rollergirl

As the title suggests....I have an 18L well planted Jebo tank setup that I want to use as a breeding tank for some kind of small and colourful fish. I'm stuck between the idea of breeding killies (I particularly like the gardneri blue variety) or having a go at breeding some nice siamese fighters. I have seperate tanks for growing out fry and/or resting betta females in of course. So- your opinions are welcome, biased or otherwise! Would love to hear about people's experiences breeding either of these types of fish and what they would recommend

Maybe a dwarf cichlid of some sort? (personally I'm biased towards rams, blue or bolivian they are both nice fish and work well in community setups)

Mmmm smoked trout...so goooooood 8)

Cool idea... Must have a go at that

I get naughty sometimes and end up with 2 or 3 books on the go!! Addicted to reading... Could handle a life without TV easily, but never without books!!

Sure was- great night that was, I was so stoked to have a bouncy castle there too! Had a lot of fun on it, but didn't realise how hard bouncing is when you're grown up, hehehe :lol: Small world... Cool to see you on here anyway, I'm actually pretty surprised at how young a lot of us fishkeepers are (from the looks of this thread anyway) - Ken and I keep getting cr*p from our mates about being the "fish geeks" but it's obviously a more popular hobby than most people realise

Nikki- you are Bronson's Gf right?? Pretty sure you guys did the bouncy castle for my 21st... We know Brendon who edits MVP...

Finishing first year actually, so don't technically start any of the marine papers till next year. :oops: Did a bit of mucking about after school finished before I could decide what I really wanted to do. So... all my old school mates are either finished studying already, or finishing this year, and I've only just started...But glad I did take the time to think about my options, otherwise I'd probably be stuck with a huge loan and useless degree right now. I'm guessing from some of your posts that you are/were doing some sort of Science program as well?

No its not!! Egads- forgot music!! That's important!! :lol: :lol: :lol: Music: Dance music (hard house, trance, breaks, D n B...) Dub and reggae, and good rock (think Tool, Pumpkins, Metallica, Pearl Jam, etc etc etc)

Just saw this thread!!! Name = Tash Sex: Female Age- Just turned 22 Occupation: Full time student at Auckland Uni (Biology and Marine Science) Marital Status: Engaged to my lovely boy Kenny 8) Hobbies: Reading, painting, fishing, cooking, amateur wine critic :lol: , swimming, listening to music...Oh and fishkeeping of course! Books: Well the last one I read was "The Shipping News" by E. Annie Proulx and it was excellent. All time faves would be The Lord of the Rings trilogy, anything by Bill Bryson, Steven King, Ken Follett, Norman Mailer, Nicci French, Jodi Picoult, or Paullina Simmons (LOVED The Bronze Horseman!) So yea, basically anything...I'm a book fanatic 8) Hometown: Gisborne... Go the East Coast! Family: Have a mum and dad and 2 sisters (one older, one younger Love them to bits Food: All of it! But seafood is my favourite, especially crayfish and bluff oysters. Also love fresh seasonal fruit such as the wonderful magical STRAWBERRIES that are abundant this time of year!!! Pets: Well I'm not allowed anything other than fish at the moment, but I guess 7 tanks would be enough :lol: Really want to get a galah and neopolitan bull mastiff at some stage, and get back into horseriding once I have the land for it... Dreams are free hey! Hmmm I think that's enough for now...

I only have 2 very small clownfish in my nano, plus a few odd corals, and wouldn't run it without one. Even when I had no corals, just a tiny wee blue tang (RIP Dory ) it got really messy, really quick with no skimmer!. In fact even when I had no fish at all in there I recall having issues with cyano and red algae when the tank wasn't being skimmed..Although -this could have been more due to new tank syndrome than anything else Still think its the only way to go, there's always heaps of cr*p dying off in the rocks and whatnot that will contribute to phospates, etc, even with low stocking levels...

OOH and yes a triggerfish would be awesome 8) Want one so bad but scared it will nip at corals Apparently they become very friendly over time and will hand feed, etc (wouldn't want to get bitten by one though, ouch!)

Why don't you try with a HOB (Hang on Back) type skimmer, there are quite a few models available and you're sure to find one that will fit the tank.... Personally I wouldn't go marine with no skimmer. I did try it for the first couple of months on my first marine nano tank and found it made such a difference when I finally put one on after being told over and over by more experienced reefers (such as Wasp here ) to do it. Tank is far cleaner with noticeably less algae, cyano etc, and this is only a cheap little skimmer as well. (Weipro I think??)Also I don't feel so guilty about feeding my fish with worries about overfeeding, hehe. For a 4 foot you would probably need something a little more powerful depending on what you want to stock your tank with but I'm sure the guys/gals on here could point out some suitable types. Off the top of my head I believe Reef Octopus has a couple of HOB models that are meant to be pretty good

The males get long red extensions on their tail and grow quite significantly larger, but it is hard to tell when they are not fully grown. Best thing would be to buy a group and let them pair up and then sell off the "spares" once you have an established pair.

