fishboi

looking good, cant wait till u breed them.

sorry to hear that it must be hard enough just loosing anyone of those.

i cant see them either :-?

my pond is slightly bigger but for me its quit hard getting the bales around Auckland so if anyone knows a farm close by east Auckland with them let me know

made by Interpet comes in a 250ml bottle, cost around $25-$30. if u use the recommended doesage it treats up to 4,546L but i use much much less and only does around 100ml every couple of months or so but i do have a good filter and UV-C system goin at the same time. IMO works just as well but doesn't last as long. down side of the bale is it takes 2 weeks before decomposing starts but after that i find it works for around 6 months.

i buy my though tough tanks $5/400gm $9/900gm ......more u buy cheaper it is. [most i've ever bought was 5kg and cost around $45] Each pellet contains: Fish meal Fish oil Wheat mash Milk powder Vitamins Trace minerals but i've since then moved on to their 2mm pellets which is even cheaper if ur buying in 500gm each time. $5/500gm Each pellet contains: Fish Meal Wheat flour Wheat germ meal Dried yeast Soy bean Alfalfa meal Riboflavin Vitamin A Vitamin C Vitamin B12 Vitamin D Trace minerals 32% Protein

u mean myriophyllum propinquum? its not banned but its the same classification as Ceratophyllum demersum in terms of both been an class B Noxious weed.

yep barley straw bales, thats what i use when i can get hold of it. other wise u can get barley straw extract.

since its ur first time with fancy plec u should know that gold nuggets can be teritorial as they get older so just watch they dont fight. if they do u will need to make sure they both have their own "hidey hole"

i must have just read orange seam and not bother looking at the L number [stupid common names]. and now that u have said it looking at the pic with them both side by side the top one is a lighter yellow. maybe that one is ur "orange seam"

L081 tend to be a lot paler yellow and haven't seem then in NZ or on any of the importer's list for a long time.

its nice having turtle ppl on the forum

either way both gorges looking plecs

from the pic it looks the spots are too big to be L018 and a bit small for an L177. differently not L081 as the color is a lovely yellow even when its stressed in a bag. depending on it's size, if its still small then it will be hard to tell as both L177 and L018 tend to have similar size spots when young but as they grow L177's spots will only grow even bigger while L018 will keep the same size spot just get more of them. i recon it could be a L177.

sounds like a good plan, having the tank where it gets natural sunlight would help it naturally want to bask. good luck

did u get those two pleco the same time in the same shop? looks like there both gold nugget to me [L018], just slight color variation which is normal for plecs to have. this is an orange seam L076 http://www.planetcatfish.com/catelog/im ... ge_id=1185

doesn't look as bad as shell rot as from the pic is just white and normal rather than white with dark black rot spots. its unfortunately quit common for turtles in captivity and its a early sign of shell rot. its caused by not having a basking place to fully dry off. if the tank is enclosed the basking place is useless as the humidity keep it wet. they need to fully dry off and this can only be treated by changing the set up so it can do so. when the turtle starts to shed the white would be shed with it and that's the only way to get rid of them i am afraid. it may take couple of sheds depending on the condition.

repeat

around 60 days at 26-28 C.

when u say cold u mean with out a heater or have a chiller during summer? i have tanks with out heater. 1 X 2 foot, 1 X 1 foot and 5 foot turtle tank.

here is a quick video that Steve made of arowana fry. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 3116&hl=en

rcon is it true that male have two rows of bristle and female has one? or does it now work like that.

my fire eel is only small about 15cm and is very shy. yet to feed from hand and only recently starting to come out during the day. they're some nice one on the list if anyone is intrested go to ur LFS and order one. over foot long around $80 retail i would imagine.

nice article, only thing i would do different is substrate and IMO if its ur first time setting up a proper planted tank 4 foot seems a bit big i would go for something a bit smaller. i personally would not use sand as its not a very good substrate for planting. Substrate should be between 3 and 8 mm as large substrate will block root growth, the smaller ones like sand can actually crush the roots or become too tense to grow. also substrate should be in layers, mix the first layer with the solid fertilizer [only this layer has fertilizer] and then add two additional layers after that with the finest on the top layer. substrate depth should be determind by the type of plants u choose. Plants like Cryptocoryne and Echinodorus that are deep rooted would need at least couple of inches.

another nice plec, Lda33 careful plecs are very addictive. if ur goin to get in to plecs i suggest start using the L numbers starts to get very confusing.