herefishiefishie

I haven't seen albino guppies either, anyone have any pics?? Frenchy

Lol :lol: Gotta love the beauty of nature. I have seen footage of a Barramundi taking a mouse. I use convict babies to feed my Altos, * :evil: :lol: * Frenchy

As above with the neons & guppies, Kissing gouramis, opaline, moonlights..... should be fine with angels in a nice sized tank. Dwarf gouramis would have a problem with angels when they get bigger & decide to breed. Though as said above depends on the fish, angels are "generally" fine if the fish aren't to small to eat, but they are a cichlid, I have seen the odd bully. Then again a customer returned a black moor yesterday as it was beating up bigger comets. :lol: Frenchy

24 hours to cycle, sorry to say no. Unless they used already soiled filters, gravel, old water........ 6 weeks is closer to the mark. Some say 8 weeks. Caryl, Pegasus are right with what they said. Where I used to work we had a chart with how a tank cycles, explains it very well. Can be found in some books, i'll try to find which one. OK, so you didn't do Fishless Cycling or & now your fish are dying and nothing's breaking down that ammonia and nitrite. Water smells?? yes!! What do you do now? Here's what I do to give my fish the best chance: 1. Immediately do a 10-15% water change with dechlorinated water and continue to do this at least once daily until your tank is cycling (i.e. ammonia and nitrite are at zero). 2. Test the water daily for ammonia and nitrite until the values are holding at zero for several days running. If levels are high, do an immediate, extra water change. 3. If at all possible, get some matured filter media and/or gravel from a matured tank and put it in your tank, suspended in an old stocking. This will hopefully impregnate your new tank with the beneficial bacteria. One lady successfully used floss from a relative's fish pond to colonise her new tank! (you have to be careful that what you use is clean and free from pathogens, of course). 4. Keep good aeration in the tank both to help the fish a little and to oxygenate those beneficial bacteria. 5. Avoid using medications, if at all possible, as many medications kill off beneficial bacteria. Your fish may well get ick, fungus or other infections due to the stress of the ammonia and nitrite but the priority is to get that water quality as good as possible. 6. If you have delicate fish in the tank, such as plecos, corys or other bottom dwellers, tetras, pencilfish etc. try to re-home them temporarily, such as asking the Local Fish Shop to look after them until your tank is cycled (after all, chances are that they got you in this mess in the first place). 7. Live plants can directly use ammonia, so if you can, put some cheap aquatic plants in the tank, such as elodea or giant vallis. 8. Don't feed your fish at all if your ammonia readings are high, and only feed bare minimum rations every other day, until the tank cycles. This will cut down on the ammonia the fish produce. Since fish are cold blooded creatures and don't need the calories of a mammal they can go several days without food anyway, and the occasional fast is good for them. Your fish may not be very hungry anyway so do be careful not to feed more than the fish can eat and clean up uneaten food immediately, before it rots and produces even more ammonia. 9. Only clean the gravel superficially, of obvious dirt and uneaten food. You want the bacteria to colonise it and actually start to grow. Also, don't swap out your filter at this point - if it gets blocked, just clean it enough to unblock it, in used tank water. ps; the smelly water, usually indicates that there is an excess of fish food in the water. This can occur even if the fish eats all of the food available. Hope this helps, Frenchy

Platies are from Mexico & a bit south, thats cool though. I have guppies in with my altos(lake tangy) livebearers make for a good food source. I have Calcium Carbonate in with my substract to help buffer the water. Frenchy

Its hard to put anything in there. :-? Convicts are great breeders & care deeply about their young. Anything that goes in there will be stuck at one end of the tank, anything big enough to handle the pressure, taking in mind they can beat up cichlids 3 times there size, well could end up eating one of the parents. I remember the day I called into a mates place, looked into the 4 footer, hey Ben the managuensis has something in its mouth, all I can see is the tail. The female convict annouyed the jaguar(managuensis) to the point where he said lunch. I have tried Salvinis, Festaes...I gave up, :lol: the convict pair have their own 30inch tank. :roll: Frenchy

Pseudotropheus lombardoi, also known as kenyi cichlids. The males end up a yellow colour, females stay blue. Colourful fish. These breed like rabbits & are pretty high up on the aggression scale. Frenchy

I use a tupperware bowl, never used for anything else. Fill bowl with fish tank water. Catch female, quickly & quietly. Place her in the bowl. With your less dexterous hand, gently but firmly grasp the fish about the body. Your thumb should be resting across the fish's forehead, and your index finger behind the operculum. Hold the fish head down in water Get a toothpic or something similar. Pen cap... Push down gently on her bottm lip, to open her mouth. Never use the tip of tooth pick. use it length ways. Gently rock the female back & forth, the babies should flow out of her mouth. Place babies into a breeder net, I use home made floating fry raiser made with an ice cream container. or if you have the room, raise them in their own tank. Make sure water is the same from the main tank. This is easy to do, daunting this first time. I took my first every mouthbrooder(electric blue) to a lfs to get them to show me. When you see it done its easy. Be better if you can get someone to your place to do it for you. Hope this helps, sorry for length on reply, I havent been on the computer. Frenchy

