carla

Which ones please?

You mean $12 retail price? And I thought females are hard to come by at present?? So wholesale is about 5 dollars?? For what size?

For how much do these sell in the shops? And where can you get some? Anybody knows?

You might be able to do guppy fritters if you breed without selling! Have a look here too. And if you suspect it is TB then read this and this.

In fact the cories eat them themselves for breakfast!

Caryl the minute somebody walks in and starts netting you will see absolutely nothing!! Take some old shoes though as I remember some people got "hot feet" who went barefoot into the swamp - there are some hot spots where quite hot water comes up. And yes you will catch far too many to take, they are not difficult to catch at all. How you keep them alive is another matter. There are 12 Volt pumps available which you can plug into the cigarette lighter when driving which might help. And prepare a very hot tank for them to go into and something to eat too. Remember they do not know what flakes are! Good luck! Will think of you all.

Yes heat the whole room is what we thought after the single heater experience last winter didn't go too well. Have been looking on TM for gas heaters with and without chimney and kerosene heaters. has anybody any experience with that sort of thing? And can anybody calculate what would be more efficient?

No - not really. Just when you have to put heaters in many tanks then you very fast reach quite high wattage over all which not only costs heaps but also puts a strain on the cables. The problem is not "the tank" Caryl its "all these tanks", hence the idea of heating the room rather than the tanks. However since it is outside and cannot be insulated any more except with a bubblewrap curtain or similar I will have to insulate the tanks in such a manner that I can still get at them for looking, cleaning, feeding, water changes etc. I thought some others might have solved these problems already?

New organism I guess - Erma and all that.... Would have liked to have some as they apparently grow up to 8cm big!!

After reading all the solutions to the hot fishtank, I am wondering if you all brainstorming together can come up with the ultimate solution to the far too cold fishtank in the outdoor fishroom. Let's get in early this year so I don't have to run around frantically at dark and try to find heaters, as the temp is dropping fast. The fishroom is outside and double wall glas/plastic. It is no problem in clear nights as the hot days heat up everything enough to keep fish from dying in the cold night. What is much more of a problem are cloudy southwesterlies. The following solution has been tried: Single electric heaters in the tanks of the most susceptible species. These solutions are mulled over currently: Gas heater for the whole room for cold nights. Bubblewrap tanks. Create a separate compartment for fish that need warmer and heat that only. All solutions seem not to be perfect. Each one has drawbacks. What are your good ideas?

Probably a bit like sushi: brineshrimp wrapped in daphnia

Are triops available in NZ?

Yeah - the discus would love all that live food

I bought some sieves in Germany years ago. They are just square plastic with different mesh sizes in the bottom. I am sure they were originally for Artemia not Daphnia - but work just as well! They are also available in sets: The sieves are (in mm): 0,18 0,30 0,56 0,90

Yes, they will eat the algae, I can watch mine tear at them. However if you have a tank full of the stuff they really do not make any difference! A lot of fish will actually nibble at that. Even bristlenoses and guppies eat a small portion of green hair algae, but never enough to stop it grow.

Well it IS fun! How ever the mollies will not survive outside. We tried them in different locations and they certainly did not like even a heated tank outside! In fact I think the "Originals" do need something like 30 degrees to "propagate" - then get the fry out and cool it down slowly. We did not and the few we took did not survive more than 8 months They just slowly declined and after some months one died, then a month later another etc. How did your fare Dave?

I find it so easy to put a net full of daphnia into the tank and as they get babies all the time the fry can eat the baby-daphnia and the big Daphnia is filtering the water at the same time. I feed some flake in addition.

And an employee is right beside you and "helps" you to put them from the hook straight onto ice where they die almost instantly

NZ climate goes from freezing Dunedin to subtropical Kaitaia. So where is your pond? In Auckland? And how cold does it get there in winter? Do you get frosts?

With my Daphnia culture going great I wondered if anybody has ever compared the food value of brineshrimp versus Daphnia for feeding fry. Everybody is dead keen on the brineshrimp which seem just another thing one has to attend to, while the Daphnia do it all themselves! So I wondered if anybody ever did a comparison?

Do you think I could get that recipe too?

I think last time we went Dave got in contact beforehand with some water or lake official. Forgot his name. Hope dave still remembers!

They are so effective indeed that you can catch even adult bristlenoses in them!! Was quite difficult to get it out again, was wrapped right round the bait! So now we use them to catch the young bristlers we want to remove to another tank. Catches many more bristlenoses than snails!! :0

Am so tempted to go again Dave. Wonder if I can "arrange" something to be there for a while? What is the exact plan? Molly hunt on the Sunday morning - and the prawns afterwards (for lunch)? That would work fine with people driving north again!