Fishnerd

Good ol' wood goo !! My Adonis Pleco loved the stuff. I agree with Jason it appears to be a fungus of sorts but it does go away if you choose to leave it in the tank. If it is unsightly you could perhaps wash it off and put it back in again. But it does stop once continuously submersed. IMO

I had to work out of town, so unfortunately I missed out this time. Was there anything super interesting by way of fish or plants available ???

I add conditioner while i fill up from the tap, spacing out the dosage as it fills. I have never had a problem doing it that way with any delicate fish of plants.

My list includes, true parrots geophagus - hecklii wild angelfish ( scalare & dumerilii ) recently lost my altums grrr.. peacock bass - mono festivums german rams

Mascaras eh grrr I have 7 of them around 3" from .5 two months ago. The worst part is I never see anybody doing anything that's why it's such a mystery. It must be a nighttime thing I guess. I have noticed all the new shoots from the anubias are getting munched and also haven't grown in some time so I suppose that makes sense. now the questions is like you said good luck catching them and do I even bother.. Fish behaviour is unpredictable the last batch of mascara's I had didnt touch plants .. I'm gonna turn on the moon lights tonight and just watch a while to see exactly b/c now I'm gettin mad lol..

Good questions Val sometimes I (we) proboably forget people arent right beside us seeing what we see lol.. So lets see for fish aside from SAE,L46 I have hemiodopsis gracilis, mascara barbs, cherry barbs, iridescent tiger barbs, red eye tetras, flasher barbs, rummies, a couple small bala sharks, a rainbow shark, a couple black mollies, madagascan rainbows and some clown and zebra loaches. For plants there are java fern, red tiger lotus, anubias, some crypts and swords and a few parrots feather as well as the giant vals, I use excell and some flourish in the proper amounts lol.. as well as regular water changes. the amazons have some damage also. At the end of Dec I got a leopard frog and within a couple weeks I started to notice holes appearing on the Vals all up and down certain leaves, there was no browning or tip die off and they were spreading rapidly until now that is lol.. I managed to catch by fluke the leopard last night and moved him to a tank with other giant vals and am monitoring just to be sure. There was no damage before I got the leopard and he was the last fish I added, at 2.5" if it is him he is quite the prolific chomper lol. I may have wrongly blamed the bristlenose by removing him before.

Hang on before this turns into a food debate lol.. they like the cukes just fine. I like the point about the snails however I don't have any so my question is if anyone has had or does have a leopard frog or an L46 zebra and noticed if they eat the plants? It may be also that the bristlenose rasped and chomped on the giant vals and they are still declining because of that previous activity? I must note that I have never seen the leopard or zebra anywhere near the plants so this is a mystery

I have recently puchased in the last 2 months an L46 zebra and an L134 leopard frog they are small approx 2-2 1/2" and wonder if any one has noticed if they like to eat plants ? I have several giant vals slowly being chomped on. I first thought it was my 4" bristlenose and move him 2 weeks ago but I think it's continuing. The L46 and L134 are supossed to be more omnivorous and haven't actually observed them eating my plants but I wonder if they do it at night? Another possible culprit could be the 4" siamese algae eaters but they've never been known to eat plants as I understand. I do feed cucumber however not regularily. So long story short i'm stumped ? any suggestions ? also it would be very difficult to catch them in a planted 260gal if I had to move them unfortunately. Cheers :beer:

ooher this get more and more interesting as time goes on more good info keep it coming ...

Good to know Jason thanx looks like my local grocery store is in for a surprise when I walk in there and clean em out of their water lol... so would you recommend I top it off with say 20% tap water to ensure a buffer when I add peat to the sump ..that sounds about right to me.. This is gonna be fun.. :thumbs: I'm so stoked about Altums I've been meaning to get my hands on em for years :tongue: So Dan I guess when initially changing to soft water it's a good thing 8 gallons a day is the units limit to ease stress on the fish I suppose it could be a shocker otherwise ? This water chemistry thing could be fun but stressful if one is not careful I am always interested in others experiences both good and bad

