Ice222

Btw, just to clarify, I don't think gouramis in general are shy, just that I find the sparkling gouramis to be shy, nor do I find gouramis in general to be incredibly aggressive. Despite my experience with sparkling gouramis, I still think they're not nearly as bad as bettas for example, but I do think most gouramis aren't completely mellow either, I agree that there are individual differences though. 2 gourami isn't a huge number for a 33L tank or anything, but I just meant I'd be careful all the same.

Wow! That koi-betta's amazing! It doesn't jsut look like a koi, but a stunning one. It looks like a japanese water colour painting of a koi.

I find sparkling gourami incredibly shy, you'll pretty much never see them. They are also quite aggressive. I had 3 in a 25L tank, and they nipped each other a fair bit, one of them then got sick and died from the injuries. I would not recommend keeping too many gouramis in a small tank, as I'm pretty sure that most other types of gourami are just as aggressive. If the tanks is well planted, with lots of tall plants, you may be able to keep a pair of dwarf gourami, but I'd definately recommend tall rather bushy plants that would break the line of sight, as gouramis like to swim at the top quite often. I would vote for a dwarf gourami over a sparkling one though, they seem a lot less shy from what I've seen, and even my 25L tank looks incredibly empty with just to sparkling gourami.

I heard a noise behind the tv the other day, thought it was the filter of the QT (next to the TV), when I went to check, I saw a rat dash out and run behind our heater. Took hours but I managed to catch it in the end. Wasn't as big as yours, only about 17cm from nose to base of tail, but I consider that pretty huge for one found in my area. My cat must have brought it in, she likes to bring live things into the house and play with them indoors where there is less chance of it getting away :facepalm: . Can't say I'm too pleased with that. She brought in another rat a few days ago too, but at least it was dead, a smaller one, and had the decency to leave it on a old newspaper instead :roll:. I used to keep pet rats actually, and my 3 were 23cm long (nose to base of tail), They would've been considered fairly large for a fancy rat, but I remember meeting other rat keepers who had half-wilds that grew to almost 30cm from nose to base of the tail . Since half-wilds get that large, I'd imagine a fully wild rat, if fed on a good diet, could probably reach a even bigger-size than that... I can't really picture it. Personally I rather like rats, but not the wild ones. Pet rats are amazing, and half-wilds, if raised from a young age are lovely too, but I can't stand wild rats, they actually smell terrible, are incredibly agile, and nothing at all like their tame counterparts .

I agree that it's best to bloack the filter intake, I'd recommend coarser stuff though, filter wool gets clogged very quickly, I used the type of coarse black sponge the 'stingray style filters seem to use, and they last much longer and the much rinses out filter wool's cheaper, but you can't really reuse the bits. I had a Aqua one AR380 though, but I guess the Jebo should be very similar.

There's not really a best way. Adding fish slowly is one of the tried and true methods, but if you're wanting to know some different methods, there are other ways. If you want to do fishless cycling, you can try with 'feeding' the empty tank, putting a few pieces of cocktail shrimp (in pantyhose), or sourcing some pure ammonia and adding that instead. Whichever method you choose, I'd recommend test kits, so you know when it's cycled, and adding some media from an established tank also quickens the cycling process (sometimes JUST adding media from an established tank is enough to cycle). Also best not to use any 'cycling' products unless if you know exactly how it works since each is different. Some might work, but most require you to keep using it or the cycle would crash.

I second perspex, it's better than glass imo, as it is a lot lighter and I have had trouble with dropping glass lids before. The only thing is that I've noticed my perspex flexing after awhile, so I often turn it upside down to get it to flex back the other way. So I wouldn't sit any lights directly on it, I think the heat from my light a few cm above is not helping with the bend.

If you go with under gravel ferts with your current low lighting you could probably go without CO2, and other ferts, and have minimal algae unless if the tank is very overstocked. Can go for plants like the Java Fern Varieties, Java Moss, Ambulia, Anubias, Water Sprite, and several types of crypts and/or swords are also good, but I'm not sure which species myself. Twisted Val may also work too, they apparently prefer moderate lighting, but they seem to do alright in my tank even in a dimmer corner. It's pretty hard to have 0 algae in any tank, planted or not, but if you choose suitable plants and keep up with WCs if shouldn't become a problem. I think it's good to have mix of the above plants, eg. Anubias is slow growing on it's own it probably won't use up very much of the nutrients in the water, if you mix it with some faster growing plants like ambulia, it'll probably do a better job of using up any excess nutrients in the water.

The last time I was there was in Jan I think, they had a really good variety, and their fish looked healthy to me. I don't remember seeing any dead fish either. I don't remember it having a lot of plants or wood though.

