Shantanu, Gurgaon, India, December 1, 2006
Noticed there are no Q&As after Nov 25. Hope everything in the Aqualand Family (including your puter) is ok?

Nathaniel R. Veith, December 1, 2006
Years ago I acquired six baby axolotls from my high school Biology teacher. He started with one and a set of eggs.  I helped him hatch forty five babies. So he decided to do a research project with a few of his favorite students, myself included, and allow us each to take six home for the summer. He taught everyone to hatch brine shrimp for the babies then feed pellet food when they got bigger. I fed my babies California black worms, and they loved them. By the end of the summer, mine were nearly six inches long, while everyone else's were only three to four inches long. On top of that, they were nearly twice the mass of the others. Feeding axolotls live food helps them stay healthy longer and grow to sizes unexpectable. My big one, which I named Killar, was close to ten inches long. As for the cannibalism, I found them to love to nip at each other throughout the past 4 years. Killar ate two of the smaller ones when we put them all into a 75 gallon tank. And yes, we have a picture somewhere of one latched onto the end of my finger, so they will and do snap at anything. I put average sized jewel cichlids in with Killar, and he ate them. I would highly recommend not placing them with other axolotls or with fish. The only fish I could keep with mine was one of those Bichers or whatever they are called. Now they both eat the same food. Hope this is helpful to others,

Jeffrey Hill, December 3, 2006
Just a little info about feeding parakeets. Feeding vegetables, fruits and greens doesn't cause diarrhea. The food just causes their feces to change cKent Kleinolor and maybe become watery. People need to feed their pet birds these things along with pellets so the bird stays healthy.

Kent Klein, WDM, IA, December 3, 2006
I was the guy who was in Satirday morning bragging about the plant tank and purchased 3 "Red" gouramis. Anyway, as promised here are some pics of the tank. The gouramis love it so far. Take care and thanks for the great job you guys do. Sincerely,

A:  Good looking tank.  Tip:  Don't shoot your tank straight on.  Move a little to one side and you'll eliminate that flash.  LA

Lee & Howard, Des Moines, December 3, 2006
We found the greatest Chinese buffet on Sat. on  East Euclid -- the one you and I talked about on East Euclid called the international buffet. OMG, the selections, OMG, the price, OMG the taste,

peel & eat shrimp on lunch & dinner.  Crab legs on dinner, fried scallops, happy family, sautéed shrimp, mussels on the half shell, sushi, general's chicken, honey chicken as well as a new one called honey roasted chicken that is out of this world, good H&S soup, fried bananas, great Mongolian beef, Singapore chicken, pepper steak, peanut butter chicken = yuk, Mongolian pork, seafood delight, great desserts, salad & fruit bar, egg rolls, crab Rangoon, fries, onion rings, did I mention fried bananas? Lots more.nd guess what? they have fried bananas and they are GREAT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was only $13.99 for us both for lunch.  $8.95 + tax for dinner.  Their food has flavor and was fresh and was wonderful. 

Howard & Lee  

P.S.  have you ever had a fried banana?

 
A:  Red-claw crabs are scavengers that eat anything and everything with a distinct preference for fish.  Go to our webpage Red Claw Crabs for more details.  LA
 

Jake Holmsley, December 5, 2006
Your site is very informative and helped answer many of my questions. I have 6 mystery snails (3 per tank) and they are all of equal size. Except for my snail in my largest tank (40 Gallon) which is 2x the size of the standard ones. Anyhow, when they crawl on each other, will they eat one another or are they breeding or just going about their business? Also the 3 in my 40 Gal tank have no tentacles, probably cause my Angel's nip at them. In my smaller 20 Gallon tank with my 70+ livebearer fry all around half a centimetre in length are the only fish with the 3 snails that have tentacles and "crawl" on each other. I just hope to get a batch soon. In my larger tank I have oh geeez... 70 fish with about 15 species. 20 livebearers or so. Although all of my fish are between 1 and 4 inches. One last question. My male balloon molly and male half black guppy seem to be trying to breed with all species of general livebearers in my tank. Is it a myth that they can cross-breed or is it true? Cheers, Jake

A:  Sometimes they just crawl over one another.  Often during these "crawlings," they will fertilize one another.  The angels nipping at their tentacles just cause them to retract their tentacles.  Put them in your other tank and they will pop out their tentacles again.  To induce spawning, drop your water level three inches.  LA

PS  That big guy may be an apple snail.  If he devours plants, he's an apple.  The snail police may be looking for him.
 