It looks like Altums will be available next week. while I wait for a R/O unit I can use those 5 gallon jugs of R/O water that are used for water coolers to initially fill my tank correct... understanding that i need several of course

I can't get rid of em' I and I'm sure some others consider them to be parasitic. Infestations get out of control and can lead to to huge waste buildup and nitrate spikes if uncontrolled. They always seem to come in off plants bought in stores at least mine did and they apread easily between tanks if not careful. I have had to buy some form of loach to keep in all my tanks to try to eradicate them. Unfortunately they escape into filtres and in my case sumps where they continue to breed and flow back into my tanks. I have even put assasin snails into my sumps to control them as I can't seem to find any snail killer chemicals in the stores. While they do make good food for some fish in small amounts. In my opinion they are sheer nuisance creatures

Now that's the kinda informative description I was needing !!! your argument makes sense I never realised it could also simply be hooked up to the sink to draw as needed. My ultimate intention is to set up a show tank for Altums to encourage pairing and eventual breeding. as difficult as that will be it is a challenge I look forward too. Thanks Werner :thumbs: I will try to follow up with your suggestions and I thank everyone for their input. Now if only some hardy Altums would show up I'd be in business :drunk:

I don't think I want black as coffee water I think I'll go back to softening pillows and phosphoric acid as I used in the past. the problem with R/O is you have all that hard waste water plus I would require a lot all at once then not much for a while except h2o changes weekly and am not keen on soft water storage in bins. Ultimately I suppose i'm making difficult on myself in not using R/O since it is effective. I cannot use CO2 injection because I have a sump and I wanted avoid chemicals this time around I was hoping for organic softening and ph lowering methods that would sit in my sump. I have heard hornwort acts as a softener but it wont exactly live in my sump and didn't want it in my tank. I guess I'm hooped ....

I would like to use RO but I think I'd need a big unit to soften a few tanks and you waste so much water. Other than an RO unit and softening pillows does anything else soften water. I have a 110 I'd like to drop ph for and ultimately soften as well. ionic water purifier - please explain what this is how it works and how I can get one lol.. To be honest I feel it's always such a losing battle due to the type of water we have in the Edmonton area that's why I asked for people opinions

So we've all been sucked in at some time or another buying a "PH DOWN" solution from the LFS and realised what a waste of money that is. I remember in the 80's everyone got on the peatmoss bandwagon to drop PH. Then in the 90's I was turned on to using 17% phosphoric acid solution from a hydropnics greenhouse supply, that worked great cuz it had no rebound effect and I used to breed discus like crazy with it. Now I hear about almond leaves being the "IN" thing. So tell me your story and convince me what I should choose and why... so far I'm partial to the phosphoric acid use again but cant remember where to find it. I wanna get some Altums and try and breed em.. thanks in advance for all the comments ... though I'm sure this has been discussed before and i've missed it..

Right on welcome aboard you'll find that one tank sooner or later grows to two or three and so on and so forth... Have fun

poisonous spines eh think I'll watch out for those. They are strange for sure, the one I'm getting is white with brown patches and a bit of orange kinda. It reminds me of a calico cat oddly enough lol... and those whiskers are pretty cute. hehe really ? dog food ?? lol

So I'm about to be given a walking catfish the mottled piebald variety, about 10" and very attractive. Aside from the usual habits of being voracious eaters and growing large and escaping tanks etc. Does anyone have any experience in keeping them? I'm interested in behaviour, personality, swimming habits and compatibility with other fish particularily other bottom feeders. cheers

Does anyone know where I can get my hands on some P. Leopoldi ?? I keep coming back to this page checking em out lol. I gotta have me some of them !!

now thats a big tank how will it get built will you do it or someone else ?? I need one LOL details please ...

can't wait to get my hands on them Altums !! looking GOOD ....

yeah I seriously want one !! don't see to many around. I think they are the best looking type

Beautiful Rays ... But I gotta know what those fish in the background are those are gorgeous, where can I get one of them ones ??

you should try googling them or you tubing them there's lotsa info out there aside from old fashioned items like books etc which still have value even in today's age..