StarFish

Just wanted some advice on glossostigma as I am looking at getting some but want to know how hard/easy it is to grow in an aquarium, I know its needs a good amount of light and our tank is 60+cms deep... What kind of gravel/substrate should be used for best response etc. Thanks!

oops double posted, whats up with the forum today? :bounce:

The gap at the back of the tank where the lid is and the glass doesnt allow much room to have it just sitting over the side, although thats a really good question because my partner is the one who keeps on top of the cleaning and maintenance and he put the new filter in, but yeah as far as I know the bend isnt wide enough to go over the edge and fit under the lid...

http://www.aquarticles.com/articles/bre ... eding.html This is a great article on breeding. Hope this helps goodluck!

BEAUTIFUL!! The tanks not bad either!

YES! it is VERY HEAVY!! :lol: its the last thing to be moved I tell you, and the one we least look forward to, as we had to do just that about 3 weeks ago... Yep the plants will be coming, Ive been eyeing up some xmas moss and some cryptocoryne beckettii, but yeah the silver distochodus have already wiped out any hope of live grass in the tank so far. If I could just find one giant job lot of large plants to plant it out... But yes still alot of work to do, more stones and plants and somehow would like to hide the filter tubes. Thanks for your comment, we love the dimensions of our tank! Its in our bedroom, so as I sit in bed using the laptop I can also watch all my fish in our super large tank, ahhh thats the life!

Hey we have had 2 loads of krib fry, from what I have learned, take the father out, he may end up eating them, the mum usually protects them for quite some time, we just left the mum in with the fry until they were big enough to start exploring around the place without following her, or when she started not caring about (or eating/pecking) at them. 2 lots of fry ended up being over 100 fish! once they breed they just seem to keep going so we had to seperate them in the end, this is fine of course if you have somewhere to sell them too, we were just new to the hobby at the time but ended up swapping them for some other cool fish in the UK. I hope this helps kribs are beautiful fish and look really colourful when breeding. P.s I have no idea how to seperate them, we used to move the parents to a breeding tank when they showed the signs, and then left the fry in that until they were too big.

Length: 125cm x Width 60cm x depth 60cm Glass is 12mm thick, holds about 400L I believe.. :bounce:

Ok so when we bought our tank it basically just came with a whole lot of stuff that we wouldnt normally buy nor approve of in our tanks, however we just didnt put in the time with our tank at the beginning because it wasnt a major priority but something we still had to have, so it has until today had a large sunken ship ornament, Ive seen these in the shop for RRP of $99.00 (pm me if interested we want rid of!) however it was the clown loaches/Plecs home and it kept them content for the time being. ANYWAY getting to my point, we have been driftwood hunting and found a nice piece to put in the tank, so today we did just that, with a bit of readjusting.. please note our tank is now far from finished, we now have a bit more time and money to spend on our tank so we will be making improvements here on in, including getting the aquascaping up to our previous standards (like when we lived in the UK) But as you all know the stuff you dont see is whats really important so money has been spent on a new external filter etc before the whole scaping part, although as far as plants go who knows how long or IF they will even last with the new silver distochodus... Ok here are couple of photos of the new driftwood, thanks for reading and looking! :lol: :bounce:

DING DING DING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IT IS CORRECT! YAY! Thanks a heap I KNEW it was silver something D just couldnt remember the last word, woo hoo I am very glad to now know what they are. I dont have much to offer but my thanks , and my fishys thank you too! Another mystery solved.. :D :bounce:

I hope this works! if it has then you now have a pic of my unknown fishys. They are both about 10cm long, and about 5 - 6cm bottom to dorsal. The photo makes them look small but they are quite large

Hey thanks for the help guys, I am pretty clued up on the types of tropical fish as Ive been a keeper for about 6 years now, so annoyed at myself that I dont know what this is, however I do know that it is not a black widow tetra nor a gourami, if anyone knows more about the types of fish that belong in the silverdollar area I would say its closer to this, but I know its hard without seeing a pic, so give me a mo and I will try and take one... wish me luck! :lol:

[i find it hard to fathom that anybody at a shop could end up with a fish they know nothing about, considering they have to order them in by name.../quote] She said they came unamed and werent ones that she had ordered but just kept them anyway lol

LOL I thought that but no I dont think so , it doesnt look like a pacu, they look evil haha and these look scittery like silver dollars, I will try and take a pic hmmmm........

hehe nope its not a silver shark we have one of those, no its more rounded like a silver dollar but more streamlined. It has a rounded tail rather than being sharp and pointy, it almost looks like a giant tetra or cross between some kind of congo tetra and silverdollar already I have noticed that they are eating plants like silver dollars do...

