Snowman

Ive noticed with mine and especially my biggest that ive had for years is basically they get brassed off at me annoying them, it can take 2-3 months before their behaviour returns to normal and they finally forgive me, its happened about 6 times over the last 6-7yrs, when we moved house 3 yrs ago he wouldnt even come out for food unless i walked off & that lasted for nearly 6 months, he will now come to the surface and almost take tablets from my hand again.

With that many you need to increase your water changes, 25-35% twice or 3 times weekly would be my suggestion. All my tanks get 30% at least weekly with the GBA breeding tanks getting 30% daily.

I havent used any for 5 yrs or more without any problems, its amazing how many things a shop will tell you are "needed" when all they really mean is they need your money LOL No chemical can beat a plain old water change (300 GBA's of varing sizes in a 130ltr 3' tank and no deaths in 3 yrs will testify to that, daily water changes though)

How long has the tank been setup?

Mine get nutrafin bottom feeder tabs 4 times a week and have certainly got full rounded bellies and seem to grow reasonably fast, they go crazy over them, they run the smaller loaches over trying to get at them, broken in half for the smaller ones but whole for the big ones, not a bad price either.

One thing to think about is your feeding, how much and how often? When you started the tank did you slowly add fish or did they pretty much all go in at the same time?

Theres a 2217 on "that site" with a starting price of $140 no reserve, brillant filter, have 2 running on my 800ltr and they get cleaned once a year, gives the same flow as the cf1200 but they are eheim so quality, media and ease of maintanence cant be beaten ( i run 5 of these and 2 2213's).

This was about 5 yrs ago.

No he didnt own a shop it was just mainly through the forums that we got to know him, he was a go between used to courier a lot of killies up to HFF amongst other things before dissappearing with money, fish etc

Several years back a lot of forum members amongst others were ripped off product, fish and money wise by a person called Brian who live in Papakura (surname unknown) who was trying to start an east auckland club, but when members tried to discuss it on these forums the subject was banned by the monitors as they were "doing something about it" and we were told to leave it alone. Does anyone know if anything became of it as i never got my money or heaters back or any form of communication from anyone here. Would love to know if it was followed through or just swept under the carpet hoping people would forget. Any info would be appreciated as i understand it was a sum well into the thousands of dollars and i could certainly do with my few hundred back as money is pretty scarce these days. This is NOT the Origin Aquatics Brian either.

Not sure if you noticed the very uneven gravel in my big tank but it started out as level and ive tried correcting it several times but the big clown loaches are much faster at digging than i am at straightning, behind the big driftwood there is a hole maybe 3" deeper than anywhere else that the biggest clown dug out to get under the log, amazing how much noise they can make moving the gravel around. Ive given up and leave them to aquascape for me LOL

Keep the gravel vac on the surface of the substrate and dont push it in, i would avoid the local area they are in. My big tank you saw in the lounge only gets gravel vaced every 3rd or 4th time so mainly purely water changes without disturbing the gravel at all. Sounds like the boy is happy. Speaking of which im off to do water changes now LOL

Thats great to hear, i dont think it will be to long before you have a few little ones swimming around. Theres not many fish they dont get on with although i know they do sorta freak out if you try to put them in with oscars LOL Enjoy ;-}

The other way to fix her problem is to come and get the male ive got then he can fertilise her eggs..... could let you have him for say, a smile, let me know if your keen, if im in a real good mood you may just get a couple of GBA's in the bag as well, for another smile of course LOL

I got 2 of the Royals in an 800ltr with 5 large queen loaches and 12 large clowns with a few swordtails, swords are being severly nipped and at feeding time the royals chase the Queens but the clowns are way bigger and just run them over, thought about putting them in my other 500ltr loach tank with 40odd smaller loaches like striata, angelicious, queen, rostra etc but i think the royals would chase them, i would only recommended them for tanks with big aggressive fish.

Just buy the strainer, more than likely someone on here would have a spare if not new would only be a few dollars.

On a different note does going to the quack with major chest pains which stop just as i get to Onehunga A+E 4pm Sunday 4th of this month to be told its probably a pulled muscle but we will do blood tests Monday morn to be safe then phone call 5pm Monday 5th to say how soon can you get to hospital as you've had a heart attack count. Wednesday 7th have angioplasty to remove 2 blockages from heart artery and stent put in. Luckily i had the Monday off to spend the first day of school holidays with my son as if id gone to work it more than likely would have killed me...... i think of that as my winning lotto ticket. Hate to say it but what sort of tyres did you have Ira? Tread depth is less important than tread design for water dispersal. Theres so much cheap crap out there and its damn dangerous. My just wof able bridgestones give considerably more wet grip than brand new clear's or triangle's. People are always asking for the cheapest tyres then ask how good they are LOL duh cheapest is crappiest, quality costs. Dont let anyone sell you Triangles as i refuse to sell them in my shop because they are rubbish, heard recently about a test driver in a magazine tyre test spewing about them in the wet as they nearly killed him.

How often and how much water do you change, 14l is a very small tank, my smallest tank is 60 ltrs and i still think of that as small. Generally water conditions is what will cause it. I'd try doing 2ltr water changes 3 times a day for a couple of days to start with and dont feed for a couple of days. It wouldnt take much leftover food to pollute that size tank. I'd definetly look at upgrading size wise.

I find the idea of a 2' or 3' clown loach laughable,loaches are by far my favourites, then my countless GBA's. I have 15 clowns ranging from 3" to approx 11" in a 800ltr loach tank, i have had the 11" for 7 yrs and he was about 7yrs old when dad gave him to me, i have about 45 other loaches in a 500ltr loach tank including Kuhli, Striata, Rostra, Angelicious, Queen, Golden Zebra's, Yo-Yo's etc, i have spent way to many hours surfing the net and anywhere esle there is loach info, especially loaches online and if you check the recent book "loaches" you will find that the worlds fish authorities will tell you 12" is about maximum.

All my tanks have full 20mm marine ply then 20mm poly ranging from 130-800ltrs and ive never had a problem. Would have 130kg of rock in the 5" and 120kg of gravel in the 7". My thought is the easiest way to break something is brace both ends then weight the middle.

How long has the carbon been in the tank? It will only absorb for a month or so then release trapped toxins back into your tank. Thats my pick, and yes stop using the ph stuff and stabilizer, in my experience the main thing these deliver is a stable income for the lfs The only thing i put in my tanks is water straight from the hose or tap. You could use a water conditioner but the less additives the better in my opinion. Weekly water changes minimum in my opinion, all mine get either weekly, twice a week or daily and i havent needed meds for nearly 3 years.

More listings for filtration would be good, i run 2 x Eheim 2217 Canisters & 2 x Eheim 2212 Aquaballs on my big tank but can only list 1 of each.

How long was it between turning off the old filter and turning on the new one? Sounds like dead bacteria to me, did you give the media a clean? Water changes will help.

I've just done my 750ltr with an over engineered steel stand and had it powder coated, harder than paint and plenty of colour options. I know mine will take a 6.9

Hi, have you cleaned out the hoses?