ryanjury

If they were bright then faded id go for food or stress.. From the sounds of it your feeding a varied diet so I would say the foods sweet, are they under any extra stress? Our yellows are all coloured up (even the blacks on their fins) and the most dominant male has the most black even though hes nowhere near the boss of the tank so I wouldn't think its stress.. Maybe (as other people have suggested) you just brought fish with bad breeding and they're just destined to be dull. We spent many months going around to peoples houses and pet shops to find our breeders and have finally found a group of females and males we want to breed from. Have yet to raise any babies from them (have only just got the females but we have 2 young spawns growing out atm) so were looking forward to seeing how the babies come out..

Yeah I guess it depends on if you actually want the babies or not.. Its not that much hassle to stick them in a tank and chuck some crushed flake in.. They wont grow as fast as feeding them on brine shrimp etc but they will grow..

You could just strip them into the tank if you didn't want to stress.. Id personally let her hold 2 weeks and strip her, but as Dan has said if its her time she will either spit or eat them early or it will be a pathetic amount of babies probably no more than 10.. So if your setup and keen to raise the babies and she holds till 2 weeks they should be sweet if you strip her then and stick them in a guppy trap with an air stone keeping them moving around until their egg sacks are gone and then start feeding them whatever you like..

LOL same video I posted on here a while back at a different site http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/cool-a ... 13522.html Still awesome though!

look at my pic for a female..

Hey thanks for all the replies, as ive sold the fish on trademe I have gone with fastways its alot easier they'll come to me pick them up and the lady on the phone actually had some idea about shipping fish (didn't just go quiet like the nzpost lady and sorta say "why would you?") She even said it would have to be in a poly box try and use heatpads etc, so sounds good all the other recommendations for them sound positive as well.

Sweet thanks have contacted them

Hi im looking to ship some fish and even though everyone seems to use nzpost ive rung them and they said they wont accept live fish? What companies do everyone else use?

Sometimes you find good stuff in LFS's but you just have to look around and get lucky.... As far as LFS's go in Auckland id recommend all the hollywoods and Jansens been to them all and they all have good fish...

Sorry to hear about that.. When they go bad it doesn't take long, we've had a few look like him that came back so fingers crossed for him. PS your fish look great, love the aurora.

LOL didn't he say tankS? Im sure its more than one..

Just noticed some white spot on a clown loach in the african tank.. I haven't tried treating a tank with clowns in it yet but I do know when I treated my other tank with bristlenoses I killed them all with the white spot meds.. Whats the deal? Half dose? Or salt? If so how much salt do you use for the bristlenoses and clowns? I used to use some salt with the africans but found they didn't need it so stopped but how much is safe for the bristlenoses... Thanks

lol looks good Get some for us too if you find any I haven't seen any though.

Painted MDF still soaks up water and swells it needs to be sealed as well as painted to avoid doing that.. If I was using MDF again id seal it or just use real wood..

Never seen or heard about them before I hope you find some.. Probably the type of thing that someone has sitting in a corner of their house like many of the fish we want

Just caught someone mentioning about the weight the floor can hold I dont know how much reading your keen to do but this article is pretty good! I read it all before I setup my 540L tank in the lounge as I didn't want the floor in the house were renting to fall through! http://www.cichlid-forum.com/articles/a ... weight.php

Hey I cant sex mine either they look very similair but seem to kinda get along well not beat each other so who knows.. Your pictures are a bit too small (IMO) to really see much anyway the top one looks a little brighter but yeah maybe try get some bigger pics?

I would just setup the new tank with water from each of your other tanks (maybe 50% of the water in each tank) and also half the filter media from these tanks in the new filter that should be enough bacteria to handle the bio-load (assuming its not really over stocked).. IMO it would be easier on the new fish than moving them all around the place. Maybe just give them light feeds for the first week or so to reduce the waste and you should be fine.

Looks good, you guys should be proud of it? Whats in it? Looks like some zebras electric yellows a kenyi from what I can see but im sure theres more..

As soon as the babies are free swimming they pretty much have no need for the parents (apart from guarding them if they're in a community) the parents fan the eggs take any unfertilised ones away etc but once they're free swimming they dont need that.. If they're in a community you could just syphon them out when they're free swimming or close to it.. Into a small tank with water from the tank they were in and an established sponge filter.

Yeah sounds good just try everything and see what works for you I reckon...

I dunno whatever you want too Lots of stuff does the job coral sand dolimite lime limestone, you can buy cichlid salt and use baking soda... A mate and I are going to make our own cichlid salt in bulk soon because we found how to do it on the net cheap as and its $21 for 350grms retail..

I used baking soda and salt before I brought coral sand to get the water right.. The fish loved it and bred alot more than they do with the coral in there. Really annoys me!

Yeah I agree firemouths are cool.. I got bagged on here the last time I suggested them though Just make sure they cant grow big enough to eat anything and I recon you'll be sweet..

Yeah congrats Steve :lol: Im sure ill be seeing you soon..