heni

Thanks to everyone for the feedback (and the advice!). We have purchase a couple of timers - so feel much better about going away ... nothing like planning ahead. We do have a second tank with fry, so yeah ... the comments re that tank have also been thought-provoking. Really appreciate the helpfulness of people here. Cheers, Heni

Hi All We are heading off for about 7 days ... what is the best thing to do with our freshwater tank regarding lighting? We have one of those 7-day food bricks - so food is ok, but is it better to leave the light on 24/7 or better to turn them off? Is it bad for the plants or fish to have no lights, or worse to have no relief from the lights being on? Any comments most appreciated. Cheers Heni (Dunedin)

Hmmm, yep I was more wondering about "cycle" the stuff that "releases massive amounts of beneficial bacteria" into the aquarium. :-) The comments re removing chlorine have been useful, too, however. Heni

Hi All, This is probably a stupid question, but here goes .... Our freshwater tropical tank has been going now for about six weeks - and seems pretty healthy, we have many fry (guppies & platties) and all fish are thriving, we check our ammonia and PH and change 10% of water weekly. Do we need to keep using that commerical "cycle" stuff each week as well, or is our tank sort of self-regulating now, cycle-wise? We purchased a new smaller tank this weekend to put our babies into - a bit of a population explosion going on here atm. (37Litres for the new one). This question could be a really ignorant one, so apologies if it's set you all laughing. :-) But I just HAD to ask it. Cheers Heni (in Dunedin)

We collected a really nice piece of wood from Riverton Beach some time back, but how on earth do you get it to sink? Mind you, ours might be OK now as I've had it in a bucket weighted down, sitting in water, for a few weeks. I've noticed our bristle noses like the current piece of wood that we have. Those fish are so cool. Heni :-)

Thanks Dee_Jay. Is there a product that you know of here in New Zealand that one can purchase for columnaris? Those sites were really interesting, by the way, so thanks for including those links. Cheers Heni

Thanks Maxy and Snowman - we ended up putting her down as we were worried it would be catchy and I guess we were right as now a neon tetra is looking the same. We are trying to catch it to put in an isolation tank but it's so tricky!!! So, I might post a msg in the disease section as you suggest to see if I get any joy. I'm almost positive it's not white spot or itch, as there are no spots, just a white patchy look ... *sighs* Heni

Hi All One of our female guppies (we have three) - the one who has just given birth, now has something strange about her skin. I'm not sure if it's because her skins was stretched from pregnancy (she was REALLY fat) or if she's out of condition and has developed something nasty. My partner wants to flush her down the toilet, but I'd rather see if it's something bad or not first. Her skin has a kind of frosty sheen on it, a bit on the tip of her head above her mouth, a lot on her main torso - the second half of it, and a wee bit on the top of her spine near her tail. Her skin looked a bit odd the couple of days after she'd given birth, but today it's really noticeable. Any advice, suggestions, etc would be most appreciated. I already feel really sorry for her as the male just won't leave her alone, despite her being one of four females. Heni (Jane from Dunedin)

Well! What an abundance of really useful responses. Somehow we have managed to end up with MANY ramshorn snails, and a few others. Blowed if I know where they came from to start with but they are definitely NOT eating any foliage off our aquatic plants so far ... so ... yeah thanks Everyone. I feel much better about everything now. Our fish are so cool. We have many guppy babies, and also somehow managed to end up with three platy babies - again not sure how - guess our one platy may have been pregnant but ... hmmm Cheers Heni (Jane from Dunedin)

Hi All I have a quick question. Our aquarium is flourishing and so are the plants - it's a veritable jungle, but we have noticed algae (or something) growing on the leaves of some of our plants. Whatever it is looks awful and I'm wondering if we are about to be over-run with this kind of growth everywhere ... any suggestions? Should I nip off the leaves that has this growth? Is it actually algae? It looks like very fine strands of something, almost like feathery spikes ... Cheers Heni

Thanks to Everyone who said "Hi" - this site has a really nice and friendly feel to it. Neat for a newcomer. Well, since my first post I've read up quite a bit on aquarium and cycling and all manner of other ins and outs. So far my fish are alive and pretty perky but I now understand what you have said - thanks especially to Misnoma, the whole concept of the ecosystem makes perfect sense to me. So, I suppose our new fish have had to bear with my lack of initial information - they seem fine though and they are all skimming all over the place in the tank. The male guppy seems very perky and attentive to the females, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed. It's all very exciting, actually. We have 15 bunches of new aquatic plants arriving this week, so should be able to make a veritable jungle in there. :-) We initially used a product called Cycle, and from what I've read this would have helped but not nearly as good as doing the whole thing properly, allowing decent time for the water to cycle etc. Thanks again for everyone's comments. :-) Cheers Heni (another Jane)

Hi Misnoma, thanks for the response. Sorry if I sound ignorant, but what do you mean by "cycling"? and we'll check out purchasing an ammonia testing kit. I really want to get a good "basic" type book regarding tropical fresh water fish, so any recommendations re titles would be most appreciated. We left the tank for a week as this was the advice we were given by the petshop from which we purchased the tank ... Heni

Hi All, Just found this site and am glad to now be registered! We have just purchased a 90L tank and purchased our very first fish today - 10 neons and 3 guppies. I am new to aquariums, but my partner kept fish some time ago in Finland. :-) Nothing much else to say for now, but just wanted to introduce myself and say "Hi". Oh yeah, we filled the tank a week ago, and have had to wait until now to add the fish. (just in case you think we bought a tank and fish in one fell swoop) Cheers Heni