Caryl

Leopardfish are a cold water fish I like. Also, rosy barbs, golden barbs, torpedo barbs, guppies, platys, zebra and leopard danios all will tolerate cooler temperatures of 18 - 25C. This does NOT make them a cold water fish as some lfs seem to claim! The giant danios need tropical temps of at least 24C.

Another thing that changes the 'inches per fish' formula is how much filtration you have and how regularly you do maintenance. With good filtration and a regular weekly, or fortnightly, water change you can have quite a few more fish (always adding numbers slowly of course). The electric yellows would love your neons and probably the glowlights as well! They are an African cichlid and their needs are totally different to those of your other fish. If you want them, set up another tank. The tiger barbs may be OK if you get 6 or more as they wil be busy keeping themselves in line so hassle other fish less. Kuhli loaches are cool but remember they are nocturnal and you may not see them too often. As for an alternative feature fish, have you thought about gouramis? Or perhaps a trio of congo tetras?

I have Eheim, Fluval, AquaClear, Shark and Jebo. I gather the Jebao is a different one again but I have not seen one. My Eheim is a wet/dry and I would never touch another again - even with a 10 ft barge pole. I have a Fluval 403 and 404. OK but awkward to cleanout and flow rates drop dramatically very quickly. AquaClear is over 10 years and still using original parts (inc sponge). Love them but design means a gap in the lid which is a problem. Sharks are internal and work well. Easy to clean. The 2 Jebos have been running less than a year so I don't know about longevity but I love their performance so far. Very quiet.

Symptoms of internal bugs (should have used the word bacteria rather than parasite I think) are a hollowing of the belly, red blood streaks under the surface, gills pale and eroded, loss of appetite, listlessness and a darkening of colour. Most common parasite is white spot of course. The fish will have rapid gill movement, flick and rub against objects, then break out in tiny white spots (so they look like they have been sprinkled with salt). External parasite symptoms include the flicking and rubbing, rapid gill movement and red, irritated areas of skin. I do not know a lot about fish diseases as, touch wood, I have not had any on my tanks for years. I have been looking at web sites for info

I didn't mean internal I meant external parasites! :roll: Fish can carry small numbers of skin and gill parasites which don't cause a problem until the fish is stressed. See if you can find a med for external parasites.

Here are some pics of the 4 fish heading down to Marty on Friday (just to prove they are still alive ). A bit pale in their bare tank with pale wallpaper and stuff but...

Did you buy and breed the crickets or catch them from outside?

If the ornaments were designed for aquarium use they should be fine. I don't know about the gel from the freezer packs but would wonder if internal parasites weren't causing the scratching.

Both gills or just one side? If one side I would suspect damage from son chasing them again or fish scraping itself on a sharp rock or ornament etc. Goldfish are bot particularly fussy about pH

I suggest you join the Waikato Aquarium Soc. That will affiliate you to the FNZAS.

You are getting off topic again guys. The original question asked about people's "favourite large live food that they feed their africans". If you wish to discuss nature and cruelty etc, please start a separate thread.

There are 2 clubs in Wgtn. Kapi-Mana and Wgtn Aquarium & Watergarden Soc. Kapi-Mana is affiliated to the FNZAS (this is their site) and meet on the last Wed of the month, 7.45pm at 20 Mexted Tce. All welcome. Several of their members are in here as well so any more questions just ask billaney, Janey, mystic, Chris, newtman, Anthony, modern angl, livebearerbreeder, Ira, Interfecus, ballistic, Jude or Kevin, to name a few

The thing about the tests is, if the tank develops a problem, the first thing you will be asked is for your pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings as these can tell us a lot about what is happening with the tank.

Yes it's nice to see they get the heart tick :lol: Nice fish!

If you have a friendly GP or chemist you may also be able to get some from them. Metronidazole also comes under the names (in human meds) Flagyl, Trichozole and Rozex (though this last is a cream, not a med). Metronidazole is not subsidised, Flagyl is partially subsidised and Trichozole is fully subsidised so obtaining a bit of human stuff may be cheaper than getting it from a vet - assuming you can get some of course. I'm sorry but I do not know what dose you use either.

Just returned from ChCh today. All the shops there have vallis for sale.

It isn't really good to keep them on for too long as the fish need to rest and the plants need the cycle to photosynthesise properly

The pet shop may have meant 'don't bother' if indeed they offer to do the tests for you. Some shops do this for free.

Hi seahorses, pleased to hear you got in here. Perhaps we will see you in the chatroom sometime too. There is usually someone there from around 9pm or so.

When I tried to keep daphina to begin with, I was told to use banana skins but found they rotted too quickly and formed a film on the water surface

Have you had a look in the local waterways?

Try whiteware shops as it is used as packing around fridges and freezers. No worries using several bits as long as they are the same thickness. The bigger the tank the thicker the poly. I have 2cm thick under small tanks and the 4ft, 285L, has 2.5cm thick (and in 3 bits too ) We have the Expol (you know "the penguins with the warmest feet in the world") factory just down the road so no trouble getting the stuff.

I don't know where you can get them in Auckland but I have several old baths, fibreglass ponds and mussel floats in the yard which I just fill up with water and leave. They fill on their own with daphnia, mosquito larvae and other little critters. I have green water in a bath of goldfish so dump a bit of that in occasionally otherwise I don't feed them or anything. They slowly multiply and since I have few fish, and lots of containers, I have sufficient for my needs. They can be fed on grass clippings, dried sheep poo, dried blood or dried yeast. I have found they do not travel well and start to die after a couple of hours in a lidded container - I would put them in a 1kg peanut butter jar 1/3 filled with water. If I removed the lid every so often they were OK but keeping the lid on, despite the air gap, killed them pretty quickly.

Sorry to hear that Melanie. I wonder if he was bullied by the bigger one? They are happier in groups so if your tank has room, get 2 or 3 more or the same thing will happen again.

There you go then - acidic snail poo!