HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: pprior@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Paul A Prior)
Subject: Re: [F] Corydora Question
Keywords: cory, bottom feeder, flake pellet
Organization: The Ohio State University
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 00:30:06 GMT

In article <C0pFnD.6qC@mentor.cc.purdue.edu> blumb@sage.cc.purdue.edu (Bill Blum) writes:
>
>I have a 5 gallon [F] tank with two 1" albino corydoras in it, and I was
>told at the pet store that flake food would be ok to feed them with.
>
>However, after reading several books on aquariums, I learned that corys are
>bottom feeders, and since they are, should I be using pellet foods
>instead????????

You are correct.  They are bottom feeders and flake food is not appropriate
for them.  You can put enough flake food so that they eat what falls to
the bottom, but that is not effecient and will pollute the water.
Tabi-min is basically compressed tablets of flake food (made by tetra) that
is a good staple for cories.  Mine absolutely LOVE blackworms and also
relish brine shrimp occasionally.  Mix their food just like any other fish.
 
At least you didn't fall into the "they just eat the junk off the bottom"
pitfall - remember that cories are fish too! <G>

Enjoy them.  By the way, cories should never be kept alone, and groups
of 4 or more are best.  However, given your smaller tank, just make 
sure you have at least two.

Cheers,
Paul


-- 
--------pprior@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu----(614) 621-8240----------------
Paul A. Prior    Ban anchors, not reef tanks    Nuke Gay Whales for Jesus  
3rd year medical student 		        
The Ohio State U. College of Medicine   Tobacco Kills- Please don't smoke!
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: tom@vexcel.com (Tom Baltzer)
Subject: HELP! [F] Green Algae is taking over!
Organization: VEXCEL Corporation, Boulder CO
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 1993 16:09:07 GMT


Greetings netlanders!   I'm rather new to this forum and 
relativly new to aquaria.  I'm having a problem with my 
10 gallon tank in which this bright green algae is taking
over on my gravel.  I can vacuume the stuff up, (although 
it really wants to stick to the rocks),  but it 
comes back quite quickly and widens its territory when
it does.

Can anybody tell me what it is, and how to rid my tank of it?

Many thanks in advance.

Tom.

Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: tse@ra.nrl.navy.mil (Anthony Tse)
Subject: Re: Organi-Cure?????????????
Keywords: copper non-toxic to inverts????????
Organization: Naval Research Lab, Washington, DC
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 14:51:58 GMT

In article <27700@sybase.sybase.com> holly@sybase.com (Innocent Bystander) writes:
>In article <2768@grivel.une.edu.au> rbennet1@neumann.une.edu.au (Robert Bennetts.) writes:
>|"			CONTENTS
>|	COPPER 1.25% and FORMALDEHYDE 17% in a tri-chelated form
>|		that is safe for invertebrates.                     "
>
>|		^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

>So how is this stuff supposed to kill of all of these organisms when it's
>safe for invertebrates?  Perhaps oodinium isn't an invertebrate, or am
>I missing something here?
>
>I sure wouldn't.  even if that is a "safe" low dosage(whatever that would be),
>copper will accumulate.  and formaldehyde is right out.  Doesn't sound like 
>good stuff to me, mon.

   I never had, and never will, put any drug in my reef tank.  If a
fish get sick, it die.  The condition in a reef tank should be so good
that fish shouldn't get sick.  It's much better to loose a few hundred
dollars worth of fish then to loose a few thousand dollars worth of
inverts.

-Anthony
Xref: sparky rec.aquaria:9951 alt.aquaria:6517
From: 01mbmccabe@leo.bsuvc.bsu.edu
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
Subject: Re: Marineland Penguin Powerheads
Date: 12 Jan 93 02:32:18 GMT
Organization: Ball State University, Muncie, In - Univ. Computing Svc's

> I have a few questions about the Marineland Penguin powerheads,
> for anybody that may have used them:
> 
> 
> 1. Are the fully submersible?             :::   YES.
> 2. Are they salt-water safe?              :::   dunno.          
> 3. Are they quiet?                        :::   YES.
> 4. For people who have used them, are you happy with them? (ie: would you
>    buy one again).                        :::   Without a doubt.
> 5. Is the flow rate adjustable on any of the models?

		I only own several 550 models, and they are not adjustable. 
I'm not too sure about the 660 or 1140 models.


