wandj

I don't mix fish unless they are a community or in my Discus tank. So the answer is no.

Thanks for the links Neil. I have read them all before, but my memory fails me so it was a good read again. (I am printing them off and taking them to work to read at coffee breaks) I now have 3 fish in total holding, the Ruby Red and 2 Bicolors. And by the way my wild male Flametail was acting towards Gina's female, I think I will be haveing another mommy soon. (I just added him to her tank last night and they were dancing immediately) So he made it out of his q tank without dying.

Ok, I shall do that. I'll give that stuff to my community fish and my plecos...they seem pretty tough. For a lot of this, I have been feeding them NLS, but one guy at the store told me I should mostly be feeding them veggie flakes. Is this true?

I agree with you 100%. That Venustus I mentioned I got from AquaGiant? My good god he is doing so well! He was not even slowed down at all. But some fish...they just seem to flop! I admit I have WAY too much faith in the stores. I am guilty of NOT studying the fish I buy. Look at the 3 deformed Flametails I bought and didn't notice. I better learn to pick my fish better as this is getting expensive! Just to note, the fish I have the least amount of trouble with (or no trouble) are fish I get from friends or ACE members. (Like my Firehead Cichlid). I am going to point the finger at myself. But, I am disappointed that I can't trust the stores. I have seen a lot sick fish and yet they try to sell them anyway. Must be more careful. (The other Yellow Lab I bought from AG is doing wonderful! Already in my 300gal, so she was fine, whereas the other girl croaked)

I have mentioned this many times, but I will type this out again. I am on well water. Accumulation of toxic substances is impossible due to slow, continuous drip of water into most of my tanks. I also do this with my veteran fish an have no deaths...just new arrivals in quarantine. Testing is a waste of time as all my tests show zero reading. I've lost fish due to various reasons: w/c Lwanda female: attacked by male. w/c Lwanda female: I think it was bloat? w/c Lwanda male: Bloat and had white excretions everywhere. Giant Danio: explained above Yellow Lab from AquaGiant: Wound on side of body (probably from being hit with the net in the store) and it got fungased. I treated it but she died anyway. She did look bloated at the end. Jewel Cichlid fry from Big Als: Bloat. Died one week after arrival. Bicolor juvie: no signs. Just dead. One week after arrival. Well, that's all. It sounds like a lot, but I bought over 25 fish during that time. Looks like the biggest problem I have is internal. And not just Peacocks. The Jewel was in a non-fish room tank. Means it was just a regular tank with normal water changes. I do about 25% a week on that one. All my other fish are prospering wildly. My w/c Flametail is awesome and very friendly. (I am in the process of de-worming the wilds with special flake, but I don't think that is the problem as some fish died and they were not being fed that) I still don't think their deaths have anything to do with my husbandry as these fish have died in their q tanks. Once my fish are on their "feet", I rarely ever lose a fish. (I even have a group of 30 Cardinal Tetras in my Discus tank that won't die, but I did lose a few when I just got them) I wonder what is causing the most common symptom...bloat.

Bad news; I lost my w/c male Lwanda. Damn. Didn't even make it out of quarantine as usual. I lose most of my fish in a q tank. This is the guy I bought from Big Als a few weeks ago and the same fish that killed a w/c female in the q tank. (And the second female died for no reason either) So I lost all 3 of my w/c Lwandas. Now some good. I put a w/c male Bicolor with 6 juvies in a q tank. (Only 3 weeks ago...same time at Big Als). One juvie died about a week ago. Don't know why. The male w/c just starting eating ok a few days ago, and a yesterday I see TWO juvies with lumps in their throats and not eating. I think they are holding! And here I thought I just killed fish in my q tanks! So I am pretty happy about this. And more good news. I have just started feeding my fish with live Blackworms my LFS got for me from Riverfront. I have been feeding this for 2 days. This morning a Ruby Red female is holding! (I think). And these Ruby's are the same batch as my pictures I put on this forum. But, I also lost a Giant Danio that was in this tank and I don't know what killed it or why it died. Floating upside down with a missing eye and a very bloated tummy. Maybe the Ruby's killed it? Or, do you think the Blackworms are germy? So I got some good news and bad, but I have a question. Should I be concerned about these worms? (I am leery feeding any live food). Is there anyone out there using the same worms and not have any trouble? Thanks all.

Boy, have I been around this topic enough. I have hard, alkaline well water. Tried a water softener. Used regular salt. Had no problems with the fish. Then I switched to KCl salt. Very bad idea. Lost many fish. The "cleaning agents" in the salt is just a tad poisonous. Didn't know this till later. I would not use ANY salt again. How it works? Let's just stick with regular NaCl for an example. Hard water is loaded with Calcium and Magnesium, amoungst other minerals. The Sodium REPLACES the Ca and Mg and you have Sodium Carbonate. This is how the water gets softened. But now you have an abundance of sodium. Fish are much better off living with Ca and Mg rather than Na. If my Chemistry is wrong, someone please correct me. It's been about 13 years since I've been in school.

