Interfecus

If you don't want to use fish to cycle, you can use pure ammonia in TINY quantites. I saw an article on it once on petfish.net. I'll post a link after dinner.

The tank is now up to temperature, a half polystyrene cup has been put in for the bubblenest and the pair have been introduced with the female in the jar. The male is flaring continuously at her and the female is flaring back. She seems to have her head down at 45 degrees about half the time. I intend to leave them overnight and release them in the morning if she seems ready then.

I'm setting up a tank to breed siamese fighting fish and would appreciate any advice or comments on this. I've read many websites but would appreciate any assistance as my last attempt ended with the female killing the male. I have just bought and set up the following equipment: - 20L tank filled just over half full to a depth of 14cm - 25W heater - Thermometer - Power filter, running in an established tank so that it be used later. I've made a spraybar to put on the filter from airline tubing pierced with hot pins. I intend to add the filter after the fry have been free-swimming for a few days. I'm breeding a cambodian female who is very fat and has a visible ovipositor and a red male. The male was only bought yesterday but appears to be very healthy as he flares at his own reflection. I'm currently feeding them on frozen mosquito larvae as I've run out of live ones but intend to stop feeding when they're in the breeding tank. The heater has just been turned on and the tank is coming up to temperature. I intend to keep it at 28 degrees. The tank currently also contains a flotaing plant and some java moss for the female to hide in. I've put a large glass jar inside for the female to be introduced into and the male will have the run of the tank. Any comments or suggestions to help with this would be much appreciated. Interfecus

How about microworms? I'll post some in an envelope if you PM me with your address.

You could also rig up a water detector (just two wires almost but not quite touching) just below the top of the tank and the top of the sump that switches the pumps off if triggered. The parts shouldn't cost too much.

Thankyou for the suggestions peter, but I believe that this was actually a physical problem. The female started giving birth at least half an hour before being confined to a trap at all, so although it might have made some difference I believe that she wouldn't have done any better in a larger container. As for the live food, she had been fed twice that day on live mosquito larvae since I caught well over half a kilo of them the day before that. While in the trap she was only fed flakes though. Thanks for the suggestions and sympathy, I'll just have to try again.

If the tank is on a stand and the sump is on the garage floor then shouldn't there be enough of a drop to use an overflow on the tank? If the tank is lower than the sump then the opposite could be used. Only one pump would be needed to pump the water back the other way.

I'd never rely on customs services being slack: if you try to import an illegal fish and they find out then all of the fish will be destroyed and you can be sent to jail or fined substantial amounts.

I just checked the MAF allowed list (http://www.maf.govt.nz/biosecurity/impo ... ic.all.htm) and you're right, they're definitely not allowed.

I just arrived back from lunch to find her on the brink of death. Figuring that any chance was better than none, I removed her and tried artificially removing the baby. Unfortunately the stillborn baby was deformed, had no spine, and was already partially decomposed so the head came off in the tweezers and the rest of the body was impossible to remove, although I spent a good ten minutes attempting to do so. She died shortly after I gave up and transferred her into a medicated jar.

Freezer for 10 minutes? I'd heard that the FRIDGE for ten minutes was good but the freezer would kill them.

I'm trying to find a suitable box to post them in. Hopefully I should be able to send them tomorrow.

A platy recently bought for me (as part of a christmas present) by my mum is now giving birth but is having a lot of trouble with it. She is giving birth to an extra large, stillborn first fry. I realise that this is quite common, but she started giving birth yesterday evening and still hasn't managed to get more than the head of the first one out. Please note that this is taking place in an unfiltered tank that I originally used as an emergency overflow tank but which my mum decided to stock for me for christmas. A sponge filter (uncycled) will be added later today when I get the airpump for it back from my dad's house. She is currently in a breeding trap without a divider but with some java moss. Could she potentially die if she can't release the fry? Should I move her to another tank or would it be too stressful for her at this time? Is there anything I can do to reduce the risk of her dying from this? I've heard of techniques for making egg-layers release eggs when they're stuck but I don't know whether there's an equivalent for livebearers.

In a terrarium they won't hibernate to quite the same extent as outside. They'll simply sit there, motionless, for weeks on end.

I got an 80L tank that I use for my whistling tree frogs. The bottom was forst covered in a layer a couple of centimetres thick of gravel, then soil from the garden was put on top for another 3 or 4 centimetres. I would thoroughly recommend salvia as a plant for the terrarium although it requires regular pruning because it grows too fast.

I don't know much about the hibernation of the frogs, but the frogs generally either bury themselves in the sediment at the bottom of the pond, hide among a thick cluster of plants in the pond, or bury themselves in the bank.

If you get some punga logs then ferns can be planted on them by tying them to the bark until the roots grow in or by making a slit in the bark and putting the base of the fern in the slit. If the slit is cut lengthways on the log then string wrapped around the log on either side will hold the fern in. These would make a great edging to surrond the raised pond and can be bought in lengths of about 2.5m for around $10 if you find the right supplier.

They will hibernate even with heat, their hibernation runs on an endogenous (built in) cycle, independent of environmental cues. This cycle can be entrained to, for example, a different time zone, but they will always require a hibernation period during the year. It'd be nice to know which type of frogs you have for sure. Since they're most likely to be golden bell frogs, they will probably need a period of hibernation. The whistling tree frog (one of my froglets is shown in my avatar), however, can breed all year round. The babies' tears should work well around your pond as is seems to be thriving in my new terrarium under very moist conditions. It does seem to require a lot of light though and is dying in the shaded parts of the terrarium. In the lighted plants it is rapidly expanding and should cover the ground very quickly. The native moss in my terrarium has died so some mosses may not be so suitable.

They hibernate in or near the pond and return the following spring. Frogs can also be captured and taken inside for the winter, but since you're building a pond for them I take it that wouldn't be an option. Many frogs actually bury themselves during hibernation so they may appear to have left, but should re-emerge later. You should probably do some research and make sure that if these frogs don't hibernate underwater there are places nearby in the garden where they can.

It is possible to make them stay in the pond, but you'd need to put soft mesh netting around the entire pond, covering all sides and the top. This would look extremely bad in most gardens, and would cost quite a bit and take a lot of effort to put in. With mesh you would also restrict the number of insects reaching the pond so you'd need to feed the frogs. With a frog pond, you really have to dump them in and hope for the best. I don't know of any feasible way of forcing them to stay there. If the pond is well cared for and has plenty of plants growing in it then at least some of the frogs should remain there.

For the plants, you should avoid anything that could be poisonous near the pond. Plants or trees that shed a lot of leaves shouldn't be near a pond or the water will become mucky very quickly. Another important thing to note with the pond is that no fertilisers may be used anywhere near it. Fertiliser is toxic to them and even if they survive then they would flee any contaminated pond. I once went to an organic vegetable grower's place and they used the frogs that lived in their greenhouse to tell whether fertilisers had contaminated anything. The frogs would leave every time a contaminant was introduced to the greenhouse, telling them that something was wrong.

If you're making an outdoor pond then the frogs will pretty much feed themselves. You only really need to feed them if they're kept indoors. Outside most of the food would escape even if you did feed them.

If you did want to keep lots of them then it would be possible by culturing the flies in 1.5L soft drink bottles. Keep the medium quite shallow though or it becomes impossible to get the flies out.

You should probably change your signature .

If the little back legs just emerged then you still have several weeks to get fly cultures established. The frogs will live for several days after emerging without eating anyway, absorbing their tails. They won't eat during this time as they seem to not develop hunting instincts until they're a few days old.