Caryl

In my opinion, you don't need either.

Famous last words Chris :lol: Welcome to the fishroom. We will be down your way Labour weekend as we are attending a rally in Rolleston 8)

It is times like this you wonder why you keep fish

Quite possible if it is affecting the bottom dwellers. I wonder if the wafers weren't eaten, rotted, and have polluted the substrate.

Spirulina wafers should be OK but perhaps this packet was contaminated or something. I know I bought some bottom feeder wafers once, not the usual ones I buy, and found the fish barely touched them and they very quickly fouled the tank. Will never use them again! Mind you, I believe they went off the market soon after :-?

If this is sudden, and occurred soon after using the wafers, I would stop using them and see if the fish come right.

Welcome to the fishroom Steve

The big fat shaped goldfishes can be hard to sex. Look down on the fish from above. Males are more streamlined and their tails are straight. Females are more rounded and their tail looks like it is slightly to the left or right side a bit. When due to spawn, males get small white dots on their gills. Females get even fatter.

Hi Willy (and Jo) from Mary's sister

Go for it PeneJane! The shrimps are the best.

Fishkeeping is a lot easier with a Net

I just had a fluoro on my tank so we could see the inhabitants at night. Be careful removing the anemones as they are easily damaged. Try to find some on a rock you can add to the tank rather than try to remove anemones stuck on a large solid immovable piece

Penejane there is a big difference between the requirements for a TROPICAL marine and keeping a small coldwater rockpool marine. I would never attempt a proper tropical marine but a coldwater rockpool is easy, as long as you can keep the temperature down. Rockpool set-ups do not require the skimmers, powerheads, expensive lighting etc that the tropicals do. Wasp: a few deaths are important. If you are going to take live animals from their natural habitat you should provide them with the best conditions possible.

I have never used CO2 but would have thought it would increase algae growth since it is just a lower plant form. Have no experience though

We had a cold water marine and it was fascinating. All we did was got a 3ft tank then took containers down the Kaikoura coast and gathered up some rocks, sand and critters, took it all home and arranged it in the tank. We used an AquaClear filter. That's all. No fancy equipment or anything. Hardly ever fed the inhabitants but they all seemed to grow and some reproduced. Every few weeks we would top it up with fresh sea water and add sea lettuce. Lots of edible greeblies came in the top-up water and lettuce. Our tank had anemones, shrimps, chitons, rockfish, triplefins, sea cucumbers, hermit crabs, various sorts of starfishes and, at one point, an octopus - to name but a few. We tried a paua but the water was too warm. The biggest problem we had (and the only one) was keeping it cool. It really needs to be below 15C, preferably 10C, ours did anyway as the water they came from was that cold. We found constant temperatures above 15C not good and the critters would start to die off. Since the room sits at about 28C during summer, we could not keep it cool enough. We have since bought a chiller so might try again, once I have a tank free.

Your biggest problem is having to chose what you can get and I suspect your choice will be limited. Most lfs seem to sell them just as "African cichlids" and don't know what they are - and many are actually hybrids. Try to find a breeder.

My water always went yucky and slimy when I added banan skin. I don't seem to have trouble with daphnia. Indeed, all I have to do is fill a container outside (not with green water either) and daphnia just appear in it, without me adding a culture! I don't feed them either. Occasionally I feel sorry for them and add some green water from the goldfish pond.

Hi and welcome. At least you live in a good area for pet shops! Some of us meet regularly in the chat room around 9pm-ish if you are interested you are welcome to join us

Well Google "columnaris" (Flexibacter columnaris) and you will find plenty of information. Never heard it call saddleback disease though

Fish will eat all critters small and wriggly Culturing Paramecium: Paramecium is a ciliated, slipper-shaped, single cell protozoan. Easy to culture and feed to small fry. It has 2 advantages over infusoria. 1. Infusoria reproduces rapidly and if not eaten by fry will pollute the tank. Paramecium use very little oxygen and if cultured in a sealed jar, a pure culture can be maintained as other infusorians die due to lack of oxygen. 2. Paramecium can be seen with the naked eye but are still small enough to be eaten by the smallest fry. Prepare a jar or wine flagon by filling with tap water and letting it stand overnight. Add paramecium culture. They feed on any rotting vegetable. One of the best methods of feeding a culture is on a sliced turnip (approx 40mm x 20mm x 30mm) dried in the oven. 2 or 3 pieces will keep a culture going for 3 - 6 weeks, when the culture should be restarted. The frying of the turnip prevents a scum forming on the surface. Place cap on container and stand in light, but not direct sunlight. If a starter culture is not available, a banana skin is placed in an open container for a few days until the water turns cloudy. Remove banana skin, add some dried turnip and seal container. Spoer will have settled in the water from air and in a few days will clear and the paramecium will appear. Feed to fry by siphoning from culture, replacing the water removed with fresh water.

Hi and welcome Shane.

Hi Seth. Welcome and thanks for introducing yourself.

Never heard of it myself. What are the symptoms?

I seem to remember someone saying they had used the ones from the $2 shop and they worked well. Can't remember who it was though

Whereas I rarely do water changes at all! Generally speaking, it is usually recommended you do 10% weekly or 20% fortnightly, but as said, it depends on your fish and stocking levels.