Tanked

try netting out a holding female who is hiding in rocks that are permanently attached to the tank and each other, yikes. As far as painting the back of the tank , many people do so. Latex paint is easily removable from glass so it's not a problem. I originally had my African tank set up with styrofoam as a base, then some gravel and the rocks on top however when those times came up that I wanted to remove the rocks or rearrange then up popped the foam so eventually I just have some gravel and the rocks. There is not enough gravel under the rocks where the fish could dig and make the structure unstable. Rick

I have an electronic PH meter so use it frequently. As a general question I use my test kits which include, phosphate, iron, KH/GH, and nitrate frequently in my planted tank however when I had Africans I used my PH meter and my KH/GH kit until I had the water where I wanted it and then simply added some buffer at water change times. Now I don't buffer at all (Wpg. water) and only tweak my water when I am into breeding barbs and tetras and some Corydoras at which time I do use my PH meter and KH/GH kits. Rick

buying a fish and not putting it in quarantine is going to cost you dearly one day, maybe this time. Hopefully the fish is just stressed a bit but remember , stress brings out disease in fish. You could be introducing something to your entire tank. I simply mention it as a word of caution as I learned the hard way and so have many others. Rick

the floss pad in the filter can very easily become clogged very quickly, especially if you overfeed. Simply remove the top, take out the pad and hook it back up and you will likely find the flow back to normal. Had the same thing happen with my XP3 although not in 1 week. I just buy batting at the fabric store and change it out every 2 weeks or perhaps every week in your case. Rick

I got a 180 wood a month or so ago and love it. It has made a huge difference in my South American cichlids who are not out and about all the time .Before while in an all glass they hid most of the time. I don't know why this is with wood tanks but have had several people tell me that fish who always hid will be out and certainly that is the case with mine. I had mine made out of good 2 sides birch and stained it myself. It looks great. It is much easier to heat and a single 300 watt heater keeps it at what ever temp. I want. I know people who have had wood tanks up and running for 15 years with no trouble. rick

on some of the makes like Turbo Twist which I have you can buy the pond U.V unit cheaper than the aquarium model and the only difference is the input and output size. Just use a reducer andyou can save a bit of money. I ordered both the diatom filter and U.V unit and have used the diatom filter once. The U.V unit is the way to go IMHO. I use a 402 powerhead with prefilter attached hooke to the U.V unit and it works great. Rick

U.V or diatom filter. If I was out your way you could use either of mine. My Vortex XL cleared up my 77g in an hour. The U.V unit I just leave running when ever I get a bit of an algae problem. My tank is heavily planted and I'm always fooling around with different ferts so every now and again I get a bloom. Rick

and so have many others. AFter a couple of days the carbon is useless except the bag will provide a surface area for bacterial to grow however a sponge is a lot cheaper and works a lot better. Rick

I spawn them and other Barbs and Tetras just for the challenge of doing something a little more intersting than cichlids, at least for me. I will be doing Rosy Barbs, Odessa Barbs and trying some Bleeding Heart Tetras soon. Rick

I had a large angel pair in my 77 planted tank along with 24 cardinals with no problem but my Cardinals were a good size and those that were small enough to be eaten I kept separate until they grew out a bit. Yes, expensive feeders for sure. Rick

forgot to add that anytime I want some fry from these fish all I have to do is feed the parents well for a few days. Do a water change first thing in the morining and save the old water. Throw in a heater and airstone and presto, you will have fry. Rick

I have spawned them and raised the fry. I use marbles on the bottom of a 10 g tank although you could use anything from a 2g on up. I had 4 females and two males at the time and all the females were big so I put the whole group in one evening. The next day I removed the adults to another tank. The fry are so small that they are difficult to see or maybe it is just my eyes. My wife spotted them clinging to the side of the tank or on the marbles. I began feeding them after a couple of days using tetra powdered food for egg layers and fresh hatched BBS. I hatched out new small quantities of BBS shrimp every day. The fry grew well. I now have vinegar eels and am going to condition the adults again. Although quite small they required no special care or feed such as infusoria. Rick

very few stores will stock medicated flake food due to the limited shelf life of the product. When Tetra was selling their anti parasitic and anti bacterial food they came with an adhesive label on the bottom of the container with the expiry date. Funny how most of those labels would be removed when you went to buy some. I don't think any store in Winnipeg stock the product anymore. Rick

definetly a good sign if the worms are not visible and the swelling is reduced.What was the name of the product you bought from Big Al's. My levamisole arrived today from the U.S. You can order it directly from www.wormer.com Rick

how are things going with the worms?. I checked with the U.S supplier who tells me my levamisole was shipped on the 16th but it did not arrive today. Have you managed to find anything locally? Rick

