LoveArowanas

Personal bias? That doesnt really make sense.... and theres nearly always "a reason" Im not sure about your other examples, but Cat people get called weird because they can get obsessive in their utter devotion to their pets. To the point many use them a crux or excuse for not cultivating a "normal" family (ie a spouse and kids) Thus "the crazy cat lady" And Im not being judgmental here in any way, I love cats and own two. Im not sure what it is you have against Sterotypes, but they are generally not "rubbish" Also.....is appears some of you are admitting you are nerds. And when I think about it, all the dudes at my LFS are pretty nerdy. So perhaps is true that nerdy people are attracted to fishkeeping :gigl:

To clarify...I dont think there anything wrong with being nerd. Its not ideal when you are 15 or 16 but as an adult its definetly +EV. Anyway it seems Im not alone so there is this perception of nerdiness associated with fishkeeping. I want to know WHY. Its just seems weird to me with no logical association between the two things. How is creating a piece aesthetically pleasing nature in your very own living space anything other than 100% awesome? PS dogs are NOT particulary "cool". They slobber and crap everywhere...and ANY dog is better than a fish? Wot? Considering some the mangy yappy annoying mutts about the place vs the pure beauty of some fish Id ignore that guy completely, he sounds deranged

Heres where Im coming from...even since Ive started keeping fish, Ive detected that its a scource of quiet amusement from some of my friends and family. By that I mean...they will sometimes make wry comments or sly innuendos about how geeky fishkeeping is in general conversation. For example....someone will ring me on the cell and ask what Im doing and I say "just laxing at home" and the reply will be "Playing with your fishes huh?" ...and it will kind of irk me because I am indeed sitting in front of my tank oogling the politics and soforth Well when I say "irk me"...I dont really mean it. Im far too old and secure in myself to really care if people find my fishkeepers nerdy or weird or whatever, but I do find it curious that they would see it that way. I mean....What is nerdy about fish?....exactly? I only know one other fishkeeper IRL, and he is indeed...a giant nerd. Glasses/ bookwormy/ teetoller etc. So I was wondering two things...is it just MY associates that seem to consider keeping fish nerdy and worthy of this mild ridicule? Or is this something that some of you have noticed from your friends as well? OR.... infact, PERHAPS fishkeeping IS really nerdy? So are all you lot a bunch or nerds or what? :thup:

Josh. Madagascar rainbows 2, Kribensis 2, Kuhlie Loaches 8, assorted Tetras some emarld eyed Rasboros and a rainbow Shark they have been on a diet of flakes (and the odd unfortunate insect for the Madagscars) for months ...but i finally just got around to restocking bloodworms recently Had a mop up, scrub down and clean out anyway and its all looking great again. yay for being able to make frequent water changes meaning I dont have to hurt my brain working out what the hell Jennifer is going on about in that link posted (I think thats why i manage to run ok while being basically clueless anyway)

Thnaks...and also to Carol for her succinct diagnosis :slfg: I wasnt aware paper towels were acceptable to use to tanks so that sorted it nicely. As for the likely villian..... Im going with this new ummm fuzzy looking plant that I introduced a few weeks before, I had also left a rooted-out one floating around for a few days because I was too frit of the cold to get a wet arm replanting it. Shame it those plants are villianous cos they so pretty and fuzzy :love:

hey all 1st time Ive had this, the usual green build up on the sides of my tank doesnt seem to be anymore than usual. But there is this green build up on the surface. Kindas reminds me of pond scum. I say "oily" because it acts like oil, ie It seems to seperate itself from the water.. esp when I stick a finger it there What have I got here? Description too vague?

hey all. ...Ive been doing some experimenting in this regard, just wondering if there are some rules I should be aware of? I have a couple of Madagascar rainbows, some Kuhli Loaches, a few tetras, emerald eyes rasboros, 2 Kribensis The Madagascars go absolutely ballistic for chicken ...and also love daddy long legs, in fact will have a go at anything live I put in there. So yeah....Im squeezing/washing out out as much oil as I can from any human food scraps I put in there. Is there anything I need to know about inappropriate bugs to offer them? Any human food that is a no-no? Im a religious tank cleaner/water changer FWIW. Once a week

