ryanjury

What fish are you sticking in the tank? Some sands alter the ph alot and the sand choice can depend on this.. To clean the sand you stick small amounts in a bucket and run the hose through it stirring it up until the water runs clear, be careful not to have too much flow and wash all the sand away. And it does take ages to clean it all, it also seems to always make the tank a little cloudy at first no matter how clean it is but this settles. You can use a gravel vac and slow the flow with a finger over the end and also just run a hose over the surface and pick up any crap sitting on top.. Some people also say you need to run a fork or something through the sand to move it around so you don't get dead spots but my fish do this for me.. Cost depends on what you want to get, I have pool filter sand in my community tanks and thats awesome and I am assuming pretty cheap? Maybe ask around pool places..

Heaps of info on the web.. http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&cl ... arch&meta=

Yeah it will be good to watch them, however I don't hold much hope for many or any surviving once they start swimming, although the parents try their best to control them the schooling fish are quite fast and the babies do stray. However like you say you loose nothing by giving it a go maybe they will do a good job, and they will spawn again.. Removing the fry can help them to start looking at breeding again, generally in a month or so they will anyway and will chase away and/or eat any babies from their initial batch. With cichlids you can quite successfully remove some of the babies without putting the parents off the rest, you do run the risk of them eating them or a complete failure at raising the babies if you do.. And you also don't get to enjoy the parents looking after the young

I would say it is doing it because your water has a low kh (maybe the council changed something in your water lately) and something in your tank is tending to make the ph acidic.

Good news Rozski nothing better than watching them look after their babies.. If you did want to raise a some now would be the time to syphon a few out and stick them in another tank with an airstone, you wont be able to catch them once they're free swimming..

Some reading.. Obviously its aimed at rift lakes but the explinations still stand.. http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/w ... mistry.php

Have you measured the kh of your water out of the tap? It basically equates to the waters stability or ability to keep the ph the same.. Your water may come out of the tap at a ph of 7.4 but if the kh is low it will fluctuate. Things like your bog wood can lower the ph. Fish in general will also lower the ph with the waste they produce. Is your tank a steady ph of 6? If so and the fish are happy I wouldn't mess with it.. I don't measure the ph's in my fish tanks unless things go wrong and have all manner of things breeding it in, as long as the fish are happy and its not extreme it doesn't really matter. If you really want to mess with it, then you need to add something to buffer the water you can add baking soda to your water as you add it start with 1tbs for a water change disolve it and add it slowly see if that fixes it.. Another alternative (what I would do) is to add something to the tank that will buffer it (coral/crushed coral sand/argonite/sea shell's/limestone..) Add a very small amount at a time until you achieve what you want, as if you add too much it will cause your ph to swing the other way..

I think its strong enough but I probably would have gone for something thicker than the skinny hardwood and used poly inbetween. That blanket isn't going to do much to even out any pressure points or slight imperfections that might be under the tank especially a larger one like this. However im sure there are plenty of tanks that are on far less suitable stands and they have been setup for years and not broken so you might be alright. And im also sure there are plenty of people who had their tanks on "perfect" tanks and still had them crack..

If 2 of them have dug a hole and are defending it then its a good sign I think trying to define an age/size for a fish to breed is hard to do as some fish grow faster/slower and some mature at different rates depending on how they were raised/water conditions/diet etc.. Best to just go on how they are acting to point you in the right direction.

With a tank this size you're going to have to breed or buy an awful lot of community fish to fill it

Awesome work glad you have good stuff happening in your tank.. Raise a few babies I might be keen on some down the line Nice photo too.. I don't know about flags in particular but most egg layers take around 3 days to hatch depending on temp etc and around a week to free swimming, good luck they must be doing alright if they've lasted this long, free swimming is the challenge though..

Livingart maybe your lucky? Or maybe its safe? I just stay away from them because I feel there are better alternatives, maybe in moderation its ok? Who knows, I definately wouldn't feed them to africans because of bloat.. With the shrimp I cook up a heap of pea's, a few spuds, pumpkin lettuce brocoli whatever greens I can find mash up the frozen shrimp first, add all the vege's add some garlic and some geletin and then put it in fish bags squash it all out flat and stick it in the freezer. It works well and 1kg of it goes a long long way..

