hobbyist

Not too long ago there was a detailed and lengthy study conducted by one of the Southern universitys. It's purpose was to determine whether the fish stores were selling diseased fish owing to poor practices or if some other factors were involved. The final results were surprising but easy to understand. Approximately 68% of the hobbyists fish deaths were caused not by the addition of sick fish but very healthy ones. After fish have been in a community tank for even a short period of time they are not subjected to all the various pathogens and parasites which exist in the wild or in some of the range systems existing in pet stores. When a new fish or group of fish are added to a community tank often fish with poor immune systems are overwhelmed before their immune systems can get up to speed. The study concluded that newcomers should be quarantined for a minimum of one month and better for two as over this period parasites will die out when they cannot locate a weakened host. I have been buying fish for decades from shops all over N. America, have always quarantined new purchases carefully, and at times gone for long periods without losing a single fish. At the same time, having seen tons of aquariums in peoples homes, I realize just how badly a very high percentage of hobbyists maintain their tanks. They are far worse than the pet stores.

I'm curious. Could you list some of the vampire devices?

For those wondering why the $300 per month electricity costs there are a myriad number of devices drawing power in a home. The kitchen stove, microwave when used ( average 1000 watt m. draws about 1400 watts when operating ), vacuum cleaners ( many use around 1200 watts ), general light ing, computers, DVD players and so on. And no, when you unplug your vehicle the cord does not draw any power. There might be a light at the end of the cord to notify the user that it is live but the light operates for 3 or 4 cents a year. Same with any tv when it is turned off. The little led light draws virtually no power.

The best food for exciting an angelfish displaying a lack of appetite is live adult artemia or fairy shrimp. They go crazy when the shrimp are added to the tank. As these are hard to locate white worms are the probably the next best thing. White worms and grindal worms should not be fed more than 2 times a week as the high fat content can cause constipation and damage the kidneys.

Just a little nudge in the ribs to hopefully get you laughing Vince. I just wish that my tanks and fish were in half the shape yours are. Santa came down the chimney last night and landed with a full view of my set up. He shot back up the chimney 10 times faster than he came down. Last thing I heard him yell as he headed north was " i've seen it all now and I wish I hadn't !" Good luck with those catfish.Nice to see them getting bred locally again.

A close examination of the parents pictures revealed the true nature of the problem. Twig catfish like heck. Knowing how miserly you feed your fish Vince I realized that you had a pair of Tiger Oscars which had withered away to the point they were now barely clinging to life on the very edge of the Great Beyond. To avert an unspeakable tragedy, I'm donating to you a quality bicycle pump complete with a shiny silver injection needle. After a careful, skillful insertion followed by lengthy periods of frenzied pumping you should be able to restore them to their optimum size. Two months of 24 hr. round the clock feeding will solidify their gains and allow them to restore their glowing colours. Nothing to do then but recline in your Lazy Boy Rocker and watch your pair of stunning 24" Tiger Oscars cruise around in their 20 gallon tank. Guaranteed, you'll be the talk of the town. Farowella Gracilis? yeah shure. Next thing we know, you'll be shrivelling a pair of Jaguar Cichlids and annointing them with a fancy name like Rineloricaria Parva. Give us a break! MERRY CHRISTMAS, Happy Boxing Day!

My tank set up for the shrimp is so horrifically complicated that it would take a new entry to the hobby up to 2 minutes to duplicate. I secured a baseball amount of Java Moss in the gravel in one end of the tank and stuck a couple of crypts in the other end. Done. I feed the shrimp in the crypt end as I can see the bottom and tell how the feeding is going. The Java Moss is very dense now and measures 15" long by 12" wide. I constantly read scientific research articles and many of them relate directly to our hobby. One large water chemical co. intensively studied the process of water aging. Their conclusion? Once chlorine was out of the water save for a light build up of fungal cells nothing changed. Water is a chemical compound and does not change its properties over time. They even made the statement that it was a total waste of time for aquarists to adopt the procedure. I had already decided that that was the case and hadn'd done it since the early 70's. Another study by a different group determined that small daily water changes were more beneficial than larger weekly ones. When fish are placed in an aquarium their immune systems start deteroriating. They found that with the influx of daily tap water the added stimulis helped them. Tropical streams around the world provide a change of water 400 times a day so a small daily change isn't much. Freshwater fish have to constantly urinate owing to the osmotic migration of water into their body or they drown. The study noted that if your aquarium is moderately or heavily stocked, by the end of a week the fish aren't swimming in water anymore but liquid sewage. The water may be crystal clear but it is biologically filthy. And again, adding water directly from the tap introduced very small amounts of chlorine which was diluted by the rest of the water, didn't harm the fish but had the beneficial effect of lowering the bacteria count. The amount of money I have saved by not using declor. would now buy me the CPR. All my comments apply only to Calgary water.

