ryanjury

The only problem with the older hilux's is the price has been pushed up alot due to all the boy racers buying them to sack out on big rims they are very overpriced for what they are.. Go with a toyota hatchback corolla or starlet or maybe ford lazer those things just seem to keep on going, I had a TX3 that had 365k's on it with no issues..

Yeah I have heard the same thing, went into my LFS once and asked if they could match a price of $460 for an FX5 and was told it was near their wholesale price and there was no way, but a business in Auckland was selling them for that.. I think people must be buying direct from overseas therefore avoiding all the wholesalers cuts and extra shipping costs etc.

Fryeri do wholesale for $30-40 at 4-5cm, I have seen them retailing for $80-90 a fish before.. From breeders they are much cheaper and I would say at that size it is expensive, but the shop has to make money somehow and for someone who doesn't know any breeders and might have paid $80-90 per fish it might be worth it

You can chuck the terracotta in, some people boil it, I think its an overkill and just use it have had no problems.. Rubber bands are not that good in water, try fishing lylon or tie wraps to attach stuff. If you are sick of these guys taking up this tank have you considered transferring them to a smaller (maybe barebottom) breeding tank with a sponge filter and using your bigger tank as a community type tank with smaller fish then you can chuck any babies in there to grow out once they are big enough..

If you are worried about the fighting then I would seperate the tank with a piece of glass so they can see each other, or remove the more aggressive one for a few days to let them settle back down.. If they are a pair, then adding more fish may stop them beating each other up but they may just turn their collective wrath onto any other fish you add especially angel fish as fish hate their own kind when breeding (they see anything the same as a threat). I probably wouldn't do blue rams either, it might be ok, but rams are fairly delicate and probably wouldn't last long with a couple of angel fish beating them up.

Looking good What are the peacock females (or uncoloured) Baenshi?

Any dwarf would be ok, if you don't want them to get scrappy then only get a male to cruise around by himself and for you to enjoy.. Phill has a few dwarfs but his cockatoo's are wild and quite bland, yes they look good in his photo but without a flash and in a normal tank they don't look too flash... Its a shame you aren't closer I could have sold you a male eunutus I have 7 of them lol.. Bolivian rams/bolivian cichlid/whatever name phill makes up is the same fish

Yeah FX5s are wicked I have one on my 5ft african tank and it does a great job... The intake strainer is designed to be like it is, it is very course though so will suck up very small fish if given the chance

Do you mean meth blue? Or have you chucked some meths in there.. I am unsure if meth blue would help with the symptoms that you describe, meth blue is usually used for fungal type infections which is white fluffy pieces usually sticking out of wounds..

That tank would probably be ok for just a single pair, ideally they would want some more space, and if things got rocky in their relationship as sometimes things do then the female may get killed as she wont have enough room to hide. Definitely remove the plec he will probably be getting a hard time if they do lay and as already said he will go around after dark and munch all the eggs up. Google should have plenty of info on breeding they should be very easy..

Are all the photos of the same fish? The top ones look very dark.. Usual story though looks like a hybrid mbuna of some sort, feed out the fry (of course you would do this anyway even if the fish was pure because you would have no idea what the father was) and try and nurse it back to health to enjoy for a display tank

Just wondering how everyones electric blue rams are going

Yep email it to me, if it is white and fluffy just remove the fish and drop meth blue directly onto the wound it should clear up.

A photo might help more with this one.. Not eating is of concern, is it white and fluffy or more red? If the fish isn't eating I would guess maybe it has some sort of bacterial type infection and might need treating with anti-biotics..

Seriously do some googling on Praziquantel usage for treating tropical fish I have never seen anyone suggest only bathing the fish for 5 hours.. They all say it is harmless and treat the fish in the tank, taking a potentially already sick out and stressing it out in a container for 5 hours probably wouldn't be good anyway. This link here says treat and leave for 4-5 days then water change. http://www.fishyfarmacy.com/products4.html http://www.koivet.com/koivet/index.php? ... &Itemid=57 There are plenty of links for you to do your own research and make an educated decision on the matter before you treat. Personally I would siphon your tank out as much as you can while still have heaters/filters running, dose with the prazi (2mg/L one droncit tab is 50mg) wait 4 days and do a water change, wait 3 days and treat again to break the cycle. After 4 days you can begin topping up your tank gradually with fresh water, I would do it over a few days to a week if you are going from 200L to 700L though. Also increase the feeding rate and see if the treatment + good water + increased food will beef them up a bit. Of course if all that doesn't work then they maybe affected by another internal parasite and you may need to go down the road of treating with metro or levamasole.. That is the issue without dissecting the fish and looking at it under a microscope or analyzing poos etc it is nigh on impossible to find out what is affecting them by looking at them.

lol yes I have no doubt the vet knows about treating animals but most have no idea about treating fish.. I have heard a few like to bull$$$t their way through it without any actual knowledge.. I approached my one about treating fish they were honest they didn't know what they were doing and said if I knew what I wanted and how much to dose etc they would (within reason and for my own personal usage) prescribe the drugs for me. I would do my own research on things and just ask for them, droncit should be available without prescription over the counter. There is always an exception to any rule which is what makes fish keeping so difficult to give advice on but also allows for some cool and unlikely things to be tried and succeed. All I know is what most of the experts and people in the know recommend..

