stillnzcookie

Thanks for the replies, even if the advice is conflicting! As it is still swimming and eating normally, and still has good colour, I think I'll take Caryl's advice and leave it be for now. I'm hoping to pull the tank down over Christmas and set up a slightly bigger one, so I'll be able to catch it and deal with it then anyway.

...you can't catch a sick fish to treat it? One of our ember tetras has a fungal infection/growth around its mouth, but it's been there for about 6 weeks now and I still can't catch the little critter! Am I better to just leave it and let nature take its course, or should I treat the whole tank? As far as I can tell, all the other fish are fine, and all our water parameters are good. The sick fish still seems to be able to eat and is otherwise acting normally, but it's a big, cotton-wool-like growth (relative to such a tiny fish - it's about half the size of the fish. It looks like the fish has a beard) and it has changed colour from white to brown/black. I don't want to risk making the other fish sick by treating the whole tank, but I feel awful about leaving it - what do you think I'm best to do?

Thanks for the reply. Actually, this is something that has occurred to me already - our tank has been running now for over 6 years, so some of the first inhabitants are probably reaching the end of their natural lifespan! Doesn't explain the baby cory deaths though... No more changes or deaths this week, so I guess I'll just keep on keeping on and see what happens. Thanks for all the replies!

We have one adult cory who has had something wrong for about a year now and, yes, it occasionally "flashes". It is also really pale - it looks like a ghost alongside the other cories. Apart from that one, I haven't noticed anything, but I'll keep watching them. What would any of these be a symptom of? I have been told this several times before, but, according to our test kit, the nitrate reading in this tank is always zero. Hubby is a water engineer, and I've discussed it with him at length - he says it is because we have a full nitrification denitrification cycle at work in our tank (as I understand it, we have anaerobic bacteria in the gravel which consume nitrates to complete the nitrogen cycle). So either he's right (and he thinks this is a good thing to have - as he has a PhD in water treatment and runs a water treatment company, I'm inclined to believe him!), or our test kit is faulty. Either way, with 0 ammonia and nitrite and weekly water changes, nitrate isn't a problem. I had a "D'oh" moment tonight, when I realised that I have been overdosing Stress Coat - I'm doing smaller water changes, but realised I'm using the same amount as I used to :facepalm: . Although it is supposedly still within the "safe" limit, I'm going to cut back and see if that makes any difference.

I wondered that too but, if that is the case, what should I do? Is there any general anti-parasitic, or do you need to know what you're dealing with to be able to treat it? And if it's not that, and I do a treatment, is it likely to do more harm than good?

Yes - as I said above, they are all fine - all 0

We've been having an assortment of random issues with our tank over the last few weeks, culminating in two of our baby panda cories dying in the last week. Our current set up is as follows: 54L tank, planted with Java Fern, Anubias and Ambulia, dark small gravel (5mm) and driftwood Temperature 24 degrees Inhabitants: 3 Otos, 3 Dwarf Neon Rainbowfish, 2 Harlequin Rasboras, 8-10 Ember Tetras, 6 Adult Panda Cories and an uncountable number of baby cories Fish are fed an assortment of dried foods - JBL Granomix, Granocolor, NovoTab, NovoPleco and NovoDaph and Tetra bloodworms (mostly Granomix and Granocolor, with one or two of the others each week) Water change: 9 litres per week, fresh water treated with StressCoat Ferts: 1-2 drops of Valray ferts per day All water tests fine, pH 6.4, KH 17.9ppm, GH 89.5ppm Apart from constant issues with black beard algae, the tank has been running well for most of the year, until a few weeks ago one of the rainbowfish was swimming right at the top of the tank (with its dorsal fin out of the water) and doing an occasional "death roll". I separated it into a smaller container within the tank, and it seemed to be constipated because, after doing the biggest poo I've ever seen a fish do, it gradually came right. The next day, the same thing happened to the other female rainbowfish, which also recovered quickly. About a week later, one of the harlequins died, so I did a water test and change, and the pH had dropped below 6. I added more coral rock and that plus the water change seemed to fix the pH. Ever since then (and also up until that point), all the tests have been fine, but it seems to have affected the fish - the female rainbowfish both have a little white dot on their mouths, one of the harlequins seems to "shiver" and, as I said, two of the baby cories have recently died. One of them just went very pale and died in the space of 24 hours, the other one did the same, but also had black stuff coming out its gill - I have no idea what? I'm at a bit of a loss as to what to do from here? I realise there are too many fish in the tank - we have another tank, but are waiting to get new carpet laid before we can set it up. Until then, any ideas on what I should be doing?

