elusive_fish

10L? Thats a bucket I would have thought that I would need to treat the whole tank they live in. After all, if its a protozoa that can go outside the body and infect other fish it could live in the tank water and reinfect the fish when they are reintroduced.

The water source should still be the same... at least I think so. I rearrange the rocks every few months and throughly stir up the gravel every week or so. Its possible that I still could have got some anaerobic dead spots in the substrate, but I moved about 6 weeks ago and the first few weeks were totally problem free.

Oops. The water tests fine... plus wouldnt problems with water chemistry affect all the fish, not just a couple? But thanks checking kiwiplymouth

Hi all, I've always had very healthy tanks, where the only deaths are inflicted by other inmates. But not right now things have gone off the rails. Tank details: 4ft/250L with Aquaone cf1200 cannister filter About 15 malawis/africans of different kinds About 6 weeks ago I moved house, but kept all the water in my filter and enough water in the bottom of the tank to keep the substrate wet. I figured I could avoid problems with cycling all over again and the tank seemed to get through the first month with no worries. I have since added a few fish, from two different sources. One about 3 weeks ago, the other 2 weeks ago. They are fine. About a week ago my big electric yellow stopped coming out to feed. It otherwise looks healthy with no physical marks. It occassionally would take a bit of food in its mouth, then spit again. Then a couple of nighs ago I see one of my lionheads looking really off balance and a little damaged looking. Like other fish had been picking at it (why do they have to beat up on sick fish?) It died that night. Today a baby greshakei is dead in the bottom and my other lionhead, who has not been eating for the lats couple of days, is looking lethargic and a little off balance. A couple of electric yellows dont seem to be eating much/anything. The two fish that have been off food the longest (big male yellow and male lionhead) still dont have any physical symptoms. The lionhead looks on his way out, the yellow looks ok, but still not eating. It might be just me, but both look a little plump for being off the food. Anyone got any good advice on how to determine the cause and get this tank back to its healthy state?

The cafe I own is hosting an event called 'cupcake camp by the sea'. I still dont really know what the heck it is, but those look like they belong there! http://cupcakecamp.co.nz/

Haha, yup. Good spotting. I've got a fever... and the only prescription is MORE COWBELL. http://vodpod.com/watch/3268128-snl-more-cowbell

Why don't you put this in the private trade/exchange area?

Both of them around a year? Why do you ask?

I think my big, beautiful, male electric yellow and one of my lion heads has this. They largely ignore food and when they do take some in they generally spit it back out. The other fish in the tank seem find at the moment. What should I do?

I know this is a weird detail to get caught up on, but can anyone please help me with this question. The cement covered polystyrene background looks reasonably light and quite 'patchy' when dry. When wet, it is dark and the colour inconsistancies are unnoticeable. It looks much nicer when wet. How will it look when submerged and under strong lighting? Case in point: my neighbour used local beach sand in his aquarium. When dry, the greywacke sand is quite a light grey but goes much darker when wet. Thinking it would look 'wet' in the water he was disappointed when it looked closer to the 'dry' colour. Its seems that wet things viewed in air look darker than when they are submerged... will this be the case or am wrong?

Ideally I'd like to put a strip of T5HO on either side of the tank ie 2 x 4ft and 2x 3ft. There really dont seem to be simple, single bulb units out there. Makes me lean towards buying the ballasts and reflectors and installing it either in a hood that sits on the tank, or one that is suspended above the tank. Man, this project is driving me bonkers

Of course there will be a glass lid on the tank. Sorry if im being slow, but im still trying to figure out why a hood is a better idea than suspended lighting. The main point seems to be around security of the tank ie the fish not being fed muffins. I cant imagine that would happen too often - there will be bar surface width 40cm aroudn the outside of the tank and the top will sit at about 150cm. Kids wont even be able to get access to the top to put things in. P44, would your double T5 lights do the job suspended above the tank?

Great idea. I'd imagine I could get the ballasts from a lighting or electrical store and the reflectors from a pet store. My sisters bf is an electrician - if he is willing to help it would be a great option. Shame he ..er... suffers from inertia

Know of any cheap sources for these? If I can find a low enough price this would certainly be my preferred option.

