Adrienne

Is your water still from the same source - I'm assuming being Christchurch its still artesian water. You haven't any 'dead' spots in the substrate that may have been stirred up during your move?

Its grown to its full length, the longest parts of the tank are on the right under the plants I got from you. I just can't remember what its called.

Heres the pics Joe. It was easier to post here than email them to you. Pretend you haven't see the hair algae in the full tank shot :oops:

If you use an oxygen cylinder you are putting in 100% oxygen. If you use an airline from an airpump (I have seen this done more than once) you are putting in 20% oxygen. The air that we breathe in has 20% oxygen give or take a bit. If you blow into the bag as I do you are putting in 19% oxygen. I go by the 1/3 - 1/2 water in the bag and the balance exhaled breath and haven't had any problems. Welders use pure oxygen. You are more likely imo to lose a fish from ammonia build up. Best not to feed 24hrs before hand and water change the tank the day before as well.

The shell dwellers were really nice, as were the killies, the apistos and the new plecs were beautiful. I'm broke though, just bought another house so no more purchases for me for a wee while anyway.

Is that a serious question? If you really want to know pm HFF direct. Sometimes 'pedigrees' are not worth the paper they are written on. When things go back several generations how does one know that 'mongrel' has not sneaked in somewhere along the line (and I'm not just talking fish), because you can be guaranteed that no one is going to be telling if ultimately the price will be affected.

well yes it did, cos I kept quiet

maybe he's a throwback to a gorse bush from the ice age one of my females is very different to all the other longfins. Her fins are not nearly as long and flowing. Not sure if they have the feather look either. She's the smaller of the two girls.

I've got 11 tanks 1 x discus planted (they spawn but the fry get eaten or go up the filter), has 2 pairs of discus + 2 spares, 3 choco zebra, 1 tiger and 1 king tiger + 15 sterbai (they lay frequently), about 20 rummynose, 3 sae, 2 bn and a couple of hatchets 1 x bolivian ram/maccus/bn tank (4ft) 1 x spotted bn tank (with a few fighters) (3ft) 1 x longfin bn tank (3ft) 1 x bolivian ram growout tank 1 tank for the new lot of bolivian ram fry 1 x apisto tank 4 x fighter tanks (all 4ft tanks) + 5 breeding tanks not currently in use I need some more stands!

Wow kiwiplymouth - what a head of bristles. How old is that guy. Did he come in at Xmas along with my ones or is he older? And don't laugh but the only time I bred bn was when there was an algae bloom in my tank and when it cleared there were dozens of young bn out and about. Trouble was as soon as it cleared the fighters in the tank ate the young.

I didn't like them originally but I love this one - I missed posting it above He looks so much like his father its amazing

Heres the pictures of the pair I collected from HFF yesterday. They are coming out in the tank and as long as you don't make a sudden move they stay. The male is shaking at the female but she just runs a mile atm

Had some spare time today - nah not really but sick of cleaning the ceilings in the house. Heres some pics from a couple of my tanks halfmoon and ct males halfmoon females I know the jury is out on marbles but who likes them and who does not?

Today I set my tank up for a serious attempt at breeding these guys. HFF did amazingly well when these guys first arrived in the country and I have two of each sex - see photos below. Kiwiplymouth sourced and sent me some bamboo thanks so very much. So now its up to them, fingers crossed The photo on the left is the alpha male but the other is not much smaller. The two females differ in size from each other quite a bit. In the right hand photo the other male is at the top of the container.

I picked up a pair of Hongsloi today. Tried to get a glimpse of A nijsseni but they were hiding as well. Apistos are very new to me so if you have any advice I would appreciate it. Good luck with your new fish.

After seeing the video I would have quite happily bought these off you as they look fine to me, in fact better than a lot I have seen before. If they then died I would have put it down to the fact that I know I can't keep blue rams (or gold for that matter) alive. Two weeks is longer than any have ever lasted at my house. You are not responsible once the fish leave your place. You do not know how they have been treated, even what other fish are in their tank, what they have been fed. If they have gone from a well kept tank to one that needs more maintenance that alone imo will be enough to kill them. The fact that one is alive suggests that you didn't sell them sick otherwise they both would have died.

breakaway - have a read of the link that wayneo posted. It seems that a few commonly available aquarium plants can cope with brackish water.

good information - thankyou wayno3579

That was naughty of you :-? I went 'oh my god, what is going on?' then I read your post. :roll:

My understanding is that the Red Spot Plecs get to about 45cm but I am sure that someone on here who owns them will either confirm or deny that. If that is correct I don't know that your bigger tank will be big enough.

I would do nothing as well but if you don't want to and are willing to bring the whole lot, tanks and all (don't know how practical this is for you depending on the tank size), to me I will fishsit for you. Unfortunately you are too far away for me to travel over to.

IMO a minimum of 4 discus will be needed and you can easily get away with 6 in a tank that size. How big are the discus you purchased and what type of tank set up are you putting them in i.e. planted or bare bottom. What else is in the tank.

Welcome to the forums. You are doing very well keeping a fighter to that age. Was 'squirt' from me? Heres some of the resulting fry from my first posts last year May post some more pics later. I'm on a different computer atm.

'...the wife and I' :evil: Surely you mean 'my wife and I' I don't know a huge lot about these fish but I would have thought that those would be enough for a tank that size.

IME just applying flourish excel in single treatments doesn't solve the problem as it will return. Daily dosing is the best way to keep it in check. Just use the single dose rate and the algae will slow disappear. Stop the dosing and it will eventually return. I have 3 SAE in the tank and they only nibble on it, there is no way they can control it by themselves. With flourish excel the larger the amount you purchase the cheaper it seems to work out.