In conclusion, if these are indeed Melanocrhomis Johanni, then I am stuck with five males of various sizes. On the other hand, if they are Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos, then maybe I might possibly have a few females, since there is little to no distinction between the males and females in the species...at least according to online sources. :)
I've still got a snail explosion in my tank and waiting for them to get a bit bigger so we can peel them out. The angel fish are near full sized now. Am thinking of a dwarf pleco. xxcarol --- SBBSecho
I've still got a snail explosion in my tank and waiting for them to get bit bigger so we can peel them out. The angel fish are near full sized now. Am thinking of a dwarf pleco. xxcarol --- SBBSecho
I may have mentioned this before, but I was reading that loaches love eating snails. You may want to think about getting a few to see how they do. I can' remember if it was clown loaches or cooli loaches. You may want to do some online research.
Plecos...oh gosh! I am glad that you are getting a dwarf, because the regula ones can be real nightmares, and terrors, once they get big. Not only can th become aggressive, but for the aquarist, with that armored skin of theirs, they can be a real danger if they swipe you one. I never really cared for plecos for that reason. They are ugly and prehistoric looking. :)
I have one of those. Not doing much but he does look fat
I have one of those. Not doing much but he does look fat
Hello again Carol. I really don't think that one single loach is going to cu it...at least not if you really want to keep your snail problem under contro You are going to want at least a pair or two. Here is a link to some useful loach information for you:
http://en.allexperts.com/q/Freshwater-Aquarium-3216/snail-control.htm
I've still got a snail explosion in my tank and waiting for them to
get a bit bigger so we can peel them out. The angel fish are near
full sized now. Am thinking of a dwarf pleco.
Plecos...oh gosh! I am glad that you are getting a dwarf, because
the regular ones can be real nightmares, and terrors, once they get
big. Not only can they become aggressive, but for the aquarist,
with that armored skin of theirs, they can be a real danger if they
swipe you one. I never really cared for plecos for that reason.
They are ugly and prehistoric looking. :)
my largest pleco got to 20 inches in my 30Gal tank before i traded him for some other fish... he used to eat right out of my hand and loved for me to rub his back and scratch his belly... used to even come up out of the tank several inches to say "hi! feed me!" one of the coolest fish i had ever had... second only to my albino oscar that reached 3 pounds before he died of a bladder infection while i was away for a month or so...
explosion? peel? are you talking about snails? get a goldfish or two... they'll eat'em... they did mine :)
explosion? peel? are you talking about snails? get a goldfish or two... they'll eat'em... they did mine :)
I would be hesitant to put goldfish in a community tropical fish
tank. Not only are they not tropical fish, but they are dirty fish
as well, and often carry disease, such as anchor worm, which can be
a real bugger to get rid of once it gets in a tank. I remember when
I was managing a pet store not quite twenty years ago, in addition
to medicating the tanks, we had to manually pull the anchor worms
out of their bodies.
ewww... i only have two words for something like that... reputable dealer... in other words, the one you buy from... someone upstream from you wasn't "playing fair"... i've never had problems like that and generally end up with at least one goldfish in most of my tank setups... they're not that "dirty" if you take care of the tank properly ;)
I've still got a snail explosion in my tank and waiting for them to
get a bit bigger so we can peel them out. The angel fish are near
full sized now. Am thinking of a dwarf pleco.
I've still got a snail explosion in my tank and waiting for them to
get a bit bigger so we can peel them out. The angel fish are near
full sized now. Am thinking of a dwarf pleco.
I think that some loaches will eat snails (clown loach, zebra loach?) Only thing is, I had some clown loaches before, and I think they started feeding my other fish. (I found then dead with holes bored into their sides)
When you are a hobbyist who is on the end of the chain, you really don't have any say in who your local pet store chooses to purchase their fish stock from. If you happen to live in a small town where there may only be one or two pet stores at best, that limits your selection even further.
Concerning goldfish, they eat a lot, and they crap a lot. While I find some of them pretty and interesting, I am just not a goldfish fan, I guess.
Yes, definately true. In Sasebo we had a choice of fantail or comet goldfish. No guppies, nothing else. Not in walking distance anyways!
They were however, healthy. Wait, I forgot, they had male betas sometimes but that's not my style really
I had a goldfish my mom got me when I was 12. I gifted her to a friend when I was 23 and left for the Navy.
It's an older style you don't see much of now. Earlier use was a saltwater reef tank. Type is called a 70'GT' (70G, but taller and less deep from front to back). Side to side it's about same as a 110G tank but it's only 10.5 inches front to back. Those landscape backgrounds arent big enough as it's too tall to fit the standard ones.
Yes, definately true. In Sasebo we had a choice of fantail or comet goldfish. No guppies, nothing else. Not in walking distance anyways!
