lmsmith

My first goldfish...man I feel sorry for them. They (yes, two of them) lived in a tiny bowl, with an air driven sponge filter. Once a week, religiously, I took them out, put them in a cup and cleaned their bowl, boiled their stones and filter sponge then put them back into their brand spanking new water, being very careful not to let their icky water in the clean stuff. That must have been 8 years ago, and as far as I know, 1 of them is still alive today in my cousins pond.

Yeah, I agree, I think you could stock higher. My 3ft african tank will eventually have 13 dems, about 20 lionheads, and 6-10 electric yellows. I have 3 canisters and a sump, and do 50% w/cs every 2 - 3 days. I feed twice a day when I have babies. I currently have a 3ft with over 100 lionheads ranging from 10cm - .5cm. Most of them are 3-5cm. The number of fish really depends on what you're comfortable with, how aggressive they are and whether or not they have good hiding places. Obviously, I wouldn't overstock and underfiltered tank, but a tank that is filtering it's own volume about 25 times an hour. The recommened for a tank is about 4 times an hour, depending on your source. Also, water changes are a big thing; you need to be removing the waste somehow.

Dropsy is a symptom, not a disease. Fish get it when they can no longer process wastes. So, the cause of it to your particualar fish will determine whether or not it's contagious; if the thing that caused the dropsy in your fish was contagious, then your other fish could get it too. What you want to be doing for the next couple of weeks is lots of water changes, often. The better you keep your water, the healthier your fishies. Sorry for your loss

I love that one. Maybe I'll do something but use slate instead of the round rocks. Can anyone id the plants?? Keep them coming guys, love the ones I've seen so far.

Smidey, how thick are those pieces of slate?

Is that coral rock? It looks cool.

Dems are quite small. They grow to a max of about 8cm. You could alway upgrade. :bounce:

Can you please label/describe the bits?

They leeched something and raised the pH to something unmeasurable. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=38083

:lol: Cool, I'll have to see if I can use some of my easter prezzie for some cool plants. Thanks heaps guys.

Lol, as you can see, there are lots of ways to do it. If it was me, I'd run it as a wet/dry sump, and just have the canister on there as a spare, rather than to really filter. However, what Mystic's saying will work just as well, and she's totally right, you can NEVER overfilter, so if you can, add a nice big canister and you'll have an awesome nicely filtered tank, AND a spare filter. If the baffles are out, just add the media into bags (like orange bags or something) to keep it together. There's no real reason to add them once they're out, as you can hold the media in things to stop them getting mixed up and keeping them easy to clean.

Dems are aggressive between themselves, so it's recommended you keep at least 12 of them.

You don't need baffles; they're for getting microbubbles out. If you already have them though, leave them there, they can't hurt. Run the sump as a filter with biological and mechanical filtration, and if you want, also run a canister off the (clean side) sump. The canister doesn't need to be rated for the full size of the tank, but it's a great way to have a filter ready for emergencies.

I'd like some ideas on how to set up my african tank. The bricks I was using killed my fish, so I need some more ideas.

Where would I best find it? Trade Me, or a plant shop?

Sumps are the best thing ever. Use it, they're great.

Lol, you mean your dad making them so you can sell them? Or will you learn how to do it? What's the base like? Is it on legs, or a square base?

You should get some Demasonis and Elc Yellows. I'm pretty sure they could live with jewels, it'd just depend on their individual temperaments.

That's exactly where I've got it, and I want some more because it looks awesome in the lighting.

Awesome, thanks. I might plant in in my slater tub.

Electric yellows. :bounce:

Cool, how do I propagate them?

No to the oscars. There's no way you could have 2 in that tank size. They need a tank that big each. How about an african tank?

Pretty hard to get a good pic, but I've taken a few more and when they are uploaded, I'll post a link.

It's about 12cm tall.