Caryl

The bleach method works well but note he suggested dipping new plants in it - not putting bleach into the tank. He says to dip the plant in the bleach solution, rinse it well then wash it in water using chlorine remover. If you do this there won't be any bleach in your tank. As an aside, I believe it also gets rid of any snails eggs on the plants.

We are helping! We have already told you to get a bigger tank and make it tropical. :lol:

Congratulations steve. Nothing like lots of baby bristlenoses scotting about the tank. They are very self sufficient.

Since your other fish are cold water and going outside, heat up the big tank and go tropical. Catfish are tropical. You can't just lower the temperature slowly and think they will survive.

I am afraid the nearest clubs to you are in Auckland. Thought of starting one up yourself? I would be happy to help If you are too far away to attend club meetings perhaps you would like to join Marlborough. We have a great many far flung members from Whangarei to Timaru (plus one in Texas, USA).

There seems to be 2 schools of thought. One says they go together and the other says no way! Something to do with a particular disease angels can pass on to discus I think?

I think you mean the 2nd pic B?

You are right, those white spots on the gill covers do indicate a male wanting to spawn. They will be thinking about it too from now on, although it is a little cool yet for them down my way. Poor girl probably is stressed so it might pay to keep her separated from them until she recovers. You might have a problem if you have more males than females though as in a tank they have nowhere to escape and hide for a while.

How many holes did you have made in the bottom for the various inlets and outlets?

Are you sure of the sexes? When I had goldfish I found that whenever I tried to add a fish to the original number, the rest would hound it, not let it eat and generally treat it badly until it died or, once I figured out what they had done, removed it.

Hi bamweevil. Good to see you. We have quite a few from Christchurch in here. I would not add more goldfish to that tank. In fact, as they grow you will be overstocked. Goldfish need a lot of space and good filtration as they are a chunky fish that produce a lot of waste! Regular partial water changes are a must. Quite a few of us gather in the chat room each night around 9pm give or take half an hour. SOmetimes we even talk about fish! :lol:

I was given some riccia at our meeting too but I don't live in Auckland

The disease has to go through a cycle. Make sure you also do daily water changes and vacuum the substrate well.

I knew there was a reason that new little blue smiley was added :lol:

It also specifies freshwater aquariums so would not suit marines one assumes. Looks like a neat little unit for small quantities of water though.

Do you know I had to read it 3 times before I saw it?? :lol: :oops:

and no one has mentioned leopardfish, Phalloceros caudomaculatus

One of our members reported the mass deaths of recent guppy imports from Australia. Apparently they are antibiotic resistant according to his sources. He lost several hundred himself, virtually overnight. He suggests there will soon be a massive shortage of guppies so if you want a fish that should sell...

Have you been counting?

Shows someone was listening! :lol:

My 4ft tropical has 2 double fittings with bright white (or daylight) fluorescents only. I do not buy fancy colour tubes.

Hi Phillz good to meet you. One of our members is moving house and has spent the day catching goldfish and putting them in a paddling pool until she can get a pond built at the new place.

It is my understanding that with marines you have to build your tank up slowly and can't even add fish for 6 months or more. Then, when you do, you have to be very careful what you add and the order you add them so they will live together. Someone might want that angel very badly but is unable to get it right then due to their tank not being ready or having to move another inhabitant. Overall turnover is higher for freshwater from a livestock point of view. Having read a lot of saltwater posts re set-up costs, running costs, and choosing inmates I am afraid I am going to have to be boring and stick with freshwater - no matter how beautiful a well set up marine tank looks

Beaut pics kiwimeg! Thanks for sharing. Love the first one.

SAEs are fine as community fish but make sure they are true SAEs you are buying as there is a very similar fish commonly available and also sold with the same name.