Well, maybe the answer to having a fish tank in a sunny room is partly just to cram it full of plants... Our current tank is getting about an hour of direct sunlight each morning at the moment, but the water is crystal clear - the best it has ever been. I think it is because I haven't been pruning the plants at all, as I'm trying to get enough plants for the new tank as well. So the ambulia is running rampant and has covered the side of the tank which gets sunlight - it's growing better than it ever has, and we have crystal clear water, no algae on the glass at all, and hardly any BBA! :happy2: It really is all about getting that balance right, it seems - and it's certainly nice when you hit the "sweet spot"!

If you weren't watching channel One right now, tune in to One+1 at 8:30 to see a HUGE tank...

That's a beautiful fish tank, BrendanNSANZ - thanks for sharing! I presume with CO2 it is easier to get a balance of light and nutrients - my tank will be low-tech. But it's still good to know that people have had success with "sunny tanks"!

Thanks for the replies! Am I right in thinking that it is only direct sunlight shining on the tank that causes algae, not simply having it in a bright room? I'm contemplating sewing a cover for the tank to block direct sunlight for the few hours per day in winter that the sun would shine directly on the tank, and only running the tank lights in the late afternoon and evening. I guess all I can do is try it and have a Plan B for if it becomes a problem. We've taken the tank out of the box and put it on the wooden chest, and I agree with hubby that, from a purely aesthetic point of view, it's a great place for a fish tank. The kids are excited too, because it is low enough for them to see in properly, and I think they'll get a lot of enjoyment from it. It will be a while before we set it up, as we need to carpet the room, and it would be silly to set it up then have to move it, but I'm planning to set up a tank log, so I'll keep you posted on how it works out!

My Christmas present was an AquaOne EcoStyle 61, and we're keen to set it up in the living room, as that's where we spend the most time. However, it is a VERY sunny room, with full length windows on the north side, and big windows on the west side too. In the summer time, I think it will be fine, as the eaves mean the sun doesn't come in the north windows, and we tend to keep the west curtains shut to prevent the room overheating, but in winter the north sun fills the whole room, and we want the warmth from the sun shining in the west windows as well. So I don't want to have to keep all the curtains shut in winter, but I'm pretty sure that means the tank would be getting direct sunlight for part of the day. Is this just going to be a guaranteed algae disaster, or is it worth giving it a try? The tank is 70L, and it will be planted with Anubias and Java Fern, and probably Java Moss. I may also plant some Ambulia and/or other stem plants - am I right in thinking that faster-growing plants will suck up excess nutrients and help reduce algae? I'd love to hear from anyone who has set up a tank in a sunny room - what are your experiences? Thanks!

Thanks for the replies. I think it must have been eaten, as we've both had a pretty good look and can't find anything - I'm just surprised it happened so quickly and completely. I guess I'll just keep an eye on the ammonia level and do a water change if it spikes.

I noticed today that we only had three harlequin rasboras left in our tank The fourth one has lasted a lot longer than I ever expected - it was about 5 years old, and for the last year or so it has had a tumour growing on its nose. I took the approach that, as long as it was swimming fine, eating, had good colour and seemed otherwise happy, I would let it be, but if it seemed to be suffering I would put it out of its misery. Anyway, apart from a massive lump on its nose, it seemed fine until yesterday, but I noticed it missing this afternoon. Hubby offered to remove it, but it was nowhere to be found! He didn't quite strip down the tank, but he moved all the hardware and the driftwood, and felt through all the plants, and...nothing. Is it possible that the other fish (and snails) could have totally eaten it in such a short space of time, or do I need to have another go tomorrow and pull the whole tank to pieces? Or should I just do a couple of extra water changes (I did one tonight) to prevent an ammonia spike?

If your tank has enough plants, you may find some babies soon...