Ok so we bought some new fish today, we have no idea what they are, even the lady from the store who is very well knowledged about her fish didnt know what they were. Ive tried having a look online but cant seem to find anything that looks quite like them. This is unusual for me as I would normally know what it is or atleast where to go to find out. I guess im barking up the wrong tree I have no idea at this stage hence why I am coming to the experts ANYWAY Description: Silver, about 10cm long head to tail, not as round as silver dollars a bit more streamlined, but they kind of remind me of silver dollars however they arent shiney like them, they are more scaley like barbs, they have a black dorsal fin which fades off being clear at the edges. They seem to have a scitterish nature, have that same nervous look as silver dollars.. I remember seeing some in another shop and I think they were called silver .... (something).. but cant remember. This is probably an easy one for those wisened fish experts out there, and help or pics would be greatly appreciated.

I definately think the amount of light could be part of the problem, Timers are excellent things I think you need to try reducing the amount of light your tank gets, esp as you say its not getting much natural light, maybe you should even try using one less bulb as well. You can get some stuff to kill off algae, but this can be a bit harmful to your fish so you will have to read up about it before you go ahead with it. Reduce the amount of time and the intensity of your light, give it another good clean, and get some loaches to keep on top of things. In my opinion my plec is useless as an algae eater lol, even before we started feeding him cucumber. I had one loach a few years back and he was awesome.

I have pm'd you minchton

Ah haha Minchton I pm'd you have you not noticed? Thanks for the replys though, we have thought about it but I havent yet come across a good place anywhere here in NP to get marine tank equipment let alone fish! So maybe I can get some help with that through the Taranaki Aquarium and pond society, hint hint. Otherwise.. maybe we will just flog it all together and go for a nice cichlid tank instead Star

:lol: Probably obvious answer is 'you dont' but the question is about MOVING Marine tanks, we really want one but we only rent and know that eventually the time will come when we have to move and I know what a mission it is to move just a normal tropical tank, so has anyone had to do this?? I can imagine there would no doubt be casualtys, maybe many, I would love some advice on this Thanks Star

Hey just thought I would add although not 100% but you may wanna look at not having your lights on so long, maybe reduce the time to 11 - 12 hours a day, we usually have our light running from 2.30pm to 12.30am. As there is enough natural daylight coming through the windows but not bright enough to stimulate too much algae growth. You also need to quarantine or atleast double check things like plants and wood when you add it to the tank, because you may have introduced a more obnoxious variety of algae to your tank. I have heard of people dipping their plants and ornaments/wood etc in a soloution before adding them but I wouldnt do this without researching all the info first. I hope this has been helpful somewhat. P.s We use a cheap $5 timer for the lights, so that we dont have that problem of forgetting to turn then off or on etc

I think any fish that swim close to the surface are a potential target for Betas, that is my personal opinion. You really would just have to test it and see how it goes. Try the take out and put back in a few days method and see if this makes a difference, if you are going to add killifish then put these in first before you put your female back in, I have found since having my male Beta I have automatically avoided getting any more gouramis and close to surface swimmers because in the past I have had these problems.

Thanks!

silly MAF, I wonder how you could make something similar.... They are such a wonderful addition to an aquarium they really make it look that much more exotic. What a shame...

I think also the goldfish will be more prone to disease through stress if they are kept at a temp that isnt normally comfortable for them, hence a shorter lifespan, to be honest I would recommend that you get another tank for the bristlenoses and not have the worry keep the cold cold and the warm warm