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Does any one know of an alternative safe way to dr ut the tank without sunlight? The weather down here has been dismal to say the least, so I can't dry the tank in the sunlight as planned. Can you stick it in the hot water cupboard or use a hair dryer or something? I know it sounds dumb, but I'm getting desperate to start the tank up again to grow out my molly fry, then try and breed celestials.

I have heard that an egg-laden female can re-absorb her eggs if she's not ready to spawn, but do they lay eggs even if there is no male to fertilize them? I have a brackish tank - mollies, a platy, 2 khuli's, 1 skunk loach, an African butterfly fish, and 3 bumblebee gobies. A while ago when I did a water change I found some eggs under some Java moss, and i took them out and tried to get them to hatch in a separate container with an air-stone etc. I have no idea if they were fertile, but after 7 days they didn't hatch so i gave up and tossed them. My guess is they were from the bumble's as these are the only fish who seem to look like they are full of eggs. Problem is all three look fat, so i think all three are female. Would they lay eggs even if there wasn't a male present? I'm currently trying to fatten them up with live foods to enduce them to spawn again, but what if they are all girls? Will they just lay eggs and get no where with them?

It could be either as both guppies and platies are livebearer's, but congrats! I love having new babies, but I usually try and put my female in a breeding trap until she drops. the other trick is to use lots of floating plants for the fry to hide in. You often find more babies when you move stuff too.

Hey all - update: Darby seems to be doing ok in his temporary tank. I put a chunk of beef heart in earlier and he ate it, so I'm hoping a healthy appetite is a good sign. Oh my gosh put my axy in the fridge!? I didn't think they could survive such low temperatures! Here's me panicking if the tank goes below 18C! I think my hubby might find it weird having our daughter's pet living int he fridge - he doesn't even like white worms in the laundry! I picked up the sprog from daycare and asked her if she had done anything to the tank, and she said no. I took her home and showed her an empty tank, and she got very upset. When I asked her directly if she unplugged the appliances and put hand lotion in the tank, she admitted it, and kept asking "but where's Darby?! ". Once I knew she understood what she had done wrong and that she wouldn't do it again, i took her and showed her he was alive, and you could see the relief on her face. I felt a little bad, but hey, at least she's alive and I'm not in prison :roll: The heater's not currently on in the temporary tank, so hopefully if the temp drops a few degrees over night, he might come right in a few days.

I SO know that feeling! :roll: I think my little 'darling' had a night of getting in to mischief while I was sick on Sunday night - she played with my sunglasses and stretched them, sprayed my body spray all around my room, ate my chewing gum but spat it on the floor because she didn't like it, drew all over the coffee table with vivid, tipped half a bottle of soap in the bath because we had no bubble bath...the list goes on. We love them, but I often tell my kids (all 4 of them including the 40 year old) "I love you, but today I just don't like you". My cats need that lesson too - I had a bucket in the bedroom with stones in, and they just HAVE to get in it and tip water all over the floor, then they got in the tank which was in the bath whole I was cleaning up the water and trapsed water all over the bathroom floor! Some days you just can't win! :roll:

Hmmm, hadn't thought of that. :-? I just had a look and there's no mention of either silicon or petrolium, but that's not to say it isn't based on either - I have no idea what all the rubbish in it is, other than i know it has parabens. Maybe I should give up and get another tank - it only cost me $10 for both the 2 foot tank and the axy at a club auction night. I'll keep an eye on the tank and see what it looks like once I have given it a good clean.

Update: Darby (that's it's name) has been moved in to the spare tank, and has 'spazzed' out a few times, but so far is doing his norm - nothing. I'm taking that as a good sign. I also discovered the filter and heater were not on and haven't been on for about 2 days - the kid must have played around with the power cords, and unplugged the 4 way board from the extension cord, and we never noticed. So he was very cold (I had numb hands) and may be more overdosed with toxic beauty products than I thought as it wasn't filtering through anything. Here's a pic of what the tank looked like at 8am this morning: Jeez. What do you do. I've always thought they were ugly, but I don't think half a bottle of lotion would ever fix that. I think i need a really strong coffee now, my day doesn't seem to be getting any better :-?

