nighthawk

I have kept them since I started, essentially, They love to be in a planted tank, and some tanks are "just right" for them to go crazy breeding. I happened to do it "just right" by fluke, and even sold a few to Henry at one point (store credit, of course... never gonna make a living off this hobby!). I think they are relly pretty tetras, and can get to a good size (loonie).

It is SPECTACULAR!! I had the opportunity to go a few years ago, and I would go again in a heartbeat. Lake Malawi is pretty darn incredible too, although I am much more a fan of the Tanganyikan cichlids.

My tanganyikan tank is quite similar to your prospective one, without the tropheus or frontosa, and I am totally happy with the look and interaction of the fish. It's a little more similar to the natural environment, too; you would not find this many fish in 125 gallons in the wild.

From the photos, it appears as though the tail, dorsal and anal fins all have red and black markings on them, which would make this a triple red. Beautiful fish!

Good for you! The first exciting moment I had in this hobby was when mine bloomed; I think it may be the grandparent of your plant. Next, you need some more fishy progeny... Great way to get hooked!

So, the beautiful leopard pleco that was doing, incidentally, an awesome job of keeping the walls clean, has been brutally chomped by his tankmates. He was found at the bottom of the tank yesterday, with good sized bites in his side. Size: about 4 inches. Sad to see him go. Now the question arises: how do I get an algae-eater to clean this tank? He was significantly larger than his tankmates (compressiceps, julies, firecrackers and shellies), and an armoured cat to boot. Is it just a matter of finding a bigger yet fish? Are there more appropriate choices for the aggressive tank? Do my tangs now just have a taste for bottomdweller?? :shock: I appreciate any advice you can offer.

Welcome! I have learned immense amounts from this forum, and found some really good mentors. Bettas are wonderful fishies, and they can and will live in just about anything. That doesn't mean they'll be happy, though; my cat can live for a long time in her carry-on bag, too! My wife's setup is a corner tank, about 40gal, and the betta who lived there was king of the block. He had a lot of room to explore, and really enjoyed the plants. Putting one with rasboras or similar fish gives a nice variety to the tank, and 40 gal is a nice amount of water to keep fairly stable chemically. It's also not so large that it's super expensive or a lot of work to keep clean. Planted tanks are a little more work to start, and have different requirements for equipment than simple tanks, but they have a natural life-support mechanism, and most fish live in places where plants abound, too, making it more realistic. Definitely true for bettas... Welcome to a hobby that is a pile of fun!

I am, once again, excited about my Tang tank! The few surviving julies are having a blast around their chosen territory, and the beautiful cyps that I got from Harold are holding! This is my first experience with mouthbrooders, and I just noticed today that one of them has a bunch of little, yellow eggs in its jaw! I am not interested in stripping them or anything like that, if it were even possible for little guys like this. I am of the Darwinian school of fish breeding right now. So cool. Love this hobby! :heart:

Another nice "top" fish that I have been loving is the pencilfish (Nanostomus spp.). They require a bit more mature tank and prefer some plants, especially floating ones. Henry has had some beautiful ones in, and they are really loving the top of my SA tank!

I have had good luck with SA cichlids and tetras so far, but this is my first spawning of African cichlids! I'm not sure what, if anything, I did to make it happen, but the J. transcriptus in the Tank tank have decided it's time to grow the family. I've seen so far about 3 swimmers, guessing about 4mm in length. I'd be a proud poppa showing pictures if I thought I could get any with my crappy, non-zoom camera in a 125G tank. Very pleased!

Henry, I'm interested. I could use an expanded cleaning crew in the planted tank, and these guys' cousins are doing a bang-up job. Whenever you get them in, I'd take a half dozen or more.

Whoa! If you know the OP, this may be an inside joke, but it really sounds mean from the outside. The setup is quite sparse for a typical African tank, but the mix of colours and textures of the fish is really great to watch. A background on the tank would be a pleasant addition, and you may want to consider rearranging the rock to create more hiding places. It looks to me like the fish don't have territories to guard, and that makes for some stressed and potentially unhappy fishies.

I have had a similar problem with my FX5, and in my case, it was leaving the "polishing" filter in too long. Stopped flow by compressing the sponge, and created a vacuum in the filter. If you have spongy material in the filter, I'd recommend removing and replacing it.

I'm a big fan of apistogrammas, and they get along well with cardinals. Any kind you can find; 1 M + 2 F would be happy there, too. Take a look at the orange flash variant of A. cacatuoides online: you won't find much more colour than that! As long as you have plants, that is....

I am considering (finally) adding CO2 to the bigger planted tank. It's been doing ok with Excel for a couple years, but I think I am mentally prepared to have a high-pressure canister, all ready to explode a la Mythbusters in my house. :boxed: Any opinions on the best style to get and where to get it? I have seen the Red Sea systems around, but they seem fairly expensive for what you actually get. It's a 90 gal that I'd be putting it on, so the DIY option isn't one I've ever really considered, and I think "paintball" canisters would likely be insufficient. Any thoughts would be welcomed.

