Wazza

Sorry just read your 1st post again, Try a little crumble as well. They are herbivore and only have small mouths and perfer to eat small quantites several times a day.

Ainjil perhapes they are too new and have not fully settled in, or are just not hungy, they do seam to be small eaters and I feed mine 3 times a day with a little at a time. Try attaching a cloths peg to a bunch of lettuce so it floats half way down the tank. The lettuce leaf should be fresh with no dressing and see if they nibble at it.

Sorry about your dreadful loss, how are the survivers going today?

Hi Staplez. I have 4 of them and their eating habbits apart from eating plants and lettuce they are a top feeder. I use floating pallets that they eat from the surface of the water. They are so peacefull that they get alone and schole with other big fish, mine are with Tinfoils and Silver sharks and all swim together.

This is very normal, apparently as Plecos gets bigger they need more air so they suck up air like we do. So I have been told anyway, seams logical to me.

Thanks Bill No I didn't but then again he was sucking my finger at the time. This firemouth is going on his big OE to Auckland shortly.

Moved my big boy today, thanks Bill for the advice it worked! Coached him into a pipe net covering one end hand the other, and the bugger bit me, OK no teeth but held on like no one business. He is 33.5cm long and 7cm in diameter at his widest part, not including fins. Well you can see him here. I think he is a he!

I give my filters a quick sweil in a bucket of used tank water after I do a water change, I find it works ok to remove the large particles but still leaves the baciteria intack.

Hi all the above are what you need, just to let you know what I use. 1- Stress Coat in the top-up water when I do water changes, (15% every Sunday). 2- Melafix when I add new fish or make big changes within the tank. 3- Ground Shell, in my filters which keeps the water at the right PH, (you have to experiment a bit to find the right amount). 4- PH test kit, test once a week. 5- Ammonia, Nitrite and nitrate test kits, test once a month. 6- Flourish excel to help control algee growth. Nothing else, but every tank is different so you will need to find the right balance to suit your tank/s. Good luck

Hi Brian The others have already said everything important. I have found this site great for determining fish sizes and capability http://www.fishprofiles.com/profiles/fw/ Clown Loach's and Silver Dollars are great fish, and very peaceful but they grow very big and your size tank can no way support them. They will wake up one day and find they can not turn around. When looking for fish for your tank you need to consider: 1- Will they live ok with other fish you have. Some fish like the Black Shark and Tiger Barbs will haress other fish, and some will eat them too. 2- How big will they grow, and how fast, some fish grow slowly and you maybe able to swap / sell them later on. 3- Have I enought hiding places for my fish. Some fish like the Kuhil Loach look nice, but you may never see them as the hide under rocks etc in the light and come out in darkness. I have found that a larger tank is easer to maintain than a small tank, and you can add more of the fish that you like. Also remember that your lfs may not tell you the full truth about you purchase as they are there to make money. What ever you get make sure that you get a couple of bottom feeders as they will help keep you tank floor clean. And have fun. It's much more than great hobby.

Hi John and welcome, I have the same problem with my plecos, but I have 3 (yeah I know but I just love them). I have set up another tank just for big fish with no plants and the big big boy is moving there, while the 2 smaller ones will remain in the community tank until they get a bit bigger then move them too. Otherwise I will never get plants to grow.

ahh you never know whos who with the nic names trying to sort out where to put the sucker.

I don't know the actual sizes yet, it's one that has been offered to me, all I know is the volume and that I need to work out heating ect. Thanks

Hi all, Can anyone tell me the best way to heat a 900 litre tank which has a 100 litre sump. Eg is it best to use multile heaters in the sump or split them up between the sump and the main tank? And I guess that I would need heating units of about 900 - 100 watts? Thanks in advance

You need at least 5 Clowns for them to be happy, at about $25 per fish take good care of the water and provide heaps of hiding places. They feed off the bottom and love toys, tunnels, air bubbles etc.

Don't know if this helps, I had 5 Tigers and 5 Golden Tigers to start with, as they say to keep then in larger groups and at a odd number of fish. I am now left with 3 golden in one tank and one tiger in another tank. Problem was two tigers chasing and niping the others, lost two goldens before I worked out the problem, I seperated the tigers from the goldens then the tigers turned on each other, I sent two tigers packing. The end result is that the Tigers are agressive and prey on themselves and others.

I have 5 Clowns at the moment, and yes some of them sleep on their sides, but I have found that the 5 will sleep together in a heap (side by side never on top of each other). They love to play with each other and with the other fish, 1 little 1 spends a lot of time riding the air bubbles up then swim down the bubbles to do it again. They eat anything and you must have a tunnel for them to swim in. You need to be very careful about stress with them, when they get stressed they hide for hours and go paler in colour, but after a few hours (6 -7) they back to normal.

Thanks guys, yes it was the tank in Morrinsville, however on my way out there on Friday morning I phoned for directions and he told me the tank was sold the night before. I wish I could got there Thursday. So I am still looking.

Right here we go! I am looking at buying a second hand marine tank, 8ft 1900L, with all the equipment, (tank is running at the moment and has been for years). Once I get it home, does a saltwater tank cycle the same way as a freshwater tank? With water changes, how much and how often is recommended? Apart from the extra lights does live rock need any other special care? Any major pitfalls that are different from freshwater that I should be aware of? The reason for my questions is that as you can tell I have not had any experience with saltwater so I need to learn and I am thinking about turning it in to a fresh water tank. So your thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks in advance, (May need scuba gear to clean the sucker!)

Hi fins I wish now that I didn't put in UG filter as a heap on muck forms under the plates. What I did do was put a couple of hoses in and connected them to a small pump and each water change I pump out the muck, or as much as i can.

Here is one of my RTB-Sharks, unfortunately they swim at warp speed and hate having their photo taken. I know this is not the best shot (Photo taken at high res and 800 ISO), but he is hansom. Since I moved his mate to the other tank they have both developed a richer colour in their tails. In fact the other one in the Tinfoil tank chases the Tinfoils in a game of tag.

Hi, I'm told that they grow to about 10 inches in the wild, but normally about about 6 in the tank. Ask me in few years time to see. Mine have grown about 2cm in the last 2 months if thats any indidcation. They are just fun to watch and they love riding up the bubbles from an air stone. They dig alot for food from the gravel don't care about the other fishes. Mine spend alot of time together side by side. As Doch says they mine the gravel and often between them and the Firemouths the entire floor of the tank has a different shape to what it was the day before, rocks buried one day the completely un-covered the next and then the there is the sound of gravel being tosed at the tank glass. I'm looking for another pair, but all I have found so far just don't look right.

Oh no there are two of them and the one on the right in pailer and thinner black sripes, I wish I had a few more but these two are really good mates.

We don't normally see these two out together, but they have started to make public appearances often and also putting on quite a show.

Hi Booger, I have a 200L tank that is heavily stocked, and I run an external canister filter pumping 700L/h, an internal filter @600L/h and UG filters. I clean out the crap in the canister once a month and rinse the internal foam block in used tank water. I also place a length of air hose under the gravel plates and suck out the waste from there too. I am still astounded just how much waste and muck the tank produces. The guys in these rooms once told me that you can’t overfilter, and they are right. So my suggestion is to have at least 2 filters running. That’s my 2 cents worth.