Subj : Re: New fishkeeper, advic To : All From : Simon Date : Fri Oct 24 2003 10:33 pm I started keeping fish in August and one of the best advice sites I found was http://faq.thekrib.com/begin.html I feed my pleco Hikari's Sinking Wafers - he loves them - one most evenings and he has almost doubled in size in 2 months!!! Good luck Simon "Marksfish" wrote in message news:fn6kb.11949$kA.3045829@wards.force9.net... > > The fish shop in question sold me a betta, pleco and small (approx 10 > litre) > > tank three weeks ago. I went in believing that a betta was a delicate > > tropical species and came out having been told it was a hardy 'all > weather' > > species which could breathe air and was used to a natural habitat of mud > > ponds- dark and murky. Lies, I now know, but not in time to save my poor > > betta who succombed to a fungal infection the day before we were due to > move > > him to a new home - a heated, lit and filtered 50 litre tank. > > Not really. Wild bettas do in fact live in little more than puddles in their > natural habitat. They have developed the ability to breathe atmospheric air > because of the lack of oxygen in these small patches of water. Also, because > the body of water is so small, there are quite considerable fluctuations in > temperature throughout the day. > > That said, it is no excuse for not looking after them properly in captivity. > > > So now the pleco is in the tank with two plants, mod cons, shelter and a > > piece of cucumber which he is ignoring. I want to cycle the tank fully > > before introducing any new fish and I'm aware that plecos aren't an ideal > > species for this (ideally I'd be doing a fishless cycle but it's a bit > late > > for that). The question is, is a 2" pleco going to be ok in an uncycled 11 > > gallon tank while the bacteria get their act together? > > The fish you have in there will be safe enough so long as you don't overload > the filter with waste products.i found the best way to feed a plec was to > cur a 2" circle of cucumber and put a plant weight through the rind. Put it > in the tank just before light's out and in the morning you should have a > perfect circle cut out and the rind intact. > > > The tank has had AquaSafe chlorine treatment, "Stress Zyme" bacterial > > supplement (though I've recently read that such supplements are pretty > > useless) and a dose of anti-fungus, in case the pleco is at risk from the > > infection that killed the betta. The funcicide is phenoxyethanol based and > > claims to be "harmless to filters and all species of fish and plants". > > I have used StressZyme on a regular basis over the past 10 years. Not sure > if it actually does a lot though. You may be better off getting hold of > Waterlife's Bacterlife instead. It is a little more expensive but has a > different conncentration of bacteria. Again, not sure how long they live > once put in a bottle, but.... > > > A small amount of water from the old tank will have made its way into the > > new tank while transferring the pleco, though I think the problem was > water > > quality rather than any virus or unusual pathogen. I still have the old > > tank, in case I find out that I can speed things up by recycling the > gravel > > (after a good rinse) - perhaps I could test it out with a dose of ammonia > in > > some fresh (dechlorinated) water? > > > This is one of the best ways to seed a new tank. Your gravel will have > bacteria in it from your old aquarium. If it still had water in it, I would > say to rinse the gravel thoroughly in the old tank's water before > transferring it over to the new one. You don't want to run it under tap > water otherwise what little bacteria you have will die. That said, you will > need to clean it under the tap if the gravel has been sat in the tank and > gone stagnant. > > > PS. Can anyone recommend a good fish shop in London? > > > I'm in Leeds so that doesn't help. But if you say whereabouts in London, you > may get a better response. > > Regards > > Mark > > --- þ RIMEGate(tm)/RGXPost V1.14 at BBSWORLD * Info@bbsworld.com --- * RIMEGate(tm)V10.2áÿ* RelayNet(tm) NNTP Gateway * MoonDog BBS * RgateImp.MoonDog.BBS at 10/24/03 9:33:27 PM * Origin: MoonDog BBS, Brooklyn,NY, 718 692-2498, 1:278/230 (1:278/230) .