HDTenEightyP/NetNews huggingface dataset:
From: shane@psych.psy.uq.oz.au (Shane Brown)
Subject: Re: feeding piranha
Followup-To: rec.aquaria
Organization: University of Queensland. Oz.
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 00:20:05 GMT

In article <14920@mindlink.bc.ca>, Alan_Schianni@mindlink.bc.ca (Alan
Schianni) wrote:
> 
> I have a  5-month old piranha and I'm against feeding my fish other
> fish species.  I have raised him so far on a diet of earthworms and 
> beef.  He definitely prefers the earthworms to the other sorts of 
> food, yet earthworms are very troublesome to find- especially 
> through winter months. It seems he'll eat the beef but only in 
> certain moods.  I'm wondering if anyone has recommendations as to 
> what to feed my fish that has all the essential nutrition for long
> life.  Aside from his eating habits, he is a very healthy fish.

G'Day Alan,
    When I was in Sth. America (Brazil), I had the dubious pleasure
of watching some of the locals catching Piranha (a large, beautiful
if somewhat toothsome, shiny purple variety). For bait they were
using chunks of beef. Catching the Piranha seemed ridiculously
easy: they just threw in a line (steel cable near the hook), splashed
the water with the simple bamboo rod, and in a couple of seconds
"chack chack chack chack chack" --sound of a piranha trying to
bite through the line. They were also using smaller fish similiar
to my Silver Dollars as bait (damn near broke my heart).
    If you don't want to feed fish (alive or dead) to your Piranha, 
then you're cutting down your options a bit. Do you have cockroaches
where you live ? I used to feed cockies to my big african cichlid
(Boris the Venustus), and it loved them. Naturally, you can't use 
insecticides (surface sprays, cockroach baits etc.) in the house,
as you will be poisoning your fish. I never squish cockroaches,
but feeding a hungry fish seems like a noble end for the humble
cockie.
    I've read that some people feed dry cat food to their Piranha.
Seems like a bit of a rough diet to me....the protein requirements
of cats and fish are a bit discrepant. You could try your fish
on some prawns (saltwater shrimp, very high protein content), 
along with a good cichlid pellet if it eats them. Why not try starting
a worm farm.
    Hey...just guesses. I don't have a Piranha (I wish).
It'd be easier to find a Discus in a local creek than to
buy a Piranha in Oz. Cheers, Shane.

,------------------------THE BIRTH OF LEADERSHIP-------------------,
|_       o   `,         o                           ,____________, |
| `,      o   \`,         o  <>(  <>(   <>(  ---   '| OK gang,   | | 
|  \`,   o    |  \--__,_,       <>(   <>(  ---      | ready, set | |
|   \ `,  _-''           0`,        <>(   <>( --    | ...ATTACK! | |
|    \  `'         {{{ \__'  o   <>(   <>(  <>( --  `---------,--' |
|    / ,'""|/--__| /_---'  o   <>(    <>(   <>(  ---          `,   |
|   /'   o       |/         o      <>(    <>( ---        --- )<>   |
`------------------------------------------------------------------'
Shane Brown: shane@psych.psy.uq.oz.au  fax +617 365 4466
From: howardr@col.hp.com (Howard Rebel)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Snails (was Question....)
Date: 8 Sep 92 14:36:28 GMT
Organization: HP Colorado Springs Division

This pops up every once in a while.  I do not like adding chemicals to
my tanks to kill snails.  To reduce a large snail population I bait
the snails with lettus or zukinni(sp).  Leave the bait in the tank till
it is convered with snails then remove it and the snails.  Add new bait
to the tank and ...


If you are persistatant you
can reduce the population to zero if done to remove the current snails
and again when any eggs hatch out.
-- 
Howard Rebel hpcsos.col.hp.com 
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: oleg@netcom.com (Oleg Kiselev)
Subject: Re: [F] Neons/cardinals color variation from night to day
Date: Tue, 15 Sep 92 07:12:51 GMT
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services (408 241-9760 guest)

In article <1992Sep14.192433.16513@unislc.uucp> chris@unislc.uucp (Chris DelPrete) writes:
>Why?  