I'm not sure that a picture would do you much good. There is a definite haze on the glass and because there are baby shrimp sitting all over it, I have been reluctant to wipe it down. The tank is nothing spectacular but it is healthy. Because the first treated water is not delivered to the first house for three days the chlorine is long out of the water by then. You often smell a strong chlorine odour on opening the tap but that is because the chlorine is out of the water. For many years I have done moderate water changes in tanks housing delicate fish with no problems. The story changes when chloramine is added to the treatement procedure after heavy storms or during spring run off. I don't do any changes at those times. Also, if the rivers become very turbid, the City will precipitate same by adding Alum in large amounts to prevent their intake filters from being hopelessly plugged. This dramatically lowers the ph of the water. Back in the 80's there was about a 50 % fish kill after a big rainstorm. Some fishkeepers. mainly breeders, told me that they had measured the ph of water coming out of the tap at 5.0 with meters. Edmonton and Calgary are different stories. Last time I checked, Edmonton treated their water with liquid chlorine whereas Calgary utilized chlorine gas. If I was living in Edmonton I would not do the things I do here without undertaking a full review.

I have a tank with hundreds of cherry shrimp in Calgary water and have had no problems whatsoever. I do a daily waterchange of 8 litres, not using water conditioners of any sort. If the temp is maintained at 80 degrees they will breed more freely than at lower temps. Half of my tank is in Java Moss, the other in crypts. It's 23 gallons in size. They do take a while to settle in so patience is a key.

Unfortunately the par and pur theories have gone the way of the dodo bird. Par is applicable to human sight, not plants. Pur was thought for a long time to be the engine which drove photosynthesis. The reason for this was that the precise wavelength which exactly matched the length of a chlorphyll molecule was thought to transfer the most energy. When the U.S. Universities got deep into determining the photosynthesis reaction they discovered that it was driven by a collection of frequencies which produced a halo. It is this " halo" which energises photosynthesis. There have been a few articles on the internet discusing this phenomen.

Baby farlowellas are generally raised on Romaine lettuce which has been boiled for exactly 2 minutes. This time seems to be quite critical -- much more or less and the young ignore the lettuce. A treated leaf is then hung from the top of the tank against the glass and the young will attach to it, hang there and feed. Over the years I have seen this done several times with considerable success.

To get a good result, they should be lightly fed with freshly hatched brine shrimp at least 3 or 4 times a day. Adding small amounts of microworms is beneficial also. When they reach 1/4" in length grindal worms will be taken resulting in growth acceleration.

I would not go with LED lights at this depth. Once you start getting growth in the upper regions of the tank there will br insufficient light at the bottom.

I have been hatching brine shrimp daily for decades. For anyone wanting to hatch a teaspoon of eggs or more an air pump, air hose and a 12 to 14' piece of rigid tubing (no airstone, you want the water to roll over, not have your eggs sprayed out by myriad breaking bubbles). An old reflector laid on its side with a 13 or 23 watt fluorescent bulb will keep the water warm and nearly double the hatching rate compared to no light. When the hatch is ready ( in my case 24 to 26 hours ) I pour the contents into a 5 gallon tank and use a small intense light to collect the shrimp for siphoning. After all the shrimp are removed I strain the water through a 12" square piece of sheet, then pour same water back into the 5 gallon tank. Because ot the increased oxygen over the next few hours a good many more eggs will hatch. By moving the jar closer to or away from the light the hatching time can be regulated. I found that 4 litre pickle jars provided more oxygen for the hatch, the water temp was much easier to control and the eggs circulated more freely as compared to the same conditions in a pop bottle.

There are two different types of LEDs. Indiam ,Gallium. Nitride for general lighting and RGB for plant growth. A tremendous amount of research has gone into and is still being persued in the second type. Philips has been the world wide leader in the developement of grow lights and recently stated that aquarium fixtures were still not ready for market. LED lights do not penetrate the water past a fairly shallow level, the CRI is still too low and they have to find a good many phosphors at a lower price to bring the cost down to a reasonable level. I have looked at Finnex and am aware of several shortcomings that need to be addressed before I would purchase their product.