Shrimp is alot better for the fish and if you buy it cooked etc from the supermarket is alot easier to work with.. The theory I have heard revolves around the fact that fish are cold blooded animals and designed to digest cold blooded fats.. When you start feeding them meat that contains fats from warm blooded animals they start to struggle to digest it which can cause liver problems (built up undigested fat) blockages etc.. Which is why shrimp are supposed to be better because they're cold blooded and the fish are somewhat designed to digest it.. Yes alot of people breeders etc feed up their fish on beef heart and it gets the fish to grow fast but how long will they last? Personally after reading articles and knowing there are better safer and easier things to feed I stay away from the beef heart.. Found this its a better explaination... "Fish are cold-blooded animals, meaning that their body temperature rises and falls with their surrounding environment. They use fat for both an energy reserve as well as an energy resource. Just like humans, they have fat stores throughout their bodies. But these fats need to have a low melting point so that they can be utilized if the water around them is cold (like during the winter). Warm-blooded animals, on the other hand store fats that have a high melting point. If you feed your fishes fats from warm-blooded animals, they will not be able to mobilize these fats for energy use. Consequently, it will be stored in their livers, and over time it will accumulate leading to cirrhosis. "

All of my tanks get cold water water changes from the tap except for my big one but the only reason that gets warm water is because its right next to the tap in the kitchen.. If I am changing the fry tanks I just adjust the hose sprayer to a slower rate and change a little less water so its less temp drop but they're sweet as. If I am dealing with more sensitive fish (ie when I had discus rams etc) I do things differently. I think some people get hung up on things a little too much if it didn't work then people wouldn't do it.. I think some people have been told something and just always done things that way so are afraid to change, but hey if it works for them then why not

Get a big air pump some gang valves and hook up a heap of air powered filters..

Sorry to hear about this Just did some googling to find out about it, you say your using doxy where did you get that info from? http://network.bestfriends.org/friends_ ... /5401.html

I either lost my rams with white batches/lumps on the head or rapid breathing.. No amount of treatment water changes etc etc changed anything happened in both nzbred and imported ram's. Happened to fish that were getting daily water changes and had been treated with metro/prazi to clean them out so I have no idea, I think it is just ram's

Awesome news Nav I hope they go well for you, you've gone through alot to get them so I know they will

If I stick 2 africans in a tank chance are they will hide also, have you seen video's of the lake? There are school's and school's of fish.. There could be other variables also, PH, location of the tank (for sun and people movement) also maybe they just need to settle in.. Or like you say maybe they're just skittish fish. Best thing to do is add more fish I am presuming you have setup the 6ft you mentioned earlier? More fish should bring them out more, or it can go the other way where all the fish hide because the yellows too.. There is nothing worse than buying fish and not being able to see them, I am sure you will work it out.. It might pay to use your tank as a qtine first and not add anything else just in case they have something from that petshop..

Yeah the juvvie Dub's are wicked The adults are cool too but would be awesome if they stayed spotty..

Bottle placed above the tank filled with PMDD a syphon hose with a valve set to drip the rate you want would be cheap and do the job, not much control but functional..

First one "cichlid female peacock" pictured is some sort of zebra it could even be a male as its relatively colourful and has a few relatively big egg spots but would have to see more pics or fish in person to make that call.. There is a large difference in shape/colour etc between a zebra and a peacock, also peacock females should be id'd (including strain or purchase place) to avoid crossing if sold.. The red fin peacock isn't too far off its a red kadango pictured, sometimes called red fin kadango.. If you want to learn do your research www.cichlid-forum.com is a great place, buy off descent breeders and you will be fine. Ask lots of questions and get lots of advice (reserach the advice or ask for second opinions) and you will be sweet..

lol yeah they're terriable id's I was going to log on and try and correct them but people think they're right and thats that.. And they always come back with the "I went to my petshop and they said I was right" one, thinking their petshop would know the first thing about african cichlids, which we all know many don't have any idea. I also noticed some gold maleri's (not too sure if that is what they actually are) that were apparently imported from africa early last year.. Implying these are actually wild caught fish. As far as im aware we don't have wild caught africans in nz I thought all our fish were from fishfarms etc, but again waiting (and hoping) to be proved wrong on that one wild caught would be wicked.. lol and noticed someone wants to buy all the females presumably for breeding with some other random peacock male its just awesome. Its great how people think any female peacock female can be mated with any male and its all good.. Oh well it takes all sorts I just feel for the people who get ripped off when they buy fish with these incorrect id's or presumptions, and it seems to be all the dodgy ones that people actually want to buy.. I guess its very much a case of buyer beware.

They are not very easy to sell.. Probably the best thing to do is to stop breeding them or breed them in moderation so you don't have so many, other than that try trademe or your local petshops see if they will take them..

lol thats not cool.. Generally I would expect to pay around $30 for overnight courier for a small polybox (upto 5kg's actual or volumetric weight..) obviously if your box is bigger or they have more costs involved it will go up..