There is no point for the fish to expend its energy and being brightly 
coloured when there isn't enough light for the colours to be seen.  The
bright colours are used to (a) attract mates, (b) scare off territorial
rivals, (c) frighten off a predator, (d) as a large school of brightly and
reflectively coloured fish, create a bright cloud out shiny particles that
will confuse a predato, or a combination of these factors.  In the dark,
what's the point of bothering?
From: trimpe_b@wums.wustl.edu
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: RE: [F] Neons/cardinals color variation from night to day
Date: 15 SEP 92 10:02:09 GMT
Organization: MIT PLASMA FUSION CENTER
NNTP-Posting-Host: msnews.wustl.edu

In a previous article, chris@unislc.uucp (Chris DelPrete) wrote:
>Can anyone tell me why the following occurs: I turn my tank light on in the
>middle of the night (with some warning, such as flipping on the room light
>first) and the cardinals and neons look very washed out with one very dark spot
>in the middle of their bodies. The red is almost nonexistant, and the blue
>seems to have gathered within this dark spot.
> 
>Within about 20 minutes, their color has resumed a normal appearance.  

	I was under the impression that ths happened from being startled.
Have you ever gotton new cardinals/neons from the store where they put 
stress-coat in with them.  I think they are just scared at first and it 
takes awhile to get their color back.  Someone else's post about not 
expending the energy in the dark sounded reasonable to me too. By the
way, I've seen this in my tank also.
Beverly
WUMS, St. louis
From: steve@celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: [M][R] Live Rock Farming
Keywords: live rock coral reef breeding
Date: 14 Sep 92 19:34:09 GMT
Reply-To: celia!steve@usc.edu (Steve Tyree)
Organization: Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood

In article <13SEP199210485667@venus.lerc.nasa.gov> fssmith@venus.lerc.nasa.gov (Greg Smith) writes:
->    I have not personally seen the Smithsonian reef tank that this system is 
->based on, but I have heard comments from several people who have.  According
->to them, the tank is no where near as successful as the "ADVERTISEMENT" in
->FAMA would have you believe. I have only heard reports of a few corals growing
->in their reef tanks.  

->    How is the tank doing now?  Has anyone seen it lately? Is it still
->operating? Has anyone in the area observed personaly any of the claims made in
->the article? 

 One particular design flaw that I think might exist in their system is that
they claim that no water changes are required. How are they going to remove the
man made chemicals which inadvertently accumulate in their tank ? This would
require them to at least use a poly-filter type chemical filtration. Even that
wont remove all man made chemical contaminants. Also, all my corals always show
better vitality right after I change some water. Other reefers have verified 
this locally in their reefs.
 I not going to say that current free market created captive reef hardware is
excellent. I have recently lost my foliaceous Dendrophyllidae - Turbinaria.
The coral slowly receded from first day of installation. I did save a separate
Pocillopora sp. colony which had grown on some foliaceous fans of the Turbina-
ria colony. The coral was brownish and may not have liked my intense metal
halides or summer reef temperatures. It is possible that the colony was mor-
tally wounded in shipment. An Acropora sp. in the same reef is still under-
going explosive growth (new growth doubled last month) and most other corals
are thriving. A couple (Moon) types corals and (open brain corals) have 
experienced slight receding (5 percent max). This I believe is due to hair
algae growth problems I had. These problems are being fixed by adding High
quality Marshall Islands Live Rock and elevated PVC matrixes. This is in-
tended to prevent detritus collections. The PVC upgrade is half completed
and is working wonderfully. A very strong current flow moves under the matrix
towards the front acrylic. The only problem is that the front row of pvc
is visible. I have since decided that a well running reef is more important
than a natural "appearing" reef.
 ps - The Flame Angels love swimming under the elevated PVC.

 Steve Tyree - Reef Breeder
From: oleg@Veritas.COM (Oleg Kiselev)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: Nemos Live Food
Date: 11 Sep 92 21:31:35 GMT
Reply-To: oleg@veritas.com (Oleg Kiselev)
Organization: Palo Alto Killifish Loft
X-Disclaimer: I speak for myself only unless explicitly indicated otherwise

marti@django.Colorado.EDU (Al Marti) writes:
>but they never quite tell you what "nemos" are.

They are "microworms" -- a nematode species cultivated in yeast
cultures to feed newly hatched fry.  These cultures require at least
monthly attention and tend to get very smelly in a short order.  I
prefer useing infusoria and "vinegar eels" (another species of
nematodes) as those cultures are nearly odourless when kept correctly
and require very little maintenance.

See my occasionally posted summary of live food cultures for more info.
-- 
"Eight years is too long for anyone to go without skills or purpose." 
							-- George H. W. Bush

Oleg Kiselev                                             oleg@veritas.com
From: ccliu@amy.next.com (Chang-Chi Liu)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: (F)How useful is the amonia remover?
Date: 2 Sep 92 19:52:43 GMT

I am referring to the white stuff sold separately or together with carbon.   
Does it reduce the load of biological filter?
Xref: sparky rec.aquaria:7240 alt.aquaria:4947
From: rbennet1@neumann.une.edu.au (Robert Bennetts.)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
Subject: Wet/Dry Filter Questions
Date: 10 Sep 92 12:36:23 GMT
Followup-To: poster


	Hi all...

