ryanjury

Having a boy this time so should be awesome.. Externals are just soo much better than internals.. Those eheims are good second hand isn't bad as long as it still goes and everything is fine, may have worn impeller etc if it has had alot of use. Something like this would be good.. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 332529.htm No reason you can't run your other filters from your other tanks while your fish are smaller and upgrade as you save and can afford it as long as you are doing regular water changes and keeping an eye on things. You will need to do this when you transfer the lionheads anyway. You can do things right and cheap just have to know what corners to cut and where to get cheap stuff from

Found a few reviews not on that model but on others in the range.. http://www.practicalfishkeeping.co.uk/f ... hp?t=35010 http://www.monsterfishkeepers.com/forum ... hp?t=91984 Only one bad comment but you can expect that anywhere with all the label bashers around I would make sure you can get parts for it though.. This is the filter that I am suggesting.. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Home-living/Pe ... 332529.htm

It sounds like a good price for a 1400LPH external with UV... Although the UV isn't needed at all it could be handy to have if you have a white spot outbreak or algae problems. Filters and fishgear is alot like everything in life there will be label bashers who believe that anything that is not eheim or fluval is rubbish. I own a few filters and can say nothing bad about the cheaper brands, I can recommend the aqua one range, or the jebos (although the taps are rubbish and break on these but replacements are cheap). Fluvals and eheims are great filters and will probably outlast any of the cheaper ones but the purchase price is usually twice as high, and replacement part prices are also higher, if I was doing your sized tank I would buy a jebo 819 or an aqua one CF1200. The one you have listed might be fine but I haven't ever used one so can't comment. Have you tried a google search for reviews or any comments on them internationally it can sometimes be a good help. If I could find a reasonable review on it then I wouldn't hesitate to buy it at that price. Also did you know that you posted this in the general breeding section?

Yep I saw that and thought it was dodgy but then I wouldn't expect anything else from him, all down to making a quick buck Definition of a true hybrid would depend on if the 2 fish were considered different species.. I am not upto the play with severums so unsure if they are different sp. If they are the same species then it is just crossing 2 different colour strains (like a blue and red guppy) and here is no problems with hybrids. My thoughts would be if you were responsible and wanted to pass on good fish you would grow up the babies and cross them back to the female to hopefully produce the desired colour strain. Otherwise advertising them as Red head rotkeil then saying in some random way they are actually crossed babies in the text is a bit misleading.. I can see where he is going with it, and if we were at risk of loosing that colour strain to NZ then some crossing and then crossing back would be awesome but I would only do it as a last resort.

lol yeah were 1 income 1 kid and another due yesterday so arriving any day now (hopfully lol) so know the feeling.. It can be done cheaply though just have to do a little more work hunting around for the bargains and buy all your fish from friends/breeders. Id say $65 is reasonable for a petshop price but I have been given 50kg of crushed coral for free once and recently paid $20 for 30kg on trademe so I would keep hunting around or go down the normal gravel route with something else buffering... lol yeah the kids love the filters and stuff my daughter is hard work in the fishroom but loves coming out to play with all the stuff she can find, had to rebuild it all to make it safe though.. Have you considered enclosing the metal stand even cladding it in wood would be good? Yeah dems/johannii are good fish to have in there, i only have the one batch of dems at the moment, can probably arrange to get some johannii down to you as well when I send another batch down to Nav, go and see what he has to offer and suggests and we will see what we can work out later

lol a man after my own heart I am not allowed to let my fishy hobby/obsession affect my family either... I have the advantage of having a few tanks and fish to breed to put $$'s back into the power and new stuff.. Substrate - crushed coral/aragonite is good, but expensive to do a whole tank with it does pop up on trademe though so keep an eye on there for some cheap stuff locally. Alternatively you could score some cheap/free gravel at your local garden centre or even river/beach can even get pool filter sand all sorts of stuff cheap. But you will need to add something else to buffer a couple of big limestone rocks would be ideal. Talk to Nav and see what he has sourced locally that might fit the bill cheaply. What about your tank being on a metal stand makes it unsuitable for a canaster filter? Canasters are the best really, but you can get away with internals probably expect to pay around $80-90 for 2 large internals personally I would go for an external but it is upto you. Schist is good for making hiding places etc, if you can balance it well no need to silicon it make sure you lay the rocks directly on the bottom of the tank not on the substrate as the fish will dig under them and send the lot tumbling. I don't silicon any of mine and if you did it would be very hard to remove them again if you needed to catch a fish. Plants might go I have some random stuff in one of my tanks it gets munched away at but seems to be growing faster than it is being eaten, anubis (sp) nana is supposed to be good too, but is expensive and slow growing. You can get some pretty realistic looking silk plants. What fish are you planning on doing in this tank? It is a pretty good sized tank to start off with africans so should be able to do a very nice display

