missing fish,ohh those corys

[pinky]

would you believe it,we put three corydorus cats in the tank yesterday.

they ran round like little bulldogs and bits flew up in the tank everywhere and it had only been hoovered that morning,they certainly make the filter work!

But this morning there was only two!

We searched the tank and no just two,looked down into the fake gretian urn with several holes,nope not in there.

could it have got over the back into the filter?

(its got a sponge ceramic circle,bio-ball and charcoal filter like a pond has and heater with pump built in the back)

Pulled all the filter apart stuck hands down the back nothing? where the hell was it?

The wife was having visions of the other inhabitants having eaten it! even though theres only swordtails danios guppys and the corys in there.

eventually i got a torch and shone it down the centre of the urn,and at the bottom it had a bit of a recess we didnt know was there and hey presto one missing cory!alive and well just having a little sleep.

So that will teach me to get the torch first next time won`t it!

[Alan Taylor]

I decided to give my tank a bit of a clean yesterday, anyway I thought what the heck just as well do the filter as well. Took the filter into the kitchen and proceeded to wash out the top layer and there swimming around in the sink was one of the babies I picked it up before it went down the plug hole and chucked it back in the tank. It was soon swimming around with the others. It had been sucked up into the filter and must have been there some time, monday morning I need a filter for the intake

 

OK so I am new to fish keeping

[pinky]

I am fairly new to fish keeping too alan as in three weeks!.

i found out what they are upto though,i can see eggs on the top inside the urn now.

if you dont mind me asking alan, you don`t clean out your filter in tap water do you?

they say that would kill any good bacteria that is in it. i have been told just to wash it in water from the aquarium when doing the fortnightly 20% water change.and to use stuff on the water to nutrilise chlorine.

[me]

i have kept fish for about 2 years now. i bet that fish died and the others eat it. they'll do that. i had a fish that died. it woz gone within 2 hours. the best kind of filter i find and from my dad who has kept them for over 15 years, loads of pebbles or watever they are (cant think of the name)so if you have a 1 ft deep tank. then 4-5 inches is enough.

 

how big are your tanks? mine is 4ft x 1ft x 1ft i think.

[Moody]

Iv been keeping fish for around 9 years now, iv kept allsorts of fish.

I cringed at the mistakes iv made, but iv learnt and the poor fish that have sufferd through out it.

I prefer to go natural when keeping my fish, i dont like useng chemicals and crap like that, it deos more harm than good.

If i had to give one bit of advice to a novice fish keeper is learn your water chemistry and learn good water maintannace and you shouldn't go far wrong.

Im hoping to own my own aquatic shop and tank desighn buisnes ( when iv leant to spell properly

)in good time.

 

Ignarance is bliss

 

Heres where i got my insperation from when first starting out, his books are brilliant. Im more into planted tanks and biotopes than tanks with divers and treashure chests BLeer

 

http://www.vectrapoint.com/index.html

 

The guy ( TAKASHI AMANO) is an artist and natralist.

[pinky]

thats quite a good site moody.

i was just wondering,do you use the test kits that much or do you just know from experience when to change the water more than the usual changes?

part of the reason i ask is all the fish appear healthy yet the interpet kit seems to say the nitrite levels are lethal!,just gave the tank a 75% change to combat this.

hopfully it should settle down soon as we have not had it running a month yet,and the filters not fully matured.

have you had much luck feeding frozen daphnia and tubifex? mine dont seem over bothered by them but they do love there bloodworm!

[Ken Davison South Wales]

Hi pinky,

 

The most common reason for high nitrite levels is over feeding.

 

Fish are only fussy feeders when fed to much, I use blister packs of several different types plus flake. I rotate the different types of food and they always take it readily.

 

A good sign is the fish coming to the glass in anticipation of being fed, a bad sign is when they ignor the food offered.

 

When breeding fish I have set up a tank all in a matter of hours to house a breeding pair or if egg layers a small shoal.

 

I use a clear tap water product various brands over the years, and tanks for breeding fish like angels only have an airation stone and a piece of slate to lay the eggs on.

 

To ensure I do not over feed I defrost a blister and put in small amounts over a period of 10 minutes or so, as soon as they are not chasing the food I stop feeding.

 

With angels and gouramies it can take several weeks before they lay their eggs and the tanks are not large, so without a filter careful feeding is the only way to ensure good water quality.