Sunbird73

:sml2:

awesome! yay for tiny babies :happy1:

My personal opinion not based on any research or facts, is that if it is ok for babies to chew on (ie. a bath toy) then it is unlikely to release anything nasty into the water. But I think if you put that in your tank it would get pretty slimey and brown real fast and not look great. And just check it doesn't have tiny caves or bits where fish could get stuck.

Triple Golds.... rare fish Breed them up!

I like the yellow! Quite striking really. Yeah, it does suck - and the worst thing about loving apisto's is that if you lose half a pair they are often then unavailable to replace.

I think if they were going to be red their fins would be red no matter what substrate - more a genetics issue than anything you are doing wrong. There were two types of cockatoo's that came in recently (last few years or so). The first had more orange fins with the black markings, and then the next lot that came in were a real deep red on their fins. I wonder if maybe your ones are descended from the first batch? Still classed as "triple reds" but more an orange variety. Or who knows whether the red red ones still carry the gene for the orange fins and throw orange babies?? I don't know. But I really doubt it has anything to do with food or substrate. Then there were another batch after that but I am not sure whether they were orange or red as by then my beautiful red finned male had a gruesome siphon accident and I gave up on cockatoo's in despair... :tears: Even yellow finned cockatoos would still be nice tho?

Share? Where how?

Excellent, glad to hear they are doing better

The fins are yellow? I think even if you breed two triple reds you can't guarantee you will get triple reds in the spawn, tho hopefully you would get some triples or doubles. So if they didn't have colour when you bought them then it was lucky dip to see what they colour up to be, thats the risk with buying juvies - usually the price reflects it tho. They can change their body colour ie. can wash out, but in my experience the fin colour doesn't change after they are fully grown. How big are they now?

Don't beat yourself up, a lot of us came into the hobby the same way as you. I started out with a small tank like yours (but tropical) and was told that I could have 10 fish in it :roll: - so I bought my 10 fish on the same day as my tank - big no-no to fully/overstock into an uncycled tank!! ..... and had a disaster exactly the same as yours, small tank, too many fish. So after a baptism of fire, I then learnt about cycling, testing water, and how to restrain myself and keep the stocking level low until I knew what I was doing. I think you are doing really well, a lot of less interested people would just replace their goldfish every week :an!gry What city are you in?

The other thing I would do, until your tank is cycled properly, is to only feed them every 2nd/3rd day for a week or so. And only once a day, very light feeding. Less in is less out It is also a very common mistake to overfeed fish.

Hiya, sorry to hear you got crappy info from the shop! But so SO common, think everyone starts out doing this! I did it too, but with tropical fish... so you are not alone Exactly how big are your fish? There are better goldfish experts here than me, but it sounds like you might have ich. But regardless what disease you have, it essentially is from fish becoming stressed, with their immune system lowered from problems with the water. I would say your water quality is poor likely from a combination of new tank syndrome and possibly too much bioload (fish) for the tank to process. Your tank is cycling and will be spiking ammonia and nitrite at some point which will be toxic to the fish. Your local fish store (what area are you in?) usually will test your water for you if you bring a sample into them. This will tell you whether your tank is cycling or not, and if you have dangerously high levels of ammonia or nitrite. Re: water changes - how often are you doing them? Generally at any one time I would take out 20% minimum, probably the maximum I would take out at any one time would be 50%. Changing more than this at any one time will make it hard for the fish to adjust to the new water and will stress them. Seeing as your tank is small, and you have proportionally large fish vs. tank size, you might need to take out 30% twice a week. Probably better if fish are unwell to do more frequent smaller changes than one big one. Replace the amount of water you took out with fresh, conditioned water. I often just add the amount of conditioner to the bucket going in, never bother waiting - I don't think that will be an issue as long as you are adding the conditioner. Some people add it to the tank first and then put water straight out of the tap into the tank. Either way. When changing your water, also don't filter out the sludge and return it (sounds like a lot of effort too!) - a lot of good bacteria grows in the gravel, which are needed to cycle your tank. Just leave it or vacuum with a siphon lightly to get the worst of the debris on top of the gravel. If these guys don't make it, there are some really cute smaller fish that could go in here. Mountain minnows are pretty, and come in a gold variety as well. If they do make it you could pass them on to someone with a bigger tank, or see if your fish shop will take them back (they probably won't, but they should because it was their advice that was dodgy!) Helping the sick fish - I would get your water healthy rather than medicating, small frequent water changes is what I would do.

Have you checked the trees near to the carpark at Auckland Domain (between the band rotunda and the duckpond), there were some big black monsters hiding in the holes in the tree trunks last time I was there. Didn't get close enough to see if they were black or dark brown tho... Good luck....

Ok.. tank ordered :happy1: I saw some lilaeopsis mauritiana for sale on tm, would this work in a low tech?

