David R

Either remove the smaller sev or add more fish that are a similar size to the big sev to divert some of the aggression. Only the first option is guaranteed to work...

Thanks, but I can get silica sand from the landscaping place 5 minutes down the road from me. The whole reason I'm getting that stuff bought up fron christchurch is because it isn't as fine as silica sand.

No, its over-kill if you simply want them as a "clean up crew" but certainly wouldn't be over-stocked. The smaller fish might get a bit freaked by the bigger clowns when they grow, but big clowns are always valuable so you would have no problem selling them when they do get too big.

http://www.urbanpaving.co.nz/sand-and-stone/sands/ Its not for plants either, I just wanted something with a similar look to silica sand but not as fine...

Thanks. I'll put the heaters on, then get some cheap barbs or tetras that will end up as food when the big ornate is added.

I've finally got my new 5' tank up and running. Filled it with about 2/5 old water from doing water changes on my other tanks and about 1/4 of the media has been sitting in the sump of my 4' for a few months, so hopefully that has given it a kick start! I'm not planning on putting any fish in it for at least 3 weeks until I can meet up with someone coming up from Christchurch who is going to bring up the sand I'm using (long story, but its only available from down there). So, is there any point in running the heaters for the next 3 weeks? Will the warmer water help the bacteria establish, or will I be just wasting power?

What is theoretically available and what you can manage to get your hands on would be two very different lists...

Like the Far Side cartoon with the people sitting on the beach and the fish in a bowl with wheels driving up the beach around them... :lol: Silvia that tank needs a bottom feeder to clean up after the messy oscar, should get a red tailed catfish...

Never kept one, but it could be asking for trouble in either tank IMO.

The 4' tank is probably the reason you've seen a drop in growth. I've seen several articles saying that a 6'x2'x2' should be the minimum tank size for adults, and even small loaches shouldn't be kept in anything less than a 4' tank, and I can back this up with my own experience. About 7 years ago (btw I've been keeping clowns for around 10 years) I bought 6 small clowns and put them into a 5'x2'x2' tank. In less than two years they were all getting close to 6". I broke the tank down and sold the loaches to a friend, who keeps them in a 4'x18"x18" tank. Today they are still only around 6". My current group of large clowns are around 5-7", 4 of them were bought at jansens as "medium" about 14 months ago. They've all put on at least 5cm of growth in 12 months. My larger four haven't grown anywhere near as fast in the same time, as I think the tank size is slowing down their growth. They'll all be shifted to my 600L tank in about a months time, and my 14 smaller loaches into the 300L 4' until they're big enough to go in the 600L. Its a well documented fact that their growth does slow down around 6", but perhaps yours wouldn't have grown so slowly if they had more room to swim.

I tried tinkering with the photo a little as it was way too dark and I think that has exaggerated the colours a bit. The red isn't really that red...

I always thought "Frenchy" was a chick!!!! :oops: :lol: Sorry dude!!

Good point, the vege matter could have caused bloat, (which is why I asked why he was feeding it).

Sounds like dropsy. I wouldn't feed vege flakes, just normal sinking crumble type food. My earth eaters all get a mix of wardly cichlid crumble, tetra colour bits, hikari cichlid gold, bloodworms and occasionally shrimp. Sorry for your loss, don't give up though!

Nonsense. If you're small (under 6") clowns grow at 2cm per year then you must be starving them or you've stunted them by keeping them in too small a tank. In the 3 months since the Animates buy one get one free day some of the loaches I bought there would have put on 1cm. D&A; How big is the tank? If the loaches are looking fat then it may well be that the snail population is too big for them to wipe out over-night. Just remember they aren't exactly huge fish and there's a lot of meat in the snails. They will be eating them, so if you help them by removing them with water changes etc then you'll get it under control eventually.

Just found out that its the only weekend between now and the end of November Hannah and I can get up north to see our families and some close friends who [should] have had their first kid. Hannah's sitting her PCE2 accounting exam (6 hours and $5k) so needs to be studying non-stop.

Find it hard to believe it would be the pH after 3 weeks.

This one?

Why are you feeding it vege flakes?

Mean while the hondas you "munched" just keep on going..... I'll try to make it down, although I have a feeling I might be working that weekend.

At 6cm he's still got a bit of growing to do, and I'd nearly put money on it that by 10cm he'll be a different fish. You might be right though, if he's not breeding then he might just not bother anything unless it bothers him.

Keep us posted, I'll be interested to see how it comes out, how much it costs etc.

Convicts come from areas with hard-ish water (mid 7's, not quite rift-lake hard), so it should be fine in that regard. They're tough as nails anyway so it probably doesn't matter if the pH is 5.5 or 9.5 as long as the fish is gradually acclimatised. As for it being peaceful, I find that hard to believe. How big is it?

I agree completely. If an animal in captivity is happy and healthy then its keeper/captor is obviously doing the right things.

Where can you get bulk ones from that don't have detergent on them?? Anyone hook me up with a bulk lot of ceramic noodles?? :lol: