Couple o' questions for y'all

[fishnose]

I have a few questions:
1. I am thinking of upgrading to a 40 or 55 gallon tank, in which I would have some plants, community fish and of course Loaches! Is there any reason using sand would not work in this case? what kind is best for plants?

2. My cories and loaches will love the sand, but is it true that "dead spots" develop in sand? I have kuhlis, but could it happen anyway?

3. Where is an escaped african clawed frog likely to be found?!? This one is urgent! He's been gone for 2 days but there might be a chance he is still alive. I CAN'T FIND HIM ANYWHERE!!!

4. There is some kind of rubbery sheet of algae growing on the underside of the light. It is actually a pretty bad light, 15 watts of pale yellow for a 20 gallon tank(no wonder cabomba only lasted a month). Is this an indicator of some kind of problem? The light is not in the water, but when my airstone is on, the bubbles make the underside of the hood wet.

5. Gah! I forgot! I'll do an edit if I remember.

5.5. Read my signature

6. Should this actually be in freshwater?

7. See five, I did remember: I have tried to feed various veggies to my loaches and goldfish, but they are not interested, even after being fasted for a day. What is up with that? everything is ignored or tasted and rejected.

[fishnose]

*sigh* Ok, disregard #3, he has been found, but is now an ex-frog.

[loachmom]

*sigh* Ok, disregard #3, he has been found, but is now an ex-frog.

[MTS]

How are you preparing the veggies? You should remove the skin from warmed frozen peas by squishing them between your fingers until the skin slides off. Squash should be sliced and par-boiled or microwave until soft. Cucumbers can be sliced and weighted down in the tank. Your loaches are more likely to feed on these things at night but the goldfish should eat them up readily. Feed in the evening and remove the remains the next morning.

As for your light, it sounds like a bad design. I hope its not an electrical problem waiting to happen. Perhaps you should lower the water level after you clean the algae off.

[fishnose]

Sorry MTS- As I was typing, I thought my description of the light thing would be misleading but I didn't change it. The light itself is not getting wet at all, it is the clear plastic window below that is getting dampened by the spray from the airstone bubbles. Also, I once accidentally filled the tank up way too far, and then the water actually did touch the window, but it is sealed with some sort of watertight goo and NO water got above it to where the light bulb is.

As for the veggies, I do take the skins off the peas, I don't feed squash, and cukes are wieghted down with plant weights, sometimes I leave them in for days wiithout feeding just to see if the fish know what it is. The goldfish actually does eat them readily, especially broccoli and beans, but he always spits them out a few minutes later no matter how small and squishy the pieces are.

Also, I have noticed that the goldfish has an extremely talented mouth. I had heard that marigold petals would enhance color, so I washed off a few(no pesticides or fertilizer, just an extra precaution), and he wouldnt touch them. I defrosted a cube of bloodworms, and mixed in a few bits of marigold petal, and sucked the whole blob up with an eyedropper. That's how I always feed bloodworms, brineshrimp, etc. and the goldfish has learned to eat them directly from the eyrdropper. He inhaled everything in it and sat there chewing for a minute, then spat out the petals.

Another time, he ate a bit of fishy poo with something green in it. He spat out the poo without the green bit.

Why do I always do that? I can't stick to the topic!!

ANYway, I don't think nocturnalness would stop the loches, I can see my Yoyo and 2 of my cories doing spazzy figure 8s right now around the front of the glass.

Can fish get hurt by eating bubbles? My pleco,female platy, zebra danio and goldfish all swim straight down into the flow of bubbles for hours on end...its kinda disturbing.