Luke*

I recommend a Aqua One or similar hang on the back (HOB) filter. It's also a good idea to use the internal sponge over the intake as a prefilter. The easier it is to clean the more you will do it. You simply pull the prefilter off and rinse under tank water. If it is hard to clean (e.g cannisters) you will tend not to.

http://www.simplydiscus.com/forum/showt ... hp?t=49201

*drools*....10 000L.. ughh (Homer Simpson sounds) Aros seem to go well with giant gouramies. If they can break 10ml tanks easily, wouldn't that mean no one would have them? Not a lot of ppl have tanks over 10ml thick. Yea about the splashing, even my 15cm discus send water flying and that's just through the gap between the side glass and the cover glass of the tank.

You can purchase it too I believe (without being affiliated)

It's not to say they'll die, but they won't be as happy as they could be. Like I said when bigger they may eat the neons. As responsible fish keepers we should make our fish as happy as possible. That's also why we must keep up at least weekly water changes.

Damiana - well said. There's lots of info at www.simplydiscus.com. They recommend discus only tanks, which I always thought would be best, but after researching the natural biotype (wild environment) I found out they actually live amongst other fish too. But.... they also hang out in groups. I'm afraid the right advice is they'll do best in a group, bigger the better. This is the way to make your fish the happiest. They aren't aggressive eaters and a single discus may not get much or any food in a community tank.

Very cool, good work bud

Yeah that would be cool Wok, Auckland members are welcome to join in the gorking at other people's pride and joys and obsessions

Oh cool that will be a really great informative evening to hear from the discus master himself

Okay the whole flushing debate, couldn't we say the same for people with diseases or infections etc through their bodily waste? SURELY the sewage works treats the waste in a way that kills anything and everything in there.

Would be interesting, but I'd say vets come across it very rarely because most people just let the fish die rather than try for vetinarian medicine or cure. I'll ask my brother in vet school though. Flushing them does speed up death substantially mainly because of the cold and shock but could also be because of the chlorine. But if it hasn't been flushed in a while there may not be any chlorine in the water. A good motto would be to treat our fish as we'd ourselves would like to be treated. I'm sure all of us would choose a quick death over a long agonising one.

Then again cats aren't fish, can't really compare apples with bananas. But if you had a fish the size of a cat, well that could be a different story Humans die quickly similarly, the brain thrown against the skull does the lethal damage. Whenever we'd catch sprats for the cats at home, we'd kill them instantly by throwing them on the jetti with a lot of force, much better than most people that let them sit slowly dying in a bucket because they couldn't bring themselves to do it, that is more cruel undoubtedly. I'm sure someone proved the whole 'blood crystalising' when freezing idea totally wrong, I think it's impossible for that to happen. Clove oil sounds good, anaesthetic is always good

When you say put it in a tank full of females...does this mean it is developing into a male?

Sharn's right you really should get at least 5 as they are definitely happier in a group. I would say they'd be fine with black line flying foxes as they primarily eat algae and pretty much keep to themselves, not 100% sure though. You don't have to go BB though, depends what you want. If you aren't interested in show quality discus then a planted tank is fine and more natural. They will still grow just not as fast. Your neons won't get eaten until the discus are big enough to swallow them so most people go with cardinal tetras which are bigger and don't mind warmer temps.

I think that's a good idea...not too much different with mine though lol

Cool, Alan what's your opinion on them for their hair algae eating ability? (assuming that's the long thready green hair algae as opposed to black brush)

I'm really looking forward to Summer aye when the daphnia populations will explode. My LFS told me they do better in Winter because more 02 in the water, well the 2ft tank outside looked dead and understandably with temps below zero, not sure how the white cloud mountain minnows would have gone if I left them outside like the LFS suggested would be fine either. Miraculously today I pumped that tank out and netted the contents, I was thrilled to find heaps of very small baby daphnia! Brought inside with me and the fan heater now we'll see what happens. Then maybe I'll have enough to sell to HummingBird. Caryl - they will come back because in cold, low 02, or over populated conditions they reproduce sexually (as opposed to asexually which is normal) and lay eggs. So that must've been what happened with mine, then when it rained the eggs hatched. Clever - like brine shrimp.

Still any there 2fishy? Cheers

heya well done, hehe funny when one makes it through, had that happen couple of years back with a serpae tetra, very cute. if it's still small enough to fit in the mouths of others i'd seperate it, if not let it go for gold, put in some live food like brine shrimp and microworms for it so it grows faster.

While on this I believe I have found 'evidence' of a mouse or two at my place, droppings in the blimmin' cupboard!, so if anyone has a crazy cat to lend me for a day or two...

Where life can be allowed to go on, I'm happy about it.

Undergravel filters have their place, large biological filtration capacity that's for sure. But beware if you have plants the roots will get tangled up in it. The AquaClears are virtually silent, and stay that way. You can also adjust the flow.

Now that statement would cause a few posts to be deleted I'm sure too Jacko it's without a doubt more ethical to feed something that doesn't feel pain compared with something that does, I don't think anyone (sane) would disagree with that. I think most people would be disturbed by that kind of cruelty, where do you draw the line? Putting a cat in there? Some people don't have a problem with murdering either, but the majority says they should be in jail, so they are.

It's abhorrent because there's no doubt the mouse went through pain getting torn up and eaten alive, to us it would be like getting hacked up with some big machettis. Pain is obviously bad because it leads to death, as in this case, so it is always avoided. I feed my fish live food like brine shrimp, daphnia, whiteworms, microworms, but these of course don't have the same, if at all? nervous system to a mouse so i would be surprised if they feel any pain at all.

I'm very surprised the guy at the LFS told you that, a) the info was wrong, and b) it did them out of money. :-? I have 14 clowns happily in my 4 ft 300L tank of varying sizes, just to compare