Swimming Equipment Source

Swim Fins Combo

Male Betta, Neon Tetras and Otocinclus?

I have a male betta in a ten gallon tank with a filter and a heater; fake plants and a stump with holes swim through. I want two know if this is a good combo:

- 1 male Betta (Of course!)
- 5-6 Neon Tetras
- 2-3 Otocinclus

My questions are:

- Is this a good combo?
- Will the tetras nip bettas fins?
- Will the betta eat tetras?
- Will otos work with tetras and bettas?
- Are ottos hard to care for?
- How do I feed otos?
- Will neons share betta food or do I have to buy more food for the tetras?

Also my betta attacks his tank sometimes [his reflection I guess] so I put paper on the back and on the right side. He still fights the walls with the paper and he fight the walls without also.

- What can I do about that?
- Will he eventually give up?

Thanks! Answer all my questions thouroughly and I will give you best answer!!

Okay, right through we go!

1. This is a great combo. Very simple, sensible for the size of the tank, and very calm tankmates.

2. The tetras should leave him alone. If they don't, add more plants for him to hide in.

3. The betta should be pretty calm towards them, as they have short fins and aren't too flashy.

4. The otos should leave everyone alone.

5. I have never taken care of them, but I have become interested in them, and from the research I have done, I would say that they are pretty hardy fish that don't require many special conditions.

6. Otos will clean the algae off of the tank, but they will clean it quickly, so you will have to supplement their diet with algae flakes and other sinking fish foods. I've read that they love cucumbers, and will eat them voraciously.

7. For the neons you will need tropical fish food, which is geared more toward their needs. I realize this is a lot of food to use at once, but each of the kinds of fish have specific dietary needs.

8. Male bettas are agressive toward other male bettas, this is normal behaviour which is, in fact, healthy for him. When he finally stops "flaring", he believes that he has won his battle, and comes out fully excercised both physically and mentally. I use a mirror by the side of my tank to achieve the same goal.

9. If he gives up this behaviour, try using a mirror. If he refuses to react to this, then you should actually be worried.

It sounds like you have a great tank planned out, but if I could make one suggestion it would be to swap the otos for a group of cories. Corydoras are great little fish that grow to be just a little smaller than the otos, they look cooler (at least IMO), and they do the same cleanup jobs as otos. I have had cories before, and I plan to get more in a little while.

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Tales Of Vesperia - Boss: Baitojoh on Unknown

my goldfish has white blotches on his body.?

it's definitely not ich, but i'm pretty sure it's a fungus. he also will lay on the bottom of the tank for an extremely long period of time and then swim up and act completely normal. he is constantly gasping at the surface, even though the tank is well aerated. there is an oddly placed tear in the middle of his tail fin. i did a huge water change and used a combo med for slimecoat and sores/fungus. this is like the 9th goldfish i've had, all of them have died.
what can i do?!
seriously guys, it's not ich. i've owned goldfish my entire life, i know what ich looks like.
the tank has been cycled and set-up for 5 months.

http://www.splashtastic-aquatics.net/Diagnosis-Chart

some of these answers are unreal.. saying its defo ich when you said it defo isn't?!
im not sore what it is you have in your tank but sounds like a bacterial infection to me?
you done right with the treatment, goldfish need a minimum of 10 gallons and double filtration as they're messy fish, Your goldfish's temperature should never rise above 73° Fahrenheit, and ideally should remain between 65° and 68,° so you will need a thermometer. Keeping a goldfish above 72° for long periods of time will result in Oxygen deprivation, which can cause nerve damage, heart damage, and can seriously hamper the immune system, making them more susceptible to many diseases, from easily treatable Ick to nearly untreatable swim bladder infections.

your tank also needs to be cycled

http://www.fishlore.com/NitrogenCycle.htm

im sure you will find your answer here if not then on one of the links, good luck and hope your fish recovers soon....H

Workout Swim Fins

Scared to swim at the YMCA because I am not a GREAT swimmer...advice?

I recently got a YMCA membership and I am very shy, very shy! I have swimming fins for swimming laps faster and for a better workout but I am not a GREAT swimmer. I am just a decent swimmer, that makes me feel insecure like the people who are waiting for lap lanes or the people in other lanes are laughing at me inside thinking wow, look at that loser 'trying' to swim like us. I want to do laps, should I be in the lap lane or the open swim lane?

That is not my only problem...there are TONS of free classes I could be taking, cycling, zumba, aerobics of all sorts including water aerobics but I am scared to walk into the class by myself as the "newbie."

How can I overcome this fear of mine? It isn't fun to have a YMCA membership and only use the treadmill because your scared and embarassed everyone is thinking weird things about you.

There are basically 4 kinds of swimmers, people that can fly through the water, people who are decent swimmers, but not great, people who are slow but not terrible, and people who are terrible at swimming. At the pool, if you pay attention and spend enough time there, you will spot them all. They are all there because they like the water and want to improve their swimming. No one cares which pigeon hole you fit into. If they stop to think about you at all, it's that they have a positive image of someone who is doing something healthy. Some of them will wish they were as good as you.

But, it sounds like you have a bigger problem than your swimming potential. Take a few minutes and write down several things that you like about yourself. Then, every day read the list and add something else that you like about yourself. You will be amazed at your potential.

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Improving Your Swimming Technique And Strokes

Improving your front crawl stroke

If you are a beginner, consider taking a few minutes initially in each workout to do some "mock breathing." In this exercise, you would stand in the pool and move your arms in the stroking motion while your lower body remains stationary.

The purpose of this is to see how your arms and head move together. Your arms should move, at the top of the stroke, in the formation of an S, and your head should only come out of the water far enough to take a breath of air.

Do a few laps in which you experiment with breathing. What do you notice about your stroke? Some people feel comfortable breathing only on the left, or breathing only on the right. It's also possible that you are most comfortable if you breathe on both sides. Your stroke would then look like: stroke, stroke, breathe right; stroke, stroke, breathe left; so on and so forth. Capitalise on what is the natural swim technique for you.

Head placement during front crawl breathing is key. Many people are inclined to overturn their heads while taking breaths of air. Resist this urge. It is Important to remember that the less movement your body makes, the less energy you expend. Turn your head only as far as is necessary to keep your water-side cheek parallel to the bottom of the pool.

Treading water for one to three minutes at a time is a terrific tool for building up your core and upper body strength, and can build your overall confidence in the swimming pool. Also consider using Zoggs Flexi Paddles to boost your arm strength. You can swim the crawl stroke for 100 metres while you wear these paddles.

Lower body strength is also important in that your legs are responsible for half of the stroke. In each swim workout, make sure to do some work with a kick board. Try swimming 100-300 metres with the kick board, and alternate kicking your feel above the water and below the water every 50 metres. Wearing flippers for several laps is another great way to build lower body strength, and to power the overall stroke.

Improving your backstroke

Even expert swimmers find the backstroke to be wearing. One of the main reasons for this dissatisfaction with the backstroke is the failure to fully incorporate the entire body into the stroke. Fortunately, the backstroke can be rewarding if it is carefully studied and practiced.

The backstroke looks like a swimming stroke that requires intense arm movement. There is some truth to that, but the majority of the movement should be stimulated by your shoulders and not by your arms. When you do the backstroke, you should try to reach as far as you can with your arms as you shift your shoulders.

The shifting of your shoulders is like a dance move or an exercise move that requires therolling of your shoulders. The motion isn’t caused by your arms but by your entire upper body movement. This can best be paralleled to a motion that is similar to rowing a boat. Try to think of rowing a boat one arm as a time, and that is how you want your stroke to look.

When doing the backstroke, kick your legs up and down rapidly. The style of kick is the same as that required for front crawl, the only difference being your heels will enter the water instead of your toes. Most importantly, keep a constant kick so you won’t have dead weight dragging in the water. The purpose of kicking is to counter the weight of the bottom half of your body, and thus propel your body forward in motion.

This is the only swimming stroke that doesn’t require a breathing method, however you do need focus and perspective. If you are swimming indoors, try to follow a pattern on the ceiling, so you won’t drift from one lane to another. If you are swimming outdoors, glance over to the side to gain some perspective. Due to the vision impairment caused by swimming on your back rather than your front side, try to maintain a steady movement and use the markers on the sides of the pool to keep a proper lane formation.

Improving your butterfly stroke

The butterfly stroke requires co-ordination and stamina to move the arms and legs together in what can seem an unnatural way, but mastering the stroke is a great achievement and well worth aiming for to improve your swimming fitness and efficiency.

The most important thing to remember is that, as your hands come in, your hips go up. Timing these movements together is essential. Beyond that, it is important to consider the following:

- Your body should be horizontal and as flat as possible.

- Apply downward pressure through your chest to balance the body. This is often referred to as ‘t-pressure’, meaning the t-shape of your body from armpit to armpit across and the length of your torso downwards. Applying pressure in this way balances weight away from your hips and allows them to move upwards.

- Use your arms wisely; if you try to bring them together to meet at the front of you, you will use more energy. The arms should ideally finish each stroke shoulder width apart in front of you.

- Raise your elbows. Keep them near or above the surface of the water, don’t let them drop lower than the wrists, and keep them pointing outwards. This will help you to pull yourself with the full weight of your arm and not put too much pressure on your elbows.

- The butterfly kick is actually two kicks. One kick is a big kick, with knees bending and kicking out while the body leaps and dives forward. Then, during the glide, the whole body whips the legs into a second, 14er kick.

- Practice the kick without the stroke to get a feel for using your whole body. Extend your arms and undulate your body through the water.

- Try practicing the kick with fins on to get the feeling of a powerful and fluid kick.

The Monofin is particularly useful for developing the strong legs, abdominal and back muscles required for the butterfly technique.

Improving your breaststroke

Breaststroke is the only stroke where both the arms and the legs are recovered under the water. This makes it the slowest stroke, as there is more resistance to forward movement.

Underwater Breaststroke swimming will help condition the lungs. Swim one stroke on the surface of the water and two strokes underwater with rest intervals at every length, known as hypoxic training this will improve the lung capacity. Only swim for as long as is comfortable.

Swim with a long glide and count your strokes for each length. Ensure good streamlining as you stretch down the pool with hands and feet together. Ensure a long glide as you push off the wall with one pull and one kick underwater. Good streamlining underwater will ensure you swim faster.

Pay particular attention to your kick as this is the key to a good Breaststroke.

Using a large kickboard concentrate on lifting your heels high up to your costume line. Always turn your ankles and feet out sideways in order to catch the water and push it back. Feet come together and meet up at the end of every kick.

To work on your arms take a pull buoy and place it high between your legs. Let your legs float as you concentrate on the stroke. Pull no more then twice shoulder width apart and apply more power as the hands sweep inwards and upwards to the water surface, breath and recover the hands quickly forwards.

About the Author

FunSwimShop was founded in 2007 by Seriously Fun Direct Ltd, a family owned company who have over 20 years experience in the swimming industry. Thei goal is to become the premiere destination for online swimwear and swim gear.

Swim Fins Kids

Training with Flippers/Fins - good or bad?

Swimmers and swimming coaches. My 9 year old daughter has a new swimming coach who is very highly rated in the city where we live. But she lets the kids train with flippers (not the small training ones but larger blue and yellow ones) for 45 minutes of their 60 minute training session. do you think this is good or bad for her. surely one kicks differently with flippers than without them and she is complaining the flippers hurt her ankles.
She is a already a very good A squad swimmer, this coach is supposed to correct her strokes and do speed work for galas

I guess alot depends on what the coaches goals are. First, ask your coach what the purpose or training w/flippers is for in her opinion. Is it to strengthen the muscles in the legs? (maybe), or is it to build up speed for racing (I'd question that one) because you're right, you do kick very differently with them than without. As far as her ankles go, I know exactly what she means! Are they cutting into the front of her ankle when she kicks or is it that her whole ankle hurts from working the muscles? If they are cutting into her, making a slit or sculpting some of the rubber away from the top at the ankle might alleviate some of the pain. Maybe if the coach explains why the training with them & why the length of time, it might make it easier for your daughter to swollow. In any case just swimming with them is not harmful to her. Maybe the coach knows more than any of us.
By the way, to Mr. Alexandr, did you understand this persons question? Because I sure didn't understand your answer!!!!!
What does ANY of that have to do with what she wants to know?

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What's this?

One of my black moors has what appears to be a dust bunny (no kidding, it looks like a whitish bit of dust) or a cottony looking clump around one of his fins. He doesn't swim around much and when he does he doesn't use the "dusty" fin. And now another one has a small bit of fluff on its back fin. What should I do? Can I pick it off? Should I medicate? If so, what type of meds?

My fish had that once, then it died. I did a search and found this:
This sounds like what you described, but let me know if it isn't.

Fungal attacks always follow some other health problem like parasitic attack, injury, or bacterial infection. The symptoms are a gray or whitish growth in and on the skin and/or fins of the fish. Eventually, if left untreated, these growths will become cottony looking. The fungus, if left untreated, will eventually eat away on the fish until it finally dies.
After ascertaining the initial cause of the fungus and remedying that, use a solution of phenoxethol at 1% in distilled water. Add 10 ml of this solution per liter of aquarium water. Repeat after a few days if needed, but only once more as three treatments could be dangerous to aquarium inhabitants. If the symptoms are severe the fish can be removed from the aquarium and swabbed with a cloth that has been treated with small amounts of povidone iodine or mercurochrome.

hope your fish gets better.

Pro Swim Fins

mutations help please?

hey everybody i have a project to do and i need some ideas. in science we are learning about muatations and we need to do a project about different animals being mutated. i only thought of a dolphin so far with it having an extra fin to make it swim faster but the predators will attack it more because of extra meat on their bodies. any more idead? could be any animal a pro and con of the mutation! thanks so much!

you should do something related to color mutations and how natural selection affects them. here's a real life story that you can use to support your idea.

Another argument used exhaustively to propound belief in evolution is the story of the peppered moth of Birmingham. In the late 1860's the peppered moth was pale in colour. A rare dark form of peppered moth was known to exist. Over the next 100 years the dark form of peppered moth became more and more predominant. The industrial revolution in that area brought with it a massive darkening of the bark on surrounding trees. The dark peppered moth was able to blend in better with its surroundings and thus escape its predators. The lighter coloured moth eventually reached the point of extinction. Hence, a clear, convincing example of natural selection. That is, from the beginning, both dark and light coloured moths are present.

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Go Pro Jeff-PADI Professional

Surfing - Before You Get Started Surfing

Surfing is a physical activity and classrooms are for bookworms. But spend some time getting a few clues. That will prevent you from being sorry you chose to surf.

Before you even get a surfboard, you need to understand your own strengths and weaknesses. If you can't swim well, you don't belong in the water. Even the best surfers in the world fall off their boards, sometimes on purpose. That leaves you in the water without a ride back to the beach.

To build up that strength there are a number of useful exercises. You can do push-ups or bench presses, which will help enhance upper body strength. You'll need that in order to whip up your body from a lying to a standing position, called a 'pop-up'. You can do squats or leg presses to get your thighs and calves ready for the rigors of standing on a board with good balance. Overall, you should have a lot of endurance. Run. Swim.

Get familiar with the board. It looks simple enough but it has many attributes. A longboard is roughly 9 feet (2.7m) long and not quite 2 feet (60cm) wide. It will usually have one or more fins and have a stripe down the middle. Many will have a leash near the tail that you connect to your ankle.

There are pros and cons to using the strap. It will keep your surfboard from floating away when you fall off. But it can get tangled in coral and drag you down. Get comfortable with it on the beach or in a swimming pool.

On the beach, make a narrow groove in the sand and lay the board down, putting the fin in the groove. That way you can practice standing up from a sitting/paddling position to a standing position. Practice jumping up from a lying to a standing position. Push up with your hands on each side of the board and whip your feet underneath your body. Assume the traditional crouch you've seen other surfers do when they ride a wave. Do it again and again.

You'll need to know how and where to stand. Face the front of the board and keep your feet along each side of the stringer (the center line). Hold off on anything fancy like hanging five until you have a lot more experience. Note the position where you are balanced on the board. That's best done in a swimming pool to better simulate real conditions.

On the day, make sure you surf with an experienced surf buddy. Someone should show you first-hand how to paddle, stand, catch a wave and other needed skills. They can also save your life if you get in over your head, which is easy for beginners to do.

That same expert will help you judge which waves are worth catching and give you guidance about etiquette. They'll show you how to move away from a surfer who has priority because they are closer to the break than you.

Be mentally and physically prepared, make sure you are well protected again the sun UV radiation by wearing sun protection swimwear, and you'll enjoy your surfing experience. None better than that, needless to say.

About the Author

J Edmond have been working in the sun protection clothing industry for several years. The main aim is to raise awareness of the sun' UV radiation and it's effect on human skin. Click here for more info about sun protection swimwear and UV protective clothing.