Re: Have nothos, now what to do next?

[gary l meyers <garymeyers at juno_com>]

Welcome to the world of Nothos --  You will get lots of help and info
here and at the AKA website. 

I unfortunately can't do much more for  you that to say avoid the salt
until you sense something is needed then go sparingly.  

Gary In St. Louis

On Mon, 28 Apr 2003 15:25:14 -0700 Barry Cooper <bjc3 at cornell_edu>
writes:
> [Forwarding bounced message]
> 
> I was seduced by some N. guentheri at he fish club auction this 
> weekend:
> I'd sold the fish that were in one of my tanks at the concurrent 
> show, so
> it being empty, they went straight in to serve their quarantine in 
> their
> new home.  The tiny male, only 1/2 inch long, immediately colored up 
> as
> soon as his bag was floated in the his new tank--and he stayed there 
> in the
> front of the tank showing off for the next couple of hours.  Very 
> neat
> fish.   Now for a bunch of questions, since they're my first nothos 
> and
> first annual killies:
> 
> I've read over and over that nothos in general do well with a bit of 
> salt
> in their water, but don't see a consensus on how much salt they 
> need, and
> how that would vary by what kind of salt is used.  I have St. Louis 
> City
> tap water (quite soft and alkaline) that I simply dechlorinate for 
> most of
> my tanks, although I keep a small net of crushed coral in the filter 
> box to
> support kH.  Generally when I measure the kH and gH are still quite 
> low in
> the tanks.  Should I just leave them in this water and see how they 
> do,
> adding salt only if they are not flourishing, of should I add a 
> little salt
> from the start?
> 
> And if I add salt, how much?   Currently I use SeaChem's Live Bearer 
> Salt
> to keep one of my tanks very lightly brackish for the benefit of 
> some
> orange chromide cichlids (sg about 1.005).  I believe this product 
> contains
> a lot of calcium and magnesium salts thus less sodium chloride per 
> gram
> than a typical aquarium salt.  Would this be good to use with the 
> nothos?
> And how much?
> 
> Might they tolerate the 1.005 of the "brackish" tank?  If so, I'd 
> love to
> keep some in there eventually (as added color for the tank, and to 
> give me
> a place to house spare/backup fish, in case of disaster in their 
> dedicated
> breeding tank).  The chromides are quite mild mannered for cichlids, 
> and
> while they do pick off most of the molly fry that are born in the 
> tank,
> some do survive to adulthood, so they wouldn't necessarily snack on 
> the
> killies.
> 
> So much for that basic "housing" issues?..then I'd like to spawn 
> them, and
> they're peat divers.  I have some jiffy peat pellets, but am looking 
> for
> suggestions on how to minimize the impact of the peat diving on the 
> rest of
> the tank:  how to keep it hidden in the aquascape?  how to contain 
> the peat
> in the jar without it spilling out and muddying the rest of the 
> tank?   are
> there "cleaner" alternatives to the peat pellets that still keep the 
> fish
> happy?.?
> 
> I'm sure I'll have more questions about picking, incubating, & 
> hatching the
> eggs later, but the above should do for starters!
> 
> Thanks!
> 
> 
> Diane Brown in St. Louis 
> 
> 
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