I have a cpd fry that had a bent back from a few days old. Not sure if it was an injury or genetics, since I accidentally sucked up a fry once during a WC once. Thought about culling it, but I'm pretty glad I didn't. It got a little better as it grew, but it is still slightly bent if I look closely, it's also smaller than the rest, but it's colouration is actually pretty good! I always keep a close eye on him though, runts tend to be the first to get ill it seems.

Perhaps we won't see it in our lifetime, but I wouldn't say never. We've gone through some radical shifts in power in the history of man-kind: Monarchs, to religion, to science, and now to corporations. Not a perfect example, but I think you see what I mean. Besides, it's not like we have to completely stop being 'greedy' to be more sustainable, just need to have the foresight and planning to make the most out of what we do take, and creating more value in the way we use our resources. Perhaps not immediately as profitable as the way we do things now, but being able to do more with what we take would end up more profitable in the long run.

I completely agree with this. We are already capable in doing many things in a much more sustainable way, but don't because it's less convenient and not immediately profitable. A lot of things actually work together really well, like fishkeeping and growing plants, fish waste fertillizes plants, plant waste goes to the compost, worms grow in the compost which can go back to feeding the fish, and the compost is used to fertilize the plants. There's a good TED talk about this topic on youtube, and we see that cycle isn't something that's just restricted to natural processes, but also finding new uses for by-products of manufacturing processes so that the 'waste' also becomes something useful in the process. Anyway, back on the topic of green peace, they remind me a bit of PETA. They tend to be at one extreme with their ideas, they may have some good intentions, but do things in such a way that I cannot agree with them.

It might do harm to the plants and fish if you don't know what you're doing. Adding CO2 can alter the PH of a tank, some plants are also more sensitive to it, like my twisted val, it melts if I put in too much flourish excel (liquid C02). There's also not much point adding CO2 if your plants don't need it. As you said you don't know what ferts are, ferts are fertilizers for the plants. Depending on what type of plants you have, how many you have and what your fish stocking levels are, the type and amount of ferts needed can differ. Phoenix44 had a good post showing how this works: viewtopic.php?f=2&t=48813 Plant growth depends on a balance between lighting, C02 and Nutrients. Ferts = the nutrients, and within the nutrients there are many different kinds as well, details of which can be found in the sticked post by Jennifer in the Aquatic Plants section of the forum. Those threads are a really good read if you are determined to have a high tech tank (high lighting, fert regime, CO2, allowing more demanding plants to grow), but as Supasi said, if you're just starting out, it's best to start out with a low tech set up (lower lighting, minimal ferts, no CO2, choosing plants that suit these conditions). You can always up grade it later when you have a better understanding of the types of plants you want to grow. At the moment I'd recommend fertilizers that go in the substrate (if your substrate is deep enough). Since these fertilizers are only accessible by the plants' roots and not by algae in the water, it's hard to go wrong with them, so they make a good starting point for improving plant growth. I myself have pretty low tech setups, if you choose plants that suit lower lighting, you can still get a very successful planted tank, and the great thing about lower tech tanks is that they can be so low maintenance!

I suppose that's true, but animals for food serve a purpose, pets as trinkets do not. There also seems to be no laws there to stop animals being treated that way, pet shops in Hong Kong are constantly bringing out new fad animals to sell to the public. The last time I went back it was hermit crabs. They live 15 years... I'd be surprised if the fad even lasts a year before they just get tossed out like an old toy.

Don't think it's always been that way, perhaps it's even western influence and consumerism that changed them that way? And when businesses are exploiting animals to make a sale, people just buy in to what they say, like how your average person here just believes whatever petshops say. My dad's from Hong Kong, and already considered quite an animal lover, but when he was little, they had no toys so kids often played with insects, eg. tying string around dragonflies and dragging them around on a leash. They weren't taught how to take care of animals really, and a lot of what they do know are from Chinese whispers: say if one person has a dog that is crate trained, another person may visit their home, later when they see another friend getting a dog, they may pass it on as "person A, just keeps their dog in a crate, looks easy, why don't you get a crate for yours?", and so person C will think it's fine to put a dog in a crate whenever they like because they never heard the full story of how the crate is meant to be used.

