Pet Forum / Aquaria / Freshwater / May 2004

I'm going to try the ecosphere idea again, and I'd like some suggestions, or
corrections if anything written here is a bad idea.
I plan to use an old gallon jar ( 3.8 liters) with a tight-fitting lid, a
cup of pond mud, a cup of used aquarium gravel, about a dozen leaves of

I had two clown loach in my tank and for a week or so they were out
regularly. Then they just dissapeared and I haven't seen either of them for
at least a week. At first I thought they were just hiding out somewhere, but
tonight while doing a partial water change I searched for them ...

I think they came in on weed, but I have maybe 50 tiny snails in my tank.
They are not the regular types I've had before to keep the glass clean, and
I read a while ago that some snails carry  brain fluke.  I lost two fish to
this, and I religiously removed every snail I saw. That ...

Needing your extensive experience!
I have the chance of getting (free) a 4ft tank and stand.
Problem is, tank has a crack on the bottom panel.
My question is - is it worth the trouble to see if it can be fixed?  4ft

Hello, i have a sick fish.  i haven't seen these symptoms before and nothing
fits on my disease chart so it's got me stumped.  I have a 5 year old blue
gourami, he has some red spots on both sides of his pectoral fins.  There
are no other spots anywhere on him.  he seems to be ...

I see alot of advice saying that you want the water to be agitated or
broken to help with air cycling.  But, I was wondering if the water
rippling is enough or sould I get the air stone? Currently I have a
whisper filter in a 10 gallon tank with 5 female guppies, 2 male

My C. panda spawn regularly but eat the eggs
as soon as they are deposited. What's the best
method of getting a decent number of eggs?
They aren't interested in any spawning mops

Any ideas on the best way to clean a second hand tank? I have aquired one,
and found that because the previous owner kept it only half full, the bottom
half of the tank is quite clean, but the top half has this white film-like
substance on it.

I just got a 55 gal tank used.  I took it home and started cleaning it out.
Holy $h!t.  what a mess.  there is hard water deposits all around the top.
OK.  A little elbow grease and I should have it whipped, right?  Nope.
1)  First question.  what is safe to use to get that stuff ...

Ok, my head is on the chopping block here - showing my ignorance of maths.
I have been searching for the formula to use in calculating the volume of
water my tanks are holding,  I need it in litres.  Can any of you tell me
the basic formula for calculating this?

We have a 10 gallon tank with 2 zebra danios & 2 ghost shrimp.  We
want to get a pleco (or some other kind of algae eater) but we don't
want the shrimp to get eaten.  
Any suggestions on what would go well with the danios & shrimp?

The last time I owned an aquarium, filters sat in the corner of the
tank and consisted of some activated carbon chips with some glass wool
on top. I want to get back into aquariums, and I am obviously starting
with the tank. I am considering a 36-gallon curved-front tank

This is my latest in a series of similar posts.  I have a 75 gallon
community tank.  I have lost a few fish, but not so many that I thought
there was something seriously wrong.  Recently, though, I've seen a few of
my fish (particularly 2 dwarf cichlids -- d. filamentosus or d. ...

I unfortunately had to euthanize an otocinclus last night.  I've read over
the FAQ at thekrib, but I know that folks in the NG don't always agree
with the FAQ.  While I considered my options, I googled for other sites
and found this one:

I live in France on the border with Switzerland and was told the other day,
by my LFS, that ammonia test kits were banned last November. His reason was
that one of the chemicals was harmful to guys.
Now with the upgrade of my tank I have the usual milky water, but no way of