Ira

I don't really have a tank that is an option to put them in. My other two tanks are a 200 liter tank full of cichlids that would eat them and a 6 foot tall hexagonal tank that I'd never get them back out of full of tetras. So I think I'll just keep a really close eye on them. Changing the water in the tank is a lot easier than putting them in a different tank. I haven't actually found duckweed that hard to get rid of. For some reason it seems like it grows like mad for a while and then the individual plants just start shrinking. They go from being maybe the size of a grain of ride to not much more than green specks and then disappear. I don't know why. I've turned the light off in the tank and the guppies are acting more normally, but now instead of huddling in a corner a lot are sitting on the bottom again. Maybe that's the way they sleep? I don't know. I tested the nitrates again after the water change and it looks like they're 0 or at least as close as I can tell. Which is odd because it should be 1/4th of what it was, not 0 I'd have thought. Next time I get a nitrate test kit I'll get a tablet kit. These drops seem to have a pretty huge error range depending on how well you shake the bottles and test tube. Caryl, the PH in that tank is usually right around 7, it doesn't have anything in it to really change the PH and since I'm on rainwater my tap water is as close to 7 as I can measure. Hmmm...I guess it wouldn't hurt to go check it... Looks like about 6.7, so it might have been lower before. Yeah, I neglect that tank more than I should.

Normally I don't test the nitrates in the tank the guppies are in because every time I DO test it, it's 0. But, I think because I recently trimmed the plants in there and the duckweed on the surface is all shrinking away to nothing...The nitrates went sky high. Enough that the test tube turned a very deep cherry red, much darker than the highest on the color chart, I'd have to guess way over 150. The guppies were mostly sitting on the bottom. I did a really big water change, about a 2/3rd change. Now all the guppies are clustered in a corner hiding behind one of the pipes for the filter and at least 4-5 very young ones have died so far. Yeah, I know, they're just guppies. But I've got some really pretty ones in there and some endlerish ones.

What I really need to do is find a cheap place to get a nice digital camera. Looks like the one I want is around $2K+ here in NZ, but in the US sells for about $1400 NZ.

I managed to coax a picture out of the rooted camera. Not the greatest picture, but it took me 10 minutes of fiddling and the camera freezing up almost every try to get it.

I've tried duckweed. I basically dumped a net full of it from one of my other tanks into it. Looked like a green snowstorm, but there wasn't a single duckweed left after about 3 days. Hmmm...Hygrophilia difformis, that name sounds familiar, lemme do a search...Ah! Wisteria! Yep, got some of that. There's actually a good bit of it in the clump of stuff that's floating around the surface. Very pretty plant, I like it. But it's also tasty, apparently. And it looks like I've got the Polysperma too. Thanks. Been trying to find out what it was. Probably 4/5th of the clump is polysperma. Both are supposed to be planted, but neither seems to mind floating around at all. And the fish seem to like having a big mat of them to hide under. Wish my digital camera wasn't dead.

I'm guessing that was meant for me? Yeah, I'm putting some plants in. Right now it's got a ton of Java fern I bought off Caryl, a Borneo sword and a huge floating clump of something I don't know the name of. The nitrate level isn't 120 anymore. Now it stays around 60-80ish PPM doing 50% water changes. I'll give the plants a few weeks to settle in and see if they're makinga difference. I realize plants don't actually use nitrates well, but they absorb ammonia and less ammonia->less nitrite->less nitrate.

*Very badly done joke deleted*

That Bristlenose is just a baby. It's way too small to tell if it's a male or female, no bristles yet and hasn't doesn't have a definitive body shape. I've got Ummm...Lemme see...9 bristlenoses. The males are ugly little things, but the females are better. You should get some geophaguses! Yes! Lots and lots of geophaguses! Ummm...Forget that last bit.

I don't think anyone will be hurt by it. I'd say the fighter is being a bit more agressive than usual because he might be feeling horny and frustrated. But the clown loaches would probably enjoy being chased. Just look occasionally and if some of the fish start getting nips taken out of their fins, then worry. Should be ok for a week.

My fish must have been spying on me and saw me saying they eat any plants I put in the tank. I mowed one of my other tanks and threw most of the plants into the cichlid tank, about a dozen pieces of fuctifino plant...And they've only nibbled a bit and pulled a couple out in the last 3-4 days. I think they just want to piss me off and make me look like an idiot.

Ammonium IS toxic to fish. It's something like 1/10th as toxic as ammonia, though so if your PH is low it's not a huge worry. If I remember right the PH controls the ratio of ammonium to ammonia in the tank. Below something like 6 it's basically all ammonium, above 8ish it's all ammonia, at 7 it's about 50/50. Disclaimer: This is vaguely remembered and definitely not exact to the details, but is at least the right idea. I think.

Hmmm, I'd have thought he'd have more than enough speed to keep from getting sucked against the intake. I'd have given him more time to recover, he would have been extremely stressed and might have just been in shock and would have recovered given a day or two.

