Caryl

Hi Laurence and welcome. I think your main problem has been you have added too many fish too quickly. The tank would not have begun to cycle until you added the first 6 fish. Those products alone would not have done a lot to get it going. I like to work by the rule - add as few products as possible. Most are unnecessary unless you need to dechlorinate the water in which case you may leave the water sitting overnight and the chlorine dispels anyway then add it to the tank. Takes more time doing it that way though. Undergravels don't usually cause big water flows so I am wondering if you have powerheads on the top rather than the water just bubbling straight up and out the top of the uplifts. They should have been fine. Siamese Fighters, especially the males with the long flowing fins, don't do so well in a community tank and I prefer to see them on their own in a species setup. Having said that I am aware many people keep them in community tanks. You have added a total of 20 fish over a very short period and the filters could not keep producing more bacteria quickly enough to cope with the increased waste load. The last fish added are probably dying because they have possibly come from better conditions into your tank with climbing ammonia levels and they have been too stressed by the poor water quality to survive. White spots on the fighter also point to poor water conditions and stress on the fish. This may be treated with a treatment bought at your lfs. The disease is called White Spot (for obvious reasons). Have you done another water test since adding fish? What are you testing for? pH, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate readings would all be helpful. Whatever you do, don't add any more fish!! Treat the ones you have, keep doing the water changes and see if things improve.

What an interesting looking tank. I would not have thought of doing it around the corner that way. Did you leave the cork board in there for the fish to post messages?

Warren and Bruce in here belong to that club Logan.

The Wgtn club is not affiliated to the FNZAS so is not listed here. They used to meet at the zoo but now meet in a church hall somewhere in the vicinity I believe. I can PM you with one of their member's details if you want to contact them. This member belongs to my own club as well so he gets to belong to Wgtn and affiliate to the FNZAS as well

My cichlids certainly like a treat of live daphnia and their colour improves following a feed.

I have to send food parcels to my daughter in the USA as well

By the way, I am pleased to see some actually read their Aquarium World. Don't forget you are welcome to write letters to the editor. Your views will reach more members than in here.

I have one word for your fishes sue - diet!! :lol: They have certainly improved since finding a home in your tank.

This all came about because we could not get any club willing to host conference 2004. Without a host there was no conference. Some, over the years, have suggested conferences are a waste of time and money and should be done away with. Any time this was said they were loudly shouted down and told how conference was a great chance for us to get together socially while also dealing with the necessary business of the AGM and they were not to be dismissed. We could have said "Right, no one will host it so we will not have a conference in 2004, we will just have the AGM somewhere." Then John came up with the suggestion (at the 2002 conference) of an off-shore week long trip. At first everyone thought it too expensive and unworkable but after much discussion it was decided, BY THE MAJORITY PRESENT, that the idea had merit and John was given the mandate to proceed with looking into venues. The plan to send out a letter in November to all turned out to be unfeasable for a number of unforseen reasons but that did not stop a lot of work being done behind the scenes scouting out venues and costs etc. We were aware from the beginning that it would be out of reach of some but I have been amazed at the number of those who have felt it worth the effort and started saving. Most of these keen members do not have a lot of money, me included. My husband and I run our own company but have been working towards closing it for the time we are away and I am taking time off from my other job elsewhere. We will have a neighbour's boy look after our pets, as we do whenever we manage to go away. Where has this $3,000 cost come from? I don't see it costing us that much. As for the description of John as having 'more money than brains'. I find this most offensive and appreciate all the work he has done ON BEHALF OF THE FNZAS AT THEIR REQUEST. Yes, going off-shore will certainly exclude some but, even if we could have found a willing host club, internal travel would exclude others. It cost me $1000 to attend North Shore's conference and that was just for a weekend! I think Carol summed it up well.

I'm so sorry I don't know what to suggest but I feel for her! I don't think I would move her though as it would stress her out even more.

Still a little small isn't it? :lol: Bet it looks great.

Hiya Monique. Good to hear you have been managing to acquire more fish I don't think I would put a plec with discus. You need at least a 4ft tank for a plec and your tank isn't that big is it? Plecs are also good at destroying nicely planted landscapes whichi I am sure you will have with your discus.

We have been saving since the decision to go off-shore. It would have been nice to have a club offer to host this year but since they didn't, Grant and I are happy to go wherever John plans. We have been amazed at the time and effort he has put into this and know we are going to have a fantastic time.

This might help http://www.aquatic-hobbyist.com/profile ... /bram.html

I have no idea if I have a breeding colony. We will have to wait and see I am bad at water changes so perhaps not. How many play the name that fish game varies.

Pegasus we actually coiled plastic piping up in it, as much as would fit, and ran the water through that. There was a good reason for not filling it with water directly but I can't remember what it was.

Hi wokey. Some of us go into the chatroom at night around 9pm and talk there. We don't have a forum for general chatting as such but if you mean on non fishy subjects, post it in the 2 Hot 2 Handle section. 99% of whitespot is caused by poor, or wrong, water conditions. If your tap water is a lot different to the pH of 6.5 you are trying to maintain, the changing pH could trigger whitespot. pH should be changed very slowly. Dead fish get eaten very quickly so you don't always see bodies.

We tried that pegasus but our room was too hot and it couldn't cope with the large temperature differential. OK if you only need to lower it by 4 or 5 degrees but we needed to drop it by 13 or more degrees.

I have Labidochromis caeruleus, Copadichromis borleyi, Stigmatochromis modestus, Aulonocara jacobfreibergi and an honorary Malawian Julidochromis marlieri I have no idea what is available as we have no pet shops at all near me. The fish I have came direct from a breeder.

HOW did you get the chiton out??

I don't think he is going to buy fish for it are you Ira? This is a cold water rock pool marine as far as I understood so not what I would call a reef tank. I don't know a lot about marines so might be wrong with the definitions here In my coldwater marine I never had any algae appear. I also never lost an inhabitant (unless it was pounced on by another inhabitant and didn't get away fast enough). Never had lights or skimmers and stuff either. Our cold water marine ran for over a year until we got sick of trying to keep it cool over summer. Which reminds me, we did lose some starfish when the temperature got too high for too long. We never did water changes very often either, just topped it up when the level dropped. Every now and then we would go to the beach and get some sea lettuce to throw in. Never ceased to amaze us how many little critters would be attached to it. This tank was very simple, and cheap, to set up and run but I would not attempt to set up a tropical marine the same way.

Welcome to The Fishroom phyrestaata. Fish keeping is one of those hobbies you can pick up again after a few year's absence and there are new fishes and new ideas to check up on. Always something to learn. Hope you enjoy it here.

When I set up my cold water marine I added everything at once and had no problems. I assumed it was because there were lots of microscopic greeblies in the water and sand for everything to feed on. Certainly nothing died. Considering the size of the inhabitants though the tank was lightly stocked. The triplefins were the largest creatures at around 5cm and we had 4 of them from memory. Most of our critters were shrimps, starfish and anemones. Those chitons are buggers to get off once they have stuck themselves down!

Well you started with the biggest so it will all be easier from now on. Keep any canister filters wet and plugged back in as soon as possible to keep the bacteria going. Make sure the heaters are cool before moving them from the water, or they will crack. Don't forget to plug them back in again at the other end! Why didn't filling with the hose work? I do that a lot. Hope you have plenty of people to help. I would go for a massage when you are finished. You deserve it

Would they mix with what? Or do you mean can they go in the same tank? They all go fine together. Never heard of albino neons!