smidey

kiwiplymouth has a few of them, contact him about them. there have also been a couple of threads on them if i remember rightly.

i saw that elephant up here a year or so ago. he was next to the bmx track when they weren't performing so took my kids to see him. we got close, "wharrrppppp", he let the mean one go. flatulence in elephant proportions so maybe you could also bottle that to run the bbq :lol:

the standard filter pumps how many litres an hour? the thing with have fish to large for their tank is you will need more filtration to cope with it, i aim for 10 times the tank volume per hour so 900LPH in this case. i am pretty sure thats around what the AR980 comes with & i expect your will be 500LPH or so. Africans are very hard on plants. i use plastic ones as they can't destroy them, they also dig them up. SOme have had success with some plants but i gave up after a month or so of them getting smashed. Pheonix44 has had success with his.

the batch of eggs i got was due to a peacock female that spat her eggs when i tried to net her to separate her into a 2 footer. i didn't know what to do as she didn't pick them up again so i put them in a net with nothing to loose & they all grew up successfully. i expected them to die but it all went sweet to my surprise.

or a net works sweet & it doesn't need to be bare bottom. i had a batch of eggs spat so i put them in a net without air & they grew up sweet.

i'd say you would need to upgrade in 3 months or so.

must be high in iron 8)

the red empress will eventually get big, i have a 20cm male but it will take a few years. all of these fish will get too large for that tank so you need to either move them on or get a bigger tank. i would use this as an excuse to get a bigger tank

the silver fish with horizontal black lines is a red empress (Protomelas taeniolatus) the yellow africans are known as electric yellows (Labido careuleus) the bottom middle fish looks like a Dragon blood which is a line bred hybrid i don't know what the blue zebra looking ones are.

as far as i was aware the females don't colour up more than juvie colouring but it has been a while since i had them. vent it to know for sure.

i don't think thats totally true, they are still judged by their peers whether they are strong enough which some aren't, they still compete to breed & the weak fish don't have a chance there.

i left a peacock female to spit this week as i didn't want the fry, no fry are left as the tank mates ate them.

this is true so lucky none of my fish will ever go back to the wild where they will need those skills. i strip when the fry are free swimming so i'm not short cutting much of it. my fish still hold almost full term.

i am by no means saying your not correct, we all have different situations & its interesting to discuss

can you post a pic of what you have? as they become adults they will try to dominate each other for territory & mates & then you will have issues as there is no where for the victim to run. I had one of these tanks, a 620T as a grow out tank & i had around 40 juvies in it but they were around 4 to 5cm but i had a CF1000 filtering it to. it shouldn't be used for a long term tank unless you keep their sizes small & sell of once they get to 5cm or larger or something like that.

congrats but don't get too excited just in case it's not successful. I have found that africans first time holding can be a practise run, especially if they are small. i hope it is successful but won't be surprised if not. 2 of my tropheus females recently held but after 3 days they had no eggs but thats fine, they will get better in time. its interesting LA comments about the stripping of "first time mums", i have a couple of females that i stripped the first batch & they always give the biggest groups & most often, they are a red zebra & a e yellow so it may be different in fronts. I also had a peacock female that would spit her eggs the moment you tried to net her so IMO that would be down to individual fish.

did he eat it or just tear it up?

seems the same sales strategy we use for fish just with out the quantity :lol: i have been thinking about getting one or more for ages, my mrs said i could spend that sort of coin on a reptile but i would need to get rid of the fish first. hmmm, not a decision that i am willing to make yet.

maybe he has just realised his name is mr algae & he is now depressed from the info i'm not sure anyone could help, there doesn't seem to be anything specific. i can't hurt to put him in the other tank IMO, i would give it a go & see what happens. good luck with him.

they breed like africans, how come they cost so much?

that must be exciting, a new baby in the house how many can they ahve at one time & are there more eggs to hatch?

all or any? 8)

oh si, another chick no longer impressed with you. better luck next time a? :lol:

how did you guys get there? fly? if so what company? my brother in law is a pilot with air whakatipu (i think thats the one) & he flies down there regularly

when i have tipped them on their sides in the past it made it worse as there was no water & the impeller seemed to get noisier. I found with mine, i have 3, that if you tilt them with taps at the top once they have been primed so the air gets to head toward the hoses it generally improves it. also use the priming cap which can help as well. in the future i won't buy the aqua one canisters, they have done a good job for their price but they're quite high maintainence IMO. mine seem to get air leaks regularly which are most around the tap areas. The 3 i have are around 2 years old & are requiring more & more "fiddling" to keep them quiet. give things a go & see what improves them, sometimes its just trial & error.