ryanjury

Would love to see some pics of them as they mature especially the females.. I used to breed and sell pure johannii by the hundred but they have gone now There are all sorts of dodgy ones out there being sold as johannii which aren't right tons of vertical barring and just not quite the right colour etc, they kind of resemble the one you have pictured at the bottom so it will be interesting to see how they turn out as they grow. Pure Melanachromis species are harder to find across the world now because they all cross so easily.. Your male looks nice though.

I am a fan of the daker substrates and using limestone to buffer the water. However have seen many amazing tanks with lighter substrates it all hinges on if you can keep the algae from growing on it and all the crap from settling.

I would be inclined to stick a sheet of ply on top and pack it level or get a completely flat stand.. It's one of those things that you don't want to gamble with really, it might be ok or the tank might crack and flood the place and all your fish die..

They sometimes graze themselves on rocks, keep water quality up add salt and I drop meth blue or tonic directly on the eye to prevent infection setting in and eating the eye.

lol just reading this thread stupid iphone autocorrect fail! Anyone have any luck drilling assembled tanks? I have done small holes but going to need to do a few bigger ones for a 300L tank I want to sump..

Nutrafin max is one of my fav flakes and the fish seem to love it and go well on it I think it is like anything you get what you pay for, I have found the cheap flakes to be quite hard and thick and the fish don't seem to like them as much, they would also have cheaper ingredients.

With a portable heatpump you just need to vent a hose outside that discharges the hot/cold air depending on what mode the heat pump is running in.. I also run a dehumidifier with a drain going outside this increases the tend and keeps the mould/stink down. Ventilation does become an issue though, I just open the door lots when I am in there and the temp outside is not too cold.

Go the CF1200 you can't beat them I know people who have had them running for 6-7years with no issues, and if you do need parts they are dirt cheap and easy to get I think I brought some taps for one that I brought broken for like $11. Don't think you will find fluval parts that cheap..

I just brought a heatpump off trademe for $100 and chucked it in my room, I only have it set on a timer to cool though, the fluoros and air pump heat the room too much! Mine is a pretty well insulated shipping container though. I don't think that compressed air or flued gas would be anywhere near practical, as everyone has said spend the money on insulation to minimise the losses, then no matter what method you use it wont cost stuff all.

This is typical for ikola, I started off with 10 think im down to 4 now. I think they are just so agro that you need to start off with 20+ of them otherwise they just chase each other around so much they get stressed and sick and die Although your filtration is fine, maybe you could try more? Tropheus love flow and water with a high oxygen content.. Have you actually treated your fish for bloat or anything like that?

A few years ago when I started keeping fish I kept and bred firemouths in a 2ft community tank with all sorts of fish and they were sweet, they were breeding at 1" long and far better coloured than most of the stuff I have seen coming in though. It would be good to see someone keeping/breeding some descent ones in the country, I know I have heard of the odd good batch being imported.

Yeah looks like barries fish, price has increased a bit but hopefully someone with some drive gets it and gets them all going!

Gutted sorry to hear it, unfortunately people who don't keep fish have no idea how much to feed and often think it is cool or good to give them a good feed, I have lost many fish that way too

It seems these guys lost there one too.. http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing.aspx?id=434966326

I wouldn't bother either mate once you have experience and good stable cycled tanks and a maintenance schedule there is not allot of point in regular water testing. I haven't used a test kit in years..

Hi and welcome back it is good to see people return to the hobby.. I don't know anyone breeding fighters up here anymore . But if ur ever out my way ur welcome to visit and I'll try convert u to Africans..

I can't guarantee that my guppies had the same thing but I tried, levamisole, metro, prazi, doxycycline, salt, tonic, meth blue, albendazole and a few other things with no change in symptoms in mine. Obviously tried different drugs at different times on different bathes of affected fish

I had the same problem for years and in the end lost all of my guppies to it, and wont touch them again.. I can only loosly suggest or trace it to some sort of guppy virus that has been hinted at a few times around the place, it appears that some fish carry it and are immune to it, and when you mix stock or introduce more guppies you introduce the virus and it wipes them all out. I tried all sorts of meds and foods when it was affecting my fish and had no luck as well.

I would be more inclined to buy another filter than put a 5000lph power head on a 4ft tank..

More circulation is always good seems to be really good for the fish and stops crud from settling on the bottom of the tank.

Happy new year everyone I know I had a pretty crap 2011 as allot of others did so hopefully 2012 is a better year

Use the search function Barrie (a glassier that used to keep fish and post quite often) has commented on technical aspects of using safety/toughened glass, but he said not to use it..

Id have to say lots of credit to Jackp here he has done some hard yard with Bruce and never given up and got some good results, I have seen him a few times a week since he was really sick and he is starting to look awesome and behave as normal as he used to when I used to visit.. Well as normal as goofy Bruce can be that is, I am stocked to see the results come through and hope it can be managed well in the future

Nice fish! Good score

Gutted mate, if you need anything you know where I am just let me know..