Blackbeard algae is a pain in the ****!! When I had it I got rid of it (eventually) by : firstly removing all the ornaments and leaving them out in the sun for a day, then tried to scrape the alage off then after they had sat in the hot summer sun, but even then, it was tenaciously clinging to everything (all plastic plants etc) so just gave up on most of them and bought real plants to compete with the algae instead. Then added Flourish Excel to the tank daily, I can't remember how much but it was something like 1/4 cap daily (in a 60L tank...Just added however much the LFS had said to), for 2 weeks. This got rid of most of the algae and the plants I had added loved it. The remaining algae I assume got eaten by a blackline flying fox that I bought specifically for that purpose on the advice of the LFS. Unfortunately the flying fox obviously decided it didn't like the tank that much and jumped out one day about a month after adding it (found it all dried up on the floor one night when I got home from work ) It was getting a bit big for the tank anyway though, grew amazingly fast. Anyway back to the blackbeard- I STILL get small amounts of it in that tank, even though since then, the gravel has changed, the ornaments are different, the filter was scrubbed hardout and media slowly changed over. I think the only reason it's not taking over again is that I have quite a lot of indian fern in the tank competing with the algae for resources. Like I said, it's a pain in the proverbial ****!!

Amazing!! Love the discus pic especially

LOL- btw, that last post was from my boy, I think he meant "source" and also intended to use capitals at the start of a sentence hehehe :lol: Time to make him his own login maybe, or my reputation for (relatively) good spelling and grammar goes down the tubes!!! :lol: :lol: But back to the bristleworm thing (sorry I know it's a bit of a thread hijack), I have heard you can get some kind of a trap to put in the tank and catch them, anyone have any idea where from?

I got some of that in my tank the other day too! Never noticed it before although having said that it was a while since I'd bought a new heater. Glad to know its not dangerous I was a little bit worried lol.

Thanks guys :-) The breeding trap I have is probably too small for a ram, but it's a good idea. There's a huge indian fern plant in there that she has taken refuge in at the moment that seems to be keeping the male out. Anyone have any ideas what is causing his behaviour though? I'm really hoping that once I get the fry out they will kiss and make up, so to speak... :-?

Thanks for the quick replies! Am definitely going to have to do the move tonight... :-? Mum is now stuck right up at the top corner of the tank taking refuge in the java fern and looking pretty unhappy. Its like the male has taken his job as dad WAY too seriously and is doing everything he can to keep her away from "his" kids (K-fed and Britney anyone?) even though they used to be really good parents together, sharing out the protective duties.... Unfortunately the original tank is also only a 2 foot but I will do as you said ryanjury and take maybe 50% of the water from that to setup the new tank. I'm thinking after looking on the net that I'll move the fry to the new tank but keep it bare botttom so it's cleaner. Will take filter from the parent tank as well and do the filter swap from the planted platy tank, and make sure I do water changes on both every day until they've settled down. On another question now-will jave moss survive ok without a light on the tank? It is in quite a sunny little spot, just want the fry to have some kind of shelter and a little bit of a food source in their grow out tank..

So my bolivian ram fry are 3 weeks old now and looking really good, however, as of now they are still in the parent tank and I think it may be time to remove them. Their doting dad seems to be picking on mum a bit and my guess is that the novelty of 100+ babies is starting to wear off for the happy couple and tiredness is setting in... and perhaps also an urge to do it all again from the start (sounds contradictary, but I have heard that pairs will spawn from 2 weeks after their fry are free swimming- so maybe the funny behaviour indicates readiness to spawn?) Anyway it isn't too much of a major to seperate them as I've just bought a couple more 2 foot tanks to grow the fry out in, however as I just got them last night of course they are not going to be cycled which is a little bit of a problem. I have a sponge filter from another tank that is cycled and ready to go if needed (the tank has plants and one platy in it but can move the platy back to the community tank easily enough while I cycle another filter in his tank). Just wondering what would be best to do with the fry, they are known to be very sensitive to nitrates at such a young age. Do I leave them in the well established, planted breeding tank that I bred thme in, and move the parents into the new tank with new gravel etc? Or do I leave the parents in their tank and move the fry into the new one? I'm doing 15% daily water changes on the fry tank as it is so maintenance time isn't an issue. What do you guys think?

we kept finding empty snail shells turning up and couldn't find the sorce... untill i caught a bristle worm in the act, my last snail had just become breakfast. worm only 12 cms.. :evil:

we kept finding empty snail shells turning up and couldn't find the sorce... untill i caught a bristle worm in the act, my last snail had just become breakfast. worm only 12 cms.. :evil:

:evil: :evil: Hate bristleworms :evil: :evil:

Yes-requires a lot of care (and a LOT of money!) but difficult...I wouldn't say that. Just a little more involved and time consuming than freshwater? But very rewarding! By the looks of it you have a fair bit of experience caring for different types of animals anyway, so it wouldn't be that difficult for you to try out