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Might be worth a try, too, probably a lot less work than a needle (I was basing my logic mostly on how I kept praying mantis in my mom's tupperware when I was a kid, lol). Probably a good idea to make them "stabs" instead of cutting long slits, if they're short enough that the plastic between...

Ordinary needle might work. I suggested a darning needle since it's a bit thicker and will allow less flow resistance through the individual holes. The top of the kit should be ok, provided it's clean (some of the chemicals used in the test are really noxious stuff). I was assuming it was a...

Danios aren't livebearers, they don't give birth. If the females are a little fat, they might be carrying eggs. Mine occasionally will spawn (you'll see females racing around the tank with several males right behind them spraying eggs all over the place). I've had females carry eggs for months...

Possibly a heavy darning needle? They're quite a bit bigger than a regular sewing needle, but still should be plenty small enough that fry can't get through, and with enough close spaced holes all over it, you should get flow through it like a sieve.

Not everywhere. There's none in mine, and there's a very strict legal limit on how much can be present here (though we're allowed to drink up to ridiculous amounts of ammonia, mercury, and dioxin from our tapwater, thankfully mine has none). I had a tough time with otos. They're also fairly...

Upload them somewhere like imageshack.us, and it'll give you some copy/paste code labeled for forums. Just copy the text in that box into a new post and you're good to go. A few sections of the forum allow you to attach them directly to a post without uploading them off-site, but for most of the...

If the container doesn't have any holes or anything in it, no - it'll be effectively it's own body of water, which the fish will probably foul fairly quickly. It might not become dangerous overnight, but I wouldn't chance it either way. It might work if you put holes in it for water to flow...

Try setting up a second litter box near the front door (visitors will love this...). Maybe for some reason it doesn't like the other one or where it is, or just doesn't want to share. He may have had a dispute with the other cat over the litter box and now doesn't want to risk another...

With daily water changes to keep ammonia under control, you'll be keeping nitrite quite low as well. A 0 reading on the test isn't quite 0, there is a threshold before you get any visible color, and some people can't see gradients of color very well. As ammonia processes faster, nitrite will...

Rosey minnows. Mine seem to be mostly bottom-dwelling, as opposed to white clouds and danios, so they'll complement each other well in a tank. They're sold as feeders more often than pets, which is where mine came from. There's also some hillstream loaches that come from coolwater streams.

Endlers are reasonably hardy. So are wild-type guppies and some fancy guppies from good stock (usually not the general pet shop fare). They can be kept with guppies, but any fry from the tank would be suspect hybrids. Unless you plan to breed endlers for sale, there's really nothing wrong with...

There's some HOB and canister filters with heaters built in, but they may not be easy to find in your area or may not come in the right size. You should be able to find a heater cage at most fish stores, as they're popular for keeping fish from resting on or brushing against the heater and...

It's possible for some reason there was a small ammonia spike and they fled the water conditions, and in the time before you noticed, the filter caught back up. It's also possible they just went for a stroll - they're pretty adept escape artists. Out of interest, how do you seal your holes...

Test your gravel and any rocks with vinegar or other acid (API's nitrate bottle 1 test contains hydrochloric acid) and see if they fizz. You might have a rock that dissolves in fresh water pushing the pH up. Also, test your tap water - it's possible for some reason the mineral content of that...

With a cycled tank, going on holiday is usually no problem. Healthy, well fed fish can go a long time without food - a week is no problem, many people have pushed it 2-3 weeks. If you have a neighbor feed them, have them feed once or twice a week, rather than daily, and measure amounts ahead of...

Generally you can leave the carbon portion out. I'm not familiar with the particular brand, but most filters will have one part of the media that you aren't supposed to replace - that's where the bacteria will colonize. Carbon is recommended by filter manufacturers to replace once a month. It...

Generally, a tropical community is pretty easy to set up. Check the fish profiles here and other sites (often just googling a fish's name is enough to get several sites), or ask here or in the more species specific forums. Anyway, for a community, there's two rules for good results: No fish...

No. Any ammonia/nitrite over 0 is bad, any over 0.25 is bad for sustained exposure. Anything over 0.5-1 is potentially dangerous even in short term.

Does it smell really bad? If so, it could be spray marking, as chesterscot says. Pretty much the only way to prevent a male from doing that is neutering. If that's what it is, be warned that my aunt eventually got rid of a male cat. She waited too long to get it neutered, and it continued...

With a 30 gallon tank, most common tropical fish up to about 5 inches long will be suitable. A general rule of thumb in a cycled tank is about 1 inch of adult size per gallon of water. It's a very rough guideline, 5 1 inch fish is less load than 1 5 inch fish. Make sure to review the fishless...

