Richard

Justed cooked a few of them last night... hope they don't grow back... they are clever suckers eh... whenever i get close to them with the syringe...they retract a bit and try shrink and hide... I will be getting a 1500l/hr powerhead today and slowly take the filter out... will put the filter in my freshwater tank... :lol:

ok...going to get the power head tomorrow...gonna get a 1500 l/hr one... will then get rid of the filter.... should i just take the whole filter in one go? Or should i slowly take away the media in the filter layer by layer to let the tank get used to it? I also have to start killing some anenomes in my tank... there are some of those nasty ones with long tentacles... some ppl told me they spread really quick and are bad news.... so i will get rid of them tonight..

The tank is pretty much cycled as it has been running for more than a year at the guys house... what i did was basically syphon all the water into a few containers and transport them all to my house and fill the tank back up...so the tank should be OK i think.... will test the water to make sure... Bought a hydrometer today as well...will keep an eye on it... I am thinking to keep coral... dont see much available in shops though... i also like the clams and the anenomes...

Thanks for the replies... I think the sand in my tank is crushed coral sand... cos it is just like crushed shells...so might not be live sand... I am just a beginner in marine so I do not know much... I will be taking the filter out.... and let the live rock do all the work...since there is quite a lot of it...and the tank is not that big.... At the moment I have the water at about 25 degrees? Is that the ideal temp? What is Kalkwasser? And what is RO / DI water? Will probably use natural seawater... will try it out if it is too much hassle will then use normal water and add the salt stuff.... What else do i need to know.... I guess I will need a power head in there to circulate the water more....

I just bought a small marine tank...will pick it up tomorrow... saw it advertised in the paper and wanted to give it a go... Shouldn't be too hard as the tank is already setup and has been going for quite a while... it has quite a lot of live rock inside already... the bed is made up of like crushed shells and stuff....dunno if it is live sand.... it is a 3 foot tank...with heater protein skimmer and this one has a wet /dry trickle filter as well... what i am wondering is...should i take the filter out when i get the tank? as i hear a lot of ppl talking about letting 'biology' do all the work... so i figure if this tank already has live rock and stuff in it... it should be ok if i take the filter out? any more tips i should know???

I was visiting a few fish shops over the weekend, and found out that one of the shops have imported 2 pairs of flowerhorns into NZ. They are currently in quarantine. I thought they would not be allowed into NZ? Maybe I am wrong... hope they don't start a craze here... cos as far as I know... these fish breed like crazy...

still hunting around for a well priced 2nd hand tank....

I am thinking to get a smaller tank..about 2 feet... and move some fish there.... and plant some plants as well.... what I want to know is... if I fill it up with water from my existing tank (say from a water change)... how long would the tank need to cycle?

when you say they are better off in pairs or groups... do they have to be of the same kind? ie. all peppered catfish? or can you have one peppered catfish, one striped catfish, etc...

Just to let u ppl know that there is a silver arowana for sale now at the Fish Tank... for those who are looking to purchase one... I think it is about $200... they also have quite a lot of other fish... they have done a lot since I was last there... there is this big red cap oranda...very pretty... they have some peppered catfish for sale as well... and they are in the process of renovating a room at the back... there are 8 huge tanks... i think they are gonna use it to display big and rare fish... i will be keeping an eye and updating u lot

Well, I bought about 15 feeder fish to feed my arowana, oscar and tiger fish.... about 13 of them were eaten up by the oscar.... the other 2... i think they are too big to be eaten by the oscar...and the arowana does not seem to want to eat them... i feel sorry for them... the oscar has been chasing them around and biting them... their fins are all torn... and they have scars all over their body.... I am not sure if they will rot and cause some infection in my other fish? I feel sorry for them... so should I put them out of their misery?

It was a goldfish for sure... round like a ball... a fantail i think.... koi's are more longish.... and yup... they are banned in nz... while i was back in malaysia a couple of weeks ago... i saw a lot of huge japanese koi's... in ponds in hotel lobbies... in a couple of friends houses... and in a chinese temple... the biggest I saw was more than 2 feet...

Has anyone visited Papanui Animates recently? I was there yesterday and they had this HUGE goldfish...the biggest I have ever seen in my life... it is the size of a small football... I would say about 7 or 8 inches in diameter.... maybe more... I think it is a bit too big for itself.... it was just lying there at the bottom of the tank not moving at all...quite funny... They also had some nice chocolate striped catfish there for sale... and another fish which I have no idea what it is... it is still a small baby... but it is thin and long... with a long nose.... looks quite nice...

interesting how he could hand carry fish onto the plane to Canada... don't they have any restrictions? I assume this is not possible in NZ as you need to have a permit to bring fish in??? Am I correct?

I am in Sarawak (East Malaysia)... the city's name is Kuching... it is at the northwestern tip of the borneo island...