Hi, I'm certainly no expert, but my understanding of growing plants is that you are trying to get the right balance of light, nutrients and CO2 so that your plants grow well, but your tank doesn't get overrun by algae. The simplest and cheapest way is to have a low-light, low-tech setup, which means you don't add CO2 - as long as you choose plants that do well in low light, they will grow fine, but usually quite slowly. I think the lights in most all-in-one aquarium setups count as low light, so it's a good place to start. If you google "low-tech low light planted aquarium" you'll find plenty of useful info to get you started, then it's a matter of trial and error to find out what works best in your tank. I have had reasonable success doing the following: I chose Anubias, Java Fern and Java Moss, as they all like low light levels, plus Ambulia, as I wanted something fast growing to suck up excess nutrients. I planted quite heavily right from the start. Using fishing line, I tied the Anubias onto stones which I placed on the gravel, and the Java Fern and Java Moss I tied onto driftwood. The Ambulia was planted in the gravel, and I put fertiliser tabs underneath. I bought a bottle of Valray's fertiliser (off Trade Me), and I dose 1-2 drops per day. I run the lights for 6 hours per day. Most weeks I do about a 15% water change, trim back the plants that need it (mostly the Ambulia and Java Fern), and trim off any leaves that have too much algae on them. My plants have always grown well, although the Ambulia gets a bit leggy in low light. One of my Anubias has just flowered for the first time, which was a nice surprise! I always have a bit of black beard algae in the tank, although it doesn't seem to get too out of control - I just cut off leaves when they get affected. I also get a bit of green water algae at this time of year, because the sun comes in our top window (which doesn't have a curtain), straight onto the tank, and I don't always remember to cover the tank before I go to bed. Apart from that, I'm pretty happy with how things are going - the biggest change I have noticed with having plants is that the tank stays very stable, so all the fish are happier and healthier.

SO...we spent the weekend up in Christchurch and came home with a new tank! We popped into Animates Tower Junction on the way home and they had an Aqua One Ecostyle 61, which we got for $149, and a Fluval heater for $50 (tank doesn't come with a heater). We decided that was both cheaper and easier than a custom set up - it comes with two LED strips, which hubby assures me are a standard size, so we can experiment with different colours, and the filter is in the hood, but we're pretty sure we can do a modified HMF to figure out how that might work as well. I also spent a lot of time in Organism (I needed fish food, but any excuse!) looking at fish and working out what we might put in it. I've decided to get a school of some sort (probably tetras) - before I went, I was almost certain I wanted lemon tetras, but now there are about a dozen possibilities on my list! The current plan is to eventually put the baby panda cories, our dwarf neon rainbowfish, some otos and a school of something in the new tank (as it is bigger than the current one) and leave the adult panda cories, harlequin rasboras, otos and ember tetras in the old tank. The new tank will have dark gravel, driftwood, anubias, java fern and hopefully some crypts and I'm not sure yet what else. It's going to be a slow set-up, and nothing will be happening until after Christmas at least, but I'll try to get myself organised and do a tank log with progress photos this time around. Unfortunately I only have a cheap, 2nd hand camera, which is really rubbish, but I'll see what I can do! In the meantime, there'll be lots of planning and dreaming...

Thanks for the helpful reply, alexyay! :gpo2: I've been pondering a lot today, and I'm thinking now that I'd like to set this tank up as a mini test-version of the large tank we hope to one day have. So I think it will have to be a custom tank, as I want to try LED lighting and a Hamburg Mattenfilter. My ultimate aim is to achieve a beautiful, aquascaped, low-maintenance, energy-efficient tank, with large schools of small peaceful fish - definitely panda cories and otos, plus probably several types of tetras. I'm feeling very excited now that hubby has approved getting a second tank (still haven't figured out where it will go, though :dunno: ) - MTS, here we come!

Hi, I posted a month or so ago that we had baby panda cories in our tank. Well...we just keep seeing more and more of them! I'm pretty certain there are more than ten of them now and every week there seem to be one or two more tiny ones in there. :bounce: Our eventual plan is to build a bigger house than we currently have, and get a big fish tank, so I don't really want to rehome all of them, which means we are going to need another tank to house some of them in the meantime. I'm still trying to work out the logistics of fitting another tank in our house, so we'll probably look at another 60-ish-litre - certainly no bigger than 90L. I'm tossing up between moving some of the panda cories and our 9 ember tetras to a new tank, and getting some lemon tetras to go in the current tank, or just moving the cories and getting a betta to go with them. How many cories do you think I could safely keep in a 60L with a few ember tetras or a betta? I've been looking at and Aqua One 620 on TM but, after reading up on it, I have been put off by the number of these tanks that have broken - it sounds like 5mm glass and curved corners are not the best combination and, as it will probably be on carpet, it's not a risk I want to take! So what small tanks do people recommend? It will be a low-light, low-tech planted tank, so I'd like to be able to set the lights on a timer. I'd be keen to have LED lights, to find out what they're like with plants, as I hope to use this as a bit of a test tank before we get a bigger tank. I'd love to be able to hide most of the hardware and I'd like as quiet a tank as possible. If you have a small tank, what are the things you love/hate about it? Any advice or opinions would be appreciated, thanks!

