oneeyedfrog

I found snails almost impossible to remove completely. I have torn down tanks and cleaned everything only to have them reappear again a couple of weeks later. To keep them under control try a snail trap or put in a piece of courgette and in the morning pick it out - will have some snails on it. I also squash them against the side of the tank and the fish zoom over and eat them. I have a heavily planted tank with female guppies and platties- I just leave them and heaps of fry survive- too many in fact. :roll: I have just removed loads of plants to see if more get eaten. The guppy fry tend to hang around at the top esp in the floating plants and the platy fry hang around the bottom amongst the plant stems and under rocks and driftwood. If you give them enough cover some will survive- I had 2 platties and about 20 guppies a couple of months ago now at least 20 plus young platties and goodness knows how many guppies. :lol: I just crush the adults food too. Congratulations on your babies ! She will keep popping them out every few weeks for a while so if you don't manage to save any you will get more chances.

I had 60 odd young GBA. My daughter put a couple of young guppies and a platy in the tank and a week or two later there were only 30 GBA left- the others just vanished. Guessing it was the platy coz it got pretty fat

I visited Pupuke Aquariums for the first time last week- after reading about it on here. Great place highly recommend it. Anyway got myself a beautiful pr of blue rams and brought them home and straight into the community tank on Tuesday. On Sat we watched them digging holes all over the tank then finally quite a few eggs were laid. Despite them desperately trying to defend them Mama GBA wandered over and scoffed the lot! I was really surprised to see them spawn coz they are pretty small. So now of course I am wondering whether to get a couple more tanks ( that MTS :oops: ) and try breeding them I googled and it seems that they often eat their eggs and its better to have them in their own tank with sandy subtrate with some smooth rocks mostly buried in the sand - then after they uncover a rock and lay their eggs remove the rock and eggs to another tank and try raising the fry without the parents. And to expect high losses. Is this all correct? How have others raised blue rams? Thanks

I finally tried out the strip light and it ok but not that great. You get heaps more light from a CLF. It's ok for my tank - its got a built in lid so was easy to string it up under the lid ( plus its waterproof) and its only for fry - so I can see them but I wouldn't bother for a bigger tank. My tank is 50 cm high and I tried it on a 25cm high tank with better results- lit it up much more but I still like the fluro better. DD1 has a 4ft with a lid and I got a cheap 4ft fluoro fitting from Bunnings ( even cheaper on TM $35 I think) and a couple of 6500k bulbs approx $10 each . Other tank with a lid I put 2 battons in thru the back of the lid and used 6500k CLFs or you could make one like this Or try the desk lamp thing. You could get a 4 ft aqua one aquarium light pretty cheap on TM too Good luck.

I couldn't catch the little blighters so moved the chain loaches instead.

No Zev I didn't :lol: What could pop up in that tank?

That's what I thought too Ryan. But couldn't think where else they could suddenly come from. But realising that they could be quite old already - even though they are so tiny changes things When you shine a light on them their eyes glow and the bigger ones tummy shines too- they are long and skinny so I reckon neon or glowlight. But I have never seen any of these fry so who knows. I was in too minds whether to move them seeing as they have survived this far. I will set up a tank today and try moving them. Would be an interesting poll - Guess the fish Winner gets a guppy :lol: :lol:

The chain loaches and plants have been in the tank by themselves for two weeks now. I was puzzled thinking that these fry had just appeared but thinking about it I guess they may have hatched a while ago and just been even tinier so I hadn't noticed. I collected up all the extra indian fern from a few tanks and had it sitting in a bucket and just grabbed a couple of bits out . They could be neons, glowlights, diamond tetras or danios in that case. I hope they survive so I can find out what they are :lol:

About two weeks ago I got 6 dwarf chain loaches - they have been by themselves in bb QT with a couple of caves and some floating indian fern. They didn't seem to eat anything at first and one died. Then they started muching snails and checking out other foods Tonight I was checking with a light to see if they had eaten and I saw two tiny little fry swimming around the surface. They are smaller than guppy fry ( absolutely tiny) and have shining white eyes ( the only reason I spotted them). Google sez chain loaches don't often spawn in tanks but I can't figure out what else they could be as the plants etc have been in there 2 weeks now. I put in some java moss so they could eat any yummies off it- they are so tiny - and also put a couple of squirts of green water in. I tried getting pics but couldn't get a good one Here they are anyway- top right Any ideas on what else they could be or how to care for them?

Yep def fleas- check the animals with a flea comb and within a couple of weeks they have them again. The treatments used to last a long time years ago but not so in the last few years- for us anyway. I guess no matter how much you vacuum if some eggs get missed down the back of the couch or between the floorboards - the buggers will come back. They are probably outside too. New super fleas resistant to the poisons. :evil: Advantage works longer than the frontline for us but still not for long. I had a sick cat ( who usually lived outside) confined in the one room. And a while after I let her out when you walked into that room fleas jumped on you from all the eggs she must have dropped the first day before I treated her for fleas. So I vacuumed it every day sometimes twice a day then steam mopped - for a couple of weeks till no more jumped out.

