Caryl

A small pump is inexpensive. Add an airline and you can agitate the water surface.

Hmmm, now Grant has retired, I think this would be a good project for our tank. Any particular LED strips you would recommend, either to buy, or avoid, in particular?

I have never kept large fish so have no personal experience but it seems the addition of the clown has upset the balance. Are the various fish now all too scared of the others to go out to eat? Did he rearrange the decor before adding the other fish? This is often done to other species to make sure all have a level playing field when it comes to sorting territory. Is it all the fish who have stopped eating? If the nitrates were high, what he he done to lower them?

Thank you and done.

Where do I find the info to go with the template? ie. The FNZAS bank account number and the email to which we send the club capitation list?

Sounds like you are having fun. There is an excellent article on how to breed cardinal tetras in the article section at the top of the forums (click on Fish tab then scroll through Articles and Guides). They are not the easiest but give them the right conditions and you should manage it.

Didn't think of that as a possibility. There are birds around but not noticed a kingfisher in particular, mostly blackbirds, starlings, a few fantails and a bellbird (lots more birds since the neighbour with 5 cats moved out!). Most of the fish are in semi hibernation and unseen under plants or the deck overhangs, so protected from bird attacks, but they do occasionally swim out and about at this time of year. We will never know as it was given a burial under a tree in the neighbouring reserve. One less fish to catch when we empty the pond to repair it and line it with liquid rubber (thanks to EQC payout).

Never mind, too late as it is now a deceased fish :-(

That is not blood or a fine worm in the gill, it is a bit of skin plus a little colour as the fish has a few reddish/orange spots in places as part of its colouring. I just dropped a bit of flake in (not too much as it was semi-hibernating in the cold pond) and it ate it.

I have caught this fish out of my pond as it is not well. It is constanntly arched and spends most of its time motionless on the surface, looking dead - or broken as my grandson informed me. It appears to have a small ulcer, or damage plus a bit of blood at the gill base. When it swims, it does so correctly, for a very short distance then plays dead again. Not just a swim bladder problem. Any recommendations for treatment please?

Not sure there is anything you can do but keep an eye on it. There may be nothing wrong with it, maybe the dominant ram is making him stay out there and it is just a pecking order thing.

It looks like a job very well done. Congratulations to the Waikato Club members who did this, I know what a lot of work something like this is!

Welcome and I hope you enjoy your time here.

I hope you get some replies from the post Living Art has shared with the Auckland Club page. I have only been on the periphery of fish keeping for several years now as I have also moved on to other things. Still have a 4ft tropical but only because it is built into a bespoke (why are they now 'bespoke', they used to be called 'custom made'?) wall unit. The pond outside required little maintenance and is part of the landscape - and means less lawn to mow.

For the moment, drop the water level to relieve the pressure. Your stocking level is low enough to take the smaller volume of water. I was once told a tank should be re-siliconed every 10 years. My own tank is probably as old as yours and every time we have a quake I wait for the seals to give way It sounds to me like this might be a good time to pass the fish on to someone else and please your wife. She has put up with it for 20 years so now it is time to move it on. You could give the tank and all its bits to someone able to replace the brace.

Sounds good. A good selection of bottom, middle and top feeders. Remember blue rams need a mature tank (has run 6 months or longer) as well as lots of plants so make sure they are added well after the tank is established. Why only lightly planted? As said, the blue rams like plants and the Bolivians like a densely planted aquarium. Ottos like to hide under leaves and need plenty of hiding places to feel secure. I assume your gouramis will be 1M - 2F? More than 1 male will cause problems. A large shoal of rummy noses looks great! Once the tank is set up and running, if all is well I would consider adding to their numbers. The more you have, the more colourful they get and exhibit more shoaling behaviour.

Guppies are tropical. They can cope with slightly cooler temperatures than other tropical species, so semi-tropical, but should not be considered cold water species - no matter how many advertise them as such. I hope you realise you will not be able to keep paradisefishes with leopardfishes as the former will eat the latter.

It can be hard to figure out the cause of a problem like that. He could have been in a fight and been rammed, which caused internal damage. Maybe he was constipated. If he was bloated and the scales were sticking out, it was probably dropsy. Internal bacterial infections or parasites can also cause swelling. If it had been a female, she may have been egg bound. A fish with this problem is usually swollen more on one side than the other. Sorry you lost him before being able to diagnose the problem.

Not only am I young looking but I changed sex as well . That's my 3 year old grandson. Any time I come into these forums I see what posts have been made since my last visit so I can see you replied. I have bred rosy, tiger and Odessa barbs outside during summer in 6ft diameter paddling pools. Filled them with water and bunches of oxygen weed anchored down with rocks, waited until the water temperature was warm enough then threw a few fish in (each type in their own pool of course). At the end of summer I'd empty the pool and see how many fish there now were. They grew a lot larger and more colourful in the pools. I always have Odessa fry of varying sizes in my tank as the rotala is so thick there is always a handful of eggs that survive. Fish have personalities and some are peaceful and some are not. Sometimes it is a matter of trying to see who gets on with who. For example, some tiger barbs will be peaceful, others will attack anything and everything.

If you had used the old filter media as well you probably would not have had this problem. The tank is effectively re-cycling and the algae has nothing to compete with it, hence the green bloom. See if you can find some live daphnia (stock ponds are a great place to look if you know anyone with a farm or lifesyle block, or someone with a garden pond). The daphnia will clear it up overnight but you might need to temporarily remove the neons as they will eat the daphnia. Turn the lights off and cover the tank to totally block any light for 3 or 4 days. The fish won't mind but the algae need light to photosynthesise. After 3 or 4 days, siphon the gravel well doing about 50 - 75% water change to get rid of dead algae so it doesn't pollute the tank. Green water looks terrible but rest assured it is harmless to the fish.

Good looking setup. 1. I think those who have trouble with with incompatibility do so because they have too few of a specific species. If fish are busy schooling within their large group they usually have no time, or interest, in other species as they try to keep their own place in the pecking order of the group. I never had problems when I kept tiger barbs but I know many claim they are nasty. 2. My tank is also quite lowly stocked and heavily planted. A lot easier to look after and you have more time to fix things if a problem develops (power cut, filter stops etc). 3. Sorry can't help with this one. I have never used fertiliser or anything else in my tank and we don't have chlorine added. 4. You could be right but it is a hardy, fast grower so will out-compete anyway I suspect. I am inundated with C affinis and rotala at the moment. The fish are getting out their wee machetes to fight their way through the plant! Good for the Odessas though and they keep breeding happily with the eggs getting lost in the greenery.

Would love to see pics of it in action once you have it fixed Jaide. Have seen them online but not "live".

It is times like this that you find yourself wondering why you keep fish

If you just get 1 female guppy you are sure to end up with many more Add 4 fish then wait a month, then add another 4.

The tank layout does look nice but I am concerned the plants in there may not be aquatic. Of course, if they are actually synthetic then it isn't a problem :-) Minnows are fine in both cold and tropical tanks. Keep to a few small fish for an aquarium of that size. I always suggest people get more of one species rather than a few of several species. Get more minnows. Good starter fish would be guppies, platys, any of the small tetras, rasboras and a couple of ancistrus for the bottom level, or 3 small corydoras.