ilwis

:gpo2: smidey i totally agree with everything there also whenever i separate a fish i don't use breeders as they stress the fish i just slide a pane of glass across the corner of the tank to make a triangle section and put the fish in there they are much happier when they can reach the ground

i just do water changes of how ever much i feel like (usually 50%) when the ammonia comes up so some of my tanks are each week some not for months because it never comes up anyway so i just do one because its good for the fish also i find if i ever get a bit of algae in the tank i just put a brisslenose or a pleco in the tank and that soon fixes it right up so most of my tanks are very low maintenance also with he plants if your red/purple plants are not bright then they don't have enough light they are more light hungry than green ones (generally) and if your green ones are not looking crisp either something is eating them or if its kinda brown also not enough light but that's mostly all ya have to think about everything else is kinda more like how many fish can i have oh i don't clean my heater i rinse my plants sometimes when putting them in and if your water is turning brown its coming out of the wood tho if its not its because your wood has had all the die leached out of it

well that sux :ske:

lol yea your platties will reproduce about every 28 days

lol its alright i can read most cryptic messages

really? Ive always found when i use superglue around water it just peels away with hardly any stick i also didn't know about using it with corals in salt water tanks because Ive only got fresh water and always used silicone i think Ive now found a new little friend .. MR SUPER GLUE!!!!!

other than the toxic elements of super glue superglue is only super if its dry it just wont hold for long at all if its wet might be worth hitting mitre 10 for the right silicone that's $20, after all are the fish not worth the $20 to keep them happy and know they will live? other option is squeeze a bit of hose over both ends?

lol quote of the century :gpo2: thats how they deal with sharks in tanks to stop them eating all the other fish

id give them a try if you can get your backup tank up and running but then you can get stuck with a group of barbs and a BGK in separate tanks

how many barbs? and do you have another tank to put the rest in should it fail?

sweet ill go for a walk tonight

lol i have a kinda stagnate pond a quick walk away from my house will that do? a do you see / i know they are really small but can you see them?

also i don't think its overstocked tho i wouldn't go buying any more fish for that tank if surfing trademe can find a 50ltr for about $20 tho i always recommend to anyone to get a 100 liter at least as bigger tanks are easier to look after and more flexibility of fish and aqua-scape you can have also wider or longer is better than taller in my opinion

oh now that's a bit of a different story i thought you were referring to the other types of algae eaters, the blackline flying fox is territorial to other fish it looks similar to but its also very much protective over food for going away for a while you would need to have food in more places than one or he will do that also he may eat your baby fish if they start looking a bit sickly he can eat them up in 2 seconds (he can eat half a dead plattie in about 30 mins) best idea is feed flake for your other fish and sinking foods for him then you wont really see the aggression as much especially if he is well fed he may still try chase other fish sometimes but it should be alright flying foxes are a good fish to have because they are one of the few fish to keep away blackbeard (a unsightly moss/algae that looks funnily enough like tuffs or strings of a black beard)

that's hilarious! :rotf: :lar: :gpo2:

almost right... life shortened in cooler temps tho will still live about 3/4 of their normal life expectancy unless other conditions prevent life length (eg tank size) in which case life length is about the same people will scratch their heads about this one but.. carps (and goldfish as goldfish is a breed of carps) will grow to the maximum size their environment will allow and then die (so the pet store guy was right in a sense it wont grow too big for the tank (it will just die) goldfish in the wild have been rumored to live to over 150 years old by some monks lol) tho i believe the oldest captive goldfish is only 43 at 11.5cm at death the wild ones have been caught over 1m in length (a quick search on google showed one weighing 13.6kg) carp and also inherently goldfish are related to crocodiles and frogs both also share this growth trait that will grow to size of their environment but usually die when getting to large by the energy spent to move to amount to eat ratio, so in effect starving to death as to different disease possibilities yes this is also true but not too common, primarily due to not many people mixing goldfish with other tropical fish, yes they co exist in the wild but once in captivity because of how the live fish market is structured different strains of diseases have occurred on tropical s and goldfish from each other, mostly inherent to how messy goldfish are (one of the messiest of all freshwater fish) is why they are not usually mixed in the market, this messiness means that tanks need to be kept a closer attention to them as to not make other fish sick with their waste, so if keeping a clean tank wont have much of a problem, but too much effort and not necessary for the breeders or importers to deal with, due to goldfish having been raised this way the other strains of disease is one of the main reasons why goldfish and carp(inherently) have different more strict importing regulations into nz long story short (great when short story is at the end) goldfish can live in tropical waters with other tropical fish in large tanks fyi: goldfish have minimum 3 month memory span can recognize objects and can be trained to do tricks by use of different colored lights (don't ask what tricks because i don't know that's a wiki quote about the lights and tricks)

