craig

i striped my front mum a little to early,breeding net, don't remove from the main tank, and jiggle the net 3 times aday. all eggs survived,and it's really cool to watch them sprout tails and heads. gotta make sure eggs don't touch each other as they stick. i removed one lot from main tank did not survive, same water,could possibly have been a slight temp difference.with eggs the slightest temp difference make a big difference(fungi or no fungi) some people say that the mother secretes a mucas in her mouth to stop unfertile eggs fuzzing up, i would have to agree. i have taken out babies and found also 2 or so unfertilized eggs at the sametime,they have not gone fuzzy. if you have to remove eggs from tank,make sure water/temp the same,add a tiny bit of aquaflavin(slight yellow tinge to water) and jiggle 3 times a day. good luck they are so cool to watch sprout,but are much better kept in mum's mouth, if you strip to early you can stop mum from holding. cheers shell.

coral sand gets in the fish's gills and can cause erosion, plus very hard for your fish to move around as the african's love to do. fronts especially like to clear out an area right down to the glass bottom, and that is where they do their thing.if you look under my big tank you can see heaps of light spots,where they have moved the calcite completely away. argonite and calcite are pretty much the same thing, if broken down to a chemical aspect anyway. cheers shell.

FOR ALL YOU AFRICAN KEEPERS, FRONTOSA OWNERS ETC. CALCITE WILL BE AVAILABLE AT PET HOUSE, PARAPARAUMU AT A GOOD PRICE OF $45.00 PER 25KG BAG. :bounce: no this isn't an advertisement, it is just that peoples buying front babies have been having a hard job finding this. it is the best thing for frontosa's as a substrate to keep them healthy and water stable. all african's will benefit from it. hope this is of help to those trying to find the stuff. cheers shell. it's a pretty fine price too!!!! real cheap. :bounce:

keep an eye on those front fins,the front edge,girls thin,boys thick but only on adults. in breeding season that part gets even thicker and white and pimply in boy's. hope this is of some help,this is just going on what i have seen in my own fish. could be wrong. boy's always seem prettier,leaner. :lol: cheers shell/craig

great pictures of the breakwater rocks, you have heaps of dolomite right under your noses :lol: late nights,sledge hammer,chisel,big boot. all the yellow/rocks are dolomite :bounce: :bounce: :bounce: have fun

yep, i was never very good at spelling. why dolomite is so good for africans is the high magnesium content. you wouldn't be able to just help yourself to the coastline thou aye can see it now all these african freaks doing midnight runs :lol: might get to read about ya's in the paper good luck. shell

c'mon guy's someone up there must know where to find dolimite rock and limestone rock :lol: shell

yep that is the stuff, cheap too you got a good deal. shell. no more buffers for african tanks,its good stuff. down south dolimite and limestone is easy to come across. but i know of a few peoples nth that are in need of some, where abouts do you find it up nth. calcite with dolimite rock never have to worry about your african's ph or hardness, unless severly overfeed & overcrowded. :lol: any info on dolimite rock & limestone rock distributors in the nth would be of great help to some. shell

hi guys, i think i have found the reason why calcite is hard to find. any shop that stocks aqua one,JBL, will stock calcite or can get it in.Kongs are the distributors. in their catalogue it is under "white marble chip"it is calcite.comes in 25kg bags,$60-80 depending where you shop. hope this is of some help to those with african's. don't ask for calcite,they won't know what you are talking about, ask for "white marble chip". shell

just another quick question, the whole time i've had my fronts i have been looking for the final fish for their tank"cyathopharynx furcifer" 7yrs and never seen one,tried so hard to get a pair in. have you got them overthere?? would be pretty keen on a pair. shell

:bounce: blue zaires would be the ones for me and mimpimbwe not how it's spelt thou :lol: wild caught be looking at pretty good money aye!! should have enough change for some of them,mimpim's apparently have better nature than zaires,but the zaires win for colour. craigs selling hotrod and gonna buy a muscle car over there,so i don't see why i can't have a colony of zaires :wink what's the going rate for the blue zaires?& mimpimbwe? may as well know what i'm in for$$$$ make sure i have it before i get there. secret fishie stash. also zaires/mimp's are harder to breed so will be a great challenge,so i heard????? shell cheers for finding me the info and your help.

already onto that,thanks to brad gonna need a6-8ft tank too. plus a bit of help water wise,as chch you don't have to add stuff to water to make it liveable. but what i saw of bundi water, it will need something for the fish yuk!!! one good thing it's already heated out of the tape. will be all new to this greenie :lol: brad's sending me some pic's of some ikola, to have a look at,can't wait :lol: shell

they have the pattern of a tyre track eel,but along their back the colour is gold.real pretty stands out. redwood aquatics get them in from time to time, pay around 60-100 depending on size. well worth getting grow big like the fire-eel. :lol: shell

yep it is true,hope to be in oz by xmas,got alot of stuff to sort out here first. selling fishies is so hard BUT i hear you can import all the varients of fronts overthere now :lol: i hope they have good tank makers in bundi. how much is it for zaires,will definitly be wanting to start a new frontosa tank.ASAP gonna miss my guy's shell

hi, i haven't got any,but have had. i lost my big guy(fire eel) he was as thick as my arm and twice the size of a ruler.beware they get very strong when old he managed to push 10ml glass lid away from the corner where the inflow went into tank.didn't find him till morning he was still alive but very dryed out,he died 2 days later.i'd had him for years he ate frozen shrimp and prawns and garden worms and i fed every second day,he had another two eels in with him a gold top batiki and another fire eel, as they got bigger they started to fight,that could be what spooked him to commit harry-carry. (maybe) anyways hope this is of some help. shell.

