sharn

poop! my bad, was just talking to ira so thats where it came from :oops: thanks for pointing that one out alan

wow cool warren, wed definatly to have you along one time! so many helpful people on here

me and antwan have already got a few things already lined up and planned for a club, pretty sure i told you aye? anyhow were getting out posters done soon hopefully and our first meeting will be in about a month and a halfs time with any luck, if youd like to know more just come round and have a chat or something, ive already got a few people im talking to about giving club members discounts etc and our first meeting will be a shared dinner at a place (have to sort that one out), ant doesnt want it at his place but mines a bit far out, paul was interested in a club and were interested in having him as one of the 'leaders' (caue he has so many fish and probably knowledge to match) so if he gets in touch we may be able to have it at his place, it is going to be on a weekend too. anyway, any people interested in knowing more can pm me or ant if you like, we havent got everything set in stone but were getting there lol. once we get enough members and things rolling for a few months we will look at getting affiliated with the FNZAS which would be realyl good and with luck this time next year our 'club' will be having tank crawls (yeah im getting ahead of myself i know lol)

hey paul, me (sharn) and ant (antwan) are starting up a club, just getting posters etc sorted and the fine tuning, you are welcome to chip in to help us start running and with so many fish your expertise would be most welcome. chuck me a pm is your interested and we can get this ball rolling, its about time we got a club started aye! oh, im also in te puke lol, im a bit short on fish compared to you with about 6 tanks and 30-40 odd fish

of course you can do the fishless cycle which is less stressful to fish (obviously lol). people dont often do it that way though cause they cant handle having a empty tank for a month but i like it cause it gives me time to fiddle with things. also if you use fish to cycle you will need to do a water change every day or two of around 20-30%, and will have to get the test kits to moniter levels (need them eventually anyway)

got my jebao today, havent set it up but it looks good so far. once i get it running on the main tank ill let ya know

hey dimebag, if they do infact have hex (pretty common) let me know and i can tell you where to get some metro from

you could make some teeny fishy condoms :lol: now wouldnt THAT be cute (yeah i know they dont do it 'that' way lol)

theres a special word for when their intestines come out their bottoms, its escaped me now but seen a few people with axolotls that have had it. maybe it was that? id check your water, maybe your nitrates are too high? when was your last water change and did you use aged water? id say its either some sort of illness or bad water, have you added anything new to the tank recently that could have bought anything in? some water changes with aged water may help. the only other thing i can think of is your getting ph swings like i used to, got any calciferous stuff in there?

i got a viable gold spawn but they ate the eggs, not hard to get them spawning its just getting the eggs to hatch without fungising and keeping them alive thats the harder part hehe

exactly, a angel fish has just as much possibility of having something that can hurt discus, any fish you put in with them need to be treated for worms, internal and external parasites before coming into contact with your beautiful fishies. alot of people have said by worming them and treating them for hex every 6 months or so they really beef up. its possible to keep the two together you just have to take precautions oh marbled altums would look super phill- gunna post some pics on the website?

dont we all mate :evil: our standard of fish really sucks but we do have some awesome people working to get us better quality fish, nz discus man imports alot of fish so we get some more bloodlines in but alot of the fish imported are from the huge farms in asia where theyre all inbred and are rife with parasites etc so we dont get the best fish possible, it really sucks but we cant do much about it unless we import top quality fish and breed from there.

i saw an angel pick up her stray babies and chuck them back into her 'nest', i thought she was having a snack so i wouldnt worry unless you dont see em come back out! mmmm fish slobber :lol:

i can get you some for free this weekend if you wish, send me a self addressed envelope and ill send ya some, it will be 'wild caught' though, from up in the kaimais i think...

sorry for your loss hex is common in discus, did you see any white stringy poops? they normally darken up, get the white poops, stop eating and then die (if its not treated) however i dont know if that would affect your apisto too :-? did you do any water changes in the last two or three days with straight tap water? cause i cant do them for a few days after big rains because te puke water people put lots of chemicals in it afterwards, might be the same for papamoa (assuming you got the nasty rain too lol) sorry i couldnt be of more help, chin up

a bit of melafix wouldnt hurt if youve got some, not a must be might help healing on a bit, not sure if you have to use half doses with them or not though.

i have a small amount of salt in most of my tanks permanently, normally 1tbsp per 80-100L, very small amounts. i think it releives osmotic stress (for some reason that sticks in my brain, not sure if its right or not) and is good for their slime coat... thats what ive read anyway

plecos that size and plants dont often mix well from my experience, theyre too bulky to leave them intact but its worth a shot if youd like a planted tank. dont feel down about going from 4 to 2 then to 1, oscars are notorious for fighting amongst themselves, especially when they hit the 20cm mark (puberty) and they also have the odd tiff also. popeye- from what i understand is bacterial and is commonly caused by water probs? if your waters fine it might just be 'one of those things'. dont beat yaself up bout em, and dont give up on them just cause youve had a run of bad luck (ive been having one lately too and it isnt nice at all) anyway, onto other fish you could put with your pleco- rogans suggestion of JD's is good, they are some real stunning fish and can mix with a few other species ok (obviously fishs personality has to be taken into account). also green terrors are cool, havent seen much down my way but they dont normally mix to well with other fish.severums are nice big fish and are pretty placid for their size (can you tell i like my big fish lol) you could turn it into a community with lots of really bright coloured fish, turn it into a african tank (plecos can adjust to them i think, not sure). you could turn it into a specifics tank ie amazon with all amazon fish and plants or maybe a slightly planted tank with a massive school of some sort of tetra, barb etc. they look really cool but you might want more variety. plecos arent too picky as long as theyve got stable conditions so youve got a good amount of fish you could chuck in there. im not sure about goldfish being in higher temps either sorry hehe good luck with whatever you choose and have fun stocking your new tank!

be strong, your doing alot better than most by giving it a peaceful death. hes going to that great big pond in the sky with heaps of plants to pull up, gravel to push around and other oscars to play with. i dont think you should give up your tropicals, get another baby oscar and watch him grow and get lots of stories off him, maybe create a baby book lol. good luck and im thinking of you!

hey guys, getting myself a canister this week and wanting to know if any of you have had any experience with this filter? not much on the net about them. got a limited budget and need 1200lph. any other brands you guys could reccomend under 200 bucks? thanks to all

i think normally around 7-8cm the BN get their spikes if theyre males. angel fish are harder to sex, i think the only way is to see the (i forget what this is called, little tube that comes out their butts) on the females when theyre ready to spawn.

haha, 4 is a pretty soft case of MTS, some people have over 30 tanks im not sure how they keep them all clean cause i struggle with 5!! welcome to the forums as well, great, friendly place here!

http://www.google.co.nz/search?hl=en&q= ... hlid&meta= thats what i came up with a seach, might find something interesting in there. ive never kept jags so not sure how to sex them other than that males get bolder patterns but that may happen later, sorry i couldnt be of more help

eek, ammonia! nitrates get removed by water changes but ill bet that UG filter will be causing the probs (it is cycled right?) lots of water changes for you my friend :lol: having a ph of 6.2 might be causing probs too (ive read that bacteria have a hard time living at low ph?) not sure on that one though

they had some really funky name alan, could be cyclops- theyre Y shaped and swim in jerky movements, the V part is their 'tail' which holds the eggs im told. dont bother me just look funny lol