JJWooble

:slfg:

1 40 litre fighter tank 1 9 litre fighter tank (thinking of upgrading the lil guy to my 50 litre) 1 'aqua one duo' fighter tank 1 'aqua one trio' fighter tank 1 75 litre frog tank 1 100 litre that is probs going to be a hara hara catfish/celestial pearl danio tank at some stage, yet to find space for it inside 1 50 litre tank that is either going to have the lil fighter in it OR a DPF-- also yet to find space for it, will eventually Partner doesn't seem to mind too much, so long as they don't literally get in the way , he's not a huge fan of fish/frogs, but hes got his own hobbies so we compromise

Depends-- it varies depending on whether I'm home very often or not. Because my tanks are small-- 9 litre, 20 litre, 30 litre, 40 litre-- I do a lot of water changes (paranoid here ), I think its around 20% every 2-3 days usually, with a max of 5 days between water changes. 9 litre gets 20% WC almost every day if I can manage it

Bacon :love:

Hello! Nice tank

Oh no poor eels * edit; looks like this isn't the first year they're doing it, either. These photos are on their Facebook page from 2012

Nice to meet you too, your store is amazing

Hi guys Yes, I have talked to Adrienne briefly at the meeting about bettas, it was what made me brave enough to try an open top aquarium with my boy who doesn't seem to jump....theres 10 cms of glass above the water line but I was fairly nervous about leaving it partly open until I talked to her, she said that it should be fine Went to the New Pupuke aquarium centre today and its got me all excited about my new stocking for my tank. Would a 51x34x56 tank be big enough for a few Red Whiptail Catfish? Wondering about my bottom feeders, and I've fallen in love with the red whiptails but worrying about how much space they need... I'm fairly set on my other inhabitants now-- 1 PK marble betta and 20 or so ember tetra. What I've got in my mind's eye is to find lots of the siphon tubing thats wide enough for whiptails, and to silicone glue a whole series of tunnels made of the stuff through a central rock feature for the tank dunno how it would look, or whether the whiptails would use all the tunnels, but it sounds good in my head Any thoughts?

Hi all I joined the forum a little while ago, posted around a bit, thought I would properly say hi. Fair warning; I am obsessed with my bettas! My name's Jamie, I have 3 tanks-- 1 9 litre tank with a HMPK Dumbo betta, 1 40 litre tank with a Super Delta betta and 1 75 litre community tank. My 9 litre looks like this; https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10696208_749856585052199_4981308609882160281_n.jpg?oh=66feb8b77a3383728ecddff00e6624c4&oe=54AAA414&__gda__=1425277640_3b65e321951ebd6b54ff52fe920df719 I've planted it with pothos, ambulia, indian fern, narrow leaf java fern, some sort of grassy type plant and christmas moss. The betta in it, Ferdie, is the cutest little thing, and looks like this; https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpf1/v/t1.0-9/10468365_748971408474050_4370623190600059777_n.jpg?oh=eddd07d3146f9c84384a178ee41f66aa&oe=54C02527 My 40 litre, after a recent rescape, looks like this; https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=750520118319179&set=pcb.750520251652499&type=1&theater It's got a riparium planter with a plant I can't remember the name of, some bromeliads, pothos, indian fern, duckweed, ambulia, anubias, broad leaf java fern, chain swords and xmas moss. This is Momo, the betta in the 40 litre; he was my first betta, I quickly got Ferdie soon after and am hoping to get more bettas at some stage in the near future My community tank used to have 10 neon tetras, 3 zebra danios (were moving on to another tank), 2 adult and a lot of 3 month old baby yellow snakeskin guppies I was raising to sell, 2 peppered corydoras and 4 sterbai corydoras. The tank had been set up for about a year before I added the corys a few weeks ago; I got the corys from animates, quarantined for a week and a half, then put into my main tank. Over the past week my fish have all died off from Columnaris, despite my best efforts of treating with Furan 2, and then salt after the corydoras died. So the tank is currently empty, and will stay that way for another month whilst I sterilize it, chuck out all media/substrate/ornaments, then move house before setting it up and cycling it. It was my first experience with a disease in my tanks and I've found it really crushing to lose my fish, but am very glad that I kept all the equipment for the other two tanks separate as they appear not to have gotten it. Would have been horrible to lose my bettas; I'm still paranoid and am checking them over daily for any signs of disease..... Looking forwards now to my future stocking plans-- I was thinking a school of ember tetra (20-30?) and a single male betta for the tank, assuming he is of a placid disposition. Thinking I can swap my boys round once everyone's quarantined to see who is ok with other fish if the new one doesn't like them. Maybe some sterbai corydoras again too, they were very sweet, depends on the betta I suppose. I went to the Auckland Fishkeepers Association meeting this month, my first meeting, and it was fantastic to talk to other fishkeepers, hear about aquascaping, look at Adrienne's tanks and get some plants and daphnia, which my bettas are loving I've just started up a daphnia culture since then, they appear to be doing well after their first feed with yeast, currently situated in a 2 litre bottle but will move them to a bucket soon, preparing some green water for them too Thats me, liking the forum already, glad to be here! P.S. Anyone who has any links about riparium planting, general plant care (e.g. use of flourish excel, lighting...), aquascaping, betta training, sterilizing a tank, proper quarantine, looking after a daphnia culture or anything else you think I might be interested in, chuck them at me, I love reading pretty much anything to do with fish.

