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and with 'hitchikers" quote Now I know you have a 'Blake 7 ' line in you somewhere crying to get out. Or maybe 'Space 1999'

And they arrive in such low numbers into a what is by world standards a very small market that in a very short time you have- KaKa!

best kept in schools, playful and fun to watch unless you are small enough to be dinner. No report of breeding in captivity. Have you thought about cuckoo syno's

Point taken. my comment for what it is worth. Sorry but I have to side with the growing Consensus. A pictus would not reach the size of your fish, yet it's maxillary barbels would be far longer. The leading ray on its dorsal fin would be strraight, and the fin would be transperent. The adipose fin would not be rounded and the body shape would be longer and with horizontal line running the length of its side. there have no accounts of captive breeding anywhere, so the chance that it is even 1/2 pictus is zero. Hybrid synodontis

The ultimate problem with any Auction- So buyer beware. Any redress you may have in a retail situation is thrown out the window with an Auction. A pictus will get to about 5-6 inches in captivity, the bodyshape is wrong, you are correct Dixon in your Summation as it being a hybrid Syno. There have been a few syno's incorrectly labelled on TM in the last little while. Two have been labelled as networks as they look similar. Yet a network will reach 10-12cm and the ones for sale were closer to 20cm. Most probable Syno Hybrid species#3- so common is the fish it has a designated name, But!! that name isn't a network any more than this fish is a pictus. What to do? Nothing!!-don't buy it and let the ostriches play together.

Envious about everything- except the upkeep

Most probably a hybrid. some of the hybrids even have designated hybrid species numbers such is their prevailance. this is a good article on syno's and hybrids. http://planetcatfish.com/shanesworld/sh ... cle_id=269

Aye!!- shall we set up Saturday morning cock fights for a laugh as well.

5 and six bar lamprophagus. A few varieties of Alto Compressiceps

why I have only Macs

"and needs plenty of swimming space. Tanks less then 500 gallons will not do justice to these amazing fish. A predator that feeds on any fish it can fit into it's large mouth A point discussed over the beer with the Aussie . He'd waited eight yrs to find a decent Umbie, and even his 900ltr tank is too small for this ""one"" fish. Fish who can grow into their water are ultimately going to do best, so unless totally devoted you may well be dissapointed by what you end up with.

doesn't do Mac!!??

I miss my Uaru

Yeah Africans aren't that messy in terms of feeding and the amount of waste they produce. Sand is great for skimming off the top. If by Cichlids you're talking some of the central and Sth Americans then they can produce alot more waste. I have a long hose connected to my laundry tub for re-filling tanks and tend to poke hose into crevices and flush out, and vac what I can. But with adequate water changes and plenty of filtration you shouldn't really run into any major problems

Background is a juwelll vinyl roll Background that i got through Redwoods. I like it as it appears to have more depth to it than most others, and it sort of matched the rocks I had in the tank "Go on you know you want to take the congos out and go south american' Yeah Dixon- I was sort of looking for A Rio Orinocco/Negro theme as a few of the fish are from that region, particularly the plecs. I'm surprised the congos's have hung in there, I thought their frilly bits might be too tempting. They may yet go somewhere else, but that would still leave the bluejacks which aren't Sth American and they're staying put. I'm setting up a 165ltr breeding tank for the cichlids of which a couple of the blues and Regular will go into first.

This 550ltr tank was My Display Malawi tank but has changed to accommodate the growing Blues. Two male EBJD, 1 female EBJD, a regular female JD, Chocolate cichlids and Uaru, a number of plecs in the rocks and bottom, congo's and columbian tetras. There is heaps of filtration but obviously numbers will have to be cropped as these guys get bigger

A recent thread. http://www.fnzas.org.nz/fishroom/shell- ... 29699.html

Cryptoheros has, far as I'm aware, superseeded archocentrus as scientific name. Cryptoheros nigrofasciatus is just your normal Convict. Price?-I'm sure someone will give some money to take some away. Unfortunately we don't seem to get much else in that genus. the Nanoluteus or Honduran red points would be in a tank of mine if they were around. "Meeki'- is the firemouth and widely available for about $20.00 Compatibility- The bigger the tank and the more caves/hidey holes the less aggression, although like any cichlid their parental instincts will provide territorial dramas at spawning time.

Was having a beer with an Aussie who keeps Umbees. he's also kept dovii's and thought Umbees smatter and tougher. 24+"- Awesome show piece. But then why not just get one of those Super red Texans- They're amazing

Nice shot definitely not the most secretive- I've just put them into a bigger tank where I've put the wood over stacks of rocks and with an internal filter aimed straight at the wood as I've found they love that position, so my girl is happy as perched there. I'll post some npics of new setup soon

My understanding is that L066 or King Tiger pleco is under particular pressure in the wild . If you know hypans then you know that there are many with squiggly patterns as per King tiger, as L260( Queen), and L333, so they too have have been limited because of the possibility of confusion in ID's whether it is by accident or not. It is hard to truely comprehend how massive the area Of Sth America is that plecs are collected from,but equally it is hard to comprehend the numbers of wild caught fish harvested on a daily basis. Yes, there are more and more plecs being captive bred, but the drain on the wild population is still huge and will only increase so I would suggest that more and more plecs will banned from there Home country.

If you have evidence of any plec already been imported into NZ ,( eg receipt), then it is able to come in. There are of course a number of plecs that are now 'banned' for export from their home Country and some of them have been imported here before. The issue of quarantine officers and their knowlege of tropcal fish is problem worldwide. Trained experts can have trouble IDing plecs, so expecting a MAF officer with minimal training to do it ? Because of our bio-security we can't buy 'off the shelf' - or simply order over the net, so we are reliant on the importers and what they can get and or what they are prepared to bring in. Supply/demand/Economics

Had to laugh. A regular seller on TM is now added the description of 'dwarf cichlid' to his brichardi listing. I've never heard or read of them termed this before- Anyone with further info? Was wondering if this is, what is known as "reading the market" .

Sure mate- love to roam around your fish with the camera. NB.- I do my best work with a beer in my hand! Ha