Afrikan

The Ph pen meters do the job but require recallibration rather often so you need to be buying distilled water, but if you buy one, get a good model. We are going to be putting digital ones on our two big tanks, yet they are the one that has the screen that sits on top of the tank and the probe in the water permanently (not the pen model like you have linked). The one we are looking at are excellent. I would prefer a good digital Ph over chemical. Chemical testers we have found vary.

That is a good price 8)

I know a guy who had a couple of plecs in his outdoor pond all year round... along with Corys... The pond wasn't hugely deep either... they survived and did rather well... we have the odd ice over here the odd winter to.... winter time they would sit around the huge pond pump to keep warm enough. Summer time the plecs were in their element with the build up of algae.

I'm surprised they took his word for it and assumed that he would destroy the birds... :roll:

Upload to You Tube! Electras were on the list for sometime through Brooklands and haven't been back in since. Good that you have got them breeding as I haven't even checked to see if they are on MAF's recent "allowed list".

Sometimes it comes down to expense and other times it comes down to what is actually available on the exporters list at the times and depends who the suppliers deal with.

:bounce: Awesome stuff!!!

:lol: :lol:

You must have the Geoffrey Dahmer version of Chocolate Cichlids if they will munch larger tetras :lol:

Yeah WCMM will go down a treat, they need to be in with the larger Tetra range

The males are the large ones, around 35cm, very deep bodied tho

:lol: Good Luck!

Chocolate Cichlids in general are very peaceful, they actually do very well in a nicely planted tank with larger tetras ie Columbian Tetras etc... When a pair does spawn, they aren't overly aggressive towards other fish yet can be VERY aggressive towards one another... when they are not in spawning mode tho they are very good with one another generally speaking. The male is normally the one to pack the punches out of the pair, so it is normally the female that ends up tattered. However, she can hold her own also and give as good as she gets. They certainly are harder to breed than alot of cichlids... and I have found that the drop off rate of fry is normally more so than other cichlids. A single Choc on his own would be fine and dandy.. it's aggression towards one another than can be the problem.

Yikes $100 for one... One of my adult pairs I recenly sold was less than that and that was for the both of them, and the male was one big boy, both fully grown.

:lol:

Welcome to the forums Good to see you soldiered on with fish keeping after that lot Seems the LFS failed to steer you in the right direction :-?

T5 is a specification referring to the width of the tube... T5's will also give out more light than a standard fluro (T8)

Sorry to hear he didn't take the trip too well Wok They can certainly pull the old Oscar trick at times and sulk. So the young ones you got off me ages ago... did definately end up with a pair? Glad to hear the female settled in well, now all ya need to do is get them to do their thing

Glad you said boi as I had missed page 6 :lol: Looking good 8)

I've spawned them a couple of times and sent some young to Wellington and Auckland a while back. I have lent my breeding pair out to a friend in Gisborne. They aren't as easy to breed as alot of other cichlids, have known a couple of people to have male/female pairs and they have never spawned. They are a beautiful fish... however often aggressive towards one another and the male can kill the female if you don't keep a close eye during spawning process. I read an article sometime back about them, and it said that they were no longer available to be exported due to the fact that the numbers were very low in the wild, so guess they are banned from catching them. I want to breed them again sometime in the near future.

Yeap they are on back order and 2-3 months away apparently Luckily I got mine before they ran out.

We have T5's on our planted discus tank and they are brilliant... I also have 4 Aqua Ones on our Frontosa tank and they are great to. I would definately buy Aqua One lights for a fish tank again if I needed more lights... Stay away from Ocean Free lights IMO 8) There are better out there... Have had those and they are not that great, not to mention the fitting ends come away quite easily of which resulted in my hubby getting a good zap muuuhahahahaha :lol: Alot of LFS have a few of each stock that they sell, and alot of shops order them in on request (which can be overnight service if you request that).

There is a person here in the Bay that keeps the common brown skink and apparently you now definately need a permit to keep them.

A paper clip or pen to gently open an African females mouth to strip fry :roll: :lol:

Yeah that was a good price, the ones retailing for $190 were bigger in size.