Pretty much...Just some kulhis and glowlight tetras

Just bought 5 on the weekend, now I only have 3. wot Chief suspects are the near fully grown Madagascar Rainbows I suppose, but could my adult Dwarf Gournami, or adolescent Rainbow shark, or adult and aggro Purple Bellied Kribensis actually be the guilty party? I cant find any harassed little corpses anywhere, they are just GONE? :tears:

^^^ A much better description of what I was talking about. It is quite amusing When I had baby Texas Chiclids in my tank, my Gouramis used to rip up all the grass I had planted at the bottom, and place it all togther in the far corner of the tank, all matted togther, at the surface. I would catch the little buggers at it all the time. :facepalm: Now I have got rid of the chiclids before they got too big, no more attacking the grass. I guess it was some sort of measure to make them feel safer? Cant see how though Thinking the tetras through a little more ....it doesnt really make sense from a specied survival POV for the fish to harrass pregnant females. I guess desire to mate is more logical

1) I have 5 glowlight tetras, for some reason 4 of the 5 suddenly start chasing the 5th (biggest one) around the tank constantly. Any clues as to why this is? Im guessing its pregnant? 2) I have 2 Dwarf Gournamis. occassionally they poster where they take turns at attacking the others tail. Are they fighting ....or mating? 3) I have two purple bellied Kribensis. One albino. The non albino is pretty aggro and seems to control the tank. he wouldnt have anything to do with the Albino and would just chase it around. However when i put one of those sunken WW 2 planes in the tank. They seem to cohabitate in there quite nicely and I hardly ever see the purple one chasing the albino anymore. Whats happening here. Kribensis's need a house to get along? :love:

UPDATE They never got particulary aggro that i could see but at about 40mm I did introduce a largish 60mm rainbow shark which i noticed started looking a bit harrassed/unhealthy quite quickly. Then a few days later I found him dead with his eyes gone and big hole in his stomach. If it was the Texas's...weird how they targeted him when there were much smaller fish to go for? Anyways...decided to ship them out and sold them on TE to a nice lady who said she was a FNZAS member..sorry didnt catch your log in though. Hope my boys do well with you!

heh kind of expected these reponses, I actually got them ~ 6 weeks ago ago and all is well for now. They are feeding aggressively but dont chase anyone and if anything tend to get chased quite a bit by the purple bellied Kribensis and Rainbow Shark I definetly feel lucky...but Im aware the odds are not stacked in my favour so Im not about to gamble with my fishes lives. Is an acceptable strategy to watch closely and take them out as soon as I detect any signs of aggression? Or shall I just start hunting them a good new home straight away? The biggest one is about 30mm and Id love to keep them for a wee while yet

Hey all...Had this one put to me by the LFS "Getting them as babies means they will be ok to put in a community tank because they will learn to act less aggressively and more like community fish, by virtue of not being top dog in the tank in their formative years" They were so damn cute that I fell for it despite some misgivings, and introduced 4 off them to a 180L tank which has; 3 clown loaches, 2 Dwarf Gournamis, one rainbow shark, 5/6 kuhli loaches, 2 Kribensis and 4 head n tail lights. All of whom are considerably bigger ...or at least slightly bigger.... than the Texas Cichlids. Told myself I would offload them if this turned out to be a bad idea, whaddaya reckon

Lost the female Madagascar today *grumble* . I thought I had lost a Clown Loach as well but it turned out to be just mimicking the Madagascar, Clowns are weird :-?

I feed once a day and as much as they can eat in about 2-3 mins. Added pretty slowly

Ok. Thanks a lot. Seems I have been underestimating the effect of non-direct sunlight. I will try leaving the drop cloth on until 5 or so when its getting dark. That wont really make sense for summer time though, so I guesss I may have to move the tank. drat Found my big Madagasgar and one tetra dead yesterday, and the female Madagasgar is off her food worried about her

You could be right about that. The position of my tank is pretty stupid sounding tbh. Its in my sunroom : -P However...I have a large black dropcloth that I put on before I go to bed and I dont remove it until about 3pm when the sun is over the roof and there is no direct sunlight hitting the tank pretty much ever. Does non-direct natural light also tend to have a negative effect? I really dont wanna move it cos my sunroom doubles as my office and I love having my fish near when I work (I often work nights)

