alexyay

Thanks, I'll have to try once I get home. I know white worms aren't good as a staple diet, but not sure what to feed other then snails, white worms and blood worms. They won't eat anything prepared. It's a shame I've had so little luck with them lol - puffers are definitely my favourite fish along with spiny eels. Sorry, :smot:

Oh my goodness, did she do that on purpose? Glad she's an EX O_O Yeah, they get fed white worms - they aren't so keen on bloodworms (they don't squirm lol) What's the dosage for doing a bath?

Yeah, unfortunately I've done two rounds of the medication and still no luck - he's been here a few months, but still looks super skinny (especially in comparison to the fat one).

Carine had two in on Monday, I had presumed they'd found a new breeder/importer? Unfortunately they had a really bad import so they're probably trying to find better options (really sickly puffers, I lost two and they lost one that they were holding for me) - I'd be happy to bring some puffers back from Auckland for you if you want (the HFF ones are OK, I got one healthy one, but two skinny ones, one of which I lost and the other I still can't put weight back on him - but they often come with parasites so you'll want to perhaps buy antiparasite medication just in case).

Ah, I was wondering why they fungused. Thank you for all the info - I've given the female with the lump to someone who can look after her and try to heal her (the white almost looks like it's spreading, the closest thing I can find is Cauliflower disease but I can't open up a hospital tank to look after her, so I think I may need to look for another female ). I'm away this week, but next time I'll do the eggs in the cup thing. Good to know I don't have to go through the whole process with peat moss etc. So the spots above don't look like eggs to you, Sophia? Eep - I can definitely see eggs in the oto. I really hope they survive past the fry stage!

My male gourami was trying to spawn a few months ago, but the female didn't seem mature enough now the females look big enough and have big bellies - and he male hasn't started bubblenesting again. Any idea how to condition him? I'll try turning my flow down before but the idiot used to make nests anywhere - including the end of the filters - and now he's decided not to now that the females look ready. The plans for breeding them are - carefully move the nest and eggs into a new tank, along with the male - when they hatch remove the male. Does that sound about right? What do you guys feed fry - do I have any other quicker & low maintenance (even from a tube!) options rather than brine shrimp?

I've been wanting some killies for ages now, and have wanted to breed them - however there's just a couple of bits of advice that I'm looking for to breed my aphyosemion australe ("orange"?) - I ask this just in case they breed, I wasn't exactly intending on breeding them straight away (but jumped at the chance of getting the fish) What size are their eggs? Do they visibly look like eggs, or will they look like specks of white? Do they lay them in a group or all over the place? And will they spawn on moss rather than mops? (Below is what is all over my moss, but am I right in assuming they are too small for eggs? I wasn't expecting my killies to breed the first day I got them!) Do eggs require being put on peat moss and the whole process, or will they hatch if left in the tank? Is the peat moss process used predominantly for moving eggs (is this possible on non-annual killies?) Do you separate your females and males when you don't intend to breed them, or would a trio be happy permanently in a 21L together? Do you find the females get worn out? And one of the females I got appears to have a lump on her head of some kind - I noticed it the day I brought her home. It's not fluffy, but she's not as active as the other two and is looking a bit lethargic. I haven't seen her eat. Any idea as to what it is and how I can help her? I've started dosing with Pimafix just in case. Now for the otos! OK, so my 90L leaked one night so I had to rush to switch to a spare 120L tank - just before that, the two otos I had were "dancing" up and down with each other, but when moved one of them went missing and I found it today - upside down. However, a couple of days ago I bought another oto intending to up my school numbers (I swear, I'm doomed to only have two) - I found it dancing and chasing my current oto. I've been doing water changes with cold water from the hose - simply because it was convenient for me - but now one of them has a nice sized belly, which I think I can see eggs through. Can she (?) lay the eggs without the help of a male - or do I have to really hope my new one is a male? What should I do to ensure the chances of survival for the eggs and hopefully fry? Are fry big enough to survive other fish or will I have to move them? (I've been told no more tanks!) They currently live with - 3x honey gouramis 1x L129 5x Kuhlis 1x Threadfin Rainbowfish (I intend on upping his school numbers ASAP) How long will she hold the eggs and what do I feed fry? (preferably not requiring a brine shrimp setup) I've read that they lay under broad leafed plants with eggs in groups of 3-4 - is this all they lay or do they lay more eggs over a period of time? Thanks for reading my TL;DR post

I've read raising the temperature can help but I have a feeling your shrimp may not like that?

I personally wouldn't recommend anything more than one puffer if it's a talk tank, as they get pretty aggressive if it's not densely planted. Also, otos should be in groups of 3 so it would probably be too much for a 19L. Fig 8s show up rarely, so I presume you have to order then in if you want one.

What's BGA and dust algae? And we plan in dosing it with ferts, I just want the bba to go away lol. The SAEs are cleaning it up nicely, but that's not really a solution. Do you recommend glass or plastic accessories?

