Sara

Heh...luckily I don't keep Africans, otherwise I would have had a damn hard time trying to figure it all out. Glad to hear that I wasn't going crazy, though...I thought for sure that my limited knowledge of Africans was completely and totally wrong after all of that. I walked away with one of the bags of panda cories - admittedly, probably more expensive than I would have ordinarily bought for...but after two hours I had to get going and didn't feel like waiting around to see if the second/third bags went for less, and bumping the other bags probably wouldn't have done any good. Does anyone know who the seller was on the cories, by the way? I liked the new location, but it's too bad that there weren't facilities for a concession.

Congrats, fatpuffer! How are they doing now?

Well, goodbye little fungused over, infertile eggs...it was a pleasure... The timeline went like this: Monday night - some of the eggs start to turn white; a mysterious black dot appears in the middle of the batch Tuesday morning - the eggs have started to develop a white fungus overnight; my hopes of becoming a grandma fade significantly, and I turn to thinking about how I'm going to remove all of this fungused crap out of my tank Tuesday night - Being the considerate fish that they are, I come home to discover that no clean up is necessary, and decide not to feed the fish dinner because they have obviously had more than enough to eat already... Thanks to everyone for all of your help! Hopefully I'll be more prepared the next time they spawn...

Well, things aren't looking too good in there right now. About 25% of the eggs are white (not in one area, but scattered throughout), which I've read means that they are infertile. The worrisome part is that right in the middle of the batch, there is a black spot - it almost looks like one black egg surrounded by beige (good) and white (bad) ones. Is this the fungus I keep hearing about? Everything I've read says that the fungus is white, not black. So...now what? The male is still fanning his eggs, and nobody has eaten anything yet...

I've used pool filter sand before - decently cheap and is a big enough grain so that it doesn't get sucked up during a gravel vac. You should be able to pick it up at any pool supply store. It's a little more beige/brown than the sandblasting sand - all depends on what look you're going for, I suppose.

Thanks, jvision...I will check to see how things are doing when I get home tonight and go from there!

Thanks for the welcome back, guys! I didn't realize how much I missed all this stuff until I'd set it all back up again Anyway, I am absolutely *shocked* to see that the eggs are still there this morning, with the male still fanning away. Is there anything that I can do now to encourage the eggs to hatch (short of pulling them out and placing them in another tank)? Even if I did want to pull them it, it would be pretty impossible - the eggs are in a nook of a huge piece of driftwood that is at least a foot in diameter, and I don't have anything big enough to accommodate it. I'm going to be close to Big Al's tonight - do I need to start making a shopping list? Thanks again for your help!

After being out of the hobby for almost a year, I set up my 29 gallon this week, and added two beautiful blue rams from Nature's Corner yesterday. The tank is cycled (thanks to a sponge from another tank), with driftwood and sand substrate; the two rams are the only two inhabitants so far. After several years of fish-keeping, I was thrilled to discover my very first batch of eggs in the tank tonight - 24 hours after having brought the fish home! I don't have the time or resources right now to hatch the eggs artificially, and realize that they will likely be a midnight snack tonight. But... If by some miracle, the eggs are still there in the morning, is there anything that I need to do in the tank tomorrow? The male is diligently fanning the eggs, but from what I've read, the chance of the eggs fungusing in our water is likely. The last thing that I want is to foul up the water. Help! (Please and thank you )

Hmmm...thanks Rahim. I guess I'm just not being clear enough as to what I want. Well, that, or the person who answered the phone wasn't paying much attention

Does anyone know where in Edmonton to buy pool filter sand? I must be calling all the wrong places, because I'm having a hard time finding some...

punman, thanks for the info re: the heater. I'll stick with it for now and see how it goes. The tank is in my always-too-hot living room anyway, so it should be fine. degrassi, I think the first time I saw a zebra loach was in your tank. I had the BioSpira shipped in from someone who owns an LFS on another board I'm on. I've order from him several times and have always had great success...Bernie at http://www.fishstoretn.com/ if anyone is interested. After a trip to Big Al's this evening, I'm now the proud owner of 3 zebra loaches and 2 apistogramma nijsennis in place of the rams. I'll hold off on the cardinals for now to let the BioSpira do it's thing, and I'm picking up my baby QA pleco when I fly home in May.

After what seems to be a horribly long time, I've finally gotten my new tank up and running. Here are the specs: TANK: Size: 29 gallon Filtration: Rena XP1 Filstar Filter and Aquaclear Mini Heater: Ebo Jager 100W Heater (I know it's a little low on the wattage...getting another one soon) Lighting: 40W (Aqua-Glo and Flora-Glo bulbs) Decor: Tahitian Moon Sand, lots of Mopani driftwood, to be planted this week (w/ anubias, java fern, anachris and crypts) Cycling: 1 package Bio-Spira and two filter sponges from already established tanks PROPOSED STOCKING LIST: - 10 Cardinal Tetras - 2 Blue Rams (1 male and 1 female) - 1 baby Queen Arabesque Pleco (L260 - currently .75 inches, maxes out @ 3.5") - 3 Zebra Loaches (Botia Striata, maxes out @ 2.5-3") I know I'm getting a little heavy on the bioload, and I'm also a little unsure of how the loaches and rams would get along. Any comments or suggestions for me? TIA!

