Cath

if you are having a planted tank, which you should if it is a community tank, avoid undergravel filters - too hard to clean and much up plant cycle. Again though, I belive, and it has certainly worked in my tanks for the last 2 years in not using a filter - just plant it, my water is crystal clear and all fish doing swimmingly well. If you have a good natural balance going the filter should be surpurfluis, this is only my humble opinion and I know others here will disagree....(I guess it helps that I only use rain water, maybe town water needs filters I don't know.) Oh also some more gear - a good clean bucket that is used for nothing else but water changes - DON"T use the bucket you use to mop floors And some old towels, 2 nets - one to catch fish and one to scare them into net with - really helps believe me, Nylon scraper pad as Caryl pointed out, and 2 cats to keep watch over the tank, I find mine always ready to tell me what is happening in the tank. Cheers

hi Bigstats, you have come to the best place on the net for advice . You will find that, like everything, there are differeing views of how to run your tank. Personally I've found that the first thing I do is get the plants established. A few dry sheep doos under each plant as you plant, really helps believe it or not and it's cheap. I don't put fish in for around 2 weeks, by then the plants have reasonable root growth and have started to cycle the tank. (I'm talking a seriously planted tank not just one or two. Also get some flat rocks and build tunnels and ledges, the fish love this sort of thing and it's fun. As has been said, Danios are good to get first, Neons are great and they will tell you if the water quality is good or not - they are great water testers - also some little corydoras and bristlenose cats. Make sure you get a small herd of each variety except the bristle noses who are ok with just one or two. As to cleaning the tank. Personally I don't use a filter once the plants are established - they do this for me. I do around 30% water changes every 1 1/2 weeks.. The plants take care of any algae growth (by using up any nutrients the algae would otherwise thrive on) but while they are establishing, flying foxes are great little grazers. For snail control I found the little Botia Striata were brilliant except they also love fish eggs so don't expect any offspring. I do use an air stone mainly so the corydoras have something to play in - they love the stream of bubbles. This way cleaning is very easy and quick. Hope this helps Cheers

Practical fishkeeping.co.uk is a brilliant site with all sorts of interesting articles. This is one on ammonia in the tanks - well worth the read - http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/p ... cle_id=431 the author states that some of the causes of amonia poisoning are... •New tank with insufficient bacteria. •Filter has been washed in tapwater or an old sponge has been replaced. •Disease treatments have killed the filter bacteria. •Overfeeding. •Overstocking. •Insufficient filtration. •Tapwater has not been treated correctly (chlorine or chloramine). •Too many fish added too soon. •Dead fish decomposing in the tank. •Uncured living rock. Some of this may help? Cheers

Get as many plants established in the tank as you possibly can, they are brilliant filters, I do not use a filter at all, just a fully planted tank and rgular 1/3 water changes, the tank flourishes. Also if you possibly can, collect rain water, this is so much better than any water from a tap no matter what chemicals you add. Cheers

:bounce: Yes yes yes fish LOVE live foods - Mine get mozzy larvae and daphnia from the horse troughs most days, it's brilliant and like someone said, Blue rams LOVE it, so do the danios and neons. I think it's great for the fishes well being to get them behaving naturally and it's fun to watch them.

I stupidly introduced 3 Botia Striata (zebra loaches) to my community tank to help deal to the snail problem. Instead they murdered a freshly laid batch of Blue Ram eggs despite frantic frenzied attacks from both rams. I must admit the loaches are a lot of fun, very playful, perhaps I should just keep the rams in the breeding tank - I moved them back after I felt sorry for them as the breeding tank I have is a lot smaller - I am waiting for the plant growth to kick in. For the full story - Tropical Tank Survivor - and picture go to http://www.healthylifestyles.co.nz/diet16.htm

Anyone with a tank of fish must surely be able to see different personalities emerge, playful behaviour, and recognition of owner/feeder. This is why it is so imporatnt to provide as large a tank as possible with lots of natural plants and/or rocks and caves. It really gets up my nose when people think OTHER animals have inferior inteligence. NOT SO! Cheers

oops so it would, moderators, MODERATORS!!!! HELLOOOOO....

