lmsmith

I will be going flatting next year and will be living in a rented house. I have 7 fish tanks at the moment, and will be taking them all with me. I was wondering if anyone knows what landlords think about fish tanks - are they concerned that they will make the house damp or anything? Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Hi Mitzy - no, I decided not to put the bristlenose in there after all, I'll put them in my guppy tank instead. The rams seem really happy and the boy is happily following the girl around, so I'm hoping for eggs in a few days. I don't have a smooth stone for them to lay on, but do have all of the pots - will this be enough?

I put the rams in the tank last night, and today they seem to have gotten aquainted with their new surroundings. They've picked a cave, which has good water flow across the mouth, and is in a darker area of the tank. The male has been sussing out the surroundings, and has been coming out of the cave a bit, but the female has spend most of her time in the cave. It kinda looks like she's 'climbing the walls'.

I used a pipe brush that i bought from the LPS. They're pretty cheap (around $10). Just down pull them out of the pipe too fast or you'll be splattered with fish gunk

Wow guys, thanks so much for all this information! I cleaned the pipes in a filter that has been pumping pitifully, and low and behold, now its pumping so much water the fish don't know what to do with themselves! I thinik I'll start cleaning the pipes everytime the water flow lessens, and if it doesn't help, then do the filter.

Aw I hope it all works out ok for you! The best you can do for them is keep the water changes up for them, and your other tank, and keep an eye on all the other fishies. You may find it's something completly different, and everything we've all been saying is just scaring you for no reason - I hope so!!

There is a lot of conflicting advice out there about harlequins - I've had some that were happy in acidic water, and others that were just fine with a higher pH. I think the key is keeping the pH stable like you say. I think gouramis would be ok with harlequins or cardinals/neons - they're all pretty fast, and would be able to get away. I guess I'm biased towards the tetras, and tetras look awesome in big groups. The amount of nipping and chasing will depend totally on your individual fish, and how bored they are in the aquarium - if there are lots of places for them to explore and hang out, they'll probably be less likely to nip. I like Caryls idea of hengeli rasboras - rasboras are great fish and look great in an aquarium! http://www.aquahobby.com/gallery/e_Trigonostigma_hengeli.php

They had them listed as mudskippers and they looked just like that. They had a heater and heat lamp in their tank. Most of them were out of the water sitting by the heat lamp. They were so cute sitting there.

Hmmm, I think the mistake I've been making is to clean the filters too often and neglect the pipes. Usually I just rinse them all really throughly and squish them to get the big gunge out. I've got one filter that no matter how clean it is, it doesn't pump the volume, so I'll have a look at the pipes tonight. Thanks for all your replies guys!

at the back behind the turtle tank on top of the freezer. I think there were 4 in there. They were really cute. a.prophecy also has them on TM - 2 for $80 - now that's a good deal.

If it is columnaris, you're better off cutting your losses, culling the whole tank, bleaching it several times and starting from scratch. I know it sucks big time, but ask anyone on the forums who's had this, and it's really impossible to get rid of. In saying that, don't jump the gun and do it before you know what's actually wrong - you might find that she's just got an infection which is growing crazy fluff. In the meantime, as soon as any fish show signs of this, take them out of the tank. Also, make sure you take any dead fish out straight away, it's a surefire way to spread diseases.

Gouramis can live in a pH of about 6.5 - 7.5, so should be ok in your tank. You're right about the males tending to get a bit aggressive with each other; if you want more than 1 male, you really need a big tank. Also, be careful when buying dwarf gouramis, they are known to have iridovirus, which is a horrible way for fish to die. Personally, I would find out exactly why the tank was quarantined; you may find that the stock was new. You may want to look into having a quarantine tank at home also. Harlequins are quite hardy, but tend to like a slightly higher pH - around 7.2 - 7.8. They're great fish, and look awesome in big shoals. Pandas prefer a lower pH - 6.5 - 7. They are awesome little fish, and prefer to be in groups of 5+. Depending on how planted your tank is, some fry may survive, but the eggs are quite sensitive to light and tend to fungus, but hopefully you'll find some babies in there in a few weeks! Neons are fantastic fish, and are said to be more hardy than Cardinals. Both prefer a slightly lower pH. Neons might be a better bet for you because they're cheaper so if you lose a few, you're not spending so much replacing them. However, I personally prefer Cardinals because they're more brightly coloured and are more striking. However, that said, they will scaol together. In a 60L I would choose either tetras or gouramis, as gouramis are known fin nippers, and both neons and cardinals don't stand for much nipping. Personally I'd go for the tetras - nothing beats 20 cardinals swimming together! I'd also reccomend getting a pleco or two to help keep the glass clean. Bristlenose are great as they don't grow too big and have awesome personalities. As for stocking, you can have about 22 - 26" of fish in a 60L tank - but of course, that depends on what type of fish and their bioload. You could happily add 10 cardinals/neons. Hope that helps, and good luck with the Panda babies!

enzoom - you're right - I was thinking some of the bigger brackish puffers - sorry!

Hutt Animates had one on Saturday.

90L is small for puffers. Even if you were going for a dwarf puffer, they still need a minimum of 150l.

They had a few in Animates in Palmy yesterday, for $70 ea!

I add about three tablespoons per 10 litres, but my fish usually live in salted water anyway, so I'd start with 1tbs for 10 litres. Make sure you use tonic salt or rock salt with no iodine or anything!

It's reasonably common to have some fry not developed to the same extent as others. If fish are not stressed and are well conditioned, they will be less likely to drop their undeveloped fry, but I think it is genetic to some extent.

If you can, seperate her from the other fish, and add some salt into the water. If it doesn't help in a couple of days, try to take some more pics.

Maybe I'm dense - I don't really get what you mean?? It sounds like a good idea, a step by step guide would be great if you can?

Here's a pic of my set up - I'm just waiting for the PH to get a bit lower and the temp to come up a bit. I'm going to add some peat tomorrow and add my ram pair. They're still nesting in my community tank at the moment and the male is getting pretty territorial. I've got lots of caves and hiding places in the tank - I'm hoping to be able to breed bristlenose and the rams in the same tank. If I get the pH down to 6.5, and the temp at about 27c, they should both be happy enough to spawn. I'm just a bit concerned that the rams might attack the catfish, or eat the babies. Any advice would be great, thanks!

I've just found this thread - thanks A-town for necroposting to bring it to my attention! This has inspired me to plant my tank - the planted pics were absoutely stunning! Beautiful fronts too! How about an update to see where the tank is now? You've done such an amazing job!

I run eheim canister filters and was wondering how often everyone else cleans their filters? Also, how long to you go before chaining filter media (filter wool etc). I usually do them once every 2 months - is this enough?

awesome thanks so much for your help! I'll give it a go and post back here to let you know how they go!

Ok, I've got a 60l tank for them, think I'd be better off setting it up as a bare bottom or sand bottom for them?