alanmin4304

I have bred 50000 fish a year and I have never sold my best breeding pairs yet. My point was that I think any serious breeder would be more successful establishing good pairs than buying someone elses discards (for whatever reason). I use to have at least 8 breeding pairs of angels going continuously and you can bet I never sold the best ones. Good pairs are more important with the likes of cichlids rather than egg scatterers who can be prevented from eating eggs. It is a matter of personal preference in the end I guess.

The pair are likely to pick on the new one---angel behaviour

Looks good. I am no geologist so does anyone know what the pumice does to the water chemistry. And as an aside how do you stop pumice from floating?

Fastpost sounds good. I will make sure I am out of the institution when they arrive.

You are on to it. I haven't lost the marbles but some may have rolled under the bed.

You are on to it. I haven't lost the marbles but some may have rolled under the bed.

This is only a guess but here goes. In some countries phosphate is added to fish before freezing it because it helps to retain the moisture when it thaws out. There is a debate about this but some people would say there is good profit in selling people water (like when they add 1 killo of water to 1 killo of pork to make your bacon that will never go crisp). Others would claim that it improves the quality of the product by keeping it moist. It would not surprise me therefore that phosphate could be added to frozen foods such as bloodworms and this could increase the levals even further. It cannot be eliminated but can be controlled by washing and water changes. As proteins are a string of phosphates with amino acids hanging off them any food containing protein will contain phosphates and nitrogen compounds and plants need them to build protein themselves. It is once again a matter of balance.

You are on to it.

It is a strange thing but you can learn a lot from watching someone who does it all day.

Lighting for emersed plants is different to lighting fo submersed plants. In China I understand that they use daylight (6500k) energy saving bulbs to grow plants emersed. Blue light makes plants compact and red light makes them tall and skinny. I grow many plants emersed then convert them to submersed and they can be quite different. E. uraguayensis in my aquarium has leaves about 700mm long and a mature emersed plant would be lucky to exceed 70mm. When trying to keep emersed plants over winter I have found that some plants do well under artificial light and others are pretty suicidal. You pays your money and you takes your pick.

guess who pushed the wrong button

I am at 35 Gilby Street Avonside Christchurch 8011 Just gold australe as they are the ones I am having trouble with and I don't have enough tanks for any more varieties. Give me your address and I will return the favour when I get them going again. Cheers Alan

If you are serious about breeding livebearers you can make a large trap that fits into an even larger tank and leave the females in there almost permanently and remove the young after a few weeks. That way there is very little stress.

Cardinals are not as productive as neons and I have heard of people putting in a pair while spawnig neons.

I have posted them to Auckland and had them driven to nelson all in water and all with no hatch. Had done it heaps of times in the good old days but now it is the bad old days---might have to try peat when I can get a few spare.

The container says that it contains polycycloglutaracetal but no concentration given. It says it is a source of bioavailable organic carbon and reduces ferric to ferrous ions of iron. Warns against eating, drinking or getting in eyes.

Thanks Barrie but I will concentrate on what I have, and see if I can get that right first. As a bit of an aside I have given eyed up eggs to a few people and posted them in water but none have hatched. Have you had success that way or would they be better posted in peat?

Cheaper than $600 worth of CO2 equipment.

I have been in the same situation. I saw a couple of discus in a shop that looked like they were a pair and I became more convinced over the next few weeks so I bought them (cost me $200). One bullied the other till it died and then died itself a few months later. I LOVE WATCHING DISCUS IN OTHER PEOPLES TANKS BUT THEY ARE NO LONGER FOR ME.

I have to admit my killie breeding has not been startling of late. I suspect it may be the hot weather we have been having down here in the real world (thats my excuse anyway). Have a few baby choc australe (wok trained them well) but getting only a few albino and nigerianus gardneri. Have been spoiling them rotten on live food (mossies, whiteworm, bloodworm and grindals). Just have to hang in there. Have some young ones coming up to breeding size so will try them shortly. Have given up on the gold australe ( my two breeding males died within a week of each other in different tanks---them and I don't seem to get on).

Tgwh-- My point was that if I were in your situation I would be keeping the pair that were most likely to rear their young and selling the pair that always eats the eggs. My other point was that when breeding lots of fish I very seldom bought breeding pairs but tried to establish pairs that were unrelated and with cichlids, compatable and good parents. You may get a good pair if you buy but you will get a good pair if you do it the right way yourself.

CO2 provides carbon to your plants so they can build plant material and grow. This process needs lots of other components to be complete and work. Without these things (including good lighting) you are wasting your time and money. A cheaper source of carbon would be to add flourish excel as that will provide the carbon and then you will see if that makes a lot of difference.

About as often as some people win lotto I would suspect.

You do sound like you are complaining and why not. The present fashion is to use 6500k lights. 30 years ago we used a combination of growlux and cool white with 1 tenth of the wattage in incandescent. Before that we used incandescant and before that candles. I used 6500 tubes for a year and have gone back to growlux/cool white. The flower growers use 6500 metal halides. You pays your money and you takes your pick. I grow a lot of plants and have no tanks over 500mm deep and try to duplicate conditions which the average punter might have. I therefore do not grow some plants submersed such as Ludwigia perennis or arcuata, or Rotala macrandra even though I may grow them emersed. Lighting is more related to water depth than litres, and lighting can be increased by leaving the lights on longer.

I am like smcoleman except mine have been bred half to death and I have better ones to replace them with. Set up your own breeding pairs and you will do a lot better than buying someone elses rejects. No sane person is going to sell you their best breeding pairs unless they have been dropped heavily on the head as a baby.