Melanotaenia lacustris Thanks nvcichlids, OOo, aah :) Turquoise rainbow, nice! Are they native? Nope, they are, I believe, australlian M. lacustris are actually from New Guinea, as are M. boesmani. They looked like the one in this link but I didn't see any red stripe. It says Crimson spot rainbowfi...

If there's one when I get back from os in a few weeks I'll make a donation :beardy: Now, THAT'S an incentive - however the only Plotosid I have is black... I will see what I can do. Jools an ater would be perfect, they have a lovely head, snout & wisker profile. forget the stripey salty one :P ...

bah boring Loricariidae, how about a

If there's one when I get back from os in a few weeks I'll make a donation

Thanks for the info Shane. That pretty much confirms what I suspected. I am slowly in the process of setting up a fish room so I may get a few more and give them a tank to themselves with some wood, mops and marbles and see what happens. They sure are good at gorging themselves when food is abundant!

I recently acquired three small Mystus vittatus . They were only a few inches long when I got them, but already have grown a bit. I have them in with a large variety of what I consider to be peaceful cats - mostly eeltails & synodontis - and they seem to be getting on well with everything so far...

Likewise I don't think the difference in pH should be an issue as far as the fish are concerned. I do weekly 20% changes on a 1,000l tank, the water going in has a pH of 7.4 - 7.8 and the tank is kept at 6.8 with a pH controller using CO2. It is a planted tank with discus and they handle the change ...

If you can get a good price for the 2217s perhaps consider getting nine filters so you have an extra one ready to swap over at cleaning time, as well as for spare parts.

Live black worms in the fridge pale into insignificance next to the forgotten white worm culture that fell down behind the veggie cooler... And my precious collection of daphnia & other things that bite when they hatch has been witheringly referred to as "bucket city", sometimes in con...

Very impressive, I really like tanks like this with a specific theme. And it's so much more satisfying to know where it all came from and to have collected the inhabitants yourself

If you can store fish-ready water in the roof or otherwise above the tanks (either collected rain or filled from the mains), it will mean you don't need to use any pumps when refilling tanks. I know it's not always possible, but it's always good to use gravity in place of expending energy if the sit...

nice choice, B. striata and B. dario are my favourite loaches

HaakonH's picture is of course not a B. dario, but its head and eye does closely resemble it in shape. Beautiful fish, whatever it is.

The Rendhal's are unlikely to eat the smaller fish you have, certainly not at 2" or so. Fry may be at risk though. An ater probably won't eat adult rainbow fish either, but they are a larger and more vigorous fish and thus potentially more destructive in a planted tank. I've found the N. ater I...

Regarding aussie algae eaters, unfortunately there there are very few. I only know of the Blackmast as an algae eater, however they prefer hard alkaline water and to be honest they are not a great algae eater anyway - they will eat it, but not as prolifically as fish like Siamese algae eaters or eve...

yep for that size tank your best bet would be either the Rendahl's cats or the golden / yellow eeltail Neosilurus hyrtlii . Both reach a max size of about 20cm. Rendhali's spend more time wedged in bunches of plants while the hyrtlii's are more of a snag lurker. N. ater is a nice fish but may get a ...

It will be okay for a while but ultimately it would be good to get it into a larger home. A number of people keep tandanus in ponds, depending on how cold it gets where you live (and how big a garden you have) this may be an option. btw here is a thread about another fellow with a tandanus that was ...

nice. you seem to have a good collection of submerged rocks

As others have said I'd go higher than 12", in practice 16" to 18" is easier to manage and more workable for the fish. I have a 4' x 2' 18" hight that works quite well.

I haven't tried the catfish chips yet, though I intend to eventually. I have got a can of the vipachips and my fish aren't too keen on it - the will eat it, but not nearly as ravenously as most other dried food. The Hypancistrus seem to end up with it by default. I did recently get a small can of th...

Does anyone know, for example, how long chloromine remains stable once no longer under pressure? How long does it take for bacteia to turn amonia into nitrate? (Specific details, not "depends how much water is in your tank and how big your filter is") Matt Out city water department recent...

Sand alone is fine, just don't make it too deep - 2cm / 1 inch max is best, else it can get anaerobic pockets. Two layers is really only useful for heavily planted tanks in which the bottom layer can contain a mix of soil or commercially available substrate mix. If mixing substrates remember that th...

I personally don't think the Oscar in the middle looks right. The crossed big cats are fine, but the oscar needs to either be completely removed, or off-center. -- Mats Or in the Red-tail's mouth! :twisted: just joking ;) I would be inclined to separate the fish images, I suspect when printed on a ...

For that size tank I think a handful would be enough, less if it is going to be in the filter and have a lot of flow over it. Just keep an eye on the parameters over the next few days to make sure it doesn't change too far. However I suggest you try to get hold of regular shell grit, it will do the ...

Thank you Silurus.

A LFS imports fish from Aquarium Glasser in Germany. In their most recent shipment the order for O. vittatus was substituted with a different fish. I have not been able to find out if a name was supplied and the staff I spoke to did not know. From a quick look through Wels Atlas vol 1. & the Cat...

1. putting your location in your profile will help others in giving you the correct advice you seek - what's called an eeltail in one country may be different to a similarly named fish in another part of the world. 2. having a look through this forum for threads with 'eeltail' in the title will help...

Yes, I like very much.

Always a pleasure to see a nice big tank 'in action' as it were.

although the authentic fish room trickle soundtrack does not sit well with the three cups of tea I've drunk this morning, please excuse me for a moment...

Marc, I collected it from the post office today :) It had been there since Friday and was sent out of Japan on the 11th. Silurus, I made an enquiry with my local Kinokuniya book shop, they do not carry this book in stock, but they are able to order it in. For anyone interested the ISBN reference is:...

Possibly, at least that would be my first thought given that you don't say anything of obvious signs of disease (and I'd assume that you would have if there were any). I recently was suggested to use a strong dose of salt to alleviate a swim bladder problem in rainbow fish that were swimming vertica...

I think I have read somewhere that the older copy has some photos in black & white and that the newer edition may have a few extra fish and / or photos. I also purchased a copy of this book from the same seller, I'll let you know when it turns up. Thanks for the link btw, I've been looking for i...

I don't remember for sure, but it would almost certainly have been a Corydoras, probably C. paleatus and / or C. aeneus in albino form. However I do remember what fish first got me interested in catfish. I started off with goldfish and was taken by other, more interesting cold water fish. Firstly a ...