Shelley

Oh goodie...lets share information :lol: I have 3 males in three separate tanks (obviously) and one female (my mother got her for me from Redwoods...where did you get your girls from? and what colours are they?) I had her in the community tank with betta 1....and they tolerated each other fine with no real harrassment from either...basically she was more keen on him than he was on her. I have since shifted her into another tank (inside a container) to introduce her to betta 2. Now he thought she was a bit of alright and she flirted outrageously...until we let her out. He was a gentleman but she was nervous by his attention...they have since been moved to a tank of their own...and i have a bowl sitting inside the tank which is her home.....i had it so the inlet of the filter was in the tank and the outlet feeding into her bowl...which then overflowed into his tank. Unfortunately the filter was not that brilliant and i have since moved this filter to the baby tank and have a cannister filter running in his tank with an airhose that i just oput on occasionally in her bowl. The temperature is controlled in her bowl as it sits in the warm water of his tank. i will be doing daily water changes of her bowl to help counteract the fact that their is no filtration in there at present. He is building a bubblenest...she i think is not quite ready although is showing interest. In the tank next door betta 3 waits lol (dooooo-dooooooooo....*plays jaws music*)

You people are just the best! Thank you all so much!

where does one get their hands on daphnia? (and..... :oops: what is it?)

Now this is interesting! I have just recently bought a fluval404, lol...it is a little noisier than the filter I had.....but is so much superior! I've had it about 3 weeks or so........ and I have to say I am very pleased with how clean the tank has looked since I have been using it.... It cost an arm and a leg, but I am interested in hearing about the other filters too...I have enough filters for the various tanks but it is always interesting to hear what people say about other products. Eventually I would like to improve on the filtration of the other tanks....what i have is adequate...but I would like better than adequate. Caryl? is there something faulty with your fluval? maybe 'they' would take it back? You say you are getting rid of it ...... as in not using it on another tank? Can't quite figure out why yours hasn't been working efficiently, as i have been so impressed with mine.

Well not all platies look like goldfish lol.....depending on the colours (I did have a fabulous blue platty but she died )....but I always think platties, swordtails and guppies look nice together. I like mollies too but have heard they are a little more delicate..... I absolutely love my little dwarf gouramis....I have read somewhere that they can pick on each other but that is not the case in my tank...they don't grow very big...they are pretty and delicate and a wee bit shy for the first week....and I think they look lovely with guppies (guppies being quite small). I have not noticed any problems with them and any of the other fish in the tank. Neon tetras add a bit of colour but sometimes I have found them to be a wee bit bossy (but they certainly don't look like goldfish!) I now have 15 in the tank and they look great together and haven't bothered any of the others since I have increased their numbers. I LOVE my corydoras...I have a peppered one and an albino...and they pretty much mind their own business but are always busy scurrying about the tank I think pretty much guppies go with anything.... but I would be wary of the beautiful black widows and sherpae tetras.... I absolutely love these fish but they are fin nippers and the only way I would ever get them again is if they had a tank of their own (currently they are my cycling fish...helping set up the new tanks).... Maybe you need more tanks :lol: Sorry to hear about your bristlenose. But it is early days yet....I wouldn't take it too personally if you know your water quality is good. perhaps it is just a time thing? I doubt it has anything to do with him being in with the guppys. We lost quite a few fish in the first few weeks but things have settled down a lot more now..... I feel much better armed with information from this site Good luck.

