Faran

You also have to be a licensed importer and only deal with licensed exporters from other countries. Imported plants must be completely sterilized before and after travel, all items must be instected and possibly quarantined, etc etc etc. Best to just deal with some of the better plant shops around. I think pupuke are pretty good for plants...

Thanks mate, it's a pleasure to finally get some wee fishies off ya! We managed to get a peek of him last night lurking behind the tree trunk in his new tank. Haven't seen it today but that's to be expected. I have a small (literally tiny) school of Galaxy Rasboras to watch until it comes out and socializes And for the record, yes, I bought the Gold Nugget from ilah, and it was all in the works before this thread and the thought of Luke getting both. Sorry anyways, Luke!

The importer where mine came from was Brooklands. Hefty price tag for a little 1-1.5cm fish... and they're almost fully grown! Just got home with mine and they're floating in the bag so still quite washed out of colour. Beautiful fish, I'll try and put some pics up when they've coloured up, but perhaps Billaney will before I do??

Would definitely pass on the Boyus unless you can get a REALLY good price on them. I'd say 30lpm would be WAY overkill for a single fishtank, unless you have a dozen other tanks to bleed off to. As for fishrooms, I have a distribution contract for a 60lpm pump that makes the noise of a single air pump. Same item you'll see in your local pet shop running all the tanks, but half the price.

So my nugget finally arrived after some major mucking around by the couriers in Auckland. Glad my locals aren't that grumpy about sending fish! Here's a pic of him/her settling in to the new digs. As you can see, it will have a tank full of fancy plecs surrounded by colourful discus and plants. Rough life. Now here's an opinion that I need from all you catfish lovers out there. What type of Gold Nugget is it? L018/L085? L177? L081?

They'll get along fine, but he won't feel as happy as if he had a little group of the same fish with him. There was a breeder of sterbais in... Tauranga? that had heaps a while back, I think Alan (moderator) knows who I'm referring to. I have a school of 12 sterbais in my big tank and they're lovely fish. If you decide to rehome your loner let me know, I have a nice spot for him

LOL smidey ilah, if the eggs are fine one day and going bad the next it means that the parents need to take better care of them. If unfertilised you will know within an hour of laying, as some will look healthy and the others will be distinctly uncoloured. So I'm guessing it's not fertilization. My guess would be that mom or dad is preoccupied with what's going on in or near the tank. Make sure they have a nice quiet spot with little to no distractions and everything should work out fine. 80% daily water changes? Seems a bit overboard to me.

All the large Royals (even L90s) are amazing creatures when over 15cm and just get more impressive as they get larger. If you ever get to hold one, it's like a living statue. Imagine a slab of concrete with a pulse. As for humans and the environment, between huge numbers of wild gorillas being wiped out by E. Coli and no more freshwater dolphins in the Yangtze River I don't have much hope for nature when I hear that even a creature like the Polar Bear is endangered cuz the ice caps will be gone in 20 years....

Sorry to burst your bubble, but albino BNs aren't likely a cash cow. They have proven highly unpopular in overseas markets unless a long-finned variety, and have quickly moved into the same price bracket as normal colour BNs. So it honestly makes no diff if your ABNs are spitting out normal or albinos, it's very likely they'll all sell for the same price anyways. This is a virgin market, but I haven't seen much excitement over ABNs to date. Best of luck with your breeding anyways!

Gannet, hard to tell from that tiny picture but yeah, could be. Jono - have a long way to go mate, as you'll see on Thursday they're still tiny.

Just a quick update - fry have left the cave and are now cruising the tank looking for food. They haven't touched the plecochips and I'm hesitant about adding more BBS as it means water changes, which can be deadly to young Ancistrus, so I'm trying to give them some nice fresh courgette, which they seem to be interested in The obvious question is, how many are there? I'd venture to say about 40 made it (including the ones I saved) thus far, and though I haven't seen any dead young, I'm sure some have passed along the way. I lost a handful of GBAs yesterday after an uneventful water change, so I'm sure something was off, just don't know how it affected the young L182s in the next tank over. Here's a quick snap I just took. Please note that this is a separate and much smaller cave than previously shown when they were staying with poppa.

