Ira

These guys were originally...Well, a year or two before I got them...Kept with discus. So the tank would probably have been acidic then.

I've got 3 Madagascar Rainbows(At least I think that's what they are) that I got with my latest tank. One of them keeps getting...I don't quite know what it is...It looks kind of like if you get a bad sunburn and your skin starts peeling afterwards. I don't think it looks like ick, it doesn't look like little tufts of fluff like a fungus. Anyway, if I add salt to the tank it goes away in a day or two, but then comes back after a week or two. I'm thinking that implies that it's a fungus, but wondering if it's maybe due to conditions being wrong for the fish? The water is pretty soft, PH a little bit below 6...Nitrates weren't too high last time I checked, about 30ish. It only seems to be the rainbows getting it. I think they all seem to get a touch of it, but to be honest I can't tell the difference between them to be sure it's not just one that keeps getting it. Anyone have any ideas?

Sounds like mine are altifrons from your description.

Basically, it's just a way to get the tank totally cycled before you add any fish. Not really worth the time if you can swap a cycled filter or media over. But seems to me if you don't have access to a cycled filter that it's a better method than adding a few fish and keeping an eye on the ammonia, adding a few more, watching the ammonia etc over a month or two. With fishless cycling you add a lot of ammonia constantly to the tank for about 2 weeks then change all the water. Then you'll have a enough bacteria to support as many fish as you want to put in the tank. Basically the only pros and cons I can see are... Fishless cycling: cons, you have to have an empty tank for a few weeks and we all know how hard that is to live with. Pros are that it's relatively easy to cycle, just add a bit of ammonia each day, no risk of losing any fish during the cycle and you can add whatever fish you want as soon as the cycle is complete. Traditional cycle: Cons, harder on the fish, more attention required keeping an eye on ammonia, nitrite and possibly extra water changes to keep it from getting too high, takes a lot longer to cycle. Pros, you can have a few fish in the tank from the start. Ummm...Basically it's a choice between easy but having an empty tank for a while or a little more work but having fish from the start. Disclaimer: I've never actually tried fishless cycling. But if I didn't have heaps of canister filters to steal media from or a friend I could grab some cycled media off of I'd give it a try. Of course, that would require me not finding fish I want and not being able to resist buying them before the fishless cycle is finished.

You could add some salt to the tank. But if he's had enough time to heal any open wounds on his fins it probably isn't important.

3-4 months ago I bought a pair of Geophagus Surinamensis from Fee. One of them is now very definitely smaller than the other. Does anyone know if this is a sex-linked trait or something common? This would be the second pair of them that I've had one of the Surinams significantly smaller than the other. But, other than the size I can't tell any difference between the two. Males, I think, are supposed to get a bit bigger and have longer trailing fins. But, both seem to have identical fins, just one is bigger. They're both happy and eating like pigs, by the way, Fee if you read this. Once or twice they scared me and I thought they might be bloated, until I realized that their huge belly goes away overnight and then suddenly reappears after feeding Hehehe.

It wouldn't matter what the PH is though during the cycle since after it's cycled you do a 100% water change. Hmmm...Unless the bacteria are sensitive to PH, which I wouldn't think would be the case.

I'd try it. Don't need to though since I can always steal some media from my other tanks. I don't think you need ammonia hydroxide. Just regular ammonia that would probably be sold in the cleaning aisle of pak&save or wherever. Sounds like you've got a few tanks, so if I were you I'd grab media out of some of their filters to colonize the tank. Unless you want to do it out of curiosity.

How do you breed the dageti? I don't have the room at the moment to seperate a pair out, but couldn't hurt to try and set the tank up so they can get to work in there. They're pretty much alone except for a bristlenose and 2 cories. And how do you tell the sexes? The females are less colorful, right?

You mean you don't have a firewall and antivirus on the computer in your fish's tank? Don't want my Geo's picking up any viruses from spam or my mystus picking up a virus while surfing for porn on planetcatfish.com.

I had a chat with a breeder in the US once. He runs something like 200 tanks inside his house and said he found it easiest to just heat the entire house to 90ish farenheit and then get used to the house being too hot. Don't know if he was exaggerating and it's just his basement or what, though. Then he could adjust the temperature in the tanks by putting the ones he wants warmer up higher, cooler lower. So layering CAN be useful. He also said that his takes are a little cooler than ambient. Probably due to a little bit of evaporation.

AJ, I'm using rainwater because my house is supplied by rainwater. So, don't really have the option. If I wasn't trying to grow plants then the rainwater would be fine. Unfortunately the plants seem to need some kind of added fertilizer to grow. When my last batch ran out I didn't get around to making another batch for a few days then decided to wait 2 weeks to see how the plants would react. In each tank the plants seemed to almost immediately stop growing and within 1 week there was a noticable growth of algae on the plants. In 2 weeks the plants in the tank my killies are in were covered with enough algae that when I started adding the fertilizer again it was too late, they were all basically dead. Had to tear all the plants out and use some of what I learned at the last UHAS meeting, hehe. All the plants are now basically just a couple rows of sticks poking out of the substrate, but they're coming back. I have looked at buying some commercial fertilizer, it's been a little while and I can't remember the exact cost, but it came out to something like $40 a month to dose all my tanks and it would be more now since I got a new tank. That was from prices at Animates so I could probably find it cheaper somewhere else.

I was there the weekend before last. Didn't notice them there...Easy to miss something though. I'd have bought a few though to go with my red chin panchax.

