Caryl

It can be just as difficult with a budgie helping! :lol: He tends to eat the paper, throw the small things off the table, and chew at the string :roll:

Do you have any problems with the native fish reacting badly to medication?

I have lots of ideas but none that would be of any help to you at all! :-? I assume there is nothing in the tank that may have sucked on it?

I think it is often hard to tell as many cichlids here are hybrids.

Are you suggesting God sent them shopping Alan? :lol: I am pretty sure the extract works on green water, not just blue/green algae. I was right about the impending downpour too. We went to have lunch in town to celebrate my dad's 77th birthday (didn't think he would make this one as he has been very ill with a perforated gall bladder and not long out of hospital) and it bucketed down! It is now bright and sunny and very humid :roll:

I FOUND THEM!!!! :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: It seems they have been Christmas shopping :lol: I went down today and lo and behold, I saw a flash of orange. Dropped a bit of food in but little interest. Looked under the deck - and there they all were this time, swimming about. I can only assume a combination of the water turning green lately, plus the cool snap, caused them to go deep and stop eating. I was aware they might be there but the water was too green to see them but was worried because they didn't seem to be eating. It is also possible they have been frightened as well which has kept them out of sight. Here is the pond today. Love the black clouds in the background! I think we will get a downpour soon; Here they are, blurry cos they are under the deck, but you can see how green the water is; Has anyone used the barley straw extract? Does it work? Barley straw doesn't seem to be grown locally :roll:

Hi guys (and gals maybe)

Hi Steph and welcome

I don't see how someone could manage it without making a mess - and the plants etc all look just the same. We don't have any otters around here to my knowledge, nor have I seen any large aquatic birds. I guess it will remain a mystery :-? Never seen a water rat. The river not far from us is dry most of the year.

I don't think it could be an eel. Although we are not far from a river, it is dry at this time of year and we have never seen eels before. I will check when I go wading (shudders at the thought of stepping on an eel). Besides, could an eel manage to eat that many fish that fast?

No sign of bird poo anywhere either. They have been missing 4 days now caserole so I wuold expect bodies to be floating by now if they had died en masse. Another suggestion offered this morning was they were taken by God. He heard them playing that Do They Think It's Christmas (feed the world) song on the radio so often he decided he needed more loaves and fishes. This was tricky thinking on God's part since he obviously figured taking an atheist's fish would mean I wouldn't think to blame Him :lol: Once the weather warms up a bit I think I will go wading with a net and see if I can dredge up any further evidence :-?

I don't think they were stolen. The pond was only unattended about 2 hours max on the day I noticed they had disappeared. The pond can't be seen from the road as we live in a back section. The pond can't even be seen from the drive if someone drove up as it is on the opposite side of the house. If someone used a net I would expect the plants to be disturbed and they aren't. I would also expect one or two to miss the net - they are comets and fast! First sign of trouble and they are under the deck. It has gone quite green in the past few weeks so I could imagine if they are on the bottom they would not be seen but they would still come up for a feed. When I mowed the lawn on Wednesday they were all swimming up and down the pond following me as I mowed up one side of the pond edge! It was so funny to watch. As soon as I walk down the verandah they are there waiting to be fed - usually.

Wouldn't surprise me :roll:

Missing - over 56 (ie ALL of them) goldfish from my pond. No sign of herons, cats, no dead bodies - nothing. They were all there Wednesday afternoon when I fed them but not there the next afternoon, or any day since. As you know, we had a blue heron visit ages ago but it has not been seen for over a month. We removed the netting a couple of weeks ago but the string around the edges is still there. As I have been home, I would have seen a heron making his way through the fish. When it first arrived the fish all hid under the deck, they're not stupid, so even if a heron had visited, there would be one or two left surely? They have 2 decks about a metre each deep so plenty of hiding places. We have not sighted any herons anywhere. If someone had sprayed there would be bodies. I doubt they were stolen as the plants appear untouched. If someone had been scooping through with a net they would have tangled in the plants. Besides, they would be hard pressed to net every single fish. Any other ideas??? We now have an empty pond (although I did see one fry about 3cm long so I am sure there are more from this year's spawning)

Puberty? :lol: Do they burst, then clear, or just go away?

I use these 30L barrels. I got them from a paint shop (Resene's I think). They get paint dye from Italy in them. All I had to do was rinse them out. They cost me $10 each. This was a few years ago so I don't know if they are still available. The handles on the side are great and very strong so you can fill them to the top with no problems as the plastic is rigid. The lids are airtight so even if they fall over they don't leak 8)

I have left mine for 10 days with no problems, assuming it is a well established tank. Do not be tempted to feed them heaps before you go as this will foul the water. Do a water change a couple of days prior to leaving (this gives you time to note if there is a problem as a result) and make sure the filter is running well. Put the lights on a timer or turn them off.

Yes, what is happening to them? They are usually easy to care for and get on with most tank mates. Southerrrngirl is right about smooth substrate. They like to be in a group of 6 or more and you will find them a lot more active in a group than if you just have 2 or 3. They do like plants and hiding places. It makes them feel more secure. They will eat anything that drifts their way plus bottom feeder pellets.

One of our members had a group of albino corys in a tank that went very very green. By the time she cleaned it out, she discovered LOTS of fry in there as well. All happily living and breeding in the dark green water.

I remember talking to a well known goldfish breeder in Auckland a few years ago. I first met him as he was filling up display tanks at a conference. He was using a hose from the fire sprinkler system and the smell of chlorine was very strong. He then added his fancy (and very large) goldfishes straight to the water. When I asked him about removing the chlorine he said he never bothered since the water supply was chlorinated his fish would have to get used too it as he wasn't mucking about with time and expense getting rid of it. They were the biggest, healthiest goldfish I have ever seen!

Boys are slimmer and smaller

I remember having to line up the blocks first and swap them around as they were slightly uneven in size and it took a bit of shuffling to make sure they were even. I no longer have the tank and blocks so can't look but I am pretty sure it was chip board, not ply. The base was 1.5 - 2cm thick. The blocks are 19cm wide so the gap I had between them would have been about 22 - 25cm. That tank ran for about 4 years sitting on those blocks. I had a 3ft in the lounge, also on blocks, that was set up even longer.

Depends :lol: You may have several females, therefore it is possible at least one might be ready to spawn at any given time so you might get a continuous dropping of eggs.

Tetras and barbs generally go well together

If the flow is slow I wouldn't bother with heated water either PS Suphew; I think you need to change your sig as it is out of date :lol: