briank

Hi Chris, I feed my fishes flakes, mysis shrimps, tua tuas, cockles.. I guess what ever you can find on the beach. Try varying the type of food you give them. I also feed the anenome with tua tua or cockles, use a satay stick and put the food right onto their tentacles.. they love it. The glass shrimps seems to like everything, even eating their own kind!!

Hi Chris, I am using the air stone version of the skimmer. The venturi system mention by pies is the most efficient but abit expensive to DIY coz you would need a power head to drive it and a venturi head to generate the bubbles. For the air driven skimmer, the material you need is a length of PVC pipe, plastic jam jar, air tubes, film canister and a wooden air stone. The key is fine bubbles from the wooden air stone and prevent the bubbles from escaping the PVC pipe. I will email you the spec for the DIY skimmer tonight. i got the idea from websites like http://saltaquarium.about.com/ they have lots of DIY schematics. visit their website, lots to learn there. Its better not to let bubbles go everywhere in the tank because it will splatter salt water everywhere and salt deposits with form when it dries. A power filter that moves and agitate the water would be sufficient in airating the water. I use internal filter as power head to move water in the aquarium so I can reuse my existing equipment I use for my freshwater aquarium. Dont use any filter media, unless you are changing water or cleaning the tank, put the filter media in before you clean the tank and remove the media when the water become clear. this helps remove some of the solid waste and reduce polution. Another thing I do is, I feed the tank sparingly and change water frequently. This will ensure a healthy tank. Topping up the water with freshwater if water has evaporated, otherwise the water would be too salty. Cheers

Hi Chris, have you tried looking the T&E paper or www.trademe.co.nz?

At jansen, on small bag of lagoon sand is $6.50, coral sand is $18. one bag would make a 1in sand bed for a 2 feet tank.

i agree with pies about the sand collected from the beach. They are not clean, coz I found alot iron rust when I drag a magnet through it. Just this weekend I bought some lagoon sand from jansen. and maybe coral sand when my finance manager approve it.

hi Chris, I have not had problem with heat. the tank is kept in my little fish room that has little direct sun. I started the tank in autumn last year so I have not experience much extreme heat. I suggest you get a bigger tank coz it would provide a much more stable environment for the fishes and some day you would be tempted to upgrade tank if it was a small one. I prefer a shallow tank with big foot print, coz it would be easier to maintain and lights can penatrate to the bottom easier.

Arrgghh.. that illustration of the skimmer did not come out right!! I send you a pic later.. Cheers

Hi aqua, I dont mean to critic you about collecting sand frm north shore beach, I am just passing information around so you dont get in trouble. you can buy coral sand from jansens, I think it was $18 for a bag.or collect it quietly !! I made the skimmer using PVC pipe, plastic jam jar, and a wood air-stone. Not an efficient skimmer but is works and free.. | | | | <- plastic jar - to collect all the crap L| |J | | | | | | <- PVC pipe | | | | | | | [] | <- wooden air-stone | | | PC Light - Power Compacts Lights. I bought it frm jansens. thanks for offerring to host the pics. I will try to take some soon. Its hard without a good camera. the ones I have taken previously with my web cam was very blurry. I saw the picture you took at takapuna, I got those green anenome and they look great.

hi pies, I have not had a tropical marine yet but I have read lots and follow up on forums like nano-reef.com and reef central. you are right tropical marine is the ultimate.. but at the moment I cannot afford it :roll: but that does not stop me from going to jansens/hollywood to satisfy my craving for a nice tropical marine. For the mean time, a cold water marine is cool as!! Other than that I also enjoy collecting and experimenting with all the the inverts and fishes in my tank, plus my wallet is happy as well. I am always looking for different specimens with nice colors and not too distructive to a home aquarium. I'll like to compile a specimen list with photos, habits, etc. I don't have any photos to share yet. I will try to get hold of a camera with macro option. by the way how do I post picture on this forum? Cheers

Hi all, I know I am abit late in posting in this thread. I have a rock pool aquarium for the last 10 months and I never get bored observing the creatures in my aquarium. I collected my specimens from north shore beaches as well, including takapuna beach. The tank I have is not big, its only 2 foot tank, HOB power filter, Power head, DIY skimmer, and PC light. I have 3 class shrimps(fisherman wharf), 2 triple fin blenny(fisherman wharf), 10 blue crab (not sure of the name)(fisherman wharf), 2 green anenomes(takapuna), 2 brown anenomes(takapune), oysters, mussles, sea squirts, snails, feather dusters, sea weeds, red sea weeds(mud beds), etc.. I change 2 liter of water every week, and I get my sea water from the beach. At the moment, I am always scouting for new specimens that are suitable for domestication. I encourage you guys to go for rock pool aquarium, they are as fun as the tropical marine, and they are cheap to run. Aqua, FYI, I read on the North Shore Times a few months back that collecting beach sand from north shore beaches is illegal and there is fine that go with that. Have fun ! Cheers

Dawn, Sorry for the late reply. been busy with work lately. Too bad you gave up an breeding goldfish. I am currently breeding lionhead and oranda.. its so tedious! hope fully I would be successfull this time. Last year I only managed to grow only 3 lion heads to maturity, they are now 3" long and the pretties. Thats what prompted me to breed again. I am glad to hear your guppies doing well. At the moment I just dont hv tank space to have any.. Thank you for the offer to trade. Blueram, I have a tank full of baby kribs as well!! I hv 2 breeding pair that does not seem to want to stop breeding.. I dont even need to care for the fries, they take take care of themselves!!

There are lots of gold fish breeding information out there. Have a look at the following web site: I found it very informative when I first started breeding GF. http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/4468/toc.html cheers

hi dawn, I have just joint this forum and saw yr post not being reponded to. Not sure if you still need input on yr problem. I do breed goldfish. if you need more info pls PM me..

not a prob macka. Too bad MAF is not allowing more type of aros into NZ.. I would not think they would survive in NZ's freshwater creeks and ponds anyway!!Furthermore, these days ppl in asia are breeding them commercially for sale, I dont think they will go extinct so soon!! I just wished they would bring in some cheaper asian aros! sorry, I hv not heard of anyone rearing aros for food fish in AKL!! It would be interesting if it is true.

Hi all, I am new to this forum. I have a silver arowana. Its about 1 yr old and its 16" now. I feed it Hikary Chiclid Pellets. It lives in the same tank with a 8" tiger oscar. the tank is 3x2x2 it has out grown it!! Planning to upgrade when I have enough $$$ 20% water change every week. 1 feeding per day. BTW Richard, Jensen at Wairau Park, Northshore, Auckland is doing a deal on asian arowana. they are giving away $1350 worth of equipment if you but an arowana from them. They have panda gold for $2750 and panda red for $4750. Macka, how did you acquire a jardini?? Have not seen them on sale at any LFS. Rgds.