Amelia

:iag: Where can I get driftwood like that?! Love those peacocks, truly gorgeous. One day I'll have an african tank.

Gorgeous Adrienne!! Those Parkinsons rainbows are just stunning and your Reds have lovely colour -- I hope mine end up looking like that! Also those do look like female splendida rainbows.

Thanks Adrienne -- it's the same size as my 450l cichlid tank then, is it a Juwel by any chance? Ahhh yes, Dwarf Chain Loaches are little DEVILS! I had 8 and they absolutely wrought havoc on everyone else in the tank so I eventually sold them, nasty little things. I now have 6 Striata Loaches and 6 Angelicus Loaches, both of which seem pretty docile. And 7 Yoyos which I am going to rehome -- sick of them terrorizing my tanks. I also have 20 Harlequin Rasbora, and of course my new 3 Red Rainbows. Torn as I don't want to cram too many species of Rainbow in as it's not a huge tank (240l), but they are all so beautiful! Thinking I'll either add another 3 Irian Reds and 6 Boesemanis and have 6 of each, or add 3 Checkered and 3 Boes and have 3 of each. Tough. Plus I have to make up my mind TODAY as this is when the sale ends. Don't fancy paying $21 per-rainbow.

http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/me ... -festivus/ :thup:

Well, today I came home with 3 Irian Red Rainbows -- at $14 each I couldn't resist. Got them home and my Yoyo Loaches are chasing them pretty bad. :facepalm: Might be time for the Yoyos to find a new home... :tears: I'm wondering how many Rainbows will "fit" in my tank. Torn between the Boesemani, Turquoise, Axelrodis and Checkered. How many of each species do you have Adrienne?

Uhh where's the link? :sml2: Checkered Rainbows seem to be either Melanotaenia splendida splendida orrrr Melanotaenia splendida inornata. There seems to be some confusion about the correct taxonomy. Gorgeous anyway, they looked like this, but a tad duller. Seeing all these stunning species is making me want a full-on Rainbow tank like yours Adrienne. !drool: Also those Axelrod's Rainbows are stunning! They are on the order form atm, maybe I should get some... http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/me ... taxelrodi/

Well I went into Animates today as they have a 3-day 30% of all fish sale. Had 3 lovely Irian Reds and 3 beautiful Checkered Rainbows for only $14 each. I am torn!!

I've seen pictures of all-males tanks before and they looked pretty spectacular -- but time will tell!! :dunno:

Thanks guys, I had read that Rainbows don't do well in pH under 7 so I was concerned. Have ordered male 6 Boes in for $15 each. Pretty good price, I'm pleased. Will decide once they're in whether more boes or another species is required. :dnc1:

What if I was to add 2 sets of 6, like 6 Boes and 6 Reds? Would that be pushing it?

I have been thinking about adding rainbowfish to my 240l (4ft) planted community. It currently contains about 20 Harlequin Rasbora and a large assortment of loaches (kuhli, yoyo, angelicus, striata). It is filtered with 2x Sunsun HW-303B UV filters (1400lph each). I do a 50% wc a week. pH is about 6.8, which I know is a little low for rainbows. Even though there are quite a few loaches there is very little movement in the upper regions of the tank, and when they are all hiding (most of the time, except when there is food!) the tank looks pretty much empty. I have considered just adding another 20 Harlequins or a big shoal of White Clouds but I think something big would be nice. Would 6 Boesemani Rainbows (all male) be okay in my tank? I know they are pretty active and can get pretty large, and also my pH is a little off for them. Is my tank enough room for them to romp, and enough room for a decent school? Also I'm sure my loaches will be fine but will they freak out my harleys? Just wanting a second opinion, as I have been umming-and-ahhing over this for weeks!

My mum has a 34l tank in her kitchen with a very large apple snail which she loves to feed 10x a day and 3 very sad platys. The tank is revolting as she always forgets to do waterchanges and I've threatened taking the whole thing off her several times. Just wondering, would an Apple Snail survive in an unheated unfiltered bowl or tank? I think I'm going to take the platys off her (she doesn't like them anyway) and she can just keep the snail since she likes it so much. Just wondering if without the platys it would be okay to turn the heater and filter off.

