BikBok

thanks. I've now decided a cae not suitable. my water temp is 25oC its the butterfly pleco I have,here's a pic of him as a juvenile - not sure if 168 or 052 but i think 168 now thinking about a couple of electric blue rams.. but not sure about my pH which si 7.0. I can raise the temp a degree , I'm sure that would be ok for other fish.

i've had a std bristlenose before,don't really like them. and the two I had DID bully my kuhli!

thanks for your reply. My tank is not huge. 200L . I'm gonna have to consider this carefully. I really want something different to the lot I have right now. Kind of been inspired by my friend setting up her tank ,got me in the mood for something new. A juvenile electric Blue ram also caught my eye today .. never even considered ram before but I liked what I saw today. my ph might be too high. Its usually a stable ph7.0.

These have caught my eye for a while now but I'm just not sure how well suited they would be for my community tank. I would love to have one.. I just like their colour and the way they zoom around. Have been told they can be aggressive towards tank mates, and that they may suck on the sides of larger slower fish. A friend who is new to fishkeeping and has a fairly new set up has a couple in her tank and all the fish seem to get along peacefully which made me wonder just how aggressive they actually are? Saw some today and they did seem to be chasing each other a lot but I only want 1! google gives me mixed results so I thought i'd get some input from you guys! Who keeps them and with what? the tankmates would be: guppies and platy pearl gourami honey gold dwarf gourami otocinclus kuhli loaches butterfly pleco rainbow shark all living peacefully and with plenty of hidy places (driftwood,tunnels, caves, plants) My main concern woudl be with the peaceful bottom dwellers (kuhlis and pleco) and maybe the otos.. are they in danger of being bullied by a lone CAE?

http://www.sciencealert.com.au/features ... 25889.html

love fringe ! been rewatching the series again. Good solid sci fci series.

Jager is my preferred heater too, never had a problem with them and they are accurate.

I gave up on tomorrow people pretty quick! It really bugged me that they kept referring to them as a different species when they are still human!! it irked me so much! I tired of arrow too... hmm .. the lead characters who are related - just too much angsting. They should all go back to the island and stay there.

i think dwarf gourami would be great.. get a couple. I love how they touch each other with their "Feelers" (ventrals). Ottos are cool too, mine ate up all the glass algae no probs but they don't have a very long life and need company.. 3 would be a minimum. They don't grow very big which is a plus and are fun to watch zipping up and down the glass and following each other around. If you get ottos , make them the last fish you add when you are sure the water conditions are nice and stable.

where did the goldfish come from? A few years ago, my daughter did something similar, arrived home with a little goldfish from her friends pond and a bowl to pout it in. Realizing that a bowl is no place for a goldfish we soon re homed it with the promise to replace it with tropicals... several years and 4 tanks later we have an array of tropicals to care for!

hi clairet did you post in trade me pets message board ? the name and details are similar to a post that was going there... sorry if its not you! But if you've only had the tank going for a week I'm pretty sure it would not have cycled yet. What fish did you put in? Keep an eye on water levels (Ammonia etc) for a while yet.

hi and welcome. Housing can be expensive in Auckland but if you don't mind looking towards the suburbs there are some more affordable options. I love where I live! Have duck ponds and reserve right across the road form me.. my morning commute sees pukekos , geese and ducks wandering about as we are on a wetlands peninusla. For the golfers, it's walking distance. With your DIY attitude sounds like you will fit right in here! Where will your wife be working? Motorway commutes can be pretty life draining but if you're close enough to a train station its really handy. My student daughter trains from sth auckland to Queen street in Auckland city everyday and she loves it. The train system is getting an overhaul this year, buses are ok, not the worst around. an AT Hop card is the best option for public transport as it gets you onto rail, bus and ferry. You probably have something similar over there. Its a good idea to rent at first so you cna see whats what and get the lay of the land and what is going to suit you. Good luck with everything! I think fish in NZ are not as varied and can be expensive. Auckland has Hollywood fish farm which is really good. I'm sure there are others good ones around , but that's where I go.