What I've read is that it's more that they can't handle a lot of high protein food. I guess it kinda constipates them then they get bloat. I guess they need a lot more fiber, like old people. So feeding them a little blood worms every few days shouldn't hurt if you defrost it in a glass and then dump it in the tank. That way every fish should get a little but none of them will be able to steal an entire chunk of them like my SA's like to do.

Thanks for the info CID. Now, if you wanna be REALLY helpful, get a few dozen and mail them to me.

You'll still have a little heat going through the stand that would make it less efficient than an in tank heater, though. Maybe only be a tiny amount of loss, I'm not really sure. If you can get some kind of radiator or fins on the pipes that would help make the system work better. The ongoing cost of the heating pads and the pipe system won't be that much different though. I think the pads might end up a bit more efficient, though. The piping system you'll be using the electricity to heat the water and then using the water to heat the air that will heat the tanks. But with the pads you'll use the electricity to heat the pad which heats the tank. That's cutting out one stage and would probably cut out a bit of loss. I'd bet the heating element in the water heater and the heating element in the pad would have pretty similar efficiencies. So you'd probably get more heat out of the pad for less money.

DAMNIT! I wrote a whole long post and lost it all when my internet connection died just after hitting submit. So, here's the shortened version... Pegasus, if you need, say 50 watts of heating per tank to keep it at a constant temp using internal heaters, you'll need at least that in the system using the piped water. Actually, you'd need more because you'd lose some heat downwards into the stand instead of all of it going into the tank. It might be more flexible and managable to use a bunch of Caryl's heating pads if they can be made relatively cheaply and in different Caryl, can I have the plans, please? Promise not to electrocute myself.

I didn't know there was either! What time is it? Is it at the same place as the auction?

Hmmm...Oh, guess I didn't mention it, I thought I did. The reason for the change in plans is that my wife is going to come. With her coming we can't stay overnight because someone's gotta be at home to take care of the kids if we did that. Kids being 3 cats, a dog, 3 birds and 4 tanks. She knows how to get to Napier and wants to have more time there. Hopefully we'll see you there, though.

Oh! Caryl! I forgot I never got back to you! Sorry. Looks like we'll probably be leaving here early in the morning, probably 8-9ish. We'll be getting there really early, but I'm sure we can find something to do to kill time. Going to be a long day, hope we can buy something nice to make up for it.

Sounds like just a modification of a type of central heating called, I think, radiant heating. I used to live in a house with it. I think usually in a household system you'd want to add antifreeze and things to the water, but I don't know if that's necessary in this case. You could always experiment with the water temperature, 70° might heat the tanks at the beginning of the loop a bit much and towards the end of the loop the temperature would drop a bit. That's if the pipes are running in parallel instead of just a single long pipe looped back and forth. Which would seem to be a good thing, it'd give you a small range of temperatures for different fish instead of everyone being at the same temp. I think you could increase the temperature difference by by adjusting the speed the water is pumped. A higher volume would bring the end tanks up closer and lower would let them cool a bit. I also wonder if having the pipes against the back of the tanks instead of the bottom might not work better? Then you wouldn't have the thicker bottom glass and any substrate insulating the water a bit....Hmmm, Nah, probably would add a bit too much complexity. I don't know if you can easily get the piping that has little radiator fins on it here in NZ, but if you can it might be useful. But I think it's normally quite a bit bigger than 12 mm, at least I think the ones at my parents house are. Depending on the cost of piping, I'd say the more you use the better. You're not going to get the greatest heat transfer from the pipes to the tanks with just bare pipes pressed against the bottom of the tank. I think you'd be better off running more pipes running at a cooler temperature. But I guess hotter and fewer would probably work just as well as cooler and more, but more pipes would give you extra heating if it's needed. Ok, that's enough typing and not saying much useful for now.

Yeah, I'm using rainwater, so very little buffering. I know it's prone to easy PH changes. Which is why I'm trying to minimize the PH change caused by the fertilizer mix. There aren't any really big pieces of driftwood in the tank. But all the pieces in there have been in different tanks for at least a few years so they shouldn't be leaking any humic acids, tanins, etc. Last time I checked the nitrates were about 40ish. But before I started adding the fertilizer the tank was happily sitting around 6.9. Well, I should say the old 200 liter tank was and except for the addition of a bit of substrate everything in the old tank was transfered to the new 400 liter.

Didn't think it was possible. But I had to ask. So close but still can't get them. Maybe I should take a trip to Aussie and bring back a...Ummm...Water bottle. hehehe.

I just found out by following a link to www.sydneycichlid.com that pegasus(I think) posted...That a fish I've been wanting for ages is actually available in Australia even though it doesn't seem to be available here. So I'm curious...How strict are the regs for importing fish from australia? I'm probably hoping too much that they could just be shipped here without quarantine. Anyway, the fish is Neolamprologous Ocellatus.

Actually, I've found it DOES have a significant effect on the PH. Oddly only in one tank, though, I guess because the rest are tending towards 7+ PH. In a different thread, can't remember which thread, I posted about it that making a guesstimate at the rate I'm putting it in, scaling up from a test in a bucket that it would drop the PH from 7 to about 6.2 within a week before a water change(50% weekly) and would keep dropping after that. That's far from what I'd call no effect. I'm trying to adjust the mix that's causing the PH drop because I'm getting sick of testing and adjusting the PH two or three times a week. I've been using about 1/4 teaspoon of baking soda mixed in a glass of water every few days. This only raises the PH by .2, which I'm not worried about causing shock.