Stirling

Well I guess it's a flying fox after all. No mention of the red fins in the descriptions though. Also can only see one pair of barbels but I guess they may be too small. Thanks for the link.

Hi This is probably not rare or unusual. Not sure if it's even a loach to be honest. It was listed as a flying fox in my lfs but doesn't look like one with the gold stripes. I have 2 that are about 4-5 cm long. As you can see it has a thickish irridescent gold gand and there is a very fine one running below the black band. Red patches on the dorsal and tail and ventral fins. 2 short barbs (barbels?) you can just about see on the second pic. Any help with their ID would be great. They are vewry cute and not at all shy. Cheers, Darren

But they are still getting killed....

New Zealand is GE free except for research studies. There's a small plot of onions, 20 or so pine trees and some brassicas that will be tested in the field later this year - but all of these plants will be destroyed before they can produce seeds or pollen and will never be in the supermarkets. Then there's plenty of lab studies that are very secure and the cows up North. GE items like the corn have made it into the country but have been eradicated - just like the fish. I think the GM fish are a bit like possums - should never have been brought here and now get villified and killed. Isn't clove oil a "nice" way to euthanise fish? I did ask one of the petshops how they got a permit to introduce GM fish and they said that they had all the right permits etc....

When I know what sex they are so hopefully in a month or so. I've never raised salfins so not sure when they start developing.

Hi They are looking good. Around 1-1.5cm at the moment. Greens seem to be more robust than the golden so probably have twice as many. Not sexable yet though.

Hi I have a red eyed golden male paired with a green female. She released around 70 fry last night and it looks like they are a 50:50 split of green and red eyed golds. I'm not sure of the background of the parents except that they were purchased at different times from single colour groups. My genetics are a bit rusty but my guess is that the red eye gold is a sex-linked mutation and the gold fry will be female and the greens male. Is this right or do you think there will be a mix of males and females of both colours? If so I guess the only way to get more gold males will be a father x daughter cross.

Hi Loopy Thanks for organising the meeting and volunteering your place. I enjoyed meeting everyone and putting faces to names. Thought the puffers looked great. Hope to make it again in the future. Darren

Hi I had a similar problem last time I cleaned my eheim cannister. After taking it apart 3 times, checking and rechecking the hoses, I ended up sucking on the inlet hose to refill it with water. Started straight up after that.

Thanks for all your feedback so far. I decided to take the simplist approach and do nothing. So far they're doing great. It's been 2 days now since the eggs were laid and this evening I noticed little wiggly tails poking out. I was dismayed to see the male angel start to eat them when this happened, but then noticed he's moving them to the filter outlet. It was pretty cool. He would take one of the wrigglers in his mouth, spit out the shell and the wriggler, then recatch the fry and move it to the new spot and go back and eat the shell. I've since turned off the filter and am now just running a sponge filter.

Hi After months of trying to get my angels to lay eggs on a piece of granite in my community tank I moved them to a tank of their own - well almost there are 3 panda corys as well. Today they laid! http://www.flickr.com/photos/20157942@N00/457380119/ I'd like to leave them in with the parents to give them a go at rearing. Should I add methylene blue to the tank even with the parents in and should I remove the corys (they are < 1 inch)? Also I have both a sponge filter and external filter going at the moment. When should I turn off the external? I guess I'll need to start feeding BBS in a few days assuming all goes well. If you've any other advice I'd appreciate it. Cheers, Darren

Great. Thanks for the advice. Think I'll turn the filter off and cover in a couple of thick blankets.

Hi I've a bit of a borer problem and was planning on setting of a borer bomb in the house. Are there any precautions you would take with a fish tank? I was going to turn off the filter and cover the whole thing in a sheet.

I've a few hundred odessa barb fry that are coming along nicely and loads of guppies. Waiting for my angels to lay on the slate in the community tank, instead of the glass, filter tube etc.... Will separate my sailfin molly when she's ready to spawn. As for favourite fish, probaby Lab. fullebornei http://www.flickr.com/photos/20157942@N00/400511054/

Thanks for thesiphone suggestion. Yep there are plenty of snails. BBT?

Awesome. Thanks for the help.

Hi I've just had my first attempt at spawning anything other than guppies or kribs. I decided to give my odessas a try since they were spawning in my main tank. I figured I'd get no more than 50 fry but at a rough guess I'd say there are at least 200! I'm feeding baby brine shrimp (2x daily) and small amounts of egg yolk (1x daily) and they seem to be doing OK - 10 days old now. I'd really appreciate advice on 3 questions and any other suggestions. When can I wean them onto flake and what's the best way to do a water change? I'm worried about them getting sucked up through the tube or generally stressed. Also what's a good time to move them to a larger tank? There will be too many for the tank they are in pretty soon. Thanks for your help in advance.