I know this is probably in the wrong place, but I wanted to post somewhere more people would see this and offer help. I got up this morning and went to do my usual rounds of turning on the fish tanks lights and having a quick check. My 4 year old daughter has an axy in her room, and when i went in this morning, his light wasn't on, so I turned it on, and OH MY GOD! I noticed a perfume like smell in her room yesterday, and figured she'd been playing with her Johnson's hand and body lotion, but I couldn't find any evidence. When I flicked on the light of the tank, there it was - truck loads of body lotion floating in the axy tank! So, after the initial panic and the explosion of fish things in the entrance way, this is where I am at: - axy is resting quietly in an icecream container, probably uncomfortable, but safer there than in the tank - new tank set up with fish tank water, filter, airstone and a log to hide under; just waiting for the temp to adjust a tiny bit more and settle before putting the axy in - old tank emptied and cold water running through it to flush out the crap - filter in warm water in the kitchen sink to flush out anything in there So my question is, what now? Is there anything I can do before i go to prison for manslaughter to help my poor axy survive his tragic beauty session? Any treatments or suggestions gladly welcomed. Jeez, I haven't even done my hair yet! AAARRRGGGHHH! Gotta love kids aye.

Hey Guys. I used the Budget brand bleach with no perfume or flavour - I think it has worked and the small has gone, just need to get it dry. Weather down here is a bit iffy at the mo. As for buying a new tank - it's a really good tank that I've had for a little under a year, and seen as i was made redundant about 4 months ago and still haven't found a job, I can't really afford to replace it. Hopefully it will be dry and set up again within the month got the design drawn up already, just need to decide what fish I would like to have now....

I'm not 100% but it was either the Hennaguya wasting disease, or fish TB. I had it once, it went away, but it came back. I only had guppies in the tank, but every new batch born got the symptoms and died, as did any small guppies I introduced in to the tank. I'm not 100% convinced it was TB though, even though it is a very likely possibility - it only seems to have affected my guppies, none of my other fish in other tanks, or any other fish i put in as clean up crew, like cories or bristlenoses. It sucked doing it, but better to be safe than sorry. I'm sure if I bought a male and female guppy, I'd be back up the same numbers again by the end of the year

Update: went to take the tank put to dry in the beautiful sunshine (so much for the rain :roll: ) and got a wiff of bleach. I guess a litre was a bit excessive :roll: :oops: :lol: so it's back out having another rinse. Hopefully it works this time!

I did use a liter of bleach - I was so upset and angry at the stupid disease, I wanted to make sure I got all the greeblies first time I had to kill off 85 fish, and it was my first time, so it sucked big time. Sunshine...hmmmm.....we've had it all week, but because Ive decided to dry my tank (and replant the vege garden) the skies have conspired against me to bring rain my way. It's not raining yet but it's supposed to all weekend. :roll: I think i might do another flush in the shower, just be to be sure, and dry it out for a few days next week when the weather clears. Thanks for the help and advice guys!

Hey y'all! I had a problem with one of my tanks and a recurring disease (long depressing story :roll: ) and thus I got my fish drunk and put them to sleep, and bleached out the tank. 40 litre tank, filled it with water and dumped in 1 liter of bleach, left it to soak. Today i pulled it out and started to flush the bleach out - I ran the hose through the tank, gravel, equip etc for about 3 hours, then emptied it out to dry in the sun. Question is: did I flush it out for long enough, and how long should I leave it in the sun before even thinking about setting it up again? Any help would be fantastic!

Zabman, if you go to the home page there is a plant survey which lists all the available crypts in NZ - the only thing is how easily you can get them! I think I may have to Google the list and see what takes my fancy. Any other suggestions of other plants for something to look oriental?

Can anyone recommend a nice looking crypt that would suit and oriental themed tank? I have a 40 litre I am restarting, and I have a little pagoda, some bamboo lengths, and was going to use darks gravel and some val, but I want something else a bit different, and thought a nice crypt would be a good idea. I'm a bit over the whole Cabomba, Amubulia, Java fern thing. Any recommendations greatly appreciated!

Don't worry Paul, it's not something I really want to do, I'm just not sure if I have both male and female danios, so didn't know if any eggs that were produced would end up fertile. I thought perhaps if I had all female pearl danios, would the eggs be fertile if I had a male leopard etc. My long term hope is I have a breeding trio of pearls that I can breed when the new tank is set up and ready for them. I agree, I don't want mutant fish that may end up weak and die quickly, I think that's what my other albino ones are :roll:

from what I have seen, most fish don't let themselves get picked on unless they are unwell to begin with. My fish do everything they can to get out of the way of the algae eater I have! If it's letting itself get munched by another fish, then maybe there is another underlying problem that needs to be sorted.