Hey Fish Frenzy No problem, hehe they probably get a bit too much attention, spoiled wee things Gotta love em. Re: flare training, what I do is just put a pocket mirror up against the tank-- the betta comes up and starts strutting, putting out his beard and pulling faces this is Ferdie doing it: Its a good idea to build up how long you do it, as they have to be 'fit' enough to do it for longer-- I started at 3 mins with them each morning, then after a few days stepped it up to 5 mins, etc. til you get to 5-10 mins. If you flare them too much it can cause tearing or strain on their tails. Once they're up to the 5-10 mark I just put the mirrors up next to their tanks in the morning after feeding them; I do it maybe 5 times a week Momo also flares when I wave at him, so you can train them to flare at pretty much anything after a bit-- just get them to flare at the mirror, then move the mirror so they can see you want them to flare at-- in this case, waving, but could also be a particularly distinct pen, or just your finger. They soon associate that stimuli with flaring, or at least my betta has. Flaring, from what I have read, is good for fin development and strength, particularly with the longer finned boys Other tricks: there's jumping for food on your finger that I mentioned. Momo is NOT the jumping type, he loses interest in the food as soon as its out of the water. I'm working on Ferdie, so far hes started poking his head a bit out of the water in order to grab food off me, so should be able to get him to jump a bit for me soon Another one I want to try on them is swimming through a hoop for food-- you teach them to first follow your finger along the glass to be able to direct them, then make a hoop out of a pipe cleaner, put it up against the glass, and get them to follow your finger along where the hoop is until they go through, then reward with food. Haven't gotten there yet, but should be fun Re: the semi emergent plants I redecorated Momo's mess of a tank. Put some spiderwood in there, it has bits coming out of the water so had some fun with that and the pothos and some bromeliads. Also have another semi-emergent plant in there now in a riparium set up that I'm trying out. Other aquatic plants I've got in there now-- ambulia, xmas moss, broad leaf java fern, anubias, indian fern, chain swords My partner thinks it looks nuts, but I think it looks cool, or at the very least a bit different Few ideas for a future betta tank? https://fbcdn-sphotos-h-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/65072_750520118319179_416029436331230164_n.jpg?oh=8814270799273e3b6d458f9f40c76592&oe=54BBF057&__gda__=1420937102_853323c3040be84dbee48b1ed85ab02c https://scontent-a-sjc.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10659362_750520168319174_8078382330336467863_n.jpg?oh=2f542db7f30cfc7e9e888f63bf850ab7&oe=54F45519 *edit: sorry about how dark the pix are lol... hard to see but it does look very cool

Lost two more cories overnight. going to take water sample in tomorrow and hopefully get a refund for the fish.

