ryanjury

lol What did you buy them as and where did they come from?

Congrats What type of peacock are they?

lol I have the reds and the sunshines from Mark all of which are breeding and you have seen I just have to say these photos and fish are awesome, congrats everyone on taking such nice photos and owning such awesome fish! I was going to chuck up some pics but not after those ones I have already seen..

What he said.. There are plenty of cichlids that will go with your current fish plenty that wont, really need to know what ones you are considering before any suggestions can be made..

Depends on the store it is a dodgy one as you could have done something wrong to cause the fish to die even in the 2 hours of having it.. As you said you shouldn't have brought fish that looked sick but sometimes you do give it a go and try and nurse them back to health usually it doesn't work Good luck I would give the shop a call and have a chat with the manager

Yeah I think you could too.. However with rainwater with a low KH you may get PH swings so you might want to watch that.. I mix my rain water with my very hard tap water to give it some stability even though the fish it is for prefer the water soft and acidic better to have it a little harder and stable.

The beach stuff might be alright as phoenix said give it a go.. Adding buffers etc to your water works well and there is no big problem with it you just have to know what you are doing and know what you are trying to achieve so you don't do it wrong. Have you done any research into what the natural conditions lump heads prefer? There might be no real need to muck around with the water at all..

lol yeah I know patients is a virtue have waited and hunted over 4yrs to get some of the fish I have But just couldn't leave it.. lol shipping is no problem Good luck with the breeding the tank looks awesome.

A simple tank with just lumpheads would be pretty boring they are cool fish but not very colourful, it would probably cause problems when they grow bigger as they are pair forming and pairs would form smashing all the other fish up when they are breeding. If you wanted just lionheads they are not a rift lake species they live in african rivers and actually prefer milder conditions to the rift lake fish..

This happens all the time with africans as well Really grinds my gears but I am yet to have trademe or sellers care, they see it as people trying to undermine their auctions, whereas I see it as people should be advertising correctly and not ripping people off.. Good luck Barrie

180L will be good for the lump heads they are very hardy as well but it is on the small side for africans so you will need to be careful with what you end up stocking with if you want it to work out long term..

Awesome! Good to see.. lol next question.. Where is the red shoulder grow out tank filled with babies?

Rain water would be fine if you buffered it with something in the tank you may even have to make up a buffer recipe like here http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/buffer_recipe.php As for species most of them are alright, tangs tend to be a little more sensitive but still very easy to keep.. How big is your tank? Feel free to drop over again if you want if you can remember I have quite a few tanks of africans here I forgot to ask how big is the tank you are planning?

Gutted mate Sorry to hear about that.. I hope no more die at least you still have enough dems and yellows for colonies of each? I did the same thing the other day my big tank got down to 15C just plugged the heaters back in and no losses, africans are pretty tough..

Well it is good to get the bottom of it, and I am very impressed that you would post up here and admit it And the offer of brown haps is equally as good.. I just feel for all the people out there who don't use this forums and think they have Asti. C. in their tanks and might be breeding and selling them around the place, but I guess it is like everything do your own id's so you know what you have.

Yep some reading for you http://www.trademe.co.nz/a.aspx?id=208317961 http://www.cichlid-forum.com/phpBB/view ... p?t=189977

It is good to see you will finally admit you made a mistake I couldn't believe you would have either.. I did try and contact you on your auction with photos and plenty of others agreeing they were asti x blue dolphins but you wouldn't have a bar of it.. Do you have any idea where they second batch are? I know that illusions are the crosses from matching her photo on auction with what I have, and the last batch you sold on trademe are the same (incorrect) shape and colour as well. As you said it was alot of work to get them and I would hate to see them lost in NZ due to one little slip up so it would be awesome if someone could get some good ones and get them out there.. Good luck contacting all the people you sold them to and explaining the situation.

Geeze I had forgotten how bad that discus really was bilbo he looks nice now I would go for metro as a treatment too, lavamisole is available from vets etc as a bird wormer called aviverm or as a sheep drench, but it is easier to buy in smaller quantities as aviverm. There is a good article with treatment dosages etc at the bottom. http://www.loaches.com/disease-treatmen ... chloride-1 Glad to hear your discus is now looking better and hope he pulls through, maybe this was something you introduced with all the fish you chuck in there without quarantine?

Hi and welcome has someone contacted you to put you on the local email list?

I am also very careful where I stick meth blue as it stains silicone well always has for me even when following correct dosage etc..

Hard to tell without seeing the fish, but I occasionally see this when a fish has smacked into a rock or something when it gets the dot thing sticking out it means a fungal type infection is setting in, I treat this by dropping meth blue or wonder tonic directly on the fishes eye 1-2 times (depends how bad it is) daily until it goes away. It can usually be easily fixed and the fish recovers fully I have only had one fishs eye rot out fully..

They should get along fine, the theory is that keeping fish that aren't evolved to live in certain water conditions in the wrong water shortens their live and stresses them, however they seem to do well and acclimatise if they get on well then should be fine I have see these fish kept together in tanks where they have been that way for years and the fish were fine healthy and happy. here is an extract from this article http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/hardness.php Fish health and water hardness: Different species of fish have varied water hardness requirements, so it is important to find out what hardness is best for your fish, For most pond fish, i.e. koi and goldfish, moderate to hard water is best. From table 1 above we can see that the optimum hardness range for most pond fish would be between 100 - 300 mg/litre CaCO3 Water hardness affects fish health because it influences osmoregulation. Being open systems, fish are affected by the makeup of the surrounding water. As a consequence of osmosis, freshwater fish are subject to a continuous influx of water, while marine fish have to live with a continuous outflow of water. Against this continuous movement of water into or out of the body, fish have to maintain a constant internal body fluid concentration – a process called osmoregulation. The greater the difference in concentration between the fish’s body fluids and the surrounding water – the greater the osmotic effect. As hard water is more concentrated than soft, there will be less difference and therefore less water influx and consequently the fish will not have to work so hard at osmoregulation. This is particularly important in cases of bacterial ulceration where water can flood into open tissues.

It is hard to tell what the fish is from the first pic, I had assumed blue dolphin but looks slightly off, can we get more pics of it?

let me know if you need some gear for G I Joe or jane (if you or hubby is around my size) I have all the camo stuff here you can borrow

Congratulations