Caryl

My daughter is also a primary school teacher, loves the job, but really looks forward to the holidays!

Anyone got a cross dressing beardie? :lol:

What about cherry barbs?

What else is in the tank - decor-wise? I want to know why your pH dropped suddenly. Apart from that, I wonder about some sort of internal infection that has come in with a fish as everything else appears OK. Reading back I see you set the tank up, with fish, the last week on November and used matured media so all should have been fine, assuming you added the same amount of stock as was in the tank from which you took the media. This last lot of fish dying are all more "delicate" so it would not take much of anything to kill them.

I just hope those who rely on this calculator also use common sense and do their research before they start :-?

Well I found the pearl gouramis, added my fish (as many as I could count anyway, I missed some) and it informs me I should be doing a 76% water change weekly split into 2, 51% and my stocking level is 202%. Having run this tank for a number of years now with no problems whatsoever, despite it only getting a water change once every 3 months or so and the filter has been cleaned twice in 2 years so far, I am not sure what to think :-? It also tells me my temperature requirements are not fully compatible. Since all my species are happy between 22 - 25C I am not sure which ones are not fully compatible. I was warned the pearls could get too aggressive when breeding. When they were building bubble nests I did not see any aggression anywhere. I have ancistrus and odessas breeding in there too so something must be OK :roll:

Any nitrate? How many goldfish are in the tank? Seems odd. Is there any decor or rocks in the tank on which the fish may be catching their tails?

I believe they were $5 here but dearer in other places.

Thought I would give this a go but it does not list any of the Jebo filters (and mine is a Jebo 819), nor does it have pearl gouramis.

I thought it looked familiar!

Go and have a look at www.artgame.com and be prepared to waste a few hours! There are T shirts, posters, jigsaws and lots of other stuff from the artist Royce McClure. They have a shop online too! :bounce: I bought a T shirt when we were in Brunei 3 years ago and realised, once I had a closer look back at the hotel, that it had been done by this man and that he was a kiwi. I thought it ironic I had bought a shirt there only to find the kiwi connection. Today, I realised my 3 frogs T shirt I bought at the Vancouver Aquarium last year is also a RoyceArt pic :roll: Have a look at the jigsaws available they look really neat!

The 2 most common causes are poor water quality or stress. If there is blood in the fins it could be bacterial.

I have just been given these bookmarks. The pic does not do them justice as they are 3D. The clowns in particular really leap out at you!

I don't think he has one. He posts in the commercial section so contact him through there, or phone.

Yuck! Anise and licorice!! All the more reason not to touch it.

Never heard of them but the non dwarf versions are quite happy at cooler temeratures than the average tropical fish who likes it 24 - 27C. Many of the barbs are perfectly happy at a lower 18 - 22C but will be fine at the higher temps.

Also - a not overstocked, well established, heavily planted tank can get away with only the occasional water change and the filter being cleaned out once a year or so too

In this day and age of overstocking aquariums and easy access to gadgets then people always go for filtration. It certainly makes for a lot less work! Since it is a small tank with very few fish (and small ones at that) I can get away without filtration and doing weekly water changes. I am doing one bucket at a time - which is approx 10L. I have measured the tank again and taking the substrate and space at the top into the equation, I actually have more like 28L in it, not the 40L as first claimed :roll:

They used to be readily available but then lost favour as people wanted more brightly coloured fish.

Who was the idiot who put the capslock there??? :roll: It should be out of the way! :evil:

Welcome. Hope all goes well this time

Has summer arrived down there yet Southerrrngirrl? The TV seems to imply your weather has been lousy so far We have been having 28 - 33C with very strong nor'west winds. Waaay too hot for my comfort! :-?

Daphnia are bigger. I too get those little dots swimming about with the daphnia and mozzie larvae. Not sure what they are called. I thought they might be copepods or amphipods but someone else gave me another name although I can't remember what it was they claimed them to be :roll: Copepods are crustaceans which are found in freshwater and marine environments. About 12,000 species have been described to date. Copepods have a variety of behaviors and preferred habitats. Amphipods are larger, and readily visible to the naked eye. They look like giant commas. Both these things are talked about a lot with marines so I guess there are more saltwater species than fresh. All sorts of insects and little critters have small larvae that are pretty indistinuguishable uless under a microsope. All are good to feed to fish although I am not sure they are necessarily a good source of nutrients.

Convert? To what? Leopardfish or non filtration Navarre? I have been a proponent of both for many years now

Sam, filters are not a necessity and I do not need to attach a sponge filter. I actually have a number of UGFs and sponge filters lying about that I could have used but figured there was no need for them at this stage.