Oh dear, poor cories that does make sense as to why they may not be seeing it at the shop. Thankyou, I hope so too. Update-- lost 5 guppies since I posted this. All remaining have cotton wool fungus stuff round their mouths. The babies in particular are struggling. Cories seem to have lost more of their fins.

Hey! I have two betta tanks for my two betta boys -- a 40 litre and a 9 litre. My bettas are an HMPK dumbo white male and a HM dumbo cross male Both have silica sand as substrate, with ambulia, java fern, christmas moss, indian fern and duckweed in there with them and some driftwood, with pothos with its end in the water and the rest hanging out the top of the tank. Some betta's can get bored, but others seem to do well in the small tanks. Keeping an eye out for boredom cues such as inactivity, not coming up to see you, tail biting etc. is a good idea. My boy in the 40 litre is less active than the one in the 9 litre (personality difference, also he has a longer tail so tired more easily)-- I do not believe the one in the 9 litre is bored though, he gets plenty of attention from me as is situated next to where I spend a lot of time, and I mix the set up of the tank up once a week a bit to give him something new to explore-- having hidey holes and interesting objects in their tanks makes some bettas really happy Momo lives next to a window and I often catch him watching, and sometimes flaring at, the neighbourhood cats running through the garden. Flare training them helps keep them active and interested as well, and you can teach them tricks such as jumping out of the water to get food off your finger. Main issue with small tanks tend to be the potential for the bioload to get out of control-- though with lots of plants and regular water changes, this is rarely a problem. Both are really friendly, will come up to the front of the tank to say hi when you walk into the room/move towards them, and Momo is an avid bubble nest builder. If you want some more info, SFNZ facebook group is always awesome. Ferdie's 9 litre tank https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xaf1/v/t1.0-9/10678722_748948371809687_4758246038548624935_n.jpg?oh=b97a849d393bce69b03eee42f930d673&oe=54AD091F Ferdie https://fbcdn-sphotos-g-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xfa1/v/t1.0-9/1962792_748134045224453_1441821356445349435_n.jpg?oh=d2433d762744080b5b245c4ed193f686&oe=54B43F50&__gda__=1421893632_62d2c85875376424efe5b8902dadc46a Momo's 40 litre tank https://fbcdn-sphotos-b-a.akamaihd.net/hphotos-ak-xap1/v/t1.0-9/10645281_748948418476349_369236990954846811_n.jpg?oh=bab204ab57c7ce310fc03d2f7448714b&oe=54C2333B&__gda__=1422374002_b2d25a15548e8b612c1b6b7c9b49400e Momo https://scontent-b-sea.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-xpa1/v/t1.0-9/10649649_748134135224444_475185346785532194_n.jpg?oh=8fae26b529d6dc40945713aa00d890f9&oe=54C699B7 *edit: I'm going to rescape Momo's tank at some stage, its mainly like it is because he seems happy with it bit messy tho lol, but will put in things like a statue and semi-emersed plants such as acorus which I will have sticking up outta the tank, along with anubias or dwarf hairgrass, not sure. **edit: I would also not recommend putting in ember tetras unless you had somewhere else to put them in case the betta gets aggressive-- some are quite territorial and will kill other fish, others are quite placid but you never really know. Also, I wouldn't put embers in a 9-15 litre as it is too small in my opinion-- I may try some in Momo's 40 litre but 30 litres is the smallest I would go with them else you aren't giving the space that the embers need to school and swim and space for the betta to get away if he feels threatened. They also like being in bigger groups-- 8 or upwards else they seem to be very shy....Furthermore, the more fish you add, the more bioload you're putting on a tank, so theres that to consider too

