Melanotaenia

Saw some freshwater mussels in the LFS so bought some. It was the assistants first day so she could tell me nothing so I have put them in cold water and they seem fine (opening their shells and feeding) Does anyone have any experiences/advice they could share? Does anyone know what species they are? I suspect NZ as you wouldn't import them and sell them at 3$ each...

Suphew, what do you base you information on? eg personal experience? book? research?

Ahh... thanks Caryl I have rebuilt a 80l tank in the last two days and have decided the I really need glossistigma, but think I remember it in the LFS for about 7$, I will let you know though.. I also need the E tenellus now so if you know where to get that would be great (Warren? :-? ) And I have been meaning to write an article/send you photos Caryl for a while (always something better to do re: tank with free time :oops: ) so I might even be further obligated..

Very nice Warren I can see how the neon tetras must look superb :lol: BTW what's Tenelus? And where did you get your Glossostigma from??

Hmmm the plot thickens... It would be good to see the test results but in the meantime I agree...it's unlikely Ohope water is hard....so either it was just a high pH effect (which like luke* said would still have caused the dec CO2/inc O2 effect) :-? or I have another idea... :lol: the river does go through farmland yes? and its dairy you have up there? Which is renowned for high chemical use. So maybe it was just a farm chemical toxin and the fact that females were (mainly?)effected makes me think it could have been some bovine hormone residue. It only takes minute amounts of hormone to have big effects.. especially is something like a small preg neon.. If it was though we'd never know...

I had some further thoughts that I thought were worth sharing.. :lol: Firstly it is the when the monsoon rains come that usually signals breeding season. This stirs up the rivers and mixing the sediment causing more harder alkaline water...which is why (if the tap water was hard) the pristellas spawned.. However neons should be able to *survive* up to pH 8, so maybe sex was a factor. :-? It is entirely possible that 16/20 were female. I got thinking about human females and how in the last months of pregnancy lots of things can (and do) go wrong...and they also particulary don't like heat...soooo by increasing the pH we will be increasing conc of O2 and lowering CO2, which will tend to *speed up* fish metabolism (the gills were red indicating highly oxygenated blood) and so the preg females couldn't keep up with the metabolic changes (heat) and so died an 'over-speeded' tetra!! All this hinges on the tap water being hard...otherwise I'm back to square one...

well he was very happy to find some females when I put him in the tank, kept trying to have sex for two weeks non-stop. However he is 2-3 x their size and they just freak out and run away. So I'm gonna wait till the females are bigger (anyone got any big female neon rainbows?). Also I don't really have room for more rainbows and am breeding bettas at the moment...so he will have to wait..

Hi Caryl, I would bet that the plant is Cryptocoryne pontederiifolia, or perhaps C cordata.. Is that Rotala you also have there?

Alan, what is your friend's tap water like? Hard I suspect... AFTER the water change it was pH 7.6 correct? This is not good for the neons and in fact most tetras who prefer soft acidic water. Pristella (or X-ray) tetras (Pristella maxillaris) are an exception living in the lower reaches of the amazon and orinocco rivers and therefore liking more alkaline harder water. 4/20 of the neons survived and apparently male? This I doubt - the chance that only 4/20 of the originals were male is pretty small. I don't think sex was a factor. The gills were red implying some kind of resipration problem. The water was cloudy in the first place indicating pre-existing water quality issues. My theory is that by doing a large water change with harder alkaline water increased the pH too fast which also changed the ratio of dissolved O2/CO2 thus stressing out the neons causing death. The pristellas spawned because they prefer the new harder water. To test my theory get your friend to do a KH test on his tap water. Also what was in the water-ager?? Richard

Hi Ballistic and fellow 'planties', I basically follow the 'ecological' approach. Use soil as a substrate, mainly natural light and natural aeration, hardly change any water, plants as the filter, low maintenance. Which also means it's always a 'work in progress'. Hopefully some pics below of the 'main' system.. This is looking from the top. Water is pumped from the main tank up to the breeding tank and then fountains down over the rock back to the main tank, providing CO2 aeration. Presently I've got two day old Betta fry in the breeding tank so am not circulating any water which does mean that there is less CO2 in the water and plants grow slower and more algae is formed however it is not a huge difference as organic decomposition also provides CO2. If you want to come and visit feel free...have you still got my number? send me a pm if not.. Here you can see the pants thriving including the lobelia cardinalis on the left that grows out of the tank. I'm hoping this summer it will flower. Right in the middle you can see that neon rainbow I got from you glinting in the sun. :lol: If you want to come and visit feel free...have you still got my number? send me a pm if not..

I just threw out some excess Heteranthera zosterifolia the other day. I 'm pretty sure it's 'i' as my 'Aquarium Plants Manual' wriiten by an expert german (Ines Scheurmann) lists it that way. Interestingly she also gives it a common name of 'Mud Plaintain' which I suspect is just the translation from german. I also have excess vallisneria and cabomba which are 'long and thin' so send me a pm if anybody wants any..

well 'the book' says best temp is 18-21 C. What I would do is put some in a roomy tank at around room temp (15? depends where you live) and then slowly increase temp to 22 (1 degree a day) while changing good amounts of water and feeding well and if that doesn't work I'll eat my fish

I am setting up a new tank and have moved my clutch of six neon tetras first... and hey they've spawned!! :lol: There are hundreds of eggs on the tank floor...so anybody have experience with these guys? I've read that the eggs are light sensistive... does that mean any light will destroy them or that they only develop at night?? any thoughts/links appreciated.. I thought a school of 50 will look good in the new tank 8)

aftaburn, These guys are pretty easy. Either spawn the parents and then remove the eggs into another tank or put the parents in a breeding tank and then remove them after spawning. They need a spawning mop or plants (vallis, starwort) to spawn over. They like lots of plants so will be happier and more likely to spawn in a heavily planted tank. Sunlight is the key to spawning, so set the tank up where it will get a few hours of morning sunlight and you should have no probs. If that doesn't work then maybe seperate out the adults in different tanks and then recombine them and they'll be keen on 'scoring' the new arrivals. pH 6.5 - 7.0, water pretty soft ( < 40 mg/l). 2 females to one male or 3 female/2 male would be a good ratio. They do eat their eggs which is why I prefer the egg removal technique. Fry take about a week to hatch and I feed green water and microworms. There males are an amazing to watch while spawning with the 'headlight' thing though. They are slow growers taking about 6 months to reach sellable size. Feel free to spin me any more questions... 8)

Jude, WCCM are stricly a 'semi-topical' fish. According to my two axelrod books they have a range of 9-23 degrees C but ideal is 18-21. I think they will survive at higher temps but not very well... interestingly the LFS has a big sign about them being cold water fish so I suspect they are some people who have found this out the hard way. I think they are very cool fish though and keep mine with the gold fish...