You're preaching to the choir, David -- I don't need convincing. I'm certainly not going to stop doing water changes! But I was just surprised by how nice his tank looked considering the lack of maintenance. I've seen tanks before that don't get enough water changes and they looked appaling, with yellowish water that looked like urine. Yuck. :sick:

Yep. Just so many different ways to do things in this hobby, from one extreme to another. No right or wrong -- just different. I recently met a guy who only did a 20-30% waterchange every 3 months on his african tank. Told me I was "an idiot and wasting my time doing weekly waterchanges", because the algae that lives in his canister filter keeps his tank clean. He kept repeating, "I just don't need to do waterchanges because my tank cycles really well". His next comments were then along the lines of, "how do you keep your silica sand so white? Mine went all brown and discoloured..." Gee - I wonder why. Surprisingly though -- when he showed me a picture of his tank it was actually really impressive and clean looking, so maybe he was onto something. :dunno: Just when you think you finally know your stuff...

I keep my nitrates under 20ppm when possible. Occasionally they creep up higher. Another benefit to doing more or bigger water changes than you need, like cam said, is if something comes up and you can't do waterchanges for a while it's easier to get away with. Same as cam with me -- it's just habit doing big changes. I know it would be better to do multiple smaller ones but I don't have the time for that, usually only have one spare afternoon a week I can muck around with my tanks, so I do it once and do it well. No matter how much filtration you have, you still need to remove the nitrates. More filtration doesn't mean fewer/smaller water changes. Unless you have an algae scrubber. Also I don't tend to get water fluctuations of more than a degree or two as I refill the tank with luke warm tap water. I have an adapter that screws onto the kitchen tap and lets me click a hose on and fill it that way.

Why not if you have the time? Cleaner water is always better. I do 75% a week on my 450l cichlid tank. If I have spare time sometimes I do another 50%. My 240l planted tank gets a 50% and sometimes a second 25%. 55l only gets a 20% as it's only got 3 little occies in it. I could probably get away with much less on all my tanks but prefer much less. Also 30% being "plenty" is completely dependant on your stock types and level, and what and how much you're feeding. I have a bad habit of over-feeding my tanks (heh, whoops) so I do large water changes to keep it spick-and-span. Not to mention clean water increases growth rates too.

Looking good! I like the sand, where did you get it/what type of sand is it? Just a heads up, those tanks are only 21 litres, not 35. :sage:

:facepalm: I hate it when people try to be helpful and feed your fish. Good luck with cleanup! Out of curiousity, do they pay you for this service or do you do it out of the goodness of your heart?

My Blood Parrots have eggs! I added 2 smaller BPs to my 450l with my lone grumpy male parrot to cheer him up and give him some friends -- turns out all he wanted was some sweeeet lovin'. A little sad that now the 2 of them are picking on the third little parrot now -- they had been a happy little family group until now. She tries so hard and comes over and helps shift sand around with them but they always chase her off. Poor thing. Now I'm going to have to get ANOTHER parrot to be friends with her. IT NEVER ENDS. I'm really hoping I'm lucky enough to get a fertile pair but it's rare isn't it? Excuse the crappy photo but they could not have been in a more awkward position to photograph. Also, I know the pot is about 10x too small for them. I put it in there for the EBJD but they seem to like it just fine (no idea how the male fits).

Thanks for the feedback! Might give it a go then.

I have this exact tank and run 2x Sunsun HW304B Canisters. Does a great job but not very energy efficient. I would suggest a Fluval FX5.

Anyone had experience keeping either a Rainbow or Red-tailed shark with loaches -- namely, Zebra, Angelicus and Yoyos? I assumed this would be a no-no as sharks tend to hate anything else shark-shaped but research tells me that apparently they make good tank mates. Also can anyone attest to the algae eating prowess of sharks? I know they aren't massive algae-hoovers but I've read they do graze on it. I am wanting something that nibbles on algae for my 240l Asian community. Obviously plecs are from the wrong continent so they're out, I don't have room for another school so that rules out siamese algae eaters and I hate chinese algae eaters. :sml2:

It looks just awesome -- bet it looks just amazing in person! One of the nicest tanks I've ever seen, and puts mine utterly to shame. :gigl: What lucky guys and girls they are to have THAT at their workplace! :env: I am green with envy. Any idea what else will be going in? Rainbows would look spectacular. As would loaches -- but I am a loach-a-holic (no more snails either). !drool:

This looks awesome! Mind me asking what the stock list is? I spy Harlequin Rasboras and possibly Cochu's blue tetras? Also -- is this in your home, or a business? Sorry if it was mentioned and I missed it. :digH:

Thanks for the kind words everyone. :happy1: Eagle I was thinking I'd post your guy next week. :dnc1: