peanuts

Caryl a Starlight (correct me if I'm wrong) is a bristlenose

sounds like it could be a fungal infection of some sort - if so this would need to be treated - any chance that you could get a picture so that it can be identfied correctly and get the correct treatment.

Haven't been in, in the last couple of days but Hutt Pets had some last week. they have an advertisement in the aquarium world.

Hi Stu - hows the eggs going - starting to hatch now? great photo. cheers Karen

we use a teaspoon or the metal bbq sqewers. both work really well.

as said before I have never had the problem, and I have 2 kissing gourami, gold, blue and pearl gouramis, I also have honey and croaking gouramis. The last ones added where the croaking gourami with no problems whatsoever. as for the "striped" gourami does it have one bold stripe running down both sides as this is actually a snakesskin gourami if however it has lots of stripes then it is an opaline or gold or blue depending on the colour, it goes by several different names. to tell the sex for this gourami look at the bottom fin next to the tail - if it is rounded it is female if it has a point it is male. but as Caryl has said if you can remove him or confine him in a container in your tank for a few days then reintroduce him/her when the lights are off, it may work.

What are the new gourami that you have introduced?? I have never had a problem with any gourami hassling others. Do you have alot of plant cover, places for them to hide? you mention that your tank is a 100litre - what are the dimensions? and if the problems can't be sorted - don't send the fish down the drain - pm me and lets see if we can come to some arrangement. cheers Karen

nice shots,wish i could take em as good as that.i too have had no luck on an id yet!!!,i keep coming up with the same result.i'll keep looking for yah.

I have my timer set for winter - so its on at 2pm and off at 11pm and then don't change the timer so I now have the lights on at 3pm and off at midnight. fish don't mind, I can sit there and watch the fish or t.v. it also means that if you are out in the evening there are lights on to come home to.

as the others have said - your fish tank is still what is called cycling, this is a process where your filter is establishing good baterica to help break down the fish waste and stop the ammonia build up. in my opinion the prime, conditoner and other "chemicals" you are adding are not going to make the cycling go quicker. ammonia build up happens as fish poo, and "goldfish" like to poo heaps, so I suggest feeding only every second day and feed a little amount. the day you don't feed do a water change at least a third of the tank. and you will probably need to do this for the next couple of weeks. having some plants in there could also help - but it would need to be hardy plants as the goldfish like to eat them.

according to my book... "Fry Care.. the fry hatch in their mothers mouth in about six days but she continues to incubate them for another eight days. During this time she usually distances herself from her tankmates and does not eat. When fry are released they must be fed almost immediately or they will die. offer baby brine shrimp or microworms three times a day using an eye dropper to place them in the tnak near the fry. Keep the light on in the tank so that the fry can find the food. keep the water level to about 6 inches and aerate gently, cover the tank since the fry will spend much of their time at the surface. Water quality is critical, change small amounts daily. After about a month the fry will be large enough to consume most other types of food. Special notes: this species is extremely difficult to spawn and it is not uncommon for the eggs to suddenly disappear from the mothers mouth, it may be that they were not fertilized and she spit them out or swallowed them. Fry also have a high mortality rate." good luck with the spawn and fry and keep us posted. :lol:

the colours of the girls reminded me of those"yellow peacocks" i had,do you remember them ryan?,but the colours just didn't look right to me.i picked maleri cross also.the females i had "left home",and the boys to a male only tank still a nice fish in their own right.

i put poly on the bottom of my big tank, just do like ryan suggested and put the bottom layer of rocks down before any gravel,its been in 2 years now no problems at all and its good insurance if you do have a tumble,peace of mind i call it

Hi Kelsta, the Kapi Mana one meets last Wednesday of each month - which means that we had our September meeting this week, sorry that you missed it but the next meeting will be Wednesday the 31 October. hope to see you there.

if you are free tonight why don't you come along to the Kapi Mana club meeting out at Tawa. Starts at 8pm.

fingers work just as well as tweezers - thats what I use. but if you are wanting a natural preditor you could try scunk loaches - I had one in my tank and he was great at keeping the population down. and the pet shop that Jimr was talking about would be Hutt Pets.

and sorry - yes they can breed quite happily in a community tank - so don't need to have a tank of there own.

the short answer is no. putting a male and a female in a tank - having a cave or hidy hole for the male to choose - some wood for them to eat. oh and of course water for them to swim in and leave them to it. when they are ready they will breed. once eggs are laid the male will fan them for approx 5 days when they will hatch so will look like eggs with tails and within a few days they will be free swimming. problem can be that once bristles start to breed they can/will breed regular for some time ie once the fry become free swimming the male is likely to court the female again and have another batch within two weeks. but there have been posts/thread on here asking why a bristle pair isn't breeding. there can be times when they are "dormant" having a rest. appears to be no reason for this and doesn't mean they won't start again when they are ready.

I have Dwarf gourami's living quite happily with Gold, Blue, Pearl and Kissing gourami's. all get along quite well - no bullying of any sort. I used to have neons in with them (same size asw WCMM) and once again there was no problems. My tank also has cory's and bristlenose's and I watch the bristle's and gourami all feeding on the pleco chips at the same time. as for having 3 males dwarf gourami's - if there are no females no problems keeping them together - if one female she could be quite popular - it may work. BUT you would need to have lots of places for her to hide take refuge in. or you could try a different sort of small/dwarf gourami - try for the honey gourami or croaking gourami both of these live happily with the above mix.

10 ice blues boy are you going to have fun,if yours turn out anything like mine did just be aware of what can happen,when it does happen it will happen FAST theyare awesome looking, but they can get huge they are personality plus,but if i was you to save having 2 tanks dominated by ice blue i would maybe consider thinning the numbers a bit and having them in one tank, to give the others some space of their own,the auratus should be able to hold their own they can be pretty feisty as well.but then again fish are just like humans everyone is different...........dilemas.......dilemas welcome to the world of africans

will done Paul - not that there was any doubt you would have little wrigglers

Don't know about ocsars but we have found that the annuibus nana does quite well in our cichlid tanks.

well done bm, the jake are a stunning fish hope all goes well,it sounds like you have things well and truelly under controll, i too leave my mothers to 2 1/2 weeks no longer thou,i missed one lot of jakes by 1 day and the lot got eaten

his tank is not big enough for the fish he has now - he will have to rehome most of what he has as it grows as they won't have the space. I told him this before he brought these fish but made no impact.

yep full credit to mum and dad and none to me