Jennifer

Copying from another post that is going at the same time:

Yep, they are positively microscopic. They are pretty easy to rear as long as you get the micro food going.

There is quite a lot of research about the detrimental effects of lead fishing weights on the health of aquatic species. Lead poisoning is cumulative (builds up over time) and some of the first effects are behavioural/mental/cognitive. Would you be able to tell if your fish was starting to go a bit nutty?

Benefits: -they won't suck up fry; -the fry can nibble on microorganisms growing on the sponge; -they won't blow the fry out of the water with too much flow; -they are quick and easy to cycle/seed by running them in a mature tank for a couple of days; -they are cheap to buy and cheap to run (you can run a heap of them on one airpump); -they have good surface area for their size. Disadvantages: -they have passive flow (only as much as the air going into it); -they are low flow so are not that great for larger tanks (unless you have several running at a time); -they are fairly large and unsightly; -they clog up easily if there is lots of gross detritus floating around (thus reducing flow and surface area).

Yes, we do get them here, but they are very uncommon. There has recently been an import and I am eying them up! P. furcatus are nice too and we get them as well.

Blue eye (pseudomugil)?

As with any media, it is all about surface area for colonisation by denitrifying bacteria and available oxygen to support that bacteria. Just about any media or surface will be colonised by the bacteria. The benefits of noodles or other similar types of substrates is that they are: 1. Not as easily blocked by detritus (unlike wool and sponges which are relatively easy to clog which then limits available surface area); 2. Have relatively protected areas for colonisation (unlike sponges and wool which must be rinsed heavily or replaced when clogged and unlike tank surfaces that are frequently and cosmetically cleaned). Obviously breeding and grow-out tanks are not heavily cleaned except for gross detritus so the populations of bacteria will be high all over the tank which aids in processing nitrogenous waste. For the average fishkeeper with a display tank and routine cosmetic cleaning, having noodles in the filter will provide a safeguard in case bacterial populations are lost from other areas of the tank.

Actually, it is $8 a bag here (at the red shed) but they are going out of the Daltons range so all products are discounted. I wonder if they are discontinuing Daltons at other locations around the country? I wouldn't worry too much about which is "better," it won't matter unless you have very fussy plants in which case you need to know what acidity and nutrient levels of soil that they prefer. Just go with what you like. I am tending to like the natural look these days and I liked Daltons because it has a lot of that fine greywacke that I like so much in my other tank.

There are 4 double balasts and each holds two 3 foot tubes. I will try to post a pic a bit later. Joe, it is all Daltons (60 litres of it in total, about 4 inches deep). Daltons has a mixture of sand as well as the same type of sifted pebbles that were in the planted tank that you liked. The fine sand settles to the bottom, which the plants appreciate, and leaves the pebbles at the surface. Best of all it looks natural and only cost $4 a bag!

Sometimes we all have days where we just think it is too much work, too annoying, etc. but that too shall pass. It doesn't matter where you MAY be next month or next year, live for today. Besides, tanks are very movable. Chin up, you love fish and plants and you love your great tank and all the lovely fish and plants. Tomorrow will be a better day.

They are Boesmani, Reds and Praecox rainbows. I bought them locally, most shops can get them in for you. You can buy them young but they don't colour up until they are mature and it is the males that will have the best colour although the red rainbows have females that look very nice as well. They are easiest to sex when they are a bit older too. I feed them a wide variety of foods, including live foods and that really helps develop good colour. The males will also display better colour if they have a female to display to (although males will display to each other too). There are some nice young ones here in town (although they are young), and I go down to Dunedin a lot so I can bring some down if you end up not being able to source them there.

Don't get me wrong, they are super grunty and I am otherwise very happy with them but with the very small one you would think that it would suit a small tank with small fish but this may not always be the case! The biggest problem with the small filter is the little lever at the very top where there is a gap that they can get sucked into.

I only ever use sponge filters for fry. These filters suck up all manner of fish though - I can't tell you how many I have found inside or wedged in various places (the filters suck in water from cracks all over the filter, not just the vent like areas). I have taken to using a stocking over the filters with tanks that have very small fish and they seem to do the trick but it limits flow. I have two of the large ones one medium one and three very small ones and have had problems with all of them.

My six filters (all different size) must be broken then...

Watch out with that filter. In a tank that size you are likely to have small fish and I guarantee, even the smallest sized Eheim pickup will eat fish....lots of them. :-? Great filters otherwise... BTW, I have a single Mosquito rasbora that is looking for a home if anyone wants him...

Welcome. You can't go wrong with danios, they're awesome, especially in larger groups. 8)

Its the 'Stay Puff' marshmallow man! Mmmm, toasted marshmallows...s'mores....mmmm (this cold weather makes me hungry)

Temp at 34-35?? That is pretty hot for most fish and the dissolved oxygen would have been much lower at that temperature. I'd say those were the reasons they were trying to escape. When you can only breathe in water, there must be a very strong motivation to make you climb out and risk death (jumping randomly is something else altogether).

Well happy birthday old man. Sounds like you had a grand day indeed.

Awww, Barrie's just an old softie.

If there is a complete intestinal blockage, then offering food can cause further problems (it can't come out as it normally would), however if there is complete intestinal blockage, there isn't much you can do anyway so offering food is not going to be a determining factor for recovery. Truthfully, I wouldn't worry about it right now. If he perks up in a day or so, you can offer him some cucumber. With that in mind, I would deworm him as soon as possible (Levamisole would be a good drug to use since he can be dosed in his tank water and will not have to eat the medication in food). It may not help, but it is one of the easiest and safest treatments you can try. You can also try Furan in case it is a bacterial problem, but that is really just another stab in the dark as to the cause of the problem. You can get levamisole from a vet clinic under the trade name of Aviverm. The dose rate is 2 milligrams per litre of tank water (or 0.1 mililitre of medication per 15 litres of tank water). You can dose the entire tank safely or place him into his own tank to dose him separately. Make sure there is no carbon in your filter as that will absorb the medication. After 24 hours with the medication in the tank you can then do a large partial water change (about 50%). If you see evidence that he has worms coming out, then add the medication again for a second day of treatment and then carry out another water change afterward. Good luck

Agreed. The difference between a trout and a possum? Well, we all know the answer to that.

If it is generalised swelling (all over the body) it may be a result of organ failure. Try searching the term "dropsy" for more information. Some possible causes could be constipation (uncommon in BNs) or lower intestinal impaction related to worms or intestinal impaction related to something it has eaten. The most common culprit of intestinal impaction or straining to defecate (which produces the vent prolapse you are describing) are nematodes which can be treated with levamisole or fenbendazole (you can get both medications from a vet without a prescription). Keep in mind that severe infestations can kill. It may also be intestinal impaction related to diet, but this doesn't usually produce the vent prolapse. There is nothing you can do for a true intestinal impaction but if it is constipation you can try feeding easily digested foods (like cucumber). Fruit can cause diarrhoea in some fish.

Interesting that it is illegal to keep an introduced species yet it is legal to keep native (and even endangered) species. Economics...

Flourish excel is algaecidal against red and black algae, not against green algae.