	I have just about finished setting up my Trickle Filter system, but I have two questions.

	1)
	  Bubbles In the Syphon tubes?

	There seem to be bubbles congregating in the top of my syphon tube system, what do I do about this?
	I am concerned that the top of the tube will fill with gas, and stop the flow of water.	
	Has any one else had this sort of problem, what did you do about this?

	2)   Alternative filter media

	I have heard of people using all sorts of things as filter media, from plastic toy soldiers to plastic plants, etc.  someone also mentioned using shredded up plastic milk conatiners, I have been collecting milk containers, but I am not quite sure what to do with them, how to shred them, put them under the lawn mower, or in the food blender (I don't know about whether this would do too much damage to the blender).
	Has anyone used anything like this, or any other interesting things as filter media, and how succesful was it.
	I have half filled my tower with traditonal bioballs, but they are very expensive to buy out here, and I'm looking for something a little cheaper.

	Sometime soon I'll post how I DIYed my Wet/Dry.

	I have received my first load of Live Rock, and it is really amazing, the biodiversity on this is just incredible.

	Well, any help that any person could provide would be really helpful, thanks in advance...

	Ross Bennetts...

		rbennet1@neumann.une.edu.au


Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: nclennan@churchst.ccs.itd.umich.edu (Neil F. Clennan)
Subject: Re: (Ammonia removal re-charge)
Date: Fri, 11 Sep 92 10:41:59 EDT
Organization: The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Distribution: usa

In article <1992Sep8.152005.17638@pbs.org> eyeater@pbs.org writes:
> In article <1992Sep2.144242.4606@wam.umd.edu>, faith@wam.umd.edu (Jay)  
writes:
> > Does anyone know if that ammonia removal stuff you put in your
> > filters can be re-charged?  I forget the name of it.
> > 
> > Jerome.
> 
> 	If the "ammonia removal stuff" you're referring to is Zeolite, I've
>   heard it can be re-charged by soaking it in a strong salt solution.  If
>   you've been using it in a marine tank, well, then... I don't know.

Zeolite is a water softener, not an ammonia remover. I don't believe that
the ammonia remover (ammo-chips et.al.) is rechargeable.
From: gt6441c@prism.gatech.EDU (Jon Edwards )
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: Painted Glass Fish
Date: 11 Sep 92 14:33:30 GMT
Organization: Georgia Institute of Technology


  The pet shop that I work at part time won't even consider selling them.
Many customers ask about them, but when we say that they actually are
*painted* and we won't sell them, they are disgusted and say they won't
buy any anymore...

PS- Believe it or not, there are some pet shop owners that won't sell 
fish just to make a profit.  

Just my $.02  

Jon  
Xref: sparky rec.aquaria:7344 sci.aquaria:1349
From: steve@celia.UUCP (Steve Tyree)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,sci.aquaria
Subject: Re: [M][R] Coral spawning report
Keywords: coral spawning
Date: 15 Sep 92 01:08:57 GMT
Reply-To: celia!steve@usc.edu (Steve Tyree)
Organization: Rhythm & Hues, Inc., Hollywood

In article <1992Sep14.201816.11080@javelin.sim.es.com> krogers@javelin.sim.es.com writes:
->Shit, Steve, why do you get all the neat stuff?  I'd give half the
->teeth in my mouth to find what you get - Acropora? Favites? Leptoria?
->Sheez, all we have are the same ol' lagoon critters like elegance,
->bubbles, hammers and such like cram.  I've been looking for over a
->year now for hermatypic corals like Acropora, Porites and Millipora so
->I could unleash my MH lights and water pump.  Right now I have egg
->crate between the bulbs and the animals because every time I try to
->adjust them (slowly) to full exposure most wither from the light.  I
->would really like to make a shallow reef tank with lotsa light and
->high currents.