just needs to be heavily oxygenated water so the more bubbles the better but if you see them gasping the surface there wont be enough oxygen in the tank so do the 50% water change if you see that also as a side note, might be a good idea to add some stabilizer (its a blue bottle you buy in the store) to the water when you move the tank just helps the fish keep happy by adding some bacteria to the tank, it wont be necessary but it will help diminish the amount of water you need from the old tank, if you follow the directions on the bottle its possible (but not recommended ,but i do do it when moving tanks or other special cases) to do 100% water changes

sorry mel im a little skeptical of what your saying, i know you have had alot of experience with fish and respect what you say but i have seen a number of times gold fish in tropical water usually around 27-28c and being from a tropical climate in the first instance it would make sense that they would be fine in tropical tanks since they were gasping im inclined to think that they might of not had enough oxygen in there tank and that is a common problem in fish rooms gold fish are rated one of the highest oxygen consumers of all the fresh water species so im quite inclined that may have been your problem also how long did you take to increase the fish from a cold outdoor pond to a warm indoor tank? im not saying your wrong because as you know every fish is different and reacts differently to different changes in life so it may well have been the case with your fish but all other instances other than yours the fish have been quite happy in tropical tanks

you can put young angels in tho keep a eye on them as they may have to be moved out when they get bigger, there is a 50% chance they may decide your neions are a good food. the gourmais wont be a problem. you can put most community fish in there and a few types of other fish in, i wouldn't go with the silver dollars tho, if you like there shape take a look at the red fin tetra its a bit smaller but looks similar (i could be wrong with the name it looks like a silver dollar but its a tetra with a high dorsal fin with red on the tip and doesn't grow as big) with the black beard just taking the plants away wont help much at all best way to deal with that is get a black line flying fox that will eat the budding black beard but it wont eat any established black beard, very very few fish will eat established black beard as its quite a hard plant, the only reliable way to get rid of what is there is to do a double dose of flourish excel (has to be excel) its a method of treatment not mentioned on the bottle because if your tank doesn't have enough oxygen can cause the fish to die by raising the co2 content too high so method of treatment: insure your tank has lots of bubbles, introduce your new black line flying fox fish (don't forget he will eat sinking pellets and dead fish) , double dose with flourish excel, 3 days later do a 30% water change and if necessary do another double dose of excel followed by another 30%water change 3 days later and continue this cycle as long as necessary tho most tanks will have it sorted after the first or second time also to be aware of: when doing this treatment method if fish seem distressed gasping at the surface or just showing up dead do a immediate 50% water change and discontinue treatment for a week also increase bubbles good news about the treatment black beard will go and your plants will skyrocket their growth during the treatment time also welcome to the forum!

i just re read your post are you referring to the black line flying fox as the algae eater or to another fish in your tank commonly refereed to as algae eaters (golden algae eater/brown algae eater/Chinese eyed algae eater/or the like)

unfortunately it can increase the only thing i have heard to stem the aggression is to feed it more but i don't know how well that works or for how long as Ive never had the problem myself since your enjoying the hobble have you considered getting a larger tank? bigger tanks are easier to too look after (water conditions) and you will be able to keep your fish and get some more to enjoy?

whats the best way to get daphnia going? im not even sure i know how they look im a bit of a failure with live foods so far cant seem to even get brine shrimp hatching (tho that's all Ive tried) and i guess mosie lova is a bucket with a bit of wood in it outside

yea i don't know why anyone hasn't mentioned that goldfish have a natural habitat of tropical waters (east asia)just because we keep them in cold water doesn't mean they cant go back to tropical i know a few people who have them in tropical tanks and they are much more active than the sluggish cold water just be careful what other fish you put in they are like any other fish you buy (to a extent) because they will usually eat any fish that will fit in their mouth so you defiantly don't have to part ways with it just raise the temperature in the tank slowly to get it use to warmer waters and your good to go (the safety rate of doing this is no faster than 1c per hour (tho Ive done it much faster than that and never had a problem)

:thup: tanks! :bggrn: :nilly:

one of the methods of making tank inserts is with concrete over polystyrene and in the tank it raises the ph but only for a while it doesn't always keep raising it from what i understand a few water changes brings the ph down to normal and stops rising so basically i think its older concrete less ph rise i don't know if its feesable for you to do the 5 or more water changes it usually takes but at least you know it wont always stay high