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Post by will20013 on Jun 1, 2012 15:14:39 GMT -5
WOW!!! You have inspired me to try this some day....Love the fish!!!!
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Post by vraev on Jun 1, 2012 22:47:39 GMT -5
Thanks Will. Glad to hear you want to try it too. Let me know if you need any help or advice. Yup! The most fun of this whole thing is when you are making the tank and when you are actually making the aquascape. There is a nice feeling of satisfaction when you first fill the tank.
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Post by nwflytrap on Jun 2, 2012 20:45:42 GMT -5
Wow james. Very naturalistic. Looks awsome. Those are some big fish too. What do u feed them? Feeder goldfish? Thats another expensive I forgot to mention...I got a nutrafin master kit (10 parameters...checks ammonia, nitrite, nitrate, gH, kH, pH, phosphates, iron...and couple od other things). Got it from a closing down Big Als at half the regular price. Thanks Varun and dvg. In predatory fish circles goldfish are known as golden death pills. They're a slow way to kill your fish. I feed them a staple of New Life Spectrum pellets, plus smelts (they eat them whole), tilapia fillets, shrimp, worms, sucker and their eggs, and the big one ate a mouse once too. The nutrafin tests aren't the most reliable ones on the market. If you can afford it, Seachem makes really good ones. Once you've kept plants long enough you don't need the test kits anymore, the plants are pretty good at telling you exactly what's missing or too high in the water.
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Post by dvg on Jun 4, 2012 15:25:31 GMT -5
In predatory fish circles goldfish are known as golden death pills. They're a slow way to kill your fish. That's very interesting about the goldfish being used as feeders. I hadn't heard that before. What is it about the goldfish that makes them undesirable as a food source...maybe not enough nutrients as a feeder source? dvg
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Post by nwflytrap on Jun 4, 2012 18:46:19 GMT -5
One part is fatty liver build up on the fish that eats them, the other is that they are very high in thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys vitamin B in the fish that eat them.
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Post by dvg on Jun 5, 2012 14:11:03 GMT -5
One part is fatty liver build up on the fish that eats them, the other is that they are very high in thiaminase, an enzyme that destroys vitamin B in the fish that eat them. Thanks for that info NWFlytrap. I did a quick search on the topic yesterday and also found that a goldfish's cranium can block the digestive tracts of some predatory fish, especially that of a lionfish. Parasites and disease can also be an issue with mass bred feeder goldfish, though it might not be much of an issue if the fish are immediately consumed, but if the fish are allowed to linger around in a tank, disease and/or parasites can spread, which is why a quarantine period or a supervised feeder breeding period is advised. I also read that goldfish might not be the most nutritional food source for predatory fish, but that might be in part because of the thiaminase issue. dvg
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Post by nwflytrap on Jun 5, 2012 14:52:45 GMT -5
A lot of it has to do with the thiaminase. I have used feeders in the past. Guppies, mollies, platies etc. Ghost shrimp are great. And a lot of people use convict cichilds or African rift lake cichlids since they grow a lot faster, but I prefer the frozen foods and pellets. It's just easier and safer in the long run.
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Post by Kase on Jun 12, 2012 23:07:37 GMT -5
I finally got around to cleaning the algae off the viewing sides of the tank and only managed to get one good pic of the tank with my phone. I'm still fighting algae and waiting for plants to fill in
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Post by vraev on Jun 16, 2012 1:57:45 GMT -5
Looking good Roger. The water looks pristine which suggests the parameters are optimal. You just need some otto to clean up the algae on the sides of the tank.
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