alexyay

This guy is apparently an import to definitely not one of his offspring - but I plan on breeding him to a nice female (I have a lot of research to do first) once I move (in a few months time)

I didn't know it was a true aquatic - but this doesn't have a stem, does it?

Some real cruddy photos and an update - Gosh, everything has been pretty messy. My 90L's Aqua Clear HOB filter (my favourite filter too ) leaked - had been doing this for a few days to a week. Fortunately insurance is covering everything but the carpet moulded and dirty water got into the wall. And luckily I was cycling an Aqua One 1000 canister on the same tank so filtration was covered. And, if that wasn't enough, the next week I was cleaning the tank and noticed water piling up to one side. Wiped it down, and the water kept flowing. It was a 2nd hand tank and the silicone had been re-done (really awfully done), but I had hoped that if I didn't touch the silicone it wouldn't leak :tears: However the day before we were coming back from Fielding - Mum was at a friends talking about my fish and they said "Hey, we've got a spare tank if you want it?" - so I had a nice new-looking 120L to put everything into. So at about 8pm we did a panicked switch from one tank to the other and everything was a mess - rocks were everywhere and I didn't have enough substrate, so it's not until recently that I've scaped the tank and make it look almost presentable. Well, I guess I was planning on upgrading... The skinny puffer got pop-eye and got really sick, but he managed to stay alive and is looking a lot better. He's still blind in the eye and it's still "pop"y but there's not much I can do. I had to give away the other puffer (who is way healthier but I'm attached to this guy lol) because he was beating him up and competing for food. I have a black neon tetra which looks like it's going to explode - we think it's egg bound, but it's been like this for 4-5 weeks so we're not sure what to do. It's still eating and shoaling with the others, so it doesn't appear sick or unhappy. I got a new fighter - a blue mustard gas dragonscale HM - it's hard to tell but he's gooorgeous when he flares. (ahh, the tank is being attacked by GSA again, sorry) I also got myself a killi trio (orange lyretail), but one came home with what we thought was cauliflower disease, and quickly turned into a fungal infection - we lost her, the other one also wouldn't eat and got lethargic and died. The temperature was a bit too high, but the male was looking super healthy. We could only buy them in pairs so we got a female-male pair - the male is at Dad's in his own little tank, and the female is in my tank looking pretty healthy. She hasn't spawned yet and is getting chased constantly by the male, so we're looking for three more at the moment (one more for my tank, two more for his). Tanks - 21L - killi tank Stock - Male and female pair, Aphyosemion australe "orange" Super messy 31L - puffer tank Stock - one dwarf puffer (unsure of sex) When I had the 90L, the 31L shared its lighting - but when I changed I had to find some more lighting for it. I bought a 2nd hand Aqua One T5-LO 18W unit (flickers when it turns on?), but changed to a 10W LED flood light. The flood light seemed to keep the plants happy, but I gave it to Dad and switched back to the Aqua One unit. Then after a week of being away (no changes in ferts or anything), my amazon sword lost most of its leaves, my barthii sword now has two leaves left (was looking really healthy before that) and my riccia moss turned into brown mulch. Ew. So once I get paid I'll try switching to the Beamswork LEDs. 70L also messy planted tank. Stock - 1x Betta 7x gold pristella tetras 6x black neon tetras 1x regular BN 2x calico longfin BNs Plants sitting around the front are just being revived and are there so I can keep an eye on them. The sword has literally outgrown the tank and its leaves are now growing in the tank hood. Also, when can you split an anubias rhizome (also, what species is this? I was given it for free about a year ago) And last of all, the 120L - also pretty messy planted tank. Stock - 2x red thicklipped gourami (I still haven't put them in a breeding tank, but I did get them breeding - except he hadn't bubblenested and all the eggs got eaten) 1x SAE (temporary, was supposed to clean up the BBA, hasn't done that yet but is feasting on the green hair algae) 5x threadfin rainbows (males have their "maturity" stripes now - the lone guy is looking a LOT happier too now that he's got buddies. They're gorgeous when they flare their fins, waiting for the females to become plump with eggs and may have a go breeding them?) 3x otos (Not having much luck with these - just regularly losing any new ones, lost on in the emergency tank transfer, and lost the egg bearing one which I think maybe became eggbound) 5x red whiptail catfish (growing out two of them for Dad) 5x Kuhli loach 1x L129 The side walls of this tank are being overloaded with GSA, but not sure what would be strong enough to eat GSA - but it's a new tank so I'll give it time to settle. Also got some BBA issues with this tank, it's manageable but just a pain. (Do you guys reckon some american flagfish would be OK in this tank? Looking at 1 male, 2-3 females) Here's the thicklipped gourami bubblenesting and breeding -