I like to strip the females at 14 days, that way the young are free swimming & easier to care for. Frenchy

Justin looks up with interest & says well done Craig, hope all goes well & you can start supplying the land of the long white cloud. Frenchy

u want this at zero. I'd change more of the water 1/3 at least, don't feed the fish for 2 to 3 days retest, if levels are still the same, feed the fish change 1/3 of water, don't feed fish for 2 more days. Is the tank a new setup? How much do u feed your fish? Are the fish breathing heavy at the top or the bottom of the tank? Frenchy

Over here electric blues are Sciaenochromis fryeri. These will go with electric yellows, which here are Labidochromis caeruleus. Male blues can be agro, try & buy the yellows at a bigger size. I used to keep Pseudotropheus aceii , with my yellows.(when I had malawis) these are docile for a zeb & won't cross breed. Great contrast of colours. These are blue/black bodies. Caudal fins are white or yellow depending on variant. If you want to breed something different, colour wise try a member of the Protomela genus, steveni tiger, red empress, similis.... these are good with the others mentioned. Bristlenoses go good as do clown loaches. Frenchy

Yeh should be fine. I have seen alot of community set ups with Alto's in them & they work well. Try again in a couple of months. Good luck, keep us posted. Frenchy ps; another good source of food is convict babies. I found it very hard to do the first time, no hesitations now. I have a friend who can't bring himself around to do it.

If the tank is milky, This will help if its a bacterial bloom. If the film is thick its a complex of proteins produced by anaerobic bacteria, how good is the tank maintaneance..... You need to siphon all of it out of the aquarium. What is left after that can be removed by laying paper towels on the surface and lifting them off. This stuff is very dangerous as it can seal off the surface and deprive the tank of oxygen. If it continues to accumulate, you need to upgrade your filtration. If slim is more white & stringy, ammonia builds up to quick in the tank. Bit hard to tell when you cant see what is going on. Frenchy ps; could it be the male fighter building a nest?

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As above not enough media. I use the shark 800 filter in a 30 inch tank. With just a few cichlids no problems. Frenchy

that would be it. Also these guys can take weeks to settle into a new tank. They tend to miss out on food, especially if they are small, I'd raise them in a seperate tank. :-? I feed mine frozen Brine & Mysis shrimp, live brine shrimp once or twice a week & I have colonies of guppies in their tanks so they get some live food too. They are a predator, and specializes in snatching young cichlids and invertebrates from between rock crevices and rock piles. Their laterally compressed body not only helps them in avoiding detection, but permits them to go into narrow crevices, turning their bodies at odd angles if needed. Yet they are big softies in a tank. :lol: ps;very slow growers, takes 6 months just to get them to 3cm. :roll: , the higher the quality of food, the lower your nitrate levels the quicker they will grow. These are great fish, especially when they are bigger. Frenchy

Common names :lol: Over here electric blues are Sciaenochromis fryeri. These will go with electric yellows, which here are Labidochromis caeruleus. Yellows breed better in a colony of 5 or more.(look better to) Electric blues 1m 2 f is enough but can go more females. It's a shame the females here are a dull grey colour. I used to keep Pseudotropheus aceii , with my yellows.(when I hade malawis) these are docile for a zeb & wont cross breed. Great contrast of colours. These are blue/black bodies. Caudal fins are white or yellow depending on variant. If you want to breed something different, colour wise try a member of the Protomela genus, steveni tiger, red empress, similis.... I'd reccomend a 4 foot tank more room the better for the fish & your peace of mind. Gives females somewhere to hide, gives an area for each species to call there own. Plants as said java fern works well, Anubius is tough, Attach onto driftwood so the buggers dont dig them out. I only ever fed them once a day, fish as said are always hungry. Spirulina is good for them. Frenchy

Did you keep the filters in water, with oxygen running through them?? Same for substract(gravel) Not much bacteria in the water itself. Netting the fish could of removed the slime coat on the fish. I know you used aqua plus, but do these products really do as they say?? As asked before did you test ammonia & nitrites?? Frenchy

Is the mouth white, or are there white tuffs of fluff growing on the mouth. If its the first one, gouramis are prone to getting Columnaris, usually starts of with white lips. Its a bacterial infection. This site here should be helpful, http://article.dphnet.com/catagory-02.shtml Frenchy

I could be because the word "tilapia" :evil: is in its name. If you come over here there are plenty of Burundis. There are also about 4 to 5 other variants, bit harder to find but they are here. 8) Frenchy

I am a Thrust-Ship too. I am small and tricky - where you think I am, I probably am not. I can work very fast, but I tend to go about things in a round about way, which often leaves me effectively standing still. I hate rocks. Bloody rocks. :roll: Oh, how true. :lol: Frenchy

Remove the ornaments & scrub the algae off. It is caused by an excessive nutrients in the water, do water changes, to save time read this, try siamese algae eaters frenchy

Anomalochromis thomasi work too & are placid for a cichlid, so can suit a community tank. Convicts are good, (not suited for a community tank) if they pair up, there will be a population explosion of another sort :lol: & as stated above, clown Loaches are no good for cycling a tank. great snail eaters. 8) Cone snails are bad :evil: these buggers can get into the impellers of filters. Frenchy