I bought some brine shrimp eggs on trademe...and have just had my second go at hatching them the first go was either unsuccessful....or they were so tiny i didn't realise it was the little critters in there and ended up pouring them down the sink! lol. any tips gratefully received.....for the second go i had them in a small open container...sitting on top of the glass and under the wooden hood of the main tank....the tank light was on for most of the day but i did turn it off at night...and i had a small air stone in. Personally i feel it was WAY to much air to be bubbling around...any poor brine shrimp being hatched was likely to have their brains bashed out it would have been like sticking them in a blender. Yep..... i saw little fuzzy swimming stuff going on and assumed THIS was the bbs......the crap floating on the top i assume was the eggshells.....so what to do with it THEN....i poured it through a small seive lined with paper towels...and rinsed fresh water over it....and fed it to the fishies.....but i do not feel confident that i was doing any of this the right way...if i had have left the airstone in and left it for another few hours...would they have died...or would more have hatched....if ileft it for longer would they die or grow? (i.e. so that you can actually SEE them?) it looked like i was feeding the guppy fry sand (but they gobbled it up all the same). The first batch i did i followed the directions completely...which seemed a bit extreme...1 litre of water!....this last time i used the small size glad container...about half full...and just guessed :oops: the amount of salt needed...but at least there was something squiggling this time (I suspect the first lot was kept too clod as i had them in the laundry). Hints please.....i really want to feed my guppy fry live foods to hurry them along a little bit and would also like to condition my female fighter. Thanks. any other comment about other types of live foods and where i can BUY the starting kits/cultures (or whatever they are) would be greatly appreciated. I was surprised that animates in Christchurch only had houseflies yuk.... greenfly off the roses? is that ok? I havent sprayed the roses for quite some time but am pretty sure there will be no residue left....not that there will be a lot of greenfly at this time of year. bugger...i'm waffling again.... sorry. I did get some frozen blood worms...and frozen brineshrimp...and 'tropical tucker' which they seem to love but i am wary of overusing it incase it mucks the tank up too much....must get some corys for the other tanks to clean up the leftovers Thanks in advance.

The tank/lights we bought is quite good and saves you if you have no idea about electrics like us ). We have a glass lid on our tank (2 pieces of glass either side and a middle piece that doesn't come out...a pain in the butt if you need to get in to the tank ot try and catch a fish) ...with a small corner piece that can lift out for easy feeding....on top of this goes a wooden frame...it is just basically a hollow box shape....which has little ledges of wood inside for sitting a light fitting on top of.....and to close it in at the top, 2 lengths of wood one with a nick cut out of it for room for the light cord....the finished look looks quite good the only real draw back being if you need to get at the tank/fish etc...you have to lift off all the separate pieces. Oh and i had to cut a hole in the wee ledge thing the flourescent tube sits on...to allow for the hoses for our new filter.

Controlling yourself is soooooooo hard when you see all those lovely fishes that just want to hop in the car with you!!!!...HAVE to look....so hard to keep the eftpos card in the purse! Patience........(I want them NOW!) *sits on hands......fidgets a lot.....reads more fishy books.....counts up the pennies...*

I'm hoping that's all it is, Dawn. The pea was cooked (without salt ) ..... he is alive this morning...still sulking under the filter...though he did come out for breakfast which is a good sign...and went scurrying back to under the filter after he had had a nibble. His girlfriend came to visit and he sent her packing so he is looking a little more lively than he had been last night...but not up to his courting self of yesterday afternoon. Fingers and toes crossed he will be ok.

Thank you all so much for your feedback.... I appreciate it so much. Alan that was a great article you sent me the link to. I mentioned to my mother that we had peeled and popped a pea into our community tank to see what would happen to it....and it was devoured by the inhabitants....I actually put it in thinking the pleco would have fun when he found it but i don't think he got a chance....anyway...ma tried her tank with a pea...... :oops: and as of last night her male ram went into huge sulk mode...he had been feeling very amorous and was trying to encourage the female into the flower pot....... but mum felt sure that he was going to die last night .....and NOW the female is feeling amorous and the male isn't up to it. I haven't had an update yet to see if he is still alive but I feel guilty as hell for telling her about trying it in our main tank as she is sure it is the pea has caused him to feel so ill. I was reasonably confident of trying it after seeing the documentary on at Easter weekend...my main tank is mostly gouramis so I felt it would be ok...I really hope her wee guy hasn't died....and if he has...could it be the pea?

lol!!!!! wasy? of course i meant....EASY. doh! :oops:

Wow! That was quick! Glad you have it all back together now...one of the tanks i bought has a very slow leak and i am waiting for my next trip to chch to buy some proper sealing silicone stuff....is it wasy to do? and how long does it take to dry properly before you can refill it? The leak was very slow...probably only went down by a mm a day....so it will take me a few days once it is refiulled to see if i have fixed it or not. Any tips on how to do a good job gratefully received

that is so incredibly exciting!!! good luck!