I can make no recommendatons on any products that I have not used or that were recommended to me. In the case of Safeguard I have used it and it was recommended to me by a fellow hobbyist who is also a Vet. The problem with products that contain levamisole is that they may also contain other ingredients that can kill your fish so you need to talk to somone with some knowledge. I can understand your anxiety but your fish are not going to die suddenly because of callamanus worms. They take their slow toll on the fish basically sucking the life out of them in a slow deliberate manner. You can send email to Cindy at www.wormer.com and see if they can overnight you some Levamisole or get the Safeguard loally and give it a try. By the way, if you have given or sold any of your fish recently it would be a good idea to notify those people so they can take the appropriate actions. Rick

callamanus worms can be devestating to the entire stock of your tank. They are livebearers, dropping live worms into the tank where the other fish eat them and the cycle is repeated. The normal medications for internal worms will not work with callamanus. These worms attach themsef to the intestine and stomach lining of the fish and even proper treatment may not save the fish as the worms will die inside the fish and decay causing the fish to slowly perish. O.k, so how to you get rid of callamanus worms. Well it used to be very easy all you had to do was go to your local feed lot store and buy a product call Lavimisole injectable and pour a little bit into the tank and the worms would be gone very quickly. Now at least in Manitoba that product is not available in that form anymore. There is another product that will work that is available from a large animal Vet and is called "SafeGuard: Doseage is about 6cc for a 70 gallon tank. 3 treatments are normally required and it will turn your tank water completely milky but is safe for both fish and plants. The best bet is to check for Levamisole in the powdered form. or injectable. It is sure fire cure for callamanus. I have some on order from the U.S and have my fingers crossed that it will get across the border with no problems. Although these medications are not prohibited in Canada they can be difficult to convince customs to allow through. These worms can be spread from tank to tank by nets, hands etc. so be careful if you have multiple tanks. Quarantine of new fish is no guarantee against callamanus which are quite common in wild caught and pond rasied fish as they may not show the tell tale red threads for more than 30 days in infected fish. Good luck. Rick Rick

the problem with Tropica plants sold in the stores , at least in Winnnipeg is that the retailer or supplier does not take specific orders. There are many plants in the Tropica line that I would like to get however when the local store here orders them they are sold to them in trays of assorted plants and it is normally the same plants over and over again. B.T.W all tropica potted plants in the Petland Stores in Wpg. sell for $9.99 regardless of type. Rick

not enough info. to be of much help, ie: lighting, CO2 or non co2 but if the tank was neglected for 2 months then I would do mulitple smaller water changes initially perhaps on the order of 20% every other day. Prune and remove as much of the dead plant matter that you can. Scrape the algae off the glass and then vacumm the debris up while doing a water change. Reestablish ferts,. if in fact you were dosing ferts. Rick

oops shoue be www.ottawaaquatics.com Rick

www.ottawaquatics.com I have not ordered from them but I do know people who have. One person's experience was not great as he had ordered a variety of crypts and they all melted down . Others have had a more positive experience. Rick

XP3 is $199.00 at Petland in Wpg. right now although a year ago there were about $289.00. One word of caution with those filters that I just discovered tonight. I have had mine running for about 6 weeks to cycle it before using it on another tank. I wanted to clean the media so shut it off and while unsnapping the 4 latches that hold the top one of the plastic latch holders broke. There are two little hook shaped fittings attached to the sides of the canister for each latch and obviously will break off very easily. rick

don't feed them for at least 2 or 3 days prior to leaving. this will eliminate waste in the bag and the possibility of ammonia build up. Rick

could be the start of bloat or constipation. I would isolate the fish in a 5 or 10 gallon tank and try 1 tsp of epsom salts per 5 gal. If it is constipated one treatment should do the trick to clean it's intestinal track. You can repeat the treatment a second time if necessary but if that does not help than it is something other than constipation. Rick

dpaul from this list who is located in Winnipeg has ongoing spwans of bristlenose. . Rck