Kipper

csar

Hi there I acclimatise fish based on the drip method (http://www.aquaticplantcentral.com/foru ... ethod.html) using a length of air-tubing plus a couple of pegs to slow the syphon flow to a couple of drips per second and another peg at the tank end to keep tubing in the water. It's really easy. I put the plastic bag holding the fish in another container (I use a 5 L jug) and put a dark tea towel or similar over the whole lot to lower light levels and 'relax' ( ) the fish. Also put in a little bit of food (dried blood worms) as the competition in the main tank can be a bit of a challenge for shy fish getting used to new surroundings. Process usually takes a minimum of 45 mins to add the same volume of water that was originally in the bag - and you can go and do other things rather than remembering to race back and add dollops of water - just keep cats out of the room :lol: !!). I also turn off lights in tank for an hour or so after I've added the fish (but keep room lights on) as part of the settling-in process. Might be a bit over the top, but a bit of TLC can't do any harm and anything that decreases stress must be good! I haven't worried about temperature (although you could wrap a warmed 'wheatie bag' around the container holding the plastic bag the fish are in), as it is likely (as P44 and others mentioned) that water parameters are the bigger shock to new fish. Touch wood, haven't lost any fish (certainly not within a couple of months after introduction)....won't mention the nicely settled then sadly departed Sparkling Gouramis (Excel being main suspect :evil: ).

Hi there, I've got a 43L tank (that's excluding gravel etc) with under-gravel filter, DIY CO2 (see Supasi recipe on his blog site) with ceramic diffuser, and 2x 18W CFL lamps. Only air movement from UGF uprisers. Plants are going nuts (adding Excel and liquid ferts based on EI method www.barrreport.com/showthread.php/3209- ... -EI-dosing) and the pH (which tended to be about 5 or so as water very soft) has stabilised at 6 to 6.5 as the plants became more rampant. CO2 slows during night as it gets cooler then takes off again as kitchen heats up during day, no issues with gasping fish yet. An issue is BBA algae that came on with the addition of lights and is stubborn to get rid of :evil: . I'm just playing around with lights to find the level that works best with the amount of CO2 coming in so light is the limiting factor rather than CO2 and nutrients, hopefully that will settle down algal issues. Adding CO2 certainly revved up the plants but I'm still trying to sort out the ideal balance in a small tank.

Hi dennisisawesome. I've got a tank a bit smaller than yours (43L excuding gravel etc) with an undergravel filter and the water is crystal clear....touch wood Sounds corny, but the fish do look like they are swimming in air...just need to get rid of the algae growing on some of the plants. It is well-planted (and has some nice recent additions thanks to P44 ) and fully stocked (12x dwarf rasboras; 6x cardinals; 2x honey gouramis; 3x otos) with DIY CO2 and CFL lights. Only issues I've had was when I over-fed the fish (led to a bit of algae in conjunction with the lights), or when I had goldfish in there prior to going tropo...got very murky. I do two 20% water changes a week and fish out any leaf material with a net...although crumbling plants is not an issue, they are in jungle mode at the moment Every couple of months I poke a syphon down the UGF uprisers so suck out goo during a water change although that will become less effective as the plant roots build up down there. I NEVER gravel vac but will syphon up uneaten food if I spot any when doing a water change. Gravel vacuuming in the days before plants left the water murky for about a day or so. So, in short, a low flow UGF is working really nicely in a well-planted tank, and it seems that the plants buffer the whole system really well as the pH of tank has moved from 5 to 6-6.5 after plant growth has gone mad following the addition of lights and CO2.

Great to meet you all....and Rusty stole the show . And thanks very much to P44 for the tank tour and a chance to chat to the Wellington branch. Came home and looked at my tank in a different light

Hi P44, I can't tell if the Sparklers are too skinny...there isn't much meat on them in the first place , but they aren't doing a slow decline so I think that starvation is off the list of culprits. Again, thanks for the time you guys are putting into this.

Have you continued dosing, or reduced the Excel dose?

Hi Jennifer, The dosage rate I worked out from the Excel (can't help but think spreadsheets here ) bottle is 5 m/200L, which is about 1ml per 43L every 2 days. I'm starting to wonder if I should do a half dose. The tank is under spotlights in the kitchen (like I said, low tech ) and gets brightish (not direct) sunlight during the day when the sun appears here in Palmie! I've noticed when I prune the Alternathera is starts to produce slow bubbles at the cut stem, and the crypts and some Limnophila and Lilaeopsis are growing....not massivley fast...so something is working! The Sparklers are cute little guys, although I haven't heard them croaking yet. The are very knowing fish quietly moving about the plants like submarines. Sad to be down to only one now. Thanks for peoples input on the Excel conundrum.