I just tested the nitrate again, it does show a slightly heavier yellow than on the test sheet. So its prob like 2ppm or something Wont bother trying to adjust the PH with chemicals then. I'll scale back my water changes to 30% twice a week and 50% in the fortnightly/3 week clean outs, when I remove my big schist and scrub them. If thats whats Im supposed to be doing. :-? Water changes perplex me a little. I read someplace "you cant do too many water changes" and I work from home so almost daily small water changes wouldnt be a problem for me Im tempted to do bigger water changes cos of the current mistyness of my tank but will hold back. It actually looks ok with the lights on its just daytime that it irks me. Am I to assume occasional misty tanks are just a part of owning them? I seem to get one for a few weeks every 3 months or so. I solved the last one by removing 50% daily until it was gone. Along with a couple of fish :oops: Regarding my attrition rate, given that I have 50 odd fish...... is finding one little fuzzy disaster about once a week about right? All my bigger fish seems fine its just the little guys that cop it. I suspect beat downs... despite my lecturering them on the meaning of the word "community" Other than that I think the tank is doing fine and the colours in my fish are better than those at the LFS. IMHO

Thought I posted this in beginners forum oops :oops:

Hi all Newb doing their 1st ever water test, I have a 180L JUWEL with about 45-50 inhabitants mainly tetras and rasboros, and a few of Blue Rams/Kribensis/Clown Loaches/Kuhli Loaches/Madagascars, I work from home so do many water changes normally 30% and about 3 a week. Tank is about 6 month old Just did my 1st water test myself, have previously been getting then done at the LFS. Results were ammonia, nitrate and Nitrite 0ppm hardness 107 (from tap) PH 6.4 Tank has been a little cloudy lately and now has a slightly green tinge although there is no build up of algea on the glass. I have lost a couple of fish in the last week. A green eyed Rasboro and a HeadnTail light I know that PH reading is on the low side, whats the best way to fix? Buy some "PH up"? Waterchanges? Other suggestions? cheers muchly

Update: I have about 30 plants (in a 180L) plus a shist structure and my large peice of driftwood. (takes up about 1/4 of the tank) Most of the time there are no clowns to be seen but occasionally i can see 2 hiding under the shist. However if I take the top off the tank and peer down I can see 3-4 of them jammed into holes in the driftwood.The others are no doubt there too just out of sight. Now Im wondering if I should take the drftwood out to remove that option for them. Its starting to worry me that they are not getting fed as they do not come out when its feeding time :-?

ha no need to apologize, it was amusing. And I gaurentee there is a bunch of popcorn munchers out there who are pretty dissapointed the fight has subsided. They are all more or less the same size, 40mm-50mm. The subscrate in my tank is all med-very large river stones 10mm-90mm and I have a large very holey peice of driftwood and one shist cave and several plants so perhaps I am just being impatient. I'll wait another week or so and if they are still being little pussies I'll look at the PVC thing and get more plants. I really think with 8 of them they should dominate the tank, there is a lot of other fish in there but they are mostly placid apart from the larger (male?) Madagasar who sometimes terrorises the rasboros and its mate. But even then its like a sample effort at being boss that he thinks he has to make an effort to do at least occasionally on account of the fact he is easily the biggest. Seems to me the Madagasgars are more interested in whats going on outside the tank than in :-?

lol. I had trouble finding my thread for a minute. Epic fish_nerd squabble :lol: I took everyones advice and got 4 more today so i have 8 in total. Currently there are 4 or 5 cowering under the filter togther, hopefully they are discussing how they are going to get out there and own the tank like they should. I dont pay them to just lunch and hide

Thanks for that, how long do you think it would take them to grow to a size which would make my 180L too small? This makes me even more set on not wanting too add many more clowns tho David, My subscrate if made up of big and very big pebbles and I have a large holey peice of driftwood as well as plants so I dont think lack of hiding places would be it. Others have also told me they kept 2-4 very active Clowns so I wouldnt mind knowing what im doing wrong.