				-Matt
From: bbs.maddox@tsoft.net (Otto Maddox)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: Filters for 55 G - Suggestions?
Date: 6 Jan 93 20:01:35 GMT
Organization: The TSoft BBS and Public Access Unix, +1 415 969 8238

rg@kunikpok.UUCP (R.G. Keen) writes:

> I'm going to acquire and set up a 55 in the next couple of months or so, 
> now that I have my 29 running on a fairly even keel. I have consulted - 
> well, pestered - everyone I know and read everything I could get my hands 
> on, and I think that a reasonable setup is with UG driven by two 
> powerheads, airstone aeration, and a cannister, possibly an Eheim or 
> Fluval, running in tandem. The idea is that with two filter systems 
> running, I have some additional capacity and a different mechanism if 
> something should go nonlinear with one of them. Two questions - 
> (a) does this make sense?
> (b) any suggestions on alternates or hints and tips in this kind of 
> setup?

This is a good idea, the more the better.  I've never been a big fan of 
under gravel filters.  My fish always dig and then the filter doesn't 
work well enough to keep it in the tank.



> 
> There is a third question. I saw a book entitled "Tank Busters" in my 
> local book emporium, the focus being LARGE tanks to keep specimens of 
> LARGE or unusual/gruesome species. The book made much of a filter they 
> called a "rapid sand filter" which consisted of a second tank, comparable 
> to the main tank's size or slightly smaller, that had a series of 
> compartments driven by succeeding overflows; first wool media, then 
> coarse sand, and successively finer sand in each compartment. As usual, 
> grandiose claims for effectiveness. Is this thing  - ahem - all wet?
> 
> R.G.

Hmm.. well I have never heard of such a thing in a book but I have seen 
it done in the local store here.  They have a 100 gallon tank + FULL + of 
African Cichlids.  Probably eighty of them in there and I asked them how 
they could keep so many fish in such a small space.  I was allowed to 
peek underneath the tank where there was another 100 gallon tank with 
NOTHING in it.  Water was drawn from the top tank into the bottom tank 
and then drawn from there into a fuval 403 and back in the tank.  The 
shop guy said it was like having a 200 gallon tank without seeing the 
whole thing.  He said it did more for keep a good amount of oxygen in the 
water than anything else.  He said the fluval does all the filtering.
He didn't reccomend such a set up for home use since no one in their 
right mind would want that many fish in a tnak at once.

If you plan on raising the bigger fish I would go for the most filtration 
you can.  On a 55gallon I had I use two aqua clear 300's for three 
Oscars.  This seemed to do the trick just fine.  I tried a UGF at first 
but the oscars kept knocking the power heads or the entire lift tube over 
and that is a total hassle sometimes.

Otto Maddox 
[ bbs.maddox@tsoft.net ] [ maddox@west.darkside.com ]
From: pjs@gvgdsd.GVG.TEK.COM (Peter J. Stonard)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: Fish Stores in Chicago-Land
Date: 4 Jan 93 23:35:41 GMT
Organization: Grass Valley Group, Grass Valley, CA
NNTP-Posting-Host: gvgdsd.gvg.tek.com

In article <1992Dec31.183239.21181@news.acns.nwu.edu> keo@casbah.acns.nwu.edu (Kurt Oldenburg) writes:
>
>Does anyone out there know of some good stores to buy freshwater
>fish at in the Chicago area (preferably in the North Shore/Evanston -
>Skokie area)? 

While living in Palatine Illinois I really liked 'Noah's Ark' in 
Arlington Heigths. (About 2400 E Oakton. Can never remember if it's 
Arlington Heights, Elk Grove Village, Des Plaines) Great fish, bird, 
cat, and reptile collection. Sold 'em quite a few swords and angels 
some years ago....

There was an old A&P Supermarket store converted to a discount fish
and pet store, called Animal World.  On Milwaukee Ave 
(US45) and (US21).  Just north of the Chicago city limits. 
Great prices on hardware, but their tanks were very poorly kept. 
Had a caged Gorilla in the front window.

Hope this helps.

++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++
Peter J. Stonard        +                                /^\  /^\
Grass Valley Group      +                       /^\     /   \/
Grass Valley, CA. 95945 +                     /     \ /    /  
pjs@gvgspd.gvg.tek.com  +     Fish keeper in the Sierra Foothills
++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++=++
If it looks like; sounds like; quacks like; an Opinion. It's mine.
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
From: harold@wam.umd.edu (James B. Harold)
Subject: Loaches and snails
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Fri, 8 Jan 1993 14:57:08 GMT


Who out there has put loaches into a tank with Malaysian
burrowing ("trumpet") snails?  Were the snails eliminated,
or just severely controlled?  I was considering getting a
loach (maybe a small clown) for my plant tank, but I don't
want to completely eliminate my snail population.  I like
having them cruising around turning over the substrate and
eating stray bits of food and algae...in fact, I seeded the
tank with them for that reason.  On the other hand, the
snail population is a little excessive at the moment, and 
I wouldn't mind having them thinned out (or at least scared
back into the substrate). 