Gee, I hope they aren't planning on going out of business. It is strange to have the whole store with such prices. Maybe they are cleaning house a little. There is no one else around with seamless tanks like theirs. I just recommended them to a friend to get a bullet tank as a "divider'.

Wow, with such tough neighbours, I am surprised all the babies don't get eaten even with mom and dad trying to guard them.

ANd don't they look like they are such slow swimming fish? NOT! One time I was about to put my "aqua garderner" tongs in the water. This is quite a long one that you pull the end and it squeezes the tong. It's a grey color. I picked it up at BA. I think it is over 2 feet. Anyway, I have a couple of wild Tefe' in the tank and as soon as I put the "head" in the water, one of them exploded with energy and zipped back and forth in the tank so fast I couldn't even see! I heard some crashing around as it knocked itself into the sides of the tank and decor. Scratched itself up a little. Point is, I never thought Discus could move so fast (when they want to) as I could touch mine with my hand and they don't mind. The only reason as to why it acted like this is because it's wild.....knows what a snake is......afraid of snakes......thought my tongs were one. That was the ONLY time it ever did that so I don't use that tool on that tank anymore. And another thing, Discus are not supposed to like a lot of current. They sound "wimpy"? Most mags/books and even Jack Wattley don't think Discus can live in very high pH, but mine are all doing very well in my water of pH 8.5-8.7, even the wild ones. So are my German Blue Rams and Cardinals.

Don't add Discus with Angels. Angels will outcompete them for food and often carry parasites that could kill them. Actually, most fish would out-compete the Discus for food. Don't keep them with fast swimming fish...it makes them nervous. Watch out for certain plecos, their activities at night my bother them. Don't put them with aggressive fin-nippers. AND, fish you CAN add are: German Blue Rams (most Rams), Cardinal Tetras, and other small, peaceful fish. You might just need to nix the Angels in your set-up.

If you want a "bigger" tank, get acrylic. My 300 gal only weighed about 350 lbs and I pulled it over the basement threshold by myself. And it was just me and my Dad that got it down the stairs and such. Acrylic is so much lighter than glass if you are going to have something built. They are Acrylic Concepts (in Calgary) but Wayne at Riverfront can work the deal out for you as he refers them for tanks.

Aquarium Club of Edmonton. Auction of fish. Check out their website, but here is some info: Auction is Feb 26. High Park Community Hall. There is not much info in the Aqaubabble about this, so I hope the website has an address. I don't know how to attach a link. Anybody?

I phoned BA and told them the news. They said to bring her in when I come in next. At least they have some kind of guarantee. And THANK YOU Gina for your offer. Let me know when your babies are ready.

Well, I'm going to take the advice I just gave to another member who just lost his Flame. I just lost my wc Lwanda female. She was still in a q tank. Only lived 4 days from BA. Oh, how it hurts! But, just grit teeth and say "oh well". So I only have a Lwanda wc male left. Pretty hard to get babies with that.

My condolences. I just lost a wc Peacock the other day and it totally burst my bubble about keeping Peacocks. BUT, cheer up because there is more than one fish in the sea. Yes, big loss of money....but it's just money. I spend more than that on one trip to the grocery store and what do I really get out of that? (Fertilizer) I am only trying to make you feel better. Hope it's working. Come to the auctions. Wasn't there someone breeding Flametails? I am sure Albert at Golds has some F1 male Flametails. I was looking for some and that's what he said. And there is always Aquabid if you are set on wc. I hope I've helped.

The ONLY reason why we bought one (two actually), is because our sewer pump stopped working and I drained my bathtub. ALL the water from the tub backed up all over the carpet in the basement. We tried fans, but it did not evaporate the water fast enough and we were starting to see mold. So that's why we bought a dehumidifier. I think the humidity was over 70% when we started it up. I was emptying it TWICE a day. Finally the air was down to 35%. Now, it is at 21% because it's winter and very dry. (Water from the basement dissipated long ago). Even in my fish room, with 16 tanks, the humidity was never over 35%. But you should see how much water evaporates from my tanks now! A lot!

I used it all summer with no ill effects. Or, I just didn't notice. But I bought one that was very expensive if that makes a difference. Next time I use it, I will examine the water. It's so dry right now, it won't work unless the humidity is over 30%.

