My concern now is: How long should I fight to keep the water cool? I think the answer to this is highly variable. As someone else mentioned, for some of my fish I will simply add the cool water, drop the temperate 4-6 degrees (sometimes a little more), then not turn the heater back on. The temperat...

Thanks TTA,

I'm in no rush, but I will be setting up a new tank, likely to be a 75 gal, in April or May.

I have messaged the guy at Swiss Tropicals before but he didn't respond to my message- people are busy and it probably slipped through the cracks of time.

Cheers, Eric

Then leave the lights off, I think. As long as there's a hint of day and night, I think that's sufficient.

Do you have to turn the lights off to surround the tank with paper or cardboard? If you're using a box to cover and thus need to turn off lights, then I'd suggest simply resting sheets of paper or cardboard against the sides and leave the top normal, with lights on. I tape the black construction pap...

Fingers crossed and hands clasped (but not at the same time). Now the hard part - can you go a few days without checking on them?

Good luck, Eric

Hi TTA, Thanks for the personal experience story re: clogging and not clogging. I am basing my concern simply on what others have written elsewhere in the forum, but assuming you keep some hearty wood eaters, then I think the occasional vacuuming should be sufficient to keep the HMFs running for mon...

Hi alleykat,

By "cf?," do you mean they are L448? Or do you mean that you "think" these are real P. maccus?

Thanks, Eric

Thanks, Jools.

Cheers, Eric

Hi Jools, I've got another error message to report, this time on the front page. Cheers, Eric C9E114F49C8BBBh00006109F00000000000000000F01FEC[{AppVPackageRoot}]\Office16\MSIPC\fr\msipc.dll.mui 0 1 %1E29400AB2B7AA47439822EDB9310C437B 00006109F00000000000000000F01FEC[{ProgramFilesCommonX86}]\Microsoft...

After losing my last batch of fry on Thanksgiving day, I was fortunate to have two moms lay eggs again just before and just after Christmas. The babies are about 6-8 weeks old now and one or two of them were considerate enough to pose for an up-close video, so here you go: Cheers, Eric Oil catfish (...

If it's not disease, there's nothing to treat. Birger is very knowledgeable and he's saying these are likely to be natural features of the fish, rather than ich.

Okay, let's try this again. This time I've got between 60-65 Corydoras trilineatus eggs, just laid 8 hours ago. Three Ramshorn snails and NO bladder snails (sheesh!). Water depth 12 mm. I'll perform daily water changes. I've never had trouble hatching tril eggs in the past, but I do have pretty high...

Your photo reminds me of the video of my female clown trying to get into the male's cave: https://youtu.be/9fXA8URBK1M.

But keep in mind, males often trap females and still no eggs are released. This could be another dry run. Patience.

What a wonderful acquisition. Congratulations.

Based on the size of the bucket in the photo, they look very short. I know these fish don't grow very big, but just how big are they right now?

Thanks, Eric

Thanks TTA. Yes, the product you show, or something like it, is what I had in mind. And yes, it would require routine maintenance (vacuuming and maybe occasional rinsing) to keep the holes clear. It seems to me that a product like this would solve the chewing (but not also the accelerated clogging f...

It's too late for this example, but next time you buy a new fish, my advice is to keep them in a separate tank with no other fish, a quarantine tank, for a month or more to check for disease and treat if necessary. That will help you avoid this grief.

Cheers, Eric

If the natural weather keeps your aquarium too hot, and you can't keep your aquarium cool for any length of time, you can try this: I read once that you can take plastic water filled bottles and freeze them then float the entire bottle in the aquarium. This is simply a variation on the "bags of...

Wow, very nice. and - Convergent evolution will never cease to amaze me.

Except for the long fish that didn't fit well in your photo tank, otherwise, it looks like your photo tank worked well!

Cheers, Eric

Hi All, In some other threads on this site (with a link to the subject listed earlier in this thread), mention has been made that certain plecos have a habit of chewing on HM foam. While that may not pose a problem for all spp, it seems to be more important for large species and for fish like Panaqu...

New speakers have been added to our upcoming schedule, with more catfish opportunities: In addition to Ingo Seidel's upcoming visit in May, we're hosting two more speakers who should appeal to every cat-a-fish-ionado. (clever pun there, eh? :)) :d 8-|) On 2 April, Dr. Nathan Lujan will speak about L...

Hi Ronngaribaldy, First, welcome to PlanetCatfish! Glad to have you join the site, and I look forward to learning about your fish. As for adding cool water, I'm sure different people do it different ways, and some ways are better than others. Myself, I simply add the water during my weekly water cha...

Thank you Jools! That's wonderful. I'll be sure to have a new 75gal tank up and running long before my trip!

Cheers, bekateen

Hi Teresa,

The answer may simply be to leave them alone. I know I tend to fuss over my fish Ehen expecting a spawn, and that's the last thing they want. It's like having your parents come along on your honeymoon (or anniversary trip) because they want grandchildren.

Cheers, Eric

Thanks Teresa. Just PM me with the info.
Cheers, bekateen

I would interpret that to mean that they are startled or scared by your movements, especially if you notice them out in the open when you are nowhere close to the tank, or if you stand or sit still for a very long time and allow them to forget that you are standing nearby; if they are coming back ou...

I haven't kept this species of cory, but I do keep several other cory species. Based on the general ideas I have about corys, I look at your tank and think two things: (1) the corys would much prefer sand instead of gravel, and (2) the corys would probably prefer a little more background cover (tall...

Oh thank you Victor for posting this information. This thread is so timely for me - There is a chance that I will be traveling from the USA to the UK this summer, and if I do, you can be dang sure (I'd like to use stronger words, but I'm trying to be respectful to younger members) that I'll do every...

If after treatment, you find any worms pooped out, please do show us the pictures. :-) Although there is probably no additional treatment advice to be given after seeing such pics (assuming thusly that the meds have done their job and the fish is getting better), it would certainly be interesting to...

Interesting. When I get more eggs I'll try again. I'll choose my snails so that no matter their size, they will all be Ramshorn, with no bladder snails. Although I had only one hatch in the cup of eggs without snails, none the less it did hatch. This makes me wonder how many might have hatched if I ...