Hilary

I "cheat" even more, I put normal ice cubes into a zip lock bag and float it in the tank until they melt, it works pretty well. I try to put it near the filter outlet to move the water around it more and avoid local cold spots.

Mine eat: Papaya Watermelon Honeydew Melon Sweet Potato Zuchini and cucumber The fruit is really popular once they figure out its for eating, I just put in a piece with some fruit still attached to the rind and it stays together pretty well.

I use gloves 99% of the time, I have both the coralife and the ones from Lee Valley. As a clumsy person I almost have a cut somewhere on my hands and I prefer to just wear the gloves than put off tank maintainence while it heals. Also, it never fails that just as soon as I think I'm done with the tank, and after I wash my hands and put on lotion, I come back just in time to watch some plant float to the top of the aquarium, and I would have to go through the whole hand washing process again in order to replant it, now I just put the gloves back on . It helps keeps lotion, soap residue and whatever else might be on my hands out of the water, so its just as much for the fish as it is for me.

My plecos like papaya and watermelon. I don't think I've tried giving them cantelope or honeydew yet.

Unfortunately she didn't make it. Thanks for all your help everyone, I really appreciate it.

I thought callamanus was red, please correct me if I'm wrong. I think it looks more like fungus today, its thicker and is definately coming out of a hole in her stomach. There is another one starting higher up on her other side as well. Do you think I should be quarentining her? She is still trying to eat with the rest of the fish.

Hello! I just noticed that one of my black phantom tetras has something sticking out of her stomach. I've never seen anything like it, it pretty much looks like she has fibre optics sticking out of her side. This tetra has been looking fat (and increasingly so) for a couple months now. I kind of assumed she was eggbound but I'm thinking I might have been wrong. I've attached a picture since I am having trouble describing what it looks like. The rest of my fish look healthy. If anyone has any ideas on what could be wrong with her I'd very much appreciate the help. Tank Parameters Temperature 80ºF pH 6.8 Ammonia 0ppm Nitrite 0ppm Nitrate 0-5ppm 65 gallon tank (36"L x 18"W x 24"H) Fish 5 Black phantom tetras 2 L204 plecos 4 Bronze cory cats 2 Angelfish

I couldn't agree more. I started shopping exclusively from independant stores almost 2 years ago. They have saved me an unbelievable amount of money and more importantly heartbreak (its rough losing fish every 2 months).

Here are two of mine! My boyfriend made the slate cave for me, I just brought him the slate and the silicone and he played around with it. It has two caves in it perpendicular to each other, the one of the right goes straight through, the one on the left is a dead end with two entries. Didn't really need any special tools...just a hammer and a sanding block to smooth any sharp edges. For the coconut cave behind it I siliconed the two halves of the coconut back together.

We have a water softener that softens our hot water only. I use water from the tap of the same temperature as my tank water without any negative effects as far as I can tell. I would say I end up using maybe 1/3 hot water 2/3 cold possibly even more cold than that (I've never actually measured). So really only 1/3 of the water going in my tank has been softened, if that. I was worried when we got the water softener, but changing the water without using the hot water was such a big pain (that resulted in fewer water changes being done) that I decided to try using the water softener water instead. I just made sure that I started using it gradually and watched the fish behaviour and the pH and hardness levels carefully. I also checked the kind of salt being used on the water softener...unfortunately I can't remember why other than that I read something on the internet

Thanks everyone! As far as fish go I currently have: 5 Black Phantom Tetras 4 Cory Cats 1 Bristlenose Pleco In a couple weeks I'm getting 2 L204 Plecos, I'm in the process of stocking my tank and a lot of it is still kind of up in the air.

Hello Everyone! This is my first post here and I just wanted to say hi. I live in Calgary and I have been keeping fish for about four years now. I recently upgraded my 20 gallon tank to 65 gallon high. I've been looking for a Canadian forum for ages and I'm really excited to have found this one. Hilary