Cory's sensitive to 4 year olds...

You know, we've been decorating the utility room last weekend and this
- perhaps is was chemicals from the emulsion paint leeching into the
water from the air. You can certainly smell it all over the house,
despite keeping doors closed where possible.

Thanks!

muddy

Well, I was thinking of setting up my own daphnia culture (Daphnia
pulex) for the betta - do you think the cory's would be able to take
these small daphnia live? If not the Hikari daphnia sound great.

Thanks,

muddy

WRT my four year old - he's a lovely lively boy but when he gets
excited he does tend to leave a wake of disasters behind him! Glad he
didn't cause the fish too much difficulty. He loves them and as has
named then all. He even named one of the cory's after himself!

Hmmm, the difficulty with nitrate here is that tap water sometimes
measures about 20 although usually it's lower. I think I will still
stick to my plany of a 35% water change twice a week and I'll watch the
fish behaviour as my primary indicator (I will still run water quality
tests, but, like you and NetMax say, they're not the whole picture.)

muddy

On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 13:19:22 -0500, "NetMax"
wrote:

"Mr. Gardener" wrote in message
news
On Sun, 12 Mar 2006 10:46:39 -0500, "NetMax"
wrote:

"muddyfox" wrote in message
egroups.com...
WOW - just did a 50% waterchange to kickstart my new regieme and the
corys seem back to their normal selves again! I don't really
understand why this is since my NO3 is not too high, unless the test
strips are under reading. (I'm using a tetra test dipstick for
nitrate
and AP wet test for pH, NH3/NH4+ and NO2.) Well, 35% twice weekly it
is. Might do slightly more for a week or so to get NO3 levels down,
assuming it's that causing the problem. Maybe testkits should be
sold
with a + or - value to their results so we can see how accurate they
are.

Thanks,

muddy


There's *** much *** more to water quality than we can measure with
_all_
our test kits. Reminds me, time to go do my water changes.

And a good part of the "much" that we can't measure with test kits can
be determined by looking at the fish and observing their behavior.
It's good to take some time and really watch your fish for a while
when they are new to your tanks, so that you have it fixed in your
mind how they're supposed to behave.

-- Mister Gardener

Couldn't have said it better myself, thanks Mister Gardener!

Now, if only we could get those people who look after humans' health
to follow the same advice.

And I don't mean "take two fish and call me in the morning".
-- Mister Gardener

On 12 Mar 2006 10:27:31 -0800, "muddyfox"
wrote:

You know, we've been decorating the utility room last weekend and this
- perhaps is was chemicals from the emulsion paint leeching into the
water from the air. You can certainly smell it all over the house,
despite keeping doors closed where possible.

Thanks!

muddy
Yikes! I was just thinking about that last night. Reading an article I
think - and I was thinking about the many lectures I've given my
growing children over the years about keeping their aerosol hair
sprays, armpit sprays and every other spray confined to their own
rooms and far away from the fish. I would guess that would be most
serious when using air pumps that actually draw in room air and push
it into the water.

-- Mister Gardener

muddyfox wrote:

Hi,

Thanks for that.

I can easily change the water twice a week and I always give the gravel
a good going over when I do that.

In an established tank gravel vacuuming can be counterproductive, as the
mud -albeit a bit unsightly- actually contains useful bacteria. You
don't want an operating theater, but a working biological system.


I don't think the pH should be too much of a problem since the LFS
suffers with the same mega hard water that we have here so they should
be acclimatised.

IMHO it is much better to keep fishes that fit the water one has. Second
best option is to alter the water to fit the fishes one likes to keep
(e.g. reversed osmosis). Puting fishes into water with very different
params from what they require may harm them in the long term, for
example there are reports that neons get kidney stones in hard water.


In terms of space and tank size there is plenty of room in the tank
for swimming from one end to the other unimpeded but I'll take on board
what you said. (My LFS said that these would be perfect for a 5G tank
too!) I'm in the process of setting up a 60-65 litre planted tank

Corys are swarm fishes, group size should be no less than half a dozen
and the more the merrier. At about 5 cm each that means a minimum of 60
l for the tank (approx 15 gal), better more since they are so active.
Indeed as a rule of thumb tanks of 100 l (25 gal) or more tend to be
more stable and easier to maintain than the very small ones.

which will have a lot more space for fun and frolicks. It may also be
more acidic since I'm thinking of using ADA Aquasoil which buffers the
water to about pH 6.5 ish.