I got my 9 litre betta tank with filter/heater/light and substrate second hand for $60 on the SFNZ facebook group. Similarly, I got both my bettas from there; one hm x male for $10, one white hmpk dumbo male for $20, from 2 different breeders. Both would go for far more in HFF or other places. Seems like a reasonable price, depending on the quality of the betta If I were you, I would head down to the SFNZ facebook group as well, even if you buy this betta and tank, they still have great info in the 'documents' section about flare training bettas, the colours, breeding standards, etc. which is very interesting, and are usually more than well equipped to answer any 'betta queries'

Neat! It's great that they've been spotted and are now under observation

Hey all I've been on a fish keeping facebook group talking about this, but thought I would bring it here as well. Background/Useful info: Tank= AR510 Aqua One Established for about 6 months, no prior troubles with fish Tank parameters before symptoms showed: pH= 6.5, ammo= 0, nitrite= 0, nitrate=~7, temp= 24 degrees celcius Tank parameters on day I noticed symptoms: pH= 6.5, ammo= 0, nitrite= 0, nitrate= 5, temp= 24 degrees celcius I do a 25% water change weekly and monitor my water condition weekly also. Stocking before disease hit= 4 sterbai corydoras, 2 peppered corydoras, 9 neon tetras, 3 zebra danios (got them from a friend when her tank broke over a year ago), 2 adult guppies, 10 3 month old guppies Stocking now= 4 sterbai corydoras, 2 adult guppies, 9 3 month old guppies Most recently added fish= ~10th September, got the 6 corydoras from an animates. Quarantined for a week and a half, then added to tank. Symptoms= white cottony fungus in patches over fish, very inactive, some fish appear to have sores/red bloody patches on them, difficulty/rapid breathing, quickly die once showing symptoms More detailed info/timeline: 3 days ago, my fish started showing symptoms that something was wrong-- they were all far less active, not eating, and a lot of my neon tetras had a 'cotton wool' type of fungus looking stuff sparsely patched all over their body and some had some degree of fin rot. I suspected ich but there was no behaviour associated with ich-- they were not scratching themselves/rubbing themselves against things. I separated those affected into my cycled hospital tank along with some of the zebra danios who were showing similar symptoms. I posted on the facebook group as to what to do and many suggestions were made. Two of the neon tetras in particular were looking like they were seriously struggling-- they were on the bottom of the tank with barely any gill movement, had large amounts of the cotton wool on them-- so I put those two down. I made sure the water was clean, then left them for the night. The next morning I noticed one of the peppered corydoras in the main tank-- he had patchy growths of the same cotton wool fungus type thing, fin rot, and looked like he had 'sores'/was bleeding all over his body. I have a high oxygen concentration in the tank, but he was up at the surface, breathing air regularly, and his gills were moving much faster than normal-- 'panting' almost. Others of the corys had patches of the cotton wool type stuff too. Guppies were hanging near the surface/hiding at the surface and the Corys were inactive which was highly unusual for them. There was also 1 dead baby guppy. I then checked the hospital tank. There was 2-3 dead neon tetras, and the cotton wool symptom had progressed on all other fish in the hospital tank. Persons on the facebook group and my research indicated that I should return those in the hospital tank to the main tank, and treat all of them for a bacterial infection, most likely Columnaris. I did a water change in the main tank, shifted the hospital tank fish back to the main tank, lowered the water level so I didn't have to use too much of the medication and so the cory who was struggling to breathe could get to the surface faster, and dosed the tank with the appropriate amount of Furan 2. I also removed all of my driftwood/rocks/plants and replaced with plastic caves/ornaments and silk plants as they are easier to move and clean. Over the course of the day, I lost both peppered corydoras, 2 zebra danios, and all but one of the neon tetras. This morning, I found the last neon tetra dead and the last zebra danio dead also. I dosed the tank again with Furan 2 as per instructions on the package. One of my female guppies had dropped her fry overnight but I decided not to separate them. The other fish uncharacteristically are not eating the newly dropped fry. They are acting much the same as yesterday-- corys hiding together under an ornament, guppies at the surface together in a corner. One of the female guppies is now at the bottom of the tank, seeming to have difficulty swimming. Some of the other guppies have what appears to be clamped fins. Whatever this is, I suspect it was brought in with the Corydoras as I haven't had a fish death before this for months. I rang the Animates to warn them of the potential for their fish being sick, and they have said that they have not seen any fish showing these symptoms in their tanks, but thanked me for the information. They gave me a $20 voucher and that is where I am leaving that line of enquiry at this stage as I don't think its helpful to my fish to go any further with it, and they were very polite. This tank has separate equipment to the others and I am taking as many precautions as I can to assure that it doesn't get introduced to my other tanks. Any observations or suggestions are welcome. I will post photos of what the fish showing symptoms looked like tonight when I have a little bit more time. I'm fairly freaked at the scale of fish death in such a short time span-- I have never experienced anything like this before with my fish. If my fish survive I will not add any new fish for at least a month to ensure that whatever this is is gone and will quarantine all new fish from now on for 6 weeks as opposed to 1-2 weeks like I used to. I feel that quarantine could have prevented many of the fish deaths I have experienced. I am hoping that these guys will improve with treatment.