And two other botia questions:
  1) Do they dig at all?  I don't want any uprooted plants.
  2) Are they at all territorial?  Would they interfere with
     dwarf cichlids trying to establish caves and such?

Thanks...
-- 

James Harold                 "There is always an easy solution to
harold@wam.umd.edu            every human problem -- neat, plausible,
                              and wrong."    --  H. L. Mencken 
Newsgroups: ba.forsale,rec.aquaria
From: jupiter2@netcom.com (Hal Broome)
Subject: 60-gallon Aquarium, hutch stand for sale
Summary: moving sale
Organization: Netcom Online Communications Services (408-241-9760 login: guest)
Date: Sun, 10 Jan 1993 19:50:48 GMT


You probably have more stomach than I do for an aquarium in
an earthquake zone, so here's your chance!

Besides the nice all-glass/light hood/wooden cabinet stand
setup I also have a grungy 20-gallon all-glass aquarium and
a 5-gallon aquarium/baby tank (a nice setup for gourami raising)
which I'll throw into the bargain; the last two tanks survived
Loma Prieta even if the contents did not 8'(.

$150 o.n.o.

Call Hal @ 408 253-1959 after work hours or
           415 513-7469 during work hours

hal
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: dmk@cbnewsi.cb.att.com (daniel.m.kuster..jr)
Subject: protein skimmers
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 19:36:51 GMT


greetings all,

does anyone have any construction plans for making a home-made
protein skimmer.  I refuse to pay $200 for something I can
build myself for $50.

I want to build a stand alone unit, not one that is connected 
to a wet-dry filter sump.  Also, does anyone know what makes
a skimmer a "venturi" skimmer?  If possible I would like to
make one of these.  I assume I will have to power it with a 
power head of some type.  Two questions:

	(1)  Is the power head on the water intake or on the
		water exit line?

	(2)  Does the the height of the protein skimmer have to
		be at or slightly higher than the height of the
		tank?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.


dan

Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: oleg@netcom.com (Oleg Kiselev)
Subject: Re: no water changes for me
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 12:34:25 GMT

In article <204@jptcs.COM> Steve.Kilbey%bbs@jptcs.com (Steve Kilbey) writes:
>true, I have not tested nitr[ia]tes. I have considered changing water, but
>as I said in the beginning, why sould I if I have had no problems?

Perhaps you don't need to.  Miracles happen.  Bricks fly, people walk on
water and some tanks miraculously need no water changes.  If you have enough
anaerobic areas in the filters to denitrify the water without producing
poisons and the fish load is light, then your tank may run stably without
water changes.  Eventually the build up of a variety of salts will kill
everything in the tank.
-- 
Oleg Kiselev at home			...use the header to find the path
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: frazier@kona.cs.ucla.edu (Gregory Frazier)
Subject: Re: Easily bred fish
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 93 19:29:48 GMT

Edward Peschko (peschko@diatom.micro.umn.edu) wrote:
: hello --
: 
: What are some good species of fish that can be bred rather easily? I am pretty
: fed up with getting exotic fish that up and die on me -- and until I find out
: what is wrong with my water, I'd like to stay nice and cheap..

The easiest fish to breed are live-bearers.  Guppies are the most
common, but there are easy to breed species of half-beak, and
swordtails/platties can be pretty cool.  I've seen photos of more
exotic live-bearers in aquarium atlases, but you don't often see
them in US petshopts/fish stores.  For egg-scatterers,
zebra danios and white cloud mountain minnows are probably the
easiest.  Cichlids are fun to breed, cuz the parents do all the
hard work for you vis a vis taking care of the fry (as opposed
to egg-scatterers, where you have to both protect the fry from
the parents and have tiny food on hand for them).  I'd recommend
convicts or kribs as easy cichlids to breed (choose based on your
tank size and water conditions).  Finally, there are killifish,
which are shockingly easy to breed.  For many species, their eggs
are large and easy to collect, and the fry hatch large and can
eat brine shrimp nauplii right away.  I have found Aplocheilus
lineatus and Epiplatys chaperi to be amazingly easy fish to breed.

