carla

I was growing the micros as I used to hundreds of times: cook some "porridge" out of rolled oats and water - let cool and add yeast and micro starter culture. Repeat every week to 10 days to keep it going. Has always worked so far. Just when everything died while I was in hospital and then couldn't walk for so long I didn't have any. So now I am a bit better and thought I get some fishies going again and bought some Mocros from TM and they grew like mushrooms the first time round, but never when I "refreshed" them into the next lot. They just seemed to die all off. Nothing on the walls any more. Very strange. Have now also ordered some decap brinshrimps and some more eggs to hatch some. Can use the toy that's been sitting gathering dust - the hatch'n'feeder - for the first time. However the tank is quite small and with all the plants in there I wonder if I fit the toy in there. Will see! Thanks for all the advice. Must ask Stuart though if he ever found out which killies I have ...

Thanks for the ideas, maybe I should get some of these decap brineshrimps for them. Are they actually smaller than baby daphnias? They do have all sorts of micro livefood in there including daphnia, but I wondered if even the baby daphnia might be too big for the baby killies. Unfortunately my micro worms (that I bought off TM) only lasted about 2 weeks then I couldn't resurrect them. Cooked them nice fresh food etc but they just didn't multiply any more and died out. Very strange I thought.

My Fundulopanchax gardneri Nigerianus and my Aphyosemion striatum both have fry. :bounce: I hatched the eggs in a trap in the parents tank and have them now transferred to a little tank of their own with lots of plants and some micro live food. However even the smallest sieved daphnia seem to big for them. What CAN they eat??

Just a simple question to the ones in the Know: How can an importer import fish with only a common name?? Anybody who imports seeds for example must have them labeled with the latin name. It is hard to believe that importers of fish do not have to supply a proper latin name.

There are even commercial aquatic plant sellers on TM that sell Mondo grass. See here: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =106589098

Sounds very interesting, and am still watching this thread for the upcoming pictures

Has anybody got any experience with "Reliant" heaters? Never heard of the brand myself, but they seem to be reasonbly priced.

I have my suspicions that this fish here is a hybrid: You can click on the pic for a bigger version. I had a "flock" of Corydoras similis and one of Corydoras trilineatus (bought as C. julii) in the same tank. The C. similis ended up being only one pair in the end and started to "hang out" with the C. trilineatus. Many months later we discovered this funny looking specimen. It could of course be just a strange looking C. trilineatus but somehow I doubt it. I guess he/she has to be separated soon before this story gets any further ...

Now here is your chance: http://www.trademe.co.nz/Browse/Listing ... =104511914 Not the picture of the fish, but just have faith aye Or write them a little note maybe ?? :bounce: :bounce: :bounce:

Ah - you must be feeding them extra well then In fact I have found on some websites (when I did a bit of quick research into the fish - after we bought them of course) that Leopardfish will eat ALL their young. This is definitely not the case as I have observed. But they are not partial to a quick snack if they can get it. However the minnows which I had indoors for a while so I could see better what they actually do all day were real hunters. They would creep up and then dart onto the babies. In fact onto anything that moved. I guess where they come from they have to be opportunistic or die.

Yes they do, same as guppies. Meaning they do not really hunt them down, like the minnows do, they are real hunters, but will make a little effort and if they catch it fine, if not they won't really pursue them. However as all adults will dart at them a fair share will be eaten, same as with guppies. So if you have lots of plants you will always have some fry survive, however if you want to increase the numbers quickly it pays to catch them as you see them floating around and raise them in another tank until they are big enough not to make a meal anymore. They do not have so many babies compared to guppies or platies and also seem not to have babies as often, maybe because they are kept colder. So all in all their multiplying factor is relatively slow compared with other livebearers.

I am pretty sure the minnows would hunt them down and eat them, as they do with their own fry if they can get at them. Would keep the little Leopards in plastic tub until they get bigger. I have bought myself several of those small plastic tanks from the payless plastic shops for these purposes when there is no tank available.

Where did Germany come in there Blue or Kim? And if you own the purest strain then I must get some off you some day - who wants brown spots anyway? Especially German ones ...

They die at or below 15 degrees - I have tried it out (by mistake one night).

Well Tim is going a bit overboard now. He now sells "Stripped Panchax". I wonder how they look with their clothes on? :lol:

What is that parsley you grow in the tank? :lol:

I am glad to hear the fish made it down ok and you enjoy them. They seem to have had a bit of a rough ride down to Billaney. Thanks Paul for looking after them and bringing them down the last bit of the way. Of course now we want to see a big South Island breeding scheme

And why would that be Alan?

Ahhh milet - was gonna send a whole lot down with Billaney - guess what? SOMEBODY has cleaned out the big tank where there were thousands as it was too dirty - which it was - and COMPOSTED them all And all the plants went into a holding tank with something in the water to kill snails... So much for that lovely idea of mine. Say sorry to the puffers for me please. :roll:

V. spiralis refers to the corkscrew-type flower stem, NOT the twisted leaves. The twisted one is V. americana var. "Biwaensis", which is why somebody with limited knowledge may think its V. americana and thinks it is illegal. Very hard when nobody uses Latin names properly.

And if you find any info then the names are often muddled up. Think about the Vallisneria and some other plants. One info says they are unwanted. The other info says they are prohibited. Then someone sells them in the petshop (one of the huge ones in Auckland) without knowing any name for it at all saying this is "eelgrass" and yes its legal... "we wouldn't sell any plants that are nor legal" - without even knowing the Latin name of it. How would Joe Bloggs know any of that?

Warrens nice little remark has probably frightened him. Most people wouldn't know that these fish are noxious.

Boiled egg yolk is a common fry food.

Wouldn't the BN's vacuum up all the eggs??

I have tried to suck them out on purpose more than once, but they are pretty good little suckers. As soon as they CAN suck they WILL suck. And you won't get many if any at all. So pretty safe really