Snowman

My algae is black and definetly looks like BBA, it is slowly responding to Flourish Excel, i have to do plenty of water changes in my Gold Ancistrus tank to keep the fry alive so think that's what slowing down killing it.

Yes i am double dosing, thats why i've gone through $80 worth so far, from what i've heard should only take 2 weeks to kill it. Guess i'm special LMAO

Flourish Excel will control the algae but not quickly, i've been using it for a few weeks now in 3 tanks and gets very expensive, part of the problem is every time you do a water change its diluted down so you need to add more, i've heard the algae can be caused by an excess of nutrients which can be fixed with lots of water changes, but then it dilutes the Flourish Excel. I'm trying some Green-X which is supposed to absorb excess phosphate etc, had it in for a week and doesn't appear to be doing much. I'm wondering if the Green-X is absorbing the Flourish Excel. If anyone wants some of this algae i've got plenty to spare LMAO. (Thinking about the SAE, just got to get the right ones)

This is the male's favourite place to look after eggs, would be over 10 times he's hatched eggs but thinking i need a 4th tank for him to have some time out as he's always looking after eggs or fry. They are in a 3 ft tank with all their fry probably 50 or more ranging from 10-60mm. No other fish in the tank. I had some small swordtails in there a while ago to eat mossie larvae but they started nipping at the fry so they went back to their tank. Just a large piece of driftwood and a few plants in the tank. I feed them JBL pleco chips, Nutrafin bottom feeder tablets, shrimp pellets and a daily change of courgette. Mum Dad Some of the fry

Oops meant to say spawning in just under 3 weeks, i"ll post a pic of the ship my male chose over a cave, has very good water flow so that helps

I'm sorry to hear about your female. They are a cool fish, i've had my pair for about 6 mths and they have spawned about every 3 mths with only about 10 from each batch surviving initially but getting about 20-25 per 3 weeks now, did they have plenty of fry for you to get another female? Any idea how old they were?

My Aqua One came with two 10000k and one 15000k, 10000k is a white light and the 15000k is a purplish light. Not sure of the bulb brands though. Got two different Aqua One 3' fluro's one has 2x 7400k and the other is 14000k. How could you measure the light output of the different bulbs?

I think you will be able to keep a lot more then 20, my guppy tank is 122x40x40cm (got 160ltrs) and i've got 150 or more guppies and around 30 swordtails with no probs. They do vary in size from fry to adult but looks awesome. It's amazing how many can cram into one corner when it comes to feeding time though LOL. I would probably stock 40-50 maybe more in a tank your size depending on surface area. What are your tank dimensions?

Thanks Thunderstorm but he died sometime through the night, looks like it may have been something different as at first it was a swollen head and when i pulled him out this morning it appeared to be like a crater as if something had eaten it away. Other Rams and Angels in the same tank are fine.

Thanks Alan, would love to know who taught the little bugger to read. Might have to get blindfolds for the others LOL

Found him upside down and dead this morning so will take him out and have a close look, Thanks for the help guys.

I agree with Alan, i tried putting my swordtail into a breeding trap for her first lot of fry, she hated it and wouldn't release. Imagine how your missus would feel being put in a small closet and told to give birth, you would want her as happy and comfortable as possible, same goes for fish. Mine are in a 4' tank with heaps of guppies and good plant cover and they breed fine, i've found you can leave the parents and young together as long as you don't let the parents get hungry or bye bye fry. As Alan said you'll run out of tank space so it is best to have another tank, there's nothing worse than needing one for a sick fish and not having one, by the time it's cycled ready for a sick fish the sick fish will be a dead fish. (found this out the hard way)

Probably nice quick way to end it.....Ummmmm think i might take it out of the tank first ROTFLMAO

Thanks BK

Cheers Shae

By the way, what is PMSL? (laughs at me before anyone else gets the chance) :lol:

Has anyone checked out the site http://www.aquariumfish.net They say they have used all types of filters and the Bio Wheel Filter is the only one they will recommend, does anyone use one of these and how good are they? They also state gravel should be 1/4" at most My thinking is that with that little gravel what holds the plants in? Most of my tanks are 3 times that deep or more and i dont have any trouble, any thoughts on why so little gravel? Cheers Shane

Might end up having to do that to this Ram as nothing else seems to be working.

No worries Alan, humour is the best medicine

Had a mate out in Waiuku that had that one, they cured it with about 1500kgs of dirt on him. Not a particularly funny subject as his son found him.

Personally i'm going to ignore anything that perky or this bu**sh***r sorry meant importer says. Sounds a lot like a little kid playing games.

Can anyone describe "Hole in the head" please.

It appears it's head is either rotting away or is being eaten, instead of being a lump it's more like a notch now The left eye is popping out (haven't seen popeye before not sure if this is it) and has just started to go milky from the top down. Tried the Methylene blue with no change possibly worse then salt and Now got Melafix in there. My next trick i think will be having to knock it on the head if it gest worse.

It is extrememly hard to get off most surfaces, i found a scrubbing brush wont remove it. I'm using flourish excel, double strength, daily doses. I've been dosing for 3 weeks, hardly using lights as that promotes it. I have it in 3 tanks and have been through 2 250ml bottles and just got a 500ml bottle. Kills all the plants by covering the leaves and is the most annoying thing i've come across and other than stopping feeding to get excess phosphate etc down Flourish Excel is the only answer.

They would have to be very small as it wouldn't take long for them to outgrow a 510mm long tank.