ryanjury

Have you done any water tests? What size tank is it? What are the tank mates? Have any of the other fish been picking on this one? Is it one or both eyes that are popping out? Is the fish bloated at all?

Hi and welcome Glad to see more local members.. Good luck with your platties, as long as you have a boy and a girl (or a pregnant girl) you will soon be wondering how to stop them breeding as you run out of tanks

Rock salt from the supermarket is all you need It encourages the fish to produce more slime which is their natural way to heal therefore they heal faster, also good for white spot.

Sorry to hear about this Gasping at the surface would certainly suggest something nasty in the water that they can't handle or too hot, but as you had just added cold water probably something nasty.. How much of a water change did you do? Id say that the council did something random to the water, ie added extra or something or flushed some lines out or did something at the plant and you just did a water change on the wrong day

Yeah those angels do look nice Hopefully they grow up and throw some nice babies to be distributed around the place

A low ph probably wont hurt them they seem to adjust alright but its probably not ideal... Good luck catching them I regularly play chase the fish in my 5fter 2 big nets is the key

Don't try and lower the ph of the new tank that ph is good for africans they prefer it above 7 preferably above 8 I would take out the driftwood or add something to keep the ph up in the new tank. As for the ph difference don't stress put your fish into bucket/buckets depending on how big they are (cover the buckets so they can't jump out its gutting when they do that) start off with just enough water from their current tank to cover the fish. Slowly start syphoning water from your new tank into the bucket maybe half a litre to a litre at a time do this every 10 minutes or so. Do less water and over a longer period for a larger difference of PH and they will adjust to the new ph.

Firstly do you have a filter and a heater (or some way of keeping the tank above 20C i.e. a well heated house in winter).. Pretty much what adodge said, they're awesome little fish start off with 2f and 1m and some plants and you will have thousands.. A 10L tank isn't much good for them really maybe for a trio to begin with but they will quickly reproduce and overcrowd a tank that small causing problems if you are a beginner.

There is always the risk that their maybe chlorine in dangerous levels in the water.. However I have always used the hose when I live in Auckland or here and had no problems for it.. Only exception was when I had discus and when I have very young dwarf cichlid fry (after a month or so they get the hose but only small water changes). I always do a water change on a tank of more disposable tank first (sounds horrible I know) and observe them, I also make sure I create as many bubbles as possible when filling the tank (aeration dispels the chlorine) and keep a bottle of strong de-chorinator handy, I have never had to use it or have any problems yet.

If you wanted to grow plants that have roots in the water column to absorb stuff you can try Indian fern or duck weed

Very nice fish and photos congrats Where did they come from? Are they on the list again.. As Phoenix said try and breed them but its probably a long time off if they're still only 5-6cms.

Bloodworms are known to cause bloat and blockages in all fish which is why I don't feed them at all.. Definitely don't feed them to your africans it is likely to cause bloat I don't think I know of any breeders that feed them, stick to shrimp or even left over mixed vege from dinner if you want to give them a treat. Your africans diet should be tailored towards what type you are keeping (mbuna/haps/peacocks/tangs).. Generally with them it is best to steer away from meaty foods and things very high in animal proteins.

Google making spawning mops.. I haven't done it before but think you just buy a heap of acrylic (not natural) wool cut it into lengths tie it together boil it and drop it in.. Can also be weighed down and you can make it as big or small as you want..

Yeah id say they're not used to it.. If they have never really seen them before they wont really realise they are food, once they eat 1 or 2 they will be into it. Happens regularly with fish I buy as I feed alot of my own home made frozen foods and alot of fish are raised on flake/pellet food when I add my food they swim around looking lost and take upto a week to figure out its food. I always raise my baby fish on a large variety of foods so that they will eat anything making it easier for their next owners. Keep adding little amounts until they go for it, another consideration is how big are the fish? Obviously they need to be pretty small to see and eat the micros..

