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Still fighting
By punk4life2882 from the punk4life department, Section Diaries Posted on Wed Aug 29, 2007 at 01:15:48 PM PST Tags: (all tags)

I did everything people said to do and they are still fighting~!

Some of the males tails are getting worse...I am getting really frustrated because I want to keep them all but I have to get the one out of there that is causing the problem. What is my last resort before I get rid of the ones causing the problem?? I hope there is something else I can do!

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Still fighting | 14 comments (13 topical, 1 editorial, 0 hidden)

What can you do to separate them? (none / 0) (#1)
by unclescott on Mon Jun 26, 2006 at 09:22:33 PM PST

Please consider oversized breeding nets, the traditional 10-gal tank dividers or a home made divider using the "rug mesh" of the craft shops. The latter could be fitted into the hard holders of those plastic term paper "wraps".

Or, as a quick fix, the plastic rug sheet - as tall as the tank and longer than the width - could be bent in a "C", inserted into the aquarium and allowed to spread, the tension of the spreading C hopefully will be holding it to the tank sides. Put the offending bully in the small side.

Another variant of the Betta containers is to buy a ten-gallon tank, get a couple more pieces of glass cut very near the dimentions of the tank ends. It could be stuck in the gravel or glued to the empty tank, Some glue on the bottom sides may need to be trimmed away. With the sealing of the silicone glue, that takes about seven days. Scrap pieces of plexiglass can be used for this too.

The Betta tank:
http://www.all-glass.com/products/other/bettadiv.shtml

The traditional plastic dividers, available in many shops. See the Penn-Plax original: http://www.all-glass.com/products/other/bettadiv.shtml
http://www.newsroom.net/fishkeeping/tanks.html

There is not a lot of space, but old power filter boxes can be placed in the tank. They echo the breeder boxes some.

Sometimes cichlids are kept apart with that plastic "eggcrate" used in fluorescent lights. Maybe a fine mesh version could be used in your tank.

One of the tricky things is to make sure the tank top, especially an all glass top still fits tightly. One should also seek to arrange things so the males can't jump from tank to tank. That may mean keeping the water a little lower than the dividers.

I'm sure I haven't exhausted the kinds of dividers there are.

All the best!
unc

Re: What can you do to separate them? (none / 0) (#2)
by lomelindi on Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 05:29:50 PM PST

... or a home made divider using the "rug mesh" of the craft shops. The latter could be fitted into the hard holders of those plastic term paper "wraps".

US, you make me wish I had bickering fish, just so I could try out that piece of genius. You're awesome. :)

[ Parent ]

Those certainly aren't my ideas. Killinuts in this (none / 0) (#3)
by unclescott on Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 09:14:04 PM PST

area have used them for dividers and 2.5 gallon tank tops for a couple of decades. The mesh and term paper holders were an idea of George Meravi, one of our great "aqua-engineers".

My (low-tech) favorite is the impromptu divider in show tanks. Sometimes a male will drive a female very hard in such close quarters. A 2.5 gallon tank is about 6 inches wide. If one takes a 9 or 10-inch-long piece of the rug material (also with a 7-8" width - sort of the height of the water and a little more), folds it into a U and places it between the male and female, the U will spread until it is held by tension between the fish. That is a quick and speedy operation and nobody yet has complained about someone saving the life of one of their fish. ;)

Of course once in a while a male will jump the barrier and have to be moved again. And then there was that female Rivulus hartii who kept jumping back with the male. I could just barely hear her singing "Stand By Your Man." ;)

The young man (13) who has been so into Bettas and killies in this last year (also serving as my conscience - "ah, Scott shouldn't this tank get a water change?") latched on to the use of those things for tank tops when I sent some pieces home with him.

There are a couple of draw backs to using those as tank tops. While they are good for letting air into the tank, they also allow a lot of evaporation in the winter. They also can be knocked sideways and leave the tank partly uncovered. And you do not want to put a jar of live food on top of one of those! :0

But he and his Mom went and got some of that rug material and some acrylic yarn (the type of yarn also good for making spawning mops). They are cutting the mesh a little larger than the 2.5, 5.5 and 10-gallon tops. They are then weaving a border along the edges of that top! It gives the mesh a little more strength and stiffness. It also makes it a little more difficult to slide it off of the tank top open area.

Very clever!

atb!

[ Parent ]

Re: Those certainly aren't my ideas. (none / 0) (#4)
by miskairal on Tue Jun 27, 2006 at 11:58:49 PM PST

I don't know what either rug mesh or term paper holders are :(

Is the rug mesh the sort of stuff you use when making a latch hook rug?
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

Re: Those certainly aren't my ideas. (none / 0) (#5)
by lomelindi on Wed Jun 28, 2006 at 03:51:36 AM PST

Google "Sliding bar report cover."
Stateside, anyway, they're one of those things you go through in childhood... those horrible report covers that invariably fall apart. Don't know how widespread they are.
I think that's the same sort of rug mesh.. I'm trying to find pictures but apparently that's a strange thing to look for? I can only imagine it's similar to the plastic canvas used in cross-stitching.

[ Parent ]

The mesh is also called plastic canvas. (none / 0) (#6)
by unclescott on Wed Jun 28, 2006 at 07:46:14 AM PST

http://www.craftdirect.co.nz/product_info.php?cPath=13_209&products_id=25764
http://www.heartofclay.com/page13.htm
http://www.elbastidor.com/CANVAS/PCPF.htm

We've used something like the following for bowl tops, though a slightly big fish can bounce them off.

http://www.hishealingways.com/sprouting/plasticcanvas.html

If you Google plastic canvas, you will get a zillion projects one can make. Just in case you get tired of fish and have lots of extra time. There are things there for kids to do in the summer when they complained of boredom. ;)

I still prefer glass or Plexiglas for tank tops - despite the tendency of the latter to warp a bit in humidity. Too many of my tank tops are pieces of former aquariums, where a side was broken or for the really old stuff, where the stainless steel frame actually began to crumble.

I know one guy who fashioned wooden framed screens for ten-gallon aquariums. Great air circulation. Lots of evaporation too.

Then there are Mike Stoecker's Plexiglas tops, where he scored the dimentions of the tank, folded and broke the Plexiglas along those scores. One could burn holes in that stuff to run airlines in. Another hole in the middle, about the size of the end of a turkey baster, could be made for feeding. I have used pliers to heat a 3" nail over the stove, when no one else is home. The hot nail is then pushed into the Plexiglas in the appropriate spot.

I really need to get a little camping stove so I can do things like that in the back yard. Boiling gravel and peat moss would be much less threatening to domestic relationships too.

Mike also took a little pipe cutter and sliced 2 cm pieces of extra aquarium filter tubing. (Doesn't everyone have a little pipe cutter for the fishroom?) Outdoors he would use a couple drops of solvent on one end of the tube segment to connect that piece of tubing to the side of the Plexiglas and voila! A handle!

So there are many home-generated approaches to covering tanks. Again, these are just a few.

All the best!

[ Parent ]

Re: The mesh is also called plastic canvas. (none / 0) (#7)
by miskairal on Thu Jun 29, 2006 at 01:55:43 AM PST

Thanks for the link lomelindi. I can't say I've seen them before but that doesn't mean they don't exist downunder.

I haven't seen that plastic canvas stuff either (thanks for those links unc) but then I haven't done any handcrafts since "BG" (before goats/1993)so maybe it's out there.

Unc, whyja go and mention turkey basters now? :))
I still can't find one here and I really need one to feed my corals and stuff. I am going to wait for christmas and if I don't have one by New Years I will be back here asking some kind sole from the US of A to post me one.

Cheerio
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

And even here, some are tight and hold water (none / 0) (#8)
by unclescott on Sat Jul 01, 2006 at 01:15:42 AM PST

or whatever well. And some are awful. I ran silicone alone the section of a tube where it met the bulb and let it dry several days. It works better, but would be a dickens to clean!

Dear Santa....

[ Parent ]

Re: And even here, some are tight and hold water (none / 0) (#9)
by miskairal on Sat Jul 01, 2006 at 01:33:57 AM PST

Well I was sort of thinking Christmas because people might eat turkey here then. I'm not a fan of turkey so I don't know if/when it gets eaten here :)
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

I tried froogling for Australian cooking supply (none / 0) (#10)
by unclescott on Sun Jul 02, 2006 at 09:16:18 PM PST

sites and didn't do so well. I'm more on the consuming end of things in the kitchen. ;)

If you were to look around for any kind of baster - chicken, ham, kitchen, cooking, 'roo, etc would there be a chance of finding one? One cooking site referred to macropipets (macropippettes?) and pipettes. Don't want to get anyone in trouble at the lab or other job, but would there be sources through that avenue? (I once bought petrie dishes from our science department where I taught. The department chair wrote me out a billing from his department - probably the supply linein his budget - and I gladly contributed at our school bookstore.)

How about asking your vet about pipettes and macropippettes next time you stop by on other business? Try scientific supply sites (expensive) or kitchen supply places (still probably expensive, but less so).

This is a place I have alluded to before. I'm lucky enough to live within driving distance of one of their stores. Their catalogs are a lot of fun just browsing the odd-ball offerings and tongue-in-cheek commentary. Some of their stuff is very good. There is also schlock and what for me would be junk, so sort carefully.

http://www.sciplus.com/about.cfm

Lab supplies is one of my favorite sections. Have picked up several cool items, sometimes knowing what it would be used for. ;)

By the way, they used to sell Quail Basters, but no pipettes. ;) Out of their kichen section they currently sell a three part basting set for $1.75 plus shipping. (Shipping would be the kicker.)

All the best!
unc

[ Parent ]

Re: I tried froogling (none / 0) (#11)
by miskairal on Sun Jul 02, 2006 at 11:36:17 PM PST

Thanks for the ideas unc and your help. Umm, just a thought...How long is a turkey baster? I ask b/c my tank is 2 feet deep and there is one coral that I can't reach on the bottom and a few others that are quite a ways down especially when you are standing on a chair trying to look in through the side to where you are aiming - the distortion can have you trying to put the food in all sorts of wrong places :) Most of the coral though will actually grab hold of the food and take it but the one on the bottom is very slow. I have to beat the sailfin tang off with my pincers or he will rip it back off the coral! I had sort of assumed that turkey basters were quite long?
--
Repeat after me,
I will read the Immediate Help
[ Parent ]

Re: I tried froogling (none / 0) (#12)
by Gouby on Mon Jul 03, 2006 at 05:21:46 AM PST

I have seen "a" turkey baster at 'House'. Have you got that store anywhere near you? It is a kitchen sort of store - lots of plates and cooking bowls etc. About $8 I think, only one there though. I know my mum has one - but she won't give it to me!
~Gouby~
[ Parent ]

"but she won't give it to me!" LOL! (none / 0) (#13)
by unclescott on Mon Jul 03, 2006 at 10:17:21 AM PST

Prolly just as well.

It is hard for a young person to gather stuff like that together. It wasn't much easier for us as newly-weds. Our second Christmas' spending money was mostly from the sale of 70 pairs of killies 'round and about. (One time the wolf was at the door, so we roasted it.)

But my lady didn't want fish poop on her kitchen stuff and I surely didn't want dish detergent in my fish tanks. (Some !@#$%*&^!! broke into a shop and dropped some detergent in the reservoir of the shop's central filtration system, killing everything. The shop closed.)

So, in time I had my turkey baster, measuring spoons, cullender, porcelane coated soup pot, fly swatter, eye-dropper and soap-less plastic pot scrubber. I did my best to see that she got her fancy candlestands and things like that. :)

Miskairal, I don't know if all basters are the same size. One here is a tad over 11 inches/28 cm in its entirety. The plastic element is about 9 inches/ 23 cm. Those quail basters are just lab pippettes in one piece about 6" / 15 cm long.

Oh, and thank you again for the conversion calculator. ;)

atb!

[ Parent ]

Still fighting | 14 comments (13 topical, 1 editorial, 0 hidden)

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