paulyeo

Hi afr3178, Cloudy eye is caused by bacterial infection. I have treated it in the past using methylene blue. I also added some rock salt and epsom salt to help it along. Malachite green works well too but be careful when dosing and do not use if you have scaleless fish. The downside of using these medication is that it stains your gravel and equipment. I recommend treating the fish in a separate tank away from your aquarium decor. Hope this helps :)

This quote could really open up a can of jokes... but i'll leave it too your imagination :D

Looks like a pygmaeus baby. From memory, they do have different markings at this stage. Grow it and we'll find out soon enough :)

Welcome Ricepaddy, Joan and I had a table just opposite the Vic Cichlid society. I like how some members refer to small fish as fish food :)

Hey Goody, The reason for water being pumped into the individual barracks and then overflow is more so for heating purposes. If I were to live in a tropical climate or have a heated fish room, then I would just have individual barracks sitting on a shelve (that's how I did it in Malaysia) and do full water changes once to twice a week depending on the size of the barracks. If I were to build it all over, I would make it higher. Looking at the picture, I'd stop at the 3rd level (from the top). I'd have more space for the sump below (a bigger sump could be used) as the bigger in volume it is (to a degree), the heater would work less hard as there is a smaller temperature fluctuation. But having said that, the bigger the volume, the more powerful the heater must be (or use two less powerful heaters instead of one powerful heater - it acts as an insurance in case one heater fails). Also I would use clear containers, either glass jars or plastic beanie boxes, so I would be able to see the fish clearly (I did not know how beautiful some of them are until I decided to take photos). Beanie boxes are better as it is easy to drill holes but care should be taken as it cracks easily. It's limitation is its dimension. If you seen Shemma's setup, he uses plastic drink bottles. The reason I built mine like this is because I may want to breed more bettas in the future (and have a dedicated fish room), I can use the shelves behind, rig a fresh plumbing system, and have a large display aquarium on the top with lots of plants and shrimps but no fish, which would have water pumped from the sump, into the aquarium and overflow back into the individual barracks. Thus giving the bettas 'healthy' water. Also it would solve some problems with heating as water to the sump is heated to say 26C and water in the top aquarium is heated again to 27 or 28C. But if you have a dedicated fish room that is heated, then there should not be a problem.

Hi queenbrooke, I hear silver dollars eat plants... so for a start i would not add them in :welcome:

Hey Neffy, I like the second photo with all the fish looking at one direction... and the colour gives it a certain feel about the picture Can't really explain what the "feel" is though...

Hi there, I too love Dwarf Gouramis... But the last time I kept them was in 1997. Back then I was in Malaysia and found that they are very easy to keep but very difficult to raise their fry. When I kept them, the conditions were similar to Bettas and Tetras. So really there should not be a problem. Right? However when I attempted to breed them, there was an issue with their immunity. They bred in the thousands but most fry did not survive. This is despite having the best setup at the time (I was living with my Grandfather who was a Discus breeder) and had access to most things needed to be successful with raising fish. Tracing back to that time, I have read articles about the decline in fish immunity due to some farming practices such as inbreeding and raising fish with constant medication and antibiotics. One article in particular was about Dwarf Gouramis. The author reported what I have also experienced with raising the young. Therefore I suspect the imports we get here in Australia may already have weaken immunity, which makes our job as aquarist more difficult. More recently I have also had problems with some guppies I have bought from the stores going belly up within a week or two. I think it comes down to luck and proper quarantine before you introduce your new fish into the community tank.

WOW!!! In an ideal world... That's definitely the way to do things - clinical and methodical.

hi there, i have heaps of those cherry shrimp thriving in an aquarium set up for them. I think they mature around the two months mark as i remembered when my betta fry were two months old, the cherry shrimp babies (that were of a similar age) were already reproducing... hope this helps :D

There is a return water. I use a sump (10L blue tub - however i'd prefer that to be slightly bigger) which also acts as a filter where the return water goes straight into filter media (bio balls and ceramic bio rings) and filter sponge which is placed in a basket where the pump pumps the water up. Also have a 700lph (Hydor Seltz L 20 - being 14 W which is relatively efficient) pump and two heaters (150W and 100W - the idea being that two works better together and serves as insurance if one fails). Initially i wanted to have a water tank/filter above that overflows to feed the individual containers. But i needed a more powerful pump for that seeing that the height worked out to be over 190 cm with the water tank. The container I have chosen to use is the Decor 2L rectangle container, as at the time it was 50%off at K-Mart and I think it'll be on discount again this coming week at Coles (where I work ) I also use a 4mm tubing for the return with a 6mm clear tubing and forced into a 7.5mm hole i have drilled on the side of the container. Since the 6mm tubing worked out to be 8mm in diameter the 7.5mm hole makes it watertight and the 4mm (black) tubing fits perfectly in the 6mm clear tubing. And on the lid i drilled two homes (one for feeding and the other for the dripper). The idea came from Bettarazzi where he uses a small funnel to drop food in. Although it's pretty much completed, I'll definately be finding ways of improving this design and welcome any constructive criticisms. I'll add more details soon and also scan the sketch with the measurements for the rack (if i can still find it ) Thanks for the kind words :)