Wow Thanks for sharing those. The skin on the dead Sparklers looked fine, nothing as dramatic as your piccies. I'm glad your guys pulled through. I usually use Stress-coat as the water conditioner, and I did a water change with the first sick fish (about 30%), to no avail. The new mega-test kit I picked up at the last Animates sale ( ) is showing the usual water parameters are fine. Following up on the possible slow starvation leading to sudden death possibility, have you ever seen that happen?

Hi P44, There doesn't seem to be anything really drastic going on. I tend to underdose the Excel (for my tank about 1ml every two days, and I use a syringe to measure it) and I normally add it to the half-weekly water change, but sometimes I just add it to the water after diluting in about 50mls tank water. Each time only 1 fish was affected, the other sparklers were fine. The last one to go was certainly hovering around where I was adding the Excel as it was the really nosey one! I'm just wondering if there is a link, or something else going on. Certainly no symptoms in any of the other fish. Only tatty tails, rest of skin in the sick ones looked fine......

Hi all, Just a quick query and a chance to pick your collective brains. I've recently lost two Sparkling Gouramis (3 weeks apart). Fine one day, tatty tailfin next day, breathing rapidly, dead in 24 hours. They are in a peaceful nano-fish community tank (see below) that I supplment with Excel and liquid ferts. The last one to go happened the day after a dose of Excel (at manufacturer's dosage rate). Normally I dilute the dose in about 50ml tank water and pour into the tank...sometimes the fish get in the way as they are very nosy and hoping for more food! The Sparkler's tail was very tatty next morning and he/she was dead that afternoon. No obvious signs of aggression between species, just the odd flaring among the Sparklers and then they scoot off to their own corners in a well-planted tank. What made me wonder is that Excel is gluteraldehyde which can breakdown proteins, so what happens if a fish paddles through a portion of relatively undiluted Excel? Could it be food competition? I feed crushed flake supplemented on a rotation with crushed dried daphnia, tubifex and bloodworm. I have seen the Sparklers holding their own with the Cardinals and Dwarf Rasboras, but they are certainly less food aggressive. Does slow starvation lead to a sudden decline? Or is it "just one of those things"? All other fish are fine, only one case of larval migrans in a cardinal which was dealt to with two doses to the tank with prazi (thanks to another thread with lots of information from Jennifer ). The fish have all been together for about 3 months in a well established tank ,and they seem very confident and get excited when I put my face near the tank...dinnertime! Tank Details: Low tech longish tank; 46l excluding gravel; 2x15% water changes per week; well-planted (although nothing like the amazing ones seen in this forum!); dose Excel every two days, liquid fert weekly; add Cycle weekly; pH 5-ish before changes, ammonia, nitrite and nitrate very very low; 24oC at one end to 27oC at heater end; stocked with 6 cardinal tetras, 8 dwarf rasboras, 2 oto cats and now 1 Sparkling gourami Thanks for your help Cheers PS Do you know where or how I can order green (false) neon tetras (P. simulans). Apparently very tight schoolers that aren't as big as Cardinal tetras and probably a better size compared with the rest of the nano-fish I've got!

Thanks for the welcomes everyone - and the "grief" you're giving P44 And thanks for the lead to the Central Fishkeepers club P44, I'll check out the meeting details

Hi all, I've been looking through these forums for a couple of months and what a trove of information! Made the jump from classic goldfish and a pleco (all of which grew too large and were rehomed to a friend!), and restocked with plants (inspired by tanks in these forums) and pleased they weren't being ripped out by hungry goldfish. Currently have a 46 litre set-up with 8 dwarf rasboras, 6 cardinals, 2 weeny Oto cats (doing a great job as clean-up crew) and currently 1 sparkling gourami. The other two sparklers have quietly popped their clogs over the last 3 weeks It's very much a low tech system so I supplement with Excel and liquid ferts. Found some plants are thriving, some melt and recover, and some just don't come back! Nothing like trial and error. Ran into the famous P44 at the local Animates store, and left the shop with good advice and less money