ryanjury

IMO go steel and get it painted in some descent paint it will last longer be stronger and be alot lighter

metronidazole is an antiboitic and is used for treating HITH there is some reading for you which may help lots of links in there about HITH and all recommending metro to treat it. Yes it can help with some intestinal worms mainly hex but has other uses like most other drugs. Worms are also very very common in fish tanks which is why most people with large scale fish rooms etc treat all fish for worms routinely and also when they buy new fish. http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&sa ... le&spell=1 Snowman have you had any luck treating your fish?

lol I have the same "mix up then" female from BK and male from "borelli" off list...

Pretty much all the borelli you will see around at the moment that are imported will be the randoms.. I have asked the question of many if they are true borelli only to hear people say they are but are only young but photos etc don't mix up. I have 2 different fish here a pair both purchased at different times as borelli but very very hard to tell what they actually are?

Awesome great news If you want the babies to survive you need to siphon them out into a smaller tank with a sponge filter they will get eaten in your community tank. They will need green water or other microscopic food when they are free swimming to begin with moving onto BBS or decap or finely crushed flake.

Most cichlids especially males and especially when breeding are more intolerant of their own kind than any other fish unless it is their partner which is why you want to stick to single males or pairs or large groups to spread the aggression.

If you have the tanks then its worth a nudge.. Generally I give stocking advice based on people only having one tank and wanting them to get along long term which is where it gets difficult Make sure you post with your experiences, if you want cockatoo's I just got a male off bilbo and they're very nice.

Cockatoo's would be fine.. But there is a limit to how many fish that need their own space you can stick in a 100L tank, if your 4 boliv's pair off then they may do the same thing..

They are very likely to breed if you have a boy and girl, maybe not successfully raising fry but they will still be protective. I don't know how well the 3 different types of cichlids would go in a 100L tank probably not too well if one of them is quite dominant then may dominate the others..

IMO 5-6 wouldn't be that good in a tank that size.. Maybe a pair? Once they start breeding the cockatoo's that aren't breeding will be chased around by the pair and then probably by the blue rams at the other end of the tank.. Just my opinion though might be ok

Nice fish that's for sure Different kettle of fish to blue rams they tend to chill out alot more and can hide if there aren't other more confident fish in the tank, if you get a pair it is very likely they will breed in a community tank females go off and find somewhere secret to lay. How big is your tank? They can get along with blue rams but would depend on tank size obviously both being cichlids they can have their tiffs as long as there is room for both of them then it should be fine.

Phoenix here is an article http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/l_caeruleus.php The problem is not the lack of descent blood it is just that people either don't care or cant get descent ones for breeding.. IMO it is most likely the fish was imported like that and bulk bred and then flicked off to little old NZ..

Yep that was my thoughts too, seems typical of what is for sale around the place at the moment unfortunately Maybe smidey can fix it with different water conditions or food?

Hey bubbles if it helps email me the photo and I will post it on here for you then we will be able to comment Photos from bubbles.. Personally I am going for the poor breeding angle with this one.. But I am sure there will be some discussion, and no I am not rubbishing their fish just giving my opinion.

Sorry Smidey just saw your last post.. I didn't say that the person owned a poorly bred fish or not.. I gave 2 options for the black markings and said a pic would clear it up for sure? I must admit I made certain assumptions when it was stated there were 2 of them and one of them was fine colour wise also all the other fish were good, I assumed water conditions etc were fine.. Would generally put poor water conditions down to stress type colouration which in a yellow is pale and possible barring again a photo would help. There could be a million reasons as to why their yellow has black markings I have the 2 most likely in my opinion from what I have seen and what I have found on the net.

It depends where the markings are.. As I said "On a yellow it is common for them to get black markings in the face, moustache or black markings down the front middle of the head, black barring, or black markings down the belly, all of these are caused by poor breeding." Black markings in these areas are less desirable traits in a yellow, it doesn't mean they are hybrids or anything like that, just that they are a lower quality fish. And this is caused by people not realising what traits to breed from, not caring or the fact that the shops seem to be full of poor yellows with markings so people cant get any better to breed from etc. An example of what I am talking about would be bottom left photo. http://www.perthcichlid.com/pcs/images/ ... combo7.jpg Markings like I have described generally don't come and go with mood in what I would call a descent yellow. Sometimes barring can appear when excited or stressed. Sorry have nothing to back this up except the last 4-5years keeping and breeding africans and spending countless hours on the net researching and browsing other forums. I have found the markings that are caused by food are smaller dots or random blotches, which is why I put both scenarios out there and said a photo would clear it up. Guess it all depends on how much you value the fish you have or the fish you pass on, even with poor markings they will be awesome fish live long lives and be enjoyed was simply adding my opinion as to what the black markings may be Mystic have seen your yellows and their offspring in peoples tanks have to agree yours are very nice fish wouldn't mind getting some at some stage

Where are the black markings.. On a yellow it is common for them to get black markings in the face, moustache or black markings down the front middle of the head, black barring, or black markings down the belly, all of these are caused by poor breeding. I am working on getting descent yellows going as pretty much all the ones I have seen for sale on trademe or in shops are very poor quality with lots of black markings or a really faded white colour. People who breed them for sale need to be very very seletive with what they breed and pass on. Otherwise mbuna seem to get random black markings at times.. The theory is it is caused by diet particularly spirilina based foods, it is harmless and apparently disappears when spirilina is removed from the diet. Posting pics is easy look here viewtopic.php?f=3&t=4306 and follow the instructions or email them to someone to post them for you.. Should be easy to tell what the black markings are from a photo.

Depends how hard out you want to be or how "into" growing plants you are. You can just use gravel/sand and you will get some plants to grow with half descent lighting and minimal care.

Yep wicked fish alright hope they do get bred Good luck guys!

No experience with them but seems like a good idea Let us know how it goes..

How big is your tank and how big are the discus? From your description its hard to tell how many you have in there.. Do you have 4 bigger ones and 3 smaller? Sounds like typical cichlid behaviour have any of the larger discus paired off?

Nothing random about 1TB per 20L at all of rock salt? I have had white spot on clown loaches and also on a few other fish I have brought in with terrible white spot and treated it this way. I always underdose first and have sometimes had to add the same again the next day, I like to have as little crap in my tanks as possible even if it is only salt, and white spot has never killed a fish that I have had, to actually kill a fish it would have to get very bad. Maybe even a small dose is enough to get the fish producing enough slime the whitespot cysts can't stick them them so they die off? Quarantine sometimes does nothing for white spot there are some theories that it lurks in all tanks and occurs when fish are stressed or run down, so you could quarantine them then the move to their permanent tank could stress them causing white spot. Yes all fish should be quarantined but it wont prevent white spot (you should be able to tell quite easily if they have it when you get them). No need to get angry with people for offering up their advice and what works for them. Just a little while ago you were complaining that someone didn't tell you you had to treat whitespot longer in cold water when that's common sense for something with a lifecycle affected by temperature, now your the expert going off and saying everyone else is offering crap unhelpful advice.

I usually stick in 1TB per 20L on the first day if it doesn't get better add the same again its pretty harmless to the fish that you have

Good point.. I make assumptions too, I have a 3ft here that holds 150L and another that holds 90L so would be good to know dimensions.. I would probably stick a pair of acara's in the smaller one, but that's just me and I do have plenty of tanks to move them around if need be.

Ditto it has been years since I have seen a really really nice firemouth.