Hey Rox fishroom and family are good.. Have got the fishroom pretty well setup at the moment just getting a few more things sorted you guys will have to call through sometime.. Would like to see some pics of the guppies too where on earth did you get a pure strain of guppies from in Palmy? I am after some descent mollies as well so hopefully your breeding goes well

Hybrid fish are generally a bad thing for the hobby.. Among other things they weaken the already limited gene pools we have in the country. Sometimes you can't tell what your getting, some of the babies may resemble one parent therefore be named as that and be passed on as that. We may get a whole generation of dud "honey gourami's" that aren't quite right stem from this spawning and these fish can and will be passed on for years confusing people and annoying people who may pay top $$ for them only to find out they're crosses. Generally as responsible fish keepers we do our best to breed pure fish of the highest quality to ensure the fish stocks in nz stay as good as they can.. I probably wouldn't have a problem with hybrids if people called them that so people knew what they were getting, but its when they get named and sold as a pure fish that it causes problems. It is generally best to get rid of them and do it right from the beginning. Above is just my opinion and the opinion of others, there will be plenty of PC people who will argue for it I am sure

Hey Rox nice mollies I am after some so let me know when you have some babies from a pure line.. I have no idea what colour to call these ones, but if you have pure lines then keep them separate as they will cross breed and ruin your other strains.. Did you guys have white sailfin mollies as well?

Hi and welcome to the forums Some pics would be good too not many marine keepers around here. I don't know if your already a "member" but phil has an email list of locals and were planning to do a tank crawl etc soonish you might be interested.. viewtopic.php?f=6&t=35095

I am pretty sure that honey gourami's and the blue neon dwarf gourami's are different species.. from rough research (hard to tell what a powder blue dwarf gouarmi is without a pic) honey gouarmi is Colisa chuna blue gouarmi is Colisa lalia So any resulting fry would be hybrids and should be destroyed (feed them out if you're squeamish).

They're cool little fish aye My pair laid once and the female ate them all but one that got free swimming then eventually died and got eaten.. The next 2 spawns are still going she is still with the second batch, unfortunately the male jumped So on the look out for another male or playing the waiting game and raising the babies to start again.. Babies are easy to raise, feed them microworms or any food for small babies I have used the nova baby range with them but microworms are good

Congrats And what appistos are they?

Unfortunately this has happened to a few of our species and caused them to disappear.. To me it seems enough people have frontosa just for the love of them that they wont all sell up when the price of them drops.. I always try and hang onto fish to make sure they don't die out it only takes a few years and they seem to have disappeared again. I think I saw apof's colony being advertised cheaply can't remember how much, I also think I saw 6 15cm ones go for $400 on here.. I think the price will come down to around $15-20ea, there is always the trade off with price set a high one and sell less or set a low one and sell heaps, if someone shows up selling them for $100 someone else will sell them for $50 and love them for it

lol I just chuck driftwood in the same category as white worms, micro worms, daphnia etc as one of the things that fishkeepers should give to each other or trade for things especially if they get it for free I used to have a big drum outside with driftwood soaking that I gave away if I didn't need it when I was in Auckland alanco nice guppies the last one has some funky colours going on gotta love all the randoms that can pop out.

Yeah the babies were sold cheap when they left the country, rumor has it the parents went quite cheap too, glad to see them in good hands and breeding well it looks like their future in NZ is very secure now Personally I don't think the people who plan to breed them and sell them for $100ea will sell any, it is all about supply and demand, hundreds of babies sold 3-4 years ago meaning there will be alot of colonies around breeding and most of the "serious" people who will pay good money for them will already have them. I would expect prices to get quite low especially if 2-3 people start breeding them and trying to sell them at the same time, there are only so many people who can afford and justify setting up a huge tank for them so only a limited market especially if they're popping up for $45ea in shops. I also doubt that breeders will hang onto them for the year or so it takes for them to be sexable and cull the females for a fish that is actually not that rare in NZ anymore trying to exclude others from breeding them wont work as others will sell them younger and let females out. If I was in the market for frontosa I would either snap up the cheap ones you found or hold on do your research buy some good gear and see what happens and you might pick up a bargain.. lol Then again who knows what might happen, I used to laugh when I thought petrol prices would hit $2, only time will tell and we'd all be millionaires if we could predict the future.

lol yeah I crack up when I see driftwood on trademe each to their own though I guess decap brine shrimp is awesome and although by the gm its expensive I will only go through 100gms a year feeding out to thousands of fry daily so works out cheaper in the long run.