Caryl

A leaking tank is only one step below a suddenly burst one and is one of the bad aspects of this hobby. The resulting mess can also cause havoc. Sorry it means you have to give it up but perhaps in a few years you may be able to set something up again. All the best with the rehoming.

PS. Your dalmations should stay dalmations.

AquaCon's Homemade Fish Food Recipe Start with ANY greens, fruits and vegetables you can find. An example would include, but not be limited to: carrots, broccoli, yams, oranges, apples, Romaine lettuce, etc. Put all the above in a blender or food processor. Slowly add shrimp, crab legs (both with shells), and/or smelt. Do not use any fish that would contain high levels of oils, like herring or mackerel. Blend mixture as fine as possible. Add liquid vitamins or crushed tablets. You can also add Selco or Selcon. The mixture should have the consistency of mud. Add some liquid to thin it up if it appears too thick. Carrot or sweet potato juice works well for this purpose as it is high in vitamin content. You can also use clam juice or water. Next: Boil 100-150ml of water and add the same amount of unflavored gelatin. Mix the gelatin and vegetable mixture together. Pour the resulting mixture into a rectangle pan and allow to cool. You can place the mixture in the freezer but be sure to score the mixture before it is completely hardened to make it easier to separate later. After the mixture is frozen you can separate the pieces and place them in freezer bags for use as needed.

With all the specialised fish foods available today, complete with all the right vitamins and nutrients, it is easy to forget that fish love fresh food too. Many fish in the wild eat fruit and other stuff that falls into the water, and all fish appreciate a change in diet occasionally, so why not try fruit and vegetables? Your fish, especially the vegetarians, will love you for it. It is important to remember, in this age of sprays and toxins, to wash the food thoroughly before putting it in the aquarium. In some cases it also pays to peel it as well. Weigh leaves or sliced rings down with plant weights, rocks, or push onto a suction cup on the side of the tank. I thread mine onto a plastic knitting needle weighted with a sinker. Some leave the food to float. See what your fishes prefer. Remove any uneaten bits before they foul the tank. Try the following and let us know which of your fish liked it; Asparagus; Raw. Bananas; I know oscars love banana chunks. Very messy though so be careful not to overfeed. Beans (green and broad); Raw Broccoli; Raw. Drop in florets. Cabbage & Chinese greens: Raw or blanched (dropped in boiling water). Put in whole leaf. Cabbage is preferred more by bigger fish like silver dollars, Malawis and plecs as it is too fibrous for smaller fish to digest fully. Capsicums; Raw Carrot; Raw and peeled. Slice into rings Corn cob; Raw. Drop in a whole or half cob. Loved by fish but very messy. Cucumber, zucchini, courgette; Raw. Slice into 2cm wide rings. Ancistrus and catfish love it. Remove the peel when the fish have eaten the rest (from the inside out). If you cook it for a few minutes and freeze it, it will sink when you add it to the tank. Kiwifruit; Sliced. Not so popular. Lettuce; Raw or blanched. Add as whole leaf. Mushrooms; Raw Peas; A good laxative for fish. Save a few cooked peas from your meal and squeeze gently to pop the pea out of the outer shell (too tough to digest) then just drop them in the aquarium. Most fish like peas, as do apple snails. Can also be fed raw. Potato, kumara, yam; Raw and peeled, cut into chunks. Be careful not to use any green potato. Can use cooked but it tends to make a mess. Rice; Cooked. Kuhli loaches and corys love it. Drop in as a small ball. Spinach; Raw I am told gold severums don’t like oranges

It isn't secondary fungal infection over old wounds is it? Looks like a bit on the fin too? I have seen similar and when caught, the fluff could easily be removed to find a healed wound underneath.

I would assume you would only have them in bare tanks if you were breeding them. Bare tanks must be boring for the fish and are certainly boring to view.

Numbers of fish depends on the size and species. The smaller the fish the more you can have but you are still limited by the volume. Increased filtration would enable you to add more fish but if you have a power cut or filter failure you would run into problems very quickly.

Welcome. I love stargrass but my fish eat it, right down to nothing.