My gosh...I wouldn't even call that a fish store! :(
Tragically, I lived in the cold north and had to use a heater in the tank. O day I came home from school to discover that the heater had gone wacko, and all of my babies were dead. Boo-hoo!
I had a goldfish my mom got me when I was 12. I gifted her to a friend when I was 23 and left for the Navy.
That's amazing! That's a long time for one fish to remain alive in an aquari
It's an older style you don't see much of now. Earlier use was a saltwa reef tank. Type is called a 70'GT' (70G, but taller and less deep from front to back). Side to side it's about same as a 110G tank but it's on 10.5 inches front to back. Those landscape backgrounds arent big enough it's too tall to fit the standard ones.
Well, I just did some calculations, and I would guess that your tank was 60" from left to right, 26" tall, and 10.5" from front to back. Am I close?
It wasnt really. It was a small pet store, bird food and some birds, a few other oddiments as well. You'd have to go to Japan to understand the shopping there. Most stores are very small by our standards. That one was probably 11x13 or so. Like most there, it expands to the sidewalk when open (grin)
Very close! It's 28 tall and i guess a little less wide (dont have anything handy to measure with). Maybe 55 wide?
The fellow i got it from showed me a picture of it loaded as a salt water reef tank. He had anemones and things like that in living coral banked up about 14 inches towards the back. Some salt water fern like things, and some small reef fish.
I've not tried that but it really is an optimal design for that structure. Now in my case it's been a gold fish tank but the surface area isnt optimal for really large fish and you can get into problems where they grow so big, they have trouble turning around.
I think that some loaches will eat snails (clown loach, zebra
loach?) Only thing is, I had some clown loaches before, and I think
they started feeding my other fish. (I found then dead with holes
bored into their sides)
I've had them before. They won't bother goldfish but I think not so
good with smaller types.
I had a goldfish my mom got me when I was 12. I gifted her to a
friend when I was 23 and left for the Navy.
That's amazing! That's a long time for one fish to remain alive
in an aquarium.
I've had fish live almost as long as that. I currently have two fish in my tank that are at least 8 years old.
I've had fish live almost as long as that. I currently have two
fish in my tank that are at least 8 years old.
What kind of fish are they Michael?
If you would like to see some images of my Malawi cichlids,
please go
here:
http://www.endtimeprophecy.org/cgi-bin/TheFishGuy/TheFishGuy.cgi?fid=1
3
http://www.endtimeprophecy.org/cgi-bin/TheFishGuy/TheFishGuy.cgi?fid=
3
The link seems to be broken.
Can you please try again? I may have possibly had the server down momentarily. That number on the end is a 13 and not a 3. Also, make
sure that there are no spaces in the URL when you type it in your browser's location bar.
Works now. Nice electric blue; "Bully Boy". Been thinking about getting one of those myself one of these days. They do tend to be aggressive though, so Imight wait until my new Jack Dempsey grows a little bigger first.
Right now, I'm down to a few fish in my 75 gallon tank. A couple cichlids, including a young Jack Dempsey, a bristle nose pleco, a rainbow shark and a cory cat. Lost my prize upside-down catfish a couple weeks ago, but he was pretty old, so it wasn't too much of a suprise.
I poked my nose in here because I pretty much have an out-of control algae problem ATM. I tried scraping, and also tried another suggestion I found online: using a magic eraser. Worked well, but only temporarily, then the al came back in spades.
I think I have to do a teardown and scrub the tank clean to get it under control. After that I might try that idea with the japanese moss balls; look to me like a pretty good solution.
http://www.endtimeprophecy.org/cgi-bin/TheFishGuy/TheFishGuy.cgi?fid=
The link seems to be broken.
Can you please try again? I may have possibly had the server down momentaril That number on the end is a 13 and not a 3. Also, make sure that there are n spaces in the URL when you type it in your browser's location bar.
I poked my nose in here because I pretty much have an out-of control algae problem ATM. I tried scraping, and also tried another suggestion I found online: using a magic eraser. Worked well, but only temporarily, then the algae came back in spades.
Same here, lost a mollie. They arent long lived so it wasnt much of a suprise
It's case sensitive (most are not) so if like me, he had to type it in, thats why it's 'broken'. xxcarol --- SBBSecho 2.12-Win32 *
It's case sensitive (most are not) so if like me, he had to type it in, thats why it's 'broken'.
Hmmm...Interesting. On my Macintosh, it is NOT case-sensitive. I
can type "TheFishGuy" or "thefishguy" in the URL, and it makes no difference.