My tank stand is a bit uneven, and before I go any further in setting up my new tank (29 gallon), I thought it might be a good idea to put one of those styrofoam pads underneath my tank to even things out a little more. Does anyone have any suggestions on what I should use, and where I might be able to find it in Edmonton? Thanks!

Great pics, Menagerie! Good to finally see you over here on the 'other' AA

Thanks for the article, RD...much appreciated. I will definitely be careful taking down the QT, just in case...especially since I cut my hand last night while setting it up Wow, is my 10 gallon starting to look bare...

Thanks for the replies, degrassi and RD. I came home from work and Bear was dead...I suppose that I wasn't really surprised. RD - I'd only had him a couple of months, and he was still fairly young...definitely not an old age thing. And I'm fairly sure that it wasn't a lack of vitamin...this literally happened overnight! I fed him on Monday and he was fine, Tuesday he was bent in half. degrassi - he was in a tank with another blue ram and four panda cories, so I can't imagine any of them beating him up that badly. Either than the curve, he had no visible signs of damage. Anyway, I attached a picture that I just took so you can get a better idea of what I'm taking about. The pic is with his underside facing the camera(head on the left, tail on the right)...both his head and tail are resting directly on the tank bottom. After looking at the pic, does anyone have any more ideas as to what might have caused this? Poor Bear...

Bear, my male Blue Ram has his spine severely bent at a right angle...not a head-and-tails-in-the-air type of bend, though. If you look at him from above, he looks almost like a 'C'. Ahhh! My quarantine tank is currently being driven back to me (it was on loan), but I'm not sure what to do next. Bear can straighten out his spine and swim/flop around when the female ram picks at him, but when he's resting (hiding in the plants, etc.), he goes back to that 'C' shape. He's obviously quite uncomfortable, but he's trying to eat so that makes me think he's not totally lost. My first instinct was TB, but it just doesn't make any sense...this literally happened in the past 24 hours (he was totally fine last night when I fed him) and his curve isn't typical of TB. I think it must be some sort of injury. Does he have any chance of recovering? Or should I just euthanize him? Has anyone ever heard of anything like this?...I did a search but only came up with bent spines in reference to inbreeding and TB. Other details: - 10 gallon tank - temp 78-80 - pH=7.4 - ammonia & nitrites=0 - nitrates=5 - other tankmates are a female blue ram and 4 panda cories. I posted this on another forum that I am on and all we've come up with is QT, melafix and salt. Any suggestions would be *greatly* appreciated...Thanks in advance!

To make a long story short, the tank that I want is a full inch in length longer than the tank stand that it's meant to go on. This, to put it mildly, sucks. tank stand dimensions: 30.5" x 14" tank: 31.5" x 13.78" My question is...is there any way that this tank can go on this stand? As it is right now, there would be a half inch overhang for the tank on either side. I assume that this is a bad thing, unless I hear otherwise. Suggestions? Help!

BioSpira is not sold at all in Canada. Several people, including me, have ordered from Bernie at http://www.fishstoretn.com/ Shipping is fairly reasonable, and he puts in icepacks to keep the bacteria alive.

I've also ordered BioSpira from Bernie at Lighthouse several times...too bad we didn't coordinate on that one, as we likely could've saved a ton on shipping. My recent order came in last week, 8 days after being shipped. Bernie puts the package with an ice pack, then in a plastic bag, and then wraps it in tin foil. Even after 8 days (it must have been delayed quite a bit at customs), it was still cold.

Ryan, if I were to venture a guess, I would have to say that the reason that Smokey is not running to his computer to share his discus pics with you is *not* because he is "pulling our strings"...it is because of the way you are demanding it of him. As a lurker on this board, it takes something pretty noteworthy for me to come out of hiding and make a post. However, I'm really quite sick of the confrontational attitude that you seem to put forth with issues like this. We are all here to learn from each other and share our knowledge with others, not pander to people who demand things from us because they are sure that they are right. Ryan, the problem is that you seem to be lacking in a very basic aspect of being involved in an online community such as this one. For any community to function and be a benefit to its' members, there must be a certain level of respect present by those who participate. There is absolutely nothing wrong with a bit of healthy competition, but there is a key element missing here - it seems to be that you are not trying to learn anything; you are just blindly trying to prove others wrong. If this is how you chose to function, than I - am I'm sure many others on this board - will continue to disregard your posts, and I'm sure the only ones who will suffer are you and your fish. That's it and that's all...

Well, I spoke to Gabriel...they are sold out at the moment, but will be getting in some more fry as soon as they're big enough to be sold. Apparently, he's got quite the waitlist already, but I put my name down just in case.

But...but... What about the "1000's of fry"!?! That sucks... I was already planning my brand new showcase tank for them

Ohhh...I'd also like to know where you got them from! Do tell!

Ryan, when you're writing a pm to someone, you can just click the 'message tracker' box before you send. That was you can always see if your pm has been read (and not yet responded to), or if it just hasn't been read yet. Does that solve the problem?