This thread is very interesting.. Agree with all of firenzenz's comments, they should be held to pay for it, if you were buying anything else and paid good money for it only to get home and find what was advertised wasn't what you got then you would complain (unless you got a bargain..). The fishshops have got it sweet they just say "its what we brought it as" and get away with it. To me if they're a fish shop they should know better or at least take some responsibility for it, taking the fish back and offering a refund will probably end up with that customer spending that money in the shop and the fish being sold again (with hopefully a more correct name) so win win. Refusing to fix it will result in that customer not going back and also bag mouthing the shop not so ideal. The fish that I deal with are very commonly hybrids, I have brought a stack load over the years from both breeders and petshops, it has got to the stage where there are only certain places and people I will deal with.. If I have to get fish through wholesalers it is a time consuming process going through and iding the fish, breeding them keeping babies from each female separate (to ensure females are all pure) growing spawns out to verify they are a pure line. This takes time and money (in having multiple tanks setup) IMO this does not translate to selling more fish, I have seen time and time again people buying dodgy fish that are $1 cheaper than fish bred by descent breeders.. Unfortunately the quest for breeding and seeking out quality fish to spread around NZ doesn't usually work out well maybe that is why more people don't do it? At least there are some out there that care more about spreading descent fish than making $$'s. Yes the petshops can only be as good as the fish they are supplied with by the wholesalers, but if the shops were to send the fish back or stop ordering or ring the wholesalers and complain the wholesalers would be forced to look to different suppliers or at least pass onto them to stop sending them rubbish. End of the day if they fish sell the petshops will keep buying them, wholesalers will keep importing them exporters will keep sending us rubbish. There is not much any one person can do if only 1 in 10 people who brought the dodgy fish noticed or cared there there is still another 9 happy customers, if one petshop complains the wholesalers still have a heap of other customers.. It looks to be one of the problems of living in such a small country with so few fish keepers all we can do is try to keep and breed the best and pure fish we have and pass them around.

Still red boxes Photo bucket is pretty easy.. Get an account, upload photos, and copy and paste img code that is directly below the photos.. Doesn't get much easier than that Without photos can't really say much else about angel but I haven't had much luck when fish are lying on the bottom.. Unless they have been soo badly beaten they have no fins and can't swim then they can come right when fins grow back.

Does anyone else see 3 red boxes? Sounds like his swimming is related to his damaged fins (hopefully could still be internal problems if he got a good hiding). Fluffy type growths are probably just attacking the damaged fins put meth blue or tonic or something directly on it and it should hopefully fall off and the fins should grow back. For the future be careful adding cichlids to established tanks. Did you rearrange the tank at all? Did you introduce the new one at night or feeding time to give it a chance to settle in before being challenged to a fight? Dividers are also good gives the fish a chance to case each other out without beating each other up. Also pays to keep an eye on things if they're not getting along remove the fish and try again later. You can also put the less dominant one in a tank get that settled and then move the aggressive one into the submissive ones turf..

Is he swimming funny because his fins are damaged? Or has he been damaged by being wedged behind the wood? Has he got little bits of fungus or something on him (for you to suspect cotton wool disease?). Whenever my fish get torn fins I drop meth blue directly on anything that has been damaged (including body wounds) and move them to a small tank or somewhere easy to catch so I can do the meth blue thing a couple of times a day if needed to keep the fungus down. The torn fins etc aren't a problem it is the fungus or fin rot that sets in that will cause problems, salt like you have added will help but 4 teaspoons is stuff all id stick a descent handful in that sized tank with a hardy fish like an angel in it..

I would say guppies would eat the eggs sorry No reason not to use a guppy trap or similar to keep the guppies away from them though..

That tank is amazing would love to have a tank like that.. The firemouths are awesome pity we don't usually see any that good here

That tank would be good for a pair as long as they are compatible and get along stick a few hidey holes in just in case.. When I kept and bred them they kept digging to the bottom of the tank to lay their eggs and digging up all the plants but that was in a 2ft tank (they were only 5-6cm long), if you provided them with heaps of places to lay and left it relatively open around the rocks etc they may not try and clear all the plants away.. Then again you might be wasting your time you can only try and see what happens. Bristlenoses should be rugged enough to be put with them, however if they lay the bristlenose will eat any eggs overnight (unless you leave a night light on) so not ideal for a breeding setup.

I definitely wouldn't start a tank from scratch, leaving a tank for a week with everything running and no bioload will do nothing regarding cycling the tank. I don't believe that the good bacteria (that has to be fed with ammonia and a supply of fresh flowing water) can survive in the stress zyme bottles for a shelf life of how many years they state it is good for. Adding a small number of fish for a week is a good idea but adding blue rams and discus to a tank that has only been cycling for a week is not something I would suggest as these 2 fish are very sensitive any an ammonia spike will kill them. The easiest and safest thing is to add as much media (or even the established filter) to the new tank. Megs you probably have the advantage of having a reasonably big tank so any changes will happen slowly and hopefully be picked up before you loose any fish, how long has your tank been setup and have you been testing the water daily or doing daily water changes?

