maligne

I went to dollarama. $1.50 for a bag of ten or so shells. All really good. Michaels ws expensive and their shells where not really suitable. Thanks again for the help

Cool thanks. where is the best place to get shells from?

I just set up a 20 gallon shell dweller tank. I have 3 males and three female L. Similis. One of the females has some fry. Should I move the fry to their own set up or should I just leave them?

My drift woods been in the tank for over a year and it does not discolour my water and my P.H has never fluctuated. I would love to have a P.H closer to the Acaras natural environment but 7.8 is what comes out of the tap and it seems to be popular opinion that its better to keep the P.H stable than to chase a specific number and have it fluctuate. Soft water fish adapt to hard water better than a hard water fish can adapt to softer water or so iv been told. I wish I could have a perfect environment for my Acaras, I wish I could have a 200 gallon tank too lol. The acaras where born and raised in Edmonton tap water its all they have ever known. L. similis is actually what I was thinking about last night when I wrote this post. where can I get them Dovii? Cyprichromis or Paracyprichromis is an interesting idea too!!

cool Thanks for all the advise. I will have to think about it! Cheers

I have a 55 gallon set up right now with two electric blue acara. Iv had them in there for a year and a half. I am pretty sure they are full grown. They have not changed in size for about six months and they are about 4 inches. They are alone right now but I have had bolivian rams in there and rainbows and the acars have never bothered any one. I have a nice soft sandy substrate. My PH is 7.8 out of the tap, lots of drift wood caves and hides. So I have been thinking about adding some Africans. Maybe a couple of tanganyikan shell dwellers or a couple of other smaller African Cichlid. What is the opinion on this?

Thanks for all the input every one. Im fairly new to the hobby. I have a 55 low tech with pool filter sand and sunblaster t5ho lighting. I cant seem to grow much and thought maybe it was my hard tap water. I had three beautiful amazon swords that slowly shrivled up to nothing over the course of 4 months. I striped my tank down yesterday sucked up my sand and put some fluorite down and then put the sand back in over top and planted some vals and a red sword plant. I am dosing seachem iron, seachem comprehensive and excel.

thanks

I'm would like to know what plants people have had the most success with growing in Edmonton tap water in a low light low co2 setting? I have been having a hard time getting plants to grow. im wondering if its maybe the hard water here in edmonton

Hes a lot ore active today aside from not eating he seems normal. hopfully I can get him to eat some medicated food in the next day or two

thanks! the guy at the lfs said the aquarium salt was the same as Epsom salt, should have done my research before hand

I treated the whole tank last night and I added nutrafin fresh water aquarium salts. should I still try putting some metro in his food? I don't want to over dose him but I really don't want to lose him either. Thanks for your help it is greatly appreciated. I wish I would have figured this out sooner I lost 4 Bolivian rams last month and after thinking about it last night i'm sure it was the same thing. Thanks a bunch!

thank you!!! I picked up some metronidazole this afternoon. I'm on the fence as to weather I should move him and treat him in a separate tank or treat the whole community tank. I,m worried about putting too much stress on him right now.

Hello every one. I just got home from two weeks away. I had automatic feeders and timers taking care of my tank for me while I was gone. When I got home my tank looked great and every thing looked fine except for Edmond my favorite Acara. He is usually the boss of the tank and the most active fish I have. He was just floating in one spot and hasn't really moved much and he is uasually a very aggressive eater and hes not eating very well. I woke up today to find that he was hovering in a corner on the sand with a one inch transparent tube protruding from his anus. I took some pictures. He has since dropped the tube and is still moping around the tank. Can any one give me some insight on what could be going on with him? All my water parameters look great and I did a partial water change yesterday. I stopped feeding them as of this morning

The reason why I don't think it was low o2 is because I have a lot of surface agitation from an eheim 2217 and a HOB fluval C4. I have rainbows and acaras in there that are doing just fine

I Don't think it was low o2, I'm starting to think that maybe the Bolivians where stressed from being in a large tank with my Acaras, The Acaras never bothered the Rams but they are much larger and occupy the same territory along the substrate. I have him in a 15 gallon by himself now and he has seemed to colour up and is even fighting his reflection in the glass.

This may be a better picture

hey all my fish is sick it looks like he has a hernia or maybe a prolapsed rectum. does any one have any experience with this

I had 4 bolivians and now I have one, Iv moved him to a new tank all just for him so we will see how he does, thanks for all the help every one!

I use prime by seachem. The only thing that I changed was I loaded a bunch of purigen to my canister filter to scrub out some tannins. I have a lot of drift wood. I have two other rams in the tank and so far they seem to be very active and acting normal im keeping a super close eye on everything. One of my neon blue acaras flashes on the substrate and drift wood on oasion but he runs the tank and I kind of think that's a dominance thing more than anything thanks for your reply, the help is apreciated

Hello all. Iv lost two bolivian rams this week. My favorite fish just went today. My rams have never come to the surface of my tank, they cruze the bottom and the middle. Last week I noticed one ram swimming in lazy circles at the surface. When he was not doing that he would be in his coconut shell cave very still but seemingly hyperventilating. large heavy fast gills is the best way to describe it. days later he was gone. he showed no other signs of sickness or distress. yesterday my favorite ram started do the same thing with his gills (Colour was good). This morning I woke up and he was gone too. does anyone hae any experience with this? 0 ammonia 0 nitrate 5.0 nitrate ph 7.8 (Edmonton tap water) all other fish so far show no signs of distress.

my light runs 8000 k and 1890 lumens

cool ill check into that thank you

Hello all! how's things?.. I bought a 55 gallon fluval kit with kit led lighting, I planted it with Java Fern, Anubias and Christmas moss. I dose these plants regularly with flourish, flourish iron, flourish potassium and flourish Excel. The plants, lets say the plants are surviving, the java fern is even reproducing at a very slow rate but some of it is dying off and all my plants look sad.I want my plants to look happy and energetic! I spent the last two hours watching you tube videos on lighting and dosing and co2, DIY so on and so on. I feel like lighting may be my issue. Do I really need to go spend hundreds of dollars on a new lighting or is there a cheaper way to solve the problem??? Cheers

I have them in with bolivian rams right now and they pay no attention to the rams, they get a little aggressive with one another from time to time