Whiskas

Anyone know what this is: Was sold to me as a 'Sparkling loach', but i can't find any info about such a loach The platy in the background is only young, the loach is about 4-5cm - i have 2 of them. Sorry the pic so dark.

Keep them! I just got a female and a tiny bubba - thats all they had in the petshop. If you got some spare babes you dont want send them my way Would love a few more I have them is with my 2 borneo suckers and they all seem very happy

I noticed one of these in my tank the other day. I have also had them in my pond. They dont seem to be any problem and are quite cool!

HI they had one or two for sale over here in the Wairarapa at Masterton Seed and Pet Co. 06 3774236 (am i allowed to put their number on here?). Dunno how much they were or anything but i know they had them and it is only a 1 and a bit hour drive over to here.

It is very sad when a heater dies without you realising/while you are asleep or away. I had the opposite happen the other day - my tank went down to 12 degrees. As it is a tank with livebearers and a couple of sparklng loach (i think) they seemed not to mind and i only lost a couple of babies (would have no idea how many though).

i have a BN in with goldies and just have the heater set as low as possible (i think 18) the BN is happy and so are the goldies.

he may just be getting old. I have found that my male Degati's don't live quite as long as the females. My males get very pale, clamp their fins and just hang out at the top of the tank until they die. When this first happened i had a go at treating them with different stuff but it never helped so now i just presume its old age (they were about 3yrs old).

i started with (and still have) Epiplatys Dageti. These guys (5 males, 3 females & 2 unknown) share a tank with 2 Bristlenose catfish. They breed in this tank and a couple of the bubs survive to adulthood no probs - have had 4 born/bred/raised to juvies/adults in this tank. There are not a lot of plants either! A small driftwood cave with java fern, a couple of pieces of java fern planted in the gravel, a small (not even a handful) piece of java moss and some other plant. I think what has allowed the lil ones to survive is that i have large pebbles in the bottom of half the tank - this means the eggs fall between the gaps where the adults can't get them and then somehow when they are born the survival of the fittest kicks in. I realise i could have had more survive by having a breeding tank etc and have tried this a couple of times but i am not vigilant enough :roll:

I got a pair of borneo suckers have no idea if they male or female but they are the coolest lil fish!! Apparently they grow to about 5-6cm, so not huge. Mine change colours in their fins - going from plain to irredescent-ish blue with red nostrils occasionally!! They are currently in a tropical tank with guppies, platies and glowlights and are doing fine. They often "play" swimming around all over each other and have heaps of personality! I would love to get another tank and set it up as a cool water with them and leopardfish :lol: Just need to find a bit more space... o and another tank :lol: Anyone ever tried them out in a pond? I would give it a go if i had a whole lot of them, although that would mean i wouldn't see them i guess...? I hardly see the goldies as the water keeps going green.

Sounz like you got some lil horny devils there Muddyfingers!! Could you put the females back in the bath and give them some time to recover more fully from their time out of water before selling them? Or perhaps you could sell 2 of the males, who sound like they are VERY healthy and obviously know their job when it comes to breeding Or put a lid on the tank and then the females won't be able to do a flying leap, and perhpas put in a divider (i currently have a plastic/wire fridge shelf in the tank at work to keep my bully Bristlenose away from the only surviving goldy, it is working well) until the urge to breed has gone? It may just happen this year/season due to the change in environment etc and next year there will be less chasing etc. these are just some of the things i would possibly try depending on the fish Good luck with whatever you decide to do

i was actually going to use it down the sides on a net-covered fridge shelf (you know the plastic covered bar ones from older fridges or from freezers) so that the divider would sit in the tank. As it turned out the 'shelf' was such a good fit that i only needed to use rocks on either side to hold it up. I have had a look at some of those polystyrene backgrounds, they look pretty cool. i think i will give it a go and make one for my jebo tank.

does it need to be cured or anything first? Or can you just cut it and put it in the tank? I wanna use it for a tank divider, but might give the background thing a go a bit later, as it looks real cool!!!

I dunno much but i did go to the seahorse farm in Napier when it was open and that was really interesting! They had a few in those tall skiinier hexagonal tanks with undergravel filters (i think). They said that they need stuff in their tanks to hold onto with their tails when resting - things like seaweed or something. The females have a "hard" looking belly, while the males a "softish" looking belly. They used water from the ocean when doing water changes. It was very fascinating and i so wish it was still there! I have also heard of people keeping them as pets but not exactly sure about whether you need a permit or anything. The Paua Shell Factory and Shop (Paua World, you may have seen the ads on tv) in Carterton have, or last time i went had, seahorses in a tank along with a couple of paua, mussels, seaweed and a lil fish.

dunno. They are pretty cool though

I dont have HUGE success at breeding my Epiplatys Dageti but i have managed a few (about 10, I dont try really hard just take what i get ). However they have so far all turned out to be males!!! Anyone know why this might be? My poor girls are getting a bit of a runaround as there are only 3 of them!

He has heaps of rocks and therefore caves to hang out in. The size of the tank, hmmm... about 60ltrs. He isn't interested in the food i put in there. I have tried spirulina and pleco chips and the occasional pea (he likes the pea the most but dont have anywhere at work to keep a good supply of these). I heard you can feed them mince...? Is this true? And do you give it to them cooked or uncooked?

The tank has a heater in it set at the lowest temp 18-20degrees. I noticed the goldies had ribboned tails and eventually scales missing. I treated them for fin rot and did water changes etc. Eventually they died. I put a new fish in this morning after the last lot died and i had cleaned out the tank etc. After just a couple of hours the new goldies tail and fins were a mess! He also looked stressed out and i noticed the BN "flying" at him. He is a male BN, so perhaps he thinks the goldies are female BN's!! I have a rather small female at home in a tank with another small male, do you think i should put her in with him? Or will he also attack her? He is about 12cm and she would be around 5-6cm. If i do put the female in with him is he likely to stop bullying the goldies?

I have had a Bristlenose in with a tank of goldies for a while now and he is doing fine. Can't say the same for the goldies! Didn't realise until now (when we are down to just one goldie) that the BN has been attacking the goldies! Didn't realise BN's could be so vicious! He is now floating in a container in the tank until i decide what to do about the situation. Was thinking about putting in a tank divider, as we would love to keep both the goldie and the BN. Any suggestions?

Wouldn't releasing goldfish or White Cloud Mountain Minnows be illegal? Especially since the pond overflows into other ponds which would mean an uncontrolled spread of these fish? I would probably go with catching some native fish, or inanga, and putting them in, at least if they spread they are a native and will help out the native fish population. You could contact your local DOC and ask if they have any fish species that they would like to relocate or something...?

if i use flyspray i put a towel or 2 over the tank, it seems to work. i dont spray directly over the tank though!

I hope this works! Could someone let me know what this plant is: http://picasaweb.google.com/DalefieldSchool/Stuff

epiplatys dageti - or however its spelt. They did have velvet about 2 months ago, just before i was to leave on hols for 3 weeks. Luckily it seems to have cleared up real quick! Like when i got back from hols it cleared up within the week.

to find a lil 5mm or so killi :bounce: in my tank with 5 adult males (just taken the females out to condition them) and 2 adult BN's. There aren't even a lot of hiding places for it in there so he/she must be real smart to have avoided becoming tucker for his mum, dad, aunty's, uncles.

I fit was the temp you could put a heater in teh tank and kept it turned down low (18-20 degrees) a happy compromise for both species

i got one i think its called AquaPro Magic Pond sucker, cost around $25-$30. You will need to buy the PVC tubing as well. They work realy well!