Hey, thanks for your reply! Awesome, in that case I would add the 6 danios first, up that to 10, then add 3-4 fish at a time over a period of a few months . I am really keen on both Haras and Kuhlis, will have to investigate re: prices and other factors and take those into account when deciding as I'm pretty much split 50/50 on which one I would want. Honey's look so sweet I am also contemplating a dwarf gourami or honey pair for another tank, so will do one in one type in one tank and the other type in another. Will start planting straight away when its set up :) Thanks for the recommendation on the filters will probably go for the higher quality, as planning on having the tank set up for a long time lol. Moving house, so will hold off until then and see if we have room then. Plan is definitely going to be used at some point Will defs post pics of my current tanks, I'm a bit trigger happy with my camera

Hi there Just joined FNZAS, thought I'd ask a few questions. I just got given a 90 cm x 30 cm x 30 cm aquarium. Currently is covered in green stuff, and has been out of use for 4-5 years. Did fill it up with water though, and 24 hours on it appears to have no leaks. So I can officially start my new project! The one fish I'm certain of as inhabitants in this tank is a school of zebra danios. I currently have 6, so would move these guys to this tank. Would also like to upschool them to 10 or so, depending on what sort of bioload this tank could handle. Other fish I'd be interested to keep and would maybe like to have in here: Hara Hara Catfish (5-7?) OR Kuhli Loaches (10?) Another school of danios-- Glowlight, Pearl or Celestial Pearl Danios? Is it advisable to have two schools of danios in one tank? Alternatively; A dwarf gourami pair OR a honey gourami trio? Would the honeys get intimidated by the danios? Would I be able to keep any of the bigger gouramis in here? Set up would be planted low tech-- currently have ambulia, Christmas moss and java fern in my other tanks, so would transfer these plus some other new plants over to the new set up. I'm a fan of driftwood so there would be plenty of that in there, and river stones too. Substrate would be white silicone sand with maybe some smooth black pebbles underneath for the ambulia to be rooted in. Temperature I'm looking at is round 24 degrees, and judging from my other tanks the pH would be round 6.5. I'd do 2x 20% water changes weekly as thats the schedule I keep for my other tanks, should I change this up at all? I will do a fishless cycle for a couple of months before adding the danios, then add other fish slowly. Can I add in the plants before adding in the fish? Any suggestions on the type of filter/the flow rate I should have on the tank would be awesome! Any suggestions/constructive comments/advice/input at all would be awesome!!! Jamie