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Caryl ... the forms sent for the Palm North club have probably been sent to the house which is now empty. They have moved to Hamilton and Andrew took over the Secretary role. Never mind .. I suppose he will be in touch. (Just in case you don't hear from Andrew, you can send more forms out as soon as possible). I was (and still am) hoping to get down as well. My son started with the Army three weeks ago and one of his 'family' days is the 30th. I am hoping to convince his sister to go see him that weekend instead of us. That way we came down south. Suppose I need to get that sorted out fairly soon so we can get a booking on the ferry. I am hoping to use that weekend as a sort of honeymoon thing as neither of us can get away now from work committments. Kill two birds with one stone so to speak.

Seems to be a mass amount of cichlids in our area. All beautifully done and well worth looking at but not too many of them like the Community type tanks. I like the cichlid tanks but I seem to have started with community and am staying that way for now. Besides I am actually 'making' money from my Angels now so that is really good. Sold 30 over the weekend and ended up getting my air compressor so I can look at getting rid of all the individual air pumps I have. Brilliant!!! Most of them are only a few months old so I will try and sell them on once we have the compressor all setup.

Wow ... I am amzed it looks so good after only a short time up and running!! Don't the Angels look lovely! They didn't look as nice in my tank Very nice tank though Andrew. Looks like you and me are about the only ones left with Community Tanks in the club now! (That I know of anyway).

Hi Warren ... remember the small 'grass' I got of to to grow across the front of my tank? How do you keep it from coming out of the gravel all the time. I can't put lead on it as it is to small and delicate but it just keeps floating back up. I think my gravel is too coarse but thats what I have so I have to find other ways of anchoring it down.

No I don't keep Discus anymore. I do really like them but they cause too much stress to me. :lol: I prefer to stick to my Angels and various other odds and sods.

He/she would charge the tank whenever anyone came into view. It would actually attack your hand if you put it in the tank. It meant buiness. I had some club members visit and they couldn't believe how agressive it was. It would just about knowck itself out trying to get at you through the glass. I did lots of tets on the tank to make sure the conditions were perfect too. It was a big Discus that had had hole in the head disease early in life so I think it had lost a few brain cells along the way. :lol: Beautiful fish to look at. It is now as happy as larry in a hex tank at my friends house sitting on the bench and watching everything. It is still nasty but nowhere near as bad now as it has got used to being so close to activity around her kitchen. I am just happy he/she is happy.

Arrrrrgggggggghhhh .... another attack of the dreaded father in law!!! Best treatment? Keep the heck away from them in my opinion. Funny but I lived in Hamilton for a few years and never had any problems with my fish. Maybe it is just his suburb!! Location, location, location. :lol: :lol:

Hi and welcome to you. Hope you enjoy being here and meeting all the neat people that make this a great place to hang out and talk fishy stuff.

I too had a Discus that communicated with me but not in the same loving way!! :lol: :lol: If he could have eaten me he would have. Discus body with Piranha attitude. He has since been rehomed with someone that can handle him and doesnt mind his nasty traits. (eg has never had a 'nice' Discus. :lol: Interesting to know yours finds your hand a stimulating object!!! You must have just what Discus is looking for in a hand. :lol: :lol: Wonder why your fish does this though? I am sure there must be some explanation for it other than you hand turns the fish on.

One word : AWESOME!!!!!

I too had problems with match making. i had two pairs that fought lots. I decided to split them up and I put the two females in one tank and left the two males alone. When I decided to put them back together I had (of course) forgotten which female was originally with what male so I just dumped one in with each male and both of them instantly got along. I wondered if maybe they didnt like their original mates or whether they just decided to get along this time. Who knows but it produced well over 300 fry (90% which have survived). I have now gone down to one pair that I dont want to make babies at this stage as still have a large number of babies!! They are having some time out from each other at the moment. Hopefully that doesnt lead to divorce! :lol:

Welcome cstarretthopkins. I hope you enjoy this forum as much as I do. I too breed Angles but not on such a large scale as you. I have about five or six tanks with them in. I must admit my four foot tank has about 100 two month olds in it at the moment just growing up before being sold on, so maybe I should look at getting more tanks!! :lol: The people on this forum are just the best and there is always someone here to offer good advice which I am sure regardless of where we are in the world is still relevant.

Good idea Caryl! Problem being it would take me a year to eat 1kg of peanut butter. :lol: :lol:

According to this I am doing it all wrong! I dont care I suppose as I am getting good results and I am not going to count them to see what percentage hatch rate I am getting. I get plenty so maybe I will stick with my Kiwi version rather than mix heaps of chemicals together. Good website though. Thanks for the link.

You are very welcome. Pleased for once I had something to offer someone instead of me being the one draining peoples knowledge. It is really simple and small scale for those of us that dont have huge amounts of babies etc to feed. Mind you another spawning on angels means another couple hundred babies to feed. Maybe I should do another three bottles of brine shrimp!!!! :lol: Best of luck with it and let me know how you get on.

