Caper

Thanks Caryl, Things seem to be ok...nothing major going on with them. Could this also mean they are maturing as well?

Hi Caryl, I just got home...so haven't had much time yet to notice if the same thing was going on tonight. It was the black neons...not the new ones that were behaving like this. I have had these guys since April 22nd. Last night was the first time I noticed this behaviour. Mind you, I don't watch them 24/7...but have to admit...I do watch them quite a bit...love my fishies! So, even after this amount of time, do you think that this could be what's going on...trying to be king of the castle...or should I say "tank"!

Hi...me AGAIN! Re: neon tetras...not the black neons I was late getting home this evening; therefore, fish were late getting fed. Plus the lights were not on in the tank. I was mortified to see that the 3 neons color was faded! After I fed them, their color is back. This isn't neon tetra disease is it? I read about it...but it didn't say their color comes and goes?

Hi All! Can't stay long...1 a.m. here My 3 black neons...was just watching them for a while...of the 3 one is a tad smaller than the other 2...they usually get along, a little chasing now and then, which I thought was normal????? But tonight, I noticed that one of the "bigger" ones, kept chasing the little one away anytime he would come near...never noticed that before Any ideas what could be going on??? Unfortunately, have to wait till after work today to see if any of you know what could be happening...and I can't stay up to watch them...soooo I hope I'll still have 3 when I get up for work... Nightie all :lol:

Hi Muerk...greetings from Cape Breton! I'm a newbie too...bought my first tank in April. This place is a great site...people are great and have "tank" fulls of knowledge I have one goldfish in with tropicals...long story Take care...and enjoy your new tank & fishies...and all the nice people here!

I have a filter on the back...and I have an air pump as well. But for now...I'm just going to got bed it's almost 5 a.m. here... Good morning...ahhh...night...ahhh...evening :-?

Okay...I just have to decide which way to go for now...either smaller tank for Sam...or bigger tank for tropicals. If I kept Sam in the 10 gallon, would 2 more goldfish be too much? I was thinking my next tank would be the 29 gallon. I don't want to bite off more than I can chew...so don't want to go bigger...but no since in going to the 20. But, then again :roll: would 29 gallon be out of my league...ooooohhhhhh

Pomereef, What is feng shui? And when you say "odd" numbers, do you mean in total, or per species?

Yah, Shelley I noticed that too but knew he meant :lol: Hmmmm, must have had you on his mind Pomereef, I did misunderstand about the tank...I thought that if the tank was not level it could cause a crack...not all the stuff you told me :-? NOW POMEREEF...about Sam! :evil: .... :lol: I don't want to get rid of him...and Shelley, it would be sad. First fish and he's been through sooo much already, but with that said, I don't want him eating my other fish either. So, I will be keeping him...just have to decide on where to put him. See, I don't know anything yet about cichlids (spelled right?). But I was hoping my next tank would have them. Again though, wanted to wait till I had more experience...oh...

Thanks Pomereef, I will be putting the styrofoam under my tank...I do want to make a good home for my fish. I must have missed something, I thought the only purpose of the foam was to make sure tank was level. I'm sorry...I KNOW you all know what you are talking about...if I made it sound like I didn't trust what I was being told...I AM SOOOOOO SORRY

Hi Herefishiefishie...lol...and Pomereef! Regarding the missing neon...my goldfish must have eaten him...or else he became invisible! The goldfish wasn't bothering with the neons, but when the neon did his...swan dive thingy...I went to get the flashlight to see if I could see him better...I was only gone for a few seconds...Sam must have taken him in one gulp then. I don't get it though...as I said the goldfish isn't that big and the neon wasn't really small...as a matter of fact, he was a tad bigger than the black neons. I'm starting to get worried about having Sam in there. I do want to get one more tank...but I wanted to hold off till I had more experience. Plus, I was hoping if this works out...I'd get a bigger tank...not huge...but bigger with different kind of fish. As I have said, the goldfish doesn't seem to bother the neons...a little chase at feeding time...but then I don't watch them 24/7! So, is it a DEFINITE that he will be eating more. Oh...I got the styrofoam today...but I'm wondering if it is too thick...it's 1/2". If I use a level to check my tank, and it is actually level, do I still need it. Trying to hold off a bit...till I decide if I'm going to do anything about another tank yet. Plus I'm going to be painting my apartment and don't want anything else heavy to move :-? Shelley, How goes your battle? What would have eaten the harlequin? This neon was my first loss...OMG...I hate the sound of that..."first loss". Oh...I've been looking at pictures of people's tanks...WOW...some are pretty amazing.

Thanks Bill, This will be my first casualty Could my goldfish have eaten him whole? If he did, he did it in an instant. I should have watched more closely when the lady was taking them out of the tank. I feel really bad, I should have been more careful. I know I've talked about this before...but I had the other 3 tetras for 2 weeks now...and the goldfish doesn't seem to bother them...except at feeding time he gives a little chase...but nothing serious. I thought by getting more tetras they'd be safer

Hi all! How's Saturday going...considering I'm still on Friday :lol: Bought 4 neon tetras tonight. They looked fine until I put them in my tank. One just didn't seem right...got the magnifying glass... on his back near his tail fin, didn't look right...not like the others. Acting shy compared to the others. Then all of a sudden...he was behind my little rock thingy, and it was like he went on his side and was being...hmm...not sure how to describe it...ahh...like a gust of "wind" took him...lol Anyway, I CAN'T FIND HIM. I took my filter off...took out filters...ran water through the tube...stilll no fish. Although, I can't seem he fitting in there anyway. My son thought maybe my goldfish ate him...but I was trying to find him from the minute I saw what happened. My goldfish isn't that big...and the neon wasn't that small...could he still have possibly swallowed him in one gulp????? What should I do? Do I need to take everything out? Will this cause the other new fish alot of stress...I know if he is dead I have to get him out...but how long can I wait?