hi deb, have a good read about the nitrogen cycle so you understand what it is you're trying to achieve. there's a good article on the fnzas site : http://www.fnzas.org.nz/?p=1868 Basically you're aiming to establish a beneficial bacterial colony in the filter that can deal with fish waste. In order to do this you need to "feed" your filter and there are different ways to go about this ... go down to the "methods of cycling" on the above page and choose one you think will best suit. There are differing opinions on which is best i.e fishless vs adding fish I have always favored adding a couple of small hardy fish such as guppies, but many here don't agree with that I also add some bacteria supplement such as JBL filter star (my fav) or TLC smart start to speed up the process and shorten the time the guppies are exposed to ammonia and nitrite. . I monitor levels carefully and haven't lost fish doing it this way. I like to see fish in my tank! You could also add some fish flakes for a few days ahead of time to start decomposing , then add your supplement followed by fish . Whatever you do, don't overload your tank with fish too quickly, whatever stage you decide to add fish, just a a few at a time depending on your size tank... add new members slowly over several weeks or months. This gives the biofilter time to adjust to the increased wastes. I have no experience with a complete fishless cycle so if you d cide to go that way, hopefully others can advise and help you with that. Good luck - starting up can be confusing and seem like a lot of work but get it right at the start, then keep up your tank maintenance and water changes and you'll have a beautiful living ornament to admire and enjoy each day.

hopefully, by coming here and making the effort to join this forum she is showing that she does want to do things right this time. My first attempt at fish keeping 25 years ago was not as informed as it is today, and I mostly have this forum to thank for helping me get on my way again. Debabelz do you understand that cycling a tank is not just letting the filter run ? Look up the nitrogen cycle . A test kit would be very helpful while your tank is new. At the mimimum you need an ammonia test, but I do recommend you get the others if you can. Ammonia is the killer in a cycling tank. What sorts of fish are you wanting to keep? Start with some hardy ones and not too many!

how are you letting your tank "cycle" ? just wonderinn what you are adding for it to cycle.

Metro ! :bounce: My usual vet is going to get some for me, I just have to go in and sign some forms and take a photo of I can. but he said the liquid form could be quite pricy and is going to get back to me with a cost based on my tank size. I have looked at different dosing rates and the seachem recommendation seem to be a lot lower than other sites.. Any one got any ideas for dosing guppies?

you're right! what about the medicated metro flakes sold on eBay .. any good? can we bring them into NZ? .. or even the seachem metro treatment for that matter?

would metro be used for the same purpose? It seems to be a derivative. I am investigating my options to get my hands on some metro as I do often see it suggested as a medication for internal parasites. I have a skinny guppy also with the white stringy poop and normal worming treatments (prazi. Lavamisole) haven't helped.

the ammo alerts only show the free ammonia.. i.e the form that is toxic and kills. The test kits usually test for total ammonia which includes free and the non toxic form . Thats why the dial can show ok while a test kit shows a positive result for ammonia. My guess is that there was an ammonia spike and had you been there would have seen the alert register.. but now its come down and you've tested at the end of the spike. Higher pH and warmer temperature will also cause more free ammonia from that total reading.

the ones I got over a year ago didn't last very long, a couple of months at best. I tried again December... early days yet, only 3 months but they seem to be doing really well and thriving. I make sure that at least once a week the tank only gets algae flakes/tablets instead of the usual tropical and NLS pellets. , this was advice given to me by the petshop in regards to the gourami - said their digestive system needs a gentler food at least once a week.. don't know how valid that is but they are doing well. I also fast the tank once a week followed by squashed peas in the late evening so I guess that's 2 days they are doing without meat based protein., Mine are gold honey dwarf gourami and have previously had std dwarf gourami that lived a good 2-3 years.

that's good news. Dropsy can be caused by different things. I've only ever had one fish at a time with dropsy indicating it was never a transmittable disease in my tank but rather to do with the fish itself. , they were all older fish towards the end of their life... and one greedy betta who ate too many bloodworms (the frozen type)!

I was worried about one of my guppies the other day.. I was cleaning the inside glass and put my hand in the water.. a hair of cat fur must have been on my arm becuase I noticed it in the water but before I could get it, a guppy gulped it down.. and he had the top half hanging out of his mouth.. I was worried about trying to pull it out and dragging his insides out with it so I left it to see what would happen.. he swam around for two days with it hanging out and then it was gone and guppy is fine.. he is just a little guy too!

vinegar diluted with 1/2 water should work

I still love Delta Tails ! Veils seem to be the "common" petshop variety and I guess Betta people want something more interesting. My first Betta was a Veil tail! My fav though is the halfmoon.

weird.. i had a guppy do that once but he spiraled as he went down and then sat there looking dead for a while before he swam around again. In hindsight I think he may have been suffering from some sort of paralysis as he never righted before he died.