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Feedback Comments & Replies
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This page contains Customer Comments and our Replies
about various interesting topics. Click
here to see the index list
of all the pages of Customer Comments. |
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this advertiser's web site. |
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If you enjoy
reading the Comments and Replies on this page, you may also enjoy listening to The
Bailey Brothers, Tom and Nevin, discuss similar questions on Pet Fish Talk. Click here
to see the list of all the Pet Fish Talk Shows. |
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Customer Comments |
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I am a 12 year old Fish hobbyist. I have a 50 gallon aquarium with 4 cichlids (all African) and your website is the best one
i have ever seen and i have looked at many you carry a large variety of fish and give thousands of tips on the subject of keeping fish. If you have a mailing list or something
similar to that please put me on it.
Sincerely,
Jordan L.
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Reply. Thanks for your compliments, Jordan. We enjoy knowing that you are enjoying AquariumFish.net.
As mentioned on this web site in a couple of places, four African Cichlids usually will not get along well. The strongest will eventually make the others miserable. So watch your fish
carefully. Stand across the room from you aquarium to see if one of the fish is constantly chasing the others.
You should probably start adding more of the same sorts of African Cichlids. Click
here
for more about aggression in Mbuna Cichlids. This advice applies to most Cichlids.
We don't now have a newsletter. I wonder if other visitors to this web site would also enjoy receiving a monthly email newsletter about fish? I also wonder, if I'd enjoy writing it each
month. |
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Customer Comments |
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MY EMPLOYER IS GOING TO BE BUYING GOLDFISH SOON AND I WILL BE THE ONE TAKING CARE OF THEM. I KNOW THIS SOUNDS STUPID
BUT I NEED TO KNOW HOW TO PROPERLY TAKE CARE OF THEM, WHAT KIND OF FOOD IS BEST, HOW MANY TIMES A WEEK TO FEED THEM, AND SO ON BECAUSE I DONT WANT TO KILL THEM. THEY ARE GETTING
THE FISH BECAUSE IT IS SUPPOSED TO BRING THE COMPANY GOOD LUCK. I WAS JUST DIE IF I KILLED THEM .....
THANX ... LAURIE |
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Reply. Here are steps you should take.
(1) Be sure you get the right equipment. It would be great to get an aquarium with an Eclipse Hood. Click
here to see my
aquarium with an Eclipse Hood. If you don't get the Eclipse Hood, you should be sure you get an exterior power filter with a BIO-Wheel.
Click
here to read more about filters with BIO-Wheels. Be sure the aquarium has no gravel or a thin layer of gravel at
most 1/4" thick. For goldfish you won't need an aquarium heater. Click
here to read about cool water aquariums
without heaters.
(2) Be sure to get the right fish. Click
here to read more about Fantails, Orandas, and Telescopes,
which are types of goldfish that do very well in a large cool water aquarium. Do not mix Pond Comets (or Pond Koi) with your fish.
(3) Click
here
to read about feeding
fish. Feed the fish
early in the morning and
in the late afternoon.
If your Goldfish are 3"
or less, feed them
TetraFin flake food.
When they grow bigger
than 3" begin to feed
them pellet food for goldfish. Both flakes and pellets are available in most stores
that sell fish and from
online stores like the
ones that advertise in
this web site.
(4) Click
here to read about the essentials of keeping fish. Click
here
to read about an aquarium maintenance schedule.
The advice on this web site is simple to read and practical to use. If you consistently follow this advice, the fish will do very well. You might also enjoy seeing the pond by my front door,
which has has been a great joy to me. Click
here to see it.
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Customer Comments |
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I have a one-year-old pond koi whose gender I have yet to figure out. I was just wondering if you could tell me a means of
figuring that out and is it too much trouble, if I were to order a matching fish, to assure the gender of that fish to be the opposite of the one I have? My one koi is looking
sort of lonely, kind of like s/he might want to start a family or a committed long-term relationship.
Thank you very much,
Max S. |
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Reply. Here is the short answer,
I can't tell the gender of
Koi by looking at them. So
I can't tell you how to
determine the gender of
your Koi, and I can't pick
one of the opposite gender
from those in our
aquariums to send you. I would do it for you, if I could, but I don't know how to distinguish males from females.
At least not for Koi that are one year old and a few inches long. Professional Koi breeders can tell a lot more than I can, after they've been breeding Koi for many years. When we visit their
Koi farms to buy Koi from them, they'll often say, "There is one of my best breeding females". As they point to a huge Koi, that is perhaps 16" long.
Professional fish breeders can often predict which fish are males and which are females long before the fish spawn and confirm which gender they are. When I've asked professional koi breeders
how they make these accurate predictions, I've always gotten an answer that doesn't help me. Often they'll say that they can not predict with more than about 80% accuracy anyway.
