CursiveDuck

So your the one who grabbed my Christmas moss! Lol! I bumped the dang thing and my buddy distracted me I heard going twice gone, before I could even put a bid in on it. . Luckily they had the weeping moss left, ironically lol. And I guess winning both the Ehiem and the LED lighting more than made up for some missed moss haha! I also managed to snag some synodontis lucipennis, they are doing great! Along with another catfish. But I already forget their name haha.

In my general experience for driftwood shopping, to find nice show quality pieces that are already safe for the tank. You generally aren't going to find them that cheap. If you ask some of the local fish store owners around they may be able to order you in a good piece, but large driftwood doesn't generally come cheap.

I do believe I've read that the AVMA (American Veterinary Medical Association) does not actually support the freezing method, not alone anyways. They say it's only humane when coupled with an anesthetic, but even than I'm not sure if they advocate it. Here's a little article on it http://www.ratemyfishtank.com/articles/81, and here's the website itself, http://www.avma.org/issues/human_animal_bond/grief_euthanasia.asp . I do believe the fish section is on about page 23. It's an interesting read actually. If not a little morbid but interesting.

The red diamond has a real nice kok going on, He's stunning looking. Almost makes me wanna get into flowerhorns. Not that I need anymore tanks in the house though lol :P

Have you done any over the top views, as great as the side drawing is sometimes its easier to go about the layout from both angles. I've found making a square like you did but consider it as your looking from the sky downwards, this way you can label what plants your going to grow. And where the rock is going to be. This way you can determine your exact requirements you'll need instead of going into it blindy lol. (Which I've done and hello Green algae bloom lol)

Fish TB is very very rare, I've only seen like one case in all of my fish keeping years. I mean it would cause your fish to bend like that, so it is a possibility but unless you have added a new addition to any of the other tanks in the recent weeks I wouldn't really rule that as a possibility. TB doesn't really just develop out of nowhere. I also do believe it's more of an S looking shape when TB occurs, your fish is just sorta bent. It really does look like a mechanical injury to me, have you have to net him anytime recently?

You should totally check and post or PM me the site! That would make my week/month by far lol. Specially with taxes coming back real soon

Such pretty tanks! Where did you find driftwood like that in the first tank! Ive been looking so hard to find a huge piece that looks like a tree like that. So I can weeping moss it >.<

I was thinking the exact same thing haha, I've been searching for some nice big pieces for my 180 im setting up and I can't seem to find ANY good driftwood lol.

Do any of them possibly get more sunlight than the other?

They may be living off algae, and not the food itself perhaps? Very well could be lol. They've only become a problem since I moved the tank a little nearer a window where there may be a little more light needed. Yet needless to say watching that assassin snail wreck havoc is awesome fun lol. He's such a little ninja, I thought I had lost him till one day I saw him expose himself from underneath the sand and surprise attack a MTS. It was like a slow-mo version of an action film :P

I really like the aqua scaping you have going on there! It's absolutely gorgeous

If they're picky I really don't see 1 day of fasting being enough to switch em over, I really think at least a 3 day fast to switch em to the dark side might be in order :P Maybe even a 3 day fast, and when the fish are good an hungry mix in a little frozen with their pellets, so they know its feeding time, but are only left with mostly NLS. That is if the standard 3 day fast doesn't work on it's own. Its surprising though most of my fish didn't need to be persuaded at all lol, they just loved NLS from the moment I put it in the tank.

I'm headed to Vancouver tomorrow, so I have to pack today. But it will be a lazy holiday for me with hundreds of databases to browse. I found the discus article cause it was brought up earlier, but I will try and find an article relating the two as well, it just may not be specific to Discus. I dunno if you have ever used Google Scholar at all, but just remember your AND or OR between fish AND liver disease AND beefheart. It'll make life a thousand times easier for you when your searching through it all. Luckily the universities have their databases set up nicely so I don't have to worry about text formatting lol :P

Seeming as I had sometime on my hands, and regardless of the issues endured for offering to help. I have located an article assessing the subject matter a tiny bit but not completely. Article: Assessment of dry matter and protein digestibilities of selected raw ingredients by discus fish (Symphysodon aequifasciata ) using in vivo and in vitro methods.Full Text Available By: CHONG, A.S.C; HASHIM, R; ALI, A.B. Aquaculture Nutrition, Sep2002, Vol. 8 Issue 3, p229-238, 10p; DOI: 10.1046/j.1365-2095.2002.00214.x There is a fat analysis done but the correlation between the fat digestibility and type of feed is nonexistent. Yet the article is great in that it does point out that in terms of dry matter digestibility and protein digestibility, fish meal still is more digestible in Discus than beef heart. In regards to dry matter digestibility: In regards to protein digestibility: This is in regards to the low digestibility of chicken meal, but does give a good quotation to as why high fat%'s are not good in feed, and would in fact also work towards beef which has the second highest fat content of this experiment: Though in terms of digestibility alone: This article does acknowledge that beef heart is a good source of protein digestibility, which could be inferred to explain why it is used in commercial pratices to help grow Discus, its cheap and works. Yet this study does in fact prove that Discus more readily digest fish matter, and fish itself is a better source of both digestibilities. Using this knowledge you can infer that fish meal is a better food source then beef heart. Though without further study into the fat decompositions, and how a discus handles the excess fat that the beef heart contains, it is hard to say whether or not beef heart is actually a good food source. But as the others studies from RD and REDFISHGUY show, excess fats in a fish's diet will lead to fatty liver disease, or complications. I do not think it to far out to say that if fish has better digestibility, better protein digestibility, and less fat content, that it would be far better to feed your fish, fish, instead of beefheart.