I will be doing it after hours, on my own. Even if the hood is light, one person cant handle something 2.3m x 0.7m. I guess I could get someone to help me before they go home, but im just trying to make my ongoing maintenance life as as easy as possible. Would a single strip of t8 lights either side do the job? Ie 2 x 4ft and 2 x 3ft for the whole tank? Interesting idea about painting the inside silver. The custom reflector idea is a good one, but by the time ive paid an engineering firm to cut and bend aluminium to size I may as well ahve spent that extra money on one-piece aquarium lighting.

so it sounds like 2 is the preferred option, presumably for the tamper free nature. But I would require some creative solution to be able to get into the tank. Working through the hood would make it very high and you would be restricted. Removing the hood is not an option as it would require at least 2 people and somewhere to put it. I really wanted to avoid option 2, but I guess there is a reason it is the 'standard'. Anyone know of cheap source for 3ft and 4ft t5 lighting? Pet stores are expensive and lighting store units dont seem to include reflectors to focus the light directly down. Thanks for the help! Ben

89 New Brighton Mall, New Brighton, Christchurch. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=89+brighton+mall+new+brighton+christchurch&sll=37.0625,-95.677068&sspn=48.956293,78.662109&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=89+Brighton+Mall,+New+Brighton,+Christchurch+8061,+New+Zealand&ll=-43.507422,172.72778&spn=0.005517,0.009602&t=h&z=17&iwloc=A I might have to put on a cheap food or coffee day for all the chch fnzas people! I got the chance to meet a couple at the cafe already, which was very cool (Hi bdspider, jennifer and caryl!)

I'd have to find some kind of system to lift the hood. Anything that makes maintenance hard will only make me get sick of doing it in the long run. Or maybe it isnt too high to work through the top of the hood? The stand will be about 850 high and the tank 600 on top of it.

Everything is coming together now and im only a few weeks off having the tank operational. One of the final areas I am still undecided on is lighting. I've thought of 4 options (although there will likely be many more) and some pros and cons, as I see it. Please let me know what you think! I've picked an odd sized tank at 2300 long as two 4ft lights would be too long. A 4ft and a 3ft combination would be a better fit. OPTION 1 - Simple This is putting 2 rows of aquarium light hoods directly on the glass, either side of the poly feature wall. PROS: Great control of shadows in the tank, as I could move the lights closer together or further apart and drastically change the way the caves/holes/overhangs look in the tank CONS: Not overly aeshetic. Can be 'monkeyed' with. APPROX NEW COST: $390 (including simple tubes) OPTION 2 - Build a hood Lighting can be similar to the above option, or potentially cheaper method of buying ballasts, bulbs and reflectors and attaching to the ceiling of the hood PROS: Stops tampering with the tank or people trying to feed the fish. Looks more 'complete' than 1 CONS: Would be a real pain when it comes to tank maintenance. As the tank is alread quite high I would have to remove the hood completely to be able to get my arm into scrub or vacuum. OPTION 3- Suspended aquarium light hoods. This would probably be a 4ft and a 3ft t5 double light hoods that are suspendable, like found here http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pets-animals/Fish/Lights-lamps/auction-279958873.htm PROS: Would look cool? Much easire for tank maintenance than 2 CONS: Poor light control - may be too much light going outside the aquarium for people sitting close. Might not make attractive shdows with centre feature. APPROX NEW COST: $390 + tubes + hanging stuff OPTION 4 - Custom made suspended unit There are commercial hanging t5 lighting units that may work without a custom made hood, or t5 uits could be wired into the suspended hood as shown. PROS: Possily considerably cheaper? Easy maintentance access CONS: Would obviously require an electrician. Not as much control over light as other options.

I guess if you've actually tried it, I'll have to believe it. But I would have thought the white tail would be the diner, not the dinner. As a kid I tried a few different spider 'fight pits' and remember the orange coloured slater spider being the champ. It apparently eats slaters/woodlice, hence the name, but it certainly kicked some spinneret!

White tailed spiders preferred prey is other spiders, meaning if other spiders are disappearing it could be that white tails are the cause. 'Daddy long legs' are the source of much confusion. The first is around the name 'daddy long legs', which can refer to the fragile, web spinning spiders of family Pholcidae (which looks to be what insectdirect is talking about), the Harvestmen or the crane fly. The harvestmen is an arachnid, but not a spider. These a are the ball-on-legs you see everywhere in your garden. Secondly there is a fallacy around daddy long legs having the world most deadly poison, only their fangs are too small to penetrate human skin. The mythbusters guys actually busted this one: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1DzkM0zqDQ&feature=related Gotta love those guys

Is that a nursery web or a sheet web spider?

Wow, what a cool looking find! I google image searched "Phronima" and found some really cool pictures, if anyone is interested: http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrislohtt/

Hi, As part of my cafe aquarium project im trying to source some male peacocks and haps. A LFS has some venustus around 3-4cm - is there any way of picking out a male at that size? Would it eventually get big enough to eat a demasoni? If so, how long would it take for that to happen? Thanks for your help!

What do you use to determine the gender at that size? I'm getting a couple off another forum member around that size and I'd like a couple of males to eventually put in my large cafe aquarium.