Caryl

Another Taurangian or is that Taurangaite? Welcome.

Hi Raven and welcome.

and now you have learned something new so the day was not wasted 8)

If you are really concerned, go to a farm supply place and buy the long gloves vets and farmers use when dealing with the rear end of cows.

No it isn't all the way to Westport. Our club did a driftwood trip to Hokitika and we are further away from Hokitika than you. It is a 4 hr trip for us. Good fun.

Not to mention the cable to provide the North Islanders with power

Both are the same thing fishy.family. I have also sent you a PM

I would have thought that cheap silverblade as I have seen horrendous prices on small, ugly bits of wood. Go for a picnic to Hokitika near the mouth of the river. You will find lovely waterlogged rata and rimu washed down from the forest. Ideal for aquariums. I use it a lot in my own tanks.

Stu is right. It is the speed at which the temperature drops or rises that is the problem. To be fair, I should say my fish flew as hand luggage, they were not couriered so weren't left sitting in a cold warehouse somewhere. You can also just fill a plastic bottle with hot water and wrap it in a towel or newspaper but if you are paying by weight a heat pack is lighter so can be cheaper if your weight is such that it takes you into the next price category. eg I was quoted $28 per 5kg to courier. My fish weighed 8kg so adding a bottle of water would not have made a price difference as I was already into the 2nd price category. If the fish had been just under 5kg a bottle of water may have added another $28 to the cost as the weight would have gone over 5kg.

Sounds like cyano, a bacterial gunge. This can be triggered by an inbalance of nutrients etc in the tank (as a result of the move) or be introduced with a plant. How many plants in there? Lots of plants will use up the nutrients and starve the cyano. Also, cover the tank in a blanket for 3 or 4 days as this may kill it off. As a last resort, erythromycin will kill it. This is a prescription only medicine so you need a friendly chemist or Dr to give you a tablet or 2. These pills are usually 400mg each. It as been suggested 400mg/100L. Someone else said 250mg/100L. I seem to remember using 4 pills in my 280L tank which was probably overkill but I didn’t know the dosage at that point and it certainly worked without harming the filters or fish. People worry about it killing the bacteria in the filters but I kept my filters running the whole time and noticed no difference. I was told the bacteria in the filters is the wrong sort and is unaffected by the erythromycin. Something to do with gram -ve and gram +ve bacteria.

Hi Shilo. Good to see you have found the chat room already :lol:

Sports shops have them. You don't need heat packs at this time of year. I just sent fish to Hamilton from Blenheim in cooler bags with no heat pads. Not a problem.

Can't tell a thing from those pics but white spot looks like the fish has been sprinkled with salt.

If you are in the country you may find high nitrate levels in the water from fertiliser run-off etc from surrounding farms. This will promote the algae growth.

You can't miss it! http://www.nationalaquarium.co.nz/

Welcome to the fishroom. Has this tank been cycled yet and if so, how? You have a newly setup tank and have introduced two ancistrus which will have nothing to graze on. Have you any driftwood in the tank? Ancistrus need wood in their diet. Keep an eye on the golden ancistrus. He should not be going 'nutso' like that and may be stressed. You say you have heaps of plants but from what I could see on the video, you don't really - although they will grow of course The ancistrus will enjoy cruising along the leaves keeping them clean. Fast growing plants like hygrophila are good in a new tank. 54L is about 60 x 30 x 30cm isn't it? If you add (slowly) the fish you say you want then you should not add anything else as you will have too many fish as it is only a small tank. Wait until the tank is well established before adding the honey gouramis as they are very sensitive fish and will prefer a mature, stable tank. The rams also prefer a mature tank (that is, one that is 6 months or older).

Cath we were shown the plans etc during conference. I assure you, that is not what it will be at all!

How long has the tank been set up then? What size is it and what fish, and how many, are in there? If the tank is only a month old it will be cycling and ammonia burns are a probability. How often are you doing water changes? These will help the ammonia levels. You can buy test kits from your lfs, or some do the tests for you for a small fee. You need to know pH, nitrite, nitrate and ammonia levels.

There is no club on the West Coast. Want to start one? 8) Nearest would be Canterbury Aquarium and Pond Society, or the newly formed Christchurch Totally Tanked (PM Loopy about this one). Another option would be the also newly started Tasman Aquarium Club, who will be affiliating to the FNZAS shortly.

They sound inflamed. Have you done water tests? Possibly ammonia burn or a gill infection.

They don't need them as they start without sucking required

I am not suggesting this is so in your case but it is possible to have a well established tank that has been set up with no problems but every time the owner adds more fish they die, although the original inhabitants are fine. This can be because the water conditions are not right, or poor, but because they got that way over a long period of time, the original inhabitants learned to cope with it. Any new additions however have major problems and get sick and/or die.

Algae from the light will be a problem, as will temperature.

Quite a few plants in plant shops can be grown in tanks. In fact, a lot of aquatic plants sold in the lfs are actually grown emersed (ie out of the water). Baby tears immediately comes to mind. You can't just buy a plant in a plant shop and totally submerge it though. It must be slowly sunk over a few weeks or months.

There are many points to take under consideration when deciding on stocking levels. I prefer to keep it on the low side so if there is a power cut, or something goes wrong, things don't go so bad so fast. The better your filtration and aeration, the more plants and the more water changes you do regularly all help you keep higher stock levels but if only one thing goes wrong (heaterstat dies, filter stops, you hurt your back and are unable to do a water change etc) then the whole thing can get very toxic very quickly.