Janelle

Mine bred before it was a community tank, just white clouds in there. I did nothing special, just kept them well fed and put floating plants to help them hide. The fry are so tiny I almost didn't notice them, and only noticed when I made a water change and noticed them swimming in my bucket. =( They died when one of the adults died and fouled the water, unfortunately, then it became a community tank and since then I've found no fry.... I think they would succeed again if I gave them more plant cover though.

Is it difficult to import bettas?

I can't wait for a pic of Ed. I think he's absolutely gorgeous but I could never get a decent photo of him with my 1.3megapixel camera phone with a one second delay. He'd keep coming up a red and black blur (go Canterbury colours!).

Those Aquarian shrimp pellets are dangerous! Not only is Ed addicted to them, and the rest of the fish go berserk over them including the so-called mid-top level feeders who will gladly scrape their bellies on the ground to pick at the pellets, I've found it is also one of the foods at least one of the borneo suckers will go on the gravel to find, and once he's found one he will wrap himself around it and suck like a demon mosquito, blowing remnants out his gills. I can't convince my borneo suckers to eat ANYTHING, not worms, daphnia, flakes, etc... But they will go on the gravel which seems to be quite uncomfortable for them, to find these pellets. I'm starting to wonder what's really in them...

I have the link to the pictures of the BBQ! Just haven't had time to update to the site yet. Thanks, and I should have it up by Monday.

cichlid7, there is a members only forum, which at the moment I'm restricting to the people I know, but once I know who all the members are they will be added asap. Otherwise, you're welcome to join up and post in the public boards. It's still a work in progress though.

Hey Loopy, still waiting for pics for the news page. =) We also need more TT members to join the forum. It's a bit quiet.... We don't want people to leave the Fishroom, just to remember to visit us once in a while.

Thank you for doing that! I still see similar trades for goldfish in poorly condition and I just wish I had the room to take some...

Hmm.... I didn't think about the fact she would stop looking for food on the surface at all. Sorry about that, but hopefully she'll pick up quickly that food comes from the surface again.

I remember seeing a puffer fish for sale on Trade Me recently. Maybe the listing is still active? Might pay to do a search before it disappears.

Use an upturned jar lid to catch the microworms and maybe they will eat at their leisure later while you aren't looking? The sides of the lid will help the food not get swept away (depending on how powerful your filter is) and make it easier to clean up the remains later.

Thank you for that, jn. Yes, she's still very little but certainly nowhere near as little as when I first bought her! 30L should be fine, considering she was sharing her 80L with about 30 other fish anyway!! While you were picking up the fish I should have shown you her namesake as we had a lot of posters on the wall with the original "Edward Elric" on them, but I wasn't thinking about it at the time, sorry! However, if you put Edward Elric into Google you'll very quickly come across some pictures of an animation-style, blond-haired boy with black clothes and a red cape. It's a good resemblance, don't you think? =) Eddy was eating Aquarian brand sinking shrimp pellets for bottom feeders, originally intended for the peppered corys. She liked those so much she hadn't gone to the surface for flakes in the last couple of months but instead hung around the bottom of the tank waiting to see where the corys congregated before gatecrashing their parties. I don't think I would worry too much about what to feed her as she was also spoilt on frozen bloodworms, frozen mysis shrimp and live whiteworms on a fairly regular basis (probably one reason she grew so much). Daphnia and microworms also went into the tank but I think they are too small for her to bother with now. She also loves eating the insides of peas all mushed up (a single pea will more than fill her up though) and my plants of course, as well as any spirulina flakes lucky enough to make it to the gravel. It's safe to say she is used to a varied diet and will eat anything! Or at least try to. Once the platies go into my mum's tank I'm expecting my remaining white clouds will probably be able to breed again!

Just thought I'd say good luck to my little Eddy who has gone to a new home until after I've shifted and find a new place I could possibly keep her. The tank is soooo peaceful now she is gone. The other fish can't believe they can eat their food without getting half-eaten themselves! I hope she enjoys growing a bit in a pond environment. The tank was getting entirely too small for her.

Those small worms do look like the grindal worms I've got, but it's interesting since I was always under the impression that white worms wouldn't breed over 15 degrees and grindals wouldn't breed under something like 20-25? Plus grindals like their dirt more wet than white worms do. Maybe some information is incorrect but it would be good if you could keep white worms and grindals in the same culture.

Fixed on TT Site.

Website is finished.

I used to think it was sitch-lid.

Homework, yessss.... Considering I didn't even know how to pronounce "cichlid" 4-5 months ago!

I appreciate all the info, everyone. All I really knew about cichlids is that they give some parental care and some of them pair for life. I also knew that most of them grow quite large and are picky about tank conditions (one of the reasons I was more interested in Kribs as a beginner cichlid as I heard they're easier to look after than most and don't get too big). But mainly my interest was the fact most of the information I could find is about breeding them, and therefore keeping them in at least pairs. I just wanted to know if it was, well, humane to keep one on its own. My boyfriend keeps his male siamese fighter on his own, and my flatmate has a male gourami on his own, and that makes sense to me since they would drive the female away after breeding anyway, but in my personal research it seemed to me that it's a given that cichlids come in pairs. So that's what really spawned my question as to whether or not you could just keep one, especially if you are like me and limited in tank space and what level of care and requirements you might be able to deliver. It was also from watching my flatmate's three kribs settle into his tank and wondering if a male and female paired off, would the other feel "lonely" or left out in any way? I never really thought about the psychology of fish, but I know my female platies wish I never got a male platy! Thanks, and sorry about the rant (as well as my ignorance about cichlids in er, "general").

Vasectomy or hysterectomy?

Wow, thanks for that info, SpidersWeb! I personally dislike neons *quite a lot* so I will not be stocking neons at all. Ever. I am not fond of most tetras, actually.

I don't have a clue what my baby platy is eating. I feed it live food and it will check it out, have a taste, then spit it out and swim away. :lol:

Thanks, Dixon. I'll take a look for info on those fish.

I keep my whiteworms in an ice cream container in the hallway (darkest part of the house) low to the floor and near the door where it is draughtiest. Mine eat baby food... and are big and fat and numerous.

Deepest apologies, David. I did state in my original post that I was especially interested in Kribs.