ryanjury

Whatever you make it into make it something you don't have to get to the bottom of very often! I planted a 80cm cube once and spent alot of time perched on top of chairs upto my armpits int he tank trying to plant it out.. Sounds like it has alot of potential though, I had a couple of tanks that were 4ft long 4ft high and 45cm deep but decided it was too hard to set them up and sold them after trying to clean them once..

I have brought it before I didn't like it alot of my fish turned up their noses at it which was weird for africans.. I prefer the nutrifin cichlid spirilina sticks and the sera granugreen foods.. Getting some NLS soon so will be able to give feedback on that as well..

I would put them on trademe Good luck rehoming them all we have a hunterway X golden retriever (was being sold as a working dog when my wife brought it lol) she's the best dog ever I think people should consider them for pets and not just working dogs. Do you have any pics?

I brought 2 discus recently and have noticed them acting funny recently like they were going to breed.. Long story short the female was making all the signs but the male was ignoring her, im pretty sure they're a pair well I know the smaller one is a girl because I saw her lay and the bigger one has a smaller breeding tube so im assuming its a male. Anyway the female was making all the moves shaking cleaning areas of the tank but the male was doing nothing sometimes he chased her around a bit but nothing too nasty, anyway she finally laid the other day and I watched the male follow her along and rather than fertilized the eggs he ate them straight away.. I'm presuming its only their first time does this usually happen? I would have expected the male to at least have a go at fertilizing them..

It depends what you want to do with the tank.. If you want to grow plants and how you want it to look.. Did you already have a fitting?

I have seen huge ass bits of it that had been waterlogged and sunk, maybe it just takes a while to get enough water in it to sink? A bit like drift wood weigh it down and stick it outside somewhere for a while to sink.. Should ask Jewelz how she did it as it was in her tank I saw it.. Was rally weird because the pumice was quite light to move around in the tank but as soon as you took it out of the tank it was bloody heavy and you had to struggle not to drop it.

Actually could be some sort of rock looks kinda smooth.. Pumice will sink without weights once it gets waterlogged ive seen it before.. Apparently the whole bottom of lake taupo is covered in pumice that has sunk that is where they stuff ive seen came from someone who was diving down there..

Its really funny once its actually water logged its quite buoyant so you can move it around quite easily but as soon as you goto take it out of the tank its bloody heavy! It looks cool in tanks though and would be easy to carve or drill holes in to create whatever you wanted to

You could use any of them. Gravel or sand is more natural but harder to keep clean or get the babies out in the end, but the fish might not be settled in a bare bottom tank and might not breed or do as well.. I use bare bottom in all my tanks and they settle eventually or I add a small layer of sand and eventually take it all out as they get used to the tank..

Sometimes even formed successful pairs can get nasty when they are setting up their own personal territories, hopefully your tank is big enough for them to make their own spaces and also for the girl to hide if it does get nasty until they sort themselves out.. Id say they would be working together if they had eggs in there, if they were smaller fish you could add something fast and robust for them to focus their aggression on but its probably not a good idea in this case. Some people don't move fish once they have started breeding I have a pair of jullies that I am worried about moving because they are known for the female to get stoppy and kill the male if they're moved.. Good luck and I would probably recommend you cut up a divider or get a spare tank ready for the female just in case it does turn nasty.

Awesome im glad you got it going! Sounds like you will have awesome filtration with a sump and externals running..

It does become waterlogged and sink I have seen it used in african tanks And I guess its not illegal if you don't get caught..

Yep looks like pumice to me Should find it at the beach or lake taupo if you wanted big bits.. Don't know about in Auckland though everything seems hard to get up there

They were still there a few weeks ago..

For all my fish I change maybe 25% weekly and most of them get cold tap water straight into the tap, the discus get water thats sat in the fishroom for a day or so so thats around 24 still cooler than the water in their tank and the main african tank gets heated water mainly because thats in the kitchen right next to the tap with a mixer on it and it allows me to do bigger water changes on that. You should be fine doing 20% water changes weekly with cold water straight from your tap with your fish. Of course if the council add something random to your water you run the risk but I kept fish for a year or so in Auckland and did water changes straight form the tap and never had a problem..

Have you tried moving the filter away from the side of the tank? Sometimes the bubbles make a bit of noise if they're close to the tank..

Agreed nice fish good luck with tumbling the eggs

They could be spooked, did the fish just come out of a fully planted tank with gravel and other fish? Sometimes when you move fish into bare bottomed tanks they freak out I think the gravel gives them security, you can add some more hiding places for them to make them feel more secure or even a thin layer of gravel, or even some smaller more confident dither fish (that wont fit in their mouths) or they might just settle in and get over themselves.. Good luck!

From what ive ready hydra are small and only bother fry..

5cm bugs? Did you get any pics of them where did they come from?

Rather than mucking around with it I would find whats causing it to raise and remove it.. Have you got any white rocks in your tank? Or any shells or anything like that? If you have to muck around with it you can try some peat in your filter but remember not to change things too fast and try and keep in constant otherwise you will stress your fish.

Yeah it has to be rocks tanks with drift wood etc tend to drop in PH rather than raise..

Yeah the fact they are all mbuna is a problem.. They can breed true but its unlikely If all your fish were guaranteed not hybrids when you brought hem did you not buy them with proper name etc? Most of us african breeders only have one species of mbuna in the tank so make sure theres no hybrids created.. Growing them out is a good idea, but if they parents weren't pure can give random results..

Pics would be good Alot of trouble can come from going through books and trying to ID fish, are they the only african species you have in your tank? What did you buy them as? Alot of african cichlids cross breed and alot that you buy with no name can be hybrids.. Pays to find out what they are when your breeding them so you can make decisions on what to do with babies..

Seems weird that some were dead? And she spat them... I just hold their mouths open with a skinny end of a bread knife and dunk them in and out of the water so their babies get washed out..