evilknieval69

Just re-read through the whole thread and realised on the first page that i said i was only going to have 7 tanks in there (thats including all the divided parts).... that quickly jumped up to 8, and soon its going to jump up to 13, then hopefully 15 if i have enough glass to build some bigger killie growout tanks to go under the 6 breeding tanks........ Plus the two in my bedroom.... Plus mums two..... 19 tanks in the house! man :lol:

Well we went out for dinner last night and one of the guys we went with is a retired plumber who's built his own house and stuff and knows about pretty much anything, so i got talking with him about making a heat pad and he said it wouldn't be very hard, the hardest part would be finding a thermostat that is within the right temp range and not too fluctuating (he said that hot water cylinder ones are 5-10 degrees off, room heating ones are 5 or so degrees of and so on) which was going to be the hard part. then i though, well wait on, don't all aquarium heaters have a thermostat, couldn't i just rip one of them to bits and use the thermostat out of it, sounded like a good idea to me. Then i thought more and decided that one of the thermostats from the stainless steel heaters (the thermostat part sits outside the tank) would be even better. Also figured that id only need 100 or so Watts of heating in the pad, so if i got a 300w thermostat from one of the stainless steel heaters (obviously a 300W one) i could run it quite comfortably with not much load so it will last longer.... So will using one of them work? or just one out of a normal heater where its all sealed in the unit? He can make the rest and wire it up and everything no probs, just need to find a suitable thermostat!

All my baby platys (and ive probably had 100 or so) have been fed on flake and colourbits. They will peck away at food on the bottom if they are hungry

Alanmin do you have an email address or similiar for argos that i could get a quote from? And if you dont mind me asking what sorta price did you pay for yours?

We hardly heat our house, mainly use oil heaters if we ever do in the middle of winter.....

Correct. annuals do live for a fair amount of time, but they are called annuals because in the wild they are annual, as the drought kills them all....

sounds like you have done your reading up and have learnt about cycling etc which is good. your stocking suggestion of 6 or so neons and some bottom feeders/algae eaters sounds great, but another great fish are platys. they are very colourful, active, and easy to sex and breed. your daughter will love having her own little baby platys swimming around in the tank, all you need is a pair, and some floating plant for them to hide in (mothers hungry mouths will eat them!) Keep us updated!

Annual killies are the ones that live for a short period of time, and during that time breed hard out into the substrate (in an aquarium they are bred in peat) before the dry season comes and the lakes dry out and all the fish die, but when it rains again in a few months time all the eggs in the peat hatch, and grow, then the cycle starts again.... Non-annuals live like your average fish, and they will breed and their eggs will hatch within 10-14 days. then theres semi-annuals, and as carla said perennials, which im not too sure on :lol:

Caryl, i sorta re-call you using heat pads in the past/present? if im correct, whered you get them? did grant make them?

Yea something like that would be good, but would need a thermostat wired to it somehow... Oh and i need a heat pad that is about 1400 x 450 :lol:

True could try them too. I had a mate who used an old water bed heat pad to heat his old 4 footer, but it pretty much blew up and melted all the poly around it.... wasnt very nice :-?

Yea i bought 2 hoplos in aucks a few months back, and since then they have almost tripled in size! Awesome fish though

Yea thats exactly what i was thinking but not at pet shop prices Never seen one i fish store anywho :lol:

Nah not any good with killie tanks and how they are setup etc. These are only going to be small tanks, about 20 litres each or so.... Yer will definately poly the tank backs etc Condensation is a big issue with the fishroom being a bedroom and all, fully carpeted etc so needs to be able to 'breathe' so i never fully close the door otherwise the windows fog up :lol:

Ohk, so im going to be getting about another 6 small tanks for killies, but im not too sure on exactly how im going to heat them. I have a few options: 1. heat individual tanks with heaters - Setup cost is greater but probably better in the long run, Ugly big heaters in each tank which i hate, especially in killie tanks where you realy only want the fish and a spawning mop or similiar. 2. heat the entire room, which would be great because it would heat all my other tanks, BUT, the running costs will probably be higher? and because i dont pay the bills, and our power bill is high enough as it is, this option wont be very favoured. also my fishroom is an old bedroom so it has 3 big windows in it, which are old wooden ones and you can literally see through the gaps in it; not very economic if i was to heat the room. I also dont realy want to sit in a hot room trying to 'enjoy' my fish. 3. use something like a heat pad underneath all the tanks and use the water level in each tank to change temps.... Very good idea, but ive never realy seen one around here, and dunno where i could get one. So im left with a dilemma. What i want is a heated tank, with no ugly big heater in each tank, and i dont want to have to sit an 'enjoy' my fish in a hot room. Ohk so i could put up with it but would prefer not too. So ive sorta come the conclusion that i need a heat pad that lies under all the tanks and keeps them at temp. But where do i get one??? Anyone here know where to get one, or who makes them, or knows how to make them? Please post your thoughts Also, would a heat pad be very economic compared to a heater in each tank or similiar....

you can get nigripinnis but they arent very common. join the NZKA if you are after rarer killis as you dont realy know who has what.... Chances are low though

Like what?

I presume you must be talking about non-annuals... I think the reason people pick the eggs and put them on peat for a period of time is so that once they hatch them, they will all hatch at the same time, whereas if you are just picking daily you will start to get one or five killies hatching each day, which can be a bit of a hassle as you may end up with heaps of different batches and the bigger ones will eat the smallers ones, so then you need to separate them etc. Putting them on peat just postpones their hatching, and once you see they have eyed up, as soon as you put them in water they will pretty much hatch straight away, so as i said, picking for a month and ending up with the large amount of eggs on peat, then hatching them all at once is more efficient and probably easier.... My theory

Thanks mark, i used google sketchup, its a free programme that you can download thanks, nah those are just drips on the front glass i think :lol:

Well things have changed slightly in the fishroom. The big tank (4 footer) needed to be completely re-built as the silicon was giving way and the front pane had a mean bend in it, so i took it out, re-glued it and it is now outside full of water 'testing'. Ive decided though, not to put it back in the room; 1 because i dont trust my siliconing/tank building skills and wouldn't want it to do anything silly in the room, and 2 because i need more space/tanks for killies so im going to get another 6 or so smaller tanks to put on a stand on that side of the room. the 4 footer is now outside, underneath the fishroom windows, with 2 WCMM (which im gunna get more of) and its going to be a WCMM breeding, and Driftwood holding tank. Heres some sketchup pics of what i sorta want, very rough and not drawn to scale You can see the 6 small tanks side by side in this pic, and at the end there is a small 'killi fry rearing' compartment, drawer thingy (killi keepers will understand) This shot shows the other side as it is now. from left to right we have, 2 footer divided into 3(holding 2 pairs of killies and a pair of kribs ATM), another 2 footer divided into two holding two trios of killies, then a 3 footer holding my bigger cichlids, then a small tank, about the size of the 6 that i want, holding about 50 baby BN, about a week old. Will post real pics once things start to happen

Discus maybe? or could be treating for white spot? various possibility's

DIY Tis easy

Cricketman, go to Animal Antics on Hewletts road, best pet shop around here. Sharn (the head fish girl, also a member on here and from Te Puke) knows her stuff..... Animates in tauranga..... BLEH! disgusting place IMO

Starfish can re-grow a whole body from just one leg cant they? so you'll probably end up with 6 or so more starfish if you keep them healthy

Wilson has/had a pair that were laying often i think, ask him