That is one sick fish. Are you in NZ or does WA stand for Western Australia? Medication availability will differ in Aus.

PMd

The catfish and rainbows should be fine. Rummy noses are another fish that look spectacular in large numbers (of course cost may prohibit numbers)

No. Paradise fish need a much bigger aquarium and would eat the minnows. Have a look at leopardfish, Phalloceros caudimaculatus. I love this wee fish.

Since you want a tank with smaller fish, I would like to suggest you get a lot of one type only, eg instead of serpae, lemon and harlequins, get 50 or more just serpaes or just lemons or just harlequins. These fish look, and act, totally differently when in groups of 50 or more but we don't see it because aquariums are usually too small to allow this. Cardinals, en masse, also look spectacular. They are more colourful when in larger groups, as they are always displaying for each other, and tend more to swim in schools.

You can buy LED tubes here as we were looking at them at a recent Home Show and plan to use them in our lounge to replace the old fluorescents we currently have. Check your local recyclers, they may dispose of the tubes for you. This came from Zero Waste NZ website... A good way for some of us to dispose of our old, used bulbs, is to take them to our local Hazmobile collection. (Auckland, Environment Bay of Plenty, Hutt Valley, Waimakiriri.) For those without access to a proper Council collection, you should be aware that Medichem provides a commercial service for the collection and recycling of all fluorescent light bulbs. At this stage, the service is not universal across New Zealand, and more collection agents are required. We need to encourage hardware stores and chain stores to take more responsibility here. If you want to know your closest collection point, contact Medichem, phone 0800 10 21 31. Please note that for these hazardous goods, a fee may be payable for their safe disposal - protecting our environment does not come free.

A quick and easy first test, before moving rock work, would be to turn off the bubble wall and see if that gets rid of the particles.

Look in the shop tanks very carefully. My neighbour bought a plant from a tank infected with black beard algae and it quickly took over her tank as well. I can offer you Java moss, red rotala and Crypt affinis if you would like some. Cost of postage only (usually $6.50 or $9.00 if tracked depending on what size box I can find to fit the prepay bag.) Cam's suggestion of water sprite is a good one.

Hi and welcome. At least the red jewels are providing their own food

Not sure if there are many farm supply stores in Auckland but they would have something like stock troughs. Probably too expensive for what you want though. http://www.indac.co.nz/waterstorage.htm#

Scotty is still there??? He let us handle the blue tongue lizard a few years ago

Do they require a specific sort of lighting? Otherwise, there's lots of clip-on type lights available at various outlets.

Have you got the female on her own or in a community tank? She, and all the other fish big enough, will eat the fry as fast as they are born. A good clump of fine leaved plant, like Java moss gives the fry a chance of survival.

Depends on the genetics, age, condition and size of the female. They can spawn every 6 weeks, roughly, and have anything from 1 or 2 upwards.

Sorry, no. I never use fertilisers myself. When my son did it I think he used Baby Bio as a liquid one and I can't remember the other. I might get up to the roof space later and check as I think the original project might be stored up there (the child will be 34 next Saturday)

My son did the following (although he was primary level). Judges like ideas that take some time to produce results so one year we set up 3 identical tanks (had a 3ft divided into 3 so handy). We put 3 identically sized plants in each, 1 baby tears, 1 sprite and 1 Java fern. The centre tank was the control with nothing added. Left side used aquatic fertiliser tablets and the other side used liquid fertiliser. The question was "Which Fertiliser Works Best?" No fish but it does use aquariums. He measured the plants once a week over a 3 month period then produced a graph of the results.

I think Shilo might be closest to the answer with cyano. Why it has taken off in two tanks i don't know but when I had the green version I scooped out then siphoned up as much as possible then blacked out the tank for several days. I was also able, as a last resort, to use erythromycin which is, unfortunately, no longer available. Unless you find the cause though it will probably keep coming back. I have never seen it look like those pics though! Do you belong to the Hawkes Bay Aquarium Society? They may have someone able to help you as they will have some experienced members (and helpful contacts at the Napier Aquarium).