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Lovely fish Chris but you've put one of my pet hates in the thread title - capitalising the specific latin name!!! Sorry to be pedantic but I've just been writing a job applications and marking some kids work and I'm all in the mood to be picky!!!
I've used a range of tetras, killifish, and even danios and similar with pelvics and all have worked well. In a small tank don't put anything precious or expensive in in case they decide to kill them!
There are two species, Bolivian and Blue Ram. Electric Blue and Gold are colour forms of the Blue Ram.
Bolivians actually look similar but noticeably different. Google a few photos and I'm sure you'll be able to see the differences. Bolivians are less colourful but grow a bit bigger and...
Compact flourescents lose intensity just like linear flourescents and in fact they are less efficient than linear bulbs as you get re-strike with their folded over designs. The most efficient flourescent tube at the moment seems to be linear T5 tubes with electronic ballasts. However LEDs have...
Females need their space too. They are the ones who defend the territories for breeding. I'd leave them for now but keep an eye on things as you may find you need to remove one or more females.
What are the caves like? Apisto females need caves with tight entrances and low roofs. They...
The male will be happy as anything with that ratio then! Cacs are haremic polygamists. However that seems like a lot of girls in that sized tank. How long is it? IME female apistos like about 15" territiories, maybe a bit less, but I wouldn't put in more than 1 per 12" of tank length unless...
Forgot to say I have used American Red Oak leaves because they are nice and large and there happens to be a big specimen planted in my school's grounds! English Oak and Beech are perfect to use too. You should be able to collect tonnes in autumn if you find a local park, you may even be able...
You just need to know where to look!
http://www.aquaessentials.co.uk/gravel-sand-sand-c-414_102_280.html
Or you can use a plant substrate like this,
http://www.thegreenmachineonline.com/products/aquatics/substrate-system/ada-aqua-soil-powder-amazonia-ll-9-litre
Not cheap but this is...
Liquid CO2s such as Seachem's Excel or EasyCarbo are very effective against Black Brush Algae. They are designed to be dosed each day and the best way to kill off the BBA is to take each day's dose in a syringe and squirt it onto the worst affected parts. The algae will bleach and die over the...
You can breed gold with blue rams as they are just domestic colour forms of the same species - but why do you want to? As the Gold form is an albino type of form I imagine crossing blue with gold will give you all blue young so unless you're trying to line-breed for some specific trait to...
No worries Chris. The male will breed with all the females he can. You might get away with three females, but I'd probably stick with two so the rest of the tank has some space still to escape if both females breed at the same time. 3 females might make the tank a bit too hectic with the...
I've got a Rio180 and I agree, you could add another species in there but I would say don't. IME less is often more and you will see much more contented fish if they aren't crammed in.
You've already got other bottom dwellers in the tank (with more to come) that will have to share the floor...
You could change it gradually by just syphoning out sections of substrate to reduce the amount.
Or, for a tank that small, I'd just do it all in one day, taking the fish out. Don't feed for a few days before and a few days after and monitor the water quality doing large water changes if...
You could try TA Aquaculture here in the UK. I'm sure Tim has shipped to Europe in the past. He gets great brine shrimp cysts in from Russia that hatch brilliantly.
I had a large group (28) of these in a metre long tank that looked superb. They didn't form a tight shoal but loose aggregations. I had Biotoecus in there that certainly seemed ok with them as dithers. They never bred, but as the blue eyes didn't eat too many of the baby shrimp in the tank I...
I'd be happy to help out with the editing and assembling process. Not sure I can spare 3-5 hours a week at the start but at least a couple a week will be easy enough.
I've used both products for my RO water (I use them instead of tap water as my tap water is really quite rubbish and a simple teaspoon of salts in each container is very easy for me to manage rather than mixing back with tap water).
Seachem's product takes longer to dissolve and I had issues...
Got to agree with both of the above guys. High chlorine levels might knock it back but they won't kill it off unless they are at toxic levels! I clean biological media in aquarium water but always clean sponges in tap water as it's so much more convenient.