I only gravel vac the places where there is bare substrate, as I figure that fish poo = plant food elsewhere! I have found that the more plants I have, the easier it has been to keep my tank parameters stable. I only have a little tank though, but I presume a bigger tank would be similar.

At least, I'm assuming they are pretty happy, as they have babies :love: We've spotted at least four babies so far - two are now about 10mm long, one is about 7mm, and one is TINY - it actually looks more like a tadpole than a cory, and would only be 2-3mm long. I'm guessing that we might end up with more, as long as the water conditions stay to their liking, so I have a couple of questions: I usually do a weekly water change, but hadn't done one for over a month - as all the fish were obviously thriving, I'm guessing I could go to doing one a fortnight (we have quite a lot of plants in our tank, so nitrates have never been an issue)? It was fascinating watching the cories going for it straight after a big water change - I thought one was attacking another, until I figured out what they were doing :oops: We have a 60L tank, with 6 panda cories (plus babies, so now at least 10), 4 harlequin rasboras, 3 dwarf neon rainbowfish and 9 or 10 ember tetras (we bought 10, but I've only ever been able to count 9). So our tank is already at capacity - the harlequins are about 5 years old, and the rest of them have died, so when we bought the tetras we sort of assumed we wouldn't have them much longer, but they're still going strong! I realise that baby cories won't add too much to the bioload, but how big should they be before we rehome them? I'm trying to persuade hubby to set up a second tank, with just cories and a siamese fighter, but if I can't bring him round, we'll eventually have to get rid of some of them. I'm very excited about having baby fish again - some of the adults we have now were born in the tank a few years ago, so we must be doing something right! I had forgotten how much fun it is to play "count the cories" at feeding time :bounce:

What makes you think you have high ammonia levels? Are your fish sick or dying? How long has your tank been running? I agree that the strips are less likely to give an accurate reading - I'd trust the API test, unless you have a reason (eg sick/dead fish) for thinking your ammonia levels are up.

Maybe you mean Kuhli loaches? http://www.seriouslyfish.com/species/pangio-semicincta/ The absolute best piece of advice I have ever had (and which seems to be the fishkeeper's mantra) is: take care of the water, and the fish will look after themselves. Make sure you understand what cycling a new tank entails BEFORE you buy fish - there are several different ways to cycle a tank, and it probably doesn't matter which one you choose. I recommend buying test kits, so that, if something seems to be going wrong, you can quickly check what the problem might be and react accordingly. I would be willing to bet that the vast majority of fish fatalities can be attributed to problems with the water (eg ammonia, high/low/fluctuating pH). Try to choose fish that thrive in similar water parameters. Although you will read that most fish can live at pH 7 and 24-26 degrees, that doesn't mean they will thrive in those conditions. If you know whether your tap water is hard or soft, you can then choose fish that like the conditions that will be easiest for you to provide, rather than constantly having to work to maintain ideal conditions. For example, our tap water is very soft, so we chose fish that like soft water and a slightly acidic pH. There are ways to alter pH and hardness without having to constantly dose the tank with chemicals (which, in my experience, created more problems than they solved), but it is easiest to choose fish that will thrive in the water you have! Planted tanks are great, and can be low maintenance - as long as you choose plants that suit your conditions! They can take a bit of time and trial and error initially to get everything in balance, but after that they can be very low maintenance. If you Google "low-tech low-light planted aquariums" there are lots of good sites with information on how to start.

The things I'd be concerned about are: Bath toys get pretty slimy and manky even when they're dried every day. As Sunbird73 said, it may not stay looking good (but maybe you could take it out and scrub it every week?) I have found with my kids' bath toys that the paint starts flaking off after a while - the base colour will probably be fine, but the painted on bits may not. Most bath toys have a hole in the bottom - the toy may fill up with water that will go stagnant and yucky pretty quickly I think they're made of a sort of synthetic resin - probably acrylic? They are almost certainly made using slave/child labour in China If it is, there will probably be a "how to" guide on YouTube! You can get craft resins, which you pour into moulds to make various things, so you can probably do the same for fish tank ornaments.

Thanks, Adrienne. Yes, I realise Anubias shouldn't be planted in the substrate - this is why I'm not going to try a Walstad-type tank this time, as I will have Java fern, Anubias and Java or Christmas moss, so the Ambulia (and maybe Hygrophila Polysperma - I'm still deciding) will be the only thing actually planted in the substrate. I think I will stick with the gravel substrate (which has a good layer of mulm underneath it), and just use fertiliser tabs or sticks under the Ambulia to give it a boost.