Anyone in HB got any Trilineatus (often called Julii) corydoras or Pandas? I need about 3 of each and I'm having trouble finding them. Also is it possible to loan a small herd of clown loaches to clean snails out of a tank for a week or so - gauranteed to replace if any lost. I don't want to buy any as they grow too big and I belive you need at least 5 of them for them to relax and be happy. Think of it as a tropical holiday for your fish :lol:

Thanks Luke! I appreciate this, will try this with my Pandas. Cheers

Get some plants in your tanks, they'll absorb the pleco poo and grow beautifully and the fish will love it. My tank is totally planted I have 2 BNCF and I didn't even know they did poo. Well, I do now but I've never seen it. The water is cystal clear (water change every 1-2 weeks). Have taken the filter out now as tank is cycling and plants and water changes do the filtering.

um, hate to stick an oar in here, but wouldn't beach sand have too much salt in it for fresh water plants?

Another awesome schooling fish which is not a Tetra is the little corydoras, they play all day. You could get the dear little bandit cats or the panda cats...

oops I've got rivers on the brain having ridden through one this morning on my horse, yes of course LAKES is where they thrive Thanks Eric

I've found that if you really want to get your plants going you need to establish them first so they have a strong root system first before introducing any of the plant destroying fish. Not much help to you now I know.

For a large tank I don't think you can go past Congo Tetras, they are beautiful. Bill is right about the little tiger barbs and they would be fine with bigger fish.

you are sooo lucky! There are two types of tanks I would love to set up along with my community, one is a cichlid only tank. These fish live in streams and rivers with mostly rocky landscaped, so you would set it up with river sand and rocks stacked up to line the back wall (make sure they are glued together with silicon or something to prevent them falling on your fish. I would look at some of the medium sized cichlids, to put in here. The other tank I'd love to set up would be a catfish only tank. There are piles of different catfish out there and although they don't have the fancy colours of other fish, they are delightful in that they are fun to watch. Get a few herds (6 each) of each species you want - some corydoras, some whiskered cats etc, plant the aquarium heavily and put lots of rocks and caves. This would be a fun tank! Hope this helps Cheers

Mikey, Ira is joking, the fact that your fish aren't schooling is a good thing - they are feeling happy and unthreatones. If they get a fright, which they sure would if you put a large cichlid in the tank, they will bunch together in a school as panic response. Cheers

You are right Alan, what I have is actually Corydoras trilineatus I thought that as every one I have seen are called Julii cats, that that was just what they are called here in NZ. I think the trilineatus is actually prettier than the julii. At the moment I have 3 I am looking for 3 more. also need about 4 more panda cats. Thanks for clarifying that for me! Cheers

Thanks Caryl, I'm going to try to breed them after my Blue rams have bred. Thought it might be fun Cheers

Has anyone had any experience breeding any of these two varieties?

Modern Angel, does that come with a free set of Kitchen Ginsu knives? Are the payments EAZI payments? Can I pay it off over 5 months in 5 eazi payments of just $3.50@? Oh god I'm so excited, thank you I SCAM U, I can't wait to order yet another krap purchase... (loved it he he he)

Guys, Mikey jumped in before he even thought about it. He has written that he feels really bad about it. I had never noticed the search button myself so don't blame him for that! It's great that he is so enthusiastic about his fish. Ok everyone?

Hey don't you worry about it Mikey, this is how you learn in life, you sound like a very bright kid so just keep it up the world needs more like you. And you're right the badmans site is great - thanks for that Cheers

dON'T PANIC mICKEY, YOU JUST GO RIGHT AHEAD AND ASK THESE QUESTIONS - IT IS GOOD FOR THOSE OF US WHO HAVE NOT BEEN IN HERE SO LONG AND ARE NOT SO EXPERIENCED AS SOME TO TRY TO ANSWER YOUR QUESTIONS AND ALSO BRUSH UP ON KNOWLEDGE OURSELVES. oops sorry about the caps. Monaro is right, when he says you don't know if someone has had a grumply day so don't take it to heart. It sounds like you are very lucky to have all those tanks and parnets who encourage you to do this! I'm glad you are asking advice, well done Google or other search engines are great - what I do to save time is type in what I need to know visit a few pages and save them to read later. There are some fantastic sites out there with a wealth of knowledge. And also bear in ind that one way is not always the best way to dop things, sometimes youwill find others doing things differently but just as successfully or they may explain things in a more clear way. This forum is a fantastic place to start though, there are some brilliant and very knowledgeable people here and some wonderful people who are very kind too, (amongst the grumpy ones) just like in real life Cheers