twinkles

yup, but it tells you the glass weight (average) too. I find it just as quick as opening my calculator so i've got into the habit of using it. Good if you're thinking about building or dividing up a tank too, cause you can change one of the inputs around quickly to see how much space it would give you.

it can cause problems with their swimbladders too, i bought a really fat doubletail boy with a tummy like that and its taken weeks of dieting for him to come right, he can finally swim down now instead of being stuck to the surface Apparently the doubletails are more prone to that though, because they have shorter bodies.

the tank calculator on here is great, its on the homepage under technical. Why bother working the maths out when it can do it for you, and tell you the likely weight too :lol:

from what i've read they should spawn again in about a week, good luck and congrats wish mine would get their act together :-?

glad she's still here i imagine its a long slow process for her shell to heal

he looks tough and manly, as opposed to the flowery halfmoons :lol:

guess she was keen then :lol:

good luck with the eggs, fingers crossed for you

just keep an eye on her, if her bars go away and she gets stress stripes instead i'd take her out, ditto if her fins get entirely eaten.

i think the stores like animates have a place in attracting people to the hobby. People who have never thought of owning a tank are unlikely to visit hollywoods for example and get inspired, but they might drift into the fish section at animates when they go to buy dog food and end up walking out with a tank. Then once mts has taken over and they get more into it, they're likely to start looking for specialist shops to visit. I go to fish shops instead of petshops when i'm in auckland, partly because i have limited time, and partly because i don't expect to see the fish i want at a pet store, and partly because i want to oggle all the lovely fish. I'd rather pay an extra couple of dollars for equipment if i want anything, than have to stop at another shop and leave the fish sitting in the car, or battle the traffic to get there. But i do go to animates when they have decent sales, like the buy one get one free deals. Especially when they send me vouchers for free

yup, the bigger white one has quite a long tail now, but i'd never be able to get it on camera lol. Some of the greener ones are getting longer too, they seem to have suddenly started growing in length the last two days. The blue one in the pic has started getting longer too, the rays have grown branches and a small new clear bit of length. I spend way too much time staring at them, they change so fast. One of the greenish ones is quite dark, almost looks like coppery black on parts of it, can't wait to see what colour it turns out

well its darn freezing here tonight, feels like winter again, so i'm sure the snow wont melt before next week its supposed to be sunny then too

they wouldn't fit in a 20l, big angel is about 15cm high. They haven't been picking on each other at all this evening, maybe the bristles were annoying them. I want to see them breed so i know which one to call a girl and which one a boy lol

its a little female striatum i hatched out my first lot of eggs from them and the australes, in trays a few shelves up from the bettas. Then i moved them into a tank and the heater cooked them by mistake So i was very glad to find this little one who had leapt out and down...down...down into the tank below to masquerade as a betta

well i thought they were growing really slow, but compared to that pic from a month ago they look huge and colourful. Think i need to divide up a big tank so i can keep my favourites. I had to take the baby killie out last week too, she was starting to pick on them a bit. Looked funny because she was exactly the same size and tried to blend in with them, but completly different shape, way of swimming etc.

time for an update they're getting bigger slowly, not as fast as i hoped though, think i need to get some novotom for next time. They're about 2cm + now. Still have about the same amount, i pulled out the biggest 10 last week and put them in jars so the smaller ones can try to catch up, i think there's about 15 of the smaller ones, maybe more since they're so hard to count lol. One of them coloured up a week or so before any of the others, and is heaps brighter than them still, he's my favourite, in the pic. Looks like lots of colours coming out now, there's a few green ones, red and green, red finned ones that might be cambodian, some funny lavender looking ones, and i think a pair of white ones. The jarred ones are funny to watch, flaring at their neighbours with their tiny tails

i did ponder setting up another tank to move them to, but they do like nice in there, and i don't really have anything else to put in at the moment. I've got an empty 4ft to set up eventually, so if they do breed i might put a divider in it and put them in there, grow out some babies behind the divider. But i'll just see how they go for now. Will find some fishing line to tie it on then

sorry for your loss

alright so i've managed to catch them, and only uprooted one plant while at it :lol: now is it safe to put the plain unglazed terracotta in? It came out of the garden, buried there for 20 years as fill so i can't imagine it leaching much. Also can i use a rubber band to tie some filter wool over the intake?

ok, will get onto that now catching the bristles is going to be mission.. there's some good big java fern leaves and smooth wood and things so with a pipe they should have plenty of choice.

ok, was thinking i might have to move them once the second one lost his tail tip can't find breeding cones anywhere to buy, but i do have a whole pile of broken clay pipe pieces, would one of them standing up please them you think?

ah well, i'll leave them then and see how they go. Its just annoying having such an empty tank, maybe i'll have to get some more plants to look at...

yeah i thought as much about the rams, still had to ask just in case i'm not too worried about them being together, they haven't ever hurt each other. Maybe i could get a few more big angels and re arrange the tank when i put them in? It seems silly having this lovely big tank with only two fish in it, only one of whom is usually up the front. Although they both race up together and share nicely at food time.

anyone?

golden algae eaters like to eat it, the beard algae that is.