 Im setup to possible get a second Acropora sp.. This time with pink or
blue natural pigmentation. Dont worry, when my tank gets to full and I
need to make room, Ill know who to call. Send mail for more details.
 It appears that A. sp. do well in reefs under 5500 K metal halides.
A natural spawning of this speciesa would be wonderful. The polyp
tentacles extend out at night and I occasionally feed baby brine.
The Acropora, Favites and Leptoria are all in the same 1/3 part of
the reef. This is one third which has PVC matrix circulation under it.
I havent done a positive ID on the Leptoria or Favites yet. They could
be other species. Might mail jamie a better description. Both corals
are placed high on the reef, right under a metal halide. Will keep ya
posted. My intent is to get a natural spawning.
 If the Acropora sp. keeps growing at its current rate, I may be forced
to try fragmented reproduction in a year or so. :> 

->I have a feeling the temperature wasn't important for this - the lunar
->cycle was.  This was the 3rd full moon since I started my moon light
->up and I think more and more things are synching up to it now.  For
->example, the turbo snails spawned again 2 nights before full moon,
->this was the 2cd simulated month in a row for that.  Also, one limpet
->spawned with them.  Keep in mind I've been droping tank temp from 82
->to 78 over the past month as well.  If temps were important you'd
->expect them to spawn at rising temps, not falling.

 Thanks for the info.

 Steve Tyree - Reef Breeder
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria
From: b473dg@tamuts.tamu.edu (Dilawar Grewal)
Subject: Oscar Trouble
Followup-To: dsg4207@tamuts.tamu.edu
Organization: ~/lib/organization
Date: Tue, 8 Sep 1992 03:33:44 GMT

Hi Fishfolks,

Major trouble with my albino Oscars. I have four albino oscars, about 
4-5 inches, in a forty gallon tank with undergravel filter. Of late, for
about 2 days now, three of them have been lying on their side whenever I
check on them. They swim normally most of the time, eat live minnows/goldfish
normally and seem to behave okay most of the time except when I come home
late at night and check on them and find them lying on their sides. The 
gill cover seems to hint at some redness, but there is no gasping for oxygen
as far as I can tell. The smallest one of those is in real bad condition.
It will even let me pick him up, but I think that is partially due to the
fact that one of the other fish beat up on him pretty bad. His skin appears 
kinda tattered. He is in quarantine now. The skCin of the others is just fine,
no mucus or fungal growth appearances.

I have checked the Ph and Ammonia in the tanks and it is all fine and dandy.

Could some kind folk please suggest, VIA EMAIL, what could be wrong with my
fish?!! I would hate to lose these fish for whatever reason.

Thank you in advance.

-d.

Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: bruceg@Cadence.COM (Bruce Gustifson)
Subject: Re: more Fish People
Organization: Cadence Design Systems, Inc.
Distribution: usa
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 22:38:44 GMT

In article <1992Aug27.011826.20536@cbnews.cb.att.com> wkb@cbnews.cb.att.com (wm.keith.brummett) writes:
>
>    In article <2800195@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM>, booth@hplvec.LVLD.HP.COM
>    (George Booth) writes:
>    > ...
>
>    Ooooh ... a '67 Goat!  I'm *so*
>    jealous.  
  I'm jealous too! I've seen many a goat, but you seldom hear of one
that's 25 years old! Now sheep, thats another matter...


>    -- Keith
>
>-- 
>    | (614) 860-3187         Copyright (C) 1992, by       AT&T, Room 3B202 |
>    | att!cblph!wkb  or,     W.K. Brummett and AT&T      6200 E. Broad St. |
>    | wkb@cblph.att.com       All rights reserved.      Columbus, OH 43213 |
>    `----------------------------------------------------------------------'

************************************************************************
"Would you believe it if you     |             MY KARMA
saw it with your own eyes?"      |           JUST RAN OVER
   Asked the woman               |            YOUR DOGMA
"That depends"                   |               -Dolly Rosicrution-
    Replied I                    |	
***********************************************************************
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: sonny@cbnewsf.cb.att.com (joseph.j.de rosa)
Subject: Re: Electric  cats?
Organization: AT&T
Distribution: usa
Date: Mon, 14 Sep 1992 18:25:40 GMT

In article <1992Sep13.161052.26066@cbnewsl.cb.att.com> mattk@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (matthew.kaufman) writes:
>In article <1992Sep11.003809.6750@odin.corp.sgi.com> sik@grosz.esd.sgi.com (Seth Katz) writes:
>>Hi
>>
>>Anyone here keep electric cats?
>>
>>My local, usually knowledgeable, store says 
>>they are good cats for aggressive cichlids.
>>Others say they paralyze and kill cichlids,
>>regardless of their behavior.  
>>
>>My local says I am in no danger of being hurt
>>by them, especially if I don't touch head and 
>>tail at the same time.  They also say I can put in
>>anything larger than the cat's mouth.
>
>
>Joe De Rosa told me one he kept electric catfish or knew someone who did.
>Maybe he'll chime in. 