If you want to keep the operation bone-simple, and only have a
single tank (or don't want to mess with moving fish/fry/eggs
around), then your best bet is a cichlid or a livebearer species.

--
"They thought to use and shame me but I win out by nature, because a true
freak cannot be made.  A true freak must be born." - K. Dunn, _Geek Love_

Greg Frazier	frazier@CS.UCLA.EDU	!{ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!frazier
From: thk@tyres.asd.sgi.com (Tom Kong)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: liverocks
Date: 5 Jan 93 23:23:39 GMT
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc.
NNTP-Posting-Host: tyres.asd.sgi.com


A few months ago I mentioned on the net that I visited fellow
netter James Cho's tank and was very impressed by the quality
of the live rocks he got from Reef Scrapers.  Then hurricane
Andrew came and I was unable to get in touch with Reef Scrapers.

Finally in November I got hold of them and order some premium
rocks and some plant rocks (their prices have gone up by $10 per box).
I sold one box of plant rock and one box of premium to a coworker,
and kept one box of premium for myself.  Because of the bad weather 
in Florida, it took almost a month before my shipment arrived. 

Things didn't survive the journey too well (it took a day and
a half to get to San Jose airport).  The first bad sign was that
all the boxes were dripping wet.  It turned out that the rocks
took some pounding during shipment, and the styrofoam boxes
all cracked, and the plastic bags inside bursted from the abrasion.
The second bad sign was seeing how dry the rocks were when I
opened the box and also how foul they smelled.

I removed as much macroalgae as possible before dropping the rocks
into the tank.  I also removed as many big worms as I could find.
From the box I found two small urchins, and a tiny brittle star,
and that was all.  All the rocks had a ton of silt deposit on them,
I suspect the hurricane was responsible.

The next several days the water was cloudy and smelled terrible, the protein 
skimmer went crazy.  I did 30% water changes every day for two days.  After 
a week the water cleared up, and stopped smelling bad.  I was ready to put my
corals back into the tank, but stopped after I realized NH4 was
at 5ppm.  Another week later, NH4 dropped to zero, and NO2 climbed
to 0.1ppm.  I got impatient  enough to drop a hammer coral and a frogspawn
coral in the tank.  Both reacted positively and looked good.  The
rocks started to show lots of new macroalgae growth.  The decorative
rocks (with riccordia, and some colonial polyps) were doing great
and looked really good.  I later moved some of the rocks to a different
tank.

Now, about one month since I got the rocks, things are going great!
Both tanks used to have tons of hair algae, and now have almost no
microalgae, all the corals inflate to amazing sizes.  My elegance is 
now 12" diameter instead of about 5" a year ago, my goniopora stopped 
dying and is now growing back to 8" diameter.  There is a decent
growth in all the macroalgae that came with the rock.  

Overall the quality of the rocks weren't as good as James Cho's rocks
from before the hurricane as there were far fewer interesting creatures 
on them (unless you think big worms or mantis shrimps are interesting).  
I was impressed by how well the rocks help purified the water, and how 
the decorative rocks came back despite their look and smell when they 
first arrived.  

I'm one happy customer.

/tom
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: pprior@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu (Paul A Prior)
Subject: Re: Pleco question
Keywords: Detritovorous?
Organization: The Ohio State University
Distribution: usa
Date: Tue, 12 Jan 1993 00:34:18 GMT

In article <1993Jan11.044529.3039@en.ecn.purdue.edu> wmack@en.ecn.purdue.edu (William J Mack) writes:
>Someone once told me plecos were detritovorous (eat detritus).  Is that true?
>Since my other fish promptly spit out detritus if mistaken for food, it raised
>the question.  Thanks.

That is not true.  Pl*cos require food just like any other fish.  They will
browse on algae and thus keep most tanks clean, but will require supplemental
feeding in most cases as they grow.  Also, I have found that a piece of
driftwood is essential to keep for them to chew on.

Mine has grown from 1" to about 6" and now eats tabi-min whole.  He also
does a great job at keeping the algae down - I only clean the glass
every other month or so.

