antwan

Not these by any chance are they? http://www.fishforums.com/forum/labyrin ... dario.html Dario dario If so, you're in luck cos Organism has some at the mo Oh yea, they're not cichlids, but they do look a lot like one

Righto, the wheels are finally in motion and my new tank is coming along nicely! My mother and stepdad drove down to Christchurch a few days ago and brought my old tank, light, filters, etc. so these last couple of days I have had the pleasure of setting it up. I bought some dalton's aquatic mix from bunnings and got the substrate from Jolliolli so hopefully the plants will love me for it. The thing I was lacking the most though was a nice piece of driftwood and to be honest I didn't feel like forking out $40 for an average piece from a pet shop, so I did a quick search on here and came across a post by Hazara saying Waikuku beach was a nice place to get good driftwood from, so I set out there today and as soon as I walked onto the beach (very nice beach by the way, reminded me of home..) I found the perfect piece! Stats: Dimensions: 600x500hx450mm ~135L Lighting: 150W 6500k halide Filtration: sponge filter at the moment, I have a canister that I may rig up if I can find room for it Heater: 150W CO2: DIY Me: happy Anywho, here are a few photo's of me setting things up.. My stepdad whipped me up this support for the halide, it's very sturdy and has room for the ballast too Aquatic mix Filling Where I'm at now Basically what I'm wanting to do with this is have a carpet of hairgrass at the front right hand side around that lone rock, a dense area of small crypts on the front left. Some java fern around the base of the wood, with xmas/java moss around a few of the branches, and finally some barclaya/aponogeton's/stem plants at the back. I also must get a piece of black paper or plastic for the back as it looks yuck at the mo. As for fish I'm not 100% yet, but definitely a trio of some sort of apisto (either really nice cockatoo's or something rarer (pm me if you have these ), otto's, bristlenoses, cories, and some sort of small schooling fish (maybe even guppies....maybe). Right, that's enough for now, pics will come as things happen. Comments/criticisms welcome.

Thanks for your replies everyone. Jolliolli that stuff looks great I'll give you a pm now, thanks.

I am after some dark sand/gravel for my new planted tank and was wondering if anybody knew of a secret place that has this? I went to most fish shops today and a few landscaping places and none seemed to have any... Does anybody in the area perhaps know of a natural place I could go and thief some from? The Warehouse and Bunnings seem to have no idea what Dalton's propagating sand is either which is a shame..

Very cool!

I had a few types of cories in with my discus (trilineatus, bronze, peppered) and they were fine. Also had blue rams in there too and they had no problems at all and bred in the tank.

Good to be back Mystic ooh I have a few friends that go to and from Hokitika often so may have to call in a few favours

Nah that driftwood wasn't mine, wish it was though. It's just from the net. Thanks Simon Hmm west coast is a bit of a travel but I may be able to get some friends to go searching for me, hopefully. Yes I love my apistos always have. Are you breeding any of your apisto's? If so, got any photos of the parents as I could be keen later on down the track. Yea Sam I love planted tanks, I miss my old one so much, that had a halide on it and it looked awesome, the plants loved it.

Hey everyone, been 3 years without one but I'm finally getting a fish tank set up around December. I'm just going to limit myself to the one but would like to make a nice planted tank out of it. The tank will be 60cm x 50h x 45 and will have a 150W halide over it. Now, my questions are; Is Microsorum pteropus 'Philippine' easy to source (and how much will I be looking at paying for a fist sized bunch), and will this be okay under the halide or will I need to have it under some shade? Also, I am on the lookout for a nice piece of driftwood, something along the lines of this: Basically I'm going to have the driftwood with the fern in the middle with a carpet of hairgrass in the front with maybe some aponogeton's in the background or red barclaya. I'm not fully sure about the types of fish I will have yet, but most probably some otto's, a few mid-depth schooler's and definitely a pair of apisto's or blue rams for the bottom. Oh and can't forget the bristlenoses . So, if people have any of the above for sale in around a month and a half's time I will be very keen. With the apisto's I would really love to be reunited with some bitaeniata but other types I would also like are inca's, very colourful cockatoos, basically any with really colourful males. Pretty sure that's all I was going to ask, but when things get a bit of momentum I shall start posting some photo's of the process.

oooh cool, anyone manage to purchase any?

definitely

I used to have a breeding pair of A.sp.pebas so they could still be around somewhere.

Tool - 10,000 Days Next on the list is Death Magnetic by Metallica Can't wait

Sure have, I have been thinking a lot about setting up a tank next year, but not fully sure yet as I'll have to do something with them over summer as I can't take them up to Tauranga with me...

Yea I remember that story, you were the person that informed me of them being in the country, so I'm hoping there should be at least a few others around somewhere.

Ok so I've heard of these guys (ranunculus) coming into the country, just wondering if anyone here managed to get any?

Those rams look awesome, nice photo!

have been watching this recently. Apparently it's an aussie taking the piss out of our accent, I think it's hilarious.

Probably should have asked Afrikan for permission first, what happens if you get asked questions about their behaviour etc :lol:

Mine was Living Waters, a long time ago when Franz owned it, he was awesome and gave great advice. I remember going to Pickapet ages after he sold Living Waters and still remembered me which was cool, so he obviously paid attention to his customers.

What a great attitude, I hope I can get that kind of service locally. :roll: You realise it is your job to look after the customer and make them feel happy about their decision to come to your store.

Seems strange she's cleaning the roof, they don't tend to lay on the roof of caves like apisto's, instead they dig a small pit in the substrate and lay in that, or on the top of driftwood or leaves. However, maybe she's cleaning that to put wrigglers on, who knows.

It's quite likely they have since you've just got them the change of water conditions could have done it. Good luck, they are an awesome fish to breed.

gangsta gangsta :lol: looking forward to fo'to's

Not sure exactly, I asked her to take some photo's with things we could get a scale of in the photo so will have to wait and see. Looks like a pretty decent size though.