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I started my pond back in 2006. I wanted something natural-looking, not traffic cones with fins, so instead of goldfish or koi, I intially went with central and south american cichlids. I had a surprising amount of success for a while - with submersible heaters and bubble wrap, I was able to...

Shouldn't be a problem. If you're doing your frequent, partial water changes, you're only replacing about 20%, max. Any chlorine in the water you're adding will be diluted to below dangerous levels as soon as it enters the tank, and then adding a dechlrinator will neutralize it.

Get a python. No, not the snake. It's a siphon that attaches to your sink, and uses water flow to create the vacuum to start the siphon - so no getting fish water in your mouth ever again. Plus, the siphoned-off water goes directly in the sink, so no more hauling buckets. When you have siphoned...

That'll work for ectoparasites that are big enough to be visible to the naked eye, but nothing else.

this is a hypothetical question, I am not planning to get anything anytime soon. I would agree with you on the separate tank for the voracious crayfish, but what about gabon river shrimp (not voracious), or for that matter all the snails that people like to put into their tanks? Certainly not...

That's a good idea, but no, I don't keep a QT up and running. When I get a new acquisition, I siphon off water from my established tank into a bare 10 gallon that is usually in storage. I might think about putting in a couple of feeder guppies that I buy when I would buy the invert, but of...

Any suggestions, then, on how to better ensure that the inverts we introduce into our tanks are not going to have hitchhikers? There is a real possibility that an infection which is asymptomatic in an invert could be zoonotic, and devastating to a fish. Simply quarantining the crayfish to see if...

When I quarantie fish before putting them into my main tank, I treat them prophylacticly with QuICKCure. I'd like to use a similar prophylactic treatment on crustaceans like river shrimp, crayfish, etc, but am not sure what treatments are safe on them. Any suggestions?

As my tank is African cichlids, mbunas, etc., rockwork as cover for the fish is necessary, anyway. The possibility of the algae on the rocks contributing to better water qualitiy is just an added plus. Besides, the algae is a nice food source for the fish. But it is covered with...

They are zebra danios that have been genetically modified by having a gene spliced into their DNA. The gene is from a ctenophore, also called a comb jelly (though not a true jelly), which are capable of bioluminescence. Though I don't want any for my tanks, I don't really see anything wrong...

I have a 55 gallon tank with 6 large Africans that I moved last summer without cycling the tank before putting the fish in. On the same day, I took the fish out, broke the tank down, moved it, set it back up, and put the fish in. Though I would have liked to have done things differently (holding...

I'm going to go register the trademark.

We all understand the impracticality of keeping live plants in our African Cichlid tanks, and accept that keeping our nitrogenous waste levels down in solely dependent on filtration, microbiological activity, and water changes. Or is it? I have Texas holey rock limestone throughout my setup...

Whoa, I just reread and realized how many Frontosias you will be having. The odds would be against any smaller fish. Wouldn't you rather stock it with a variety of fish, including maybe one frontosia?

Neolamprologus pulcher - daffodil. I have one in a 55 with a big, lumbering Frontosia, who doesn't bother him or the other smaller fish like my L. calvus, at all.

Like VoodooChili said, there is a lot of color variation in Texas cichlids. A couple of mine in my pond look exactly like you describe yours. I have seen pictures of Texas cichlids in magazines and books, many of them taken in the wild and of breeding fish, that have shown fish which are very...

Beachbumin, I have a thriving outdoor cichlid pond here in Houston and I love it. As far as what FishOCD says about wondering why, and thinking they would look bland, I can tell you that my fish look anything but bland, and as for visibility, anacharis and my canister filter keep the water...

To protect Maine's native fish species from nonnative exotic competition. Goldfish are prohibited in Maine, even if you want to keep them in an indoor aquarium. To stock a pond with ANY species of fish, even natives, without a permit is to incur a $10,000 fine.

These are some old pictures, I have done a lot of landscaping around the pond since then, and the anacharis and amazon sword have really thrived, plus the fish are a lot bigger, since these pics were taken. I also plan to do some upgrading in April - a new canister filter, a skimmer, and a...

Well, a few weeks ago Houston got one of its rare freezes, probably the only one we will have this winter. Since my pond is only about 6 months old, I was worried about how the fish would fare. I have a 100 gallon pond with 1 green terror, 2 green severums, 2 jack dempseys, and 8 buenos aires...

I'll second what coldmachineuk says about botia loaches being really suceptible to ich. Normally I do not have a problem with it, but I remember having a lot of trouble with them, and pictus cats as well. Still, I love the loaches - started with kuhli loaches and then discovered botias, with all...

Go mudskippers (it'd have to be a brackish tank). Mudskippers (fish related to gobies, that come on to land occasionally) are hard to find, but not impossible. Find a dingy little LFS run by an asian immigrant. I hate to sound racist, but for some reason these stores tend to have the best...

Awesome idea. I learned long ago to be careful unscrewing the brass adapter, but now I'm going out to buy a quick connecter set.

Try a copper-based treatment. I am just spitballing here, but since copper kills inverts like corals, and hydrae are cnidarians like corals, maybe it's a shot.

Coldmachineuk, you misunderstand, I wasn't implying that you were saying anything about bans or any kind of regulatory requirement, just that since such legal issues weren't being discussed, I had trouble understanding why someone whould oppose the idea of LFS feeling a nonlegal, moral...