Romeo

Gidday, By the looks of it my Inanga has been nipped by my koura, and I'm wondering if there's any cause for concern? The fin still has 100% mobility, but the entire base of the fin is blood red. I can't see any visible damage, so I'm hoping it's not some sort of infection or disease. It must have happened in the last 8 hours because I spent a bit of time watching/feeding them this morning. I've got Melafix here, but I'm not sure if it's safe to be used with my Koura/scaleless fish, would it be a good idea to dose anything? I just did a big waterchange on Friday. Cheers, Romeo

Get a crayfish ;P.

You're kidding right? You do realise you've just sourced "news" from The Onion ;D.

Is your pH test kit accurate?

1 major tip. If your tank is under 120 litres, use Flourish Excel. I've used DIY CO2 before and it was a bit of a mission. I used the Jello DIY CO2 method and it lasted a good 6 weeks, but gave up on it at that stage.

I hunt around on that site quite often, and it's quite possible to pick up a 200L with a good external filter, light and stand for under $400. Would probably cost twice that to put it all together yourself for the same kit.

I've used clam shells, quite white/thick ones in my Koura tank to raise the pH to counter the driftwood in my tank. They do work, and after they've been in soft water for a while they start to melt down a bit. My pH is now around 7.4, from 6.4 five months ago.

When we had 10 neons in our 60 litre, they all just spread out and did their own thing. They never schooled, which was a bit of a disappointment...

Me and Joliet got a Platty off a member on here (Sorry mate, I've forgotten your name), and when we went to pick it up he gave us a huge roll of Hot Water Cylinder insulation foam. It's soft on one side, and plastic on the other, and it's really good at insulating. He had it covering the back of his 300 litre tank and said it certainly helped with his power bills in the winter. May want to have a look around for some :].

Shrimp can be acclimatised according to at least one member on here, who claims to have kept a few of the hardier ones at 26°c for a few years. Though you'd need to get a large number, and slowly bring them up to temp over a period of days/weeks. I've looked around CHCH streams/rivers without much luck, so I'd suggest you look in streams/rivers/lake outflows that are closer to the sea. Oh, and if you find some flick me a PM ;P.

If you're after ideas, then I've got 1,200 here, and 1,380 here.

Oh, and another good technique is having the flash Above water, and the focus just below the water. No horrible flash reflection on the back of the tank, or reflection of the camera in the glass.

I find that if I press the lense up against the glass (Careful not to scratch the tank!) I can usually get some really good pics with Macro and Flash forced.

Hey all, I find myself on that site quite often and love to list the aquariums by highest price. I just love looking at the bling eye candy. However, this one caught my eye and I was wondering if anyone thinks it's value for money - 217268021. Cheers, Alex

I'd be more concerned that you've restricted the flow on your bottle. They have a habit of EXPLODING you know? Another thing of concern is the pH levels, as too much CO2 can cause huge swings. I had quite a bit of C02 going in with my DIY setup and it caused a swing from 7.4 to 6.4 in about 24 hours. Probably enough to kill less resilient fish than Koura and Inanga. I find that if lower the outlet of the CO2 tube deeper into the water, then it slows down the bubble rate, though only marginally over the long term.

Could always get a desk lamp or something and put it next to it, it'll use a lot of power but that's just the way it goes? Putting a sock around it probably wont have any effect, since it doesn't have any internal heat source - or does it?

My Koura loves one Hikari Tropical Sinking Wafer per day. My Inanga just get what they want. I don't feed them that often though as they seem to be overfed as it is - they probably scavenge some of the sinking wafers anyways. I only feed them once every 3-5 days ;s.

I find using a narrow headed syphon the best, it'll suck a lot of gravel up into it and get clogged, but you'll be able to do the entire tank with one bucket. You just need to keep your finger over the bucket end to control the flow and stop it to let the stones fall out. I've tried with a few different sized syphons, and the larger ones just suck ALL the water up and leave all the mulm behind - don't go for bigger if you want to reduce water use, it's the exact opposite. The diameter of the head and tube are inversely proportional to the sucking performance. If you've got a big fat head, and a thin tube then you've got very little volume of water pulling through the tube. But if you've got a narrow head and a fat tube you've got a big heavy volume of water sucking out into the bucket, and a smaller sucking area at the head.

I wouldn't use twist ties TBH, because they have a history of leeching whatever metals they have in them into the water. I know of one guy who used twist ties to hold his wood together and it killed half of his fish! Turns out the twist ties he used had copper in them or something along those lines. Plastic zip ties are good, you can fix anything with zip ties and duct tape.

I hope when you say "i made a tank", you don't mean you physically siliconed one together!

Maybe post some pics so the pros can tell you where you're going wrong. I've found with my tanks that they NEVER look right until they've been sitting for 3-4 months, then they start to look a lot more natural.

Just thought I'd mention that this stuff has been growing really well submerged since I got it. The ol' Koura's been nibbling at it daily and it's still going strong. A bit shredded in places but it's proving to be very resilient!

RE DJsurfs I've tried to get some of that needlepoint stuff, but it only comes in sheets of 25cm² and is floppy as!

I had a carnivorous mystus catfish in with 4 tetras for 2 weeks, no dramas, got up one day and he'd eaten two. Give him time ;P.

I've heard of Koura being kept permanently in water of 23°C. Probably speeds up their metabolism and makes them more prone to illness, but these one's had been raised from 4cm to about 15cm+, so it is possible. Problem is that they'll eat/destroy ALL your plants, climb out of the tank, attack your fish and generally make a nuisance of themselves. My Koura's fine though because I've got her in a coldwater tank with two 12cm+ inanga. They all get on well, but as she grows she gets more and more angry when they steal her food :].