Marcus Leong, December 5, 2006
Hi, I haven't been to your site in a while because I thought I would be set with guppies. But since they have all died, I am trying to set up a brackish tank and would like to know what types of plants are good with brackish water. I have already went to the Brackish page but found nothing on plants.  If you could help, I would appreciate it a lot.

Thanks.

Dylan Huang , December 6, 2006

My Comment Concerns About The Picture 26 On Gars

I Don't Think Those 2 Fishes Are Really Gars. They Look More Like Pikeheads.  Here's The URL About The Information About The Fish http://habitatnews.nus.edu.sg/guidebooks/freshfish/text/233.htm

A:  Texas holy rock is not good for tetras, but it's not bad enough to kill them that fast.  It's a lot of limestone which eventually runs your pH up.  Good for African cichlids.  Bad for discus -- really bad.  Is your tank three or four weeks old?  High pH plus ammonia and nitrates are very stressful on all fishes.  Check your pH and correct it.  You need some live nitrifying bacteria also.  LA
 

A:  Careful.  Most pH buffers bounce back after 30 days.  I like to add nitrifying bacteria by adding water vacuumed from the filter bed of a crowded African cichlid tank.  You can also find commercial products that do the same thing.  LA

 A:  Chlorine gas probably dissipates when misted.  Leave your water out for a day to make sure.  LA
 

A:  Hey George, stop feeding the bread.  In the wild, piranhas eat fish (mostly cichlids).  They do very well on cichlid pellets in captivity.  Piranhas also travel in packs.  If you want her to act wilder, add more piranhas.  LA

Bea Gyulay, December 7, 2006
Can a male betta be added to a 20H tank that currently houses 6 long finned danios (soon to be rounded out to at least 10), a juvenile rubber nosed pleco, and a juvenile emerald cory (temporary housing until it gets a little bit bigger so I can put it into my 50G).
The tank has the filter that used to be on my 50G (not an under gravel filter) and a 10” bubble wand (more for the aesthetic nature of the bubbles and the pleasure that the fish have in riding the bubbles than for aeration). I plan on adding some neon tetras for color and possibly a snail. While I would like to add some live plants, it contains only plastic ones right now and I’m not certain that the lighting is right for live plants. They don’t seem to do well in my 50G but that could be because of the severum and parrots.
I ask because this tank is set up as my granddaughter’s and she really likes the way bettas look. I don't intend to breed them. Additionally, I use tap water to change the water in all three of my tanks – it’s worked very well – and from what I have read on your page, the betta might not particularly like this. I do add aquarium salt and “Stress Coat” to the water when I change it.
If you think that the betta would be unhappy under these conditions, I really would like to know. I am pretty good at convincing my granddaughter about inhumane practices. Oh, I was also thinking about adding a dwarf frog, but don’t really know that much about them. How do you think it would feel under these conditions?
Thank you in advance for taking the time to read this and for your advice.

Myra Vaningwegen, England, December 8, 2006
I live in England and so will never buy any of your animals, but I
wanted to say a hearty THANK YOU for taking the time to put up some informative (and funny!) fact sheets on your aquatic critters.

A.D. Massey, December 10, 2006
First off, I want to say that I love your website.
I've been addicted to cichlids for almost 7yrs and have maintained a wide variety of tanks. I recently moved and due to lack of space, had to sell my larger tanks. My son was very upset about this so for his first birthday I bought him a 50g custom tank and encouraged people to give him gift certificates from a nearby store I conceded to be good. Instead, people brought live fish.  Everything from bettas and guppies to jacks and Africans. Because of an obvious lack of compatibility, I traded most of the fish in for some simple supplies. Really, the only fish I kept was a blueberry painted Oscar. The Oscar seemed malnourished and in definite need of some TLC. I was sure that if I traded him he would die. Since I have a soft spot for fish, I couldn't let that happen.  The fish has grown from 1½ inches to almost 5 since August.  I'm sad to say that I don't have much experience with these lovely fish. And I'm currently at a loss at what to do. My concern is with a spot on the fish's head. When we first acquired him, there was a slight grayish mark on his forehead. I assumed that it was due to being dyed.  In the past two weeks, that spot has turned into more of a depression or wound, as if he hit it on something. He has always had a spot of discoloration so I know it isn't a recent injury. For a little background, he is a very happy fish, playful, likes to eat out of my hand, 'dances' at the front of the tank whenever my son approaches. He just seems to behave as an overall happy and healthy fish. The tank mates are 2 jacks between 3 ½ and 2 inches, a 2-inch electric yellow, a 3-inch orange spotted pleco, and 2 horny convicts, the male is 3 inches the female 1½ inch, working on their 4th batch. The female convict is the most violent fish in the tank only because the Oscar is too busy playing follow the finger with my son to notice. ½ water change 2x each week, temp stays at 80 degrees around the clock. No problems with ammonia or anything else. I test regularly. Water is a little on the hard side. They eat cichlid pellets 3x each day and a handful of gold fish weekly. If they're lucky I give them carrot shaving, worms and any stray cricket I come across. They really don't fight. In fact I haven't added any new fish since August because they all get along so well. My only concern with him is the spot on his head, and some gray coloring that I think is a result of being dyed. I would appreciate any insight into this you could provide. I only want the best for all my fish. Also, I know he's an albino Oscar, but can you tell what type exactly?

