StarFish

Well I am sad now ah well will have to get something else thats small that will be ok in a 200L, any suggestions? as per my other thread lol

How many lelupis in a 200L do you think? I know they can be territorial too, I need something that I can have a few of - and that arent too aggressive towards each other. And that are small. Dwarf cichlids are probs best.. ? you think?

Well I guess in terms of shell dwelling alot of cichlids like to 'hide' in things as such, so its ok I guess, just the little occelatus we had was SO fascinating, he was my favourite fish. And he would go for your hand if you dare come in and try to move his shell around, I remember we had him in a small tank on our computer desk and unaware stuck my arm in for the first time only to be attacked, screamed my head off and pulled half the tank water out all over the computer desk in fright LOL. :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol: :lol:

Yes I am liking what I have read about them, they sound cool... I still would love to have occelatus though

I want some Lamprologus occelatus Can we get these here? or something similar? We had just one in a community tank and we got him free because the fish shop didnt know what he was and he was blind in one eye, we got him a shell and he protected it with his life, we put a small patch of sand down for him and he used to just sift it and move it around and basically use it to make a little fort for himself around the shell, we loved him, he is a fish I will never forget, we named him little fish. :lol: RIP Little Fish.

Beautys! Im liking some of the apistogrammas.... But the lelupi are cute.. oooer so many choices! I guess there arent many or any shell dwellers as no one has mentioned them..

Hiya I have 2 clown loaches and they seem to be ok together, we did have 3 but one got sick a while ago, really skinny and beaten up by the others and just didnt recover unfortunately.. I think 2 are fine together obviously if they get along,I have read that they are better in bigger numbers however, and should always try and buy new ones the same size. My big clown does pick at the other one occasionally but mainly only at feeding time. Did you know that the Alpha clown loach releases a hormone into the water that slows the other clown loachs growth, this is so alpha clown can always stay in this position, I thought that was quite interesting to learn. Im afraid I cannot help you with the furnace stuff as I havent heard of or used it before. Do you have a salt tonic? isolation a slight raise in the temp and some tonic salt could do the trick. From what I've read breeding is stimulated by a significant raise in temp and poorer water conditions believe it or not, although that may sound weird Ive read a few articles about it. But hey I guess you can only learn for yourself GL I hope your fish gets better! Whatever you do, it may pay to act fast! StarFish

sleeping like a fish aye Well today was actually warmISH but its still a cold wind, and Ihave a hot water bottle again tonight, but I am a sucker for warmth, HATE being cold

Yeah its not something we are going to rush into we want to make a good decision which is why Im asking in here for peoples suggestions, I would probably have a few plants but it wouldnt be my main tank filler, I was thinking of putting a rocky mountainous scape in the middle with lots of caves for them to hide, or a half circle type mountain of rock caves around the back for them, with the odd plant sticking out here and there, and have a fine gravel substrate. In our old cichlid tanks we just had the odd java fern sticking out, but was mainly lots of rocky caves, and stone sculptures I had made myself with tank silicone and slate

Hey all, we are purchasing a 200L tank in the weekend and want to have Cichlids again, Im reasonably clued up on them as we have kept them (while in the Uk) for a good couple of years, including yellow labs, kribs, brichardis,and a few other cool ones including shell dwellers etc. In conclusion obviously this tank isnt HUGE so want to know what will be some good small cichlids that we could keep in it, I mean at the end of the day our fish shop/s here are pretty low key so I guess we will end up getting what is available, however we can order them in too ,so some suggestions would be great. One more question, shell dwellers... can you get them here? Im not sure what type he was but we had just one, he was quite small and we kept in a community tank quite happily. THANKS! :bounce:

Im not sure in regards to your question but my clown loaches did this the other day for a couple of days when we changed their enviroment around from a ship to driftwood, and a nice tank clean, I was a bit worried but now they seem to be ok and not doing it anymore, I read up on clown loach breeding and Im pretty sure that what they were doing wasnt really part of it, unfortunately! lol

haha no worrys! thats what topics are for! I will certainly add to this conversation when I get and have the tank filled, I spoke to the person selling it and she is looking into what she believes is an old 600L tank that they havent used for quite some time... hmmmmm :lol:

