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You have to get a starter culture. They can be seen with the naked eye, but they are still very tiny and easy to miss unless you have lots of them.

THey use acid to remove the slime coat so the dye will stick, and eventually it does go away leaving you with normal colored parrots.

If the tank has been sitting with no ammonia source (fish) then it won't stay cycled for long unfortunately.

Your filter isn't powerful enough to suck water up from a bucket on the floor, so you would have to lift it up to about midway. If you have to lift it, you might as well just pour it in :)

That particular behavior is aggression since it is a different species. If he was doing that to a female, it would be courting/breeding behavior. The stripe you see all rainbows have and they use it to show dominance and to show how colorful they are to potential mates.

To feed rainbow fry for the first week or so you might try vinegar eels. That's what I use until they can eat baby brine shrimp. Feeding rainbow fry with vinegar eels

A few pics of my Melanotaenia lacustris (Turquoise rainbow)

You might try www.rainbowfish.info/ (copy and paste. Can't link to other forums) That is an Australian forum with ties all over the world. Some great discussions and pictures located there too.

Well, the filter itself is designed to be mostly mechanical and chemical, but I gutted mine and converted it into one huge bio filter. I removed the cylindrical micron filter and layered filter sponges and bio chem stars. Even though the filter was not designed to run this way, it functions...

Just toss in some baking soda like stated above, or just do a water change and recharge on the ammonia.

I'd have to agree with Bignose. Most fish sold in the hobby today can adapt to a pH outside of their "optimal range".

So, I went shopping for filters today. I visited my LFS but he didn't have what I wanted in his shop, so he would have to order them. Now comes the fun part. Since I am going to have to order them anyway, do I just get them online or order them from my LFS and support his business? I...

I guess since I do water changes so often, it never gets past a trickling sound before I do another one. I live in South Carolina though.

72 gallon tank. It's not the only filter as I have a penguin and a magnum 350 canister.

Aquaclear 70 Both my penguin and my emperor are louder in comparison.

Mine is silent except for the trickle. I can't even tell it is running if I fill the tank to the very top.

Silicone for Aquariums It's just 100% silicone. I suppose any sealant would work that is 100% silicone. It just has to not have any additives.

There is nothing wrong with either of the types of filter. I have used both in my time and both do the job more than adequately. It is true that HOB type filters do make a bit of noise since their method of returning water to the tank is via a waterfall, and that makes a trickling sound. I...

I have bred African cichlids, specifically mbuna, but I am sure that severums are a little different.

I went to her house to measure the tank, and turns out it's 110 gallons. Still, that's a nice size.

Thanks :) I enjoyed making it.

I have kept discus in the past. I loved the fish, but sometimes my schedule wouldn't allow for daily water changes to grow them out properly. I was looking at severums. I might get a few of them and see if I can get a pair to breed.

There is also the option of taking the current stock to your local fish shop. If you did that, you could continue cycling fishless and save you a lot of work.

I keep an angel in with my rainbows with no problem. They pretty much ignore each other. Angels are cichlids, and their temperament can vary accordingly.

Yeah, that's a decent price for a true wild pair. New blood is worth quite a bit to breeders.

Well, the OP could have a group of Threadfin Rainbows. They don't get very large and they have a fantastic display.

Here's a video of my mixed species community tank. You can see a squabble between 2 of my males.

Before you buy rainbows please read the article found here.

I used to breed and sell rainbows, so I know a fair bit about them. The larger species of rainbows need quite a bit of space to swim, at least 36 inches. You also have to keep at least 6 of them for them to display their natural behavior and thrive. This can take up quite a bit of space. You...

Keeping Octopus in aquaria Seems really cool. I would love to have an octopus, but I just don't think I can afford the equipment or salt. Still, thanks for the suggestion, if I ever decide to go saltwater I might seriously think about owning one as a pet. Great suggestion.

My mother in law called me while ago and offered me her 120 gallon tank and stand!! It's been sitting empty for about 3 years, so I will have to start from scratch, but it appears to be in good condition. Now I just have to buy filters, substrate, lights... lol One piece at a time as...

Well, we do create a mini ecosystem with each of our tanks, but with such small space we have to keep adding energy (light and food) and taking away the waste (water changes, filter maintenance). We stock our tanks much much denser than fish live in the wild. In the wild you usually find...

I also use the salt and heat method. It works as well as or better than the commercially available stuff in my experience.

Yes, agree completely with waterdrop. In the area that waterdrop and I are from, the water is unusually low in mineral content. This makes the water very soft (0 KH from the tap in my area) and this makes keeping fish successfully a little more difficult, especially if you want to keep fish...

What kind of readings do you have in your tap water. Keeping African cichlids in acidic water wouldn't be ideal. Usually your tap water dictates what fish you should keep. It is possible to tailor your water specifically, but some methods can be troublesome and expensive depending on the...

I'd have to echo what everyone else has said. Having been in the hobby myself for 18 years, I have cycled tanks both ways. I'll give some pros and cons of each. Fishless cycling pros: Relatively low labor and maintenance, better for your stock, less complications. Fishless cycling cons: No...

There is no need to store the water. The water contains very little of the nitrifying bacteria, so it is safe to just discard the old water. The bacteria will have colonized the filter and media. The die off rate seems to be about 10% per day, so over the course of a few days you will lose...

They will be fine after 7 days. Healthy fish can go 2 weeks like you said with ease.

I usually just run a small HOB filter in my main tank for use in a QT tank. When I want to use the QT tank, I just pop the filter over. After the QT period I will use bleach to sterilize the filter, media and the tank. After they have dried completely, I assemble the filter again and run it...

It sounds like diatoms, or brown algae. It is quite common in a new tank. See: Algae Guide