Zuri_08

I quite enjoy watching this energetic fish - but now I really do feel he needs a bigger home quickly! Are there people that would buy large fish? I hope so... and yep, he was a little aggressive towards the platties but seems ok with other fish. I wonder if this is a socialisation issue, I mean, if they are not introduced to various fish species when they are young, are these fish more likely to be aggressive to different fish species when older?. I say this because he doesn't bother the neons at all, and to begin with it was just him and neons.

Yeah, thats what I was thinking... I'll find him a new home... Thanks.

Hello I have a black lined flying-fox who loves to swim, circle and jump. The problem is he has a small tank (28L). When he was smaller he loved to do back-flips out of the water, now he still jumps but hits the aquarium lid, and then smashes into the gravel. He has been doing this for about a week (the hitting the top and bottom of the tank, otherwise he is just an energetic fish). Question: I am wondering if he is going to be stressed in the small sized tank and if he would prefer being in a bigger tank, I'm kinda guessing that is the reason, but just thought I would ask some knowledgeable fishy people... and I'd love to get a bigger tank but there is no room for one... and I am quite proud of this fish... so would have to sell him if his odd behaviour is due to a cramped environment.

Thanks, that was all I needed to know :-)

Hello I have some baby platties that will need to be transported soon, and I was wondering how old they need to be to survive being bagged up and moved? Some of the platties are a couple of months old, some are about a month old, all variuos sizes. Thanks.

Perhaps employ a black-lined flying fox; they are cool fish and he or she will gobble up the black beard algae. I'm not sure about the green algae - if it feels slimy and is a bright green it might be cyano-bacteria. Green water, I've recently learnt, is caused by high nitrate levels. I've read that too much of one nutrient can lead to an algae bloom and just recently I had nigh nitrate. If there are no fish in your planted tank though you probably don't have high nitrate, unless there is lots of rotting stuff in there. I don't know if that helps but I thought I would share :-)

Hello I've been keeping tropical fish for about 7 months now - all is going well and I've NEVER added salt. I've never heard of adding salt to the water - a tablespoon of salt per 10% water change just seems enormous to me. What would happen if you did a big water change and didn't add any salt?

Oh, so is it only Nitrate I should worry about? Are there different tests for that one? That is a good idea about testing it - though I wouldn't be sure of mixing chemicals in case of some chemical reacation... I don't know much about this stuff. reptilez: Yep, API, numbers on the actual bottle: bottle1: 0711, bottle2: 0811.

Thanks critter_crazy. reptilez: The bar code has numbers to either side of it, so I'm not sure if those are part of the bar code or not... but the whole code is: 3 17163 00086 1. The product number: LR8600. Was there a bad batch?

Thanks for the comments everyone. I was thinking the ammonia would be high because there are too many fish in my tank (two platties had lots of babies and now there are too many - how big do they need to be before I can start giving them away?). The gills of the fish are a little red - I had read that was a sign of high ammonia. Also, i've used the test strips many times before with the ammonia part staying almost white - and now I've tested with the strips a few times and it goes pink (and I've changed about 1/3 of the water now). I did find shaking the second bottle of solution in the other test made a more green result too; someone on another forum had suggested the chemical settles, or something, in the second bottle. My tank has been running for about 7 months. I really need a second tank!

Hello I have a tropical fish tank and two tests for measuring ammonia levels. I have been using the API ammonia test kit (that has two bottles of solution) and the result is always yellow, even when i suspect ammonia level is high (there are too many fish in my tank). However today I also used the API "5 in 1 Aquarium test strips" and got a high ammonia reading (I tested ammonia using both methods at the same time today). Anyone know why the test strips seem to give a much higher reading for ammonia than the test using test bottles? Thanks.

Hello again peoples I was wondering, for those who live in Hamilton, if anyone would be interested in some fish swapping? I have a female and young male platty, silver/blue colour, I wouldn't mind swapping for a red female platty? I quite like observing the baby platties in my tank (and I'm not sure on the correct spelling of "platties"). The little platties I have at the moment will soon need to be re-homed, perhaps for 2 dollars each? They are really pretty. I'm also curious of what platties would look like if the silver/blue was crossed with a red platty...

Thanks for your comments - I really don't think I could kill any fish though! I guess I will just have to see what happens, giving it a month maybe... I only want a few dollars for the fish (except for the flying-fox, I'm quite proud of him) so Trademe might work out, otherwise I'll give them away to whoever can pick them up. :-)

Hello I was just wondering; when the fish in your little tank start to multiply, do people manage to successfully sell or re-home these extra fish? I have a little tank and the two platties happen to be one male and one female and now I have lots of baby platties. They are too small to give away just yet, but I have been trying to sell a flying-fox algae eater on Trademe, no buyers yet, and the thought occurred to me; what if I cannot re-home these fish? I do not want to get another tank. Have others had any success with selling and re-homing their fish extras? Preferably I would like to make a little money (not just give them away) so I have some money to keep spending on this hobby... any suggestions? Comments?

Thanks again for the helpful thoughts ilwis. Feeding both sinking and floating food helps, a little. I've now noticed a number of little baby fish - oh gosh - it is going to get overstocked with Platties very quickly! I'll have to give some away. I never knew fish keeping could be so exciting! :-)