I'd probably say about 6-10 cories in with a betta, or 6 cories in with a school of tetras. Bigger is better for tank size, though Juwel tanks would be my recommendation (the Koral 60 I believe?) - they're pretty gorgeous and are relatively reliable (as far as I'm aware). However you might be out of luck for finding tanks with in built LED lights. I believe AquaManta now has a model out with LEDs but I don't know whether they're readily available - Blue Planet I believe uses LEDs but I wouldn't recommend them one bit (they're not known for being a reliable brand!). So unfortunately for LEDs you may have to be doing some DIY, but as long as you have a hood it should all be hidden. *some* tanks now have a compartment at the back where you can put your heater and where the filter is located, and it just looks like the tank back, but I haven't seen them on tanks over 30L. I personally hate my BP 70L tall - I actually don't mind the filter but it does leak & it's in a position where I have to bring the media out and bring it over the tank water so I have to make sure it's covered so none gets in. The light lost its strength quite quickly but 2 years later it's still going. But back to the tall - long is typically better for stocking as it has a larger footprint, and I hate scaping tall tanks. I have a little Aqua One 31L cube type tank. I hate their HOB filters. Otherwise the tank is OK (I switched to an aquamanta HOB filter - it doesn't come with much media but it's silent and smooth). 5mm glass sounds pretty thin, and if it's got curved edges it'll be expensive to replace any broken glass (I'm in the middle of dealing with the aftermath of a leaky filter & and emergency tank switch - it's not fun). I'd say go for a 90L It'll start to feel small pretty quickly. My biggest is a 120L and it feels teensy! However, I like my custom tanks. I know they have no hood but I don't mind not being able to hide stuff - they can look pretty clean with a nice fitting light unit. This will give you loads of other opens for LEDs and custom fit things For them - I like where the edges have a glass cover - it's easier to place lighting units on it and I find it easier to put the glass hood on. But it can also be a pain to get into the tight corners to clean. TL;DR just a bunch of ramblings on what I like and don't like - first paragraph are my stocking recommendations.

5050 are recommended but the strips typically don't give nearly enough output to grow plants, let alone corals (unless you're willing to pay a fair amount of money).

Yeah - I think herbivores might have less of an issue but I've noticed the carnivorous fish really have trouble when they're blind - I just didn't really see any reason to get blind bettas into the gene pool but if you can "fix" the strain that'd be pretty cool (I'd be interested to know more about them too). My puffer went blind in one eye (I think he wounded it and pop eye developed from there), and he won't see food even if it's right in front of him - I had to move the other because he simply couldn't get food in time. I usually keep my fighters in my community tank so I guess not having "disabled" fish isn't really my aim. A white one will do just fine for me lol.

Ah okay. Longfins aren't outcompeted in captive tanks though, where it seems to be the albinos are (may not even do well in isolation). So I'm not saying low chances of survival in the wild (most of our current fish wouldn't do so well in the wild!) but low chance of survival in captivity is something different.

Not an attack, but out of curiosity, if the albinos have a low chance of survival and need their eyesight (and often get bad eyes), should we be breeding more of them? (other to find out about their genetics)

The last time I asked I was told there was nothing I could do (and boy are their tubes expensive to replace!) :c My only other thoughts would be to place something like LED strip lighting in the hood, or see what you can do to remove the hood and change whatever is contained in the lighting section, but that would involve a fair amount of DIY (and skills that I don't have). However, with my 11W I've been able to grow most plants, assuming they are not very high light (eg. red plants). My tank currently contains riccia moss, and amazon sword, dwarf baby tears, dwarf hairgrass, h polysperma, cabomba (used to grow ambulia like a weed until I tore it all out), anubias (a light green kind, not sure of its name), java fern (narrow and broad leaf) & two other hygro species (unsure of their names though). I also had h. polysperma "sunset" growing but it was a slow grower. I've also had this light running for about 2 years @ around 7/8 hours a day, its not quite as strong as it was when I first got it but it's too expensive to replace lol

I got tired of lugging buckets around, so I now do mine from the hose too. I live in TGA (don't have a rainwater tank) and sometimes forget conditioner & haven't had any issues, but I've probably just been lucky. Note that apparently if you're doing it from a hose you need to dose the whole tank. I use the API Stress Coat+ - used to have Aqua One conditioner before that. Haven't really noticed a difference in brands.

