Adrienne

Shells are from Nosh opposite Countdown, Greenlane. $25 for 48 shells, you can't get a smaller number however I do have a few spare!

They're not that big yet, but are slightly larger than my hm's who are exactly the same age. The biggest is about 2cm + tail. I've culled all the weak and tiny.

I took the plunge a few weeks ago and purchased some shellies from Ryanjury. I'll never regret it. They are amazing little fish, full of energy and with great character. Easy to keep as well. Heres a few pics. I've got 10 in a 3 ft, 220 litre tank. They are feisty little creatures and delightful to watch. I only wish I could fit that tank in the house as well.

I've been busy taking pics of some of my fish today. Have been well behaved and posted each type of fish in the appropriate section of the forum. Heres some of my double tails (parents both full halfmoons). I think 2 males and the rest are females. and here are a couple of pictures of my half giants. Father a giant plakat and mum a halfmoon (the only female he doesn't kill!) I lost about 30 of the half giants a couple of weeks ago at 4 weeks old. The rest are thriving and I have another spawn of about 10 days old from the same parents. I've been told by a Thai resident that there is only about a 30% chance of getting a spawn from a giant so I'm delighted

On the afternoon before the Christchurch earthquake I received a delivery of kribensis from Jennifer in Christchurch via Navarre who was in Auckland for a meeting. These lucky fish made it out just in time! I've grown them on - 18 have made it to what I consider close to adulthood and here are a couple of pics for you to look at and particularly for Jennifer to see how well they are doing. I still can't sex them but at this stage they all appear to be females. They are stunning fish, nicer than any I have seen all year.

Its recommended that each discus have about 50 litres of water. The only thing about buying them small is that they are labour intensive as in require daily water changes and optimum conditions to keep them healthy and encourage growth. I'm lazy in that I buy mine larger so that I can just display them. I don't know how fast they grow but I think it should be 1cm per month at the start i.e. 2 months 2cm, 3 months 3cm. The recommended price used to be $10 per cm but I don't know if that still applies either.

What do you mean cross tail?

your 200 litre tank could take 4 adult discus but they do prefer deep tanks.

Hi and welcome Where in Auckland are you?

Welcome from a fellow auckland fish keeper. Introduce yourself a bit more

your fry will be fine and the microworms will live for a day at least in the tank. Only give a minute amount at the start. Liquifry you can buy from the lfs and green water you can do yourself. Either use pondwater if you have it or put a lettuce leaf in boiling water in a container and leave in the sun for a day or so. Then put a little into the tank each day and they will eat the infusoria out of the water as well. Good idea to move the dad, he most likely wasn't eating them and there will be more than you can see.

thats right - they hatch at different rates i.e. some will hatch at 24hrs, some up to 72hrs and the ones that have left are now free swimming. A few microworms would help keep them alive as would the addition of liquifry for egg layers or even just green water. They are following the plan - just perfectly!

yes Bunnings does have it in Auckland

Same temp water and adding ager is fine. If you don't over feed you don't need to do much at all for the first couple of weeks.

Thats gorgeous. Well done Jude

Yes thats what I was thinking too but now that I've got my flights, accomodation and a rental car booked and paid for I'm still going.

I would like to thank the Waikato members for yesterday. It was a great day and I was stunned by the beauty of the tanks I saw. They were a credit to you all . and I am sure there were others that we were unable to see on the day of similar quality. I was also really impressed by the large turnout and enthusiasm of all the members there. Thanks so much for letting me share

If you fill the speciman container with water and place it into the circle on the lid of the hatchery box with the small opening face down the brine shrimp will come up into the light. I turn my tank light so that its shining over the speciman container. Once you have enough shrimp just tip them into the tank with the water and all. You should have enough mix in one sachet to completely pack out the container with moving brine shrimp. The majority of the black cysts stay in the black container. Depending on the type of fry its probably going to be a lot cheaper for you just to crush the flake finely and they will eat it. If you were getting into it in a big way you can buy tins of the bbs from hff and hatch it.

whoops - found the time, now I just need the map :roll:

Well! I could get the map link up the other night but now am unable to. Given I have absolutely no idea where to meet you all and at what time would someone please be kind enough to assist. Thanks

Good grease up Simian - you know how to stay safe

Thanks Joe. I've seen it around here and have wondered what it was.

Your fish look fine. Phoenix44 has given good advice. Please note (to all the others on this topic as well) that there are legal colour variations of zebra danio in the country for sale in shops that are not gm danios. There are pinks and yellows but they are no 'glofish' at all but just colour variants on the legal variety. Please be careful not to jump to conclusions. What sort of media are you running in your filter? I am thinking that both the cloudy water and the 'furry' plants are two types of algae. I'll have a better look at your pics this evening as I need to go to work!

Don't worry Joe - The trouble with forums etc is that no everything you type comes out how you mean it to sound. You can think you've made something clear but to someone else it makes no sense. This is a family forum and everyone is welcome to their own opinions.

Agreed - I have a rhinox and it doesn't matter what it looks like. The plants have grown so much you really can't see it any more