Faran

Hi Lynne, You'll need to get them their own 100L tank in order to raise fry. It sounds like you have a good pair, there. What colour(s) are they?

Hmm... arowanas with discus... who woulda thought...

My educated guess would be algae bloom. Best treated with a few days of no lights on in the tank and covering the tank if in a room with a lot of natural lighting.

Yup, 600mm is minimum and you'd be dragging out the FX5 any time you wanted to connect or disconnect a hose as they attach vertically. Be sure and have enough 1" hose to reach a window to use the FX5 for water changes. Should take you about 2 minutes to drain 100L using the filter to pump it out. If you can't get the titanium heaters the SS ones work just as well. Other things to think about.... hmm, is your floor strong enough to support the weight of the tank? Household insurance - NZ Insurance companies require you to tell them if you have a tank over 600L. Lighting - you can figure this out on your own... Think just about everything is covered. Time to go fishing and get some critters for that tank!

They'll hatch within 72 hours and will be 1-2mm. You'll see dad grabbing them as they fall from the egg and he'll spit them back into the nest. A few days later you need to remove dad as well and let the kids grow up. In the meantime, feed the female well and she'll be ready for another go as soon as you have another male with a bubble nest.

Google could have answred this for you with the first result - Males are belligerent towards one another, although otherwise a peaceful species that can be combined with peaceful fish. Small fish may be preyed upon. Pretty much the same as my leopard ctenopoma. Wicked to watch when you drop a guppy in the tank...

When they're done she'l go hide somewhere and he will protect the nest. Carefully remove the female and make sure not to disturb the nest or the male. She'll be pretty weak after the spawning so shouldn't give you much of a fght.

I think an FX5 will circulate it plenty Output in the middle with one nozzle pointed in each direction... I'd get 3x 300W stainless steel heaters. Heck, you might even have the top-end titanium heaters over in OZ... haven't seen them here in NZ yet. These are particularily useful with large fish as they won't get destroyed from chewing or knocking, no damage from rocks falling on them and the external control module is VERY handy as reaching in a tank that size is a bit of a mission.

heaters rarely have accurate thermostats on them. Best to find an accurate thermometer and gauge the tanks using that. Figure out how off the thermometers on each tank may be (including the aqa-minder) and make a note on each one to remind yourself. As for the original topic, 2 degrees above and below the normal temp is what I do with my aqua minders. That simple. Alarm goes off during water changes, but you learn to live with it.

An auckland member was selling a similar tank not too long ago on TradeMe and if it wasn't such a hassle to ship down to WGTN it'd be in my living room already. Nice plans and would be great to have such interesting native freshwater fish. The little prehistoric NZ natives are all cold water and not very attractive or entertaining. I run a FX5 and highly recommend it. As for the rocks, it all depends on the thickness of the glass base, what bracing you will have and what stand/support the base will have. I recommend lots of support and a layer of poly both under the tank and under the substrate with a rocky tank that large. The idea will be to spread the weight as much as possible to avoid damageing the glass.

Hi PJ, As Caryl said you're blaming an entire group for the actions of an individual, which is prejudicial and stereotyping. While I agree that the actions described are wrong you need to deal with that person directly instead of trying to get a reaction through the forums. May I suggest that you report any misconduct (using this site to bypass an auction) to a Moderator via PM? I personally think that if the fish were that desirable that the person should have bid on the auction and won. Either the original bidder or the other person that had it withdrawn. The seller of course has the option to do whatever they wish, including withdrawing the auction.... No point going on a rant about this. What's done is done and getting a big reaction in the forums does nothing but cause more problems. Let one of the staff know what happened and hopefully everything will be set right. Question is, who will end up with the killies? Time will tell...

Wow, that's a cool fish. Never seen them in NZ before. I have a Ctenopoma acutirostre and think they're amazing fish. Have you seen ornate ctenopomas in the shops?

Ah, you know. Trying to hold a slippery catfish with one hand and take a picture with the other. Next thing you know you have a picture of an empty hand and a catfish making a break for freedom across the carpet.... Sadly enough I wasn't around to stop my pair of Hoplos when they made their prison break the other day. Found the dessicated carcasses completely mummified but I DID try putting them in water, just in case. You never know with catfish. So l048 it is. Too bad it's such a monster. Not much of a market for large plecs as they need big tanks and can't be bred easily. I'll prolly keep this one and put him in a large discus display tank with Royals. He's growing out with discus at present so it's fitting.

