, the brown algae seems to naturally disappear - i have a little magnetic cleaner i use to clean the glass, but if you want no algae on anything else, you will need an algae eater, thats the only practical way to get rid of it. As for the plants, one of my plants is not doing well - my large-grained gravel isnt well suited for planting, especially for plants that usually take most of their nourishment from the roots. I've also noticed the top sections of my plants are quite yellow, probably due to not enough nutrients in the substrate - i'm going to get some small baskets, fill them with potting mix or peat and replant some cuttings from the plants to tidy things up in my tank in a few weeks. The baskets will be covered with gravel to hold them in place. I cycled my tank with 2 platies - both of whom were in somehwat poor condition from the petshop. I did daily water tests and changes to keep the nitrites at an acceptable level as i didnt want to lose a fish - this will probably prolong the cycling process, as letting it spike will establish the bacterial colonies in the filter faster but the lower levels keep the fish out of distress. Zebra danios are reputed to be the hardiest commonly available small fish, so you could get those as your surface schooling fish.

Damn, another neon injured - a big patch of scales stripped off his side. After doing some more reading, i may have a rogue neon, as i have noticed one chasing and nipping at the others - i just can't believe how much damage he seems to be inflicting on his tankmates. The wounds seem too big to be the result of a single bite from a neon, and i would have expected to see less localised damage if it was from many repeated nips. Problem is, i can't tell which neon is which to net him, can't net the little suckers in my planted tank anyway due to all the hiding places, and i have no other tank to quanrantine him in even if i could. I guess i'll just leave them to fight it out...

No more deaths or damage to tails this morning.. I wonder if they just cull the size of their own school to match the space they are in or something. I have seen some mildly aggressive behaviour from one of the neons towards the others but i can't believe their mouths would be big enough to do the kind of damage to the rear end of the first injured tetra i found. Maybe its just a curious platy checking out the new arrivals to see if theyre good to eat - they seem to be little aquatic pigs, eating anything and everything so i guess they wouldn't be above tasting a tetra.

Second neon was found stuck to the filter inlet this evening, completely missing his tail. So thats the second fish i've had to put down in as many days. I really hope tomorrow morning doesnt bring another dying neon.

OK, I found the body of the first neon - still barely breathing but immobile and stuck to the filter inlet. I removed it and euthanised it. A second neon has now had somebody chewing on it's tail. This one might pull through as not all the tail is gone. I wonder if it is neon tetra disease but the damage looks like complete loss of tail land scales (there were a couple of shreds of tail left, and the fish didnt lose colour or behave lethargically before being found like this. I think i might have a psycho platy - and i thought they were such peaceful fish. Has anyone else seen this behaviour from this species?

So I came home from work today to find one of my new neons with its tail fin almost completely gone and all the scales stripped off its rear quarter. Didn't look like a disease at all. Looked like something had chewed on its rear section pretty good. Now, I can't find it anywhere in the tank Maybe it has died and been completely consumed (one of the other tetras has a noticeably fat belly) - But the initial injury is what worries me - Would a platy try to make a meal of a neon tetra? and am I going to eventually see them all picked off? I can't imagine it was the cories.

Well, the neons arrived. They really add amazing colour to the tank, especially in the darker areas. I asked for 6, but got 8, for $12 which seems to be a pretty good deal (from Lower Hutt Pet Shop), and they all seem healthy, and to have settled in just fine - however i'm slightly worried i'm now overstocked. I can't imagine not having a bigger tank in 6 months or so, and none of the fish are really close to their adult size. I figure they will be happier in a larger group though, even if the volume of the tank is on the small side - and the 3 species of fish in the tank all pretty much stick to their own 'layers' so i'll see how it goes for a few weeks. I guess if my ammonia/nitrite levels stay at zero and i do regular water changes then everything will be cool.

Yeah, the tank was fully cycled with 2 platies in it, its been running about 5-6weeks now, ammonia 0, nitrites 0, nitrates minimal - added an extra platy and the cories after the nitrite spike was over, and observed no change in levels - The tank is planted and i now do weekly 20-30% water changes (with aged tapwater) to keep things fresh in such a small tank. I don't want to put 5 cories into such a small tank, though i spose they would be happy enough while small. When i get my bigger tank (probably look at something like 200L) it should be no problem though. I was only going to get one cory to keep the bottom of the tank free of uneaten food, but I didn't want it to be lonely so i got 2. i'm sure the platies will breed at some point, which will likely drive me to acquire the bigger tank, so it may be sooner rather than later.

Hi there, I have recently got my little 38 liter (AquaOne AR380) tank cycled, and am now thinking of adding some more fish. Currently the tank has 3 platies and 2 small bronze cories for cleanup crew, but I would like to keep a small school of neons in addition to these. I realise the cories will probably get a lot bigger than they are now, and my plan would be to get another, larger tank in a few months. My question is - will the neons be happy in wellington water? The pH from the tap seems to be 7.4-7.6, and i've done no hardness testing - i'm not prepared to add chemicals to the water or jump through other hoops to lower pH - if i cant keep them happily using aged tapwater for water changes, i'll find another species to keep. Any other suggestions on small midwater schooling fish that can be kept in such a small tank?

Hi there, i've just set up a small (38L) tank and am currently cycling it with 2 platies and 3 live plants. i've read about fishless cycling etc. but i used to keep fish quite successfully many years ago, and never even knew what cycling was, so i figure i should be fine. But i digress. Both platies came from Animates in Wellington, and both showed signs of illness (one minor white-spot, which he shook off almost immediately - he's now happy as can be) and the other which has been incredibly miserable but seems to be slowly recovering after daily salt dips and white spot medication added to the tank. I went back there the other day for a net and a gravel vacuum, and wasn't impressed at all with the state of the tanks - dead fish in the filter intakes, some horribly diseased individuals (notably a betta whos gills were actually black) and several tanks covered up - i assume due to disease. Everything there seems incredibly overpriced too, I saved $40 buying a master test kit off trademe. Where else in wellington can I purchase fish and supplies from, is there anywhere better?