I have made bad experiences with pH-lowering chemicals. At least some
contain phosphate as buffering agent, I wonder which homo hebes got that
idea. Better use peat or oak leaves (corys love to play with those!).

It won't have a bubble stream though
because that would dump my CO2 out of the water.

Do you add CO2 to your tank? That is not realy necessary, plants grow
just fine with the CO2 that the water contains in equilibrium with air.
The money for the CO2 unit is better spend on a larger tank, IMHO

On Thu, 16 Mar 2006 16:48:47 +0100, Dr Engelbert Buxbaum
wrote:


In terms of space and tank size there is plenty of room in the tank
for swimming from one end to the other unimpeded but I'll take on board
what you said.

I'm envisioning a jungle animal pacing back and forth in his
"generously sized" cage.

(My LFS said that these would be perfect for a 5G tank
too!) I'm in the process of setting up a 60-65 litre planted tank

All too often, some LFS people will tell you anything to make a sale.
There are very few fish that will thrive in a 5 gallon, especially if
more than a single fish is being considered. Surviving is not the same
as thriving.

Corys are swarm fishes, group size should be no less than half a dozen
and the more the merrier. At about 5 cm each that means a minimum of 60
l for the tank (approx 15 gal), better more since they are so active.
Indeed as a rule of thumb tanks of 100 l (25 gal) or more tend to be
more stable and easier to maintain than the very small ones.

My dozen Corys are only about half grown, and they use every inch of
their 15 gallon tank. I am already planning for their 20 Long, which
will give them lots more horizontal space - they love zooming back and
forth and back and forth, sometimes together, other times as if they
were playing a game of tag. The more space they have, the more fun
they are to watch. And without going overboard with the
anthropomorphizing (I love that word), I think they're having fun.

which will have a lot more space for fun and frolicks. It may also be
more acidic since I'm thinking of using ADA Aquasoil which buffers the
water to about pH 6.5 ish.

I have made bad experiences with pH-lowering chemicals. At least some
contain phosphate as buffering agent, I wonder which homo hebes got that
idea. Better use peat or oak leaves (corys love to play with those!).

I agree. I have never felt secure with chemical pH adjusters. I found
myself testing all the time. I'm much more comfortable with stuff like
peat or crushed coral, depending on which way I want to go. The fewer
chemicals I add, the less chance of something going wrong. My water is
very soft, 2 or 3 DH at best, and the 7.0 pH from the tap settles in
at 6.6 within a couple of days. I have a pile of oak leaves I want to
add to the Cory tank, but I don't know what that will do to my pH.
With so little carbonate hardness . . . I want to increase my
carbonate hardness a little without getting things complicated. Maybe
I'll try a little crushed coral in the filter.

It won't have a bubble stream though
because that would dump my CO2 out of the water.

Do you add CO2 to your tank? That is not realy necessary, plants grow
just fine with the CO2 that the water contains in equilibrium with air.
The money for the CO2 unit is better spend on a larger tank, IMHO

I have grown beautiful aquarium plants for most of my life, in the
pre-CO2 days. Of course, we didn't have the high tech lighting and
fertilizers that we have today, but I'm going to give stuff like
Flourish Excel, and I just read in a catalog that someone else is
producing a carbon fertilizer, a very good trial before I even
consider CO2. I really think one needs to master, no, there are few
masters, how about "gain knowledge and experience and success" with
some of the less demanding plants before investing in CO2, investing
meaning either money (full system) or time (DIY). And for certain, if
there are fish in the tank, learning their care should always be the
first step for a beginning aquarist.

-- Mister Gardener

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum wrote:

snip

I've always been a little suspicious about posts with "MISMATCH" in the
path (see below). And when they start using phrases like "homo hebes"
my suspicions become conclusions.

