Recent content by fishieguy

Curious: How sensitive is an aquarium to the quality of the air outside of it? For example, if I spray Lysol in the room (not directly at the tank, of course) -- would it adversely affect the environment within the tank? What about cigarette smoke?

What kind of algae is this? It's clumping on decorations, plants and the gravel in a couple of places.

A couple of weeks ago, it appeared that my filter media had clogged because the water was overflowing from above the intake tube as well as flowing out from the usual place (love my grasp of terminology?). I chalked it up to needing to replace the charcoal filter insert, which was wayyyy...

OK, since I started this message, I've just named the Oto I added to the tank over the weekend -- Houdini. The name is two-fold: every time I look in the tank for him, it's a "Where's Waldo" moment. He simply disappears from wherever I saw him last and is so small he can hide right in front of...

I have a good deal of algae in my tank and just added an Oto. He's happily sucking away. Is the tank's algae enough for him? I bought spirulina discs and added one on Day One -- my three platies ate it and promptly became very bloated (I was really worried -- thought they were all coming down...

BTW, I haven't named mine, but I've been tempted to. I'm thinking that no fish receives a name unless it's been around a few months first. :|

How many of you name your fish? Why (or why not)?

When I established my first tank a couple of months ago, I went out and bought a Jungle 5-in-1 test strip kit. Shortly thereafter, I starting reading the posts on this board about strip tests being not so good, but I had them already so I continued to use them. One thing that bothered me...

What about bettas? Even the LFS I trust most has them in unheated containers. I'm talking about 68 +/- degree water in this case.

Which freshwater fish thrive (or at least benevolently tolerate) in non-heated tanks?

Thanks, both of you. Any other advice would still be greatly appreciated as it's going to be a little while before the tanks ready for more fish.

OK, my 10G (my first tank) has a gold mickey mouse platy, a sunburst platy and a plumetail platy. The tank is now two months old and has been cycled since early this month. I'm thinking of finishing my stocking by getting a small school of either neon tetras or harlequin rasboras. Couple of...