Faran

No problem as they're practically cousins, they co-inhabit an aquarium just find. There's been a lot of bad press about angelfish carrying worms and infecting discus but discus should be de-wormed at least every three months anyways so it's really not an issue.

Bare tanks are easier to clean, accumulate less waste and make it soooo much easier to catch fish. Nice tank bruddah, keep up the good work.

Yup, just try and pick out a chubby female and the best nose of bristles on a male.

There's a picture of a white albino axolotl on a trademe auction but I'm pretty sure that's the one from caudata; matter of fact, I think all the pics are from the internet - http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 937883.htm I have to say this auction bugs me as it sounds like he keeps 10 good sized axies all in a 2ft tank...

I paid $200 for the biggest pair I've ever seen but you can generally get a sexed pair (not proven breeding) of juveniles for $150 from someone rather than paying that much for a single male. I remember a breeder selling a pair of GBAs on TM for $100 but can't see them now. I think shops are still using prices from when they were imports. You can find juveniles in shops for $15-20 now and they're pretty common. Like Mark said, it's fun to buy lil uns and grow em out to breed and can take as little as 6 months.

Funny, CatBrat just started a whole new thread with his planted discus tank. Ah well, this is what mine used to look like last year. Just tore mine apart to fix a leak and pull out about 8L of Xmas Moss so can't put up anything recent.

Salt didn't work, electrical impulses didn't work. They're called Hydra. I used a medication to get rid of them a couple years ago but it's no longer available.

LOL I know. You figure with a dozen guys sporting cameras one of them would have brought along a tripod.

Pavlovian Conditioning, it's basically a "dinner bell" and calls the fish in to feed. Caper, do your fish ever see you coming and rush to the front of the aquarium? Same thing

I would check with my local glass suppliers and see if I could get some of the glass pulgs left over when they drill holes. These are easily siliconed to the lids and provide a nice handle to use. There are many glues that you can use for adhering wood to glass but be sure and do your gluing and curing far away from the aquarium and give it lots of time to settle before using it.

Lovely pictures, you have good skills at fish pics... or lots of patience or a stellar camera! Afraid your eyes are better than mine, or you have a BIG computer screen

Hi Ike, I think the clash with evil is just a misunderstanding. When dealing with tropical fish it's very common to see a person trying to raise a large fish (pacu, giant gourami, ornate birchir, arowana) in a small-ish tank and soon find the need to either part with the fish or jump through hoops trying to get a bigger aquarium. Very often these fish end up on the losing side due to inadequate preparation by the owner. Goldfish are commonly kept in tiny tanks and soon outgrow them. The problem is the owners still seem to think that 3 or 4 adult comets are fine in a 2 foot tank even though they can hardly move. It's this mentality that we try and discourage on the forums and education for prevention is generally the mindset rather than "trashing the noob" Welcome to the forums and we look forward to you sharing your opinions! Blue

I feed blood worms at least twice a week and it's never been an issue, but it's the ones that float away and are found a couple hours later behind decorations that can be a problem - and that goes for any food. Wow, that's a lot of dead discus. The only other thing I can think of is creeping poisoning, which can be caused by many things including old copper pipes. That said it could still be bad food. How many times a day is she feeding them?

If the fish was otherwise healthy and hadn't recently been couriered (within the last 5 days) I would attribute that reaction and sudden death to eating spoiled food. How are the three that you got from me doing?

Nitrate, Nitrite, Ammonia - all 0 pH at or below 7 kH/gH doesn't really matter unless you're breeding and it's not necessary to drastically adjust the general hardness or alkalinity when you first start to keep discus unless the values are very high.

Only seen a few in the country from an import last year but no one's bred them as far as I know. I bred a similar fish - Panaque changae L226 - and have juveniles that I'm still growing out.

Awesome terrarium, well done! You keep frogs with axies? Bit dangerous for the wee froggies if they're still venturing into the water, isn't it? Been feeding my axies live food these last few weeks and they're not bad at hunting at all. Surprisingly fast, actually

$49 tickets from Wellington to Nelson on grabaseat today!!!! They're only from 19-30 May so it'll cover the flight over but not the flight back.