No idea on the algae, some people say a double dose of flourish but it is hard on fish so maybe chuck the plants in the new tank and dose them up without fish see if you can clear it up? No real need to move the stones, the biomedia and sponges from the filter will be enough to keep the tank cycled for the same boiload just keep an eye on things an extra water change or 2 might be needed but I haven't had trouble with just moving half the media. Angels are very likely to eat neons when fully grown I would say they will more times than not.. Some people get away with it some don't it is upto you personally I have found angels very good at eating other fish and wouldn't keep them with small fish like neons as anything they believe they can eat they will try to.

Johannii will outgrow your 140L tank I have some for sale if your interested and plan to upgrade in the future. PM Navarre and see what he has for sale and what he can suggest for your tank size As I said you don't need to ditch your substrate or bog wood just add something else to buffer it.. Some people even get away with plants but if you like them then you are best to remove them as they can be hard on them.

Cheers Suphew that is what I understood it was when I got it but it has sat in the shed for a few years.. How long will the DI resin last I know you can't say exactly but is it hundreds, thousands or 10's of thousands of litres? So you are saying there is usually another (say a standard 5 micron) prefilter before this unit, this is just a straight DI unit how well will this filter the water?

Sweet that is what I am wanting Cheers alanmin, the africans are loving the tap water, but have had bad results with dwarf cichlid fry in it so something to soften it would be wicked.. Will this also remove chlorine? How super saturated a salt mixture do I need? And I take it I am running the tap water through the resin first and then the filter cartridge?

It is a goldy yellow colour when not wet and brown when wet.. Cheers Gboyd, I might have to come and visit, how do you tell if it is worn out? I have already taken it into a water filter type shop in Palmy and they gave me blank looks and didn't have a clue what it is..

A while ago when I got a tank I got this filter unit with it In one side it has this cartridge I am pretty confident this is a mechanical filter type membrane that contains carbon and filters out particles But the other chamber has some sort of random looking resin type stuff. Now I would like to use this filter to filter my tap water eventually (apisto fry don't seem to do so well in it) but I have no idea what the resin type stuff is? Ideally I would like to find out 1. What it is. 2. What it removes from the water. 3. How to tell if it is spent and where to buy more if it is. Oh and I don't know which direction to hook this up, would you stick the random stuff first or the mechanical filter?

Kadango's/powder blues/empresses all get too big for your tank.. You could try dems but you would need a few unsure how common they are with breeders in Chch, I know I have to send some down to a friend down there to get them breeding when I have some big enough to ship. Electric yellows could get along alright in a smaller tank. mj, without thinking too hard the only green malawi would be a giraffe.

Yep kenyi and aurutus and both pretty agro not suitable for smaller tanks.. You could leave your gravel and driftwood I would recommend you add something to raise the ph a little and ensure it stays up though not hard or expensive to do. They can and do breed at a lower ph but personally I don't think it is good and recommend people keep them 7.5+, plenty of people buy them and keep them in whatever though and they seem to do ok. Myself and an awful lot of people I have seen with african tanks that have hard water and high ph keep lionheads and the malawi's together with no problems others have even had the lionheads breed and do very well in that water. Stay away from the afra if you have a smaller tank, I brought a pair and they are pretty nasty they are happy now in my 540L tank but still dominate a fair bit of it. Also very very hard to breed in a pair because the male is so dammed agro and almost kills the females whenever you seperate them to breed, I bred them once (using a divider and it was a pain in the bum) and kept half the babies to grow out and get more females so I can breed them again. They are nothing like kenyi at all male kenyi are yellow and have barring that is more triangular in shape that doesn't go right through the body and also different body shape.

hmm I have just had a different suggestion Why not turn your 140L tank into an african tank.. You could do a breeding group of peacocks in there 1m and several females and your lionheads, Pm Navarre he is in Chch and can show you some peacocks (and probably sell you some young to grow out) and probably also sell you some lionheads from a different source as your other ones. IMO inbreeding as long as you are responsible (remove any deformed ones and stop breeding if you get lots) isn't a problem but you should source new genes whenever you can.

You can use the search with what you know and a * in the author area to find the name..

No need to get a DSLR you can take good pics with a point and shoot, well not good pics but good enough ones.. Stripping the fish is pretty easy hold her with your left hand and use something to open her mouth and dunk her in the water in and out until she releases the fry. I use the end of a bread and butter knife as I find tooth picks etc too sharp and just never have any lying around. Best way to do it is into an ice cream container strip a few fry then stick her in a net (otherwise she may swim around and pick up the babies again) in the ice cream container to rest and move the fry around then go for a few more. After a while you and the fish get good at it and spit the lot in one go but smaller younger fish are harder to do. Sounds like you have been doing alot of breeding a rather interesting mix you have in your tanks