I have just recently acquired an interest in Peacocks, so forgive me if I was not "into them" at the time there were some for sale by people here on the forum. However, now that I am "into them", I have posted in the Buy/Sell section. I am really sorry now that I missed the boat earlier. Do you expect me to stare at my plecos all day and not get tired of them? (OMG! It moved its tail!... or...LOOK HONEY, it came out of its cave!) :rofl:

Allow me to add my 2 cents. Just a week or so ago, I bought a group of Flametails from BA's for $16.99 (ok $17.00) each. I thought, a pretty good price for these little guys. They are obviously fry from someones breeding group and were only about 3/4 to 1 inch big. I thought....sure beats paying $100 for a wildcaught male. BTW, w/c females are only $30. ANYWAY, upon close inspection, this group did not have the rigor my other Peacock purchases were displaying. Some were skinny and all did not enjoy their food as much as they should have. (And the other Peacock fry groups I bought were doing great). Now here's the kicker: 2 of the little Flametails were DEFORMED! The pectorals fins, the ones that stick straight out the sides of the fish, not the ones underneath, were pointing straight DOWN! On these 2, it looked like they were clapping their fins together when they swam around! So there is a fine example of captive bred for you! I did mention it to the staff when I went in again, as I had to have a Ruby Red fry replaced because she died the first day. (Oh, and one of my Ruby Reds had a deformed eye, but we all know they are line-bred and some of that is going to happen, and no, she will not be a breeder). After they gave me a new Ruby straight-across, which is nice because they usually don't do that, I bought some wild-caught Peacocks to add to the species I bought that were captive-bred. So I have seen how too much captive bred can do. I saw 2 deformed fish out of 6. Not very good odds....plus they were shy on vigor. If you want to talk to a Cichlid "expert", I think Luke knows his stuff. (He was not the one who caught my fish for my when I got those deformed ones). I live very far away, so did not return the deformed ones....and don't ask me to because I am going to keep them anyway. My 2 cents on the captive vs wildcaught. And hey, if you ever want to sell your Bicolor 500 w/c male, I will buy him from you!

Majestic (Rob) built the stand. Thank you all very much for the compliments. I know the fish look a little sparse, but the ones in there now will grow cuz some of them are still babies.

Here is my 300gal. I put the canopy on it. I also added more decor. Think I still have room for an Arowana? :hey:

Hi. This is for Python owners. (No, not the reptile. ) I use well water so I am not on a meter and have to pay for the volume of water I use, but this might be of interest to people on meters. I don't know if everyone is aware, but when you use a Python, about 2/3rds of the water going down the drain during suction is your tap water. So of course, it is a major waste of water. So long as the end of the Python is lower than your tank, you can get it started via the taps, but then turn them off and disconnect the end. It will then run by gravity and ALL the water going down your drain/sink will be tank water. I have a 300gal tank I was doing a w/c on and thought, wow, what a lot of water I'm wasting. I just happened to notice that the water was still draining out of the tank even after I turned off the taps. So if you want to save water, disconnect the hose from the taps after you get it going. (Same principal as sucking on the end and getting it going that way, it's just that it's too hard to blow/suck on a hose 25 feet long so you need the taps to get it started)

Frontosas are supposed to like to be in groups. So long as you have a very big tank, give it a try. I think it's a good idea for you to do what you said.....but why not introduce them ALL at the same time? Then they are all swimming around dazed and confused and NO ONE will put up stakes before the other fish get a chance to explore the tank.

Well, I spent some time sitting back and watching the 2 that are left in the big tank for awhile. One is a bit smaller, which is the same one that was NOT involved with any fighting. No marks at all and it is smaller and more pale, so I think it is a female. Now the larger one that was scrapping, is bigger and is much darker and "prettier". I am almost sure I have a pair now. AND, looking at their behavior, they LIKE each other. They do not show any aggression towards each other and they even swim around with each other. Males would not do this right? Stange, but when they were living in their own separate tanks before their move to the big one, they were all the same color. Same shade, etc. It is only since I added them together to the big tank that I see that the "male" is much darker. So I think I will NOT add the "male" I pulled from the tank back in there. Too bad, he is nice and they are all quite pretty, but I don't want the males fighting. So the next time I go to Edmonton, I will take him to Big Als. I will wait until he fully recovers though. BTW, I am looking for tankmates for the big tank still. Gentle, large species that will not bother anything and big enough to ward off the Dempseys. (I am looking for a male Firehead). Can anyone please suggest tried and true tankmates for my JD's? I don't want to make a mistake and see another war and have to pull fish again. Once is enough. The tankmates must not be very territorial, hold their own against the fish I have, quick enough to escape OR big enough to fend for themselves. It does not have to be more Cichlids, just something that can be in there without suffering harm. I suppose Rainbowfish are not going to be able to out-swim the Cichlids forever? (Big Als said Rainbows will eventually be caught)