Well... I am currently on holiday in Borneo at the moment... went to a LFS yesterday... they have quite a lot of fish there... cheap too... they also have freshwater lobsters and prawns... i was really tempted to buy a whole lot of fish... when i remembered i was only on holiday... and i dont have a tank to put the fish in anyway... There was this tank with 3 huge fish... an oscar, what looked like a pacu (about 2 feet) and one of those cichlids ( i dunno which one...i am not good with cichlids...it is the blue one with stripes....is it a frontosa or something?) They also had heaps of silver arowana's, about 4 tanks full... each tank has about 20 arowana's... some tanks are 5 inch ones... some with 7 inch ones... small ones selling for about nzd20, bigger ones about nzd35... you could buy 7 and put them in a community tank here for not a lot of money... They also have really beautiful goldfish.... really big and round... and with funny growth on the heads.... very cheap... and there are also japanese koi... parrot fish... there was one really beautiful discus... really bright colours.... there are a lot more shops around the area i wanna visit... just going around the area i live in... i have seen 5 shops... and i have only been to one... so i might go looking again tomorrow.... might buy some fish feed... maybe even a filter pump... they are really cheap here... i will keep u guys updated...

great thread...i will be needing an external filter soon... so i am still learning.... so are Via Aqua's ok? Eheim's are a bit expensive for me

so mine is the only tiny baby???

Do I have to??? Nothing much to talk about mine... only got it less than 2 months... still a baby... just under 3 inches... but very brave... chased the 5 inch oscar around when it was first introduced to the tank... very picky eater... only eats live earthworms, mosquito larvae and live bloodworms... does not touch frozen bloodworms or any pellets... seems to like frozen mysis shrimps though... probably because they are whole shrimps with the head and all and it thinks it is alive.... sucker... i will start starving it when after a few more months though.... have to force it to start eating pellets.... Plans for the future... definitely more!!! not sure if it is possible to introduce new smaller tigers to an established tank with a grown tiger... it might get killed for dinner.... edit* just wanted to say that his/her name is TIGGER... since I see macka mentions jonathans name all the time... I would love to be able to breed them... though they will probably only be able to be bred in ponds... will have to build myself a pond when I get my own house...

Just wondering... maybe we would get more response if you posted one about Siam Tigers?? Would be more ppl with them I think... When I was last at Organism a few days ago... they told me that they had a Siam Tiger there a couple of weeks ago that would eat simply anything u fed it... wish I had one like that... mine refuses everything... and only eats live food... only frozen food I have managed to get it to eat is frozen mysis shrimps... a lady bought that siam tiger... wonder if she is on this board...

I am still learning about them... saw a few today when I took my water to be tested at Organism... they had a few there... one was this black one... with a hump on the head... and another one was really colourful... beautiful fish... maybe i should start getting some one day.... Are African Cichlids a lot different to other Cichlids? I know of South American Cichlids as well...are there any other Cichlids?

I was here all the time actually... :lol: :lol: Just waiting for someone else... cos would be too predictable if I posted right after u.... hehehe.... guess its just me and u... I wish I was on holiday at some nice location...

Well here I am... hehehe... I don't think there is anyone on this board with an arowana... could be wrong though.... there could be some lurkers around with arowanas... come out and tell us !!! OK... I got mine...about 2 months ago... it is a silver arowana... when I got it, it was about 7 or 8 inches... now it is around....errr.... 9 to 10 inches i think... dunno how old it is... proabaly between 8 to 12 months. I feed it floating pellets (Hikari brand, recently switched to Tetra but it wont touch the stuff... spits them back out... will have to starve her for a few days), beef heart/liver, frozen bloodworms, flies, moths and feeder fish (very rarely). The tank is 4ft x 1.5ft x 1.5ft, not quite big enough when it grows up so I am looking to upgrade to a 6x2x2 possibly. It lives with a 3" Siam Tiger, a 5" white/gold tiger Oscar, a 10" pleco, two 4" silver sharks, three 3" clown loaches and 2 apple snails (basically everything I have in my sig). Future plans... an asian aro... maybe some freshwater crayfish...more clown loaches, siam tigers, oscars... wish to breed some fish someday... maybe a tropical tank...

FINALLY !!! I have life !!!!!!!! noticed some wiggling things in one of the pails outside while I was changing water... So I took a net and started netting some... the thing is... they are bloodworms... not larvae.... or are they the same thing? when i got some larvae from redwoods last time...they looked different... these are just live bloodworms...and the all stay at the bottom of the pail.... only 1 pail has life...the other is still lifeless.... should i add some water from the pail with bloodworms to the other pail to stimulate it??? and when i netted the bloodworms to feed my fish... all the green stuff gets netted as well... and when i put the bloodworms in my tank... so does the green stuff... is this ok?

Hey...this will probably sound pretty stupid... but I was just wondering if I could feed my arowana a bee? I am asking this cos I woke up and found this fat bumble bee lying in my hallway... and thought...that would be quite a good meal for my aro.... but then.... it would probably be poisonous wouldn't it?? I dont know... cos i would think in the wild... arowanas would pretty much eat any insects as well?