Mel

OK, I have a newly planted tank only been planted for 2 weeks now, have some platy's & albino BN's in the tank to cycle it - I just did a water change and a vaccuum. So the part I need help on is... 1 - do i need to vaccum a planted tank? 2 - I have just vaccumed and I have JBL balls in the gravel, when I vaccumed I wondered why there was so much dirt (totally forgot about having the balls in there) will the stirred up balls hurt the fish???

This tat is awesome, it looks so real

I have a 25cm common pleco in with my african cichlids. We have just put silca sand in the tank Now my question is: is the pleco ok with sand, as we were watching him/her last night trying to eat a algae wafer and it seemed he was getting rather stroppy with sand going in his mouth is this normal. any suggestions or help would be great, thank you.

AWW Caryl it's beautiful .. i wish mine would hurry up and start growing :bounce:

These guys are only there untill they get abit bigger, we put them in my african tank but the bigger fish really chased them and tried eating them .. so they have to grow really fast, so they can back to Africa

I have increased waterflow and oxgyen though so I might just go to 28 - hopefully they can handle it for a week :-? GREAT I do hope my snails will be fine, they are so cool every night they come out and climb all over the front of the tank, me and my husband have such entertainment watching them .. and they are very quick.

I read on the internet that whitespot can't survive in temps above 28 so I thought if I get it to at least that for a week or two then bring it back down slowly. The guy at wetpets recommended Malachite green & formalin, it's how they treat there tanks - 14mls of each leave for 24hrs do a 25% water change then another 25% water change 24 hrs later. Carly I have in the tank: bristlenoses, cories, rasboras, afew guppies, mollies, platies, black widows, tiger barbs, green barbs oh and two baby brichardi cichlids. And some malysian trumpet snails ... I hope the snails will be ok with the treatment, forgot to mention them to the LFS!!

Sweet as, will get to 27 today then leave it over night then go alittle higher tomorrow

my water conditions are all good .. ph 7 ammonia 0 nitraite 0 . I have a feeling though I added some bristlenoses a week or so ago .. I KNOW NEVER QUANTINE DID I .. so i am picking thats the problem. Well I learn from my mistakes

Yes the guy at LFS told to raise the temp to 30 and keep it there for at least 2 weeks - so i have turn my heater up, going up very slowly - taken 3 hrs to get it 2* higher so should take another 4 hrs to get it to 30

Thank you to all that have replied. Well after discovering that one of my other mollie has whitespot, then found a platy this morning with a whitespot - I imeditely went down to my LFS and have been given the medication to treat them - I told him about how my mollie has been swimming funny and he seems to think he has whitespot in his gills and thats why he swimming funny. So he recommended I put him back into my main tank and treat the whole tank - so I have done that ... so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that all my fishes will be ok. I have for years had cold water Fantails and have never had any problems apart from the odd swim bladder now and then - only recently been getting into tropicals .. I'm starting to wonder why I bother with tropical seems like to much STRESS!!!!

Hi, my black male mollie has been swimming very eratically also swimming straight up. I thought maybe had swim bladder so I have him in a shallow tank with salt and been giving him peas. But it's been 3 days now and he still is swimming funny .. so what is wrong with the little guy?? and what else am I to do?? Please help.

Seems like such a shame to have to cover up such a lovely pond .. but then again the picture above makes it look so nice and blue i have just had to put netting over my pond outside too .. dam cats :evil:

I am looking at purchasing this filter off TM - sorry I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post this link http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=184941750 has anyone got one of these filters? are they any good? feedback on this would be very much appricated, thank you.

Yes totally agree with you .. but when we started buying the africans I didn't know anyone around here with them - so was only buying what the LFS had (which are not the nicest in colour) So I am so pleased that I was put on to FNZAS and I have learnt so much just by reading the posts .. it's great!! And hopefully will get to buy alot more africans to put in my slowly growing tank

Hi, cool will definitey be wanting 2 - 3 dolphins from you. Also was looking through your pics again pic 4 - I think they are julies they are cute, they have them at wetpets at the moment - do you have any of them for sale and how much, and how big do they grow? then the pic 5 below what are the colourful red belly ones? I think we will stop buying our fish through the lfs and start getting them from a breeder who knows what they're doing .. like you!!

