Western Cichlid Forum

Quarantining your fish is something that all of us need to do at some point or another. To maintain a healthy aquarium, all new habitants should be quarantined for around 14 days to ensure no nasties are transfered into your prized tank.

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Looking for a new aquarium, tropical fish, catfish, loaches or hardware in Perth and not sure where the retailers are located. Then have a look on the map provided. If you see a store you are interested in then simply click on the flag and zoom in or out. (continue reading…)

Microworms are great for all fish but in particular they are exceptional for raising of fry. Even extremely small fry like the egg laying calvus benefit enormously from this great food source as its very small and can be easily digested by small fry. (continue reading…)

Prevention of Malawi Bloat

by Terry Ranson
First published in Fincinnati, the official newsletter of the Greater Cincinnati Aquarium Society
Aquarticles

Besides territorial aggression, the main problem with Malawi cichlids is their tendency to get what has become known as Malawi bloat. This ailment is also known as African cichlid disease or African bloat. Malawi bloat can easily be prevented, and even cured, through proper husbandry. (continue reading…)

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Lake Victoria is 69,000 square kilometres in size, making it the largest lake in Africa, the largest tropical lake in the world, and the second largest freshwater lake in the world. It is the source of the longest branch of the Nile, the White Nile. The lake rests in the Great Rift Valley and is surrounded by Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya. (continue reading…)

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Lake Tanganyika is a large lake in central Africa (3° 20′ to 8° 48′ South and from 29° 5′ to 31° 15′ East). It is estimated to be the second oldest lake in the world after Lake Baikal in Siberia. (continue reading…)

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Lake Malawi, originally known as Lake Nyasa, Lake Nyassa and Lake Niassa after the Yao word for “lake”, is the most southerly lake in the Great African Rift Valley system. First “discovered” by the famed Scottish explorer and missionary Dr. David Livingstone, Lake Malawi has commonly been referred to as “Livingstone’s Lake.” (continue reading…)

Daily Tank Check

An often overlooked process when owning an aquarium is your daily aquarium checks. It ensures that simple unexpected catastrophe’s don’t occur. Most often a tank check will not take more than a passing glance or two so at most a few seconds of your time will ensure everything is running correctly.

A basic checklist to remember is.. (continue reading…)

Salt As Medication

An almost forgotten treatment for many common freshwater fish parasites is plain old aquarium salt. Used properly, a saltwater bath can be very effective in eliminating “ich”, velvet, Trichodina, Chilodonella, and a number of less common parasites.

Advantages. Salt treatments are: (continue reading…)

Every once in a while an emergency pops up. It may be your fish are looking ill or you may lose power to your house for varying lengths of time. Here are a few things that you can keep on hand to prevent that last minute stress of running around trying to find what you need to stave of a potential disaster. (continue reading…)

Causes Q: Why is my fish sick and how do I prevent more illness?

A: Probably 80-90% of diseases in captive fish can be prevented by avoiding stress. Stress weakens fishes’ immune systems, leading to increased susceptibility to disease. Actually, diseases and pathogens are almost always present in tanks, but a healthy fish’s immune system will prevent them from being a problem. Some of the most common stressors for captive fish are: (continue reading…)

As alot of us recycle products from around the home like plastic bottles,newspaper and the likes, recycling what comes out of your aquarium is a thought often overlooked.

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Aquarium Calculations and Conversions. Aquarium Volume Calculator; Fahrenheit – Centigrade Conversion; Carbonate Hardness Unit Conversion gallons to litres

On occasion I find this unit converter to be reasonably handy to have. With it you can check tank dimensions in both inches and cm’s to find volume, temperature, hardness, US gallons to litres and visa versa and also imperial gallons to litres.

Click for unit conversions

Thanks do Dave from Sydney Cichlid for the converter, though I have modified it a little for this site

Chuck

Aquarium Live foods. Food for fish and cichlids

Other than the fresh foods that can be home made (different article) which personally I think are amongst the best foods, you often have a choice from many local fish shops to feed or propagate your own live foods. Some such as mosquito larvae can even be found around the house at times. These foods can be incorporated into a varied diet and some such as microworm cultures are very handy for raising fry especially when they are too small to readily take brine shrimp. Such fish that come to mind are egg layers like Altolamprologus calvus where the fry are like pinheads.
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Algae: Description and control in freshwater Aquaria

What are algae?

Most people will agree that algae are an unattractive and unwelcome addition to an aquarium – especially a planted biotope. It can hinder plant respiration and photosynthesis (hence affecting growth) by smothering the leaves of green plants. Rampant algae growth is particularly relevant in newly setup aquariums. They readily establish in new tanks in a similar fashion to weeds colonising freshly cleared or turned over soil. When an aquarium is first set up with fresh water and new plants, it takes time for the latter to adapt to their new conditions, put out roots and start to grow. Algae adapt far more quickly and an algal bloom occurs as they feed on the nutrients in the fresh water. At this stage the reaction of most people is to change the water and start all over again. This will only aggravate matters, as the new water will once again feed the algae. It is far better to allow nature to take its course and the tank to progress through the natural cycles. Achieving a fully planted aquarium with healthy fish and plants takes time – months, in fact. (continue reading…)

OVERFEEDING YOUR FISH !!!

