alanmin4304

I would think fish would have problems digesting the exoskeleton of daphnia or mysis shrimp as well. Tubifex live on filth, whiteworms are too fat, mossies eat humans and the rest can't be completely digested. What can I feed my fish?

When the water smells of "Chlorine" it is actually chloramines and there is probably not much free chlorine there. If you could smell chlorine you would be rolling around the floor choking to death like grandfather in the trenches during the second world war.

I still don't see what is so bad about feeding bloodworms to fish so long as they are used along with other food to give a balanced diet. No one has yet pointed out what is so bad about them.

Yopu can leave the lights on 18 hours/day without problems if you keep the water low in nutrient.

When I have used two tubes in series I used a starter on each tube and they worked OK.

They are great looking fish when in breeding colours but that is only a brief moment before all hell lets loose. They are great parents and extremely territorial. Very easy to breed and bloody hard to sell (TO ANYONE IN THE KNOW). I only bred them the once.

I would keep them in a small tank with low water leval so the fry are surrounded by food. I usually feed heavily and remove excess every couple of days (a few red or brown rams horn snails makes that easier). No air stone or filter and a tight lid to keep the atmosphere moist and warm (anabantoids need that). I would also feed green water for a couple of weeks as well as brine shrimp and microworm. A good time to become friendly with a nurse who can get you an ex saline drip system as these are ideal for feeding green water while you are at work. Brine shrimp and microwom will stay alive for quite a few hours. Feed before and after work and before bed. I had best luck with anabantoids by using a small pilot light at night so they feed at night as well. Remove mum as soon as she releases.

My kit is very cheap. Rainwater is soft and slightly acid and tap water is about 45ppm CaCO3 and slightly alkaline.

Will try again

I can give you some to start you off. Have sent you PM.

10 - 15mm deep.

Jaeger can be adjusted to the correct temperature also.

Euro bracing is the strip bracing right around the top ( and usually the bottom also) that is being described, I think the strap bracing across the tank causes more problems than it solves. When I was building and repairing tanks many of the broken ones had straps accross the middle and had broken right by the strap. I have a few 1200mm tanks from 10mm glass and the euro bracing is around the top but 12mm down and the lid (of polycarbonate) fits on top of that. 600mm is a tall tank--- my tallest are 500mm.

I would do it with euro bracing in 10mm x 50mm so 80wide would be OK. Leave out the centre strap.

Most exporters will give different prices for quantiy also. 10 fish--$1 each, 100 fish---80cent each, 1000fish, 50 cents each, 10000 fish---30 cents each. Some markets like USA could buy millions so they get first choice and we get the left overs.

Could someone educate me in what diseases and nasties are spread to fish and humans fom frozen bloodworms. The only disadvantages I find are that some fish are not as keen on frozen food as live food and that any live (or dead) food can increase the nutrient in the water and cause problems with algae. The joys of live food eating killies and plant growing. If I could get a good, continuous and easily obtained supply of live bloodworms or tubifex I would be into it like a proverbial.

I feed bloodworms and always will. I used to breed 50,000 fish a year and they were mainly raised on LIVE tubifex which we used to get ourselves from the river. You have no idea what they are feeding on. I never had any problems in all those years and every fish keeper in town used to buy them from the pet shops to feed their fish. Maf banned me from sending tubifex to the North Island because they claimed that they would spread whirling disease. Maf thought they came from the oxydation ponds at the sewage works and no one would correct them because we were all making too much money pulling them out of the river. Whirling disease is indemic in this country and is often on some types of fish routinely imported. Te Waihora (lake ellesmere) is full of blood worms and I have never seen any of the locals falling over and I worked in that area for many years. I don't think maf would allow them to be imported if there were viable nasties in there.

In Christchurch, outside they will get quite a range of temperatures but it will be gradual if you have them in a reasonable volume of water, and they will be OK. The warmer they are the faster their metabolic rate, the more they will eat and the faster they will grow. Diseases and bacterial blooms will grow faster as well. Lots of food and fresh water is the go.

You get instant mashed potatoe from the supermarket. I use porridge---put it through a coffee grinder with a tablespoon of sugar. Cook it in the microwave so it is so thick you have to spread it with a wet spoon, sprinle yeast on top. and add liquid starter (taken off previous culture) and spread it over total media. Worms up the container in 2-3 days and removed with small stiff paint brush from $2 shop. Each culture lasts 4-6 weeks, particularly if you remove the worms each day. Even your adult fish will love them. The media ends up runny and when they no longer climb the container, remove some liquid from the top, store, and re setup.

I use a 2 litre icecream container with the sides roughed up with fine sandpaper. Have 4 on the go at different stages.

I imported goldfish about 20 years ago. Ignoring all the costs listed (which are very real) I imported 9 varieties, 200 fish, cost $US200 and freight $US200. 7 inspections in 6 weeks at $NZ140 each and a $1 fish now costs $7. When I asked Maf how many inspections I would be paying for over the next 4 years the fish were in quarantine they would not even make an estimate so I gave them all to maf frozen into one lump of ice and told them they were all there and they could count them when they thawed out. The importers are actually going through a hard time at the moment as the controlling authority has changed and it is all under review. I think you will find that soon there may be even less importers than at present. The freight on large fish like that is very high and so is the risk. One importer down here had thousands of dollars of silver sharks taken away because maf thought they were diseased. Protests that the gills were burned from an excess of ammonia fell on deaf ears. All the fish died in Maf care. The results of the tests came back negative and they also got a bill for the tests. It is easy to import if you have megabucks and don't need to make a profit.

If they are red cap orandas ---more like 1%

If you are after good quality fish you will need to kull but not to keep them alive. You will find that they are not all growing at the same rate so you will need to seperate out the larger ones or they will eat the smaller (and probably fancy ones)

It probably is the reason and the problem is it is usually the better/fancy ones that are the weakest. You can treat the parents before spawning but many of the treatments cause tempoary sterility ( formaldeyde, CuSO4, sheep dip etc). Some people use a salt bath but I am not sure what concentration. I am sure some of the more expert goldfish people on here can help.

You can vacuum with it and we don't use water conditioner in this part of godzone as our water is artesian and untouched by human hands. I imagine you would have to add it slowly to the tank as it is filling.