Some people have said that professional breeders really do know how to do it, and just don't want to share their knowledge, because the knowledge that they share might help other people to
spawn more fish and compete with them. But most of the people that I've known that produce lots of fish are very willing to share all their secrets. But they often can't put into words how they
do it.
Here is some math. If you have room in your pond for three more koi, the probability that all three of the new koi will be the same gender as the koi you now have is 1/2 x 1/2 x 1/2 = 1/8 =
12.5%. So the odds of having at least one male and one female are 87.5%. Those are pretty good odds.
Incidentally, I have a beautiful Comet Goldfish in my barrel pond by my front door. All last summer I was convinced that this Comet was a slim male. But this winter it looks like my slim male
Comet has been getting plumper and filling with eggs to lay in the early spring. Click
here to see my pond
comet. Click
here to read more about my Comet.
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Reply. Angels, Discus, Ramirezi, Apistogrammas, Kribensis, Brichardi, Julies, and many other mild tempered Cichlids are compatible with just about all aquatic
plants. But Oscars, Jack Dempseys, Red Devils, Mbunas, Haps, and many other big aggressive Cichlids are only compatible with plastic plants.
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Some plastic plants are garish looking, but other plastic plants are very natural looking and difficult to distinguish from living plants.
Plastic plants
like the one
shown to the
left are
available in
many stores. To my eyes it looks very natural. It's labeled for use in aquariums, so you can be confident it will not harm your fish. But
there are other plastic plants that are not made or labeled for use in aquariums.
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Anne Fleury sent us an interesting email about her Tiger Oscar, that tolerates a few live plants in the corner of his aquarium. Click
here
to read Anne's email about her Oscar. |
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Customer Comments |
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Could you please help me? I have had this problem for a week or two and i have tried a general tonic (methylene blue) which
on the packet says it cures all common probs with fish including mine there are a few other chemicals which say can be used for my fishes symptoms but the one i am using is the
main ingredient of them all which seems to have no effect .
The fish themselves are quite happy just the occasional flick against a rock its the red tailed shark who looks ill with his fins tight against his body , saying that though his
colour is good. There are no ulcers, white spot or any other visible marks on my fish .
Some advice would be much appreciated,
Steve H.
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Reply. Your fish are showing Signs of Stress and Disease. Clamped Fins is one sign, and the other fish behavior that you describe in your email is called
"glancing". Click
here to go to another page in this site that discusses Signs of Stress and Disease.
Clamped Fins is listed as #1, and Glancing is #7.
Glancing and Clamped Fins are early warning signs of trouble to come. You should immediately give your fish the Recommended Treatment. Click
here
to read about the six steps of the Recommended Treatment. Do all six steps in the order given from 1 to 6. Use the chemicals listed, and do not substitute other chemicals. For example, methylene
blue is an ineffective treatment for this and most other fish diseases.
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this advertiser's web site. |
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Customer Comments |
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I have two full grown female Oscars (I know this because I've seen both of them lay eggs). This is very disappointing because
I wanted to have a breeding pair.
Someone suggested that I sell them and buy six babies and let them pair up naturally as they get older. However, I'm having a very hard time finding a pet store with a tank big
enough for them. Could you prehaps give me some advice? ...
Would trading my Oscars for the six babies, or however many you think two grown females are worth, be an option? Let me know.
Thank you very much for your time,
Nicole M.
New York |
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Reply. Someone might think about trading one of your female Oscars for a male, but I think you realize that this is very unlikely to work. Oscars need to pair
off by choosing their own mates.
I recommend that you put your female Oscars on an auction site like eBay.com or even better on AquaBid.com. Click
here to go to
AquaBid.com now. You will need to register as a member. Then list your Oscars for sale under the category titled Freshwater Fish - Cichlids. Click
here
to look at the listings under Cichlids now on AquaBid.com.
Large Oscars, like your females, are very difficult to ship, so we don't think it is feasible to ship them very far. But New York must have someone interested in a large female Oscar. So put
your females up for auction on AquaBid.com and include a comment in your offer, stating that you will deliver within 20 miles, or the buyer must arrange to pick up the fish, or some other such
arrangement. Click
here to read about how to move fish.
Oscars become way too big for most hobbyists to breed. I think it would be better for you to try to breed Convict Cichlids. Convicts are relatives of Oscars, but Convicts are smaller and more
suitable for aquariums. Click
here to read about breeding Convict Cichlids.
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Click
here to go to the index page with a complete list of all the pages of Customer
Comments and our Replies. |
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| The advertisement, shown below, links to
this advertiser's web site. |
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CLEAN
FOR LIFE! |
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Use
the finest algae
cleaning tool
with
professional
quality power
magnets for
glass and
acrylic
aquariums. Click
here
for more
information.
Or call
1-608-516-4274. |
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Algae Free LLC
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Click
here to go to the index page with a complete list of all the pages of Customer
Comments and our Replies. |
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