Caryl

Ira! You obviously do not love your fish enough!!! :lol: My large cichlids loved worms but the goldfish wouldn't touch them. I actually have a genuine worm squisher. It is two metal plates with handles on one side and circles gouged out on the other. The idea is to place the worm between the plates and turn them in a circular motion in opposite directions. I gather it was meant to cut the worm up nicely. I am afraid I have never used it. I have no qualms about dropping in whole worms but do not wish to cut or squish them.

A small amount of salt is beneficial to many fish and provides a little protection against greeblies. I used to feed my fish worms straight from the garden but others say to leave them overnight so they void all the dirt and stuff in their digestive system. Also be wary if sprays and insecticides have been used anywhere nearby. People who leave their water overnight usually have chlorine in the water. Leaving it overnight allows the chlorine to dissipate naturally. The pH in tap water will vary everywhere so asking what the pH is in ChCh is pointless. The man over the road from me has a totally different pH reading for his tap water than mine. You need to get a pH testing kit and test your own tap water.

I believe Visitherms are highly regarded.

How big is the tank and how heavily is it stocked? I have left my fish for that amount of time without feeding with no problems at all. If the tank is well matured and the fish are fed a few live foods before you go, they should be able to find enough algae to graze on until your return. I wouldn't do this if the tank is well stocked mind you. I have a 4ft with about 25 fish in it, the largest being 6cm and most of the others only 3cm. Is there no-one you can ask to feed them for you? If you made up 2 portions of food and asked them to add one in 3 days and the other in another 3 days all would be good. As far as I know there is nothing wrong with the autofeeders but I was thinking $150 is a lot of money for a short space of time.

I agree. If it happened 9 months ago and is still working then don't worry about it. Those tubes are easy to break from the bottom bracket. I have managed, in the past, to move just enough gravel out of the way to replace the broken bit but it was fiddly and only works if your UG is not hard up against the side of the tank as you have to be able to slide the replacement in.

Cichlids are a nice chunky fish and produce a fair amount of waste. I only have a few small rainbows.

The filter (Fluval 404) gets cleaned out about every 3 months if I remember. The bottom gets siphoned when I do a water change. Come to think of it, I may actually do a water change every 3 months. Either that or I only clean the filter when I do a water change therefore the filter only gets cleaned around every 6 months :lol: The tank gets topped up when the water level drops the point where the constant noise of trickling water annoys me.

My tank has always been at 22 degs (except in summer when the room temp rockets it up) with no detrimental effects on the fish. I rarely do waterchanges either and only feed the fish a couple of time a week too. OK to keep the fish in but they don't breed. They need more optimum conditions for that. My tank is also understocked.

Janet did say...Any thoughts?? Or are there engineers or physicists with a formula?? Ask and ye shall receive (hopefully)

A hard lesson learned TankMate but glad to hear fish are now recovering. Keep us informed with progress. You aren't the first to panic as fish start to die and you won't be the last!

Hi there Merlin and welcome to The Fishroom. We hope you find lots here to interest you.

Ahh didn't your wife have other plans for that bach?

How big is the tank? That is an awful lot of fish. Was it newly set up 3 weeks ago? You cannot add that number of fish so fast. The tank has to 'cycle'. You say your ammonia is 0 but elsewhere in your post you said it was so high you were working on it.

No, that's Ira with his wife on the right :lol: I know Puff N Stuff very well as we had it on video when my daughter was little and she loved it. If I remember rightly, the young boy was called Jack, Puff N Stuff was a dragon and the mayor, and the witch was Witchypoo. The boy annoyed me as he was one of those English people who can't pwonounce their R's. Can't remember his real name but the witch was played by Billy Whitelaw. I think he was a well known child star and played Oliver in the musical.

H and R are not names, they are letters What do they stand for?

I would level off the base, not try to use polystyrene to even it up - especially by that amount. Is it the stand that is so far off plumb or the floor? Polystyrene gives overall support, it is not used to level off bases.

Hi Philip. Welcome to The Fishroom!

Obviously size does matter. Artificial insemination must be a fiddly job on a small fish.

I think he's right. I was looking at neomacheilus in my books but that particular one is not in them. It is certianly a beautiful fish - even with 2 heads and 2 tails :lol:

It did create some interesting discussion though didn't it? Thanks for asking the question in the first place Pegasus.

It's a fish Bruce :lol: Had a look through some of my books but can't find a match. What was it sold as?

I guess sarcasm was the wrong word. :-? It was a remark meant in fun Cees and nobody meant to wound you. He was being silly and I for one thought it was funny. Nothing hurtful was meant. Sorry

Hi and welcome, I think I would avoid the shells too.

I suspect you missed the sarcastic humour in that one Cees. I read it, thought 'what website?' so clicked on your web icon. Looked at what appeared, thought of John's post, and burst out laughing :lol:

Hey cram, welcome to the fishroom. I am sure you will find lots of interest here - but not the zany humour from Bob and kluyu in the Community Tank. I have often seen oscars around 8" but not bigger.