It's a completely mixed community tank - danios, tetras, female Siamese fighting fish, checkered barbs, peppered and similis cories, pygmy cories, gobies, honey gouramis, loaches,etc. I have a feeling the pearls have spawned in the tank previously, but any eggs scattered would have been relished by the other fish. Once the breeding tank is set up, I just wondered if you can cross a leopard and a pearl, a pearl and a zebra etc

Hi Guys! I have a few different danio's in my community tank, and i was wondering what the chances are of them cross breeding? I have 2 long finned leopards, 3 pearl, 1 albino zebra, and 1 other albino (which I expect will kark it - I had two, but the seem sad and won't gain weight) I think I have witnessed spawning behavior with the pearl's, but the albino zebra seems full of eggs, and I wondered if any male I might have would be able to fertilize the eggs I'm not ready to breed them yet - waiting for the club meeting where we will discuss breeding tank set ups - but just wondered what was possible with the group I have. Any advise greatly appreciated

Well done Bedazzled!!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: I always know when my guppies and mollies are about to drop because they get horrendously fat :lol: I can't imagine it would be easy to guess when a balloon molly would drop though, because they're fat looking to begin with! LOL I had normal molly fry not last night but the night before, and they have been moved to a small tank to raise up on their own - mum is a big pig and I have an African Butterfly fish in the same tank, who eats anything that moves! Keep up with the daily small water changes, and feed twice daily if not more if you can, and I'm sure they will thrive. If there are 10 and both parents after 30 days you can get a breeding certificate too. I love baby fish, and livebearers are that much easier coz they do it all for you - just add water!

Hey Chris, I guess it has been an expensive lesson learnt for you, and I completely understand how you feel - I went to Wet Pets in Palmerston North recently and wanted to purchase some Hengel's Rasboras they had. The guy told me he would not sell them as they had been through a bad batch of White Spot and had just not come right. I guess i was lucky. Animates should have recognized there was a problem and not sold the fish, but I guess the pressure of and Aqua fun day with sales was too tempting. I've lost over 85 fish in the last week to some unknown disease i can't cure, and have bleached 3 tanks so far, so I can sympathise with you right now - If I was in Christchurch I would offer fish too, but alas i am further away. Stay positive though, and I'm sure you will get enthusiastic about fish keeping again soon. These things happen, but all we can do is deal with it and move on, even if it's COMPLETELY gutting at the time

Hey there, We had a discussion about a similar problem at our last club meeting. The story as we heard it goes that Animates unfortunately ordered in stock for the Aqua Fun day, but the supplier had sent fish that had some sort of a disease (can't remember what it was called). Some of the stores that were supplied the infected fish were offering to replace all the fish purchased on that day because they either had or would die eventually. One of the stores in our area had absolutely no fish to sell because just about every tank they had got infected and they couldn't risk selling the fish to the public. I know that some people are more helpful than others, and it seems some of the Animates shops down here handled the situation better than others, but the problem stems from the supplier of the fish. As far as we know there was no way to cure the fish and they die fairly quickly, within a few days. In regards to the Janola - I have had the euthanise 35 fish due to an incurable infection, and have taken my tank downstairs to leave it soaking in bleach for about a month. Make sure you use a bleach with no scent, eg don't use Lemon, and I read somewhere else on here that if you shake the bottle up and down and bubbles appear and stay on the surface then don't use it. I got Budget brand bleach, and put about 1 litre in my little 40 litre tank, equipment and all. My commiserations, and Good Luck - I know it sucks when you lose all your fish, and it seems the people responsible will not own up to it and help you out, but do what you can, and maybe you can get excited about starting again, redesigning the tank etc.

I'd recommend doing all the regular water changes, and a little extra if you can manage it, maybe 2-3 smaller changes throughout the week. If you have a water test kit, try using that and check what the water parameters are, or if you don't have one, a lot of pet shops offer a service to do water test free of charge or for a small fee. I hope it goes well for you, it's a horrible thing having to kill a fish that seems perfectly healthy but you know will get sick, suffer and eventually die Let us know how you get on

Have a look at the wasting thread, it's something like Hennaguya ( :oops: can't remember how to spell it) I have had a similar problem, but it only affects my fry and smaller fish, not my adults. Maybe try a treatment of tonic, or malachite green and see if there is any improvement. If not, there may only be one way to solve the problem, and it's not a pleasant one. I just had to euthanise 35 fish from an infected tank - it's heartbreaking, but sometimes it can be the only way to stop an infection. But PLEASE try a treatment regime first, maybe go to your local library and have a look at some fish books to see if there is anything that you can identify is the problem, and remedy it. Good Luck!

Have a look at the wasting thread, it's something like Hennaguya ( :oops: can't remember how to spell it) I have had a similar problem, but it only affects my fry and smaller fish, not my adults. Maybe try a treatment of tonic, or malachite green and see if there is any improvement. If not, there may only be one way to solve the problem, and it's not a pleasant one. I just had to euthanise 35 fish from an infected tank - it's heartbreaking, but sometimes it can be the only way to stop an infection. But PLEASE try a treatment regime first, maybe go to your local library and have a look at some fish books to see if there is anything that you can identify is the problem, and remedy it. Good Luck!