ryanjury

I believe that Shell said her "burundi" threw the odd 7 bar (along with all sorts of random barring).. If I could remember their old username I would search it and find the post and put it up here..

Thanks for sharing, I hadn't read that one I am really enjoying my taiwan reefs and they are breeding really well too.

Sorry can't help with anyone local, but I live in Auckland and have around 40 tanks of mostly african cichlids.. All bred in dedicated tanks and all sourced from good sources, if your ever in town or if you are looking for anything let me know I can ship

Just looked at dimensions too, it is always better to do for width more than height.. Are you getting it made out of 10 or 12mm glass? Going over 600 high in 10mm is pretty dodgy..

If your fish are used to pellet or flake foods they will ignore frozen foods until they realise it's food.. Just add small amounts, even fast your fish for a few days until they figure it out and get a taste for it.

Yeah for a tank that size if u were going to do the DIY route then do a sump.. Otherwise a couple of fx5s..

No pics - Not that I will ever comment on a pleco id ever again! :oops:

Yeah I think meeting times do need to be varied there are always people who can make weekday ones and people who can make weekend ones you can't please everyone, but if there are travel times involved then weekends might be the only option.

Ill try and start up full cultures a few days before so they will be all up and running by the meeting

lol yeah our meetings are so serious we need to sit around and pull faces at each other Where are you carpooling from? Awesome fish Josh and good offer, does this apply to new members who join on the night? I will also be bringing some microworm cultures to the meeting IF I actually remember to put them down this time I have tons of containers saved up they will be free to anyone who shows up and wants one...

Looks like a red spot to me..

Here is a good link.. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=19&t=38310 It is very easy, just sign upto photo bucket (or similar site) upload your image (making sure it is not too big for the forums) and then copy/paste the img code that the site creates and lists under the image on the the site..

TBH it is not looking good and I have never had a fish recover from it, sometimes the fry can get unstuck and things can come out but usually the remaining fry go septic inside the fish and it rots or just bursts and dies.. So you don't loose anything by trying there is actually a thread somewhere where pink_fish did surgery on a fish with something stuck in its mouth they put it to sleep with clove oil and did the surgery they revived it and it worked..

That doesn't look good probably not dropsy either, looks like a fry got stuck and she has partially exploded.. Not too sure what to do to help just hope it heals I guess?

It appears that Wok is on strike so I am going to steal his thunder Next meeting will be on Tuesday 9 August 2011 at 7.30 at the greenbay community centre, see here http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/viewtopic.php?f=6&t=53153 for directions and pics of how to get there and where to park. New people feel free to drop by and say hi, Joshlikesfish is arranging something interesting/fun for this meeting so it will be interesting to see what he comes up with Hope to see everyone there, also hope to meet some new people so come all you lurkers and regular posters on here that don't come to meetings don't be shy!

Next meeting will be at the community centre and this is the one that Josh is running Meeting after will be at pink_fish's place I am hoping to get firenz along to that meeting to get him to show us pics of fish he has taken and give us some tips on aquatic photography.

How long have the fish been without a light? Sometimes when you stick a light on the tank they can take a while to get used to it, some fish just don't like direct lighting, maybe the addition of some floating plants like indian fern or something like that would help dim the lighting down until the fish get used to it?

There are half black females around that might be suitable, haven't seen any for a while but they were fairly common..

First step would be to run a few informal meetings and see if you can get enough regular members to justify your effort and also to see if you have enough keen, motivated and regular members to form a committee. If you don't have that then there is no real point in setting up a proper affiliated club.

Also power lines and air fields I think it also depends on what sort of plane your flying... You could always join a club or just find somewhere semi rural and give it a go

In your tank which is quite heavily stocked for a (relatively) small tank they will grow slowly I had mine in a similar setup and got them around 8cm and they took 2-3yrs to get to 15cm.. I recently got back some dolphins that I bred and sold to a lady 2 years ago at 2cm and they are 18cm+ and thick as, totally awesome, everyone who sees them even people who have been in fish for years is amazed with them.. I was so impressed that I have borrowed one back to breed from (and already have some fry), she has an 8x3x2ft tank though and power feeds/water changes and the dolphins were among the largest fish in the tank so that is the key to growing them well and to a descent size. It is also very hard to gauge how a fish might grow later in life because it may have been stunted in its younger years, this is why store brought fish usually don't reach the same potential as their young when you breed them and grow them out in good conditions.

To me they are completely different, different colour, different patterning etc.. But to someone who doesn't keep africans they probably look the same, to someone who doesn't keep fish at all then all fish are the same, its all relative. Edit - spelling mistake.

They are going to be similar being the same family guess that is why all the African critics hassle us for keeping fish that all look the same.. Ornatus are more yellow with more solid barring.. http://www.cichlidlovers.com/j-ornatus2.JPG Vs maileri http://www.reservestockcichlids.com/images/P/Marl.JPG

Do a google image search and you will see they are completely different looking fish, ornatus are harder to find ATM but I know a few people with them so hopefully they become more common..

Yep you are right But you will find the head development varies between males and different strains of them so is very unreliable and both males/females can get them. This is coming from someone who has kept and bred dolphins for the past 6-7yrs and raised/sexed many adults, so I have half an idea what I am doing with them.. It is very hard to say "usually in africans" because there are individual things that apply to some species more than others. For example.. from http://e0.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=bluedolphincichlid "Sexing It is extremely difficult to distinguish the difference between males and females of this particular species. Both males and females develop the nuchal hump unlike many other cichlid species where only the male develops the vestigial hump. Males are generally larger than females but it would be hard to know for certain whether a captive specimen is grown to full potential or not. Color brightness and clarity is not a dependable way to determine the sex of the fish either because both males and females alike can have a vibrant show of color." from http://e0.aqua-fish.net/show.php?h=bluedolphincichlid More advice here http://www.cichlidforums.com/showthread.php?t=17740 The length of dorsal/anal fin is the only thing that has been 100% correct for the 15 odd adults that I have owned and the many adults I have seen grown out from fry I have bred.