What LFS was this? Stupidest advice I've heard lol

Great, thanks I will lower the temperature further for my remaining pair - I looked at them and figured they were being sold as adult fish, maybe I'll have to source some privately. I jumped at the chance of getting some and because I had to breed orange-orange I replaced my female because I wasn't sure when I would next be able to get one. I had been told that they could be at your typical community temps - maybe I'll have to sell my second male as all our communities are at 26/27 Haha, it's always the fish that I like best that have issues, of course

Yup, it's well planted - I know it may be difficult for me to get eggs etc but I prefer the look of it and I imagine the fish like the plants. It's just 1 on 1, the other male is in my community & will be going into Dad's tank - but knowing they prefer lower temps, will 26 degrees be OK as a permanent home?

Is it possible to have a male stress out the female to the point where she dies? Just making sure it's okay to place him with the female lol

She didn't make it I'm down to my last (3rd) female and have 2 males cause I could only buy the last female in a pair lol. I'm hoping she stays healthy, otherwise I might give up :c the only reason why I'm not totally blaming myself is because my males are perfectly fine but having only 2 males won't help me much lol.

She's now on the substrate gasping - temp is down to 24/25 reducing it slowly. I feel so powerless I'm not sure what else I can do for her to make a miraculous recovery.

Okay - I'll stick her back in the main tank and turn the temp down. He hasn't even gone near her - the old female he used to pick on but he's left her alone. I can try to add some peat to the filter (unless it works being added just in the tank?) and some salt. Thanks! She doesn't look like she's got much life left in her Alanmin, unfortunately I lost the killi with the fugus.

Well, I'm not having very much luck at all. The first killi female - we thought it was likely to be Cauliflower disease, and brought her up to Auckland to be put in a hospital tank. Unfortunately it progressed really quickly and on the last two days she was covered in fungus-like-fuzz and then on her last day she was upside down The female in the tank now isn't looking very happy either. Nothing is wrong physically - her body looks normal. But she's got clamped fins, not eating and is looking lethargic. I've tried feeding her flakes, bloodworms and white worms. She won't eat anything. pH - 7-7.2, Ammonia - 0, Nitrites - 0, Nitrates - 0, Temp @ 26/27 degrees. I've moved her into the main tank just to see if maybe there was something wrong in her current tank? But it's been newly set up, so I have no idea what's going on. My male is looking super healthy. Any help? :dunno: No news on the oto - I got three more yesterday but lost one already (they were all looking happy and healthy too ), she still looks like she's bearing eggs. The honey gouramis bred yesterday, just as I came home after a week of being in Auckland (so they hadn't been conditioned or anything) - except the male hadn't made a nest at all so wasn't sure what to do with the eggs. The eggs quickly got eaten by any other fish in the tank! < video.

It'll up your pH but I don't think you'll have an issue with the cement - soak it for a while, blast it down with water and it should be good to go. Otherwise, surely there's something you can coat the cement with? I'd hate to see all your hard work go to waste! I'm sure I've seen rock walls made with concrete before?

Not something I would bother with. It'll probably break down and I wouldn't like to think what pine wood leeches out :c

Woohoo! Corykittens! New water may introduce good minerals for the fish & plants but on my heavily planted tank I tend to do WCs every fortnight as nitrates have never been an issue there either. Although for stocking levels you may just want to do regular WCs - because they're the only bottom dweller you have I probably wouldn't worry about space issues, only bioload issues. I'd say they'd be fine, provided you're OK with doing slightly larger or more frequent water changes c:

Okay, thanks! I'll see if HFF have any left over (hopefully not fungused this time ) because I doubt I'll find any for a while!

Great, so ideally I'm looking for an orange but a gold will be OK? Now to find one, lol.

Thanks, I'll have a look now. I hadn't heard of orange, so wasn't sure if it's right - presuming they're called gold, I should be looking for another gold then?

I recently got a trio of "orange" (is that correct or has it been mistaken for another colour type) Aphyosemion australes from HFF, however one was sick (from the day I got it) and from what we can tell had a fungus issue, anyway, it progressed incredibly quick over a week and we lost her. This means I have two and am looking for another female. My male looks pretty much like this - Has anyone documented the genetics on these fish and what colouring is dominant (I would presume chocolates and breed with golds, golds with orange etc)? If I get a female chocolate or gold, what am I likely to see in the fry? What colour types are available here in NZ? Also, how tolerant are killies of line breeding - or is it a good idea to regularly get in new fish in order to keep it diverse? I'm new to killies but am trying to do plenty of research, so any help or advice is appreciated :thup: