darkangel

I have'nt had cichlids for a bit and I am just slowly getting back in to them. I would say 3 to 5 days for the eggs to hatch and 18 to 28 days before they spit. I did have a yellow lab hold for 32 days once, her head looked like it was ready to explode. I moved her over to a ten gal tank and she puked them out within 5 minutes, and wanted nothing more to do with them (except maybe lunch).Congrats on the spawns, hope this helps.

How big are the sparkling gouramis, in that pic it looks almost full grown (only grow 1 to 1/12 inches) fairly easy to breed as soon as you figure out which ones are male and female, also known as the croaking gourami(croaking as in frog not the other one). All your additions look awsome, may you have lots of luck with the shrimp, I tried bumble bee's once, cherries, amano, and bamboo/wood, but all i've had success with so far is green shrimp.

I can't tell you what the problem is, but I had a similar thing happen with an amazon sword. I hacked all but 3 leaves off and the poor thing looked like a victim of a lawnmower accident. 3 weeks later I have about a dozen leaves on it that are twice the size they were before, and on tues. it threw up a shoot that is now making it's way accross the top of the tank. So I guess the key here is, almost kill it and it comes back twice as strong.

I have a albino LF bristlenose that I have had in the tank for about 8 years, and tonite he is looking like he's going to pack it in. Just lays on the bottom, slow breathing, still eats like a pig, when I go to touch him he takes off like a bat out of hell to the other side of the tank. Water is good, all the other fish are happy, healthy, and making babies. Just wanted to know what the average life expectancy of them is. Is 8 years still a spring chicken, on top of the hill, over the hill, or one fin in the grave and the other on a banana peel.

Unless they are really badly covered with algae I would'nt even worry about cleaning them. Throw a couple bristlenose plecos in the tank and let them munch on the rocks.

Get yourself a veggie scrub brush or some coarse scotchbrite pads. Takes all the crap off of the rocks pretty quick. A crest spinbrush works wonders in all the little holes and cracks that are on the rocks. With a veggie scrub brush and spinbrush you can do it rite inside the tank and let the filter pick up whatever algae the fish leave behind.

Looks to me like a few fuzzy decaying pellets against the glass.

There has been some anecdotal evidence that Anubias sap may be toxic to shrimp (and possibly other sensitive critters), so if you're cutting or breaking the rhizome, don't do it inside the tank. I've never had a problem with anubias. I take an exacto knife and make 5 to 6 slices on either side of rhizome on up to a dozen plants at the same time and my shrimp and fish are all fine. Everywhere you make a slice, a new plant grows from that spot.

That would explain why I have seen spawns, but the closest thing I have seen to fry is a few cards that are only about 1/2 to 3/4 of an inch long. I have only seen 7 in the tank at that size. Maybe next time I see a spawn I'll kill the lights for a few days instead of the eggs. Thanks guys, you answered most of the questions I had rolling around in my head (yes the rattle is gone).

Cardinal Tetras are annual fish in the wild (that's the real wild, not necessarily the hatcheries they have on riverbanks), and if these guys did come from the real wild, there's a chance that death occurs somewhat regularly after spawning. I'm not sure if these came from the real wild, They are the fish that were in with Kyles S/A order back in April. I'll keep an eye on the tank and see if any more croak after spawning.

Stopped adding ferts completely for a week and a half,plants are still growing like mad, cleaned the second filter and the nitrates are at a livable stage. Only problem now is I am getting a smell from the tank as if you were standing next to a lake. Just completed water tests: Amonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate-5-10ppm, ph-6-6.5.

Yesterday I actually witnessed a couple cardinals spawning. I noticed them wiggling around in the hair grass and saw the eggs being released & fertilized, however the cories moved in shortly afterwards and I believe they cleaned up pretty good. The question I have is, after the eggs were laid the female swam off to the corner of the tank and died a few hours later. I would like to know if this is normal or just bad luck. The population of the fish is not getting any smaller and I do have cardinals and habrosus cories of varying sizes. All fish were purchased at the same time and have been in this tank for a while. The cories since april and the cardinals were being fish sat by jerry for a bit. Solid answers would be great, but thoughts or opinions will also be accepted.

10mm glass is too thin for a 26 x 72 tank, if you use it you are just asking to have a blowout and it won't take long to happen. Save your house and your fish, spend the money.

I usually soak it in a tote for 3 or 4 days changing the water twice a day. If you have a south american tank with low light plants, the tannins are a nice touch.

Cleaned out the one filter, it lost about 10 pounds. The nitrates have come down to a level that I can live with, 15 to 20ppm.

Are you mixing RO ? That Ph seems frightfuly low No RO mixing, Peat, almond leaves,black water extract, and Co2. The cardinals and rams seem to like it that low and really show there colors. The rams are allways spawning, and the cardinals do the dance but I have yet to see a spawn take place. They do the dance and then hide in the thick plants. How old are the lights? Perhaps its not consum'n the ferts like it once was. Could we get a photo? There are many who believe ' lots of plants' is the same as 'heavily planted' The lights were changed out about 3 months ago, 0ne burned out so I changed all of them. I would classify it as heavily planted, It only has about 12 differnt types of plants in it now, and I have to trim once a week just to clear some swimming space for the fish. I'm trying a few things and the nitrates are coming down,but I don't want to make too many sudden changes. I did a water test about an hour ago and the nitrates are at 30ppm. As far as pics go, I suck big time with a camera, but I will try and get some up in the next few days.

Yes I am adding ferts. I saw your replies on another planted tank topic and you nailed everything there so I'll give it a try.

when's the next meeting? I believe the next meeting is on Feb 2/10 at St. Benedict School (18015-93ave) at 7:30pm. enter via west entrance.

The test kit is about 2 months old. I bought a new one just to make sure, and I'm still getting readings around 40ppm. I'm going to stop feeding for a couple days and throw in another W/C for a total of 3 W/Cs this week and check results the next day.

If you come to the next ACE meeting, I can give you a baggie of MTS. Let me know as I have to go out to Gibbons and get them out of the tank at my wifes office. I do make it to the west end once or twice a month so you could pm me your address and a good time to drop them off and we'll see from there.

If I could stick another plant in the substrate I would, but there is only 1/4 to 1/2 inch between plants now. The fish are healthy, colorful and spawning on a regular basis, but I have no place to put the fry. That is why I don't feed for one day during the week. The fry go into the other fish and condition them for the next spawn. I'll try 2 x 50% water changes a week and see if that helps. I don't like sitting borderline with water conditions.

I used 10 gal tanks filled half way with water and lots of floating plants. I removed the female after spawning and as soon as the fry were free swimming I would remove the male. Then each day during water changes I would add about 1/2 gal more of water until the tank was full. 90% daily water changes until about 1/2 inch long, then they grow a lot faster if you can put only one in a 5 or 10 gal tank and keep up the daily water changes, because they release a hormone so they don't out grow there surounding.

I'll start with the tank criteria. The tank is a 72 gal, 95% of the substrate surface is planted (2ft x 4ft jungle), 2 canister filters rated for 150gal ea. pressurized Co2, dry ferts, slightly overstocked, 80+ cardinals, 8 rams, a dozen or so habrosus cories,a few other cories, plecos and shrimp. The fish get fed once a day, what can be consumed within 2 minutes, and one day a week they don't get fed. 50% water change religiously every sunday at 10am. Up until last week the nitrates were between 5 & 15ppm. Now the nitrates are running 40 to 50ppm. No dead bodies anywhere or decaying plant matter, gravel is clean enough for the fish to eat off of. One filter was cleaned Oct 25/09 the other filter has not been cleaned since Feb 8/09. The only thing that I can think of is the one filter may have enough crap in it to cause the spike in nitrates. The filter that has not been cleaned since Feb is the one that has almond leaves in it, the other one has a small bag of peat. Water tests on the tank revealed, Amonia-0, Nitrite-0, Nitrate 40-50ppm, ph-5-6. Any other thoughts or possibilities are welcome.

I'm on my wifes computer and about ready to quit, this is the 4th attempt at this reply. When I use my computer I can get on the forum, but as soon as I try do do anything It freezes on me. Needles to say my patience is running thin, and about ready to see if computers can fly.

The last time I did a gravel vac on my planted tank (about a year & a half ago) it pretty much came up clear, so I don't do gravel vacs in my planted tank. As far as trumpet snails, I can't get them to survive in my planted tank (shells disintegrate). I have my lights on from 8am to 9pm (13hrs) with 3 watts per gal and have no problems.