alextret

I wonder if it is possible to breed them "out of season".

Thank you very much for the info. Found them at http://www.summit.com.au/html/hl350.htm Look awesome.

I wonder, what would be the easiest way to get a stand to put 4 or 5 100 or so liter tank on top of each other? Are there any standard "shelving solutions" that would allow to do it? Preferably, something that would not involve drilling walls etc.

Quite amazing. I thought they need salt water.

Who would know, which of NZ species were bred in captivity? Apart from crays.

What is the lowerst temperature cories can stand? It seems like usually they are not regarded as cold water species.

Hi, Dennis, What kind of fish do you have in them?

For how much time would I need to keep guppy females in isolation (from males) to ensure that they are no longer pregnant?

My minnows happily coexist with mosquito larvae. They do eat some, but not all of them. Somehow, minnows decided that they are really bottom dwellers, and would not catch anyting in the upper layers.

have two tanks with a single filter, syphoned through. Very easy to set up, if suitable tubes are available. One of them holds guppy females, and another - guppy fry, so the uniformity in temperature etc. is desirable.

Payless plastics and, probably, other similar stores sell a device for syphoning oil etc. I do not know how to call it. It has a hand pump to start it off, so no need to suck. Apart from safety, it is also much faster, and works every time. Costs 4 dollars or something like that. I have several. Make water changes much easier.

Mine spawned with no substrate at all this year. I'd think that in a 30l tank there would be higher risk that they'll eat the fry.

Thank you very much for your answers, I'll keep an eye on trademe. I have a small outside pond that produces enough to feed ten adult fishes. I'm sure it should have more than enough infusoria, daphnia naupli etc. to feed fry, if I could only catch them.

I have three pairs of Degati in a 90 liters tank with a filter. They appear to breed from time to time, so small fry appear, and then disappear as they get eaten or die for some other reason. Would it make sense to set up a floating breeding net and transfer fry into it? It would be interesting to grow some of them, but I am not keen on setting up a separate tank at the moment, not for small numbers of fry with unknown chance of survival. Also, can I feed the fry with whatever I catch in my outside pond with fine-meshed net? I am not keen on hatching brine schrimp because air pumps make too much noise.

I believe that daphnia naupli are even smaller than brine schrimp naupli. But to catch them one would need a "brine schrimp net", which is dense enough not to let them through. So far, I could not figure out where to get a "brine schrimp net".

Malasian river schrimp is in NZ, but never made it into acquarium trade. They just grow it for food. It is hot water.

My schrimps eat pleco chips. They eat rotting parts of plants too. They do not eat algae fast enough to keep sides of the tank clean.

I wonder if someone tried Hydor ARIO 1 Turbo Air Pump http://www.aquariumproducts.com.au/category8_1.htm Do we have them in NZ? As far as I can tell, they should be using a small powerhead to create venturi effect, so it probably is not suitable for plankton-friendly setups (e.g. - for hatching brine schrimp).

Mine "trademe" schrimps eat spirulina tablets (pleco chips). It takes them about 3 days to finish one tablet. Info about breeding at http://www.geocities.com/demitri1977/shrimp/ suspiciously reminds of Daphnia. Would be interesting to hear someone to confirm that it does happen this way. Speaking of Daphnia, they are happily multiplying in my schrimp tank, quite uninvited. Unlike schrimps themselves, who, I suspect, are still all male.

The cheaper option that works very well for me is fine grind oats. Spirulina appears to have two advantages: 1) Fish that eat whiteworms raised on spirulina also eat spirulina inside warms, which is healthier (for fish) than "kitchen" foods. 2) Various pests, such as fly larvae, appear to be less fond of spirulina than of "kitchen" foods. Also, some of my fishes eat spirulina directly (e.g., guppies are quite crazy about it) and I am using small quantities of spirulina as supplementary feed for daphnia cultures. I am not entirely sure how effective it is on daphnia, daphnias are a bit of a mystery. But in terms of quantity that they potentially can consume, white worms are leading by a big margin.

I wonder if anyone has an experience in purchasing animal grade spirulina. Spirulina appears to be a perfect food for white warms (who appear to turn somewhat greenish on it). But they consume it way too fast, feeding them pharmaceutical grade one is too expensive.

I think I tried last summer Litoria Aurea (Usually known as green and golden bell frogs) and Litoria ewingii ( Whistling tree frogs or brown tree frogs) I found Litoria ewingii much more hardy. And they looked very different. Litoria ewingii - black and small, and Litoria Aurea - larger and green. That is, if I identified them correctly. The way I understand it, if the tadpoles were taken from a different area, releasing them could be not OK. Not sure of the details, though.

One of my guppies developed some kind of a white spot on its head. So I promptly proceeded to isolate it. This proved however not so easy. When I put the net into the tank, it puts all 20 or so female guppies in a frenzy, they move around very fast, so I can not track the one I want to catch (the abnormality can only be seen from a certain angle). The only sure way appears to be to remove floating plants and equipment, to catch all the guppies, place them in a narrow water, and then to pick the one I want to get rid of. Is there a better way?

How do they manage to prevent salt water from mixing with fresh water and still allow brine shrimp out? I could not figure out from looking at the pictures. Unless shrimps can walk over a dry area (which they can't), it appears to contravene the second law of thermodynamics.

I have two tanks outside, which have no algae problems most of the time. That is, there is some algae growing on the bottom, but not much on the sides. Water gets yellow at the top of summer, but not for a very long time - and clears by itself. The main problem with tanks outside is the temperature and lighting - not for fishes but for humans. I find that I do not take much care for these tanks in winter - it is cold and dark when I get home from work. But minnows that inhibit them appear to be doing OK and are growing - even though I did not feed them for more than half a year. I'm sure, gold fish would do fine as well. Plants (apart from the "native" algae at the bottom) are not doing very well - I could not find a plant that would survive all year round. I should observe that the sort of algae growing at the bottom appers to be exactly the same as in Manawatu river.