I'd be keen to .. would be cool to meet other fish frecks around palmy

Thanks Caryl ... hmm I wonder what all my fishies will be having for tea tonight

Aww your pic of the red zebra are cool, I love the orange colours .. look awesome. would be keen if you have a spare female i like the bottom pic with the rounded forehead, are they dolphins? so how much would you sell them for? we would be very keen on a couple of them - depending if they will be ok in with what we have and the price of course.. What is the other blue fish? That's cool you're welcome to come see our yellows as you'll need to tell me what sex they are anyways Just let us know when you're back in town.

Would iceberg lettuce be ok (all I have in the house at the moment) - think I read on here somewhere that it's not - can someone confirm if it is or isn't ok to use. thanks very muchly.

Hi Jaide and welcome

Welcome Mel (insert waving smilie here) You're well set up with loads of tanks (where do you put them all??!!)

Got the fish yesterday and they are happily in my tank now alot of fighting going on though mainly with all the zebras. I didn't realise that convicts weren't africans they are in the tank with them all seem to be fine - the small female is really nice lovely red colours will look stunning when bigger. Will they be ok in with the rest of them?? As for the yellows they look alot brighter and nicer than the ones at wetpets. One is holding - don't know which though won't stay still long enough for me to see. You are more than welcome to have a male if I have more than one - I have no idea how to sex them. Will they only breed with there own kind as in only yellows?? I was going to ask - my red zebra in pic the white fish, will he go orange when he gets older? he is still only a young fish and when you look down at him he has a bright orange tinge. I really like the 2 red zebras (haha red zebras they should be called orange zebras) I got, there colours are amazing both males though I will try taking pics of them - if they stay still long enough they are in the old turtle tank - 1.5 x .5 x .5 - turtle now in the 300 litre tank - sorry i got the litres all wrong as I've been told, never was good at maths :lol: So in the auction i got - 9x yellows (1 died in transit so now 8 + one with babies) 2x red zebras 3x convicts 5x seem like blue zebras - alot like the fish in my pic only showing the bum end. + what i already have in tank 1x red zebra, 3x marble zebra, 1x dark blue zebra and 1x 25cm common pleco How many more fish do you think I can put in there - hubby wants MORE in there haha .. I read on a website that for cichlids you can have 1 fish for every 15 litres (is that true?) I have been looking at the picture of your tank and really like the bright light blue fish (i think they are dolphins? not sure) will they be ok with what I have, I would want at least 2 or 3 of them. Also notice that you have a bumphead in there, I have 2 young ones (male & felmale) presently in another tank till abit bigger so will they be ok in there too, when bigger. sorry for all the questions .. very new to cichlids . Also what is the best food for them. On a website I was reading that yellows need a vegie & algae diet to maintain the bright colour ... i have the JBL Rift algae sticks they seem to love those. Also got several other brands of cichlid food I like to feed a variety.

Thanks for replying. Got these from Wetpets. Ok so they are all zebras cool. I wasn't sure on what "eggspots" mean't but I think you've cleared that up for me now pic 3 - he is more white than red and pic 4 is exactly the same as pic 3 but he's dark blue with black stripes. pic 5 - the spots on her are black not brown like the pic shows. I don't intend on breeding these (if they do happen to they will most proberly end up = dare I say it "turtle food") Hey by the way - I was the winner of the auction on TM for the 18 mixed malawi cichlids (noticed you ask questions) .. yah get them today - I'll get some pics up of the ones I'm not sure about so you can ID afew of them for me to.

Hehe .. don't think the hubby will be very happy bout me catching a lift with a strange fella :lol: we will get up your way eventually though - i'm diying to see it ( i love zoo's and anything to do with animals). I have been looking through your website it's great.