Faran

Welcome to the forums! Sounds like aae1, but he's more Kapiti than Manawatu so I'm probably off the mark there. Anyways, glad to have you here and we'll all help where and when we can!

I guess this advice is a bit late, but this is the best thing to do no matter where the eggs came from - http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/artifi ... 13000.html

Just hit it with the E. Can't go wrong, I don't know of any plants that are affected by it, and watching the BGA die is sooo worthwhile. I recommend leaving the lights off the day before use and only a few hours per day while treating the tank to minimize the amount of dead BGA you'll have to clean up afterwards.

Was this found in a native waterway? I've heard reports of a plant similar to this in Levin.

Yup, like he said. Spider, if you have any left over after you're done let me know. I'll need a LOT of that stuff soon. At that price there's no going wrong even if you have 10L sitting around anyways. PS- Hardware shops are the place to get Daltons. Mitre 10 Mega always has it sitting around in the gardening section.

Thanks for the fix, Alan. I was trying to show the difference in mouth shape of a ventral view to compare with the common BN pic above. GOOD NEWS!!! Thanks to CatBrat and his great spotting, a male GMB or "Matto Grosso" is on te way down to keep my lovely ladies busy. Whew. 12 of the remaining 13 eggs hatched out. One of the lfry is a bit gimpy and will probably be culled but I'll give it a few days to see how they absorb yolk sacs. Obviously, I don't want to cull ANY of these wee fellas!

http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... age_id=488

Yes, I'd have to say it's a common BN. Sorry mate, would LOVE to find another male in NZ! Here's a pic of a ventral view of a GMB for comparison. Note the different mouth shape and the more defined tapering of the body - http://www.planetcatfish.com/images/ful ... laro/4.jpg I believe the claro (GMB) has a white belly as well...

Sorry, never covered the Ancistrus crossbreeding. The answer is yes, but I've never done it and it's discouraged amongst breeders and hobbyists to cross pretty much anything. Regular BNs and GBAs are a classic example, they cross breed all the time.

Starting with markings, the GMB has speckles on the bristles of the males, regular BNs do not. Body markings are reticulated rather than just spots. Body shape is shorter (7cm max full grown) with defined tapering to a very narrow base of tail and a smaller tail than BNs (compared to body). The most definitive indicator is the mouth shape, which is very oval compared to the BNs round mouth. And that's just starters. Unless you've ordered them in from a wholesaler the likelyhood is that you don't have one. Where did yours come from? Happy to help.

Congrats Paul! If anyone could do it, it was you!

Thanks for all the support everyone, some days you just want to walk away when you lose something... well, priceless/irreplaceable, actually. Kim lost her grandfather and I lost the only male breeding GMB in NZ, and it all happened within a hour. Did my rounds in a pretty somber mood, wondering what dead or sick fish lurked in the next tank.... But it's a good day in the fishroom, as little GMBs were hatching out. With my "above average" temps this is a day before schedule (or perhaps the eggs were laid a day before I came across them) but I'm not complaining. Day 4 - Hatch

My momma always told me not to count my male golden marble bristlenose before they hatched... k, not those exact words, but close

Thanks hun, been a long sad morning with the death of Kim's grandfather as well.

Well, no more worrying about poppa kicking the eggs out of the cave. Did my rounds this morning and found him bloated to an extreme degree. Did everything I could to try and save him in his final hours but I was way behind and couldn't catch up. Gutted. Only 12 of the original 17 eggs remain. Can see eyes developing now, but just too sad to even blog the progess at the mo. Will update when/if they hatch...

As long as they're well fed they're fine with plants. Let them go hungry (green matter, not wood) and they'll chew the stalks of sword plants to shreds. Mind you, this is all fine if you have one or two wood eating plecs in the tank; but when you have a dozen, bye-bye nicely planted tank! There's a young gentleman from the forums that was recently selling a good size Royal on TradeMe for around $100, but I believe his love was rekindled and he decided to keep it. A fish importer in Papakura reportedly still has a 20cm specimen for $180. A fish this size would be worth somewhere in the hundreds in America, but a limited market in New Zealand seems to kill value in larger fish.

L046 is an extremely rare fish in the trade as the natural habitat was damaged, none are wild caught, and only a few breeders manage to keep them in the trade. The last ones in NZ were over $600 each and they will probably never be seen again. Royal Plecs are caught in the wild and transported thousands of miles to your local shop. How am I so sure? Only one reported breeding in captivity EVER and that was a 500L tank to themselves and a lot of luck. When dealing with plecs and catfish keep in mind that they have lifespans nuch longer than most fish in your local shop so you're getting value for money. In the end, beauty is in the eye of the beholder and you'll either find them worth the price tags or not. Here's a couple pics of my Royals - Juvenile male 12cm Gold Line Royal with entourage of Golden Leopard Corys Young adult female 17cm Royal with entourage of GBAs

So was I. I read that they lay only semi adhesive clutches of 20-35 eggs so was keeping an eye on them carefully "just in case" and I'm glad I did! I think I'll try and raise one end of the cave like recommended, makes a lot of sense. I've found that daddies are easily fussed when their homes get played with though. Hope if I do it doesn't cause another 6 months wait like the Starlights! K, back to fussing over the new additions to the family!

LOL fishboi, I was gonna PM you and a few others specifically when it happened, but figured a post on here would get the news out faster. Seems to have worked! Honestly didn't believe it when I saw it, guys. I had a feeling that they were at it in the comm tank in the past, but never caught poppa with a clutch. If he's a "bad father" and blew out the eggs every time, they would have had a VERY short life span in a tank full of corys At least I know why the pandas were always so fat now...

You can get chelated iron for a fraction of the cost and add it to your tank for red plants. This won't matter at all if you're not running at least 0.5w/l though. Have you looked into making your own Poor Mans Dosing Drops (PMDD - DIY fertiliser)? You can customize a formula for your tank with the aid of a couple test kits... Speaking of test kits, that's the answer to the original question. Get an Iron Test Kit from your LFS and find out yourself!

Really wish the ferry wasn't so expensive... would be GREAT to visit our neighbours just across the ditch. Best wishes!

There should be 20 or so still darting around in there. I was going to whip tem into a smaller tank but with this new spawn... well, let's just say I'm working a little harder on getting the fishroom completed

Big thanks to Jammos for two females (not quite a pair, but oh well), kylefish02 for making the male and other female available, and a BIG thanks to rcon for letting me buy kyle's fishies, even though he had first dibs! That said, there's a LONG way to go, but thanks for the best wishes. LOL Caryl, yup, just need a macro lens for it!

Shop prices range from $100 to $200 for these fellas depending on what they were imported as. Sad to say I probably won't be selling any of this first F1 spawn as they'll become breeding stock - this all depends on the numbers left and sexes, of course.

Well, it's a good month for breeding fancy plecs in NZ. First my new years surprise from my A. Punctatus and now a late christmas pressie from my A. Claros. Sad to say the cave may be on the large size as the eggs came flying out when poppa started flapping, but a quick rescue and a deposit into a DIY egg tumbler as my article here leaves me with 17 eggs. Here's some more info on this species of Ancistrus, including the Planetcatfish link - Gold Marbled Bristlenose (LDA08) - 1x 6cm adult (M), 3x 6cm adult (F)