Hello everyone. My mother got her favourite fish of all yesterday....discus...and with them she bought a pair of the most stunning fish I have ever seen! (Rams). I really don't know a lot about cichlids....(ok...i know nothing about them) ....but the rams she bought to go with her discus are absolutely beautiful. She bought them specifically because they are supposed to be so compatible with discus (and I gather discus might be fussy about their tank mates) but what i want to know is....could rams go in a community tank with gouramis, swordtails, platties, guppies, fighter, neons, corys....... the reason i ask is because i want to be sure they will be happy in my main tank (if not i may have to wait and get them a tank of their own...they are stunning!) Thanks everyone.

I know it's no different to hatching brine shrimp...... but i shuddered when i saw the breeding of goldfish specifically for the feeding of other fishies on the documentary yukkies....lol.....just call me a sook....and no...i am not a vegetarian.

wow! you are a gruesome lot!

My mother went to Christchurch today...and on her way home called in and presented me with a darling female fighter! i had asked her to keep an eye out just so i knew where there was stock ....but wasn't quite ready for her until i get the next tank up and running (as i have to reseal the one she would have gone into....but anyway...she is now in our community tank...there is a male fighter in there too.......she bosses him around a bit (he is a wimp....but a lovely wimp.... i'm keeping a very close watch on them to make sure it doesn't all go to custard...the only other tank she could go in to be separate from the males is the fin nipper tank....dammit...) but when i am ready i will introduce her to another of our male fighters.....She is mostly blue/purple but has a shade of red through her too. Our male fighters are purple to aqua bluey-green, electric blue....and the most stunning of all rich red. Had a lovely day puddling with tanks......can't wait to get the sealer stuff now so i can use the other tank :-)

That sounds so exciting Well done!

definitely the pond WILL freeze over in Christchurch in winter. I don't actually know that this causes a problem for the fish, as suphew says....hibernation mode.....but i had heard (please note... this has no substance whatsoever as i can't recall where i heard it from, but other readers here may know if it is true or not) that the ice should be broken daily (it is quite probable in Christchurch that it won't thaw during the day) to allow oxygen (???) Don't know if it is right or wrong, just something it might pay to look into.

i know..... and i don't even think they would have minded.....they seemed like 'those' kind of people....you know the ones...the sort that CARE about the little creatures they sell. (as opposed to the ones that just want you to open your wallet). Agreed. Naughty me. Bad me. and yes, next time i will be more considerate of the little bodies i am buying

Thanks Alan. So is this just when you have different varieties of fish? or is it just some that need separating? When we got our replacement for Norris (the funkiest of all fighter fish) we bought other fish also, and the Timaru store put our new fighter in a separate bag. The lady i bought 2 tanks off in Timaru said that they had bought a fighter some time back at the same store, along with other fish ...and got home to find 2 fish dead. Since then the Timaru store has bagged fighters separately (depending on who serves you.) With this latest episode it was me that needed educating.....now that i think about it, the young girl serving me asked if i wanted them in separate bags...(initially i had said i only wanted the fighter but as she was bagging him i said...oh heck i will have a dozen neons too......) but as they had been in the same tank i assumed they would be alright...it was right on closing time for them and i just wanted to get out of their hair so ......it was me at fault i prefer to think they might have been egg laden than to think it was my own ignorance in letting them share a bag...but they are tiny neons.... i suspect just juvenilles....would this be likely in such young fish? Both fighters bought from that store (we had been in 20 minutes earlier and bought another one) are doing very well....such beautiful boys! The neons are still with the figther they came home with...the other fighter seems a little aggressive towards the fish we had in his tank. (Took out the fish that had been cycling the tank and put him in on his own with our sad little guppy.....have since put her into her own container floating in his tank until we get our final tank from chch....where i will put her on her own.) Darn.....I need more tanks!

Do you still have them?

What excellent information and advice, thank you so much!

Neither can I we were very careful they sat in my daughters lap for warmth with a towel over them all the way home. I have actually had this happen with neons before in the tank(once)...for no apparant reason their lil tummy seems to split....they are guts's (guts's???) and I was horrified to think I might have fed them so much they burst! (I have also had it happen where it appears the tummy has split...but they recover ) but if this was the case I think more would have done so....the little ones i bought the other day are quite young.......and the pet shop squirted some stresscoat in the bag....I DID have a siamese fighter in the bag also, but this particular one (William) is quite peaceful. (Nigel on the other hand is beautiful but an absolute terror! lol...... Curly is a wuss.)