I run the web server on a Mac running Tiger 10.4.11, which is a
UNIX-based OS.
some servers are set up to automatically correct mistyped URLs... domain names are not case-sensitive but URLs are and it depends on the server as to how it handles them... apache will correct or not depending if you have the module loaded or not ;)
some servers are set up to automatically correct mistyped URLs... domain names are not case-sensitive but URLs are and it depends on the server as to how it handles them... apache will correct or not depending if
you have
the module loaded or not ;)
But I don't use the Apache server that is built into OSX. :)
Same here, lost a mollie. They arent long lived so it wasnt much of a suprise
Carol, two things which may help to lengthen the lives of your mollies is to increase the hardness of your water -- such as by using limestone, crushed coral rock, etc. -- and conducting more frequent water changes. The practice of adding a little salt to mollie tanks is highly-debated.
Actually, I think that you might be looking at this in reverse. While Melanochromis Johanni, Melanochromis Cyaneorhabdos and related species
are pugnacious and aggressive, as you undoubtedly know, so are Jack Dempseys, aka Rocio Octofasciata. The issue that you need to consider
here is that Jack Dempseys can grow to be over twice as large as the former, in which case Melanochromis species may not fare very well
with them. Both species are better off kept in species tanks.
The other problem is that both like to dig in the sand,
particularly during mating and spawning, so that would
undoubtedly lead to some serious territorial rivalries, and I
think that the Melanochromis species would lose the fight.
The root of your problem is more than likely excessive organic waste somewhere in your system, which over time is being broken down into nitrates. Like phosphates, nitrates are the perfect food source for
algae.
After that I might try that idea with the japanese moss balls; look
to me like a pretty good solution.
Might want to check your lighting situation as well? You may have too much 'plant growth' lighing going on. We get a bit too much too as the tank is a bi t too close to the window.
In my experience, the "aggressive" tags given certain species are pretty broad generalizations, and individual fish can tend to vary widely from such designations. However, pretty much every electric blue that I've seen in local shops appeared to behave aggressively towards their tank mates.
I try to stay away from pairing and spawning if possible. It's too much work for me to set up multiple tanks. I also once had three large angels and two of them paired up. It didn't end well for the third (he was blinded, and couldn't see to feed). I eventually lost the main aggressor as well, as the third gave back almost as good as he got.
It very likely is nitrates in the substrate that's the problem, but it's a lot bigger problem than a turkey baster or a gravel vaccum (which I /have/ used recently) can take care of. That's why I need to do a teardown, to remove the substrate and completely clean it, in order to get the situation under control.
It has increased since I added a new light. It is close to my patio door as well, but that can't be helped; there's nowhere else in the room that the tank fits well.
Just curious...Do you use undergravel filters in your tanks?
under and all around the rocks. As for the sand, my fish are
constantly moving it and stirring it up, so there are no anaerobic
pockets as far as I know.
Between my filtration system -- two Penguin
330 Bio-Wheels each powered by a Penguin 1140 powerhead -- and
weekly
No, just gravel. It's 75 gallons, so I'd need a pretty powerful powerhead to drive a UGF for it.
I've been looking at sand. A local shop has sand that is suited to what African cichlids are used to. I think it may have even said that it was from Malawi lake itself. I may add that when I do the teardown.
I have a very good canister filter, although I do admit that I tend to let it go too long between cleaning at times.
Might want to check your lighting situation as well? You may have too much 'plant growth' lighing going on. We get a bit too much too as the tank is a bi t too close to the window.
It has increased since I added a new light. It is close to my patio door as well, but that can't be helped; there's nowhere else in the room that the ta fits well.
Trouble is, I sort of neglected it for a while and the nitrate situation got out of control. I did a fairly thorough cleaning a month or two ago, scraped off all the algae and vaccummed the substrate, but it quickly turned on me again. The substrate needs to be removed and completely cleaned to solve the problem. It's been a long time since I did a teardown on the big tank anyway so it needs to be done.
addition, I would use two Penguin 330 Bio-Wheel filters, one on the
back left side, and one on the back right side. This worked great for
both freshwater and marine tanks. Of course, I no longer use UGF's.
advantage which you may not have. Even our water here is perfect for Malawi cichlids. In fact, when I bred Angels and Discus over a dozen
years ago, I had to use those water-softening pillows to soften the
water enough so that they would breed.
I have the canister filter set up at the front left, and I used to have a secondary side-mount filter at the rear right, but the impeller broke. The combination seemed to work quite well before, so I need to get a replacement for the second filter. I've been thinking alternatively about using one or two submersible filters.
Cichlids also do well here in Alberta because our water is hard, which is what they prefer.
Instead of using an impeller to suck up water through the lift tube
part of the filter, I have attached a Penguin 1140 powerhead to each
of my Penguin 330 Bio-Wheel filters, so that instead of water being
sucked up by the impeller, it is in fact pushed up from the strainer
end of the filter.
Cichlids also do well here in Alberta because our water is
hard, which is what they prefer.
I wasn't aware of the fact that water is hard in your part of
the world. Where
I lived as a kid in the Eastern USA, it was relatively soft and
acidic, as I recall. But that was many years ago, so I could be
wrong.
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