Caryl

I don't think that is a bad bit :lol:

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Hi and welcome. Sorry your first foray into fish keeping is not going well. Let's look at the problems one at a time... Prob # 1 - after about 2 weeks of moving them into their new home, they started to go to the top of the tank i though it was because they were hungry then checked at the petshop and they said they might need some air so told me to buy oxygen plant which i did and put it in their tank. A bowl is totally unsuitable for goldfish (they have been banned in some countries) and they need something much bigger. Personally I like to see all but the fancy long finned varieties in ponds, not tanks or bowls. If oxygen lack was the problem (and it probably was) an oxygen lpant would have done little to alleviate it. An airstone would have been better. Prob # 2 - after doing a full water change and putting the new filter and airstone in the water became blacklike and murky so i assumed i did it wrong and after 3 days did another full water change, then again after 3 days noticed the water changed to the same colour and decided to pull the filter out. I believe this to be the problem and decided to just do a 10% change everyday to keep them happy As suggested, did it have carbon in it somewhere? Sounds like loose carbon dust has fouled the water. What sort of filter is it? If it was one you put under the fravel, did you clean the gravel? If not, you will have stirred up all the muck trapped in the gravel since you had not been cleaning it before this by the sounds of it. Prob # 3 - before the last water chage i notice my fish were really fat, alot fatter in the tummy than when i got them so jumped on the net and realised i may be over feeding them so have now cut down the amount of food i give them especially cause they live in a bowl! Some species of goldfish are supposed to be fat. Feeding once a day, a small pinch, is plenty. More important is to make suer there is no leftover uneaten food which will foul the water. Prob # 4 - after noticing the large bellies - i notice one of my fish has two white spots on both sides of its tummy and am now worried it is sick. Do you mean it has 2 white spots at the front of its belly, behind the gills? If so, this means you have a male who is ready to spawn if given the chance. If further down the belly it is most likely whitespot, caused by stress. I have done alot of reading and want to get more fish so am investing in a larger tank - hopefully this will make my current two fish happier. After that i want to add another 7 goldfish to make 9 my total collection. Please do not put 9 goldfish in a bowl or tank. As said, they shuold be in a opnd. Have you considered a different species of fish to try?

It would be good to get a Whangarei club going though

Could be a number of things. Look at him from above. Do his scales stick out like a pinecone? If so, it is dropsy and no cure. Is it possible he was attacked by a larger fish and has internal damage (resulting in the swelling)? Constipation. Feed a shelled cooked pea.

Oops, I misread the post. I thought that is what he had done (used some cycled media from an established filter) :oops:

It all depends on the size of the tank and how many fish you are adding. If you have added noodles from an already cycled filter then the bacteria are already seeded and the fish cuold be added immediately. All depends on the fish load the used filter had on it and the new fish load you will be adding to the new tank.

A big key like they have on sardine tins ought to do it

Work has been odd here as the long time receptionist left. Her replacement gave up suddenly after a few days and I was left on my own handling everything! I then had to train the new one. Today when I arrived at work he persented me with a lovely bouquet of flowers and a substantial cheque (over and above the usual wages) to say thanks for all the extra work I had been doing. :bounce: It is nice to be appreciated 8)

We sell them too and only disagree with one - Acer. We have only had trouble with 1 in 10 years. In fact we have one company that specifies them because they have had no trouble with all the ones they have had over the years. We have had 3 ourselves with no problems. Presently have a Toshiba because it had a serial port which was essential for Grant's work and they were the only one that had it at the time. Good and reliable. Have sold a few ASUS without any problems too. \Big problem with Dell and HP/Compaq is that they tend to have all sorts of other rubbish software they think is essential, commonly known as crapware and a good reason to stay away from them, apart from their reliability problem. Always cringe when someone rings up with one needing repairs (and we get a lot of them).

Diffusing the bbbles would do it too. Try covering the end with various bits and pieces to quiten it without reducing the flow too much eg, foam, filter wool, netting.

Reduce the airflow

We wouldn't recommend them either :-?

Belated birthday greetings slevin12.

Been there done that! :lol: You celebrating with the grandkids? Always more fun with little ones. We had a lovely Christmas lunch outside in the sun then went for a walk. A bit hot now. Time for an afternoon nap 8)

Should be good money though plus time off in lieu. I am on holiday (well deserved) and have just returned from a very pleasant hours walk, to walk off some of lunch.

Hi and welcome. I hope you have a very large tank with all those fish in it!

NIMH are normal high capacity batteries, rechargeable, in the same sizes as standard batteries such as AA size. You can buy them from any battery retailer - Dick Smith, Jaycar, Warehouse, camera shops etc.

It will be fine as a single, whether it is a dwarf or full sized gourami

Yeah, what Ira said :lol:

As others said it depends on the budget. We have sold many Acers over the years and found them to be reliable. Not the highest performance but good value for money. Have a Toshiba for my own use and have sold a number of Toshibas as well. No problems with them. The Sony Vaio are very good and also look good! I don't consider them particularly good value for money but then they perform well and are very well built. If looks and top build quality are important then seriously consider the Sony range. Many makes are still available with XP Pro. Certainly Acer and Toshiba have a number of laptops available with XP Pro. I would rather buy XP than Vista for my own use. If you do get one with Vista then you will need and absolute minimum of 1Gb RAM. Many low end machines only have 512Mb fitted when you should really specify 2Gb for Vista to perform. Low end ones usually have an 80Gb HDD so bear that in mind as well. For best performance get one with separate video RAM, not shared with the main RAM. Not too important for basic office type use but a must for graphics, video etc. Check out the number of USB ports and what other ports are available. Very few have a serial port now. Probably not important for you but it is for my use which is why I bought the Toshiba as it was one of the few that still had one. Also check the DVD is not a CD writer with DVD playback only. Ensure it's capable of writing double layer DVDs. Some aren't.

Not this time wilson. Don't need any fish or anything at the moment. I have been asleep on the sofa while the kids gardened and Grant has been putting in an extra phone jack and fixing a light cable that got cut through when a tree was removed. Am enjoying doing nothing. 8) Was surprised the city wasn't as crowded as I expected and we had no trouble finding a park either.

All the cameras mentioned are good. The things you MUST have are; optical viewfinder. Not all have one Use AA batteries, not a propriatory lithium ion one Zoom at the wide angle zoom of its range needs to go to the equivalent 28mm. Most don't go that wide, it's a very useful setting for taking pics inside small room. When you buy extra memory cards, don't buy the cheapest as they are too slow. Spend a little more on a good quality fast card as it will reduce the frustration of waiting between shots. Don't be swayed by the software that comes with the camera as most of it is rubbish. We sell cameras and like the Canon for quality and range but the others are good. Panasonic have a good range at good prices at the moment (but we don't sell them). Grant had a Fuji (until I drowned it) and replaced it with a Canon. I have a Sony. Fuji are probably best for low light performance (eg photographing fish). If poosible check it our first. Some cameras have difficulty focussing in low light conditions or you can't find what you are aiming at in the viewfinder.

I'm on holiday too. Just passed your house Loopy to drop some plants off to cichlid7. Had a good look at his new fishroom (almost finished), patted the dog and admired the parrots. Dropped some E-mycin off at what we hope is Slightly Blue Dalmation's house. Had a look around the shops now back at my son's place trying to type on the laptop :roll: Looking forward to doing little. Back to work on Thursday.

A Siamese fighter would look nice in the smaller tank. I would also suggest killifish if you can find some.