Chinese people aren't really raised to think of small animals as animals, they see them not in a dissimilar way to how we see flowers: Buy them, stick them in the water, replace them when they wilt. Or treat them like any other small cheap commodity: if it malfunctions, you don't fix it, it's cheaper just to replace it. This is true even for more westernized parts of Asia, like Singapore or Hong Kong, it's so normal, that no one even bothers to question it. Sometimes I think it's the way that the society is raised over there, all their focus is on work, very few people have the time, money or interest to actually invest any effort into their hobbies. My sister was there for a working holiday for 3 months recently. She was working 10 hour days, 5 times a week with a 15min lunch, and that was only considered part-time! I think when people are raised like this, it becomes almost a luxury for them to even give a crap about anyone or anything other than themselves.

What would you use them for? When I was getting a separator for my fry in the breeding tank, I found the one that hang over the side of a tank quite inconvenient during water changes, floating isolation tanks work much better imo. Also the small hole at the bottom means it probably won't get much water flow, so that might be something to think about.

Cats are great. Just so EASY, and there's not much stopping you from getting a dog later on. If you get them young, it shouldn't be hard to have them trained to leave the kitty alone. In fact, my friend's dog seems to be the one picked on by their cat...

I don't know if this helps, but I find my pygmys like to swim in the open a lot more when the lights are out. Since your tanks is planted, I'd assume you probably have fairly bright lighting, so that may be why they're hiding?

Sound like a good idea, sounds like it'll be pretty good for plants too. Like the heating cables sold in the LFS, but no cables in the tank for roots to get tangled in. I can't imagine how it's implemented though? I imagine it goes something like this from top to bottom: Base of tank -> sand + cable -> polestyrene -> stand. But considering that I've heard of heaters melting poly backgrounds a little, I would think you'd need a decent layer of sand (more than 30mm) to insulted the poly from the heat. Also wondering how you get the sand to stay in place without getting squished out between the tank and poly and how can you make sure the sand is flat and even enough to not cause any issues with the tank's weight distribution? I have a feeling that the answer to some of these questions will make me want to whack my head on the table and wonder why I didn't think of it in the first place, but I'm tired, so I'm just going to ask this anyways .

Slightly off on a tangent, but I saw the 'Oceans' trailer in the cinema while I was there to see a movie last week. It actually looks pretty incredible, I'm tempted to go see it. Don't know how it compares with the stuff on Like 8:45 on Prime though.

I try to keep the water a just a degree or 2 colder, I just test the temp with my hands though. I think the fish actually like the colder water during water changes. Pretty sure cold WCs coupled with increased frozen and live food is how I promoted my CPDs to spawn. Even though I hear that nz doesn't use much chlorine in the tap water. I don't want to risk it, especially since my tanks are small prime really doesn't cost much so it's worth it.

I've been thinking about getting a dachshund myself so I've been doing a fair bit of reading on them and decided not to get one until I finish study. I've read that while they do require less space, grooming and exercise than many other breeds, they are very stubborn and difficult to train, and require a strict diet to prevent heath issues. Because of this I am waiting till I have at least a few weeks free to ensure I have the time to ensure a solid start in training. So for someone with children I think a cat or a more forgiving breed of dog would be better. Overall though, I think the behavioral problems with small dogs is less of a issue with the dogs than with the owners. While I do think that certain breeds will have predispositions toward specific behavior, I think it is more that people tend to treat small dogs like babies rather than a dog. With a bigger dog, aggression is treated as a serious issue and usually dealt with by firm training, with a small dog people tend to go 'awww how cuuuute! Princess thinks they're scaaarey.' and forgive them. It's not just a matter of 'would you trust this dog with your children?' but also 'would you trust your children with this dog?', so unless if you have the time or the experience for it, I think a cat would be the better option. Besides, I have a cat and they're pretty awesome . Although it is harder to train them to behave in certain ways like you can a dog, cats are actually quite good at learning tricks for treats. Mine knows: Sit, Lie Down, [stand] Up, Hand, and Roll Over. Just be aware that they tend to learn better by gestures than by sounds/words so I make visual commands. Lately I've even taught her to enjoy sitting on my lap (which she used to hate) by forcing her to sit there and giving her a treat, each time extending the length of time she has to sit till she gets the treat. This is why I suggest cats: They eat very little, They don't need much space, they exercise themselves and training is optional [except perhaps litter training, but mine just goes in the garden].

If you have multiple puffers, I think the problem may be the aggressive ones keeping it away. It might be a good idea to keep it separated for awhile and feed it to bulk up a bit before putting it back with the others? It's sometimes hard to tell if puffers are being aggressive since they tend to do it when you aren't looking.

It's not rally my thing but it looks interesting, and even if the lights aren't enough to go fully planted, you could still pull off something neat with it. I found this: http://socalaquascapers.com/forum/showthread.php?t=7565 which I thought was pretty well done . [and yes, I'm aware we can't have the moss balls in NZ, but the 'tree' is Java moss which we do have.]