Ok, then, I apologize for my troll statement, and will edit it out - most posts with such extreme stocking and water stats are made by people just looking to get others worked up. Anyway, pet stores are in the business of selling fish, not advice. Many employees are barely more experienced than...

Does the tank get any sunlight during the day? What are your ammonia, nitrite, and nitrate levels? There is one more solution, but I'd rank a UV sterilizer as a better option. Some freshwater mussels will clear up greenwater by filtering the algae out as food. However, if you do solve the...

Pterophyllum leopoldi, sold under common names teardrop, dwarf, or long-nosed angelfish. Good luck finding them, and if you thought that plec was expensive... There's also a third species, altum, which is more common and less expensive than leopoldi, but their bigger than common angelfish, and...

Many of your fish will outgrow the tank, many others need to be kept in bigger groups. Your tank is not cycled and your water has become toxic and will kill your fish very quickly. Many of your fish are not suitable for cycling tanks, even done properly and safely. Your crab requires land access...

Height is the important factor - the tank should be at least 18 inches tall. Other than that, allow 5 gallons per fish and you should be good (particularly if you get them fairly small). I don't think you'd even need extra maintenance just for four if they were alone, though in the size I don't...

If I'm not mistaken, the Moby Dick 25 is 25 liters? Unfortunately, that would be too small for angelfish - at adulthood, they'll need a tank at least 18 inches (45 cm) tall. The rainbow sharks will also outgrow the tank, and at maturity, they'll become very intolerant of other members of their...

API freshwater master kit is one of the most used. Interpet gets good comments, as well. I've only used one other kit available in the US, which tests nitrite and nitrate in the same test and you get to play a fun guessing game as to which of five identical color squares on the grid are yours...

Your oscars are immature, though, from your other post. When they become mature and start establishing territory, they'll start excavating substrate and moving objects out of their territory, at which point those plants are liable to be forfeit.

Sit down and look through species books with her, go to the LFS and look at fish, and get a list of favorites. There's a good chance she'll see a fish and decide she HAS to have it, which will greatly shorten the rest of the list for stocking options. I did this with a girlfriend, and she...

In my experience, the pH test is fine for quite a while, but the others will change color over time. After about 15-20 minutes, my ammonia tests turn a dull brownish yellow, regardless of what shade of yellow or green they were. The 5 minute mark is where the tests are calibrated - past about 10...

Some info here: http://badmanstropicalfish.com/profiles/profile90.html Pretty skinny for their length, but their length is up to 3 feet. Their mouth is as wide as their body, I'd expect them to make a meal of any slim bodied fish under 4-5 inches at the least. I have heard of them eating...

Bristlenose plecs stay quite small, topping out at 4-5 inches depending on the species. There's a few other small plecs, but bristlenose are the best bet - active, peaceful (will sometimes get feisty with their food - mine will claim the biggest piece of algae wafer he can find and defend it...

Plenty of small catfish with personality or at least interesting behavior - upside down catfish (there's a few species sold with the name - you want Synodontis nigriventris), I recently rescued a Synodontis petricola, and he's a surprising character considering his poor condition. A good sized...

Don't worry about the fish starving - use sinking foods for the corys, as said (they're not good at rooting fine bits of flake out of the gravel, and IME if you get enough flake to them, you're also getting enough down there to foul the water or fuel a snail apocalypse). Fish are cold blooded -...

Apple snails do this sometimes. It happens a lot if you move them between tanks, or if you have a bubble stone, but mine do it occasionally with neither of those factors - they'll get a bit of air in their shell and float until they can "burp" it out. Never seems to hurt them - I just hold them...

Ok, few things, first off, Interpet makes two filter start products that I know of. One of them is complete junk, the bacteria are freeze dried and thus entirely dead. The other is just mostly junk, it's a standard unrefrigerated bottled product with unlisted bacterial content, which doesn't...

Rinse it every week or so - it will get clogged up fairly quickly compared to the normal plastic intake cage. Nylon or net won't make much difference in how well the filter runs, it'll just make the mechanical stage of filtration happen in a more visible spot than usual.

You can go males only and avoid the initial fry potential - platys should be fine this way as long as there's no females around, and the males are a bit smaller than females. With such a mature tank, 5-7 males should be no problem with adaquate filtration, though from your other post, you said...

Fish do have a day/night cycle. If the room is kept dark (drapes pulled so there's no daylight either, though I don't know how much that would matter), it should be possible to switch them to be up at night like this, just like household pets usually adapt to be active when their owners are up...

Oscars are too big anyway. Wanting a planted tank limits a lot of your options in the size range, particularly for the behavior you want to bring out in them. The best options for that behavior would be mid-sized aggressive cichlids like green terrors or convicts, but they would completely...