No that is wrong, you want to put it in the water, I think it lasts a few days which is what you want as it would treat the live parasites and then any eggs that hatch and break the cycle.. Don't ask your vet for advice on how to treat your fish you will be hard pushed to find one that knows what they are doing, just ask them for droncit tablets for worming your cat work out how many you want first. Generally mixing peacocks and mbuna isn't good every tank I have done it in the peacocks haven't done as well many experts would agree.. It is upto you though as they are your fish and you may have more dominant peacocks or less aggressive mbuna, peacocks seem to go well with yellows as they are passive and demasoni because they seem too busy beating the snot out of each other to bother them. From http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/peacocks.php "Not all Lake Malawi cichlids make suitable tankmates. Peacocks should not be housed with Mbuna or other boisterous cichlids such as Labeotropheus, Petrotilapia, Metriaclima, or Pseudotropheus species. While it is true that Mbuna and Peacocks both live in the rocky biotopes of Lake Malawi, they infrequently have contact. Peacocks typically reside at a depth of 6 to 40 m; Mbuna on the other hand, are usually found in the upper 5 m of the water column (Spreinat 1995). The reason for this difference is due to dietary differences between the two groups. Mbuna graze the algae growing on the rocks in the lake. The algae require strong light in order to flourish. Peacocks live at depths far too deep for the algae to grow in abundance. It follows therefore that Peacocks and Mbuna are not natural conjoiners. Mbuna and Peacocks make poor tankmates primarily because Mbuna have a considerably more aggressive temperament (some would even say obnoxious). Their aggressiveness and hyperactivity have a tendency to stress the Peacocks. Keeping Mbuna together with Peacocks usually proves deleterious to the latter who are kept in a constant state of subordination. Some hobbyists who mix these two fish may argue that no such unfavorable conditions exist. This may sometimes appear superficially to be true, but Peacocks kept with Mbuna do not grow as fast, are less colorful, and do not live nearly as long. Peacocks removed from such an environment show dramatic turnaround within a short period of time, confirming the sensibility of this recommendation. "

Prazi wont hurt the fish though and it is relatively easy to get and treat with so might be worth it just for piece of mind.. Are you keeping your peacocks with mbuna? Peacocks are known to be skinnier more stressed and more prone to diseases when kept with mbuna who chase them around all the time and get all the food etc.. Most people in the know don't recommend mixing peacocks and mbuna.

The movement on the top of the water helps to aid the exchange of gasses there.. Using an airstone helps to effectively increase the surface area and therefore exchange more gas. The same can be achieved by using whatever filter (or power head) you have in your tank disturbing the water surface, the heavier stocked the tank the more aeration is needed to help with the exchange of these gasses.

Droncit from the vets is prazi, but you would need a truck load for a 700L tank might pay to drop the water level as much as possible before treatment.. Also just treating with prazi maybe useless as there are many different types of worms that may require different drugs..

I thought euro bracing was around all 4 sides of the tank? From the description given this person has 2 pieces one going front to back at each end of the tank? Sounds like you have it sorted I think it is always good to have something in the middle, if need be you might need to cut some small pieces to stick under it to give it more surface area to bond to especially with 6mm glass.

How are everyone elses electric blues going? Regarding the refund it is a hard one, if the fish was dodgy and they had lost all the others they sold as well you would expect them to give a refund and then chase the supplier for supplying them dodgy fish.. But it is so hard to tell what killed the fish, it could be stress from being transported or a heater failure in someone elses tank or even not be acclimatized properly if they refunded every dead fish they would go out of business.

Ps. is the old name for them, but yes Metriaclima or Maylandia (zebra) species can and will cross with other mbuna species... A very common example which is prevalent world wide is the red zebra x yellow which usually shows itself as a red zebra with a funny shaped head or an electric yellow that is slightly the wrong shape and usually has no black markings on fins. There is a very indept discussion on these fish and others opinions here.. http://fishkeepers.co.nz/forums/viewtop ... =18&t=1235 Personally I wouldn't keep or sell them but that is just me, most other people who keep africans don't really care what they have or what they sell and usually start off with hybrids from random petshop tanks anyway. At least these guys are honest about what they have, there are plenty of hybrid africans out there that people have given proper names to these are the ones that will cause more problems.

Brooklands have all sorts of zebras on their list, some of them are just a bunch of randoms, still nice fish but of unknown parentage and origin.

lol hmm its about as far away from a dwarf flag as you can get, it is definitely some sort of mbuna probably a hybrid zebra.. What wholesaler/importer did they come from? Brooklands has its own breeders that supply most of their african species.