Hmmm. Am in new house now, and thinking about bracing and placement of equipment - both ends of the tanks are open viewing as the end faces the computer/ entranceway and the other end is facing from the couch..... so that means I can't really have inflow/outflow pipes visible at the ends and they really need to go at the back of the tank against the wall. So I will just have to make do with equipment at the back of the tank and try to hide with plants etc. Am ordering the tank today :happy2: Turns out the stand is a few cm longer than I thought 103.5 - every cm counts

Think its cat, dog and horses as far as I know. You would never get anyone to cover fish, they are just too easy to kill, and if they get a disease then the whole tank gets it etc, and so many diseases are due to immune systems weakened by poor living conditions. Would you want to run an insurance company insuring other people's discus? I wouldn't..... Even the fish shops only guarantee they will live for 24hrs!

absolutely, they are easy to see. They will be bouncing around in the water, if they are there the water will likely be reasonably clear. If the water is very murky, likely you don't have any as they clean up the water.

I keep mine in a plastic bin in sunshine, the sun grows the stuff the daphnia eat. They seem to do better in a larger container (50L or so). I got mine from one tree hill, from the sheep water trough at the far end of the archery paddock. You can also boil some chopped lettuce leaves and put them in the water for the daphnia, but I haven't needed to. You can also feed your fry frozen rotifers (from HFF) if they are big enough to eat bbs. I just mix a bit of aquarium water to defrost and put a bit in a syringe and squirt down where the fry are.

I would worry that there would be no flow at the other end in a tank 1m long?

Thanks Sam! So you would have the inflow and outflow on the left? or one on each end? How would I ask for the bracing to be done as I think he puts glass on each end to brace it ? The red is where the cutouts in the lids will likely be by default and is where I had the inflow and outflow on the old tank.... the blue is where you are saying the filter pipes should go? Can he cut out bits from the bracing safely there? Or have I completely misunderstood ...

I am moving next week, just bought a cabinet on TM last night so have the green light to order a 100 X 40 X 40 tank from Greg. I would love to have a beautiful aquascaped tank, and have been reading SamH's project AA thread with interest - but I don't have C02, and worry about all the committment (and cash!!) you need to have with a high tech tank. I have tried growing plants and have only had success in a tank with no ferts, and just the clay balls, and occasional excel - but that tank was a 2 foot tank. I am very wary of using a soil type under substrate as the last time I tried that when I pulled plants out I think it got in the water column and I had disastrous algae and had to pull the tank apart. Actually also had the same problem with the JBL balls when I took a plant out - so is there a right way to remove a plant without disturbing the substrate? So - Fertiliser? I don't have much cash, so probably Flourite is out of the question. HOw much $$ is laterite? Or shall I stick with the clay balls? Filter: eheim 2224. Possibly also a 2010 pickup in there too. Lights: I have in my possession 1 x 36inch t8 double light (tubes are OLD); 1x 24 inch T5HO with powerglo's; 1 x 24inch double t8 with powerglo's. How much light to grow rotala rotundafolia and ludwigia arcuata (my two fave plants) in the new tank? Plants: Any recommendations? I have some java fern, a *teeeeeny* bit of windelov, xmas moss, small amount of rotalia rotundafolia, few stems ludwigia arcuata, and a few sagittaria subdulata (I think thats what it is). And how much light would I need to grow hairgrass? Tho am worried about hairgrass and BBA... I also don't know what plants look good together so if some gurus could recommend some grouping arrangements for me Co2: I am not against the idea.... but worry that it might get out of hand both time wise (with ferts etc, maintenance) and cash-wise. And I am afraid of poisoning my fish. My fish are currently living in a fish bin, so I don't have weeks to get the plants right before they go in either! Also - does anyone know any good beginner aquascaping websites that also discuss low tech? Thanks in advance Nothing like daydreaming/planning your fish tank to avoid packing the house and cleaning :roll:

and I have forwarded your PM to Godly3vil

Metronidazole is a prescription antibiotic, so asking for it over the counter is like going to your local chemist and saying "winter is coming up and I just know I am going to get a throat infection, give me some augmentin please". They can't sell it legally, without prescribing it to you. They can't prescribe it, legally and professionally, without some form of formal consultation with the patient. Metronidazole is used in human medicine so the ramifications of overuse in animals could then affect human health (drug resistances) so that is why it is prescription only. Vets have been given licenses to use human equivalent drugs on animals - but if it is found that these drugs are being over-used in animals, and if this does impact on human health, then the right for vets to treat animals with these drugs could be revoked. Re: the price - antibiotics are expensive. For humans they are subsidised by the government, the real cost (ie. the cost you would pay from the vet) is actually quite expensive compared to other drugs. If I was you, I would call a large animal vet, they may be slightly more amenable to diagnosing and prescribing on photos and history with you, and to prescribe preventatively. But it will still be expensive. Metronidazole is not a common antibiotic to give to humans either, and doctors are also liable to get in a lot of trouble if they prescribe for animals (same as a vet prescribing for a human!). The only way I can imagine your doc will dispense it for you is if you managed to contract Giardia. So you could go drink some duck pond water, but it probably wouldn't be worth it :sick:

That does look awesome. :smot: but are those lava rocks? ie. like the ones at one tree hill?

chch bit far away for me sadly, was going to get Greg from Tanks 2 U to do it... Very hard as I haven't seen black silicon IRL