Faran

Get some Silaflex RTV and patch the hole from the inside. Chris Downs should be able to help with that, if you haven't spoken to him already. I guess kids are the best thing since Lassie for telling people about trouble, aye?

I'm pretty sure a shop in Auckland just sold a 30ish-cm Ornate for $390. I just inhaled a lot of CO2 so my brain might not be working right!

Nice.... I've always had a thing for spiders and scorpions and am quite envious of a friend who has moved to Oz and started collecting "Bird Eating Spiders" or what I'd call Taratulas. Here's a pic of me and one of my 'temporary pets' when I lived in WGTN city and had a whole back yard of them. Always assumed they were Black tunnelweb spider (Porrhothele antipodiana) but never researched it conclusively. Kim witnessed one being hunted, stung and dragged away by a Golden Hunter Wasp, but the pics aren't very clear - Whiskas, did ur spider look anything like this? I assume they're too heavy to spread their weight over water surface enough to allow the tension to support them, but ya never know. Nature is amazing.

Nice work on the overflow corner weir. I assume you'll be using a Durso Stand Pipe in there? I've heard a dual durso decreases sound, but it looks very difficult to get in there and make adjustements....unless that corner triangle is removable over the weir! Ah ha! Well thought out and executed. Your fronnies will be very happy!

Go Fish Pron!!!! Nice vid, thanks for sharing

That's a cool lookin fish. First time I've ever seen even a pic of them, but I haven't been to pet shops too often as of late. Best of luck finding some!

Hey Billaney, how are things going with your spawning of these guys? I've got about a dozen fry and one early survivor is almost full grown. About to give them a couple tanks to do it properly...

I would recommend Anubias and Red Melon Swords.

Yup, that's correct. You'll need to buy it from your local dealer. I was just letting you know the make and model

I use a standard "Discus Tucker" from Biosuppliers in Auckland. It's good stuff, but a bit too coarse for feeding young fish. I suppose it has the benefits of not going through radiation to get imported, either

As I'm always on the lookout for excellent frozen beef heart mixtures I contacted Redwoods and was told this - So enjoy your Schlingmanns while it lasts!

The stuff I sent you is perfectly legal and allowed in NZ

They are absolutely stunning babies, aye? Congrats again and best of luck raising them!

Well, NZ Discus claims to have bred these "20 odd years ago" but that's a mystery to us plec fans as they weren't really discovered/exported until a few years ago.... he did an import of fairly inexpensive ones a little over a year ago now. As for price, the only ones available in shops any more are from a different lot than the adults that many of us now own and are trying to breed. As they've made a stop in Singapore the price has gone up dramatically with that additional middle-man, so if you're lucky enough to see one for anything less that $150 it's a good price. Exciting bro! Best of luck with that! That's a nice fish for a great price! Do you mean you only had him for a few weeks when that pic was taken, or you no longer have it? I see him in your current thread about "beetroot" so assume he's still alive and living in your tank?

Hi Wilson, The best resource is planetcatfish.com. From the home page look at the common name "Cat-eLog" and find the fish you're researching, then scroll down to the common name(s) for the L number. My original post from the first page of this thread has carefully made links for each of the fish to the planetcatfish website. Cheers!

The fish sold as "Peru Striped Panaques" are commonly known as Flash Plecs and given the L-number L204. You can find more info on the species here on PlanetCatfish - http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/sp ... ies_id=126 Here's some pics of one of mine... Some by Andrew_W... And some by flatfish, including a link to his attempts at breeding... http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/flash- ... highlight= They're expensive fish, but one of my faves and worth every penny to a pleco-fanatic!

Aqua One is pretty good at using odd sized bulbs (like 30 inches) which electrical wholesalers will not carry. You're best buying them from your local pet shop, but take the bulbs down to Mitre 10 and Advance Electrical first and see if they can help you out. As for buying bulbs online, I've tried in the past and it was a bit overwhelming as I didn't know much about the actual bulbs at the time. Now I can tell you to look for "Daylight" or 6500K temp bulbs as a general rule, but this only applies to freshwater tanks.

As mentioned, I ran into a discus breeder in Auckland last year that uses the same technique, even now.

plecs tend to stay at the sides of the tank and on driftwood, while synos and other nocturnal fish go pretty much anywhere. If a discus is "touched" during night time, they will go racing through the tank and end up smashing into the glass.... worse yet, the whole group of discus tend to do this when one does.

Half a lifetime ago I was told a "breeders secret" by a discus breeder in California. He told me that the key to killing off the bacteria in the tank was to use hydrochloric acid to drop the pH to 3.5 or 4, which disturbs the fish but doesn't kill them, as long as you fix the PH and seed the tank with beneficial bacteria again. I ended up purchasing a dozen 3cm babies from him that day for $30 (total), and managed to raise 4 of them to adulthood before I gave my tanks and fish to my best friend when I joined the Marines. Last year I ran into a discus breeder who told me about using the same technique. Personally, I was shocked to hear that people were still doing this. I still wonder if it's a humane or ethical thing to do. Can we discus whether or not you as a fish owner/breeder find this a proper thing to do? Personally, I've seen MANY advances in the keeping of fish in the last 20 years. I don't see any reason to do something like this to your fish when so many antibiotics and medicines are available, unless you're too stingy or lazy to find out the actual problem and medicate it....

Your main problem with the BGK and birchir is that they are nocturnal and will hunt at night. Discus don't like things moving around in the water around them at night, so catfish like Synodontis are also out, but plecs are fine. Hope that clarifies it for you

Candy - you can raise discus in planted tanks with no problems, but be sure and get nothing smaller than a 5cm body size. You can get 5cm discus from breeders for as low as $50 (rather than $35 for a 3cm fish) and will save you about 3 months of growing, about 50% of casualties, and you'll end up with better quality of fish as you will be able to see the markings developing rather than just getting some tiny little silver discs that you HOPE will grow into the strain promised/sold. Mod Note: Paragraph removed, as you are seeking an unfavourable reaction from another member. Stay on topic please.. and start another thread if you want to discuss other issues. Thread is being monitored. Bill Mod. Hormone treatment is still happening overseas, ask people that have visited/worked overseas. Imported fish are only worth anything if wild caught, in my opinion. The "asian fish farm" discus all may be wonderfully coloured, but have some serious health issues later on and die for no apparent reason when locally bred fish survive with no problems. That's enough for me to buy local bred rather than imported. As for size issues, you can move young discus away from the parents at 3cm, but transporting them that early/young/small has very high risks. They're discus, and should be treated better. They stress out easier than other fish and need to be handled with kid gloves. These aren't goldfish.

Congrats!!!! I just got 4 of them and they're pretty spectacular fish. Congrats on the spawning and best of luck raising them! Pics when you've separated the young from dad, please. A nice shot of the tank and some details on your water conditions and setup, filtration, etc would be really helpful if this is a first timer.

I think anyone selling disus at 3cm is being greedy and trying to get rid of stock before it dies. I've bought discus from just about every breeder in NZ and recommend Discusguru and Discus Haven but DO NOT recommend the rest due to use of hormones and extremely dangerous chemicals like hydrochloric acid to drop the pH to 3 or 4 and kill off all bacteria. Some call that a "trade secret", I just call it an extreme lack of care and negligence.

Oh, to answer your question of "Where to buy glosso in Palmy?" Animates. If they don't have it, they can order it in for you.