Adrienne

Its bound to be the warmer and more humid climate of auckland. Its still pretty mild. Sorry, not sure how to help you to get him to hibernate though.

A week on here are two more photos. I've had a bit of a pruning session in the tank today. Trimmed back the java moss which, being so high up in the tank and under the T5HO, had developed the unsightly beginnings of bba. I've moved some of it further down the log and tied it on. I've also trimmed back the shoots of the tiger lotus as they were blocking the light from the plants and have removed, for good, two of the big swords from each end of the tank. While I love their colour and leaf structure they are really too big. Theres still one in the middle of the tank which I will leave for now. At this stage ferts are still only flourish excel and flourish comprehensive. I've added a second light fixture with 2 T5HO lights, giving a total of 4 T5HO and 1T8 light on the tank. Now that I have discovered my husband has a 6.8kg CO2 tank that I can use this will be the next addition. Going to get him on to getting a suitable regulator tomorrow

Can I come?

Wok - will you please stop it! Its bad enough that I couldn't come without you rubbing it in!

where did you get your regulator from and does it have a needle valve?

yep was looking at lighting as well today

I will have to go and have a look but there doesn't appear to be anyway to plumb the needle valve into the regulator. Do you both have drop checkers? What happens if the CO2 if left running at night? Thanks

Where are you moving it to?

After going on for months about getting CO2 for my 450 litre tank I took my husband along to HFF today to find out about it. After looking at the setup they have running on the tanks he announced 'I have a CO2 bottle you can use'. I've posted a pic of what he has - it is 6.8kg bottle - a BOC hire setup so is current. I think I need a new attachment for the top - one that has a needle valve on it plus a solenoid and drop counter and diffuser. Is this all? Thanks

congratulations - well deserved

With the ones I have just sold, the colouring depended a bit on which tank they were in and the wood colour.

as in cloudy like a covering over the colour or as in blotchy patches of colour?

well done - he looks so much better

Very nice looking - both of them. Good luck

Yes it is beautiful and I would hate to buy and have it die off. I am having enough trouble growing what I do have. :roll:

I found with my males that the top dog changed around a bit. No idea why.

Very impressive - I then went back and checked that you didn't live overseas. Gives me hope that with the plants available in NZ I might be able to do something like yours one day.

could be either the guppies or platy. I lost heaps of young bn to my young siamese fighters. They picked at them until they died and then they ate them. By the time I realised why they were all disappearing it was pretty much too late. or they are shooting up the sides of your tank and over the edge - check around the back of the tank and see if there are any bodies.

I hope you don't mind me adding my two cents worth to this post but I would caution about getting a rainbow shark and putting it in the same tank as the choc zeb if I was you. Sharks zip about everywhere and in my experience with my chocs, which I sold a couple of days ago, anything sudden movement and they tend to dive for cover. Mine never did come out a lot but when they did they hid the moment anything flew around the tank. Others of course, may find this totally different

I didn't know until I looked at the site given either :roll: IMO - a waste of time and money even if you can get them in NZ. A change of water in the tank and don't feed the fish for a day before you send them will be better for them in the long run I imagine. Thats all I do and I haven't ever had issues.

Males are rarely peaceful as they each like their own bit of territory and if they have paired with females they really don't like other males in their 'patch'. They are cichlids after all. You really need to put some form barriers into your tank so that there are hiding places especially if one discus is receiving unwanted attention from several others. Bigger, full grown, mature discus tend to eat less as well.

I had that issue of having to take mine home the day I found out that NZ Couriers wouldn't take them. You will have no problems with Post Haste - they keep saying how many fish they transport these days

I use the heat packs at the top also in case water gets to them (of course this does rely on the couriers not turning the boxes upside down :roll: - I tape them on to the inside of the lid so they don't come into too much contact with the bags. My heatpacks require oxygen to keep them running so I also poke a small hole through the polybox lid. Anyway have your fish gone yet and which courier did you use in the end?

Have a fantastic conference everyone - eat, drink, be merry and enjoying chatting to each other in person + of course the real reason you are there

Thats interesting because I went in and met the manager and he still said no. They then refunded me nearly $300 worth of courier tickets as I could no longer use them. I now use post haste, they get to ChCh faster than they ever did with NZ Couriers.