magenta

My wife wanted me to say you should get your dream glider first - she wanted to renovate the bathroom before we started fish-keeping. Luckily she likes the fish too. as for the bathroom... ahem Personally, I think you should get a nice 4 ft tank, it will help distract your wife from the new glider you got *as well* Maintaining a tank isnt hard at all, its more a matter of getting into a routine, you'll get heaps of help from all the experts on this forum - they really kinow their stuff. Cheers, Hamish

Now you're talking. Every time we go to Redwood we come home wanting to set up a marine tank... Do you go to Organism on Ilam Rd as well? They're excellent in there also - very helpful for us newbies.

We are newish to the hobby and like you started off with a couple of goldfish that were given to our daughter... We spent alot of time mucking around, and wished we had just bought something like this: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 073142.htm Expensve I know, but it has everything, and you could play around with tropicals - it has a heater too Soon enough, you'll be stocking a nice 4ft anyway... Cheers, Hamish and Melissa

Hi everyone Hamish and Melissa from Christchurch here ...well it all started when our 5 year old daughter was given a small fish tank with 2 goldfish in it about 10 months ago. We soon found out we were not good goldfish parents Step in hubby, who says "those Aqua One AR510 tanks look nice, lets get one and try tropicals". So there we were, we started with a half-dozen neons... Lets just say the bug got us and we now know the LFS staff by name - we realised that at full size we would have too many fish for a 75L - so obviously we needed to buy another one So in the dining room at the moment, is an AR120 (4ft - 300L approx), waiting for an extra powerpoint to be wired in. The spark of a healthy MTS has definitely taken hold. How did we find this site? Melissa's other addiction was Trademe - searching through the pets and animals message board waiting for the elusive threads about tropical fish, when someone mentioned this site... So now she spends most evenings scouring the FNZAS boards, drooling over all of your wonderful tanks. This is a great site everyone, we're really enjoying it. Cheers, Hamish and Melissa

Hi BlueandKim, We paid $130 for our spotty pleco. We are new to the hobby and really have no idea how much we should be paying for fish. We just loved him as soon as we saw him peeking out from behind a rock. Pleased to know he does not retail for as little as the two bristle noses we have. Now that would have been embarrassing! :oops: Cheers, Hamish and Melissa

Thanks Penejane and Catbrat, I'd love to give you some more photos - but at the moment he/she is hidden at the back of the tank, behind the driftwood. He/she looks like a different fish today - darker skin (probably a lot less stressed), spots still creamy to yellow rather than white. I posted on Planet Catfish last night too - it was a bit late for Kiwis - and they seem to think it will by a Hypancistrus inspector too I updated my profile - we're in Christchurch,NZ Are these common here? What should I have paid for one? (dare I ask) Cheers, Hamish

Hi all, We bought this wee fella at the LFS today, we like his spots - but we don't know what he is: (will he want our new 4ft tank all to himself? ) Any help identifying him would be much appreciated. Thanks in advance