What temp do you have him at that you can have shrimp with him?

So the goldfish isn't in the tank with all your loaches and dying fish? Sorry if I read your post wrong. The clown loaches also hey up to 1ft long, so they'll need to be moved eventually Yep, the water is safe to use straight out if the tap provided its dechlorinated if you have chlorine in your water.

All dead now. Still don't know what it was, but I guess it was worth testing it out.

A goldfish, in the tropical tank? Your tank is pretty overstocked anyway - I'd recommend getting rid IOC some of the fish (eg the clown loaches need a way bigger tank). Do you dechlorinate the water? Like someone mentioned above - imo scrap the carbon and get something with a lather surface area (ceramics for example). Perhaps add some extra filtration -- the aqua one HOBs (imo) don't work that great and are only good on low stocking levels.

That too - I'm pretty sure Carine keep all their tanks (other than species specific ones) at the same parameters (eg. their brackish bumblebee gobies were in a FW tank rather than a brackish specific).

I haven't looked for peat moss in Carine but Animates will usually have it. I've found most fish (despite being listed as neutral) are happy with the 7.6/7.8pH that my tank is. (I have kuhlis without any issues, along with a (currently lone: I'll get more once they're in stock) threadfin rainbow, black neon tetras and other "low pH" fish). I've never tried glass catfish, though.

Problem is, the balas are eating your other fish and will eventually be stunted. The clown loach needs a way bigger tank & a school so those are priorities too.

Do you intend on upgrading for the bala sharks & plecos? I say get rid of them lol - if anything a 160L will stunt them and the balas will continue eating any small fish you stick in there - the clown loach (needs to be in a group imo) will need to be moved eventually too. Your barbs and tetras will be fine with the plants - the kribs and rams may be fine together assuming they're not breeding and have loads of space?

I haven't tried it myself but I've heard positive results from this type of divider - http://www.fishforums.com/forum/bettas/ ... ettas.html - of course the craft mesh isn't that great if you've got a big tank. I'm going to be trying to divide my tank for fry with a sort of foam, no idea how it will go but I may put filter wool or something similar wrapped around it to make sure no fry can get through it. Not sure how well the foam works though :dunno:

I guess my first question is - is it just flourish excel that kills black brush algae or will a CO2 system work too? Dad's got a 450L tank, so obviously (at a larger-than-recommended dose) he's going through flourish excel at a point where it's just a ridiculous cost - the BBA doesn't seem to be dying either So, he's considering investing in a CO2 system - however we're both pretty clueless and have no idea where to start. Can someone please list the things we would need (preferably "pre packaged" but it depends on the cost of that vs. DIY) for a low maintenance system for the 450L tank - he only has low light plants in there at the moment. Thank you :thup: the BBA is INSANE. It's just everywhere - he's got some SAEs but they're taking a while to do the job lol.

Don't even bother with the Blue Planet heaters, bring it back and get your money back lol. I've bought two and both were faulty - one would only bring the tank to 21 degrees, the other brought it up to 30 o_o (heaters set at 26). When bringing mine back I've had stores tell me they have had loads of issues with them.

Some of it is still alive, but barely. The rest looks to have died off/melted away.

I've got three dwarf puffers (bought from HFF two weeks ago - were skinny since I got them but are healthy otherwise, swimming about etc) - one is a nice size, one's on the skinny end and the other's body is pretty much concave. I've dewormed them with something I got from the Bird Barn - however they don't know what medication it is as they get it from their supplier as "Dewormer" He's currently eating snails and white worms - except any food goes through him! One white worm came out the other end... still alive. The skinniest is currently in a breeder net so that I can fatten him up, but I can't if food is going straight through :c What kind of parasite medications can I get for this? Is there one I can get from HFF shipped to Tauranga? I had two DPFs (the second I got free) from my LFS, but they were both clearly very sick in the store and wouldn't eat at all. However, the water parameters are spot on and I've done a fair amount of water changes lately. Also, a bit off topic, but if I were to have a staple diet, what kind of worms would you guys recommend? It's hard to get nearly enough snails as a staple diet, they won't eat anything prepared (including bloodworms) - I've read whiteworms are quite fatty, so are there any other types that would work for a staple diet?

:nilly: I need some DPF help! So I've isolated the skinniest guy in a breeder net so that he could at least get some food... but now I've discovered that any food that he gets just goes right through him? I've used a dewormer that I got from the Bird Barn (they don't know what it's called, it's called de-wormer from the importer) but that was at the beginning of the week and I presume it would have taken effect by now? Are there any other anti-parasite medications I should buy? Should I contact HFF to see if they can send anything down for me? When I say any food is going right through him - he ate some white worms, and it came out the other end still wriggling :sick: I don't know about the other skinny-ish one but the fat one is looking to be just fine. Help!

It's a threadfin rainbowfish they only had one in stock but I'm planning on building up a school of 7 over a period of time. A cruddy photo of it - I swear it's impossible to get photos of (I can never get its face in focus lol)