Hi CatBrat, No...wouldn't be getting a bigger tank for a long time, unfortunately. What's not ideal? I'm not even sure what I can get yet. Hi Hummingbird, Snowman! I'm going to have find out what I can get. Called the pet store today to see if they had algae eaters, yes...Chinese algae eaters. I told her the size of my tank and such...she said they'd be FINE! I don't think it was the lady that owns the store. It sounded like the lady that was working when I got the tetras, which I'm convinced now are black neons! After everything I've seen here and on the net, a chinese algae eater is NOT something for my tank....ummmm...right! The department store is getting fish again. I asked this evening if they get oto's...she said she maybe able too. She showed me a list and all that I saw listed was otoclunis...shoot, think I spelled it wrong. Anyway, there 's different kinds isn't there?

OOOOOOOOhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....absolutely breathtaking. Thank you for sharing this with me Caryl...unfortunately, I have to go somewhere...love looking at pictures...so will be taking more time to take them all in. New Zealand is beautiful...all I can really think of saying is WOW

Hi all! I have a 10 gallon tank, 20" long, 10" wide, 12" deep. I've been trying to decide on what kind of algae eater to get. This is what has been recommended, bristlenose or oto. Dwarf pleco was also suggested...he thought you folks in this section might have more info on the dwarf pleco. I have 1 goldfish (I know, shouldn't have with tropicals, but pet store failed to tell me that!), 1 red wag platy, and 3 black neon tetras. Only 2 places that sell fish here, so might be hard to get certain ones. Don't know yet though :roll:

Good luck with the lottery Snowman...how many tanks do you have? I will ask in the catfish section...see if anyone there knows about dwarf pleco's. Hummingbird, my tank is 20" long, 10" wide, 12" deep...only small, darn! ej...the only test kits I have so far are for ammoninia & pH...that's all I could find here. I dare say with only the 2 places that sell fish here...I might not have much of a variety in what I can get for algae, will check with pet store tomorrow and check to see if department store have fixed their problems and if they have any fish in!

Tried again to get pics of the tetras...in my newbie, unprofessional opinion, still thinking these guys are black neon tetras. So...can you tell any better with these pics... AND how do you get the fish to pose for the camera

bristlenose oto dwarf pleco Hummingbird...you said you had goldfish before? Did you have algae eaters in with them, and if so, what kind? Again, my concern with the bristlenose is size, from what I've read so far the smallest (exculding the dwarf) are 4", so in your opinion Hummingbird doesn't that exclude him for my 10 gallon? Snowman you have oto's right? I was leaning towards the oto because of its size. But again I found a site that said "can't live with goldfish". Attach to other fish: "more likely this behavior is a manifestation of food debrivation". So, that would lead you a person to think that as long as they have algae with supplemental feeding (e.g. algae wafers) they will leave other fish alone??? Newtman, have been reading up on dwarf pleco's. Any comments on these??

Hi Ormali and welcome! This site is fantasic and the people here are really nice and are full of knowledge! They've been a great help to me and have been so kind to the "foreigner"...lol

Mismona...what is a venn diagram???? This I quoted from the "oto" site you sent Hummingbird, not the site I say it on today though. But I'm going to read everything there! I am correct in saying that chinese/siamese are NOT what I want? I'm going to what else I can find on the bristlenose! I did my 25% water change this evening, didn't do a major vacuum, more of light vacuum, going to save the heavy duty stuff for the monthly, unless the need arises. Oh...and rinsed my carbon filter in the water I removed. Checked my water beforehand, pH 7.2; ammonia 0; waited a while after the change and tested again, same readings. Was trying to get the "film" off the front of my aquarium, couldn't figure out what the heck was going on since I only wipe with damp cloth (cloths that are only used for tank). DUHHH....the "film" is on the inside of tank...algae????

I'll have to check that out. Am I getting this at all... 1) not all catfish are algae eaters...true 2) bristlenoses are catfish (algae eaters)...true 3) otos are not catfish...mmm...true 4) pleco's are catfish...true Oh shoot...have to go do some more reading!

:-? :-? Oh...getting more confused. Are all catfish algae eaters? Are bristlenoses, pleco's? System overload...need to reboot my brain

Yup, Pegasus...would be a rather looooonnggg drive :lol: Vancouver is on the west coast of Canada, while I'm on the east coast. Cool that you were looking at a map...if I had known I could have waved to you Can you recommend a good place to get pics and right up on New Zealand. Back to fishie! Did some reading on algae eaters today. What I have read so far, from what I could understand :-? , it looks like maybe a bristlenose? Please have patience...remember newbie...don't :evil: with me This is what I've got so far, IF I'm understanding correctly: - pleco's might get too large for my small tank - oto's seem to be good size, but read "may suck on goldfish", need more than 1, will attack other fish if hungry - "putting algae eaters with goldfish not a good idea", don't remember if it said why So...leaning towards a bristlenose...ummmm...various kinds as well???? DECISIONS...DECISIONS!

Okay...that's it...I'm moving to New Zealand! I just love you all...you ARE so helpful, kind, funny,etc., etc. Oto who? How on earth do you remember all these extrememly hard to spell names Off work today...still sick with bad cold...so I'm going to look these fishies up. Snowman...I don't know about the Golden (bristlenose). As I've mentioned on other posts, locally we only have 2 places that sell fish (and they certainly DO NOT seem to know as much about fish as you all do). The department store that sells fish hasn't had any fish at all in a few weeks...they were having trouble...I wonder if all the dead fish was their first clue :evil: It was disgusting, I'd go everyday just to see and everyday...more dead fish. Anyway, Snowman I'll see if I can find out how much a golden would cost here, if you can get them that is!