cheers justin, alot of great reading,especially the fronts. shell

hi, most aro's don't get to full size due to their strange habit of jumping out,owners not reliseing how strong these fish are. if anyone is getting a new young aro,float a ping-pong ball in the tank,never put them in a glass bottom tank, and don't have bottom dwealers in the tank,feed a varied diet floating pellets and moth's(live). you can feed them prawns when they are large. their eyes usually won't drop once they get to a certain size. drop eye seems to be a trate that affects silvers more than anyothers, my blacks,pearl and asain never had this problem.my first silver did,but my second didn't. it usually only affects one eye too(strange) never figured that out. buyer beware double check before buying(eyes) they are kept in BB tanks in quareentine so often the problem has already started. hope this is of some help to anyone looking at buying on of these beautiful fish. shell.

hi, it amazes me that we had a tankful destroyed by MAF for not being on the standards list,although it could have been a spelling mistake. those golden cichlids were another one that was destroyed, due to spelling mistake on invoice. next shipment same fish, let in. so what does that tell ya!!!!! importers only bring in what is asked for,take away the demand and that fish won't come in, not much point having fish taking up tank space and food if the demand isn't there. so go for it i say, need to get it across to the buyers of these beautiful fish that they grow so big and reasonble fast,and personally have seen full grown pacu's smash through 10ml glass without a scratch on them and with very little effort.pacu's along with alot of other very large fish should be kept in public aquaria only. those pacu's are now in a public aquaria down south,they did how ever spend 3 days in a bath tub. not good

wow alan that's no good, poor little guys be mighty hungry. i have had bad batches before now, not quite like that although i had a bunch hatch early than expected,cos of heater getting up to high 32 temp. they kinda went like that. i usually have 3 bottles going at a time and had it going perfect, all the rest were fine so temp didn't kill them, just hatched way early and the little buggers starved and died. check water temp. hope this is of some help :lol: shell.

hi, the ingredient praziquantel which is in the dewormer is 50mg. 2 mg of prazi will treat a Lt of water,1 tab dewormer 50mg will treat 25lts. packet has 4 tabs,so do 100lts. dissolve in tank water in a glass etc. then add to tank, after 4 days treat again,no need to waterchange during treatment,although i like to do a waterchange before i treat a tank,also take carbon out of filter. prazi won't hurt fish nor filter nor plants. 4 days after the second dose do a 50% waterchange and put carbon back in filter. it fixed my fish up a treat,no sign under the scope of the little buggers(flukes). does take awhile for the pink to dissappear from the tank,don't panick it does go after normal waterchanges. shell.

hi caper, first line of defence,after checking water quality is to raise the temperature to 28 and add extra airline,as the hotter the tank the less oxygen,it will hasten the cycle and out will pop spots,then you treat. cheers shell.

hi, if it's a newish tank, you might have some levels. plenty of peoples have cured the clown loaches just with the raised temp. clown loaches tolerate very high temp ie 32,add airation. salt very dicey with loaches. waterchange,add xtra air,raise temp to 32. like caryl said,make sure you have an accurate thermometor. good luck. shell.

yep, joandwilly are onto it, that would be enough to start all your problems,stress from nitrates/ammonia,didn't you think a fish had died and rotted away caper???then adding chemicals without really knowing what your treating.you shouldn't add chemicals unless you know what you are treating for. sometimes just adding a airstone and raiseing the water temp to 28 can bring the problem out ie spots.heat fastens up the cycle of the parasite,but always check water quality first before anything, cause if you have an ammonia level and then raise temperature,it will intensify the ammonia. but don't panick caper we have all done this at sometime or another. we have all learnt valuable lessons in fishkeeping in the early days of doing it,some very exspensive lessons. me i'm still learning. shell.

hi, i treated successfully a discus with hole in the head. i had to go to a vet to get the stuff,it's called clavulox tab 250 mg. 3 tablets, makes into a paste. i directly dabbed into the hole. it cleared up within a couple of weeks. i just took him out every morning and treated,filled the hole with the paste,till it cleared. took carbon out of the filter while treating,water willgo quite pink, i would do small waterchanges daily,especially being a clown loach. hope this is of some help,and hope you can still get the stuff,this was about 2years ago. cheers shell.

hi caper, hey is this the same tank,that you mentioned in the freshwater,under foul smell? if yes that could possibly be where the problem started. it takes ick 2-3 wks to actually show the spots,when the spots arrive it is when the parasite is leaving the fish. medication overload at the moment. if it was me i would give tank a 50% waterchange/vacume,raise temp to 28 degrees and treat with a whitespot cure,cross-fingers and toes. add xtra airation. i hope things work out for you and your fishies. cheers shell