Simian

Jack Dempsey? they are pretty and not as big as an Oscar, or are they just too mean?

so rams are out, what about the other guys i have with an oscar?

Hey all I have a 5' tank I'm setting up. I have the following in an existing 3' I know its not a perfect match so I want some advice on what to add/subtract I have 1 Jewel 1 Green Severum (not very good colouration) Cull 2 Nicaraguans 1 Yellow Lab (dirty colours) Cull 1 Texas Blue 2 Bristle nose 2 Convicts Cull? My wife really wants another Lab with better colours so I'm trying to find a nice American option. I really like the Jewel so want to hang onto him. I was hoping to get an Oscar (for his intelligence) and remove the severum, convicts and Lab and chuck in a couple of Blue rams for colour. But I'm starting to think the tank is just too small for an Oscar What do you think? I'm keen on going American, as I really like the Texas Blue and the Nicaraguans so many fish so little room :evil:

At what size do BN start to mature sexually? I have some medium sized ones that I still am unsure of sex.

I have just solved a problem and wanted to share with other newbies. I had been relying on the spray bar for aeration in my 3' planted community tank I had though/been told that should be enough...WRONG! I have lost a few of my inhabitants off and on in the last few weeks and I had noticed they were breathing very fast compared to my 2' tank fish. Their gills were very pink and I had started to suspect I had some major issues. My water tested out fine, and I even check ammonia levels twice suspecting an ammonia spike from an un-found dead fish. Last night I hooked up an airstone in the tank, within 10 mins the fish had stopped gasping and activity in the tank increased dramatically. I suspect the pink gills are gill flukes taking advantage of my fish's weakened state. I hope this helps someone in the same boat

Im no expert but if ones hanging out in a pit..and aggression is on the rise, you may be in for some convict lovin :roll:

I don't think they do that is the easiest way to sex them but I have a mature female who has the same colouring as the male...some of their offspring have orange bellies tho The females are typically smaller and have a slightly different finnage, do a google search thats what I do I can never remember properly.

I too have lost all my dwarves I had one which just kept getting a bigger and bigger abdomen until it died i dissected it looking for parasites but apart from a god awful stench seemed fine to my untrained eye. My pearls and goldens are fine and were in same tank

Stress makes em turn pale real fast, I watched one of mine have a run in with an ancestris on a dark rock. Within a second or so he was almost white. They are cool fish I freaked out when I first noticed them changing colour, skinniness is what you really need to watch with the little guys.

Welcome. Dam what killed your JC's I have one and he regularly beats up all the other fish in the tank.

update. I gave it the formaldehyde/white spot cure dose then after 3 days all white spots gone. Total clean out of tank/filter media. 4 days on, my water is clean as crystal(I used filter media from another tank). The C-loaches died (last one today) they just wasted away :evil: All other fish seem very happy except for the fins of one angel (I am suspecting a phantom fin nipper).

Ahah! great idea, I've been getting sick of fishing out little weights all the time

I did suspect some bacterial problem, I vac my gravel when I do water changes, but I may give the total clean out option a go after I get this white spot outbreak under control, it will get rid of the cysts hiding in the gravel. Hopefuly the massive med dose will smash anything down long enough for my fish to recover. My CLoach Lived through the night so that's promising, thanks for the advice.

The life expectancy is very high for LEDs, I agree with Ian 5-10 years is not unreasonable. If you have a Metal halide lamp over a marine tank don't you have issues with excess heat? you get into needing chillers etc?

Im a sparky and an electrical engineer and while I usually work in the field of heavy industry my new hobby has got me thinking. I have been doing some research into the new(ish) ultra bright led technology and the results may be very interesting to those of you with marine or cold water tanks. Led Moonlighting is nothing new so lets not thrash that out again please. But what is interesting is that high powered led's are coming down in price dramatically and are finding them selves in the mainstream lighting market. It would appear that NASA have been using LED technology for plant growth in space and with very good results, Aquatic LED grow bars are even commercially available now (still a bit pricey for me tho at $400 a shot). the advantage of using Leds over Fluoros or metal halides is that they dont produce very much heat, are energy efficient, produce no UV (which is not good for plants at close range), dimmable and by using the right mix of leds specific wavelengths of light can be targeted and tuned to give exactly the effect you want. Heres what I need to know from you serious addicts, what are you paying now in initial costs, power usage (just give me wattage and type of lamps you use and hrs per day) and relamping costs for your current set ups? It is very possible to produce very dramatic lighting effects such as a full day/night cycle complete with dawn and dusk lighting with gradual change to make your pets feel right at home. Is that something people would be interested in and what would be an acceptable cost for such a thing? I will probably need some help from those who are that way inclined to pin down the required wavelengths so I can match them up with the data sheets. Interesting? or a waste of time and money? let me know.

:bounce: welcome :bounce:

Ok at the moment I have an attack of white spot going on in my little 2' community tank. It is the second in three weeks the first was on a platy (died) but it went away after a dose of treatment. Now my clown loaches & Ancestrus are getting hammered by it, and now I just noticed one of my angels has some fin rot. I have turned the temp up to 27, increased aeration, dosed with white spot cure and after 3 days its still not settling down I have lost 1 Clown loach and an ancestrus with another CL looking ready to bite the dust. Im anal about water changes and my water tests ok, not sure about ammonia but I cant see that being an issue with my water change system (25% per week). After a chat with my LFS I have done a 35% change, dosed with white spot cure again and followed up with a dose of formaldehyde. The fin rot and the way the little guys are keeling over so fast has me wondering if these are symptoms of a larger problem. My fish are dropping after only a couple of days of noticing the problem, and they are not exactly "covered" with spots, how long does it normally take for them to die?

Yeah I know! no bones no skull nothing! it is only a 3' tank too

Heh, maybe its a Hamilton thing, I have a phantom tail biter too. I have even had a Dwarf Gourami disappear from the tank..*checks under couch* without a trace. all within 3 days :evil:

Welcome, and I know what you mean about spiralling out of control. I too would like to know when the Hamilton club meets.

Ok more advice please. My new Jewelled is not eating Flake, granules or a home made food based on the European shrimp mix. I tried him on some earth worms I dug up and chopped into chunks..boy did that get him going! Is this normal? I dont really want to have to deal with live food all the time (my vege garden will suffer and I cant be bothered farming food for just 1 fish). The other cichlids are happy with anything

to post a pic, best bet is to go to a site called photobucket, there are others but its what i use. register and upload your photo/s you will note below the pic you uploaded that there are 3 or 4 very techo looking addresses click on the Img one (it will save automatically) the simply paste in your message on the forum.

Welcome and as one very wise fish keeper I know once said, only people who have kept fish for less than 6 months know it all, everyone else is still learning.

Now ive seen the hongi Id hazard a guess that it may be a cross, There are a couple of spots on his anal fin. Meh I'm not likely to breed off him anyway. As for the odd mix of fish, the fish came with the tank so they must get along..well as well as they can any way. There is a PH overlap for all the species at 6.5-7 Ill try and get it nice and stable and see how they go, if not ill just have to get another tank . Thanks for the input guys

his 5 oclock shadow is not so noticeable with the flash from the camera and niether are his bars but you get the idea