Caryl

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.

My theory is because when people first tried to keep them they got the conditions wrong and killied them. :lol:

Gee that's a bright new avatar you have there goldie! :lol: Good to see it worked.

I have never had problems with the good old U/G filter either. I think someone was just trying to make a sale perhaps. Can't see why they would single out discus as not liking them either.

As an aside, we actually kept brineshrimp for over 12 months - just out of curiosity. We had a square plastic container and added a layer of sand (to make the shrimp feel at home). We filled it with salt water and added some shrimp from the Grassmere salt ponds. The container sat on the floor in front of the lounge window. These shrimp happily swam around and reproduced regularly. We never fed them, just kept topping them up with more fresh sea water when the level dropped due to evaporation. We assumed they lived on microscopic greeblies in the water as they always appeared active and kept reproducing. As I said, we kept these successfully for over 12 months.

Add to that retailers' habit of making up fancy common names and you never know what you are getting!

Others are saying that too Warren but, from the time we left Blenheim on the Friday morning, to the time we got back again late Monday night, we didn't see a single cop car. Of course, we may have had our photo taken but it hasn't reached us yet... :lol: Goldie passed several on her way south but she was being a good girl and kept her MX5 to the limit.