Omg I want to steal your fish . Gorgeous aro!

On a side note, we still do in many practices run with conjectures from plenty of greek theorists. I wouldn't discredit them so easily as many of their works have stood the test of time, yet that is off topic, as is this whole arguement. He was showing pictures of grow outs. Now I would like to ask you the same question as to why it such a hot button topic that RD specifically find you an article? Would this not seem like targeting? I did in lieu of this whole situation, offer to help find some articles for either party to put a more academic feel to it, in which doing so, you made an attempt to emasculate me and called me RD's little research assistant. (I did not specify whether or not it would be for or against) All I was attempting to do was offer my access to Biological databases from schools all across Alberta, and Canada in attempt to search for an acedmic article that may correlate the two, to help satisfy either side of the arguement. Yet in my attempts I garnered harrassment. I'll apologize in advance next time before offering to add some articles to a debate. If anyone on the board still would like some articles on the matter to better their knowledge on the subject, I will still offer to find you an article.

It's not up to me to prove these points. If someone wants to come on here and state something as fact, should it not be up to them to provide the proof? Otherwise, all I am stating is that possibly it is just an opinion, not fact. And otherwsie, they could possibly be misleading people. But hey, if you have lots of time to be RD's little research assistant, by all means feel free to provide the proof for his comments. Did I suggest I would be RD's little research assistant? No, I suggested I would be yours if anything in the spread of knowledge to help the pursuit of your interest, but thank for coming out. And as far as stating something as fact he does state that he himself stands out against it, which would imply opinion anyways, so I am lost as to what you are trying to prove if he's already stated its an opinion. He also quoted Lee Newman, Curator of Tropical Waters at the Vancouver Public Aquarium. A figure I would believe to have done the research before standing on such morale, yet what would Lee Newman know? He's only the Curator of Vancouver Public aquarium.

You have a connection to the internet right? I would presume so as you've posted. It's just a simple search into google scholar will help find your answer. I'm sure RD has a busy schedule and doesn't have time to do the research for you. After my exams if you are seriously looking for studies, and not just trying to prove a point, I will try and find you some studies as I have access to loads of academic databases as a student. I will be done my exams later this week, so if you seriously want an article just PM me and I'll take the time to help you find one.

Hmmm they overpopulate in my tank fairly easily and I definitely am not over feeding, I only have 1 creature that is SUPPOSE to be in there, and I hand feed the axolotl so there are no left overs. That being said they do clean the substrate nicely and with one assassin snail in the tank the population seems to be fairly under control. Though in my personal opinion I'd avoid them like the plague, I'd much prefer to just scrub the algae then purposefully get Malaysian trumpet snails.

Nor should they be; How many cows do you find swimming around at the bottom of lakes and rivers with fish? :P I completely agree, in fact, I'd even say I find the notion of feeding beef to be a little silly lol.

Thank you so much werner for that link lol, it has helped me to understand things a little better lol. So I was wondering could I get away with having a decent co2 system if from that list I get these: manifold canister regulator needle valve brass check valve polyurethane tubing bubble counter bubble ladder diffuser Also if I could cut out any of these without sacrificing to much and cutting costs lots, any suggestions would be great. Also wondering what a system like that would roughly run me?

So I just recently picked up my filters for my 180, and now I have to start wondering about the planting game. I've noticed some pretty clever set ups when its comes to starting a planted tank and I'm not exactly sure where to start, but I want to ensure I have everything from the get go before I start this bad boy up. My main question is when it comes to co2 and what I should be looking for, I'm wondering if a DIY system using two or three pop bottles might be my cheapest method of going about this, or would buying an actual co2 system pay for itself in time saving measures and in cost. The tank itself will be housing my bichir eels and a large swimmer, but I really want to run a fairly heavily planted tank. Also when it comes to actually buying a co2 system, where do I even start? This whole thing eludes me :P. (Also on a side note, what substrate would be best used for this tank, I've noticed some people using miracle grow and then putting a nice sand substrate over it and that looked really classy and nice, and would work great as my eels need a sandy or glass bottom.) Any help is great help

Any more details to that lol? What size are they, and have they got stock yet? And any chance of some pictures soon?

I haven't tried the food your using, but my cichlids coloured a lot when I started feeding them new life spectrum food. All of my fish have actually coloured up a significant amount from going on New life spectrum.