Yes thats true I noticed that the temp control is a little remote on the outside, which is very cool, I havent used a ss heater before but if/when we get this one I will let you know how it is. Oh p.s about $95 for a ss heater RRP

YAY ME! not sure of the glass thickness. yeah well our other tank is atleast 400L so yeah its half the size which isnt bad, we are getting it with a whole lot of stuff including a stainless steel heater oooer fancy

I think the true obsession has begun again, we used to have 6 tanks in our tiny flat in the UK, and my partner said to me just one tank! when back in NZ, but anyway we are hopefully picking up this beauty on saturday, not as large as the tank in our room, probs half the size. I think its 60 x 60 x 60cm, so its a square. Anyone know the amount of water this will hold? Im thinking just under 200L, but I could be wrong. :bounce: Im thinking a few cichlids.....

LOL I like wheatbags, they smell good after you heat them up, and are kind of relaxing cos you can squish the wheat all around on the inside. Damn you aucklanders you stolez our heat!

Yeah from what Ive read its better grown in a shallow tank with intense lighting, or in a pond. Which sucks because as far as aquascaping goes its the look I wanted. ah well... another cool solution may be xmas moss.

I guess its safe to say now after a lack of reply that the answer is most likely no. However I would say that the people on this forum probably have more experience than any so called 'fish vet' so if you need help, just let someone know what the problem is.

Salt can actually work really well with the right methods or in conjunction with other treatments, including salt baths etc, a good reason for it not to work is that it is more common for flukes to become immune to salt now. Here is a link that includes salt as a method, http://article.dphnet.com/cat-02/flukes1.shtml however I agree that the prazi is the surefire way to get of rid them this is just an alternative method without using chems.

LOL we all get a bit obsessed with our fish, I never did quite stop being that Now that is a very good question you have brought to my attention, I know airstones are good things, but do you think they annoy the fish at all? with the noise and whatnot, Ive always wondered that. I know personally the noise annoys the hell out of me! :lol: My fish are certainly more active when I have an airstone going, compared to when they dont have one... hmmmm

I am actually sitting in bed with a hot water bottle right now! , would you believe it? The wind has been fierce and cold today :-? and its just cooled 8) everything down, I cant believe about 3 weeks ago it still felt like the middle of summer, talk about contrast! :roll: :bounce: This is taranaki mind, our weather doesnt know what the hell its doing :lol:

As far as I know this may very well work, but who knows of the affects on the tank afterwards (let alone fish), one being UREA and 2 being AMMONIA, causing a huge algae growth and pollution overload. I wouldnt mess with it - but thats because I dont have much experience with it, however some other people may say otherwise and have more positive experiences. GL!

Hey from experience salt has always been the best and safest method for these kinds of problems, which is less scarey than using chemicals. I would also do a 50% water change, concentrating on the cleanliness of your gravel substrate, the inside of your filters and the inside of the glass,with any luck this will then reduce the fluke population and the salt method will get rid of the rest, we have used salt for a number of problems (including whitespot etc) and it has always worked really well including raising the temp of the tank a little too. AERATION TOO! dont wanna forget that, chuck a couple of airstones in. You may need to do this every week for atleast 3 weeks, but hopefully this will solve your problem.. Make sure you buy the correct salt and use it as it directs on the package or rule of thumb we use is about 112 - 113gms of salt per 40Litres of water. Goodluck!

Thats a monster, any floor reinforcing needed for that? :lol: And Welcome

Hmm no thats great advice thanks Alan its what I needed to know, as I wasnt sure with the tank being so deep, the lights arent that good either, so maybe I'll leave it as a project for a smaller tank. Do you know any plants that have that same sort of look/effect in a tank that doesnt require such intense light (and isnt tasty to silver distichodus :lol: ) )