Well, actually I was trying to stay OUT of this discussion, but what the hay.
I have kept a few electric catfish in my tanks, and have found that they 
really should be kept by themselves. They are a pretty neat fish, but they
DO get LARGE (my biggest got to be almost 18", and I KNOW that it wasn't 
full grown). A fish this size can be kind of expensive to maintain, so you might
want to think about maintenance costs. I wouldn't keep mine with any other fish,
and they were always in fairly spacous tanks. This is one fish you DON'T want
to have to move around too much. I always fed mine earthworms and small fish,
and occaisional cocktail shrimp (with the shells). I tried to avoid goldfish
(too much disease introduced into the tank), and never had any real problems.
They are pretty voracious. 

Oh, by the way, you can buy a cheap speaker from raido-shack (the kind that 
you put a battery in the back of) and drop the two speaker leads into the
tank (at opposite sides) and LISTEN to the navigational electrical signals that
the fish generates. A pretty neat thing to do. I got to learn about the "mood"
of the fish by the sounds produced.

Joe DeRosa
jderosa@attmail.att.com
From: fxm3@po.CWRU.Edu (Frank Mularo)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: (M)Wanted: Live Rock Summary
Date: 9 Sep 1992 19:31:19 GMT
Organization: Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, Ohio (USA)
NNTP-Posting-Host: slc12.ins.cwru.edu


Hi!

Can the person who summarized the live rock sources in an article
? I can't find it anywhere. Thanks.

FRANK MULARO  CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY  CLEVE OH
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
From: jengagne@next03cville.wam.umd.edu (Jenny Lynne Gagne)
Subject: Re: Cannister Filter Question ?????????????????
Keywords: one pass
Reply-To: Jurassic Park as movie
Organization: Workstations at Maryland, University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Wed, 9 Sep 1992 01:09:31 GMT

In article <1992Sep2.202143.20235@col.hp.com> howardr@col.hp.com (Howard  
Rebel) writes:
> 	I like the term ONE PASS (may I borrow it)
> 
> 	Would not an oversized biofilter do just that.  Just how large
> 	that would be I do not know.  But in a clean cycled tank...
> 	it may not be too large to tolerate.  I do not have the 
> 	equipment to measure the difference between the input and
> 	output of my filters so I have no way of determining how
> 	much filter it would take to do this.
> 
> Howard Rebel hpcsos.col.hp.com 

"One pass" biofiltration seems highly unlikely to me.  After all, IF you  
could get a bacterial colony that was concentrated enough to do this, then  
after one pass through the filter the ammonia would be gone and they would  
starve to death, right?  Sure, small amounts of ammonia etc would  
constantly be produced, but in that case you would only have a very sparse  
bacterial colony because they can't reproduce and survive if there's not  
enough to eat.  

jengagne.wam.umd.edu, a typically silent onlooker
From: frazier@kona.cs.ucla.edu (Gregory Frazier)
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria
Subject: Re: [F]  New Plant Tank, suggestions?
Date: 10 Sep 92 16:46:42 GMT
Distribution: usa
Organization: UCLA, Computer Science Department
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1 PL5

Jon Edwards (gt6441c@prism.gatech.EDU) wrote:
: 
:   I am working on plans for a 75 gallon plant tank and would like to run
: it by the net before I actually decide on the specifics.
: 
: I have a few questions, first being CO2 injections.  Exactly how necessary
: is this with the above fish, and decent flow rate through the W/D (400gph?),
: and hard/alkaline tap water (ph 7.8, pretty hard water)?  

Your going to have to do something about your pH - most plants do
not appreciate that high a pH.  You should also find out what your
carbonate hardness is (KH).  It is likely to be very high, given
your pH.  CO2 injection is a way to lower your pH that your plants
will love... but it is not a requirement for growing plants.

: Second question, carbon/peat/whatever.  I think I will need to use peat
: to keep the pH down, but I want it to stay at about 7.0.  Is peat the
: easiest way to do it?  What forms of chemical filtration should I use?

We're back to the hardness question.  If you have a high KH, then your
water will be strongly buffered, and there is no way peat is going to
lower your pH.  Peat will also tint your water, which looks cool (I have
several peat-filtered tanks), but is not necessarily optimal for plant
growth.  You may have to "cut" your tapwater with distilled or reverse-
osmosis filtered (RO) or de-ionized (DI) water to drop the KH.

: Third question, filtration.  If I already have the W/D, will it hurt to use
: it?  

The only problem with the W/D is that it will drive CO2 out of your
water.  If you are going to use the W/D, you probably want to inject
CO2.  Mind you, I am not plant expert, but that's the way I see it.

--
"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." - Geek Love

Greg Frazier	frazier@CS.UCLA.EDU	!{ucbvax,rutgers}!ucla-cs!frazier
Newsgroups: rec.aquaria,alt.aquaria