Not sure I would be willing to take the risk. Better to spend the money and get one that doesnt leak! What good is a fish tank with a leak. Just ends up becoming a BIG vase!! :lol:

I hatch my own brine shrimp using a 2 litre milk bottle with a hole drilled in the top. I put an air tube down the hole to the bottom of the bottle. I fill it 3/4 up with water (tap). Then add three teaspoons of sea salt. Shake to mix. Then I add on flat teaspoon of brine shrimp eggs. This is then placed in a small tank (12 inches long by 6 inches wide) of water (which comes half way up the bottle (I have three going at once). I have this tank heated to 32 degrees or there abouts. In 24 hours I can take the air tube out, take the bottle out the tank and leave it sitting for 15 minutes. I sit the bottle on a window ledge above the kitchen sink. I then turn on a torch and put it right next to the base of the bottle. Within 15 minutes all the live shrimp have congregated to that side. I then use an air tube and put it to the bottom where the shirmp are and suck out the water, shrimp and all. I run this through a hankerchief over the top of a jug so I can collect all the water. I only harvest what I need and stop the siphoning. If I need to start a new batch etc then I stop the siphoning about 1/2 inch above the bottom so I dont get too many shells. If I dont have enough babies to feed it to (and need to start an new batch) I just drain the bottle and wait till it has drained through the hanky. Then I just collect the rest left in the hanky and put them into an old blood worm container (like a tiny ice tray) and put it in the freezer for a later date. Then I can rinse out the bottle, tip the water I got out back into the bottle and start again without adding anymore salt. I do this for maybe three times before starting again with fresh water and salt. Maybe you could just freeze the ones you dont feed out and that way you can just get what you need for a feed each time. Alternatively, why not make your own. Then you could just use 1/4 teaspoon of egga and have enough for a feed each time. Though after 24 hours the brine shrimp are tiny they still make a good feed for smaller fish. If you leave then for three days before harvesting they are bigger but still not looking like shrimp to the naked eye. Hope this gives you an idea. I had no idea about doing it and I was buying brine shrimp from the LFS and wasting money and brine shrimp!! It is really easy to do and well worth it in the long run.

I understand other people thinking we are nuts getting excited over fish. Unless they have the pleasure of looking at beautiful tank and appreciating the effort involved then they will remain ignorant etc. Thats ok with me too. I think people that play golf are nuts so I guess we are even. :lol: Regarding the vet thing. I dont even bother going to see any vets. There is this wealth of knowledge on here with people more than willing to help and give advice. Then I all need to do is go and get what ever medication I need from LFS or even other club members (Palmerston North Club rules!! ). Why bother with people (vets) that dont deal with fish everyday allday etc. They are not their 'bread and butter' type cases so unless you happen to come across a fish keeping vet **ducked for the flying pig** they probably have no idea what sort of illness is what! Hence why this forum is excellent. And unless you live along way from anywhere I am sure there is a club close by with a club member that could look at the problem or you could take the fish to them. Just my two cents (plus GST) worth.

In the tank they are in I have large angels, large clown loaches, bala shark, barbs and rainbows. Not sure who it is but if I leave the light on the fry dont get touched. If I turn the light off when the fry are out mum krib cant get them into bed in time and the fry number slowly diminishes over night. If I turn the light off but have the lounge light on then the fry are rounded up and put back to bed in the log before it gets pitch dark. Clever little sods these Kribs!! :lol: I have had them in other tanks with different sorts of fish and all have had fry disappear so maybe everything that can get their mouths on them has them for supper. Not sure at the size they are now that too many would eat them but I suppose there is always some hungry fish willing to give it a go.

I am no good with 'proper' names. Just rushed out and got my fishy book and they are "Hoplosternum" (so this book says anyways. A South American catfish. Cool fish. Very interactive - feed from my hand. Even sit in my hand if I leave it in the tank. Mine are about 6 - 8 inches long. Hyperactive little critters. Always on the move.

Thanks. Thought it was amazing the first batch, cool the next, ok the third time and now its "oh my god"!!! :lol: :lol: Still I can always sell them to shops. People always want Angels in their tanks.

Along with the Hoplos the BN will be my next breeding attempt. Thanks for the information. I found it very helpful. The other thing I heard is that you can only have one male and female in a tank or they wont spawn. Any truth to this? I have about twenty in different tanks so I will go looking for a suitable pair in the next week or so. I was also wondering if I can put the Hoplos and BN in the same tank and get they to breed. Hoplos bein bubblenest builders and the BN laying under a log etc seems like an ok combination until fry are free swimming anyway then I would get them out before the garbage gutsers (aka Hoplos) scoffed them!! :lol: :lol:

Hey Andrew ... Do you have any three or four foot tanks? I have seen your little ones (no offence :lol: ) but no larger ones lurking in your shed. One like your new community tank would be nice. Let me know. Has the fishroom progressed further than the supporting wall yet?

I used a terracotta pot for my Kribs. I cut mine about 80% and used the left over portion as a partial cover over the entrance. This gave them plenty of privacy. Worked too! Too damm well maybe. Got more Kribs than I can point a stick at. :lol:

I currently have two breeding pairs of Kribs. The pair in my 5 fott community tank have have a batch swimming out and about for about a week. There a about 50 or so (rough guess). The pair I put in a tank by themselves have successfully raised over 250 (stopped counting when I got to that figure). There are about 40 still with the parents, I have sold some and the rest are in a four foot tank with about 150 Angels babies growing on. Not sure what to do with them all really. :lol: I have had a few suggestions to use them as feeder fish but I am not keen on that and they are now over 1 inch long so only biggish would be able to munch on them anyway. However if worse comes to worse then I will hand them over to other club members for food (sorry little guys). I am going to split the pair up in the community tank as they are pretty nasty to everything else in there. I look at my tank tonight and half the tank empty except for a male Krib patrolling the edges like a border guard while 15 other fish crammed down the other end of the tank. Seems you only have to wave a bloodworm at them and provide a hiding place and there you go ... babies. No effort required! Very pretty fish though. I will never get sick of looking at the amazing colour changes they go through.