JoandWilly

At this stage im only going to go for the cheap stuff that isnt gonna crap out on me... on a very small budget, probably buy a bit at a time and maybe set it up as another fresh water tank untill i can afford the skimmer, rock and lighting. Would 3 foot lighting be enough as the tanks 100 long so only 10cm short?

Also how do you guys make your bulk heads?

heres a little picture i just whipped up that i want my tank to look like

How many T5's would you need to run on a tank 100x60x45? and do they need to be the special marine T5's?

Save ya the hassle heres a website on them http://www.sydneycichlid.com/content/?page_id=16

Everytime i strip our female i wait for as long as i can before doing it, the eggs are fertilised before she picks them up so ifs she still holding them after a few days i'd say they are fertilised, you can strip right from day one but i prefer to wait untill they are either free swimming or close to it, usually 2 weeks plus if you can.

Ok I have a tank 1.00x.62x.45 and was thinking of using a tank .6x.3x.3 for a sump which works out to be roundabout 300L once both filled, is this going to be a big enough sump or would i want to make it taller, maybe .45. Also thinking bout using this pump http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pets-animals/Fish/Pumps-filters/auction-40020518.htm Will this be ideal as flow rate is pretty high for the price. We are wanting to keep a few fish and some corals with a shallow sand bed, Jo would really like some clownfish and anemone's so what othe requipment am i going to need?? Skimmer, what one and how much? Lighting, what and how much? Powerheads for more flow? Also how much live rock would I need? Is live rock, coral rock that is filled with good bacteria? Is there anything else?

Leave the tank to fully cycle before adding more fish, if you have cycle and aqua plus you dont need the prime, I would do small water changes each day maybe just 10% untill the tank has cycled.

IS there anyone in our area who would come and photography all our fish to send in for the MAF thingy, we keep forgetting to borrow a digital camera. SO if anyone is willing to do this please PM us. Cheers

Yes it is.

well i know you can trust everything you can find on the internet but as far as i can tell alot of things started off as pseudotropheus and then split up and some went to maylandia and that split up and some went to metraclima... the estherae and crabro both fall under this as far as i can tell. There still are some pseudotropheus, but compared to some of the older books there are hardly any compared to what there was 20 years ago. It would be so much easier if once they named the damn fish it would stay with the same name.

Last two are metraclima estherae and Pseudotropheus crabro.... but yeah they change names all the time so they could be both mayandia, different websites say different things and i dont have any books to get the actual scientific name.

Hey we have a waikato fish club, meetings are on the first sunday of the month at ling house on te aroha st... if you like pm me your email and i'll email you the next newsletter.

Blue circle white spot cure is one of the better white spot cures i reckon. Aslo turning the temp up a degree or 2 helps speed this stuff along cause it speeds up the parasites life cycle... The fish swimming up and down the glass can sometimes indicate stress... do you have test kits? Whats your pH, ammoina and nitrites? Do you always rinse you filter out with tank water and NOT tap water?

an eel? might have to catch one from the wild though... but are you allowed to do that and keep them in a pond?

my understanding of letting the water age is to sit it in a big drum with a few airstones to let the chlorine and everything out of the water, and to put a heater in so its at the same temp as the tanks.

lol not everyone can drive to the kaimais for there tank water :bounce: but yeah maybe in a month... gonna see bout getting a big drum for water with heater in it so i can let it age for a few days before using it.

lol we've never used stress coat... dont see it as something that we should need... all our tanks water is kept in a fairly good state... they all have weekly if not more water changes but yeah chlorine and so forth doesnt seem to be a problem in our tap water so was wondering what its like in the northshore water.

Just wondering what the tap water is like up there, mainly around browns bay and Torbay, chlorine and what not? We've never had any troubles with water down here straight from the tap and all the fish are healthy so wondering if a move for them up there might be a huge change due to the water.

Hmmm we have a breeding pair of these and we wouldnt dare put another fish in there cause it'll get shreded, they are either best kept in pairs or in larger groups 10+ because they can get really agro. if you do have them in a large group they are only agro while they are protecting the eggs and fry... but as soon as they fry are free swimming and are allowed to leave the mothers home the whole colony will help raise the fry.

Hmmm im not sure about rams coz never keeped any but most cichlids are good parents so shouldn't need to take them out, they might not get it right this time though and eat them all...lol i would say wait and see, to see what type of parents they are going to be.

in my experience its hard to get any malawi's to breed if its just a pair in the tank cause as you know they are really aggressive, the only way is to have a good ratio of the same fush in the tank ie- 1 male 5 females, or to have them in a community tank with other malawis but give them plenty of caves for the female to hide in while shes holding, but take her out and strip her or let her spit them out in another tank.

if everyones offering free tanks send them this way lol... and wheres the best place closest to hamilton to collect NSW.... would out raglan ways or coromandel be better?

Lol... well it has been me (willy) who has been on most of the time in the last few months... and i know alot more than my mother does now... kinda took over most of her fish tanks and got them running properly... and breed most of her fish too. But it was her who got us interested in the first place and taught us the basics and there will be a time when she'll want her tanks and fish back lol

We're not new but we were using mums account before... (polgara)... we have 11 tanks, 10 cichlid ones and 1 with guppies, platties, bn, neons and khuli loach's