The flea bombs I used were supposed to stop eggs hatching and kill fleas and lavae. Time will tell. It did work several years ago when I bombed- before we had fish. We have battled fleas long and hard this yr. We have spent a fortune at the vets on treatments for the cats and dogs. But within a couple of weeks the fleas were back. Vacuumed the life out of our vacuum Our old fossil dog suffers now with flea allergy so this was a last ditch effort for us. I hate using the bombs ( what must the chemicals be doing to us) but I reckon I must be slowly poisoning the animals with all the treatments too. I have got rid of fleas that were in just one room a few yrs ago with repeated vaccuming but I think there are just too many places for them to hide thru the whole house . I spoke to someone the other day who lost a large tank of fish by using fly spray near the uncovered tank. I am ashamed to admit that I have been beaten by a mere flea! :evil:

I nearly wet myself when I turned around and saw him :lol: :lol: Shimmying around the room fins (arms) flapping , eyes poping doing the fish mouth thing. Disturbingly he did remind me of a fish albeit a rather sick one :lol: :lol: Got my attention though :roll: I had been mucking around with the tanks for ...just a few hours :oops:

....your hubby does a fish impression to try to get your attention ( pretty sure it was a goofy stick fish :lol: ) and your mother asks if there is a support group for friends and family of people addicted to fish ....

I joined the NZKA several months ago and have finally got my act together and have some striatum- Big thanks to Zev. They are so cool. I thought that they would be quite shy but I think their greediness overcomes the shyness! :lol: They are such lovely fish- great colours. I spend ages watching them. In fact Hubby had to do a fish impression in order to get my attention the other day :lol: :lol: This is the only pic I got before the camera went flat - not great but you get the idea. I am looking forward to filling afew more tanks with killies.

I did the whole house last week after putting it off for ages coz I was worried about the tanks. I have read that some people just covered their tanks with sheets/blankets and turned off the air pumps and everything was fine. Me being paranoid wrapped the top of each tank with gladwrap then covered with a blanket. Took awhile with 10 tanks + frog tank. I turned off all the power. The bigger tanks have canister filters and the 4 smaller ones air filters. some have glass lids and some have wooden lids. I wrapped gladwrap all over the top and halfway down the tank! Sellotaped heater wires etc to the glass on the outside so that they didn't pull the gladwrap away from the side of the tank. Left the house for 2 hours then let it air for at least an hour before turning on the power but not the air filters. I left it a couple of hours before unwrapping and turning on air to tanks. I took the frogs out of their tank before wrapping it and put them out in the shed. All was fine- though I forgot to turn some heaters back on- luckily noticed in time.

Oh No Poor thing! We've got a Tom hanging around here too - we can't find our trap either. He's caused a bit of damage to our cats so this is a warning to us to get our a into g and get rid of him. :evil: Those abcesses can be wicked and come up so quickly. I always try to keep cat fight wounds open for a few days. I soften any scabs with cotton wool soaked in warm water then pull off the scabs and gently squeeze to get the wounds to bleed if poss. Swab out with hydrogen peroxide. For the next few days I remove the scab and open the wound by pulling the edges apart - lets it heal from the inside out so doesn't trap bacteria under the skin. Strangely my cats don't mind this I hate smooching your cat and having an abcess burst under your hand or worse your cheek!!

:oops: I didn't have that set up. Sorry Deepsound I'm pretty computer illiterate Thanks for that. So much for my "My time" holiday - put my back out, had to help an old friend put down her beloved horse and gave my fish buying money to someone who needed it more. Oh well with a little creative accounting perhaps a couple of fish may find their way home with me

Thanks Deepsound I like that bottom one. That would be great if you can send it to me. I have run away from home for a few days r &r so will be able to catch up on emails now.

I haven't set it up yet and I'm running away for a few days so I'll let you know when I get back. Yep - more than one. :lol: :lol:

I have a blue led strip light that I tried out for a moon light. It worked ok so I have just bought a white strip to try lighting a 50 l tank. I don't think it will be very good for plants but some low light stuff might grow. I just wanted to see the fish I have seen 5m of this with power box included in Bunnings for $25 with the xmas lights. You might be better off with cheap desk lamps and 6500 daylight CLF bulbs.

Thanks guys Here's a link ( I think ) to the pic/vid http://s255.photobucket.com/albums/hh12 ... 0improved/ Sam - nothing wrong with a bit of fun. I would be really grateful if someone got something useful out of it.

Hubby tried to get some pics yesterday but he had the camera set on movie.Duh. Somehow he got some pics and some movie but not the best- bit dark etc. We would like to get one good pic from it as we won't get another opportunity. Does anyone here have the ability to do this for us? I know nothing about this stuff Thanks

I have seen pics of a steel stand where they made screens and used magnets to hold them onto the stand. Then they had easy access to the sump. Also seen pics of thinner wood sides held on with magnets. Or you could get some recycled t&g or we used kauri from our old ceiling

So sorry - you must be devastated don't sell up - Hang on to everything- give yourself time to grieve before you make any decisions.

Yep LOL. We were building towers near our piles so that we could find them. Then you realise just how far down the beach you have walked- some of those bits are pretty heavy by the time you get back to your car. I had to buy everyone an icecream for all their efforts!