ryanjury

I am not sure if Hollywoods still have some but maybe check there..

There is no such thing as a "good" Jebo heater I would just ditch it altogether and get a Jager, I am sure you could borrow a heater if the Jager happened to die on you but that is quite unlikely..

Most heaters needs to be adjusted, just because you set it to 24 doesn't mean that it will heat to 24.. If it is staying relatively constant (allowing a little bit for hysteresis as above) then just adjust it until it is on the temp that you want. I agree with you on only having $20 to buy a heater so that is what you buy, but it can be a false economy if it sticks on and cooks a tank full of fish that are worth far more than a $70 heater..

I had so much trouble with jebo heaters they would always stick on and cook the fish. Started off thinking I had a bad heater and took them back to the shop for new ones but they were all rubbish. If you hunt around on here and trademe you should get a second hand jager cheap. I have found aqua one to be good for the price.

That tank looks awesome, well done. Unfortunately I am not breeding fish at the moment so can't help you with stock

I am in west Auckland, I don't have many tanks running though.. I would stop using all those chemicals and do water changes. If those products are converting the ammonia to something then your tank won't cycle at all. Your tank has been running for a long time so even though you have somehow killed most of your bacteria there will still be some there and if you let the tank cycle again you should be fine.

Oh Deah did I dare to use the wrong deer.. lol Thanks Caryl I didn't even think of it until you said it, I guess years as the editor had to be good for something

I would bring as much of it as you think you need and can fit in, outdoor furniture is quite dare here and most of it is pretty low quality and wont last long. NZ is pretty much the most expensive country in the world to buy anything even the products which are made (milk/meat etc) here are more expensive here than any other part of the world. And customs will hit you hard if you try and get things cheaper from overseas.

+1 it should be all good, I would chuck an airstone and a box filter or just an internal power filter it will be fine.

They aren't really needed if your water conditions are stable and all the fish are happy. There is a DIY cichlid buffer recipe on cichlid-forum if you really wanted to go down that route.

Fitstly congrats, Nana is what my kids call their grand parents it's nice and easy for them to say..

Your tank is probably too small for dems and yellows you might get away with it though. I read that you shouldn't keep leleupi and shellies together apparently the leleupi kill the shellies..

There's another old name that has resurfaced, welcome Frenchy I lost allot of fish in a series of unfortunate events (tornado and house move), I am in the process of building a proper fish room to house all the tanks and once that is done will be on the hunt for some more fish and get things going again

Welcome back guys, good to see you, we will have to catch up soon Sorry can't help you with any fish as I have cut right back and will be looking for more stock when I get my room up and running as well..

It will be very interesting to see how they apply this, you have always been supposed to pay tax on anything you buy and sell for profit.. But if the IRD started enforcing it in mass on trademe especially for hobbiest breeders they may be surprised by the numbers.. For example if you had a small fish room set up and sold a few fish to cover costs and it was determined a business then as Phoenix has suggested you would be able to claim business costs, and as stated above after taking into account internet connection, portion of rent/mortgage for office/fishroom, cost of fish/fish food, computer even gas/vehicle operating costs to go and collect fish drop fish off get gear etc you could find the "costs" being far higher than the actual "income".

Well I guess they do like the green stuff so no surprise they are really chilled out from up north..

Your tank is probably on the smaller side to pull of a mixed male or tropheus tank, it can probably be done but as others have suggested it would be hit and miss. I had terrible luck with bulu point and ikola, but found the pemba and dubs from Smidey were great so I would recommend them if you were to go down that route. As another option for your tank have you considered a dem/yellow tank with a couple of male peacocks/small haps that get along or a single peacock/small hap colony in there?

Fry would all look the same if the fish was an established hybrid line. TBH the cobue were probably not that pure or had a dubious ID at best (like most the fish that come into NZ) they are a nice fish though and seemed relatively true. I haven't had a chance to wade through the many thousand photos of fish that I have on my lap top to update this post but I will.

Hold fire on ditching them, I will see if I have any photos of the cobue that I had.. I was one of the first people that had them direct from the importers (redwoods) so should be able to do a good comparison for you.

Glad to hear the fish have settled in well There is no point in adding carbon it will be fine suspended dust from the substrate etc, it will clear over time or you can just pack the sump out with tons of filter wool and try and pick it all up.

I have around 3 20L containers with lids. It is a good idea to keep as much water as possible but I generally try and move enough to get a filter and heater running and then top up over a number of days.

Hi and welcome, it will be awesome to have you in the country and on the forums.. I to have seen your tank and thought it was amazing such a small world to think you are moving here. On the sad side you may be quite disappointed by the quality and availability of good quality fish here but we try our best with what we have..

Looks stuartgranti type to me too, definitely not jacob (or lemon jake) probably one of the male stuartgranti type hybrids but only time will tell, end of the day if you don't know what it is now you will probably never know for sure unless you can track its history - breeder/import etc.

Have to agree with the others here, you will need some more demasoni and a bigger tank but welcome to the world of african cichlids

I guess the issue is the purity of the other fish that you are introducing.. You would be relatively safe with something like a dub if you managed to source another good line but with the peacocks etc it is pretty hard to determine the purity of the original line let alone another line. And with peacocks of the same "type" coming from so many different parts of the lake it is almost impossible to get the same line or variant in NZ to introduce new blood with. With the haps etc it is relatively easy ie there are many good lines of giraffes/kadangos/dolphins in NZ so easy to get new blood lines.