Snowman

You don't get gay fish but swordtails have the capability of changing sex Yep i had a female that decided to start developing a sword and ended up being a male. You will notice a black spot (gravid spot) develop at the back of the stomach when they are pregnant. My large orange swordtail has had quite a few spawns and she always has a dark gravid spot, it nevers seems to go away. The female is usually a lot rounder in the belly than the male as well as the difference in the gonopodium. I'm sure it wont be long and you will have quite a few lil fellas hiding in the plants and trying to blend in to the substrate

For algae eating in a 10 gal tank i'd recommend a couple of Otocinclus, nice small peacefull fish that do a good job on the algae plants and all. The B/Nose are cool and very peacefull, would be interesting to know what sort of price the Golden Blackeye Ancistrus (bristlenose) are in Canada

Wondering how much algae suphew has in his tank? I know my standards and Golds both require extra food, pleco chips, Nutrafin bottom feeder tabs (loaches love these as well ) and courgette/zuchini.

Your welcome scoobyjene : -)> hate seeing conartists ripping people off, the easy way i've found as to where to put a subject is either fresh water or salt water LOL You could try doing a search for Black Ghost Knife, you'll find it about mid page up the top, and welcome to the best fish site in NZ hope you find it as helpfull as i have. There's a chatroom where people seem to congregate at about 9-9.30 pm most night if you would like to meet some of the people on here

Hi Shelley, personally i would move the fish into the nearly cycled tank, even just till you get the main tank sorted. Sounds to me like there is possibly some old courgette or cucumber in the tank, maybe in the filter, my tank went cloudy when a bit of cucumber got stuck in the driftwood. I would get the fish out, drain most of the tank, give everything in there a rinse (possibly leave plants), clean the filter and refill. Run it for a day or two and do large water changes each day. Does it smell bad, as if something is rotting ? Hope this helps.

I would definetly say Eheim, i have a new one and a 3 yr old second hand one, new impellor in the s/hand one and its new again : -)> Never had probs with either one.

I was going to say "where did you get the child proof catches" LOL

I suppose it depends on tank size and loading, i get a lot of gunk out of the GBA tank every week but the others i get very little out once a fortnight so not much point in a weekly vac, my syphon is 3 times faster than vacuuming so it saves quite a bit of time. I started vacuuming every time but after a while of getting very little decided every 2 weeks, depending on what Hollywood has in stock next time i visit may change that of course LOL. The key to a low stock tank i have found is make sure you leave your wallet at home when you visit the LFS

Just signed up : -)>

Well yes and no, when i was half way through signing up my missus asked me to check her Trade Me (hotmail addy) so stupid me ended up putting my e-mail addy as a hotmail addy (when im with Lycos)....a Homer moment DDOOHH. Going to try again one day soon LOL

Phillz, that link comes up with a sign in page, no pic.

Hi Karey, a mate just had the same problem, up the temp to 29-30 which speeds up the life cycle of white spot, treat with white spot cure, the bottle says treat every 3 days but Niloc was informed to treat daily. (this info came from Josie at Hollywood Fishfarm Mt Roskill 09 6205249) Call her or David to clarify treating Clown Loaches to put your mind at rest. Start treatment straight away, would be better if you could treat them in a hospital tank if you have one. And keep a close eye on the other fish in the tank. Hope this helps : -)>

My GBA i vacuum every time (70-80 GBA's) the others dont get very dirty so no point in disturbing the bacteria in the substrate.

And budget, if i tried to spend that on a tank the missus would make me sleep in the car LOL, but if i win lotto i'm definetly keen as there's a huge range of corals, anenomes and fish that catch my eye : -)>

Well that rules me out for a marine setup, for $4000 i could have half a dozen (at least, probably closer to eight) tropical tanks with a lot of fish/plants or one marine setup.....looks like i'll be staying with tropicals LOL

You don't need permission to post photos, but you do if you want to put your tank pics in the members tanks section.

I do the water change 1 week, vacuum the next week but i dont remove the decorations as i like a little bit of algae on them as they look more natural, i have had to remove them before to get Black Beard Algae off before but my fish dont like being disturbed to much. My male B/Nose and big Clown Loach get especially upset and takes about 3 weeks before i see them again. Depends on the fish though of course. When you are typing a message just click on an emoticon n the left hand side and it will appear in your message, i don't think there is a limit on emoticons as long as they are part of a message. : -)>

Hi Caper If you go to http://www.photobucket.com and open an account (it's free) you can upload your photos to it, from there copy the code in the box URL, then start your message on here click on the Img box above then paste the code then click on image again, if you do a preview you should be able to see your photo. Hope this helps : -)>

I've always cycled my tanks with fish, a couple of small ones to start with and slowly stock up, i reckon its the easiest and most natural way, keep an eye on Ammonia, Nitrite & Nitrate levels and adjust with water changes to suit. I wouldnt be keen on adding Ammonia as its to hard to keep an eye levels, not much chance of 2-3 guppies causing problems in a 3' tank. Thats why i like guppies for cycling, 2-3 for a week then i add 1 every 2 days for 2-3 more weeks (depending on intended fish loading), at the end of that the guppies go back to their own tank and the new tenants move in.

Could always do something like a 60x30x30 with 2 dividers giving you 3 compartments, advantage would be only needing one light and heater (in the centre compartment) much easier for water changes, should be big enough for 12 guppies and can adjust the size of the compartments to suit.(if you have room for a 2' tank of course) : -)>

My gold B/Nose take about 4-5 days to hatch then about 4-5 days before dad lets them out to swim, usually find a coupe that seem to get away from him though so be on the look out for an orange egg with a tiny tail trying to swim LOL

Try a local plant shop, they should have some plants that will grow underwater, Niloc just bought some from LFS and found out he could have bought 3 times as many of exactly the same plant for the same price from a plant shop

I agree with the filter check, i use an Eheim 2213 in my guppy and swordtail tank and most filter cleans reveal 2-4 young in the bottom, they seem to live and grow in there though which i thought was amazing. Havent had one die in the filter yet.

I wouldn't worry, i changed my tank around a bit and put a standard female B/Nose in with my male (been by himself for a couple of years) and i have only seen her once this week, they are very good at hiding and usually come out at night, i do the sly thing and check them with the video camera on 0 lux (its like infrared). Can check on them in basically pitch black conditions and they cant see me It's quite possible hes looking after eggs, as i found out the first time my GBA spawned, i didn't find out till eggs with tiny tails were moving around in the tank.

I've found the best site for storing and posting pics is http://www.photobucket.com