PlanetCatfish.com

thx for the replies guys.

I'm considering getting one of those air blowers / fans that can be clipped onto the aquarium and blow on the water, helping the evaporation process thus cooling the water.

1 more question, I noticed that there is "dust" settling on the pvc pipe which my fish calls his home. Is this from overfeeding? It only appears a few days after a water change.

@ cooling through evaporation - do remember your RTC comes from Amazonian areas, that is, from soft water.

Evaporation hardens your water, so in order to keep it soft(ish) refill the tank with RO water, of rainwater, not with tap-water, even in case your tap-water suits for waterchanges

tbone87 wrote:1 more question, I noticed that there is "dust" settling on the pvc pipe which my fish calls his home. Is this from overfeeding? It only appears a few days after a water change.

Hard to say. It may be lots of things, algae, bacteria, fungus, leftover food. You say it only happens a few days after a water change - does it disappear because you clean it off, or by itself?

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Mats

I clean it myself.. I feed frozen blood worms, the leftovers float to the top..

1 more question, as stated above my rtc calls a pvc pipe his home. However, he is growing too big for the pipe. Hard to do a u-turn for him now. Can i remove it? Or will this just stress the fish?

Oh and i am glad to say the red in its tail is coming along well, which i hope is a sign of a healthy fish.

I understand it is still small - so larger PVC pipes are being offered (they go to 30 cm (1 foot) in diameter in Europe)

However, perhaps the fish would like to be squeezed. I'd go for a bigger piece of pipe, add it to the tank and than wait and see. The fish will, probably, know best what it likes

If the fish can get in and out of the "home", it's fine. You say it can do a "U-turn" - which makes me think the fish can ALMOST fit sideways in the pipe - that's plenty of space.

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Mats

Well yeah when the lights are on, he makes it look hard to do a u-turn. Switch off the lights, it takes less than a second or two, then its out on patrol.

Oh and they were nt kidding bout the rtc rearranging tank furnishings. I woke up and saw the plant in another corner, the pvc pipe facing other direction, and some pits in the gravel. And there it was, looking at me smiling innocently. I LOLed, gd way to start the day.