Overfeeding your fish can be a simple thing to do and often goes overlooked as the ‘throw and walk away’ syndrome is often applied. A little time spent ensuring that you are feeding the correct amount of food will often relate to less problems occurring in your aquarium. (continue reading…)

This guide is intended to help you when introducing new fish into your aquarium. I have broken it down into a few, easy to understand, steps that will hopefully provide a solid basis upon which you can build. By cross referencing other articles that will appear in this forum, most questions should be covered. (continue reading…)

The Nitrogen Cycle
by Andrea Watts

Introduction

One of the most common and freely available elements on Earth is nitrogen. The air that we breathe comprises of about 78% nitrogen and it appears in different forms throughout life’s various biological cycles. Being an enclosed system, an aquarium requires careful monitoring to ensure that harmful forms of nitrogen do not impact negatively on it’s occupants. An understanding of how the Nitrogen Cycle works is an essential component to successful fish keeping. The chemical reactions which take place in nature are complex and an aquarium is only a reconstruction of a part of the natural environment. The scale may be smaller, but essentially the fundamentals remain the same. (continue reading…)

What is ich or

whitespot
All of us at one time or another will find ourselves confronted by the dreaded ich or whitespot, it is unfortunately a very common part of being involved in the fish keeping hobby, in fact it is the most common ailment that affects our hobby. Understanding the problem and knowing how to treat it can make fish keeping a great deal easier and less painful both to the fish and your heartstrings. (continue reading…)

Going Away For a Weekender – Who’s Gonna Feed The Fish?

With summer coming along and people spending more time away its often
asked ‘who’s gonna feed my fish while I’m in Margret River’ or ‘Will
my fish survive if I go away to Rottnest for a weekend or so’.
These are some ideas for feeding your fish for up to a week. (continue reading…)

Aquaria Glossary
This is an ongoing list of terms used in the hobby and on Perth Cichlid Forums
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Acidic: A water condition which has a pH lower than 7.0. A trend towards acidic water may be a sign of overfeeding

Actinic: A type of lighting that provides the proper spectra for photosynthesis. Best used for aquariums with live plants or chlorophyll containing species such as reef coral.

Activated Carbon: Solid carbon which is used to absorb impurities from the water, fresh or marine. It is also useful for removing unused ozone from the air. (continue reading…)

This articles serves to provide a brief introduction to rocks and their properties, and hopefully guide you in your choice of décor for various biotope simulations.

Rock Types

To make a decision about rock selection for aquarium use, it is beneficial to understand the properties of each rock group. The following is a skeletal lesson in geology that will (hopefully) help you understand why some rocks are less suitable for the use in home aquariums than others. Only the characteristics that affect freshwater environments will be discussed. (continue reading…)

The Use Of Wood In Aquariums

Why use wood in your aquarium?

Pieces of cured wood/bogwood provide shelter for shy fish and spawning sites, as well as a visual counterpiece for the aquarium. Many plants that possess rhizomes instead of true roots require such structures for adhesion to grow. In addition, many sucker-mouth catfish require wood to rasp upon in order to aid digestion. It is also a viable way to provide the environment and water chemistry required by many soft water (blackwater biotope) species. (continue reading…)

The Use of Activated Carbon in the Aquarium

What is Activated Carbon?

In its original form, charcoal is very light due mainly to its porosity. It contains phosphorous, sulphur and heavy metals – all of which are highly undesirable in an aquarium. It is sourced from the combustion of wood, lignite, bituminous coal, peat, or coconut shells. The activation process involves either thermal (carbonization and gasification) or chemical (with zinc chloride or phosphoric acid) reactions. These processes eliminate all impurities (elements other than carbon), and increases the overall porosity. (continue reading…)

Aquarium Tips

for Hot Summer

Weather
Hot Summer weather can get the best of any of us, including our aquarium fish. Here are a few tips to help your finned friends through the season: (continue reading…)

What is Water Hardness?

People are often confused by the terms: ‘general hardness‘or ‘total hardness’ and ‘carbonate hardness’. The aim of this article is to explain the differences between them and give you a better understanding of water hardness.

Hardness

Hardness is the measure of dissolved mineral salts (mainly chlorides, bicarbonates, carbonates, and sulphates of calcium, sodium, magnesium and potassium); the harder the water the more salts it contains. It is generally expressed in terms of calcium carbonate (CaCO3) content, measured in degrees (ºdH) or parts per million (ppm) using a test kit. Care is needed with regard to “degrees of hardness”, the definition of which varies from country to country and test kit to test kit, depending on origin. (continue reading…)

I see this question asked every once in a while so I thought I’d give you guys a little info…

Freighting fish can be a little daunting to the inexperienced but if done carefully is really very simple smile.gif While I could waffle on, I wont and I’ll just keep it simple and to point form.
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How Much Electricity?

Once people see the assortment of aquarium accessories that are plugged into the wall, many hobbyists wonder just how much their tank is costing them in electricity each month. Here’s the basic formula:

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