Fish: Re: [tropical fish club] angel question

Hi Dianne,

As I wasn't very sure of how much water your two HOB filters moved, I
couldn't be sure of how much current was being produced by their combination.
While Angelfish don't appreciate strong currents, and while your Angels didn't
appear to be uncomfortable in their environment, I didn't think the current
was too overwhelming -- yet two HOB's sounded like a lot. With
clarification on this, it looks like their spawning, whenever that might be, should go
more smoothly. Yet, to be assured that all eggs will be fertilized, try to
ensure that their breeding site is not near any filter box return flows.
Failure to take this seemingly small factor into account can lead to the
male's milt getting washed away before it has the chance of reaching the eggs.

As your four younger Angelfish have obviously thrived under 50% PWC's,
there's no need to cut the PWC quantities back to 25%; a 35% (or still larger if
you prefer) would be more to their liking. A hobbyist can never change out
too much water if the source is chemical-free and containing little or no
elements causing adverse effects. While there can be situations with one's
tap water which need to be of concern when not always offering the most
beneficial results, and which care sometimes needs to be made in limiting the
amount of water to be changed at any one time, one can never change out too
much water when assured that they have an excellent water supply -- even if
it's up to 100% each time; it just needs to be consistant though (as with what
you've been doing all along).

For the hobbyist doing much smaller PWC's leading to having aquarium
parameters much different than their tap water, a sudden PWC of a much larger
quantity would mean to subject the fish to changes of their parameters which
could lead to stress if the change is excessive. A steady large change of good
water though, is always appreciated by Angelfish, and there's little else
better you can do for your Angelfish in providing them with the most optimum
conditions than to provide them with the freshest, contaminant-free water
you can provide them with. It's just that 50% PWC's are not necessarily
needed, depending upon the bioload--water column quantity ratio. But if you can
keep up with the larger PWC's, so much the better. I often do up to 90%
PWC's, but then, I use pure water having no additives of any kind, from my
private well.

Ray </HTML>