Do the males also tend to have more egg spots? My female has 2 little yellow egg spots. Maybe it's different african species I'm thinking of that the males have more. Or I'm remembering wrong.

Does anyone know what the species name of the fish floating around Wellington, specifically at Animates) labeled Electric Blue is? The closest I can find is Pseudotropheus Socolofi just by looking at pictures. Anyway, does anyone know how to sex them? Because the one I've got is almost definitely a female, about every other week she acts like she's holding, so probably a female. I'd like to get a male and see if I could get some fry, but don't know how to tell which is which. Or, does anyone have a definite adult male they might be willing to part with for cheap?

If that's .25 PPM then it's nothing to worry about. Once your tank gets cycled it should be able to handle that little bit of extra nitrite and convert it into nitrate pretty quick anyway.

I think most glass places also do acrylic/perspex. At least I know that there are several glass places around here that advertise that they also do it. So, grab your phonebook.

Yup, I've got where it is figured out. Drove there during the day and found it easy, unlike last time when it was dark and I couldn't find it.

It's not the tank that costs you very much, it's usually the stand. I'd say the minimum size tank you want to go for is about a 200L. I'm not really sure how much a 200L tank and stand would cost, though. I have seen some 100-150L tanks and stands for around $700, I think. Hmmm, not very helpful, I guess.

So, what's planned for this month's meeting? Cees? This time I will DEFINITELY make it. Well, I shouldn't say that, I suppose, might jinx it.

OK, got a clump of Java Fern(OUCH! expensive), some kinda sword and I think indian fern. The guy there suggested the indian fern because it grows really fast and it was cheap, so I thought I'd try it. 5 minutes and no bites so far, that's promising.

Hehe, $2 store plants. Wait, that's not funny, that's a pretty good idea. If the plants I get tomorrow don't live I'll make a trip to the $2 store and have a browse. Now, I'm off to feed some chicken to my fish.

Actually, that should be 3 sharks you see. Here's another pic taken the same time. That Surinamensis near the back is the one that died. Nicest looking fish in the tank. I was really upset about that. He got into the rocks and got stuck, must have beat himself to death trying to escape. I did try throwing lettuce in there. Most of the fish in there like it. The silver sharks make a lot of noise when they eat, a loud clicking noise. Noone touched the plants until the lettuce was gone...So the plants were saved for about 5 hours. Next time I go to Animates I might grab some more plants and try them.

I realize 120ppm is way too high. That was only back when I was doing 1/3-1/4 water changes. I've had Valisneria in the cichlid tank, that lasted the longest it lasted maybe 2 months. It grew pretty fast at first, but once the Severum took a bite out of a blade, it basically either just stopped growing or rotted all the way to the base. That was the most successful I've found. The closest thing to a plant I can get to stay in that tank is algae. So, it's basically an all rock tank. I may get some fake plants just to give the fish some cover, but only if I can find some really cheap. I might be able to get some plants to stay in there if I DO weigh them down, but only because the Severum mostly ignores the stems and eats the leaves. But I think he'd finish the rest off eventually though. Filtration in that tank is a Fluval 404, it's a 200 liter. PH is just a bit above 7 and pretty stable. I can't be much more precise than that, I'm horrible at comparing color charts to the color of the test tube. If I wasn't unemployed and didn't have to deal with the wife, I'd get a tank that would fit in the space in the stand under the tank, throw some lights and a bunch of plants in it and then plumb it up to the main tank. This picture is about 6 months old, back basically after I spent $30 buying Valisneria to feed the fish. The fish in there have changed a bit since then. It's now missing the big Geophagus Surinamensis and added an electric blue, an electric yellow, 2 small bristlenose plecos and 2 blue rams.

I'll start a new thread...

What digs? You want to give your advice, fine. Let me give my advice. Just because it differs doesn't mean I'm criticizing you. I've got a tank full of about a dozen SA cichlids living happily in 40-80 PPM nitrates for the last year and more around 120+ for about a year before that(Didn't have a nitrate test kit). I have a tank full of around 50 tetras and guppies that were living happily in around 90ish for at least 6 months until I put different plants in the tank to handle the nitrates. To be perfectly honest, I've been told by several people basically that if my nitrates are above 30 then it will kill all my fish. Yet, mine seem to be happy enough. I'd do even bigger water changes than 50% but since I'm on tank water I've decided not to so I can save water. I don't think there is any way I could keep my nitrates any lower than they are in the cichlid tank, not without getting rid of most of the fish or putting in a sump full of plants. I've tried putting plants in the main tank. The gold severum loved that. Devoured them. I've tried feeding them less, They're already being fed less than what I think they should. What's the rule, feed them what they can eat in 3 minutes twice a day? They get that once a day. If you want to call my advice bad, fine. But don't acuse me of criticizing you just because my advice is different.