Stunning little fishie, congrats. I have a large female snowball pleco that would make a nice addition to your collection when the itch starts going again (hint, hint)

Research tells me that Royals have only been recorded to breed once in captivity. This was an established pair that was given a 500L tank full of rotting logs to themselves when it finally happened. Putting two rather large royals in a 200L tank seemed like disaster from the start... But hey, good on him for trying! We all make mistakes and if it had worked we'd all be singing his praises right now. With species disappearing everyday from the native environs we're really going to have to up our breeding in the future or we simply won't have any fish left in the trade aside from what the small percentage of dedicated breeders have going on...

I'm absolutely sick of my glass/ceramic diffuser and definitely keen to go for one of them Elite thingies (with upgraded suction cups). It may look nicer but I can't be fussed anymore. Thanks for the tip, guys!

It's an all-in-one unit and works out approximately like this - dual guage regulator $150, Solenoid (made in germany) $125, Needle valve $40, JBJ bubble counter $60. BUT this is a complete unit and won't be separated or disassembled, prices above are purely for educational purposes. These are specialtly items and require no extra costs of fittings or connectors to put them together or get going (obviously) which saves a lot of time and hassle when DIYing it. You may find it a bit cheaper to build your own, but they don't look nearly as nice and can result in a lot of headaches. Then again, if you can get a second hand reg with needle valve on trademe for $80 you can go down to your local plumber and pay $200 for a solenoid and maybe $20 for connections and still come out less expensive. edit - forgot about a bubble counter. Pill bottle style ones are $30 so you can STILL come out cheaper, just not as flash looking...

You could always construct some kind of barrier to keep the hatchets corraled in the open top tank but if they get going they really can fly over anything they want. So, for the most part it looks like you have an amazon theme biotype going? Be careful about what plants you put in the tank, as "stemmy" plants will need constant pruning in a CO2 and high light tank. I'd recommend using some for the background and possibly sides, but use medium height plants for the centre of the tank. Then again, you might appreciate the value in the cuttings on TradeMe. A very good way to finance the hobby

Tank looks great and nice work getting quality gear to put it together. One note I should mention is that those hatchet fish and an open topped tank are a very bad combination.

Wicked. You may also want to try White Cloud Mountain Minnows or Red skirt phantoms. Both will be considerably hardier than wild-caught Galaxies... and at least half the price... If you want to go REALLY small you might want to try and find Amber Tetras.

Sounds like you got a Starlight on your hands. The other species is a L183 which has white seams on the fins. Starlights are reported to grow up to 12" but normally only get to 8" (20cm) in captivity. If he came in as a tamboenesis there shouldn't be white speckles over the body, just a very pronounced hexagonal marking that would look different to a normal Ancistrus Sp. (Common Bristlenose). I never saw the value in a $200 fish that looked just like a common, really. Pictures of your shop fish would help in proper identification. Thanks to a helpful forum member there's a little touch up to my photos. Here they are for your review -

Yup, same fellas that bred the 12mm danionela "world smallest fish". Billaney's pretty much an expert on breeding danios and, well, everything else so he'll prolly be the first in NZ, but I'm gonna give em a go anyways. Then again, I'll probably take a month to even getting around to it

I have some on order and will be happy to give them a go at breeding, though it's only been done once with no viable offspring, so don't hold your breath!

Day 4 of my online journal, fry are doing very well but this is the crucial time when going off yolk and onto food. I haven't seen a single one so much as touch a pleco chip or courgette, so will be sprinkling the bottom of the tank with a little BBS to stimulate feeding. Poppa Starlight is still keeping most of them from venturing amongst the tank (even though it's completely empty) but a few have managed to escape and are darting madly around the tank when I stroll by. So here's todays pic! Poppa with a small army of little clones surrounding him in the cave...

I hate to step in and contradict all of the valuable opinions expressed above, but my belief is that you had a tubifex worm infestation. Get some fish for the tank and all will come right. Snails are great for algae control but hardly fill enough gaps for a mini ecosystem. As you have a small planted tank with no other fish may I recommend the new Galaxy Rasboras? They're a bit more pricey but a setup like yours would be PERFECT for them, specially with the tubifex infestation

Looks great but my only suggestion would be to rip out that hygro and replace it with a sword plant with strong leaves. The hygro doesn't have enough structure for them to feel secure laying on or moving fry onto. Congrats on the spawning! We'll be doing some trades in the future, I'm guessing

Stop in Animates and ask if they have any spares in the bottom of the plant bins or sitting around somewhere...