Into the bozo bin with Englebert!

sn-us!sn-feed-sjc-01!sn-xt-sjc-10!sn-xt-sjc-01!sn-xt-sjc-05
!supernews.com!207.217.77.43.MISMATCH!elnk-pas-nf1!elnk-nf2-pas!n

--
It's turtles, all the way down

Dr Engelbert Buxbaum wrote:

In an established tank gravel vacuuming can be counterproductive, as the
mud -albeit a bit unsightly- actually contains useful bacteria. You
don't want an operating theater, but a working biological system.

Absolutely, I'm trying to find a balance where there isn't excessive
build up of waste material or too much distubance to the bacteria.

IMHO it is much better to keep fishes that fit the water one has. Second
best option is to alter the water to fit the fishes one likes to keep
(e.g. reversed osmosis). Puting fishes into water with very different
params from what they require may harm them in the long term, for
example there are reports that neons get kidney stones in hard water.

This has always been my approach. My difficulty has been the range of
data available. For example, two of my freshwater tropical aquarium
books state that Corydoras spp are happy in a wide range of water types
and one says that they prefer slightly acidic water. How does one know
who to believe? My LFS said that the 2 corys would be fine in a pair
and would be ideal for a 5G tank, in fact they took me to the tank and
recommended them to go with my betta, but their expert advice appears
to have been quite far out.



I have made bad experiences with pH-lowering chemicals. At least some
contain phosphate as buffering agent, I wonder which homo hebes got that
idea. Better use peat or oak leaves (corys love to play with those!).

The ADA Aquasoil will sit on a bed of peat and mulm. I don't know how
the Aquasoil reduces the pH - maybe it's the peat. My understanding
from folk on an aquatic plant forum (Aquatic Plant Central) is that the
pH comes down and then stays there stable for months and years rather
than days and weeks. Tom Barr might know more details - I believe he's
used Aqua Soil quite a bit. Also, I didn't choose the Aquasoil for
it's pH changing ability but for it's excellent effect on plants. My
intention is to set the tank up, fully plant it, run a fishless cycle
and then add fish which will thrive in the conditions I have. I just
thought that the Cory's might be good candidates.


Do you add CO2 to your tank? That is not realy necessary, plants grow
just fine with the CO2 that the water contains in equilibrium with air.
The money for the CO2 unit is better spend on a larger tank, IMHO

No, I don't have any CO2 in that tank. I was talking about the new
60-65 litre planted tank I'm in the process of setting up. I was
wondering if the Corys might be happier there, especially if I get 3 or
4 little pals for them to school with. They're Corydoras pygmaeus so
they only get to be 2-3 cm long maximum.


Thanks for your comments and insights,

Muddy


(PS: Sorry if this message is duplicated - my little boy was mucking
about with the computer earlier today and I lost my forst attempt to
reply!)

Mr. Gardener wrote:

I'm envisioning a jungle animal pacing back and forth in his
"generously sized" cage.

They usually spend a lot of time playing with each other in the bubbles
and a lot of time swimming in and out of the plants and rocks looking
for scraps on every surface.


All too often, some LFS people will tell you anything to make a sale.
There are very few fish that will thrive in a 5 gallon, especially if
more than a single fish is being considered. Surviving is not the same
as thriving.

Yup - and I want thriving if I can arrange it. The main fish I wanted
in the tank was the male betta and my feeling is that he's quite happy
there. The FS suggested a couple of Corys to clean up the bottom and I
went for it. (I really love those little guys.) This may have been a
mistake, although, saying that they seem happy again now I've upped the
water changes again.


My dozen Corys are only about half grown, and they use every inch of
their 15 gallon tank. I am already planning for their 20 Long, which
will give them lots more horizontal space - they love zooming back and
forth and back and forth, sometimes together, other times as if they
were playing a game of tag. The more space they have, the more fun
they are to watch. And without going overboard with the
anthropomorphizing (I love that word), I think they're having fun.

That sounds really lovely. I think that's definitely one of the
biggest joys of fishkeeping for me - when you get it right and are
rewarded by happy, healthy fish. It's certainly what I'm aiming for!

Regards,

Muddy