ryanjury

It is gutted to hear about the number of people who have died so far News footage is not good.. I hope everyone from here is ok there is only 1 or 2 I haven't got in touch with yet (marklb and Nav if anyone has heard from them). Lots of people were thinking they already had the "once in a 100 yr quake" so were in the safe and could carry on with their lives with no issues..

Yeah bloat is fairly universal and affected fish are very obvious sick, will be off their food, quite fat, breath heavily and lethargic especially in their last few days.. Anyway if you want some fish let me know

The bristlenoses will eat the eggs if they can get a chance but if you notice a fish lay then leave a dim night light on and hopefully they can guard them all night..

If the fish are the smaller ones from the batch they will be smaller and less colourful males but will blossom with good food and conditions.. If you do have 1m and 3f then you have a good ratio chuck heaps of caves in there and see what happens..

Yeah I am thinking of all the people I know down there I hope you are all ok have sent a few texts but no answer news footage does not look good

A couple of big ones with good air pressure would do the trick.. However I agree with the others water changes are the key most people who are serious about their discus probably don't need filters as they do like 50-90% water changes every day or 2.

I have used all sorts of brands and found them all pretty quiet providing they have no air in them and impellors are not worn..

Could be poor fertility for the first go, you have had luck with the agassizi before you might be an apisto whisperer.. lol I hope you have room for more tanks

That is why there are a few of us that trawl NZ looking for the descent strains and maintain lots of tanks to breed descent fish and spread them and give out descent advice.. It is not hard to pick out the people on trademe who have no idea what they are doing and a few questions in the Q and A will quickly narrow it down. As blunt as Rabbit was I would have to agree it is pretty easy to spot fish with bloat they would be looking pretty sick and bloated and sad if they died within a few days..

Just remembered this thread what fish did you end up going with?

From your other thread I am assuming you are talking about african cichlids.. Discus are cichlids too so it can be confusing when you talk about cichlids being hard to keep them saying you have bred discus etc. African cichlids are the easiest cichlids to keep and breed they are the only fish I have had that will go from 15 to 35C in heater failures with no losses, you can move the fry from the day they are stripped do weekly water changes and not much else is needed.. The major problems are.. You need to start off with healthy fish. If you want to breed you need to start off with descent pure fish (easier said than done in NZ) You need to be aware of what their diet should be for the various species (probably the issue with your bloat). You need to be aware of their aggression levels/size and stock accordingly. You need a reasonably big sized tank. End of the day goto a good breeder or a good shop and you will get some good fish and advice and you should be set.

I would be very careful with petshop stock, yes they can get pure stock but most of their zebras will be hybrids some of them may throw relatively true and resemble pure fish but can throw all sorts of rubbish, same with stuff from unknowns on trademe so many are bred in mixed mbuna tanks where all sorts happens. I would say that the big fish attempted to eat the fish in the net, they suck them through the netting, this mashes them against the net and kills them.. The bigger fish probably add the remaining ones that you transferred.

Always better to replace, but how is the tank being used? I have plenty of tanks with patches and none have let go yet, that tank is pretty small so should be fairly easy, sure it looks ugly but if it is just a breeding tank or you are clever then you can hide it.

You can patch it, but as Zev said it will keep travelling, I usually encourage these cracks to finish their journey make sure that the crack is clean (ie no shark edges where it may branch off again) and then patch it.

Yeah it will be manky as, always best to empty and dry filters (leave the lid off) if you are going to not use them straight away.. You will need to clean it and wait for it to cycle or add some cycled media to kick start the cycle.

Awesome good work

Well hopefully it is as easy as they say I would say if it was we would have tons of them in NZ, the people I talk about tried everything they could find on the net (obviously starting off with the easy stuff like a few people suggest works) but had no luck.. If they were that easy then surely the guys with the trio of calvus that bred all the time and they had literally thousands of free swimming fry would have managed to raise more than 5.. They tried everything as well and had no luck. I think it may be a case of some people have the luck with them or something small about their setup or methods suits the fish better than others and this may be the key more than the big stuff. Anyway good luck Mcculloch and fingers crossed that we see more of these in the shops in the next few years if you are successful.

My info is based on the info the only 2 people who have managed to raise any altos in NZ gave me.. But yeah that info on that forums goes against that and info on pretty much every website about breeding them.

Awesome good work! Sorry I couldn't make it it's a bit far to drive..

Awesome good work I wish mine would breed! At the moment they hate each other.. Second what Nav has said they are very delicate so daily water changes with preconditioned water and grade them out for size all the time into tanks with same water so they don't eat each other.. You will need some tanks but it would be worth it to get more of these guys out there a friend of mine has a whole heap but can't seem to get his spawning at the moment lol Or like Nav said feel free to flick them to me and I will give them a go too lol

Trademe/petshops. You may need to get it in if you goto a petshop as they may not stock it, I know HFF up here stocks it.

They are blue eyed golden long fins, well at least that is what they are selling them as and I am not into my plecos but they looked gold with long fins to me Give them a call or message and see if they still have them..

HFF have them up here for sale..

Because people watch programs like finding nemo and buy marine fish with no idea how to care for them and kill them.. Probably much the same as most freshwater fish..

For starters what water parameters are you keeping your tank at? Your malawis and your jewels prefer different water conditions.. They might get along ok but it is likely the jewels will give them a good hiding which they may survive but it will tear them up a bit, best chance of getting them to get along is to introduce the new fish at night and completely rearrange the tank too so all the territories are reset. All the fish you have added (well at least the dolphins/kadangos) are open water fish so they should swim around away from the rocks (they will outgrow your tank eventually too). But I would just get rid of the jewels.