No, not a lump. More a cloudiness. It's still pretty small, and I couldn't tell you if it's fuzzy or not. I won't be using any more of the meds for now.

Hi, group! I discovered something tonight that, as far as I can tell, hasn't been discussed here. I noticed today that one of the Diamond tetras has a whitish spot on its eye. It still seemed pretty happy, and avoided my attempts to capture it, so i decided to try Melafix. I have had good results with this in the past for minor ailments. About 1/2 hour later, I saw one of my pencilfish (Nanostomus beckfordi) barely fighting the current. I googled quickly, and found that Melafix is toxic (at treatment doses) to pencilfish! I got some charcoal into the filtration system, and so far, the little guys seem to be improving. (By the time I had quarantine in shape for them, they were resisting capture, as well). This ends the warning: don't use Melafix with Pencilfish. Now to the question: what should I do about the cloudy eyes? The water parameters are excellent, and I just did a water change 2 days ago. None of the other inhabitants seem the last bit unhappy. Thanks in advance for your advice and experience.

Holy Cow! That's an amazing spike! I'm used to the little ones on my ocelots (E. "ozelot"). I think this looks like something out of Little Shop of Horrors! "Feed me!"

Some day, I am hoping one of my tanks will turn into a beautiful home for lionfish. Until then, my 2 tanks will suffice. The real unlikely dream tank is a built-in installation on a curved wall by the front door, with who knows what in it. I saw some beautiful leafy seadragons on a trip to Hawaii recently; those would work pretty well!

Thanks for your well-researched reply, Werner. I will do some reading, and see what I come up with. I did switch from regular to Colormax, but the problem had started before the switch, and I am really happy so far with what the Colormax is doing to the non-green colours of my plants, so I think I will give it the good college try for the year or so that the bulbs last, and then reassess. Your comment about the depth of the tank is something I've worried about before. Are you suggesting that more light is necessary the deeper the water? I may have to go to metal halides to get much more light over the tank than I have now, and that's not a step I am willing to take financially right now, although I'd certainly consider it for the future.

Thanks for all the thoughts. I have pruned some of the taller cabomba, which certainly were hogging a bit of the light, and I am hoping that will make a difference. The lighting is Coralife Colormax, 2 X 96 watts and another 40 watts of a bluer spectrum (T5 that would fit over the rest of the space in the back of the tank) over 92 gallons. The leaves do have a nice red colour on the alternanthera, and I have noticed improvement of the colour of the leaves on the sword plant since changing to the redder lights (colormax). The fertilizer doesn't contain N or P, but I have enough fish that those nutrients should be taken care of in other ways. I will see what happens with a more open surface; thanks for your sage advice. :bow:

Hi, plant gurus. I have had my tank going for about a year, and I am noticing a problem with the stem plants. My Bacopa and Alternanthera are looking like palm trees, with lots of stem growth and no leaf growth. I have changed very little about the tank since starting. The substrate is a mix of fluorite and gravel. Lighting is just over 2 wpg, excel as carbon source dosing as per bottle instructions. I fertilize with Tropica master grow weekly, and do weekly water changes. I have replaced the bulbs about a month ago. I also use Tropika substrate pellets. This has been a gradual change over the last several months. I am not sure if the plants are just outgrowing their usefulness, or if there is a problem. The vals, swords and cabomba in the same tank are growing like stinkweeds. Any thoughts would be appreciated!

Wow! What a beautiful garden, and so well tended! How long have you been keeping fish, before making the foray in to salt?

It's really going to depend on the source water. Distillation just means boiling, collecting the steam, and cooling it until liquid forms again. This will remove a large number of impurities that tend to impact the pH of water, but by no means all of them. Boiling water will, if anything, concentrate impurities, but tend to kill any little germs or other critters in the water. All water has a pH; this number just measures the relative amount of acid and base in the water. Neutral water should have a pH of 7; from what I've read, distilled water will often be a little more acidic (i.e. lower pH), due to the CO2 it absorbs from the air in the distillation process. The hardness, (KH or DH) is a measure of the dissolved solids in the water, specifically calcium carbonate. This acts as a buffer, tending to stabilize the pH of the water. If you have water with very low hardness (DH and KH can theoretically go to zero), your water will likely be very unstable in its pH, as small amounts of impurities will cause relatively large shifts in pH. Boiling water should actually increase the hardness, as you are concentrating the impurities in the remaining water; distillation should lower the hardness. I am no expert in the science of fish breeding yet, although I hope to be one day. I just thought that clarifying some of the terminology for you might help you make some good choices about what to use for softer, more acidic water, as well as answering some science questions for other readers. RO/DI water is gonna be expensive, but it's likely to be the best choice for softening your water supply. Manipulating pH is a little more complex, involves chemicals, and is probably going to involve a bit more trial and error.

I don't see them. Anyone else?