Jeff Willemsen, Iowa, December 10, 2006
My 2 black angels I got from you 1 1/2 yrs ago finally quit eating their
eggs and have some fry. Not very many. The babies are hanging out on the airline tubing of their sponge filter. their parents are 2 real grumpy sort of black angels.  They have been spawning for about a  year now and
this is the 1st time any eggs have ever hatched.  They might get eaten but I
am so happy to have finally seen some baby angels.  I have, if you will
still take, a pair of rainbow cichlids who raise their fry.  The rainbows
were purchased from you 2 yrs ago and the fry they have with them are about 5 wks old.  I got kinda nervous that they were going to spawn again and eat the babies but that didn't happen.  They are the best parents and still protecting their babies and haven't laid any eggs since these were born.  I would like for you to have them back as I know they will be well taken care of like the Texas cichlid pair I brought to you.  I am more interested in raising angels and rams, although I haven't had much luck with either.
Anyway, could I trade in my rainbows?  I have the pair + about 20 babies and I would like for them to go somewhere I know they will be well taken care of.  If my angels I got from you don't eat their babies, I will trade the pair and the babies to you too.  hey look like black clowns. I am not sure as I am not an expert.  I am more interested in koi angels.  I love this black pair but need the space.  They are grumpy and need to be together
by themselves. Sorrrrry so long. Does this all sound ok to you???

George Sobhy, Egypt, December 10, 2006
I am wondering why my water turtles spend all of the time in water even they're not eating? Is it because of the low temperature? The temp here in Egypt in winter is around 17 to 20 degrees Celsius?

Luiz Adriano, Brazil, December 12, 2006
Hi! I live in Brazil and need your help. I read the article about freshwater lionfish in your site and was interested. I am the owner of store of aquarium in  Brazil my site is www.exotiquario.com.br.
I have a question. I received 5 times  freshwater lionfish all die. Because of a bacterium? Which medicine do you use against this bacterium that attacks the?lionfish? I keep them in brackish water specific gravity   1010. ph 8.0.
Sorry my English very bad. Thank you                       

Luiz Adriano, Brazil, December 14, 2006
I'm using COLRAFENICOL and not have results! My web site is not complit, it lacks much thing!
I work with exportation of fish of the Araguaia  basin you will have
WHANTER  inform to me!
I have big friend in EUA. Rosario Lacorte you  know him? Thank you for your attention!

 

A:  Whoa.  I want a Leer Jet in my garage but it just might not fit.  10G tanks are the most popular starter tanks.  They're inexpensive and take minimal space.  But your "reach is exceeding your grasp."  If you intend to tenant a ten, think in terms of fish in the $1 to $3 range.  Start with a few and work your way up to 20 or so.
Your wish list falls more within the range of a 55 or better yet 125.  Rather than my prescribing your tank needs via email, you need to contact your local fish store (or two) and tell them what you want.  That's their job.  LA
 

A:  Does TetraWerks still make the Viquarium?  I was impressed with them when they first came out.  Then I decided they provide too many nooks and crannies for the critters to disappear into.  If you decide to add amphibians and reptiles, go to Terrarium II for some suggestions.  And pick a tall tank -- like a 29.  LA

A:  I answered your questions on piranhas and water turtles.  Sorry if I missed one of your other missives.  LA
 

Martin Mannings, December 14, 2006
Hi. Would a tyre track eel, spotted climbing perch, and black ghost knifefish be ok together in the same tank and what other fish would be able to live with them in a five foot tank? Thanks

A:  The three species you list would be fine in a large tank.  That climbing perch will be a real troublemaker.  Come to Des Moines and I'll give you a free one.  I'd add some barbs and medium-sized American cichlids.  LA