-- 
--------pprior@magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu----(614) 621-8240----------------
Paul A. Prior    Ban anchors, not reef tanks    Nuke Gay Whales for Jesus  
3rd year medical student 		        
The Ohio State U. College of Medicine   Tobacco Kills- Please don't smoke!
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: frazier@kona.cs.ucla.edu (Gregory Frazier)
Subject: Re: [F] Help with Kribensis' behavior
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5
Distribution: na
Date: Mon, 11 Jan 93 17:16:10 GMT

Trung N. Nguyen (tnnguyen@marcus.cs.umn.edu) wrote:
: I recently have acquired a few Kribensis.  Lately, I notice that the
: female sometimes leans slightly to one side, curls itself and shakes
: violently for a second or so.  It usually does this when the male
: approaches it and gives it a light peck on the side of the female's
: body. 

: Is it some mating ritual or is it something wrong with
: the water or is it just an act of defense?

Yes, this is a mating ritual.  Many species of African dwarf
cichlid do this.  Has your females belly become much rosy-er
lately?  When she looks fat and the belly becomes very red,
she's ready to spawn, and hopefully your male krib will get
in the mood when she exposes her red belly to him.  If you
want them to spawn, provide a cave - either a small clay
flowerpot on its side, or half a coconut (w/out the meat,
of course), or something similar.

--
"They thought to use and shame me but I win out by nature, because a true
freak cannot be made.  A true freak must be born." - K. Dunn, _Geek Love_

Greg Frazier	frazier@CS.UCLA.EDU	!{ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!frazier
From: booth@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM (George Booth)
Date: Mon, 4 Jan 1993 19:43:06 GMT
Subject: [F] Success with Algae Destroyer
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Co., Loveland, CO
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria

An update on our attempts to deal with a bad case of "beard algae".

This type of beard algae, at least in our tanks, is bright green and
grows mostly on plant leaves.  It gets to about 1" (2.54 cm) long and
tends to look like long, green velvet.  It "blows in the wind" like
fields of wheat.  It is impossible to mechanically remove from the
plant leaf, unlike "hair" and "thread" algae.

The "Algae-Destroyer" product worked for us.  It is made by Aquarium
Pharmaceuticals and comes in tablet or liquid form.  It seems to be 
available at most fish and pet shops for $4-6 for 18 tablets (treats
90 gallons of water).  It's active ingredient is "Simazine".

We used the tablets at the recommended dosage.  We treated once,
changed 50% of the water after 1 week and treated again, also changing
the water after 1 week.  This cleared up the "beard algae" but had
little or no affect on red brush algae (black tufts) or the easily
removed hair and thread algae.

The treatment had no apparent affect on the fish (Melanotaenia, Corys,
Pekoltia, Farlowella, Ottocinclus) or most plants.  Only Nomaphila
stricta (temple plant) was adversely affected (as in, it pretty much
all died).
 
As a side note, a friend mentioned that Siamese Algae Eaters
(Epalzeorhinchus siamensis), a relative of Flying Foxes, snarfs up red
brush algae like crazy in his tanks.  We haven't had that experience,
but then, we tend to feed our fish and he dosen't.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
George L. Booth                                Author, Aquarium Fish Magazine
booth@hplvec.lvld.hp.com                      Member, Rainbowfish Study Group
Software Development Engineer               Member, Colorado Aquarium Society
Manufacturing Test Division            Member, Aquatic Gardener's Association
Hewlett-Packard Company                Author, Aquatic Gardener's Association
Loveland, Colorado                Founding Member, The Colorado Aquarium, Inc
         /\                     Member, The Colorado Aquarium Plant Committee
    /\  /  \/\           Chairman, The Colorado Aquarium Filtration Committee
___/  \/   /  \___  Member, The Colorado Aquarium S.E. Asia Exhibit Committee
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: harold@wam.umd.edu (James B. Harold)
Subject: Re: Algae descriptions: Re: [F] Tough hair algae question
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Wed, 6 Jan 1993 13:53:08 GMT

In article <1993Jan4.231558.26837@medtron.medtronic.com> ds0007@medtronic.COM (Dale Skiba) writes:
>they do not have the latin name for this one.  They told me it is somewhat
>similar to a Hong Kong Pleco.  It looks alot like a cross between a Pleco
>and a leech.

Have you noticed any damage to your plants from this guy?  Particularly
on broadleaf plants (like swords)?  Just curious...that's one of
the common complaints about conventional plecos (though it doesn't
seem to happen in my tanks...).

-- 

James Harold                 "There is always an easy solution to
harold@wam.umd.edu            every human problem -- neat, plausible,
                              and wrong."    --  H. L. Mencken 
Xref: sparky rec.aquaria:9993 alt.aquaria:6536 sci.aquaria:1869