Hey Jake, thanks for the input. I thought Laura was dead on it but the body shape didn't quite match up - the opal spotted plec doesn't have any tapering through the abdomen on the way to the tail, therefore the "spotted cigar pleco" common name. The L048 juvenile looks spot on and the number of rays in the fins match up as well. Was thinking it was a goldie when I saw the tooth structure, therefore the mouth close-ups in the album shots (scuse the hairs, he had a close encounter with the carpet moments before the photo shoot). So yeah, an interesting fish and will be even scarier than my 16cm snowball when it grows up to 30cm.... Impressive fish with the fine speckling though.

Had the same prob in one of my tanks as of late. I increased filtration about 3x and did heaps of water changes to no avail. Answer was simply leaving the lights off for a few days in a dark room.

http://www.trademe.co.nz/Business-farmi ... 566123.htm would be my suggestion for a water container. With some proper shopping around you can get one for $50 to $100 - it holds 5x as much and even has a tap on the bottom.

So a friend asked me to sell a pleco he had lurking in one of his tanks and I honestly can't identify it 100%. I initially thought it was a snowball pleco but it has gold eyes and no black edge to the dorsal and caudal fin like my snowball. Other suggestions from a catfish-pro are L004/5/28/73 or L201 but I've now managed to get some pics to help identify it. To be honest, I would think it was a goldie/sunshine plec if it didn't have dark fins.. any suggestions are appreciated. The pics on Photobucket can be found by clicking here.

Sometimes it takes them a few tries to get it right. Try raising them artificially (airstone for circulation).

He may have cleaned the cave and not recognized them. Recommend removing the eggs and placing in a small container with an air stone for circulation. Otherwise you can try putting the eggs back in the cave and hope for the best. Good luck!

I have a baitcatcher that I picked up from a local fish club garage fundraiser. I was planning on rigging something to try and catch loaches but Pegasus or Alan taught me the PVC tube method and I never had to try. Planning on using it for catching some slippery little guys for live food in the future though. I can check with the fish club to see if they have any left over?

Congrats, bro!

i prefer stainless for the ease of use. Hate sticking my hands in tanks to adjust temps, with the external controller you know exactly what it's set at and make adjustments instantly. On/off light is clear and easy to read.too. Have managed to switch to stainless steel heaters in most of my tanks and have only had one tank on me but it was quite a few years old.

/me takes a quick poke at Dark... So by this do you mean yourself, as an example, walking into the LFS and buying that loud-as pump even though the shopkeeps told you it was a loud bugger or others following personal experience of what is loud or not by looking at the pumps which they found exceptionally silent or loud? In my personal experience I'd never touch your lawn mower with a 10 foot pole, even if it was in a box buried under my house. Now the silent ones that I see around that run entire fishrooms, like Discusguru, Alan (heard rather than seen), Hutt Pets, etc, THOSE I strive to acquire; and when someone such as yourself make a statement that it's extremely loud and "can be heard from the front of the shop" I go visit the shop and in this case determined for myself that you were absolutely wrong about the noise it emits. I held my head against it and simply heard a tick-tick-tick and hopefully others will do the same. It's a 15 year old pump made by the people that have become Yasunaga and still works a treat. Not only that, there's a huge tank between the front counter and the L.A.P. which filters and aerates a Giant Gourami, so are you sure you're even thinking about the right pump? The one I'm talking about is on top of the tanks in the back, ask Ben to show you if you're not sure. Not sure where you're getting the info that the Japanese knocked off some European company for linear air pump technology. Must be the Dutch superiority in you taking over

Yeah, I really think you're basing your opinions on the linear air pumps on the chinese knock-offs. The proper Japanese ones can be installed anywhere - unless you're prone to be annoyed by the ticking of second hands on wall clocks, that is. Went to two large breeders setups in Auckland yesterday. One had air compressors for running the tanks and it was similar to having a lawn mower in the room with you. Then there was the other breeder with a Yasunaga sitting silently on a shelf running.... 24? tanks (this is a guesstimate). He DID have a Chinese version in the other fish room and it was a noisy little bugger but looked the same on the outside. The more time I spend with *edit* products, the less I like them....

LOL, you Marine guys are nutters. I doubt any freshies would ever think of spending $600+ on some water flow and a couple extra liters But on that same thought, you obviously have different needs and wants to a freshwater aquaruist and I appreciate that. The FX5 would be a great "stream" (I think that's what you call them) for about... what, half the price? Dual output is nice, too bad it doesn't rotate for reef tanks...