the-obstacle

I've never pushed them to breed and I don't how to induce it when they're not already doing it in the community tank but my advice would be to wait for them to start displaying then look at getting them in a breeding tank. It sounds like they're a bit too young if you only got them 4 months ago. You will definitely know when they're at it in the community tank. Once they start having a go then try to encourage them but for now I think you should just enjoy them as is.

Some say a year, some say less. Mine were already adults of over a year old when I got them so they were at it from day 1. I've now got adults that I suspect are breeding that are less than a year old but I can't be sure. In essence - I have no idea. :dunno:

There's also the fish part of the bird barn on lincoln rd in henderson but from experience it's not worth making the effort to go there unless you're already in the area.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fvEL4s5XJF8 and

This was a free broken tank from disgustipated. :thup: It cost $15 for a new base and half a tube of silicone which I already had.

Yeah, they're not at all like rams,I assume the juveniles do? 2 of the 5 are ex DavidR's flock (there were 3 but one died last week) and the other 3 were the only ones left at HFF a few weeks ago. They look awesome in real life - photos just don't show the colour in their scales and fins. I suspect there's already a pair forming so it'll be interesting to see what comes of that. They like to filter mouthfuls of sand for food they've missed while it's been floating but other than that they don't dig like other geos do. I geo proofed the planted area with the larger stones but it seems I didn't need to. Mine have never behaved like fish, they're a bit special. I'm considering putting some into a breeding tank for a while. I suspect the heckelii are eating the wrigglers when they pop up in the stones :roll:

Just visited Greg and to get some glass then rebuilt a 3 footer. Now what should I do with it?

A sump is another version of a filter. It usually contains all the elements of most cartridge filters (mechanical, biological and sometimes chemical filtration) but has the ability to be scaled easily compared to cartridges. In my opinion it's not worth sumping a tank smaller than 300 litres because there are a lot of affordable canisters to look after tanks this size or smaller. A sump usually sits under or beside a tank and is mostly fed by overflow/syphon effect, the water then flows through the various filter media and is then pumped back into the display tank. At the end of the day it's another tank attached to your display tank which adds to the total amount of water in the tank which dilutes any ammonia/nitrite/nitrate levels until they can be used. The other good part of a sump is you can put heaters etc. in there to keep the clutter out of the main tank.

That's a good point - there are over 20 in there and the only 1 that made it into shot was in the top left of photo 5. I think they got a bit upset with me rescaping.

Everybody knows sleep causes cancer.

Nope! I still had 1.5 bottles of comprehensive in the fridge so these were just the 2 powders for nitrates and phosphates. I'm all out of powder now though so I'll put the special order in at the same time. I've done a ton of pruning in the last 2 days so I'm hoping for a lot of fresh growth.

Hi!

I was mucking around with camera and ended up with a few shots I thought I'd share... Played with the colour settings on the camera and got this shot. The apisto is the same bright yellow one in the other shot above Fluffy plants again :roll: I've upped the co2 and I'll be investing in a wave maker / power head

What exactly do you need help with? moving the tank/sump? plumbing? wiring? building from scratch?

I think I joined the club last week (?) but won't be able to make this meeting. Will try to get to the next one though.

I've had the water tested at HFF and there's barely any ammonia and no nitrite in either tanks. It seems my kit is reading false positives so I've replaced it. The readings I was getting were barely enough to damage even the weakest of fish (only just on the scale) and given that only 1 of the heckelli got sick, and very obviously sick, I'm banking on it being something a bit stronger than NH3/NH4. Of course, I'll never know now :roll: A couple of angels have dropped off overnight due to the prazi treatment. The rest are hanging in there. The main tank looks fine and all fish seem well and active.

I've totally ignored this tank for weeks. No trigger at all. She makes sure she's happy with the caves I've supplied then goes for it. That sucks! I wonder if it's a first winter thing? Fingers crossed for your pair. I know mine didn't lay for a fortnight or so after I rescaped.

Wow! Fantastic shots and beautiful fish. I suspect a nano isn't going to be the only marine tank I end up with long term.

The female is now leading about 50 fry around the tank. There aren't anywhere near as many predators in this tank now so I'm hoping for a few more survivors this time round. It's a nice change from the rest of my fish challenges this week.

Today's update - heckelli died in the hospital tank when I dosed with prazi. The rest of the angels are ok for now. will know more tomorrow. fingers crossed this is the cure... the angels have lost a lot of weight in the last few days and there are no signs of anything else. I suspect the heckelli had worms in it's gills which was causing the hard breathing and constant flaring of the gills.

woah there! Now you're talking marine fish which are a whole other story. I think josh is right on the money with a dwarf gourami or an apisto of some sort (see cacatoides or agassizias these are the easiest to get in nz. Otherwise do a bit of research into what fish you like in a tropical tank and sell your colder water fish. Or just accept fate and buy another tank - you'll need more tanks to feed the addiction soon enough.

Yep, it cycled properly over 4 months ago. I've clearly done something to kill off the bacteria (cold water change? over feeding perhaps) so will nurse it through the process again. I'm just scared because of the bio load in there at the moment. I'll nurse it through though. Of course that's the only visible problem in the big tank, the hospital tank has fish in it that are suffering from something else that is being exacerbated by the fact that the meds have caused it to need to cycle again too. 2 freshwater and a salt water tank cycling at the same time. Awesome.

Can't see any worms but I'm suspecting it's either worms or parasites. Would either cause the heckelli to be flaring his gills and breathing hard? I suspect ammonia burn with him but can't be sure. It'd be nice if there was a quick fix for him - he's not eating at all while the angels are racing around him to get some flake. I'm thinking a worm dose is the next thing to try. The angels are trying to rub themselves on anything they can (not flashing like I've seen with white spot but a slower version) so clearly I haven't totally killed it off. If formalin hasn't killed the parasites I figure prazi or whatever is available as a worm treatment will kill whatever's left. I've tried cycle before and it didn't help / speed anything up. Would indian fern absorb the ammonia/nitrite as it's going through or would it just suck whatever nitrates are being produced? I've got a ton of plants that are growing like crazy at the moment because I cut them all back to nearly substrate level yesterday.

Add 2 more panda cory to my total. 1 in each of the CF1200s on the big tank. The first guy I threw straight back into the tank but I fear the heckelli thought I was feeding them and snapped him up. The second one I kept in my hand in the top of the tank until the fish had given up on there being a feed involved. Didn't stop a lemon tetra racing over to have a go on him though.

So I did some more tests on the hospital tank and the big tank. It seems that while the hospital tank is half way through cycling, the big tank has both ammonia and nitrate readings :facepalm: What the hell? So I've clearly crashed the big tank and I suspect the beginnings of this process is what made the angels sick. So it'll be daily water changes (about 20%) for the big tank until the ammonia goes away and I'll be keeping an eye out for nitrite spiking too. The angels in the hospital tank were doing really well but I notice today that they're back to clamping on day 3 of the second formalin treatment. It's the longest the tank has been without a water change so I'm banking on there being high nitrite levels again. Tomorrow I intend to go on the hunt for bio media to fill the sump and finally get that going. I hope that will spread the load off the 2 canisters and seeing as the tank is going through a mini cycle I know what's coming.