It's Blue, actually. Hutt Pet Centre in Lower Hutt sells many danios and other species for very low prices. WCMMs are $4 and danios are generally $3 each or 10 for $25. Prices vary with availablility and you should always visually inspect your fish for disease before purchasing, like anywhere else. That;s about as cheap as prices get for fish since someone has to breed and feed them somewhere.

Cheers for the info, experience wins over case studies any time

Actually, my first step was contacting their governing body, ERMA (and ended up filing an Official Complaint with them since I was telling them what happened), to check the regs as claimed by the shop. So now when I call he starts ranting and raving about how I should be paying him $300 for a LAB application and how he's been doing this for 30 years etc etc and it really gets no where. Insurance claim isn't really an option because of excess and raised premiums for claims will cost more than the bottle in the long run. As far as I can tell the best resolution at this point will be filing with the Disputes Tribunal as he doesn't even want to listen to reason. Would love to see him start yelling in front of an adjudicator like he does on the phone!

Actually, albinism in axies was developed through hybridization between axolotls and tiger salamanders rather than direct genetic or hormonal modification. See this article under Frankensteinolotl for more info. Mark - Thanks for the pointer on the age of the lotl going through th*******, I didn't know that. Can you point out a case study (through PM preferably) showing that they can be happy healthy morphed adults?

Well the form says "Visual fail/condemned" even though there was nothing previously wrong with the bottle and it had a current test in 2005 which covered it until 2010. I've got a feeling that will be his defense against anything that I throw his way. He clarified today on the phone that the $300 was $150 for the application and an additional $150 for him to file the application....

I think it should be noted here that NATURAL morphing is desired here and not morphing caused by treating juvenile form axies with th******* for adult metamorphosis development. Unnatural metamorphosis is cruel and unusual treatment of an axolotl which induces a huge amount of stress and dramatically shortens the life span of axolotls. I only mention this as varanophile doesn't have a problem with hormone treating frogs for sterility therefore assume that they may be trying to treat axolotls with th******* in order to sell the morphed adults (as a rarity). Please avoid buying hormone treated axies, it's far from a perfect science and the resulting individuals often end up only half transformed with stunted gills yet still confined to water due to underdeveloped lungs.

I've had a 1.5kg Dupla CO2 bottle that I've been using for the last year as a backup and it ran out of CO2. I took it down to the local cylinder service station in Lower Hutt and even though they filled it for me last time this time they said they weren't sure if they could fill it as it didn't have a LAB number. I asked them to check into it and let me know the next day when I picked up my 3.5kg bottle that was being filled. When I returned the next day they informed me that they were confiscating the bottle from me. I was shocked and asked for an explanation and was told that even though it had a current test according to ERMA regs the lack of LAB number meant that it couldn't be returned to me and had to be destroyed. I refused to leave without my bottle and the owner came to me and said he could return it to me but had to make it unusable and I'd have to sign a statement saying that I wanted it back and that they damaged it. I asked to see the ERMA regs, which he said they couldn't do as they didn't have them available. Seeing no other choice I signed the form, watched them take a chisel to the thread on my $300 Dupla bottle and walked away with a pile of junk. So I went home and emailed ERMA. To my surprise they replied saying that there wasn't any LAB number destruction regulation and the bottle should have been returned to me. I called and spoke with the Cylinder Repair guys and they now claimed they destroyed the bottle to "save me money" as the LAB application would have cost $300. Calling other cylinder stations a LAB application only costs $150, so why was it suddenly that reason and why would the LAB application cost $300? Has anyone else had a situation like this? What would you do? With the owner giving me excuses and only offering me a replacement if I spend $300 on a LAB application for a destroyed bottle I don't see much choice other than the DT... I think the destruction was unnecessary and just a ploy to get me to buy the shiny new 5kg bottle they had sitting behind the counter.